[Advaita-l] Sri Krishna Karnaamrutam - 10

[Kuntimaddi Sadananda]

PraNAms to all.

The last of the series – from the pages of my book “Self andthe Supreme” – published by the Indic Academy, now made available also on Amazon.
Hari Om!
Sadananda-----------------------------------

Sri Krishna Karnaamrutam - X

This articlewill be the last in the present series. Here we present one sloka that is oftenquoted as part of raasa krida and also explained as a meditation processof a sincere seeker.


अन्गना मन्गना मन्तरे माधवो, माधवम् माधवम् च अन्तरेनणागना|

इत्तमाकल्पितेमन्डले मध्यगः सन्जगौ वेणुना देवकी नन्दनः||

anganaa manganaa mantaremaadhavO

maadhavammaadhavam chaatare Naaganaa|

ittamaakalpite manDale madhyagaH

sanjagouveNunaa devakee nandanaH|| II-35

 

anganaamanganaam antare madhavaH – Between every Gopi and Gopi there isMaadhava; maadhavam maadhavam cha antare naanganaa – Between Maadhavaand Maadhava there is a Gopi,  ittamaakalpite - the raasa leela thus formed in this way; mandale madhyagaH- In the middle or center of this circle; devakee nandanaH - son ofDevakee, Lord Krishna; veNunaa sanjagou- playing beautifully with theflute. 


This is the description of raasa leela occurring on a full-moon lightwith Krishna as the center of attraction and surrounded by all the Gopies whoare devoted to Lord Krishna, each one experiencing Krishna as her own, butdancing in a circle with Krishna in between each Gopi, yet Krishna remaining atthe center of the circle unattached to any Gopi, while playing his flute withdivine music. This is a picturesque scene.

 

As withevery Leela, not only one enjoys the beauty of the Lord’s play to inculcateBhakti, but slowly shifts his mind to see the absolute truth indicated by theLeela. Hence these Leelas are not only enjoyed by a devotee in terms ofstories but used by Vedantic students to contemplate on the implied meaning ofthe Leelas. 

 

Krishnais a jagat guru or Universal Teacher – teaching in every way possible tovarious types of students whose mental frame-works are different. No doctorprescribes the same medicine to all his patients, without knowing theirsymptoms. The teaching that one extracts from these Leelas depends onthe mental state of a devotee, recognizing Krishna’s statement in Geeta thatsays- of all the devotees jnaani is the supreme. 

 

Onesimple 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 nameof the Lord – for example – Om! Maadhavaaya namaH! As the above slokaindicates that Maadhava here denotes Krishna – one meaning being He is thehusband of maa or Lakshmi. Lakshmi stands for Prakruti – the whole universewith all its attributes, which Krishna calls it as my aparaa prakruti inCh. 7 of Geeta. He, as paraa prakruti, supports this entire universe –dhaaryatejagat as dhava or as a husband. In the meditation in the naama jaapaof each thought is dedicated to the Lord, who is also a supporter of thethought too. Thus every thought is holding on to the Lord - anganaa manganaamantare maadhava . During japa yoga when we chant the name of theLord, there is a silence between the thoughts. Thought – silence- thought. Eachthought 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 slowlypaying more attention to the absence of the thought where the Lord alone isthere. Initially, there is more attention on Gopi than on Krishna – hence theemphasis is on Gopi in the first line of the sloka. As the meditator payingmore and more attention to the Lord who is supporting the thought, theattention shifts to maadhavam maadhavam antare anganaa – between Krishnaand Krishna there is a Gopi. Even though the scene has not really changedbecause of the maturity of the meditator, he is fully shifting his attention tothe consciousness that illumines as well as pervades each thought. Meditationis not the absence of thoughts but paying more and more attention of the mindto that light of consciousness that is reflected by each thought. This happensslowly by abhyaasa or practice and by vairagya, by giving up theimportance given to each Gopi or thought. Hence Krishna says by abhyaasa andvairagya, one can shift the mind’s attention from the world (reduced interms of objects and thus thoughts) to the one who supports this world and thethoughts- ‘abhyaasenatu kounteya vairagyenacha grushyate -6-35.

