Dharma Vahini - Post 26

Chapter XI. Three Eras

Swami explains about the 3 Eras - Vedic, Upanishadic & Puranic, in this chapter.

Swami writes, 

"The eras, classified according to the principles and practices of spiritual progress as laid down in the Hindu dharma, are three:

1. The Vedic era, during which great importance was laid on rituals (karma).

2. The Upanishadic era, when spiritual wisdom (jnana) was emphasized more than all else. 

3. The Puranic era, when devotion (bhakthi) was declared and described as all important.

The Vedic Age

Vedic literature consists of hymns (samhithas), Brahmanas, forest texts (Aranyakas), and Upanishads. 

Of these, the first three deal with actions (karma) and are known as Karma-kanda, and the last, the Upanishads, are concerned with spiritual wisdom (jnana) and are therefore called wisdom texts (Jnana-kanda).

The Upanishadic Age

Meanwhile, the Upanishad Age dawned. The Upanishads rejected material objectives as devoid of permanent value; they condemned them as inferior. In fact, the ritual portion (Karma-kanda) of the Vedas was transformed and revalued in the Upanishads as vehicles for the liberation of people from the bondage of birth and death and as vessels for crossing the ocean of worldly existence (samsara). The vision of the Upanishadic aspirant (sadhaka) breaks through this “external sensory objective world” and centres itself on the “inner world”. 

The Puranic Age

The seeds of devotion found scattered in the Vedic texts sprout in the Upanishads and begin to grow with many a blossomful branch in the Puranas.

Well, many are yet confused when it comes to deciding what exactly devotion (bhakthi) is, what the nature of the attitude called devotion is! 

It is impossible for anyone to demarcate what exactly devotion is and what it is not. Devotion has in finite facets. Only pure, tender, tolerant, calm and loving souls, the very cream of spiritual aspirants (sadhus), the swans (hamsas) sporting ever in the company of kindred devotees, can understand its purity and depth. Others will find it as difficult to discover devotion in a person as discovering softness in rock, coldness in fire, or sweetness in the margosa (neem) tree. Devotees hold the Lord dearer to themselves than life, and the Lord is attached to them in equal measure."

More on these 3 eras in next post!!

Love.

Dharma Vahini - Post 25

Sairam All,

Another intuitive article which rose to be shared with the humanity at large is reproduced for your benefit. Immerse, soak into this to feel the essence within and everywhere around.

FORM WORSHIP AFTER REALIZATION

We were all immersed in the worship of our beloved Lord Sai in various forms, as Sai, Rama, Krishna, Devi, Allah, Jesus, Zorashtra, Mahavir and various other forms today during the recently concluded bhajan session.

A question arises during the session: - “WHAT MAKES A SELF REALIZED SOUL, A SPIRITUAL MASTER CONTINUE TO WORSHIP GOD IN FORM, EVEN AFTER REALIZING THE DIVINITY   AS SELF/AS ATMAN, THE JAGAT AS BRAHMAN AND THE UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS AS PARAMATMAN.”

The question is posed by Jiva to Easwara, “God, tell me why should I continue to worship you, even after attaining the state of objectless, eternal bliss, having turned my inner equipments towards the infinite Brahman??. 

You showered your grace to get this awareness of SELF. Now, you only answer this question as well.

After months of contemplation on this question, the Lord reveals the answers to the bhaktha, not in one stroke, but through a gradual process.

1) The sadhaka, even after realizing the formless SELF and after realizing that God and “I” are the same, still continues to worship God, to set an example for the world. What best example can a human give to this than the God Himself?? 

Our Lord Sai sings Bhajans in the glory of Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Subramanian etc. Does He have to sing these songs??? 

When He sings, He is the song, He is the God on whom the song is sung and He is the singer as well. 

He does this, to drive the message clear to all His devotees that they also must reach the stage of becoming the Song, the one on whom it is sung besides being singer themselves. 

Similarly, a realized soul continues to do form worship to set an example to the world that beginning with worship of form with total devotion only, one can reach the stage of realizing the formless “SELF” within.

2)  Now, coming back to the human form in which a realized seer continues to lead the life sojourn, do we not bow down to our old school / college time  teacher even when we see them after several decades, in gratitude to what they taught us when we were young???

If that be so, then what about the GOD, without whose grace, it would have been impossible to get to the flight to reach the destination of “SELF”!

