A Bhajan offering at His lotus feet

Today, in sadan, a Bhajan Jagata udharana is going to be rendered by someone. While who sings the bhajan is totally irrelevant, let us go through the meditated, absorbed flow from a devotee's heart.

JAGATA UDHARANA PARTHI VIHARANA

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN

BABA TUM HO MANGALA DAAN

JAI SAIRAM JAI SAIRAM (2 VARIATIONS)

PAAPA VIMOCHANA BHAVA BHAYA BANJANA (2 VARIATIONS)

SUNDARA NAYANABI RAM… (2 VARIATIONS)

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN

BABA TUM HO MANGALA DAAN

JAI SAIRAM JAI SAIRAM (2 VARIATIONS)

JAGATA UDHARANA PARTHI VIHARANA

The first line starts with the essence of incarnation which was clearly written by Swami to His brother way back in 1947, About the purpose of His incarnation, Swami wrote “I have a "Task": To foster all mankind and ensure for all of them lives full of bliss (ananda). I have a "Vow": To lead all who stray away from the straight path again into goodness and save them. I am attached to a "work" that I love: To remove the sufferings of the poor and grant them what they lack. I have a "reason to be proud", for I rescue all who worship and adore me, aright. I have my definition of the "devotion" I expect: Those devoted to me have to treat joy and grief, gain and loss, with equal fortitude. This means that I will never give up those who attach themselves to me”

Can there be any other better way to understand why we start the bhajan with the line “JAGATA UDHARANA’??

Swami goes on to re iterate the purpose of Avtaar in His milestone discourse delivered on 23.11.1968, as was explained by Sri Krishna to Arjuna thousands of years before. Swami said “For the protection of the virtuous, for the destruction of evil-doers and for establishing righteousness on a firm footing, I incarnate from age to age. Whenever disharmony (asanthi) overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to establish the modes of earning peace (prasanthi) and to reeducate the human community in the paths of peace “.

For the transformation of mankind, for uplifting Manavas to the level of Madhava, Parabrahman wills to descend on earth from time to time with a form as Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Zorastra, Allah and now, He Descends in parthi, as parthi viharana, for the purpose of Udhaar of Jagath.

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN, BABA TUMHO MANGALA DAAN

When we realize His compassion, His mercy, His Daya, culminates into his showering of Krupa on us by descending on earth in Human form to elevate us to divine level, to realize Him in us, to realize the unity of all creations, our eyes are welled with tears. (That is why in all bhajans, krupa always follows daya, never precedes daya.) His compassion, Daya, makes Him extend his grace (krupa) and having showered His grace, He protects us (Raksha) from getting into the maya of this jagath, the maya of desires and attachment, so that we may not rush to Him again and again, for His Daya, Krupa and Raksha, though He never fails to bestow the THIS TRIPLE BOON on us even on N+1th time).

With the realization of His daya, devotee proceeds to sing the third line “Tumho Karuna nidhan, Baba

tumho mangala daan” and devotee’s heart gets melted with gratitude and with the heart full of ananda and gratitude, how can he help restricting himself to sing the next line “ Jai Sairam Jai Sairam”. (We use this word at our level to convey our thanks to the other and when it comes to expressing our gratitude to Him, with no other adequate words to express our deepest gratitude, we end up using a simple expression “Jai Sairam, Jai Sairam”.

PAPA VIMOCHANA BHAVABHAYA BANJANA

When tears of devotion gush out as a stream, Lord recognizes the same and when the devotee has totally surrendered himself to His will, at one point of time, out of His will, like he says cancel is cancelled, He also gives a look at the devotee, crying out with deepest devotion and with that one look, He cancels the karmic balance of all our sins and releases us from the fear of the cycle of birth and death.

There are numerous instances where devotee’s karmic debts are cleared by Bhagwan, when the devotee, like ahalya in Ramayana, surrenders totally to His will and has purified himself totally.

Once, Bhagwan has performed His role as papa vimochana in a devotee’s life, , then the devotee experiences what is REAL TRUTH, WHAT IS REAL AUSPICIOUSNESS, WHAT IS REAL BEAUTY and at that time, devotee realizes the value of the line “ TUMHO MANGALA DAAN”!!!

SUNDARA NAYANABI RAM

Arriving at the inner meaning for this line and its connection with all the earlier lines, took more than 2 days of meditation. On the surface level, we can say, O Lotus eyed Sai, O lord with mesmerizing looks etc but then, what is the relevance of this line in this bhajan, especially after dealing with jagata udharana, papa vimochana. After my sins are washed away and I have been taken by the lord from form to formless and I am in the state of SATCHITANANDA??

