Srimad Bhagavatham

Usha who was playing sensually with Aniruddha was noticed by the guards. The guards could see the characteristics of being a man in Usha. They informed this to Baana. Confused and worried, Baana ran towards Usha’s room.

Explanation

Many people will ask “what is the problem with leading a worldly life filled with desires and passions”. We find here in Baana’s reaction to the news delivered by his guards the answer to the above question.

As long as there are passions in the form of attachment and aversion (raga-dvesha) to anything in the entire world (except to the ultimate reality of Lord), the outcome will always be sorrow only. The Lord clearly mentions this thus in Gita (showing the various stages through which a simple meditation on an object goes through till complete destruction).

Dhyaayatho vishayaan pumsah sangasteshu upajaayathe
Sangaat samjaayathe kaamaah kaamaat krodhobhijaayathe
Krodhaat bhavathi sammohah sammohaat smrithi vibhramaa
Smrithi bhramshaat buddhinaasho buddhinaashaat pranashyathi

When a person meditates on a person/object, he gets attached to it. Attachment leads to kaama (strong desire to maintain the object); when at times the object is lost or decays, attachment becomes anger; anger leads to delusion; delusion leads to los of memory; loss of memory leads to destruction of intellect (proper discrimination); destruction of intellect thereby destroys the person completely.

When something good or bad happens to the person we are attached to, we get excited or angry. Any fluctuation in the mental state of a person (emotions) is like tides of the ocean. Even as the tides are not good for anyone, similarly the mental emotions aren’t good for the seeker. These emotions take a person away from the peaceful state. Even as a pendulum at the extreme positions is restless, similarly the mind becomes restless when in emotions. But once the pendulum’s middle position is achieved (where there is no longer any movement), the pendulum is resting. Similarly the state of the mind where the mind just perceives the world as such without getting into emotions is the resting state or peaceful state.

We as seekers of eternal bliss have to start practicing to go beyond attachment and aversion so that we are able to maintain the calmness of the mind. A person whose mind is ever calm is a jeevan muktha (realized person) who is ever blissful. Thus attachment and aversion even if it is to the most insignificant thing in the world will cause only our destruction whereas the way to eternal bliss is to go beyond attachment and aversion.

It isn’t tough at all to go beyond attachment and aversion; the moment a seeker sees one Ishwara everywhere, attachment and aversion vanishes completely to make the seeker ever rejoice in bliss (even when the entire world collapses).

Let us try to go beyond attachment and aversion by always contemplating on the truth that “everything is Ishwara” so that our mind doesn’t cause our own destruction and instead leads us to rejoice in bliss.

In Usha’s room Baana found Aniruddha. Baana saw the most-beautiful Aniruddha playing chaturanga game (similar to chess) with Usha. First the guards of Baana attacked Aniruddha with various weapons. But unable to stand and fight in front of Aniruddha they ran away.

Explanation

Though what we are going to discuss doesn’t have any direct relation to the story part today but still it is worth knowing. How can we scare away the various asuras? Asuras don’t necessarily mean the asura parampara (asura generations) but anything that veils and obstructs us from remembering the ultimate reality of Lord is an asura. Even if it is japa and it obstructs us from remembering the ultimate reality of Lord, then those are asuras. If asuras obstruct us from remembering the ultimate reality of Lord, then the way to scare away asuras is also very simple – remembrance of the Lord in whatever way possible (through any means).

Wherever the Lord’s thoughts are present, no asuras can live in that particular place. We find this in the story of Markandeya. Markandeya’s time to die came and Yama came to pick up Markandeya. But Markandeya’s parents didn’t want to let go of their young son and hence Markandeya refused to go with Yama. Instead Markandeya caught hold of a Siva linga not to let go of Lord Siva. Seeing this Yama decided that if Markandeya cannot leg go of the siva linga, he could take the siva linga along with Markandeya. This is exactly what Yama tried but Yama was unsuccessful in his attempt. The Lord then arrives there granting more life to Markandeya and overruling Yama.

We find the same incident happening in a different way in the story of Ajamila who called out his son Narayana while dying. Though he meant to call out his son but since the name was that of the Lord, therefore a battle ensues between the guards of Yama and Narayana (the guards of Yama wanted to take Ajamila to naraka/hell because he had done lot of bad deeds but the guards of Narayana wouldn’t let them do so as saying the name of the Lord is enough to destroy all bad deeds). Yama’s guards fail and thereby they return sadly to Yama. Yama then advises them to stay away from the devotees of Narayana.

Thus the very thought of the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading the entire world is enough to get rid of all that will lead us to sorrow (both internally and externally). This means that a seeker has to always try to have the thought of the Lord in his mind. Even as a lover is constantly thinking about his love, the seeker has to always contemplate on the ultimate reality of Lord. This is very simple to do as this doesn’t involve anything externally but just the mental desire and conviction to remember the Lord in one part of our mind.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us try to always remember the ultimate reality of Lord in our mind so that all that causes us sorrow will instantly vanish and thereby we will be able to ever rejoice in bliss.

Knowing that Usha’s lover is Krishna’s grandson Aniruddha, Chitralekha who was a yogi reached Dwaraka by traveling through space. There she got Aniruddha who was sleeping on the couch on her control (through her powers) and came back to Shonithapuri very fast. She then took Aniruddha to Usha’s bedroom.

Explanation

Yogic powers or miraculous powers are something that we don’t see in everyone. Hence these days people run after many of these powers. One such magical power is aakaasha gamanam or movement through space. All these magical powers have been explained in the third chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (the chapter is titled vibhoothi yoga). Since this is a shastra many people want to get these siddhis and run hither and thither seeking these siddhis.

Why waste many years trying to master traveling in space when that can be achieved through a flight? Ok but what about parakaaya praveshanam (entering another person’s body) – can this be achieved other than through a siddhi?

Why would a seeker want to enter another person’s body? It is as if the problems with one body isn’t enough – as Sankara says in Bhaja Govindam, body is made of flesh, fat etc. The look of the body might be different but it is all panchabhoothas (five elements). A wise person knows that the body will perish one day or the other and hence not seek pleasure out of the body.

Thus parakaaya praveshanam is not required – if only we can go beyond the problems of one body then we don’t even need the siddhi of getting into another person’s bodies. Though these various siddhis might appear appealing, it requires a lot of continuous and dedicated effort – all for some worldly power. The siddhis are as illusory as the world and thereby cannot give us eternal bliss.

Paramahamsa Yogananda in his book “Autobiography of a Yogi” speaks about a yogi who had the power of producing any smell. Yogananda asks him as to how long he practiced to master this power to which the yogi replied “around 20 years or more”. Yogananda proclaims “if only you had used this time to realize the Self”.

Patanjali himself says that siddhis are obstacles to samaadhi thus in Yoga Sutras “te samaadhau upasargaah vyuthaane siddhayah” – these siddhis which arise out of thoughts are obstacles to Samadhi. This means that a wise person will not fall for these siddhis instead will go on and not stop until the supreme goal of eternal bliss is achieved. These siddhis might appear alluring but they are also as sorrowful as any worldly pleasure – it is only realization of the ultimate reality of Lord by always remembering that the entire world is just an illusion of names and forms in the Lord that can give us eternal bliss thereby fulfilling our lives.

Let us try not to get deluded into siddhis by remembering that siddhis cannot give us eternal bliss so that we are ever contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord as the non-dual reality of ever-changing and sorrowful world.


Usha seeing Aniruddha, got very happy and enjoyed with him as she had desired. Enjoying sensual plesures with Usha, Aniruddha didn’t know many days pass by.

Explanation

Sankara says in Bhaja Govindam thus:

Kaalah kreedathi gacchathi aayuh
Tadapi na munchath aasha vaayuh

Time passes by and aging happens, but still desires are not completely eliminated.

This is because as Manu says trying to eliminate desires by fulfilling them is like trying to put out fire by pouring ghee – the fire will not be extinguished; instead it will burn more vigorously. Similarly the more desires we fulfill, the more new desires will be created. The only way to get out of this endless desire is by remembering the ultimate reality of Lord, offering all actions unto the Lord and enjoying desires as an anugraha (blessing) of the Lord. When a person maintains this attitude of offering and remembering the Lord, number of desires will slowly get reduced. If a person doesn’t maintain this attitude, the number of desires will never get reduced.

Such a person who doesn’t maintain the right attitude of remembering the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading the illusory world of names and forms will spend days like an animal doing activities of eating, drinking, sleeping, mating etc. Such a person wastes the precious human life wherein the intellect can be used to go beyond the temporary world and achieve the ultimate goal of life (eternal bliss).

Here we find Aniruddha enjoying sensual pleasures with Usha and thereby days just pass by without him knowing about it. Many times this is what happens with our life – within the blink of an eye we are middle aged and within the next blink we are old. When we are about to give up our life, since we have spent most of our time enjoying sensual pleasures we think about those pleasures and seek more pleasures. Thus throughout the life a person is not satisfied and then he gives up his life still not satisfied. While living life, life is sorrowful and incomplete; while dying as well life is incomplete. Then the person takes another birth and continues this cycle of birth and death infinitely.

As Sankara says “punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jatare shayam; iha samsaare bahudustaare kripayaa pare paahi murare” – again birth, again death, again getting into the womb of the mother; this ocean of samsaara is very tough to overcome and a person who surrenders unto the ultimate reality of Lord alone is saved from this sorrowful ocean of samsaara.

Thus rather than being swept by time, a seeker should start his quest of eternal bliss by seeking and remembering the ultimate reality of Lord all the while doing worldly activities and enjoying sensual pleasures like any other person. Vedanta is not against sensual pleasures but sensual pleasures should be associated with the thought of the non-dual reality of Lord. If the thought of the ultimate reality of Lord is not there, then a person will not get eternal bliss and instead will be again and again twirled in the ocean of samsaara (birth-death).

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us try to not waste time by merely enjoying sensual pleasures but keeping the ultimate reality of Lord in our mind through constant contemplation of the knowledge that the Lord alone exists here as the substratum of the illusory world so that we don’t end this precious human birth the same way we have been doing for many births.

