Sunday, June 22, 2008
Story 50 – Story of Dwaraka Nirmaanam - 02
Let us today try to again analyze on attachment and aversion (raga-dvesha). This is one of the very vital analysis as understanding of this can directly take us to state of eternal bliss.
The Lord speaks about attaining of prasadam with respect to raga-dvesha thus:
Raga dvesha viyukthaisthu vishayaan indriyaaih charan
Aatma vashyair vidheyaatma prasaadam adhigacchathi
One who uses his sense organ without any attachment and aversion to the sense objects perceived by the senses, such a person is always focused on the Self; as a result of focusing on the Self devoid of attachment-aversion, he attains Prasadam.
Is the prasadam some sweet or payasam?
The Lord says that this is the greatest of all prasadams.
Prasaade sarva dukhaanaam haanih asya upajaayathe
This prasada leads to complete cessation of sorrow.
It is this prasada to complete cessation of sorrow thereby rejoicing in bliss that we all are seeking. Irrespective of wherever we are, whoever we are and whatever we are doing we are all seeking eternal bliss – happiness that is ever-lasting and untainted by sorrow. If we need to get this bliss which is our own very nature of Lord, we have to get rid of raga-dvesha. Raga-dvesha is caused out of not knowing the entire world to be one reality of Brahman; not knowing that the duality we perceive is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord; it is not that easy to get rid of duality directly but it is very easy to get rid of raga-dvesha in our mind. The way to do this is to see oneness everywhere – to know that the entire world is an illusion of names-forms in the Lord which means that the world is the Lord thereby seeing the Lord as pervading the entire world.
Though it is vision of the ultimate truth that we are having (while seeing everything as pervaded by the Lord), still a sadhaka has to do the same with effort. Once a sadhaka progresses, he will find that it becomes natural and effortless – it is this state of natural and effortless remembrance of the entire world to be pervaded by Ishwara that Vedanta terms as moksha.
Some people get afraid of the term moksha – moksha is nothing but anandam or bliss. A state wherein we are blissful irrespective of external surroundings, environment etc. is the state of moksha. This state is untainted by sorrow as there are no raga-dvesha in it. Though a jeevan muktha might appear to get attached or averted to things externally, internally he will ever be rejoicing in bliss.
Sankara beautifully explains this in Bhaja Govindam as
Yoga ratho vaa bhoga ratho vaa
Sanga ratho vaa sangaviheenah
Yasya brahmani ramathe chittam
Nandathi nandathi nandathi eva
Whether doing yoga; or doing bhoga;
Whether getting attached; or totally detached;
One whose mind is ever residing in Brahman,
Such a person rejoices, rejoices and verily rejoices.
Thus through the example of Jarasandha, Bhagavatham is telling us to get rid of our raga-dvesha in the mind all the while externally playing the role that we have got in the world to perfection (getting attached, angry etc.) so that we may not enter into troubles that Jarasandha got into and will be ever blissful.
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.
There will be no Bhagavatham mails until 9th June as am out of town meeting AMMA.
When Jarasandha was ready to attack Mathura, divine chariots came down from heaven in order for Rama and Krishna to fight Jarasandha. Rama and Krishna got into the chariots. They had a small army and encountered Jarasandha. Jarasandha’s entire army was destroyed completely. Rama pounced ready to kill Jarasandha. But Krishna stopped him as he knew that there were many more asuric tendencies that needed to come out of Jarasandha later. Therefore Jarasandha was not killed but left alive & free.
Explanation
We learn a couple of very important concepts in this part of the story. First is that help is available wherever the Lord or his name is being spoken (wherever the Lord is remembered). Second is that the world is a divine play of the Lord (lila) – it is very strange, cannot be judged by the intellect and is always mysterious.
Wherever the Lord is present or his remembrance is there, that place is a heaven – all Gods will be waiting to serve such a place. It is for this reason that it is said that wherever Ramayana is chanted there will Hanuman present there; and wherever Bhagavatham is discussed, Shuka will be present along with other sages & Gods.
Why is that wherever the Lord is present, all protection will be there?
This is because the Lord controls his power of Maya – that divine power which is responsible for the entire world (and control of the world). Even as the magical power or display of the magician is under the control of the magician, similarly the power of Maya is under the control of the Lord. If we gain control over the magician, we can control the magical display; similarly if we gain control over Maya, we can control the entire world.
Then will this not lead to a devotee controlling the entire world?