Swami revealed. When, after having understood the avatar’s purpose, when having gone through the cleansing process and having witnessed Sai’s role as papa vimochana, bhava bhaya bhanjana, devotes meditates on lord/ rushes to parthi to extend his heart felt gratitude to the Lord and there, Lord comes floating and when His chair reaches the devotee’s place in the hall, Lord gives a beautiful look, a most unassuming look, a look conveying as though He does not know about the transformation process of the devotee and as though He does not take any ownership of the crucial role of “PAPA VIMOCHANA” in devotee’s life, when Swami passes by, giving a simple (yet piercing) look, how can one stop shedding tears of joy/ tears of ecstasy, tears of unconditional love/ tears of total gratitude/ of total surrender/crying out “Sundara nayana Rama”. Here, more than the physical beauty of lord’s eyes, the beauty of the whole process of Lord holding the devotee’s hands, guiding the devotee in his transformation process, clearing all the karmic debts of the devotee in rare cases, the beauty of looking at the devotee with an assurance, “ I have come not to punish you, but to transform you”, the beauty of Lord ever forgiving us for all our lapses / of all our mistakes committed from the time we visited parthi last and our current visit, these things go to make the devotee looking at the Lord and witnessing the beauty of the whole process and ending up with a simple analogy “Sundara Nayana”, for want of better words to describe how beautifully the Lord has acted as supreme companion in lifting the devotee in his spiritual journey and making him pure, as gold, as bangaru, after having made the devotee go through the tough process of becoming a gold, from what he was, a worthless piece of iron!!!!!!!!!

Baba Tumho Karuna Nidhan

Baba Tumho Mangala Daan

Jai Sairam Jai Sairam)

(Samarpan – Vol 4 and Vol 5, Page No. 70-72)

Mata Amritanandamayi

Karma - Part 9

PURUSHARTHA - DHARMA, ARTHA, KAMA, MOKSHA

Seers in the ancient Eastern tradition articulated the blueprint for the fulfillment of the objectives of human birth as was shown to them in the highest supreme levels of consciousness. The Supreme Self pervades and exists in all dimensions in all beings, sentient and insentient. It is that Supreme Self that exists inside each individual self, in each individual person. And therefore every individual person is none other than the Supreme Self, for how can the part be different from the whole.

In order for an individual to realize their supreme Self, they need to identify the reasons and objectives why they came into being on this earth plane and fulfill them. The ancient seers clearly articulated the objectives of humankind as "Purusharthas".

They articulated four Purusharthas as:

Dharma  : Righteousness, Duty

Artha       : Wealth

Kama      : Desire

Moksha   : Liberation

The four purusharthas are really the objectives of God, of the Supreme Self, the qualities of God. And since an individual person is a reflection of God, is a part of God, it is the rightful pursuit of a person to fulfill these four purusharthas.  In fact, it is both your individual and soul purpose. 

An individual can realize him or herself by balancing and fulfilling these four objectives. These four objectives are not independent of each other and should not be viewed in a stand-alone manner.

They define and refine the other objectives and allow the other objectives to define and refine itself. The activity of fulfilling one objective should also support the fulfillment of the other objectives. By maintaining a balance between the definition and fulfillment of the four purusharthas, a symbiotic evolution of the individual self takes place.

Exclusive pursuit of one purushartha creates an imbalance in a person's life and prevents the person from reaching the ultimate destination of their life. As a person progresses through the evolution of their soul, they find that some of the objectives eventually lose their place and importance to more predominant objectives. For example, the desire to earn wealth may diminish and disappear, or a person may come to the realization that there are no more material desires that they need to pursue and hence more room is created for the pursuit of the ultimate objective, Moksha.

ARTHA

The material needs of the body are a very important concern indeed.

Whatever be your spiritual aspiration, you cannot ignore that you have a body. As long as you feel that you have a body and cannot ignore its presence or forget that it is there, then you cannot also forget its requirements.

Everyone, even an advanced spiritual seeker, has certain needs concerning the physical body, like protection against heat and cold, hunger and thirst, sun and rain, etc. If you ignore these essentials, the body may perish, even though you may have an innocent spiritual aspiration.

There is what is known as a total of material requirement, material need. Its importance is well known, and is known as artha, the material unavoidable.

KAMA

Then, there is another thing: the aesthetic longings of the human personality.

One cannot be happy merely by eating, drinking, putting on clothes, and having a house in which to stay. Even such a person will not be a complete person; there are other requirements  which are of a vital nature – the desire-filled nature of the individual.

There are other insistent desires called kama, or vital wishes to be fulfilled, which are other pressures exerted by the biological personality, which, too, cannot be ignored, as they are part of oneself.