Chitralekha replied to Usha “Friend! Wherever in the three worlds the man you saw in your dream is, I will find him out and remove your sorrow.”

Explanation

We can find a reflection of ourselves in Chitralekha when we or people around us face troubles in life. We generally think we can achieve quite a lot in life. AMMA following the scriptures says that nothing happens in the world without the will of the Lord. The Lord is the magician who has created the magic world. Even as the magician’s world is under the control of the magician, the Lord’s world is controlled by the Lord. Nothing in the entire world goes unnoticed by the Lord – the Conscious principle in all beings (Consciousness that pulsates as “I-exist, I-exist”) is the Lord without which the world will not even exist.

AMMA says that few countries will tell that “If I press this button, the entire world will be destroyed” but for them to move even that one finger, the Lord’s will is essential.

There was once a famous heart specialist who went on stage to speak about heart-attacks. While he was speaking he suddenly had an attack and passed away.

This is the same case with most of the things in the world. A fool thinks that everything happens due to his power or might whereas a wise person remembers that everything happens by the will of the Lord. The wise person thus considers himself just an instrument in the hands of the Lord. He remains a mere witness to all the activities that are happening in the world all the while remembering that the world is a divine play of the Lord (lokavattu tat leela kaivalyam – says Brahma Sutras).

We may have a doubt here that if everything is controlled by the Lord then why doesn’t he make it a good place? Even as a director can make everything in his movie good but still doesn’t do it, similarly the Lord also waits for karma (which controls the world at the empirical plane) to do its job. When there will be situations where a person’s ego goes beyond control the Lord will ensure that the ego is completely destroyed. Until then the Lord just enjoys his own divine play even as a director enjoys his own play. All the time the play of the Lord is continuing, he knows that there is no play at all and this is just an illusion like the magician’s magic.

Then what can we do in this illusory world? Since we are suffering in sorrow, we can surrender unto the ultimate reality of Lord rather than trying to deal with problems on our own. The moment a seeker surrenders unto the Lord by remembering the Lord as the non-dual reality behind the illusory world and who pervades the dual world, that very moment all sorrows vanish as the seeker knows this world to be an illusion. Thereby the seeker relishes each moment of this divine play all the while playing his part/role to perfection.

Let us unlike Chitralekha, try to surrender unto the ultimate reality of Lord by remembering that the Lord alone is present here as the substratum of the illusory world so that we don’t end up in sorrow trying to solve the non-existing problems of the non-existing world.


After consoling Usha, Chitralekha gave a representation of devatas, asuras and manushyas. In manushyas she drew the vrishnikas and Rama, Krishna, Pradhyumna who are the foremost among vrishnikas. Seeing Pradhyumna Usha shyly changed her gaze. Following this Chitralekha drew Aniruddha and immediately Usha exclaimed “this is the person”.

Explanation

“This is the person” – if only we could find out the one person in this way who is capable of removing all the sorrows of our life and bestowing ever-lasting bliss upon us, life will become fruitful and complete. But often it is very tough to find simple things. We all very know the story of “Kucchu and his glasses” – in a similar way, the blissful Lord is ever residing inside ourselves as own our Consciousness (that pulsates as “I-exist, I-exist”). But since the Lord is very close to us it is very tough to realize the Lord. Add to this the nature of the indriyas (sense organs) and the mind to be always extroverted, the inner Lord will be completely forgotten until a compassionate master comes and makes our mind introverted thereby making us realize our very nature of Lord.

It is for this reason that the Upanishad says “taddure tat u anthike” or “it is very far yet very near”. It is very near to those who know the Self and it is very far for those who don’t know that it is the Consciousness that is constantly pulsating as “I-exist, I-exist”.

Man goes on searching for Ishwara in the entire world trying out many things in the way to the quest for eternal bliss (even trying out marriage and marriages, child and children, job and jobs, country and countries). If only a seeker is able to understand from the scriptures that the blissful Lord doesn’t reside in heaven but he resides as the essence of all beings (Self of all beings). The first thing thereby a seeker has to do in order to fulfill his quest for bliss is stop seeking the external world and its objects by knowing that the world is constantly changing and thereby sorrowful. Once the world is known as sorrowful, the seeker has to seek the blissful Lord in one’s heart and who pervades the entire world. This is exactly what Krishna says in Gita thus:

Anityam asukham lokam imam praapya bhajasva maam

Having attained this temporary and sorrowful world, seek me as the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord.

The Lord again speaks about bliss being in the Self and not the world thus in the 5th chapter of Gita:

Baahyasparsheshu asakthaatma vindathi aatmani yat sukham
Sa brahmayoga yukthaatma sukham akshayam ashnuthe

One who becomes detached to the external sensual pleasures finds that bliss in the Self (the Lord) which is non-decaying through being ever-focused on the Lord.

Kaama krodha viyukthaanam yatheenaam yathachethasaam
Abhitho brahmanirvaanam varthathe vidhithaatmanaam

A person who is devoid of attachment and aversion (dual notion) and is ever focused on the Lord thereby realizes the Lord and bliss dances around such a person.

The Lord thus gives the easy and simple way to realize bliss as ever-focusing on the ultimate reality of Lord and remembering that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord who alone exists here, one without a second. When a seeker continues this constant contemplation of the non-dual Lord, the statement of “this is the Lord” not as an external entity but as an intuitive internal experience will ensue which will make the seeker’s life blissful, perfect, peaceful and complete in all aspects.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us to try to always contemplate on the ultimate reality of Lord as the non-dual reality behind the illusory world so that we are not whirled into dual notions and finally fulfill our lives with bliss.

One day Baana’s daughter Usha had a dream in which she saw Aniruddha (whom she had never seen before) making love to her. All of a sudden she woke up and didn’t find Aniruddha; she thereby starting shouting “where are you” and started roaming here and there searching for Aniruddha. All her friends saw her searching and shouting for some person.

Explanation

There is a science dedicated to analysis of dream – this seems to be catching up lately as people want to know as to what would happen if they have a particular dream. Did you see AMMA in the dream? Did you see Yama in the dream? These are some of the very basic questions that finalizes the analysis of the dream.

Vedanta on the other hand gives a beautiful analysis of dream explaining it to perfection – it also gives the way to control the dream world (as Swami Gautamananda of Ramakrishna Mission Chennai explains it beautifully). Sankara defines the dream state (svapna) as jaagaritha samskaarajah or “that which is born out of the latent tendencies of dream”. The more a person thinks about PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN in a day, the chances of that getting into his dream is more. It is also a matter of fact that whatever we generally think just before going to sleep will be experienced in dream.

Dream thus depends on the tendencies that a person has accumulated in this birth as well as many of the previous births. Any person who hasn’t ever thought about Sankara will not dream about Sankara. Thus we find here Baana’s daughter Usha seeing Aniruddha in dream because of a previous birth connection. It isn’t important as to why she got the dream but it is important as to where the dream world incident leads her to.

If a seeker wants to control the dream world, he has to control the waking world and automatically his dreams will be controlled. Many vedantic learners have dreams about teaching or chanting Sanskrit slokas – many devotees of AMMA have dreams in which they see AMMA. This is the simple rule of dream – control the vasanas in waking state and dream will automatically be controlled. Since the dream world is born out of the vasanas of the waking state, therefore whatever we dream may have something to do with the waking state – this doesn’t necessarily mean that whatever one dreams will come true (as the waking state vasana might be to fly – since a person nourishes this vasana, he will dream as flying in space though it will never happen in the waking state unless he is in a helicopter or an airplane).

Bhagavatham along with bringing in the concept of dream here is comparing the dream world with waking world. We may consider Usha as a mad person as she went after a person whom she saw in dream but this waking world is a long dream – this came out of the non-dual reality of Lord and resides in the non-dual reality of Lord. There is no possibility of this dual world having come out of the non-dual reality of Lord (as the Lord is changeless and the changing world cannot appear in the changeless Lord). Thus this waking world is also an illusion like the dream world. But we often go behind people we see in the waking world – even to the extent of crossing the sea (going over to other continents) in search of a person. Rather than seeking worldly people and objects (who are just illusions) a seeker should seek the ultimate reality of Lord (or realized masters who are one with the ultimate reality of Lord). This alone will give a seeker the eternal bliss that he is searching in the external world.

Let us try to always remember that this world is just a long dream so that we don’t identify ourselves with the doer or get attached to objects/people which in turn will make us ever abide in bliss at all times like the Lord all the while doing external activities to perfection.


Baana’s minister Kumbaanda’s daughter was Chitralekha who was a friend of Usha (Baana’s daughter). Anxiously she asked Usha “Dear friend! Whom are you searching? Your husband hasn’t yet arrived and yet you are running hither and thither in your mind”. Usha replied “Friend! I saw a man in my dream who had blue lotus-like eyes. Wearing a yellow robe, with long hands and attracting the hearts of women, I am searching for that man who is my husband. Making me enjoy him and without letting me completely quench my thirst, he left me and went away.”

Explanation

Here we find the irony of life. We go on seeking people or things in the world all the while forgetting that the goal of all our seeking is eternal bliss and that eternal bliss cannot be found in the ever-changing world. Eternal bliss is our very nature of Lord. It is by seeking the ultimate reality of Lord (who is the indwelling Consciousness that pulsates each moment as “I-exist, I-exist” and pervades the entire illusory dream world) that a person can get eternal bliss and thereby contentment. There have been many emperors like Alexander, Hitler, Napolean etc. who have tried to conquer the world and gain contentment but none of them have got contentment from the world.

The world that we perceive is limited and hence it cannot give us eternal bliss. Therefore the Lord says that “having attained the temporary and sorrowful world, seek me”. The ultimate reality of Lord is changeless. Even as the dream world cannot give us eternal happiness similarly this long dream world of waking world cannot give us eternal bliss. Eternal bliss can be achieved only from the eternal entity of Lord.

