Aug 2, Sivananda
Discourse on Sivananda Lahari
Day 6, August 2
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityor ma amrtam gamaya
Om Santissantissantihi
Please lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. May there be peace.
Om Namassivaya
Yesterday we learned from Sri Bhagavatpada that instead of searching all over the world for a rare flower to offer to God, it is better to offer to Him our mind and heart, visualizing them as sacred and fragrant flowers. Those who get this thought, urge, and desire to surrender to God their mind and heart will find it insignificant as to what type of body they occupy. Wherever they are born and in whatever form they are born is immaterial to them. They ever reside in close proximity to God. God receives them into Himself, loves and protects them always, eventually granting them liberation.
Human birth is the most supreme, it is said. Sri Bhagavatpada himself says that it is most difficult to attain a human birth. Only man has the power to utilize all the senses that function superbly. Like Dasaratha/a ten wheel chariot, we must use this body to reach God. Especially to obtain the company of an enlightened soul, to have the intention to seek salvation and to have the chance for attaining liberation is most fortunate.
Nara is man. Narayana is God. What is the difference between us? I am human. You are divine. What does Narayana mean? Today is Sravana Sanivara. We remember Lord Vishnu reclining on the ocean of milk, wearing the Kaustubha gem, having His consort Lakshmi beside Him, in the form of Sri Ranganatha Swami. The superficial meaning is that He lives amidst waters. But if you look for the deep meaning, Narayana is the final destination that we reach by attaining the highest spiritual knowledge. Parandhama - is the address where all that exists is just unadulterated bliss. Narayana is the Lord of Vaikuntha. The word Narayana has the word Nara inside it. Just as Rama Ayana is Ramayana, the journey of Rama, Nara Ayana is Narayana, man’s supreme journey towards his final destination.
Verse 10:
Naratwam devatvam naga-vana-mrugatwam masakata,
Pasutwam keetatwam bhavatu vihagathwādi-jananam
Sadā twatpādābja-smarana-paramānanda-lahari.
Vihārāsaktam ched- dhrudaya-miha kim tena vapushā
Attaining a human birth is the first step towards attaining divinity.
Man, by severe penance rises to the level of divinity. It does not matter if I am born in a jungle, as a hill, a mound, or boulder, an animal, an insect, or a bird. Even a birth as a four-legged animal like a lion, a tiger, a moth, or even an invisible germ is also acceptable to me.
Why is he speaking like this? O Lord Siva, as whatever species I am born, amongst the 8,400,000 species living on earth, as long as I am immersed in the bliss of contemplating on your feet, I will be happy. Please grant that supreme bliss of getting absorbed in the thought of your sacred feet. When such a mental state is there, when the urge is there to worship you incessantly, it is insignificant what body one gets and occupies. When you are in agony or serious illness, take the time to sing a bhajan or offer a prayer, and it will give you indescribable solace. Thinking of you is itself bliss. It is not that it gives bliss. Just listening to good devotional music or rendering it, is itself bliss. I feel like simply swimming in such bliss, wandering in that happiness. The shape of the body is not important. The mind and heart should be offered to God.
Let me have the eagerness to adore you. The mind and heart are most important in any creature. The body that the being wears is not important. With a lantern or a flashlight/torch, Adi Sankara is taking us step by step throwing light on the different aspects and forms of devotion.
We will have the question as to how animals, birds, and insects have the experience of devotion. It is from the past samskara/tendency that they acquire from their previous lifetimes. The tendencies are carried forth from one lifetime to another, based on the actions performed and the events experienced. The burden that we carry is sometime unbearable. But hearing of God lightens the burden and gives us good samskara.
Sri - Kala - Hasti – spider, snake and elephant were granted liberation by Lord Siva at this great shrine, Sri Kalahasti (near Tirupati) a Vayulinga (Siva Linga representing the element Air) Kshetra – there the lamp never goes out. It is a very extraordinary temple. After the 12 Jyotirlingas, the 5 Pancha Linga Kshetras, and then Gokarna in Karnataka with the Atma Linga are very special and sacred in Siva worship.
One old temple was not receiving attention. Worship was not being offered to the Siva Lingam. Noticing this, a spider wove its web over the Siva Linga. Siva was pleased that the spider had offered Him cloth to wear. A blind hunter kept offering food to the deity. He prayed that God’s glance should fall on him. A serpent wound itself around the Linga as an ornament to God. An elephant brought water from the nearby river and did abhishekam. Dhoorjati, a Telugu poet has described this phenomenon in his wonderful literary work.
What Veda did the spider memorize? What Sastra did the serpent get mastery over? What has the elephant studied? Merely receiving certificates is not true education. The urge to worship your feet, that even animals and other creatures feel, is alone true education. When scholarship is combined with devotion it is like gold acquiring fragrance and smelling like sandal paste.
Bhagavatpada here is questioning us and assuring us that what is important is not gender, species or location of one’s birth, but it is the devotion in the heart. The mind should be surrendered to God. That is most important.
Caste, race, color, creed, species, and religion are distinctions that we fight about. Here, in referring to devotion, they are speaking about animals. A temple is the property of God, not man. How can anyone be denied admission? Those who impose such restrictions are the greatest sinners. We may keep requirements that one should bathe, wear clean clothes, and wash feet before entering a temple. But no one can be denied admission.
Many feel uneasy about going to the temple empty handed. Your own sense organs and mind you can mentally offer to God. Bhavana Upanishat is important in the worship of Mother Goddess. You do not physically pluck out the organs to offer. Mentally, the use of all the sensory perceptions may be offered to God.
