Bhaja Govindam - Post 17

Verse 16

अग्रे वह्निः पृष्ठे भानुः रात्रौ चुबुकसमर्पितजानुः ।

करतलभिक्षस्तरुतलवासस्तदपि न मुञ्चत्याशापाशः ॥ १६॥

agre vahniḥ pṛṣṭhebhānuḥ

rātrau cubukasamarpitajānuḥ,

karatalabhikṣastarutalavāsaḥ

tadapi na muñcatyāśāpāśaḥ.

(Behold there is the man who sits warming up his body with the fire in front and the sun at the back, at night he curls up the body to keep himself warm; he receives his alms in the bowl of his hands and lives under the shelter of trees. Even then he has not been released from the noose of desires.)

This verse depicts the self-denial of a spiritual aspirant / sadhu, in the hope that it will exhaust all  his desires. 

Aversion, as opposed to indulgence, is attempted. If some have discovered that they have been fooled by indulging in desires, there are others who have been equally fooled by making senseless efforts to deny themselves all bodily comforts. These efforts are also doomed to failure because they do not address the Mind, where the problem lies. 

In this verse certain torturous methods of inviting bodily discomfort are used to check one’s desires. 

A renunciant may not have a proper home, a proper place to rest. His body is exposed to heat of sun in the day and to the cold during the night as he sleeps under the sky.

Swami Sivananda writes on the extreme levels of endurance to which a sadhu puts himself in Hardwar/ Hrishikesh.

He even writes more extreme steps of self-denial where he describes that a sadhu, almost naked with no cloth to wear even in extreme winter, also subjects himself to lashes which he causes to himself with a whip in his hand.

And, even while or after subjecting his body to such a torture / self-denial, the purpose apparently being to rise above body consciousness, the same sadhu, seated with his bowl / hands raised to get food from passerby, gets instantly provoked when a beautiful female passes by and bows down to him and offers him money / food.

All these self-denial methods ignore the root cause of problem. The main problem is in mind and if analyzed further, all the problems caused in one’s mind is due to one’s ego.

A pure mind will not think of the techniques described above. Only a Rajasic or Tamasic mind, which does not have the power to grasp the essence of what scriptures are trying to say, will reveal its lack of understanding by adopting such methods of austerity. 

In this whole process, Desire remains untouched! 

Sage Sivananda seated in Ananda kutir, writes or rather sums up the essence of this entire verse, while writing about such sadhus thus;-

“What is required is mental nudity, not physical nudity”.

What does this line mean?

Be pure in your heart, keep your mind free / naked, without the attire of desires, hatred, attachment and fear. 

King Janaka achieved this mental nudity, even while acting as King of Mithila, with many wives, enjoying all the comforts of a King. 

Dear Readers,

If we apply this verse to our spiritual sadhana, then what this verse reveals to us in a subtler manner if we are able to contemplate and grasp the essence??

·     The extreme endurance described above can be compared to the pilgrimage we undertake, the fasting we undertake, continuous loud chanting of chosen mantra that we do, the practice of keeping awake during the entire Shivaratri night that some of us undertake. 

      Readers can imagine / think of many such extreme austerities that they undertake or they have observed some others undertake.

·    While all these austerities are not condemned at all, the purpose behind all these austerities is to rise above desires and to arraign purity of mind.

·    Even with such austerities, one is not able to control or transcend one’s desires at mental level, as described in the case of a sadhu when he happens to look at a beautiful woman, then all such austerities lose their very purpose. 

    Meditation / prayers lose their sanctity if one is thinking of all the issues that have to be solved in his office that day, fasting loses its purpose when one forsakes main course during fasting but keeps filling his belly with fruits, juices etc, keeping awake on a shivaratri night loses its purpose when one switches on youtube to watch few entertaining movies so that he can keep himself awake,  then,  there is no use of keeping silence for few hours daily/during some auspicious day,  if the mind is noisy and is traveling here and there!

