THE CONCEPT OF FREEDOM AND IMMORTALITY

UPADESA SARAM SLOKA 3 - FREEDOM AND IMMORTALITY

THE CONCEPT OF FREEDOM
This month ,on August 15, we in India celebrate the 64th anniversary of the attainment of freedom and the formation of the sovereign democratic nation called India. Prior to this date this sub-continent belonged to a variety of sovereign countries, big and small. The largest part of the sub-continent was ruled by the Government of Great Britain. Most of this part accrued to them as a result of military conquest. Some parts came to them through various forms of accession, some voluntary and some under political pressure. There were small parts ruled by France and Portugal. The rest comprised nearly 850 independent monarchies of different sizes and all with separate treaties with Great Britain.
The nationalistic movement originated largely in the British ruled areas which were called Presidencies. The overall administration was carried out by the office of the Viceroy or Governor-General who derived his authority from the British Crown and was accountable to the British Parliament. The Governor-General had his own staff and an Imperial Council to advise him. Originally the offices of the Governor-General were located in Calcutta ( now renamed Kolkatta). However in the early years of the 20th century the capital was transferred to New Delhi which was the traditional capital of earlier empires.



Mahatma Gandhi was largely responsible for creating and inspiring the nationalistic movement. He transformed the Indian National Congress, a creation of the British, to become a political entity to represent Indian national interests. He conceived of the idea of Swaraj or Self – Rule. Today he is considered to be a political figure who challenged the British and made them transfer their possessions to an Indian political entity. However his concept of Swaraj was intrinsically based on the Indian scriptures. The term ‘Swa’ in the Vedic terminology stands for the ‘Self’ or ‘Atma’ which is another term for God or Brahman. The term ‘Rajya’ stands for ‘rule’ or ‘management’ or ‘administration’. So his concept of Swaraj meant ‘Rule of God’.
He was an intensely spiritual person and a catholic admirer of everything spiritual. He admired the teachings of Jesus as given in the Holy Bible. He also studied and practiced the precepts taught by Sri Krishna in the Bhagavat Gita. He was perfectly comfortable with Islam and its precepts. He refused to wear his beliefs on his sleeve, as it were. He simply put the ideas into practice in the form of his ‘Satyagraha’ movement, his emphasis on Truth, Love and Compassion, his agitation for the freedom of any devotee from any class of society to enter and worship in a temple, his emphasis on simple living and high thinking, his demand for equal rights for women, his emphasis on the upliftment and education of the socially depressed classes, his simplicity and austerity.


Jawaharlal Nehru - the Visionary to whom I owe my education in the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in West Bengal and who laid the foundation for the industrial infrastructure of India which carved out my career-
"Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom." - the beginning of the speech that Nehru made at midnight on August 15, 1947.

Inspired by him and guided by him, stalwarts such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, and countless others, evolved the concept of a unified country to be called ‘India’ or ‘Bharat’. The British did not understand this concept because they had experienced only the divisiveness of Indians during their rule and had probably exploited this divisiveness to their political advantage. The division of the sub-continent into two sovereign nations called India and Pakistan was the result. Notwithstanding this difficult situation the Indian leaders proceeded to create systematically a Constituent Assembly representing the whole polity from both the British ruled and the non-British ruled territories and evolved a written Constitution of India and the concept of a sovereign, democratic, secular republic with full adult franchise and with a federal structure where the territories were ruled by local governments called ‘States’ which were accountable to a Central Federal Government in New Delhi which in turn was accountable to a freely elected Parliament. The saga of the creation of India is a wonderful story by itself.
Many families in India were involved in one way or another in this saga. My own family, particularly on my father’s side, were deeply influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and the freedom struggle. My paternal grandfather, Sri Vangal Muthuswamy Iyer, was a great admirer of Gandhi and the elder brothers of my father were Congressmen who gave up lucrative careers and education during the Civil Disobedience movement in 1929. My father was denied entry into the ICS ( Indian Civil Service) when the authorities discovered that the brilliant young man who had performed outstandingly in the written examinations was related to people who were currently in jail. I was named ‘Mohan’ after Gandhiji. I was born in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War and in the midst of the tumult of the final phase of the freedom struggle. Ironically my father finally found employment under the British in a gold mining company in Kolar Gold Fields, about 100 km north east of Bangalore and my earliest education was almost entirely in English and my earliest friends were all English kids. I am still most comfortable in the English language, my pretensions to knowledge of Tamil and Sanskrit notwithstanding.


Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel - The Man of Steel -On truth
"I cannot speak anything but the truth. I cannot turn back on my duty, just to please some one."

I was blessed with a student of history as my wife and her father was deeply interested in world developments in history, constitutional law and sociology. I discovered a lot about the world and about Great Britain and India as a result and understanding the roots of present day civilizations is a topic of abiding interest.
All this is of interest because there is so much confusion in the world at large and in Indian polity and society in particular today. There are many critics and some cynics. What we are observing the world over is the cost of freedom. Whether in the US or in the UK or in India we notice that people seem to have taken the freedom that they enjoy to extremes of selfishness and self aggrandizement. One even hears of the misuse of the freedom of speech and of the press itself. The actual truth is hidden behind layers of untruth, half truths and confabulations and confusion.
The Sadhana that is taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi deals with this very aspect of human personality in the Upadesa Saram. All the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Sathya Sai Baba are similar and point in the same direction.
Indian thought says that the very reason for human birth is to attain ‘freedom’ which is called ‘ Moksha’ or ‘Mukti’. Some people may consider that it is perfectly acceptable to attain something great by dubious means and that one may seem to get away with it for some time, often for a lifetime. However this way of living is fraught with danger. Bhagavan calls it an ocean of misery. One day or the other one is bound to be found out and then follows only misery for oneself and for one’s family.
So although we attained political freedom as a result of the efforts of stalwarts such as Mahatma Gandhi we have not individually understood that he was only setting the stage, preparing us , giving us an opportunity to discover true ‘freedom’ , the ‘freedom of the spirit’. That was what he meant by ‘Swarajya’. We are still bound by our lusts, our desires, our wants and we take all sorts of dubious steps to attain the fulfillment of those desires. We lose touch with the ‘Swa’ in us and are attracted by the lure of wealth, possessions and money. Today countries are facing problems because their overall objective became ‘money at any cost’. Eminent professionals are behind bars facing legal problems.
Society comprises individuals. Families comprise individuals. It is of utmost importance today for every individual to understand what Bhagavan Sri Ramana is saying and work on himself or herself. He/she has to willingly, voluntarily, give up such desires and opt to sacrifice such comforts for the common good. We need to come to terms with the concept of God, with the law of nature and karma, with the methodology of morality and ethics and the greater good, with simplicity , austerity, with cleanliness of everything we touch and experience, with the concept of purity, of unity and divinity. Such is the significance of ‘Independence Day’ which falls on August 15 and the Independence Days of all nations as and when they occur. Our leaders need to understand the precepts of the Vedas, of the teachings of saints and realized souls like Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi. We need to find that little time to read, think over, contemplate and understand these concepts. Above all, we need to start, in howsoever small a way to put these ideas into practice. I urge you all to think over this, give up your cynicism and make a start to practise yourselves. Because when individuals transform, then families transform. When families transform, then society transforms. When society transforms then nations transform.
So make a beginning on this Independence Day!!!!

Let us see what Bhagavan has to say in Sloka 3…….