Where can we find the Lord? The Lord cannot be found in the external world as the world is not real (but when a seeker goes beyond the unreal world, he can find that the world is just an illusion of names and forms in the Lord even as the dream world is an illusion in the dreamer). In order for a seeker to realize the Lord he has to find the Lord. Finding the Lord has two aspects or steps to it – first is the abode of the Lord and second is knowing that the Lord alone is present as the illusory dual world.

AMMA gives a beautiful story as to residing place of the Lord. Earlier (long ago) people used to have access to the places where gods resided (like Kailasa, Vaikunta etc.). This became a big problem for the gods as day in and day out people started disturbing them – if people were disturbing them for eternal bliss, gods would have been happy but people were troubling gods for petty things like job, marriage etc. It is not just today that conferences are called for to address problems – this existed even in ancient times. So the gods called for a conference where the issue of “how to escape from humans” was discussed. Many gods tried to give suggestions but none of those proved useful until an old god came up with a hiding place for the gods. This hiding place was so good that till day humans are searching for God (bliss) and most of the humans are unable to find God. The hiding place is inside humans.

Thus God resides in the heart of all beings. This is not just a story but it is what the scriptures proclaim and the truth as well (of course story makes the concept easy to apprehend by the limited human mind) – the Upanishads proclaim “tat sristvaa tadevaanupraavishat” (after having created the world, the Lord entered into the world as the various beings or “I” or Consciousness in beings).

Though this is the truth, many people don’t know this truth and hence seek bliss in the external world all the while when bliss is right inside them (their very nature). As simple as it may seem, it still is tough to apprehend nonetheless implement and live (living the truth means each and every moment living life blissfully).

There is one of AMMA’s song which depicts this truth thus:

Unmaye thedi thedi ulakellaam naan alainthen
Ulakellam payanam cheythum unmaye kaana villai
Unmay kaana alaintha naan unnidathil vanthen amma
Uravodu kaappaathu unmay kaatta vendum amma

I searched for the truth in the entire world – even after going through the entire world, I couldn’t find the truth; But finally I have come to your abode (you who are abiding in truth) so please do protect me and show the truth to me.

The simple story of Ganapathi and Muruga fighting as to who would get the jnaana-pazham (knowledge-fruit) depicts this same concept. Knowledge-fruit is knowing that the entire world is nothing but one entity of Ishwara denoted as Siva and Shakthi (Siva is Consciousness and Shakthi is siva power – Lalitha Sahasranama speaks about the Lord as SivaShakthiAikyaRupini or one who is of the form of oneness of Siva and Shakthi). Muruga went around the entire world whereas Ganapathi found Ishwara very near himself.

The person who realizes that the Lord resides in the heart of all beings thereby first purifying his mind and finding the Lord of “I” in his heart then seeing the Lord as pervading the entire world alone will get bliss. All others who roam around various temples, ashrams, sapthaahams etc. without remembering this truth that the Lord resides as the “I” in all beings and the Lord alone is present here will not get any bliss even after doing many such spiritual activities.

Yoga Vasistha speaks about such people who seek Ishwara in the world not trying to find him inside one’s heart thus:

Thyaktvaa hridgriha ishaanam devam anyam prayaanthi ye
Te rathnam abhivaanchanthi thyaktvaa hasthastha kausthubam

Those who forsake the Lord in one’s heart and seek other devatas are people who seek jewels forsaking the Kaustubha jewel in their hand (Kaustubha is the greatest of jewels).

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us try to always remember that the Lord resides as the pure “I” in the heart of all beings and try to realize the Lord by getting rid of the Ego sense and duality (keeping in mind that the entire world is only an illusion in the Lord) so that we may be able to rejoice in bliss in this very birth itself.

Happy hearing the Lord’s words, Baana went inside expecting the flagstaff to fall. However big the ego is or whoever has ego, it will cause the person to fall down.

Explanation

Foolishness and arrogance (or ego) goes hand in hand – wherever one is there, the other follows suit. Ego is something which ultimately puts a person down so that the person will end up in total misery. If we find big people in history who had a great ego of conquering the world (like Hitler, Napolean etc.), they all suffered in the end.

A seeker has to always remember to keep the Ego down and not let the Ego rise – the moment the Ego rises, the seeker is bound to fall into sorrow and suffering. A seeker who is always remembering that the ultimate reality of Lord alone exists here, one without a second cannot see any difference (duality) as everything is the Lord. When there is no duality perceived, there cannot be any likes or dislikes. It is the sense of “I” and “mine” (arising out of duality as well as likes-dislikes) that is called Ego. For a seeker who is ever focused on the ultimate reality of Lord there is no scope for the Ego. It is this attitude of surrendering the Ego (sense of I and mine) unto the all-pervasive Lord that is termed as bhakthi by some acharyas and jnaana by others.

Ramana Maharshi beautifully gives the easy way to conquer the Ego in Upadesa Saram as:

Ishwara arpitham na icchayaa kritham
Chitha shodhakam mukthi saadhakam

Actions offered unto Ishwara and without any craving for fruit will purify the mind and thereby help in liberation.

A mind which is purified by offering all actions (the sense of doership or EGO and the craving for fruits) will be able to perceive the all-pervasive Ishwara even as a pure mirror will reflect one’s face.

Though it might seem to be very simple to conquer the Ego, it is the toughest enemy to conquer in the spiritual path. Krishna says in Gita that one who doesn’t have any sense of Ego is a realized person – Vidyaranya terms moksha as separating the Ego from the saakshi atman (witness-Self – that Self which is the reality behind the illusory names-forms, actions and ego of the world). Ramana Maharshi tells that the final step in the path of realization is conquering the Ego. He says that the Ego often poses as our friend and since most of us fall a prey to friendship, we fail to understand the real nature of Ego as the causer of all troubles.

Thus we find Baana here forgetting the ultimate reality of Lord and thereby being conquered by Ego. This Ego itself will lead to his downfall. If we try to find out as to what is the cause of all our problems we will find the role of Ego in each of the problems – we don’t need to learn Vedanta to understand this. Just some analysis on our problems will reveal that the sense of Ego is what causes us to be twirled in many problems.

Let us try to always offer all actions unto the ultimate reality of Lord remembering that everything is the Lord alone so that there is no scope for the Ego to rise and make us suffer again (as we have suffered in many births).


Elsewhere in Dwaraka, Krishna had 10 sons with each of his 16008 wives. One of the son of Rukmini was Pradhyumna. Pradhyumna’s son was the very-powerful Aniruddha.

Explanation

Though we have discussed previously as well about the Lord’s many wives – here it is worth trying to understand as to what differentiates the Lord from a normal person (who has one or many wives and similarly many children).

Though the Lord had many wives and many children yet the Lord was unaffected by whatever happened around him. This is because of the knowledge that this entire world is just an illusion – it is just a long play (like a movie we watch). Even as the actor in the movie isn’t affected the least by whatever happens to his role or any other roles in the movie, similarly the Lord isn’t affected at all as he knows this entire world to be just a long play.

We may think that it is impossible for a normal person to see the world as a long play but we do experience a state wherein we see the world as a long play – this is the state of dream. Every day we go to sleep and create a new world of our own – we experience a lot of things in the world and even get into emotions but once we wake up, we are not affected the least by whatever happened in the dream world. Why is it that we are affected while dreaming but not after waking up? It is because after waking up we know that the dream world was unreal whereas while dreaming we still consider the world to be real (svakaale sathyavad bhaathi, prabodhe satyasadh bhavet – while in the state, it appears to be real but after waking up it is known to be unreal). A person who is able to remember that the dream world is unreal will be unaffected in the dream world as well. If this is not possible at least knowledge of the waking world (that we currently perceive) to be a long dream world will make us treat the world like an illusion thereby remaining unaffected by whatever happens in the world.

Thus knowledge about the nature of the world as an illusion or a long dream will enable us to ever abide in witness-hood (as a mere witness to this waking world and its activities). Though Aamir Khan knows that his role in Ghajini is not real yet he performs his role to perfection – similarly knowledge about the world to be unreal doesn’t make a person stop doing actions; instead the person will be able to do actions in a better way.

A judge is able to give proper judgement not because of his intellect but because he isn’t involved in what he is trying to judge – involvement in any activity (identifying oneself as the doer and seeking the fruit of action) will make us miss the total or wholistic perspective of the activity. This is due to lack of the knowledge that this entire world is just a long play in which we are doing a role – if this knowledge is there, then like the Lord we will be able to do actions to perfection all the while ever abiding in bliss.

Thus what differentiates the Lord from us is not the external activity but the inner knowledge that everything is just a long play in the non-dual reality of Lord – this knowledge will give us that bliss which are constantly seeking in the world by getting attached to people and objects of the world.

We will continue with the story in the next day.

Let us try to always remember that this world is just a long dream so that we don’t identify ourselves with the doer or get attached to objects/people which in turn will make us ever abide in bliss at all times like the Lord all the while doing external activities to perfection.

O Lord – the thousand hands that I have got by your blessing has become a burden. I don’t see anybody other than yourself who is equal to me. My hands are itching for war.

Explanation

Here we find Baana’s ignorance leading to his own downfall. Whether we have the Lord in form of an avathara or guru with us or whether we are all by ourselves, it doesn’t matter – what really matters in the spiritual path is as to whether a seeker remembers the ultimate truth that the non-dual reality of Lord alone exists here. If this truth is forgotten that very moment a seeker enters into the illusory dual world. The illusory world can only lead us to sorrow and suffering even as the water seen in desert can only lead us to sorrow – the moment a person forgets the underlying substratum of desert, he will be deluded by the water and thereby suffer (by running behind the water and finally getting depressed when the water is not found). But instead of this if the person remembers that there is no water at all in the desert, even though he might perceive water in the desert yet he will not be deluded by the perception of water. He might even run behind water like another ignorant person but since he already knew that there is no water, he will not get disappointed when he doesn’t find water.

Thus a seeker has to always remember the ultimate reality of Lord as forgetting the ultimate reality of Lord even if it is for one moment can lead to the downfall of the seeker. As Nochur Venkataraman beautifully explains that we may think that falling down is not that bad but falling from in the spiritual path is “kandukam iva patathi” (like a ball falling from one of the stairs). A ball which is in the 99th step is falling down – we may think that this is not bad but with each fall the ball gains more momentum thereby it will come down to the 1st step. Thus the moment a seeker forgets the ultimate reality of Lord he not only gets deluded by the illusory world but he adds on more vasanas which binds him and obstructs him to get back into the spiritual path.

