August 2017 archive

Mādhavāya namah

Brahmins prayed, “Death ceremonies and other offerings made to forefathers are also Your form.  O Lord, the three Vedas form Your body. Even the intent to begin a Yagna is Your form. Previously You incarnated in the form of Varāha. Making tumultuous noise and using Your tusks You uplifted earth from hell. As playfully as an elephant plucks a lotus from the pond You completed this mammoth task. At that point great sages worshipped and glorified You.

O Yagneshwara! We seek that You should be firmly established in our minds. The Yagna that we have begun has been destroyed. We pray that You should be pleased with us. O Lord, to those who chant Your names, all obstacles in a Yagna get destroyed. We offer obeisance to You”.

In this manner, everyone in the sacrificial hall prayed to Lord Srihari, the embodiment of Yagna. Thereafter with a pure inner mind Daksha restarted the yagna that had been destroyed by Veerabhadra.

Srihari is the inner Self who resides within every being. Therefore He is the one who actually eats/accepts the offerings made to the various different Gods in the Yagna. Such Lord Srihari, who appeared as if He was pleased with just His share of offerings, looked pleasantly at Daksha and said,

“Ahaṁ brahmā ca śarvaś ca jagataḥ kāraṇaṁ param

Ātmeśvara upadraṣṭā svayan-dṛg aviśeṣaṇaḥ

Although I am the cause for the entire creation, I am beyond this creation. I am the Self for the entire creation. I am the Lord. I am Self-illuminating. I am the witness for this creation. For this reason, the qualities of this creation do not apply to Me. Brahma and Shiva are not different from Me. They are as powerful as I am. We three are one and the same.

Ātma-māyāṁ samāviśya so ’haṁ guṇamayīṁ dvija

Sṛjan rakṣan haran viśvaṁ dadhre saṁjñāṁ kriyocitām

O Daksha! I have retained My illusory energy, which is composed of the trigunas (traits of goodness, passion, ignorance), totally under My control. Using that energy I create, sustain and annihilate this universe. For performing these three tasks, I take on the names of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

There is nothing apart from Parabrahma. This is the eternal truth. He is non-dual. Within every living being, He exists as the inner Self. I am the one who resides within every living being.

However foolish persons consider Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra and other living beings as varied different entities. They consider these differences to be the eternal truth.

Does a human being ever consider his head, hands and other limbs to have an existence separate from him? Never. Likewise, a true devotee will never consider other living beings as different from Me.

Trayāṇām eka-bhāvānāṁ yo na paśyati vai bhidām

Sarva-bhūtātmanāṁ Brahman sa śāntim adhigacchati

The forms of Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra and the form of the Self which exists within every living being are one and the same. There is absolutely no difference. The one who realizes this profound truth attains liberation!” Thus Srihari instructed Daksha.

Daksha, the leader of Prajāpatis, strictly abided by the orders of the Lord and completed the Yāga. With utmost dedication he worshipped Lord Srihari. He worshiped other Devatas through the Anga Yāga and Pradhāna Yāga.

Thereafter, with total concentration he ensured that Shiva received his share of offerings. He diligently completed all the various rituals pertaining to the closure of the Yagna and then, together with the priests, took the final bath to mark the completion of the ritual.

Due to dedication towards the Lord, Daksha became well-versed in the rules of righteousness (dharma). While returning to heaven, all the Devatas blessed him to remain established in the path of righteousness (dharma marg).

We have heard that Satidevi, who gave up her life, was later reborn as the daughter of Menaka and Himavanta. The illusory energy, which withdraws into the Supreme Lord at the time of dissolution, returns back with full force at the beginning of creation. That energy seeks refuge only in the Supreme Lord. Likewise, Mother Goddess Parvati had, in her previous incarnation, married Lord Shiva who was most dear to her. To those who are disinterested in other objects, He is the sole shelter.

I have thus explained to you the story of Daksha’s Yagna, which was destroyed by Lord Shiva, as I have heard from Uddhava, the great devotee of the Lord and the disciple of Brihaspati” said Maitreya Maharishi to Vidura.