THE ATTAINMENT OF FREEDOM - Sloka 3 -

Iswara Arpitam Nechchaya Krutham
Chitta Shodakam Mukti Sadhakam

Iswara - The Supreme God
Arpitam - (arpanam) - Giving, offering, giving back (dedicating , sacrificing )
Na - without
Ichchaya - (ichcha) - wish, desire, will - at will
Krutam - (kruti) - action, deed
Chitta - the mind, reasoning faculty- also the heart considered as the seat of the intellect
Shodaka - Purificatory, cleansing, corrective
Mukti -release, liberation, deliverance, freedom, emancipation, salvation
SAdh - complete, finish, accomplish, achieve, gain, secure, obtain, (sadhaka - accomplishing, fulfilling, completing)

Action ( or work) offered ( dedicated) ( as worship) to God ( or the Supreme Spirit) without any desire ( or wish) ( for results or fruits) cleanses ( or purifies) the mind ( or memory or consciousness) ( thus eliminating the effects or impressions of past actions and countless lives) and the achievement ( or fulfillment or accomplishing ) of freedom ( or liberation or emancipation or deliverance) ( from future births).

God or the Divine Principle manifests Itself in multitudinous forms, both living and non-living. Each manifest form is thus a particle or part or aspect of God. The manifested form then proceeds to evolve Itself through a series of further manifestation.

The non-living manifestation appears to remain unchanged for extremely long periods of time. As the manifested form evolves into other forms, the period of such manifestation or the life tenure, as it may be called, appears to become shorter. In the ultimate crowning manifestation called the human being the life span currently averages about a hundred years.

From the instant of first manifestation, that part of God, appears to be given a unique identity or identification, in the Divine system. This identity is often called the JIVA or JIVATMA especially when it reaches the stage of manifestation as a living being. Thus right from plants to bacteria to animals and birds, each manifestation can be said to be a unique specific recognizable Jiva. The Jiva is the repository of all impressions or effects collected during several births.

The Jiva is considered to be the subtlest innermost essence of any particular form and it carries with it the imprints or impressions of every birth. These imprints are collected in what is called the innermost unconscious or unknown recesses of its consciousness. This container of its identity and impressions is often called the Soul.

Each soul or Jiva, which is a minute part of God, thus progresses through the long and convoluted process or cycle of innumerable births in gradually evolving forms until it reaches the zenith of the evolutionary process and reaches birth as a human being.

By this time, the Soul or Jiva is completely encased, so to speak, in layers and layers of impressions collected in its evolutionary births. The human manifestation is significant for several reasons, foremost of them being the endowment of MIND, comprising THOUGHTS, INTELLIGENCE and CONSCIOUSNESS. This faculty in the human gives it a power of choice of orientation of its consciousness, outward in the world of Nature for its survival as a living entity, and inward into its own consciousness and towards the Soul.

As Man progresses through countless births as humans, he may many times progress and regress. Progress is defined as his evolving awareness that he is a part of God who encased within himself. Regression is defined as his continued involvement in the processes of survival in the world.

Ignorance is the characteristic of all forms of Nature, whether living or non-living. These forms expend their life times living according to their ‘nature’ that is, according to the programming of their system. This programming is called INSTINCT. Living by instinct is living in ignorance of one’s true nature which is Godliness or Divinity. All of Nature lives its life tenures in this ignorance. But Man is endowed with the power of choice to Illuminate himself with the knowledge or awareness of the Truth about himself, that his innermost core , his Soul or Jivatma, is a particle of Divinity.

All of Nature is actually Divine but is ignorant of this Truth. Man alone has the capability to become aware of this Truth that he and all Nature is Divine.

This awareness of the Truth of his own Divinity calls for his effort to remove the thick coverings of past impressions called Karma. The process of this struggle to remove the coverings is called SADHANA.

The opportunity to live and work is the opportunity provided to him for Sadhana. Work or action is the means to remove the coverings of past impressions or Karma.

Karma (action) removes Karma (impressions). As the coverings get loosened and fall away, Man’s innate Divinity stands revealed. This revelation of Divinity is called REALIZATION. When man realizes his true innermost nature or Divinity, he at once becomes free of all impressions, both past and in the future. In that pristine condition of purity, he becomes innately automatically and forever free of the possibility of ever absorbing any fresh impressions.

