स होवाच: न वा अरे पत्युः कामाय पतिः प्रियो भवति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय पतिः प्रियो भवति । न वा अरे जायायै कामाय जाया प्रिया भवति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय जाया प्रिया भवति । न वा अरे पूत्राणां कामाय पुत्राः प्रिया भवन्ति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय पुत्राः प्रिया भवन्ति । न वा अरे वित्तस्य कामाय वित्तं प्रियं भवति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय वित्तं प्रियं भवति । न वा अरे ब्रह्मणः कामाय ब्रह्म प्रियं भवति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय ब्रह्म प्रियं भवति । न वा अरे क्षत्रस्य कामाय क्षत्रं प्रियं भवति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय क्षत्रं प्रियं भवति । न वा अरे लोकानां कामाय लोकाः प्रिया भवन्ति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय लोकाः प्रिया भवन्ति । न वा अरे देवानां कामाय देवाः प्रिया भवन्ति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय देवाः प्रिया भवन्ति । न वा अरे भूतानां कामाय भूतानि प्रियाणि भवन्ति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय भूतानि प्रियाणि भवन्ति । न वा अरे सर्वस्य कामाय सर्वं प्रियं भवति, आत्मनस्तु कामाय सर्वं प्रियं भवति । आत्मा वा अरे द्रष्टव्यः श्रोतव्यो मन्तव्यो निदिध्यासितव्यो मैत्रेयि, आत्मनो वा अरे दर्शनेन श्रवणेन मत्या विज्ञानेनेदं सर्वं विदितम् ॥ ५ ॥
sa hovāca: na vā are patyuḥ kāmāya patiḥ priyo bhavati, ātmanastu kāmāya patiḥ priyo bhavati | na vā are jāyāyai kāmāya jāyā priyā bhavati, ātmanastu kāmāya jāyā priyā bhavati | na vā are pūtrāṇāṃ kāmāya putrāḥ priyā bhavanti, ātmanastu kāmāya putrāḥ priyā bhavanti | na vā are vittasya kāmāya vittaṃ priyaṃ bhavati, ātmanastu kāmāya vittaṃ priyaṃ bhavati | na vā are brahmaṇaḥ kāmāya brahma priyaṃ bhavati, ātmanastu kāmāya brahma priyaṃ bhavati | na vā are kṣatrasya kāmāya kṣatraṃ priyaṃ bhavati, ātmanastu kāmāya kṣatraṃ priyaṃ bhavati | na vā are lokānāṃ kāmāya lokāḥ priyā bhavanti, ātmanastu kāmāya lokāḥ priyā bhavanti | na vā are devānāṃ kāmāya devāḥ priyā bhavanti, ātmanastu kāmāya devāḥ priyā bhavanti | na vā are bhūtānāṃ kāmāya bhūtāni priyāṇi bhavanti, ātmanastu kāmāya bhūtāni priyāṇi bhavanti | na vā are sarvasya kāmāya sarvaṃ priyaṃ bhavati, ātmanastu kāmāya sarvaṃ priyaṃ bhavati | ātmā vā are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyo mantavyo nididhyāsitavyo maitreyi, ātmano vā are darśanena śravaṇena matyā vijñānenedaṃ sarvaṃ viditam || 5 ||
5. He said: It is not for the sake of the husband, my dear, that he is loved, but for one’s own sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the wife, my dear, that she is loved, but for one’s own sake that she is loved. It is not for the sake of the sons, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of wealth, my dear, that it is loved, but for one’s own sake that it is loved. It is not for the sake of the Brāhmaṇa, my dear, that he is loved, but for one’s own sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the Kṣatriya, my dear, that he is loved, but for one’s own sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the worlds, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of the gods, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of the beings, my -dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of all, my dear, that all is loved, but for one’s own sake that it is loved. The Self, my dear Maitreyī, should be realised—should be heard of, reflected on and meditated upon. By the realisation of the Self, my dear, through hearing, reflection and meditation, all this is known.
