geethA sAstramum nedunthAndaka sAstramum-13

[Guest guest]

Sri Parthasarathi thunai

Srimathe Ramanujaya Namaha

Sri Vara Vara munayE Namaha

Sri vAnAchala mahA munayE Namaha

 

How to come out of this cycle of life and death? This question lies

in most of our minds where to find the answer? Emperuman who has so

much grace on us will never leave us in darkness so he gifted us with

the Vedas that alone can clear all our doubts. Once Indra and

virOchanan approached brahma and asked, “Please let us know about the

athma (nature of the soul)?” Brahma replied, “that which you see with

your eyes is the athma”. Virochanan accepted the same without any

further questioning and believed that the body visible to our eyes to

be the athma but Indra analysed a little deeper and came to brahma

again and asked the same question. Now brahma told him “consider

your prAnan (breath) to be the athma. Since the body has life only

when there is inhalation and exhalation”. Again Indra started to

think and couldn’t get satisfied. So he went back to brahma and

enquired. Brahma said,” consider your mind to be the athma” In this

way Indra refused to accept each time and kept on questioning brahma

and finally brahma told him the truth that the soul who is a seshan

(servant) to the emperuman and he who is jnanasvaroopan

(personification of knowledge) is the actual athma. So to learn the

truth we have to analyse and not accept whatever one says. The Vedas

are the text that does these analyses in depth and provides us all the

final facts. Thirumangai azhvar feels his utmost gratitude towards

emperuman to have granted the Vedas with full mercy on each one of

us. So Azhvar next calls emperuman as (vEdam nAngAi) Oh! Lord the 4

vEdas are none other than you yourself. Emperuman himself declares

this as, “vedaischa sarvai: ahamEva vEdhya:” (I am the prime topic

of all the vedas and hence I am well understood only through the

sastras). Among the three accepted pramAnAs, prathyaksham, anumAnam

and sabhdham only the sabhdha pramAna (the Vedas) can actually show

us the paramatma.

 

But does the Vedas show only the paramatma Sriman Narayanan? No. It

gives references to number of devas and even states them to be the

supreme. Not only that the Vedas also specify a number of karmas and

ways to attain the supreme. Why are the Vedas not clear and why are

they confusing? True. The Vedas do talk about a variety of things.

Why? That’s because not all of us are equal in knowledge and practice.

Each one of us differs in different manner. Our interests are

different. Our understanding capacities vary. So the Vedas that are

common to all show different things suitable to different adhikAris

(categories of people). The same is done by our dear geethAcharyan

also in his divine bhagavat geetha where he talks about karma, jnana,

bhakthi and prapaththi yoga to suit different adhikaris (categories of

people).

 

GeethAcharayan says in the second chapter,

“triguNya vishayA vEdA: nistraigunyO bhavArjuna I

nirdvanthvo nithya satvasthO niryOgakshEma AthmavAn II” (2-45)

 

(Oh! arjuna the Vedas say the good for people with all three gunas.

But you can climb a step higher. Overcome the doubles viz., joy and

sorrow, hot and cold, profit and loss, victory and defeat. Let your

satva guna grow day by day. Leave the yoga, effort in obtaining other

objects other than the athmasvaroopam and the kshemam, effort put in

preserving the obtained objects and get involved with the upliftment

of the soul alone)

 

“yAvAnartha udhapAnE sarvadha: sampluthodhakE I

thAvAn sarvEshu vEdhEshu brAhmanAsya vijAnatha: II

 

(In a big river (water source) a person who is thirsty can drink only

the required amount of water similarly out of all the Vedas whichever

part is necessary for a vaidhikan/mumukshu he has to choose that much

only. Not all will be applicable to everyone.)

 

Now arjuna didn’t really know which he has to choose and hence krishna

himself guides him in the next sloka:

 

“karmanyEvAdhikArasthE mApalEshu kadAchana I

mA karmapalahEdur bhoo: mA thE sankOstva karmani II”

 

(For a mumukshu like you, your concentration should be on your nithya

naimithya karmas but never think about the lowly results of svargam

etc as your result to be obtained. Don’t consider yourself to be the

reason for both the karma and result. Don’t get involved in not

doing the karma that results in moksha)

 

In this manner geethAcharyan instructed arjuna the importance of karma

yoga. In this manner emperuman stands as the four vedas to show the

right way to each one of us so that all of us will get uplifted from

this samsAram gradually. Karma yoga is the first step that will lead

to purification of our mind that will in turn lead to Jnana yoga that

will help us in attaining athma sAkshAtkaram (knowing the soul) and

then we will be able to indulge in the ultimate enjoyment of the soul

and permanently mediate on it. This is the crux of the first six

chapters in geetha.

 

(To be continued)

 

Azhvar EmperumAnAr Jeeyer thiruvadigalE sharanam

 

Adiyen ramanuja dAsee

Sumithra Varadarajan