GEMS FROM THE OCEAN OF
HINDU THOUGHT VISION AND PRACTICE
BEACH 11: LIVE HAPPILY, THE
[Other Beaches: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]
Wave 12: THE FINAL SECRET
OF SECRETS
[ OTHER WAVES ON THE SAME BEACH: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ]
It is now time for us to wind up. All the ideas that we have thrown up
and the conclusions we agreed to are summarised in
chart form:
Our ‘light’ response to all the happenings
that impinge on us and our ‘respectful’ response to all
the obligations that devolve on us are the two foundations on which all
our activities have to rest. The methodology is to have an attitudinal change
in all such activities. The attitude of ‘I am not the experiencer’ reflects the
fundamental maxim in the “mA phaleshhu” shloka. The attitude of ‘I am not
the doer’ reflects the attitude of Actionlessness, that
is everywhere extolled in the Gita. The
former takes care of present happiness and the latter assures us of future
happiness because of the absence of any accumulation of vAsanAs, good or bad.
This certainly summarises the teaching of the Gita; but
Ishvaras-sarva-bhUtAnAm
hRd-deshe’rjuna tishhTati /
bhrAmayan
sarva-bhUtAni yantrA-rUDhAni mAyayA //
tameva sharaNam gaccha sarva-bhAvena bhArata /
tat-prasAdAt parAM
shAntiM sthAnaM prApsyasi shAshvataM //
The Lord abides in the hearts of all beings, causing all beings, by His
mAyic power, to revolve, as if mounted on a machine. Go unto Him, with all your
being, as your refuge; by His Grace you will obtain supreme peace and the
eternal abode.
This surrender idea, though not in the same words, was already told to Arjuna in
the 11th chapter itself when the Lord was showing His cosmic form.
“nimittamAtram bhava savya-sAcin”
says He. ‘Be only my instrument of
action and experience’, thereby implying ‘Don’t think
you are the actor or the experiencer’. It is a question of whether it is
God’s Will or our will.
In fact the full declaration goes like this:
....
mayaivete nihatAH
pUrvameva
nimittamAtraM bhava
savyasAcin // XI -33
droNaM ca
bhIshhmaM ca jayadrathaM ca
karnaM
tathAnyAnapi yodhavIrAn /
mayA
hatAmstvaM jahi mA vyathishhTA
yuddhyasva jetAsi
raNe sapatnAn // XI -34
“I have conquered and vanquished all your enemies, including Drona,
Bhishma, jayadratha, Karna and other warriors; be only an instrument of my
action; go and fight. You will win.”
But when the Lord said this, Arjuna was in such a dazed condition
because he was in the presence of the cosmic form, with His one thousand hands
and all other paraphernalia. Arjuna considers that form as an ‘ugra-rUpa’
(gorgeous form) (X1-31-first line). The Lord Himself refers to it as “mama ghoraM rUpaM”
(XI–49–2nd line) – ‘My terrifying form’. So naturally Arjuna wants
the Lord to get back to his normal form with which he is familiar!(XI – 46). And the
matter does not come up again until the final secret of secrets is ready to be
declared.
The Lord mentions ‘the superlative Secret’ (guhya-tamaM) three times in the
Gita. (IX – 1, XV – 20, and XVIII – 64).
The first time it is about two apparently contradictory
statements :
‘mat-sthAni
sarva-bhUtAni’ - IX – 4 2nd
line : ‘All beings are in Me’.
and
‘na ca mat-sthAni bhUtAni’ – IX -5 1st
line : ‘Also, the beings are not in Me’.
Both these statements happen to be true once we understand the concept of mAyA rightly. He, the Supreme, is the source, substratum of
everything, like the screen for the movie. In this sense all beings are in Him . But again, the movie is only an appearance. The real
presence is only the screen. So the beings which are only appearances
superposed on the substratum are really not there. Thus it is His mAyA that
validates both the statements. This is the first secret of
secrets
The second secret of
secrets is mentioned at the end of the 15th chapter. This is
the concept of the three purushas – the kshhara-purushha, the akshhara-purushha and the purushhottama.
It is the Purushhottama
that appears as the individual personality with name and form (kshhara-purushha)
and it is the same Purushhottama who is the impersonal akshhara-purushha
witnessing all the goings-on of the BMI in the world of prakRti (which, is nothing but mAyA).
Thus both the secrets are explainable as the effect of mAyA.
