[Advaita-l] Shree Krishna Karnamrutam-9

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

 Shree Krishna Karnamrutam – 9
We will discuss two more slokas of Leelasuka from Shree Krishna Karnamrutam and end this series. 

The same Krishna leelas are taught later to Arjuna as His vibhutis in the 10th Chapter of Geeta. There Krishna mentions that His vibhutis are infinite, but He is only going to indicate some, what Arjuna was familiar with and wondered about. We define wonder is that which one observes, but yet his intellect cannot comprehend. The intellect becomes blank. This state of wonderment from the point of Jnaana or bhakti is looked upon as His vibhuti or His leela. We do not understand the whole creation, its magnificence and its limits, nay, we do not understand even what life is or what it means – We just wonder. When the intellect goes numb with wonder it is the beginning of its surrender to the higher intellect, if properly understood or appreciated. In the vision of a beautiful flower, in the smile of innocent baby, in the love of a mother, in the magnificent expression of Nature such as Niagara falls, majestic Himalayan mountains, etc., our intellect cannot provide any rational explanations – our minds get arrested in the beauty with no thoughts to express. In that wonder, mind goes blank and we become one with the universe. That is surrender of the mind at the awesome expression of Iswara, even if it is a momentary surrender.
Jnaani wonders all the time, not just momentarily. Jnaani sees the wonder of creation all the time – in every expression of the Nature, in the crawling of the baby or an insect on the floor, in the movement of leaves and branches of a tree due to the gushing wind, standing in an unbearable hot sun or pouring rain, in the cool breeze and smell following the thunderstorms- everything is a wonder. One cannot but wonder – colorful varieties of life expressions – in beautiful vibrant colors of all different vegetables – all coming from the same mud and water – yet expressing completely differently from one another– looking at a pure white milk made by black cow eating useless green grass, in the tastes of varieties of tastes with the help of tasteless water (rasohamapsu kounteya) – it is all wonder. Thus a jnaani sees the whole creation itself as Vibhuti of the Lord or Leela vibhuti– paadosya vishvaa bhuutani tripaadasya amrRitam bhavet –says purusha suuktam. This magnificent universe that is seen by the human intellect, as His Leela vibhuti, is only one fourth of His glory, and there is other three fourth that needs to be realized that is called divya vibhuti, to seeing which dhi – or a trained intellect is required, and that is amRitam or unchanging aspect in all the changing leela vibhutis– it is 10 inches above the human comprehension – that is, it is untouched by a human intellect – atyatiShTaH dashaangulam – it is not an objective knowledge. To recognize that Krishna-amRitam we need the scriptures as pramANa or else, as Leelasuka says in the following sloka as,
varamima mupadesha maadriyadhvam
nigama vaneshu nitaatacaara khinnaaH|
vicinuta bhavaneShu vallaviinaam
upaniShadartha muluukhale nibaddham|| II-28
He says, I am going to reveal where you can find the simple and absolute truth which is difficult to grasp by even the Vedic scholars who are struggling hard to find. It is like finding the 10th man who is missing and whom everybody is searching all over in the forest of life, where the seeker himself is sought.
nigama vaneShu – Oh! Scholars, who are roaming around to find the way out for salvation in the deep forest of the Vedas , nitaanta caara khinnaaH ! - who are going around and around in circles and become desperate in the process, (reminds me of Vivekachudamani sloka – shabda jaalam mahaaranyam citta bhramara kaaraNam – the Vedas are like dense forests and without a proper guide one can get lost, and will end up going round and round in circles without knowing a way out); To them Leelasuka says- for your welfare I am going to give you a way out for your problems. Varam imam upadesham adriyadhvam - please listen to this small advice that can help you from your suffering. The truth is always simple but we make it sound as complicated. The truth is directly seen, right there; but you can find only if you have a discriminative intellect to see properly –Leelasuka says - The essence of all Upanishads – Upanishad artham – it is there for you to find, but – it is uluukhale nibaddham – it is tied to a mortar in, vallaveenaam bhuvaneShu – in the houses of gopikas, therefore you have to seek and find out - vicinuta – please search and find that truth.
I was told that the above sloka is engrained in one of the walls of a mutt, reminding us all as what need to be done to find this absolute truth.
We can unravel this sloka little bit for our understanding since Leelasuka says whole of Upanishad teaching is there for us to find. Uluukhala is the mortar – an inert entity but in one of his leelas, yashoda ties him to that and he pulls that mortar between the two trees and make the trees fall and in the process liberating the two fallen jiivas residing in those trees – which are living but with no knowledge of themselves or the world around. Their whole life is being spent in gathering food, growing and dying one day without any further trace (the six modifications via matter, asti, jaayate, etc.), the biggest accomplishments for many. We see in every generation millions of being born, grow, become old and die and generations have come and gone in the perennial flow of river of time. We too who are trying to accumulate that this is mine and that is mine etc. are going to go down the stream without any trace and without taking with us an iota of what we have gathered as ours. This life itself is a wonder.
Consciousness tied (as though) to the matter is prakRiti, which Krishna calls as my lower prakRiti (aparaa prakRiti) in Geeta Ch. 7. How Krishna consciousness is being expressed in the inert entity – the world of things and being –the two diagonally opposite entities, consciousness and inertness – is indeed a wonder – it is anirvacaneeyam, inexplicable, says Shankara. It is just a wonder how that happens –…mahat bhuuta anirvacaneeya ruupa. It is difficult to catch little Krishna who is running around as his mother Yosoda mayyaa was chasing him and trying to catch him. She was not giving up her pursuit to catch him, and was getting exhausted in this run-around. With compassion for his mother, Krishna lets himself get caught. Any amount of guNa (rope) to bind him was not enough, unless He himself decides to get bound as He is beyond all guNas. aghaTita ghaTanaa paTiiyasee, maayaa – says Shankara – making impossible possible is the power of maayaa. Bhaagavatam says the one, who is infinite and in whom all the 14 lokas are embedded, and whom both sages of the yore as well as the staunch enemies, rakshaasaa, have been trying to bind him but could not, is now letting himself bound by the love of a mother, an innocent Gopika lady.
Bhakti is the essential ingredient required to see Krishna tied to inert prakRiti – the mortar –Without this bhakti all we will see is only an inert mortar or all we can see just the inert world in front of us. To see Krishna that is bound to the world we need the bhakti of innocent gopika, along with the desire for the knowledge to see Krishna. Every religion says Lord is everywhere but unfortunately no one sees Him anywhere, as everybody is looking for Him – he being puurnam is the embodiment of happiness that everyone is longing for. Infinite cannot be seen or known as object; it requires a re-cognition of what I see is nothing but Krishna only with all names and forms, pervading in all names and forms, yet different from all names and forms and unaffected by the changing names and forms. That is the culmination of Bhakti and that is the culmination of Jnaanam. In that there is no more bhakta left the devotee and deity have become one with no more divisions – yo maam pasyati sarvatra sarvan ca mayi pasyati, tasyaaham na PraNasyaami sa ca me na praNasyati – one who sees me everywhere and everything in Me, he has become one with Me - from the Bhakti point and sarva bhutastham aatmaanam, sarva bhuutanica aatmani – who sees himself in all and all in himself – from jnaani point. Hence Leelasuka says – this is my simple advice for those who are getting lost in the forest of Vedas and looking desperately to discover the truth. One can find it right in front that is tied to the world as the very existence supporting its existence. 

There is no other way you can find the truth.
Hari Om!
Sadananda