With a view to teaching renunciation as a means to immortality, Yājñavalkya creates a distaste for the wife, husband, sons, etc., so that they may be given up. He said, ‘It is not for the sake or necessity of the husband that he is loved by the wife, but it is for one’s own sake that he is loved by her.’ The particle ‘vai’ (indeed) recalls something that is well-known, signifying that this is a matter of common knowledge. Similarly it is not for the sake of the wife, etc. The rest is to be explained as before. Likewise it is not for the sake of the sons, wealth, the Brāhmaṇa, the Kṣatriya, the worlds, the gods, the beings, and all. The priority of enumeration is in the order of their closeness to us as sources of joy; for it is all the more desirable to create a distaste for them. The use of the word ‘all’ is for including everything that has and has not been mentioned. Hence it is a well-known fact that the Self alone is dear, and nothing else. It has already been said, ‘This (Self) is dearer than a son,’ etc. (I. iv. 8). The present text serves as a detailed commentary on that. Therefore our love for other objects is secondary, since they contribute to the pleasure of the Self; and our love for the Self alone is primary. Therefore ‘the Self, my dear Maitreyī, should he realised, is worthy of realisation, or should be made the object of realisation. It should first be heard of from a teacher and from the scriptures, then reflected on through reasoning, and then steadfastly meditated upon.’ Thus only is It realised—when these means, viz. hearing, reflection and meditation, have been gone through. When these three are combined, then only true realisation of the unity of Brahman is accomplished, not otherwise—by hearing alone. The different castes such as the Brāhmaṇa or the Kṣatriya, the various orders of life, and so on, upon which rites depend, and which consist of actions, their factors and their results, are objects of notions superimposed on the Self by ignorance—based on false notions like that of a snake in a rope. In order to destroy these he says, ‘By the realisation of the Self, my dear, through hearing, reflection and’meditation, all this is known.’[3]
One day Sri Ramakrishna became a kalpataru (the wish-fulfilling tree) and fulfilled the wishes of his disciples. Some asked for devotion, some knowledge, and some liberation. Seeing Sharat silent, the Master asked him: “How would you like to realize God? What divine vision do you prefer to see in meditation?” Sharat replied: “I do not want to see any particular form of God in meditation. I want to see Him in all beings. I do not like visions.” The Master said with a smile: “That is the last word in spiritual attainment. You cannot have it all at once.” “But I won’t be satisfied with anything short of that,” replied Sharat. “I shall strive my best until I am able to attain it.” At last the Master blessed him, saying, “Yes, you will attain it.”……
The following incident indicates how that blessing was fulfilled towards the end of his life: “One of the devotees who was nurtured by Swami Saradananda’s loving care one day remarked, ‘Swami, why do you love us so much?’ Swami Saradananda did not say anything. After a few days when that devotee came to Udbodhan, the swami said: ‘A few days ago I went to Belur Math and prostrated before Sri Ramakrishna. The Master appeared before me and said, “You love all because you find me in all.” That is the answer I would give today.’” (Source: God Lived with Them)
Ramakrishna’s affection for Narendra astonished everyone. If Narendra could not come to Dakshineswar for a long time, the Master cried for him or he went to see him in Calcutta. Ramakrishna knew that he would not live long in this world, so he was eager to train his foremost disciple as early as possible. One Sunday the Master went to visit him at the Brahmo Samaj Temple, where Narendra sang devotional songs during the evening service. When he arrived in the middle of the service, there was a commotion among the congregation to see the saint of Dakshineswar. The preacher was annoyed and abruptly ended his sermon, and the ushers turned out all the gaslights in order to make people leave the building — a move which resulted in a chaotic stampede to the doors in the darkness.
Narendra was greatly pained by the Master’s humiliation. He managed to elbow his way to Ramakrishna’s side, then he led him out through a back door, got him into a carriage and rode with him to Dakshineswar. Narendra reprimanded the Master, but Ramakrishna didn’t care a bit about the scolding or his humiliating experience with the Brahmos. Then Narendra told him severely: “It is written in the Puranas that King Bharata thought so much about his favourite deer that he himself became a deer after his death. If that’s true, you should beware of thinking about me!” The Master was simple, much like a little boy. He took these words very seriously, because Narendra was a man of truth. Ramakrishna went to the temple and returned shortly, beaming with delight and exclaimed: “You rascal, I won’t listen to you anymore. Mother says that I love you because I see the Lord in you. The day I do not see Him in you, I shall not be able to bear even the sight of you.” (Source: God Lived with Them)
Swami Chetanananda: “In the West, people often ask: ‘We have not seen the Master. How can we love him? How can we develop a relationship with God?’”
Swami Bhuteshananda: “The Master is your very own Self. You cannot but love him. God is the innermost essence of everyone. Do you not love yourself? ‘Verily, not for the sake of the husband, my dear, is the husband loved, but he is loved for the sake of the Self [which, in its truest nature, is one with Supreme Self]. . . . Verily, not for the sake of wealth, my dear, is wealth loved, but it is loved for the sake of the Self’.
(Source: Stories of Vedanta Monks, Vol. 1)
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Krishna is the Atman—your own Self. When you realise Him as your own Self, you know you can never lose him. (BG 6.30) You can lose your own personality, but you can never lose Krishna because He is the Self. He is verily your own Inner Being.
