Saturday, September 12, 2020

Sadhana Panchakam - Post 14

 


In Mahabharata, we find it mentioned, 'O Desire, I know your source. You are born of thought, therefore, I will stop thinking of you and you will then cease to exist for me’. Krishna refers desire and anger to be all-devouring enemies of the self.

 


Buddha too says that intense desire to possess something, to be something and to renounce something is the cause of all suffering in life.

 

Maitri Upanishad points out that samsara  is nothing but the aggregation of thought-responses from senses to the mind. 

 

Sankara says in Vivekchudamani that disengagement of the mind is possible only when one detaches the mind from the influence of senses which are the primary cause of the desires. 

 

Unless desires are disengaged from mind, no one, not even one well-versed in all scriptures, would be eligible for deliverance. He points out significantly that the state of being desire less should be a constant and continuous enterprise even for one who is enlightened, considering himself only as performer of actions and not a participant in enjoying the fruits of such performance of actions. 

 

Karma, actions when performed with desire in mind makes the mind to get attached to the same. It is only the discrimination of mind that makes human being separate and distinct from the desires and the causes which go to make up the thoughts and therefore freeing the mind from desires. 

 

Desire sneaks stealthily into the Mind like a burglar, unasked and uninvited, without one being consciously aware. Elimination of desire is not denial of desire but refusing to be influenced and being enslaved by desire. 

  

The famous verse in Atma Bodha has been referred to many times by the author in so many sessions,

 


(Action cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness.) 


Avidya / Ignorance

 

Ignorance is what pervades our entire life. Because of it, though essentially born divine, created by divinity as divine, we still get identified with the body. 

 

We then perform actions to take care of this body. These become our central preoccupation. 

 

Kama Karma  

 

Very soon, we will include actions that arise purely from the desires arising through our body identification. Soon we are engulfed in activities, all of which may be astounding in themselves but which do not take us a single step forward towards God.

 

When our actions are not fulfilling, we become unhappy. Another series of actions are started to make us happy in the world. That does not succeed. 

 

All this is because actions are rooted in ignorance; they are conceived in ignorance, governed by ignorance, mothered and fathered by ignorance, supported by ignorance how can it oppose ignorance when ignorance is so rooted in it? 

 

Knowledge

 

We need to turn to something that is the ‘enemy’ of ignorance. That is knowledge. Anything that we DO will only strengthen our ignorance.

  

Narada declares in Bhakti Sutras that performance of actions with detachment for fruits of desires is the sign of complete surrender and true renunciation. 

 

When Krishna suggests to Arjuna to give up all actions, (sarva karma parityajya), it is not giving up the performance of actions but giving up performance of actions taken up from ego-sense. 

 

It is as Patanjali says “yoga is restraint from all the activities of the mind” or as Katha Upanishad suggests, “cessation of the five sensory instruments of Knowledge together with Mind and restraining even the intellect”. 

 

Maitri Upanishad refers to Mind as two-fold, impure and pure; impure when associated with desire and pure when disassociated with desire. By freeing mind from apathy and distraction and making it steady, one becomes liberated of mind even here in this very life and attains supreme state. 

 

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, the object to which mind becomes attached, the subtle self goes together with the deed attached to it. But when man does not desire, who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied and whose desire is his self, his breaths do not depart and being Brahman he goes to Brahman. Therefore, desires should be disengaged from Mind.

 

If, at the beginning of spiritual journey or, even after years of bhakti sadhana, if the mind is not able to contemplate on Brahman (desire = Self as Brahdaranyaka Upanishad says), then what can such a man do?? Is there no salvation for such a person??

 

Swami comes to rescue such a devotee and show him the way and says,

 


“We cannot get rid of desires. So, how do we deal with our desires? Lower desires should be replaced with higher desires. And higher desires should be replaced with the highest desire for God. 

 

For, if you have got God Himself, who is the owner of this entire universe, you will get everything along with it.

 

When the one who gives Bhakti and Mukti is by your side, why do you ask for this world that is so distasteful? 

 

One desire leads to the other. And if you think that if one desire is fulfilled, you will be satisfied, you are mistaken.

 

If you fulfill one desire, another desire will arise. The best way to satisfy the desire is to eliminate it. But if you are not able to eliminate desires at least replace it. 

 

Our svabhava, true nature is love. And it is in giving love that we get love. Love does not even seek to be loved. It just loves. The one who has tasted the bliss of love for the Lord will find everything else tasteless. 

 

Once you have tasted the elixir of Divine love, nothing else will ever attract you. Therefore, seek from God: “O Lord! My tongue craves for all kinds of tastes in this world. Give me the taste of Your love. Give me the taste of that Divine joy, so that I shall shun all the other kinds of distraction.” With love as the coating on you, be above the waters of the world like the lotus flower that always looks towards the sun

 

Asatoma Sadgamaya,

((from untruth (Ego=Jiva), take us to the Truth ( Self=Brahman))


Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya,

((from darkness (of ignorance), take us to the light (of true knowledge))


Mrutyorma Amrutamgamaya

(from this nature of ephemerality, take us to immortality.)

 

Seek God! You will get everything. There is no better time; there is no better opportunity than this and now. Don’t postpone it. Do it now, here”

 

(Extract from divine discourse dated 9.10.1996)

 

Love.




 

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