Slokam 2

The Paramathma’s playfulness is spoken to in this slokam.  It is said that the Paramathma “steals” the fruits gathered by His little playmates!  The children seemed to know who took away the fruits. The are upset that the little Sri Krishna took it away. They don’t know where He hid them.  Being unable to find the fruits, they felt a sense of loss of their day’s efforts. The disappointment turns to acrimony. They decide to make the Paramathma uncomfortable by framing a false accusation against Him by accusing Him of consuming mud.

The profoundness of this slokam is apparent.  Krishna Paramathma,  who endows us with the fruits of knowledge and eternity,  is accused of stealing fruits and eating mud! The Paramathma on the other hand, loves to play games with us, so we will learn about ourselves and evolve to a higher plane.

He who owns the very universe of which we are a part is not trusted to do the right things by us.

We have difficulty in surrendering our false identity to the Paramathma only because consciously or subconsciously we think that we are being deprived of what we “own”.  We think that the Paramathma is taking away “our possessions”.

The Paramathma on His part,  will continue to test us by first giving us material possessions and then taking them away.  The process is repeated many many times, until the realization sets in within us that we own and possess nothing.  This is to prepare us for the next life and later,  which will be completely devoid of material possessions,  “luxuries”,  dependencies and attachments. 

The Paramathma’s job is an extremely difficult one.  Every piece of this universe is constructed by Him, maintained by Him and finally destroyed by Him. What happens between creation and destruction is our emergence, evolution and ascendancy to a state of permanence within the eternal abode of the Paramathma.  Living pure sattvic consciousness is the end product of this existence. That end product has the qualities of eternity with no beginning or end, no possessions, no attachments, no needs to be fulfilled,  absolutely no dependencies, no senses, no conflicts and no desires.

It is hard for us to visualize such a state of existence.  As we ascend the ladder of evolution,  the possibility and ultimate reality of such a state will become apparent.  It is a state of existence which we can think of as pure self-sustaining energy.  How can energy, which is the coming together of opposites in a physical realm, be thought of to manifest in a non physical state?  What is the meaning of consciousness in a non-material state?  Consciousness or awareness that we know of is bounded and limited in every possible way.  Our consciousness, like the Paramathma is born in the confinement of a Jail with many many locked gates, for which the many guards of Kamsa, the ahankara seem to hold the key.

We know that this jail is not opening by itself.  Anyone that continues to be born within that jail of Kamsa will be killed. No one wants to be killed in this prison or hope to continue the miserable existence of a vegetation within its confines.

The escape route is only to invoke the Paramathma. He alone has the maya to be able to show us the escape route and escort us through the journey.  There is no other avenue open.

One strange aspect about us Human Beings is the hesitation to reach out and grab the ever outstretched hand of the Paramathma.  He is always the last on our list. The Paramatthma Himself is well aware of this condition.  Thinking of the Paramathma in a world that is lost in Sin is not easy. Here are a few quotes from the Bhagavatham that reiterates the difficulty and the extent to which we have to be put into certain situations so that we are actually forced to think of the Paramathma;

The cow with three of its four legs broken by Kali, has the following to say;

“Or are you mourning the fate of Mankind which will be so immersed in Sin, the gratification of the senses that it will never think of the Lord?”

Kunti takes to the path of experiencing difficulty and taking on a sequence of unending problems in her life so that she never stops thinking of the Paramthma.

“But, as KUNTI said, “Give us misfortunes all the Time so we may think of You.”

Sri Krishna tells His Dwarapalikas when they are to take birth on earth –

“Kama will overshadow your actions and in one Mada will rule your actions. But let Me assure you of one thing. You will be killed by Me and only Me. You will finally come back to Me. You will hate me with an inordinate hatred. That is also a Yoga in which you will think more of Me than if you had been My Bhaktas. This Sambhrama Yoga will be your special privilege and you will be granted release from the three janmas which will last till the end of Dvapara, the third quarter of Time.’

There are any number of instances in the Bhagavatham where the requirement to THINK of the Paramathma is emphasized as the primary act of dedication for which there is no option.  The mind is owned by the Paramathma as much as our consciousness is.  In dedicating these to the Paramathma the only way is to turn the mind and the consciousness towards the Paramathma, unwaveringly.  This dedication will be tested fully by the ever changing environment and circumstances in which we live.

The children accuse the little Paramathma of eating mud.  The Paramathma has left the channel of dedicated opposition to Him as also a path of Bhakthi, that is acceptable to Him. This channel is for the asuras. Prahalada and Hiranyakashipu represents the two opposite extremes.  Hiranyakashipu meets His end directly at the hands of the Parmathma in the form of Lakshmi Narasimha.

In our inner self both Hiranyakashipu and Prahalada exist in varying degrees.  We quite often,  find it easy to complain about our travails and blame it on the Paramathma.  We do not realize that the troubles are meant only for our transformation alone. Without the inclination to transform ourselves,  there is no evolution and there is no let up.  Accusing the Paramathma of transgressing the rules is the most absurd accusation that we can come up with.  However,  just as the children in Gokulam accuse the Paramatha of eating sand,  we accuse the Paramathma of not playing “fair” with the Kauravas!! We accuse Sri Rama of unfairly killing Vali !!!

It is easy to accuse the Paramathma for the difficulties that we face.  It is  not easy to follow His Path without stumbles and falls.  We all tend to take the easy route and give up, only to regret and try to get back on His trail, after having lost invaluable time and possessions. 

May we ever consider our difficulties as the “pranks’ of the Paramathma in putting us through the test of life so we may evolve to higher levels of existence.