Saturday, September 29, 2007
Story 47 – Story of Destroying Indra’s pride – 05
Krishna continued:
Karma alone is the Guru. Karma alone is the Ishwara. Therefore it is this Karma that a person has to worship.
Explanation
As we saw in the previous day that Karma alone is that which governs life in the world, here Krishna is telling that Karma is the Guru as well as Ishwara.
Though these words are meant to indirectly invoke anger in Indra, yet these are words of truth from the empirical viewpoint. The world that we are in, the life in the world is governed by karma or actions. The law of karma is the law that Newton copied and modernized as the third law which states “each action has an equal and opposite reaction”. The law of Karma is that any action has an equivalent fruit or phala. As is the karma so the phala. At the empirical level when a person is in ignorance, he desires for perfection. This desire is then transformed into actions. When a person does actions, he learns out of those actions. Thus every action that a person does is a Guru in one way or the other. Some actions show us that there will be bad fruit gained from it and thereby that we should refrain from doing such actions. Other actions show us that they will lead us to purification of mind thereby to eternal bliss or moksha. These actions thereby tell us that we should be doing more of such actions at all times.
By this categorization, we have two actions – sakaama karma and nishkaama karma. Actions which are performed by desiring something is called sakaama karma. Actions that are performed without any desire but just seeking purification of the mind is nishkaama karma. Nishkaama karma helps in purification of the mind thereby to realization through apprehension of the knowledge that “I am Brahman”. Sakaama karma leads to more and more desires in turn leading to more and more actions. This chain of action and enjoyment (or desire) goes on until a person purifies the mind through nishkaama karma, gains jnaana thereby removing ignorance (the seed of all actions) completely.
In this way, actions thereby are the Guru that guide us towards realization by purifying the mind when performed in a nishkaama way. It is for this reason that Krishna says that Karma alone is the Guru that leads us from ajnaana and to realization through jnaana.
Karma alone is the Ishwara. Ishwara is one who controls activities in the world. Everything in the world is controlled by the law of karma. As is the action, so the fruits enjoyed by a person. Thus everything in the world or the world itself is controlled by actions. Therefore Krishna says that Karma alone is the Ishwara.
We worship one who controls things in the world (termed as Ishwara) because then we can change the fruits that we want thereby taking us to realization from bondage. Since Karma is the Ishwara therefore Karma is the Lord that a person has to worship through performance of nishkaama karma more and more & avoiding sakaama karma.
We will continue in the next day.
Let us all have devotion and surrender to the Lord of Krishna thereby killing the snake of Kaliya and making the water pure (symbolizing realization of our own nature of Self thereby rejoicing in eternal bliss).
Krishna continued:
Ishwara will follow one’s karma. Whatever life depends primarily on, setting that aside and seeking something else is like wife ignoring the husband and seeking another man. That will never be fruitful.
Explanation
In the previous day we learned that Ishwara is one’s own Guru and karma. Hence the real Ishwara is karma. But if we accept an Ishwara different from one’s karma then such an Ishwara will have to follow one’s karma. Such an Ishwara has no precedence over one’s karma but he follows one’s karma. Therefore Ishwara doesn’t have any control over one’s actions but merely bestows the fruits of one’s actions even as judge bestows rulings based on arguments. Even as the judge doesn’t have any control over judgement similarly Ishwara has no control over bestowing of fruits.
Krishna here makes a beautiful point of seeking out what is basically needed for life rather than seeking everything else. If we go to a modern HR person he/she would tell us that our lives have two types of goal – short term goal which keeps on changing and the long term goal which is our permanent goal of what we want to become in life. We have to go behind our long term goal as that is what we want. Unlike this, Vedanta says that the long term goal of all people is eternal bliss or ever lasting happiness alone. As long as we don’t seek this eternal goal, we will not be getting peace, contentment and satisfaction which we yearn sincerely for and are ready to pay any price for. When our goal is achieved by doing actions properly, we have to sincerely do actions. This is because our actions control our life which means that our life depends on our actions. If we try to ignore our actions then it would not be fruitful as we will not be getting the fruits that we desire. It is not only that we will not be getting the fruits that we desire; we will be lead in the wrong direction thereby forfeiting basic things as well in life. Krishna gives a beautiful analogy to prove this point.
A woman has a handsome and loving husband. Yet she searches for happiness in another lover thereby starting off an affair with another man. The woman not only forfeits her peace and happiness which she gets from her husband but she is also calling for trouble in the form of loss of peace due to this illicit affair. Similarly a person who rather than seeking actions which control his life goes after worshipping of various Gods, he is forfeiting his life as well as calling for trouble.
Thus Krishna is here beautifully telling us that we can never get rid of actions and hence should do our actions as an offering to the ultimate reality of Lord rather than worshipping Gods. It doesn’t matter as to what actions we do; but it matters as to whether we are doing actions with the right attitude of offering it to the ultimate reality of Lord.
Krishna himself would be explaining as to what a person should do in order to seek that which life depends on in the next parts of this story. We will see that in the next day.
Let us all cease to be the doer of actions so that we are a mere witness to all activities thereby ever rejoicing in bliss which is our very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Karma alone is the Guru. Karma alone is the Ishwara. Therefore it is this Karma that a person has to worship.
Explanation
As we saw in the previous day that Karma alone is that which governs life in the world, here Krishna is telling that Karma is the Guru as well as Ishwara.
Though these words are meant to indirectly invoke anger in Indra, yet these are words of truth from the empirical viewpoint. The world that we are in, the life in the world is governed by karma or actions. The law of karma is the law that Newton copied and modernized as the third law which states “each action has an equal and opposite reaction”. The law of Karma is that any action has an equivalent fruit or phala. As is the karma so the phala. At the empirical level when a person is in ignorance, he desires for perfection. This desire is then transformed into actions. When a person does actions, he learns out of those actions. Thus every action that a person does is a Guru in one way or the other. Some actions show us that there will be bad fruit gained from it and thereby that we should refrain from doing such actions. Other actions show us that they will lead us to purification of mind thereby to eternal bliss or moksha. These actions thereby tell us that we should be doing more of such actions at all times.
By this categorization, we have two actions – sakaama karma and nishkaama karma. Actions which are performed by desiring something is called sakaama karma. Actions that are performed without any desire but just seeking purification of the mind is nishkaama karma. Nishkaama karma helps in purification of the mind thereby to realization through apprehension of the knowledge that “I am Brahman”. Sakaama karma leads to more and more desires in turn leading to more and more actions. This chain of action and enjoyment (or desire) goes on until a person purifies the mind through nishkaama karma, gains jnaana thereby removing ignorance (the seed of all actions) completely.
In this way, actions thereby are the Guru that guide us towards realization by purifying the mind when performed in a nishkaama way. It is for this reason that Krishna says that Karma alone is the Guru that leads us from ajnaana and to realization through jnaana.
Karma alone is the Ishwara. Ishwara is one who controls activities in the world. Everything in the world is controlled by the law of karma. As is the action, so the fruits enjoyed by a person. Thus everything in the world or the world itself is controlled by actions. Therefore Krishna says that Karma alone is the Ishwara.
We worship one who controls things in the world (termed as Ishwara) because then we can change the fruits that we want thereby taking us to realization from bondage. Since Karma is the Ishwara therefore Karma is the Lord that a person has to worship through performance of nishkaama karma more and more & avoiding sakaama karma.
We will continue in the next day.
Let us all have devotion and surrender to the Lord of Krishna thereby killing the snake of Kaliya and making the water pure (symbolizing realization of our own nature of Self thereby rejoicing in eternal bliss).
Krishna continued:
Ishwara will follow one’s karma. Whatever life depends primarily on, setting that aside and seeking something else is like wife ignoring the husband and seeking another man. That will never be fruitful.
Explanation
In the previous day we learned that Ishwara is one’s own Guru and karma. Hence the real Ishwara is karma. But if we accept an Ishwara different from one’s karma then such an Ishwara will have to follow one’s karma. Such an Ishwara has no precedence over one’s karma but he follows one’s karma. Therefore Ishwara doesn’t have any control over one’s actions but merely bestows the fruits of one’s actions even as judge bestows rulings based on arguments. Even as the judge doesn’t have any control over judgement similarly Ishwara has no control over bestowing of fruits.
