31 Jul 2015
[Guru Pournima Day 2nd Message] Guru Pournima indicates the full moon destroying the darkness-ignorance through full moonlight-knowledge. The knowledge involves two parts: 1) Pravrutti or teaching the discipline and 2) Nivrutti or teaching the main subject. The headmaster (or principal) of school (or college) concentrates more on the discipline than the subject. Of course, he clarifies the doubts of even the teachers in the subject also due to his vast experience in teaching field and gives a few lectures to students also now and then to refine the subject. God is like the headmaster or principal and spiritual preachers are like the teachers or lecturers. The Ramayanam and the Bharatam preach the discipline and the Bhagavatam preaches the main subject. God concentrates more on Pravrutti (discipline) and hence the Gita says that God incarnates (like the headmaster or principal visiting classes now and then) to establish the discipline or Dharma or Pravrutti (Dharma samsthapanarthaaya… Gita) and not to establish knowledge (Jnana), devotion (Bhakti) and practical sacrifice (Seva), which (these three) constitute the main subject. The concentration of God on Pravrutti is for the smooth running of the world or institution, which is not related to His personal affair. Nivrutti is left to the preaching of the preachers or teachers so that others concentrate on the personal affair of God, which is to please the God. This looks more apt.
The main subject or Nivrutti involves total sacrifice of worldly bonds for the sake of bond with God. The discipline or Pravrutti involves minimization of these bonds to confine to single bond (minimum bond) in the three categories of bonds. Without Pravrutti (minimization), Nivrutti (total sacrifice) is not possible. The three categories of the worldly bonds (Eeshanas) are the bonds with money (dhaneshana), wife or husband (dareshana) and children (putreshana). Dhrutarashtra and Gandhari stand for the strongest intensity in the bond to children. Both went to the extent of cursing the God for killing their children. The same God killed the children of Pandavas and Draupadi also since He did not protect them. But Pandavas and Draupadi did not curse the Lord. This shows that the former case is in the bottom of Pravrutti and the latter case is in the end of Nivrutti. Duryodhana stands for the bond with money or kingdom (Artha). Ravana stands for the bond with illegal sex (kama). Both these cases exist in the bottom of Pravrutti since both could not minimize their intensities in these worldly bonds and reach the edge of even Pravrutti, not to speak of Nivrutti. Had they reached the edge of Pravrutti, which means that both have crossed Pravrutti, minimization of intensities in these bonds could have resulted. If such success in Pravrutti is attained in both these cases, Duryodhana should have been satisfied with his own part of kingdom and Ravana should have been satisfied with the sexual life with his own wife. When the minimization of intensities in the worldly bonds (Pravrutti) is not attained, how can you expect the total sacrifice (Nivrutti), which is the sacrifice of even the minimum bonds for the sake of God? Therefore, Duryodhana cannot sacrifice his own part of kingdom for the sake of God since he was unable to reach even the point of minimization (Pravrutti). Similarly, Ravana cannot sacrifice the bond with his wife also for the sake of God when he is unable to sacrifice his bond with other ladies for the sake of his wife. Therefore, if Pravrutti is not crossed, you cannot enter the Nivrutti. If you examine the case of Rama, who could minimize his bond with his wife only, he was able to sacrifice even that minimum bond at a later stage by sending Sita to the forest. Similarly, Dharmaraja could minimize his bonds and reached the end of Pravrutti and hence finally could sacrifice all these bonds and went alone in the last journey (Mahaprasthana) in Himalaya Mountain. Even in the case of a student, the efficiency in the study of the main subject cannot be achieved without the discipline. In his case, the discipline means minimization of his bonds with other affairs like spending for luxuries (artha) and falling in love affairs (kama). Hence, you should not think that the concentration on the subject is totally different from the minimization of other worldly bonds. You cannot expect an undisciplined student to be perfect in the subject. Sometimes, you may find a student getting more marks in the subject even though he is undisciplined due to his extra intelligence. Similarly, you may find a disciplined student to get lesser marks due to his lesser intelligence. But, both these cases will not continue in such states for a long time. In course of time, the intellectual and undisciplined student will go down in the number of marks and the disciplined and mild student will rise in the number of marks. This is due to the power of discipline. This difference can be understood from the story of fast running rabbit, which slept and the slow moving tortoise, which continued its motion regularly.
