Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Story 26 –Kapila Upadesha – 7
Srimad Bhagavatham - A Spiritual Insight - Story 26 – Kapila Upadesha – 7
Having explained about the ultimate reality to her mother, Kapila left the place (with permission from his mother) and he started residing at a place respectfully offered by the Lord of the seas where he is still said to remain in spiritual absorption for the welfare of all the worlds.
Devahuthi on the other hand was happy with the knowledge but after some time she started feeling the absence of her son. But this helped her a lot because she was constantly thinking about the Lord, thus thinking about the Lord, she merged into the Lord and got liberated.
Thus ends Kapila Upadesha as well as the story of Kapila in Srimad Bhagavatham.
Explanation
Here we find a clear explanation from Srimad Bhagavatham that any person, irrespective of caste and creed, can realize the ultimate reality of Lord or Brahman because the Lord is his own very nature & there exists nothing apart from the Lord in the entire world. The world itself is dependent on the Lord for its existence. Since everybody in the world are dependent on the Lord for their existence & since one’s own very nature is the Lord alone, therefore anybody has the right to realize the ultimate reality of Lord.
This ultimate reality of Brahman is very easily realized by a person who really desires to know Brahman & get liberated from the ultimate reality of Brahman. It is really very easy to get realization because it is one’s own very nature. As Sankara again and again points out, the Self is NITYA SHUDDHA BUDDHA MUKTA – ever pure, ever enlightened and ever-liberated. This Self is not different from the ultimate reality of Lord as the Lord is one without a second & the cessation of existence for the Self is not known.
When a seeker is really devoted to the ultimate reality of Lord, then the seeker very easily realizes the ultimate reality of Lord because the scriptures and experience prove that the Lord is the servant of his devotees. And real devotion happens when the devotee completely merges into the ultimate reality of Lord & thus there remains no differentiation as devotee and Lord but one alone exists as Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
Devahuthi was full of ignorance and passion as we have already seen previously. But still devahuthi could realize the ultimate reality of Lord & get liberated from the illusory world and its objects. Can the Lord really save a devotee from the ocean of samsaara? Yes, he can.
Sridhara Swamin in the starting of his commentary on Srimad Bhagavatham says the following sloka which has become very popular after the pass of time:
Mookam karothi vaachaalam pankum langhayathe girim
Yat Kripa tamaham vande paramaananda maadhavam
The dumb speak, the lame climb mountain by the grace of the ultimate reality of Lord to whom I offer my prostrations.
A person can question “In advaita, there is no creation then how can the Lord save a seeker?” – this is really a wrong notion or understanding about Advaita. Advaita never negates the world at the empirical level. At the empirical level, it accepts the world as real but it only gives it an illusory status as it is constantly changing. Only from the ultimate perspective does Advaita really negate the Lord. Also if the all-knowing Lord could create the world which is an illusion, then why can’t he save a seeker from the illusory world? Yes, he really can because he is the controller of the illusion of the world. Thus this theory is not really against Advaita – if a person analyzes the various advaitic works and theories, he will really find that there is so-much importance for the guru and God – those who say that Advaita never accepts God are really not Advaitins but foolish people claiming to follow the system of Advaita.
Avadhutha Gita, an advaitic work which speaks at the ultimate reality level of ajaathivaada or no-creation theory says in the starting sloka itself:
Ishwara anugrahaat eva pumsaam advaita vaasana
The tendency to come to Advaita is achieved for a person only due to the grace of the Lord.
And it should be remembered that the Lord is none other than the ultimate reality of Brahman in the system of Advaita. Each advaitic work starts with prostration to the ultimate reality of Lord. Moreover Srimad Bhagavatham itself calls Brahman as Paramaatman or Ishwara, thus if a person says that Advaita doesn’t accept God, then that person is completely wrong about the philosophy of Advaita. Yes, advaita negates the qualities of ownership of creation, protection and destruction in the Lord from the ultimate perspective but not from the empirical view where it accepts all these. Advaita only says that the Lord has the adjuncts of creation, protection etc. – the adjuncts are illusory and not permanent. Thus advaita never negates the ultimate reality of Lord which is beyond even negation as he is the negator of all negations.
When an individual completely surrenders unto the ultimate reality of Brahman or Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute, there is no individual present there – the seemingly individual being merges into the ultimate reality of Lord, thereby only the Lord exists, one without a second. This is called realization. Even though even now there is nothing but the Lord alone, still this is not clearly known due to the ignorance of one’s own very nature of Lord & the wrong notions that “I am limited and different from the Lord”. These wrong notions vanish where the reality dawns that there is nothing here but the Lord alone – the seemingly individual Self is dependent on the Lord for its existence, this means the individual Self is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Lord which again proves that there is nothing here but the Lord alone.
Thus when instructed into knowledge by the Lord, Devahuti was liberated from the illusory bondage of sorrow and suffering. Thus, she realized the ultimate reality and merged into the ultimate reality of Brahman. This is what is the basic and natural state of each and every individual – the state where there is no duality, the state there is only one constant Consciousness which is all-pervasive as there is no space and all-knowing as there is nothing else to know other than itself.
