Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Story 27 - Story of Daksha Prajaapathi - 2
Srimad Bhagavatham - A Spiritual Insight - Story 27 - Story of Daksha Prajaapathi - 2
Maitreya Continued:
After advising Sati, Siva became silent as he knew that if Sati was to leave off her mortal coil then nothing can stop it from happening. Sati was thus very sad and fluctuating as to whether she could go or not to go. She wanted to go because attachment was pulling her. She didn’t want to go because Siva had mentioned not to go. She couldn’t really decide on what to do. But finally attachment won and Sati went to the sacrifice. Some of the siva ganas followed Sati.
Sati reached the place of sacrifice. Everybody wanted to offer their prostrations and enquires to her but didn’t do that because of fear of Daksha. But her sister and mother embraced her and enquired about her. She didn’t reply to any of those because Daksha did not enquire about her and he even didn’t give the sacrificial offering that was to be given to Rudra (Siva). Thus Sati was very sad and angry as well. She thus exclaimed that she didn’t want this body that was given by such a father who was full of ego and didn’t know what really to do. She also didn’t want Lord Siva to call her as Daakshaayani. She was thus averse to the body itself and hence she sat and renounced the mortal coil.
At that time, the various siva ganas started to attack the sacrifice and the people in that place. At that time, Bhrgu offered some oblations to the sacrifice and some Devas were born to protect whoever would attack the sacrifice. Thus the siva ganas were running from that place because of the attack from these Devas.
Explanation
Lord Siva here displays the traits and actions of a realized saint. A realized saint will be never attached to his action as for him, he is not the doer – the doer is the EGO and he is the Self, the witness of all actions. Thus since he is not attached to action, he will not be affected by the results of the actions too. Thus Lord Siva did his duty of advising Sati and then kept quiet – he was neither attached nor affected (we will see in the next posting as to how an unrealized saint would react to situations through Lord Siva’s actions itself).
Thus Srimad Bhagavatham is here telling us that we all should not be attached to the actions and thereby we will not be affected by the outcome of those actions. Let’s say I am doing the action of “typing this mail and sending it to people”. Let’s say some people read it and out of those who read it, some say that “whatever you are writing is not correct and not good – we are not liking it”. If this limited intellect or Ego named Hariram is attached to the action of posting, then he will be affected by the comments or outcome of those actions. But if he is not attached to the action, then it is as if “somebody else is doing” and hence he will not be affected by the reactions or results of those actions.
The reality is that there is no real action possible in the ultimate reality of Lord who is the only entity present here. But all actions that we currently perceive and do are all like actions performed in dream. Hence the results too would be the same as dream. Thus pondering over the similarity between dream world and the current waking world, a seeker should separate himself from the doer of Ego and realize that he is the Self – unaffected by all activities.
Thus, the first step towards this is being unattached to all actions (this doesn’t mean inactivity) through offering of the actions to the Lord as a pooja and performing those actions without expecting anything in return. When such an offering is performed, then the seeker is unaffected by the actions and thereby he becomes the mere witness to such activities.
Sati’s character portrayed here shows that she did not know whether to go to the sacrifice or not to go. Thus here we see the battle in the mind about whether to follow the path of spirituality or whether not to follow it. Both these ways are open to all the seekers in the world but the seeker has to decide which one to follow. Those who are attached to the ever-changing entities of the world will never get the eternal bliss which is in the ultimate reality of Lord and thus such people will be doing what Sati did. They will be falling prey to attachments and aversions of the mind. Thus they will be led to destruction alone – here destruction means sorrow and suffering which each individual wants to avoid at any cost (even at the cost of the life of another being). But he who overcomes this attachment by following the path of spirituality will get eternal bliss and reaching where there will be no sorrow and sufferings. He will thus be always rejoicing in the eternal bliss which is his very nature of Consciousness termed as Self in Vedanta.