MOKSHA

Then, together with all these, there is also the aspiration for moksha, attainment of God, which is a fulfilment, finally, of the whole complex of desires, physical as well as vital. That also is to be taken care of with great caution, as the one conditioning everything else. The method by which you can hook together these three types of impulse and the final aspiration harmoniously, that procedure of the cementing of all these sides of human nature is called dharma, or the law of harmonization of the aspects of the whole of life, with all its relations in human society.

DHARMA

Dharma is sometimes translated as religion: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and others. Dharma is not denominational religion, necessarily.

Please forget the old definition of dharma as some religion. It is not any kind of ism. It is an ultimate law that keeps the universe in balance, keeps the body, the mind, your reasoning, society and everything in a state of perfect integration so that you feel that you are existing as a total individual and do not feel that you are a mix-up of several parts heaped together in a confused manner.

All these four facets of life have to be brought together into a focus of attention at the same time. These are known as the purusharthas, or aims of existence, the final objectives of life known popularly as dharma, artha, kama and moksha, i.e., moral value, economic value, vital value and eternal value.

For  DHARMA and  MOKSHA, a man should always constantly do Purushartha (efforts) and should never leave it to Prarabdha.

As for ARTHA and KAMA he should totally leave them to Prarabdha as he is going to get only that much of wealth (ARTHA) and enjoyment (KAMA) which is destined in his Prarabdha (luck, fate, fortune) and nothing more in spite of all his Purushartha (efforts).

But unfortunately due to the ignorance of this law of Karma he goes in the wrong direction and ultimately he has to lose everything at the end of his life.

Instead of making any Purushartha (efforts) for (1) Dharma and (4) Moksha, he totally neglects it or leaves it to Praradbha only.

While for (2) Artha (wealth) and (3) Kama (enjoyment), he strives all his nerves and makes strenuous efforts (Purushartha) all throughout his life day and night and crazily hankers after them even when he is not going to get anything more than that is destined in his Prarabdha. Thus he fails in both the ways in life by making efforts in opposite and wrong directions.

Human body is given to acquire all these four: (1) Dharma, (2) Artha, (3) Kama and (4) Moksha, in proper sequence.

Hindu religion and its scriptures are not against having Artha (wealth) and Kama (enjoyment of wealth). A man is supposed to be and should be wealthy enough but that wealth must be earned and accumulated only and only through the medium of Dharma-ethics, through pious deeds and not by unethical crooked means and sins. That is why

•       DHARMA is given number 1 (one) in the sequence and wealth comes second.

•      Wealth(ARTHA) earned through the medium of DHARMA (ethics and pious deeds) will lead you to worship and wisdom. While the wealth earned by unethical means and sins through crooked ways would lead you to wine and women.

•      With the wealth acquired through the medium of Dharma he is permitted to enjoy all the amenities of life and satisfy his KAMA, of course. within the limits of Dharma. This permission is given not to fall into the pit of passion and to indulge and stoop into the enjoyment for sense gratification; but just to make him realize that it is insatiable and therefore he should try to overcome it.

•      Ultimately when he will realize the fruitlessness of enjoyment for sense gratification which is insatiable, immediately he will realize the fruitfulness of Moksha. Consequently  and subsequently he will renounce and will turn his face for self-realization and liberation from the cycle of birth and death i.e. MOKSHA which is the final target, the ultimate goal and also the main purpose for which he is gracefully given the human body by God.

This is how we have to consider the ways of bringing together the aspirations which are dharma, artha, kama and moksha in our practical life.

In a way this is, to put it differently, the bringing together of the aspirations of a brahmacharin, grihastha, vanaprastha and sanyasin into a single fold. You will be wondering how all the four can be together. It is because these four stages of life are four kinds of preparation for a single attainment of totality of the person. The sanyasin is not isolated from the brahmacharin, grihastha, or the vanaprastha.

BRAHMACHARI

The brahmacharin is the seed that develops into the practical experience of a grihastha in life, which again matures into the detached existence of a vanaprastha,which again matures into the total comprehension of the spirit in sanyasa.

HOUSE HOLDER

You have to keep good company always. Even if you are a householder looking like a bound person, you can be a good person, an ideal individual, by living in the midst of a good community in a village, or even a little township of friends and cooperative individuals. Keep good company, as far as it is possible. If you can live socially, it is wonderful for you to choose your company and be in the midst of those people only.

Gradually, bear in mind that your householder-life is a preparation for a retirement from the occupations of a householder. It is not a retirement from work, necessarily. The occupation is inclusive of certain mental entanglements. A householder actually is not a person doing many things, but thinking in many ways. The entanglement is not necessarily physical, but mostly psychological. The psychological detachment should mature gradually in a family. You do your duty to take care of your family, but don't be attached to the family.

