Bhaja Govindam - Post 11

Verse 10

वयसि गते कः कामविकारः शुष्के नीरे कः कासारः ।

क्षीणे वित्ते कः परिवारः ज्ञाते तत्त्वे कः संसारः ॥ १०॥

Vayasigate kaḥ kāmavikāraḥ

śuṣke nīre kaḥ kāsāraḥ,

kṣīṇevitte kaḥ parivāraḥ

jnāte tattve kaḥ saṁsāraḥ.

(What good is lust when youth has fled? Where is the lake when the water has dried up? Where is the retinue when the wealth is gone? When the Truth is realized, where is saṁsāra?)

Vayasigate kaḥ kāmavikāraḥ. 

Vayas is age, and vayasigate means the passage of youth. 

Kāmavikāraḥ is the expression of lust in the human body. How can there be an expression of lust in the body when youthfulness is no more? 

There cannot be lust when youthfulness is spent because youthfulness is a cause, and the expression of lust, an effect. The idea is that when the cause is gone, the effect cannot remain.

śuṣke nīre kaḥ kāsāraḥ. Kāsāraḥ is a body of water, a pond or a lake. We call it a pond or lake only when it is filled with water. When the water has dried up, śuṣke nīre, where is the pond or the lake, kaḥ kāsāraḥ? You can see this happen in India where, in the heat of summer, the water in the rivers and lakes is reduced to a trickle. 

Kṣīṇevitte kaḥ parivāraḥ. Vitta is wealth. Kṣīṇevitte, after the wealth is exhausted, kaḥ parivāraḥ, where is the family or retinue? There are people around you only when you have something to offer them or when they have something to gain from you.

When your wealth is no more where are the followers? Wealth here means money or power, position, or some skill. Only as long as these things are there, will people look up to you or follow you. When the cause is no more, the effect is no longer there as well.

Sankara has so far given the following cause and effect expression in this verse. Youth is the cause and lust is the effect

Water is the cause and lake is the effect.

Wealth is the cause and retinue/followers is the effect.

Going by the above flow, we would expect that Samsara is the cause and lack of peace is the effect.

But in the last expression, Sankara turns the table and takes us to the most positive expression by saying, when you have realized SELF, there can be no Samsara!!!!

Jnāte tattve kaḥ saṁsāra. This is the most important segment of the verse. We are all interested in becoming free from saṁsāra.

What is saṁsāra? Samyak sarati asmin iti saṁsāra.

The word saṁsāra is made up of saṁ and sāra. The word sāra is derived from sr̥, to move. Sarati is the one who moves. Sam comes from samyak, meaning constant. saṁsāra – samyak sāra, that in which there is constant movement.

What kind of motion is this?

It is motion from one birth to another, from one situation to another, one accomplishment to another, and one becoming to another. Man is always trying to become something. This life of becoming is called saṁsāraḥ.

Why does this complex (dissatisfaction with his present condition / situation) arise in the human being? It arises out of self non-acceptance. We torture ourselves because of our various complexes, most of which result in self-rejection. In fact, there is a constant battle going on within us; we don’t require a battle outside. That is saṁsāra.

What is this freedom from saṁsāra that we seek? It is nothing but freedom from this sense of self non-acceptance or self-rejection, freedom from the need to become something. In reality, the only freedom that we have to acquire is inner freedom, a freedom from the compulsion within, that I must change.

Śrī Śaṅkarācārya says, Jnāte tattve kaḥ saṁsāraḥ. 

When the tattva or truth is known, where is the saṁsāraḥ? What is this truth?

It is the truth of the Self. It means that my self-non-acceptance or self-rejection is there because I do not know the truth of myself. It is not only ignorance, but a false notion or a misconception about my own self that brings this about.

Where does it arise from?

It arises from an ignorance of my own self, a self-ignorance that results in self non-acceptance. I do not know who I am. 

Am I this body?

If I am, I can never become an acceptable self because this body can never fulfill my expectations regardless of what I do with it.

Am I this mind?

This mind is also a limited equipment and I can never be fully satisfied with this mind either.

Am I, then, this intellect?

This intellect is also a limited entity, and therefore, I can never be satisfied even with this intellect.

I am never fully satisfied with my knowledge, with my wisdom, or with my understanding. Therefore, as long as I take myself to be this body, I can only see myself as a limited being suffering from all kinds of limitations and deficiencies.

Jnāte tattve. What is the tattva or truth of my Self?

The truth is that I am a person, a conscious being without any attributes, strengths or limitations attached, simple, pure, and beautiful. 

When I am happy with myself, I find myself happy with everyone else. When I find myself rejecting things in the outer world, I must know that it is a result of a rejection of myself, a discomfort with myself. That discomfort with myself goes when I discover my own beauty.

When the tattva or truth of life is known, where is saṁsāra?

Thus, to become free from saṁsāra, you should eliminate ignorance, the cause of saṁsāra. When the ignorance is gone, saṁsāra can no longer be there. 

