Dattatreya's 24 Gurus-Lesson 6- Chandra Deshika

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Posting of Shreeram Balijepalli in Smarthrugaami-Dattavibhavam Click link below to join Smarthrugaami-Dattavibhavam Click below to join Divine Mother Group Rajarajeshwari_Kalpataru Dear Dattapriya Bandhujanas, Dhadhi Sankhkha ThusharabhamKsheerodharnava SambhavamNamami Shashinam SomamShambhor Makuta Bhooshanam Continuing my series on Lord Dattatreya's 24 Gurus,the 6th Guru of Datta is Moon. The situation is that of a King asking DattaGuru in His (Datta's) ashram about His gurus'.These Gurus are not to be taken literally but in a symbolic Avadhuthic sense King with burning curiosity asks: Who is your sixth guru? Dattatreya replies divinely: The moon. The moon waxes and wanes and yet never loses its essence, totality, or shape. From watching the moon, I learned that waxing and waning-rising and falling, pleasure and pain, loss and gain-are simply phases of life. While passing through these phases, I never lose awareness of my true Self. Moon's waxing and waning is the metaphorical anent here.The crux is however the concept of 'Inner Vairagya'. This is acheived by transcendency over the ephemerality.Moon rules over the mind-Manasthu Hinagu, thus

Vairagya the concept attached to mind is braoched upon by Dattabhagavan. Vairagya is the main component Dattatreya's teaching which He emphasises time and again. Vairagya does not mean just relinquishing family and sitting in the forest. Vairagya means the very relinquishing the 'relinquishing'. This ultimate Avadhutic relinquishing is what Dattatreya seeks in portraying the elements as His Gurus. This is precisely what He drived home into the min d of the King. Vairagya is the opposite of Raga (attachment). Vairagya is dispassion. Vairagya is detachment. Vairagya is indifference but not hatred to sensual enjoyment here and hereafter.One Datta Guru Nrisimha Bharathi was once visited by a devotee but the devotee saw the Guru sitting on a soft silk cloth and he thought to himself "What kind of Guru is this who seeks the comforts of life thus?" but nevertheless paid respects to the Guru. The following night he had a dream in which thousand scorpions bit him and he came running to the Guru next day morning and the Guru said "Son, Both the scorpions' bites and the soft silk cloth are one to me"...The devotee was stunned as He hardly opened his mouth both about his nightmare and about his previous thought! Vairagya is the second concept in Sadhana Chatushtaya—Viveka, Vairagya, Shadsampat and Mumukshutwa. Sadhana= spiritual practice and Chatushtaya= The four Vairagya is born of Viveka, or discrimination between Nitya and Anitya (Eternal and non-eternal), Sat and Asat (Real and unreal), Tattwa and Atattwa (Essence

and non-essence). Viveka comes through selfless service done in several births and through Puja and Aradhana (worship and adoration of God), and through the Grace of the Lord. From Viveka is born Vairagya. It gives spiritual strength. A man of Vairagya has no attraction for the material world. So Vairagya is a supreme, inexhaustible wealth for spiritual aspirants. Vairagya aids concentration of mind (Samadhana) and generates burning Mumukshutwa, or strong yearning for Liberation or Emancipation,

or Release. Raga is attachment to objects. Wherever there is a little pleasure, there is Raga. Wherever there is pain, there is dislike. Like and dislike are inter-related. Raga-Dwesha is also one of the important afflictions, according to Patanjali Maharshi. The five afflictions are Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga-Dwesha (like and dislike) and Abhinivesha (clinging to life). First, there is ignorance, the original Avidya. From this is born egoism, Asmita, and from Asmita is born Raga-Dwesha, and from Raga-Dwesha, Abhinivesha, or clinging to this

life. Vairagya is of different types or degrees—Mridu, Madhyama and Teevra (mild, moderate and intense). Intense Vairagya only will help the aspirant to stick to the spiritual path. If it is of a dull type like Smasana Vairagya, the mind will simply be waiting to get back the objects that were

renounced previously, and the aspirant will get a downfall. He will not be able to climb again to the heights he formerly reached. So, the aspirants should be careful. Even though their Vairagya is of a mild type, they should try to make it moderate and then intense.There is a common saying among Hindus"Let noe your vairagya be Smashana Vairagya or Prasuthi Vairaagya"...this means that let it not be temporary. Smashana Vairaagya--The vairagya which people have when they attend a funeral service of their beloved and then forget the next day about the ephemarility of life though highly philosphical the day of the funeral. Prasuthi Vairagya is even more funny--The woman who gives birth to a child says to herself that this will be her last child and she will have no more unable to bear the pangs of birth but once home she thinks of the sexual pleasure with her husband and forgets the previous resolve and the pain and does the act to produce another child! Vairagya comes through looking into the defects of sensual life. Sensual pleasure is not real happiness. It is illusory, transient, impermanent. It is mixed with pain. So, again and again by looking into the defects of sensual life, Vairagya dawns. It should be strengthened through the study of spiritual books, Satsanga, Vichara (discrimination) and enquiry. Vairagya should be born of discrimination, enquiry and analysis. By these, the mind is weaned from sensual enjoyments and rendered thin like a thread (Tanumanasi) and only then is Vairagya lasting. Again and again you will have to make enquiry. Physical nudity and external penance do not constitute real Vairagya. Real Vairagya should come from enquiry, Vichara. All these material objects do

