Path to Eternal Truth (2) - Softcover

Rao, Manjula

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1504314050 ISBN 13: 9781504314053

Publisher: Balboa Pr Au, 2018

Synopsis

The Path to Eternal Truth Volume II presents the Shankaracharyas principles of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal law, which has no beginning and no end. By following his teachings, we can bring abundance into our lives and spread love, joy, and happiness. And by following his path, we can achieve the ultimate goal in this life itself and fulfil the only desire that can be fulfilled, which is to find the Lord and merge with him. Translator Manjula Sudhindra Rao faithfully offers these teachings in English for seekers and travellers on the direct path to self-realisation. His Highness writes, It is a universal principal that every human being is in the search for peace, for the easy attainment of his goals. From the beginning of life, to the end, this quest continues. Love, joy, abundance, and happiness can be achieved by everyone by following the path of Sanatana Dharma, which is about living a fulfilling and more invigorating lifestyle of righteousness.

About this title

About the Author

His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Sarasvati is the present Shankaracharya of Dwarka and Jyothirmath. He is a liberated sage and a living example of one who has followed Sanatana DharmaHinduismthroughout his life. Manjula Sudhindra Rao is a spiritual person, and from a very young age she pursued the path of spiritual truth, culminating in higher studies of the philosophy of Adi Shankaracharya at Mumbai University. She had the divine fortune of being accepted as a disciple of His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Sarasvati who was impressed by her dedication on the spiritual path and permitted her to bring his teachings to the outside world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Path to Eternal Truth Volume II

By Manjula Rao

Balboa Press

Copyright © 2018 Manjula Rao
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-1405-3

CHAPTER 1

SEEK SHELTER IN GOD

Our sastras consider dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (desire), and moksa (liberation) to be the four goals. Man makes one, two or all of these his purpose and absorbs himself in attaining them through various means. As against this, some devotees relinquish the desire for these four goals and instead, totally devote themselves to the worship of God. According to them, the love for God is the fifth goal.

If one thinks it over, one realises that the main cause for all attainments is dharma. The attainment of artha and kama depends upon the dharma of one's present or past lives. The jnana, the means of attaining moksa, the awakening of devotion can take place only in the mind that is free from desire and purified by following dharma. Dharma also forms the basis of making dharma the goal. In this modern age, people are forgetting this principle. This is because the basis of religious belief is the eternal nature of the soul and the power of the omnipresent, omniscient God. But Man today is forgetting this. If these two beliefs are firmly established in the heart of Man, he can never falter from the path of dharma. It is confirmed that after death, the individual soul persists as it has to bear the fruits of the good and bad karma performed in the present life. The omniscient God is aware of all of Man's karma and accordingly decides to bestow upon Man the life that he deserves, decides how long he should live and what are the experiences he has to go through. However as clever a person may be, nothing about him remains hidden from God, as "You can deceive those with two eyes but never the One with a thousand eyes".

rama jharokha baithake sabaka mujara leya jakÍ jaisÍ cakarÍ tako taiso deya.

-This excerpt has been taken from the teachings of Saint KabÍra.

God gives us the fruits of our karma and controls the entire universe. He is omniscient and insightful. Insightful is the one who lives in this world and has control over it. God shows the right path to those who have faltered from it. He favours dharma, nyaya and sadguna. He destroys arrogance and vanity in Man being beyond the universe. Unobtrusively, He discourages evil qualities and encourages divine ones. He is the sole support of the needy, weak and the distressed. If Man becomes blinded due to the intoxication of his wealth, youth and luxuries and becomes oblivious to God, there will come a day when God will create a situation which will compel Man to open his eyes and realise his mistake.

Sometimes God sends a warning to the mind which people call the inner voice. However, not everyone can hear it. It gets suppressed due to the predominance of desires. In fact, some people are deluded into thinking that their desires are the urging of God. Only can the person whose mind is free from desires, who has relinquished his wants, has surrendered himself to God, and considers himself to be a machine and God as the operator, can hear His voice.

Lord Krsna says in the GÍta

isvarah sarvabhutanam
hrddeser'juna tisthati
bhramayan sarvabhutani
yantrarudhani mayaya
tam eva saranam gaccha
sarvabhavena bharata
tatprasadat param
santim sthanam prapsyasi sasvatam

- BhagavadgÍta 18. 61

"Oh Arjuna! The insightful Supreme Being, mounted atop the machine which is Man, resides in his heart and in accordance to Man's karma, takes him on a journey with his supernatural powers".

"Oh Bharata! Seek shelter in God. Only there, with His blessings, will you find true peace and a permanent refuge".

When the mana (mind), vacana (words) and karma (deeds) are all devoted to God, adharma cannot touch the person. He will never lie, never have evil thoughts and his senses will never go astraya. Only such a person is considered to be truly virtuous and benevolent towards others. The benevolence of a person who disregards the Lord, only feeds his own ego. However, those who have sought shelter in God (saranagati) have an egoless benevolence and have a simple nature.

para upakara vacana mana kaya
santa svabhava sahaja khagaraya

To be truly benevolent, one has to sacrifice selfishness. However, when the limited ego is present, all deeds of Man, knowingly or unknowingly, are for selfish purposes and for the satisfaction of the ego. It is impossible to be selfless in such a state. Those who have laid down their lives for their community, society and their country are called selfless. Actually, upon reflection, the boundaries of their selfishness widen, but the selfishness remains. The one who totally dedicates and surrenders himself to the Supreme Power or God, is the one who is truly selfless.