Krishna here makes a beautiful point of seeking out what is basically needed for life rather than seeking everything else. If we go to a modern HR person he/she would tell us that our lives have two types of goal – short term goal which keeps on changing and the long term goal which is our permanent goal of what we want to become in life. We have to go behind our long term goal as that is what we want. Unlike this, Vedanta says that the long term goal of all people is eternal bliss or ever lasting happiness alone. As long as we don’t seek this eternal goal, we will not be getting peace, contentment and satisfaction which we yearn sincerely for and are ready to pay any price for. When our goal is achieved by doing actions properly, we have to sincerely do actions. This is because our actions control our life which means that our life depends on our actions. If we try to ignore our actions then it would not be fruitful as we will not be getting the fruits that we desire. It is not only that we will not be getting the fruits that we desire; we will be lead in the wrong direction thereby forfeiting basic things as well in life. Krishna gives a beautiful analogy to prove this point.
A woman has a handsome and loving husband. Yet she searches for happiness in another lover thereby starting off an affair with another man. The woman not only forfeits her peace and happiness which she gets from her husband but she is also calling for trouble in the form of loss of peace due to this illicit affair. Similarly a person who rather than seeking actions which control his life goes after worshipping of various Gods, he is forfeiting his life as well as calling for trouble.
Thus Krishna is here beautifully telling us that we can never get rid of actions and hence should do our actions as an offering to the ultimate reality of Lord rather than worshipping Gods. It doesn’t matter as to what actions we do; but it matters as to whether we are doing actions with the right attitude of offering it to the ultimate reality of Lord.
Krishna himself would be explaining as to what a person should do in order to seek that which life depends on in the next parts of this story. We will see that in the next day.
Let us all cease to be the doer of actions so that we are a mere witness to all activities thereby ever rejoicing in bliss which is our very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Story 47 – Story of Destroying Indra’s pride – 04
In order to anger Indra, Krishna started speaking thus to his father:
Karma is the cause of birth. Karma is the cause of death. Karma is the cause of happiness, sorrow, fear, pain etc. Now even if there is a particular Lord who gives the fruits of actions, he can give the fruits for actions only after taking into consideration the actions. Without taking into consideration the doer the Lord cannot give the fruits for any actions.
Explanation
Lord says in Gita thus:
Ye yathaa maam prapadhyanthe taamstathaiva bhajaami aham
Whoever worships me in whatever form, I appear to them in that form.
The law of karma is based indirectly on the above statement of the Lord. Whoever does actions, he reaps the fruits of his actions. If I eat, my hunger will get satisfied. If I work, I will get salary. If I eat a pill to remove headache, my headache will be removed. It is not possible that I do some action and somebody else reaps the rewards of the action. This is also same as telling that if I just surrender to the Lord, my hunger will get removed by the Lord eating. Therefore the sole duty of an individual is to do actions and he will get the fruits of the action that he has performed. The ultimate reality of Lord is only a judge in judging our actions and giving the fruits that we desire. The Lord cannot take matters into his hands which would make him a partial judge. If the Lord was able to take matters into his hands thereby giving good results for people who like him and bad results for those who hate him, then we wouldn’t even have place for Kamsa or the current day Osama Bin Laden. The very presence of these people who don’t believe in the Lord and perform actions contrary to the scriptures itself shows that the Lord cannot take matters into his hands. He is just an impartial judge giving fruits to actions performed by people. As are the actions, so the fruits that a person will get.
If this is the law of karma, then there is no real necessity of offering things to various Gods like Indra. Though the Lord is trying to provoke Indra yet what he is saying is perfectly true. The law of karma cannot be changed even by the Lord. It is for this reason that the Lord himself couldn’t stay eternally in this world thereby getting rid of his mortal coil.
If this is the case, then what is the use of surrendering to the Lord and offering all actions to the Lord?
As long as the doer is there, the enjoyer also will be there. As long as a person does an action, he will have to enjoy the fruits of his action. All actions are seeking one or the other worldly object. Worldly objects can give nothing but sorrow alone in the long run. Thus as long as the doer exists, the sufferer also will exist. But when a person surrenders to the Lord thereby offering all actions unto the Lord, he ceases to the doer. Since he is not a doer of the actions, therefore he doesn’t enjoy the fruits of the action. Even as a viewer of a particular cinema (film) doesn’t get affected by the situations in the film (as he is a mere witness and not doer of the actions in the film), similarly when a seeker ceases to be the doer of actions he is a mere witness to all actions. Even as the witness of the film is ever blissful (as he is unaffected by the film), similarly the witness of all actions will be ever blissful. Thus through surrendering to the Lord and offering all actions unto the Lord, a person becomes blissful. It is this bliss that we all seek but in the illusory world filled with sorrowful objects. The moment we offer our actions to the Lord we will be ever blissful rejoicing in the bliss of the Self (which is one with the ultimate reality of Lord).
This way of renouncing the doer thereby being a mere witness to all activities is the real Karma Marga wherein there is no kartha (doer) and no bhoktha (enjoyer). Thus through selfless actions (nishkaama karma), the seeker enters into the state of naishkarmyam (action-lessness). The state of naishkarmyam is not different from the state of jnaana wherein a seeker is ever established in the blissful atman thereby ever rejoicing in the bliss.
We will continue with the story in the next day.
Let us all cease to be the doer of actions so that we are a mere witness to all activities thereby ever rejoicing in bliss which is our very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Krishna continued:
What man does according to his nature cannot be changed by Indra. Man is a slave of his own nature (addictions or vasanas). Depending on the actions performed a person gets a higher or lower body. Friend, foe etc. are attained due to one’s actions.
Explanation
Gita proclaims thus in the Karma Yoga chapter:
Na hi kaschit kshanamapi jaathu thistathi akarmakrit
Kaaryathe hi avashah karma sarvah prakrithairgunaih
Not even for a single second can a person remain without doing actions. All people are bound into doing actions as they cannot be without it. And people do actions depending on their nature.
We generally think that sanyaasins are people who are not doing any actions. But we know that most of the sanyaasins including the Sankaracharyas do actions for the welfare of the world. This shows that no person can live in the world without doing actions. Everybody does actions depending on their inner latent tendencies. We cannot be without doing actions and hence we should try to change our nature by introducing good karmas like dhyaana, japa, keerthana etc. These activities along with the attitude of surrender to the ultimate reality of Lord will help us overcome the bondage of action. If there is no attitude of surrender and offering the actions to the Lord, the person will be bound by the actions. A person does an action and reaps the fruit of the action. He does the action again and again thereby making it a vasana or habit. When vasanas are cultivated the person cannot be without doing the action. This is what is popularly known as addictions. We know only of addictions of tea, coffee, alcohol, smoking etc. but most of the actions that we do are addictions based on our inner tendencies. Our inner tendencies are those born out of doing the same action over and over again. There are people who are addicted to japa and dhyaana. If we talk to people who are used to doing dhyaana, they cannot be without doing dhyaana. If one day they don’t do dhyaana then it is as if their mind is not peaceful and they are sad throughout the day. This is how most of the followers of Art of Living feel if they aren’t able to do sudharshana kriya. Same is the case with many other spiritual activities. Those spiritual activities are meant to remove the bondage towards actions by offering them to the Lord, they themselves become bondage. Thus a seeker should always remember that all actions whether they are good or bad should be offered to the ultimate reality off Lord along with total and complete surrender to the Lord. This is the one and only way to get rid of the bondage of actions.
Irrespective of whether a person is a jnaani or an ajnaani, he is bound by actions depending on his nature. Even as an ajnaani is addicted to seeing movies, a jnaani is addicted to sravana-manana-nidhidhyaasana. The only difference between the jnaani and the ajnaani is that the ajnaani is completely bound by the action whereas the jnaani is a mere witness to the bondages of his mind and Ego. The jnaani is never affected by the actions as he is ever immersed in the ultimate reality of Lord. If there is no sravana, yet the jnaani will be blissful though he may show externally that he is affected by it. On the contrary an ajnaani will become angry if he is not able to watch movie because of power-cut of any other reason. Thus the Lord through this beautiful definition of action that all people are bound by actions and we have no choice but to do actions is clearly pointing out that a person who surrenders and offers all actions to the Lord alone will be blissful irrespective of his situation and vasanas.
