Sunday, June 22, 2008

Story 50 – Story of Dwaraka Nirmaanam - 01

Introduction:

Once again before we start the next story of Srimad Bhagavatham today, let us remind ourselves to always remember that the import of all these stories is the non-dual reality of Consciousness who we term as “Lord” or “Ishwara” or “Bhagavan”. As we discussed in the previous day, it is very important to remember this import of Lord as anything apart from the Lord is but an illusion in the Lord – all illusions can lead us to only sorrow. But if we associate the Lord with all illusions (while experiencing the illusions), then it will lead us to a state of bliss (which Vedanta calls moksha).

This is the one recipe that the Lord gives in Gita in order for us to taste the bliss of Self thus:

Yat karoshi yad ashnaasi yat juhoshi dadaasi yat
Yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurushva madarpanam

Whatever you do; whatever you eat; whatever you offer to yajna; whatever you give to others; whatever austerities you do – do it as an offering unto me.

This is as simple of remembering that everything is but an illusion of names-forms in the reality of Lord and thereby offering everything unto him. Offering doesn’t necessarily mean offering but it is also enough to just remember the Lord and his nature of being the substratum of the illusory world.

The purpose of Lord’s avataras has been mentioned in Gita as 3:

Parithraanaaya saadhoonaam vinaashaaya cha dushkrithaam
Dharma samsthaapanaarthaaya Sambhavaami yuge yuge


1. To protect the good people
2. To destroy the bad people
3. To uplift Dharma

It is interesting to note that these three purposes are not for the external world but it denotes the purposes of the Lord and his thought in the life of spiritual seeker. A seeker is one who has the desire to realize, is not able to maintain good thoughts always in his mind and has bad thoughts.

Dharma means that which protects or upholds us – it is the Lord who upholds everything as everything is an illusion in the Lord. Thus uplifting dharma means realizing our own nature of all-pervasive Lord. Protecting good people means maintaining good thoughts which will lead us more towards dharma (realization). Destroying bad people means removal of bad thoughts which will take us away from dharma. Thus the thought of the Lord while doing all actions will help us in realization or dharma.

Thus the Lord’s avatara is not just for the external world but it is really for the seekers like us who want to get eternal bliss but are struggling to keep up with the spiritual path. The Lord’s avatara is not in dwaraka but it is in the heart of the seeker – when the Lord falls down (avatara means falling down from formless state to form state) from the state of Consciousness to the state of mind (Ego), then the very presence of the Lord fulfills the three purposes that will purify our Ego thereby making us realize our own nature of Consciousness (Lord).

All these stories of Bhagavatham praising Lord Krishna in fact show us that the thought of the Lord in our mind constantly will help us make our life fruitful by realizing the Lord and rejoicing in bliss.

In order for the avatara to fulfill its purposes, dharma should be degrading (people don’t seek realization), bad people prospering as well as attacking good people and good people not being able to keep up with the spiritual path. All these are beautifully depicted in the life of Lord Krishna wherein the Lord fulfilled all these purposes to perfection (which we will see in the next coming days).

We will start the story from the next day.

Let us remember that the dharma of life is to realize the non-dual reality of blissful Lord as the substratum of the illusory names and forms (collectively termed as world) so that we may be able to ever rejoice in bliss.

After Kamsa’s killing, his wives asthi and praapthi went to their father Jarasandha and informed him of everything. Magadha king Jarasandha took a vow to kill entire yadukula and thereby started with a huge army towards Mathura.

Explanation


All the troubles including sorrows that a person experiences in the world is due to the dual notions of raga-dvesha. Raga is getting overly attached to something and dvesha is getting averted to something. Raga-dvesha in turn lead us to sukha-dukha. When the person we are attached to suffers, we become sad & when the person is rejoicing, we become happy. Similar with a person we hate – when the person becomes happy, we become sad & when the person becomes sad, we become happy. Thus a person who has raga-dvesha will be deluded into sukha-dukha depending on the situation. It is sukha-dukha that makes life miserable.

Therefore if we need to get rid of sorrows in life, we need to get rid of raga-dvesha. Raga-dvesha in itself is due to likes and dislikes. We get attached to someone we like and we get averted to someone we dislike. Likes-dislikes are caused out of viewing things in the world as different from one another.

Even as the dream world is but an illusion of different names-forms in the dreamer, similarly the waking world is also an illusion in the reality of Lord (of the nature of Consciousness). As long as we perceive the dream world, it will appear to be real – but the moment we wake up, we will realize that there never was any dream world at all. Similarly as long as we perceive the waking world, it will appear to be real but in fact it is as unreal as the dream world. Existence or perception of the world doesn’t cause sorrows – it is considering the world to be composed of different objects which causes sorrows.

While we are waking in the desert, we see water. We go near and find that there is no water at all. Again we see water and walk towards it. If we are aware of the truth that there is no water at all in desert, we will not be affected by the outcome of the action of “walking towards the water”. We may still perceive water (though we know that there is no water at all) and may walk towards it along with the rest of the world but the knowledge and conviction that there is no water means that once we find that there is no water, we will not be sad as we already knew that there was no water.

In a similar way, it is not the world that causes trouble but our considering the world to be composed of different objects that causes trouble. If we are able to always remember that even as the dream world is nothing but the dreamer alone, the waking world is nothing but the non-dual reality of Lord then though we may perceive the world like any other person we will not be affected by the dual notions of happiness-sorrow as we are devoid of likes-dislikes.

Likes-dislikes are caused out of seeing difference in the world (ignorance) and since we perceive the Lord everywhere, we don’t have any likes-dislikes; thereby we will not be deluded into the dual notions of happiness-sorrow etc. This means that we will ever be blissful irrespective of the situation, surrounding, conditions etc.

Jarasandha was unable to apprehend the truth of non-dual Lord behind the dual world; thereby he was attached to Kamsa and averted to Krishna for killing Kamsa. We will see in the next day as to how this raga-dvesha lead to more sorrows for him than his current state of losing his son-in-law.

Let us all try to always see the world as an illusion of names-forms in the non-dual reality of Lord so that we are never tainted by the dual notions of happiness-sorrow and remain ever absorbed in the bliss of the Lord.

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