·  Silence is often understood as silence of words. Silence in terms of speech is only 25% silence achieved. Real silence is silencing our mind, eliminating or at least reducing our thought flow. 

O mind, get within.  Seek the Lord within. In Tamil, we address God as Kadavul which in essence means, Kada + Ul or Remain + Within!

For how many more births are you going to search for peace, Bliss, for temporary satisfaction in million things in the world. 

Believe and practice Sai’s words, “True happiness is within”.

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 16

Verse 15

अङ्गं गलितं पलितं मुण्डं दशनविहीनं जातं तुण्डम् ।

वृद्धो याति गृहीत्वा दण्डं तदपि न मुञ्चत्याशापिण्डम् ॥१५॥

angaṁ galitaṁ palitaṁ muṇḍaṁ

daśanavihīnaṁ jātaṁ tuṇḍam,

vrddho yāti gṛhītvā daṇḍaṁ

tadapi na muñcatyāśāpiṇḍam.

(The body has weakened; the head has turned grey; the mouth has become toothless; the old man moves about with his staff. Even then, he does not give up his bundle of hopes and desires.)

Many people have been tricked into the belief that by fulfilling their desires they will be able to bring them to an end. No one has been able to get rid of desires by fulfilling them. That philosophy has deluded many people. 

Initial 3 lines of this verse show the physical signs of over-indulgence in one’s body. 

Man, ignorant of his divine nature, binds himself to his physical identity and starts glorifying his physical charm in his youth and when he crosses his youth and steps into the next stage as a man.

Anybody born in this world as a human being, must go through the six stages of existence-birth-growth-disease-decay and finally death.

However, a human being, when he / she reaches his 40s and then his 50s, they fail to accept that their physical charm is diminishing and he is reaching the stage of disease in the six stages explained above.

However, the desire to enjoy even with such  a derelict body  does not  leave  them and hence, they  indulge in efforts to look young, feel young, rejuvenate themselves, bolster their energy levels with artificial drugs, etc. 

People will lift heaven and earth to find some way of enjoying pleasures. No one accepts that decay, old age and death are part of the package we were born into. 

Instead of finding satisfaction, people merely find addiction. Not only that, they lose the power of their senses. Their bodies take the strain by appearing ragged and aged years before the proper time. 

Desires can never end by fulfilling them. And the reason for the same is that desires belong to the Mind, the mind can still be ‘young’ in an old body. Desires live with us till death, and are taken with us into our next birth! For they are not a function of the body but of the Mind. 

Reaching a step beyond the literal meaning of the verse, one has to address to all the problem caused due to their mind.

Spiritual sadhana in any of the path - Karma or Bhakti or Jnana - has to be pursued by man not when he has to lean on others for support, as the verse says, but in his young age, when he is physically strong and mentally capable and intellectually sharp.

Mind which takes him to the world has to be diverted and channelized towards God through spiritual sadhana.

Love.

Swami Ashokananda

“Forget that anyone is bad, that anyone is inferior. You have to go beyond the person’s behavior. The real person is God, peeping through the eyes. This is the highest ideal.

Never think another person to be weak or imperfect. Behind his form lies the ever effulgent Being, the Strength of all strength, the Wisdom of all wisdom.

Imagine God in the heart of all beings.

Every single being that exists is an inexhaustible mine of beauty and love.

Everything brings the message of God; from everywhere comes the touch of my Beloved.”

- Swami Ashokananda

Bhaja Govindam - Post 15

Verse 14

जटिलो मुण्डी लुञ्छितकेशः काषायाम्बरबहुकृतवेषः ।

पश्यन्नपि च न पश्यति मूढो ह्युदरनिमित्तं बहुकृतवेषः ॥ १४॥

Jaṭilo muṇḍī luñchitakeśaḥ kāṣāyāmbarabahukṛtaveṣaḥ,

paśyannapi cana paśyati mūḍhaḥ udaranimittaṁ bahukṛtaveṣaḥ

(One ascetic with matted hair, one with shaved head, one with hair plucked out one by one, one in ochre robes – all these are distracted ones who, though seeing, do not see. These are different disguises are only for their living.)

