Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 53 – Story of Baana Yudha - 05
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.
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.
# posted by vedanta : 6:48 AM