In Vedanta, a story of 10 persons is the most often referred story to bring about the ignorance and then to describe what happens when the ignorance is removed.

There are 10 persons who are playing on the sea shore, swimming there and playing.

When they get tired and come out and reach the shore, one of them says, “I think we are missing one friend somehow, I counted the number and I find only 9 are there and the 10^this missing”.

Like this, each one of them count the heads and they are gripped by grief of missing one dear friend who has apparently got drowned while swimming.

A passer-by, an old wise man observes them and understands their problem.

He asks one of them to count the heads and once that person counts all other nine persons, the wise man takes that person’s fingers, points out the finger to that person’s heart and says, “Here is the 10^th person’.

Now, all of them are happy that they have found the 10^th missing person!!!

The wise man here is the acharya to whom disciple walks up and prays, “teach me the truth” almost in every Upanishad.

All the nine head counts which each one of them were doing are the body, mind, intellect, this creation, which are not our true identity. Only counting the nine heads is our ignorance in believing that we are the body, we are the mind, we are the intellect, this creation is true!

The 10^thhead counted by pointing out to one’s own self is the REAL SELF, THE ATMAN, which is the true identity.

The happiness on discovery of the 10^thperson is the Bliss experienced on realization of the Atman, our own SELF.

On experiencing SELF, ignorance is gone exactly as the 9  friends are relieved and are happy on discovery of the 10 th person.

Here, it is “Discovery” and not a fresh invention or a new finding because the 10^thperson is always there, i.e., YOU ARE ALWAYS THE TRUE SELF / GOD EVER. 

The entire sadhana is not to get a grand revelation of   something new but it is a travel from yourself to yourself, from your ignorance that you are your limited body mind, to your true identity that you are the SELF.

That is why, Taittriya Upanishad uses the expression, “Discovering the truth of Brahman as Sathyam, Jnanam and Anantham IN THE CAVE OF ONE’S HEART”. 

It does not say, getting the truth of Brahman by looking at the high heavens. The truth is within our heart, whether it is Jnana of SELF or whether it is experiencing the Hrdayanivasi SAI / KRISHNA in pour heart in the path of devotion.

O man, with the path so clear, why delay further?

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 10

Verse-9

सत्सङ्गत्वे निस्सङ्गत्वं निस्सङ्गत्वे निर्मोहत्वम् ।

निर्मोहत्वे निश्चलतत्त्वं निश्चलतत्त्वे जीवन्मुक्तिः ॥९॥

Satsangatve nissangatvaṁ

nissangatve nirmohatvam,

nirmohatve niścalatattvaṁ

niścalatattve jīvanmuktiḥ.

(Through the company of the wise or the good arises non-attachment; from non-attachment comes freedom from delusion; where there is freedom from delusion, there is abidance in self-knowledge, which leads to freedom while alive.)

Adi Sankaracharya says, philosophers should come up with methods by which the seeker is able to “walk this path”.  How does one who is enjoying all worldly pleasures all of sudden go to living a recommended life? For this, Sankaracharya gives a simple ‘ladder of progress’ by which the climber can comfortably reach the highest reaches of perfection.

The first eight verses come as a great force to blast one out of his comfortable anchors in life. That is the first phase of spiritual transformation. Now we come to the first of the verses that extend a positive helping hand to the seeker of Truth. 

First Step in the ladder - Satsang- In the company of the good.

 Our very existence is full of temptations. Let us compare our lust and passion to a fort. We can build a good one in our intellect. But how good is the fort, can it protect you against all the worldly pleasures which are like the enemy waiting outside the fort to attack you. Shankaracharya says the object fascination and enchantment is so powerful that an individual seeker cannot by himself fight it. 

In order to give him more strength and courage he recommends Satsang. Company of the good with good thoughts. Those who are devotees of the Lord and are themselves seekers of the highest. This is to protect him from the rising waves of passion. Now with such a congregation of good people he can build a fortress that can protect him from the magic world outside.

The start to spiritual life is Satsang. Satsang brings light into one’s life, faint at first, but with time becoming brighter and brighter, until all the dark corners of one’s life are touched by its radiance. The story of Ratnakar’s stunning transformation through Satsang with Rishi Narada was given as an example. 

The company we keep determines the thoughts we cherish. Satsang is being in contact with the Sat that a Mahatma or saint represents, not being physically close to him. 

Author rendered a talk in Kenya where, while mentioning about how Bharatha treated / followed / remembered Sri Rama while Rama was in exile for 14 years, he said, “The paduka of Sri Rama for Bharatha or for that matter, of one’s Guru for every disciple is not only a pair of padukas but they are verily to be considered as Rama / Guru’s teachings”. 

This is the real Satsangh, to be in constant companionship of SATH, TRUTH, the instructions of God / Guru!

Second Step in the ladder - Nissangatvam - Detachment.

The first fruit of Satsang is seen when we become a little detached to things we once clung onto with intense attachment. The light of Satsang lifts the veil of delusion that clouds our intellect. From that point onwards, spiritual life begins in earnest. 

