Gita Satsangh; Chapter 9 Verses 26 - Swami Dayananda's Commentary

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

Prayer is an expression of devotion and it is recognized in almost

all religious cultures. The enclosed commentary on importance and

value of the prayer is timely for the holiday season. Swami

Dayananda Saraswati provides an elegant commentary to verse 26. This

commentary is from his Home Study Guide (over 2000 pages of written

materials) and let me take this opportunity to thank Arsha Vidya

Gurukulam for permitting me to post the relevant sections to this

list. Those who are interested should be able to buy the Homestudy

Guide at the Gurukulam .

(http://www.arshavidya.org)

 

Just before the upcoming New Year, his commentary on this verse has

high potentials to motivate all of us to make New Year resolution to

take some time for prayer on a daily basis.

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

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THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER IS THE SAME; THE FORM CAN VARY

 

The importance of prayer is recognized in every religious culture.

But each has its own form which is purely cultural. The prayer is

common, how the person prays is prescribed differently. One person

may follow a puja form, step by step, in which a leaf, flower, fruit,

water, patram puspam phalam toyam, are offered. Even if they are not

available, you can offer any or all of them mentally. You can even

do the whole puja mentally. But if it is mental puja, we need not

limit our offering to patram. puspam etc. Mentally we can offer

everything imaginable. But the action is important and is that what

Bhagavan points out here. What is recommended in this verse is an act

of worship called puja. You need not do Vedic rituals, only an act of

worship in which you offer patram puspam phalam toyam.

 

There is a verse that says for the people in Kaliyuga who have impure

minds, who do not have rituals prescribed for them, reciting the

Lord's name is enough. In all the yugas peoples' minds are impure, so

this verse embraces all people whose minds are to be purified.

Since they have ragadvesas etc., they live by means which are not

always proper, papadravya upajlvinam. If you observe your

pursuits, you will notice that when you get something, it is usually

at the cost of someone else. There is often some aggression towards

others. Therefore there is papa involved in your daily life. Then

old impurities, kalmasas, cannot be eliminated because daily you

gather new ones. You can only eliminate them by doing nitya-

naimittlkadi'karmas like agnihotra and other rituals which are

prescribed in the Vedas according to varna and asrama. But these

people do not have any such rituals prescribed for the varna and

asrama they are in. How are they going to rid themselves of kalmasa,

and gain antahkarana£uddhi ? The name of the Lord is the only means,

harernamaiva kovalam. It includes puja, klrtanam etc.

 

Whatever the offering is, it must be tad-bhakti-upahrtam, that is

offered with devotion. If you are moved by devotion expressed in the

offering of a flower, a leaf etc. with a pure heart, what happens to

that offering?

 

AN OFFERING MADE WITH DEVOTION IS RECIEVED BY BHAGAVAN

 

Aham asnami, I eat. Sankara says ahum grhnami, I receive it. It means

the person gets the result for his action, antahkaranas'uddhs. You

need not do elaborate rituals. All that is required is recognition,

and an act of prayer. The meaning of this verse is:

 

that an act; of prayer is important and it should be done for the

sake of antahkarariasuddhi leading to moksa. When Bhagavan receives

your prayer, ydu are already blessed."

 

There is a story illustrating this in Bhagavatam. A poor man,

Sudhama, also called Kuchela, lived with his wife and 27 children. He

and Krsna had studied together in the same gurukula at the feet of

the rishi Sandlpani. Studying under the rishi had given him great

insight and devotion. Even though he was a grhastha and had to find

food for his large family, he .was cheerful and devoted to the Lord.

His wife found it increasingly difficult to maintain the family on

his meagre earnings. One day she suggested to Sudhama, that as he had

been with Krsna at gurukula, and Krsna was now King of Dvaraka, he

should seek Krsna's help. Sudhama was unwilling to go and

 

"For antahkaranaSuddhi—kalau kaloiasacittunam papadravyopaflvinam

vidhikriyavthinanam kevalam.

 

ask for charity in the name of friendship. She finally prevailed.

After agreeing, Sudhama worried, "How can I go and meet Krsna, my old

friend, without a gift? He is no ordinary person, he is a king and

one should not go empty-handed to a king, to a deity or to the guru,

rkta panih na pasyeta rajanam daivatam gurum. I don't have anything

to offer to him." His wife said, "I have something you can offer

him." She had already saved some pounded rice, from what Sudhama had

brought home. She wrapped all she had, which was about three morsels,

in a rag. Sudhama went to Dvaraka. Krsna, learning that he had come,

asked that he be escorted into the palace with great respect. He came

down to meet Sudhama at the door, washed his feet and welcomed him

into the palace. In those days, if you were a brahmin, the king had

to greet you with respect, and do certain prescribed acts of worship.

Then Krsna asked Sudhama, "Did you bring anything for me ?" Sudhama

at first did not say anything, for he thought Krsna would take

offence at the insignificant gift he had brought. He saw the palace,

the riches around, and was aghast within himself as to how he could

have come to see Krsna with some pounded rice wrapped in a rag. But

Krsna found the small bundle hidden in his clothes, pulled it out,

and began eating from it. He took one mouthful, and then a second

one. Before he could take the third one, his wife, Rukmini, who was

standing near him, stopped him. She stopped him because, that very

act of eating, grahanam becomes anugrahanam bestowal of his grace.

When Krsna took the first morsel of rice, there in Sudhama's village

his hut got transformed into a palace. His wife and all the children

suddenly found themselves in the best of clothes. Rukmini stopped

Krsna from taking more of the pounded rice, because if He had taken

all of it, the whole world would have belonged to Sudhama. That is

the Lord's anugrahanam. It becomes available immediately when he

accepts an offering. Sudhama was so overwhelmed by Krsna's welcome

and the arrangements for his comfortable stay that he forgot to ask

Krsna for any help. He was just happy meeting Krsna after such a long

time. He went back to his village, and when he reached it, was not

sure whether it was his village or another. Everything was different.

Even the ponds that had been dry were full of water. The trees were

full of flowers and fruit. He could not recognize the place until his

wife and children came and greeted him. When Bhagavan takes, he gives.

 

Even the fact that you can pray is the result of prayer. You try. See

if you can really open your heart and pray. You will find it very

difficult. With all the pain and cynicism we have inside, it is very

difficult to open up. A hundred arguments will come to prove how

prayer is useless. So it takes a number of `as though' prayers before

we can really pray. Prayer being an action which is highly voluntary,

as I told you, where the freewill gets its maximum expression, is the

most efficacious action. The role of the will is so complete. You are

not driven to it, you do it on your own. And its result is assured.

That is why Sankara interprets grhnami as anugrhnami.

 

As a sadhaaa for antahkaranasuddhi, an act of bhakti is very

important. It will instill devotion because it does imply a certain

degree of surrender and recognition of one's limitations. This can

lead to helplessness but when it is accompanied by the recognition

of !s"vara as limitless, the act of devotion makes this appreciation

very real. The attitude of sift-render becomes more and more real

through the act of surrender. So the act is as important as the very

attitude until the attitude does not come and go. If it is an abiding

attitude you have no need to perform an act of devotion. Therefore,

the act of devotion is a means as we will see in the next verse.