This is shown through the story of Jada Bharatha. Bharatha was a king who was devoted to Vishnu – he didn’t apprehend Vishnu as the all-pervasive non-dual reality instead was worshipping as a form. Any form-worship has to lead us to form-less all pervasive Ishwara – if not there are chances that another form replaces this form. Thus Bharatha’s devotion to Vishnu got replaced by his devotion to a deer. He thus gave up his life remembering the deer (that was being brought up by him) – he had to take the next birth as a deer. But as AMMA says, any spiritual practice is like a Fixed Deposit. Therefore the deer Bharatha repented for his mistake and contemplated on Ishwara. Thereby the next birth he was again born as a human being – he took the resolution of not getting deluded again thereby remaining like an insentient rock (thus the name of Jada Bharatha).

We find here Baana doing the same mistake – the moment we aren’t aware of the very nature of the Lord as all-pervasive non-dual reality of Consciousness, we are bound to get deluded by the various forms of the world and thereby will suffer. We will see in the next day as to what is the Lord’s reply to Baana’s foolish statement (wherein he forgot the ultimate reality of Lord and thereby got deluded into the illusory dual world).

Let us try to always remember the ultimate reality of Lord so that we are never deluded into the illusory names and forms of the world which will lead us to sorrows and sufferings.

Listening to Baana’s arrogant statement, the Lord becoming a little angry proclaimed thus “O ignorant fool! Soon one day your flagstaff will break and fall down. That day a person who is equal to me will come to fight you”.

Explanation

We find here the Lord’s response to the foolish and arrogant statement of Baana. We may think as to whether a person can be arrogant and foolish at the same time – any person who is arrogant is prone to do something foolish (thinking that anything is within his reach). Man often forgets that his reach is limited and that he cannot control the entire world as the world itself is an illusion in the first place. Even as a person who is in an illusion created by the magician cannot control the magic, similarly a person cannot control the illusory world created by the Lord. If he wants to control the world he has to go beyond the illusory world (Maya) by completely surrendering unto the Lord remembering that the Lord alone exists here, one without a second. Once a person goes beyond the world he knows for sure that there is no world at all to be controlled – it is just an illusion or a long play (drama). Such a person is a realized master who will enact his role to perfection in this long play and will never bother to control the non-existent play; only a fool will try to control the world which doesn’t really exists.

But any person is prone to become a fool once he forgets the ultimate reality of Lord – that very moment he thinks that the dual world is real and thereby tries to prove himself in the world. Most of us are ever engaged in activities to prove ourself; proving to our parents, proving to our partners, proving to our children, proving to our friends, proving to our relatives, proving to our bosses etc. The list of people we are trying to prove is infinite and we are doing it without remembering that this is all a play. Will Tom Hanks or Aamir Khan ever try to prove themselves to a character in a movie? Though they both are perfectionists, yet they will not do something that foolish.

But a person who has forgotten the ultimate reality of Lord will fall a prey to this illusory but attractive world. This is what we find Baana doing. But as AMMA says spiritual practices are Fixed Deposits which will not vanish – thereby due to his good deeds of remembering the Lord, Baana is given a boon by the Lord which in fact helps him to get out of the delusion – how can we speak about the compassion of the Lord? Even when a devotee asks for his own destruction through a boon the Lord helps such a devotee as well by giving the boon which will take the devotee out of the delusion.

But after knowing that we will be deluded into the illusory world if we forget the ultimate reality of Lord, we as seekers of the reality of Lord should never let ourselves forget the ultimate reality of Lord. The ultimate sadhana of remembering the Lord as the non-dual reality of Consciousness is the sadhana that in itself will take us to the goal of eternal bliss (which is what we have been and are seeking at all points of time).

We will continue with what happened to Baana after the Lord’s boon to him in the next few days.

Let us try to always remember the ultimate reality of Lord so that we are never deluded into the illusory names and forms of the world which will lead us to sorrows and sufferings.

Baana asked requested the Lord to be his grihapaalaka (protector of his house). The devotee-servant Lord fulfilled Baana’s wish and thereby started living as his house-protector.

Explanation

We will find in the next day as to how some boons can lead to our own downfall. Instead of asking for worldly boons including the form of the Lord, a real seeker will be asking for contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord (commonly known as liberation) which alone can give a person eternal bliss. All other boons will be wasted within no time – mostly boons will cause only more sorrow for us though initially we might not realize this. Sensual pleasures (even the pleasure of seeing the form of the Lord at all times) are like nectar in the beginning but later they turn into poison and completely destroy us. A seeker will see the entire world as being pervaded by the ultimate reality of Lord – each form is but an illusion in the formless Lord – thus how can such a seeker differentiate between one form and another? He can only perceive the Lord everywhere.

This vision of oneness makes a person go beyond dual notions of the mind like happiness-sorrow etc. All dual notions are based on likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes are based on duality – if a person sees oneness everywhere, there is nothing that he can like or dislike. When there are no likes and dislikes, there is no attachment and aversion. When there is no attachment and aversion a person will never get into happiness and sorrow – instead he will ever be blissful (at all times).

This is where many scriptures speak about a real seeker and a real devotee asking nothing but constant remembrance of the Lord. Instead of asking petty things which are created by the Lord and are illusions in the Lord, a seeker will ask for the Lord himself. We will never want to get money from a person if we know that the person has a money-making-machine – we will then only want the money-making-machine.

Thus we have to constantly remember that we should not asking anything except the ultimate reality of Lord (constant contemplation of the Lord). A person who is constantly contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord is always protected by the Lord – the Lord’s very presence is enough to give bliss – if this is the case then why would such a seeker need anything else?

A seeker who isn’t convinced about the Lord alone being real and bliss will always want something else other than the Lord. This is exactly what is happening with Baana. Instead of capturing the Lord in his heart, he tries to keep the Lord as protector of his house – this will in turn lead to more trouble as we will see in the next day.

Let us always remember to ask nothing but constant contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord as a boon so that we are never deluded and thereby are ever blissful.

One day Baana spoke thus to Siva who was sitting nearby (his glowing crown touching the feet of Siva):

O Lord who is the Guru of the entire world, I prostrate you. You are the kalpavriksha (wish-fulfilling tree) that fulfills all the wishes of a person who seeks wishes (as he is not complete).

Explanation

Here we find Baana praising the Lord as fulfilling the desires of all people. This is an eternal rule at the empirical plane as to fulfillment of desires. The Lord summarizes this beautifully thus in Gita:

Ye yathaa maam prapadhyanthe thaamsthathaiva bhajaami aham
Mama varthma anuvarthanthe manushyaah partha sarvashah

Whoever worships me in whatever form, I appear to them in that form; this eternal rule is being followed by all people.

The rule thus is “as you sow, so you reap”. The deciding factor in desires and fulfillment of desires is the strength of the desire – the stronger the desire (which means a person puts maximum effort towards the desire), the more the chances of it getting fulfilled. We find this law in worldly activities – if we take Sachin Tendulkar or Michael Schumacher, we can find that the effort put on by both of them made them legends in their field (thereby fulfilling their desire of becoming the topmost in their fields).

Thus if a seeker wants to get his desires fulfilled, he has to put maximum effort towards the desire. There is also another short-cut to fulfillment of desires. Since all desires are fulfilled by the law set by the Lord, thereby if we can surrender unto the ultimate reality of Lord then all our desires will be easily fulfilled.

Mundaka Upanishad explains this thus:

Yam yam lokam manasaa samvibhaathi vishuddhasattvah
Kaamayathe yaamscha kaamaan
Tham tham lokam jayathe thaamscha kaamaan
Tasmaad atmajnam hi archet bhuthikaamah

Whatever world and desires are thought of by a purified being (mental purification means a person whose mind is ever abiding in the Lord or the person who has merged unto the Lord), those world and desires are fulfilled; therefore people who want to get some desires fulfilled should seek and surrender unto such realized masters.

We can find in the puranas Vishwamithra creating a new svarga for Trishankhu – this is because such Mahatmas are one with the ultimate reality of Lord. Therefore even if we have worldly desires to be fulfilled we should surrender and seek it from the ultimate reality of Lord. Along with these desire-seeking if we are able to remember that ultimately we need eternal bliss (and temporarily let us fulfill those desires) then as time passes by we will find that all our desires are getting fulfilled with no new desires getting generated which will in fact finally take us to the state of “all-fulfilled” (where a seeker doesn’t have any more desires to be fulfilled).

Even if we have desires to be fulfilled at the worldly plane, we should try to remember the ultimate goal of life as seeking only eternal bliss (which is knowing that everything is only the non-dual reality of Lord). A seeker who has surrendered unto the Lord will be slowly taken from worldly desires to the desire-less state by the Lord himself.

We will continue with Baana’s request in the next day.

Let us try to always seek the ultimate reality of Lord remembering that the ultimate goal is eternal bliss though temporarily we may seek the Lord alone for fulfillment of worldly desires.

Baanasura who had 1000 hands used them to play various instruments and do thaanadava nrityam thereby pleasing Siva.

Explanation

Pleasing is something that we are so used in our day-to-day life. We always try to please people around us so that we are surrounded and supported by people. Pleasing one’s parents, one’s siblings, one’s relatives, one’s friends, one’s boss, one’s neighbour etc. – the list is kind of endless.

But amidst this effort to please the entire world we forget that there is one person who if pleased will fulfill all our desires and make us rejoice in eternal bliss. This one person is the ultimate reality of Lord. Pleasing any other person in the world will not give us permanent happiness – if I please my parents I will be happy until my parents have one more desire or expectations from me. It is for this reason that Swami Amritasvaroopananda rightly and beautifully says that everybody around us exploit us by knowing our weakness (trying to please others). The reason why we please others is thinking that they will always be there to support us and that we will get happiness by pleasing them – both of this is false; people around us themselves will face trouble and their very life is limited & hence they cannot support us eternally; we also cannot get happiness by pleasing them as they are in sorrow (only a person who is ever blissful can give happiness to others).