You may be wondering how it is possible to take care of the family with detachment. This is the difference between duty and work with desire. A duty is a necessity, an obligation,  that arises from your very being in the circumstance of your life; it has to be done for the welfare of the whole circumstance of your life, including the society outside.

Your obligation is not to be associated with a desire full action. Here it is that the Bhagavad Gita comes before you as a guideline. The gradual detachment, even in a householder, is a maturity of thought arising after the experience of the whole of life as an entangled individual in society. In the beginning  it is all entanglement. Then, later on, it is only an apparent entanglement through social relations; mentally it is not so connected.

Slowly begin to feel that your mind is a little different from the body and social relations. Then afterwards you will find that you can live a life in the mind only, and let the social relations be anywhere. You are a mind, rather than a social unit. You are a mind thinking, rather than a physical individual associated with the mind. Thought is the human being, so let this thought be your final concern, and live in your ideas.

VANAPRASHTHA

Ideas rule the world. Every action is preceded by a thought. The world is not governed by the actions of people, but by the thoughts of people, by the ideas of the leaders of mankind. The ideas manifest themselves as activities or performances. The idea is the ultimate reality; thought is the final principle in the cosmos. Thus, you live in your mind, in your idea of total comprehension and satisfaction.

Then, gradually, you will find that you are capable of living independently without bodily associations. Such a life is called the vanaprastha stage, which does not mean running away from the family. It is a kind of family life only, without the agonies and the emotional pressures caused by relations with people.

Mostly, what people do is that they go away to some holy places for some time, though they have not left the family. For three months in a year, the family man goes out on a pilgrimage, lives in a holy place, and entrusts the enterprise of taking care of the family to his grown-up children. Whether you are a businessman, or whatever you are, this is the first step that you have to take to detach yourself.

For three months you are not in the house. After that, you come back to the house and stay there for nine months, so that you may feel no uneasiness that you are without any contact with your family members. Gradually, if this process continues for some years, you will find that you are in a position to live unconnected with family life, because the members of the family are taken care of by the children, who are well placed.

Then, you may increase your detached life into six months, nine months, then occasional visits to the family, only. Somewhere in a sacred place you live such a life; then your life and your idea that you have chosen takes possession of you completely. You become an ideal being, not a physical individual.

Your meditation is thought thinking itself, as they say, idea operating on idea, the Cosmic Mind dancing in the centre of your own idea, whereby your idea becomes a focusing point of the Cosmic Mind, and you are a sanyasin at that time.

SANYASI

A sanyasin is not necessarily someone who has put on any particular cloth. The cloth is just an indication that he has achieved that state. It is a social insignia to distinguish the person from other people. The essential thing is what you think in your mind, so live in your mind only, afterwards. Your ideas are the seeds of the universal idea of God. A person who lives such a kind of life in his ideas only is a sanyasin. He has renounced truly.

You have not thrown away anything in your renunciation through sanyasa. You have attained a perfect, total, developed maturity of spiritual comprehension. That kind of living of an ideal existence, free in every sense of the term, happy always, happy with anything and everything – such a person is a sanyasin.

These are some of the traditional features of a spiritual life – the methods of the harmonizing of the principles of dharma, artha, kama and moksha connected with the principles involved in the stages of the brahmacharin, grihastha, vanaprastha and sanyasin, all which commingle in a sea of comprehension which is the maintenance of God-consciousness. Such a person alone can be called a sanyasin.

 In one of the  discourses on Ugadi day, Swami  said,

"Embodiment of love: You cannot find in the entire Cosmos any place or object in which God is not present. The divine is present on the mountains. The divine dwells in villages and cities. The Divine is Omnipresent. Only those who recognize this truth can redeem their lives; they alone can achieve the goal of human existence. The powers of the Divine are limitless. Every living being in the world is governed by some limitations. Birds, beasts and insects are all taken care of by the Divine in respect of their essential needs like food and drink.

People aspire for liberation (Mukti). They have no idea what constitutes liberation. Man seeks liberation from the ills of the body, the senses, the mind, the intellect and the Anthakarana (internal motivator). All these are no doubt necessary. But liberation in the ultimate sense consists in liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

This means that one should redeem one's present life so that one is free from rebirth. Men should pray to God for freedom from rebirth so that they will not have bodies which are bound to be afflicted with diseases. People have no clear idea of what Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha (the four goals) mean.

They think that Moksha (liberation) is something, which you attain after death. But, in fact, liberation can be attained here and now. Moksha means "Moha-Kshayam" the elimination of "Moha" (or attachment). People are not ready to give up attachment to wife, children, property etc., you have a duty to protect your family. But you must not be immersed in concerns about them. Realise that love is the most important quality in human life. It is not love for kith and kin that is precious. It is love for God that is more valuable".