Panduranga Mahatmyam describes a story. There is generally a pond near a temple. A mother pig had many piglets. One of them kept running around the temple eating all the trash and refuse that came from the temple that it found on the premises. After a while it died and was reborn as a dog. The priest, after giving prasadam to all the devotees, would give the leftovers to the dog which relished the Pongal (a rice and lentil preparation) prasadam especially. The dog would not eat anything else. It would drink the water flowing out after abhishekam to the Lord or it would sip water from the temple tank. It grew old and died. It was born again as a baby bird on a tree in the temple premises. The bird would fly out to find food. Unbeknownst to it after that it would pick up some sacred leaf like Bilva or Tulasi and would drop it from the sky. The leaf would fall either on the flag post, on the stone sacred feet of the Lord, or on the idol itself. It took rebirth as a calf and grew up to be a cow. The cow was tied in front of the sanctum sanctorum and was milked. The milk was for offering to God. The milk fell on the rim of the *** one day and a drop of milk splashed and fell on the Siva Linga (as milk abhishekam to God). It took rebirth as a prince and became a king. The king fell into difficulties. The enemies attacked and he consulted a minister. A counselor advised the king to revive and restore a dilapidated Siva temple to earn some spiritual merit and strength to defeat his enemies. The king followed the advice and the enemies conceded defeat. The king was reborn as a devotee of Siva. On one Sivaratri night, he stayed awake, fasted, and sang hymns to God all night. He got transformed into a divine light and merged in God. This soul began as a pig. We must not forget how this soul began its spiritual journey. We discriminate between a cow and a pig. But for God all are equal. This story illustrates the truth hidden in the prayer of Adi Sankara. It does not matter what species we are born as.
Tenali Rama is a great pundit, and a scholar. He wrote a commentary on Panduranga Mahatmyam, another beautiful work.
Uddhava was sent by Krishna to Brindavana to inquire of the wellbeing of the residents of Nanda Gokula, the Gopikas and his parents Yasoda and Nanda. Krishna took leave of his parents when he left, but he did not explain to the cowherds that he was leaving.
Uddhava felt amazed at the great good fortune of the cowherd families who moved intimately in their younger days with Krishna, God Himself. Uddhava wished that he were born at least as a grain of dirt on that sacred land where Lord Krishna spent such happy childhood times.
Bhajan: Jyotirlingakara dwadasaroopa parama siva .. (Ghrshiteeswara)
Verse 11:
Vaturvā gehī vā yathirapi jatī vā tadi taro
Narō vā yah kaschid bhavathu bhava kim tena bhavati
Yadeeyam hrith padmam bhavad adeenam paśupate,
Tadeeya stwam shambho bhavasi bhava bhāram ca vahasi
Brahmacharya is very important, declare the scriptures. Even married persons can practice brahmacharya/celibacy and focus on God. Those who practice it attain salvation. Such people are reborn at the end of the Kalpa as Yatis and will eventually attain permanent liberation. Householders receive Liberation because they feed the hungry, and support the activities of saintly persons, the Sastras say.
Hanuman is an eternal Brahmachari.
In this assembly we have people belonging to all four stages. We should not argue amongst ourselves. All of us will attain liberation. There is no doubt in that. God grants it to all of us, regardless of who we may be. These categories are only in India and not in foreign countries, we may think. But Adi Sankara dispels such doubts.
An object placed here is not going to walk away. Once it is in one’s possession, it does not move away. Make my heart yours, O Lord. Surrendering to God entirely is most important. Dedicate all you feelings to God. It is very easy. To those who give you their hearts and minds, you become theirs. God is willing to take away the entire burden from us of the cycle of births and deaths.
During the churning of the ocean, Siva appeared only once to absorb the poison and hold it in His throat. They all fed him poison as if it were prasadam. Had Siva not come to the rescue the entire Creation would have perished and there would be no further story. As Siva was going to swallow the poison, Mother goddess held his throat and stopped him from swallowing it. All the worlds existing inside the Lord would get destroyed if He swallowed the poison. Her fingerprints are there on His throat.
In human life there are four stages/ashramas – Brahmacharya, Grihasta, Vanaprastha, or Sanyasa. It does not matter what stage one is at, Adi Sankara is telling the Lord, addressing Him as Pasupati and Sambhu/giver of happiness.
Those who are at the stage of learning the Vedas, or pursuing studies are brahmacharis/unmarried. Then they become householders, earning to support family and society in a judicious manner. Vanaprasthas remain in the woods without caring about beautifying their bodies, and go about with matted hair. Then there are sanyasis who renounce everything. O God, does it matter to you what our stage might be. You shower your compassion upon all those who have left the control of their minds in your hands.
With practice and regular observance devotion grows easily.
You belong to your devotees. You are like the ocean. We are the waves. The waves belong to the ocean. The ocean does not belong to the waves. If the two are different how would they merge into one another? You have declared that those who surrender their hearts to you will obtain you.
We transfer our burden of life and death onto His head. To those who do this are protected by him. We simply have to place our complete faith in Him. Adi Sankara is first explaining the benefit that we gain before describing the process.
Today is Sravana Sanivara/Saturday. It is very beneficial to have the darshan of Lord Sri Datta Venkateswara.
Bhajan: Govinda Gopala ..
O eternally youthful Govinda, you are the reason that the entire world is happy. My mind hankers after wealth. This world is filled will illusion. I hold your feet. Please hold me and uplift me. Where I was born in my previous lifetimes is a secret kept by you. I have eyes and yet I am blind. I do not see anything. O Sachchidananda Krishna, my desire is to see you.
Sri Guru Datta