But both of them have only an academic conceptual significance. They do not tell you what to do. How do we
apply them in our spiritual ascent? It
is the third secret of secrets that gives us such
an action plan. That plan is: “Surrender
to the Lord”. So when He finally winds up his Gita, He comes back to
the topic of the helplessness of the will-power of
And particularly, addressing Arjuna, He says (XVIII–59, onwards): “If
resorting to your ego, you decide not to fight, it
will only be a wasteful decision, because your own prakRti will take you along (its
way). You are bound by your karma born
of your own nature; and so what you are not willing to do will be done by you;
you are not in control. The Lord Almighty is there in the hearts of all beings
and He is it that motivates the whole world into action. Go and surrender to Him”. Gthese are almost His final words. Announcing
that He is now going to tell him the most superlative secret (sarva –guhyatamaM
– XVIII -64) He gives out what constitutes the most sacred (and secret) mantra of the Gita:
Sarva-dharmAn
parityajya mAm-ekaM sharaNaM vraja /
ahaM tvA
sarva-pApebhyo mokshhayishhyAmi mA shucaH // XVIII -66.
Abandon all dharmas and surrender to Me alone. I shall deliver you from all
sin and evil. Do not grieve.
The crucial statements that are puzzling here are “Abandon all dharmas”, and “Surrender
to Me alone”.
“Abandon all dharmas”:
It is not ‘dharmas’ alone but ‘adharmas’ also. For, all through the Gita
Actionlessness has been emphasized. And
for the same reason it is the ‘doership’ of dharma and of adharma that has to be abandoned. That ‘I am the
doer’ has to be renounced. The plea is
for us to be the instrument of God’s Will. This is the greatest renunciation.
This is the renunciation by which the inherent nature of the body, mind and
intellect are disassociated from the centre of activity and thereby an identification with the divine takes place.
“Surrender to Me alone”: Who is
surrendering to whom? When I say ‘I surrender’, the subject is ‘I’. But the only subject is the
real ‘I’, the higher Self. Everything else is an object. So it all looks like
saying: “I surrender to my Self”. The finite is surrendering to the Infinite.
The lower self of ours – the kshhara-purushha - is finite. The lower self has
to surrender to the Higher Self, which is the akshhara-purushha,
the real ‘I”, the infinite Self. In other words it means only this. The ordinary self with all
its ego, accumulated VasanAs and faults, surrenders to the higher Self, which
is the Lord Himself.
Putting the two together, we get the idea. “I” and “Mine” are the two
great evils in the
mind. Instead of identifying ourselves with the “real I”, namely the akshhara-purushha
within, we always confuse ‘I’ with the mind, body and its ramifications. This
is ‘dehAtma-buddhi’.
It is the feeling that this Self is the conglomeration of several things
external to it like the BMI. It is this false dharma that has to be renounced.
Once it is done then what remains is the Subject and
Subject alone. There is only one (ekaM) and no second. The surrender is complete.
Then He will not only take you off the obligations of the consequences of your
actions, even if it is ‘sinful’, but He will also grant you that release
(mokshha),
by revealing to you his svarUpa. Recall
“teshhAm-evAnukampArthaM aham-ajnAnajaM
tamaH /
nAshayAmyAtma-bhAvastho jnAna-dIpena bhAsvatA // X – 11
Out of compassion for them, I, lodged in their Self, destroy the darkness born of
ignorance, by the luminous lamp of knowledge.
This One (ekaM), we know, is sat-cid-Ananda (Existence, Knowledge, Bliss – satyaM, jnAnaM,
anantaM). Shri Aurobindo analyses the surrender to this sat-cid-Ananda
in great detail. In very brief language it is this:
Surrender to the shakti of Supreme Existence (‘sat’). Both
the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ of our finite existences are then destroyed; the bottled
‘kuNDalinI shakti’ is released as Infinite shakti. “asato mA sad-gamaya”
(Lead me from the unreal to the real). This is the release of the Karma yogi.
Surrender to the shakti
of Supreme Bliss (‘Ananda’, that is, Bliss personified). The
dualities of life that come and go are then destroyed. We are released from the
wrong tunings of ours to the drama of life and thus fine-tuned to the music of
that Infinite Bliss. “mRtyor-mA amRtaM gamaya” (Lead me from Death to
Immortality). This
is the release of the Bhakti-yogi.
Surrender to the shakti of Supreme Knowledge (‘cit’). The
VasanAs of both kinds, of ignorance as well as wisdom, are then destroyed. We
are released from our wrong perceptions and the eyes are opened (‘jnAna-cakshhus’)
for the Infinite Light to reveal itself.
