Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 51 – Story of Narakaasura Vadha (killing) - 13
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.
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.
# posted by vedanta : 6:32 AM
