Allegorical story of Nachiketa, the son of
Uddalak (on Vajashravas in some other traditions), is told in Katha Upanishad.[1]
There exists some back references from which conversation between Yama and a
child was reported.[2]
Nachiketa
observed that his father was donating only old, lame, barren or blind cows to
seek Divine blessings and fame; but such donations, as per the understanding of
the fellow boy, was not proper for fetching fame and glory for his father.[3]
Nachiketa wanted his father to donate some precious belongings to obtain fame
and glory for himself and for the entire territory. Nachiketa repeatedly
continued requesting his father to donate his precious belongings. In a fit of
anger his father said, "I give you unto Yamaraja Himself!"
Respecting words of his father Nachiketa
approached Yamaraja. Yama was out of residence during that time; the fellow boy
preferred waiting for Yama for three consecutive days and remained there
without having food and water.
After knowing the fact that a guest was
waiting at the doorstep without taking food and water, Yamaraja wanted to
compensate for the type of mistake and said, "You have waited in my house
for three days without hospitality; therefore ask three boons from me."
The fellow boy wanted fame, glory and
spiritual contentment for his father; he also wanted to learn particulars about
sacred fire sacrifices. First two demand of Nachiketa were accepted gladly by
Yamaraja and ther fellow boy received all such blessings and relevant
knowledge.
The third one my maste, “what comes after
death of this body?”
Yamaraja preferred avoiding the third subject
by giving excuses related to tender age of the fellow boy, “You are too young
to learn about such a complicated subject, Nachiketa. Ask for something else.
This subject is not clear even to gods!
…”, Yama said.
Yamaraja continued explaining real nature of
Atman which is considered immortal and remain beyond the scope of the
regulations of birth and death by elaborating following points:
1.
The
sound of Pranava (Om) is the syllable of the supreme Brahman which brings
enlightenment in the physical existence of the living form.
2.
The
Atman, alternatively Pranava or symbol Om, is the same in terms of its true
nature as the omnipresent Brahman. Smaller than the smallest in material
manifestations and larger than the largest at the realm of universal presence,
the Soul (Atman) is formless, beyond the scope of qualities and all-pervading.
3.
The
goal of the wise during the span of the living status is to know this Atman
(Soul force) as it is the only self illuminating source which persists even
after physical death of the organism.
4.
The
Atman can be considered as a rider; the horses are the senses which moves
frequently towards sense objects, which receives guidance through the maze of
desires, wills and wishes.
5.
After
death, it is the immortal Atman (or Soul force) that remains in the context;
6.
Mere
reading of the scriptures or intellectual learning, without masterly guidance
or assistance of a Divine teacher, or without addressing to the interpretations
of the Divine master, one cannot realise the true nature of Atman (or Soul
force).
7.
One
must recognise the Atman while remaining independent of the bodily
manifestations, which is the seat of desire, impulses, passion and illusions.
8.
The
inability to realise Brahman results in one being trapped badly in the turmoil
of desires, sense objects, passions and greed; only proper understanding of the
Self leads to liberation.
Wider dimensions and expanded coverage of the teachings of Gita
often make people worried about what to follow and what not to follow in real
life. Also in some cases it becomes difficult to think about propositions in
the actual ground. Because of lack of timely relevant practical knowledge of
the situation, people even keep themselves aside from following and
internalising teachings of the holy book in the real life situation. Approach
of such religious and cultural teaching, therefore, should have proper
considerations of some practical aspects of rituals and worships.
Some people
maintain a view regarding Gita is that the entire aspects depicted in this holy
book are a confusing one. Saints from olden times worked differently to show
that Gita is much relevant in terms of rituals and propositions presented in
it. Here also we are trying to trace out a link up in between rituals,
traditions and practices that we have in nature to re-establish the age old
faiths of the omnipresence of divine within us at its varying formats.
We can see things as they occupy a definite
shape. We cannot see energy and power due to their in capabilities of occupying
space. To feel the presence of such powers in our surrounding, we often take
the support of our senses and feelings. In some cases our observations are
evidence based, in some other cases it may have some imaginary propositions.
Here comes the act of limitations that restrict us to feel Ultraviolet and
Infrared [4]radiations
which remained off the band of the visible spectrum and duly restricted our
sense of vision seven visible waves of light.
There arises another question related to our effort of analyzing the
relevance of the teachings of The Gita in present day situation. It was the
instructions delivered by Lord Krishna to Arjun during the epic age of Vedic
Civilisation. That time war had its presence in the scope of royal management.
That time conflicts had a final termination to war for making efforts a result
oriented. Sins and sinners had their presence in olden times and are still
there with us today; format and geo-locations might vary; arms and ammunitions
might differ. Even from the pages of history we can see how Prince Ashoka
smashed the Kingdom of Kalinga only because that kingdom had refused to
hand-over the murderer of his mother to him.
Later on the war and the loss of lives of many innocent people had
implied a deep impression in his mind and he had decided to refuse to take part
in any other battle simply meant for territorial expansion. Teachings of The
Gita have worked differently during different instances of the development of
conflicts and agony.
