Part Two
The Rain of God's grace falls and liberates us.
In the Guru Gita, Parvati asks Shiva how the individual Soul returns to God, its source. How to explain such a subtle spiritual subject?
In Mangalore during the monsoon the villagers put up temporary grass huts, but some water drops always leak through the grass roof. As those drops form into puddles on the mud floor, little bubbles or air are forced up to form bubbles on the puddle, where they float and bump together and sometimes merge into a bigger bubble. But in due course they all merge back into the air. Our lives are like that. We are trapped like the air in earth consciousness. The rain of God's grace falls and liberates us from the earth, to merge into the All. Otherwise, there is no particular significance to our lives; just bubbles coming and going, meeting and departing.
Man's situation is therefore similar to a boat going down a broad river to meet the ocean of Paramatma, from where he originates and to whom he is returning. On the left bank are squalid buildings, thorn bushes, and a foul smell; misery, degradation and deprivation reign supreme. The right bank however has a marble ghat, beautiful buildings, soft green grass, fruit-laden trees and fragrant breezes. The left bank represents hell - sin, pain, disease and death and the right bank represents heaven - pleasure, happiness, and plenty.
By performing good, virtuous actions, a man finds himself on right bank and by performing egotistical and evil actions, on the left.
Actually of the two, the left is preferable because when a man find himself there he tries his utmost to free himself by performing good actions (punya). The force of his punya propels him to the opposite bank where he soon forgets his previous misery and starts to lose himself in the pleasure of his life there. Soon he forgets that the reason for his existence is to know God and that his goal is to merge into the ocean. After his merit or punya is exhausted, he again finds himself on the left bank of hell.
What then is the solution to the pairs of opposites - pleasure and pain, heaven and hell? A wise man understands his predicament and realizing his destination is the ocean, dedicates all his actions to God. Keeping a watchful eye on both banks, he avoids getting too close to either and steers his boat straight down the middle of the river until he reaches the ocean of God.
Babaji is, therefore, very clear that the individual soul's journey is to return to its source. This is called moksha, or self-realization, and there is no real peace until we discover Him in us and us in Him.
If the goal of human life is to return to one's spiritual source, how can this be achieved? What is this process by which the individual soul at last merges into the ocean from which it came?
The journey can take many forms and in the Indian tradition the four classic yogas are jnan (knowledge), bhakti (devotion), raja (meditation), and hatha (postures). In practice, a seeker (sadhak) will tend to find the correct balance of practices according to his individual temperament and the instructions of his guru. The grace of God and guru and self-effort are often said to be the two of the bird of liberation.
The journey a seeker undertakes is called sadhana. The trials, tribulations, and tests along the way are often known as tapasya. The process of sadhana demands sustained faith and effort , as well as grace. The story of Yudhisthira and his dog is a classic story of the soul's journey and the ways in which it is tested.
Yudhisthira's Journey
After Krishna's death, knowing that it was time for them to die, Draupadi and the five Pandavas went on their last pilgrimage to the place in the Himalayas where earth meets heaven. Only Yudhisthira was virtuous enough to reach the final destination. The others all died at different stages along the way. So, at last Yudhisthira, accompanied by his faithful dog, was met by a heavenly chariot to take him bodily to heaven. However, when his dog was refused entry, Yudhisthira also refused to board the chariot. They had been faithful companions since the beginning of the journey and either they would both be given entry to heaven or neither! At that point, the dog revealed his true form as none other than Yama, the King of Death, whose test Yudhisthira had now passed, thus conquering death himself.
However, his trials were not yet over. Yudhisthira found that nowhere in heaven were his beloved brothers and companions. On asking their whereabouts he was shown a misty region like hell itself, where they had been imprisoned. He resolved, “I'll stay there with them. Where my loved ones are is my heaven.'
Upon these words the blackness and horror of hell vanished and he passed beyond the appearance of heaven and hell into the true eternal being of God.
In a sense, all the obstacles Yudhisthira encounters on his journey are aspects of his own mind and the misty region represents its confusion and ability to project phantasmagorical images onto reality. Yudhisthira's journey can be seen as an analogy of the Soul's journey to reality and the obstacles it must overcome.