(Extracts taken from Sanathana Sarathi, April 1998)

Chinmayananda Saraswati

Karma - Part 8

Dear Ones,

With all the learning from the posts on Karma, we will try and address to the questions with which this subject was started earlier.

Question:

I am very unclear and confused. Bhagavan Shri Krishna says that all that is happening is predestined and nothing moves without His sanction. Then He says in BG 2.47 'Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion-at that time I descend Myself.'  Are these two declarations not contradictory in themselves? Does it mean that God creates all adharma and then descends to destroy adharma?? Why should He witness adharma in the first place at all?

Answer:

When Lord says all the happening is pre-destined, He does not necessarily say that the destiny is decided by Him. From the 3 karmas we learnt, we know very well that with every action in the present with the new arrows (arrows in hand, where we have the choice/ freedom to choose the direction and goal to shoot). So, we have decided our destiny.

Nothing moves without His sanction - By sanction, what is conveyed??? God sanctions the environment in which we have to be born, the people amidst whom we have to live and also, as Ramana said, Lord also sanctions the choice of white and red arrows which we have to carry with us, with His blessing, that in the process of undergoing experience while suffering due to the red arrows and enjoying due to the white arrows, we return to Him in this birth, more evolved spiritually, more nearer to Him than in our previous birth.

The arrows that we carry are ours. The sins and the virtues are committed by us. However, to help us in choosing the new arrows kriyamana karma, Lord descends from time to time, to show us, How to lead our life, How to practice values, How to be a master archer in aiming the new arrows on one hand and to under go the effect of the in flight arrows, prarabdha, no matter how harsh is our experience as a result of those arrows, by surrendering to the Lord. He gives us the strength (Shakti do mere Sai Shiva), to undergo the most painful experience due to our prarabdha, with smile, singing His glory and immersed in His thoughts.

Question:

Rather, the famous question we dealt in the post WHY GOD CREATED MAN - O Lord, if You have to create me, push me into the roller coaster of life, fill me with ignorance, make me take up so many actions out of ego, suffer for the actions again and again and at last after several births, to realize You and reach You, then why did You create me in the first place at all. With no creation, with ONLY YOU, how peaceful it would have been? (Gup chup tamasha dekhe, waah re teri khudayi, kahe ko duniya banayi????? Here we are suffering and you say, it is a sport for you to create us!!!!!) 

Lord answers

(From the Post dated 17/12/2016- God  says “No joy of the senses, no joy of possession, can match the joy of God. Though I had everything from eternity to eternity, I began to think, “I am all-powerful, and Joy itself, but there is no one else to enjoy Me. I will make souls in My image, and clothe them as human beings with free choice, to see whether they will seek My material gifts and the temptations of money, wine, and sex; or whether they will seek the million times more intoxicating joy of My consciousness.” )

“I created you as my image, to exist as ME, to come back to ME, to merge in ME, to get the experience of MERGENCE IN LORD, LIBERATION, which only you as a human can get, which even devas and Indra are deprived off. Did I ever command that you forget that you are ME and you are you, the ego and then to gratify your ego, undergo all actions with Raga and Dvesha, Attachment and Hatred????"

“By gone is bygone. Given moment is NOW. Start practicing MY instructions, aim your new arrows with perfection, gather all purer arrows from TODAY, THIS MOMENT onwards and I ASSURE you, this cycle of birth and death will soon be over!!!”

  

Question:

I have always been a pious man, given in charity and donated to the temple. Never thought of any harm to any one in my life. I am regular in attending weekly bhajans, take up little seva in my free time, visit holy shrines once in a year, regular in visiting temple etc. Then why am I made to suffer like this? On the other hand, I find people with no interest in spirituality, with no interest to do any charity, not following principles in life, prospering enormously in front of my eyes. Why this contradiction???

Answer: Professor Anil Kumar took upon himself, with his small ego, to recommend a case of a blind man to Swami and told Swami, "Swami, I have been observing this devotee for a long time, why don’t You cure him and grant him vision. Swami replied- “You know only his present, I know all his past, present and future. Do you want to know what all sins he has committed in his previous birth for which he has to suffer this blindness in his present birth??

Also, in this birth, He is aware of me, He visits parthi, he has few people to take care of his needs Suppose I cure him of his blindness in this birth, can you assure that in the next birth when he is born blind again, He will be near me, he will have people to help him????? Whatever he has to suffer, he must suffer and hence, if I cure him now, then later, in next birth, he has to be blind to clear his past karmas.

After Swamis words, do I need to say anything more?. Please read what Swami said above and get the answers for the question in ther depth of silence your self!!.

Question:

What is fate? Why is a person born in a particular place to a particular parents, some rich, some poor, some beautiful, some wise etc.?

