Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Story 26 – Kapila Upadesha – 1
Srimad Bhagavatham - A Spiritual Insight - Story 26 – Kapila Upadesha – 1
Kapila started his instruction to his mother who approached him and asked him to instruct her into the ultimate reality of God as he was God incarnate.
Kapila said:
That is called Yoga where the individual is not at all affected by sorrow and happiness but is always concentrated on the ultimate reality of God.
Mind alone is the cause for bondage and liberation. When the mind is introverted into the ultimate reality of God and without distractions, it is liberation & when the mind is full of thoughts & cravings for external sense objects, it is in bondage.
The seeker knows the ultimate reality of God as his own Self and which is self-luminous & without any parts when there is no sense of “I” and “Mine” (which are collectively called as Ego) and the mind is free from the impurities like desire, anger, delusion etc. and when the mind is unaffected by happiness and sorrow but is pure & accepts happiness & sorrow in the same way.
There is no better path to realization than devotion to the ultimate reality of God which is endowed with knowledge that everything is Lord alone & dispassion (towards the worldly objects which are illusions).
Wise men consider attachment as an unyielding fetter (and as an obstacle to realization) but the same attachment becomes as an opening door to liberation when directly towards the ultimate reality of God.
Explanation
Kapila Muni here starts the explanation about the ultimate reality to his mother.
First itself the ultimate reality has been explained beautifully by Kapila. The definition of liberation and bondage has been explained in many scriptures including Upanishads and the Yoga Vasistha.
Upanishad proclaims in a very similar manner:
Mana eva manushyaanaam kaaranam bandha mokshayoh
Bandhaaya vishayaasaktam muktaih nirvishayam smritam
Mind alone is the cause for bondage & liberation.
Mind which craves for external sense objects is in bondage.
Mind which is devoid of thoughts always rests in the Self & therefore is liberated.
Sankara beautifully brings this out in his commentary on the Sanat sujatheeya (which is part of Mahabharatha and a teaching of Sanat sujaatha to Dritharaashtra):
When the mind is extroverted into the various objects, it cannot contemplate on the Self which is inward. When the mind is not turned towards the external sense objects, it in turn is going towards the Self & therefore contemplates on the Self.
First thing to be remembered by a seeker is that the external sense objects will never give eternal bliss or long-lasting happiness. This is mainly because the objects have a beginning and an end. Thus the objects themselves are limited by time. Therefore the happiness derived by them also will be limited only. Hence the external sense objects cannot give a seeker eternal bliss. But it is BLISS which is being sought out by the people in the world in one form or the other. People are working for money so that they can be happy. A person wants to go to foreign country so that he can earn more and live a peaceful life. Thus any objective or goal in life can be traced to BLISS. Thus eternal happiness is the goal of human life itself. This goal cannot be achieved if the mind is extroverted into the sense objects which give only limited happiness. The moment a person gets away from the sense objects; there is only the Self which can be concentrated so automatically he contemplates on the Self. This is what is really meant by the spiritual path or sadhana towards the spiritual path. Thus, he comes to the Self which is full of bliss alone. Such a mind which contemplates on the Self simply vanishes or merges into its source of Self.
How is the Self – source of the mind?
Any thought requires a thinker and a witness who is mere instrument for the action of thinking. This witness has to be changeless and independent of the thoughts. The thinker is the EGO who identifies himself with the thought & does the action. The witness is the light which illumines the thinker and the thoughts – this light is Consciousness without which nothing shines in the world. This Consciousness is the source from which the thoughts and the thinker are born. The thinker and thoughts are present only for a temporary period – in waking and dream state. In deep sleep, there is no thoughts and thinkers. This means thoughts and thinker are only illusions which seem to be present for the time being. This illusion requires a substratum where it seems to exist even as water seen in desert has the substratum of desert. The substratum of the illusion of thinker and thoughts is the SELF. The substratum of an illusion is nothing but the source from which the illusion seems to have got created. Therefore the thoughts are created from the Self (or seem to be created). The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. Therefore the source of the mind is the Self or God.
God is not different from the Self but one with Self alone. Each and every person is nothing but Brahman or God or Self which is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute. This ultimate reality that I am the Self is known only when the thoughts are removed from the mind.
The Self is ever realized and never in bondage. But it is the mind which is temporarily created from the Self which makes a person forget his own very nature of GOD and thereby makes him bonded to the objects in the world. When the mind is introverted into the Self or Lord, then the mind vanishes & thereby the individual realizes his own very nature of God or Self. This is termed as realization (with respect to the mind).