We will continue in the next day.
Let us all accept that we cannot be without doing actions and thereby offer all actions unto the Lord so that we are a mere witness blissfully watching all the actions performed by the mind, intellect, ego and sense organs.
Karma is the cause of birth. Karma is the cause of death. Karma is the cause of happiness, sorrow, fear, pain etc. Now even if there is a particular Lord who gives the fruits of actions, he can give the fruits for actions only after taking into consideration the actions. Without taking into consideration the doer the Lord cannot give the fruits for any actions.
Explanation
Lord says in Gita thus:
Ye yathaa maam prapadhyanthe taamstathaiva bhajaami aham
Whoever worships me in whatever form, I appear to them in that form.
The law of karma is based indirectly on the above statement of the Lord. Whoever does actions, he reaps the fruits of his actions. If I eat, my hunger will get satisfied. If I work, I will get salary. If I eat a pill to remove headache, my headache will be removed. It is not possible that I do some action and somebody else reaps the rewards of the action. This is also same as telling that if I just surrender to the Lord, my hunger will get removed by the Lord eating. Therefore the sole duty of an individual is to do actions and he will get the fruits of the action that he has performed. The ultimate reality of Lord is only a judge in judging our actions and giving the fruits that we desire. The Lord cannot take matters into his hands which would make him a partial judge. If the Lord was able to take matters into his hands thereby giving good results for people who like him and bad results for those who hate him, then we wouldn’t even have place for Kamsa or the current day Osama Bin Laden. The very presence of these people who don’t believe in the Lord and perform actions contrary to the scriptures itself shows that the Lord cannot take matters into his hands. He is just an impartial judge giving fruits to actions performed by people. As are the actions, so the fruits that a person will get.
If this is the law of karma, then there is no real necessity of offering things to various Gods like Indra. Though the Lord is trying to provoke Indra yet what he is saying is perfectly true. The law of karma cannot be changed even by the Lord. It is for this reason that the Lord himself couldn’t stay eternally in this world thereby getting rid of his mortal coil.
If this is the case, then what is the use of surrendering to the Lord and offering all actions to the Lord?
As long as the doer is there, the enjoyer also will be there. As long as a person does an action, he will have to enjoy the fruits of his action. All actions are seeking one or the other worldly object. Worldly objects can give nothing but sorrow alone in the long run. Thus as long as the doer exists, the sufferer also will exist. But when a person surrenders to the Lord thereby offering all actions unto the Lord, he ceases to the doer. Since he is not a doer of the actions, therefore he doesn’t enjoy the fruits of the action. Even as a viewer of a particular cinema (film) doesn’t get affected by the situations in the film (as he is a mere witness and not doer of the actions in the film), similarly when a seeker ceases to be the doer of actions he is a mere witness to all actions. Even as the witness of the film is ever blissful (as he is unaffected by the film), similarly the witness of all actions will be ever blissful. Thus through surrendering to the Lord and offering all actions unto the Lord, a person becomes blissful. It is this bliss that we all seek but in the illusory world filled with sorrowful objects. The moment we offer our actions to the Lord we will be ever blissful rejoicing in the bliss of the Self (which is one with the ultimate reality of Lord).
This way of renouncing the doer thereby being a mere witness to all activities is the real Karma Marga wherein there is no kartha (doer) and no bhoktha (enjoyer). Thus through selfless actions (nishkaama karma), the seeker enters into the state of naishkarmyam (action-lessness). The state of naishkarmyam is not different from the state of jnaana wherein a seeker is ever established in the blissful atman thereby ever rejoicing in the bliss.
We will continue with the story in the next day.
Let us all cease to be the doer of actions so that we are a mere witness to all activities thereby ever rejoicing in bliss which is our very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Krishna continued:
What man does according to his nature cannot be changed by Indra. Man is a slave of his own nature (addictions or vasanas). Depending on the actions performed a person gets a higher or lower body. Friend, foe etc. are attained due to one’s actions.
Explanation
Gita proclaims thus in the Karma Yoga chapter:
Na hi kaschit kshanamapi jaathu thistathi akarmakrit
Kaaryathe hi avashah karma sarvah prakrithairgunaih
Not even for a single second can a person remain without doing actions. All people are bound into doing actions as they cannot be without it. And people do actions depending on their nature.
We generally think that sanyaasins are people who are not doing any actions. But we know that most of the sanyaasins including the Sankaracharyas do actions for the welfare of the world. This shows that no person can live in the world without doing actions. Everybody does actions depending on their inner latent tendencies. We cannot be without doing actions and hence we should try to change our nature by introducing good karmas like dhyaana, japa, keerthana etc. These activities along with the attitude of surrender to the ultimate reality of Lord will help us overcome the bondage of action. If there is no attitude of surrender and offering the actions to the Lord, the person will be bound by the actions. A person does an action and reaps the fruit of the action. He does the action again and again thereby making it a vasana or habit. When vasanas are cultivated the person cannot be without doing the action. This is what is popularly known as addictions. We know only of addictions of tea, coffee, alcohol, smoking etc. but most of the actions that we do are addictions based on our inner tendencies. Our inner tendencies are those born out of doing the same action over and over again. There are people who are addicted to japa and dhyaana. If we talk to people who are used to doing dhyaana, they cannot be without doing dhyaana. If one day they don’t do dhyaana then it is as if their mind is not peaceful and they are sad throughout the day. This is how most of the followers of Art of Living feel if they aren’t able to do sudharshana kriya. Same is the case with many other spiritual activities. Those spiritual activities are meant to remove the bondage towards actions by offering them to the Lord, they themselves become bondage. Thus a seeker should always remember that all actions whether they are good or bad should be offered to the ultimate reality off Lord along with total and complete surrender to the Lord. This is the one and only way to get rid of the bondage of actions.
Irrespective of whether a person is a jnaani or an ajnaani, he is bound by actions depending on his nature. Even as an ajnaani is addicted to seeing movies, a jnaani is addicted to sravana-manana-nidhidhyaasana. The only difference between the jnaani and the ajnaani is that the ajnaani is completely bound by the action whereas the jnaani is a mere witness to the bondages of his mind and Ego. The jnaani is never affected by the actions as he is ever immersed in the ultimate reality of Lord. If there is no sravana, yet the jnaani will be blissful though he may show externally that he is affected by it. On the contrary an ajnaani will become angry if he is not able to watch movie because of power-cut of any other reason. Thus the Lord through this beautiful definition of action that all people are bound by actions and we have no choice but to do actions is clearly pointing out that a person who surrenders and offers all actions to the Lord alone will be blissful irrespective of his situation and vasanas.
We will continue in the next day.
Let us all accept that we cannot be without doing actions and thereby offer all actions unto the Lord so that we are a mere witness blissfully watching all the actions performed by the mind, intellect, ego and sense organs.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Story 47 – Story of Destroying Indra’s pride – 03
Nandagopa replied thus to Krishna’s questions:
Bhagavan Indra is the God for rain. The clouds are parts of his body. It is by the showering of the clouds that all beings get water which sustains their life. Therefore, O Child, we are offering things that we got because of his compassion to him thereby worshipping him. By what remains behind, we get dharma-artha-kaama out of those. He who doesn’t keep up this tradition will be caused to death due to kaama, krodha etc. Therefore we are getting ready to do the yajna.
Explanation
We learnt the previous day that we shouldn’t do any action without knowing the import behind the action. In order to illustrate this, the Lord had questioned Nandagopa regarding the action of Indra yaaga. We find in this part Nandagopa replying as to the import behind the action of Indra yaaga. Thus unlike many of us today who don’t know the import behind most of the rituals that we do, Nandagopa new as to what to do.
What is the necessity of rituals of offering to various Gods?
