Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 50 – Story of Dwaraka Nirmaanam - 15
Muchukunda concluded:
O Lord! Always being deluded in Karma Vasana (tendencies of Karma), I was roaming here and there without any peace. Today I have surrendered at your immortal lotus-feet. Please save me.
Explanation
Muchukunda’s conclusive words are the prayers that a seeker should always be remembering and following in his mind. These are words which as we will see tomorrow will take us from the ocean of sorrows to the shore of bliss.
Sankara Bhagavatpada in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya speaks about two things which are contradictory to each other – these two things are karma and jnaana (action and knowledge). A person can be on the plane of either karma or jnaana but not on both. The plane of jnaana is the real plane – that plane which takes us closer to realization, closer to bliss and makes us complete. On the other hand, the plane of action is the illusory plane which will take us away from bliss and more towards sorrow.
This will become clear with the example of water seen in desert. There is no real water in desert – this is the plane of knowledge. If a person is not in this plane of knowledge, then he will start worrying about as to how to get to water, how to collect it, how to bathe in it etc. When a person is ignorant of the plane of knowledge, then actions start in order to achieve the illusory water seen in desert. Similarly we are all in fact one with the ultimate reality of Lord – there is nothing here but the Lord alone exists. When we don’t remember this, we are imperfect and limited in all aspects. Thus an ignorant person starts seeking perfection. As if this was not enough, he seeks perfection in the illusory external world – this is like a person trying to quench his thirst by going behind the water seen in the desert – not only that his thirst will not be quenched but he will be more frustrated and sad. The plane of knowledge is that there is no action to be performed here except complete surrender and always abiding in the truth that the Lord alone exists here. If we forget this, we will be lead into the plane of action. Actions will be performed for enjoying things and enjoying will be done in order to perform more actions. Thus the chain of action and enjoyment will go on without any end. Do actions and enjoyments give us any bliss? No, on the contrary they only give us more and more sorrow, discontent, dissatisfaction and a sense of imperfection.
But the moment a person realizes that there needs to be no action performed and what is to be done is just offering one’s mind completely unto the Lord by always remembering the non-dual reality of Lord, that very moment he gets out of the plane of action and enters the plane of knowledge. In this plane, he always feel blissful, content, satisfied and perfect as there is no duality whatsoever to make him sad or discontent or dissatisfied or imperfect.
The first step to always be in the plane of knowledge where a person is ever blissful is by surrendering completely unto the Lord with the knowledge that everything is but the Lord alone. The second step is always remember the Lord whatever happens – even if the earth splits into two or the sky falls upon us, we should never forget the Lord. Even if we forget our relatives or parents or friends, we should never forget the Lord. If we perform these two steps of surrendering unto the Lord and always being in that surrendered state whatever happens, then we will be ever blissful like Muchukunda. We will see as to how the Lord blesses Muchukunda in the next day.
Hearing the devotion-filled words of Muchukunda, the Lord replied to him thus: O virtue-rich King! Your intellect has strongly been fixed unto me. Even though I try to delude by telling to give boons, still there was no movement to the focused-intellect. Without getting devotion unto me, the mind cannot just be destroyed by doing sadhanas like pranayama etc. Temporarily the mind will merge but it will again rise after sometime and cause troubles. Fixing the mind unto me, roam around any place you want. For you who are seeing me everywhere, there will never be forgetting of the truth.
Explanation
We find the Lord replying to Muchukunda and granting him the eternal fruit of ever abiding in bliss for his devotion to the Lord. The only fruit that we can get out of true devotion to the Lord is the mind and the intellect ever being fixed on the Lord.
The Lord himself says this in Gita 12th chapter thus:
Mayyeva mana aadhatsva mayi buddhim niveshaya
Nivasishyasi mayyeva athah urdhvam na samshayah
Fix your mind unto me and fix your intellect on me; thus you will always abide in you, there is no doubt regarding this.
Fix your mind unto me
Fixing the mind unto the Lord is constant remembrance of the Lord. Wherever a person is, whatever a person is doing, however he is doing – none of this matters – at all times, the thought of the Lord is there in the mind. Even as a lover always thinks about his love, similarly the seeker should always think about the Lord irrespective of the limitations of time, space, environment etc. If we think as to whether this is really possible, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gives a beautiful illustration to show that this is really possible. There is a maid servant who works in a very rich family’s house. She takes care of all the people in the house including the rich man’s kid – she calls the kid “my child” etc. But even when she is taking care of the people in the rich house, her mind is constantly fixed on her own child who is in the house. This is because she loves her child so much that the thought of the child never leaves her mind. Similarly a seeker should have love towards the Lord so that he is able to always remember the Lord. This love is also called devotion. This devotion is required because this will give us eternal bliss – it is of course bliss that we are constantly seeking each and every moment of our life. This is the only way that we will be able to get bliss in life – it is this bliss which is termed differently as peace, contentment, satisfaction, perfection etc.