Since conflicts and agony are beyond the scope of any historic time
line, we can correlate teachings of any instances to prepare strategic actions
of any other present day sectoral management plans. It has the impetus of the
absolute knowledge of human actions, wishes, wills and conducts with absolute
apprehension of delivering the needful.
The reason of discontentment,
sorrow and agony of Arjun after entering the battle field was rejected
instantly by Lord Krishna through implying a sanction of his indulgence in the
war. Killing any individual or creating another one is not the role of any
warrior. A warrior can deliver the duty in time with a clear impetus of making
the wiser side victorious. Sinners will lose their lives because of their
mis-conducts only.
It is the right place to mention about
Upanishads, often referred as Vedantas, as they exhibit doctrines, rituals and
worship patters prevalent in later Vedic Civilisation.[5] Those rituals and doctrines were duly
incorporated in the great epics to make all sorts of teachings easy to
understand. The Bhagavadgita along with majority of Upanishads and Brahmasutra
are known as PRASTHANATRAYEE.[6]
These three scriptures were studied extensively time to time to inculcate more
relevant knowledge related to Divinity and Spirituality. Out of 108 known texts
of Uapnishads only a dozen from the initial collection are considered as
Primary (MUKHYA).[7]
Concluding parts of Brahmans and Aranyaks are also filled with Mukhya
Upanishads.[8]
Authorship of all the anonymous tests duly collected from the garden of
Upanishads is unknown. Group of saints might have collected and represented
their lessons in the form of a collection.[9]
Conversation between women like Maitreyi and Gargi are also inscribed in the
holy texts of Uanishads.[10]
Root of all such creations is principally radiated out time to time in
different forms and also in different sectorian units from Vedas.
Pluralism of world view was characterised by the Upanishadic age;
gradually inclined more towards dualism by combining Sankhya and Yoga doctrines
efficiently.[11] The
Bhagavadgita moved on a step forward by incorporating Vedanta along with
Upanishadic dcotrines with an aspirations of delivering a common pattern of
rituals, social formats and political will to the youths of the olden times.
Maitri Upanishad aspires for attainment of reverence and completeness by
human beings with the help of the knowledge of Brahmans and repeated practices
of meditation on such knowledge by the self.[12]
Further study of the Bhagavadgita reveals
all such studies like the gradual unfoldment of petals of a lotus.
In the modern world we have various types of
cultural and religious thought process possessing rituals, customs and
traditions of different types , which are equally competent to enrich people in
terms of knowledge, devotion, courage, will power and dedication. The way we
receive each culture to enrich our multiplurality will specify our degrees and
ranges of success. Our motive force will guide accordingly to explore
possibilities of working out converged cultural segments from all the rituals
to move up towards vibrant waves of multi plurality.
India , at this juncture of the development of
multiplurality, will be a best example for all of us. Here people learned a lot
to live with each other, tolerate each other and enrich each other differently.
We cannot
see light. Even we cannot see the propagation of sound through the material
medium. Light strikes our eye, reaches our brain and develops a sensation of
vision through certain life process of vision. With some sort of illusion, or
lack of true knowledge only, we often claim that we can see light. Even all the
colours radiated out from the sun are not recognisable by us. If God resides
inside the individual, if all mysteries related to the ascent of a person on
the path of divinity, then why any devotee search it out for gaining the
blessings of any Divine power located outside the physically existing body? Why
such a dwindling situation any individual face during the tenure of worship?
Lord
Krishna narrated essence of feeling the Divine communion with the physically
existing life through witnessing cultivation of knowledge, actualisation of the
presence of any supreme power in sub conscious mind and possible ways and means
to follow that power. It enables an
individual to come across the feeling of the advent of some completeness in the
mind through knowledge transformation. Cultivation of knowledge regarding the
relationship of the divine and disciple is enrouted from the age old traditions
through the turmoil of the organic evolution. That evolution brought some
change in the process of exhibits, but the core remained the same. It was even more
perpetual and more profound regarding the ability of harnessing the
relationship of matter and energy. We cannot imagine the existence of matter
without the involvement of energy, and similarly energy takes a definite
visible form to occupy certain space in this universe.
How do
people see things and how do they correlate such unavoidable relationship of
energy and matter is depend upon the level of understanding that one adheres
with. A master of Physics and a master of Phylosophy must have varying degree
of explanations for putting forth the mystery behind the mechanism involved
during inter-conversion of matter and energy. All organic combinations have
certain physical and chemical sets of combinations in such a definite ways that
they inculcate the abilities of interactions and abilities of giving birth to
senses. Even evolution of sensory structures and related orientations became
much collaborative in case of human beings. Here occurs a change which brought
us near the state of explorations meant for examining the hidden mysteries
behind creation and orientation of life forms in the living planet.
These
days, things are known to us that earth like situation exists in the universe.
