Namaskar Mahatmas!
SLOKA 8 PURPORT
He, the self-existent, is everywhere, without a body, without muscles, and without the taint of sin; radiant, whole, and pure, Seeing All, Knowing All, And Encompassing All, He Duly Assigned Their Respective Duties To The Eternal Prajapathis.
Namdev and Jnaneshwar were great bhaktas. After their pilgrimage, they came to Gora Kumbhar, a pot maker’s house who was giving a feast to saints. Jnaneshwar requested Gora Kumbhar to check which pots (saints) are sound and which are not. Gora accepted the task and took his stick with which usually tests his pots. He tapped on their heads and every saint humbly submitted himself to the act. When it came to Namdev’s turn he resisted. Gora told Jnaneshwar that all ‘pots’ are properly ‘baked’ but for Namdev.
Namdev, feeling humiliated, ran to Vittala who was very intimate to him. He complained to Vittala expecting sympathy. Vittala asked him, “Why did you not keep quiet and submit to Gora’s tapping like all others did? That is why all this trouble has come”. Namdev, disappointed, cried to the Lord, “Why should I, who is your child and closest friend submit myself to others?” Vittala sent Namdev to a saint saying that he has not properly understood the Truth.
Because it was Lord’s order Namdev went to that temple. He saw an old man sleeping in the corner of the temple with his feet on the Shivalinga. Namdev’s ego prevented him from accepting this person as his Guru. When Namdev went near the old man and clapped his hands to wake him up, to Namdev’s surprise the old man spoke, “O you are Namdev whom Vittala has sent? Come!” Namdev accepting him to be great man but could not digest him resting his feet on the Shivalinga. When Namdev asked him to take his feet off the Shivalinga, the old man told Namdev to move his feet elsewhere. Wherever Namdev moved the feet, there appeared a Shivalinga and finally when he put the feet on the old man’s own lap, the old man himself became a Shivalinga. Namdev suddenly realized the truth.
From that day onwards he became very quiet and did not go to Vittala temple. Vittala himself came in search of Namdev. Namdev told the Lord, “No more of Your fooling me! I know now. Where is the placed you are not? Do I exist apart from you? Should I have to come to temple to see You?”
Namaskar Mahatmas!
Sometimes we search for our jewels or spectacles though we actually wear them at the moment. Similarly, because of our lack of awareness, we search for the Lord or the Self somewhere other than us like Namdev.
From sloka 4 of this Upanishad the nature of Self, the ways to realize are explained. Sloka 8 is the result of the meditation and reflection which changes the ignorant man into a realised sage.
We will do the second half of the purport this week. The one who has realised that he is without body, muscles, pure, without sin, all-pervasive is called Kavih, Manishi, Paribuh, Svayambuh.
SEEING ALL (KAVIH): Generally we take Kavi for one who composes poems. Here KAVIH means one who is a great saint. A saint is a ‘tattva darshi’ – one who knows the real essence of life. He is the one who is able to see, know that which is beyond the limits of time and space. When we put clothes or stick or anything into the fire, that also becomes fire after some period of time. Similarly when everything is offered in the Yajnam including the ‘I’, the light of knowledge is what remains.
This is how our saints and sages were able to see the future of people. It is wise on our part to accept whatever they say, when we are before our Guru. What is required for us is already known to the Guru. The doctor knows what he has to give to his patient. Because the doctor prescribes bitter medicines, and says ‘don’t eat this and don’t eat that’, he is not our enemy. Obeying the Guru without questions and doubts is the best way of purification of our mind. Without the purity of mind, we can’t experience the inner divinity.
KNOWING ALL (MANISHI): Manisha means ‘the ruler of the mind – the intellect’. The wise is said to be a ‘Manishi’ because he has that intellect which is single pointed and which sees unity in all diversity. His sight is born out of wisdom.
ENCOMPASSING ALL (PARIBUH): The wise person is a ‘Paribuh’ which means he is beyond the limitations of waking, dream and deep sleep states. In our Vedas, these three states are described as ‘avasthaas’. There is sorrow in all the three states. The wise person becomes a witness to all the three states and so above all the sorrows and is ever in bliss untouched by anything. He is like a light in the drama stage unaffected by any scene but illumines the stage, the actors.
Thus abiding in that light of Self, the Jnani lives in this world knowing that he alone is there everywhere and loves all creatures equally as his own Self. As said in one of the Upanishads “Having known This, there is nothing more to be known”
HE DULY ASSIGNED THEIR RESPECTIVE DUTIES TO THE ETERNAL PRAJAPATHIS: In the third chapter of Gita the Lord says that, in this world all actions, unless they are done as an offering to God or as Yajna become causes of bondage. The contribution to the cycle of creation is essential as Lord shows Himself as an example.
They, who have experienced the reality are the only fit to teach to the ordinary people in the world ‘what is the righteous way of living in this world; how do we conduct ourselves in this world’. Thus from the time immemorial, the wise people have given this knowledge which is eternal.
The saints and sages have given their best effort in explaining to us what cannot be explained. The life they lived and the truth they have written is an inspiration and proof for us to walk in this path of reality.
Eventhough there is nothing more to gain from the world and nothing to lose, the Jnani continues to perform actions to inspire ordinary people and thus gives his contribution to the Yajnam which benefits the whole world.
We will continue with sloka 9 next week. Hari Om!
