Sunday, July 13, 2008
Story 50 – Story of Dwaraka Nirmaanam - 09
The Lord continued:
According to Brahma’s request, I took birth as Yadukula Vasudeva’s son in order to reduce Bhoomi Devi of her burden. People call me Vaasudeva. Many bad people including Kamsa were killed by me. And now Yavana got burnt to ashes by your anger-fire.
Explanation
Though the Lord has already explained that everything is him alone, still he tries to answer the question of Muchukunda from the empirical perspective so that Muchukunda will be able to understand it better. This shows the ever compassionate nature of the Lord.
AMMA (Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) says that compassion is a quality of the mind which is essential for a seeker to see oneness everywhere and lead him to the goal of realization. Sage astavakra also says to Janaka that daya or compassion is one of the qualities that we have to love like nectar in order to realization.
Though we have to strive for showing compassion, the Lord and Mahatmas are ever compassionate. It is very tough indeed for us to show compassion to people whom we don’t know – we generally have passion towards “our” people and term it compassion. Compassion is different from passion – passion is attachment towards a set of people who are near and dear to us; whereas compassion is when we show love towards the entire world. We have to learn to implement compassion in life by looking at the Lord and various Mahatmas.
The Lord instructed Arjuna just before Mahabharatha war in around 700 slokas. Arjuna kept on asking almost the same question but in a different perspective. Rather than just ignoring Arjuna’s questions by telling that “everything is an illusion of names and forms in me; everything is me only”, the Lord answered Arjuna in all the possible perspectives. Arjuna accepts at the end of Gita that his delusion is removed but after the Mahabharatha war (at a later point), Arjuna requests the Lord to instruct him again as he forgot the instructions. The Lord says that Bhagavad Gita was given from a yoga avastha and cannot be reproduced; but being compassionate the Lord instructs Arjuna again which is known as the Uttara Gita. If somebody approaches us with any sorrows or questions, we would just answer them by telling that “the world is an illusion – you are blissful Brahman – so why any sorrow or questions”. But instead we find the compassionate Lord and Mahatmas answering the same questions from different people in as many different ways as possible.
Firstly we have to understand and apprehend the compassionate nature of Mahatmas. It is not just enough to understand the compassion but we have to utilize the compassion by following their instructions. If a teacher teaches us and we fail in the test put by the teacher, the teacher will get angry and tell us to “quit from school”. The same applies to Vedanta as well; though compassionate Mahatmas will not tell us to quit yet we will not benefit even a little bit out of their teachings if we do the same mistake of not implementing their teachings in life.
Thus it is very important to apprehend as well as utilize the compassionate nature of the Mahatmas by implementing their teachings even if it is just 1% that we implement in life.
We will continue with the Lord’s reply in the next day.
Let us try to utilize the compassion of various avataras of the Lord so that we may be able to realize our very nature of non-dual blissful Lord in this very birth itself through implementations of the teachings of the Lord and various Mahatmas.
The Lord continued:
I have come to this cave in order to bless you. Many times previously as well you have prayed for my blessings. Ask whatever you want. Those who have taken refuge in me will never have sorrows or sufferings.
Explanation
Ramana Maharshi once said “the very presence of a Mahatma is beneficial for the entire world”.
Why is this so? Because from all perspectives, the Mahatma will only help a seeker (which means the entire world). A Mahatma is a person who is always blissful thereby sending across waves of bliss. Any person with a open mind can experience the bliss when he approaches or is near the Mahatma. It is for this reason that many of us visit saints like the various sankaracharyas, Mahatmas like AMMA and jeevan mukthas like Prof. Balakrishnan Nair. Their very presence radiates bliss in the vicinity. We just need some openness of mind at the particular time to experience the bliss emanating from these Mahatmas.
There are many people who come to AMMA (Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) though they don’t accept her to be a realized master – when asked, such people say “there is some power in her”J. This is just a way of escapism – they know that there is some divinity but they are either afraid or don’t want to accept the divinity as realization. Hence they just say “there is some power in her”.
But we have to remember that not everyone will be able to apprehend and acknowledge the bliss emanating from Mahatmas – this is because majority of us have preconceived notions about these Mahatmas and hence we miss out on the bliss emanating from them (which can be apprehended, acknowledged and experienced only with an open mind).
