Thursday, December 18, 2008
Story 51 – Story of Narakaasura Vadha (killing) - 06
The Lord used pointed arrows and killed the army of Naraka. Garuda spread his wings and completely destroyed the battalion of elephants. Following this Naraka himself got ready to battle the Lord.
Explanation
We find the Lord taking on the mighty army of Naraka. But the army of Naraka is not at all a match for the Lord.
Let’s try to analyze this from a Vedantic viewpoint. The ultimate reality of Lord is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. The Lord is Consciousness which makes everything in the world shine – sentient and insentient, ignorant and learned, wealthy and poor etc. – because of the Lord. Thus the Lord is independent and the entire world is dependent on the Lord. Bhagavatham explains this very clearly in the mangala sloka itself as “trisargo mrisha” that the entire world is only an illusion in the Lord. An illusion is always dependent on the substratum where the illusion is perceived. This is like the water seen in desert is dependent on the substratum of desert – without the desert, there cannot be any water seen.
Anything that is dependent is not at all a match for the independent entity – the moment the independent entity comes to the peripheral vision, that very moment the dependent entity gets completely destroyed. Taking the example of water seen in desert – the moment desert is perceived, water gets completely destroyed. Similarly when the Lord is present, everything else is automatically destroyed – then what about the seeker? The seeker’s very nature is the Lord. Until he realizes this, the various asuras (dependent entities) exist. When the seeker seeks the Lord ardently desiring realization, the Lord appears in front of the seeker. When the Lord appears everything else immediately vanishes thereby leaving behind the Consciousness pulsating in the seeker as “I-exist, I-exist” – this Consciousness is one with the ultimate reality of Lord.
The way to realize the ultimate reality of lord as our very nature of Consciousness is by always contemplating on the Lord as pervading the entire world. When a seeker always has the thought of the ultimate reality of Lord in his mind, then he gets rid of the duality which in fact veils the ultimate reality of Lord even as the water veils the desert in which it is seen.
It is through this that the asuras who cause sorrow to us are completely destroyed. The destruction of the asuras denotes the destruction of the unreality which in fact makes us suffer and whirl in the vicious circle of birth-death. When the asuras are destroyed by the contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord at all times, then sorrow vanishes thereby making the seeker ever abide in bliss.
Naraka used his mace on the Lord. But the effect of the mace-attack on the Lord was like a flower garland falling on an elephant. When Naraka saw that the mace didn’t have any effect on the Lord, he took his trident and advanced towards the Lord. Before Naraka could use his trident, the Lord severed Naraka’s head with his chakra thereby letting it fall to the ground. The head of Naraka on the ground sent out lights towards all directions as it was ornamented with various ornaments like crown, ear-ring etc.
Explanation
We find today as to how the Lord kills Naraka. As we discussed in the previous days, there is nothing impossible for the Lord. Anything and everything is possible and in a very easy way for the ultimate reality of Lord as he has created the world, he is protecting the world and he destroys the world.
The Lord who is the substratum of the illusory world controls the entire world even as the dreamer controls the entire dream world. We find this very clearly here by seeing as to how the Lord kills Naraka. The Lord is able to kill Naraka effortlessly. This is possible because the Lord controls the entire world – the Lord is the creator of the world hence he also knows everything about the world. It is for this reason that the Lord is endowed with Sarvajnatvam (all-knowing).
If we look at the life of Krishna, we can easily understand this. There was nothing that Krishna didn’t know – he knew that his entire clan will fight and die; he knew that Mahabharatha Yuddha will happen and wipe out Kauravas; he knew that he would evade Jarasandha until the time was set to kill him. It is not just prediction of worldly incidents that Krishna did but he was able to impart knowledge about the ultimate reality of Lord (that which can only be hinted and pointed out as one’s very nature of Consciousness as it is the Subject that cannot be objectified).
The Lord himself mentions in Gita thus about his all-knowing nature:
Bahuni me vyatheethaani janmaani tava cha arjuna
Taani aham vedah sarvaani na tvam vetta paranthapa
O Arjuna! You and I have gone through many births (in ignorance); I know all of them but you don’t know about them.
There are many things that a seeker can seek out of the all-knowing Lord. We can ask for lot of money, fame, power etc. But the right seeker will not ask worldly objects or possessions that only give him limited happiness; instead the real seeker will ask for eternal bliss (that state where a person knows everything and nothing remains to be known). Only when a seeker asks the ultimate reality of Lord for moksha (eternal bliss), will he be shown the way to his inner Self of the nature of bliss by the Lord.
When a seeker realizes his very nature of blissful Lord, he also realizes that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord. Thus he will know everything as an illusion in the substratum of Lord. What is there to know for such a seeker as he knows everything as the Lord? There is no point of knowing names and forms as they are many and each minute new name-form of any object will be created (even as new ipod models are released very often). But the knowledge of everything as being the ultimate reality of Lord will give the seeker eternal bliss after having attained which there will be nothing more to seek, nothing more to attain and nothing more to know. Such a seeker’s life becomes fulfilled as he will always rejoice in bliss.
It is this bliss that we all are seeking and it can be achieved by surrendering unto the all-knowing Lord thereby asking the Lord for the coveted price of moksha (which is our very nature of blissful Lord veiled by the ignorance caused by the duality of names-forms).
