Monday, January 15, 2007

Story 39 – Story of Mahaabali - 11

Before entering into the next story, let us for some time analyze and focus our attention on the ultimate reality of Brahman or Lord. Realization of the Lord being the primary goal of Srimad Bhagavatham itself, we should always remember and not forget the ultimate reality of Lord while listening and learning the stories of Srimad Bhagavatham.

Bhagavatham itself says at the end about the subject and goal of the stories in it thus:

Sarva Vedanta saram yad brahma atma aikyatva lakshanam
Vasthu adviteeyam yannistam kaivalya eka prayojanam

The identity of Brahman and Atman which is the essence of all Upanishads, realization of that non-dual entity and being established in the reality is the goal of Bhagavatham.

We all irrespective of caste, creed etc. are searching of one and one thing alone – eternal bliss – that happiness which stays forever. It is for happiness that we are seeking people and objects in the world. We don’t go near the snake and touch it because we know that it will bite us and give us sorrow. Instead we seek the opposite sex all the while because we think that it will give us happiness that is everlasting. Thus the primary goal of human life is eternal bliss (happiness which stays forever) characterized by complete cessation of sorrow. This eternal bliss is what Vedanta calls as moksha or liberation from the bondages of samsaara characterized by sorrows and sufferings. Moksha is not possible through attainment or possession of worldly objects because the worldly objects themselves are temporary. As happiness from the dream world is not permanent because the dream world itself is temporary, similarly the happiness derived from worldly objects is not permanent because the objects are not permanent.

The Lord thus proclaims this in Gita
Anityam asukham lokam imam praapya bhajasva maam

The world is temporary and sorrowful. The Lord doesn’t stop here but gives the solution for the same as well – having attained such a sorrowful world, seek me as the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord.

Thus the way to eternal bliss and liberation from the bondages of samsaara is through realization of the ultimate reality of Lord. This is the one and only way to eternal bliss – there is no other way to eternal bliss.

Realization of the Lord is possible only through constant contemplation of the Lord remembering that the Lord alone exists, one without a second and that everything else is only an illusion of names-forms in the ultimate reality of Lord. This constant contemplation will remove the ignorance in the seeker which makes him think that he is different from the Lord and that he is suffering in the world. The suffering in the world is not for the “I” which is pure Consciousness but for the ego which is associated with the objects of the world. We all are not the ego but pure Consciousness which is the ultimate reality of Lord. Realization of one’s nature of the ultimate reality of Lord is possible only through constant contemplation of the Lord which removes the ignorance veil veiling one’s nature of eternal bliss.

Constant contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord as all-pervasive and as the substratum of the illusory world is very tough – it is not possible for all people to remember the Lord amidst sorrows in the world. Thus in order to make it easy for seekers, the ultimate reality of Lord and remembrance of the Lord was made easy through stories about the glory of the Lord. It is here that the puranas take over from the Upanishads though they also propound the truth in the Upanishads only but in a way easy for everybody to understand and remember. If we forget the ultimate reality of Lord as the goal of all the stories in the puranas, then we are led into the ocean of samsaara. Even if we forget that there is only the Lord here, then also we fall into the ocean of samsaara through differentiation of things. The duality that is perceived is only an illusion of names and forms. Any illusion will only lead to sorrow as the water seen in desert leads a person to sorrow when he doesn’t find water. Thus if we don’t remember the Lord all the while & don’t remember the nature of the Lord as the one and only entity present, we will be entering into sorrows and sufferings thus not getting our goal of eternal bliss.

Let us all try to remember the ultimate reality of Lord as the goal of all the stories in bhagavatham thereby making us unveil the ignorance veil & realize our very nature of Lord. Remembering this, we will start with the next story in Srimad Bhagavatham from the next day.

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