Emanating bliss and making seekers realize their very nature of bliss (taking the seekers to the same level as themselves) is the main aim of these Mahatmas. It is realization which is the greatest blessing that we can get in life as that alone can give us eternal bliss and make our life fulfilled. Thus the Lord says here that he has come to bless Muchukunda. In fact the very presence of the Lord in various forms in the world is for blessing the entire world though most of us fail to accept the blessing even if the Lord gives us free of cost.
There are many spiritual masters who give knowledge as well as the way to implement it through Vedanta free of cost – yet there are no takers. Even if there are takers many of us escape saying “I have take care of my parents, I have attachment” etc. But the Lord never gives up trying to bless others – as it is his very nature to bless others even as it is the nature of Sun to give light to others (though many people might sit inside their house and not accept sunlight).
The Lord not just gives hope through words but is a person who stands by his words. Therefore he says that whoever has taken refuge in me will never again suffer. This is a fact which we can easily apprehend by looking at the lives of various Mahatmas like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi among others. We also see it in Gita as to the Lord going beyond all limitations in order to protect people who have surrendered unto him – we find this in Kurukshetra when the Lord takes the chariot wheel as a weapon and pounces upon Bhisma though he had made a promise not to yield weapons in the war.
If this is the case, then many of us might think as to why we are not being protected by the Lord at times of sorrow and distress though we have surrendered to the Lord?
This can only be due to one of two reasons – one is that our surrender is not complete. As long as the surrender is not complete, the Lord cannot and will not protect us – this is shown through Draupadi calling out to the Lord while holding one hand to her saree (during vastra harana) at which time the Lord didn’t come to help her; only when Draupadi let go of her saree and called out to the Lord with both hands that the Lord came to help her. Second reason could be that the Lord is testing our surrender and faith. Many of the Ramakrishna Mission saints hold the view that if we are not facing any obstacles in the spiritual path, we can be sure that we are not headed in the right direction. A seeker who is in the right direction will face many obstacles each of which are just ways in which he can gain more and more surrender to the Lord – this will culminate with the seeker having surrendered completely to the Lord (upon which there remains no more obstacles or testing).
A seeker should analyze this and consider obstacles as a way to gain more devotion to the Lord – rather than walking out, he should proceed with more devotion towards the goal of realization.
We will continue with the story in the next day.
Let us try to have complete surrender towards the Lord by always remembering him so that we may be able to apprehend and reside in the blessings of the Lord at all points of time.
According to Brahma’s request, I took birth as Yadukula Vasudeva’s son in order to reduce Bhoomi Devi of her burden. People call me Vaasudeva. Many bad people including Kamsa were killed by me. And now Yavana got burnt to ashes by your anger-fire.
Explanation
Though the Lord has already explained that everything is him alone, still he tries to answer the question of Muchukunda from the empirical perspective so that Muchukunda will be able to understand it better. This shows the ever compassionate nature of the Lord.
AMMA (Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) says that compassion is a quality of the mind which is essential for a seeker to see oneness everywhere and lead him to the goal of realization. Sage astavakra also says to Janaka that daya or compassion is one of the qualities that we have to love like nectar in order to realization.
Though we have to strive for showing compassion, the Lord and Mahatmas are ever compassionate. It is very tough indeed for us to show compassion to people whom we don’t know – we generally have passion towards “our” people and term it compassion. Compassion is different from passion – passion is attachment towards a set of people who are near and dear to us; whereas compassion is when we show love towards the entire world. We have to learn to implement compassion in life by looking at the Lord and various Mahatmas.
The Lord instructed Arjuna just before Mahabharatha war in around 700 slokas. Arjuna kept on asking almost the same question but in a different perspective. Rather than just ignoring Arjuna’s questions by telling that “everything is an illusion of names and forms in me; everything is me only”, the Lord answered Arjuna in all the possible perspectives. Arjuna accepts at the end of Gita that his delusion is removed but after the Mahabharatha war (at a later point), Arjuna requests the Lord to instruct him again as he forgot the instructions. The Lord says that Bhagavad Gita was given from a yoga avastha and cannot be reproduced; but being compassionate the Lord instructs Arjuna again which is known as the Uttara Gita. If somebody approaches us with any sorrows or questions, we would just answer them by telling that “the world is an illusion – you are blissful Brahman – so why any sorrow or questions”. But instead we find the compassionate Lord and Mahatmas answering the same questions from different people in as many different ways as possible.