Explanation
We find the Lord taking on the mighty army of Naraka. But the army of Naraka is not at all a match for the Lord.
Let’s try to analyze this from a Vedantic viewpoint. The ultimate reality of Lord is of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss. The Lord is Consciousness which makes everything in the world shine – sentient and insentient, ignorant and learned, wealthy and poor etc. – because of the Lord. Thus the Lord is independent and the entire world is dependent on the Lord. Bhagavatham explains this very clearly in the mangala sloka itself as “trisargo mrisha” that the entire world is only an illusion in the Lord. An illusion is always dependent on the substratum where the illusion is perceived. This is like the water seen in desert is dependent on the substratum of desert – without the desert, there cannot be any water seen.
Anything that is dependent is not at all a match for the independent entity – the moment the independent entity comes to the peripheral vision, that very moment the dependent entity gets completely destroyed. Taking the example of water seen in desert – the moment desert is perceived, water gets completely destroyed. Similarly when the Lord is present, everything else is automatically destroyed – then what about the seeker? The seeker’s very nature is the Lord. Until he realizes this, the various asuras (dependent entities) exist. When the seeker seeks the Lord ardently desiring realization, the Lord appears in front of the seeker. When the Lord appears everything else immediately vanishes thereby leaving behind the Consciousness pulsating in the seeker as “I-exist, I-exist” – this Consciousness is one with the ultimate reality of Lord.
The way to realize the ultimate reality of lord as our very nature of Consciousness is by always contemplating on the Lord as pervading the entire world. When a seeker always has the thought of the ultimate reality of Lord in his mind, then he gets rid of the duality which in fact veils the ultimate reality of Lord even as the water veils the desert in which it is seen.
It is through this that the asuras who cause sorrow to us are completely destroyed. The destruction of the asuras denotes the destruction of the unreality which in fact makes us suffer and whirl in the vicious circle of birth-death. When the asuras are destroyed by the contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord at all times, then sorrow vanishes thereby making the seeker ever abide in bliss.
Naraka used his mace on the Lord. But the effect of the mace-attack on the Lord was like a flower garland falling on an elephant. When Naraka saw that the mace didn’t have any effect on the Lord, he took his trident and advanced towards the Lord. Before Naraka could use his trident, the Lord severed Naraka’s head with his chakra thereby letting it fall to the ground. The head of Naraka on the ground sent out lights towards all directions as it was ornamented with various ornaments like crown, ear-ring etc.
Explanation
We find today as to how the Lord kills Naraka. As we discussed in the previous days, there is nothing impossible for the Lord. Anything and everything is possible and in a very easy way for the ultimate reality of Lord as he has created the world, he is protecting the world and he destroys the world.
The Lord who is the substratum of the illusory world controls the entire world even as the dreamer controls the entire dream world. We find this very clearly here by seeing as to how the Lord kills Naraka. The Lord is able to kill Naraka effortlessly. This is possible because the Lord controls the entire world – the Lord is the creator of the world hence he also knows everything about the world. It is for this reason that the Lord is endowed with Sarvajnatvam (all-knowing).
If we look at the life of Krishna, we can easily understand this. There was nothing that Krishna didn’t know – he knew that his entire clan will fight and die; he knew that Mahabharatha Yuddha will happen and wipe out Kauravas; he knew that he would evade Jarasandha until the time was set to kill him. It is not just prediction of worldly incidents that Krishna did but he was able to impart knowledge about the ultimate reality of Lord (that which can only be hinted and pointed out as one’s very nature of Consciousness as it is the Subject that cannot be objectified).
The Lord himself mentions in Gita thus about his all-knowing nature:
Bahuni me vyatheethaani janmaani tava cha arjuna
Taani aham vedah sarvaani na tvam vetta paranthapa
O Arjuna! You and I have gone through many births (in ignorance); I know all of them but you don’t know about them.
There are many things that a seeker can seek out of the all-knowing Lord. We can ask for lot of money, fame, power etc. But the right seeker will not ask worldly objects or possessions that only give him limited happiness; instead the real seeker will ask for eternal bliss (that state where a person knows everything and nothing remains to be known). Only when a seeker asks the ultimate reality of Lord for moksha (eternal bliss), will he be shown the way to his inner Self of the nature of bliss by the Lord.
When a seeker realizes his very nature of blissful Lord, he also realizes that the entire world is only an illusion of names and forms in the Lord. Thus he will know everything as an illusion in the substratum of Lord. What is there to know for such a seeker as he knows everything as the Lord? There is no point of knowing names and forms as they are many and each minute new name-form of any object will be created (even as new ipod models are released very often). But the knowledge of everything as being the ultimate reality of Lord will give the seeker eternal bliss after having attained which there will be nothing more to seek, nothing more to attain and nothing more to know. Such a seeker’s life becomes fulfilled as he will always rejoice in bliss.
It is this bliss that we all are seeking and it can be achieved by surrendering unto the all-knowing Lord thereby asking the Lord for the coveted price of moksha (which is our very nature of blissful Lord veiled by the ignorance caused by the duality of names-forms).
# posted by vedanta : 6:18 AM