But isn’t the mother in the illustration also constantly thinking about her child? So will she not get bliss?
No, she will not get bliss because it is not just enough to constantly think about an entity. The entity’s nature is as important as the entity itself. This is what the Lord says next as fix your intellect unto me.
Fix your intellect unto me
It is not just enough to fix our mind constantly unto the Lord but it is also necessary to remember the nature of the Lord as all-pervasive – the Lord as the substratum of the entire world filled with the illusions of names and forms. If we forget this aspect, then duality will still persist in our mind. The duality will lead to likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes will further lead to attachment and aversion. This will further lead us to the dual notions of happiness and sorrow.
Thus in order for a seeker to ever abide in bliss, he has to constantly remember the Lord as the substratum of the entire world (the Lord who appears the entire world of names and forms). Even as various gold ornaments like chain, necklace etc. are mere illusions of names and forms, similarly the entire world is nothing but illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord. This can be clearly understood from the experience of dream world. In dream, there is only the dreamer present but he still sees quite an entire world. Only after waking up does he realize that there never was any dream world at all – whatever was there was only the dreamer alone.
When a seeker knows that the entire world is an illusion in the Lord, then what boon can he ask other than ever abiding in the Lord? This is exactly what Muchukunda as well asked. The Lord tried to delude Muchukunda into asking boons which will make him enter into the names and forms which are mere illusions and therefore can lead to only sorrows. But Muchukunda’s intellect was fixed unto the Lord as he always remembered the nature of the Lord as the non-dual reality behind the illusory world. Therefore the Lord proclaimed that Muchukunda will ever abide in the Lord – this means that Muchukunda will ever be blissful and his life will become fulfilled.
Bhagavatham is thus telling each and every seeker that there might be delusions in the world but we have to overcome those delusions by constantly fixing our mind and intellect unto the Lord by remembering the Lord as the non-dual reality behind the illusory world so that we will ever abide in the Lord and be blissful irrespective of where we are, what we are doing etc.
O Lord! Always being deluded in Karma Vasana (tendencies of Karma), I was roaming here and there without any peace. Today I have surrendered at your immortal lotus-feet. Please save me.
Explanation
Muchukunda’s conclusive words are the prayers that a seeker should always be remembering and following in his mind. These are words which as we will see tomorrow will take us from the ocean of sorrows to the shore of bliss.
Sankara Bhagavatpada in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya speaks about two things which are contradictory to each other – these two things are karma and jnaana (action and knowledge). A person can be on the plane of either karma or jnaana but not on both. The plane of jnaana is the real plane – that plane which takes us closer to realization, closer to bliss and makes us complete. On the other hand, the plane of action is the illusory plane which will take us away from bliss and more towards sorrow.
This will become clear with the example of water seen in desert. There is no real water in desert – this is the plane of knowledge. If a person is not in this plane of knowledge, then he will start worrying about as to how to get to water, how to collect it, how to bathe in it etc. When a person is ignorant of the plane of knowledge, then actions start in order to achieve the illusory water seen in desert. Similarly we are all in fact one with the ultimate reality of Lord – there is nothing here but the Lord alone exists. When we don’t remember this, we are imperfect and limited in all aspects. Thus an ignorant person starts seeking perfection. As if this was not enough, he seeks perfection in the illusory external world – this is like a person trying to quench his thirst by going behind the water seen in the desert – not only that his thirst will not be quenched but he will be more frustrated and sad. The plane of knowledge is that there is no action to be performed here except complete surrender and always abiding in the truth that the Lord alone exists here. If we forget this, we will be lead into the plane of action. Actions will be performed for enjoying things and enjoying will be done in order to perform more actions. Thus the chain of action and enjoyment will go on without any end. Do actions and enjoyments give us any bliss? No, on the contrary they only give us more and more sorrow, discontent, dissatisfaction and a sense of imperfection.
But the moment a person realizes that there needs to be no action performed and what is to be done is just offering one’s mind completely unto the Lord by always remembering the non-dual reality of Lord, that very moment he gets out of the plane of action and enters the plane of knowledge. In this plane, he always feel blissful, content, satisfied and perfect as there is no duality whatsoever to make him sad or discontent or dissatisfied or imperfect.
