Thursday, December 18, 2008

Story 51 – Story of Narakaasura Vadha (killing) - 12

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”.

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