Here, the great mystery of the soul's struggle for emancipation and freedom is analogized. With God - like power and subtlety, the soul projects or creates situations, tests, and scenarios upon the screen of existence, which it then passes through and emerges purified. The Sadhak or seeker is one who understands the various scenarios of life to be opportunities for spiritual growth and ultimate freedom from the dream of phenomenal existence.
Worldly Awareness
Whatever role destiny has given us to perform, we will have to play out to the end. It is true that a man is born with a destiny and that he will have to suffer the fruit of his actions.
Some people say there is no reincarnation but it is a fact, nevertheless, that we take birth according to our deeds. Still, even if we cannot escape from our destiny, at least we can do something to lighten its load, its effect on us. If we meditate and contemplate God, we experience bliss and happiness in spite of our past actions. That is the greatness of Sadhana.
However, if your awareness is purely focused on the level of the world of created things and appearances, then you will be besieged by differences: man and woman, beautiful and ugly, young and old. But as your vision becomes more spiritual, everything will start to look the same. All you see, finally, will be God. All countries, castes, young and old are permeated by God, yet God exists independently of all these forms. All is Him, pervading the whole creation.
But we as his creatures love our individual manifestation. Every creature is happy with itself and believes it is great. The skinny, mange-ridden dog whom the children pelt with stones wants to live, not die. The bird that flies says, 'Let me live, I am happy being who I am.' So it is with us.
The Pig and the King's Son
There was once a king who was also a devotee of God prayed and practiced spiritual discipline until one day God appeared in his meditation and said, 'All your efforts have born their fruit and after only one more birth, you will come to Me.'
Overjoyed, the King asked the nature of his next and final birth and was aghast to hear that he would take birth as a pig in a certain nearby village.
When he was on his deathbed, he called his eldest son and confided in him the vision he had received. Overruling his son's protests, he made him promise that after waiting a certain time, the son should go to a nearby village and cut the throat of the pig there, thus liberating the soul of the king, his father. With this parting message, the king died.
After the specified time had elapsed, the king's son went to the village to fulfill his promise. After inquiring from a passing villager he found an old dilapidated building and inside it was an enormous sow lying in filth grunting contentedly with a string of piglets squealing and suckling on her teats. Brandishing the knife he had brought for the job, the son advanced toward the sow, who suddenly saw him and said, 'No, don't do it! I am very content here and my life here is very good. Anyway, if you kill me, who will look after my babies?'
Therefore, we have to rise above the awareness of identification with our particular manifestation. We must transcend the world of jivatma (individual soul) and attain the awareness of Paramatma (universal soul). Only then will we be able to see the real situation, the truth.
Kali Yuga
One day a man from Swami Muktananda's ashram in Ganeshpuri asked about the present era, its pitfalls, and how to avoid falling into them. Babaji asked if the man had heard of a scripture called Guru Charitra. Babaji advised everyone present of the book's greatness and added that it contains many stories and spiritual upadesh (teaching). It also includes the Guru Gita, which is a song in which Shiva tells Parvati the secrets of the guru-disciple relationship.
Babaji added that the book contained a story which answered the man's question.
Brahma, the creator, was holding court one day when suddenly a naked, demonic figure appeared dancing wildly in front of the assembled company. One hand held a long, slobbering tongue and the other, his sex organ. Outraged at this desecration of protocol and decency, Brahma ordered the creature seized, whereupon he shouted 'In Kali Yuga (the present iron age) I will take over the world by my power. By giving rise to the mis-use and perversion of the sex organ and the tongue, through speaking deceit, slander, and lies. I will degrade and control the entire world. Even great sages and sanyassis will fall by my power.'
The court was appalled to hear this and Brahma made Kali promise not to affect those doing sincere, intense, spiritual sadhana and those singing the name of God. Because of the difficulty in maintaining silence during Kali Yuga, the singing of God's name is especially emphasized though other practices such as satsang and the darshan of saints are also included.
