Namaskar Mahatmas!

Once there was a king called Janashruti who was a benevolent and generous ruler. He ruled the country according to dharma and thereby he was adored by all his subjects. As a result, pride crept in him.

One evening, when he was relaxing on the terrace of his palace, he saw two swans fly by him. One of the swans remarked to the other, “Beware of flying over king Janashruti! The halo that emanates from him will burn you to ashes”. The other swan replied, “The king may be great but not greater than Raikva”. The king who overheard the conversation became very thoughtful and was restless. The next day, he sent his kinsmen in search of Raikva. One of his ministers happened to find Raikva and was disillusioned to see that Raika was an ordinary cart driver. He went back to the king and described his meeting with Raikva.

Immediately the king rushed to meet Raikva along with an impressive array of cows, gold necklace and other gifts. On reaching Raikva’s village the king introduced himself to Raikva and expressed his desire to learn Brahma Vidya offering whole lots of gifts in return. Raikva rejected the offer and said, “O ignorant King! The knowledge of Brahman is not a commodity to be bartered or purchased. You are not ready yet to receive the supreme knowledge”. On hearing this king returned back to his palace greatly disappointed.

Deep interospection made the king realize his folly and the next day he came back to Raikva. He fell at Raikva’s feet and said, “O wise Raikva! Last time I came to you as a king but now I have shed my royal ego and I surrender myself to you”. Raikva saw that the king had dropped all his vanity and there was genuine desire for acquiring knowledge (a mumukshu). Raikva imparted the knowledge to the king.

Namaskar Mahatmas!

We cannot experience our real nature when we are into attachments (to the body and to the world of names and forms). Like the king, one has to lose the individuality to gain this knowledge.

From this sloka 15 onwards, the Upanishad explains by what path those who have been devoted all their life to scripture-enjoined works and the worship of the Deity attain immortality after death. This and the succeeding verses form the prayer of such a devotee.

SLOKA 15

HIRANMAYENA PAATRENA SATYASYAAPIHITAM MUKHAM

TAT TVAM POOSANN APAAVRNU SATYA-DHARMAAYA DRSHTAYE

Hiranmayena – golden; paatrena – with the plate (orb of the sun); satyasya – of the truth; mukham – entrance; apihitam – is covered; poosan – o Sun (the supporter); tat – that; satyadharmaaya – for me who is devoted to the true; drshtaye – to the view; tvam apaavrnu – do thou remove

LIKE A LID, THY SHINING GOLDEN ORB COVERS THE ENTRANCE TO THE TRUTH IN THEE. REMOVE IT, O SUN, SO THAT I WHO AM DEVOTED TO THE TRUE MAY BEHOLD THAT.

This sloka is the dying prayer for the illumination of one who has been devoted all through his life to the contemplation of the Deity as manifested in the sun. He wants to see the spiritual entity behind the shining orb of the material sun.

One is advised to meditate upon Brahman as residing in the sun, the heart, and the eyes, because special manifestations of Divine glory are associated with these regions. Like the light of the Sun is pervasive, the truth is always pervasive.

When we sleep in the night, even a small amount of light disturbs us and we try to close our eyes with our palms. There is wonder light of the Lord, which is equal to 1000 suns put together, inside us all the time but we are totally unaware of the Light. If it can be seen with physical eyes, yes, we would have felt it long back. But this light of truth has to be seen with a clean heart.

This prayer is to remove that which is obstructing the vision of Truth.

If a vessel is covered with lid, we will not know what is there inside. The Sun is covered with a lid of golden rays. Whatever we see are only the light of those rays and not beyond that. We know for sure that the lid is not the Sun. The one in the death bed prays: ‘Please remove the lid. I want to be with you. Lead me to enlightenment, to light’. Through all the worship and Sadhana, we are trying to know this Truth; to be with this Truth.

We have reached up to the lid with our sadhana. We are standing there at the entrance to enter and merge into the light – struggling to breathe in the middle of those golden rays (the world of pluralities). In this helpless situation the prayer of the seeker continues:

‘Lord! Please don’t show me riches – like Lord Yama showed for young Nachiketas. Don’t show me mercy. Please remove the lid and let me enter into you. People who are looking at me think that I have gold all around me, but they do not know that I am not able to breathe inside this golden lid. I do not want this life, this body, this mind, this mercy from you. I need only one thing from you – Please show me the Truth. Please remove this external screen, external identifications, when I am taking the last breath’

What is that golden lid? It is the glitter of names and forms which obstructs our vision of reality. The world of names and forms is so grand, shining that one completely gets lost in it. The lid of names and forms can be removed only when we surrender our ego to the Lord/Guru completely. Offering our mind and intellect is difficult to do but that is the only way to cleanse us and reach us to the inner Self. We need to be a ‘satyadharma’ (one who performs the rightful duties, pure minded) to know this reality.

One day a man approached a sage. He explained to the Sage that he is fed up with the life and begged to the sage ‘I want peace’. The sage listened to him with all love and told him to repeat what he said at the end and the man repeated ‘I want peace’. The Sage told him ‘Remove the ‘I’ and the ‘want’. What remains is peace, peace and peace’.

Surrendering the ego is the only way to purity and the purity alone will lead us to the light of Brahman. All sadhanas we do is to qualify ourselves to experience Him. When ego goes away from us, all differences of names and forms vanish from our heart and thus the golden lid is lifted by the Lord and we experience Him.

We have to ask ourselves how much we are serious in our efforts to realize the Self. Shankaracharya says in Vivekachoodamani that one should have the Mumukshatvam. Every cell of our body should long for the Lord. Are we into such longing for reality? If we have this longing, then this prayer comes to us in our lifetime or at least at the time of death.

What happens to a seeker when this prayer is answered is explained in the next sloka 16 which we will continue in the next week. HARI OM!

Namaskar Mahatmas!