Prema Saadhana
In your glorious quest for the vision of Brahman,
why do you, O foolish mind, wander everywhere?
It is all the time in you, look for it there itself.
The _Atma_-principle, the _God_-principle, and the _Brahma_-principle are but synonyms of the One. The Vedas, which contain the earliest questionings of man, declare that man asked for the answer to one problem above all; Kim (what?) What is the secret of all the mystery, all the multiple incidents and impressions? Is there a Person or is it Impersonal? Has it attributes or is it devoid of marks and motives? Has it consciousness or is it merely mechanical and automatic? Human inquiry proceeded along these lines.
And, when varied answers came from many directions, another question arose: “Yat” (which?) Which among these guesses is the correct one? For, it was difficult, nay, impossible to delineate the Truth in words or even to delimit as an image for one's imagination. The wise seekers arrived at the conclusion that Brahman, the Universal Absolute, can be described only as “that from which the Cosmos was born, that by which it is sustained and that into which the Cosmos dissolves.”
Still, the doubt lingered: “Can this conclusion be right? Can it explain all that is puzzling man?” Intuition gave them the answer, “Tat” (that). “That conclusion is correct,” it affirmed. “Thou art That.” There is no Thou separate or different from That. Both are one. That was the Truth which was revealed.
The Vedas consists of three sections or Kandas: Karma-kanda (Action-oriented), Upasana-kanda (Worship-oriented), and Jnana-kanda (spiritual knowledge oriented). Of course, the Tat of which the Tvam is a projection is indescribable and unreachable by action, emotion, or reason.
The Four Types of Karma
Yet, these three sections pave the way for ultimate realization of the Reality. The Karma-kanda, for example, cleanses the chitta, the levels of consciousness. Karma or activity cannot confer satiety or ecstasy, trupti or ananda. Even when some little is gained, it will be short-lived. It cannot last. For, there is nothing in all the worlds that last. How can things or events that do not last confer joy that lasts? Therefore, those who resort to karma believing that they can acquire lasting Bliss thereby are pursuing an illusion.
There are four types of Karma: Production (utpadya), Acquisition (apya), Transformation (parivartnam), and Refinement (samskaram). Let us take the first type, production. Land is leveled and ploughed, furrowed and fed, before seeds are sown, then saplings are guarded, and crops are fostered, before the grain is harvested. But, the grain does not give us lasting contentment and joy.
The second type is Acquisition. We acquire things which we hope will fulfill our wants, through the use or misuse of our status in society, position or authority, command over riches or other men, and our own physical prowess and intelligent skills. Even such gains and possessions do not confer lasting joy. While acquiring, while guarding what has been acquired, and while spending or consuming it, we have to undergo painful effort and be ever vigilant. Acquisition is therefore fraught with difficulties and it has only temporary value.
The third type is Transformation. An example is the change caused in milk to produce curds and forging a piece of iron into a knife or axe. Even these articles do not last long. They disintegrate soon. The fourth type of activity is Refinement, removing dirt and dross. When we decide to celebrate a holy day, we repaint the doors and windows, clean the floor and polish the door knobs, etc., and make the house look spick and span. We wipe the dust off the mirrors. The daily bath and washing clothes are also processes of refining. We have to refine the mind also. But refined things and minds do not last as refined; they have to be subjected to the same process again and again.
One Should Treat All Karmas As Yajna
The conclusion is that the joy and pleasure earned by activities (karma) are only temporary. Nevertheless, one cannot desist from karma; one should not desist from karma. How then is one to act? One should practice detachment and desirelessness towards the results of karma. That is to say, one should treat all Karmas as Yajna (sacrifice) performed for the glory of God (and not for selfish ends), for earning lasting merit (and not for temporary benefits). The Nishkama-karma (desireless action) mentioned in the Gita is really the truest Yajna. Karma done in that spirit will not cause either greed or grief. It will cause only a sense of fulfillment of one's duty.
Karma can be considered under two heads: Worldly and Scriptural (Laukika and Shastriya). The scriptural Karmas comprise three types: Shrauta (based on the authority of the Vedas and in accordance with Vedic injunctions); Smaartha (rituals and ceremonies laid down in the disciplinary moral codes or Smritis like those of Manu, Parasara, etc. (such as obsequial rites for the dead, rites of initiation, ceremonies for daily prayers, Shraddha, Sandhya-vandanam, Upanayanam, etc.), and Pauranika (fasts, vows, pilgrimage, etc., worship of idols, etc., recommended in the Puranas).
