Thus Spake the Divine - Why should there be need for God? To establish peace with Advaita!

Thus Spake the Divine

Why should there be need for God? To establish

peace with Advaita!

In this chapter, Poojyasri Maha Periyava elucidates the concept of Bhakti towards God, which should be practised by living beings as a means for attaining an enlightened state.

This Cosmos has been functioning systematically in the highest order. Therefore, there should exist a God, who must have created this Cosmos and is administering it effectively. This is the view of theists, those who believe in the existence of God. These theists staunchly believe that “every action has a reaction; likewise, it is the God who monitors our actions, and rewards and reprimands us based on the nature of our actions”. Some might object saying “It is He who has created all of us at His own will and wish without our consent. Just because He has created us, we are undergoing a lot of sorrows in life. Then, why should we practice Bhakti?”

To answer this question, if the theist says, “He has the competence to resolve our problems and for that purpose you need to offer him Bhakti”, there can still be objections. They may retort, “If you say that we should pray to him and only if we pray to him He will resolve our problems, then it means that He is not an embodiment of grace and compassion as you claim!” Or some may say, “You say that He gives rewards and reprimands after weighing the nature of our actions; in that case, if He punishes us for our bad and evil acts, then how can we pray to Him to alter His own rules?”

The great sage Neelakanda Dheekshidhar, in his “Anandha Sagara Sthavam”, answers the above question. “Oh! Goddess Meenakshi! I don’t need to tell you anything! You are omniscient! Still, if I don’t speak out my sorrows outwardly, my heart is heavily burdened. Speaking them out to you gives me temporary solace and energy. That’s why, though you entirely know my problems, I am still telling you my problems and worries.”

Nobody can isolate oneself without sharing one’s own sorrows and worries. By speaking them out openly, you get some peace of mind. Instead of sharing one’s worries with somebody, who is reluctant in listening to the same, it is better we share them with God. God might sometimes resolve our worries by pouring His grace on us even without our asking; or He might punish us for our sinful actions as per the set rules; or He might, without altering the state of worry, give us the resilience to endure our own worries.

Whatever be His reactions, it is better we appeal to Him, so that it gives us peace of mind.

What I am saying about Bhakti to God is not to pray for getting relieved of our sorrows alone. Nor do I say that we should extend Bhakti to God as an act of gratitude for having given us a happy life. If I say so, in that sense, some might raise objection saying that “He who planted the tree must only water the tree. Similarly, God, who has created us, should take care of us. It is His duty. For this, why should we be grateful to Him?”

Therefore, I am not asking you to extend Bhakti in all these senses. Then, why did I mention about Bhakti? Let me explain. The two words, “Happiness” and “Sorrow” are two states of mind, which always keep figuring in our thoughts. What is true state of happiness (Anandham) is an unwavering, resolute mind. All other states of happiness are not permanent and everlasting. When we sleep or when we are inactive, there is no state of happiness or sadness. However, we are also not consciously undergoing those feelings when we sleep. So, it is important that we should have absolute consciousness that we are at peace within our heart. Once we reach that state of mind, there is nothing parallel to it. Only because there is something called “Mind” (Manasu) that exists and generates different kinds of thoughts, the very thought appears that “We, the Jeevatma, exist apart from the Paramatma.” If the “Mind” becomes still and tranquil, this distinction between the Jeevatma

and Paramatma will vanish away. We will also reach a stage of tranquillity, where there is nothing else that exists, except the Paramatma. This is the doctrine of Advaita. We experience the feeling of immense Advaita philosophy once we bring our “Mind” to a halt, with the objective of attaining peace and calmness. To attain that state of mind, we should keep meditating on something, which is prevalent at the level of peace and calmness. If we keep contemplating about a particular substance, the very same thought converts us into that substance, which we have been thinking of. This has even been scientifically accepted. That is why, to signify delightfulness and serenity, the ideal example is only God.

God appears highly calm and composed and un-exhausted, despite ruling this Cosmos and managing the various requirements of living beings and responding to them based on their actions. The God is also called “Sthanu”, which means “Wooden Plank” or “Dead Wood”. It is a live tree but will still appear numb and insensitive. The creeper, which goes around this wood is called “Aparna” meaning “without leaves”. The creeper symbolises the Goddess Who, without any emotional outburst of feelings, is clinging around the wood symbolised as God, who has life but appear as though not having any sensation. If we think of God, we experience both the feelings of wisdom and calmness in our heart. So, by persistently meditating on God, we tend to seamlessly attain both wisdom and calmness. That’s why I am saying, “To reach such a stage, we need God and for meditating on Him, we should have Bhakti.”

Irrespective of whether we approach God for getting rid of our worries or to extend our gratitude to Him for having blessed us with a happy life, once the thought about God gets stronger and stronger, our mind automatically gets depleted of entangling thoughts of “happiness and sadness”. We transfer our burden of worries and problems at the feet of God and attain a stress-free feeling that let things take their own turn as deemed fit by His grace. Then, some kind of blissful feeling with tranquillity will prevail in our heart. This state of mind is the one that holds us in an immortal state and makes us feel full and complete, as against the feeling of endless insufficiencies.