The necessity is because we get things from various Gods and hence we ought to offer part of it to them as a mark of gratitude and surrender. Not only do we learn humility and gratitude but we also develop a sense of selflessness which is contrary to the selfish actions of current day people. It is because we don’t know that we are able to do all activities and we get fruits by the grace of various Gods that we don’t offer anything in return to their service.
The scriptures speak about each and every organ as well as activity having a God controlling it. We don’t even need to go that further to analyze things. We have the Sun, the moon and the Ocean helping us to sustain life. But do we offer our gratitude to their service? But for these Gods we would not be living. What the current day scientific brains do instead of offering our gratitude is term them as dense masses of matter. This terming of matter goes even for human beings who are mere masses of matter with some energy in them. Science thus takes us to the state that even life can be cloned without the help of the sentient principle of Consciousness (which is what we call as God or Ishwara or Brahman).
But unlike our ignorant state about the various Gods presiding over many activities, Nandagopa knew the importance of these Gods. This is only because of scriptural knowledge as well as devotion towards the ultimate reality of Lord. Ancient people saw the entire world as a manifestation of Ishwara in various names and forms. Thus everything was Ishwara for them. Whatever was seen, whatever was heard, and whatever was touched was nothing but Ishwara alone. This attitude of seeing Ishwara as pervading everything is the path to remove likes and dislikes thereby making us liberated from the ocean of samsaara.
The famous Narayana Sooktha proclaims thus about Ishwara:
Yat cha kinchit jagat sarvam drishyathe srooyathe api vaa
Anthar bahischa tat sarvam vyaapyan naaraayana sthithah
Whatever is present in this world as Seen or heard, all of those are pervaded in and out by Narayana (Ishwara).
The Lord proclaims the same in many places of Gita thus:
Ishwarah sarvabhootaanaam hriddeshe arjuna thistathi
The Lord resides in the heart of all beings O Arjuna.
It is remembrance of this reality that makes a person grateful towards whatever he has got and is getting from the world. This gratitude is expressed in the form of various yajnas.
We will continue with as to how the Lord plays in order to destroy the Ego of Indra in the next day.
Let us all see everything as pervaded by the Lord so that we are grateful towards the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Earth, the Ocean and all beings thereby getting liberated from the ocean of samsaara.
After hearing Nandagopa’s words, Krishna started explaining as to why the Yaaga was unnecessary though he knew the yaaga was apt in order to make Indra angry.
Explanation
We all know about the compassion and teaching nature of the Lord in his various avataaras as well as through the various jeevan mukthas. But here we find the Lord’s mischievous nature. We all know about the incidents of Krishna when he was a kid running around houses and spilling the butter/ghee in the houses. But here we find the merging of the mischievous and teaching nature of the Lord.
The Lord wanted to destroy the Ego of Indra. Ego can be destroyed only when it is at its peak. The ego is at the peak only when a person becomes angry. Anger takes us to such a state that we then say “do you know who I am?” totally losing oneself in the notion that “I am great”, “I can achieve everything” etc.
The Lord knew that what Nandagopa said about the yaaga and the yaaga in itself was part of the vedic tradition in which everything is offered to the various Gods from whom we get it as paying gratitude along with contemplation that everything is a manifestation of the ultimate reality of Lord. But still he wanted to destroy the Ego of Indra thereby making him realize his very nature of non-dual Lord. The scriptures proclaim that due to ignorance the Ego is superimposed on the Self. Therefore though the real ‘I” is the Self, we consider “I” as the Ego associated and attached with the body-mind-intellect complex. Only when the Ego is destroyed by completely banishing it a person will be able to realize his very nature of Lord. Destroying the Ego is possible only when the Ego is at its peak – even as the maximum damage to a person happens when he falls from the 100th floor (than the 1st or 2nd floor). Thus in order to destroy the Ego thereby help Indra realize the reality, the Lord started questioning Nandagopa about the Indra Yaaga. We will find in the next few days as to how the Lord beautifully angers Indra by telling Nandagopa not to offer the share of Indra in the form of the Yaaga.
Mahatmas and Jeevanmukthas living in the world are termed as karuna sindhu or ocean of compassion. Though these Mahatmas don’t need to help the people in the world as they are free of all desires yet they help out people because of their infinite compassion in making others as well experience the bliss that they are experiencing.
Doesn’t a person who has realized know that the world is but an illusion in the reality of Lord? If so, then how can he help others?As long as a person is ignorant, he will be considering the world as apart from the ultimate reality of Lord. Thus for an ignorant person the world will not be seen as an illusion in the reality of Lord. This means that when an ignorant person sees the Mahatma or realized person as living in the world yet realized he will have the doubt as to how such a realized person can perform actions as he sees only Brahman here. The scriptures in order to satisfy the question of the ignorant person thus say that the Mahatma works for the benefit of the other ignorant people. Such an explanation is only for the ignorant seeker seeking an answer as well as to give courage and hope to the ignorant seeker that he will get help in realization. But once a seeker progresses in the spiritual path, he will be told that there is neither jeevan muktha nor baddha jeeva, there is neither jnaani nor the ajnaani, there is neither an illusion nor the reality but whatever exists is only the non-dual reality of Lord. Until a person is eligible to apprehend this truth, the scriptures will explain the duality in as logical as possible way so that the seeker’s question will be answered and he will be able to proceed further in the spiritual path.
Remembering that the compassion and actions of the Mahatma are only from the perspective of the ignorant seeker as for a realized saint there is only the ultimate reality of Lord existing, we will continue the story in the next day.
Let us all have devotion and surrender to the Lord of Krishna thereby killing the snake of Kaliya and making the water pure (symbolizing realization of our own nature of Self thereby rejoicing in eternal bliss).
Bhagavan Indra is the God for rain. The clouds are parts of his body. It is by the showering of the clouds that all beings get water which sustains their life. Therefore, O Child, we are offering things that we got because of his compassion to him thereby worshipping him. By what remains behind, we get dharma-artha-kaama out of those. He who doesn’t keep up this tradition will be caused to death due to kaama, krodha etc. Therefore we are getting ready to do the yajna.
Explanation
We learnt the previous day that we shouldn’t do any action without knowing the import behind the action. In order to illustrate this, the Lord had questioned Nandagopa regarding the action of Indra yaaga. We find in this part Nandagopa replying as to the import behind the action of Indra yaaga. Thus unlike many of us today who don’t know the import behind most of the rituals that we do, Nandagopa new as to what to do.
What is the necessity of rituals of offering to various Gods?
The necessity is because we get things from various Gods and hence we ought to offer part of it to them as a mark of gratitude and surrender. Not only do we learn humility and gratitude but we also develop a sense of selflessness which is contrary to the selfish actions of current day people. It is because we don’t know that we are able to do all activities and we get fruits by the grace of various Gods that we don’t offer anything in return to their service.
The scriptures speak about each and every organ as well as activity having a God controlling it. We don’t even need to go that further to analyze things. We have the Sun, the moon and the Ocean helping us to sustain life. But do we offer our gratitude to their service? But for these Gods we would not be living. What the current day scientific brains do instead of offering our gratitude is term them as dense masses of matter. This terming of matter goes even for human beings who are mere masses of matter with some energy in them. Science thus takes us to the state that even life can be cloned without the help of the sentient principle of Consciousness (which is what we call as God or Ishwara or Brahman).
But unlike our ignorant state about the various Gods presiding over many activities, Nandagopa knew the importance of these Gods. This is only because of scriptural knowledge as well as devotion towards the ultimate reality of Lord. Ancient people saw the entire world as a manifestation of Ishwara in various names and forms. Thus everything was Ishwara for them. Whatever was seen, whatever was heard, and whatever was touched was nothing but Ishwara alone. This attitude of seeing Ishwara as pervading everything is the path to remove likes and dislikes thereby making us liberated from the ocean of samsaara.
The famous Narayana Sooktha proclaims thus about Ishwara:
Yat cha kinchit jagat sarvam drishyathe srooyathe api vaa
Anthar bahischa tat sarvam vyaapyan naaraayana sthithah
Whatever is present in this world as Seen or heard, all of those are pervaded in and out by Narayana (Ishwara).
