Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 45, September 3
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityor ma amrtam gamaya
Om Santissantissantihi
Please lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. May there be peace.
Guru Dhyanam: Gurur Brahmaa, Sri Bhooyuta.. , Ajnana .. Akhanda, Dehe …, Akhandam ..
Yoga Vasishtha Dhyana Slokas:
yatassarvāṇi bhūtāni pratibhānti sthitāni ca
yatraivōpaśamaṁ yānti tasmai satyātmanē namaḥ || 1
jñātā jñānaṁ tathā jñēyaṁ draṣṭādarśana dr̥śyabhūḥ
kartā hētuḥ kriyā yasmāt tasmai jñaptyātmanē namaḥ || 2
sphuranti sīkarā yasmāt ānanandasyāṁbarē vanau
sarvēṣām jīvanam tasmai brahmānandātmanē namaḥ || 3
Brahmanandam, Sri Vasishtham Namami, Ramaya, Aapadaamapahartaaram, Om Purnamadah,
Om Santissantissantihi
Mrtyorma amrtam gamaya – Please lead me from death to immortality is a prayer that we have to offer every day. Sri Rama is teaching us this in the 23rd sarga.
Time is frightening and dreadful. Mahakaleswara is merciful. But Kalapurusha/personified time is totally lacking in compassion. Instead of trying to grasp Time, we must try to grasp God who is more powerful than Time.
Sri Rama says: In this world, Kala/Time as the all consumer, is dancing wildly. Everything is swallowed by him with no distinction between great and small, or good and bad. Time has no attachment towards anyone.
Sometimes it appears as if the entire Universe is nothing but Time. Time’s power affects not just the earth and its creatures, but the entire creation itself.
What happened yesterday we forget. We do not remember something that just happened a few minutes ago. We cannot guess what will happen the next minute. Everything is under Time’s control.
We wish for a good situation to last. But even good things and good people do not last. They do not endure. Time swallows everyone; the good and the wicked are treated equally by Time. This is a fault in Time. He is like the Badabagni, the terrible fire under the sea. Time is invisible and subtle. He does not favor anyone or spare anyone. Time instantaneously consumes all. Yuga, Samvatsara, and such time calculations give us an inkling of Time’s form but still, time is invisible and indivisible. Whatever is great, immense, and beautiful also is destroyed by time mercilessly the way an eagle destroys a serpent. Time’s only job is to consume. He eats and swallows all the time and yet he is never satiated. We can either chew or swallow but not do both at the same time. Time does both simultaneously.
Truth has to be acknowledged. Those that are born and grow up get eaten up by time. Time is ready even before we are born, to make us its food. Only those who listen to Sadguru and reach God can escape being captured by Time. Even before creation, time has begun this job of swallowing up even the celestials. Time is depicted as a dancer and an actor with various talents and sports.
Time is like a parrot. A parrot pecks at a pomegranate and just sucks out the juice. Similarly, time also pecks at every creature and object and sucks out the essence, the life force. He destroys everything in creation as an intoxicated elephant destroys a tender plant. All creatures are as helpless as a tender plant before Time.
Calculations of time vary with each place of existence. Where one goes beyond the Sun, Brahmanda is a huge tree, and Brahma is the supporting pillar. Time stands as the rules over all.
Huge eons and smaller units of time, all the way down to a fraction of a second – all these are forms of the Kala Purusha/time personified. This time is almost close to God in his attributes that he cannot be burned or killed. He is visible and yet is invisible. He acts independently. He can raise a person to heights and he can knock a person to rock bottom in an instant. All actions are Time’s. Time acts very quietly. He makes no announcements. He is always peaceful.
Sadguru is unperturbed whether you become food for time, or whether you save yourself and merge in God. We must give up our ignorance and we must merge in God. If it rains on an ocean, the ocean is unaffected. God/Guru is unaffected whether you do well or do not do well. The Almighty is all. His feeling for Creation is the same as our feeling for ourselves. We think that we love ourselves. But in truth, we have no feelings for ourselves. We are. That is all. Similarly, God has no feelings as favorites or dislikes. He simply exists as everything. We must neither scold ourselves nor boast about ourselves. We must simply keep doing our duty.
The five elements come together to make our bodies. It is mostly earth and some water. Time pecks at this fruit and sucks out the life.
Time cannot be adequately described. His consort is action. All her actions are strange. She keeps tormenting people. People who identify themselves with their bodies get consumed by her in the form of heaven and hell. She turns the wheel of joy and sorrow.
Whom does Time spare? He swallows the atom and even swallows the oceans and Indra himself. He absorbs everyone and everything into himself. He is extremely cruel. He is the manifestation of cruelty. Kala/time is black.
Kaali Mother Goddess becomes black by absorbing all our ignorance. Kali is worshiped by all pious persons. In Delhi. Swamiji has consecrated Mother Kali. One who worships Kali transcends time.
We are studying the science of Time. The principle of time is what we are trying to understand, not merely the calculations about time. These calculations are not useful in spirituality. Sri Rama is giving us the philosophical truth behind Time.