A special paradoxical characteristic is that an earnest devotee can achieve during Kali Yuga, in a very short time, what in other yugas would take very long. Babaji's emphasis here was that a sincere seeker could achieve spiritual knowledge very quickly and that he should not feel downhearted or adversely influenced by the apparent perversity of the age.
Nevertheless, we should not forget the element of effort involved in the sadhana process.
Making butter from milk is hard work and we have to do the work ourselves. Similarly, it is we ourselves who have to churn the milk of the mind in order to separate the butter of atma, which dwells hidden within it. We cannot hope our guru is going to do this work for us!
The Fruits of Tapasya - Swing, Bud and Blossom
Once there was a pundit who used to tell beautiful stories or fables which attracted listeners in many different regions. He would tell his audience, 'If you want to give dakshina, give me money earned through the sweat of your brow. Only this money swings, buds, and blossoms.'
One day he visited a kingdom and as usual told his fables. His listeners grew until they included the king and his ministers. Just before he was to leave, the king thought to himself, 'I do no hard work and have no money earned with the sweat of my brow. But this pundit tells such beautiful stories, I must give him what he asks for.'
So one night he shed his king's apparel and dressed as a poor man. Approaching a blacksmith he asked for work making the steel bands which are then fitted around bullock cart wheels.
'Strike this metal all night until it is a fine band and I will give you one anna,' agreed the blacksmith. So the king started pounding the metal with fine blows. He had a good body and soon the sweat began to pour from him. In the morning he took the one anna earned with such effort and returned to the palace. That afternoon was the last appearance of the pundit and was the time when he would be paid his dakshina by those who had been attending his storytelling. It was usual for people to place dakshina in proportion to the amount given by the king. Everyone expected the king to give a large sum, as he looked so pleased! The dakshina plate was handed to the king and everyone watched carefully and then gasped as the king took the one anna and placed it in the plate. His ministers, of course, had to place proportional amounts and everyone, therefore, gave a tiny donation amounting to only a few annas.
The pundit looked down and saw the pitiful sum. He continued his story but inside his heart there was great pain. ‘I have been telling stories here for a full month. What will I have to support my family?’
Now there happened to be some merchants from his home town there, who said, 'Panditji, you have been here a full month. You must have earned something to be sent to your wife at home.’
‘What can I do ?’ replied the pundit. ‘A few annas is all I have earned in my month here. What will my wife say? All right, give it to her but say that I am going to travel for another four or five months telling stories before coming home, in order to earn.’
Now the merchants were shrewd businessmen and thought ’What can we buy here that we could sell later at a good profit ? We cannot give his wife merely a few annas.'
They decided on lemons and bought five of them and set off. On their way home they happened to pass through a region where the local king's son was very ill. He was unconscious and the king's doctors advised that the only medicine that would save him was one made from lemons. However, there were none to be had in that region and finally, in desperation, the king announced that 10,000 rupees would be given for a lemon. The merchants produced the five lemons and were given 50,000 rupees in return.
So, the kind merchants arrived home and presented the pundit's wife with 50,000 rupees.
'Your husband sent you this money,' they said. Now the wife thought, 'Let me buy a plot of land and build a two-story house. She bought nice clothes for the children and took on servants and the family lived happily. After five months the pundit returned and saw his wife standing on the second floor of a big house in a beautiful sari. 'How did you get to look like that?’ he asked and to live in a house like this?'
‘This is all ours’, she replied. 'It is all the result of the money you sent with the merchants.'
'The money the merchants brought bought this ?’: he shouted furious and humiliated.
Now, the merchants heard what was going on and explained what had happened, adding, 'Don't be angry. She has done nothing wrong.'
Then the pundit realized that it was absolutely true. This was, indeed the fruit of the dakshina given in the kingdom. This was money earned with sweat that swings, buds, and blossoms.
Babaji added, "Money earned through hard work produces good fruit. By eating food earned through personal effort, a person's knowledge and intellect grows. Without effort and hard work, one receives no happiness, but only sorrow.”
Similarly, the process of sadhana requires sincere effort and the process of discovering the truth hidden within us is generally accomplished through the stages of puja (worship), japa (recitation of a mantra or mantras), and finally, meditation.