not give us lasting happiness. They lead us unto pain and sorrow. Such deep enquiry, again and again persisted in for a very long time, produces lasting Vairagya. Vairagya is the real wealth for an aspirant. It helps him to do

real Sadhana. It makes the mind introvert. Vairagya puts a brake to the extrovert tendency of the mind. Even if the mind runs towards objects, at once Vairagya will point out that there is pain there, that sensual enjoyment is the cause for rebirth and intense suffering. So the mind is bridled, and gradually through intense practice, it is established in real, lasting, sustained, intense Vairagya. Vairagya is of two grades: Para (supreme) Vairagya and Apara (relative) Vairagya. Para Vairagya comes after one attains Self-realisation. The whole world then appears like a straw. This gives intense spiritual strength. Without Vairagya there cannot be any real spiritual progress. In Vedanta it is the only vital, fundamental Sadhana. If you have Vairagya, all other virtues will come by themselves. Patanjali Maharshi says: Abhyasavairagyabhyam tannirodhah—"the mind is controlled by meditation or Sadhana and Vairagya." They are the two wings of the aspirant to soar high into the realm of

Immortal Abode. The same thing Lord Krishna also says: Abhyasena tu Kaunteya, vairagyena cha grihyate—"the mind is controlled by practice and dispassion and intense detachment." By Vairagya, the mind is detached. He who works in a detached way is not bound by Karma (action). So it is the aspirants’ duty to cultivate this one virtue, or Sadhana-anka-Vairagya. Vairagya is, doubtless, a mental state whereby the mind does not run into sensual grooves. It moves towards Atman, towards God. Queen Chudalai ruled a kingdom, and yet she had absolute (Para) Vairagya. Even amidst the temptations of the world, she had mental Vairagya, through Vichara and wisdom. So she was not affected in the least by the attractive objects of the world, whereas her husband, Sikhidhwaja, went to the forest, renouncing his kingdom, and yet he was not established in Vairagya. He was attached to the body; he was attached to his Kamandalu (water-bowl). A man may get attached to any object. You see a 'Vairagi', the common type one comes across. His whole body is smeared with ash, but he will fight for a rupee if he finds you giving a rupee to another 'Vairagi'. This is his mental state. So by external appearance you cannot tell that one has Vairagya. Vairagya is a mental disposition. Sri Ramanuja does not belong to this extreme type of Vairagya—wearing only a rope loin cloth. He lived amidst luxurious things, but his mind was not polluted. He had that mental state of Vairagya, detachment, indifference, born of Viveka. Lord Krishna says

that He is not in favour of extreme asceticism: Karshayantah sareerastham bhootagramamachetasah, Mam chaivantahsareerastham tanvidhyasuranischayan—"They torture all the elements in the body and Me also who dwells in the body". Lord Buddha also tortured his body in the beginning but later on he found out that there was not much spiritual progress, and then he came to the golden medium, the middle path. So we should go by the middle path always. The body is an instrument for attaining Self-realisation. So you should not torture the body. Whatever is needed for the body, you should have. One more thing about the moon, moon is not a true light, but stands in the sky of our night to bear witness that the solar light, our god, is still shining. It thus also symbolizes the human body, which is surely not the light of spirit, yet in its structure and in its outward countenance, it reflects and bears witness to the divine spirit that animates it, the god hidden within. A man's spirit shines out on his face as the sun shines on the moon. This is a profound thing to

realize about the moon,--that it types our lower nature, which reflects the higher. But the most sublime element in the spiritual symbolism we are trying to depict comes next in the development of our theme. This is the eternal meaning connected with the sun's light on the moon that we are desirous of impressing in unforgettable vividness upon the imagination. This is the great fact which we would have you call to mind whenever you gaze upon the silvery orb from night to night. As the young crescent fills with light and rounds out its luminous circle, it is writing our spiritual history! It is preaching to us uncomprehending mortals the gospel truth about our own divinization. The growing expanse of light on the moon, we repeat, is the sign, symbol and seal of our own transfiguration into godhood! The spark of divinity implanted in our organisms must, to use one Biblical figure, gradually leaven the whole lump; to use another, must illuminate the whole bodily house. Grandly do the