It requires courage to overcome the passions towards the worldly sense objects & thus most of us fall a prey to them. This is what precisely happened with Sati too. She fell a prey to it & thus went to the sacrifice and had to leave her mortal coil.
When Sati went to the sacrifice, most of the people gathered there did not wish her because they were afraid of Daksha. This is what happens in the life of a seeker too. There will always be some obstacles from people who will be feared by the seeker. This might be in the form of one’s own parents or one’s boss in the office. Thus we find in software world that most of the seekers are afraid of their Project Managers or Project Leads or Module Leads – and as a result of this fear, they don’t follow the path of spirituality & comprise it for the worldly activities.
Such people are also condemned in the scriptures. Such a person will never be able to realize the ultimate reality of God but instead he will always be immersed in the ocean of samsaara only. A seeker has to overcome all passions for the ultimate reality of Lord who requires utmost attention. We should remember here the story of Draupadis “removal of clothes” by Dusshaasana. Draupadi initially caught hold of the saree with both hands & called Krishna. Krishna did not come. She then held the saree with one hand and called Krishna. Then also Krishna did not come. At last she didn’t hold the saree with either of hands and called Krishna completely. Only then Sri Krishna came to help her. This story shows that only when there is complete surrender and complete attention, can we get the Lord to come before us and make us realize our own nature of Consciousness. Thus those who give spirituality secondary importance stating that “I have duties, I have work, I have some planned activities” etc. will never realize the ultimate reality of Lord – instead they will be entering into more and more sorrows and sufferings in the illusory world.
Thus here Srimad Bhagavatham is telling us that we should not be afraid of anybody in the world because the world is neither controlled by Bill Gates nor by George Bush – but it is controlled by the ultimate reality of Lord who is the substratum of the illusory world like the rope being the substratum of the snake which is wrongly perceived in the rope. Such a person will surely be helped by the Lord and he will be saved from all such obstacles even as Pandavas were helped by Lord Krishna and Meera was helped by the Lord.
Sati thus left the mortal coil and the siva ganas started attacking the sacrifice as they were angry. They were thus counter attacked and made to run back by the Devas who emerged out of the sacrificial fire. This shows that the sacrifices are very powerful indeed (all actions are powerful indeed) but their power is not very strong to help the seeker from the illusory ignorance because actions lead to more and more actions and more and more ignorance. That such sacrifices and whatever is obtained from the sacrifice is not really powerful or helpful, we will see while continuing the story tomorrow.
Thus Srimad Bhagavatham here tells us clearly that we should never stop spiritual path because of some obstacles or problems either personally or officially. When the seeker seeks the Lord beyond all limitations, he realizes the ultimate reality of Lord and the Lord saves the devotee in such cases.
Maitreya continued:
When Lord Siva came to know that Sati had left her mortal coil and the siva ganas were beaten by the Devas who were created from the sacrifice, he became very angry. He thus took a hair from his matted lock and hit it on the ground – from that was born Virabhadra who was part of Lord Siva itself.
Siva then commanded Virabhadra to go and destroy the people & the sacrifice conducted by Daksha. At the place of sacrifice, it was almost like night (it was darkness everywhere) – there were many bad omens which were displayed during that time. Then Virabhadra along with other siva ganas came and they destroyed everything in the sacrifice place. At last Virabhadra attacked Daksha who was very much afraid but no weapon could kill Daksha. Thus at last Virabhadra severed off Daksha’s face like various animals are severed off.
Explanation
We have all heard the statement that “Good always wins and bad always will get destroyed”. This is what is mentioned through the story of Daksha in Bhagavatham. Daksha was egoistic and Ego is something which will surely lead a person to destruction in the long run. This is what happened to Daksha too – he was proud about his achievements and thus it lead to the destruction of himself.
