TattvaTales - Part VI

Gautama, the father of Nachiketas, was performing a sacrifice. Nachiketas asked his father: “To whom will you give me?” The father replied: “To Death I will give you.” Nachiketas went to the house of Yama, the Lord of Death. He stood there for three days and nights without receiving any hospitality, as Yama had gone out and as there was none to receive him.

The Lord of Death returned and found Nachiketas waiting in obedience to his father’s promise to give him to Death. Yama said to Nachiketas: “O Brahmin; as thou, a venerable guest, hast dwelt in my house three nights without eating, choose now three boons in return.” Then Nachiketas first asked that his father might again be pleased with him. Yama said: “Your father will recognise you as before. He will sleep peacefully at night and when he sees you released from me, he will lose his anger.” The second boon was that of the heavenly fire and Yama said that that fire will be known to him and called by his name. As for the third boon, the boy asked for the secret of Death. “There is that doubt, when a man is dead—some say that he is and some say he is not—this! I should like to know. Tell me, O Lord of Death, thy secret. Can man escape from thy clutch?”

Yama said: “Do not ask that. On this point even the gods of olden times had doubt. Verily, it is not easy to understand it. Subtle is its nature. O Nachiketas! Choose another boon.” Nachiketas said: “These things are ephemeral. They wear out the vigour of all the senses. Even the longest life is short. It is nothing when compared to Eternity. Keep thou thy chariots, the damsels, the dance and music. No one can be made happy by wealth. Give me the one boon, the only boon I seek—How may man escape thy mouth?”

Lord Yama found out that the boy was a qualified student for the attainment of Jnana or wisdom of the Soul. He told him how man might escape from the hands of Death. He said: “O Nachiketas! Just listen to me with rapt attention. I shall tell you the way to attain Immortality. Man is bound by desires. The desires are born of the senses. These bind him to the wheel of birth and death. He must destroy the desires and subjugate the mind and the senses. This is the first step to be taken. The body is like a chariot, the senses are the horses, the mind is the reins and the intellect is the driver. The Atman or the Self is the Lord of the chariot.

The sensual objects are the roads. The horses gallop after the objects of senses and carry the chariot with them. They must be guided along the right path. He who has no discrimination and whose mind is always uncontrolled, his senses (horses) are not controlled like the turbulent horses of a driver. He does not reach the goal, but enters into the round of births and deaths. But, he, who has understanding and whose mind is always controlled, his senses are under control like the good trained horses of a driver. He reaches that goal whence he is not born again. He reaches the end of his journey, that highest place of Vishnu.

Meditate on the One, the Eternal, the Atman, which dwells in the cavity of the heart. Fix your mind on the Supreme Self. When all the desires of the senses are destroyed, when the knots of ignorance are broken, then you will attain Immortality or Self-realisation or Brahma-Jnana. Thus you may conquer Death. O Nachiketas! This is the secret of Death.

During the 1857 Indian independence revolution, a silent naked sannyasin was passing by the cantonment of an English battalion. The soldiers caught hold of him and asked him, ”Who are you?” But as he was in silence he did not reply. Because of his keeping quiet they became suspicious of him and one soldier pierced his chest with a spear. The sannyasin had taken the vow of speaking only once at the time of death: he had been silent for the last thirty years.

When the spear pierced his chest and the blood gushed out, then he spoke only one sentence of the Upanishads: tattvamasi, shvetketu – means “you are also that, Shvetketu”. People gathered round him and asked him, “What do you mean?”

He said,”I mean that the divine can come in any guise; he will not be able to deceive me. Today he has come with the spear in his hand. The spear has pierced my chest but I can see that inside the soldier it is only him. He cannot deceive me.” The blood was oozing out of his chest, but the sannyasin was dancing because he could see godliness in his murderer.

­­­­Bhishma’s father had granted him a treasured boon. ‘I grant you a boon. You can hold death at arm’s length. You can die when you please.’ After a long life of righteous action and purity in every aspect of his illustrious career, Bhishma delayed his death until the end of the Kurukshetra War. Throughout the battle, Bhishma gave his inner blessing to the virtuous Pandava brothers and told them they would attain victory over the Kauravas. Although he was obliged to fight on the side of the Kauravas, his heart was with the Pandavas because theirs was a righteous cause.

In vedic literature, there is a beautiful analogy of a bowman.

When the bowman shoots the arrow, the arrow once shot cannot be recalled back. Suppose this arrow shot misses the target. Now the bowman prepares himself to shoot another arrow with much more focus, alertness and awareness he had while he shot the fist arrow with the motive of getting to the target this time.

