Sadhana Panchakam - Post 13

In previous instruction, we dedicated all our actions to God.

 

Let us fully appreciate the value of dedicating all actions, including desire filled actions, to God.

 

By doing so, at least he starts moving from self-centeredness to selflessness, a big move indeed. We should not underestimate the value of such a step.

 

There is no restriction to give up Kamya Karma in previous instruction. The only condition is that it, too, has to be dedicated to God. This makes us mindful of what kind of desires we permit in our mind. If we are going to offer them as worship, we had better keep them clean!

 

Sadhakas may recall the “Kaye na vaacha” talk in which this was clarified. If all the instruments of actions, the antahkarana, the gross body, the sanskaras, everything has to be offered to God, then, what should be the quality of all these things to be worthy of being offered to God?!

  

In the current instruction, Kamya Karma is specifically targeted for restriction, renunciation or better still, elimination. This may be very difficult for most people, but it is absolutely necessary from the point of view of our training. 

 

The question we ask ourselves is: “Can Kamya Karmas also be dedicated to God?”

 

Apart from our daily duties and special occasional duties, we are quite happily performing many other things simply because we like them. We do not have to do them, but we do them only because of a personal preference for them. These classify under Kamya Karmas.

 

Our eating habits are almost exclusively our own choice. We don’t really eat out of a sense of duty, but because we enjoy food. That makes it a Kamya Karma. 

 

We go in for the best foods we can afford. The choice depends on our taste and affordability. We may have an expensive taste, but that is beside the point. As far as the scope of dedicating all action to God as per previous instruction, we are permitted whatever we like to eat and drink, as long as we place some on our altar for God as well!

 

Now in the current instruction, we apply the brakes on Desires. Our aim is to introduce Desirelessness into our lives. It is quite logical. Hence, Kamya Karma is put under the spotlight, as it were.

 

We are required to do something about it.

 

When we apply brakes in a moving car, the car does not stop at once. It takes a while before it comes to a standstill. So it is with applying brakes on actions, and even more so on applying brakes to desires. We cannot give up our actions all at once, much less give up desire all at once. It is a slow, painstaking process, as we shall soon see.

  

The spirit of Sadhana Panchakam is not to impose rules to dictate our life. That is not the aim of current step or any other step in Sadhana (40 steps/40 instructions). 

 

We cannot renounce desires just by imposing a rule on ourselves. Resolutions can assist us to change, but in themselves they do not produce change.

 

Sankara prods us onward, not through coercion but conviction. No one can be forced to give up desire. Desire will not allow us to do that. Try it and see how it springs back at us with vengeance. The mind recoils and snaps back at us. It is like pulling the bowstring back; the further back we pull it, the greater the force imparted to the arrow.

 

We need to spiritually evolve ourselves out of Desire. Spiritual progress cannot come through regimentation, but only through deep intellectual conviction based on deeper knowledge and experience.

 

Through inner conviction alone can we succeed in this life-long struggle to check on our desires.

 

Renunciation comes in the wake of personal experience we gain in seeing desires for what they are. Experience in life teaches us that there is no end to desires, no matter how much we satisfy them. The same Vedas which gave their consent to certain Kamya Karma at an early stage in our growth through the Karma Kanda and Upasana Kanda, also point the way to its renunciation later on in the Jnana Kanda. It expects us to grow out of Desire gradually.

 

The Acharya at the Gurukula imposes certain limits, but he knows full well that all are not going to become Sannyasis. (In the case of instructions/satsangh/sessions given by the author to few select aspirants, he also knows the limitation/level of each aspirant as to how much they can really follow.)

 

In the beginning the instruction permits some laxity. Later, one can make it as stringent as one likes. The bar of Sadhana gets raised as we progress in Sadhana. 

 

Sankara is not saying, “Renounce Kamya Karma”, He is saying, “Renounce all desires in the mind,” i.e. renounce Kama!

 

The abandonment of the desire-prompted actions must be accompanied by the abandonment of the desires themselves in the mind. So we see that there is a lot of depth in this Step in Sadhana. When we grasp the full implication of this Step, we see that it calls for a major change in our mental disposition towards objects outside. 

 

The task is a mammoth one, and calls for every ounce of determination we can muster in our mind and our will.