“tamaso mA jyotir-gamaya” (Lead me from darkness
to Light). This
is the release of the JnAna-yogi.
The three lines of the Gayatri reverberate beautifully with these three
facets of surrender.
“tat-savitur-vareNyaM”
(That – of the Originator – Most excellent) is the supreme Glorification of the
Self. The word ‘savituH’
indicates the Originator because ‘savitA’ goes back to the same root word that ‘prasava’
(birth, creation) goes to. This glorification is what motivates ‘asato mA sad gamaya’.
“bhargo devasya dhImahi” (Light - of God – Let us meditate) is the supreme
worship of the Infinite, that automatically brings in the Ananda, because meditation of the Supreme is itself bliss. So the finite self
is taken to the Immortal Bliss of the Infinite Self. ‘mRtyor mA amRtam gamaya’.
“dhiyo yo naH pracodayAt” (Intellects – He who – our –
may prompt) is the supreme Prayer to that Infinite Knowledge-shakti. This
is what takes us to the realisation of the effervescence of that ultimate ‘cit’. ‘tamaso mA jyotir-gamaya’.
And thus Gayatri constitutes the greatest form of SharaNAgati (surrender). That is one
of the reasons why it is extolled by every part of Hindu scriptures. It is the
essence of the entire religion and philosophy.
ananta-shAstram bahu
veditavyaM
alpashca kAlo
bahavashca vighnAH /
Yat-sAra-bhUtam
tad-upAsitavyaM
Hamso
yathA kshhIram-ivAmbhu-rAshau //
Scriptures are infinite and much has to be known. Time is short and
there are too many obstacles. So what constitutes the essence has to be
propitiated. Just as a hamsa bird separates milk from water.
This essence is the Gayatri.
The vishishhTAdvaita
tradition is famous for its incisive anatomy of the theory of SharaNAgati.
They mention six maxims which perfectly define
what a complete surrender is. Of these six, the most important is “rakshhishhyati iti
vishvAsaH” – ‘He will protect me under all circumstances’. The
conviction in this maxim has to be hundred percent; nothing less. When
Vibhishana abandoned his brother Ravana to go and seek refuge in Lord Rama, he
had no prior agreement with or assurance from Rama that the latter will accept
him and protect him. Even then he had perfect trust in the goodness of the Lord
and was confident that he will be taken in. Rama did not belie the expectations
of Vibhishana, in spite of the fact that all of Rama’s troupe – except of
course the wise Hanuman – preached extreme caution and even predicted a positive
danger in accepting
Vibhishana. This trust and confidence in the Lord is the one sure
foundation on which the principle of surrender works. Even if you are a
non-believer or a sinner, if you take total refuge in the Lord, He will not
forsake you. He says so in so many words (IX – 30).
Religious minded devotees usually quote the various scriptures
as proof of their conviction that God always takes care of His devotees. The
sceptics on the other side have a hard time believing such naïve statements.
This dichotomy of opinion has been there ever since Man started questioning the
Faith of his fellowmen in the supernatural. Kuresa, one of the foremost
disciples of Sri Ramanujacharya has written a short poem of seven verses called
‘Arta-trANa-parAyaNa-stotram’. The very first sloka of this poem says that
God is our sole refuge, saviour and support and that six monumental
instances prove this beyond
doubt. But before we mention these six instances cited by Kuresa we need to recall
the dimensional context in time in which he is giving us this proof. The six
instances identified by Kuresa is over such a long period of mythological
history, namely over a period of, roughly, 1.9 billion years, which is the time
elapsed since this kalpa started.
