Bhaja Govindam - Post 25

Verse 24

त्वयि मयि चान्यत्रैको विष्णु-विष्णु र्व्यर्थं कुप्यसि मय्यसहिष्णुः।

भव समचित्तः सर्वत्र त्वं वाञ्छस्यचिराद्यदि विष्णुत्वम् ॥२४॥

tvayi mayi cānyatraiko viṣṇuḥ

vyarthaṁ kupyasi mayyasahiṣṇuḥ,

bhava samacittaḥ sarvatra tvaṁ vāñchasyacirādyadi viṣṇutvam

(In you, in me, and in all other places too there is but one all-pervading reality, Vishnu. 

Being impatient, you are unnecessarily getting angry with me. If you want to attain soon the status of Viṣhṇu, be equal-minded in all circumstances.)

In you, in me, and in all other places too, there is but one all-pervading Reality. 

The first line of this verse - “tvayi mayi cha-anyatra-iko vishnuh”, i.e., In you, in me, and in all other places too, there is but one all-pervading Reality, is the essence of Vedanta or the entire Jnana Kanda of our vedas, the upanishads.

For experiencing that “One all pervading reality”, Sages and saints have meditated for years, for decades, renouncing food, sleep etc., in ancient times.

Author has written 72 posts to explain this “one truth” and still kept the heading of the theme as “Introduction to Vedas and Vedanta”. The subject is so vast and yet so subtle (Anor Aniyam Mahato Mahiyam) that a whole life is not sufficient to cover the same and experience the essence of this “All pervading reality”.

How appropriately, after putting up the question “Who am I” in the previous verse, Sankara introduces spiritual seekers taking up Bhajan Govindam to “The one reality” which is the answer to “Who am I”, in this verse.

Self-enquiry reveals some astounding facts about Reality. This is a vast subject in itself but sufficient for the purpose of this verse is that the seeker grows day by day through Self-enquiry to see his beloved Lord in all that is around him. 

He sees no difference between himself and others. With the melting away of his individual consciousness it becomes totally illogical to see anything as different from himself. 

Being impatient, you are unnecessarily getting angry with me. 

The student has remained in his illusory world, believing that his physical identity and the glittering world around him is so real, exactly as a thirsty person believes the mirage in the desert to be water.

He has to be taken from this illusion and he has to be shown the taste of “One reality”.

So, the teacher takes him through discourses in vedanta and puts the student to rigorous contemplation on the same.

Amongst group of his sishyas, there are these few disciple who, in spite of taking all the spiritual sessions from their teacher and in spite of days and weeks and years of meditation, do not taste / experience the glimpse of the “One truth” which is being hammered / drilled into them by their Acharya.

This results in their despair, their anger, their frustration!!

Become even-minded

“Don’t Despair”, consoles the teacher. 

There is an easy way for Self-Realization.

For attaining the same state as that of Vishnu, to become the universal, to bask in its unearthly tranquility and experience heavenly bliss, you have to cultivate equanimity. 

Your intelligence cannot take you to the supreme Lord. A dirty mirror cannot reflect the light fully, nor can a mind clouded by thought and worries gain intuitive insight.

You must have serenity. Change your attitude and shift your values right away. 

Transcend happiness and unhappiness. Be equipoised on bright, prosperous days as well as the dark and terrible days. 

Do not be conditioned by worldly circumstances. 

Each and every incident in life is a lesson in your journey to the ultimate truth.

If you want soon the vision of the Lord (you will soon have the vision of the Lord)

Such equanimity will result in tranquility.

Once your mind is tranquil and settled, the inner truth will reveal itself within your heart and you will have the vision of Lord / Truth.

You will then feel the presence of God everywhere and see that everything is clothed with the glory of God!!

AHAM ATMA GUDAKESHA

SARVA BHOOTHA SAYASTHITHAH

(I AM THE SELF, O GUDAKESHA, DWELLING IN THE HEARTS OF ALL BEINGS) 

                                                         

                                                          (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10)

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 24

Verse 23

कस्त्वं कोऽहं कुत आयातः का मे जननी को मे तातः ।

इति परिभावय सर्वमसारम् विश्वं त्यक्त्वा स्वप्नविचारम् ॥२३॥

Kastvaṁ ko’haṁ kuta āyātaḥ

kā me jananī ko me tātaḥ,

iti paribhāvaya sarvamasāram

viśvaṁ tyaktvā svapna vicāram.

Who are you? Who am I? From where did I come? Who is my mother? Who is my father? Thus enquire, leaving aside the entire world of experience, essence-less, and a mere dreamland, born of imagination.

Man is born divine, as he is created by divine Lord as He himself.

