Slokam 10

Those on the scene of the fallen trees, including Nandagopa, cannot help wondering how the Child escaped being hurt, since He was right in between the two giant trees. They  attribute the miracle to the intervention of supreme, to save the Child, not recognizing the identity of the Child as the Paramathma Himself.

Events such as these happen in all our lives. We also, like Nandagopa attribute the good fortune to the intervention of the Paramathma.  We do not have this thought unless we think that the event was “out of the ordinary”.  Yet if we can stretch this thought just a bit further, we will realize that every little aspect of our lives is orchestrated by the supreme. 

There is nothing here that happens on its own. That we even think that any of this actually belongs to us or is caused or influenced by our action, borders on the ridiculous.

We certainly may be the agent in this sequence of cause and effect related events that occur in repeated cycles.  The design of an event that hits an individual such as loss of job, health issues etc., are meant to make that individual advance in his life.  The advancement is usually meant to make the individual drop His/Her needs that are not necessary for everyday life. More importantly, these events are meant to make us drop the delusions that block spiritual advancement.  The world in the material realm is meant to awaken certain skills and abilities within us that are meant to be used for understanding the self.  Extricating this outward orientation and turning it inwards requires our effort.  This effort is our contribution in the entire process. 

Our ability to detach from the material world is a combination of experience,  intellectual conclusion, the capability to be compassionate, the capability to put the consideration for others over our own needs,  and most importantly to have a selfless approach to life.   These qualities are not easy to develop and that is the reason that this effort is extended over many many life times.

The ability to physically survive all the challenges of  diseases,  the intellectual and emotional challenges, the  economic challenges and the challenges of the family,  consume a great deal of our energy and time. In reality these problems only reflect the extent of our surrender to the Paramathma.  The greater our level of surrender, the  less that these problems will be.  The more our resistance to surrender, the greater these worldly problems will be.  Our ability to conduct our life per the scriptures will enable us to attain a state of acceptance and surrender.

The physical world is only loaded with calamity after calamity.  Yet our ego tells us that we will not only escape all of these, but in reality, actually thrive, prosper and enjoy a life of pleasure!!!!!! That is the extent of our belief in our own good destiny. Suppose we take the correct view and see this world as only a series of calamities,  we will never be able to wake up in the morning and perform our everyday chores. We will be utterly overcome by depression and hopelessness. 

This is why we are endowed with the illusory identity of the ego and then gradually guided to the truth which is neither a calamity, nor a pleasure. It is very important to recognize that this life does not offer any relief, no matter how good we become at managing our affairs.  Life is structured to encourage us to leave this existence. The more we become attached, the less likely that we will prepare to leave.  That is why the Kali Yugam is a dreaded era to be born in. Material comfort is thrust on us without any effort.  We are given more than we need.  The illusion that we can master this life slowly creeps on us and entangles us into asking for more and more. There is little motivation to seek a higher existence.  This is why we are given this inevitable physical demise in the form of death.  When we see suffering around us and also observe the horrendous life of animals that are caught in the clutches of the human race,  we are left wondering what fate will befall us in our next life.  We have absolutely no clue of how much papam (or sin) we have accumulated, apart from how much progress we have made on the path of spiritual enlightenment.  Our ignorance is magnified by the ever changing challenges that we are subjected to. Remaining steady on the correct path is indeed quite a challenge. The prospect of failure in terms of attaining self realization does indeed appear daunting.  This is why the bhakthi margam or path of complete surrender is so important, and is probably the only option in the Kali Yugam, to obtain Moksham. One thing is very clear in the Kali Yugam is that we all know that our roles in everyday life is restricted to our sustenance alone.  Taking care of ourselves is such a huge challenge that our eyes are opened to the possibility that we have no fall back except the Paramathma. We cannot possibly understand what state we will be in after the body is discarded.

Being steeped in the world of Maya,  our belief system, reasoning and discrimination powers are all blurred and immersed in doubt and ignorance. So we do not differentiate between our worldly life and the life that lies ahead.  We try to relate to the Paramathma in the same way that we would relate to this material life.  That is a terrible consequence of ignorance.  The Paramathma is the supreme unchanging reality within us.

Unless we view the Paramathma as one who never veers in His commitment to stand by and support His Bhakthas, we will not be able to advance to the highest state of surrender, that is required to attain union with the supreme.

The Paramathma manifests as an exact reflection of our inner self.  He will treat us and deal with us in exactly the same way that we feel towards Him.  The more we distance ourselves from the Paramathma by hiding behind the Maya of the physical realm, the more that He will distance Himself from us.  That will be a never ending game of hide and seek, for which life may extract a heavy price from us. 