Only in such a realisation does one’s pain of separation from God vanish. The Gopis wept inconsolably when Krishna left them and went to Mathura. Later on, Krishna sent Uddhava to the Gopis and made them know that they could never be separated from Krishna because Krishna is the Self. When they discovered this, their pain of separation vanished, and they regained their poise. The Bhagavata says they were cured of the disease of longing—viraha-jvara. The pang of uncentredness must be rectified by regaining the Centre. (Source: Srimad Bhagavad Gita – Elixir of Eternal Wisdom)
kṣetrajñaṃ cāpi māṃ viddhi. “The ‘I’ within you is not you; it is Me,” says Bhagavan. The Master, whom you love with all your heart, declares, ‘You are me!’ There you fuse and become one with Him; nay, you recognise that you were always one with Him; you were always only He. And the limited ego-‘I’ vanishes; it was ever the infinite-‘I’; Brahman. The moment you recognise the kṣetrajña—the Consciousness within—as Īśvara, as Brahman, saṃsāra ceases for you. All suffering, all misery, all imagined dreams of bondage vanish instantaneously, and you are in the infinite open space of Brahman. (Source: Srimad Bhagavad Gita – Elixir of Eternal Wisdom)
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
“Hearing, reflecting, and meditating are the three main disciplines of Vedanta. At first you hear that Brahman alone is real and the world unreal. Then you reflect upon this idea and become convinced of it through reasoning and discrimination. And finally you meditate on Brahman, the Absolute Reality, relinquishing the unreal world. That is all. Otherwise, what does it avail if you hear and understand the teachings of Vedanta but do not try to renounce what is unreal? That is like the knowledge of worldly people. This kind of knowledge cannot help you to attain Reality. You need conviction and renunciation — only then can you succeed. Otherwise, you are saying, ‘There is no thorn, no pricking’; but the moment you touch a thorny plant, those thorns get into your hands, and you cry out with pain. You are saying: ‘The world does not exist. It is unreal. Brahman alone exists,’ and so on, but the moment you come in touch with the sense objects of the world, you immediately consider them to be real and get attached to them. Once a monk came to live in the Panchavati of Dakshineswar. He would talk about Vedanta extensively with people. Then one day I heard that he was having an illicit love affair with a woman. I went in that direction to answer the call of nature and found him seated in the Panchavati. I said to him, ‘You talk so much about Vedanta — now, what is this?’ He replied: ‘What does it matter? Let me explain to you that I have done nothing wrong. When everything in this world is unreal in the past, present, and future, how can my slips of character be real? They are also unreal.’ Disgusted, I said to him, ‘I spit upon such Vedantic knowledge as yours!’ Worldly people have that kind of knowledge about Vedanta. That knowledge is no knowledge at all.” (Source: Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play)
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Sri Ramakrishna was at Balaram Bose’s house in Calcutta. He was explaining the mystery of Divine Incarnation to the devotees.
MASTER: “In order to bring people spiritual knowledge, an Incarnation of God lives in the world in the company of devotees, cherishing an attitude of love for God. It is like going up and coming down the stairs after having once reached the roof. In order to reach the roof, other people should follow the path of devotion, as long as they have not attained Knowledge and become free of desire. The roof can be reached only when all desires are done away with. The shopkeeper does not go to bed before finishing his accounts. He goes to sleep only when his accounts are finished.
(To M.) “A man will certainly succeed if he will take the plunge. Success is sure for such a man.
“Well, what do you think of the worship conducted by Keshab, Shivanath, and the other Brahmo leaders?”
M: “They are satisfied, as you say, with describing the garden, but they seldom speak of seeing the Master of the garden. Describing the garden is the beginning and end of their worship.”
MASTER: “You are right. Our only duty is to seek the Master of the garden and speak to Him. The only purpose of life is to realise God.” (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
Swami Chetanananda: “Swami Turiyananda said that according to the Yogavasishtha Ramayana, dissolution of the mind, cessation of desires, and realization of Truth—all happen at the same time. How is that?”
