Light in the darkness from the scriptures
Not all followers of the Vedas understand self-realization to be the goal of human life. Many think that the performance of material duties and auspicious activities are the central point.
« Vedānta-sūtra: The Govinda-bhāṣya of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa
Light in the darkness from the scriptures
However, not all followers of the Vedas understand self-realization to be the goal of human life. Many think that the performance of material duties and auspicious activities mentioned in the karma-kānda section, with the purpose of elevation to the celestial planets, is the ultimate goal of the Vedas. During their studies, however, they inevitably come across passages that describe something higher, a source of ultimate happiness, beyond the actions and reactions of this material world. Take these two passages, for example:
a) In the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (part 7), it is described how Nārada Muni, eager to hear instructions capable of liberating people from material sorrow, inquires from Sanat-kumāra. Playing the role of a common person, Nārada mentions that he studied all the Vedas, including the itihāsas, grammar, argumentation, worship, the different vedāngas, astronomy, Ayurveda, etc., but he did not know about the Supreme, ātmā, and therefore he could not become free from lamentation.
Sanat-kumāra answers that the knowledge Nārada speaks about is mundane, just describing the names and forms of this world, and therefore insufficient to destroy sorrow. Higher than names and forms, Sanat-kumāra explains, is speech, because through speech, knowledge is transmitted. Mind is higher than speech, because all actions are dependent on mental activity, and will or determination (sankalpa) is greater than the mind, because will activates the mind and directs its actions. In fact, will is the cause of all material activity and its subsequent creations and results. Deliberation (as a function of intelligence) is higher than will, because it regulates and directs will, and meditation is still higher, because by meditation we can elevate our consciousness.
What is still higher than meditation? Vijñāna, or realized knowledge, is still greater. Vijñāna means knowledge of the scriptures that is properly understood from the spiritual master. This realized knowledge is the cause of meditation. There is something even higher than realized knowledge, however, which is bala, strength, or the power to act and serve. A spiritual seeker who is practically engaged in devotional service overpowers a hundred who have knowledge but are not engaged. This attitude of service leads one to approach self-realized souls and obtain transcendental knowledge from them.
Is there something greater than this strength? Anna, or food, is still higher, because through food the Lord nourishes all living beings. All animals eat, but human beings are supposed to eat only prasāda, the spiritual food that nourishes them with spiritual strength. Food, however, is the result of a sequence of transformations of material elements, starting from the ether element, which is representative of the Lord. From the element ether, fire is produced, from fire, the element water comes, and by the process of sacrifice, rain comes, nourishing all vegetables and producing food. All of this happens due to the will of the Lord.
What is even greater than ether? Memory (smara) is still greater. Ordinarily, memory helps people to live and perform their material activities, but when properly used, memory allows us to remember the Lord and connect us to our eternal spiritual identity. What is higher than memory? Āśā (right aspiration) is greater than memory, because āśā is the cause of all beneficial activities, such as the chanting of mantras, pious activities, etc. Ultimately, āśā means the desire for achieving liberation and serving the Lord, the yearning for spiritual realization, or mumukṣutva. This longing for liberation should be cultivated through the practice of devotional service, philosophical inquiry, and spiritual understanding. As mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā (18.54) and Śrimad Bhāgavatam (1.7.10), after the platform of liberation, one can reach the platform of pure devotional service to the Lord.
What is greater than even this right aspiration? The soul is even greater because, without the soul, nothing else has meaning. Without the soul, a body is just a corpse. We relate to people only as long as the soul is there, and when the soul leaves, the body is cremated or buried, and the relationship ends. The soul is thus the real self, and everything else is grouped around the soul. The soul is referred to as prāna in many verses of the Upaniṣads because the soul is invisible to material eyes, and thus the vital air around the soul is the visible part. Just as when we see a plane flying in the sky, we say “there goes a plane!” because we can’t see the people inside. Knowledge about the soul is the highest, and one who speaks about this transcendental knowledge is an ativādī, transcending the mundane.
Sanat-kumāra then describes the process for achieving this transcendental realization, which rhymes with the sūtra athāto brahma-jijñāsā.
The Lord is Satya, truth, and the cause for speaking about the Lord is realizing the Lord. When one realizes the Lord, one sees the highest truth, and speaking about the Lord, one reveals this truth to others. To achieve this realization, one needs contemplation, or focused thought. By contemplating (mati) transcendental knowledge, a person realizes it, and thus, this process of contemplation should be adopted by all. This process of mati, or focused contemplation, comes from faith. Without faith, it is not possible to undertake it. Faith, in turn, comes from steadiness in the spiritual process. This steadiness is obtained by striving with effort; this effort in following the spiritual path is thus the beginning of the process of transcendental realization.
What is the result of this transcendental realization that starts with effort on the spiritual path? Realizing the Lord brings sukham, transcendental happiness. This transcendental happiness is the result of understanding spiritual relationships (there is no real happiness in the Brahman platform). This transcendental happiness is attained when one realizes one’s eternal position as a servant of the Lord. One who can’t realize it, becoming stuck in the Brahman platform, can’t experience it.