The Lord proclaims the same in many places of Gita thus:
Ishwarah sarvabhootaanaam hriddeshe arjuna thistathi
The Lord resides in the heart of all beings O Arjuna.
It is remembrance of this reality that makes a person grateful towards whatever he has got and is getting from the world. This gratitude is expressed in the form of various yajnas.
We will continue with as to how the Lord plays in order to destroy the Ego of Indra in the next day.
Let us all see everything as pervaded by the Lord so that we are grateful towards the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Earth, the Ocean and all beings thereby getting liberated from the ocean of samsaara.
After hearing Nandagopa’s words, Krishna started explaining as to why the Yaaga was unnecessary though he knew the yaaga was apt in order to make Indra angry.
Explanation
We all know about the compassion and teaching nature of the Lord in his various avataaras as well as through the various jeevan mukthas. But here we find the Lord’s mischievous nature. We all know about the incidents of Krishna when he was a kid running around houses and spilling the butter/ghee in the houses. But here we find the merging of the mischievous and teaching nature of the Lord.
The Lord wanted to destroy the Ego of Indra. Ego can be destroyed only when it is at its peak. The ego is at the peak only when a person becomes angry. Anger takes us to such a state that we then say “do you know who I am?” totally losing oneself in the notion that “I am great”, “I can achieve everything” etc.
The Lord knew that what Nandagopa said about the yaaga and the yaaga in itself was part of the vedic tradition in which everything is offered to the various Gods from whom we get it as paying gratitude along with contemplation that everything is a manifestation of the ultimate reality of Lord. But still he wanted to destroy the Ego of Indra thereby making him realize his very nature of non-dual Lord. The scriptures proclaim that due to ignorance the Ego is superimposed on the Self. Therefore though the real ‘I” is the Self, we consider “I” as the Ego associated and attached with the body-mind-intellect complex. Only when the Ego is destroyed by completely banishing it a person will be able to realize his very nature of Lord. Destroying the Ego is possible only when the Ego is at its peak – even as the maximum damage to a person happens when he falls from the 100th floor (than the 1st or 2nd floor). Thus in order to destroy the Ego thereby help Indra realize the reality, the Lord started questioning Nandagopa about the Indra Yaaga. We will find in the next few days as to how the Lord beautifully angers Indra by telling Nandagopa not to offer the share of Indra in the form of the Yaaga.
Mahatmas and Jeevanmukthas living in the world are termed as karuna sindhu or ocean of compassion. Though these Mahatmas don’t need to help the people in the world as they are free of all desires yet they help out people because of their infinite compassion in making others as well experience the bliss that they are experiencing.
Doesn’t a person who has realized know that the world is but an illusion in the reality of Lord? If so, then how can he help others?As long as a person is ignorant, he will be considering the world as apart from the ultimate reality of Lord. Thus for an ignorant person the world will not be seen as an illusion in the reality of Lord. This means that when an ignorant person sees the Mahatma or realized person as living in the world yet realized he will have the doubt as to how such a realized person can perform actions as he sees only Brahman here. The scriptures in order to satisfy the question of the ignorant person thus say that the Mahatma works for the benefit of the other ignorant people. Such an explanation is only for the ignorant seeker seeking an answer as well as to give courage and hope to the ignorant seeker that he will get help in realization. But once a seeker progresses in the spiritual path, he will be told that there is neither jeevan muktha nor baddha jeeva, there is neither jnaani nor the ajnaani, there is neither an illusion nor the reality but whatever exists is only the non-dual reality of Lord. Until a person is eligible to apprehend this truth, the scriptures will explain the duality in as logical as possible way so that the seeker’s question will be answered and he will be able to proceed further in the spiritual path.
Remembering that the compassion and actions of the Mahatma are only from the perspective of the ignorant seeker as for a realized saint there is only the ultimate reality of Lord existing, we will continue the story in the next day.
Let us all have devotion and surrender to the Lord of Krishna thereby killing the snake of Kaliya and making the water pure (symbolizing realization of our own nature of Self thereby rejoicing in eternal bliss).
Story 47 – Story of Destroying Indra’s pride – 02
The people of Vraja therefore started worshipping Krishna as Ishwara and seeing everything as Ishwara. During that time, Krishna who was a child of just 7 years destroyed Kaliya and his family of snakes who were poisoning the Yamuna river. This strengthened the faith of the gopakumaras that Krishna was none other than Ishwara.
Explanation
The gopakumaras’s belief that Krishna was Ishwara himself was strengthened. By what? By Krishna’s killing of the Kaliya snake who was poisoning the water in the Yamuna River.
This incident of Krishna killing Kaliya and thereby dancing over Kaliya is very famous. This incident has a spiritual symbolism relating to a sadhaka’s life in the world. The water in any river is pure. The pure water signifies our own nature of Self – the Self is ever pure and untainted like water. But when snake Kaliya and others started roaming in the water, the water was getting poisoned. Kaliya denotes the passions of the mind which are kaama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride) and matsarya (jealousy). These passions arise out of the notion of likes and dislikes towards entities. Likes and dislikes are caused out of considering the world as having different things – which means that dual notion or considering duality as real causes likes and dislikes. Dual notion is caused by one’s ignorance of the reality that the Lord alone exists here, one without a second. Thus ignorance of the reality that Lord alone exists and everything is but an illusion in the Lord causes a person to be poisoned by the snake of Kaliya. When the water is poisoned by the snake, then the water causes death to people who drink it. Similarly when the Self is poisoned by ignorance, then it causes a person to consider himself as suffering and finally subject to death.
The goal of all beings is to get rid of sorrow completely and thereby experience eternal bliss. This goal is not achieved and the opposite is achieved when the Self is poisoned or tainted by ignorance thereby making a person suffer without any bliss, peace, contentment or satisfaction.
Thus in order for a person to be blissful, the snake of Kaliya has to be killed. The Lord in the form of Krishna killed Kaliya by dancing over Kaliya. Dancing over the snake denotes being above the passions of the mind thereby not being controlled by them but controlling them. This is possible only through the Lord of Krishna. This indicates total surrender to the Lord. When the pure water which is tainted by the passions of the mind takes refuge in the ultimate reality of Lord through devotion and surrender, then the Lord kills the passions of the mind thereby making a person realize his very nature of pure Self.
Thus through this short and miraculous incident in the life of Krishna, Bhagavatham points to us the cause of sorrows in our life as well as the way to eternal bliss which we are seeking each and every moment of our life.
Let us all have devotion and surrender to the Lord of Krishna thereby killing the snake of Kaliya and making the water pure (symbolizing realization of our own nature of Self thereby rejoicing in eternal bliss).
During that time in Gokula (when Bala Krishna killed all asuras and protected the people), Nandagopa and other people started preparing for Indrayaga (yajna for propitiation of Indra). Seeing this the all-knowing and all-Self Lord questioned him with humility thus “O Father! Why all this preparation and trouble? What do you want to achieve through this yaaga? Tell me what is your desire to be achieved? Good people never hide anything. Knowingly and unknowingly man does actions aspiring things in life. He who does actions with discrimination (viveka) will win. A person without discrimination will not gain victory. Therefore tell me openly as to what is the goal behind this action of Indrayaaga”.
Explanation
It is natural that we do as is instructed by our ancestors. Though the current day generation is more into analyzing and questioning things, yet when it comes to basic activities of the world very rarely people do question those. The scriptures proclaim that the way out of the ocean of samsaara is by gaining knowledge of the Self from a Guru. If we have to learn from the Guru, we have to seek the Guru and do three activities – first is falling at the Guru’s feet symbolizing surrender; second is doing service to the Guru symbolizing selfless action; third is putting forth the right questions regarding the world and the ultimate reality of Brahman beyond the world.
