Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 51 – Story of Narakaasura Vadha (killing) - 01
Let us start yet another beautiful story of Srimad Bhagavatham starting today. As we discussed in the previous day, the entire scriptures have for their import the ultimate reality of Lord and hence it is also very important to always stay focused on the Lord. If we fail to be focused on the Lord, then we will end up with the illusory world thereby experience only sorrow and suffering. On the other hand, if we are able to always remember the Lord, all activities will only help us move towards eternal bliss.
What about doing bad activities while remembering the Lord?
The Lord himself answers this in couple of places in Gita:
Api chet suduraachaaro bhajathe maam ananyabhaak
Saadhureva sah mantavyah samyak vyavasitho hi sah
Even if a person does the worse action but with remembering me, then he is to be considered a good person as he is always focused on me.
How does he become realized by just remembering the Lord even while doing bad actions?
Kshipram bhavathi dharmaatma shashvat shaanthim nigacchathi
Kaunteya prathijaaneehi na me bhakthah pranashyathi
Soon he will become a good person and achieve eternal peace. O Arjuna! Know for sure that my devotee will never perish.
These words of the Lord are not mere words but promises that he has kept over and over again. Any seeker who becomes a devotee of the Lord can experience the same even today. Thus even if a person does bad actions but includes the thought of non-dual reality of Lord along with it, he will very soon attain realization. Realization is nothing but ever abiding in the thought that everything is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord.
If realization can happen so soon, what is it that obstructs a person to be realized?
The obstacle to realization is forgetfulness of the Lord which is achieved through focus on worldly objects. When a person doesn’t see beyond the gold ornament’s names and forms, he doesn’t benefit out of the knowledge that it is gold. Thereby he gets attached to one gold form and averted to another. Thus he is lead to sorrows in the long run. Therefore we can say that forgetting the Lord through focus on the names and forms (considering them to be real) is the obstacle for realization. It is this obstacle that is termed as ASURA (asushu ramathe ithi asura – one who concentrates on sense objects is asura). The various asuras denote the tendencies of our mind wherein we don’t focus on the Lord instead focus on the names and forms of the world. Thus killing of the asuras or vadha is nothing but bringing our focus back on to the Lord (all the while experiencing the names and forms). This has nothing to do with going away from the world and living in a forest but it just means that we have include the Lord in our thoughts in order to kill the asuras who are obstacles to eternal bliss.
It is killing of one such asura that the Lord undertakes in this particular story which we will start from the next day.
Days passed by after Krishna returned back to Dwaraka after fooling Jarasandha. Krishna then went to Kundinapuri and wed Rukmini the daughter of Vidarbha King. Krishna wed Rukmini after defeating the various kings who had come to wed her including Shishupala.
Explanation
Here we see a couple of things regarding the ultimate reality of Lord. One is that the Lord continued his activities in the world even after killing Yavana and fooling Jarasandha. Second is that the Lord defeated everyone in order to wed Rukmini.
The Lord makes a profound statement with respect to actions in the Gita thus:
Na hi kaschit kshanamapi jaathu thistathi akarmakrit
Kaaryathe hi avashah karma sarvah prakrithijair gunaih
Not even for a moment can a person be without doing actions; everybody does actions as they are helpless and the actions are done based on their innate tendencies.
The Lord not only just gives speeches but he implements his own words as he is a role model for the entire world. Therefore even after Yavana was killed, the Lord entered into the other activities in the world. Even as each person in the world has some worldly activities to do based on his innate tendencies, the Lord also had worldly activities which included saving people who have surrendered unto him and destroying people who are worshipping him with vidhvesha (hatred).
Though we don’t have a choice as to whether or not to do actions, we still have an option as to the attitude behind all actions. With the right attitude of surrender unto the all-pervasive non-dual reality of Lord, a person ceases to be the doer of actions though actions still continue. The devotee thus does actions like a normal person but without getting attached to the actions or the fruits of the actions. The Lord says that a wise person (jnaani) does actions like a worldly ignorant person except that the wise person is not attached to the actions or the fruits thereof whereas an ignorant person is attached to both the action and the fruits thereof. As long as a person is the doer of actions, he will have to reap the benefits (fruits) of the action whether they are good or bad. A person cannot make a choice as to accept only good fruits and reject bad fruits. As AMMA says that some people are born with a huge credit in their bank of karma based on which they will be enjoying life with happiness – but the happiness will vanish once the credit is exhausted. But a wise person’s credit of happiness is never exhausted as he is no longer the doer or the enjoyer but one with the ultimate reality of Lord. The ultimate reality of Lord’s very nature is that of bliss and a devotee who is always immersed in the thought of the Lord along with offering all actions unto the Lord will thereby be ever blissful. This blissful state of the devotee wherein he is doing actions but like an actor enacting a role is known in Vedanta as saakshi bhava (witness-hood).
As long as a person is involved in an action, the action and the fruits of the action will affect him. But once he is just a witness to the activities of the Ego, he is not affected by either the action or the fruits of the action. Thus the Lord through remaining ever blissful while doing activities in the world shows as that witness-hood is easily possible and it is witness-hood that can give us eternal bliss (which is being sought by everyone).
