Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Story 47 – Story of Destroying Indra’s pride – 07

The Lord is of the nature of time or kaala. That Lord who along with various Gods controlling the world is thereby the person determining the flow or activities in the world.

Explanation


Earlier we learnt that karma alone is Ishwara and karma alone is everything. Karma is based on time or kaala. That person who is controlling time is therefore the controller of karma or actions. That Lord who controls actions is thereby able to control the flow of actions in the world.

The scriptures speak about the ultimate reality of Lord as one who is beyond time. This is because the Lord is eternal and exists in the past, present and future. Whatever really exists is just a name and form in the reality of Lord of the nature of Consciousness. If Consciousness is not there, there is nothing at all. If Consciousness exists, then the entire world exists. Even if the world doesn’t exist, the Lord of the nature of Consciousness exists. Therefore the world is independent whereas the world is dependent on the reality of Lord for its existence. Thus whatever really exists is nothing but an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord even as various gold ornaments are mere names and forms in the reality of gold.

Chandogya Upanishad speaks thus:

Yathaa soumya ekena mritpindena sarvam mrinmayam vijnaatham syaat
Vaachaarambhanam vikaaro naamadheyam mrittika ithyeva satyam

Even as by knowing a piece of mud all objects of mud are known, thus all modifications of mud are caused out of word and thereby mere names alone; mud alone is real.

Thus the entire world is but names and forms of the reality of Lord. Even as names and forms of mud are mere illusions in the reality of mud, the world is but an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord. Since all the existence in the world is but out of the existence nature of the Lord, therefore whatever really exists is but the ultimate reality of Lord. Thus the Lord ever exists – even before creation, when creation exists & after destruction of the creation of world as well. Since the Lord ever exists therefore he is beyond time and termed as kaala atheethah or beyond time.

Since the Lord is beyond time therefore time is also created, controlled by the Lord as it is also an illusion in the Lord. Since the Lord controls time therefore the Lord will be able to change the course of all activities. It is for this reason that when a person offers all actions unto the ultimate reality of Lord and surrenders completely, all actions will become good and fruitful for the devotee. Thus a seeker should always offer all actions and completely surrender unto the ultimate reality of Lord so that he gets the best and good fruits as is possible. Here good fruit doesn’t mean that such a person will get a lot of money, fame etc. but it means that the Lord will bestow eternal bliss upon such a devotee so that all desires are fulfilled and there is nothing more to be attained in life.

We will continue as to what is the connection between the Lord beyond time and Indra in this story in the next day.

Let us all offer our actions to the Lord and completely surrender unto the Lord so that we may be able to get the best fruit of anandam or bliss from the ultimate reality of Lord who controls time and thereby actions.

The Lord doesn’t allow the Ego of a person to be developed without remembering the Lord. Therefore this was one of the plays of the Lord to destroy Indra’s Ego.

Explanation


Bhagavatham is here again giving the reason as to why the Lord takes quite a different perspective with respect of offering things to various Gods. It is the same Lord who propounds in the Gita that humans have to offer to various Gods thereby there will be mutual give-take with humans and Gods.

This is where we are pointed at the truth that whatever be the action or environment, we cannot afford to forget the ultimate reality of Lord. Even if the situation is too bad we cannot just afford to forget the Lord. The moment we forget the Lord, we end up in the illusion of samsaara. Samsaara can give us only sorrow in the long run. Though the entities of the world might seem to give us happiness in the beginning they will lead us only to sorrow in the long run. This is because they are temporary and ever changing. That which is non-eternal and changing will not be present in the same way as we want it. Hence initially we may feel that a child is giving us happiness. But the child doesn’t remain the same. Hence once it becomes naughty and grows up to be young, it goes against its own parents. Thus many parents who initially craved for a child and loved their children like anything become so dejected with them that they don’t want their children any more.

It is but a pity that people who don’t have any children cry for begetting children and people who have children cry for having begot children. But neither of them is satisfied and hence the list of desires just goes on. The state is like that of an drunkard who knows that drinking is injurious and yet cannot stay away from drinking.

The Lord is not a person who totally neglects our actions as he is karuna sindhu or ocean of compassion. We can also from devotional perspective consider the Lord as a person with high ego requiring attention like a kidJ. AMMA narrates a beautiful story to illustrate this:

Once Yashoda was breast feeding baby Krishna who was very hungry. But she had kept some milk for boiling. Since it was time for the milk to have boiled, she started to the kitchen leaving poor and hungry Krishna in the hall. She stopped the boiling milk and came back to the hall. To her surprise she found that Krishna had spilled all the butter kept in the house as he was very hungry. In order to save couple of glasses of milk Yashoda left Krishna hungry and the fruit of this action was that the entire butter in the house was spilled.

Thus if we ignore or forget to remember the ultimate reality of Lord, we will end up only in trouble like Indra in this story. We should also remember that Indra is one of the Gods who worships the Lord but forgot at some point of time due to ego. Bhagavatham also brings in an important point here by telling that Indra got Ego associated with forgetting of the Lord. Ego is not the real culprit but the real culprit is forgetting the ultimate reality of Lord. If Janaka didn’t have any Ego, he wouldn’t have been able to rule his country. If Sankara didn’t have any Ego, he couldn’t have started the various mutts for propounding Vedanta. Thus Ego is not the problem as long as we remember the ultimate reality of Lord as the only reality behind the illusory world.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us all ensure that we never forget the ultimate reality of Lord even if we are in a state of ego or enjoyment or bad karmas so that we will always be protected by the Lord along with rejoicing of bliss internally due to contemplation of the Lord.

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