This is what really happens to each seeker also. Wherever there is Ego, there is always going to be destruction – it might come sooner or later which will depend on one’s good actions in the world. But it can be surely said that a person who is egoistic will surely meet with destruction. This destruction is not destruction of oneself but it is destruction of the Ego. When the Ego is destroyed, still the seeker who is of the nature of Consciousness remains without any change. The Ego is the cause of all sorrows and sufferings in the world – when the Ego is destroyed, then the seeker realizes his own very nature of eternal bliss or Self. This is what we normally term as Liberation or Moksha. Ego can be destroyed very easily when a person surrenders to the ultimate reality of Lord. Ego can also be destroyed through constant thought of Lord – this thought might can be thought of enmity towards the Lord. This is what we see in the story of Kamsa etc who were rescued from the illusory world as they were devoted to the Lord through the thought of “killing the Lord”. What is important is constant thought of the Lord and not what thought is maintained about the Lord.
We see here that Lord Siva got angry and thus the sacrifice was abruptly stopped and many people were killed. This clearly shows us what ANGER can do to the world. We all are very much familiar with anger but here we really see the effect of anger. A person angry will lost all his discrimination and thus he will always not keep away from even killing others at that time. This is what happened with Lord Siva also – he was angry and thus was born Virabhadra who destroyed the people at the place of the sacrifice. Here Lord Siva is not really affected by anger but Bhagavatham is showing us the effect or result of getting angry through Lord Siva. Lord Siva is none other than the ultimate reality of Brahman (this will be mentioned by Bhagavatham in the next part) and hence is never affected by the illusory world and activities in the world. But Lord Siva is showing the importance of not getting angry by pointing out what would happen if a person gets angry.
Thus a real seeker should always try to control anger and always try to be without any Ego attitude as both will lead to destruction of the seeker only. We will see tomorrow as to how the various Gods propitiate and calm down Lord Siva from this angry attitude to show to us that devotion and love can calm down anger. Thus love and devotion to the Lord is the simplest and easiest way to control anger. When a seeker sees everything as the Lord, then he cannot get angry with anyone because if he gets angry with anyone, he is getting angry with the Lord only. Thus he will very easily conquer anger which is the greatest enemy and obstacle to a spiritual seeker.
Maitreya Continued:
After advising Sati, Siva became silent as he knew that if Sati was to leave off her mortal coil then nothing can stop it from happening. Sati was thus very sad and fluctuating as to whether she could go or not to go. She wanted to go because attachment was pulling her. She didn’t want to go because Siva had mentioned not to go. She couldn’t really decide on what to do. But finally attachment won and Sati went to the sacrifice. Some of the siva ganas followed Sati.
Sati reached the place of sacrifice. Everybody wanted to offer their prostrations and enquires to her but didn’t do that because of fear of Daksha. But her sister and mother embraced her and enquired about her. She didn’t reply to any of those because Daksha did not enquire about her and he even didn’t give the sacrificial offering that was to be given to Rudra (Siva). Thus Sati was very sad and angry as well. She thus exclaimed that she didn’t want this body that was given by such a father who was full of ego and didn’t know what really to do. She also didn’t want Lord Siva to call her as Daakshaayani. She was thus averse to the body itself and hence she sat and renounced the mortal coil.
At that time, the various siva ganas started to attack the sacrifice and the people in that place. At that time, Bhrgu offered some oblations to the sacrifice and some Devas were born to protect whoever would attack the sacrifice. Thus the siva ganas were running from that place because of the attack from these Devas.
Explanation
Lord Siva here displays the traits and actions of a realized saint. A realized saint will be never attached to his action as for him, he is not the doer – the doer is the EGO and he is the Self, the witness of all actions. Thus since he is not attached to action, he will not be affected by the results of the actions too. Thus Lord Siva did his duty of advising Sati and then kept quiet – he was neither attached nor affected (we will see in the next posting as to how an unrealized saint would react to situations through Lord Siva’s actions itself).
