Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 51 – Story of Narakaasura Vadha (killing) - 04
The Lord along with Sathyabhama reached prathyakjyotisha (the capital of Naraka). Under the leadership of Muraasura the capital was set with lot of obstacles and hence very tough to reach. But the Lord destroyed all those obstacles very easily.
Explanation
The previous day we learnt about the Lord being like a mother to all of us thereby taking care of us whenever we need. Even as a mother doesn’t take care of the child (though her sights are always on the child) until the child really wants help, similarly the Lord also doesn’t help the devotee until the devotee seeks the Lord will all earnestness.
Now we may have a doubt as to whether the Lord can take care of his devotees? This is being explained in a simple way by Bhagavatham in this part of the story. Narakaasura’s capital was set in such a way that enemies will find it very tough to reach. This is similar to the goal of moksha – moksha is something which is very rare and valuable that in order to reach it a seeker has to overcome quite a lot of obstacles. Unlike worldly obstacles, spiritual obstacles are in the mind of the seeker. If the seeker is able to put his entire mind unto seeking the truth, all obstacles will very easily vanish – but if the seeker is not able to put his entire mind unto the truth there will be one or the other obstacle in the world. Today the obstacles to spiritual sadhana and remembrance of the Lord might be one’s profession – tomorrow it might be one’s parents – day after tomorrow it might be neighbours. Thus the list of obstacles will never get reduced or become zero as one or the other obstacle will still remain as long as the seeker is able to put his entire mind unto remembering the Lord (remembering that the Lord alone exists as the substratum of the illusory world of names and forms).
The obstacles that we face in the spiritual path are like the obstacles we find in computer games – the obstacles are not obstacles at all but they appear to be big obstacles. Once the seeker gets the mental strength to proceed and face the obstacles, immediately the obstacle will cease to be an obstacle (the age-old saying of RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU explains this). But the mental strength to face the obstacles is something that is very tough indeed to achieve.
Once Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was sitting with his disciples. He then asked Narendra a question – imagine that there is a bowl filled with nectar (water of nectar); you are a fly; so how will you drink the nectar? Narendra answered that he will sit at the side of the bowl and try to drink the nectar. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa laughed and exclaimed – “it is nectar – why should you fear? You can directly jump into it in order to drink it – jumping will not make you die but it will make you eternal as it is nectar that you are jumping into”.
It is the sense of ego that keeps a person from killing the limited Ego and becoming unlimited. And this requires mental strength to face the killing of the limited Ego along with the strong conviction that killing of the Ego will not only help us but it will help the entire world. Instead most of the time we think about the ego and its relations that we are unable to kill the Ego. As long as we don’t seek the Lord, the Lord will not be able to help us out. But if we seek the Lord remembering that the Lord will definitely take care of us whatever the obstacle is, immediately the Lord will take care of all obstacles thereby making the spiritual path towards the goal of moksha an easy and quick one.
Like the sound of pralaya, the sound of the Lord’s conch of Panchajanya rang. The sound was like the anaahatha dwani (sound in anahaatha) in a yogi’s mind. Murasura who was sleeping in the water woke up hearing the terrorizing sound of Panchajanya.
Explanation
The conch of the Lord is named Panchajanya. The ringing of the sound woke up Murasura. This denotes the state of a spiritual seeker as well.
If the bad qualities in the seeker have to come out, they have to first rise up from the bottom of the mind. Thus initially when the seeker is progressing in the spiritual path, he can feel the bad tendencies showing up. Unlike a worldly person who just falls a prey to those tendencies, the spiritual seeker seeks the Lord and along with the help of the Lord destroys those bad tendencies.
Here blowing of the conch denotes the bad tendencies coming to the top of the mind. If the seeker sticks on to the spiritual path then the bad tendencies will be destroyed by the Lord himself (for a seeker who has surrendered to the Lord and is remembering the Lord at all times).
The sound of the Lord woke up Murasura – this waking up also denotes the seeker waking up from ignorance and trying to achieve the goal of moksha. Life itself is for realizing one’s own very nature of Lord. Instead of realizing this goal, we have all forgotten the goal in itself. Hence we seek many other things instead of the real goal and consider those temporary objects as our real goal in life. But due to the good deeds of a person there will be a day when we will hear the sound of the Lord – the sound that calls upon us to wake up from the temporary goals and seek the eternal goal of realization. Even then hardly few will wake up – majority will still sleep in ignorance like kumbhakarna’s sleeping. But the bold few who tend to wake up and analyze as to what is happening will be lead to the next level wherein the Lord himself will show them the way to the goal of realization. But these are very few bold and wise people who knowing the futility of the world in itself will seek the eternal fruit of bliss. When they start seeking the eternal goal, they will slowly be guided in the right direction by the Lord through his instruments and various other objects/beings in the world.
Even when a person realizes the futility of the world, still he can choose to ignore the eternal goal and go behind temporary objects of the world. Such people are termed as moodah or fools by the Lord in Bhagavad Gita. If a person doesn’t go behind the eternal goal even after knowing that it is the eternal goal, then he is like a person who sees two plates in front of him – one filled with chocolates and the other filled with a 500 rupee note. The fool is one who will go behind chocolates not knowing that the 500 rupee note can buy much more chocolates. A child generally does it out of ignorance but elderly people do it out of foolishness as they are helpless to come out of the sorrows of the world. People get so used to the illusions in the world that when the right time comes to quit the illusion, they don’t want to quit.
