Thursday, December 18, 2008

Story 53 – Story of Baana Yudha - 02

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.

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