It may happen that we put forth the wrong questions thereby getting distracted from the spiritual path. It is therefore essential to put forth the right questions. Right questions include questions about one’s own real nature (as distinct from the body-mind-intellect complex), about the nature of the world and about that which is eternal thereby giving us eternal bliss. Upanishads start with the disciple putting forth the question to the Guru as to teach that by knowing which everything is known – such an entity is termed in the scriptures as Brahman or Lord. Since the world is an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Brahman, knowing Brahman will make us know everything essentially. Once we know the all-pervasive and blissful Brahman, there will be no more desires left. When there are no desires left, we will be ever blissful, peaceful, content and satisfied. Such a person who is ever blissful doesn’t seek anything and has attained that by knowing which everything ends – such a person is termed in the scriptures as a jeevan muktha (one who is liberated from the bondage of ignorance, desire and actions). Thus it is very essential to put forth the right questions.
As time passed by (since ancient times), people forgot the importance of doing the right actions and putting forth the right questions to the Guru. Krishna by questioning the activity of Indrayaaga is thereby emphasizing that we shouldn’t do activities with blind-faith and without knowing as to what is the import behind it. Krishna is also emphasizing that we shouldn’t just merely do activities started by our ancestors.
The current-day Brahmins do sandhya vandhanam; most of devotees chant Lalitha Sahasranama or Vishnu Sahasranaama daily; Siva followers chant the Rudram daily; but rarely any of these people who as to why such activities are done and what is the purpose of doing such activities? It is dangerous to do activities without knowing the import and purpose behind them. It not only leads us away from the ultimate reality of Lord but it also makes us addicted to such activities. Thus there are many Brahmins who are so addicted to doing such devotional activities that when they are on death-bed they start complaining that “Ishwara didn’t let me do even my sandhya”!! That is the pitiable state of doing activities without knowing the import behind them.
AMMA gives a beautiful story to illustrate this. Once a person used to do pooja in the pooja room daily morning. At that time there used to be cat in the house which used to disturb his pooja. Thus daily before doing pooja, the person used to give a bowl of milk to the cat so that it doesn’t obstruct his pooja – this strategy worked. Years passed and the person died. He didn’t instruct his son as to why he was giving milk to the cat daily before pooja. Therefore the son thought that it was some ritual and started following it. This continued for traditions. Finally in one generation, the person didn’t have any cat in the house. Thinking and believing that this is a ritual (and not questioning the activity and its import), the person started loaning a cat from the neighbour’s house in order to give milk before pooja. This is the pitiable state of all ritualistic activities that we do. We don’t know the importance of the activities and thereby do this as a duty daily. Unless we know the real import of an activity, we will be mislead into the activity rather than the import of ultimate reality of Lord who is sought through all worldly, religious and spiritual activities.
We will see as to what Nandagopa answers to Krishna’s questions regarding the activity of Indrayaaga.
Let us all unlike the vraja vaasis know the import and utility of all spiritual activities so that we will be lead in the right direction towards realization of our own nature of ultimate reality of Lord.
Explanation
The gopakumaras’s belief that Krishna was Ishwara himself was strengthened. By what? By Krishna’s killing of the Kaliya snake who was poisoning the water in the Yamuna River.
This incident of Krishna killing Kaliya and thereby dancing over Kaliya is very famous. This incident has a spiritual symbolism relating to a sadhaka’s life in the world. The water in any river is pure. The pure water signifies our own nature of Self – the Self is ever pure and untainted like water. But when snake Kaliya and others started roaming in the water, the water was getting poisoned. Kaliya denotes the passions of the mind which are kaama (desire), krodha (anger), lobha (greed), moha (delusion), mada (pride) and matsarya (jealousy). These passions arise out of the notion of likes and dislikes towards entities. Likes and dislikes are caused out of considering the world as having different things – which means that dual notion or considering duality as real causes likes and dislikes. Dual notion is caused by one’s ignorance of the reality that the Lord alone exists here, one without a second. Thus ignorance of the reality that Lord alone exists and everything is but an illusion in the Lord causes a person to be poisoned by the snake of Kaliya. When the water is poisoned by the snake, then the water causes death to people who drink it. Similarly when the Self is poisoned by ignorance, then it causes a person to consider himself as suffering and finally subject to death.
The goal of all beings is to get rid of sorrow completely and thereby experience eternal bliss. This goal is not achieved and the opposite is achieved when the Self is poisoned or tainted by ignorance thereby making a person suffer without any bliss, peace, contentment or satisfaction.
Thus in order for a person to be blissful, the snake of Kaliya has to be killed. The Lord in the form of Krishna killed Kaliya by dancing over Kaliya. Dancing over the snake denotes being above the passions of the mind thereby not being controlled by them but controlling them. This is possible only through the Lord of Krishna. This indicates total surrender to the Lord. When the pure water which is tainted by the passions of the mind takes refuge in the ultimate reality of Lord through devotion and surrender, then the Lord kills the passions of the mind thereby making a person realize his very nature of pure Self.
Thus through this short and miraculous incident in the life of Krishna, Bhagavatham points to us the cause of sorrows in our life as well as the way to eternal bliss which we are seeking each and every moment of our life.
Let us all have devotion and surrender to the Lord of Krishna thereby killing the snake of Kaliya and making the water pure (symbolizing realization of our own nature of Self thereby rejoicing in eternal bliss).
During that time in Gokula (when Bala Krishna killed all asuras and protected the people), Nandagopa and other people started preparing for Indrayaga (yajna for propitiation of Indra). Seeing this the all-knowing and all-Self Lord questioned him with humility thus “O Father! Why all this preparation and trouble? What do you want to achieve through this yaaga? Tell me what is your desire to be achieved? Good people never hide anything. Knowingly and unknowingly man does actions aspiring things in life. He who does actions with discrimination (viveka) will win. A person without discrimination will not gain victory. Therefore tell me openly as to what is the goal behind this action of Indrayaaga”.
Explanation
It is natural that we do as is instructed by our ancestors. Though the current day generation is more into analyzing and questioning things, yet when it comes to basic activities of the world very rarely people do question those. The scriptures proclaim that the way out of the ocean of samsaara is by gaining knowledge of the Self from a Guru. If we have to learn from the Guru, we have to seek the Guru and do three activities – first is falling at the Guru’s feet symbolizing surrender; second is doing service to the Guru symbolizing selfless action; third is putting forth the right questions regarding the world and the ultimate reality of Brahman beyond the world.
It may happen that we put forth the wrong questions thereby getting distracted from the spiritual path. It is therefore essential to put forth the right questions. Right questions include questions about one’s own real nature (as distinct from the body-mind-intellect complex), about the nature of the world and about that which is eternal thereby giving us eternal bliss. Upanishads start with the disciple putting forth the question to the Guru as to teach that by knowing which everything is known – such an entity is termed in the scriptures as Brahman or Lord. Since the world is an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Brahman, knowing Brahman will make us know everything essentially. Once we know the all-pervasive and blissful Brahman, there will be no more desires left. When there are no desires left, we will be ever blissful, peaceful, content and satisfied. Such a person who is ever blissful doesn’t seek anything and has attained that by knowing which everything ends – such a person is termed in the scriptures as a jeevan muktha (one who is liberated from the bondage of ignorance, desire and actions). Thus it is very essential to put forth the right questions.
As time passed by (since ancient times), people forgot the importance of doing the right actions and putting forth the right questions to the Guru. Krishna by questioning the activity of Indrayaaga is thereby emphasizing that we shouldn’t do activities with blind-faith and without knowing as to what is the import behind it. Krishna is also emphasizing that we shouldn’t just merely do activities started by our ancestors.
The current-day Brahmins do sandhya vandhanam; most of devotees chant Lalitha Sahasranama or Vishnu Sahasranaama daily; Siva followers chant the Rudram daily; but rarely any of these people who as to why such activities are done and what is the purpose of doing such activities? It is dangerous to do activities without knowing the import and purpose behind them. It not only leads us away from the ultimate reality of Lord but it also makes us addicted to such activities. Thus there are many Brahmins who are so addicted to doing such devotional activities that when they are on death-bed they start complaining that “Ishwara didn’t let me do even my sandhya”!! That is the pitiable state of doing activities without knowing the import behind them.
