22 Sep 2008
The essence of the Gita relates to the basic attitude of the spiritual aspirant, which decides the direction i.e., whether you are proceeding towards God or away from God. The external projections are immaterial. If you compare Kannappa and Ravana, the external projections are quite opposite. Ravana used to take bath in all the seven seas, early morning, and used to worship Lord Shiva with all the pure Vedic rituals. Kannappa never took bath and used to worship Lord Shiva with all prohibited customs. But, the basic attitudes were quite opposite. The fundamental attitude of Ravana was selfishness. Ravana also plucked his heads for Lord Shiva similar to Kannappa, who plucked his eyes. Ravana did it to attain selfish powers and Kannappa did it with sacrifice and total surrender. Kannappa was towards God and Ravana was away from God.
Knowledge and devotion are theoretical steps, which can be with reference to some imaginary form of God. Both these theoretical steps must result in practical service (karma yoga), which alone can give the fruit. This practical service should be towards the human form of the Lord. You cannot serve the imaginary form and there is no use in serving the inert representative forms of God. Catching the human form of God is the real meaning of the word yoga. Yoga means attainment of the Lord in human form for doing service. Therefore, after knowledge and devotion, one must have yoga to do the practical service, which alone gives the result. Knowledge and Devotion are like the one year academic course. Practical service is like the annual examination that gives you the fruitful certificate. The venue of the examination is always this world of humanity. God in human form as Rama tested the angels through practical service, who were born as monkeys. God in human form as Krishna tested the sages born as Gopikas. God is not in need of any service from any soul. It is only an opportunity created to give the certificate. Neither is God in need of the search for Sita nor is He in the need of momentary and illusory pleasure of senses by dancing with Gopikas. Indra was born as Vali and completely failed to recognize Rama. Surya, who got the Gita in the beginning from God, was born as Sugriva and even he failed temporarily by forgetting the promise given to Rama. Vali was completely covered by Maya and Sugriva was temporarily covered. Only Hanuman and Lakshmana could succeed in the test. Hanuman is the other incarnation of the same Lord. Lakshmana was the incarnation of Adisesha, who was closely associated with the Lord as bed. For the sake of the Lord, Hanuman remained unmarried and for the same reason Lakshmana left his newly married wife for fourteen years. Rama was weeping for Sita within minutes after separation. Lakshmana and Hanuman were involved in searching the wife of Rama. Both never thought about themselves in such a peculiar drama of the Lord. Any ordinary soul in their place will think about their marriage and wife. The Lord was observing their minds to see even a trace of negative thought. Unless the faith on the human form of the God is firm like a rock, one cannot stand like them in this test.
Both Hanuman and Radha were incarnations of Lord Shiva and are God Himself and hence, could stand as ideal examples (Radha is the incarnation of Durvasa and Durvasa is the incarnation of Lord Shiva). Lakshmana is an example of the individual soul, who could also attain the goal perfectly. Hence, the soul need not be discouraged saying that God alone can successfully travel in this path. Adisesha is a serpent. His thousand heads denote the many altering thoughts of a soul. The journey of the serpent through constant curves also denotes the inherent curved nature of the soul. But, Adisesha could succeed because the basic attitude was selfless service towards the Lord. Hence, if the basic attitude is devoid of any trace of selfishness and is totally filled with sacrifice towards the Lord, the success is sure irrespective of millions of inherent defects. Therefore, the soul need not waste time to change its inherent defects. If it can succeed in changing its basic attitude, the direction is changed. Even if you are straight and fast, what is the use of it if you are proceeding in the opposite direction? If you are in the right direction, irrespective of all your defects of the journey, you are sure to reach the goal one day or other. The Advaita Philosophers have reached the terminus in the opposite direction since they claim themselves to be God and hence, there is no question of sacrifice and service. They have reached the Madras city, which is the terminus of the opposite direction. They are completely affected by the illusion so intensively that they claim the Madras as New Delhi and argue that the assembly hall in Madras is the house of the Parliament!