Thus Srimad Bhagavatham is here telling us that we all should not be attached to the actions and thereby we will not be affected by the outcome of those actions. Let’s say I am doing the action of “typing this mail and sending it to people”. Let’s say some people read it and out of those who read it, some say that “whatever you are writing is not correct and not good – we are not liking it”. If this limited intellect or Ego named Hariram is attached to the action of posting, then he will be affected by the comments or outcome of those actions. But if he is not attached to the action, then it is as if “somebody else is doing” and hence he will not be affected by the reactions or results of those actions.
The reality is that there is no real action possible in the ultimate reality of Lord who is the only entity present here. But all actions that we currently perceive and do are all like actions performed in dream. Hence the results too would be the same as dream. Thus pondering over the similarity between dream world and the current waking world, a seeker should separate himself from the doer of Ego and realize that he is the Self – unaffected by all activities.
Thus, the first step towards this is being unattached to all actions (this doesn’t mean inactivity) through offering of the actions to the Lord as a pooja and performing those actions without expecting anything in return. When such an offering is performed, then the seeker is unaffected by the actions and thereby he becomes the mere witness to such activities.
Sati’s character portrayed here shows that she did not know whether to go to the sacrifice or not to go. Thus here we see the battle in the mind about whether to follow the path of spirituality or whether not to follow it. Both these ways are open to all the seekers in the world but the seeker has to decide which one to follow. Those who are attached to the ever-changing entities of the world will never get the eternal bliss which is in the ultimate reality of Lord and thus such people will be doing what Sati did. They will be falling prey to attachments and aversions of the mind. Thus they will be led to destruction alone – here destruction means sorrow and suffering which each individual wants to avoid at any cost (even at the cost of the life of another being). But he who overcomes this attachment by following the path of spirituality will get eternal bliss and reaching where there will be no sorrow and sufferings. He will thus be always rejoicing in the eternal bliss which is his very nature of Consciousness termed as Self in Vedanta.
It requires courage to overcome the passions towards the worldly sense objects & thus most of us fall a prey to them. This is what precisely happened with Sati too. She fell a prey to it & thus went to the sacrifice and had to leave her mortal coil.
When Sati went to the sacrifice, most of the people gathered there did not wish her because they were afraid of Daksha. This is what happens in the life of a seeker too. There will always be some obstacles from people who will be feared by the seeker. This might be in the form of one’s own parents or one’s boss in the office. Thus we find in software world that most of the seekers are afraid of their Project Managers or Project Leads or Module Leads – and as a result of this fear, they don’t follow the path of spirituality & comprise it for the worldly activities.
Such people are also condemned in the scriptures. Such a person will never be able to realize the ultimate reality of God but instead he will always be immersed in the ocean of samsaara only. A seeker has to overcome all passions for the ultimate reality of Lord who requires utmost attention. We should remember here the story of Draupadis “removal of clothes” by Dusshaasana. Draupadi initially caught hold of the saree with both hands & called Krishna. Krishna did not come. She then held the saree with one hand and called Krishna. Then also Krishna did not come. At last she didn’t hold the saree with either of hands and called Krishna completely. Only then Sri Krishna came to help her. This story shows that only when there is complete surrender and complete attention, can we get the Lord to come before us and make us realize our own nature of Consciousness. Thus those who give spirituality secondary importance stating that “I have duties, I have work, I have some planned activities” etc. will never realize the ultimate reality of Lord – instead they will be entering into more and more sorrows and sufferings in the illusory world.
Thus here Srimad Bhagavatham is telling us that we should not be afraid of anybody in the world because the world is neither controlled by Bill Gates nor by George Bush – but it is controlled by the ultimate reality of Lord who is the substratum of the illusory world like the rope being the substratum of the snake which is wrongly perceived in the rope. Such a person will surely be helped by the Lord and he will be saved from all such obstacles even as Pandavas were helped by Lord Krishna and Meera was helped by the Lord.