AMMA gives a beautiful story to illustrate this. Once a person used to do pooja in the pooja room daily morning. At that time there used to be cat in the house which used to disturb his pooja. Thus daily before doing pooja, the person used to give a bowl of milk to the cat so that it doesn’t obstruct his pooja – this strategy worked. Years passed and the person died. He didn’t instruct his son as to why he was giving milk to the cat daily before pooja. Therefore the son thought that it was some ritual and started following it. This continued for traditions. Finally in one generation, the person didn’t have any cat in the house. Thinking and believing that this is a ritual (and not questioning the activity and its import), the person started loaning a cat from the neighbour’s house in order to give milk before pooja. This is the pitiable state of all ritualistic activities that we do. We don’t know the importance of the activities and thereby do this as a duty daily. Unless we know the real import of an activity, we will be mislead into the activity rather than the import of ultimate reality of Lord who is sought through all worldly, religious and spiritual activities.
We will see as to what Nandagopa answers to Krishna’s questions regarding the activity of Indrayaaga.
Let us all unlike the vraja vaasis know the import and utility of all spiritual activities so that we will be lead in the right direction towards realization of our own nature of ultimate reality of Lord.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Story 47 – Story of Destroying Indra’s pride – 01
Introduction
In the previous story we learnt about the childhood plays of the Lord and in particular Brahma’s ego being destroyed by the Lord. In this story we will learn about how the Lord when he was in his teens destroyed the Ego of Indra. This story like the previous one therefore shows as that everything is possible with the grace of the Lord and if there is complete surrender to the Lord. We generally thing that everything in the world is controlled by science as well as laws created by science but this is not true. The world is controlled by the creator of Ishwara – the world is nothing but an imaginary illusion created by the magician of the Ishwara. Therefore Ishwara or the Lord who has created this world will be able to control the world and the happenings in the world. Thus if we are able to surrender completely to the ultimate reality of Lord, then as the Lord promises in Gita he will take care of all our needs.
Isn’t one’s future controlled by one’s action and the Lord cannot change it?Yes, one’s future is controlled by the fruits of actions that have been accrued since many births. Even as a stone thrown above will have to fall down but can be controlled into a trajectory so that it stays more time before falling, similarly Mahatmas who are embodiments of the ultimate reality of Lord can change our future. Previous actions can be nullified by our current actions. Therefore when we surrender to the ultimate reality of Lord, we are in fact adding on positive and spiritual fruits to our balance of karma. This nullifies our previously accrued bad and good fruits. Thus the Lord through our surrender will be able to change our future.
These stories of Bhagavatham which speak about the Lord coming to the help of normal people is therefore telling us to surrender ourselves completely at the feet of the Lord so that our fate becomes more blissful in that we will be slowly made to realize our very nature of blissful Lord.
Thus though various stories speak about the powers of the Lord, the grace of the Lord and as to how the Lord helped in destroying the Ego of various Gods, still the main import of these stories is showing us the way to realize our very nature of non-dual Lord. Each and every story of Bhagavatham directly and indirectly points out that there is only one entity in the entire world which is the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. Whatever we see as dual entities and different entities in the world are mere names and forms in the non-dual reality of Lord even as various gold ornaments are mere names and forms in gold. If a person remembers this reality that the Lord alone exists and thereby surrenders himself completely to the Lord (seeing the Lord everywhere), then he will be saved by the Lord even if he has bad vasanas or ego. Through these stories about destroying the Ego of Brahma and Indra, Bhagavatham is convincing us that even if we have traces of Ego and vasanas which obstruct us to completely surrender to the Lord, if we are able to at least surrender little bit to the Lord he will take care that we reach the goal of realization.
Kamsa sent many asuras one by one to kill Krishna but miraculously and demonstrating supreme power the kid killed each and each of them. This strengthened the belief and faith in the people of Vraja that Krishna was none other than Ishwara.
Explanation
The reality is that everything that is present is the Lord alone. Whatever we see in the world is a mere illusion of names and forms. Amidst various names and forms, there are few which are higher than the other – these are called avataaras or descents of the Lord. Even as there are classifications of learned and ignorant in worldly sciences, similarly there are people in the world who know the reality of Lord and who are ignorant about the reality of Lord. Avataaras are those forms of the world which are ever immersed in the Lord alone as there is not even little bit ignorance in them. Other normal forms are ignorant about their nature of Lord as well as that everything is present is the Lord alone. These avataaras since are manifestation of the ultimate reality of Lord thereby help other ajnaanis to cross over the ocean of samsaara and realize their very nature of Lord even as a learned professor helps his ignorant students to attain a degree by passing the exams for a particular subject.
Avataaras will be able to help others only if there is faith and surrender in the ignorant people. Though the grace of the Lord is ever present like sunlight, we will be able to get the grace of the Lord only when we totally surrender to the Lord even as sunlight is apprehended only when we open the door and windows of our house (for a person who has closed all doors and windows in his house, he cannot get sunlight though sunlight is always present).
One simple way to get faith in the Lord thereby surrendering completely to the Lord is by the miracles performed by the avataaras. Since avataaras are manifestations of the Lord they can control the world even as a magician controls his magic. It is but the nature of normal people to believe miracles and thereby offer themselves to those miracle performers as we think that they will be able to save us. Though we may not surrender ourselves to small miracle performers but we gain faith in Mahatmas when they save us from great distress and disaster. There have been many cases with Mahatmas as to people who don’t believe in them becoming staunch believers when they are saved from trouble by the Mahatmas.
The Lord thereby in the Bala Krishna form served dual purpose in killing the asuras. Firstly the asuras had taken the demonic form because of their previous sins. Due to their devotion in a negative way of anger towards the Lord, they were liberated by the Lord through killing them (signifying killing of the Ego). Secondly due to these miraculous killing of the asuras, the people of Vraja started having faith in Krishna and that Krishna is none other than Ishwara capable of saving them all worldly troubles and liberating them from the ocean of samsaara.It is also true that many people don’t even believe in miracles as they use a lot of their intellect in analyzing things which are truly beyond the intellect. They therefore never find an answer to their doubts regarding the miracles – nonetheless they don’t believe in these Mahatmas. But the people of Vraja were both devoted to Ishwara as well as pure in their heart – therefore they were able to easily apprehend the truth that the kid who was demonstrating miraculous powers was none other than Ishwara himself. It is this faith that helped them have great devotion towards the Lord thereby making them liberated from the ocean of samsaara.
We will continue with as to what happened later in the next day.
In the previous story we learnt about the childhood plays of the Lord and in particular Brahma’s ego being destroyed by the Lord. In this story we will learn about how the Lord when he was in his teens destroyed the Ego of Indra. This story like the previous one therefore shows as that everything is possible with the grace of the Lord and if there is complete surrender to the Lord. We generally thing that everything in the world is controlled by science as well as laws created by science but this is not true. The world is controlled by the creator of Ishwara – the world is nothing but an imaginary illusion created by the magician of the Ishwara. Therefore Ishwara or the Lord who has created this world will be able to control the world and the happenings in the world. Thus if we are able to surrender completely to the ultimate reality of Lord, then as the Lord promises in Gita he will take care of all our needs.
Isn’t one’s future controlled by one’s action and the Lord cannot change it?Yes, one’s future is controlled by the fruits of actions that have been accrued since many births. Even as a stone thrown above will have to fall down but can be controlled into a trajectory so that it stays more time before falling, similarly Mahatmas who are embodiments of the ultimate reality of Lord can change our future. Previous actions can be nullified by our current actions. Therefore when we surrender to the ultimate reality of Lord, we are in fact adding on positive and spiritual fruits to our balance of karma. This nullifies our previously accrued bad and good fruits. Thus the Lord through our surrender will be able to change our future.
These stories of Bhagavatham which speak about the Lord coming to the help of normal people is therefore telling us to surrender ourselves completely at the feet of the Lord so that our fate becomes more blissful in that we will be slowly made to realize our very nature of blissful Lord.
Thus though various stories speak about the powers of the Lord, the grace of the Lord and as to how the Lord helped in destroying the Ego of various Gods, still the main import of these stories is showing us the way to realize our very nature of non-dual Lord. Each and every story of Bhagavatham directly and indirectly points out that there is only one entity in the entire world which is the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. Whatever we see as dual entities and different entities in the world are mere names and forms in the non-dual reality of Lord even as various gold ornaments are mere names and forms in gold. If a person remembers this reality that the Lord alone exists and thereby surrenders himself completely to the Lord (seeing the Lord everywhere), then he will be saved by the Lord even if he has bad vasanas or ego. Through these stories about destroying the Ego of Brahma and Indra, Bhagavatham is convincing us that even if we have traces of Ego and vasanas which obstruct us to completely surrender to the Lord, if we are able to at least surrender little bit to the Lord he will take care that we reach the goal of realization.
