Srimad Bhagavatham

Thus regretting the fault that he had, Saubhari took sanyaas at home itself. The sanyaas he took was not external renunciation but the knowledge that everything is the Lord thereby offering everything unto the Lord. Finally he lived in forest along with his wives seeing everything as form of the Lord thereby being in peace eternally.

Explanation

We come to the end of this beautiful story of Bhagavatham. Yes, it has been mentioned at the end of each and every story of Bhagavatham that it is a beautiful storyJ. Once an interviewer asked AMMA as to whether she doesn’t get bored of hugging and consoling people (as she has hugged almost more than a million people till now and has been doing it even now). AMMA replied telling that for a mother, the child is always beautiful and if a person sees each moment as a new one, he will not feel bored.

We feel bored about things because of seeing it the same way that we want to be seen. Instead if we could see everything as an expression of the Lord but in different ways, then there would be no boredom. Though each story has the import of the ultimate reality of Lord alone still the way in which the Lord has been depicted and the path to the Lord has been put forth is different in each story – this makes each story new. Wherever there is new-ness, we will be able to see beauty in it. It is only when we see things as old and not new that we get bored of it. The first time we see Taj Mahal, it will be beautiful. The next time, it will be less beautiful. After a few times, Taj Mahal will not have any beauty in our eyes. This doesn’t mean that Taj Mahal is not beautiful – Taj Mahal was and will ever be beautiful. It is only that the new-ness is not there in our mind regarding it. This is the reason why relationships break – due to boredom and lack of newness in it. We find this attitude more in the west than the east. In India, the spiritual saints have taught us to see everything as new – each moment is new and beautiful because it is a different expression of the ultimate reality of Lord. Children are an exact representation of how a jeevan muktha would behave (Upanishads compare the jeevan muktha to a child and a madman). A child will be playing with the same toy that it had – it will never be bored of it – it will play, play and play because it feels each moment as new and different.

This is the reason why AMMA says that we have to become children so that we are able to see each moment as new and different. This attitude will make each story of Bhagavatham beautiful because it is a new way of expressing the ultimate reality of Lord. Rather than the newness it is also the inner nature of the object of discussion (the Lord) which makes each story beautiful. Even if we learn the same story of Bhagavatham again and again, we will find something new in it and hence it will ever be beautiful.

Coming back to the story, Saubhari regretted and repented for his actions of getting entangled in desires. It is not enough for a seeker to merely repent his actions instead he should work against it and work towards realization of the Lord remembering his mistakes so that he doesn’t commit the same mistake again. The way out of the mistake of getting entangled in the world is renunciation or sanyaas.

What is sanyaas?
Sanyaas or renunciation is remembering always that everything is filled with the Lord. This thought will make us offer everything (all our actions) as an offering to the Lord. This will make us always focused in the Lord thereby getting detached from worldly things though we will still be performing worldly activities. The normal external sanyaas that we are familiar with is only a means to internal and real sanyaaas that Bhagavatham mentions here. Family life will be or should be undertaken only when there is a slight desire for the same in the mind. Marriage happens broadly for two reasons: one is sexual pleasure and second is emotional support. Both of these mean the seeker is forgetting the ultimate reality of Lord. The reason why ancient seers married was to keep the tradition – they though were married knew the ultimate reality of Lord and were jeevan mukthas all their life. We find such jeevan mukthas as marrying and still unaffected by activities (examples being Janaka, Ambariksha and the great Yajnavalkya).

If a seeker marries just because of compulsion from parents or others, then he is entering deeper into the ocean of samsaara. There is no need for such steps – we would succumb to our parents words only if we think we are indebted to them or we cannot live without them. Both of these are wrong – nothing is controlled by humans instead everything is controlled by the Lord alone. Thus there cannot be indebt towards parents. If a seeker thinks he cannot live without parents, then he doesn’t have enough faith to depend only on the ultimate reality of Lord. We shouldn’t be such ignorant and foolish seekers.

If by chance we need emotional support and thereby marry, there is nothing to fear still. But we should remember to give enough priority to the Lord. If we say that “I have to cook for my husband and children and thereby don’t have time for Vedanta”, then we will get eternal bliss or liberation from sufferings in the world. Instead we should offer all actions unto the Lord keeping the Lord in our thoughts. Giving priority to the Lord doesn’t mean quitting but just that we should always remember the Lord.

For seekers who don’t need emotional support, external sanyaas is the best way as it is devoid of obstacles and there is time only for the ultimate reality of Lord.

For those who are already married or cannot ward off marriage, nothing to worry – the Lord is always taking care of us even if we know it or not. Thus we only need to constantly remember that everything is the Lord and offer all actions unto him.

We will see the summary of this story of Bhagavatham tomorrow and then start with the next story.