Bhagwad Gita - Post 1

Gita means song. But the Gita is no ordinary song. It is the divine song of emancipation. It is given by God to free us of the illusions that have kept us bound. The Gita celebrates our highest truth, the atma.

Atma means self. But atma also means God. Atma is our God-self, our true self. And since God is always one, atma is the one true self of everyone and everything. Illusion makes it appear as the many. Our destiny is to dispel the clouds of illusion so that our truth is revealed and the atma is realized. That is self-knowledge.

When self-knowledge comes, the illusion of separate beings and separate objects goes, and is replaced by unity consciousness. 

In every major age, God comes as avatar and teaches the Gita to initiate us into self-knowledge and dispel the veils which hide our divine nature. 5000 years ago, God came as Krishna, to render this song of truth at a time of great moral decline. At that time, He gave the Gita in order to rescue Arjuna, and through him all of mankind, from the fog of illusion and attachment. 

In this age, He has come again as Sai Baba, to give this sacred teaching at another time of great turmoil and deteriorating values. The malady He is treating is the same, and the remedy He prescribes is also the same, stemming from the same ancient wisdom. 

But, being the very source of eternal wisdom, He knows how to transmit it in a way which makes it come alive today and be meaningful in this present age.

This age is different in many ways from Krishna's age. In this age, the forces of good and evil are not only battling in the same family, but they are battling inside of every being. Baba tells us that if the Lord were to come today, sword in hand, to stamp out all traces of evil, no one alive would escape or survive. 

He comes, instead, as the inner director. Following his guidance, we must fight our own inner battles, conquer our own inner enemies, and gain the ultimate victory of salvation and awakening.

Continued....

Love.

Jagata Udharana Parthi Viharana

A Bhajan  (From Samarpan) offering at His Lotus Feet:

JAGATA UDHARANA PARTHI VIHARANA

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN

BABA TUM HO MANGALA DAAN

JAI SAIRAM JAI SAIRAM 

PAAPA VIMOCHANA BHAVA BHAYA BANJANA 

SUNDARA NAYANABI RAM 

SAI TUMHO KARUNA NIDHAN

BABA TUM HO MANGALA DAAN

JAI SAIRAM JAI SAIRAM 

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”

Dear Ones,

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

Swami goes on to reiterate 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 re-educate the human community in the paths of peace”.

For the transformation of mankind, for uplifting Manava to the level of Madhava, The Parabrahman wills to descend on earth from time to time with a form as Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Zorashtra, 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 ( only when the devotion-surrender is 100%) 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 un assuming 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.

Love.

Jnana Vahini - Post 28

What exactly is Atmavichaara? Not the study of the attributes of the Atma, as given in books, but the analysis of the nature of the 'I', laying bare the enveloping sheaths, the Panchakosas, through concentrated discrimination, directed inward. 

It is not the Vichara of the external world or the outer objective world, or the academic scholarship directed towards the interpretation of texts. It is the analytical penetration of the secret of the Atma, achieved by the keen edge of intellect.

Though Brahman cannot be discovered in the Sastras, they tell you of the Pancha Kosas or the Five Sheaths and of their identification marks and characteristics and so, by the exercise of the intellect, it is possible to reach down to the Atmic Truth. 

How can one not versed in the Sastras master the process of this analysis and this consummation, it may be asked. He can learn it from a Guru, or an elder Sadhaka, can he not?

But one fact has to be emphasized again. The Atma principle is beyond the reach of even the most profound Pandit who has learned the Sastras; it can be understood only by direct experience. That is why it is said that even a person who has had the vision has to approach the Guru. 

Without guidance from such a teacher, the Atma cannot be grasped. Even Narada had Sanathkumara as Guru and Janaka had Suka, and other Saints had other Gurus. When one has the Grace of the Lord, the Guru becomes very often superfluous; He makes everything known. 

Maitreyi, the consort of Yaajnavalkya and the unlearned Leela and Choodala are examples to show that without a prolonged study of the Sastras, women in the past learnt the Atmavidya from the Guru and attained success. 

Of course, whatever else a person may have, if he is blessed with the Grace of the Lord, he can certainly have a vision of the Atma, however deficient he may be in generally accepted qualifications.

Love.

PS - With this, Jnana Vahini comes to an end. However, efforts are being made to give the Jnana Vahini in a changed sequence, matching the path to be followed in the path of Jnana, to the extent possible, in a summarized way. 

Love.