Monday, March 17, 2008

Story 48 - Story of Raasa leela – 09

Krishna continued:

O Gopis! At times I behave with people whom I love as if I don’t love them. If you ask me why, I will explain it. This is in order to ensure that the seeker always loves me without forgetting me at anytime.

Imagine that a poor person loses some money. At that time he cannot but think about the money alone at all times. In order to make you (who forgot even your relatives and friends for me) love me always I disappeared and loved you by standing apart. I was always witnessing your search and songs. Therefore do think that I have done a sin.

Explanation


Krishna is here justifying as to why he disappeared from midst of gopis when they loved him after renouncing even their relatives and friends.

It is a fact that we don’t know the value of things until we lose them. Once we lose something we will not be able to stay away from the thought of the object. Thus in order to make the gopis always remember the Lord, the Lord vanished from their presence. It is only when we yearn deeply for an object that we seek the object. In order for us to realize our very nature of Lord we always have to be immersed in thought about the Lord; this is easily possible only when we gain a vision of the Lord and then start searching for him as he has vanished from our presence.

AMMA gives a beautiful story explaining this. Once a wealthy person went to a saint asking for peace and happiness. The saint explained that he already had wealth thereby could be peaceful and happy at all times. The wealthy person wanted something new and hence wasn’t content with the saint’s reply. Immediately the saint snatched the person’s purse and started running very fast. The person ran behind the saint but couldn’t catch up. After pursuing the saint for a period of time, the person found the saint sitting with a smile under the shade of a tree. The person found the purse in front of the saint. Grabbing the purse the person become peaceful, satisfied and happy. The person always had the purse but when he lost it and again regained it, he become happy. Thus in order for us to realize our very nature of Lord we need to get a glimpse of the Lord and then if the Lord vanishes from our presence, we will yearn deeply for the Lord to realize our very nature of Lord.

The gopis were never separate from the Lord as the Lord alone is present here as the substratum of the illusory names and forms of the world. But when they realized that they didn’t have peace and happiness without being with the Lord, they sought the Lord. After seeking the Lord, it might have happened that they forget the Lord after some period of time. In order to make the thought of the Lord continuous and permanent the Lord vanished from their presence. This in turn made the gopis seek the Lord with ardent desire and strong yearning. Thus they finally were able to see the Lord who then became one with them (never being separated from them). It is for this reason as well that Radha was never married to Krishna but was ever immersed in bliss ensuing from oneness with the Lord.

This in short gives us a blueprint of the spiritual path wherein the seeker initially realizes that he is ignorant about his very nature of Lord. Thereby he starts searching for the Lord through knowledge of the scriptures and spiritual practices. Then he gets a glimpse of the Lord in the form of temporary bliss when in intense meditation or during constant contemplation of the scriptural truth (that Lord alone is present here). But this temporary bliss is also not permanent or realization as the seeker feels the bliss only if he is contemplating and not while working or doing any other worldly activity. Thereby the Lord plays with the seeker making the seeker seek him ardently. Finally when the seeker’s desire is so strong that he will never ever live without contemplation of the Lord, the Lord appears in front of him revealing the seeker his very nature of Lord.

Thus it may happen that the Guru might stay away from the disciple. This doesn’t denote that the Guru doesn’t love the disciple but just that the Guru due to his intense love for the disciple wants the disciple to become a Guru (being ever immersed in the ultimate reality of Lord).

When I had asked AMMA about joining AMMA’s mission, AMMA replied back saying that I should stay away. She said that staying from AMMA is good as if I am near to AMMA I will use my intellect more and when I am far from AMMA, there will be intense desire and yearning for always thinking about AMMA (and the ultimate reality of Lord who is the basis of AMMA’s very presence). This is exactly what Krishna did to the gopis.

At times of distress we should strengthen our faith and yearning for the Lord as that is what is to be achieved due to the testing of distress shown by the Lord due to his love for us.

Let us all try to be ever seeking the Lord with earnest desire and yearning so that we may realize our very nature of Lord in this very birth and in this very moment itself.

Krishna continued:

I cannot even in a long time make the love you are demonstrating through your pure hearts successful. But you have renounced all bondages in order to show love towards me. May that pure love help you in your goals.


Explanation

In the previous day Krishna said to the gopis that he wasn’t to be considered a sinner as his disappearance was just a way to enforce the gopis love. Here he expands that explanation by giving an eternal rule of spirituality in a very beautiful way.

Krishna mentions this eternal rule in Gita thus:

Uddharet atmanaa atmaanam na aatmaanam avasaadhayet

A person should uplift the Atman by his own effort and not let his Self fall down.

This is also the same as the age old saying that “a horse can only be taken to the pond; it cannot be made to drink water”.

We may think that Krishna or Ishwara or any avatara like AMMA will be able to give us moksha. But we have to understand that ultimately it is our effort that really matters. For devotees with pure devotion, AMMA helps them tread the spiritual path – this is not because of AMMA’s help but the devotee is able to apprehend the ever present grace of AMMA when he opened his heart (through pure devotion). Thus even when we surrender completely to the ultimate reality of Lord, it is our effort of surrender that purifies our mind, makes us contemplate on the Lord and thereby makes us realize our own very nature of Lord.

Thus though we say that the Lord’s grace is required, it is our effort to open up our hearts which makes us apprehend the ever present grace of the Lord. AMMA beautifully says that God’s grace is like sunlight or rays of the Sun. Sunlight is always there but if we sit inside our house closing all windows/doors and complain that Sunlight is falling on us, who is to be blamed? Even as Sunlight is always there but we need to open our doors/windows in order to apprehend the ever-present sunlight, God’s grace is always there but we need to open our hearts through complete surrender in order to apprehend the ever-present grace of the Lord.

Just by repeating daily that “God’s grace is there, he will guide me, he will give me signals”, we are not going to get any guidance at all. We need to put effort in opening our hearts by renouncing everything and completely surrendering to the ultimate reality of Lord. This surrender will then show us the way which can be only one thing – constant contemplation of the Lord beyond anything and everything in the world. If we think that we have to take care of our family and thereby need some message from the Lord, we are not going to get any message. The message of the Lord is always there – and the message is that we need to always remember the Lord whether we take care of our family or not.

Those who try to put the onus on the Lord haven’t surrendered completely to the Lord and are trying to make the Lord as a scapegoat to escape from spirituality. Once we completely surrender to the Lord (like the gopis), then we will have no option but to remember the Lord and remember the Lord alone (as we have surrendered completely – there is nothing but the Lord for us). This means that all worldly activities will go on but contemplation of the Lord will be ever there & it will supersede any actions. The highest priority in our life will be the Lord. It is this effort from oneself which leads us to realize our very nature of Lord.

Thus a person who just waits for messages from the Lord or falls a prey to worldly delusions instead of considering the Lord as the ultimate goal, he will not be able to realize his nature of Lord or rejoice in bliss.

We will continue with the story the next day.

Let us all try to put our effort in complete surrender and always contemplating on the Lord considering this as the highest priority in our life so that we may also realize the bliss which is the very nature of the Lord like the gopis and ever abide in that bliss.

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