He continued,

“Idaṁ pavitraṁ param īśa-ceṣṭitaṁ yaśasya māyuṣya maghaugha-marṣaṇam

Yo nityadākarṇya naro ’nukīrtayed dhunoty aghaṁ kaurava bhakti-bhāvataḥ

O Vidura! This story of Lord Shiva is supremely pure. This bestows longevity and fame upon the devotee. Sins will be totally destroyed in that devotee who with total faith listens to this story of Daksha’s Yagna daily and glorifies it.

With this the seventh chapter of the fourth canto comes to an end.

Govindāya namah

Mādhavāya namah

The guardian deities of the world continued, “These senses perceive only the visible world, however they fail to see You, O Lord. This entire visible world, comprising of five elements, has emerged from Your illusory power and exists solely within You. Nevertheless, You have an existence that is separate from this world. Although You are beyond the five elements, You shine with Your body that is made up of the five elements”.

Here it should be understood that the five elements are the carriers that demonstrate the Lord’s real, eternal truth. To put it differently, the five elements jointly bring to light the unfathomable energies of the Lord.

Thereafter, all the eminent sages (Yogeeshwara) who were present there, prayed, “O Lord, You are the real form of this entire universe! Accomplished Self-realized saints consider that all living beings in the creation, including them, have merged into You. None in this world is more dear to You, than such highly knowledgeable saints! They have unflinching devotion towards You. O Lord, please shower Your mercy upon us.

Jagad-udbhava-sthiti-layeṣu daivato bahu-bhidyamāna-guṇayātma-māyayā

Racitātma-bheda-mataye sva-saṁsthayā  vinivartita-bhrama-guṇātmane namaḥ

This world has originated from the Supreme Lord’s illusory power. It is being sustained and protected by Him. Into Him, it will merge. Based on the person’s prarabdha karma (destiny), traits of goodness, passion and ignorance (trigunas), which emerge from this illusory power, combine and appear differently in different people. Thus, all varied differences that are seen in the world actually belong to the Supreme Lord.

While remaining in His original form, the Supreme Lord is the support to the three attributes of goodness, passion and ignorance that emerge from His illusory power and to the differences that exist in their proportions. To such Supreme Lord, we offer our obeisance”.

Lord Brahma, the embodiment of Vedas, now prayed, “

Namas te śrita-sattvāya dharmādīnāṁ ca sūtaye

Nirguṇāya ca yat-kāṣṭhāṁ nāhaṁ vedāpare ’pi ca

O Lord, You, who are predominantly composed of the traits of goodness (sattva guna), bestow upon people accomplishment in the four-fold aims of life (purusārtha). Nevertheless, inherently You are devoid of traits. Even I, who am an embodiment of knowledge, cannot fathom Your real form. Likewise, none in this creation is able to understand Your true essence, O Lord”.

Agni, the Lord of fire prayed, “Only due to Your effulgence, O Lord, I have been able to burn brightly. I carry the offerings dipped in ghee and offered, with total dedication by the priests, in the Yagna fire to the respective deities. Lord Srihari shines in the form of the five Yagnas viz., the Agnihotra, Darśa, Poorṇamāsa, Chaturmāsya and Somayāga. I offer obeisance to this Lord Srihari”.

Devatas prayed, “At the end of the period prior to this creation, when there was total dissolution, You absorbed into Yourself and retained in Your womb the sum total of the creation. In those waters of dissolution, You slept on the snake-bed called Adishesha. O Adi-nārayana, in their heart, accomplished beings meditate upon You as the form of their Self! Today You have made Yourself visible to us and are protecting us”.

Gandharvas prayed, “O personification of the Supreme Essence! You are our Lord. Marichi and other Prajāpatis, Devatas headed by Rudra, Indra and Brahma are Your incarnations. This Brahmanda (universal egg) is your sporting arena. At all times, we offer obeisance to You, the Supreme Lord.”

Vidyādhāras prayed, “This human body is a tool for accomplishing the four-fold aims of life. It can be obtained purely on the strength of meritorious deeds. Even after obtaining such human body, the wicked, giving in to their sensory and material desires, permit the body to traverse on the wrong path.

