Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 51 – Story of Narakaasura Vadha (killing) - 05
Murasura who had five faces sprung out of the water with a trishoola as if he was about to swallow the three worlds. He used the shoolam targeting garuda (the Lord’s ride) and opened all his five mouths laughing mockingly. Muran started growing till sky. The pouncing Muran was opened up by the Lord with his gadha (mace). The face of Muran which came against the Lord was shattered into pieces by the Lord’s chakra. Muran’s seven sons attacked the Lord seeking revenge – the Lord very easily sent them as well to Yamaloka.
Explanation
We have analyze many times earlier that the Lord can be achieved not just through love but through hate as well – whether it is love or hate, it should be such that our mind is pervaded with the thought of the Lord alone and our vision should be that everything is the Lord alone.
In Mahabharatha we can find that as Krishna grew in Gokula, Kamsa’s vidvesha or anger towards the Lord also grew. It became the peak when Kamsa started seeing the Lord alone – while walking, while drinking, while sleeping etc. It is this vision of oneness which is the sadhana that will grant us the blessing of eternal bliss (liberation from all bondages and sorrows).
Thus it is not important as to with what aspect we worship the Lord (worship here means vision of oneness) but what is important is worshipping the Lord. We find that asuras have realized the Lord through anger whereas devotees have realized the Lord through love.
Thus as seekers seeking the ultimate reality of Lord, we have to always thrive to get the vision of oneness whether it is through loving or hating the Lord. Here we find Muran having that hatred for the Lord so strong that he goes to any extent in order to kill the Lord who has come to attack Narakaasura. It is this hatred for the Lord that takes Muran beyond all limitations thereby making him merge unto the reality of Lord. This is denoted by the killing of Muran by the Lord. Muran’s children also were killed by the Lord. We may think of the Lord as a sadistic person who kills people – the killing here is not of the Self but of the Ego which has negative tendencies (these negative tendencies are called asuras). All negative tendencies arise from not acknowledging the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading the entire world – instead seeing duality in the world. This duality in turns leads to attachment and aversion which in turn takes us to happiness and sorrow. If only our attachments and aversions were diverted to the ultimate reality of Lord while seeing him everywhere, the same attachments and aversions that lead to our downfall would in fact help us in the spiritual path towards bliss.
It is for this reason that Vidyaranya proclaims in Panchadashi that the creation of the Lord is not an obstacle for the spiritual seeker and it only helps the seeker in realizing. The creation of the Lord is pervaded by the Lord. But due to our lack of vision of oneness, we fail to perceive the Lord in the creation – instead we end up seeing the creation from our mental thoughts thereby adding likes and dislikes to the creation. Instead of trying to view creation from our perspective, if we see creation from the real perspective we will find that everything in the world (both sentient and insentient) is pervaded with the Conscious and Existence principle of Lord. Once we acknowledge this, the blissful aspect of the creation also will be enjoyed – thus taking the seeker to a blissful state wherever he is in the world.
The Lord through the killing of the asuras shows us that it isn’t tough to see oneness everywhere. If an asura who doesn’t like the Lord at all is able to see oneness everywhere then it is very easy for us who like the Lord and are seeking the Lord as bliss. Once we seek the Lord through vision of oneness, the Lord will kill our Egos and make us eternal (one with the Lord thereby ever rejoicing in bliss).
We will continue with the story in the next day.
With the killing of Murasura and his children, Narakasura himself came to fight the Lord with a sword and an entire clan of wild elephants. At that time the Lord along with Sathyabhama shone like a Sun amidst clouds.
Explanation
The spiritual path is such that there will be obstacles quite often. Even as any worldly goal has lots of obstacles on the way which have to be overcome, similar is the case with the spiritual goal of bliss. The goal of getting a job cannot be achieved when a child is born. The child has to grow; attend classes; clear each and every standard; then get a degree; then search for a job; attend interviews many of which would be failures. If a worldly goal like getting a job has so many obstacles or hurdles to cross over, the spiritual goal of moksha will have much stronger obstacles.