Only the matter of concern is that we may not be able to reach the place even
after attaining the speed as that of light in a year or two. Only we can admire
the presence and orientation of such creations within our visibility. Only we
can explore and examine such things with the help of optical and electronic
instruments. With an understanding of such limitations human beings never
arranged any voyage to explore the inner world of senses that can allow us to
explore the outer orientation of time and space. Such an inner world
exploration may require a little effort to culminate senses within a
confinement for feeling the presence. There also resides a tremendous flux of
energy accumulated within such a small space. Those mysterious combinations
taking the form of life were explored differently by saints during olden times.
There
developed a science of explorations of the correlations of the Creation and the
Divine. Matter and energy indulged in a perfect orientation for letting senses
flow through them. Arrangement and orientation of all our senses are directed
outwardly. That is why we are bound to receive waves and sparks from the
outside world. Our inner world remains unexplored in most of the cases. Only
adherence of true knowledge and the journey of senses through inner world
during meditation can pave a way out for exploring our own self. Meditation is
the doorstep where orientation of senses get diverted towards the inner world
and bring out mysteries associated to the fact of accommodation of the Divine
power inside the living being.
Is
that Divine power is restricted to the human beings only? The answer is,
obviously and surely without any doubt, No. human beings has gained some sort
of evolutionary supremacy in due course of time, but other beings are also of
same potential and courage with a domination of animism in them. Dogs are loyal
to their master, cats exhibit better vigilance power, elephants are more
socialised beings having better memory power and tigers are the masters of
their own territory. Taking hold upon the surrounding and defining the role
according to trophic [13]
level, we can easily arrange these beings and others without any difficulty.
Philosophical and Spiritual supremacy is a step forward that makes a
distinction between other animals and human beings. Then also we can witness
inhuman acts from human beings and humanly acts from some inhuman animals. The
orientation of sense organ and correlation of senses and sensory responses with
memory and intellect is the only factor regulating such varying degrees and
conducts of animismic and hunmanismic behaviours.
Presence
of such a Divine power within the creation is the reason behind the maintenance
of an idea of serving humanity with a correlated apprehension of serving
God. Only God cannot put a direct access
to the feelings of the presence of such immense power within us. It is the
approach with which we offer our services to living beings can develop a way
out for us to feel the difference.
Once
during pre-independent period in Bombay (at present Mumbai) a youth from some semi urban place approached
a saint for offering himself at the service to divine. It made the saint happy.
He wanted to know the exact reason behind his stand of doing so. Saint also
enquired about his capabilities and considered his offering a wise one.
Actually the fellow was searching jobs in the city. He was also a normal
Graduate from any sub –urban area and his financial situation was also not so
good. Perhaps the sacrifice might make him temporarily happy and contented, but
will become a burden in due course of time. With happiness saint suggested him
for searching out a suitable job and helping the parents and inmates of the
family financially. Only After gaining some wealth and knowledge the person can
really enjoy the glory of sacrifice. Right now the person has nothing special
to sacrifice. Such sacrifice inflicted with sorrow and agony may put both the
master and the disciple in trouble.
Even
divine cannot allow any individual to put oneself and families in trouble and
agony. It is the only state of contentment that helps a person during movement
from the physical world to the spiritual world. Offerings of any kind and in
any particular form will bring happiness.
[1] Satyamayananda, Swami (2019). Ancient Sages. Advaita Ashrama (A
publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math). p. 195. ISBN
978-81-7505-923-8.
[2] Rigveda (10.135), Taittiriya Brahman; Sabha
Parva, Section IV of The Mahabharata.
Reference: Radhakrishnan, S. (1994). The
Principal Upanishads. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India. ISBN
81-7223-124-5 p. 593.
[3] Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester, Breath of the
Eternal http://www.atmajyoti.org/up_katha_upanishad_text.asp Archived 29 April
2011 at the Wayback Machine
[4] Both Ultraviolet and Infrared
Radiations are the parts of the invisible band of spectrum incorporated in the
Solar Radiation. Our visual sense organ can feel the presence of only visible
spectrum comprising seven different colours.
[5] Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic
Literature: (Saṃhitās and Brahmanas), Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN
978-3447016032
[6] Ranade, R. D. (1926), A constructive survey
of Upanishadic philosophy, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
[7] E Easwaran (2007), The
Upanishads, ISBN 978-1586380212, pages 298-299
[8] Mahadevan, T. M. P
(1956), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (ed.), History of Philosophy Eastern and
Western, George Allen & Unwin Ltd
[9] S Radhakrishnan, The Principal Upanishads
George Allen & Co., 1951, pages 22, Reprinted as ISBN 978-8172231248
[10] Ellison Findlay (1999),
Women and the Arahant Issue in Early Pali Literature, Journal of Feminist Studies
in Religion, Vol. 15, No. 1, pages 57-76
[11] Glucklich, Ariel (2008),
The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective, Oxford
University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-531405-2
[12] Hume, Robert Ernest
(1921), The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Oxford University Press, pp. 412–414
[13]. A Trophic livel signifies the food habit of
organisms during their representation as they exhibit in a food chain. Green
Plants, for example prepares their own food with the help of sunlight and
secures the first position in a food chain and basic position in the food
pyramid. Second trophic level is occupied by herbivores, followed by carnivores
at the third.
No comments:
Post a Comment