[Advaita-l] Sri Krishna Karnamrutam -10

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Sri Krishna
Karnamrutam -10
 
This will be the last in the present series.  Here we present one sloka that is often
quoted as part of laasa krida and also explained as a meditation process of a
sincere seeker.
anganaa manganaa mantare maadhavO
maadhavam maadhavam chaatare Naaganaa|
itta maakalpite manDale madhyagaH
sanjagou veNunaa devakee nandanaH|| II-35
 
anganaam anganaam antare madhavaH – Between every Gopi and Gopi
there is Maadhava; Maadhavam Maadhavam cha antare Naanganaa – Between Maadhava
and Maadhava there is a Gopi; ittam aakalpite ; the raasa leela thus  formed in this way; manDale madhyagaH - In the
middle or center of this circle; devakee nandanaH - son of Devakee, Lord
Krishna; veNunaa sanjagou- playing beautifully with the flute.  
This is the description of raasa leela occurring on a
full-moon light will Krishna as the center of attraction and surrounded by all
the Gopies who are devoted to the Lord Krishna, each one experiencing Krishna
as her own, but dancing in a circle with Krishna in between each Gopi, yet
Krishna remaining at the center of the circle unattached to any Gopi, while
playing his flute with divine music. This is a pictorial scene.
As with every leela, not only one enjoys the beauty of the
Lord’s play to inculcate Bhakti, but slowly  shifts his mind to see the absolute truth
indicated by the leela.  Hence these
leelas are not only enjoyed by a devotee in terms of stories, but used by
Vedantic students to contemplate on the implied meaning of the leelas. Krishna
is a jagat guru or Universal Teacher – teaching in every way possible to
various types of students whose mental frames are different. No doctor
prescribes the same medicine to all his patients, without knowing their
symptoms. The teaching that one extracts from these leelas depends on the
mental state of a devotee, recognizing Krishna’s statement in Geeta that says-
of all the devotees jnaani is the supreme. 
One simple description of the sloka is it describes the
process of meditation. Here– each Gopi stands for a thought. In the japa yoga,
we take the name of the Lord – for example – Om! Maadhavaaya namaH! As the
above sloka indicates that Maadhava here denotes KrishNa – one meaning being He
is the husband of maa or Lakshmi. Lakshmi stands for PrakRiti – the whole
universe with all its attributes which Krishna calls it as my aparaa prakRiti
in Ch. 7 of Geeta. He, as paraa prakRiti, supports this entire universe
–dhaaryate jagat as dhava or as husband. In the meditation in the naama jaapa
of each thought is dedicated to the Lord, who is also a supporter of the
thought too. Thus every thought is holding on to the Lord - anganaa manganaa
mantare maadhava . During japa yoga when we chant the name of the Lord there is
a silence between the thoughts. Thought – silence- thought. Each thought is
dedicated to the Lord and  the silence
where there is no thought – only Lord is there.   Initially the attention is on the thought
and slowly paying more attention to the absence of the thought where Lord alone
is there.  Initially there is more
attention on Gopi than on Krishna – hence the emphasis is on Gopi in the first
line of sloka. As the meditator paying more and more attention to the Lord who
is supporting the thought the attention shifts to maadhavam maadhavam antare
anganaa – between Krishna and Krishna there is a Gopi. Even though the scene
has not really changed the because of the maturity of the meditator, he is
fully shifting his attention to the consciousness that illumines as well as
pervades each thought. Meditation is not the absence of thoughts but paying
more and more attention of the mind to that light of consciousness that is
reflected by each thought. This happens slowly by abhyaasa or practice and by
vairagya, by giving up the importance given to each Gopi or thought.
As one matures in the meditation, mind paying attention to
the Lord becomes natural and spontaneous. He is a jnaani. For him, Krishna or
pure consciousness is unattached to any Gopi or thought. While all the Gopies
or thoughts are dancing around as one transacts in the realm of objects with
the world of thoughts as going around in circle, the inner attention of the
mind is only on Krishna who is the center of the whole universe of thoughts and
the associated objects. The divine music will come. The one who sees Me