However, ignoring his real identity, man is caught up in the meshes of Maya and loses sight of his eternal status and on one hand, he is caught up in worldly desires and on the other hand, he keeps gathering knowledge, trying to perfect himself somehow.

Man keep walking hurriedly, slips sometimes, falls, gets bruises, falls sick and again gets up and again walks. Like this he spends / loses many lives.

Thus, he keeps accumulating Karma, keeps clearing karma and is caught up in the vicious circle of Birth and death.

A time comes when he starts thinking seriously about the futility of this world and the purposeless life he has been leading so far. 

He is able to accumulate wealth, he has his family, has a status in the society, good house to live, servants to work for him and still, deep within, he is able to feel that there is no lasting peace.

The more resourceful a man becomes in this world, the chance of his remaining peaceful gets lesser and lesser.

Such thoughts come to him more often at a time when he has cleared all his acute karma and has lesser karmic balance to clear.

And, at that time, he starts questioning himself.

What, after all, is the purpose of this life?

Have I come into this world only to eat, drink, sleep, make merry, prosper and then, experience my body getting week, then to fall sick and then to ultimately die?? Is this the purpose of my life?

All along, I have been thinking / believing that I am this body, but I am told, I am born, I die and am reborn again and again.

If that be so, I definitely cannot be this body, because, in one life itself, when man dies, his body is cremated and becomes ashes, which cannot regain the state of the same body in which he lived before dying.

If I believe that I am this mind and this intellect, then, I am wrong because, after all, all these are also gone when this body is gone.

Is there any other identity for me or I am just this body, mind, intellect?

If it is so, then, what leaves my body, to come back when I am reborn, to carry along with itself, all my previous sanskara, previous karma???

AFTER ALL, WHO I REALLY AM???

Who is my mother, who is my father is a question which has to be taken in the sense that from where have I come, if I have been coming and going several times in this world. I possibly cannot be having the same father and mother every time I am reborn into this world. So, what is the source from which I emerge, what is the source as which I exist and what is the source to which I retrace??

With what conviction can one say that the world is essence less? To justify this assertion; to make it even possible, the stage of Self-enquiry has to be preceded as we have just seen – by dispassion, burning desire for liberation, and the practical renunciation of all the comforts and security of life, surrendering oneself entirely to the Lord. 

When a man reaches this stage, God sends a qualified Self Realized Guru who knocks his door / enter in his life mysteriously to reveal the secrets of Self-enquiry.

In such a person alone will Self-enquiry bear fruit. He alone can honestly declare, “The world is unreal!” 

The world that we believe as real is like the dream that we get. In Dream, we never say that it is unreal. We move around in dream, so many other characters move around in our dream, so many things happen there. We even laugh / cry / enjoy / grieve in our dream which all seems to be so real.

Only when we get up from the dream, we smile and realize that it was just a dream.

The essence less world is the dream and the waking up from the dream is attaining the knowledge of SELF, experiencing our true identity.

Sankara writes in Atma Bodha, 

संसारः स्वप्नतुल्यो हि रागद्वेषादिसङ्कुलः ।

स्वकाले सत्यवद्भाति प्रबोधे सत्यसद्भवेत् ॥ ६॥

SAMSARA SVAPNATULYO HI

RAGA DVESHADI SANKULAHA

SVAKALE SATYAVAD BHATI

PRABODHE SATYASAD BHAVET

(The world which is full of attachments, aversions and so on, is like a dream. It appears to be real as long as the dream continues but becomes unreal when one wakes up, when true wisdom dawns)

Commentary on this verse is in post 13 in Atmabodha theme. 

Link for that post is given below.

Atmabodha - Post 13

Also, it is worthwhile to read the post on Ramana's quote on WHO AM I which is given in the following link

Who Am I?

Love.

Bhaja Govindam - Post 23

Verse 21

रथ्याचर्पटविरचितकन्थः पुण्यापुण्यविवर्जितपन्थः ।

योगी योगनियोजितचित्तो रमते बालोन्मत्तवदेव ॥ २२॥

rathyā carpaṭa viracita kanthaḥ

puṇyāpuṇya vivarjita panthaḥ,

yogī yoganiyojita

citto ramate bālonmattavadeva

The yogi who wears but a quilt made of rags, who walks the path that is beyond merit and demerit, whose mind is joined in perfect yoga with its goal, revels in God consciousness, and lives thereafter as a child or as a madman.

The previous verse ended with the two essential qualities an aspirant has to possess to tread this path - Mumukshatva and God’s grace.

This verse, though appearing quite simple, goes very deep, indeed, and sets apart the goal of Liberation from other goals offered by various religious practices. 

i) The Path of Renunciation 

The Vedas are a body which provides the knowledge by which one may achieve his desired goal. 