Being totally under the sway of illusion, such fools mistakenly consider their body to be their real Self. They get entangled within the poisonous trap called sensory pleasures. Only true devotee discards these pleasures and instead focuses upon Your nectarous stories. Through this he shreds the veil of illusion that has clouded his intellect”.

Brahmins now prayed, “O Lord, You are the Yagna ritual. You are the ingredients offered during the Yagna. You are the process of making these offerings. You are the fire; You are the firewood; You are the God; You are the mantra; You are the soma rasa; You are the Yagna-vessels, You are the clarified butter (ghee); You are the spoon with which ghee is offered; You are the sacrificial animal. The priests performing the Yagna, the devotees who are participating in the Yagna, the Yajamana and his wife- all are Your forms, O Lord”.

Govindāya namah

Mādhavāya namah

Daksha’s wife Prasuti prayed, “O Srinivasa! You are Parameśwara, the Supreme Lord. You are the Lord of this entire universe. I welcome You. Please bless us all. Together with Goddess Lakshmi, Your wife, please protect us all.

O Lord, You are the embodiment of all Yagnas. The body that has perfect limbs but lacks a head does not have any beauty. Likewise, even if all the various aspects of Yagna (yagnānga) are present, they have no value if You are absent”.

Swamiji explains:

In this sacrificial hall, all decorations were perfect. Eminent Maharishis and priests had assembled. All rituals were going on perfectly as stipulated.  There is so much power in this Yagna. But, of what use is it, if You are absent? If a headless body begins to walk on the road, people run away in fear considering it to be a ghost. Likewise without You there is no life for this Yagna, she prayed.

Thereafter the guardian deities prayed, “O Parameshwara! Pure consciousness (atma chaitanya) is Your true form. You remain seated as the inner witness in the individual’s intellect. As the eternal witness, You observe every happening”.

Swamiji explains:

Actually everything moves per the Karma-phala siddhanta (Karma phala siddhanta states that every experience is the result of one’s past actions). The truth is that even the action belongs to You. But at some point of time, in some birth, the feeling of ‘I’ arose in me.  For this reason ‘I’ am now undergoing the experience.

Many people take up Mouna vrata. In the initial stages, it is advisable to tie a cloth around the mouth. This constantly reminds the person that he is practising silence. Thereafter he should wear a special colour clothing to remind him of his vow. When these symbolic indicators are missing, the person tends to break his vow, since otherwise he is habituated to talking. The deeksha vastra reminds you to maintain silence. It is also a warning to the other person not to break your vow.

The guardian deities continued, “You are the Lord who grants knowledge to the senses. However these senses are able to perceive only these illusory objects that are made up of name and form”.

Swamiji explains:

To break this habit of limiting ourselves to seeing only illusory objects, constant practice is needed. The practice should continue for the entire lifetime. Practice Mouna or practice to constantly focus upon the Lord or practice sense-control. Of course, sense control is not at all easy. The person who is habituated to eating chocolates all day long finds it hard to give it up. Secretly he will eat a chocolate here and there. This is because the senses are habituated to eating chocolates all the time. Now he should train these sense organs not to eat the chocolate that is in front of them. Once the person treads the wrong path the senses get habituated there. The person has to be eternally vigilant and try to push the senses back on to the right track. They need constant punishment.

“The senses are eternally focused towards these illusory objects/ visible world, but are unable to see the real truth. They are unable to understand that You exist as the consciousness within those objects. They fail to understand that You are the object/ scene. The person eternally considers the object to have a distinctive identity but fails to realize that it is another form of Yours”.

Swamiji explains:

The mind should be trained towards this. When you see an iron piece, learn to think- “Oh, God is here in front of me in the form of this iron piece”. This is called abhyasa. From where did the iron emerge? It emerged from the soil. What is soil made of? How was it created? As you dig deeper, you will realize the truth. Learn to see God in every object and in every situation.

Seeing God in living beings in inadequate. Learn to see Him even in inanimate lifeless objects too. The earth on which you walk, the water you drink, the air you breath, the light through which you see the world, the heat-cold, joys-sorrows, your skin, the nerves that transmit the sensations to the mind, the intellect that deciphers this knowledge, your destiny which triggers off present day actions- all these are God. All of them are inter-connected.