Thus, removal of thoughts is the way to realize one’s own very nature of GOD. This removal of thoughts is easy when there is no identification with the objects and things in the world. When a person identifies himself with this body and the mind, there are the notions of “I” and “MINE”. The “I” notion includes the various identifications like “I am the body, I am Hariram” etc. “Mine” notion includes the various thoughts that “these are my people, Rama is my friend and Krishna is my enemy etc.” When a person has dual perceptions & he sees differences everywhere, there are likes and dislikes. These likes and dislikes causes one to have happiness and sorrow in the mind. When the likes are not met, then the individual suffers. When the dislikes are not removed, then also the individual suffers. Thus the individual who is identified with the body and mind suffers due to likes and dislikes which has its base in wrong identification of the SELF (one’s own very nature) with the body and the mind.
Thus the way out of this likes and dislikes is to perceive oneness everywhere. Thus the seeker should see the Lord everywhere. The real devotee always sees the Lord at all times and in all places. He doesn’t see anything else other than the Lord. Therefore he doesn’t have likes and dislikes, therefore he doesn’t have any “I” and “Mine” (EGO). Since he is always immersed in the one thought of LORD, there are no thoughts which are diverted to external sense objects – instead his thought is directed to the LORD who is one’s own very SELF. Therefore when the devotee follows this oneness everywhere, he becomes the same during times of sorrow and happiness (in the empirical world).
This constant remembrance of the Lord at all points of time and total & unconditional surrender to the Lord is termed as devotion in the scriptures. When this devotion is there, then the devotee need not bother for anything because his mind is ever fixed on the ultimate reality of Lord – whatever happens in the world doesn’t affect him as he is always in the thought of the Lord & he realizes that the world is nothing but an illusion like the dream world which is seen each and every day.
Lastly, Kapila says here that attachment to the world & its objects are causes of bondage & cause sorrows-sufferings in the world. This is because attachment is towards the temporary and illusory sense objects. But when the same attachment is directed towards the ultimate reality of Lord or SELF, then it opens the door of liberation and the seeker realizes his own very nature of LORD. When the seeker is always immersed in the ultimate reality of Lord, then he is completely attached to the Lord. This attachment leads to removal of all thoughts & merging of the devotee into the Lord. This is what happens through the path of devotion. The devotee merges into the ultimate reality of Lord – thereby what remains behind is the Lord alone. The devotee at that time realizes that he never was different from the Lord but it was an illusion which caused him to think that he is different from the Lord. He realizes that “I am the Lord who was being sought out & who was being contemplated upon” and thereby rejoices in the eternal bliss which is the ultimate goal of human life itself.
We will see what Kapila Muni further says.
Kapila Muni continued:
Now I shall tell you the characteristics of all categories separately. By knowing this, the spirit (Purusha) gets freed from the dispositions (Gunas) of Prakrithi or Universal nature.
I shall declare to you that spiritual knowledge which destroys the passions of the heart, reveals the higher self of man and liberates him from the bondage of Nature.
Separating the omni-present and self-luminous Purusha or Self from the body-mind combination (which is the effect of Prakrithi or Universal nature) through the practice of inward concentration, let an aspirant merge himself into the ultimate reality of God with the help of devotion, renunciation and enlightened understanding.
Explanation
Kapila Muni here starts to explain the categories which are 24 according to the Sankhya, 7 according to Vaisheshika and 16 according to Nyaya (even various Vedanta systems differ in these categories and the number of these categories).
It is not important to know all these categories which are nothing but enumeration of whatever is being seen or whatever can be experienced into various species or specimens. It is important to know that all the categories are objects & objects are illusions in the ultimate reality of Subject. Without the subject, there are no objects but without the objects also, the Subject exists (as is seen in deep sleep where the sleeper is there but the objects are not there). Thus the Subject is the independent entity which is real and the objects are dependent entities & therefore unreal. Any which depends on another entity is always an illusion in the independent entity. Therefore Subject is the reality whereas Objects are illusions in the reality of Subject. It is impossible to describe the Subject as the Subject can never be objectified. The “I” or Self is that which never becomes an object for anything – this is because it is the Subject which makes other instruments like eye, ear, mind etc. shine. Since the Subject can never be pointed out directly, the seeker is first mentioned about the objects & explained that there is a real entity which is the Subject for all the objects. Thus the Subject is pointed out through the illusory objects.