Swami Rama Teertha speaks about his experience in the Himalayas – once the water was rising. Swamiji saw a mother monkey along with few of its children climbing a tree in order to save themselves from drowning. They climbed to the top branch of a tree. But water was still rising. They were about to drowned. The mother monkey immediately took one of her child and stepped on the child to save herself – this continued until all the children were submerged in water.

This is how life is – as Yajnavalkya says in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad to his wife that the husband is loved for the sake of oneself and not for the sake of the husband. Everyone cares about their own life – their life is more dear than anything else in the world. Even lovers who sacrifice themselves for their love are doing the sacrifice so that they will be happy themselves (when their loved person is happy, the lover himself will be happy).

Thus everyone cares about themselves the most and since everyone is seeking happiness in the world, they cannot protect another person. Hence a wise person will stop depending on the people of the world and instead try to please the ultimate reality of Lord. Unlike the people of the world, the Lord is ever there to help us and he is ever blissful (therefore can give us the bliss that we are seeking). Pleasing the people of the world is very tough indeed (the number of divorces and break-ups are enough to prove this point) – but pleasing the ultimate reality of Lord is very easy. A person who is ever contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord is a real devotee – the Lord is a slave of his devotee (the Lord takes care of such a devotee at all times). Thus trying to be a real devotee of the Lord through constant contemplation of the Lord is what a seeker should do rather than trying to please others – this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t please others but just that we should remember to please the ultimate reality of Lord and this pleasing should stand above all other pleasing. Only such a seeker will be able to rejoice in bliss (which is the goal of all beings in the world).

The Lord who was pleased with Baana asked him to seek whatever boon he wanted.

Explanation

We see here the Lord granting the whatever-you-wish boon to Baana. The last day we spoke about pleasing the ultimate reality of Lord.

All our life we try to please one or the other person in the world – we fail to understand that we will never be able to please the people of the world as everyone is incomplete and imperfect. This is like two beggars begging to each other – both of them will be ever disappointed. Instead if they could go and beg to a person who is full of wealth, both their desires will be fulfilled.

Similarly instead of trying to please the people of the world we have to try to please the ultimate reality of Lord. If we are able to please the ultimate reality of Lord, then the Lord will grant us the boon of “whatever we want” – we see in the puranas that all the desires of people who pleased the ultimate reality of Lord was fulfilled whether it is with respect to moksha or worldly pleasures (hence we sing “bhukthi mukthi pradaayini – giver of worldly pleasures and liberation”).

The Lord himself proclaims thus in Bhagavad Gita

Ye yatha maam prapadhyanthe taamsthathaiva bhajaami aham
Mama varthma anuvarthanthe manushyaah paartha sarvashah

Whoever worships me in whatever form, I appear to them in that form; this is the eternal law which all people strict to.

Thus the law is “what you seek, you will get it” – the one condition in this rule is the conviction or how strong the desire is. The stronger the desire is, the more probability of the desire being fulfilled (as most of our desires are with respect to the world and hence involves a lot of people, things etc. rather than just ourselves). Thus a wise person who needs his desires to be fulfilled will seek the ultimate reality of Lord and try to please him. A still wiser person will please the Lord and ask for eternal bliss rather than petty and sorrowful pleasures of the world. Worldly pleasures are seeds of sorrow – when a person has a new car he will be very happy but only until the car becomes old or a newer version of the car gets released.

The Lord says in Gita:

Ye hi samsparshajaa bhogaah dukhayonaya eva te
Aadhyanthavantha kaunteya na teshu ramathe budhah

The pleasures which are caused by sense contact (sensual pleasures) are seeds of sorrow as they have a beginning and end; thereby wise people will not take resort of them.

Thus we have to remember to stop pleasing the people of the world, start pleasing the ultimate reality of Lord and ask for eternal bliss alone from the Lord. We will see in the next day as to how if we ask for something other than eternal bliss from the Lord it will lead us to more and more troubles (sorrows) in life.

Let us all try to please the ultimate reality of Lord by always contemplating on the Lord so that we will go beyond all sorrows of the world and ever rejoice in bliss.

Introduction

We are starting with the next story in Bhagavatham. This story is about an asura named Baana. Let’s today try to see a few important aspects and the story in brief.

We find in this story Baana as a devotee of the Lord. The general notion that we have got from the stories we hear in our childhood about the puranas is that the asuras are bad people who are against the Lord and always forgetting the Lord. But contrary to our notions, we find asuras as some of the greatest devotees of the ultimate reality of Lord ever abiding in contemplation of the Lord. Their duty in this world is to attack the devas and they do it with sincerity, devotion and perfection. The entire family of Hiranyakashipu were devotees of the Lord ever abiding in the Lord. Hiranyakashipu was a Vedantin who didn’t stay away from his normal duties; his son Prahlaada was one of the greatest devotees we can find in the puranas. Prahlaada’s son was Virochana who taught Vedanta to his son Mahabali at a very young age. Mahabali is yet another great devotee who is praised by Vamana himself.

It is unfortunate that we have got wrong notions about asuras and thereby we decry asuras or people who don’t do good worldly activities (any person who is a butcher by profession or doing some bad activities for profession is considered a non-devotee). We should first understand clearly that external activities don’t matter at all – irrespective of our external activity, it is the inner attitude that really matters. People like dharmavyaadha (the butcher in Mahabharatha) do their external activity with devotion to Ishwara (as an offering to Ishwara without any craving for the fruit). Ramana Maharshi describes this beautifully in Upadesa Saram thus:

Ishwara arpitham na icchaya kritham
Chittha shodhakam mukthi saadhakam

Actions done as an offering to Ishwara and without craving for fruit purifies the mind and thereby helps in liberation (from sorrows).

We find in this story Baana who is an asura (bad actions performed externally) but a true devotee in the mind. Real devotion is not determined by external activities – doing pooja daily doesn’t mean we are real devotees; real devotion is when a person is always contemplating on the all-pervasive Lord in his mind. When a person sees the Lord everywhere, then how can there be any pooja as everything becomes a pooja? Whether external pooja is happening or not, internal pooja of always offering everything to the non-dual reality of Lord is constantly happening. It is this inner attitude that gives a person eternal bliss – that bliss which is being sought out each minute of our life.

Many people say that they have been devotees of Mahatmas like AMMA, learning Vedanta for many years, doing spiritual activities like meditation, sandhya vandhanam etc. but when the question comes as to whether they are happy and content with life, the answer is NO. This is because these people are doing external activities thinking that it can give them inner peace – inner peace cannot be achieved by external activities alone but by the mind always contemplating on the all-pervasive Lord.

Mahabali had six sons of which the eldest was Baanasura. Baana who was focused on truth and ever compassionate always with earnestness did Siva bhajanam (contemplation on Siva). Shonitha was the name of Baana’s kingdom. Baana due to Siva prasadam (blessings) was able to live with the Devas serving him.

Explanation

Here we find that everyone in the entire world serves a person who has surrendered completely unto the Lord and thereby is ever contemplating on the non-dual reality of Lord. The reason for this is simple – whatever is seen in the world (various names and forms) is just an illusion in the substratum of ultimate reality of Lord. The moment a person is contemplating on the ultimate reality of Lord in whom the illusory world is seen, the world which is controlled by the Lord can be changed as per the Lord’s will. Hence for a person who has surrendered unto the ultimate reality of Lord, the entire world will be helping out such a person at all times.

Here we can get a doubt – if the Lord can change the entire world then why does he give suffering to many people?
In fact the Lord doesn’t get any suffering to anyone. The scriptures say that the Lord created the world and entered into the world (the world is the Lord alone). The Lord proclaims in Gita that he resides in the heart of all beings. If a person is able to surrender unto that Lord beyond the illusory names and forms of the world, then he will see that the entire world is blissful. The world in itself is blissful but when it passes through the seeker’s mind, then it becomes poisoned. Poison is not dangerous by itself but when a person consumes the poison it is dangerous. The world when it passes through the mind of a person, the person’s notions (likes and dislikes) get added onto the world – this is where the world becomes sorrowful.

We see a person coming towards ourselves – it is our enemy Rama. Though Rama is our enemy, Rama doesn’t cause any problem to us. But our notion of Rama as our enemy makes us hate him – thus the very presence of Rama causes sorrow in us. This sorrow is not due to Rama but our notion of Rama as our enemy. This is the case with the perception of the world – the world is pervaded in and out by the blissful Lord. But when we fail to apprehend this, we get deluded into the names and forms of the world considering them as real. Thus instead of perceiving the underlying reality of Lord we perceive the names and forms which can give us only sorrow as it is based on likes and dislikes (duality).

When a seeker surrenders unto the Lord he goes beyond the names and forms. Thus though externally something bad might happen to him he will consider it as only good (as everything is by the will of the Lord). If something good happens, Ishwara’s grace. If something bad happens, Ishwara’s will.

Thus a surrendered seeker is not helped by the Lord but he is able to apprehend the ever-present help of the Lord by perceiving the Lord in the entire world (as pervading it).

We have completed yet another story of Srimad Bhagavatham. Srimad Bhagavatham is one among the various scriptural works – this is not because of the descriptive portrayal of the life of Sri Krishna nor is it because of Vishnu being praised all over but it is because Bhagavatham always focuses on the ultimate reality of Lord (who is being described in each and every story).

Bhagavatham itself speaks about its subject-matter thus:

srimadbhagavatha puranam amalam
yad vaishnavaanaam priyam
yasmin paaramahamsyam ekam
jnaanam param geeyathe

Bhagavatha Purana is very pure and dear to seekers of the reality; in which the supreme non-dual truth has been sung all over.

Who is a vaishnava?
One who is an ardent seeker of Vishnu thereby remembers Vishnu at all times is a Vaishnava. Vishnu word means one who is all-pervasive. Thus he who remembers that everything is the non-dual reality of Consciousness is a vaishnava. Such Vaishnavas consider Bhagavatham as very dear to them because Bhagavatham never strays away from Vishnu.