The iron found in the soil, the crops that grow on earth, all the living beings that move on earth including virus, bacteria are all His forms. His consciousness flows through them. The mind should be trained to think in this pattern. That consciousness envelops the entire creation. It has no limits. There is no measure. However long the creation stretches, it stretches.

God is beyond the five basic elements. All of us are subject to some form of limitations. He who is beyond all limitations is Paramatma. For this reason the guardian deities prayed that these senses are able to perceive only the visible world but are unable to perceive You, O Lord.

Keshavāya namah.

Nārāyanāya namah

Understand the depth of spiritual essence hidden within every prayer.

Lord Indra prayed, “O indestructible Lord! O Srihari! In this form You are ruling the world. You are deathless. You appear as if akin to everything in this creation You too are subject to destruction. The truth is that You are beyond destruction.

Equipped with weapons in all Your 8 hands, You are destroying the demons who despise the Devatas. This transcendental form of Yours is pleasing to the eyes and mind”. He thus praised the complete form of the Lord.

The wives of the priests prayed, “O Padmanābha! You are the personification of Yagna! Brahma created Yagna so that people could worship You through this process. Daksha decided to begin one such Yagna. However, his anger turned out to be an obstacle for the Yagna. Angered at Daksha’s behavior, Shiva destroyed the Yagna. All the activities in this sacrificial hall have come to an end due to this destruction and now this place resembles a crematorium. O Lord, with Your lotus eyes please glance once at this sacrificial hall and thus purify the area”.

Thereafter the Maharishis prayed,

Ananvitaṁ te bhagavan viceṣṭitaṁ Yad ātmanā carasi hi karma nājyase

Vibhūtaye yata upasedur īśvarīṁ Na manyate svayam anuvartatīṁ bhavān

O Supreme Lord! Your glories are unsurpassed and wonderful! This is because although through the medium of a body You are eternally engrossed in actions, You do not have the feeling that ‘You’ are performing the action. Neither do you expect any resultant fruit for your action. You are unattached to Your actions.

Desiring wealth, people worship Goddess Lakshmi. Such Goddess Lakshmi always follows You. Even then You are unattached towards wealth or towards Goddess Lakshmi. You do not have pride that You are her husband”.

Siddhas prayed, “O Lord, it is impossible to tie this mind, which is like an enormous elephant. Perhaps it could be possible to tie down an elephant, but it is impossible to control this mind. This mind is tormented by afflictions known as spiritual ignorance (avidya), egoism, likes-dislikes and fear of death, due to which, it cannot be contained.

It is excessively driven towards fulfilling desires. It eternally desires to sleep, eat and enjoy bodily luxuries and comforts of all kinds. It wants to enjoy tasty food. It loves desires and anger.  It seeks all forms of wealth. It wants to own limitless buildings and properties. When the mind is enveloped with such desires it becomes impossible to tie it down.

Tormented by huge forest fire, the elephant becomes thirsty. It refuses to return from the river and settles comfortably in those flowing waters. Likewise, O Lord, our mind is seated comfortably in the river known as Your divine stories.  Due to the power contained in Your stories, our minds have become strengthened and we are no longer tormented by impurities.

Our minds are now totally focused upon You. Hence, we are absolved from the fear that we could slip down. We are happy and contented and thus are unable to remember our troubles. Lost in listening to Your delightful stories, we forget the world and all its troubles. This is the benefit of seeking shelter in Your lotus feet.

A person who has tasted nectar cannot relish any other taste. Likewise, the person who surrenders totally to Your feet, can never remember any worldly trouble.

To reach this stage, first of all dedicated efforts should be put in by the person. He should make attempts to remember the Lord’s feet at all time! The more he focuses, the less will be the worldly memories and pain.

Keshavāya namah

Rudra prayed, “O Srihari! O bestower of boons! In this creation, everyone worships Your lotus feet. This includes both the deluded living beings who are full of desires and Maharishis who are absolutely desireless. My mind is exclusively and firmly fixed upon such holy feet. Hence, even if an ignorant person falsely accuses me, I do not attach any importance to it”.