When there is a physical calamity or misfortune that befalls the people around us, we assume that these did not happen to us because of our own smartness and capability that helped us to avoid the mishap.  In reality, we are being shown the consequences of pursuit of material objectives. Typically we do two things – we try to figure out what bad karma resulted in the befalling of the calamity and secondly we try to give accolades to ourselves as to why the event will not happen to us.

Our perception of our  “fortunate escapes” are meant to open our eyes to the unseen hand of the Paramathma that keeps us unharmed in this world, which is full of calamity. Instead, our ego interprets our “good fortune” as resulting from our “own” superiority and goodness that makes us superior to all others. This feeling of superiority makes the Paramathma invisible to us.  He who is responsible for our every breath is relegated to the fringes of our consciousness. 

In the case of natural disasters that befall mankind, we instinctively question why the Paramathma did not intervene and stop the disaster (such as the Corona virus).  It is very important for us to understand the intricate and delicate balancing act of the Paramathma in creating this universe and our very important role in appreciating this huge gift of consciousness and enlightenment.  We are not meant to understand the entire sequence of events that make consciousness possible. We often place ourselves on the high pedestal of judging the events that occur without having a clue about the processes of creation, sustenance and destruction.  We put ourselves on this high pedestal because of our ego and our inability to transcend our self interest and most importantly our insecurity.  We sometimes pray to the Paramathma to keep us away from the disasters that befall others.  We also pray to the Parmathma for the guidance and protection of our family.  We are not in a position to reach out and get what we need at the click of a button. More often than not, our needs are way beyond our abilities.  Because our needs are way beyond our abilities, we turn inward and try to suppress or eliminate the needs.  This inability to satisfy our needs is a very important aspect of this existence.  It is the source of all our perceived misery in this existence.

If there is no fear, no insecurity, it is unlikely that we will ever turn to the Paramathma.  It is only when our abilities are not adequate that we begin to turn inward and try to gain control of our inner self.

Taking this a step further, if there is no ignorance and we were all endowed with all the knowledge that we need, when we are born, then there is no need to seek knowledge. Our entire journey of life hinges on turning inward and explore and develop our inner self.

To be able to look inside ourselves and learn or explore our various aspects, we would need to develop a detachment.  The detachment must be from the aspect that we need to observe. It is a natural endowment on us that we are able to separate ourself from the object that we are observing. But for this separation, our consciousness itself will likely not take root.  We have to learn to separate ourselves from our internal attributes as well.

Sri Ramana Maharishi very strongly advocated that one of the effective ways of getting rid of the false identity or the ego, is to be able to turn our consciousness on the ego, in the observation mode.  In physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle notes that the very process of our observation, has an impact on the object of observation, as a result of which its characteristics are modified. So the principle hypothesizes that we can never observe subatomic particles in their true form since the methods used to observe them would in themselves be disruptive of their form and activity.

Likewise Sri Ramana Maharishi recommended that if we step away from our ego and put it under the observation of our consciousness, it would vanish completely. When we turn inward, the only tool that is available for observation is our awareness alone.  The five senses are absent and our only means of perception is awareness.  We separate our awareness from the object of awareness. We can visualize any physical object, or recreate any smell, touch or taste in our mind.  We extract the sensation from our memory based on a past experience. All of us experience pain during the entire period of our life on Earth. It may be physical but more often, it is mental pain.  As we are able to recall the pleasures and pains of the senses, we are not only able to recall mental pain, we are in fact unable to ever forget it. This pain in the mind is inflicted only when all other methods fail to induce us to turn inward in spiritual pursuit.  Sometimes the painful experience may be so intense that it drives us to a permanent state of delusion and madness.

Unless we learn about the journey inwards and its importance, we will never get on the correct path.  We will be unable to extricate ourselves from entanglement.

These cannot be learnt except by embarking on the spiritual path of surrender.  The path includes life experience, reading and practicing of the scriptures and most important of all, seeking guidance from an enlightened guru who can provide us with the appropriate guidance at various points in our lives.  This guidance from the Guru assumes particular significance because the slokams need correct interpretation and correlation to understand the meaning. Only realized atmas know the true intent and purpose of the slokams.  There are many layers of messages that are built into each slokam.   When we read the slokams without any guidance, our interpretation will be skewed by our own life experience and outlook.  However, the interpretation will have to be dispassionate for the true meaning to sink in. That dispassionate view can only come from one who has renounced worldly life.

The meaning of slokams is not literal. When we chant the slokams we are trying to communicate directly with the supreme. More importantly we are displaying that we are trying to open our inner channels to free access by the Paramathma.  This is the essence of surrender. We act only to carry out the instructions of the Paramathma.  There is no other motivation in our existence. All our faculties are to be surrendered to the supreme.  Depictions of the various asuras and the overcoming of these by the Paramathma in the scriptures are all references only to the internal battle within us. 

May we ever be on the path of quietening the mind into a state of complete surrender. May that surrender be the result of seeing the Hand of the Paramathma within our inner self.