Kamsa sent many asuras one by one to kill Krishna but miraculously and demonstrating supreme power the kid killed each and each of them. This strengthened the belief and faith in the people of Vraja that Krishna was none other than Ishwara.
Explanation
The reality is that everything that is present is the Lord alone. Whatever we see in the world is a mere illusion of names and forms. Amidst various names and forms, there are few which are higher than the other – these are called avataaras or descents of the Lord. Even as there are classifications of learned and ignorant in worldly sciences, similarly there are people in the world who know the reality of Lord and who are ignorant about the reality of Lord. Avataaras are those forms of the world which are ever immersed in the Lord alone as there is not even little bit ignorance in them. Other normal forms are ignorant about their nature of Lord as well as that everything is present is the Lord alone. These avataaras since are manifestation of the ultimate reality of Lord thereby help other ajnaanis to cross over the ocean of samsaara and realize their very nature of Lord even as a learned professor helps his ignorant students to attain a degree by passing the exams for a particular subject.
Avataaras will be able to help others only if there is faith and surrender in the ignorant people. Though the grace of the Lord is ever present like sunlight, we will be able to get the grace of the Lord only when we totally surrender to the Lord even as sunlight is apprehended only when we open the door and windows of our house (for a person who has closed all doors and windows in his house, he cannot get sunlight though sunlight is always present).
One simple way to get faith in the Lord thereby surrendering completely to the Lord is by the miracles performed by the avataaras. Since avataaras are manifestations of the Lord they can control the world even as a magician controls his magic. It is but the nature of normal people to believe miracles and thereby offer themselves to those miracle performers as we think that they will be able to save us. Though we may not surrender ourselves to small miracle performers but we gain faith in Mahatmas when they save us from great distress and disaster. There have been many cases with Mahatmas as to people who don’t believe in them becoming staunch believers when they are saved from trouble by the Mahatmas.
The Lord thereby in the Bala Krishna form served dual purpose in killing the asuras. Firstly the asuras had taken the demonic form because of their previous sins. Due to their devotion in a negative way of anger towards the Lord, they were liberated by the Lord through killing them (signifying killing of the Ego). Secondly due to these miraculous killing of the asuras, the people of Vraja started having faith in Krishna and that Krishna is none other than Ishwara capable of saving them all worldly troubles and liberating them from the ocean of samsaara.It is also true that many people don’t even believe in miracles as they use a lot of their intellect in analyzing things which are truly beyond the intellect. They therefore never find an answer to their doubts regarding the miracles – nonetheless they don’t believe in these Mahatmas. But the people of Vraja were both devoted to Ishwara as well as pure in their heart – therefore they were able to easily apprehend the truth that the kid who was demonstrating miraculous powers was none other than Ishwara himself. It is this faith that helped them have great devotion towards the Lord thereby making them liberated from the ocean of samsaara.
We will continue with as to what happened later in the next day.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Story 46 – Story of Bala Krishna’s plays – 11
Summary
Though there are a lot of plays in the childhood of Krishna, we have only dealt few of the most important ones. We have to always remember that the goal of studying these stories is not about the miracles performed by an avataara but to gain focus on the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord. The moment we forget the ultimate reality of Lord, then we end up in sorrow as everything apart from the Lord is only an illusion of names and forms. Even as any illusion will lead us to sorrow alone, forgetting the ultimate reality of Lord will only lead us to sorrow and sufferings in the ocean of samsaara.
Though we all are by nature the ultimate reality of Lord, we have somehow forgotten our very nature of Lord – this is termed as ignorance. Ignorance makes us think that we are the body-mind-intellect complex. Therefore seeking bliss in the external world, we do actions. We enjoy sensual pleasures by doing actions. We do actions for enjoyment and enjoy for doing more actions. This endless chain of action and enjoyment continues from birth to death to birth to death until we realize our very nature of eternal blissful Lord. These stories of Bhagavatham help us in remembering and asserting the reality that whatever exists is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord. If we forget this main import of Bhagavatham, we will be deluded in the ocean of samsaara even as a person is deluded into thinking that water is present in desert.
There is no other story than the life of Sri Krishna in the puranas to illustrate the emphasis of knowledge and its implementation in life. Even when he was born in the cell, he was in between Mahabharatha war, fighting many demons, his son lost and his kinsmen killing each other, the Lord was ever blissful. This state of blissful-ness is possible only when a person is ever established in Self-Realization (always being established as the non-dual Lord). Lord Krishna was ever in that state and hence Bhagavatham itself proclaims Krishna as a poorna avataara.
Even when Krishna was a baby and did pranks, it had some or the other import in it. Thus the very life of Krishna was to demonstrate as to how to life blissfully in the world ever remembering the ultimate reality of Lord. In this particular story we learnt about the reality that everything is the Lord alone through the tussle between Brahma and Krishna. Whenever ego arises, it will only lead us into trouble. Ego brings in duality thereby making us deluded into the dual world rather than concentrate on the non-dual reality. Thus Brahma thought that he was greater than Krishna – this was due to forgetting the reality that everything is the Lord alone. But the Lord instead made Brahma realize the truth by showing that everything is the Lord alone – whatever is seen and whatever is unseen all are nothing but the ultimate reality of Lord alone with different names and forms. As names and forms are not at all real, the ultimate reality of Lord alone is real amidst the names and forms of the Lord.
Though there are a lot of plays in the childhood of Krishna, we have only dealt few of the most important ones. We have to always remember that the goal of studying these stories is not about the miracles performed by an avataara but to gain focus on the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord. The moment we forget the ultimate reality of Lord, then we end up in sorrow as everything apart from the Lord is only an illusion of names and forms. Even as any illusion will lead us to sorrow alone, forgetting the ultimate reality of Lord will only lead us to sorrow and sufferings in the ocean of samsaara.
Though we all are by nature the ultimate reality of Lord, we have somehow forgotten our very nature of Lord – this is termed as ignorance. Ignorance makes us think that we are the body-mind-intellect complex. Therefore seeking bliss in the external world, we do actions. We enjoy sensual pleasures by doing actions. We do actions for enjoyment and enjoy for doing more actions. This endless chain of action and enjoyment continues from birth to death to birth to death until we realize our very nature of eternal blissful Lord. These stories of Bhagavatham help us in remembering and asserting the reality that whatever exists is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord. If we forget this main import of Bhagavatham, we will be deluded in the ocean of samsaara even as a person is deluded into thinking that water is present in desert.
There is no other story than the life of Sri Krishna in the puranas to illustrate the emphasis of knowledge and its implementation in life. Even when he was born in the cell, he was in between Mahabharatha war, fighting many demons, his son lost and his kinsmen killing each other, the Lord was ever blissful. This state of blissful-ness is possible only when a person is ever established in Self-Realization (always being established as the non-dual Lord). Lord Krishna was ever in that state and hence Bhagavatham itself proclaims Krishna as a poorna avataara.
Even when Krishna was a baby and did pranks, it had some or the other import in it. Thus the very life of Krishna was to demonstrate as to how to life blissfully in the world ever remembering the ultimate reality of Lord. In this particular story we learnt about the reality that everything is the Lord alone through the tussle between Brahma and Krishna. Whenever ego arises, it will only lead us into trouble. Ego brings in duality thereby making us deluded into the dual world rather than concentrate on the non-dual reality. Thus Brahma thought that he was greater than Krishna – this was due to forgetting the reality that everything is the Lord alone. But the Lord instead made Brahma realize the truth by showing that everything is the Lord alone – whatever is seen and whatever is unseen all are nothing but the ultimate reality of Lord alone with different names and forms. As names and forms are not at all real, the ultimate reality of Lord alone is real amidst the names and forms of the Lord.