Having explained about the ultimate reality to her mother, Kapila left the place (with permission from his mother) and he started residing at a place respectfully offered by the Lord of the seas where he is still said to remain in spiritual absorption for the welfare of all the worlds.
Devahuthi on the other hand was happy with the knowledge but after some time she started feeling the absence of her son. But this helped her a lot because she was constantly thinking about the Lord, thus thinking about the Lord, she merged into the Lord and got liberated.
Thus ends Kapila Upadesha as well as the story of Kapila in Srimad Bhagavatham.
Explanation
Here we find a clear explanation from Srimad Bhagavatham that any person, irrespective of caste and creed, can realize the ultimate reality of Lord or Brahman because the Lord is his own very nature & there exists nothing apart from the Lord in the entire world. The world itself is dependent on the Lord for its existence. Since everybody in the world are dependent on the Lord for their existence & since one’s own very nature is the Lord alone, therefore anybody has the right to realize the ultimate reality of Lord.
This ultimate reality of Brahman is very easily realized by a person who really desires to know Brahman & get liberated from the ultimate reality of Brahman. It is really very easy to get realization because it is one’s own very nature. As Sankara again and again points out, the Self is NITYA SHUDDHA BUDDHA MUKTA – ever pure, ever enlightened and ever-liberated. This Self is not different from the ultimate reality of Lord as the Lord is one without a second & the cessation of existence for the Self is not known.
When a seeker is really devoted to the ultimate reality of Lord, then the seeker very easily realizes the ultimate reality of Lord because the scriptures and experience prove that the Lord is the servant of his devotees. And real devotion happens when the devotee completely merges into the ultimate reality of Lord & thus there remains no differentiation as devotee and Lord but one alone exists as Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
Devahuthi was full of ignorance and passion as we have already seen previously. But still devahuthi could realize the ultimate reality of Lord & get liberated from the illusory world and its objects. Can the Lord really save a devotee from the ocean of samsaara? Yes, he can.
Sridhara Swamin in the starting of his commentary on Srimad Bhagavatham says the following sloka which has become very popular after the pass of time:
Mookam karothi vaachaalam pankum langhayathe girim
Yat Kripa tamaham vande paramaananda maadhavam
The dumb speak, the lame climb mountain by the grace of the ultimate reality of Lord to whom I offer my prostrations.
A person can question “In advaita, there is no creation then how can the Lord save a seeker?” – this is really a wrong notion or understanding about Advaita. Advaita never negates the world at the empirical level. At the empirical level, it accepts the world as real but it only gives it an illusory status as it is constantly changing. Only from the ultimate perspective does Advaita really negate the Lord. Also if the all-knowing Lord could create the world which is an illusion, then why can’t he save a seeker from the illusory world? Yes, he really can because he is the controller of the illusion of the world. Thus this theory is not really against Advaita – if a person analyzes the various advaitic works and theories, he will really find that there is so-much importance for the guru and God – those who say that Advaita never accepts God are really not Advaitins but foolish people claiming to follow the system of Advaita.
Avadhutha Gita, an advaitic work which speaks at the ultimate reality level of ajaathivaada or no-creation theory says in the starting sloka itself:
Ishwara anugrahaat eva pumsaam advaita vaasana
The tendency to come to Advaita is achieved for a person only due to the grace of the Lord.
And it should be remembered that the Lord is none other than the ultimate reality of Brahman in the system of Advaita. Each advaitic work starts with prostration to the ultimate reality of Lord. Moreover Srimad Bhagavatham itself calls Brahman as Paramaatman or Ishwara, thus if a person says that Advaita doesn’t accept God, then that person is completely wrong about the philosophy of Advaita. Yes, advaita negates the qualities of ownership of creation, protection and destruction in the Lord from the ultimate perspective but not from the empirical view where it accepts all these. Advaita only says that the Lord has the adjuncts of creation, protection etc. – the adjuncts are illusory and not permanent. Thus advaita never negates the ultimate reality of Lord which is beyond even negation as he is the negator of all negations.
When an individual completely surrenders unto the ultimate reality of Brahman or Lord of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute, there is no individual present there – the seemingly individual being merges into the ultimate reality of Lord, thereby only the Lord exists, one without a second. This is called realization. Even though even now there is nothing but the Lord alone, still this is not clearly known due to the ignorance of one’s own very nature of Lord & the wrong notions that “I am limited and different from the Lord”. These wrong notions vanish where the reality dawns that there is nothing here but the Lord alone – the seemingly individual Self is dependent on the Lord for its existence, this means the individual Self is only an illusion in the ultimate reality of Lord which again proves that there is nothing here but the Lord alone.
Thus when instructed into knowledge by the Lord, Devahuti was liberated from the illusory bondage of sorrow and suffering. Thus, she realized the ultimate reality and merged into the ultimate reality of Brahman. This is what is the basic and natural state of each and every individual – the state where there is no duality, the state there is only one constant Consciousness which is all-pervasive as there is no space and all-knowing as there is nothing else to know other than itself.
# posted by vedanta : 9:06 AM