No, because the devotee knows that the Lord (who controls Maya) is blissful and more powerful than his power. We rarely seek talents as talents are insentient – therefore we seek people with talents. It is the people who is important and not their talents. When we gain control over magical power, it is of no avail as the magician might display new powers; but if we gain control over the magician, then all magical powers that might come out of the magician is controlled. A wise person will therefore seek the owner of the magical power and not control over the magical power. Moreover a devotee knows that the power of Maya is as illusory as the magical power of the magician or the dream world displayed by the dreamer’s innate tendencies; he also knows that the Lord is eternal and constant remembrance of the Lord will grant him eternal bliss (that which is being sought by each one of us every moment of our lives).
Therefore a devotee will not control the world but enslave the Lord through devotion. When the Lord enslaved, the devotee will ever be blissful. This is the reason why Meera drank nectar happily as everything is blissful once we realize the Lord and that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord even as the dream world is an illusion in the dreamer. But the Lord since he has been enslaved by the devotee will always protect the devotee in the illusory world. The devotee doesn’t seek this protection as the devotee is always immersed in thought of the Lord and ever blissful – but still at the empirical plane, the devotee will always be protected by the Lord.
It is in order to drive this point that Bhagavatham shows here that the Lord is being protected and served by various Gods. This only denotes that wherever there is thought of the Lord and sincere devotion (real devotion is when the devotee always thinks about the Lord as the substratum of the illusory names and forms seen as the world), there will always be protection.
Brahma Sutra characterizes the world as “lokavattu tat leela kaivalyam” – that the world is a divine play of the Lord. We cannot figure out as to why this play, how this play etc. What we can do is surrender completely to the Lord by remembering that everything is but an illusion of names and forms in the Lord thereby enjoying the divine play like a witness enjoying a movie/drama/film. The world or the divine play of the Lord cannot be grasped by logic as it is like the dream world. But the Lord pervades his divine play – it is this fact that we should always remember while being in the world whether we experience good things or bad things. If we are able to remember that the entire world is just a strange, divine and illusory play of the Lord, we will never again be deluded into sorrows and our life will be filled with bliss each and every moment. This is the goal of moksha – that eternal blissful goal which we are seeking ardently here and there every moment of our life.
We will continue with as to how the Lord continues his divine play (all the while constantly remembering that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord).
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.
The Lord speaks about attaining of prasadam with respect to raga-dvesha thus:
Raga dvesha viyukthaisthu vishayaan indriyaaih charan
Aatma vashyair vidheyaatma prasaadam adhigacchathi
One who uses his sense organ without any attachment and aversion to the sense objects perceived by the senses, such a person is always focused on the Self; as a result of focusing on the Self devoid of attachment-aversion, he attains Prasadam.
Is the prasadam some sweet or payasam?
The Lord says that this is the greatest of all prasadams.
Prasaade sarva dukhaanaam haanih asya upajaayathe
This prasada leads to complete cessation of sorrow.
It is this prasada to complete cessation of sorrow thereby rejoicing in bliss that we all are seeking. Irrespective of wherever we are, whoever we are and whatever we are doing we are all seeking eternal bliss – happiness that is ever-lasting and untainted by sorrow. If we need to get this bliss which is our own very nature of Lord, we have to get rid of raga-dvesha. Raga-dvesha is caused out of not knowing the entire world to be one reality of Brahman; not knowing that the duality we perceive is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord; it is not that easy to get rid of duality directly but it is very easy to get rid of raga-dvesha in our mind. The way to do this is to see oneness everywhere – to know that the entire world is an illusion of names-forms in the Lord which means that the world is the Lord thereby seeing the Lord as pervading the entire world.
Though it is vision of the ultimate truth that we are having (while seeing everything as pervaded by the Lord), still a sadhaka has to do the same with effort. Once a sadhaka progresses, he will find that it becomes natural and effortless – it is this state of natural and effortless remembrance of the entire world to be pervaded by Ishwara that Vedanta terms as moksha.
Some people get afraid of the term moksha – moksha is nothing but anandam or bliss. A state wherein we are blissful irrespective of external surroundings, environment etc. is the state of moksha. This state is untainted by sorrow as there are no raga-dvesha in it. Though a jeevan muktha might appear to get attached or averted to things externally, internally he will ever be rejoicing in bliss.
