Thursday, June 28, 2007
Story 46 - Story of Bala Krishna's plays - 03
Krishna grew up along with various plays with the gopis and gopas. At the same time, he also made entire gokulam to become engrossed and amazed by his various miraculous incidents.
Explanation
In the last day, we saw the attitude of fear and anger towards the Lord which the asuras cultivated which in turn lead them to realization of the ultimate reality that the Lord alone exists here. Today we will see in brief the attitude of gopis and gopas towards the Lord.
We may think that the Lord didn't have any consideration before choosing the town of gokula for his childhood but this is wrong. We find in gokula innocence and pure love of the people. It should definitely because of this child-like attitude of the people that the Lord chose gokula for his childhood. As AMMA says in her discourses, we need to develop the innocence in us so that our mind becomes very pure. Only such pure and innocent mind can apprehend the ever-present Lord everywhere. A child is ever innocent and hence it is also able to enjoy life to its full. Though the child plays here and there, still it is always happy. One moment we see the child playing with the sand and the very next moment, it runs away chasing a cat. Innocence helps the child to be in the present moment and thereby experiencing the bliss of the all-pervasive Lord. A mind which is pure and is at the present moment alone can apprehend the Lord in one's heart. If we see the corollary of the same, this means that the Lord is present only in an innocent mind. It is this beautiful idea that has been driven by Bhagavatham through telling that the Lord chose to stay in gokula thereby entertaining everybody in the place.
Thus Bhagavatham is pointing out to all the seekers that if we seek to have the Lord in our hearts, we need to develop innocence of a child. That alone will make our mind so pure that we will instantly see the presence of the Lord. Presence of the Lord brings in bliss which is the very nature of the Lord. Thus such a seeker will be ever blissful from that moment onwards.
Another important point that Bhagavatham portrays through mention about the Lord's plays with the gopis and gopas is their pure love towards the Lord. The love that they had towards the Lord was unconditional. They would leave out everything for the sake of the Lord. AMMA gives a beautiful story to portray this. Once all the gopis were in their house serving their respective husbands. At that time, somebody shouted to all the houses that Krishna had come to the shore of Yamuna. All the gopis started running towards Yamuna - some leaving whatever activity they were doing and leaving their husbands as well behind. At that time one gopi's husband stopped her from going out. He blocked the door by which the gopi was not able to go. The gopi was struggling at the door to go out but was blocked by her husband. The gopi shivered and trembled. Finally the gopi gave her life like a fish giving its life in shore. This is the love of the gopis - the love is so pure that the gopi even gave up her life as she couldn't go and see the Lord. It is this pure love that we find in the gopis. If only we had such love towards the ultimate reality of Lord, we would realize the ultimate reality of Lord this very moment itself.
Everybody is generally attracted towards miracles. Miracles are things
that require some extra power which is not present in normal people.
Hence these attract everybody including seekers. Since we are going to
deal with the miracles of Bala Krishna, let us today once again try to
analyze miracles so that we don't get deluded into the miracles instead
of focusing on the ultimate reality of Lord.
We all know very well that Patanjali's Yoga darshan speaks about various siddhis or vibhuthis which we generally call as miracles. Patanjali devotes an entire chapter of the 4 chaptered Yoga Sutras to explain as to how to achieve these siddhis and as to what are the benefits of these siddhis. But while explaining the siddhis, Patanjali gives a warning in a sutra thus:
Te samadhau upasargaah vyutthane siddhayah
Those siddhis which arise out of thought-rising are obstacles to Samadhi.
Realization or the ultimate reality of Lord is beyond thoughts. Any thoughts whether it is that of a worldly entity or that of a form of the Lord is an obstruction to the normal state of thoughtless absorption in the Lord. Thus anything that arises out of thoughts is also an obstruction to spiritual goal. The ultimate goal is to be ever absorbed in the ultimate reality of Lord so that the seeker is ever contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord alone.
Miracles or siddhis are out of thoughts of the mind. When the mind becomes concentrated on a particular entity or a particular point in the body, then we get certain siddhis. This is very similar to a person getting into IIM or getting into MIT for MBA. These are smaller siddhis but are siddhis only. What we thus consider as greater siddhis like reading another person's mind, giving pleasures to followers etc. are mere siddhis arising out of concentrated thought. Any person if he is able to spend dedicated time in practicing it can perform the same siddhis. But those siddhis are arising out of thoughts and hence will pose obstacles to the spiritual goal. Not only that, since the siddhis are considered something great at the empirical level the Ego will be nourished. Once the ego is nourished, then there is no scope for realization of the Lord beyond the ego as the witness of the activities of the ego. Thus the siddhis are always obstacles to the spiritual goal of realization.
These siddhis as they are born out of thoughts are not eternal but will end one day or the other. The physical body itself has a limitation of 100 or more years. Hence what to speak about the siddhis performed by the mind through a physical body? Thus these siddhis are not eternal; hence they cannot give us eternal bliss as well.
It is eternal and everlasting bliss that we all are seeking every moment of our life. If we don't get bliss out of the siddhis, of what real use is the siddhis & how is it different from the sensual pleasures of the world? It is for this reason that Patanjali very clearly says that these siddhis are obstacles to the state of thoughtless existence which is termed as Samadhi in Yoga shaastra.
While learning the miraculous incidents in the life of Krishna, we should always remember this reality. If we forget that the miracles cannot give us eternal bliss and instead will be obstacles to our spiritual path, we will be lead in the wrong direction getting deluded into the miracles. Those miracles will only lead to our downfall in the spiritual path thereby making us suffer in the ocean of samsaara for many more births to come.
