Srimad Bhagavatam – day 435
Lord Dattātreya continued, “Meritorious deeds lead to heaven, Self-knowledge leads to liberation while sinful deeds lead towards lower births such as those of animals and birds. A mixture of pious and impious deeds results in human birth”.
Swamiji explains: People enquire into the cause for their birth as human beings. The answer is that in their past births they performed both pious and impious actions. Through some actions they brought joy to others while with some other they hurt the feelings of others. Such mixed actions imply that re-birth is inevitable. With sinful deeds he will be moving backwards. He will slide downwards from human level. Those who are desirous of obtaining a human birth are always involved in pious and impious deeds.
When the sinners are reborn as animals and birds they have to perform pious deeds in that birth to get promoted. Classification of pious and impious actions applies to all forms of living entities. The Lord has, in accordance with its level, granted each living being, including animals and birds, proper discriminatory sense. However the problem is that the living entity does not use this intelligence wisely. Due to its impure mind, it chooses to tread the path of sin. It should in reality use the pure portion of its mind for pious deeds. Sadly, even animals and birds do not use this God-given-gift. We wrongly presume that intuitive knowledge is absent in them. If they properly use this sixth sense given by God they can gradually cross the different animal births and get promoted to be reborn as human beings in future.
At least now if the human being discards his sinful deeds and treads the path of meritorious deeds, the door to heaven will open. The door to hell eternally remains open. As the quota of sins far surpass the merits, the living entity slides into lower and lower degradable births.
“In this way I who was trapped into fruitive activities and was rotating in the cycle of endless re-births obtained human birth due to the grace of the Lord. Even in this human plane, in order to wipe away sorrows and to obtain happiness, married couples eternally engage in varied different actions. However contrary to their expectations they ultimately distance from happiness and obtain only sorrows”.
Swamiji explains: The human being believes that his material action will bring material joy. Seeking joy he unknowingly commits sins. Due to greediness, he seeks more and more comforts which ultimately leave him grieving. Although his actions are prompted by the motive of obtaining happiness, in reality he ends up travelling towards sorrows.
“After a deep scrutiny, I stopped engaging in any material action. The original form of the living entity is the birthplace for pure happiness. Forgetting this important truth, the human being considers himself to be completely drowned in sorrows.
Only when one absolves himself from action in totality, the Self’s inherent bliss manifests. Towards this, it is imperative that dedication towards every form of action should cease completely.
Only when, through the medium of the senses, the mind associates with the objects, it experiences happiness. Having realized this profound truth I am simply exhausting my prarabdha karma (portion of karma that needs to be exhausted in the present birth) and, having distanced from all material actions that are geared towards acquiring happiness, I am truly happy.
Having forgotten about happiness, which inherently exists within him in the form of the Self and having forgotten about his ultimate goal, the human being is now unable to recognise it. He has forgotten about the energy that inherently exists within him. Due to I-ness which arises from illusion he takes on innumerable births and gets trapped within this fearful samsāra. Having drowned in the philosophy of dualism (dwaita) he distances from the non-dual bliss (advaya sukha).
Unable to recognise the presence of water that has been concealed due to the growth of the grasses and other weeds in the pond, the ignorant human being walks on the grass only to drown in the pond. Had he plucked out the grass he would have recognised the presence of water beneath it. Likewise, unable to recognise the truth, which ahs been concealed by the veil called illusion, the living entity sinks into this samsara. Unless he throws out the veil, he will never locate the truth. As if this is inadequate, he chases mirages in deserts wrongly presuming them to be oasis”.
In the first instance, the pond was full of water but due to presence of weeds he could not locate water. In the second instance, there is no water but wrongly believing the presence of water he is chasing a mirage.
“Similarly the foolish ignorant person, wrongly believing that happiness lies in the non-Self objects, chases them. Unable to realize that happiness lies within him, he chases external worldly objects which are like mirages”.
He does not understand that happiness lies within. He falsely presumes that the external worldly objects shower happiness upon him. With this misconception, he chases sensory material pleasures.
The truth is that no happiness can be obtained through sensory pleasures. They will only bring about your fall. Chasing them is nothing but a sheer waste of energy.
Body and senses are within the control of destiny (prarabdha). Therefore, all the actions of the human being who lacks independence and who uses the body and senses to drive away sorrows and acquire happiness become redundant!
Death (Lord Yama) always chases the human being. Right from the moment of birth it chases him and waits for the opportune moment when it can gobble him up!”
Why are you growing? The answer is ‘to die’. It is not for liberation that we mature into adults. We grow only to meet death. Such a human being can never escape the bodily or natural afflictions which arise.