Sati thus left the mortal coil and the siva ganas started attacking the sacrifice as they were angry. They were thus counter attacked and made to run back by the Devas who emerged out of the sacrificial fire. This shows that the sacrifices are very powerful indeed (all actions are powerful indeed) but their power is not very strong to help the seeker from the illusory ignorance because actions lead to more and more actions and more and more ignorance. That such sacrifices and whatever is obtained from the sacrifice is not really powerful or helpful, we will see while continuing the story tomorrow.
Thus Srimad Bhagavatham here tells us clearly that we should never stop spiritual path because of some obstacles or problems either personally or officially. When the seeker seeks the Lord beyond all limitations, he realizes the ultimate reality of Lord and the Lord saves the devotee in such cases.
Maitreya continued:
When Lord Siva came to know that Sati had left her mortal coil and the siva ganas were beaten by the Devas who were created from the sacrifice, he became very angry. He thus took a hair from his matted lock and hit it on the ground – from that was born Virabhadra who was part of Lord Siva itself.
Siva then commanded Virabhadra to go and destroy the people & the sacrifice conducted by Daksha. At the place of sacrifice, it was almost like night (it was darkness everywhere) – there were many bad omens which were displayed during that time. Then Virabhadra along with other siva ganas came and they destroyed everything in the sacrifice place. At last Virabhadra attacked Daksha who was very much afraid but no weapon could kill Daksha. Thus at last Virabhadra severed off Daksha’s face like various animals are severed off.
Explanation
We have all heard the statement that “Good always wins and bad always will get destroyed”. This is what is mentioned through the story of Daksha in Bhagavatham. Daksha was egoistic and Ego is something which will surely lead a person to destruction in the long run. This is what happened to Daksha too – he was proud about his achievements and thus it lead to the destruction of himself.
This is what really happens to each seeker also. Wherever there is Ego, there is always going to be destruction – it might come sooner or later which will depend on one’s good actions in the world. But it can be surely said that a person who is egoistic will surely meet with destruction. This destruction is not destruction of oneself but it is destruction of the Ego. When the Ego is destroyed, still the seeker who is of the nature of Consciousness remains without any change. The Ego is the cause of all sorrows and sufferings in the world – when the Ego is destroyed, then the seeker realizes his own very nature of eternal bliss or Self. This is what we normally term as Liberation or Moksha. Ego can be destroyed very easily when a person surrenders to the ultimate reality of Lord. Ego can also be destroyed through constant thought of Lord – this thought might can be thought of enmity towards the Lord. This is what we see in the story of Kamsa etc who were rescued from the illusory world as they were devoted to the Lord through the thought of “killing the Lord”. What is important is constant thought of the Lord and not what thought is maintained about the Lord.
We see here that Lord Siva got angry and thus the sacrifice was abruptly stopped and many people were killed. This clearly shows us what ANGER can do to the world. We all are very much familiar with anger but here we really see the effect of anger. A person angry will lost all his discrimination and thus he will always not keep away from even killing others at that time. This is what happened with Lord Siva also – he was angry and thus was born Virabhadra who destroyed the people at the place of the sacrifice. Here Lord Siva is not really affected by anger but Bhagavatham is showing us the effect or result of getting angry through Lord Siva. Lord Siva is none other than the ultimate reality of Brahman (this will be mentioned by Bhagavatham in the next part) and hence is never affected by the illusory world and activities in the world. But Lord Siva is showing the importance of not getting angry by pointing out what would happen if a person gets angry.
Thus a real seeker should always try to control anger and always try to be without any Ego attitude as both will lead to destruction of the seeker only. We will see tomorrow as to how the various Gods propitiate and calm down Lord Siva from this angry attitude to show to us that devotion and love can calm down anger. Thus love and devotion to the Lord is the simplest and easiest way to control anger. When a seeker sees everything as the Lord, then he cannot get angry with anyone because if he gets angry with anyone, he is getting angry with the Lord only. Thus he will very easily conquer anger which is the greatest enemy and obstacle to a spiritual seeker.
# posted by vedanta : 9:16 AM
