Swami
continues,
"A
father with four sons cannot state that one of them has no right to a share in
his property. It won't be just or proper. Then what shall be said of the Lord,
who is devoid of the slightest tinge of partiality or prejudice and who is full
of mercy? To attribute favoritism to Him is to commit sacrilege.
Referring
to this question of who is entitled and who is not entitled to Brahma vidya,
Krishna said in the Gita "I have no favorite, nor do I dislike anyone.
Whatever might be the case, whether the person is man or woman, whoever
worships Me with faith and devotion will reach Me, nothing can stand in their
way. I too will manifest in the hearts of such". Is the Gita, therefore,
meaningless? No, the Gita speaks profound Truth.
There
is another wrong belief current today. It is said that in order to be entitled
to the practice of the Sadhana for the realization of Brahman, like Japa and
Dhyana, one must adhere strictly to certain modes of daily conduct laid down in
tradition and thus attain purity.
To
say that a person must be pure and good and follow certain codes of conduct
before he can tread the path of God is to say that he must be free from disease
in order to deserve medical treatment! This is absurd. Purity, goodness etc.,
are all the consequences of the journey towards God; they cannot be
insisted upon as essential for just starting upon it.
The
taking in of the drug will gradually induce health and cheer; health and cheer
should not be insisted upon before the drug is even prescribed or supplied!
This obvious fact is ignored by many; that is a serious malady indeed!
(Author’s note - What Swami means perhaps is that we need not
postpone our sadhana thinking that we are at a lower level and we have to go a
long way before being able to taste / have a glimpse of Jnana. The
self-purification process and the study of scriptures / taking up the path of
jnana can go together, simultaneously)
The
inference is that what is important is constant meditation on the Lord, not the
labels of caste or creed. Jnana is the attainment of the feeling of Oneness,
the realization that there is nothing high or low. That is the true Divine
Principle, the Brahman.
A
sugar doll has head, neck, arms and limbs, but each part is as sweet as the
other. From head to foot, it is one uniform sweetness; there cannot be two
types of sweetness. That is why it is said to be not dual but non-dual, not
Dvaitha but Advaitha. Those who emanate from the Lord's Face and those who
emanate from His Feet are both His children. The realization of this Truth is
the sign of Jnana.
(Author’s note - Purusha suktam starts with this verse which
aligns with what Swami writes at the end.
OM SAHASRA SIRSHA
PURUSHAHA SAHASRAKSHAH SAHASRAPAAT!
SA BHUMIM VISHVATO VRITVA
ATYATISHTHAT DASHANGULAM!
"The Lord Vishnu residing in everybody (as antaryami)
possesses thousands of heads, thousands of eyes and thousands of legs. He has
pervaded everywhere and is Infinitely Superior even to Goddess Lakshmi who is
the presiding deity of earth".
The Suktha begins with the affirmation that all the heads, all
the eyes, and all the feet in creation are of the Purusha.
Herein is implied the astonishing truth that we do not see
many things, bodies, objects, persons, forms, or colors, or hear sounds, but
rather only the limbs of the One Purusha.
And, just as when we behold the hand, leg, ear or nose of a
person as various parts we do not think that we are seeing many things but only
a single person in front of us, and we develop no separate attitude whatsoever
in regard to the various parts of the person’s body — because here our attitude
is one of a single whole of consciousness beholding one complete person
irrespective of the limbs or the parts of which the person may be the composite
— in the same manner, we are to behold creation not as a conglomeration of
discrete persons and things with which we have to develop a different attitude
or conduct, but as a single Universal Person who gloriously shines
before us and gazes at us through all the eyes, nods before us through all the
heads, smiles through all the lips and speaks through all the tongues. This is
the Purusha of the Purusha Sukta.)
Love.
