Bhagavatam, day 10
Srimad Bhagavatam - day 10
By relentlessly reading (serving) Bhagawatam or serving great saints who are eternally devoted towards the Lord, these awfully inauspicious impure tendencies are almost totally destroyed! With this, the person begins to develop unflinching love and devotion towards the Supreme ***.
I am re-iterating the same points again and again so that they get drilled into your mind!
When this state of unflinching devotion is attained, kāṃa (desires), krodha (anger), lobha (greed) and other emotions that arise out of the traits of sattva (purity), rajas (action, passion) and tamas (inertia), fail to have any impact on the mind! The mind that is freed from all evil tendencies seeks shelter in pure traits (Sattva) and enjoys great peace!
It is very important to have a mind that is free from all bad habits! Having a mind is not great; having a pure mind is great!
In this manner, by having a mind that is totally tuned on to the path of devotion (bhakti) towards the Supreme Lord and due to the endless connection that has been established with Him, the person enjoys total peace. Such a person is able to develop dispassion (lack of desire) towards the useless objects/ matters pertaining to this world.
Those who have consecrated the Supreme Lord in their minds believing Him to be everything are those who are predominantly of Sattvik (pure) traits and who have washed away all impure tendencies from their minds. Such persons spend all their earnings for *** or *** related activities. They utilize their body, their entire time- in fact they dedicate their entire life for ***. In their completion of duties if they have to deviate from the rightful path, for example if they have to utter lies, they just dump that entire task and stay away from it. They have attained the supreme peace. Such people have no inclination/ desire towards these worthless issues/ objects of the world.
Such people will not speak uselessly. They will not declare to others “*** has done this to me. *** has asked me to speak in this manner. *** sits on my tongue and hence every word I utter is ***’s word”. We do come across many people who make such wasteful indiscriminate comments. “*** has asked me to abuse and condemn you”- there are people who speak in this way to their enemies. Well, it is possible that the enemy retaliates by saying- “*** has come to me and asked me to smash you”. What answer can the former person have for this? His opponent will mercilessly hammer him and break his bones claiming that it was in accordance to ***’s will.
This is not the way to speak. We should not speak so cheaply about the Supreme Lord! We should not drag Him to such low levels.
A person who is predominantly of pure traits will not speak so cheaply. He will be soaked in bliss. For having been born in this world, he will flawlessly complete all the duties that have been assigned to him and spend his entire remaining time for Paramatma.
Many others waste their free time pondering about ways to cheat, ways to make easy money, how to trouble others and so on. There are many who are going in this wrong path. This should not happen.
Every person should try to be pure in nature. Who are you? From where did you come? What is your lineage? As a human being how should your nature and behavior be? Are you living per those norms? One should ask himself these questions and on this basis rectify his lifestyle and habits to bring them on the correct path.
Such devotees are blessed with the vision of the true/ actual form (yathārtha roopa) of that Lord!
‘*** is in that form.’ ‘He looks like that’- but what is His actual form? These people are able to see the actual form of the Supreme Lord!
Bidhyate hridaya granthiḥ chidyante sarva samshayāh
Sheeyante cāsya karmāṇi dṛiśta evātmanīśwarī
Only when the vision of Paramatma who is the form of the Self is attained, the knot in the heart (hṛdaya granthi) called ahamkāra (sense of I-ness, ego) is cut.
There are many granthis or knots in our body such as Vishnu granthi etc. Vishnu Sahasranama, Lalita Sahasranama refers to these granthis.
But there is one knot called ‘Ahamkāra granthi’. This knot gets cut only when the vision of the Supreme Lord is attained! It means this knot is cut when the being is able to realize the Supreme Lord as a form of his Self (atma roopa)!
Where is Paramatma? He is the form of the Self (atma)! Is *** the heart that beats within us? No, the Self is invisible. Then who is Paramatma? Is he the life force (prana) within us? You can say it is the form of prana or you can say it is the form of the heart. He is the Self!
Only when ‘vision of the Self’ is attained, the knot of ahamkara (ego, sense of I-ness) gets cut. Once ahamkara is destroyed, you are free. This is the meaning of bliss (ananda). All speculations get cleared. In such a Jnāni (knowledgeable person) the chain of karma (action and experiencing the results of action) gets destroyed. Only prārabdha karma (collection of past actions the result of which needs to be experienced) remains. In other words, only future actions remain.
Now you are ready. But there is something that should make you complete your actions. This is prārabhda karma. Only that remains.
For this significant reason, intelligent human beings, fix their mind solely upon Lord Krishna, who incarnated as the son of Vasudeva, and proceed strictly on the path of devotion. With this they earn peace of mind and in turn enjoy supreme bliss!
Sattva (purity), rajas (action, passion) and tamas (inertia, dullness) are the qualities of the Lord’s power of illusion (māya shakti). Very often we come across these terms. In Vedanta and in Purānās we come across them. But what exactly are these qualities/ traits? So far we have explained this from the point of ahamkara. We said that this is absence of ahamkara or the bliss enjoyed after ahamkara is destroyed. In this manner a little essence we have discussed.
The Supreme Lord who is over and above the power of illusion (māya), who is non- dual and complete, takes the help of these three traits (trigunās) and for the creation, sustenance and absorption of this creation, manifests as Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra.
Om Namo Narayana.