follow-up on "bandhus & jantus"

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

Here's the answer to the 2nd question raised by a member on the discussions

held for 6 weeks on the theme of "bandhu-s" and "jantu-s" and as it appears

in Swami Desikan's "kAmAsikAshtakam.

 

The question was :

 

"What is exactly is meant by the phrase "transcending the limitations of

Time and Space" in the verse from the Gita you translate as:

 

(Ch.6.44): purvAbyAsEna tEnaiva hiyathE hyavashO-api sa-ha I

jijnyA-surapi yOgasya shabda-brahmAti-varta thE II

(By the power of his earlier efforts, he is carried forward relentlessly,

and even against his own will, until he reaches a state where he transcends

"sabda-brahmhan" ( "prakriti" or Matter with all its concomitant

limitations of Time and Space) ?

 

Answer:

 

The idea of "transcending limitations of Time and Space which "prakriti"

imposes on individual consciousness" ("jantu") is a trifle more difficult

to explain than to perhaps even experience it oneself!!

 

I haven't come across a better explanation for it than those offered by

Advaitins who I personally believe are generally possessed of an uncanny

and natural knack for shedding light on the most abstruse of matters

metaphysical.

 

The great "AdvaitAcharya", Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, the Saint of

Kanchi, explained the "upanishadic" experience of "transcending Time and

Space" in the following manner:

 

Pick up a newspaper and carefully watch your own reactions as you browse

through the columns.

 

You may first chance to read some news item about some war or conflict in

Bosnia between Serbs and Croats or between Tutsi and Hutus in Rwanda.

 

If a conflict appears between say, India and Pakistan (over Kashmir), ie.

nearer home, you may forget the Bosnian or Rwandan crisis and turn your

attention immediately to the news report on the tiff between India and

Pakistan.

 

Suppose there is another report about a conflict even nearer home … say,

between Muslims and Hindus in Coimbatore what happens?You forget quickly

about Bosnia, Kashmir and turn your attention immediately to Coimbatore!!

 

Suppose someone comes up to you as your are at your newspaper and tells you

that a bloody brawl is taking place next street between your neighbour

Sriman XYZ and the other one, Srimathi ABC, over respective rights to

parking space in their common garage…. Well, what happens? You may want to

drop the newspaper, the Bosnian crisis, the Kashmir imbroglio, the

Coimbatore carnage and may well rush next street to catch a ring-side view

of the final set in the slanging match beween Sri.XYZ and Srimathi. ABC,

isn't it?!

 

Now suppose while you are enjoying the tie-breaker duel between Sri. XYZ

and Srimathi.ABC your son comes running up to you and tells you war has

broken out in your own home between your wife and your mother …. What will

you do ?

 

You will drop everything ---- newspaper,Bosnia, Kashmir, Coimbatore, your

neighbours XYZ & Co. --- get agitated and rush home at once to quell an

imminet riot, won't you ?

 

Now, in an international perpective, the Bosnian, Rwandan or Kashmir

problem is surely indeed of very great importance. But you quickly pass

from such great issues to other disputes of lesser importance and

consequence. Your interest in each however is in inverse proportion to the

real importance of the issue, isn't it?

 

Why?

 

The reason is because Rwanda is FAR AWAY IN SPACE !!

 

Our individual consciousness is more concerned about what happens in our

own backyards than what is occurring in the distance!

 

When conflict, trouble, dispute, unhappiness, pain are FAR AWAY IN SPACE we

tend to look on them with cool, almost studied disinterest….as when reading

about distant bloodshed in Rwanda in a newspaper column! When the same

turmoil happens nearer home we become instantly and greatly distressed and

agitated!

 

Our state of consciousness or mind-state is thus greatly limited by SPACE

which is a cardinal dimension of this world, this "prakriti"!!

 

Now look at the other dimension TIME.

 

Assume that a near and dear one --- a "bandhu" --- like a father or sister

passes away. One is extremely distressed at the bereavement. Now after 10

or 15 years the same distress is no longer felt by us with the same

intensity of pain, isn't it?

 

If we think deeply about it – why we are not now affected by our father's

death as we were 10 years ago-- we will surely realize that we are less and

less affected by past events as those of the recent past or those of the

present. It is therefore easier to remain detached about a past event than

about one that is unfurling now in time right before our eyes!

 

Why ?

 

It is because of TIME!

 

This then is the truth of the "upanishads" and the above mentioned verse of

the Gita :

 

It is possible for us to attain quietude/tranquility of consciousness if we

learn to look upon the ceaseless conflict near-at-hand within ourselves

(and the pain it ceaselessly causes us every moment of the present time)

with the same studied detachment we reserve for conflicts and pain of

events in the remote DISTANCE of SPACE and TIME!

 

This is the meaning of the term "trancending limitations of Time and Space

imposed by "prakriti".

When we trancend it we are said to achieve "sabda-brahman" the state where

we can also experience

"bonding" with the "akhilasya-bandhu" -- the Lord KamasikA-hari!

 

To quote the "advaitAchAryA " : Upanishadic longing is the burning desire

to be free from time and space. It would be in proportion to the extent to

which we burn within in our endeavour to be free from the spatio-temporal

limitations of this worldly existence….".

 

I hope I have answered my good friend's question adequetely.

 

adiyEn,

sudarshan