The difference between worldly hurdles and spiritual hurdles is that worldly hurdles are easy to overcome through one or the other way whereas spiritual hurdles are very tough to overcome as most of the hurdles can only be overcome when the Ego ceases to exist.
Only a seeker who has surrendered his Ego unto the Lord or has renounced the Ego through contemplation of the entire world as filled with the Lord can overcome the Ego thereby getting rid of all obstacles.
Killing or overcoming of the Ego is not as simple as it appears to be. Ramana Maharshi used to say that overcoming the Ego is the toughest step in the spiritual path as the Ego poses as a friend to us. Most of us are used to worldly norms of relatives and friends. Hence it is often tough to realize that neither relatives nor friends can help us remove sorrows as they themselves are fighting to overcome sorrows. Even as a blind person cannot lead another blind person; even as a drowning person cannot save another drowning person, similarly a person suffering in the ocean of samsaara (ignorance) cannot save another suffering person. The only people who can help us from the ocean of samsaara is the ultimate reality of Lord and realized masters (who are one with the ultimate reality of Lord). Since the Ego poses as a friend, it is very tough to kill the Ego even as killing a friend is tough. This killing of Ego becomes easier if we realize that by killing of the Ego, the Ego is no longer limited but becomes unlimited – the Ego is no longer suffering but rejoicing in bliss.
It is very important to remember that the spiritual path is filled with obstacles as tough as killing the Ego so that we are always alert and focused on the goal. A person might be a good driver who doesn’t need to focus on his driving but when either the road is narrow one or he is driving during night (when he is feeling a bit sleepy), he is alert and focuses on his driving (though he is a good driver). Thus we shouldn’t be afraid of the spiritual path as it is filled with obstacles but should become alert, vigilant and ever focused on the goal so that we don’t get lost in the path thereby not getting bliss (the goal of the spiritual path).
We find here that the Lord goes through many hurdles in the form of asuras. Asuras one after the other come to attack the Lord. Similar is the case in the spiritual path of a seeker as well. But the biggest hurdle comes last – similarly in the spiritual path the biggest hurdle of Ego comes at the end and it is very tough to conquer like Narakasura.
Explanation
We have analyze many times earlier that the Lord can be achieved not just through love but through hate as well – whether it is love or hate, it should be such that our mind is pervaded with the thought of the Lord alone and our vision should be that everything is the Lord alone.
In Mahabharatha we can find that as Krishna grew in Gokula, Kamsa’s vidvesha or anger towards the Lord also grew. It became the peak when Kamsa started seeing the Lord alone – while walking, while drinking, while sleeping etc. It is this vision of oneness which is the sadhana that will grant us the blessing of eternal bliss (liberation from all bondages and sorrows).
Thus it is not important as to with what aspect we worship the Lord (worship here means vision of oneness) but what is important is worshipping the Lord. We find that asuras have realized the Lord through anger whereas devotees have realized the Lord through love.
Thus as seekers seeking the ultimate reality of Lord, we have to always thrive to get the vision of oneness whether it is through loving or hating the Lord. Here we find Muran having that hatred for the Lord so strong that he goes to any extent in order to kill the Lord who has come to attack Narakaasura. It is this hatred for the Lord that takes Muran beyond all limitations thereby making him merge unto the reality of Lord. This is denoted by the killing of Muran by the Lord. Muran’s children also were killed by the Lord. We may think of the Lord as a sadistic person who kills people – the killing here is not of the Self but of the Ego which has negative tendencies (these negative tendencies are called asuras). All negative tendencies arise from not acknowledging the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading the entire world – instead seeing duality in the world. This duality in turns leads to attachment and aversion which in turn takes us to happiness and sorrow. If only our attachments and aversions were diverted to the ultimate reality of Lord while seeing him everywhere, the same attachments and aversions that lead to our downfall would in fact help us in the spiritual path towards bliss.