Self-inquiry, meditation and yoga are the tools using which we can transform our minds into ‘dead wood’ and live life in its complete sense. You may question as to why I am insisting on Bhakti instead of practising the above tools. Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavadpada calls this state of mind as Moksha, where the mind is void without any action or thoughts, including by not doing Bhakti as an action. Again you may be confused why I ask you to do Bhakti to God. Acharya, in one instance, has made a statement that “Bhakti is the best means among all others to achieve Moksha, provided I opt to take it to my advantage.” In the next line itself, he gives a new definition for Bhakti. He says “To keep interrogating the unpretentious state of Atma and getting immersed into the same Atma is what Bhakti is.” According to him, Bhakti refers to the state of self-inquiry, meditation and yoga, and not Bhakti as defined by me earlier.

Generally, there is a belief that “Consciousness” holds the supreme status. Self-inquiry, meditation and yoga are all slightly less superior to being conscious. Bhakti, Pooja and religious travels are all much inferior. Different kinds of rituals, customs and religious activities are much more inferior to the concept of Bhakti.

This belief is quite strong among the educated people of these days, i.e. it is superstitious to talk of Karma and it is just sentimental to practice Bhakti. Only self-inquiry and meditation and yoga are spiritual.

Though Acharya, who has advocated the Advaita doctrine, which insists that one should be devoid of any actions or thoughts in the mind and submerge oneself into one’s own Atma, he has also recommended the path of wisdom (Jnyana Margam). He has further endorsed the path of Bhakti (Bhakti Margam), which involves various rituals and customs that are carried out using the mind. He has done this because we, who are stuck in this Cosmos, are designed with thoughts (chiththam), which keep oscillating without stopping at any point. They do not intend to stop even for a second. At such times, if one can stop the mind with determination that there is no one act or one thought, even then the chiththam would run hither and thither. Thoughts keep travelling in all the four directions. Because of our own feelings of compassions, animosities, fears and happiness, we keep on planning to do some or the other act. That is why to initiate someone into just holding the mind still and immerse in one’s own Atma is not achievable in reality.

What is the reason for not being able to control the mind? It is only because of the karma of our earlier births (Opera Janma Karma). In birth after birth, we have committed different kinds of blunders and sinful activities. Till the time these sins are not washed aw ay fully, we will not be able to realise the blissful state of experiencing our own Atma. Only when the Ishvara (God), who is the administrator of our actions and benefactor of rewards and punishments according to our actions, sets off all our sins by way of punishing us and thereby extinguishing our sins, we will be able to reach that everlasting blissful state.

How to get liberated from our sins? This can happen only through our good deeds (Punya). With enormous grace and compassion, Ishvara offers another birth to the individual again, with the hope that he would liberate himself from the sins of one birth at least in the next birth. But what do we do? In this new birth, we not only refrain from doing fresh good deeds that would off-set the erstwhile sins, we even continue to commit sinful activities and accumulate them into a bigger baggage. Only with a view not to multiply our sins enormously and to free ourselves from our sins has the Acharya placed Karma and Bhakti as part of Jnyana (wisdom).

Sins are of two kinds; one is the sin committed by the body and the other is the evil thoughts borne through the mind. To get rid of the bad karma, we should do good karma. To get rid of evil and sinful thoughts, we should inculcate virtuous thoughts.

Thoughts and actions are closely associated. If one is sitting idle without any actions, a lot of unnecessary thoughts will arise. There is a proverb in English, which says “Idle mind is a devil’s workshop”. That is why, if the mind has to stay still and become capable of acquiring the wisdom of Advaita, first and foremost, that mind should be cleansed. In the beginning, Acharya establishes the Veda karmas only with the belief that the mind can be cleansed with these karmas. Inculcating helping tendency, a service mind set and willingness to sacrifice are all good thoughts that can offset the sinful evil thoughts. This can be put in a common term “Compassion”. To divert this “compassion” towards the Paramatma, who is the source of the entire universe, there is a process called Bhakti. Since that Paramatma is our source of existence, if we manage to divert our mind towards Him, then the mind stands attached to the Paramatma. All the evil thoughts vanish away and the essence of sins so far being carried forward by us from several births also gets dissolved by way of persistent reminiscence of the Paramatma. Thus, the mind assumes the exotic state of clinging tightly to the Paramatma. Prior to reaching the stage, where the mind is completely non-existent, what is needed is to hold on to the Paramatma tightly in our mind. If the mind, which is moving around in thousands of crores of directions, could at the end cling to Paramatma, it will get dissolved and halt at a state of eternal blissfulness.

To accomplish such meditating state (Dhyana Yoga), which helps us to hold back our mind on just one substance, the Paramatma, Bhagavadpada has propounded Karma and Bhakti as the facilitating tools.

Bhakti, which originates through recital of mantras, doing Pooja, travelling to religious places etc., assimilates the mind towards Paramatma and gradually, we will start experiencing the true character of Paramatma, which is possessed with absolute serenity. I am asking all of you to extend Bhakti to Paramatma because it is this Bhakti that will gradually lead one nearer to a trance state of motionlessness, tranquil mind, which can be experienced not in an unconscious, inactive or sober state, but with absolute consciousness. Therefore, instead of using Bhakti as a tool for liberating ourselves from the sorrows associated with this life of cyclical recurrence of birth and death, Bhakti towards Ishvara should be used as the means towards attaining self-awareness and immerse ourselves within self-harmony.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in & across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture & Tradition.