Here, Sankara describes a person who is apparently on the spiritual path, one who is following the spiritual practices externally but is still into worldly pursuits. Even after entering into the spiritual path fully, if one gets entangled in mundane worldly requirements, it is but a tragedy.

It is relatively easier to correct / bring someone who is not in spiritual path but if one is already into spiritual path and believes that he is on right track, then it is difficult to transform him.

The description of such a perverted being is vivid. An ascetic with matted hair or head shaven, with his material quest disguised in ochre robes, he does all this only for the ‘belly'. Belly signifies physical comfort, emotional satisfaction and intellectual delight. He does not see the possibility of anything beyond just his personal fulfillment.

Sankara calls such a person a fool because he is so near to the Truth yet totally blinded. The most difficult part of the spiritual path is to avoid getting tied down by petty, selfish considerations. 

Once this hurdle is overcome, the practices themselves become effortless. Whatever we do, the thought of ‘I, me and myself' does not leave us. We follow the spiritual exercises but we fail to address this crucial element. This, in fact, is the central point of the spiritual journey. 

Selflessness is a measure of spiritual growth. So it is no use doing everything else if we are unwilling to rid ourselves of selfish, self-centered interests. 

As a result we end up as hypocrites, professing the higher but pursuing the lower. We lose touch with basic human feelings. We fail to lift off. 

Hence we miss the power and ease, the grandeur and magnificence, of a life of dedication and surrender. All of us need to watch out for this pitfall. 

Selfishness creeps in without our knowing it, in spite of our best efforts. The intellect must be alert at all times.

An important point to make regarding a verse such as this is that the attack is on the egoism and hypocrisy of insincere men; this is not an attack on the symbols themselves. 

Sankara has described a sanyasi and the description used by Sankara is for a Hindu apparently.

However, the essence of this verse has to be taken for an insincere human being who boosts of being in spiritual path but his behavior and inner attitude is not befitting the path he has taken up.

This is not restricted only to spiritual Gurus in any religion but it applies to each one of us in the society.

We should not get stuck up in the description given in the verse. We should rise beyond the appearance of a sanyasi described and introspect ourselves whether we are a true spiritual seeker, whether our thoughts, words and actions are synchronized and we practice whatever we learn in our spiritual path, no matter what religion we belong to.

As far as a Spiritual Preceptor is concerned, it becomes the duty of a spiritual teacher of worth to train his disciples in such a way that they do not use their outer symbols to buy privileges from society. This is best done by instilling a deep spirit of service in them. 

Love.

Paramhansa Yogananda

The greatest love you can experience is in communion with God in meditation. The love between the soul and Spirit is the perfect love, the love you are all seeking. When you meditate, love grows. Millions of thrills pass through your heart....If you meditate deeply, a love will come over you such as no human tongue can describe; you will know His divine love, and you will be able to give that pure love to others.

In the consciousness of one who is immersed in the divine love of God, there is no deception, no narrowness of caste or creed, no boundaries of any kind. When you experience that divine love, you will see no difference between flower and beast, between one human being and another. You will commune with all nature, and you will love equally all mankind.

If you could feel even a particle of divine love, so great would be your joy—so overpowering—you could not contain it.

- Paramhansa Yogananda

Swami Sivananda

What is divine life? To shed the animal in man and to sublimate the human in him to the Divine; to express the sublimation in his daily life, in his hourly life, in thought, word and deed. That is Divine life.

To realise God is your duty. God-realisation is your birthright. Develop strong yearning for God-realisation.

Have confidence in your self. Be self-controlled. Be fiery in your determination. Stick to your resolves tenaciously.

Cultivate a very strong faith in God. Do total self-surrender and obtain His grace. Supreme love comes only by the grace of God. Grace of God will make you stick to the spiritual path. You will know that life is eternal and that you are eternal. God is the only reality. God is the only truth. God alone exists. Know this, realise this.