We ourselves are responsible for our birth. Let us lead a good life this time to get a better life next time.
A small boy plays with two balls. Similarly time plays with the sun and the moon. He also plays with us. He takes the skulls of the dead and along with Kali wears them as a garland around his neck. He is unconquerable. Even as the breeze blows away a tender leaf, time blows everyone away. Time himself becomes Indra, Brahma and all other deities and yet, he does not have any form. He makes creation and destruction as if they are mere waves in an ocean.
A Kalpa is the combination of the 4 yugas. Maha Kalpa is a collection of innumerable Kalpas. Time creates celestials and demons and withdraws them into himself also. Time is like mosquitoes that hum and attack us.
All the great spheres in the cosmos are like the fruits of the Audumbara tree. All the creatures inhabiting these globes are like the tiny insects inside those Audumbara fruits. We are hankering after having this address. The higher you rise in an aircraft, everything you see below becomes extremely small. Manifested Time is like a mighty Audumbara Tree. Like in a whirlpool, everything is drawn into time and sucked by it. We must value time and use it wisely.
Satkalakshepam is important. You cannot stop time. You can only stop a clock. Instead of wasting time, put time to good use. When one goes into deep meditation, one transcends time by forgetting even hunger and thirst.
There is a lake called Time. Consciousness is the light. Action, time’s consort and time together play in this lake. He is like a huge mountain. 3 colors are important. At Anaghashtami Vrata we use a toram with 3 colored threads – yellow, red, and white. Time sometimes appears black or red or white based on its type of activity.
The essence of all the creatures Time absorbs into himself, and alone stands firm and rigid. He is indestructible; he does not come and go. He does not rise and set. He is eternal. We simply calculate and say that time has passed. He does not go anywhere.
From an ant to Brahma Time extends. He becomes all deities and yet he is none of them. But he is not in the Parabrahman. ‘Sat’ eternally exists. He is permanent. That is why we should seek union with Him.
Romapada said, each time a Brahma completes a cycle, one of the hairs on his body will drop. When all his hairs fall, his time also will be up. He also is under the control of time.
Time has no ego that he is the one doing all these actions of creation and destruction. Night time is a lake. Day is the lotus. The cloud is a bee. In atma, as a lake, Time has created all these things.
Time’s actions are strange. Even if he has oil, and he can keep the lamp burning, he still does not do it, but holding the lamp up high, and pushing the wick up a little bit, he searches for every single possession of ours and he takes away everything and destroys it. Only if we hide in the cave inside our hearts, we are safe from the effects of time.
Sri Rama is showing us the way.
This worldly life is a terrible and dying jungle. Time always has his eyes open. He even eats up the fruits called Lokapalakas, 8 great deities Indra, Kubera and others. 2 more of them are there who protect the regions up and below. During the Satyanarayana Vrata, along with the nine planets, these 8 loka palakas are also worshiped.
Night is a group of bees. Day time is flowers. Time creates everything tirelessly. Time is undivided. We divide it for our convenience. The 12 year cycle is very important in our lives. The Dwadasa Adityas are important. 120 years is considered to be a full life. The Sun is very important in our time calculations. But time itself is indivisible. In many ways Time is very similar to God.
This life is a dilapidated cottage that may collapse at any time. But only those who are pious who become like gems, Time collects and preserves in a jewel box.
Therefore, Sri Rama says, we must become virtuous gems.
Day time and stars, and night are all worn by Time as a garland of flowers. Nobody is noticing the change of cycles of time such as day and night, morning and evening, winter and spring. We keep going round and round in the wheel without getting ourselves freed from it.
The butcher torments goats and sheep with 4 horns each; these animals are the earthly creatures. This fellow kills and drinks their blood mercilessly. The blood cells are like the stars for him. The light years taken by Time to make light travel from the stars that are billions of light years farther from us is unimaginable and incalculable. Such is the dreadful form of time that he also consumes such stars.
This is a very important feature of time. We have a youthful stage. A lotus wilts when the moon rises. Lifespan is like an elephant and time is the lion that kills it. Time does not spare anyone. Some thieves take everything as Time does, while some thieves take only what is useful for them.
After time completed his job, after dancing his dance of destruction, and consuming everything, he goes to sleep within the Almighty. We exist during our sleep but we are not aware of our existence.
All of this is happening by time’s activity, and not by Paramatma. Just like Time rests peacefully in God, we also can, by our efforts, merge in God and rest in peace.
Even a lion becomes compassionate. Once we rest in God, we are spared by time.
After creation resumes, time takes charge again. The Trinity is also under the control of Time and assume the form of time.
If we try to measure time, even a computer is not capable. Our intellect has created the computer. Time cannot be grasped by the human mind.
Kaala apavaadaha – this concludes this sarga. Those who speak of the effect and power of time will be affected by this subject; those who speak of it and those who listen to it also. I felt a few times that I should discontinue this discourse, as I was studying and reviewing this section.
Kaala vilaasa is the next sarga.
Om Santissantissantihi
Sri Guru Datta