 

This Step, when inculcated at an early age, reaps dividends later in life. It calls for patience and perseverance. No effort is wasted. Effort has to be sustained to avoid stagnation. As we progress in other Sadhanas, this one Sadhana goes on in parallel to the very end of our spiritual journey. In fact, it is the single true measure of our spiritual progress. It determines our overall progress in all the other steps henceforth.

 

Sadhakas may recall that the origin of Kama or desires, the process flow of desires, the manifestation of desires to action, the consequence of such actions in terms of fetching us new (red) arrows or fresh karmas - all these things have been most elaborately given through the Karma and the Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahankara sessions which are also available in youtube for listening and introspecting at any point of time.

 

Love. 

 

 

Sadhana Panchakam - Post 12

Dear All,

For each instruction, we shall delve in 2 ways, one at the normal level, depending upon the ashram at which the instruction is given by Sankara and then, for the same instruction, we will see what it means at a higher level in Spiritual sadhana, which is applicable  universally, irrespective of the Asrama, irrespective of the varna in which one is.

Taking clue from the last part of the previous post which declared God as the supreme creator or the one who existed prior to creator as the Prime existence, let us delve on “Finding that God, the Primal existence”.

What is that, which needs to be found, which needs to be propitiated?

It is That One, the immutable Prime Existence, which is unseen, ungraspable, without identification, unclassifiable, without sight or hearing, hand or feet, eternal, all-pervading, omnipresent, exceedingly subtle, undecaying and which is the source of all creation conceived with name and a form. It is not the one which is adored here in the primordial world, says Kena Upanishad.  

There are five verses in Kena Upanishad declaring the above. One of them says, 

yat chakshushaa na pashyati;

yena chakshoo-gmshi pashyati;

tad eva brahma twam viddhi:

na idam yat idam upaasate

 

What cannot be seen by the eye;

But by which the eyes are able to see;

Know That alone as Brahman,

And not this which people worship here.

(The session on this upanishad given initially in 2014 and then again couple of years before, is a standalone session, truly enough to bestow realization to the one who takes up this one session as a lifetime sadhana, for lifetime nidhidhyasana)

The abstract form of the Prime Existence is designated as Brahman, one whose effulgence bursts out as creation. The effulgence cannot contradict what effulgence is. Therefore, what was alone in the beginning became effulgent in eightfold gross categories as earth, water, fire, air, mind, intellect and ego-sense and yet in distinct category as the subtle Self by which this world is upheld. 

It is the Mind, the intellect and the ego sense which lead That One seeing creation around to acknowledge as ‘I’, as ‘Existence’, as “Effulgence”.

With the above awareness, “I am verily is the creation”– “I am all that has been created.”

The Prime Existence became SAT-CHIT-ANANDA, the Pure Existence, Pure Awareness and Pure Bliss.

With such realization, one experiences presence of the Prime Existence within one's own being and concluding that in truth ‘I do nothing’ when I see, hear, touch, smell, taste, walk, sleep, breathe, speak, grasp, open or close eyes but it is the Self within that is the hearer who hears, thinker who thinks, speaker who speaks, breath who breaths and eye which sees, as mentioned in Kena Upanishad. 

In Brahadaranyaka Upanishad, when Ushasta Chakrayana asked Yajnavalkya, ‘explain to me the Brahman that is immediately present and directly perceived as the self in all things’, he was told, ‘This is the Self, which is within all things, he who breathes in with your breathing in, he who breathes out with your breathing out, he who breathes about when you breathe about, he who breathes up with your breathing up is the Self which is in all beings. 

When Ushasta Chakrayana protests that the explanation was as one might say, ‘This is a cow’ ‘This is a horse’ it was clarified further, ‘You cannot see the seer of seeing, hear the hearer of hearing, think of the thinker of thinking, understand the understander of understanding. He is the Self, which is in all things. 

Therefore, when Sankara says, ‘That (Prime Existence) should be propitiated’, it is the universal Self that is to be propitiated, rites, rituals and performance of sacrifice become subsidiary instruments.

All sessions, all satsangh, all messages, all talks on Samarpan Bhajans, are exactly focussed on this single purpose, “To know the SELF”.

Swami says,

“Embodiments of Love!

Human life is the most sacred in the entire creation of God. Daivam Maanusha Rupena (God incarnates in the form of human being). Humanness is pure, unsullied and beyond attributes. Such a sacred human life is being polluted with evil desires and thus man is bringing disrepute to human birth itself.