This brings to the verse quoted by Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, which confirms that the Supreme Lord is the source of this happiness, and thus the highest of all and the ultimate destination, beyond elevation to the celestial planets and all kinds of fruitive performances. People take the path of fruitive activity because they hope to attain happiness, but the verse makes it clear that true happiness is found only in connection with the Lord:
yo vai bhūma tat sukham, nānyat sukham asti
bhūmaiva sukham, bhūmatveva vijijñāsitavyaḥ“Bhūma, the infinite and absolute Personality of Godhead, is the source of true happiness. No genuine bliss is found in what is limited and temporary. He alone is the source of bliss, and He alone should be inquired to and realized in truth.” (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 7.23.1)
b) In the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (part two), we find the dialogue of Yājñavalkya and his wife Maitreyī. Being ready to renounce family life, Yājñavalkya proposed to divide his riches between his two wives, but Maitreyī intelligently questioned if receiving such wealth would grant her eternal life. Yājñavalkya answered no: she would have financial support to live her life the way she wanted, but in the end, she would still have to face death like everyone else. The wealth would not bring her anything eternal. Surprisingly, Maitreyī then refused the inheritance and instead asked her husband to instruct her on whatever he knew about the process to achieve immortality.
Yājñavalkya then explained that all the people and things we consider dear in this world, like the husband, wife, children, wealth, brāhmanas, kings, planets, demigods, and, in fact, all other living entities, and everything that exists, are not dear to us by their own sake but because of their connection with the Lord. When we love these persons and objects for their own sake, without realizing their connection with the Lord, we are rejected by them, or in other words, we lose them in due course of time. In this way, Yājñavalkya made a powerful statement that sent Maitreyī on the path of self-realization, expressing the illusory nature of this world and revealing the Lord as the underlying principle behind everything that exists and the ultimate destination.
The key word in the instructions is kāmāya (desire): na vā are patyuḥ kāmāya patiḥ priyo bhavati, ātmanas tu kāmāya patiḥ priyo bhavati. It is not for the sake of the husband that the husband is dear, but for the sake of ātma, the Lord, that he becomes dear. The same is repeated for the wife, children, etc.
How does this attraction work? Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu explains that, jīvera svarūpa haya — kṛṣṇera nitya-dāsa, “It is the living entity’s constitutional position to be an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa”. He also says: nitya-siddha kṛṣṇa-prema ‘sādhya’ kabhu naya, “Pure love for Kṛṣṇa is eternally established in the hearts of the living entities. It is not something to be gained from another source.”
Love for Kṛṣṇa is the eternal characteristic of the soul and thus can’t be separated from it, as much as liquidity can be separated from water, but this love for Kṛṣṇa can be covered, and when this happens, it manifests as lust, attraction to objects of sense enjoyment. At the same time, however, as Kṛṣṇa explains in the Gītā, “Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.” Due to the influence of māyā and our own covering by lust, we look at attractive people and objects and see them as separate from Kṛṣṇa, and thus as objects of our enjoyment. We think then that the husband, wife, etc., are dear to us for their own sake, but in reality they are attractive to us because of the presence of Kṛṣṇa, who manifests both externally (in the form of His illusory energy) and inside as Paramātmā. In other words, we love people and things because they carry a spark of His presence. Ultimately, we are all looking for Kṛṣṇa, but due to the covering of Māyā, this longing manifests in the form of material lust.
It is only due to this connection with Kṛṣṇa that they appear to be attractive to us. When we fully realize this connection, we see beyond the material illusion and become attracted to Kṛṣṇa, the source of all attractiveness. We then reawaken our eternal nature of love and service to Kṛṣṇa. When we fail to do that, however, we just live the material experience of attraction, loss, and grief.
The words ātmanas tu kāmāya, thus, mean that what is dear is not the material objects themselves, but the potency and presence of the Lord in them. Another word for “dear” is priya, and this is also used later in the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (part four) in relation to the Lord: “priyam iti enat upāsīta” (One should worship the Supreme Lord as priya, the dearest). All these points reinforce the idea of cultivating our eternal relationship with the Lord as the most important aspect of our existence and indeed the very purpose of human life.
We come then to the passage quoted by Śrīla Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa, which concludes the passage:
ātmā vā are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyo
mantavyo nididhyāsitavyo maitreyi“O Maitreyī, indeed, the Lord (ātmā) should be perceived, heard, inquired about, and meditated upon.” (Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.5)
Why is that the Supreme Lord, the Supreme ātmā, should be investigated, heard, contemplated, and meditated upon? Because knowing the Lord is the only path to immortality, to reestablishing our original nature as pure souls in our original relationship with the Lord. Even impersonal liberation doesn’t include this goal, since one becomes free from material conditioning, but does not revive one’s relationship with the Lord. This dialogue is repeated in part four, later in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, where extra details about the characteristics of the Lord are added.
The Upaniṣads contain many other philosophical passages included by Vyāsadeva to precisely inspire people lost on the path of fruitive activity to start the process of inquiring about the absolute truth, just as lighthouses guiding lost ships to safety.
Next: Fruitive activity is not the goal of the scriptures
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