The discipline or dharma is dealt by the sage Jaimini in the Dharma Sutras. The main subject or Brahman is dealt by the sage Vyasa in the Brahma Sutras. Shankara and Ramanuja stressed that without passing through dharma, Brahman cannot be attained. The only difference between both these preachers is that Shankara told that after (Anantara) attaining the fruit of Pravrutti, the eligibility for Nivrutti comes. Ramanuja told that the dharma is essential pre-requisite (Adhikara) before entering the subject on Brahman. There is no difference in the statements of both these preachers since the essence is one and the same. Only foolish people fight differentiating both these preachers whereas scholars find the same essence in the preaching of both these preachers.
If you get lesser number of marks, you are not punished. Similarly, if you fail in Nivrutti, you will not go to hell. In fact, the teacher should be punished if a student gets lesser number of marks because it is the inefficiency of his teaching for such state of the student. The main subject is very deep and hence failures can be understood and can be excused even from the point of deficiency of the student. But, the subject of discipline is very simple and can be understood very easily by any student or spiritual aspirant. Hence, if the student or the spiritual aspirant fails in the discipline, he should be punished by forcing him to the hell. The disciplined student is also given award as the best student in discipline. Such award for a spiritual aspirant is the award of stay in heaven. For a spiritual aspirant, the basis is minimization of his desire to earn wealth and lead the sexual life. He should not earn unjust money and should confine to his wife only in the sexual life. Unless this is attained by seriously studying the Ramayanam and the Bharatam, you cannot enter into the study of the main subject of Nivrutti, which is the Bhagavatam. You should not misunderstand the Bhagavatam by seeing the dance of Krishna with Gopikas and His stealing of their wealth (Milk and curd). Krishna is God without even the trace of any desire and not an ordinary human being. Gopikas are the sages, who crossed Pravrutti and stand on the edge of Nivrutti. They minimized the worldly bonds by going to forests leaving the luxuries of the cities. They were either bachelors or strict householders. Hence, they minimized the bonds through several lives and entered the Nivrutti. They studied the subject of Nivrutti also simultaneously through constant debates in several previous lives and reached the end point of Nivrutti. Krishna, the God, tested them finally to award the eternal divine fruit of Nivrutti. This is the main subject and the final examination. If Krishna is an ordinary human being, He should have repeated this dance throughout His life with others also. If Gopikas were ordinary human beings, they should have repeated the same throughout their lives with others also. If the same happened as in the case of ordinary human beings, it will be the bottom most point of Pravrutti, which is the high indiscipline. The same aspect between Krishna and Gopikas happens to be the end point of Nivrutti. Both these points cannot be compared with each other.
The disciplined student may get lesser number of marks and may become the doctor with some lesser efficiency in the treatment. An undisciplined student may get more marks due to his extra intelligence and may become very efficient doctor in the treatment. The first doctor is disciplined in his earning the fees from the patient. The second doctor adopts all the tricks of business and collects more fees from the patient. The first doctor will be supported by God and the patient is perfectly cured even through the lesser efficient treatment. We say that the hand (Hasthavachi…) of the doctor is good, which is nothing but the grace of God. The second doctor may treat the patient with best efficiency. But, the patient dies in the hospital of the second doctor. We say that the hand of the second doctor is not good. It means that the undisciplined doctor is not supported by God. The support of God to the disciplined doctor shows that God is always the supporter and presiding deity of justice or dharma (Dharmasya Prabhurachyutah…). The climax of the justice is not to hurt anybody in this world. If you steal others’ money or wealth, you are hurting others. Similarly, your illegal sexual life will also hurt others. Not hurting is the climax of the justice (Ahimsa paramodharmah…). Liberation (Moksha) is the minimization of bonds by getting relief from strong intensities of the bonds. This liberation is obtained from Pravrutti. The sacrifice of even the minimum intensities of bonds for the sake of bond with God (Sayujya or Kaivalya) is attained by the Nivrutti. Liberation is a must pre-requisite to attain the union with God. Unless you are relieved from the old institution in which you are already working (Moksha), how can you join the new institution (Sayujya or Kaivalya)?
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