So now, the bundle of arrows in the quiver on his back is the Sanchit Karma. Being one of the three types of karma, it is the sum of one’s past karma – all actions( accumulated good and bad) born out of ones past life.

The first arrow shot by the bowman that missed the target, was the prarabdha karma. The past that has already began to take effect, he has to experience it. He has no control over his prarabdha. He can merely learn from his past actions and thus prepare for his future which was the second arrow that he was preparing to shoot. But with more alertness & awareness this time, the second arrow that becomes his agami karma. He now has total control over his actions and can rectify them so that his future actions will now be perfect to produce good karma (good agami karma).

There is another beautiful analogy also. The granary represents the sanchita karma; that portion taken from the granary and put in the shop for future daily sale corresponds to agami; that which is sold daily represents prarabdha.

Sanchita karma is one of the three kinds of karma. It is the sum of one's past karmas – all actions (accumulated good and bad) from one's past life follow through to the next life which becomes the prarabdha and those that fructify with time either the next moment, several years or even next birth is called as agami karma.

TattvaTales - Part V

Once Hanuman was sitting in a garden in Ayodhya singing Ram bhajans when Sri Ram came there. Immediately he called out to Hanuman and said, “Hanuman, I have always wanted to ask you something but never had the time as both of us are always busy. What exactly is the relationship between the two of us?” Hanuman thought for a while, scratched his body like a monkey and then said,” Oh Lord! Dehabuddhya Daasoham, jeevabudhya amsoham, aatma budhya Ramoham. As a finite body, I am limited while you are unlimited and so thinking of myself as this body, I am your humble and obedient servant. As the mind and intellect I can reach out and expand my consciousness. I can accomplish many wonderful things, but these powers are still limited as compared to yours. My mind and intellect is merely a part of the cosmic intelligence and thus I am only a part of you. However, as the Self which is beyond all dualities, I am none other than you!” Sri Rama was very pleased with Hanuman’s answer as it brought out all the three standpoints of the relationship between the individual and the Lord.

A god and a demon went to learn about the Self from a great sage. They studied with him for a long time. At last the sage told them, "You yourselves are the Being you are seeking." Both of them thought that their bodies were the Self. They went back to their people quite satisfied and said, "We have learned everything that was to be learned; eat, drink, and be merry; we are the Self; there is nothing beyond us." The nature of the demon was ignorant, clouded; so he never inquired any further, but was perfectly contented with the idea that he was God, that by the Self was meant the body. The god had a purer nature. He at first committed the mistake of thinking: I, this body, am Brahman: so keep it strong and in health, and well dressed, and give it all sorts of enjoyments. But, in a few days, he found out that that could not be the meaning of the sage, their master; there must be something higher. So he came back and said, "Sir, did you teach me that this body was the Self? If so, I see all bodies die; the Self cannot die." The sage said, "Find it out; thou art That." Then the god thought that the vital forces which work the body were what the sage meant. But. after a time, he found that if he ate, these vital forces remained strong, but, if he starved, they became weak. The god then went back to the sage and said, "Sir, do you mean that the vital forces are the Self ?" The sage said, "Find out for yourself; thou art That." The god returned home once more, thinking that it was the mind, perhaps, that was the Self. But in a short while he saw that thoughts were so various, now good, again bad; the mind was too changeable to be the Self. He went back to the sage and said, "Sir, I do not think that the mind is the Self; did you mean that?" "No," replied the sage, "thou art That; find out for yourself." The god went home, and at last found that he was the Self, beyond all thought, one without birth or death, whom the sword cannot pierce or the fire burn, whom the air cannot dry or the water melt, the beginningless and endless, the immovable, the intangible, the omniscient, the omnipotent Being; that It was neither the body nor the mind, but beyond them all. So he was satisfied; but the poor demon did not get the truth, owing to is fondness for the truth.