everywhere and everything in Me, he is never away from Me nor I am from him –
yo maam pasyati sarvatra, sarvancha mayi pasyati| tasyaaham na praNasyaami sa
chame na praNasyati||. Thus the sloka provides progression of a seeker in
meditation. This is the essence of raasa leela.
Now we extract some more meaning in terms of the meditation
process from the whole scene provided. Raasa leela is going on a full-moon
night.   Full moon is a luminous object
in the sky, but all that luminosity is only due to the reflection of the all-pervading
sun light. Hence by reflection process it becomes a luminous body illumining
other objects on the earth including the raasa leela– but that light of
illumination does not belong to the moon but to the Sun only. From the Sun’s
point, he is there as just self-shining, self-existing entity in all his glory,
and not doing anything, including the illumination of any object in the sky. He
is by himself as for as he is concerned, but yet objects are attracted to the
Sun. They circle around the Sun and also get illuminated by the Sun. In the
process they become luminous objects and illumine other objects too to a
limited extent. Sun, in principle, is not accountable or responsible for the luminosity
of the objects that reflect his light. The luminosity of the reflecting medium
depends not on the Sun but on the reflecting capacity of the medium. The
reflected Sun light from the moon can get further reflected by the objects on a
full-moon night. In that full-moon night we can see objects as they reflect the
moon-light falling on them. Thus the perception of an object during the
full-moon night involves, Sun light falling on the moon, getting reflected by
the moon, which is further reflected by the objects on the earth for us to see.
Meditation involves, in essence, looking at the objects in the full-moon night
and recognizing that what one is seeing is actually the Sun-light, during  the perception of the world. Meditation
involves rejecting the attributive content of object as it is not the object
(neti, neti) but that because of which the object is visible.  Moon and objects are required for us to
recognize the all-pervading sunlight that is getting reflected first by the
moon and then the objects. Otherwise sunlight which is there cannot be
recognized. Similarly the all-pervading light of conscience cannot be  recognized or realized without the mind and the
object-thoughts. If mind is not absent one goes to sleep. By training or yoga,
one may be able to eliminate all the thoughts and yet be vigilant without
thoughts – That by itself does not give knowledge. Knowledge that I am all
pervading light of consciousness – chit and ananta swaruupam (same as ananda
swaruupam) cannot be gained without Vedanta pramaaNa.  Who am I, enquiry without the support of
Vedanta will not also do since that involves only enquiry of tvam aspect of tat
tvam asi. For realization understanding that I am that too which I rejected as I
am not that in the initial stages of meditation. 
Raasa leela in the full night involves meditation on the all-pervading
light of consciousness that is reflecting via the mind each thought since I
know each thought that dances in my mind. Hence anganaa anganaa antare maadhva –
every thought is associated with maadhava for its support and illumination and
as the meditation matures attention of the seeker slowly gets established on
the reflecting consciousness associated with each thought – this becomes
akhandaakaara vRitti – as I am that light of consciousness because of which I
am conscious of each thought that rises in the mind. 
As one gets soaked in this knowledge, complete shift in
mental attention takes place on the ever present consciousness that has nothing
to do with any thought. Thoughts will be dancing to my music but I am
unaffected by them – na cha aham teShu avasthitaH – I am unaffected by whatever
thought that arises in Me. In that case only divine music will comeout of that
mahatma who has firmly established that I am pure consciousness and full in
myself. The sadhaks who have completely surrendered themselves become
instruments in His hand like a flute and the life that breaths through them
will only produce beautiful divine music.  
Let us meditate on that Krishna
who is the very life in us and surrender completely to become His instruments
where He can bring out divine music from these BMI’s.
Hari Om!
Sadananda