Answer: Hope the post on  prarandha karma, the arrows in flight answers  this question more than adequately.  About our getting particular parents, environment, in that post, a truth revealed by Ramana on how and why God chooses a particular combination of good and bad arrows is given, which answers to the question.

About disparity in the status, beauty, intellect amongst various people- the answer is – each one brings along with him, his own past karmas and to discharge the past karmas and experience the result/ effect of the karmas caused by each one in the past, each humam being is born with different attrbutues, in different environment, with different power, different financial status etc.

Question:

After we are born in this world with certain predetermined benefits (like being rich, wise etc), one has to lead an ongoing good life. At this juncture what is the role of God? Is He going to change my fate in my present life, or does He have no control at all, once fate is determined by my past actions? Why I should pray to God?

Answer:- Though this is going to be  explained after couple of posts, in one sentence if this has to be answered- PRAYING TO LORD GIVES US THE STRENGTH TO UNDERGO ALL THE SUFFERING WITH EASE. BUT FOR HIS PRESENCE, HIS LOVE, HIS GRACE, WOULD THIS WORLD BE LIKE THIS, WITH INFINITE HUMAN BEINGS SUFFERING DUE TO THEIR PRARABDHA???

Swami has given a totally different dimension to free will which is quite contradictory (apparently) to the purushartha, free will v/s destiny which we learnt in the previous post, absolutely opposite to what Swami Sivananda roared- “Dear friends! Man is the master of his destiny. Wake up now from the deep slumber of ignorance. Never become a fatalist. Think rightly. Act rightly. Lead a virtuous life. Never hurt the feelings of others. Mould your character. Purify your mind. Concentrate. Thou art Nitya Mukta Purusha. Tat Tvam Asi-Thou art That.”

Don’t try to google and find out what Sai said about free will. Even if you do that, 90% chance is that you will be totally confused as it does not match with the purushartha which we learnt just a while ago.

Well, live with that confusion if you have to, for couple of days until Swami’s answer to free will shall be dealt exclusively where we, of course with HIS GRACE, would try and absorb His answer in the exact way He meant while  giving that answer.

And, at the end of that post, I shall repeat the above question and would leave you to easily get the most satisfactory answer from Bhagwan Himself, in that post.

Question:

How can I do my duties if everything is predestined? I want to do them and I want to follow the teachings of God, but circumstances prevailing at certain times sometimes push me to take any optional decision which ultimately proves to be disastrous.

Answer: This was addressed in an example of landing in Kolkata station and having to decide between a wrong street and the place of Thakur, Dakshineswar. We have to have the conviction, we have to have the strength, we should close our eyes, draw ourselves within and without our ego peeping in, we have to ask ourselves and our conscience will always give us the correct answer as to which way we have to proceed. What is right and what is wrong.

The problem arises only due to one single reason. When we are week internally, the impact of all the sufferings which we undergo due to our prarabdha karma has a direct influence  on our power/discrimination to aim the new arrows of agami karma and to shoot them to perfection in accordance with the teachings of Masters, of the Lord.

For example, if one has some one suffering from cancer at his home/one is child less/one stands with all his property seized by some one whom he believed as very near to him, one whose child/near one suddenly met with an accident and lost his life and to that someone, if a sadhu walks in and says, what ever you are undergoing should not at all affect your sincere sadhana. You should start reading scriptures, practice meditation, visit temple, get inward.

How many would have the ear to listen to the advice of that sadhu, though what ever he says is perhaps the only remedy for the one who is undergoing all the pain.

The pain due to one of the incidents cited above makes the one so week, so demoralized that he cannot take new actions, shoot new arrows of agami karma, with conviction and positivity. This happens even if the person sincerely believes in Sadhu’s words. (I want to do them and I want to follow the teachings of God, but circumstances prevailing at certain times sometimes push me to take any optional decision which ultimately proves to be disastrous).

In the last 5 years, the author would have witnessed at least a dozen human beings who came to him, attended few or many sessions and then returned, saying that “we believe  in your sessions, we believe in your teachings, but we are not able to pursue them due to our own situations”.

Dear Ones,

Sivananda’s words in the previous post –“ Do not weep. Do not cry over spilt milk. There is no use. You will not gain anything by so doing. Instead of weeping over the failure of crops during last year, go on ploughing this year. You will get abundant rain this year and rich harvest. Do virtuous actions now. Think rightly. Act rightly. You will have a brilliant and a glorious future."

What ever may be the experience our prarabdha fetches for us, those experience must be undergone separately and they must never ever be allowed to influence/demoralize us and make us take a wrong aim in discharging the new arrows, our purushartha, the agami karmas!