Swami Bhuteshananda: “’It is the Self that should be realized — heard of, reflected on, and meditated upon’ (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2:4:5). Contemplation and meditation are the means. All the desires that are obstacles in the path of God-realization are burnt up through deep contemplation and meditation. Then liberation comes naturally. When one meditates on the Atman, the three types of desires—desire for progeny, wealth, and name and fame—are destroyed. Then Knowledge dawns. Not that those three occur in a sequence; they are different facets of the same thing. Light comes, darkness disappears.” (Source: Stories of Vedanta Monks, Vol. 1)
Related Articles:
- The sage harmonised in yoga sees the Self in all beings, and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere. (BG 6.29)
- He who sees Me in all beings and all beings in me never becomes lost to me, nor do I become lost to him. (BG 6.30)
- The Yogi who worships Me abiding in all beings and who is established in unity abides in me in whatever manner he is acting. (BG 6.31)
- Its hands and feet are everywhere; Its eyes, heads, and faces are everywhere; Its ears are everywhere; Its existence envelops all. (BG 13.14)
- He who sees the Supreme Lord abiding alike in all beings, and not perishing when they perish— verily he alone sees. (BG 13.28)
- The wise man beholds all beings in the Self and the Self in all beings; for that reason he does not hate anyone. (Isha Upanishad, Verse 6)
- O Arjuna! Having obtained this knowledge, you will not thus be deluded again and by this Knowledge, you will see all beings in your Self and also in Me. (BG 4.35)
- Seeing the Atman in all beings, and all beings in the Atman, one attains the highest Brahman – not by any other means. (Kaivalya Upanishad, Verse 10)
- See God in All
But those given to the study of the Gītā, should remember a small thing. After completing the listening of the Gītā and the reading of the Gītā, they should continue reflection of the Gītā and contemplation of the Gītā also. On account of the reading of the Gītā, one obtains the merit of the recitation (of the Gītā). By means of its reflection and contemplation, one obtains liberation. Just as the eaten stuff when digested alone, gives health, it is only when the secrets of dharma enter our hearts and passing through blood vessels and transform into one’s nature, then only they become competent to keep the darkness of ignorance at distance. As one great man observes: “Religion is realizing. Before that it is the spelling of the word and no more”. As long as we do not experience God, that God will only be a totality of the letters: (G+O+D). (Swāmīji has given Telugu letters). Hence, if listening of the Gītā is done once, reflection must be done for thousand times. Just as an animal, after eating grass, resting at a place, chews the cud well, the spiritual student, reading each verse of the Gītā, should contemplate on that with one pointed mind. Then new meanings and new ideas will be gleaned in the mind. One great speciality of the Gītā is that, depending on the refinement of the mind, noble imaginations, compatible with the refinement of the mind, will show themselves to the reader. We may say that no other book has this extraordinary speciality. All this is exclusively due to the greatness of the Yoga and the power of the penance of Lord Krşņa and Bhagavān Vyāsa. Hence to understand the secret of the Gītā, (1) one must reflect well on the meaning of the Gītā verses and (2) be removing the sinful intellect. Since this is very important, I will narrate a story on listening and reflection.
Long ago, there was an emperor called Vikramārka. One day, as he was in the hall of audience with his ministers, feudatory princes and the elite of the town, a demon entered in the midst of that assembly. There were three skulls in his hand. Seeing that frightening sight, all the members were wonderstruck. Meanwhile, the demon addressing the king said: “O King, any one amongst you must tell me, which among the three skulls is good. If this is not done, I will eat all of you in this moment itself.” On hearing those utterances, being frightened, the members engaged in thinking were starring at those skulls only. No one could offer an answer. Meanwhile,
the minister having got a thin iron wire, inserted it in the ear of one of the skulls. It came out from the other ear. Telling the demon thus: “O demon understand that, that skull is low and very bad”, he inserted the wire in the ear of the second skull. That came out from the mouth. The minister then telling the demon, “O demon that this skull is of middle order”, he inserted the wire in the ear of the third skull. It immediately penetrated into the heart. Then the minister said, ‘Demon! understand this as the best’. But as the demon requested to know the basis of his judgement, the minister explained as follows: One who leaves the instruction received through one ear from another, is the lowest (that means he is one who forgets what he hears). One who is able to tell through his mouth what he heard through an ear, belongs to the middle order. (He only preaches but will not practise). One who enables, what he heard, to enter his heart and constitute his experience, he is the best. Hearing those utterances, the demon left satisfied. In the same way, there are three types among human beings. After ascertaining their respective statures, must attempt to enter the best category (class). That is to say, bringing into experience, what they have been hearing or listening about truth, righteousness and non-injury, they must become the embodiments of righteousness, truth and non-injury. Śrīrāma, during the days of his listening to sage Vasisthā’s Yogavāśiṣṭhā, every day, after everyone went to bed during the night, used to wake up and reflect well on the meanings, which he heard during the day. In this way, he used to meditate during night far long and then go to bed. The attitude of one, who has extreme liking for liberation, will be like this only. Hence, disclosing to you, that the meditation on the meaning of the Gītā, after the study of the Gītā, is very important. (Source: Lectures on the Gita by Swami Vidyaprakashananda)