Swamiji explains:

When my mind is totally fixed upon the Lord, where is the scope for feelings such as ‘I and mine’ to enter into it? Even if perchance the feeling of ‘I’ enters into my mind, then such feelings of ‘I’ also end up in Your feet, since my mind is focused upon them. I am merely an instrument.

Just like an electric wire that transmits electricity I am a wire that transmits everything to Your lotus feet. When power supply is cut off, the electric wire has no role to play. Cut it off and throw it to the ground, it will gradually dissolve into the soil. It does not have an independent existence. Likewise, when my mind is totally and exclusively focused upon Your feet then like that wire I no longer function independently. Hence even criticisms directed at me, do not belong to me. Similarly if anyone applauds me, it does not belong to me. I transmit both the praises and the criticism to You.

Rudra continued, “As my mind is fixed exclusively upon Your lotus feet, all the worship done to me, belongs totally to You”.

Maharishi Bhrigu prayed, “O Supreme Lord, all beings beginning from Brahma are unable to cross Your illusion and are totally under its sway. As a result of this illusion, living beings are unable to understand their true form. This includes Brahma and other Devatas too, who are sleeping in ignorance due to which they are unable to know You, who exist as the Self (atma) within every living being.

Lord, You reside within the being. You are the existence. You are the movement within them. Although they acknowledge it verbally and to certain extent in their actions, from deep within their hearts they do not truly believe that You are everything”.

Swamiji explains:

Some preach the methods by which this ocean of samsāra (repeated births) can be crossed, some even help others cross this ocean but they themselves are unable to cross it. This is māya! ‘I have been able to help many cross the ocean, therefore I too can easily cross’ they say, but the truth is that they are unable to cross.

Hence it is better to first cross the ocean and then help others who are submerged in it. It is incorrect to try to help others when you are struggling to reach the shore. You should attempt to help others only if you have the right wisdom needed for your own journey. Not otherwise.

In the form of the Self, the Lord resides within us. We reside within Him. Here Bhrigu Maharishi asks the Lord ‘I am unable to recognize the Lord who is residing within me. How do I recognize You? In which form do you reside?’

He resides in all forms. This is the meaning of the hymn- yā devi sarva bhuteśu .. namas tasyai namas tasyai namas tasyai namo namah. This hymn states that the Supreme Mother exists within every living being in the form of his body, his mind, his intelligence, his action, profession etc. The list is long and it incorporates every possibility. To the Lord who exists as everything, I offer my obeisance, says the hymn.

Although we chant this hymn, we are unable to understand Him, who in reality exists within us. We do not even attempt to understand the significance of the hymn.

Maharishi Bhrigu continued, “You are the true friend and relative of all. You are the atma bandhu. May you be pleased with me”.

Thereafter Brahma prayed, “O Lord, the ignorant human being who sees the world through the medium of the senses, is able to perceive only the differences that exist within the objects. He considers objects to be separate entities. He segregates objects into big, small, heavy, light, bitter, opaque, transparent, sweet, solid, liquid and so on. Therefore he is unable to know the real essence. As long as the being focuses upon such differences in the objects, he will never understand Your true form and essence.

The truth is that there are no differences within You (abheda). You exist in all objects equally. Only when this knowledge is grasped, Your true essence will be understood. This is because You are the knowledge, You are the intelligence, You are the object and You are the sense organ that perceives the object. You are everything”.

Swamiji explains:

Light, dark, opaque, transparent, heavy, bitter, sweet – we should have the intelligence that these differences are God. Even that intelligence through which the person is able to see differences within objects is God. The person should develop feelings of non-duality towards the Lord. ‘You and me are one and the same’- he should think.

As the first step you acknowledge that ‘those’ objects are nothing but manifestations of the Supreme Lord. Thereafter you need to realize that the knowledge about these objects as well as the ‘I’ which is seeing these objects also are God. ‘I, You and that knowledge which teaches about You’- everything is God. This realization should arise from within.

Kesavaya namah