[Advaita-l] Sri Krishna Karnaamrutam-9

[Kuntimaddi Sadananda]

PraNAms to everybody,

 

Continuuing the series on Sri KrishnaKarnaamrutam, from the pages of my book ‘Self and the Supreme’, publishedby the Indic Academy,

 

 

ShreeKrishna Karnaamrutam – IX





We willdiscuss two more slokas of Leelasuka from Shree Krishna Karnamrutam. The sameKrishna leelas are taught later to Arjuna as His Vibhutis in the 10thChapter of Geeta. There Krishna mentions that His Vibhutis are infinite,but He is only going to indicate some, what Arjuna was familiar with, andwondered about. 

 

We define wonder is thatwhich one observes, but yet his intellect cannot comprehend. The intellectbecomes blank. This state of wonderment from the point of Jnaana or bhakti islooked upon as His Vibhuti or His Leela. We do not understand the wholecreation, its magnificence, and its limits, nay, we do not understand even whatlife is or what it means – We just wonder. When the intellect goes numb withwonder, it is the beginning of its surrender to the higher intellect, ifproperly understood or appreciated. In the vision of a beautiful flower, in thesmile of an innocent baby, in the love of a mother, in the magnificentexpression of Nature such as Niagara falls, majestic Himalayan mountains,etc.,– our minds get arrested in the beauty with no thoughts to express. Inthat wonder, the mind goes blank, and we become one with the universe. That isa surrender of the mind at the awesome expression of Iswara, even if it is amomentary surrender.

 

 

Jnaaniwonders all the time, not just momentarily. Jnaani sees the wonder of creationall the time – in every expression of Nature, in the crawling of the baby or aninsect on the floor, in the movement of leaves and branches of a tree due tothe gushing wind, standing in an unbearable hot sun or pouring rain, in thecool breeze and smell following the thunderstorms- everything is a wonder. Onecannot but wonder – colorful varieties of life expressions – in beautifulvibrant colors of all different vegetables – all coming from the same mud andwater – yet expressing completely differently from one another– looking at purewhite milk made by black cow eating useless green grass, in the tastes ofvarieties of tastes with the help of tasteless water (rasohamapsu kounteya)– it is all a wonder. Thus a jnaani sees the whole creation itself as Vibhutiof the Lord or Leela Vibhuti– paadosya vishvaa bhuutani tripaadasya amrRitamdivi–says purusha suuktam. This magnificent universe that is seen by thehuman intellect, as His Leela Vibhuti, is only one-fourth of His glory, andthere is other three fourth that needs to be realized that is called divyaVibhuti, and to see that dhi – or a trained intellect isrequired, and that is amrutam or unchanging aspect in all the changing LeelaVibhutis– it is 10 inches above the human comprehension – that is, it isuntouched by a human intellect -it is not objective knowledge. To recognize that,Krishna-amrutam we need the scriptures as pramana or else, as Leelasukasays in the following sloka as 

 


वरमिम मुपदेश माद्रियधम् निगम वनेषु नितातचार खिन्नाः

विचिनुतभवनेषु वल्लवीनाम् उपनिषदर्थ मुलूख्हले निबद्धम्||

varamima mupadeshamaadriyadhvam

nigamavaneshu nitaatacaara khinnaaH|

vicinutabhavaneShu vallaviinaam

upaniShadarthamuluukhale nibaddham|| II-28

 

 

He says Iam going to reveal where you can find the simple and absolute truth, which isdifficult 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 searchingall over in the forest of life, where the seeker himself is sought. 

 

 

nigamavaneShu – Oh! Scholars, who are roaming around to find the way out forsalvation 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 cittabhramara kaaraNam – the Vedas are like dense forests and without a properguide one can get lost and will end up going round and round in circles withoutknowing a way out); To them, Leelasuka says- for your welfare, I am going togive you a way out for your problems. varam imam upadesham adriyadhvam -please listen to this small advice that can help you from your suffering. Thetruth is always simple, but we make it sound as complicated. The truth isdirectly seen, right here and right now; but you can find only, if you have adiscriminative intellect to see properly –Leelasuka says - The essence of allUpanishads, 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 andfind that truth. 





I wastold that the above sloka is engrained in one of the walls of a mutt, remindingus all of what needs to be done to find this absolute truth. 

 

 

We canunravel this sloka little bit for our understanding since Leelasuka says thewhole of Upanishad teaching is there for us to find. Uluukhala is themortar – an inert entity, but in one of his Leelas, Yashoda ties him tothat, and he pulls that mortar between the two trees and make the trees falland 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. Theirwhole life is being spent in gathering food, growing, and dying one day withoutany further trace (the six modifications via matter, asti, jaayate,etc.), the biggest accomplishments for many. We see in every generationmillions of being born, grow, become old and die, and generations have come andgone in the perennial flow of the river of time. We too, who are trying toaccumulate that this is mine and that is mine etc. are going to go down thestream without any trace and without taking with us an iota of what we havegathered as ours. This life itself is a wonder. 




Consciousnesstied (as though) to the matter is prakruti, which Krishna calls as mylower prakruti (aparaa prakruti) in Geeta Ch. 7. HowKrishna consciousness is being expressed in the inert entity – the world ofthings and being –the two diagonally opposite entities, consciousness, andinertness – is indeed a wonder – it is anirvacaneeyam, inexplicable,says Shankara. It is just a wonder how that happens –…mahat bhuutaanirvacaneeya ruupa.

It isdifficult to catch little Krishna, who is running around as his mother Yosodamayyaa was chasing him and trying to catch him. She was not giving up herpursuit to catch him and was getting exhausted in this run-around. Withcompassion 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 Heis beyond all gunas. aghatita ghatanaa patiiyasee, maayaa – saysShankara – making impossible possible is the power of maayaa. Bhagavatam saysthe one, who is infinite and in whom all the 14 lokas are embedded, and whomboth sages of the yore as well as the staunch enemies, rakshasas, havebeen trying to bind him but could not, is now letting himself bound by the loveof a mother, an innocent Gopika lady.

 

 

Bhakti isthe essential ingredient required to see Krishna tied to inert prakruti– the mortar –Without this bhakti all we will see is only an inert mortaror all we can see just the inert world in front of us. To see Krishna that isbound to the world, we need the bhakti of innocent gopika, along withthe desire for the knowledge to see Krishna. Every religion says Lord iseverywhere, but unfortunately, no one sees Him anywhere, as everybody islooking for Him – he being puurnam is the embodiment of happiness thateveryone is longing for. Infinite cannot be seen or known as an object; itrequires a re-cognition of what I see is nothing but Krishna only with allnames and forms, pervading in all names and forms, yet different from all namesand forms and unaffected by the changing names and forms. That is theculmination of Bhakti and Jnaanam. In that there is no more bhaktaleft; the devotee and deity have become one with no more divisions – yo maampasyati sarvatra sarvan ca mayi pasyati, tasyaaham na PraNasyaami sa ca me napraNasyati – one who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, he has becomeone with Me - from the Bhakti point and sarva bhutastham aatmaanam, sarvabhuutanica aatmani – who sees himself in all and all in himself – from jnaanampoint. 

 

 

HenceLeelasuka says – this is my simple advice for those who are getting lost in theforest of Vedas and looking desperately to discover the truth. One can find itright in front that is tied to the world as the very existence supporting itsexistence. There is no other way you can find the truth. 

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