Question;

Some people claim that what is to happen in this life is already determined by God (i.e. fate). Their idea is that we do not have much control on our life. We are under the illusion of Maya. Others think that only because of our intelligence and our carefully executed efforts, we achieve desirable ends. My question is, do our efforts really matter?

Answer: Adequately answered in previous question. Still, learning of 4 purusharthas, learning of our role in various ashramas in life from youth to old age, to be taken up in the next posts, will further add to clarity for getting answers to this question. Also, regarding the use of intellect, a separate series of posts under the label “Anthakarana - Manas, Buddhi, Chitta, Ahamkara” awaits you in future.

Love.

Swami Sivananda

Karma - Part 7

FREE WILL (PURUSHARTHA)

The word purushartha is very much used in our scriptures. We should have a clear understanding of this word. It means human goals. 'Purusha' is a human being, male or female.

The word 'arthah' in Sanskrit has several meanings. It has the meaning 'meaning'. What is the artha of that particular verse means what is the meaning. It also means wealth. The word arthah here in this context is goal or destination.

That which is sought after by every human being is called arthah. What is sought after by human beings?  Different goals. So any human goal is called artha. Combining these two words purusharthah means human goals. 

The primary meaning of the word is human destination or goal. By using the word purushartha itself, we convey an important idea that these are goals sought after only by human beings. Because of the availability of purusharthas, the human beings become distinct from or different from all the other beings. In fact because of the purusharthas, human beings are considered to be superior to all the other living beings. 

Free will v/s destiny

This freedom to modify the past and thereby create a future for better or for worse is called purushartha or self-effort.

To illustrate: a log floating down a river will move at the same speed at which the river flows, but if the log is fitted with a motor and manned by an intelligent driver, the log will have an independent movement of its own, although conditioned by the flow of the river. Let's assume that the waters of the river are moving at two miles an hour. When the speedometer on the log shows ten miles an hour, the log will move at twelve miles an hour down the river but only eight miles an hour if it goes upstream.

The flow of the river will always be there; but because of the motor and the intelligence of the driver, the log has a limited freedom of movement now.

The plant and the animal kingdoms move just as the log that floats down the river, directed and guided by their inborn instinct and impulses. But we, having reached the human level, have acquired a reasoning capacity and a discriminative faculty. Using these two, we can steer the ship of life safely to our destination, the higher goal we have set for ourselves. 

At each moment of our life, we are not only living the fruits of our past actions, but also creating those for tomorrow. Similarly, at each moment we are preparing ourselves for the lives yet to come.

Prarabdha is caused by the actions done in the past. Thus, if our prarabdha is a sorrowful one now, let us perform such acts today that can determine a happier life for us in the future.

A happier tomorrow is built only when we assert our will to live a divine life today. Religion asks us to entertain and live such values of life so that while living them we are able to create an ordered life, full of joys, in the future. Follow the righteous path of the good; avoid the by-lanes of the crooked, the unrighteous path of the pleasant. We must start and constantly keep on the right path to reach the goal of supreme good. If our course is in the right direction, we shall certainly reach our destination.

Thus, the law of karma, when understood correctly, is the greatest force of vitality in Vedantic philosophy. It makes us the architects of our own future. We are not helpless pawns in the hands of a mighty tyrant. If we are weak or sorrowful, it is solely because of our own willful actions. In our ignorance, we may have pursued certain negative values of life in the past and their fruits have reared up now to give us the pattern of circumstances we are living today.

If we are to be guided by this delusion that all our actions are predetermined, then in every act of ours there is no room for self-improvement through effort. There are some who justify their actions by saying, 'I have no faith in a Higher Good, and it is my prarabdha, so why should I try to live a noble, moral life? This is a self-defeating concept based on a defeatist mentality.

But then, where does this self-effort, purushartha, come in if prarabdha orders every situation? We have been given limited freedom by nature. For example, we cannot bend a piece of thick metal, but supposing the metal is beaten out and made into a chain, it then becomes pliable. Similarly, when a cow is tied to a rope in the centre of a pasture, it is not free to graze the entire field but can move freely only within the circle drawn by the rope. Similarly, although we have taken this form to live out a fixed prarabdha, we can reach the supreme goal of life by applying our pure motives and intelligent discrimination to harness the freedom allowed to us from moment to moment. 

Carve out a new channel, fill your mind with repeated good thoughts. Repeat to yourself, 'I love all; or I am very tolerant'. Go on repeating the suggestive thoughts and in a short time you will observe that you have no anger at all in your mental make-up.

First of all, we should be aware of our weaknesses. We must be fully aware of them. We are essentially the very composition of our minds. When we perform some actions repeatedly, our minds get fixed with certain impressions. The quality of our experiences depends upon the quality of the mind that undergoes the experience. The mind, being what it is, is conditioned by the various impressions that it has gathered in its different stages of life. Thus, when we control and chasten the motives and thoughts in our minds, we purify the mind itself.