Thus the removal of these coverings of impressions is considered similar to the process of cleansing or purification.

Because past impressions cloud man’s awareness of his true state of pristine purity, they are called dirt or MALA. The condition of purity is called NIRMALA. The process of removal of the impurities is called PURIFICATION or CLEANSING.

But is the process of purification very simply just understanding this Truth? Is awareness of this Truth enough to ensure realization? Is awareness the same as realization?

When I am made aware of something do I automatically realize it?

Because man has to survive in the world he has to work or perform actions. Is all work capable of purifying man? Did we not say earlier that work or action creates effects or impressions? If, therefore, man is obliged to work or perform action for survival, then does he not collect more impressions and hence cover the Truth within himself even more? Then how can work liberate him from the coverings?

Liberation comes to man provided he works with a particular ATTITUDE OF MIND. That attitude is called a DIVINE or SPIRITUAL or GOD-ORIENTED Attitude. The Divine Attitude in man is that frame or condition of mind whereby he ACCEPTS that the entire manifest Universe is a manifestation of God; that he has evolved through countless births and lives from gross non-living forms through immobile living forms through a variety of mobile living forms to this present manifestation as man; and every result that he experiences in his life, every experience he has in the world, every encounter, every relationship, every act that happens is an ACT OF GOD; and thus, in this state of acceptance of the above precepts, when man works or acts or performs, thinking continually of God, offering every action of his to that Divinity, experiencing the whole world as God, then the effects of such God -dedicated acts of his only cleanse his own mind and internal system.

Thus Bhagavan states that all action of man, dedicated to God, without any trace of desire for result, cleanses man’s innermost consciousness, loosens and removes all coverings and helps him attain freedom from future births. The secret is ‘No desire for results’ and ‘everything is for God’.

May this awareness help each and every one of you to reach the goal of human life, which is MOKSHA or FREEDOM!!

Om Namo Bhagavathaye Ramanaya!!
OM SRI SAI RAM!!!

UPADESA SARAM - SLOKA 2 - THE LAW OF KARMA

GURU POORNIMA 2011


Guru Poornima is dedicated for thanksgiving to the Guru; for the Moon (the presiding deity of the mind) on this day is full, clear, cool and bright! It has no blemish or dullness which diminishes its glow. The Guru too is pictured and extolled on this day as unblemished, resplendent and affectionate. He is replete with a sense of surrender to God. He is tolerant, devoted and truly peaceful. He is the living example of the virtues he desires us to develop. Infact He reveals the atma (the Spirit within) to the individuals and makes them free. Guru Poornima is dedicated to such divine Gurus. In fact, the God within is the Guru of Gurus. His grace can make the blind see, the lame walk and the dumb speak. By a mere touch, He can destroy the sins of the past and grant peace and joy. For this, faith has to strike deep roots in our minds; but again t o keep us fixed in that belief, a Guru is needed.
- Divine Discourse, July 27, 1980.



July 15, 2011 is the sacred occasion of Guru Poornima on which day the ultimate Guru, God Himself, is remembered. This occasion also remembers Sri Veda VyAsA, the great seer and contemporary of Sri Krishna, who classified the Vedas into four parts, the Rig, the Yajur, the Sama and the Atharvana Vedas about 5000 years ago to aid in some kind of specialization and hence possibly in their preservation. He was also the compiler of the Mahabharata, the BhAgavatham and the eighteen PurAnAs.

The picture above shows the Gopuram or Tower of the Kapaleeswarar temple at Mylapore in Chennai and displays the figure of Sri Dakshinamurthy in two poses, one with a veena and the other in a teaching pose. Sri Dakshinamurthy is a representation of the teacher aspect of Brahman or God. He is always depicted facing south (dakshina) and hence the name Dakshina (south) - Murthy (figure). He is said to teach in silence. Just being in His presence used to confer wisdom.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi was also cast in the same mould. He was also wont to remain silent for long periods of time. People with all sorts of queries in their mind, or with unsolvable problems or with anxieties used to gather in the room at Sri Ramanashramam where He used to sit. Most of the time He used to be in silence with unblinking eyes fixed somewhere far off. However as they sat in His presence, they would go into some kind of meditation, and invariably find that when they came back to normal waking consciousness, all their problems seemed to be resolved and all their questions answered.



