Mar-27: The Almighty and sin-cleansing
The Nama kirtan was lead by Bhoomaji from Dallas, TX. Followed by brief round of introductions, Ramaniji from Los Angeles talked about the basics of Sanatana Dharma, which were excerpts from ‘Deivathin Kural’.
Deivathin Kural is a series of lectures and interviews given by the Kanchi saint Sri.Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal. He is fondly called as MahaPerivaa.
If you see a house, one can quickly say that this house was built by a civil engineer. If you see a car, we can without any hesitation say that it was manufactured by some expert. A house or a car has been built for a specific purport. It cannot be said that it was here on its own or it came here by accident. Can we? No certainly not. It is very clear that there is intelligence involved behind all these creation. It is only right to say that there is a person behind all these intelligence. We see innumerable animate and inanimate objects in this universe. Though there are so many of them, they all behave in an orderly fashion as though they are bound to something or somebody. Acharya says that if there is an order then there must be some control and it is imperative that control cannot take place without a person. We so many different things not related to each other yet bind with each other to give us a specific output.
When we delve into this thought one can very easily conclude that there is an absolute supreme that has created all these for a reason. As mentioned earlier it is very easy to find the builder of the house or a car but on the other hand it is not possible to locate the person who created the tree. We wonder with awe as to what tools that person must have used to create a tree. Likewise it also baffles us to think about the person who created the mountains, stars and moon etc. One may argue that these were created too long ago to investigate the person behind their creation.
Well, then let’s take another classic example, a freshly blossomed rose. It is not as old as mountains, star and moon either. It has too many intricate petals. It just blossomed right before our eyes and yet we cannot find the person behind this splendid creation. Can we? We think that we are the intelligent species in this world and we fail to realize how ignorant we are. Acharya paraphrases it in a very amusing way. He says that we are akin to a wild buffalo that entered the city accidentally. The buffalo will be confused and scared and so are we on this earth. There is someone more intelligent than us who has kept us this way. The flowers are bound to a rule and it is case for all the celestial objects including earth. There is a person behind all these creation and keep them bound them in order.
Mankind should strive to perceive and know the person behind all these creation. The reason to know this person as Acharya mentioned is that he is not only intelligent but compassionate enough to keep everything in orderly fashion. Acharya calls this person as GOD.
A thief leaves some evidence in a crime scene. He calls God as thief who has left an impression all over the universe. The purport of this is to find him, know him and understand him. Even our intelligence is a classic example of his impression. There cannot be a better example to substantiate that there is a Creator in this universe.
Achraya questions if we can draw lines that are akin to the ones in our hands. Even though we admire man made creation and call them wonders of the world, yet can we draw the drawings close enough to the veins of a single leaf? Acharya re-iterates the impressions of this thief who is also known as god. A thief is one who concedes his identity and so does god. God lives inside a cave and that cave is our heart. He hides himself inside us and yet created all these wonderful creation on this earth. By wondering, he makes us search for him and that search is called Bhakti.
Following this, Narayananji from Boston talked about Srimad Bhagavata Purana.
We all know that Bhagavatha Purana is the one of the greatest Purnanas and it is the Satvik of all puranas. The puranas are eighteen in total. They are classified into three types namely the Rajasika, Tamasika and Satvika. Srimad Bhagavatam is the eighteenth purana and it is a beautiful blend of Bhakti and Vedanta. It is a very relevant purana in this age. Just as one would tend to read the first few and last lines of a letter or a telegram, if we take the first few verses of Srimad Bhagavatam it begins by meditating on the supreme who is the universal god and at the end it talks about ‘Sharanagati’ (surrender). The path prescribed for surrender is verily the chanting of the Divine Names of the Lord.
“nama sankirtanam yasya sarva papa pranashanam
Pranamo dukha samanaha tam namami harim param”The middle portion of Srimad Bhagavatam – sixth canto – talks about Ajamila Charithra. Srimad Bhagavatam talks about ten different lakshanas. One of the lakshana is the description of the universe. The fifth canto talks about the various concepts of astronomy, and it also expounds on twenty different hells. There are descriptions of all the hells and the specific sins associated with every one of them. The twenty sixth chapter of fifth canto briefly talks about all these infernal regions. .