Even such people will be made to quit by the Lord even if takes many births or kalpas. This illusion of birth-death in this temporary world will continue as long as the seeker doesn’t realize his very nature of Lord by seeking the eternal goal.
Explanation
The previous day we learnt about the Lord being like a mother to all of us thereby taking care of us whenever we need. Even as a mother doesn’t take care of the child (though her sights are always on the child) until the child really wants help, similarly the Lord also doesn’t help the devotee until the devotee seeks the Lord will all earnestness.
Now we may have a doubt as to whether the Lord can take care of his devotees? This is being explained in a simple way by Bhagavatham in this part of the story. Narakaasura’s capital was set in such a way that enemies will find it very tough to reach. This is similar to the goal of moksha – moksha is something which is very rare and valuable that in order to reach it a seeker has to overcome quite a lot of obstacles. Unlike worldly obstacles, spiritual obstacles are in the mind of the seeker. If the seeker is able to put his entire mind unto seeking the truth, all obstacles will very easily vanish – but if the seeker is not able to put his entire mind unto the truth there will be one or the other obstacle in the world. Today the obstacles to spiritual sadhana and remembrance of the Lord might be one’s profession – tomorrow it might be one’s parents – day after tomorrow it might be neighbours. Thus the list of obstacles will never get reduced or become zero as one or the other obstacle will still remain as long as the seeker is able to put his entire mind unto remembering the Lord (remembering that the Lord alone exists as the substratum of the illusory world of names and forms).
The obstacles that we face in the spiritual path are like the obstacles we find in computer games – the obstacles are not obstacles at all but they appear to be big obstacles. Once the seeker gets the mental strength to proceed and face the obstacles, immediately the obstacle will cease to be an obstacle (the age-old saying of RESIST THE DEVIL AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU explains this). But the mental strength to face the obstacles is something that is very tough indeed to achieve.
Once Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was sitting with his disciples. He then asked Narendra a question – imagine that there is a bowl filled with nectar (water of nectar); you are a fly; so how will you drink the nectar? Narendra answered that he will sit at the side of the bowl and try to drink the nectar. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa laughed and exclaimed – “it is nectar – why should you fear? You can directly jump into it in order to drink it – jumping will not make you die but it will make you eternal as it is nectar that you are jumping into”.
It is the sense of ego that keeps a person from killing the limited Ego and becoming unlimited. And this requires mental strength to face the killing of the limited Ego along with the strong conviction that killing of the Ego will not only help us but it will help the entire world. Instead most of the time we think about the ego and its relations that we are unable to kill the Ego. As long as we don’t seek the Lord, the Lord will not be able to help us out. But if we seek the Lord remembering that the Lord will definitely take care of us whatever the obstacle is, immediately the Lord will take care of all obstacles thereby making the spiritual path towards the goal of moksha an easy and quick one.
Like the sound of pralaya, the sound of the Lord’s conch of Panchajanya rang. The sound was like the anaahatha dwani (sound in anahaatha) in a yogi’s mind. Murasura who was sleeping in the water woke up hearing the terrorizing sound of Panchajanya.
Explanation
The conch of the Lord is named Panchajanya. The ringing of the sound woke up Murasura. This denotes the state of a spiritual seeker as well.
If the bad qualities in the seeker have to come out, they have to first rise up from the bottom of the mind. Thus initially when the seeker is progressing in the spiritual path, he can feel the bad tendencies showing up. Unlike a worldly person who just falls a prey to those tendencies, the spiritual seeker seeks the Lord and along with the help of the Lord destroys those bad tendencies.
Here blowing of the conch denotes the bad tendencies coming to the top of the mind. If the seeker sticks on to the spiritual path then the bad tendencies will be destroyed by the Lord himself (for a seeker who has surrendered to the Lord and is remembering the Lord at all times).
The sound of the Lord woke up Murasura – this waking up also denotes the seeker waking up from ignorance and trying to achieve the goal of moksha. Life itself is for realizing one’s own very nature of Lord. Instead of realizing this goal, we have all forgotten the goal in itself. Hence we seek many other things instead of the real goal and consider those temporary objects as our real goal in life. But due to the good deeds of a person there will be a day when we will hear the sound of the Lord – the sound that calls upon us to wake up from the temporary goals and seek the eternal goal of realization. Even then hardly few will wake up – majority will still sleep in ignorance like kumbhakarna’s sleeping. But the bold few who tend to wake up and analyze as to what is happening will be lead to the next level wherein the Lord himself will show them the way to the goal of realization. But these are very few bold and wise people who knowing the futility of the world in itself will seek the eternal fruit of bliss. When they start seeking the eternal goal, they will slowly be guided in the right direction by the Lord through his instruments and various other objects/beings in the world.
Even when a person realizes the futility of the world, still he can choose to ignore the eternal goal and go behind temporary objects of the world. Such people are termed as moodah or fools by the Lord in Bhagavad Gita. If a person doesn’t go behind the eternal goal even after knowing that it is the eternal goal, then he is like a person who sees two plates in front of him – one filled with chocolates and the other filled with a 500 rupee note. The fool is one who will go behind chocolates not knowing that the 500 rupee note can buy much more chocolates. A child generally does it out of ignorance but elderly people do it out of foolishness as they are helpless to come out of the sorrows of the world. People get so used to the illusions in the world that when the right time comes to quit the illusion, they don’t want to quit.
Even such people will be made to quit by the Lord even if takes many births or kalpas. This illusion of birth-death in this temporary world will continue as long as the seeker doesn’t realize his very nature of Lord by seeking the eternal goal.
# posted by vedanta : 6:11 AM