As we have been learning many stories of Bhagavatham, we know very well that each and every story of Bhagavatham is always focused on the ultimate reality of Lord. But it is very easy to get distracted from the reality of Lord to the mysterious world that we currently perceive. The world is very attractive that it might take our attention away from the ultimate reality of Lord. But even as a mother never loses focus of her child even when she is amidst beautiful trees or in a resort or in a museum similarly a seeker whose sole intent is eternal bliss will never stray off from the ultimate reality of Lord. This is what we have to always remember even while reading or reflecting on the various stories of Bhagavatham. If we forget the ultimate reality of Lord then we will end up with sorrow alone.

This story of Bhagavatham shows us the infinite capabilities of the Lord who controls the illusory power of Maya that is responsible for the entire world. If we are able to surrender unto the ultimate reality of Lord, then the Lord will take care of all our needs (worldly as well as spiritual). Such a surrendered seeker will be always rejoicing in bliss, so what else would he need? Such a seeker is termed in the scriptures as an apthakaama (one whose desires are fulfilled).

Surrendering unto the Lord is as simple as always remembering that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord. Most of the times we do remember our parents or friends or lover – therefore it is not tough to shift the focus unto the ultimate reality of Lord. It becomes very easy when we remember the goal of eternal bliss that will be achieved by this surrender.

An analysis of the Ultimate Reality

We have completed yet another beautiful story of Srimad Bhagavatham. Before we begin the next story, let us try to focus on the ultimate reality of Lord.

A seeker has to always remember that the moment a person’s focus shifts from the ultimate reality of Lord to anything else, that very moment the seeker falls into the delusion of Maya which can give him nothing but sorrow alone. Even as a driver driving on a narrow road with heavy traffic will not even for a single moment let go of his concentration from the road, similarly a seeker should remember to always focus on the ultimate reality of Lord. Even as when the driver’s attention goes from the road the driver ends up in an accident, when a seeker forgets the ultimate reality of Lord he ends up in the endless ocean of samsaara which can cause sorrow and suffering alone.

We all like stories a lot – the various stories mentioned in Bhagavatham are like the anecdotes given by spiritual masters like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi etc. We can also find such stories mentioned in the commentaries of great commentators like Adi Sankaracharya among others. These stories are not mere stories but are stories with a deeper meaning in the form of an import. If we forget the import it is as good as not knowing the story. This can be compared to a person having the recent laptop but doesn’t know what a laptop is used for. The ancients often speak of this as a garland in the hands of a monkey – the monkey doesn’t know what the garland is therefore within moments it destroys the garland.

The various stories of Bhagavatham can make a non-believer believe in the Lord but as long as the import of the stories is not known, the believer still will end up in sorrow. As long as a person doesn’t understand the real import of all the stories of Bhagavatham as the non-dual reality of Lord and realizing that Lord as one’s own Self and pervading the entire illusory world, the person will still end up in sorrow. Only a seeker whose focus is always on the ultimate reality of Lord with the knowledge that the entire world is just an illusion of names and forms in the Lord will be able to rejoice in bliss. It is this bliss that is the goal of life for everyone – irrespective of caste, creed and other adjuncts, everyone is seeking eternal and long-lasting bliss each and every minute. As long as a person doesn’t remain focused on the truth that the entire world is nothing but the non-dual reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute, the person will not get this bliss. As long as a person doesn’t get eternal bliss, his life will still be filled with sorrow, discontentment, dissatisfaction and incompleteness.

Bhagavatham is one among the scriptures as we can find the ultimate reality of Lord praised in all the stories and very clearly as well. Even though Bhagavatham clearly praises and tries to bring our focus on the ultimate reality of Lord if we fail to recognize and apprehend this, who is to be blamed than ourselves? Such a seeker who ignores the ever-present ultimate reality of Lord in each and every part of Bhagavatham will go from death and death as he will be constantly suffering in sorrow.

Before we start the next story of Bhagavatham in the next day, let us try to take the resolution of not forgetting the real import of the stories as the ultimate reality of Lord so that we will be able to ever rejoice in bliss and eradicate sorrow once and for all.

After getting rid of all sins of Bhauma, the Lord entered the aishwarya-filled bhaumagriha (house of Bhauma). There he found the 16000 princess who were captivated by Bhauma. The Lord became the husband of all those 16000 princesses.

Explanation

The Lord makes a very strong statement at the end of Bhagavad Gita thus:

Sarva dharmaan parityajya maam ekam sharanam vraja
Aham tvaa sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami ma shuchah

Renounce all dharmas and take resort in me alone – I will liberate you from all sins; do not worry.

The above statement of the Lord is not a mere statement but a promise that the Lord has always kept for his devotees. If a person becomes a devotee of the Lord, then as the Lord himself proclaims in Bhagavatham that he is a slave to his devotees. Thus such a devotee will instantly be liberated from all sins and doesn’t have to worry at all.

What is liberation from sins?
Sin is that which causes us sorrow. The root-cause of all sorrows is forgetfulness of the truth that the entire world is a mere illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord. The moment we remember the ultimate reality of Lord in our minds, immediately we will be liberated from sorrows. But it is indeed very tough to constantly abide with the thought of the Lord as we are so used to differentiating between objects of the world that going beyond the duality and perceiving the non-dual reality of Lord is almost an impossible feat.

But this is also possible if we are able to put our sincere effort. It also is possible to always remember the Lord if we know as to what is the fruit of such remembrance of the ultimate reality of Lord. The fruit that a seeker will attain by remembrance of the ultimate reality of Lord is eternal bliss.

This constant remembrance that the entire world is filled in and out by the ultimate reality of Lord is devotion and surrender to the ultimate reality of Lord. If a seeker is able to get this devotion, then he will be saved from sorrow once and for all.

We find here that the Lord protects the 16000 princesses who were captivated by Narakaasura – this shows the compassion of the Lord. The compassionate Lord is ever ready to help the seekers of the Lord if the seekers gain a little devotion thereby allowing the Lord to help them out.

Thus Krishna has 16000 and 8 wives (8 whom he had married earlier itself). Krishna went to Indra and returned the various ornaments given to him by Indra. Krishna also brought back Kalpa vriksha’s roots as desired by Sathyabhama. While returning back each of the wives of Krishna felt as if they one Krishna was there for each one of them (one Krishna for each wife). What is impossible for the all-pervasive and all-powerful Lord? The wives along with the ultimate reality of Krishna lived happily in Dwaraka.

Explanation

We come to the end of this beautiful story of Bhagavatham depicting the infinite power and presence of the Lord. Bhagavatham beautifully mentions that each of the wives of Krishna felt as if they had a Krishna all for themselves.

Is all this really possible? We find many such things in Bhagavatham – child Krishna killing various powerful demons; Krishna doing many miraculous and impossible feats.

An intelligent seeker will start questioning the very existence of the world. How did this world come to exist? Does this world really exist – if so how can it exist eternally as it is constantly changing? All these will lead the seeker to believe that the world doesn’t really exist but is just an illusory creation of the ultimate reality of Lord who is the creator of the world. This creation is like the magical creation of the magician and the dream world created in and by the dreamer. Many impossible things happen in the magician’s creation as well as in dream – everything that can be thought of strongly in the mind of the magician and the dreamer is possible and will happen in their respective creations. Similarly this entire world is created by the ultimate reality of Lord – he is both the creator as well as the creation. Even as a spider’s web is made by the spider out of itself, similarly the world is created by and out of the Lord. Thus the Lord pervades in and out of the entire world – moreover even as a magician knows his entire magical creation, he is all-powerful with respect to the magical creation. Similarly the Lord is all-powerful with respect to the created world that we currently perceive – thus anything is possible for the Lord.

This all-powerful power of the Lord is what Vedanta terms as Maya – Maya is that illusory power which helps the Lord in creating the illusory world. Maya makes impossible things possible and illogical things appear logical though Maya in itself is beyond any logic. This is because Maya is not real – that which is not real and just appears to be real is beyond logic (as it doesn’t really exist for a person to apply logic – logic requires the object to first exist).

What is important for a seeker is not to be amazed or surprised at the all-powerful Lord but to remember that anything and everything is possible for the Lord – thereby we have to surrender unto the Lord as then the Lord will help us with eternal bliss (as anything is possible by the all-powerful Lord). The more we try to surrender unto the Lord by remembering that the Lord pervades the entire world and the world is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord, we will feel ourselves move towards perfection and the sense of happiness/contentment/satisfaction will increase day-by-day until we will be ever blissful irrespective of the situation of the external illusory world. It is this ever-blissful state that we are constantly seeking knowingly or unknowingly – until the day when we are in that state, there will be a sense of incompleteness and sorrow in our lives though we may follow Krishna or any Mahatma. It is only abiding in the knowledge that the ultimate reality of Lord alone exists that can take us to this ever-blissful state.

All stories of Bhagavatham are meant to take us to this blissful state which is the state of Krishna whether he is killing asuras or enjoying with his wives or instructing Arjuna – the more we understand this while remembering Krishna, the more we will progress towards this ever-blissful state.

We will see the summary of this story in the next day before starting the next story of Bhagavatham.

Bhoomidevi continued:

Therefore O Lord! Place your hand on my son bhauma’s head so that all his sins vanish.

Explanation

We saw in the previous day as to how the entire world filled with different names and forms is only an illusion in the non-dual reality of Lord. While listening, learning or contemplating on the stories of Bhagavatham we have to always remember this truth that there is nothing present here apart from the ultimate reality of Lord – everything is just an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord even as a dream world is an illusion in dreamer, water is an illusion in desert and all gold ornaments are mere illusions in gold.

The moment we forget this reality that everything is only an illusion in the Lord, we enter into the illusory world which can give us only sorrow. We will then try to compare one story of the Lord with another, one form of Lord with another form, one devotee to another etc. which will finally lead us to sorrow and sorrow alone.