Remembering that the miracles are not eternal and that they will only lead us to sorrow, we will continue the story with a beautiful miracle of the Lord.
Explanation
In the last day, we saw the attitude of fear and anger towards the Lord which the asuras cultivated which in turn lead them to realization of the ultimate reality that the Lord alone exists here. Today we will see in brief the attitude of gopis and gopas towards the Lord.
We may think that the Lord didn't have any consideration before choosing the town of gokula for his childhood but this is wrong. We find in gokula innocence and pure love of the people. It should definitely because of this child-like attitude of the people that the Lord chose gokula for his childhood. As AMMA says in her discourses, we need to develop the innocence in us so that our mind becomes very pure. Only such pure and innocent mind can apprehend the ever-present Lord everywhere. A child is ever innocent and hence it is also able to enjoy life to its full. Though the child plays here and there, still it is always happy. One moment we see the child playing with the sand and the very next moment, it runs away chasing a cat. Innocence helps the child to be in the present moment and thereby experiencing the bliss of the all-pervasive Lord. A mind which is pure and is at the present moment alone can apprehend the Lord in one's heart. If we see the corollary of the same, this means that the Lord is present only in an innocent mind. It is this beautiful idea that has been driven by Bhagavatham through telling that the Lord chose to stay in gokula thereby entertaining everybody in the place.
Thus Bhagavatham is pointing out to all the seekers that if we seek to have the Lord in our hearts, we need to develop innocence of a child. That alone will make our mind so pure that we will instantly see the presence of the Lord. Presence of the Lord brings in bliss which is the very nature of the Lord. Thus such a seeker will be ever blissful from that moment onwards.
Another important point that Bhagavatham portrays through mention about the Lord's plays with the gopis and gopas is their pure love towards the Lord. The love that they had towards the Lord was unconditional. They would leave out everything for the sake of the Lord. AMMA gives a beautiful story to portray this. Once all the gopis were in their house serving their respective husbands. At that time, somebody shouted to all the houses that Krishna had come to the shore of Yamuna. All the gopis started running towards Yamuna - some leaving whatever activity they were doing and leaving their husbands as well behind. At that time one gopi's husband stopped her from going out. He blocked the door by which the gopi was not able to go. The gopi was struggling at the door to go out but was blocked by her husband. The gopi shivered and trembled. Finally the gopi gave her life like a fish giving its life in shore. This is the love of the gopis - the love is so pure that the gopi even gave up her life as she couldn't go and see the Lord. It is this pure love that we find in the gopis. If only we had such love towards the ultimate reality of Lord, we would realize the ultimate reality of Lord this very moment itself.
Everybody is generally attracted towards miracles. Miracles are things
that require some extra power which is not present in normal people.
Hence these attract everybody including seekers. Since we are going to
deal with the miracles of Bala Krishna, let us today once again try to
analyze miracles so that we don't get deluded into the miracles instead
of focusing on the ultimate reality of Lord.
We all know very well that Patanjali's Yoga darshan speaks about various siddhis or vibhuthis which we generally call as miracles. Patanjali devotes an entire chapter of the 4 chaptered Yoga Sutras to explain as to how to achieve these siddhis and as to what are the benefits of these siddhis. But while explaining the siddhis, Patanjali gives a warning in a sutra thus:
Te samadhau upasargaah vyutthane siddhayah
Those siddhis which arise out of thought-rising are obstacles to Samadhi.
Realization or the ultimate reality of Lord is beyond thoughts. Any thoughts whether it is that of a worldly entity or that of a form of the Lord is an obstruction to the normal state of thoughtless absorption in the Lord. Thus anything that arises out of thoughts is also an obstruction to spiritual goal. The ultimate goal is to be ever absorbed in the ultimate reality of Lord so that the seeker is ever contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord alone.
Miracles or siddhis are out of thoughts of the mind. When the mind becomes concentrated on a particular entity or a particular point in the body, then we get certain siddhis. This is very similar to a person getting into IIM or getting into MIT for MBA. These are smaller siddhis but are siddhis only. What we thus consider as greater siddhis like reading another person's mind, giving pleasures to followers etc. are mere siddhis arising out of concentrated thought. Any person if he is able to spend dedicated time in practicing it can perform the same siddhis. But those siddhis are arising out of thoughts and hence will pose obstacles to the spiritual goal. Not only that, since the siddhis are considered something great at the empirical level the Ego will be nourished. Once the ego is nourished, then there is no scope for realization of the Lord beyond the ego as the witness of the activities of the ego. Thus the siddhis are always obstacles to the spiritual goal of realization.
These siddhis as they are born out of thoughts are not eternal but will end one day or the other. The physical body itself has a limitation of 100 or more years. Hence what to speak about the siddhis performed by the mind through a physical body? Thus these siddhis are not eternal; hence they cannot give us eternal bliss as well.
It is eternal and everlasting bliss that we all are seeking every moment of our life. If we don't get bliss out of the siddhis, of what real use is the siddhis & how is it different from the sensual pleasures of the world? It is for this reason that Patanjali very clearly says that these siddhis are obstacles to the state of thoughtless existence which is termed as Samadhi in Yoga shaastra.
While learning the miraculous incidents in the life of Krishna, we should always remember this reality. If we forget that the miracles cannot give us eternal bliss and instead will be obstacles to our spiritual path, we will be lead in the wrong direction getting deluded into the miracles. Those miracles will only lead to our downfall in the spiritual path thereby making us suffer in the ocean of samsaara for many more births to come.
Remembering that the miracles are not eternal and that they will only lead us to sorrow, we will continue the story with a beautiful miracle of the Lord.
# posted by vedanta : 8:04 PM