Jantu Naam Nara Janma Durlabham (human birth is the rarest and the noblest). It was God who created everything in the universe, right from the microcosm to macrocosm. In that case, why is it that He has attached utmost importance to human birth alone? Only man has the capacity to accomplish things which no other living being can.”

(Divine discourse -16.10.1999)

Love.  

Sadhana Panchakam - Post 11

The Brahmachari / spiritual seeker, following the previous 2 instructions, 

 

§ - has studied the Vedas and obtained some basic knowledge; 

 

§ - has diligently acquired the skills to attain success and perfection in work.

 

With these two, he is equipped with Knowledge and Skill. As important as they are, they are not sufficient. On their own, they are secular in nature. 

 

These first two Steps are the two secular coaches of the train. They concern the vast information in the Vedas, and the preoccupation with work.

 

In case the student gets too carried away by them, Sankara has thoughtfully introduced further spiritual coaches into the education train. They are:

 

§  Dedication of actions to God,

§  Renunciation of Desires 

     and

§  Finding God.

 

In this instruction, we are driven by Devotion to God.

 

When Perfection is perfected, so to say, i.e. when it has done its job, we should open the doors of our life to Devotion.

 

As much as Perfection is a very important step, Devotion is found to be greater than it. We do not give up Perfection, but we offer it to God and place it under His direction.

 

A caterpillar does not leave the leaf on which it lives until it gets a firm footing on the adjacent leaf. Then it crawls over from one to the other. It is the same with us when we crawl from Perfection onto Devotion.

 

Dedication superior to Perfection

 

It is very important for us to be convinced that Devotion is superior to Perfection, otherwise we will not be motivated to shift from one to the other. Here are some reasons that show the superiority of Devotion over Perfection.

 

     i.            Perfection itself can be dry, not emotionally satisfying. When Love or Devotion enters the picture, we see clearly the difference between the two.

 

  ii.            What was hard work in aiming for perfection, becomes effortless in the presence of love. With love, one never comes to the state of boredom in work. Ask a mother if she ever gets tired of cooking for her family.

 

iii.            What love can bestow, discipline can barely reach. 

 

What do we mean by offering or surrendering our actions to God? What is being expected of us? 

 

During a havan, we say “idam na mama” after making each offering into the fire. 

 

In real life how do we say “idam na mama”? By delving a bit deeper into this question, we find that two things are expected of us:

 

1.    Pleasing God: Now we are asked to divert our attention from the Ego and place it on God. Hence the immediate change required is to do everything to please God.

 

The God to whom we make our offerings could take many forms. The only point to bear in mind is that it must be someone or some Power greater than our Ego. 

 

2.  Surrendering Ego: Surrender is not a slavish mentality as some people may imagine. It does not mean cowing down to a person in authority for fear of criticism or any other such notion. It is the voluntary surrender of one’s ego with the full knowledge of all its limitations and defects. From the highest standpoint, such a thing as an Ego does not really exist, so we should give no importance to it. 

 

We should voluntarily surrender it. By all means possible, self–centredness has to be thinned out and selflessness has to be installed in our heart. This is the essential meaning of Surrender.

 

Now, we shall go more deep into “God” in vedantic sense 

 

Swami Sivananda writes, 

 

"At whose command does the sun rise punctually in the morning and set in the evening? The sun is miles and miles away from the earth. What a great wonder it is that from such a long distance the sun is able to send light, heat, energy and vitality to all living beings inhabiting this fair earth? 

 

There are countless millions of suns much larger than the one that we see but which appear to us as tiny stars on account of their being remoter than the sun with which we are acquainted. It takes millions of years for the light to reach this earth from these stars. Velocity of light is 1, 86, 000 miles per second. Light from distant stars has not yet reached us even now.

 

What a marvel it is! All these stars, planets and satellites are revolving in the sky in fixed orbits from day to day, month to month and year to year under immutable definite laws.

 

Now the question arises whether all this organisation is the work of some intelligent Creator behind or is the product of a fortuitous combination of particles of matter, Anus, Parama Anus, Dvi Anus, atoms and molecules? It is the former hypothesis that appeals to our intellect. 

 

The Vedas also quite endorse the verdict of our reason. They emphatically declare that the sun and the moon, heaven and earth were created by God.”

 

What is the means to find such a God?  We shall see, in the upcoming post.

  

Love.