Katha Upanishad proclaims thus about duality:

Manasaa eva idam aapthavyam neha nana asthi kinchana
Mrityoh sah mrityum aapnothi ya iha nana iva pashyathi

Know through the intellect that there is no duality whatsoever here; whoever sees duality as existing will go from death to death.

Thus the moment we forget the truth that there is no duality here and everything is only the one ultimate reality of Lord, we will enter into the vicious circle of birth and death. Birth and death both causes sorrow and suffering for us – in order for a person to go beyond suffering, he should go beyond birth and death. This is possible only through realizing that there is neither birth nor death – whatever exists is only the ultimate reality of Lord, one without a second.

The minute we acknowledge this truth and start living life remembering to perceive everything as a mere illusion in the ultimate reality of lord even as a viewer watches an entire movie to be just an illusion, all our sins vanish. Sins are those which cause us suffering – the source of all sins is the sin of forgetting that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the non-dual reality of Lord. This sin leads to all other worldly sins – worldly sins will not cause us any sorrow if we are able to remember this ultimate truth of non-duality.

The Lord himself proclaims thus in Gita:

Yasya naahamkritho bhaavah buddhir yasya na lipyathe
Hatvaapi sa imaan lokaan naayam hanthi na hanyathe

A person who doesn’t have the sense of Ego nor his intellect sticks on to the dual world, even though he might kill the entire world – he doesn’t kill and he cannot be killed as well (as he is non-dual reality of Lord who alone exists here).

Thus a person who always remembers that the entire world is filled in and out by the ultimate reality of Lord who alone is the essence of names and forms in the world will be saved from all sins and sufferings as we will see in the next day.

Pleased with Bhoomidevi’s praise, the Lord blessed Bhauma thereby getting rid of all his sins.

Explanation

We saw yesterday as to the one way to get rid of all sins as by remembering that the entire world of names and forms is just an illusion in the non-dual reality of Lord who alone exists. Constant remembrance of the ultimate reality is devotion; this alone is knowledge and yoga; karma yoga or yoga of action is when a person does actions unaffected by the action itself or the fruit of the action even as a drama artist performs in the drama – this is possible only when there is the knowledge that the entire world is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Lord.

Thus though many proclaim that there are different paths for realization, the thing that is common between all of the paths is constant remembrance of the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord – this is the path as well as the goal. Though a seeker might be doing spiritual sadhanas based on the various paths, yet they all culminate in the final step of constantly remembering that the Lord alone is present here – this final step itself is moksha or realization.

It is this moksha that saves a person from all sins and sufferings – unless a person is realized, there will still be suffering in one form or another. Even those who had Lord Krishna with them at all times faced suffering in one form or another because as long as person is not realized, there will always be suffering.

The greatness of realization is in that everybody around such a realized master will be able to experience the bliss emanating from the master and they will also be forced to realize. The Upanishads proclaim “na asya abrahmavit kule bhavathi” – there will no person who doesn’t know the Lord in the kula of a realized master.

We can find this if we learn the life of realized masters that everybody around them will be attracted by the bliss emanating and thereby they will also work towards realization. This doesn’t mean that we have to wait for somebody in our kula to get realized and then realize ourselves – it just means that the entire world will be helped by us if we realize our very nature of lord. A person who has realized will always be abiding in the ultimate reality of Lord – such a person will be ever blissful. Even as blossomed lotus gives happiness to whoever sees it, similarly a realized person will be able to give the bliss to the Atman (temporarily as long as the seeker is in the presence of the master) to seekers.

Does the world exist really to spread bliss?
The world exists as long as we see it – the scriptures speak about spreading bliss to the entire world in order to make us want and work towards that bliss. It is but a pity that most of look to help others when we ourselves don’t have any happiness. Spirituality has come to be known as social service activity which is not based on knowledge. In fact spirituality should be when a seeker sees the entire world as pervaded by the Lord – this means that such a seeker cannot but help the entire world as that is helping the Lord as well as helping oneself (who is not different from the Lord). But since most of us don’t have knowledge, we look for activities to help the world. The various spiritual masters know this and hence they make us work towards realization by telling us that if we help ourselves, the entire world will be helped – of course this is not a false statement as once we realize, we will not be able to find any suffering in the world. When Ramana Maharshi was approached by followers of Gandhi who asked Maharshi as to why he is not helping the suffering world, Maharshi replied that “he doesn’t see any suffering” and that “he only sees bliss everywhere”.

Bhoomidevi continued her praise

O Lord! It is you only who renounces Tamo guna and takes up Rajo guna in order to create the world; you then take up sattva guna and protect the world; time, prakrthi, purusha etc. are the you only, the supreme cause.

Explanation

The world is created and sustained by the illusory power of the Lord which is termed as Maya – the word Maya itself means that which doesn’t really exist (yaa maa saa maaya). The Lord defines Maya beautifully in the below sloka of Gita:

Daivi hi eshaa gunamayi mama maaya duratyayaa

My Maya is a divine power and made up of the three gunas of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.

The three gunas are an interesting topic to discuss in depth – the Lord himself has described the three gunas in an entire chapter of Gita (the 14th chapter of Gita titled Gunatraya vibhaaga yoga). Tamo guna or Tamas is something which denotes laziness, slumber, inactivity etc. Rajas denotes activity arising out of desire and a sense of achieving something. Sattva on the other hand denotes a state where a person is immersed in knowledge and bliss. Sattva and Tamas both are similar as in both activity kind of ceases quite a lot but the main differences is that in Sattva activities cannot happen because knowledge dawns (knowledge culminates all actions – though actions might still happen after a person gains knowledge that the entire world is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Lord). The Lord demonstrates all the three gunas with respect to the world. The Lord is rajo guna pradhaana (mainly rajas) while creating the world (as this is an activity). The Lord denotes sattva guna while protecting the world as this is not an action but more of compassion and other good qualities.

Though the Lord demonstrates the three gunas and we also are often into one or the other guna, realization is that state which is beyond the three gunas. This is what the Lord terms as guna ateetha (one who is beyond the gunas). The gunas are part of Prakrithi or Maya whereas the very nature of the Lord is beyond the gunas. But most of the time we are immersed in either activity or inactivity (as in laziness, slumber etc.). The way to go beyond the gunas is through sattva alone – whenever a seeker does sadhana along with knowledge, it is sattva guna and will help him in going beyond the three gunas. Knowledge is nothing but constant remembrance that the entire world is filled in and out with the ultimate reality of Lord who alone is the substratum-cause of the illusory world. As a seeker tries to be in sattva guna, slowly he will go beyond the gunas - then irrespective of whether the body or mind is in rajas or tamas, he will ever abide as the witness Self (the ultimate reality of Lord).

In order for a seeker to go beyond gunas, knowledge is essential – the Lord beautifully describes knowledge (that knowledge which will help us go beyond the gunas) thus in Gita:

Na anyam gunebhyah karthaaram yadaa drestaa anupashyathi
Gunebhyascha param vetti so madbhaavam adhigacchathi

A person who knows the doer of all actions as none other than the three gunas – he remains as a witness of the gunas and their activities; thus he goes beyond the three gunas and attains my state (the state of eternal bliss).

Bhoomidevi continued:

O Lord! The entire world made up of movable and immovable entities and consisting of earth, water, fire, air, space, subtle sense organs, thoughts, mind, ego, vishwapranan etc. is only an illusion in the non-dual reality that you are.

Explanation

The last line of the verse of Bhagavatham in this part is

Tvayi adviteeya bhagavaanayam bhramah

In the one-without-a-second reality of Lord that you are, all these (the entire world) is only an illusion.

The scriptures compare the waking world that we currently perceive as similar to the dream world that each one of us experience while sleeping. In order to explain this clearly, the ancient seers split one entire day into three states (which repeat as various days) of waking (jaagrat), dream (svapna) and dreamless deep sleep (sushupthi). Waking and dream are very much similar in many aspects. A person goes to sleep and he perceives a lot of things. He marries, gets children and then has grand children – all of a sudden he dies due to old age and then visits Yama in naraka. In naraka he suffers variously including thrown into a cage where a ferocious lion resides. Seeing the lion in front of him, he suddenly wakes up. He is all sweating but he realizes that whatever happened was just a dream – he is yet to get married! The entire dream world was only an illusion in the dreamer. The dreamer pervaded and became the entire dream world (each and every object of the dream world). Similarly this waking world is also a long dream in the dreamer of Lord (consciousness that pervades the entire world). This long dream continues and appears to be real as long as the seeker is sleeping. The waking world appears as real as the dream world while in dream. But once a person wakes up from this long dream of waking world, he will realize that there never was any world in the first place – all that he saw was only an illusion in the non-dual reality of Lord of the nature of Consciousness.

In order for a person to understand that the entire world is only an illusion, he doesn’t need to realize. Comparing this world with dream world itself is enough to show us that the duality that we currently perceive is only an illusion. Even as various gold ornaments are mere illusions of names and forms in gold – they are gold and gold alone. The names and forms delude us into thinking that each one is different from one another – this delusion continues only until we realize and apprehend the underlying gold which is the essence of all gold ornaments. The goldsmith is one who apprehends this truth constantly and hence whenever we go to him with a particular gold ornament asking him to give a latest fashion ornament, he immediately does it. This vision of the goldsmith about all gold ornaments being an illusion of names and forms in gold and that gold alone is real is the true vision of gold ornaments. Similarly the entire world that we currently perceive is only an illusion of names and forms in the reality of Conscious Lord. Without Consciousness, whatever we perceive will have no existence whatsoever.

When a person is able to remember at all times that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord and is like a dream world, the seeker will not be affected by the activities in this illusory world. All actions will continue but still there will be no craving for a particular fruit – hence whatever is the outcome of those actions, the seeker will ever be blissful. It is this blissful state that we are constantly seeking and what Vedanta terms as jeevan mukthi (liberated from sorrow even while living).

Bhoomidevi continued:

Since you are unborn, you are the cause of the entire world. To such unborn cause of the world I offer my prostrations. To you who are Brahman and possessing infinite power, my prostrations.