- Swami Sivananda

Bhaja Govindam - Post 14

Verse 13

का ते कान्ता धनगतचिन्ता वातुल किं तव नास्ति नियन्ता ।

त्रिजगति सज्जनसङ्गतिरेका भवति भवार्णवतरणे नौका ॥ १३॥

kāte kāntā dhana gatacintā

vātula kiṁ tava nāsti niyantā,

trijagati sajjanasaṁ gatiraikā

bhavati bhavārṇavataraṇe naukā.

(O distracted one, Who is your wife? Why this engrossment in thoughts of wealth? Is there none to guide you? 

There is only one thing in the three worlds that can save you from the ocean of transmigration. Get into the boat of holy company to cross this ocean of becoming.)

Man’s Universal need for Support 

Sri Sankaracharya now addresses the deep-seated need felt in the human psyche for some form of support. Usually man looks for this support in the outer world, in wife or is wealth. But are our worries over them really going to help us? 

Man is wrapped with a cloak of Maya as it were, which, through its inscrutable power, distorts his vision of reality. 

Most of his thoughts shuttle between women and wealth. This verse is addressed to such a sensuous man whose worries take away most of his time and leave him a slave of his desires.

He who allows himself to be overpowered by thoughts of lust and passion becomes a prey to mental weakness and moral depravity.

Such a man has to be aware that there is a higher Power that is taking care of everything in creation. We should just surrender all our concerns to Him. The Divine Source of all creation would make the best support that will meet all our need. So, we can afford to let go of wife and wealth, and look to the Lord Himself for all support. Since He is so vastly more empowered than one’s family or one’s property, His support would not fail us. Besides He knows our need more than we do. He will provide for us even without our asking. 

A spiritual aspirant should relentlessly curtail such unproductive, self-draining and injurious thoughts with Shraddha. He should hold on to God with a firm will. 

He should have his will-power strengthened with dispassion, self-control and purity.

An example

Look at the birth of a child. How is it prepared for birth? Who took care of it before birth? Thank God, it wasn’t the mother. Imagine the extra worry on mummy’s head if she had to direct all the instructions to supply the necessary food items to the fetus in her womb. She must be the most relieved person to know that all that is being taken care of by a higher Power.

We just have to do our duty and relax. The One above will see to the rest. In that spirit we will relieve ourselves of bearing unnecessary burdens on our head. We do not have to start panicking for any reason. Who is there to stop us from taking His Name even while we do our actions? We should never feel that we are alone in handling our burdens. 

We should bury our worries before the worry buries us. 

Good Company Ensures a Safe Journey 

The second line of this verse provides a practical alternative to “wife and wealth” as a support for one’s life. It is the company of good people, saintly people, and fellowship with spiritually elevated persons. Why is this, such a powerful alternative? 

The former tends to be a selfish association and one’s boat is always in a state of permanent anchorage to the rock of worldly life. However, good, saintly company can be very uplifting. 

Constant association with good people flushes out all bad thoughts, fills his heart with noble and elevating thoughts and makes us pure and holy, humble and gentle.

Such company is completely free of all attachment and so the “boat” of our life can move across to the other shore of Liberation without being held back by any anchor or worldly mooring. 

The boat analogy, on being explored a bit further, reveals how insightful the choice of such a simile is to good company. 

i) Evil company will make us sink further into dangers, whereas good company lifts us safely over the waters of life. This is compared to the ocean which is deep and dangerous with many hidden rocks and sharks, with mighty waves and hidden currents. 

ii) Upon the surface where the waves lash, the boat absorbs all the jolting shocks, bears the impact that a traveler inside hardly feels the fierce tossing and remains comfortable throughout his journey 

Similarly, when crossing whirlpools of life, evil company will allow us to spin in any direction according to the current. Good company, on the other hand, sticks to the Godward direction in spite of any whirlpool. The single-pointedness we develop due to good company steers us safely to freedom. 

iii) Heavy winds or storms can easily tip our boat if it is not controlled well by good company.  