Swami Chinmayananda

A sage from Ananda kutir, Guru of Swami Chinmayananda, roars on free will, to remove all our fears about our destiny.

“The doctrine of Karma affords a most rational and scientific explanation of what is called fate. It gives a positive definite word of assurance that, although the present of which he himself is the creator or the author, is unalterable and irrevocable, he may better his future by changing his thoughts, habits, tendencies and mode of action. Herein lies great comfort, strength, encouragement and consolation to the desperate man. Herein lies a strong impetus for the man to struggle and exert for improving himself. Even a forlorn and helpless man is made cheerful when he understands this doctrine of Karma.

The doctrine of Karma brings hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless, joy to the cheerless and new strength to the weak. It braces up a sunken man. It is an ideal "pick-me-up" for the depressed and gloomy. The doctrine of Karma teaches: "Do not blame anybody when you suffer. Do not accuse God. Blame yourself first. You will have to reap what you have sown in your previous birth. Your present sufferings are due to your own bad Karma in your past life. You are yourself the author of the present state. The present is unchangeable.

Do not weep. Do not cry over spilt milk. There is no use. You will not gain anything by so doing. Instead of weeping over the failure of crops during last year, go on ploughing this year. You will get abundant rain this year and rich harvest. Do virtuous actions now. Think rightly. Act rightly. You will have a brilliant and a glorious future." How beautiful and soul-stirring is this magnanimous doctrine of Karma! The doctrine of Karma develops faith and supports ethics. It says: "If you hurt another man, you hurt yourself."

Dear friends! Man is the master of his destiny. Wake up now from the deep slumber of ignorance. Never become a fatalist. Think rightly. Act rightly. Lead a virtuous life. Never hurt the feelings of others. Mould your character. Purify your mind. Concentrate. Thou art Nitya Mukta Purusha. Tat Tvam Asi - Thou art That.”

Swami Sivananda

HOW FAR PURUSHARTHA HELPS IN FACING PRARABDHA?

There are four categories of Prarabdha:

(1) Very acute Prarabdha;

(2) Acute Prarabdha;

(3) Mild Prarabdha;

(4) Very mild Prarabdha.

(1) So far as very acute Prarabdha is concerned, you cannot change it at all in spite of your very acute and intense Purushartha (efforts) during this lifetime.

Your birth through certain parents in a certain country, community, caste, creed, race or sex is not accidental.

God is not so whimsical as to throw you anywhere in any way he likes. It is the result of your very acute Prarabdha which is completely unchangeable. You cannot change your parents and your kith & kin.

You cannot change your masculine body into feminine and vice versa. You cannot change your sons, daughters or relatives in your present birth in spite of your very acute efforts, as they are the results of your deeds-actions creating debits or credits with them in your and their previous births which have brought you together in this present life.

Hence you cannot be separated and none of you can leave your present body unless your previous accounts of give and take with one another are completely cleared during this birth.

(2) So far as acute Prarabdha is concerned, it cannot be completely wiped off, but at least you can make it mild or diluted by your very acute efforts (Purushartha) in this birth.

If it is destined for you to suffer a severe blow of a stone-throw to hit your forehead, you cannot completely escape it but you can, by your very acute effort (Purushartha) break its velocity and thereby reduce the intensity and quantum of injuries.

If it is destined for you to fail in your elimination, by your very acute Purushartha (efforts), you can at least pass in the third class instead of first or second class.

If the butter-milk taste is very acute, terribly sour, you can add a few cups of water and make the sour taste milder so that you can tolerably drink it.

(3) If your Prarabdha is mild, you can completely wipe it out by acute Purushartha just as you can completely abolish dirty yellow patches on the tiles of your bath room by using acid or strong detergent chemicals.

(4) The very mild Prarabdha can be wiped off even by ordinary Purushartha just as it is possible to wipe off ink drops on your room floor by a simple brush only.

Anyhow, you should ceaselessly go on doing Purushartha all throughout and never go back and abandon it at any stage.

If your Prarabdha is mild or very mild, it will be wiped off by simple or intense-acute Purushartha. lf it is thus not wiped off, do not worry; go on and continue striving with very acute Purushartha at least to make your acute Prarabdha mild or diluted.

However, inspite of your very acute Purushartha, if you cannot bring about any change in your Prarabdha which might be very acute, then quietly and cheerfully undergo and suffer it with total submission and absolute resignation to God.

In that way you can exhaust your very acute Prarabdha through endurance of suffering. After all, your Prarabdha is nothing but the ripened and matured fruits of the previous Kriyamana Karmas of your own.

Hence nobody else, not even God is responsible or to be blamed.

Love.