Explanation

We saw the previous day as to the uncaused or unborn cause of the world which is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute. Since the Lord is the uncaused cause of the world, therefore he has infinite power. One who is infinite obviously will have infinite power – this infinite power is what makes Ishwara create the illusory world yet making it appear as if real.

Ishwara possessing infinite power isn’t just for our amazement or amusement but it is something that can propagate us to seek Ishwara beyond all limitations. We generally trust police officers because we know they have power. But even police officers die in the line of duty which goes on to show that their power is limited – if we can trust people with limited power, then why shouldn’t we trust the Lord with infinite powers.

If we trust the Lord, then we will be able to experience his infinite powers helping us in all possible ways whenever we are in trouble. It is for this reason that we find Meerabhai not dying even after consuming poison because she trusted and surrendered completely unto the infinite powerful Lord and the Lord saved her as a result of the surrender. Even as a police officer will not protect us unless we ask for protection or seek refuge in him, similarly the Lord also will not protect us unless we seek him with earnestness.

It is this concept that the Lord mentions in many places of Gita as “I will protect you”. Unlike protections from worldly people, the protection of the Lord is complete and we can definitely depend on the Lord as his power is infinite.

If we surrender unto the infinite powerful Lord, he will not only help us in worldly situations but he will also help us in going beyond the temporary world thereby giving us eternal bliss – it is this bliss that we are constantly seeking in the external world. The way to get this bliss through surrender to the all-powerful Lord is very easy as we are often used to surrendering to our kith and kin. Unlike other surrender, the surrender to the Lord need not be displayed externally – we just have to pervade our mind with the thought of the Lord. Surrender to the Lord is not falling at his feet or singing his glories externally at all times – it is simply remembering the Lord at all times in our mind with the knowledge that the Lord alone is present here as the uncaused cause-substratum of the illusory world. If we are able to get this surrender by remembering the all-powerful nature of the Lord, then very soon the Lord will take us out of all our sorrows, miseries and troubles into the state of eternal bliss.

Bhoomidevi continued:

Unto you who are the individual and supreme Self, my prostrations.

Explanation

When we analyze the world, we will find that whatever is present in the totality is present in the individual as well. Totality is called samasthi and individuality is called vyashthi. The external world consists of the pancha bhootas (five elements) of Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Ether. The individual body also consists of the pancha bhootas (the place where the pancha bhootas are found in the body is called chakras or focus-points – for eg: stomach portion contains the water-element, throat portion contains the ether-element etc.). The total world has a cosmic Ego called Brahma who controls it – the individual body has an Ego which we call jeeva.

Brahma becomes three based on the activities of creation, protection and destruction as Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Similarly the Ego in us also does the three activities of creation, protection and destruction.

The basis for Brahma is Ishwara of the nature of pure Consciousness. The basis for jeeva (which is reflection of Consciouness in the intellect) is pure Consciousness or Chit.

Thus we find that the individual is not different from the total but one appears to be big whereas the other appears to be small. Big and small are relative and at the empirical plane. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gives a beautiful analogy to illustrate this – there are many sugar dolls kept; one is an elephant, another is a lion and yet another is a dog. The shapes of the three sugar dolls are different but all the three are essentially sugar and sugar alone. Similarly the world and the individual body both are different names and forms in the non-dual reality of Conscious Lord – therefore they are essentially one and the same.

If we go to a goldsmith and tell him that we need a better design for our gold chain, he will take a chain and make a design out of it thereby giving it back to us. We differentiate between the old design and the new design though both are only different names and forms. The goldsmith doesn’t differentiate between both designs instead he always remembers and knows that they both are essentially gold only. This vision of seeing all gold ornaments as gold has to be extended to the world with the knowledge that the entire world (inclusive of totality and individuality) is only the ultimate reality of Lord. Once we remember the entire world to be nothing but the ultimate reality of Lord, then all our sorrows will instantly vanish – sorrows are because of seeing things as different from one another. As a result of the vision of difference, we like something and dislike something – this in turn causes attachment and aversion which in turn leads us to temporary happiness and sorrow. Even the temporary happiness is very short-lived that often it leads us to get sad. Thus we should always remember that everything that is perceived or heard is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord – the essence is only the ultimate reality of Lord. This constant remembrance is very essential for a seeker to go beyond sorrow and ever rejoice in bliss.

Bhoomidevi continued her praise

O Lord! You who reside in the various bodies which are like towns with many entrances, I prostrate unto you.

Explanation

The reality behind the dual world filled with differences between each and everything is the non-dual reality of Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute. This reality pervades the entire illusory world in and out even as the dreamer pervades the entire dream world. A person goes to sleep and he gets a dream – he finds himself in a beautiful world filled with sensual pleasures, damsels and other enjoyments. He does quite a lot of activities in the world. He marries, begets children who then give him grandchildren. Thus days pass by and all of a sudden he wakes up. He realizes that the entire dream was only an illusion and that he himself became the entire dream world. Even as the dream world is nothing but an illusion of names and forms in the dreamer (the dreamer becomes the various names and forms or objects of the dream world), similarly this entire world is but names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord.

Thus the Lord is the underlying essence of the world filled with names and forms even as gold is the essence of various gold ornaments (which are just names and forms in gold). Thus the Lord resides in the various names and forms as the substratum-essence of the names and forms. It is this concept that is beautifully explained by Bhoomi Devi today. It is this same concept that the Lord proclaims to Arjuna in many places as “I reside in the heart of all beings”.

The beings in the world but living and non-living have bodies of their own. The body of a human being is different from the body of an animal which in turn is different from the body of a tree or a rock. It is the ultimate reality of Lord who is the essence of both living and non-living beings (even as the dreamer is the essence of a rock and human beings seen in the dream world). Thus the Lord resides in all the bodies. The body of a human being (in particular) has been considered as a town filled with nine holes (two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth, organ of excretion and organ of reproduction).

It is the light inside the body (the light of Consciousness which is the ultimate reality of Lord) that makes everything including the body and other objects of the world existing. Without Consciousness, there is no light in the world and hence the entire world will cease to exist.

When a seeker tries to find out the ultimate reality of Lord, he realizes that the body is just an inert entity which appears to be conscious because of the Conscious principle of Lord residing in the body. Thus the body is negated from the Lord – thereby a seeker doesn’t give too much emphasis or importance to the body. Instead he tries to overcome the attachment to the body through the knowledge that the indwelling Consciousness that pulsates as “I-exist, I-exist” is in fact the non-dual reality of Lord in which the illusion of body and the entire world appears. This knowledge ever remaining in the intellect of a seeker can help the seeker overcome all bondages in the world. But when the seeker realizes, he realizes that there never was any body – the body was just an illusion even as water seen in desert never really exists – thus he realizes that there is only the ultimate reality of Lord existing here, one without a second.

It is this state of realization that we have to achieve by distinguishing the ultimate reality of Lord from the various names and forms. The moment a seeker differentiates the Lord from names-forms, he always contemplates that the names-forms are also the ultimate reality of Lord but temporarily illusions appearing to be existing and different from the Lord. Thus dual notions vanish from such a seeker’s mind wherein the seeker doesn’t enter into attachment or aversion – thereby spending each and every moment remembering that the entire world is pervaded by the ultimate reality of Lord and thus ever rejoicing in bliss.

Bhoomidevi continued:

I prostrate unto you who are the first cause (supreme cause) and poorna bodha (full consciousness) in nature.

Explanation

The concept of finding the unknown cause from the known effect is something that we apply for everything. This same concept is also used in Vedanta to trace back from the known world to the unknown cause of the world.

Why do we need to trace back from the known world to the unknown cause?
This is because the world is characterized by “anityam” and “asukham”. Anityam means it is temporary and constantly changing. That which is constantly changing is subject to the six modifications of birth, existence, growth, disease, decay and death. That which takes birth and dies will not give us long-lasting happiness (eternal bliss). It is long-lasting happiness that we are constantly seeking in the external world. It is this thirst for eternal bliss that makes us to do things over and over in this and many other births. Until we achieve eternal bliss there will be no contentment, no satisfaction and no happiness.

Since the entire world is temporary and cannot give us eternal bliss, therefore the one and only way to get eternal bliss is by seeking that entity which is eternal. It is this eternal entity that is termed in the scriptures as Brahman or Ishwara or Paramatman or Atman. The nature of this Brahman is Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute (we will see as to how a little later).

Any changing entity needs a changeless substratum. We are walking in the road and see a car moving – we say that the car is moving considering ourselves as stationary (which is obviously not the case as we are part of Earth which is moving but we have to assume a stationary entity to perceive movement). A variable in mathematics is only an illusion in a constant – a variable at any point of time is a constant. Thus changes require a changeless substratum. The changing world also therefore needs a changeless substratum.

In order to find the changeless substratum, we have to find out the cause of the world (that cause from which the world came). Any entity that we see in the world needs a cause – nothing happens without a cause. Thus the world also requires a cause. This cause has to be the first or supreme cause (that cause which is not caused by anything else but which is ever-existing). If the cause itself has another cause, then this will lead to an infinite regression. This supreme cause has to be a sentient entity as an insentient rock cannot create something (only sentient entities can create things). The supreme cause thus is a sentient one – sentience means it is Consciousness in nature. Since it is the first cause (uncaused cause), therefore it is also Existence in nature. That which is ever-existing and Consciousness in nature (which means it can never cease to exist) is eternal bliss in nature (as bliss is when something is eternal and complete). The supreme cause is perfect in all aspects as it is not limited – this is because it is non-dual. We cannot assume that there were two causes because then we have to assume a relation between both which in turn would suggest another cause that creates these two causes. Thus the supreme cause is non-dual Existence, Consciousness and Bliss in nature.

If the supreme cause created the world out of itself, then the entire world has to be nothing different from the cause. Thus the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the supreme cause even as the effect of pot is only an illusion of names and forms in the cause of mud. But when we perceive the name and form, we will not be able to apprehend the supreme cause.

The moment we realize that names and forms are mere illusions, then we will realize that we are not different but one with the blissful Lord – this will thus give us eternal bliss that we have been continuously seeking.