This is the reason why Vedanta explains the process of creation etc. even though it ultimately accepts that the world is only an illusion in the reality of Brahman. This logic of pointing the unknown through the known is called Chandra Shaaka Nyaaya or Arundhathi Nyaaya. The child cannot be directly shown the moon and hence the child is first shown the nearby branch or shaaka and through the shaaka the moon is pointed out.
Thus the only aim of explaining the world and its categories are to point towards the reality behind the illusory world & its categories. The reality of Lord or God is unaffected by the illusory objects even as the rope is not at all affected by the illusory snake seen in it.
Only when a person considers himself as attached to the world and its objects, does he really suffers from the objects in the world. The moment a person realizes that he is not at all affected by the illusory world, he will not be suffering & he will then realize that the reality is that he is not at all affected by the world as he is the substratum of the illusory world.
This Self which is Subject is not different from God but it is one with God. God is nothing but one’s own Self only. Sri Krishna says in Gita in many places that I reside in the heart of all beings, God resides in the heart of all beings, I am the Self in all the bodies (which means that there are no many Selves but there is only one non-dual Self which is variously termed as Brahman, God etc.).
What is the proof for the Self or God?
One’s own very existence is the proof of God or Self. The Self doesn’t require any proof as it exists beyond time and space. That which is limited by time & space alone requires proof. But God is beyond all limitations and hence he doesn’t require any proof at all.
God is self-luminous because it is that light which illumines all other lights. This light is called Consciousness which doesn’t require any other light for its own existence. Even in a dark room a person doesn’t need any other light to know that “I exist”. This is because Consciousness is Self-luminous. Since Consciousness is the very nature of God, God is also self-luminous.
This self-luminous entity of Consciousness is without any parts. Any object with parts is subject to change and death like a tree and the body (which have parts). Let’s say Consciousness has parts. The question will be raised as to whether the parts of Consciousness are sentient or insentient? It cannot be sentient as in that case, each part will be illumining other things & thus Consciousness will split because of its parts. Parts of Consciousness cannot be insentient because in that case, Consciousness will also be insentient like a cloth (which has insentient parts of threads). Also, Consciousness cannot have sentient and insentient parts together because both are contradictory in nature & cannot co-exist with each other.
Thus, Consciousness is without parts. There is relation possible only when the objects which have relation have parts. Partless objects cannot have any relation even as space doesn’t have any relation with the objects in the world. Since Consciousness is without parts (as proved earlier), Consciousness doesn’t have any relation with the insentient objects in the world. If this is the case, then what is the relation between the Self which is called Purusha or God and Prakrithi or Nature (which the cause of all the objects in the world)? Since Consciousness doesn’t have any parts, no relation whatsoever is possible. Since no relation is possible but still the Self is seen as identified with the body-mind, therefore the relation is that of illusion (the relation being that of rope and snake illusorily seen in the rope).
Thus, when a seeker who is of the nature of Consciousness or God realizes the ultimate reality that the objects are illusory and I am not at all related to them, therefore I am unaffected by everything (since everything other than me or God is an illusion only). This reality dawns when the seeker constantly contemplates on the ultimate reality of God or Self or Consciousness. Thus instead of contemplating or concentrating on the unreal objects, he concentrates on the reality. The unreal objects can never give eternal bliss instead they are the cause for all sorrows and sufferings in the world. When the seeker turns inward and seeks the ultimate reality of God through constant, unconditional and total devotion, the reality dawns that he is the God which is being sought out. He then realizes that there is no duality here but whatever exists is the ultimate reality of God alone – one without a second. As Sankara beautifully puts it in Bhaja Govindam, at that time the realized being rejoices in the eternal bliss. He rejoices, rejoices and verily rejoices.
This eternal and ever-lasting happiness is the goal of human life which is being sought out by all human beings irrespective of all discriminations of gender, caste, creed etc. But it is being searched in the external world which is an illusion in the reality of God. Only when the reality of God is sought out by removing attention towards the object & concentrating on the Subject of God does the seeker really attain the eternal bliss which he was searching.
This is the very aim of life. Kapila Muni still elaborates the process of release from the illusory bondage of body-mind etc. in the further chapters which we will see in the next posts.
Let us all try to contemplate on the ultimate reality of Brahman or God or Self so that we may rejoice in the eternal bliss & realize that we are never in bondage but are the ever-liberated God only.