King Parikshit who listens to all this intently, is worried. He says, the description of these entire abysses is so very gory and is frightening and asks if there are any atonement for all these sins? While there were atonements for the sins, people tend to commit more sins knowing that there is way out! But one needs to understand the root-cause that urges people to commit a sin.
Let’s ponder on this by looking at an example. A person speaks falsehood. Assume that there is a panacea for this. Let us say that the remedy for speaking falsehood is to donate a few dollars within a period of time, or else the person’s tongue will be cut. So the person tends to commit falsehood and tries to repair his wrong-doing by doing the stipulated donation.
But Sage Sukha says that the true way to come out of these sins is to cleanse one’s heart of these bad qualities that reside deep within the heart. Sage Sukha beautifully explains this with an example – “Manye Kunjara sauchavat”. An elephant likes to play in sand. The mahout scrubs the elephant and gives him a good bath. After the bath, he dries him and lets him wander while the Mahoop takes a quick shower. The elephant wanders it quickly puts sand all over its body. The same thing happens in our case too. Atonements are not a permanent means to cleanse the sins. It is only means to a vicious cycle. The more one gets involved in this worldly life, the more does the sins get firmly imprinted in our heart. What has to be done is, to cleanse the root cause of the sins by making the mind pure. At this point, Sage Sukha narrates the story of Ajamila.
Ajamila was born in a very orthodox and religious family. Good qualities that one possesses are not necessarily by birth. It comes through the society as well. Although Ajamila was born in a very pious family his mind got corrupted because of the influence of the society and he took to bad ways. The ‘sanga’ (company) in which one belongs will have a great influence. To underline this fact, Sage Sukha introduces Ajamila as a ‘dasipati’ (womanizer).
It is required to be in the company of Sadhus. Sadhus are the ones who are in divine communion with the lord and are always chanting the Divine names of the Lord. Ajamila committed a small sin and that sin lead him to do more and more sins. He gave his heart for lust and that had a lot of repercussions.
Sage Sukha talks about how Ajamila named his last son as Narayana and during his last moments of his life, he chanted ‘Narayana Nama’ and was immediately cleansed. He didn’t chant the Narayana Nama thinking of the lord Narayana. He just called his son and the Lord came to his rescue and reached the divine feet of the Lord.
It is said that even if one chants the divine names of the lord by mistake, it reaps lots of goodwill.
The satsang ended with prayers with Nama Kirtan.
Feb 27: Why did God create us?
Madhura, Sriramji and Nishaji performed Nama Sankirtan and started the Satsang. Followed by this, AravindJi from Orlando gave a talk on what is the purpose of our creation and what the world teaches us.
When Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal was appointed the next Peetathipathi of Shankara Mutt, he was 13 years old. So when old devotees of the mutt arrived, they asked to meet the Jagatguru sarcastically. Meaning how could a 13 year old boy be considered a Jagatguru and be appointed as the Peetadhipati (head) of a Mutt. When they were shown to Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal, he explained to them that the Sanskrit word Jagatguru must be understood word by word as in its split as ‘Jagat’ and ‘Guru’. He further explained what each word translates to that is Jagat meaning World and Guru meaning teacher, thus proclaiming the world is my Guru.
He said whatever the world teaches every moment is what I preach to my devotees. Now the learned devotees feel at the lotus feet of the 13 year old Jagat Guru to pardon their ignorance and bless them to relieve themselves of their ego.Now going by what Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal or affectionately called Maha Periyava says that the world is the Guru. Let’s look at the world and understand what it teaches us. Take an example of a family, why do we get married and procreate children knowing the time, effort and responsibility involved in bring up a child?
The simple reason is we want to share our love, to watch the small baby, to cuddle it, though we also know that they will one day grow up, go miles away for their living and get married and start their own family. But we still want to see them happy and shower our unconditional love wherever they are.
There will be times when the child has gone to a foreign land and does not call his/her parents for months. Even then the parents will always live in the memory of their child and praying for their well being. They may try to send a message through a relative or a friend who plans to visit the same place where their child currently resides. When this friend informs the child that his parents are eagerly waiting to hear from him/her at the earliest and still the child ignores the pleas as he/she is busy in their own life. But one fine day due to some need, the child suddenly calls the parents, the joy is over bound.