Similar was the experience of many devotees of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Just a glance from Him was enough to clear doubts and give a new direction to their thoughts. He normally came out for Darshan just for about half an hour in the morning and in the evenings at His ashrams at Puttaparthi and Whitefield. Yet that brief encounter was sufficient to give relief to countless millions who used to gather to see Him. In earlier days He used to walk around and collect their letters where they used to relate their problems or seek His guidance. Occasionally He used to call people for an interview and invariably would talk only on spiritual matters. Even so the devotee felt a great sense of relief and rejuvenation after the interview. To many people He would grant rings or lockets or vibhuti which He would materialize from just empty air. These were greatly valued and treasured by the devotees.



On July 15, 2011 we will be celebrating Guru Poornima, the Full Moon of the Guru, to remember all our teachers. The first teacher for all of us is our mother. She initiates us into life and she teaches us to live. Then comes the father who guides us into education and a career and into spiritual practices. Then come our teachers, both secular and spiritual, amongst whom some of us are blessed to have the privilege of learning from grandparents and uncles and aunts and countless others. Then we graduate to come directly in contact with that one Spiritual Preceptor who puts us on the path of DhyAnA or meditation and who lifts us up out of the world created by the mind and body, into the realm of the spirit or soul. There we get our glimpse of God.

I would like to take this opportunity to share some of these Gurus who blessed me in this life.



My parents, Saraswathi and V M Sundara Rajan



My younger brother Chandrashekar who taught me the value of friendship and love....



My maternal grandparents Seethalakshmi and A V Ramanathan



My aunt Susheela who taught me the Rama Taraka Mantram for the first time in my life, my uncle Anandaraman who introduced me to Shirdi Sai Baba to whom he used to pray every Thursday and my nurse Thayamma who bestowed the love of a mother to me in my earliest years....



Nirmala’s paternal grandparents Lakshmi and V N Viswanatha Rao



Nirmala’s father V N Srinivasa Rao who introduced us to Sri Ramana and who was a friend, guide and philosopher to both of us



Swami Vireswarananda of the Ramakrishna Mission who blessed me with Diksha (initiation) in 1980



Sri Ajit Dalvi who granted me the experience of Advaita Darshana in 1991



Swami Paramarthananda who blessed Nirmala and me in 2010 on the eve of the publication of our very first blog on Advaitananda



Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati of Sringeri who is said to have blessed me when I was still in my mother’s womb in 1938. He was my grandfather’s Guru.



Sri Abhinava Teertha Swamigal of Sringeri who blessed us on countless occasions and who declared to my grandmother in 1972 that my grandfather Sri A V Ramanathan, who was his fellow disciple (Gurubandhu) of Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati, had indeed attained Moksha and there was no need for grief.



Sri Bharathi Teertha Swamigal, the current Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Math, who graciously blessed Nirmala, Chitra and me when we called on Him in 1995 just prior to Chitra’s wedding.



Sri Paramacharya Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi of Kanchi who seemed to recognize me and blessed us and invoked the names of Nirmala’s grandparents who had served Him during the War years when He was in Kumbakonam. He was also known to my grandparents.



Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who moved me beyond my wildest imagination and made me aware of the Divine Principle in the form of the Mother of the Universe.



The Mother called Bhavatarini in Dakshineswar, north of Kolkatta ( earlier known as Calcutta), worshipped by Sri Ramakrishna, who stands on a supine Shiva symbolizing that the Manifest Universe is a superimposition on the Unmanifest Brahman.



