Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Bhaja Govindam - Post 11

Verse 10

वयसि गते कः कामविकारः शुष्के नीरे कः कासारः ।
क्षीणे वित्ते कः परिवारः ज्ञाते तत्त्वे कः संसारः ॥ १०॥

Vayasigate ka
kāmavikāra
śuke nīre ka kāsāra,
kīevitte ka parivāra
jnāte tattve ka sasāra.

(What good is lust when youth has fled? Where is the lake when the water has dried up? Where is the retinue when the wealth is gone? When the Truth is realized, where is sasāra?)

Vayasigate ka kāmavikāra

Vayas is age, and vayasigate means the passage of youth. 

Kāmavikāra is the expression of lust in the human body. How can there be an expression of lust in the body when youthfulness is no more? 

There cannot be lust when youthfulness is spent because youthfulness is a cause, and the expression of lust, an effect. The idea is that when the cause is gone, the effect cannot remain.

śuke nīre ka kāsāraKāsāra is a body of water, a pond or a lake. We call it a pond or lake only when it is filled with water. When the water has dried up, śuke nīre, where is the pond or the lake, ka kāsāra? You can see this happen in India where, in the heat of summer, the water in the rivers and lakes is reduced to a trickle. 


Kīevitte ka parivāraVitta is wealth. Kīevitte, after the wealth is exhausted, ka parivāra, where is the family or retinue? There are people around you only when you have something to offer them or when they have something to gain from you.

When your wealth is no more where are the followers? Wealth here means money or power, position, or some skill. Only as long as these things are there, will people look up to you or follow you. When the cause is no more, the effect is no longer there as well.

Sankara has so far given the following cause and effect expression in this verse. Youth is the cause and lust is the effect

Water is the cause and lake is the effect.

Wealth is the cause and retinue/followers is the effect.

Going by the above flow, we would expect that Samsara is the cause and lack of peace is the effect.

But in the last expression, Sankara turns the table and takes us to the most positive expression by saying, when you have realized SELF, there can be no Samsara!!!!

Jnāte tattve ka sasāra. This is the most important segment of the verse. We are all interested in becoming free from sasāra.

What is sasāraSamyak sarati asmin iti sasāra.

The word sasāra is made up of sa and sāra. The word sāra is derived from sr̥, to move. Sarati is the one who moves. Sam comes from samyak, meaning constant. sasāra – samyak sāra, that in which there is constant movement.

What kind of motion is this?
It is motion from one birth to another, from one situation to another, one accomplishment to another, and one becoming to another. Man is always trying to become something. This life of becoming is called sasāra.

Why does this complex (dissatisfaction with his present condition / situation) arise in the human being? It arises out of self non-acceptance. We torture ourselves because of our various complexes, most of which result in self-rejection. In fact, there is a constant battle going on within us; we don’t require a battle outside. That is sasāra.

What is this freedom from sasāra that we seek? It is nothing but freedom from this sense of self non-acceptance or self-rejection, freedom from the need to become something. In reality, the only freedom that we have to acquire is inner freedom, a freedom from the compulsion within, that I must change.

Śrī Śakarācārya says, Jnāte tattve ka sasāra

When the tattva or truth is known, where is the sasāra? What is this truth?

It is the truth of the Self. It means that my self-non-acceptance or self-rejection is there because I do not know the truth of myself. It is not only ignorance, but a false notion or a misconception about my own self that brings this about.

Where does it arise from?

It arises from an ignorance of my own self, a self-ignorance that results in self non-acceptance. I do not know who I am. 

Am I this body?
If I am, I can never become an acceptable self because this body can never fulfill my expectations regardless of what I do with it.

Am I this mind?
This mind is also a limited equipment and I can never be fully satisfied with this mind either.

Am I, then, this intellect?
This intellect is also a limited entity, and therefore, I can never be satisfied even with this intellect.

I am never fully satisfied with my knowledge, with my wisdom, or with my understanding. Therefore, as long as I take myself to be this body, I can only see myself as a limited being suffering from all kinds of limitations and deficiencies.

Jnāte tattve. What is the tattva or truth of my Self?

The truth is that I am a person, a conscious being without any attributes, strengths or limitations attached, simple, pure, and beautiful. 

When I am happy with myself, I find myself happy with everyone else. When I find myself rejecting things in the outer world, I must know that it is a result of a rejection of myself, a discomfort with myself. That discomfort with myself goes when I discover my own beauty.

When the tattva or truth of life is known, where is sasāra?

Thus, to become free from sasāra, you should eliminate ignorance, the cause of sasāra. When the ignorance is gone, sasāra can no longer be there. 

In Vedanta, a story of 10 persons is the most often referred story to bring about the ignorance and then to describe what happens when the ignorance is removed.

There are 10 persons who are playing on the sea shore, swimming there and playing.

When they get tired and come out and reach the shore, one of them says, “I think we are missing one friend somehow, I counted the number and I find only 9 are there and the 10this missing”.

Like this, each one of them count the heads and they are gripped by grief of missing one dear friend who has apparently got drowned while swimming.

A passer-by, an old wise man observes them and understands their problem.

He asks one of them to count the heads and once that person counts all other nine persons, the wise man takes that person’s fingers, points out the finger to that person’s heart and says, “Here is the 10th person’.

Now, all of them are happy that they have found the 10th missing person!!!

The wise man here is the acharya to whom disciple walks up and prays, “teach me the truth” almost in every Upanishad.

All the nine head counts which each one of them were doing are the body, mind, intellect, this creation, which are not our true identity. Only counting the nine heads is our ignorance in believing that we are the body, we are the mind, we are the intellect, this creation is true!

The 10thhead counted by pointing out to one’s own self is the REAL SELF, THE ATMAN, which is the true identity.

The happiness on discovery of the 10thperson is the Bliss experienced on realization of the Atman, our own SELF.

On experiencing SELF, ignorance is gone exactly as the 9  friends are relieved and are happy on discovery of the 10 th person.

Here, it is “Discovery” and not a fresh invention or a new finding because the 10thperson is always there, i.e., YOU ARE ALWAYS THE TRUE SELF / GOD EVER. 

The entire sadhana is not to get a grand revelation of   something new but it is a travel from yourself to yourself, from your ignorance that you are your limited body mind, to your true identity that you are the SELF.

That is why, Taittriya Upanishad uses the expression, “Discovering the truth of Brahman as Sathyam, Jnanam and Anantham IN THE CAVE OF ONE’S HEART”. 

It does not say, getting the truth of Brahman by looking at the high heavens. The truth is within our heart, whether it is Jnana of SELF or whether it is experiencing the Hrdayanivasi SAI / KRISHNA in pour heart in the path of devotion.

O man, with the path so clear, why delay further?


Love.


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