Uddalaka had a son called Shvetaketu. When he was twelve, his father said to him, ‘It is time for you to find a spiritual teacher. Everyone in this family has studied the holy scriptures and the spiritual way.’ So Shvetaketu went to a teacher and studied the scriptures for twelve years. He returned home very proud of his intellectual knowledge. His father observed him and said, ‘My boy, you seem to have a high opinion of yourself; you are proud of your learning. But did you ask your teacher for the spiritual knowledge that enables you to hear the unheard, think the unthought and know the unknown?’ ‘What is that knowledge, Father?’ asked Svetaketu. ‘Just as by knowing a lump of clay, everything that is made of clay can be known, since any differences are only words, and the essential reality is clay. In the same way by knowing a piece of gold, all that is made of gold can be known, since any differences are only words, and the reality is only gold.’ Uddalaka responded, ‘My teachers must not have known this or they would have taught it to me. Father, please teach me this knowledge.’ ‘I will,’ replied his father. ‘In the beginning there was only Being. Some people claim that in the beginning there was nothing at all and that everything has come out of nothing. But how can this be true? How can that which is, come from that which is not? In the beginning there was only one Being, and that Being thought, “I want to be many so I will create.” Out of this creation came the cosmos. There is nothing in the cosmos that doesn’t come from that one Being. Of everything that exists, this Being is the innermost Self. He is the truth, the Self Supreme. And you, Shvetaketu, you – are that!’  Shvetaketu asked, ‘Please teach me more about the Self, Father.’ ‘Let’s start with sleep. What happens when we sleep? When a person is absorbed in dreamless sleep, he is one with the Self although he doesn’t know it. We say he sleeps but we mean he sleeps in the Self. ‘A tethered bird grows tired from flying in every direction, finding no rest anywhere, and settles down at last on the very same perch on which it is tied. In the same way the mind, tired of wandering around here and there settles down at last in the Self, its life and breath, to which it is bound. All creatures have their source in that Being. He is their home; He is their strength. ‘When a man is dying, speech folds into mind, mind folds into life, life dissolves into light, and his light merges into that one Being. That Being is the seed, the truth, the Self, and you, Shvetaketu, you – are that!’

‘Please tell me more, Father.’ ‘My son, bees make honey by gathering nectar from many flowers to make their honey, so no one drop of honey can say that it came exactly from one specific flower. You can’t identify the juice of one particular flower in the honey. And so it is with creatures like us who merge in that Being, whether in sleep or death. ‘And as the rivers that flow from the east to the west merge in the sea and become one with it, forgetting that they were ever separate rivers, so all creatures lose their separateness when they merge into pure Being. Whatever creature it may be – tiger, lion, wolf, boar, mosquito, worm – it only becomes aware of a particular life when it is born into it or is awake. ‘If you strike at the root of a tree, it bleeds but still lives. If you strike at the trunk, the sap oozes, but the tree lives on. The Self as life fills the tree and supports it; it flourishes in happiness gathering food through its roots. However, if life departs from one branch, that branch withers, and when life leaves the whole tree, the entire tree withers. Remember my son, your body dies, but your Self does not.’ Uddalaka told Shvetaketu to bring him a fruit from a nearby banyan tree and to break it open. Shvetaketu did and said, ‘There are seeds inside, all very small.’ ‘Now break one of the seeds and tell me what you see.’ ‘Nothing, Father.’ Uddalaka said, ‘My son, this great banyan tree has grown from a seed so small that you cannot see it. Believe me, an invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. ‘Now, take this salt and put it in some water and bring it to me tomorrow morning.’ The next morning Shvetaketu looked for the salt but couldn’t find it because it had dissolved. Uddalaka asked his son to taste the water. ‘Salty,’ he said, adding, ‘the salt will always remain in the water.’ “That’s right. The salt permeates the water, just like the Self. Even though we cannot see it, the Self is within all things and there is nothing that doesn’t come from Him. “This invisible and subtle essence is the Spirit of the whole universe. That is reality. That is truth. And you, Shvetaketu, you – are that!’

‘I know not what he knows, but I know he knows’

Thus the pupil fulfilled from the Master goes

A learned visitor had darshan of Swami Sivananda when he expressed to Swamiji certain doubts which Swamiji readily cleared. He first said, “Swamiji, I want to know something about Samadhi. The scriptures say that a person who has attained Samadhi would not publicly say that he has attained it. Then, how are we to know that such and such a man has attained the highest wisdom or not?"

Swamiji replied, "We can know it by observing his actions, behaviour, talk, equal vision, peace, bliss, perfect serenity, balanced mind under all conditions, cosmic love, and steady wisdom."

"How can he himself know that he has attained Samadhi?" was the visitors next question.

Swamiji answered. "If his experience tallies with the experience of the seers of the Upanishads, if he enjoys absolute bliss and peace, if he maintains unperturbed serenity of mind under the worst situations, if his doubts have been rent asunder, if he beholds unity in diversity, if he feels that he is the self in all beings and the whole world is his body, if he is perfectly free from desires for sensual objects, Raga, Dvesha, egoism, anger, lust, mineness, pride and attachment, he can be sure that he has attained Realisation."