The Lord in any human form like Rama, Krishna etc., is said to be Datta with three heads and six hands. Datta means the Lord given to the humanity in the human form. The human form is the medium, which constitutes the internal body or Jeevatman and the external gross body. The internal Jeevatman is the awareness, which exists in the three modes or qualities (Trigunas) representing the three heads. The external gross body is subjected to six changes (Shat Vikaraas), which are birth, existence, modification, growth, decay and destruction and these represent the six hands. Therefore, every human form of God can be represented by three heads and six hands. The mediated God is one and the same and the medium (human form) is also one and the same. Therefore, every human form of God is the three-headed and six-handed Datta in real sense.
Karma and Karma Yoga
Karma means service to yourself (and your family). Karma yoga means service to God. The word yoga changes the direction of the same karma (service). After yoga (attaining God in human form), the same karma is not done to yourself and your family, but is done to God in human form. Really, God is more pleased if you do service to His devotees, who are poor and suffering with problems. The logic here is that the service done to God is not really needed by God except for your test. But, the service done to the devotees is really needed by the devotees. Therefore, there is reality in your service if you do it to the devotees. God is pleased by reality. When you do service to God, it is only the process of testing you to give you the certificate or fruit. Therefore, the service to God is related to you only and there is no real sacrifice here. The benefit in this service comes to you finally. In the service of devotees in need, the benefit goes to devotees and this sacrifice is real. Then, why are you recommending the service to God? The reason is that your attention is more when the receiver is God. Your attention is not much for a devotee. Therefore, in the service to God, you will develop sacrifice, which can be extended to devotees in course of time.
The Gita mentions the detachment of mental attachment to fruit (Tyaktva karmaphalaasangam…) and also the actual detachment from the fruit (Phalam Tyaktva Maneeshinah…). Both these are the two subsequent steps. When a sweet is prepared and if you have mental desire to eat it, you cannot sacrifice it even to God! Therefore, for the second step, the first step is recommended in the Gita. But, the sacrifice is completed only after the second step (Yasthu karmaphala tyagee satyageetyabhidheeyate…). The Gita clearly says that the sacrifice of the fruit is only the sacrifice really. Therefore, you have to practice to attain the first step so that you can go to the second step easily. This is the concept of the Gita. But, this concept is misinterpreted by very clever people. They have created a theory by which the first step is exactly equal to the second step! If you can attain the first step, you need not do the second step! If you detach your mind from the sweet, you need not detach from the actual sweet! While enjoying the sweet, you can say that you are mentally detached! Since, first step is equal to second step, now you are also detached from the sweet! When you are detached from the sweet, you can get the fruit of the actual sacrifice of the fruit, which is pleasing God! This means that you eat the sweet with mental detachment and claim that you have pleased God by sacrificing the sweet to Him! How can you please God by eating the sweet through your mouth? The Advaita philosopher says that either God is in you or you yourself is God and therefore, this problem is solved by another clever trick. Therefore, sacrifice has no meaning in Advaita philosophy because if you enjoyed the sweet, God enjoyed it! Therefore, the human form of God is essential separately to receive and enjoy the sweet offered by you. Then only the sacrifice is real. You cannot fool God by your clever interpretations. There are some advocates, who can fool an ignorant judge by their clever arguments and win the case. Such batch only gave the misinterpretations to the Gita to win the grace of God. Here, one important point is to be noted.
The grace of God cannot be achieved even by the actual sacrifice of the fruit without offering it practically to God in human form. You may detach yourself from eating the actual sweet, but as long as you do not sacrifice it to God in a practical way, there is no use of even such real sacrifice of the fruit. Sacrifice is not only a verb but also requires the receiver to whom the sacrifice is done. A stone also is perfectly sacrificing everything without any enjoyment. God is not pleased with that stone. The three great epics deal with the practical sacrifice of work and fruit of work to the God in human form and this is clearly established in the Gita (Madarthamapi…, tat kurushva madarpanam…). The speaker of the Gita is God in human form and not an imaginary form and not a representative inert model of God like statue. If this single point is kept in mind, understanding of the Gita becomes real and fruitful.
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