Firstly we have to understand and apprehend the compassionate nature of Mahatmas. It is not just enough to understand the compassion but we have to utilize the compassion by following their instructions. If a teacher teaches us and we fail in the test put by the teacher, the teacher will get angry and tell us to “quit from school”. The same applies to Vedanta as well; though compassionate Mahatmas will not tell us to quit yet we will not benefit even a little bit out of their teachings if we do the same mistake of not implementing their teachings in life.
Thus it is very important to apprehend as well as utilize the compassionate nature of the Mahatmas by implementing their teachings even if it is just 1% that we implement in life.
We will continue with the Lord’s reply in the next day.
Let us try to utilize the compassion of various avataras of the Lord so that we may be able to realize our very nature of non-dual blissful Lord in this very birth itself through implementations of the teachings of the Lord and various Mahatmas.
The Lord continued:
I have come to this cave in order to bless you. Many times previously as well you have prayed for my blessings. Ask whatever you want. Those who have taken refuge in me will never have sorrows or sufferings.
Explanation
Ramana Maharshi once said “the very presence of a Mahatma is beneficial for the entire world”.
Why is this so? Because from all perspectives, the Mahatma will only help a seeker (which means the entire world). A Mahatma is a person who is always blissful thereby sending across waves of bliss. Any person with a open mind can experience the bliss when he approaches or is near the Mahatma. It is for this reason that many of us visit saints like the various sankaracharyas, Mahatmas like AMMA and jeevan mukthas like Prof. Balakrishnan Nair. Their very presence radiates bliss in the vicinity. We just need some openness of mind at the particular time to experience the bliss emanating from these Mahatmas.
There are many people who come to AMMA (Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) though they don’t accept her to be a realized master – when asked, such people say “there is some power in her”J. This is just a way of escapism – they know that there is some divinity but they are either afraid or don’t want to accept the divinity as realization. Hence they just say “there is some power in her”.
But we have to remember that not everyone will be able to apprehend and acknowledge the bliss emanating from Mahatmas – this is because majority of us have preconceived notions about these Mahatmas and hence we miss out on the bliss emanating from them (which can be apprehended, acknowledged and experienced only with an open mind).
Emanating bliss and making seekers realize their very nature of bliss (taking the seekers to the same level as themselves) is the main aim of these Mahatmas. It is realization which is the greatest blessing that we can get in life as that alone can give us eternal bliss and make our life fulfilled. Thus the Lord says here that he has come to bless Muchukunda. In fact the very presence of the Lord in various forms in the world is for blessing the entire world though most of us fail to accept the blessing even if the Lord gives us free of cost.
There are many spiritual masters who give knowledge as well as the way to implement it through Vedanta free of cost – yet there are no takers. Even if there are takers many of us escape saying “I have take care of my parents, I have attachment” etc. But the Lord never gives up trying to bless others – as it is his very nature to bless others even as it is the nature of Sun to give light to others (though many people might sit inside their house and not accept sunlight).
The Lord not just gives hope through words but is a person who stands by his words. Therefore he says that whoever has taken refuge in me will never again suffer. This is a fact which we can easily apprehend by looking at the lives of various Mahatmas like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi among others. We also see it in Gita as to the Lord going beyond all limitations in order to protect people who have surrendered unto him – we find this in Kurukshetra when the Lord takes the chariot wheel as a weapon and pounces upon Bhisma though he had made a promise not to yield weapons in the war.
If this is the case, then many of us might think as to why we are not being protected by the Lord at times of sorrow and distress though we have surrendered to the Lord?
This can only be due to one of two reasons – one is that our surrender is not complete. As long as the surrender is not complete, the Lord cannot and will not protect us – this is shown through Draupadi calling out to the Lord while holding one hand to her saree (during vastra harana) at which time the Lord didn’t come to help her; only when Draupadi let go of her saree and called out to the Lord with both hands that the Lord came to help her. Second reason could be that the Lord is testing our surrender and faith. Many of the Ramakrishna Mission saints hold the view that if we are not facing any obstacles in the spiritual path, we can be sure that we are not headed in the right direction. A seeker who is in the right direction will face many obstacles each of which are just ways in which he can gain more and more surrender to the Lord – this will culminate with the seeker having surrendered completely to the Lord (upon which there remains no more obstacles or testing).
A seeker should analyze this and consider obstacles as a way to gain more devotion to the Lord – rather than walking out, he should proceed with more devotion towards the goal of realization.
We will continue with the story in the next day.
Let us try to have complete surrender towards the Lord by always remembering him so that we may be able to apprehend and reside in the blessings of the Lord at all points of time.
# posted by vedanta : 4:53 PM