This Supreme Power which continuously pours out love and compassion is reflected through the mana, vacana and karma of those dedicated to Him.

Man today, is in search of peace. It is a rule that Man, for the fulfillment of his purpose, should adopt means which are in accordance with his philosophical beliefs. "Fulfillment of desires brings peace". This has become the philosophy of our lives today. However, this is wrong. Fulfillment of one desire gives rise to many more desires which, being impossible to fulfill, give rise to discontentment or restlessness. The one who is restless will never find peace. "asantasya kutah sukham" In other words, only can the elimination of desires bring peace and happiness but those who disregard God will never be free of desires and hence will never find true happiness. By renouncing worldly attachments and dedicating oneself to the one and only God and seeking shelter in His highest abode and through endless faith and devotion to him, can one turn towards God. This is the saranagati. Desire and selfishness are permanently eliminated from the heart of a saranagata devotee. The Vedas say that God has thousands of heads, thousands of limbs and thousands of eyes and in reality, our body, senses, mind and intellect are all parts of that vast, universal Supreme Being. We have mistakenly considered ourselves to be different from God. In fact, all that we have belongs to him. What is there for us to dedicate?

A poet has said -

mera mujhame kucha nahi jo kucha hai so tor
tera tujhako soupate kya lage hai mor

All that I have belongs not to me but is Thine
What I dedicate to You has never been mine

King Bali asked God to claim the earth in three steps. God assumed a huge form and in just two giant steps covered the earth, the cosmos and heaven. He then asked King Bali, "Where should I put my third step?" Bali replied that till now, only the objects possessed by the owner had been offered, not the owner himself. He said, "Put your third step on my head because I am the owner of the earth and so I am greater than it". This was true, but Bali had coordinated his body, senses, breath, mind and intellect and had still retained his limited ego. He was therefore bound by varuna pasa.

Bali's wife VindhyavalÍ prayed to God and implored, "Oh Lord! You have meted out the right punishment to my husband. The world is your playground. You have created it and it belongs to you. My husband was wrong in thinking that he owned what is rightfully yours". Hearing this, God set Bali free.

King Bali is the ordinary unawakened mortal and VindhyavalÍ his wife is the saranagati. The saranagati releases the bound, unawakened mortal, King Bali symbolises a mortal and his wife VindhyavalÍ symbolises one who goes into the shelter of the Lord. The one who goes into the shelter of the Lord gets liberated and he is free from bondage.

CHAPTER 2

THE NEED FOR REFINED INTERESTS

Seen from an ethical and spiritual viewpoint, society today is on the decline. We observe that neither the individual, the society, nor the country is satisfied with its current state. In fact, it doesn't even know what it really wants or where it is headed.

Ignorance of the true goal of life and delusions regarding the means to achieve it lead to confusion about one's direction in life.

Generally, after Man has had the experience of contentment achieved through different means, then the attainment of happiness becomes his greatest desire. This desire will not be satiated through small achievements. He wishes to permanently remove all obstacles in the way of attaining a permanent blissful state.

In reality, all living beings wish to be totally free from sorrow and attain eternal happiness. This being the greatest purpose of man, is the ultimate goal purusartha is the aim of the human life and it is divided in four parts which are Kama, artha, dharma and moksa.

With this purpose in mind, the wise men of the world perform various karma. However, it has been observed that this blissful state that Man strives for is always out of his reach and unwanted sorrows remain. For the attainment of any purpose, just determining the goal does not suffice. The means of achieving it should be appropriate. This is because the means is instrumental in attaining the righteous purpose, which is not possible by employing unrighteous means.

The wise men of our country, through experience and by following the sastra have ascertained that there is no greater happiness than that which lies in God.

Seeking happiness elsewhere is like running around in search for illusionary clean waters to quench your thirst, while all the time, the pure water lies hidden beneath the scum. God is happiness and lies deep within the heart of Man. Similarly, the true happiness that we seek, appears to be out of our reach because it is hidden deep inside our being.

Although this eternal happiness lies right within and is an integral part of the enlightened soul, the means and the different forms of its expression appear to make it distinctive. It is the means that make it appropriate or inappropriate.

The means of the expression of happiness is through a pure and calm soul. The reflection of the moon in the dirty waters of a lake will be unclear, but the same image will appear clearly in pure and still water. As the purity and stillness of the lake increases, the reflection will appear clearer and steadier. In the same way, the greater the purity and calmness of the soul, the clearer is the expression of happiness.

Depending upon the means of expression, happiness is differentiated into three types visayananda, bhagavadananda and brahmananda. It is a rule that the good and bad karma of Man will bear fruits which accordingly will be the cause of happiness or sorrow.