 

As onematures in the meditation, mind paying attention to the Lord becomes naturaland spontaneous. He is a jnaani. For him, Krishna or pure consciousness isunattached to any Gopi or thought. While all the Gopies or thoughts are dancingaround, as one transacts in the realm of objects with the world of thoughts asgoing around in a 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 attention of the mind is more on the divine music that is being played allthe time. The one who sees Me everywhere and everything in Me, he is never awayfrom Me, nor I am from him – yo maam pasyati sarvatra, sarvancha mayipasyati| tasyaaham na pranasyaami sa chame na pranasyati||. Thus the slokaprovides a progression of a seeker in meditation. This is the essence of RaasaLeela.



Now weextract some more meaning in terms of the meditation process from the wholescene provided. Raasa Leela is going on a full-moon night. A full moonis a luminous object in the sky, but all that luminosity is only due to thereflection of the all-pervading sunlight. Hence by reflection process, itbecomes a luminous body illumining other objects on the earth, including the raasaleela– but that light of illumination does not belong to the moon but tothe Sun only. From the Sun’s point, he is there as just self-shining, aself-existing entity in all his glory, and not doing anything, not even theillumination of any object in the sky. He is by himself as for as he isconcerned, but yet objects are attracted to the Sun. They circle the Sun andalso get illuminated by the Sun. In the process, they become luminous objectsand illumine other objects, too, to a limited extent. Sun, in principle, is notaccountable or responsible for the luminosity of the objects that reflect hislight. The luminosity of the reflecting medium depends not on the Sun but onthe reflecting capacity of the medium. The reflected sunlight from the moon canget further reflected by the objects, on a full-moon night. In that full-moonnight, we can see objects as they reflect the moonlight falling on them. Thusthe perception of an object during the full-moon night involves Sunlightfalling on the moon, getting reflected by the moon, which is further reflectedby 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 isseeing is actually the Sunlight, during the perception of the world. Meditationinvolves rejecting the attributive content of the object as it is not theobject (neti, neti) but that because of which the object is visible. Moon andobjects are required for us to recognize the all-pervading sunlight that isgetting 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 withoutthe mind and the object-thoughts. If the mind is not absent, one goes to sleep.By training or yoga, one may be able to eliminate all the thoughts and yet bevigilant without thoughts – That by itself does not give knowledge. Theknowledge that I am the all-pervading light of consciousness – chit andananta swaruupam (same as ananda swaruupam) cannot be gained withoutVedanta pramaaNa. Who am I, inquiry without the support of Vedanta will notalso do since that involves only inquiry of tvam aspect of tat tvamasi. For realization understanding that I am that too, which Irejected as I am not that in the initial stages of meditation. 

 

RaasaLeela, in the full moon night, involves meditation on the all-pervading lightof consciousness that is reflecting via the mind each thought since I know eachthought that dances in my mind. Hence anganaa anganaa antare maadhva –every thought is associated with Madhava for its support and illumination, andas the meditation matures attention of the seeker slowly gets established onthe reflecting consciousness associated with each thought. Thus it is the recognitionthat I am that light of consciousness because of which I am conscious of eachthought that arises in mind. 

 

As onegets soaked in this knowledge, a complete shift in mental attention takes placeon 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 chaaham teShu avasthitaH – I am unaffected by whatever thought that arises inMe. In that case, only divine music that comes out all the time is recognizedby the mahatma, who has firmly established that I am pure consciousness, and Iam full all myself. The seekers who have completely surrendered themselves tothe Lord and become instruments in His hand like a flute, the life thatbreathes through them will only echo the beautiful divine music. 



Let usmeditate on that Krishna, who is the very life in us and surrender completelyto become His instruments where He can bring out that divine music from theseBMI’s.


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