TattvaTales - Part IV

Once Narada said to Krishna, “Lord show me Maya.” After a few days Krishna asked Narada to make a trip with him towards a desert. After walking several miles Krishna asked Narada to fetch some drinking water. Narada entered a nearby village and knocked at a door which was opened by an extremely beautiful young girl. At the sight of her Narada forgot everything and began talking with the girl. That talk ripened into love; he asked the girl’s father for the daughter; they were married, lived there and had three children. After twelve years his father-in-law died and Narada inherited his property. He lived, as he seemed to think, a very happy life with his wife and children, his fields and his cattle, and so forth.

Then came a flood. One night the river rose until it overflowed its banks and flooded the whole village. Houses fell, men and animals were swept away and drowned and everything was floating in the rush of the stream. Narada had to escape. With one hand he held his wife, and with the other two of his children; another child was on his shoulders and he was trying to ford this tremendous flood. After some time the child on his shoulders fell and was swept away by the current of the water. In trying to save that child, Narada lost his grasp of the other children who were also lost. At last his wife was also torn away from his tight clasp and Narada was thrown on the bank, weeping and wailing in bitter lamentation.

Behind him came a gentle voice, “My child, where is the water? You went to fetch a pitcher of water for me, and I have been waiting for you; you have been gone for quite half-an-hour.” “Half-an-hour!” Narada exclaimed!  Twelve whole years seemed to have passed through in his mind; but in fact all these scenes had happened in half-an-hour only. And this is Maya.

Such is the power of Maya that has created this boundaryless cosmos from beginningless time and shall continue to do so endlessly. 

“A man died, leaving behind 17 elephants as his only wealth. He had three sons, According to his will; the first son should get one-half of his wealth, the second one-third and the third one-ninth.  Now how could the sons divide 17 elephants among themselves in the manner stipulated? The king, who happened to be passing by on his elephant, said he would solve the problem. He alighted from his elephant and put it beside the 17 of the dead man’s. He said he had added his elephant to the 17 to make the number even. So the first son got one-half of the 18 that is nine elephants. The second got one-third of the 18 that is six. The third got two, one-ninth of the 18 elephants. The king said: “This leaves one elephant, the one I added to your father’s collection. I take it back now that the division of the elephants among you is over.” The sons were happy that the division was in accordance with their father’s will.

However, was the division indeed in accordance with their father’s will? It was not. In the story example above, did the 18th cow exist? Was it different? It appeared to exist, and different but did not exist in the dividing among the brothers. It was a mere illusion that they had kept to the provisions of the will. Such is the nature of illusion that we take comfort from what we see as just and get upset over what we perceive as unjust.”

An eccentric philosophy professor gave a one question final exam after a semester dealing with a broad array of topics. The class was already seated and ready to go when the professor picked up his chair, plopped it on top of his desk and wrote on the board:

"Using everything we have learned this semester, prove that this chair does not exist."

Fingers flew, erasers erased, notebooks were filled in furious fashion. Some students wrote over 30 pages in one hour attempting to refute the existence of the chair. One member of the class however, was up and finished in less than a minute.

A week later when the grades were posted, the rest of the group wondered how he could have gotten an "A" when he had barely written anything at all.

His answer consisted of two words: "What chair?"

In the below analogies of Mahabharata & Ramayana respectively, the concept of evolution of five elements and the three qualities of Sattva, Tamas & Rajas from Maya is explained.

The Pandavas in Mahabharata represent the 5 elements which in turn represent the 5 energy chakras in our spinal column. The chronology is also critical here to understand the process of creation of the 5 elements from the subtle to the gross – Subtlety is measured by an object’s pervasiveness & the number of perceivable qualities it has.

Yudhistira – Yudhi means in the battle, sthira means tranquil or undisturbed. Yudhi-stra is the symbol of peace and the sky or ether element. Sky is the bridge of transcendence to the conscious state and represented as throat chakra (Vishuddhi chakra). Ether remains unchanged, and undisturbed by the violent plays of nature’s forces; it is the first element with the quality of sound – Sound travels in the medium of space & space has an inherent sound.