If the spiritual journey can be compared to our travel along the 18 steps to have the glimpse of Lord Ayyappa in Sabari mala, believe me, even if, through intense sadhana, we are able to climb up 16 or even 17 steps, it is only with the Lord’s WILL and GRACE that we are able to move to the last 18^th step and then get the immense joy of having the divine darshan of Lord!!!.

In our cases, to a sadhaka  who has taken a wow to take the spiritual journey SERIOUSLY and to attain the height of heights, the Lord has taken the form of SADGURU and has helped that sadhaka  reach that height. 

All the spiritual masters of our glorious Bharath have time and again stressed the need for a GURU for a dashiki to attain realization.

Swami Sivananda wrote an entire book on the need of a Guru, titled “GURU BHAKTI YOGA” and in one of the poem on Guru, He wrote,

“Guru’s Grace is boundless  He held me by the arm and saved me

The Guru blessed me

He filled my heart with bliss

He showed me the path

He removed many pitfalls and snares

He elevated and inspired me

He released me

From the bondage of the wheel of birth and death.”

To a chosen few, SAI has assumed the role of such a Guru and has played the  role of both Guru and God in their lives. Why will I not shed tears of joy at thy feet, o Lord, even after I have realized that “I” am the absolute existence, absolute knowledge and absolute bliss - SAT CHIT ANANDA!!!. 3) Again, coming back to the world, as a human being, though ever immersed in the infinite Brahman, the realized seer contemplates on the Lord with form and thinks. “It is absolute truth that I have realized that there is no difference between me and you, i.e., The Jiva and the Easwara.     I have realized the same identity in  both. But to think of it, O Lord, how many thousands  of births would I have taken to attain this level of realization whereas, from the moment you decided to enter the womb of mother Easwaramba (pravesha), every step, every move of Yours is predetermined and you are perfection absolute and absolutely blemish less. Why would I not surrender to the holy feet of Lord, singing “Sri Rama charanam…”

4) All the above factors being result of contemplation, the last reason which I am going to give is absolutely natural and it needs no thinking, no contemplation, no deep meditation, but this can be realized only out of subjective experience.

At the realized stage, a sadhaka / a realized seer is filled with “Brahmananda rasa” or the essence of infinite bliss, 24/7. Just as He is able to see the glorious “SELF” within Him shining brilliantly, just as He is filled with Love with bliss, He sees through the Tatwa of Sai as nothing but only LOVE, LOVE and LOVE…

The devotee is LOVE and the Lord is LOVE and this union of LOVE, manifests as worship. The world thinks he is worshipping, the seer knows He is only LOVING THE LORD.

HERE, THE TRUE AND INDEPTH MEANING OF LORDS GOSPEL “LOVE IS GOD, LIVE IN LOVE” is understood, realized and lived upon by the sadhaka!!!!

Thus, the devotee turned Seer, exists verily AS the last verse in Nirvana shatakam.

अहं निर्विकल्पो निराकाररूपो
विभुत्वाच्च सर्वत्र सर्वेन्द्रियाणाम् ।
न चासङ्गतं नैव मुक्तिर्न मेयः
चिदानन्दरूपः शिवोऽहम् शिवोऽहम्

I AM ALL PERVASIVE.

I AM WITHOUT ANY ATTRIBUTES,

AND WITHOUT ANY FORM.

I HAVE NEITHER ATTACHMENT TO THE

WORLD NOR EVEN DESIRE FOR LIBERATION .

I HAVE NO WISHES FOR ANYTHING

BECAUSE 

I AM EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, EVERY TIME,

ALWAYS IN SUPREME EQUANIMITY.

I AM INDEED,

EXISTANCE ABSOLUTE, KNOWLEDGE ABSOLUTE, BLISS ABSOUTE,

I AM EVER, THE SUPREME, EVER AUSPICIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS”

Love.

Dharma Vahini - Post 24

Sairam All,

As concluded in the previous post, appended below is one of those intuitive articles which emanated from within aligning with the essence of this blog.

FORM TO FORMLESS

In Radio Sai, Swami's discourse on 9th Oct 2005 was relayed. Some excerpts from His maha vakya is reproduced below:-

QUOTE BHAGWAN

People often use two terms Deva (God) and Jiva (individual being). In fact, there is no jiva at all! All are embodiments of Divinity only! Then the question arises why do people die? Since people are not able to realise the immortal nature of the Atma residing in the physical body, they make use of the term death. Atma has no death at all! It is immortal. Those who realise this truth, merge in God. For those who cannot realise the truth, jiva remains as Jiva and Deva as Deva. The dual feeling persists in them.