texts of the Egyptian Book of the Dead express the features of this process. Horus in his resurrection is made to say, after enumerating the bodily members one by one: "There is no member of my body that is without a god." He means in effect that there is no portion of his nature that has not been divinized, i.e., purified, raised, transfigured with spiritual radiance. And this states the whole purpose of human life. The god came to dwell within us in order to transform our lower natures and lift them up to a harmony of vibration with his own ethereal personality. As we gaze upon the lunar crescent and see it go on toward the full, the vision should fortify us with the profoundest and sublimest truth about this mortal existence of ours, viz.: that we are in process of filling our very bodies with the mantling glow of an interior hidden light, which will steadily transform our whole nature with the beauty of its gleaming. The sight of the crescent (from Latin crescere, to grow)

should thrill us with the realization that little by little, life by life, divinity is creeping over us, spreading through us! The growing light on the moon is nature's sure pledge of our deification! Here is inspired writing of revelation by the hand of Nature herself. In this same great Egyptian Ritual (The Book of the Dead) there is the statement that "Osiris enters the moon on the sixth day." This has not heretofore been seen as of any pointed significance, because the symbolism has not been understood. As the moon types the woman, lunar typology was made to match feminine

functions, and the three dark days of the moon were extended to, or represented as, five, to equate the five days of the feminine period. As the ovum, the seed of life from above, descends into the womb for fecundation at the end of the period, it was used to type the descent of the god into incarnation after a period of pralaya or non-existence in a world of form, and the typism was transferred from the woman to the moon, her astronomical counterpart. Or the moon-goddess was simply figured as menstruating. I have alluded that the moon and woman are mutually representative in the typology. Now, to indicate that these parallelisms are not mere poetic fancies, but that they are grounded on actual affinities in nature, let us see if there is any actual bond of relationship between them. At once we are confronted with an amazing confirmation of the connection. The very basic functions of woman as female are controlled and timed by the 28-day cycle of the moon. There is nothing that can be added to this bare statement, but there is an infinite amount of thinking that can be done about it, to great profit. The great mystery of life is the mystery of sex, and here is one of the most startling phenomena connected with it all. Also, like Pythagoras' intoxication with the Music of the Spheres( Wisdom), the Indian Sages were infatuated with Knowledge. Many scientific truths were cognised by them in higher states of consciousness which came to be known as the Vedas. One such sage was Vararuchi, who discovered the interrelationship between numbers and letters of the alphabet. Moon is considered very important in Sidereal Astrology and mental strength depends on the strength of the Moon in one's natal chart. 5 Lessons which Chandra Deshika gives-- Lesson 1-- Wax and wane but still shine and remain! This is a life lesson. There will be ups and downs in life but still one must shine like the luminous moon and provide cooling and healing rays to others. Lesson 2-- Take the worst and give the best Moon has no light of its own but rather takes the energy of the sun and gives it to others. In other words it faces the brunt of the sun yet gives cool rays to the people in the night. One must be like that. This is unfortunately not followed by most people. They just show their frustrations and try to suck people's energies. Lesson 3--Embrace imperfection Moon though beautiful is known for its patches on its surface. This seems like an imperfection in its immaculate design but the moon is not worried it still gives the light and rather the spots add to its beauty. If one possesses any physical defects one should not brrod over it rather make it the beauty of one's life.Let it be a beauty spot not an eye sore. Rather there is nothing called eyesore...everything is a 'mind-sore' or a 'mind-beauty' Lesson 4---Light the path When the stars in the horizon are more powerful and bright than the moon yet they are far away from the earth and hence they do not give light as much the moon which gives sun's light.Yet it does great service to the earth by providing cooling and healing rays in the night.When the rich do not serve the poor serve

the poor with whatever resources you have without complaining. This metaphorical anent can be culled from this lesson. Now one can substitute the words 'rich' and 'poor' with any other concept too. Lesson 5--Be beautiful yet humble! The moon is very beautiful and shiny,yet it is not too hard on the eyes like the sun. It is however a great devotee of Lord Shiva. It adorns His head and hence

Lord Shiva is called Chadrashekara, Chandramouleeswara and other assorted appellations.Though he remains strewn all over His body with ashes the moon gives its divine beauty by adorning the God of Yogis', Shiva's, Divine Countenance. My heart leaps up when I behold A crescent in the sky; Its shadowed globe is night by night In fourteen segments, each more bright, At last in utmost splendor dight;-- My deity! The hidden Lord it manifests; The sun-bright god rides on its crests; In that grand light man ever, ever rests -------------------William Wordsworth Om Ayieem Hreem Shreem Shiva Rama Anagha Dattaya Namaha! Yours

yogically, Shreeram Balijepalli

 

 

 

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