Swami Vivekananda, the foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, who established the Ramakrishna Mission in India and introduced the concepts of Vedanta to the West, particularly to the USA, in 1899. He was a great inspiration to me when I was in IIT, Kharagpur and it was through Him that I learnt about the art of introspection.



Norman Vincent Peale, a pastor in New York, who greatly influenced my thinking as a youth with His ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’.



Lloyd C Douglas, a pastor in Akron, Ohio, USA, who became a world renowned writer, and who inspired me tremendously with His interpretation of what Jesus meant in His Sermon on the Mount.



With my friends at RP Hall in IIT KGP in 1960.. Sri Bendapudy Kanta Rao is right in the middle standing ( fifth from the right) who taught me to revere the Bhagavat Gita and who was himself initiated by Sri Sathya Sai Baba into the Gayatri Mantra. Yours truly sitting in front right.



Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi who clarified to me the concept of Avatara or the Divine in Human Form



With Sheela who taught me the value of parenthood



Chitra, the blessing from Sai, who took me to Sai....



Nirmala who enchanted me as a 7 year old and taught me to love and receive love....



Growing old with tenderness and proximity to God.....



On the day when Sai appeared in my dream and blessed us ...... with our grandchildren and children.. realizing the great blessing that God bestowed on us by making us their parents and grandparents .. realizing our responsibilities to them.. and today ...



The World is my Family!!!!



The question can arise: ‘Do you mean to say your wife and children and grandchildren are your Gurus?’
Yes, because, according to me, they teach you to love in the purest form of love...... Sri Sathya Sai used to say: ‘God is Love! Live in Love!’
I discovered the meaning of this statement in my life...
Today the whole wide world is my family and I love all with the same pure sentiments that I felt for my own family...
Again, Sri Sathya Sai Baba used to say: ‘Love All.. Serve All’.

There are countless others who helped me in my life and this may not be the forum to acknowledge the deep sense of gratitude and love I feel for them.. maybe some other time in some other context... I pray that I may have the chance to love them in a future life.......

SLOKA 2

THE LAW OF KARMA & THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF RESULTS

Paying homage to all our Gurus let us look at the Sloka 2 of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi’s Upadesa SAram:


Kruti Mahadadhow Patana Karanam
Phalam Ashashwatam Gathi Nirodhakam

Kruti – action, deed
Maha Udhadhi – the great ocean ( Raghuvamsa)
Patana – fall, decline
Karanam – cause, reason
Phalam – fruit, effect, result
Ashashwatam – impermanent, transitory, temporary, not lasting
Gathi – progress, moving to a goal
Nirodhakam – restraint, check, suppression, obstruction