While a seeker is trying to be a witness to all activities, he might face obstacles of all sorts. If the seeker has surrendered unto the Lord, the Lord will remove all those obstacles and ensure that the seeker progresses in the spiritual path easily. This is shown through the Lord defeating all kings assembled thereby wedding Rukmini (as Rukmini had surrendered unto the Lord and nothing is an obstacle for the Lord who is the substratum of the illusory world).
What about doing bad activities while remembering the Lord?
The Lord himself answers this in couple of places in Gita:
Api chet suduraachaaro bhajathe maam ananyabhaak
Saadhureva sah mantavyah samyak vyavasitho hi sah
Even if a person does the worse action but with remembering me, then he is to be considered a good person as he is always focused on me.
How does he become realized by just remembering the Lord even while doing bad actions?
Kshipram bhavathi dharmaatma shashvat shaanthim nigacchathi
Kaunteya prathijaaneehi na me bhakthah pranashyathi
Soon he will become a good person and achieve eternal peace. O Arjuna! Know for sure that my devotee will never perish.
These words of the Lord are not mere words but promises that he has kept over and over again. Any seeker who becomes a devotee of the Lord can experience the same even today. Thus even if a person does bad actions but includes the thought of non-dual reality of Lord along with it, he will very soon attain realization. Realization is nothing but ever abiding in the thought that everything is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord.
If realization can happen so soon, what is it that obstructs a person to be realized?
The obstacle to realization is forgetfulness of the Lord which is achieved through focus on worldly objects. When a person doesn’t see beyond the gold ornament’s names and forms, he doesn’t benefit out of the knowledge that it is gold. Thereby he gets attached to one gold form and averted to another. Thus he is lead to sorrows in the long run. Therefore we can say that forgetting the Lord through focus on the names and forms (considering them to be real) is the obstacle for realization. It is this obstacle that is termed as ASURA (asushu ramathe ithi asura – one who concentrates on sense objects is asura). The various asuras denote the tendencies of our mind wherein we don’t focus on the Lord instead focus on the names and forms of the world. Thus killing of the asuras or vadha is nothing but bringing our focus back on to the Lord (all the while experiencing the names and forms). This has nothing to do with going away from the world and living in a forest but it just means that we have include the Lord in our thoughts in order to kill the asuras who are obstacles to eternal bliss.
It is killing of one such asura that the Lord undertakes in this particular story which we will start from the next day.
Days passed by after Krishna returned back to Dwaraka after fooling Jarasandha. Krishna then went to Kundinapuri and wed Rukmini the daughter of Vidarbha King. Krishna wed Rukmini after defeating the various kings who had come to wed her including Shishupala.
Explanation
Here we see a couple of things regarding the ultimate reality of Lord. One is that the Lord continued his activities in the world even after killing Yavana and fooling Jarasandha. Second is that the Lord defeated everyone in order to wed Rukmini.
The Lord makes a profound statement with respect to actions in the Gita thus:
Na hi kaschit kshanamapi jaathu thistathi akarmakrit
Kaaryathe hi avashah karma sarvah prakrithijair gunaih
Not even for a moment can a person be without doing actions; everybody does actions as they are helpless and the actions are done based on their innate tendencies.
The Lord not only just gives speeches but he implements his own words as he is a role model for the entire world. Therefore even after Yavana was killed, the Lord entered into the other activities in the world. Even as each person in the world has some worldly activities to do based on his innate tendencies, the Lord also had worldly activities which included saving people who have surrendered unto him and destroying people who are worshipping him with vidhvesha (hatred).
Though we don’t have a choice as to whether or not to do actions, we still have an option as to the attitude behind all actions. With the right attitude of surrender unto the all-pervasive non-dual reality of Lord, a person ceases to be the doer of actions though actions still continue. The devotee thus does actions like a normal person but without getting attached to the actions or the fruits of the actions. The Lord says that a wise person (jnaani) does actions like a worldly ignorant person except that the wise person is not attached to the actions or the fruits thereof whereas an ignorant person is attached to both the action and the fruits thereof. As long as a person is the doer of actions, he will have to reap the benefits (fruits) of the action whether they are good or bad. A person cannot make a choice as to accept only good fruits and reject bad fruits. As AMMA says that some people are born with a huge credit in their bank of karma based on which they will be enjoying life with happiness – but the happiness will vanish once the credit is exhausted. But a wise person’s credit of happiness is never exhausted as he is no longer the doer or the enjoyer but one with the ultimate reality of Lord. The ultimate reality of Lord’s very nature is that of bliss and a devotee who is always immersed in the thought of the Lord along with offering all actions unto the Lord will thereby be ever blissful. This blissful state of the devotee wherein he is doing actions but like an actor enacting a role is known in Vedanta as saakshi bhava (witness-hood).
As long as a person is involved in an action, the action and the fruits of the action will affect him. But once he is just a witness to the activities of the Ego, he is not affected by either the action or the fruits of the action. Thus the Lord through remaining ever blissful while doing activities in the world shows as that witness-hood is easily possible and it is witness-hood that can give us eternal bliss (which is being sought by everyone).
While a seeker is trying to be a witness to all activities, he might face obstacles of all sorts. If the seeker has surrendered unto the Lord, the Lord will remove all those obstacles and ensure that the seeker progresses in the spiritual path easily. This is shown through the Lord defeating all kings assembled thereby wedding Rukmini (as Rukmini had surrendered unto the Lord and nothing is an obstacle for the Lord who is the substratum of the illusory world).
# posted by vedanta : 6:02 AM