Through Vedic Karma like yagas, man can achieve Svarga (Heaven), say the Vedas. But the same Vedas declare, “One can be in Heaven only as long as the merit he has earned lasts; Therefore when that quantity is spent, one has to enter the world again.” So, Heaven, too, is a transient luxury. A person who secures a majority of the votes cast can be a member of the Legislative Assembly for five years. When that term is over, he has to return home. So also, he who enters Heaven has to leave it when his deposit of merit is exhausted. So, Shrauta Karma does not grant perpetual job. Where the Shruti fails, how can Smriti succeed?
Man Symbolizes The Five Elements of the Cosmos
The Smaartha Karma, too, has only limited force. The Vedas can take you only to the proximity of the Almighty. For, the Vedas themselves assert, Na Karmana Na prajaya dhane na (not through Karma, not through progeny, not through wealth), tyagena ekena amritatvam aanasu'hu (by renunciation alone immortality can be gained). Tyaga (giving up) is the means to gain eternal bliss. Of course, Karmas (actions) can and do cleanse the mind of ego-sense and of sensual desires.
Consider the word Nara, which denotes ‘man’. Of these two syllables, ra means decline, decay, destruction, or death. Na means without. ‘Man’ or Nara has no decay, he is immortal as God, for he is God. It is pitiable than man is misled to believe that he is the decaying, daily dying, physical frame! Whereas Nara means Man, Narayana is the name for God. Nara symbolizes the five constituents of the Cosmos, the five bhutas (projections, elements) which emanated from God to form the Cosmos.
The expression Nara-Narayana, which is used in scriptures, implies that Nara is Narayana. This Yajna is performed by these pandits to propitiate the Veda purusha (the Vedic Divinity), the Yajna purusha (Sacrificial Divinity), who is Narayana Himself in the mantras that invoke the deity. The Vedas declare, Antar bahischa (both inside and outside), tat sarvam (in all that is), vyapya (immanent) Narayana sthitah (exists).
Engage In Karma As A Means Of Adoring God
Gandhi told someone at the Round Table Conference this truth. One person had come to London during that Conference from Colombo and during a conversation, he suddenly asked him this questions: “Where is God?” Gandhi replied, “God is that mysterious power from which the worlds around me originated, through which they disintegrate, which is the base on which all creation rests and moves.” This power is so mysterious that, as the Vedas declare, “Words which attempt to describe It turns back defeated; even the mind with all its imaginative power cannot reach It.” All things rise from It, exist in It, and merge in It, as the Gita declares.
One point has to be emphasized now. Things which are not definable, which cannot be delineated, are usually dismissed as false. Only those things which can be perceived by the senses are accepted as true! We assert that we have minds but have we ever been able to see it in us? Has joy or bliss any form? They are experience-based not sense-based. God is not seen with these eyes but the vision is possible if one can earn the eye of jnana, of clarified and purified knowledge. When you desire to see the Atma in you, you look into the mirror. You cannot see your image without a mirror to reflect you. How, then can you see your Reality without reflection through knowledge?
For every achievement, a path, a process, a discipline is essential. Without adopting the appropriate route, if one argues, objects, and denies, he is only announcing his own foolishness.
Divinity is omnipresent. It can be cognized only by transforming oneself through Holy Prema (Love). Love encompasses; it does not exclude. The Omnipresent God has, according to the Vedic hymn, “a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.” This is to say, that the Effulgent Cosmic Person, God, the Vishva Virat, is the individual multiplied by infinity. The individual mind multiplied by infinity becomes the Cosmic Minds, Hiranyagarbha, the Universal Consciousness. Love expands the one into Infinity. ‘I’ merges in ‘they’ and ‘we’, friend and foe, known and unknown, of all races, creeds, and lands, and all become ONE, the Vishva Virat.
Adopting this path and progressing in it is genuine bhakti or devotion, which discards selfish narrowness. Develop this ever-expanding love and engage yourself in karma as a means of adoring God, accepting its consequences calmly and gladly, and contribute your skills and strength towards the peace and prosperity of the society wherein you are. This is my message to you. I bless you that you succeed in this great spiritual endeavor.
Prasanthi Nilayam, 2-10-1981