Srimad Bhagavatam – day 191
Daksha’s wife Prasuti prayed, “O Srinivasa! You are Parameśwara, the Supreme Lord. You are the Lord of this entire universe. I welcome You. Please bless us all. Together with Goddess Lakshmi, Your wife, please protect us all.
O Lord, You are the embodiment of all Yagnas. The body that has perfect limbs but lacks a head does not have any beauty. Likewise, even if all the various aspects of Yagna (yagnānga) are present, they have no value if You are absent”.
Swamiji explains:
In this sacrificial hall, all decorations were perfect. Eminent Maharishis and priests had assembled. All rituals were going on perfectly as stipulated. There is so much power in this Yagna. But, of what use is it, if You are absent? If a headless body begins to walk on the road, people run away in fear considering it to be a ghost. Likewise without You there is no life for this Yagna, she prayed.
Thereafter the guardian deities prayed, “O Parameshwara! Pure consciousness (atma chaitanya) is Your true form. You remain seated as the inner witness in the individual’s intellect. As the eternal witness, You observe every happening”.
Swamiji explains:
Actually everything moves per the Karma-phala siddhanta (Karma phala siddhanta states that every experience is the result of one’s past actions). The truth is that even the action belongs to You. But at some point of time, in some birth, the feeling of ‘I’ arose in me. For this reason ‘I’ am now undergoing the experience.
Many people take up Mouna vrata. In the initial stages, it is advisable to tie a cloth around the mouth. This constantly reminds the person that he is practising silence. Thereafter he should wear a special colour clothing to remind him of his vow. When these symbolic indicators are missing, the person tends to break his vow, since otherwise he is habituated to talking. The deeksha vastra reminds you to maintain silence. It is also a warning to the other person not to break your vow.
The guardian deities continued, “You are the Lord who grants knowledge to the senses. However these senses are able to perceive only these illusory objects that are made up of name and form”.
Swamiji explains:
To break this habit of limiting ourselves to seeing only illusory objects, constant practice is needed. The practice should continue for the entire lifetime. Practice Mouna or practice to constantly focus upon the Lord or practice sense-control. Of course, sense control is not at all easy. The person who is habituated to eating chocolates all day long finds it hard to give it up. Secretly he will eat a chocolate here and there. This is because the senses are habituated to eating chocolates all the time. Now he should train these sense organs not to eat the chocolate that is in front of them. Once the person treads the wrong path the senses get habituated there. The person has to be eternally vigilant and try to push the senses back on to the right track. They need constant punishment.
“The senses are eternally focused towards these illusory objects/ visible world, but are unable to see the real truth. They are unable to understand that You exist as the consciousness within those objects. They fail to understand that You are the object/ scene. The person eternally considers the object to have a distinctive identity but fails to realize that it is another form of Yours”.
Swamiji explains:
The mind should be trained towards this. When you see an iron piece, learn to think- “Oh, God is here in front of me in the form of this iron piece”. This is called abhyasa. From where did the iron emerge? It emerged from the soil. What is soil made of? How was it created? As you dig deeper, you will realize the truth. Learn to see God in every object and in every situation.
Seeing God in living beings in inadequate. Learn to see Him even in inanimate lifeless objects too. The earth on which you walk, the water you drink, the air you breath, the light through which you see the world, the heat-cold, joys-sorrows, your skin, the nerves that transmit the sensations to the mind, the intellect that deciphers this knowledge, your destiny which triggers off present day actions- all these are God. All of them are inter-connected.
The iron found in the soil, the crops that grow on earth, all the living beings that move on earth including virus, bacteria are all His forms. His consciousness flows through them. The mind should be trained to think in this pattern. That consciousness envelops the entire creation. It has no limits. There is no measure. However long the creation stretches, it stretches.
God is beyond the five basic elements. All of us are subject to some form of limitations. He who is beyond all limitations is Paramatma. For this reason the guardian deities prayed that these senses are able to perceive only the visible world but are unable to perceive You, O Lord.
Keshavāya namah.