With the influence of good people, the mind develops a secret of detachment. We all know it is   mind that puts value to the objects. Once the mind realizes that one needs to develop detachment to the objects, the person is at the second step in the ladder.

Third Step – Nirmohatvam - Rising above delusion.

Once you are detached, Because of detachment you attain a state of Nirmohatvam which is delusion of the mind. When the mind realizes that these inert objects are all part of moha (delusion), then these objects don’t exist anymore in the mind.

Moha or delusion arises only when you are attached to some object/human being.

When detachment has set in due to association with Sat, then it is but natural that one is relieved of Moha/Delusion about any object.

Fourth step: Nischalatattvam - Immutable reality. 

When you extinguish your vasanas, then your mind starts seeing the Immutable reality.

When the all powerful delusion is gone, the waves of passion and desires that have been incessantly battering on man and persecuting him,  become powerless and only then, the man stands unaffected by external influence  of any kind.

Final culmination - Jivan Mukti - Liberation while alive

When the above state is reached, the mind which has been the seat of trouble all along vanishes, leaving one in his natural state of equanimity and absolute bliss.

When such experience of immutable reality is more established in one, then he is said to have attained Jivan Mukti or liberated in life.

Swami Sivananda says,

“Jivanmukti is that state in which the sage gets established in Satchidananda Brahman. He becomes the Brahman. The phenomenal universe does not vanish from his vision. 

Just as the man who was duped in the beginning by the water in the mirage knows that it is only illusion after careful examination, so also the liberated sage fully knows that this world is mere illusion though it appears to him. Freedom from the Kleshas or afflictions is Jivanmukti. 

The liberated sage is not affected by pleasure and pain. He knows fully well that pleasure and pain, action and enjoyment are the attributes or Dharma of the Antahkarana. He has now separated himself from the mind. He now stands as a spectator or witness of the mind.”

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 9

One cannot stop wondering at the sequence in which Sankara takes readers through the path of enquiry.

After describing the impermanence  and futility of all relations, wealth, woman, etc., in all the initial verses, Sankara almost takes a sincere reader to a stage where he is bound to ask himself, “If all these things which I have been pursuing endlessly in my life so far are worthless, then what is that I have to pursue in my life, if the relation I have with all others and have been cherishing all my life , my wife, my son, my parents, my children, my friends, my enemies - all these are temporary, then , actually WHO AM I?”.

This verse gives a kick start to that enquiry.

A Chinmaya mission monk explains this verse thus:-

Obstacles to Transcend the Family Unit 

1. What are the main obstacles that bind us to family life beyond its legitimate purpose? – the wife and the children. Thus, without intending to disrupt the family as a social institution, the poet asks the earnest seeker to do some soul-searching here. When one has played his or her role within the family, family life has to be transcended. That is all that is being said here. 

There comes a time in an aspirant’s quest for Truth when he has to forego the comforts of home and take to a secluded lifestyle. This is built into the Indian way of life. There is nothing abnormal about it. 

2. When he does this, he sees the true perspective of family life from the outside. The true nature of worldly existence or Samsara is understood. When we are in a whirlpool, we do not know in which direction we are going. Only when we step out of it, can we see that we were being spun around in never-ending circles. So, it is with Samsara. 

Swami quotes Sankara's verses in a discourse, which aligns with the essence of this verse, the fact about Samsara, thus:-

Quote

Mata Nasti, Pita Nasti, Nasti Bandhu Sahodara,

Artham Nasti, Griham Nasti, Thasmath Jagrata Jagrata.

(Relationships like mother, father, brothers, sisters and friends are not real. House and wealth are also illusory. Hence, beware! beware!)

Embodiments of Love!

I am not asking all of you to become renunciants. Do your duty and keep your focus on God. Realize that there is one fundamental basis for everything. Once you recognize this truth, you will develop detachment automatically. It is not possible to develop a sense of detachment by force. As you develop love for God more and more, detachment will go on increasing in you.

So, beware! beware!"

Unquote

(Extract from divine discourse delivered on 10.9.1996)

3. The answers to “Where have you come from?” come from a deeper level of his personality and that level is reached only under the condition when he has come out of the ‘family’ life. 

4. This whole verse can be answered in two totally different ways, depending on whether one is still family bound or has transcended the family. From the latter perspective, when one is unattached to the family, the answer comes that the real relationship to nurture is the one that links us to the whole of creation, not just to the family of one’s birth. Family relationships are in the realm of unreality; the Self goes beyond such narrow confines and links one to the Pure Consciousness pervading this universe. 

Our true relationship with the world is only understood when we have renounced family ties. The broader picture then comes into focus. 

The line “WHOSE ARE YOU OR TO WHOM YOU REALLY BELONG AND THEN WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM” is the real enquiry of one’s own self which then leads one to the real spiritual path of SELF ENQUIRY and MEDITATION ON THE REAL SELF (Atman that one really is…)

Love.