Sankara beautifully explains this in Bhaja Govindam as
Yoga ratho vaa bhoga ratho vaa
Sanga ratho vaa sangaviheenah
Yasya brahmani ramathe chittam
Nandathi nandathi nandathi eva
Whether doing yoga; or doing bhoga;
Whether getting attached; or totally detached;
One whose mind is ever residing in Brahman,
Such a person rejoices, rejoices and verily rejoices.
Thus through the example of Jarasandha, Bhagavatham is telling us to get rid of our raga-dvesha in the mind all the while externally playing the role that we have got in the world to perfection (getting attached, angry etc.) so that we may not enter into troubles that Jarasandha got into and will be ever blissful.
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.
There will be no Bhagavatham mails until 9th June as am out of town meeting AMMA.
When Jarasandha was ready to attack Mathura, divine chariots came down from heaven in order for Rama and Krishna to fight Jarasandha. Rama and Krishna got into the chariots. They had a small army and encountered Jarasandha. Jarasandha’s entire army was destroyed completely. Rama pounced ready to kill Jarasandha. But Krishna stopped him as he knew that there were many more asuric tendencies that needed to come out of Jarasandha later. Therefore Jarasandha was not killed but left alive & free.
Explanation
We learn a couple of very important concepts in this part of the story. First is that help is available wherever the Lord or his name is being spoken (wherever the Lord is remembered). Second is that the world is a divine play of the Lord (lila) – it is very strange, cannot be judged by the intellect and is always mysterious.
Wherever the Lord is present or his remembrance is there, that place is a heaven – all Gods will be waiting to serve such a place. It is for this reason that it is said that wherever Ramayana is chanted there will Hanuman present there; and wherever Bhagavatham is discussed, Shuka will be present along with other sages & Gods.
Why is that wherever the Lord is present, all protection will be there?
This is because the Lord controls his power of Maya – that divine power which is responsible for the entire world (and control of the world). Even as the magical power or display of the magician is under the control of the magician, similarly the power of Maya is under the control of the Lord. If we gain control over the magician, we can control the magical display; similarly if we gain control over Maya, we can control the entire world.
Then will this not lead to a devotee controlling the entire world?
No, because the devotee knows that the Lord (who controls Maya) is blissful and more powerful than his power. We rarely seek talents as talents are insentient – therefore we seek people with talents. It is the people who is important and not their talents. When we gain control over magical power, it is of no avail as the magician might display new powers; but if we gain control over the magician, then all magical powers that might come out of the magician is controlled. A wise person will therefore seek the owner of the magical power and not control over the magical power. Moreover a devotee knows that the power of Maya is as illusory as the magical power of the magician or the dream world displayed by the dreamer’s innate tendencies; he also knows that the Lord is eternal and constant remembrance of the Lord will grant him eternal bliss (that which is being sought by each one of us every moment of our lives).
Therefore a devotee will not control the world but enslave the Lord through devotion. When the Lord enslaved, the devotee will ever be blissful. This is the reason why Meera drank nectar happily as everything is blissful once we realize the Lord and that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord even as the dream world is an illusion in the dreamer. But the Lord since he has been enslaved by the devotee will always protect the devotee in the illusory world. The devotee doesn’t seek this protection as the devotee is always immersed in thought of the Lord and ever blissful – but still at the empirical plane, the devotee will always be protected by the Lord.
It is in order to drive this point that Bhagavatham shows here that the Lord is being protected and served by various Gods. This only denotes that wherever there is thought of the Lord and sincere devotion (real devotion is when the devotee always thinks about the Lord as the substratum of the illusory names and forms seen as the world), there will always be protection.
Brahma Sutra characterizes the world as “lokavattu tat leela kaivalyam” – that the world is a divine play of the Lord. We cannot figure out as to why this play, how this play etc. What we can do is surrender completely to the Lord by remembering that everything is but an illusion of names and forms in the Lord thereby enjoying the divine play like a witness enjoying a movie/drama/film. The world or the divine play of the Lord cannot be grasped by logic as it is like the dream world. But the Lord pervades his divine play – it is this fact that we should always remember while being in the world whether we experience good things or bad things. If we are able to remember that the entire world is just a strange, divine and illusory play of the Lord, we will never again be deluded into sorrows and our life will be filled with bliss each and every moment. This is the goal of moksha – that eternal blissful goal which we are seeking ardently here and there every moment of our life.
We will continue with as to how the Lord continues his divine play (all the while constantly remembering that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord).
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.
# posted by vedanta : 1:07 PM