Bheema – is Prana, the Power of Vitality, the Air Element in the Dorsal Center, or Anahata Chakra. He is the son of the Vayu deva, the God of Wind. Air has the qualities of sound & touch, therefore, it can be heard & felt. The aspiring Sadhaka, practices his Pranayama that is controlled by this center, thereby calming the breath and controlling the mind and all of its sense objects. The breath has got such strength that it can destroy all tendencies of the mind. That is why Bheema kills the 100 sons of Dhritarashtara.

Arjuna – Arjuna the third represents fire element. Rajju means rope or bondage and na means no. This represents that we are really not bonded, but free. Arjuna represents the liberating thoughts in us and brings peace. Arjuna is the enquiring mind. The enquiring mind burns like fire and destroys the darkness of ignorance. This burning fire is what needs to be given direction and that is why out of the 5 brothers Arjuna was taught Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna thus represents the fire element symbolized as the navel chakra (Manipura Chakra) which has the qualities of sound, touch, form and therefore, can be heard, felt & seen.

Nakula, is Adherence, the Power to Obey Rules of Dharma, the Water Element in the Sacral Center, or Swadhishthana Chakra. Water element has the qualities of sound, touch, form & taste and can be heard, felt, seen & tasted. As such, Nakula represents adherence to Dharmic principles which allows the Sadhaka to control mental tendencies.

Sahadeva, is Restraint, the Earth Element in the Coccyx Center, or Muladhara Chakra. Earth element is the grossest of the 5 elements with qualities of sound, touch, form, taste & smell – it can be heard, felt, seen, tasted & smelt. Sahadeva is the Power of Resistance by which restless outer sense organs can be controlled.

We can see that the Mahabharata is not just another grandeur story that happened long time ago. It is something that is happening right now - Inside us. Every moment we live, there is a Mahabharata happening with an interplay of the evolution of the 5 elements within us.

Ramayana is not a mere story. It is the story we live every moment of our lives.

Dasaratha symbolises the intellect that controls the senses. The three queens of Dasaratha are the three Gunas known as Sattwa (tranquillity), Rajas (activity), and Tamas (malice, ignorance, darkness). 

Vasishtha and Viswamitra are the gurus who guide the intellect. Rama is the transcendental Self and Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna (Rama’s three brothers) are the triple manifestations of God as immanent, God as in-dwelling spirit, and God as soul, respectively.

Manthara (the maid servant) symbolises the negative qualities that poisons Kaikeyi (the Rajasic-Tamasic mind). Demons and demonesses in Ramayana are the evil propensities in us. Ravana is the Rajasic ego. Kumbhakarana is the Tamasic ego. Vibhishana represents the Sattwic ego. Rama’s wife Sita is the Cosmic Energy (Kundalini) abducted by Ravana, the ego, for wrong use.

So, through (with the help of) Hanuman, symbolising Pranayama, or rhythmic breathing, you will find the location of Sita, the energy and convey the news of Rama, the Self. Rama’s destruction of Ravana and Kumbhkarana symbolises the destruction of Rajasic and Tamasic egos. The installation of Vibhishana symbolises the establishment of Sattwa Guna and equanimity through Self-realisation. Union of Rama and Sita is the union of Shakti with the eternal consciousness of the true self. Rama’s coronation symbolises the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This, in short, is the esoteric meaning of Ramayana.

Once a rich man was passing through a forest, when three robbers surrounded him and robbed him of all his wealth. After snatching all his possessions from him, one of the robbers said: 'What's the good of keeping the man alive? Kill him.' Saying this, he was about to strike their victim with his sword, when the second robber interrupted and said: 'There's no use in killing him. Let us bind him fast and leave him here. Then he won't be able to tell the police.' Accordingly the robbers tied him with a rope, left him, and went away.

After a while the third robber returned to the rich man and said: 'Ah! You're badly hurt, aren't you? Come, I'm going to release you.' The third robber set the man free and led him out of the forest. When they came near the highway, the robber said, 'Follow this road and you will reach home easily.' 'But you must come with me too', said the man. 'You have done so much for me. We shall all be happy to see you at our home.' 'No,' said the robber, 'it is not possible for me to go there. The police will arrest me.' So saying, he left the rich man after pointing out his way.

"Now, the first robber, who said: 'What's the good of keeping the man alive? Kill him', is tamas. It destroys. The second robber is rajas, which binds a man to the world and entangles him in a variety of activities. Rajas makes him forget God. Sattva alone shows the way to God. It produces virtues like compassion, righteousness, and devotion. Again, sattva is like the last step of the stairs. Next to it is the roof. The Supreme Brahman is man's own abode. One cannot attain the Knowledge of Brahman unless one transcends the three gunas."