God is only one. In fact, He is not different from you. He is in you; you are verily God! If it is not so, why should the Vedas declare Tatwam Asi?

Whatever I speak is only Truth. Since you are not aware of this truth, you are unable to develop faith in it.

UNQUOTE

Meditating on the Lord, the author  was wondering, how, as an ordinary devotee, immersed in the anupama sundara vadanam of Sai, can we realize the above wordings of our Sai Bhagwan??

Is there any logical beginning in this path of realisation?? How do we reach that stage when we realise that He and We are one?? What it means to us when we realize Tatwam asi???

The journey starts from the lines of the Bhajan “Hridaya mandir mein aao Sai mere, deejo kripa vardaan….."

ü After attending bhajans week after week, attending study circle, after visiting Parthi many times, after listening to His discourses, we are immersed in His divine form, His divine glory, His divine attributes and this continues for sometime (or for a long... time).

ü We reach a stage where seeking Swami Outside is not sufficient for us, as it is momentary and  and it happens ONLY when we sing His bhajans, when we involve ourselves in Satsang. Our thirst for Him reaches a stage where we need Him to be with us always.

ü It is time that we invite Him to come and reside in our heart, where we can find Him always, not only when we sit for prayers, but always.

ü When He is in our heart, when we know He is watching us, we start curbing all our desires, we put a check on ourselves, and we avoid committing all those things which our Lord will not approve. (Swami says to a devotee, "you are singing and calling Me as Hridaya Nivasi but look at your heart where you want Me to be installed, how much dirt is there!!! Unless you remove all that dirt (all 5 kleshas and  vasanas arising out of our ego), how can you afford to call Me and ask Me to come and stay there??"

ü At this stage, we experience our getting purer within, day by day.

ü Now, there is no time for worldly pleasures, for hatred, for envy, for prejudice. Swami used to tell us "Heart is like a single sofa, you cannot have Lord and also all your desires too, seated in that single sofa (Having Lord within our heart), the other (our desires/ our ego) has to be out"

ü When all impure and selfish thoughts are eliminated, only LOVE remains. LOVE for the in dweller Lord,

ü When we immerse ourselves in this LOVE, it rules us so much so that this LOVE expands and whom so ever we see, whatever we do, whatever we think- there is only LOVE, LOVE and LOVE.

ü We reach a state of supreme bliss, when the form inside our heart, which we placed once, vanishes, loses its identity as Sai, as Rama, as Krishna, as Devi. Because now, there is only LOVE, only BLISS.

Believe me, Brothers and sisters, at this stage, we do not have to go about declaring that I AM GOD. If and only If you have reached that state, then as a full pumpkin cannot be hidden in a morsel of rice, the fact that YOU HAVE REALISED GOD cannot be hidden, it will be revealed to the world. 

As Brother Hari explains in a talk, when King Bharatha,

immersed in his devotion for Sri Rama, walked on the streets of Ayodhya when Sri Rama was returning to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile, there was so much glow on king Bharatha's radiant face that the ayodhya vasis took him for Sri Rama and thought their Bhoopala choodamani has returned and started showering flowers on Bharatha. Bharatha became Sri Rama himself. 

Thus, ever meditating on the Lord who is LOVE (God is Love, says Swami), you yourself become THAT ( LOVE) on which your entire life's focus is !!!. ( Yad Bhavam Tad Bhavati)

"Thus, the Journey begins from "HRIDAYA MANDIR MEIN AAO SAI MERE… , and ends with the ultimate realisation, "PREM EASWAR HAI, EASWAR PREM HAI, HAR DHADKAN MEIN SAI SAMA HAI, EASWAR PREM HAI".

So, my dear ones, for realising "TATWAM ASI", we do not have to necessarily become smaller and smaller and get invisible at His feet, We can as well expand our heart, invite our Lord to come and stay in our heart and start the beautiful journey from bhoolokam (HUMAN WITH EGO) TO Vaikuntam (DIVINITY, AS LOVE) with our Vaikunta vasa, Sai Narayana, as our  eternal companion, Prana Sakha!!

CHIDANANDA ROOPAM SHIVOHAM SHIVOHAM

Love.