Verse 5
Uddhared aatmanaatmaanam
Na atmaanam avasaadayet;
Atmaiva hyaatmano bandhur
Aatmaiva ripur aatmanah.
Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone;
let him not lower himself, for this Self alone is the friend of oneself and
this self alone is the enemy of one’s Self.
Let a Man lift himself by his own Self Alone
There was a person called Madhusudhana Saraswati,
and a person called Vidyaranya. They did twenty-four purascharanas of
Gayatri, and no Divinity appeared before them. They were great Masters, more
powerful in their minds than any one of us. They were wonderstruck that after
so much tapasya they had no experience at all.
A voice said, “You shall not have a vision
of Me in this life.”
The person who was called Vidyaranya, who
wrote the Panchadasi and other works, was known as Madhava in his pre-Sannyasa
days. He was a very learned person. His brother, called Sayana, wrote a
commentary on all the four Vedas. They must have been geniuses. We cannot
imagine such great wisdom.
Madhava did Gayatri purascharana for
attaining siddhi, and a voice said, “You shall not have a vision
of me in this life.”
He got disgusted that after having done so
much, nothing had come. He took Sannyasa.
When he took Sannyasa, immediately the Divinity
appeared and asked, “Why are you doing so much purascharana? What
do you want from me?”
To that Madhava said, “You said that You will
not appear before me in this birth.”
“But this is a second birth,” the voice said.
“You have taken another birth. Therefore, I came.”
“I want nothing now,” said Vidyaranya. “I was
a poor man. As the householder Madhava, I would have certainly asked for wealth
and riches, and anything that would make me prosperous.
But I have taken to renunciation, the path of
Sannyasa. Now I cannot ask for anything. So, I am very sorry, great Divinity.
You have come too late, and now I cannot ask anything from You.”
But the Divinity said, “I cannot go without
giving something. When I appear, I must give something before going.”
“But I cannot ask for anything.”
“You must ask for something.”
“But I want nothing.”
Then the Divinity said, “Because you want
nothing, you shall have everything,” and it vanished. And Vidyaranya became
omniscient.
The above story illustrates how Madhava
listed himself to become Sage Vidyaranya, to be so complete in himself that he
seeks nothing even when Divine voice pursues with him to seek something.
Let him not lower himself.
Always be positive in your nature: “I am
strong. I am healthy. I can walk three miles without any fatigue, and I can
digest any food that is given in the kitchen. I have no problem.
Never become depressed. “It is a waste! So
much japa has been done. What is the good of it? God may be
there or may not be. I don’t understand anything. The scriptures may be saying
a hundred things. I don’t know which path to pursue. This Guru has been telling
me something, but finally He has brought nothing. I will go to another Guru,
and I will stay in some other place.”
These kinds of ideas should not arise in the
mind. You should feel, “I have taken to this path, and I am sure that I will
get it.” If there is no visible progress, it is due to some rajasic karma
operating in us. It does not mean that no progress has been made. So, we should
never condemn yourself.
Self alone is friend / enemy of
oneself.
Swami Chinmayananda writes,
“The second line of the stanza contains a
glorious idea shaped into a beauty of expression which almost immortalizes
Vyasa. We are considered both as our own friend and our own enemy. Any
intelligent man observing and analyzing life will vouchsafe for the truth of
the statement, but here, more is meant philosophically, than meets the eye. Generally,
we do not fully understand the import when we say, “THE SELF IS THE FRIEND OF
THE SELF.”
The lower in us can ever raise itself to the
attunement of the Higher, but the Higher can influence only when the lower is
available for Its influence. To the extent the lesser in us surrenders itself
to the influence of the Higher, to that extent, It can serve the lower as a
great friend. But if the lower refuses to come under the influence of the
Divine in us, the Divine Presence is accused as an enemy of ourselves, in as much
as the dynamism of life provides us Its energy both for our “life of higher
aspirations” and the “life of low temptations.”
Love.