A man blessed with holy company safely passes through the ocean of births and deaths and reaches his destination on the other shore, without the ocean / waves of worldliness wetting him in the journey.

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 13

Verse 12

दिनयामिन्यौ सायं प्रातः शिशिरवसन्तौ पुनरायातः ।

कालः क्रीडति गच्छत्यायु स्तदपि न मुञ्चत्याशावायुः ॥ १२॥

dinayāminyau sāyaṁ prātaḥ

śiśiravasantau punarāyātaḥ,

kālaḥ krīḍati gacchatyāyuḥ

tadapi na muncatyāśāvāyuḥ.

Day and night, dusk and dawn, winter and spring come and go again. Time sports and life ebbs away, and yet the gust of desire never leaves (us).

When Sun rises in the east, day starts; when sun sets in the west, night starts; days and nights are thus passing away one after the other incessantly.

One period starts winter; another period starts spring time; they too are coming and passing away incessantly.

Some wise men call it the Kaala chakra, the wheel of time.

In the wheel of time, days and nights, winters and springs are passing away and coming back again and again. In the endless flow of time, your life time is passing away, almost unnoticed, and we do not know what awaits us on the other side of death.

Are we conscious of that, which can carry us through these life tides successfully?

Similarly, wants are infinite. As each want is satisfied, another takes its place…

Life thus goes on as an endless stream of wants and desires.

Can we avoid desires altogether? No. It is neither feasible, while in this body nor even required.

Know their nature; Stay in control; Stay as their master; not as their slave.

Every time we experience joy, we must realize that sorrow is just around the corner in pursuit. This cycle is also never-ending – it lasts as long as we are trapped in the birth and death cycle.

In childhood, author read a line somewhere, “Life is like a pendulum, betwixt a tear and a smile”.

Even when the pendulum of a wall clock swings to the right side, we are sure that it is bound to now swing to the left side.

Exactly in the same manner, life teaches us time and again that any joy is short lived in life and it is followed by sorrow. 

Why worldly joy is short lived??

The answer is simple. All joy derived in world are in essence limited by/ subject to the following:-

A particular location/ environment – DESA

A particular time – KALA

A particular object/ set of objects – VASTU

And, if we observe, all the three – Desa, Kala, Vastu - by their definition, keep on changing.

So, any experience derived from anything in this world which are limited by Desa, Kala, Vastu - is bound to be short lived because, they themselves are subject to changes and are not eternal.

Readers can close their eyes and think of any best experience / joy, they derived in their lifetime. They will realize that the joy experienced was in a particular place / environment, in a particular time frame / phase in life and derived due to their association with some object(s). Even human beings and their relationships also get covered in object.

ETERNAL JOY

Merger with God in the path of devotion 

and 

Living in the light of knowledge and discovery of our true nature of spirit in the path of Jnana 

These two inner experiences can only give us eternal joy as both God and SELF are one with just two different expressions and most important, God with form with whom we have to merge or Formless Brahman to be discovered within us as SELF / Atman - only these experiences are NOT subject to the limitation of DESA, KALA and VASTU as explained above.

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 12

Verse 11

मा कुरु धनजनयौवनगर्वं हरति निमेषात्कालः सर्वम् । मायामयमिदमखिलं हित्वा ब्रह्मपदं त्वं प्रविश विदित्वा॥ ११॥

mā kuru dhana jana yauvana garvaṁ

harati nimeṣātkālaḥ sarvam,

māyāmayamidamakhilaṁ hitvā

brahmapadaṁ tvaṁ praviśa viditvā.

(Do not take pride in wealth, friends and youth. Time takes away all these in the blink of an eye. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of māyā and may you know the abode of Brahman and enter it.)

Dhana, Jana and Yauvana: These three are perhaps the gross manifestations or props of man’s ego - wealth, fame and desire; or Kanchana, Keerthi and Kama.