Kapila started his instruction to his mother who approached him and asked him to instruct her into the ultimate reality of God as he was God incarnate.
Kapila said:
That is called Yoga where the individual is not at all affected by sorrow and happiness but is always concentrated on the ultimate reality of God.
Mind alone is the cause for bondage and liberation. When the mind is introverted into the ultimate reality of God and without distractions, it is liberation & when the mind is full of thoughts & cravings for external sense objects, it is in bondage.
The seeker knows the ultimate reality of God as his own Self and which is self-luminous & without any parts when there is no sense of “I” and “Mine” (which are collectively called as Ego) and the mind is free from the impurities like desire, anger, delusion etc. and when the mind is unaffected by happiness and sorrow but is pure & accepts happiness & sorrow in the same way.
There is no better path to realization than devotion to the ultimate reality of God which is endowed with knowledge that everything is Lord alone & dispassion (towards the worldly objects which are illusions).
Wise men consider attachment as an unyielding fetter (and as an obstacle to realization) but the same attachment becomes as an opening door to liberation when directly towards the ultimate reality of God.
Explanation
Kapila Muni here starts the explanation about the ultimate reality to his mother.
First itself the ultimate reality has been explained beautifully by Kapila. The definition of liberation and bondage has been explained in many scriptures including Upanishads and the Yoga Vasistha.
Upanishad proclaims in a very similar manner:
Mana eva manushyaanaam kaaranam bandha mokshayoh
Bandhaaya vishayaasaktam muktaih nirvishayam smritam
Mind alone is the cause for bondage & liberation.
Mind which craves for external sense objects is in bondage.
Mind which is devoid of thoughts always rests in the Self & therefore is liberated.
Sankara beautifully brings this out in his commentary on the Sanat sujatheeya (which is part of Mahabharatha and a teaching of Sanat sujaatha to Dritharaashtra):
When the mind is extroverted into the various objects, it cannot contemplate on the Self which is inward. When the mind is not turned towards the external sense objects, it in turn is going towards the Self & therefore contemplates on the Self.
First thing to be remembered by a seeker is that the external sense objects will never give eternal bliss or long-lasting happiness. This is mainly because the objects have a beginning and an end. Thus the objects themselves are limited by time. Therefore the happiness derived by them also will be limited only. Hence the external sense objects cannot give a seeker eternal bliss. But it is BLISS which is being sought out by the people in the world in one form or the other. People are working for money so that they can be happy. A person wants to go to foreign country so that he can earn more and live a peaceful life. Thus any objective or goal in life can be traced to BLISS. Thus eternal happiness is the goal of human life itself. This goal cannot be achieved if the mind is extroverted into the sense objects which give only limited happiness. The moment a person gets away from the sense objects; there is only the Self which can be concentrated so automatically he contemplates on the Self. This is what is really meant by the spiritual path or sadhana towards the spiritual path. Thus, he comes to the Self which is full of bliss alone. Such a mind which contemplates on the Self simply vanishes or merges into its source of Self.
How is the Self – source of the mind?
Any thought requires a thinker and a witness who is mere instrument for the action of thinking. This witness has to be changeless and independent of the thoughts. The thinker is the EGO who identifies himself with the thought & does the action. The witness is the light which illumines the thinker and the thoughts – this light is Consciousness without which nothing shines in the world. This Consciousness is the source from which the thoughts and the thinker are born. The thinker and thoughts are present only for a temporary period – in waking and dream state. In deep sleep, there is no thoughts and thinkers. This means thoughts and thinker are only illusions which seem to be present for the time being. This illusion requires a substratum where it seems to exist even as water seen in desert has the substratum of desert. The substratum of the illusion of thinker and thoughts is the SELF. The substratum of an illusion is nothing but the source from which the illusion seems to have got created. Therefore the thoughts are created from the Self (or seem to be created). The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. Therefore the source of the mind is the Self or God.
God is not different from the Self but one with Self alone. Each and every person is nothing but Brahman or God or Self which is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute. This ultimate reality that I am the Self is known only when the thoughts are removed from the mind.
The Self is ever realized and never in bondage. But it is the mind which is temporarily created from the Self which makes a person forget his own very nature of GOD and thereby makes him bonded to the objects in the world. When the mind is introverted into the Self or Lord, then the mind vanishes & thereby the individual realizes his own very nature of God or Self. This is termed as realization (with respect to the mind).