It is for this reason that Vidyaranya proclaims in Panchadashi that the creation of the Lord is not an obstacle for the spiritual seeker and it only helps the seeker in realizing. The creation of the Lord is pervaded by the Lord. But due to our lack of vision of oneness, we fail to perceive the Lord in the creation – instead we end up seeing the creation from our mental thoughts thereby adding likes and dislikes to the creation. Instead of trying to view creation from our perspective, if we see creation from the real perspective we will find that everything in the world (both sentient and insentient) is pervaded with the Conscious and Existence principle of Lord. Once we acknowledge this, the blissful aspect of the creation also will be enjoyed – thus taking the seeker to a blissful state wherever he is in the world.
The Lord through the killing of the asuras shows us that it isn’t tough to see oneness everywhere. If an asura who doesn’t like the Lord at all is able to see oneness everywhere then it is very easy for us who like the Lord and are seeking the Lord as bliss. Once we seek the Lord through vision of oneness, the Lord will kill our Egos and make us eternal (one with the Lord thereby ever rejoicing in bliss).
We will continue with the story in the next day.
With the killing of Murasura and his children, Narakasura himself came to fight the Lord with a sword and an entire clan of wild elephants. At that time the Lord along with Sathyabhama shone like a Sun amidst clouds.
Explanation
The spiritual path is such that there will be obstacles quite often. Even as any worldly goal has lots of obstacles on the way which have to be overcome, similar is the case with the spiritual goal of bliss. The goal of getting a job cannot be achieved when a child is born. The child has to grow; attend classes; clear each and every standard; then get a degree; then search for a job; attend interviews many of which would be failures. If a worldly goal like getting a job has so many obstacles or hurdles to cross over, the spiritual goal of moksha will have much stronger obstacles.
The difference between worldly hurdles and spiritual hurdles is that worldly hurdles are easy to overcome through one or the other way whereas spiritual hurdles are very tough to overcome as most of the hurdles can only be overcome when the Ego ceases to exist.
Only a seeker who has surrendered his Ego unto the Lord or has renounced the Ego through contemplation of the entire world as filled with the Lord can overcome the Ego thereby getting rid of all obstacles.
Killing or overcoming of the Ego is not as simple as it appears to be. Ramana Maharshi used to say that overcoming the Ego is the toughest step in the spiritual path as the Ego poses as a friend to us. Most of us are used to worldly norms of relatives and friends. Hence it is often tough to realize that neither relatives nor friends can help us remove sorrows as they themselves are fighting to overcome sorrows. Even as a blind person cannot lead another blind person; even as a drowning person cannot save another drowning person, similarly a person suffering in the ocean of samsaara (ignorance) cannot save another suffering person. The only people who can help us from the ocean of samsaara is the ultimate reality of Lord and realized masters (who are one with the ultimate reality of Lord). Since the Ego poses as a friend, it is very tough to kill the Ego even as killing a friend is tough. This killing of Ego becomes easier if we realize that by killing of the Ego, the Ego is no longer limited but becomes unlimited – the Ego is no longer suffering but rejoicing in bliss.
It is very important to remember that the spiritual path is filled with obstacles as tough as killing the Ego so that we are always alert and focused on the goal. A person might be a good driver who doesn’t need to focus on his driving but when either the road is narrow one or he is driving during night (when he is feeling a bit sleepy), he is alert and focuses on his driving (though he is a good driver). Thus we shouldn’t be afraid of the spiritual path as it is filled with obstacles but should become alert, vigilant and ever focused on the goal so that we don’t get lost in the path thereby not getting bliss (the goal of the spiritual path).
We find here that the Lord goes through many hurdles in the form of asuras. Asuras one after the other come to attack the Lord. Similar is the case in the spiritual path of a seeker as well. But the biggest hurdle comes last – similarly in the spiritual path the biggest hurdle of Ego comes at the end and it is very tough to conquer like Narakasura.
# posted by vedanta : 6:15 AM