These three are the classical obstacles to all spiritual endeavor. They represent the very opposite of spiritual life. They cannot co-exist with spiritual Sadhana. 

WEALTH is the First: Earning, safeguarding and using enormous wealth gives people a false sense of greatness. But, money does not accompany you when your time to go comes. Money does not accompany you even when you are alive. It can go from you any time and it anyway goes from you, when the time comes for you to go.

FAMILY & FOLLOWERS is the second: People boast of being leaders. You may be proud to have a big family, large number of followers etc., who sing your praise often. But, time either takes them all away from you or takes you away from them all.

Extract of a post from Narada Bhakti Sutras is repeated below:

A poet wrote:

"Veedu varai uravu, Veedi varai manaivi, Kaadu varai pillai, Kadaisi varai  yaro".

(When a man  dies and his body lies there and is about to be taken for cremation, family members cry at home, sit for sometime and leave, the wife cries and walks up to the end of the street and no further, son goes up to the forest, performs the cremation rites, lits up fire for the body to burn and then returns, he does not even wait for the body to  burn fully, as it will take few hours, so, who is there for a man till the last? 

(Here, last is to be construed as, till he attains moksha and reaches and merges with God, in some birth)

However, realizing the futility of this world with all its limitation, when we look towards the almighty God, He blesses us and assures,

"I will protect you like the eyelids protect the eyes"

Only God is qualified to assure us that He will protect us because He is not the support for one or two or few or many but he is "JAGAT ASHRAYA", the ONLY support for the entire universe!!!”

YOUTHFUL VIGOUR is the third: A little more strength or a little more beauty makes people feel much bigger and greater (than others) in their own eyes and possibly in the eyes of equally unknowing people.

But even as they are feeling bigger, stronger and more beautiful, their strength and beauty are being sapped away by the passage of time.

All these are the play of Maya; they are illusions. They are given to you; and taken away from you by time, in moments. You don’t know when these are sapped away from you. The play of time on you creates big illusions in you.

It is never said – that these are useless or unnecessary for life. They all may be useful and needed for life. But, know that they come and they go. They are not permanent. Do not be proud of possessing them. When you do become proud, you are not possessing them; they are possessing you. They have enslaved you.

Brahmapadaṁ tvaṁ praviśa viditvā

May you know the abode of  Brahman and enter it!!

Aho..! The power and the mesmerizing impact of this one line, this one expression, only those who had taken up the path of experiencing Brahman with mumukshatva (craving for realizing the TRUTH) can actually realize. 

This one expression can leave a fired up sincere spiritual aspirant / seeker in ecstasy for hours together.  

Sankara did not bless a sadhaka saying “May you know the Brahman”. 

He adds, “….and enter it”!!

We can know about the location, about the daily program, about the grandeur of Swami’s Birthday program etc., by reading about Prashanti Nilayam, through devotees sharing their experience of being in the abode of peace, Prashanti Nilayam.

All these are not even half-way through in our spiritual experience.

We need to travel to Bangalore, take a cab, drive through the highway, enter into the “Sathya Sai Taluk” gate, pass through Super Specialty hospital building, Airport building, College and hostel buildings, music collage etc., cross the bus station, park our car, take up a suitable accommodation and then.., in the next 2 days, attend the Bhajan program and then the Birthday program, feel the divine aura of Swami enveloping us wholly while seated in the hall, transcend even that hall, those soulful bhajan rendering and reach or at least get a glimpse of that inner SELF!

The entire travel described above is our spiritual journey. The guide posts from airport right up to Puttaparthi which we keep seeing and traveling are the spiritual sessions given by our Guru / Acharya. 

Sitting in the hall is our “mananam and nidhidhyasanam, contemplation on all the teachings of our preceptor, the final glimpse of SELF is the "ENTERING THE ABODE OF BRAHMAN", by Sankara.

And, 

In that blissful, eternal state of Brahman, all your suffering and delusions come to a permanent end. They don’t touch you anymore!

Love.