Thus, removal of thoughts is the way to realize one’s own very nature of GOD. This removal of thoughts is easy when there is no identification with the objects and things in the world. When a person identifies himself with this body and the mind, there are the notions of “I” and “MINE”. The “I” notion includes the various identifications like “I am the body, I am Hariram” etc. “Mine” notion includes the various thoughts that “these are my people, Rama is my friend and Krishna is my enemy etc.” When a person has dual perceptions & he sees differences everywhere, there are likes and dislikes. These likes and dislikes causes one to have happiness and sorrow in the mind. When the likes are not met, then the individual suffers. When the dislikes are not removed, then also the individual suffers. Thus the individual who is identified with the body and mind suffers due to likes and dislikes which has its base in wrong identification of the SELF (one’s own very nature) with the body and the mind.
Thus the way out of this likes and dislikes is to perceive oneness everywhere. Thus the seeker should see the Lord everywhere. The real devotee always sees the Lord at all times and in all places. He doesn’t see anything else other than the Lord. Therefore he doesn’t have likes and dislikes, therefore he doesn’t have any “I” and “Mine” (EGO). Since he is always immersed in the one thought of LORD, there are no thoughts which are diverted to external sense objects – instead his thought is directed to the LORD who is one’s own very SELF. Therefore when the devotee follows this oneness everywhere, he becomes the same during times of sorrow and happiness (in the empirical world).
This constant remembrance of the Lord at all points of time and total & unconditional surrender to the Lord is termed as devotion in the scriptures. When this devotion is there, then the devotee need not bother for anything because his mind is ever fixed on the ultimate reality of Lord – whatever happens in the world doesn’t affect him as he is always in the thought of the Lord & he realizes that the world is nothing but an illusion like the dream world which is seen each and every day.
Lastly, Kapila says here that attachment to the world & its objects are causes of bondage & cause sorrows-sufferings in the world. This is because attachment is towards the temporary and illusory sense objects. But when the same attachment is directed towards the ultimate reality of Lord or SELF, then it opens the door of liberation and the seeker realizes his own very nature of LORD. When the seeker is always immersed in the ultimate reality of Lord, then he is completely attached to the Lord. This attachment leads to removal of all thoughts & merging of the devotee into the Lord. This is what happens through the path of devotion. The devotee merges into the ultimate reality of Lord – thereby what remains behind is the Lord alone. The devotee at that time realizes that he never was different from the Lord but it was an illusion which caused him to think that he is different from the Lord. He realizes that “I am the Lord who was being sought out & who was being contemplated upon” and thereby rejoices in the eternal bliss which is the ultimate goal of human life itself.
We will see what Kapila Muni further says.
Kapila Muni continued:
Now I shall tell you the characteristics of all categories separately. By knowing this, the spirit (Purusha) gets freed from the dispositions (Gunas) of Prakrithi or Universal nature.
I shall declare to you that spiritual knowledge which destroys the passions of the heart, reveals the higher self of man and liberates him from the bondage of Nature.
Separating the omni-present and self-luminous Purusha or Self from the body-mind combination (which is the effect of Prakrithi or Universal nature) through the practice of inward concentration, let an aspirant merge himself into the ultimate reality of God with the help of devotion, renunciation and enlightened understanding.
Explanation
Kapila Muni here starts to explain the categories which are 24 according to the Sankhya, 7 according to Vaisheshika and 16 according to Nyaya (even various Vedanta systems differ in these categories and the number of these categories).
It is not important to know all these categories which are nothing but enumeration of whatever is being seen or whatever can be experienced into various species or specimens. It is important to know that all the categories are objects & objects are illusions in the ultimate reality of Subject. Without the subject, there are no objects but without the objects also, the Subject exists (as is seen in deep sleep where the sleeper is there but the objects are not there). Thus the Subject is the independent entity which is real and the objects are dependent entities & therefore unreal. Any which depends on another entity is always an illusion in the independent entity. Therefore Subject is the reality whereas Objects are illusions in the reality of Subject. It is impossible to describe the Subject as the Subject can never be objectified. The “I” or Self is that which never becomes an object for anything – this is because it is the Subject which makes other instruments like eye, ear, mind etc. shine. Since the Subject can never be pointed out directly, the seeker is first mentioned about the objects & explained that there is a real entity which is the Subject for all the objects. Thus the Subject is pointed out through the illusory objects.
