Namaskar Mahatmas!

This week we will meditate on slokas 12, 13 and 14. These slokas talk about the ones who perform work with desires and the one who gets attached to the result of the worship. But the state of Jivanmukta is different from this. These slokas make us understand that one should not get stuck in the way (Prajapathi) and be focused in reaching the goal. The one who kills desire in this very body becomes a Jivanmukta.

SLOKA 12:

ANDHAM TAMAH PRAVISHANTI YE’SAMBHUTIM UPASATE

TATO BHOOYA IVA TE TAMO YA U SAMBHOOTYAAM RATAH (12)

THOSE WHO WORSHIP ASAMBHUTI ENTER INTO BLINDING DARKNESS. INTO DARKNESS STILL GREATER THAN THAT, AS IT WERE, DO THEY ENTER WHO DELIGHT IN SAMBHUTI.

SLOKA 13:

ANYAD EVAAHUH SAMBHAVAAT ANYAD AAHUR ASAMBHAVAAT

ITI SUSHRUMA DHEERAANAAM YE NAS TAD VICACAKSHIRE (13)

ONE RESULT, THEY SAY, IS OBTAINED FROM THE WORSHIP OF SAMBHAVA AND QUITE ANOTHER FROM THAT OF ASAMBHAVA. THUS WE HEARD IT FROM THE WISE WHO EXPLAINED IT TO US.

SLOKA 14:

SAMBHUTIM CA VINAASAM CA YAS TED VED’OBHAYAM SAHA

VINAASHENA MRTYUM TEERTVAA SAMBHOOTYA’MRTAM ASHNUTE (14)

HE, WHO UNDERSTANDS ASAMBHUTI AND VINAASHA (HIRANYAGARBHA) BOTH TOGETHER, ATTAINS IMMORTALITY BY DEVOTION TO ASAMBHUTI HAVING CONQUERED DEATH BY THE WORSHIP OF VINAASHA.

The sloka 12 talks about two kinds of worship:

1. One who worships Asambhuti or Prakriti
2. One who worships Sambhuti or Hiranyagarbha or Brahma

Sloka 13 talks about the result of such worships:

1. The one who worships Prakriti gets absorbed in Prakriti.
2. The one who worships Hiranyagarbha attains supernatural powers.

Who is Hiranyagarbha? Hiranyagarbha is the first manifestation of the Lord. He is called as Brahma, Sutraatman, Kaaryabrahman etc. With all the basic ingredients created by the Lord, Brahmaji took over the secondary creation. He with the power of the Lord created the whole universe.

What is Prakriti? Prakriti is that which constantly changes. It constitutes 24 elements (5 elements -earth, water, fire, air, space; 5 organs of action –hand, foot, anus, genital organs, mouth; 5 organs of knowledge – eye, ear, skin, tongue, nose; 5 tanmaatras – sound, taste, touch, smell, sight; unmanifest; ego, intellect, mind) and also their evolutes like desire, avarice, anger, physical body, consciousness. It operates through the three Gunas Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. This Prakriti is infinite with countless dimensions in which different Lokas of different subtlety co-exist without mutual intrusion. One takes rebirth in these different Lokas according to his karmas.

The Lord says here that those who worship Hiranyagarbha enter into greater darkness than the one who worships Prakriti.

Prakriti is the seed of desire and work. It drives man into actions. One who is in body consciousness, perform actions to satisfy the bodily requirements and sense gratification. They can’t see anything more than the body. Thus they are blinded in their vision and enter into darkness caught in net of Maya. Finally after death, they get absorbed in the Prakriti and are reborn.

A spark has all the qualities of the fire. Similarly we have all the aspects of the Lord being born out of the Lord. But this divine nature is hidden in the state of ignorance. What is that which hides it? It is Prakriti or Maya which hides the vision of Divinity in us. This is the state of ignorance which leads us in the cycles of birth and death. This ignorance can be overcome only by Divine grace, which He bestows on us, when we worship taking complete surrender in Him. This devotion leads one to the path of Jnanam.

The devotion of most persons is mainly motivated by worldly needs like cure of diseases, success in one’s effort, securing wealth etc. When one worships God with all dedication for a long time, gets some occult powers which is the result of their austerities or Tapas. When one gets attached to the results of worship or Tapas, he is again into the world or Maya and enters into more darkness. They get stuck there.

Swami Rama once met a sage in Himalayas. The sage can bring any fragrance of the flower one wants just by rubbing his palms in our palms. Swami Rama asked whether the sage can bring the Jasmine fragrance and he did so. Swami Rama asked him, ‘how many years did you take to learn this vidhya?’ The sage replied with lot of happiness ’27 years’. Swami Rama replied ‘you have wasted 27 years of your life time in learning this Vidhya which is of no use in realizing the Lord within’

Even the Vidhya of the sage in the above story cannot come just like that. It needs lots of tapas. But focus is given for a wrong thing.

We have seen stories in our Puranas, who prayed to God with the desire in their mind and without surrender to the Lord. How Hiranyakashipu performed severe penance to get the vision of Lord Brahma. His intention was to remain forever and to rule over everyone including the Lord. We have heard the story of Bhasmasura, who did great Tapas to have the vision of Lord Shiva and asked for a boon that who so ever he keeps his hand on the head, should be burnt to death. Both Asuras were killed by the Lord in His own sweet way.

Having got the vision of the Lord which is very rare to get, the people who are into body consciousness and ego cannot use such blessings to reach the highest goal of human birth. They want to reach perishable worlds through the worship. Thus they are into greater darkness of ignorance.

Worship and devotion are two different things. Worship is a physical action which is desire motivated whereas devotion is the expression of the heart.

By performing work, one reaches Pitru Loka; through Vidya one reaches the Deva Loka. But these Lokas or worlds do not save man from the cycles of birth and death. They have to come back into this world again and again till they realize their own divine nature. Realisation of the divinity cannot be got through work alone or through worship alone.

In the 14^th sloka, the Lord says that

1. One should understand clearly what are Prakriti and Vinasha. Vinasha means destructible. Whatever manifests undergo destruction. Hiranyagarbha is the first manifestation of Brahman, is also destructible. One should clearly understand that both the Prakriti and Hiranyagarbha are Maya.

1. Conquer death by the worship of Vinasha. Here in this sloka ‘death’ means giving up the limited powers of the worldly life including the supernatural powers.

1. One who understands both Prakriti and Hiranyagarbha as Maya attains immortality by devotion to Prakrti. Immortality here means absorption in Prakriti. It is given in our scriptures that absorption in Prakriti is the highest result attainable through human (cattle, land, gold etc) and divine (meditation on gods) wealth.

1. The one who has this understanding is born as a presiding deity in the next cycle of birth.

We are given a chance every time to understand our divine nature. But when we come across something attractive (status in Lokas), we are lost there. When one renounces all desires, he is devoted to knowledge. He is in the path of realizing his divine nature. So these slokas clearly puts the fact that work done with desire and attachment to the results of worship both blinds man’s vision and they are reborn.

To conclude:

• Those who are engaged in acts contrary to scriptures are full of Ajnana.
• Those who confine themselves to the study and practice of divine forms are even worse, for their desire is for powers and skills.
• One should not engage in anything opposed to the Sastras.
• Karma can help only to cleanse the mind and the worship of Gods can lead to single-mindedness.
• One has to live a life of Jivanmukta, here and now – that is the goal of human birth. The way is explained in the coming slokas.

We will do slokas 15 to 18 in the coming weeks which talks about knowledge through non-attachment and devotion. HARI OM!