They will have tears of joy flowing to hear the well being of their child and be so happy that the child remembered them. They will be over exhilarated to help their child even after being ignored for several years. All they want is the happiness of their child.
That is exactly what God wants. He has created us to share his love. He has created us in the same form like Himself by giving us this human body to share the beauty of the world and all his creations with us. He is our father and mother. He always wishes well for us even when we don’t think of him. He always wants to show only love like our own parents.
A mother makes food, keeps our home clean, takes care of our health and provides us will all the nice things in life for the child. But the child takes everything for granted. But if one day the child turns to tell his/her mother, ‘your food was delicious today.. Thank you Ma’. Imagine the joy the mother will feel, she will be the happiest person on earth as her child though about what the mother has done to keep him/her happy and appreciates her efforts. That’s how God is! He has blessed us with so much of goodness in life. But do we thank him for every single thing? But if one day we turn to God and thank him for all he has been to us, imagine the joy God will feel? That his child has though about him! If we take 1 step towards God, he takes 10 steps towards us. But we should take the initiative to take that first step.
The sun shines everyday for everybody. It does not see any distinction towards anybody. But if we keep our doors and windows closed then we are the ones to lose the sun shine and light. Hence we should be open to receive the love God shows by his creations. We call this God with several names he is all pervading and all the same. Like a person can be a mother to a child, she can be a wife to her husband; she can be a daughter to her parents or a friend to someone. So each one calls the same person with different relationships such as mother, wife, daughter, friend, sister. Thus God also appears as different forms to different people. So finally all we have to do is call him and show him love. He will be happy, the world will be a happy place and we’ll also be happy.
A siddha has sung the following verse ‘Aasaiai arumin! Aasaiai arumin! Eesanodu aayinum aasaiai arumin!’ which means ‘Renounce all desire! Renounce all desire, even if it be for God’. When looked at superfluously we may wonder, “how could a saint ask us to give up the desire for God?” But, when seen in the right perspective we will understand what the saint really means – “Give up even the desire for the Lord and just love Him.” True love seeks nothing whereas a desire expects something in return. And when we fail to get what we seek/expect then it might turn into hatred.”
In Srimad Bhagavatam, a bunch of verses called “Venu Gitam” describes the beauty in the flute recital of Lord Sri Krishna. There it is mentioned that both the doe and the male deer worshipped the Lord by mere looks of affection and love.Sri Sri Swamiji, in His kirtan “Karunamurthy Nee allavo Kanna”, speaks of the love, grace and compassion of the Lord. His compassion and grace is so unique; He magnifies even our smallest offering and gives us unimaginable, multifold returns. The incident referred to in this context is the fruit seller’s episode. An old lady selling Jaumoon fruits, sees the little Krishna. On seeing such a beautiful child she offers a few fruits to him out of spontaneous love. Bhagawan’s tiny hands could have received only two or three fruits from her. Later the fruit seller finds that her Basket is filled with precious gems. Bhagawan had gifted priceless gems for a few fruits, returning her loving offering multifold!
Lets take a very worldly example of an ox and a dog. When an ox works so much to plough the farmer’s field, the dog just cuddles in one corner of his home. But the dog gets more attention and care, doesn’t it? What is the reason? It is because it is the dog showers its love on its master, while the ox only knows to work hard. Thus, the more you shower your love, the more you get back.
When we shower pure love on the Divine, we reach unto Him and get Him in our hearts. The easiest way of showing our love and gratitude to the Lord is by chanting His Divine Names.Lord Sri Krishna in is last verse to Sri Narada says that he does not reside in Vaikunta, he does not reside in the heart of Yogi’s who have conquered the world, but he verily resides amidst a gathering of people who sing his names and glories.
Naham Vasaami Vaikunte Na Yogena Hrudeya Ravau
Mad Bhakta: yatra Gayanti Thatra Thishtami NaradaSo verily Nama Sankirtan and satsang will lead us to love the glorious one and that is what we precisely are doing every week, without fail due to His grace.
We have nothing to worry and all will be well as we follow Mahans’ words.
This was followed by announcements and prayer requests after which a Mahamantra Prayer Session was held in the closing.