This is the reason why Vedanta explains the process of creation etc. even though it ultimately accepts that the world is only an illusion in the reality of Brahman. This logic of pointing the unknown through the known is called Chandra Shaaka Nyaaya or Arundhathi Nyaaya. The child cannot be directly shown the moon and hence the child is first shown the nearby branch or shaaka and through the shaaka the moon is pointed out.
Thus the only aim of explaining the world and its categories are to point towards the reality behind the illusory world & its categories. The reality of Lord or God is unaffected by the illusory objects even as the rope is not at all affected by the illusory snake seen in it.
Only when a person considers himself as attached to the world and its objects, does he really suffers from the objects in the world. The moment a person realizes that he is not at all affected by the illusory world, he will not be suffering & he will then realize that the reality is that he is not at all affected by the world as he is the substratum of the illusory world.
This Self which is Subject is not different from God but it is one with God. God is nothing but one’s own Self only. Sri Krishna says in Gita in many places that I reside in the heart of all beings, God resides in the heart of all beings, I am the Self in all the bodies (which means that there are no many Selves but there is only one non-dual Self which is variously termed as Brahman, God etc.).
What is the proof for the Self or God?
One’s own very existence is the proof of God or Self. The Self doesn’t require any proof as it exists beyond time and space. That which is limited by time & space alone requires proof. But God is beyond all limitations and hence he doesn’t require any proof at all.
God is self-luminous because it is that light which illumines all other lights. This light is called Consciousness which doesn’t require any other light for its own existence. Even in a dark room a person doesn’t need any other light to know that “I exist”. This is because Consciousness is Self-luminous. Since Consciousness is the very nature of God, God is also self-luminous.
This self-luminous entity of Consciousness is without any parts. Any object with parts is subject to change and death like a tree and the body (which have parts). Let’s say Consciousness has parts. The question will be raised as to whether the parts of Consciousness are sentient or insentient? It cannot be sentient as in that case, each part will be illumining other things & thus Consciousness will split because of its parts. Parts of Consciousness cannot be insentient because in that case, Consciousness will also be insentient like a cloth (which has insentient parts of threads). Also, Consciousness cannot have sentient and insentient parts together because both are contradictory in nature & cannot co-exist with each other.
Thus, Consciousness is without parts. There is relation possible only when the objects which have relation have parts. Partless objects cannot have any relation even as space doesn’t have any relation with the objects in the world. Since Consciousness is without parts (as proved earlier), Consciousness doesn’t have any relation with the insentient objects in the world. If this is the case, then what is the relation between the Self which is called Purusha or God and Prakrithi or Nature (which the cause of all the objects in the world)? Since Consciousness doesn’t have any parts, no relation whatsoever is possible. Since no relation is possible but still the Self is seen as identified with the body-mind, therefore the relation is that of illusion (the relation being that of rope and snake illusorily seen in the rope).
Thus, when a seeker who is of the nature of Consciousness or God realizes the ultimate reality that the objects are illusory and I am not at all related to them, therefore I am unaffected by everything (since everything other than me or God is an illusion only). This reality dawns when the seeker constantly contemplates on the ultimate reality of God or Self or Consciousness. Thus instead of contemplating or concentrating on the unreal objects, he concentrates on the reality. The unreal objects can never give eternal bliss instead they are the cause for all sorrows and sufferings in the world. When the seeker turns inward and seeks the ultimate reality of God through constant, unconditional and total devotion, the reality dawns that he is the God which is being sought out. He then realizes that there is no duality here but whatever exists is the ultimate reality of God alone – one without a second. As Sankara beautifully puts it in Bhaja Govindam, at that time the realized being rejoices in the eternal bliss. He rejoices, rejoices and verily rejoices.
This eternal and ever-lasting happiness is the goal of human life which is being sought out by all human beings irrespective of all discriminations of gender, caste, creed etc. But it is being searched in the external world which is an illusion in the reality of God. Only when the reality of God is sought out by removing attention towards the object & concentrating on the Subject of God does the seeker really attain the eternal bliss which he was searching.
This is the very aim of life. Kapila Muni still elaborates the process of release from the illusory bondage of body-mind etc. in the further chapters which we will see in the next posts.
Let us all try to contemplate on the ultimate reality of Brahman or God or Self so that we may rejoice in the eternal bliss & realize that we are never in bondage but are the ever-liberated God only.
# posted by vedanta : 7:36 AM