The first step to always be in the plane of knowledge where a person is ever blissful is by surrendering completely unto the Lord with the knowledge that everything is but the Lord alone. The second step is always remember the Lord whatever happens – even if the earth splits into two or the sky falls upon us, we should never forget the Lord. Even if we forget our relatives or parents or friends, we should never forget the Lord. If we perform these two steps of surrendering unto the Lord and always being in that surrendered state whatever happens, then we will be ever blissful like Muchukunda. We will see as to how the Lord blesses Muchukunda in the next day.
Hearing the devotion-filled words of Muchukunda, the Lord replied to him thus: O virtue-rich King! Your intellect has strongly been fixed unto me. Even though I try to delude by telling to give boons, still there was no movement to the focused-intellect. Without getting devotion unto me, the mind cannot just be destroyed by doing sadhanas like pranayama etc. Temporarily the mind will merge but it will again rise after sometime and cause troubles. Fixing the mind unto me, roam around any place you want. For you who are seeing me everywhere, there will never be forgetting of the truth.
Explanation
We find the Lord replying to Muchukunda and granting him the eternal fruit of ever abiding in bliss for his devotion to the Lord. The only fruit that we can get out of true devotion to the Lord is the mind and the intellect ever being fixed on the Lord.
The Lord himself says this in Gita 12th chapter thus:
Mayyeva mana aadhatsva mayi buddhim niveshaya
Nivasishyasi mayyeva athah urdhvam na samshayah
Fix your mind unto me and fix your intellect on me; thus you will always abide in you, there is no doubt regarding this.
Fix your mind unto me
Fixing the mind unto the Lord is constant remembrance of the Lord. Wherever a person is, whatever a person is doing, however he is doing – none of this matters – at all times, the thought of the Lord is there in the mind. Even as a lover always thinks about his love, similarly the seeker should always think about the Lord irrespective of the limitations of time, space, environment etc. If we think as to whether this is really possible, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gives a beautiful illustration to show that this is really possible. There is a maid servant who works in a very rich family’s house. She takes care of all the people in the house including the rich man’s kid – she calls the kid “my child” etc. But even when she is taking care of the people in the rich house, her mind is constantly fixed on her own child who is in the house. This is because she loves her child so much that the thought of the child never leaves her mind. Similarly a seeker should have love towards the Lord so that he is able to always remember the Lord. This love is also called devotion. This devotion is required because this will give us eternal bliss – it is of course bliss that we are constantly seeking each and every moment of our life. This is the only way that we will be able to get bliss in life – it is this bliss which is termed differently as peace, contentment, satisfaction, perfection etc.
But isn’t the mother in the illustration also constantly thinking about her child? So will she not get bliss?
No, she will not get bliss because it is not just enough to constantly think about an entity. The entity’s nature is as important as the entity itself. This is what the Lord says next as fix your intellect unto me.
Fix your intellect unto me
It is not just enough to fix our mind constantly unto the Lord but it is also necessary to remember the nature of the Lord as all-pervasive – the Lord as the substratum of the entire world filled with the illusions of names and forms. If we forget this aspect, then duality will still persist in our mind. The duality will lead to likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes will further lead to attachment and aversion. This will further lead us to the dual notions of happiness and sorrow.
Thus in order for a seeker to ever abide in bliss, he has to constantly remember the Lord as the substratum of the entire world (the Lord who appears the entire world of names and forms). Even as various gold ornaments like chain, necklace etc. are mere illusions of names and forms, similarly the entire world is nothing but illusion of names and forms in the reality of Lord. This can be clearly understood from the experience of dream world. In dream, there is only the dreamer present but he still sees quite an entire world. Only after waking up does he realize that there never was any dream world at all – whatever was there was only the dreamer alone.
When a seeker knows that the entire world is an illusion in the Lord, then what boon can he ask other than ever abiding in the Lord? This is exactly what Muchukunda as well asked. The Lord tried to delude Muchukunda into asking boons which will make him enter into the names and forms which are mere illusions and therefore can lead to only sorrows. But Muchukunda’s intellect was fixed unto the Lord as he always remembered the nature of the Lord as the non-dual reality behind the illusory world. Therefore the Lord proclaimed that Muchukunda will ever abide in the Lord – this means that Muchukunda will ever be blissful and his life will become fulfilled.
Bhagavatham is thus telling each and every seeker that there might be delusions in the world but we have to overcome those delusions by constantly fixing our mind and intellect unto the Lord by remembering the Lord as the non-dual reality behind the illusory world so that we will ever abide in the Lord and be blissful irrespective of where we are, what we are doing etc.
# posted by vedanta : 5:52 AM