That goal may be different, for different beings who read and practice vedas.

Some of them may desire worldly prosperity,

Some others may desire to attain a heavenly existence and,

Very few may desire Liberation from Samsara itself. This is the highest goal beyond which there is nothing further to attain. They renounce this world and intensely pursue sadhana so as to attain Liberation.

The first and second goals have desire as their basis. The third is unique in that its basis is renunciation. This is depicted in the first line by the simile of a Godadi. 

Such men of renunciation radiate peace and love in the world. In return, they do not expect anything from the world. Though they dedicate their whole life for the world, they do not demand / expect even a single piece of cloth in return, to protect themselves. 

So long as there are rags thrown on roadside by someone, they are satisfied wearing such discarded rags, stitch them together and wear them, that too, for protecting their body from vagaries of nature on one side and to maintain the social norms and accordingly, not roam around naked, though they have no body consciousness and hence, they do not even need that piece of cloth.

The spirit of Renunciation is the first essential feature of the Sadhana that leads one to Liberation. This path is to be trod by one who has the sole desire for God alone, not for anything created by Him such as available on earth or in heaven.

ii) The Path Beyond Dharma 

Good deeds bind a man with a golden chain whereas evil deeds bind him with an iron chain. In essence, both are chains only and both bind a man. He has to enjoy for his good deeds and suffer for his bad deeds. 

A man of renunciation has no desire for any outer object and so there is no need for earning merits in its case. Hence, it does not require any actions to be performed to attain it. It needs only knowledge of the Lord’s nature to “attain” it. 

Karma earned as a result of merits demerits in previous births is called prarabdha karma or Praptam in Tamil.

In Ashtavakra Gita, Janaka roars and says, “I have no prarabdha Karma”. 

It is not that a man of realization does not have prarabdha karma to exhaust. Sages like Ramana or Ramakrishna have suffered from cancer even after Self-realization. If that be the case, how Janaka can say, I do not have any prarabdha karma??

It means, "Janaka  has  gone beyond the prarabdha karma caused / left over, as a result of his karmas upto the moment of my realization".

So, whatever effects of merits / demerits left over is not cognized by a man of realization as He flies  higher and higher in Brahma Ananda, with no mind to suffer for past demerits and to enjoy for past merits, though, physically, the body might be undergoing suffering.

And, after realization, he exists only for the welfare of the world and hence, there is no way that his actions can fetch him any merits or demerits. 

iii) Abidance in the Self: 

The spiritual practice resorted to by the aspirant of the third goal, i.e. Liberation, is also very different from that of aspirants of the other two goals. The seeker of Liberation devotes himself to meditation on the Supreme Lord. This is called Nidhidhyasana in Vedanta. 

The Attainment of the Goal 

The reference to a child or a madman is to reflect the mental state of the realized sage. 

The sage becomes egoless. The closest example of such a state we can understand is seen in a little child or baby, in whom the ego-consciousness has not yet manifested. Such is the state of the saint of God – he becomes innocent and guileless. A child acts spontaneously, without any interference from any ego. 

A verse from Jivanmukhtananda lahari explains the child like nature of a realized yogi thus:-

"He may at times play with innocent children who smile and dance, clapping their hands in unison in devotional rejoicing; sometimes he may be with grown up men and women in the prime of youth, participating in their gay talks and sports; sometimes he may be wailing and lamenting along with the old and the decrepit given to their habitual brooding and agitation. Although he accepts all of them alike for his company, his mind, illumined and naturally peaceful as it is, will not be the least duped or disturbed on any account due to the blessing of his benign Teacher."

Another example is that of a madman. A madman acts contrary to all social norms or expectations; hence he is called “mad”. The sage also acts from standards that are not accepted by people! His actions appear to ordinary men to be similar to a “mad-man”. An example will help to clarify what is meant here: 

Our concept of enjoyment is wealth, woman and fame. But the saint’s joys are of a different kind. Hence, he appears to us as a child or a madman. 

A madman is merely one who sees what you don’t and you see what he does not – that is the only difference. We do not have a visa into his world; nor does he have one into our world! 

Sri Rama Krishna appeared to be such a mad man to many existing during his time. 

Also, in the Avadhutha Gita, such nature of an Avadhutha (the one who has cast off everything in the world) is described.

The irony is that, whereas world looks at them as mad, for them, all others in the world appear to be mad (mad after money, mad after power, mad after woman, even mad / fanatic over God / religion etc. etc.)

A Brahma Jnani thus moves around in the world, beyond sins and virtues, beyond good and bad, beyond liberation and bondage, beyond all possible duality which a human mind can comprehend or imagine.

He exists verily as God!

Love.