Who am I ?

[Gummuluru Murthy]

On Tue, 9 Jul 1996, Giri wrote:

> On Mon, 8 Jul 1996, Gummuluru Murthy wrote:
>
> > forms do not have the discriminating power.  If the humans have that
> > discriminating sense, I have not seen many humans that use it for
> > Self-realization.  It seems to me that only very rare humans use this
> > discriminating sense to realize "tat thvam asi" or "aham brahmasmi".  More
> > than 99% of the humans have never used this sense and they simply follow the
> > samsara and as mentioned in Bhaja-Govindam "punarapi maranam, punarapi
> > jananam ..... " and while away their life.
>
>         That's true. Lord Krishna in Bhagvad Gita says 'One in thousand
> strive for self-realization, and among them, one in thousand understands
> me' or something to that effect in 7.03 (?).
>         However, without evil, where is good  and vice-versa ? Further, I
> would contend that this seeming duality is Her lila, and instead of
> trying to understand why this Lila is enacted, we should instead try to
> find out who we really are.

It is indeed Her lila and is beyond the comprehension of the mind. My
concern is still with the actions of the humans in contrast with that of
other life-forms. I contend that we, the humans, are giving too much
credit to ourselves. It was mentioned in my Vivekachudamani class [I posed
the same question that I posed here] that there are four kingdoms that
reside on the Earth: the rock kingdom, the plant kingdom, the animal
kingdom and the human kingdom. [I do not have a reference to this line
of thought. If any one in the Discussion Group can suggest a reference
for this, I will be much obliged.] The rock kingdom takes a long time to
"die" and is completely static. The plant kingdom cannot move even a few
feet to fetch their food. The animal kingdom is more mobile and as Suresh
also pointed in his posting, their vices and virtues are less extreme than
the humans. The humans are the most mobile, have the so-called discriminating
sense.

We are striving here to reach paramatma and break away from the cycle of
births and re-births. To achieve this, we should do good deeds, dictated
by pure conscience. The chances of an average human doing good deeds are
rare. This is indeed Her lila. This is like a game of snakes and ladders
(paramapada sopanapathamu). We are surrounded by so many snakes and so
few ladders that the chances of our catching a ladder are very slight.
Thus the average human will indeed be bitten by a snake and goes through
the game again and again.

If I were "born" a tree [I admit that we do not have any say in this and
it is all Her lila], the chances of my doing a bad deed are so rare that
there is a better probability of reaching salvation. I sometimes wonder
that may be Her lila is such that of the four kingdoms, plants, rock,
animal and human kingdoms are in that order to reach salvation. Her lila
also includes that humans delude themselves that they are closer to
Self-realization than the other life-forms.
>
> > means that short life is a desirable one.   We read in the puranas that
 people
> > that were blessed do have short lives, whereas people that were cursed do
 have
> > long lives to complete their sins".
>
>         I differ. Shankara, Jesus etc lived short lives (30-40) but then
> "modern" swamijis like Yogananda, Ramana, Nisargadatta etc lived longer
> lives [in their physical bodies]. I think this is consistent with the
> average life-expectancy of that era.  Hence, it is my contention (need not
> be right) that the life-expectancy depends on karma etc and not
> necessarily on punya etc.
>
>
The life-span of the enlightened persons is not in question here. Enlightened
people [jivanmuktas] do not really care in which form they are. Once Self
is realized, they have reached moksha in the human form itself. They can
discard the human body at will. Or like Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sai Baba or
others, they may decide to stay in human form for the good of mankind. My
question is the life-span of an ordinary human or of any other life-form.
I am afraid, by introducing life-expectancy, we are taking the question
out of the philosophical framework.

In the context of lifespan and its association with sin or virtue, the
character of Bhishma in Mahabharatha need to be considered. The vasu (one
of the nine that stole the cow)that was cursed by sage Vasista was born
as Bhishma, led a long life and "suffered" through the misery of (i)
participating in the war on the adharma side, and (ii) seeing his kith
and kin on both sides being destroyed in the war. Bhishma, through whose
mouth sage Vyasa presents Vishnu sahasranaama, is a great person. But
still, the curse of Vasista has to take its course. There are other
examples in the literature where long life can be associated with past
sins.

This line of thought is present only in a world which is a creation of
maya. In the framework of ultimate Reality, these questions do not arise.

>
> > Regards
> > Gummuluru Murthy
>
> Namaste.
>
> Giri
>

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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Adau ante ca yan nAsti vartamAnepi tat tathA

                                GaudapAda in MAndUkya KArikA

What did not exist at the beginning and what is not going to exist at the
end is as good as non-existent even in the present.
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