The great ocean of actions ( and their effects) is the cause of ( a person’s ) decline; the results ( of all actions) area impermanent ( and unpredictable) ( because all actions and their effects compound an already confused condition) and restrain ( or prevent) progress ( of man to the goal of his existence).
The sloka 2 describes the concept of Karma and rebirth.
The ancient scriptures propound the theory of rebirth and re-incarnation. This concept is a more elaborate description of the theory of evolution.
The manifest universe is a complex collection of a variety of millions and millions of manifestations, too numerous and variegated to be capable of being described. These manifestations can, however, be classified on certain broad bases.
One method of classification is to consider the existence or non-existence of life, that is , living and non-living manifestations. Plants, animals, birds, microbes and man are considered to be living manifestations. Rocks, earth, water, minerals, sand and so on are considered to be non-living.
A second method of classification is to describe in terms of the existence of consciousness or awareness. Do all living beings have consciousness? Are there gradations of consciousness?
A third method of classification is human and non- human manifestation. This method states that the human manifestation is uniquely endowed with the power of mental choice or discrimination. However, all other forms of manifestation, whether living or non-living, are not endowed with the power of choice. They are programmed, as it were, to behave according to a specific set of rules applicable to each species. They thus display characteristics and behavior according to the program, a kind of genetic code. They stick to their code or as it is normally called, their ‘nature’. This whole group of non-human manifestation is termed loosely ‘NATURE’ or ‘PRAKRITI’.
In this method of analysis, therefore, there are considered to be three elements, namely,
GOD, the creator, who permeates everything that is manifested,
MAN, the human manifestation, who is not only programmed according to the law of nature but is endowed with the power of choice or discrimination, and
NATURE, the entire living and non-living non-human manifestation.
Man is indeed a part of nature but by virtue of the power of choice he is endowed with is considered specially and separately.
Entire Nature, including Man, is evolving. There is a continuous evolution of every species taking place over time. This evolution is cyclic and takes place over long periods of time called Yugas.
The Supreme Spirit or God manifests in all these forms. Every form is a part of God. And God allows that particular form to evolve through innumerable re-births on this planet into other forms.
The human manifestation is considered very special because of the power of choice. The power of choice in Man’s consciousness endows him with the power to either live in tune with outer nature or to live in full awareness of God.
There are many forms of living and non-living manifestations which are conscious of God. Such manifestations, such as certain plants, certain river waters, certain types of animals, are considered Divine ( or holy or sacred or auspicious). This Divine orientation or sacredness in creation itself is the result of the complex program of creation and evolution.
However, once born as a human, then the potential for turning to the Divine, is by conscious choice.
Man’s awareness of this power of choice between what can be called External Nature, and Internal Divinity, itself evolves through several births.
Once he becomes aware of the power of choice he has to choose between living ‘naturally’ in the external world, and seeking Divinity within himself. Man gets drawn gradually towards what has been called ‘The Life Divine’.
To just live one’s life ‘naturally’, performing actions with all sorts of end results in mind can be self-defeating. Man finds to his consternation that try as he does to achieve certain results, he often gets defeated. Many times the reasons for such defeats appear incongruous, indecipherable or even unknown. As he blindly goes on performing actions or work, he finds more and more confusion, consternation, misery and ruin.
He gradually realizes that behind the manifest universe where he appears to be reigning supreme, there is an invisible universe with powers much beyond him. The invisible universe is defined as Divine. And man realizes that the entire manifestation and even he himself is in the hands of the Divine.
As he realizes this truth, man turns progressively towards the invisible Divine and seeks salvation from his accumulated memories.
In this sloka, Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharishi indicates that the second step in Sadhana is to understand and accept that life as it evolves for each of us is a product of our own previous actions. The remanent memories of these previous actions are stored in the form of subtle vibrations which cause likes and dislikes, preferences and aspects which seem distasteful. All these opposite tendencies are the result of the subtle memories or vasanas. They color our view of life and the nature of our external personalities. If we yield to them and try to live life according to those predilections we run the risk of getting results which are totally unpredictable. That is the origin of the saying : ‘Man proposes , God disposes’.
The vasanas are likened by Bhagavan to an unfathomed ocean. Often in Indian scriptures the world of our vasanas is called ‘The Ocean of Experiences’ or ‘Bhava Sagara’. When one tries to live one’s life according to one’s preferences or likes one cannot predict the results. Almost certainly, one is likely to be impeded in one’s search for happiness and one is likely to head towards some form of misery. The Buddha compared life to an ocean of misery or dukha.
The purpose of Sadhana is to move away from the outer world of likes and dislikes and enter the domain of Divinity which is hidden within the core of one’s personality. But the process called Sadhana becomes meaningful only if one accepts that the world of likes and dislikes is not the true objective of life.
Having pondered over this second stanza, we can now ask the question,
‘ Does this mean we stop living? Does this imply we move away from this world? Do we abdicate all our duties that we have, rightly or wrongly, taken on because of our likes and dislikes?’
Bhagavan proceeds to answer these questions in the further slokas.
I hope you find these notes meaningful and I do hope you are giving some thought to these questions.
The whole purpose of the Indian way of life and thought is to make this life more meaningful and result-oriented.
May you be blessed to understand the true purpose of human life and learn to make this life of yours purposeful and meaningful.