[Advaita-l] Sri Krishna Karnamrutam-9

[Venkatraghavan S]

What a beautiful email. Thanks for the timely reminder Sadaji.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan

On 22 Aug 2017 12:41 a.m., "kuntimaddi sadananda via Advaita-l" <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>                                       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 an innocent baby, in
> the love of a mother, in the magnificent expression of Nature such as
> Niagara falls, majestic Himalayan mountains, etc.,– 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 a 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 -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 here and right now; 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 of what needs to be done to find this absolute truth.
>
> We can unravel this sloka little bit for our understanding since Leelasuka
> says the 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 the 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 an 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
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