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.
# posted by vedanta : 8:03 PM