The first instance is that of
Dhruva which occurred in the early part of the first manvantara, i.e., the first 30 and
odd crores (A crore is ten million) of years since the beginning of this kalpa. It
was at the end of that (svAyambhuva) manvantara that Prahlada,
lived and it is his story that forms the core of the second instance mentioned
by Kuresa. The story of Gajendra which is the third instance in the
chronological order is said to have happened in the fourth manvantara (called Tamasa manvantara). The story of Vibhishana and
Ahalya occurred in Rama’s time i.e., in the 24th mahA-yuga of the
current manvantara
(which is, by the way, the seventh manvantara from the beginning: it is named the Vaivasvata manvantara). The story of Panchali is just
5100 and odd years old. Thus the six instances which are cited as colossal
witnesses for the Supreme Presence of the Lord actually span an unimaginably
l…o…n…g period of time. That is one of the reasons why we call them
‘monumental’. Kuresa’s shloka is:
vAtsalyad-abhaya-pradAna-samayAd-ArtArti-nirvApaNAt
audAryAd-agha-shoshhaNAd-aghaNita-shreyaH-padaH-prApaNat /
sevyaH shrIpatir-eka-eva jagatAm ete ca shhaT sAkshhiNaH
prahlAdashca vibhIshhaNashca karirAT pAncAly-ahalyA
dhruvaH //
Meaning: In the entire
universe, it is Sri hari (VishNu) that is to be
worshipped as the Ultimate Resort. Six colossal figures stand testimony to
this: Prahlada, Vibhishana, Gajendra the
elephant-king, Panchali, Ahalya and Dhruva. They are the blessed ones
who have received, respectively, superlative affection, supreme refuge,
undisputable protection, infinite compassion, total absolution and apex of
benefaction, from the Lord.
There is a classical statement of the Lord in
the Ramayana which justifies why we should have the faith that He will
protect us. “Even if for once the devotee says: I am totally yours,” says the
Lord “whatever living being it be, I have to grant my Grace of Fearlessness;
this is my vow (‘vrata’)”.
(Valmiki Ramayana:VI-8-33):
sakRd-eva-prapannAya tavAsmi-iti ca yAcate /
abhayaM sarva-b
hUtebhyo dadAmy-etad-vrataM mama //
This is the greatest norm or vrata that He adhered to steadfastly all His life
in the Rama-avatara. Indeed that is why He is called ‘suvrataH’ (One who observes the
greatest vrata) in
the Vishnu-sahasranama.
This trust therefore is a trust with total abandon. It is this spirit
of abandon which is recommended by the SharaNAgati shloka (XVIII-66). It is the
abandonment of all dependence on anything other than the Lord. We certainly do
it sometimes when we are in distress and when we have no hope of any earthly
help. When we have tried every other means, when we are totally helpless,
certainly we take refuge in the Lord, at least orally, though it is a moot
question whether it comes from the heart.
When the doctor finally says: I have done my best, the patient now is in
God’s hands, -- at that time we no doubt pray to God and say to Him ‘O God, you
are my only refuge’. Actually we should
have more truly said to Him: ‘Now
you are my only refuge’! Can we have that attitude even when there is a
so-called worldly help or alternative available? That would be the true
practice of ‘rakshhishhyati-iti
vishvAsaH’ and ‘nimittamAtram bhava’ – the true implementation of
the theory of SharaNAgati.
The Vaishnava tradition talks of actually six
components of the process of Surrender to the Lord. The conviction that ‘He will protect me under
all circumstances’ is only one of them, though the most important. The following are the
other five.
“AnukUlyasya
sankalpaH”: The determination to do only that which is favourable
and pleasing to the Lord. It was here that the famous surrender of Bharata to
Rama in the Ramayana failed in its norms. Bharata wanted to bring back Rama to
the capitol and not allow Him to continue in the forest. This the Lord not only did not like but it
went against His more fundamental requirement of upholding the promise to which
the father Dasaratha was committed. Bharata’s SharaNAgati misses the willingness
to be in tune with the Will of the Lord. It is the willingness to follow, to obey, that is more important than following or obeying. The first great saying of the ancient grand
old lady (Auvaiyar)
of Tamil literature and culture is “
“pratikUlasya varjanaM”: The avoidance of
everything that is unfavourable or displeasing to the Lord.
Vibhishana excelled in both these criteria. He was prepared to forego
his kith and kin in order to get away from the evil-doing Ravana. As soon as it
was clear that Ravana was incorrigible, he rose up (in the skies) to leave him.
His “AnukUlyasya
sankalpa” was certified by Rama himself. “He has come with friendly
intentions” (‘mitra-bhAvena
samprAptaH’) says Rama in the discussions that took place with his
troupe an d therefore Rama says he deserves
acceptance.
There are two more criteria which are insisted by the Vaishnavite
schools with a particular emphasis unique to them. These are “goptRtva-varaNaM”
(the adoption of the Lord as the only Protector) and “Atma-nikshhepaH” (Laying of one’s
entire self at the disposal of the Lord). The devotee realises in due time that
whatever he may do, his past karma and present obstacles to a spiritual pursuit
do not give him the spiritual advance he yearns for in spite of the regularity
of his life and purity of conduct and attempt to control his senses. He feels
that something else other than his conduct, knowledge and faith is necessary.
