समाने वृक्षे पुरुषो निमग्नोऽनिशया शोचति मुह्यमानः ।
जुष्टं यदा पश्यत्यन्यमीशमस्य
महिमानमिति वीतशोकः ॥ २॥
samāne vṛkṣe puruṣo nimagno’niśayā śocati muhyamānaḥ .
juṣṭaṃ yadā paśyatyanyamīśamasya
mahimānamiti vītaśokaḥ .. 2..
Seated on the same tree, the jiva moans, bewildered by his impotence. But when he beholds the other, the Lord worshipped by all and His glory, he then becomes free from grief.
Commentary:
Helplessly sunk in the apparent joy of the sweetness of the fruit, one of these birds is also, at the same time, sunk in sorrow, because we do not merely suck the fruit, the fruit also sucks us. We do not merely get stuck in the object, the objects sticks to us. The more we try to grab objects, the more will objects try to grab us, like crocodiles. If we try to grab a crocodile with our hands, it will grab us with greater force.
In the Upanishads, the sense organs are called graha because they grasp, and the objects are called atigraha, the greater grabbers. Our condition may be really pitiable if we give a long rope to these sense organs and allow them to go on grabbing objects, because the result would be that the objects will grab us with a greater force. The result would be utter helplessness, and one will be reduced to slavery to such an extent that it will be difficult to distinguish between oneself and the object outside. The slave is like an object; he has no subjectivity. He does not think in terms of himself; he always thinks in terms of his master. So we are like slaves thinking in terms of our master, which is this world of objects, and we have no independence ourselves. We are caught and bound in the chain of this helplessness caused by our indulgence in the objects which appear to be our masters. Samāne vṛkṣe puruṣo nimagno’nīśayā śocati muhyamānaḥ: Deluded is this bird that is indulging itself like this.
Juṣṭam yadā paśyaty anyam īśam: When by chance this indulgent bird has time to look around and see the other bird seated there, the most adorable Being, the moment we behold it, our bondage is snapped. The vision of God is also the end of all sorrow. The consciousness of universality is the cessation of attachment to particularity. But we are not able to maintain an awareness of this Universal in us. We cannot see that there is a bird called the Universal in us. We see only the object in front of us. The moment we become aware of the Universal bird, the consciousness of its existence will redeem us at once.
Juṣṭam yadā paśyaty anyam īśam asya mahimānam iti, vīta-śokah: When the glory of that Universal bird is seen, all the sorrow of indulgence and involvement in things in the world ceases at once, as night departs when the Sun rises. They are simultaneous, and do not come one after the other.
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
(Explanation for Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.1 & 3.1.2)
A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: “Is God different from His Sakti?”
MASTER: “After attaining Perfect Knowledge one realises that they are not different. They are the same, like the gem and its brilliance. Thinking of the gem, one cannot but think of its brilliance. Again, they are like milk and its whiteness. Thinking of the one, you must also think of the other. But you cannot realise this non-duality before the attainment of Perfect Knowledge. Attaining Perfect Knowledge, one goes into samadhi, beyond the twenty-four cosmic principles. Therefore the principle of ‘I’ does not exist in that stage. A man cannot describe in words what he feels in samadhi. Coming down, he can give just a hint about it. I come down a hundred cubits, as it were, when I say ‘Om’ after samadhi. Brahman is beyond the injunctions of the Vedas and cannot be described. There neither ‘I’ nor ‘you’ exists.
“As long as a man is conscious of ‘I’ and ‘you’, and as long as he feels that it is he who prays or meditates, so long will he feel that God is listening to his prayer and that God is a Person. Then he must say: ‘O God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant. Thou art the whole and I am a part of Thee. Thou art the Mother and I am Thy child.’ At that time there exists a feeling of difference: ‘I am one and Thou art another.’ It is God Himself who makes us feel this difference; and on account of this difference one sees man and woman, light and darkness, and so on. As long as one is aware of this difference, one must accept Sakti, the Personal God. It is God who has put ‘I-consciousness’ in us. You may reason a thousand times; still this ‘I’ does not disappear. As long as ‘I-consciousness’ exists, God reveals Himself to us as a Person.
“Therefore, as long as a man is conscious of ‘I’ and of differentiation, he cannot speak of the attributeless Brahman and must accept Brahman with attributes. This Brahman with attributes has been declared in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantra, to be Kali, the Primal Energy.”
VIJAY: “How, sir, can one have the vision of the Primal Energy and attain Brahmajnana, the Knowledge of the attributeless Brahman?”
MASTER: “Pray to Him with a yearning heart, and weep. That will purify your heart. You see the reflection of the sun in clear water. In the mirror of his ‘I-consciousness’ the devotee sees the form of the Primal Energy, Brahman with attributes. But the mirror must be wiped clean. One does not see the right reflection if there is any dirt on the mirror.
“As long as a man must see the Sun in the water of his ‘I-consciousness’ and has no other means of seeing It, as long as he has no means of seeing the real Sun except through Its reflection, so long is the reflected sun alone one hundred per cent real to him. As long as the ‘I’ is real, so long is the reflected sun real — one hundred per cent real. That reflected sun is nothing but the Primal Energy.
“But if you seek Brahmajnana, the Knowledge of the attributeless Brahman, then proceed to the real Sun through Its reflection. Pray to Brahman with attributes, who listens to your prayers, and He Himself will give you lull Knowledge of Brahman; for that which is Brahman with attributes is verily Brahman without attributes, that which is Brahman is verily Sakti. One realises this non-duality after the attainment of Perfect Knowledge.
“The Divine Mother gives Her devotee Brahmajnana too. But a true lover of God generally does not seek the Knowledge of Brahman.
“There is another path, the path of knowledge, which is very difficult. You members of the Brahmo Samaj are not jnanis. You are bhaktas. The jnani believes that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory as a dream. To him, ‘I’ and ‘you’ are illusory as a dream. (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
“HERE THERE ARE TWO! The Devotee and THE MOTHER! It is the DEVOTEE who is suffering.” — Sri Ramakrishna