When a certain desire is aroused in the mind, it starts pricking him like a thorn and the person starts striving to attain the object of his desire. This desire gradually gains strength and gives rise to other desires. In such a state, when the desired object is attained (due to the involvement of the senses) there is a feeling of happiness and freedom from that particular desire.

This brings momentary purity and calmness in the soul. In such a state, the reflection of the eternal happiness is visayananda. However, due to the temporary nature of the sattvika gunna released from desire the dependency of the senses on the temporary euphoria experienced due to attainment of the desired object which makes this type of happiness transient, inappropriate and the cause of sorrow.

Lord Krsna says in the GÍta that happiness borne of sensual or material pleasures is the cause of sorrow and asks the wise to renounce such pleasures. When Man strives for bhagavadananda and brahmananda, he will attain permanent happiness. VidurajÍ has suggested a wonderful means of attaining happiness:

ekaya dve viniícitya
trÍmscaturbhirvasÍ kuru
panca jitva viditva sat
sapta hitva sukhÍ bhava

"With a discerning and discriminating mind, decide what is eternal and what is temporary, then through sama (self restraint), dama (restraint of the senses), uparama (focus) and sraddha (faith), bring kama (sexual desire), krodha (anger) and lobha (controlled greed). Keep the sense organs (ears, eyes, tongue, nose and the skin) under control. Understand hunger, thirst, sorrow, attachment, old age, death and free yourself from these. Uplift your soul above them through an understanding of the five sense organs, the mind and intellect. This freedom will give you happiness. The happiness attained through this means is not external. What is required is the elimination of that which obstructs it, from clear thoughts.

Bliss gained through detachment is greater than contentment through attachment. According to the GÍta, the devotee who renounces attachment for external objects experiences an extraordinary happiness within himself. He then, through brahmasaksatkara attains bliss permanently. The Yoga texts say:

"When pure thoughts pervade the soul through samadhi, the happiness that is attained cannot be expressed through words. It can only be experienced. In reality, as the mind of Man keeps getting purified, his interests too become refined. When the interests are refined, the beliefs regarding happiness change."

A village boy will think that jaggery is the sweetest thing he has ever tasted. But when he tastes sarkara, sÍta and kanda, he will no longer want to eat jaggery.

A person who once used to love folk songs, will no longer be enthralled by them when he becomes an expert of classical music. Poets and lovers of high literature have no fascination for simple folk songs. That is why, books on spirituality say that the happiness attained by the ascetic who has renounced the world and lives in seclusion, will never be experienced by emperors or even Lord Indra.

The yogÍ who has tasted the bliss of brahmananda will consider even Lord Indra to be a destitute.

Even Lord Adi Sankaracarya considers those who are free from passion and who delight in the utterances of the Vedanta, to be fortunate - KaupÍnavantah khalu bhagyavantah : "The happiness derived from sensual pleasures of this world and the greater happiness attained in the other world as a result of our good karma, even when combined together do not measure up to the bliss experienced through the destruction of desires."

The bhutabhavana visvanatha sadasiva Lord Sankara used to keep the company of ghosts and demons, wear a garland of skulls around his neck and smear his body with ash. All this shows that regardless of external circumstances as happiness lies within us, not outside. It lies in renunciation, not in procuring and seizing. Maharsi Vasistha, in the Yoga-Vasistha, tells us to make Lord Rama our ideal to attain happiness.

The paramapada that remains after warding off asesa visesa all the distinctions through neti-neti "Not this Not this", and which cannot be given any form, is you. Understand this and you shall be happy. The resolution and steadiness of the heart like a rock (but not lifeless) is paramapada.

Ardent devotees who have experienced happiness through devotion of druta-citta say "Oh Lord! The joy that one experiences when one hears the words spoken by Your devotees who praise Thy glory and benevolence, is greater than that of brahma. How can this happiness be attained by Gods who fall from a plane which has been broken open by the sword of time?"

After having met Lord Rama, King Janaka was so overcome by the love for bhagavadananda, that he willingly renounced brahma sukha. The other son of King Dasaratha Bharata, after completing Prayaga, the greatest of pilgrimages, renounced artha, dharma, kama and moksa and asked to be blessed with nothing except to serve Lord Rama and SÍta in every birth.

In the Ramacaritamanasa, BhusundÍ, (a devotee of Lord SrÍrama in the body of a crow) while speaking about the good fortune of the natives of AvadhapurÍ who used to continuously witness the lÍla of Lord Rama, says "the happiness for which Lord Siva used to put on a terrifying appearance, was experienced by natives of AvadhapurÍ at all times. Oh Khagesa! That happiness, if experienced just once by a person even in his sleep, was considered by him to be greater than brahma-sukha."

The essence of it is that brahma-sukha (an integral part of the soul) can be experienced only when the soul is made pure with a lot of effort through samadhi. However, when the soul is automatically permeated with the thoughts of happiness this is called bhagavat-sukha. This bhagavat-sukha is greater than brahmasukha.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Path to Eternal Truth Volume II by Manjula Rao. Copyright © 2018 Manjula Rao. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Balboa Pr Au
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1504314050
• ISBN 13: 9781504314053
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132