He realises that even if he surrenders to God he is not able to ingratiate
himself into the Lord’s favour. He needs somebody to intercede on his behalf
with the Lord. It is generally believed that it is the Mother Goddess Lakshmi
who intercedes on behalf of the devotee. But more specifically this interceding
usually takes place through the Guru whose natural it is to intercede on behalf
of the devotee. The Guru enables the devotee to rid himself of the burden which
he is unable to bear any more. This is technically called ‘laying off the
burden’ or ‘returning the burden to its rightful owner’ and known as ‘bhAra-nyAsa’
in Shri Vaishnava jargon.
The last one in the list of six fundamental components of an ideal
surrender is “kArpaNyaM” -- the feeling of total triviality and
nothingness vis-a-vis the Lord. This is the norm by which two famous episodes
of surrender in the Ramayana fail to reach up to the ideal.
One was Sita’s. While she was a captive
in Lanka she repeatedly surrendered mentally to Rama. But hers did not satisfy
this norm of incapability on the part of one who surrenders. For, if she had
chosen to, she could have consumed Ravana himself in the flames of Her Absolute
chastity, though she did not choose to do it for other reasons.
In the same way, there is another episode of surrender in the Ramayana,
namely, that of Rama Himself to the God of the
Seas. Again Rama’s surrender did not meet the sixth norm above. For, his
surrender was not because of inability to achieve what he wanted to achieve. If
He had chosen to, He could have dried up the ocean and have his armies cross
it.
The only SharaNAgati
in the Ramayana that satisfies all the six norms for surrender is that of
Vibhishana. He is therefore taken as the role model for SharaNAgati.
In sum, sharaNAgati
or surrender is certainly the final command of the Lord to all humanity. The Lord says in so many
words: Surrender to Me, in heart and soul, -- by all
your being, sarva-bhAvena, says shloka 62 -- even your will. Then your future, either here or elsewhere,
shall be My concern. This settles, once for all the question “What dominates? Man’s free will or the
divine will?” This is a question which every religion has to answer. Hinduism
says that every individual starts life
with certain macro-aspects of one’s life already chalked out, not by an
external force, but by the thoughts and actions of one’s own past lives – in
short, by one’s own evolution, as evidenced by the store of one’s vAsanAs.
Subject to this each person is enjoined in one’s day-to-day life, to voluntarily
discipline oneself as per the religious sanctions, advices and norms. But an
intellectual analysis of life’s experience in due time tells us that nothing
happens without the will of a super-power and perhaps even one’s own free will
is subject to the influence of that divine will.
For most of humanity this however may remain only an academic ideal.
But, for the few who are intent
on a spiritual ascent, they can help themselves by making small beginnings in
the direction of being only an instrument
of God’s Will. Suppose one day we feel
that we have been cheated by somebody on a small matter and we have no way of redressing our
grievance. We might fret and fume at the thought of this happening. Instead, if
we take it as God’s will and forget about it, (and forgive the wrong-doer) then
that would be the first step in being ‘an instrument of God’s Will’.
Having made this beginning with respect to small matters, gradually one enhances
it by having the same attitude in larger and larger matters of happenings, good
or bad. But usually what happens is very familiar to all of us. Somebody has
taken us for a ride, in a very important matter. (What is important and what is
not, depends of
course on one’s taste, training, and tradition). But our immediate reaction is
to take a hard decision to fight back and ‘teach the wrong-doer a lesson’. But
to be only an instrument of God’s will is not
concordant with this judiciary role that we ascribe to ourselves. Some of us
even go to the extent of saying: “I should teach that wrong-doer a lesson. It
is God’s Will that I be the instrument in His hands to teach this wrong-doer a
lesson”. This is only an indirect justification of the play of our own
ego. It only increases our affiliation
with the gang of thirteen within us. Certainly it is not concordant with our
attempt to become the
instrument of God’s Will and nothing else.
Thus, starting from small matters and gradually over a period of time
(perhaps a whole life) encompassing all matters – small or big – into the frame
of ‘being only an instrument of divine will’ , one rises fast on the ladder of
spirituality. Certainly, the best prayer
in this circumstance would be ‘Oh God, Take my will and make it Thine’! A few
names of great people in living memory who were beacons of light in this
direction would not be out of place here: Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa; Sri
Ramana Maharishi; and Kanchi Mahaswamigal (also called the Paramacharya). They all lived happily, the
Copyright © V. Krishnamurthy