Srimad Bhagavatam – day 596
To merge into the Lord, feelings of ‘I-ness’ need to be shred
Narayana
Maharishi Śuka continued, “Yashoda began to believe that Lord Srihari, who is profusely glorified by the Vedas, by the Upanishads, by those who are established in the Self, by the Karma-yogis, and by ardent devotees to be her little son.”
It was He, who, for a fraction of a second, granted her Supreme Knowledge. He opened his mouth, showed her the entire cosmos causing her to forget her individual existence and identity thereby making her believe she had merged into the Supreme. When she was in that supreme state He suddenly threw her back into the delusion that he, the Supreme Lord whose transcendental glories are infinite, was her son.
Only when feelings of ‘I-ness’ are shred, one can merge completely into the Lord. So long as one continues to harbour thoughts such as, ‘I, my body, my work, my pain, my intelligence’ he/she cannot merge into Him.
The dedication and attachment we show towards bodily pains is enormous. We tend to focus entirely on it. These bodily pains become our entire existence. Such is our love for our sense organs that we passionately seek to heal our wounds, either through medication, through prayers, through magical spells or the like. After all, isn’t Earth the land of action (karma bhoomi)? Hence love and dedication towards body and sense organs automatically originates within us. We develop excessive infatuation towards them.
We, the ignorant people who are bound by action, are totally filled with body-identification which arises in the form of thought, “I am this body”. Even after taking up innumerable yogic practices, if the feeling of ‘I-ness’ continues, albeit slightly, then our life-force will not depart from this body. Instead, this life-force will cause the mind to focus eternally upon the sense-organs, instead of focussing on the Supreme Lord.
Only one or two in a million obtain the wisdom ‘this pain does not belong to me; this body is not mine’. They develop extra-ordinary willpower to withstand even excruciating pains.
In the recent past, there lived a great Yatiśwara by name Janardhana swamy. This great saint had joined the ascetic order along with Paramacharya. At the time when I visited him, he had undergone many operations including a major bone operation. However, due to absolute lack of body identification, he was able to talk cheerfully to me, despite the fact that his entire body had been operated upon. He was a true Mahatma!
Each of us should try to imbibe this supreme quality. Didn’t Ramana Maharishi allow them to cut the tumorous growth on His body? He remained indifferent to his pain and suffering. He watched the disease without the feeling, “this is my body” or “I am undergoing unbearable agony.” After the operation, when doctors questioned Him, “How are you feeling now?”, He replied, “I was perfectly fine then and I am perfectly fine now.” “Do you feel pain has intensified?”- asked the doctors. “At that point of time also this pain did not belong to me. Even now it does not.”- replied the great sage. It is your responsibility to arrive at this stage of matured thinking.
You are filled with feelings of “I-ness” towards the body. You tend to think, “I am the one who is conducting the operation”; “I am the one who is extending his longevity” and the like. But sages think- ‘the pain does not belong to me. Therefore, my pain is your responsibility; it concerns you, not me. In reality, when feelings of I-ness do not exist in me, I do not even possess the right to declare that my pain belongs to you”.
I observed this supreme thought process in Janardana Swamy. Such an extra-ordinary supreme saint was filled with feelings of devotion, humility, and respect when he accosted me. He saw the Supreme Lord in me. He did not see me as Ganapathy Sacchidananda. He saw me as an aspect of the Supreme Lord who had come walking to him. I visited him many times in Hyderabad when he was sick and was bed-ridden. I love him dearly. I have personally witnessed how his mind had obtained absolute oneness with the all-pervading Supreme Lord and how he had mentally merged into Him.
Here the Lord enveloped Yashoda in his Vishnu-maya and then exhibited to her His transcendental sport. In its absence, she would not have had the capacity to withstand this significant transcendental vision. Despite this, she was bewildered.
The Lord’s illusion is the same. Nevertheless, based on the purpose it appears differently. One form of illusion is used to explain Spiritual Essence. The other form of illusion keeps the person away from this Supreme Truth. He, who had taken Yashoda to those stages wherein she began to experience oneness with the Lord, suddenly pulled her out of that illusion and covered her with the illusion that He was her son. Isn’t this astonishing?
She then began to believe that the Supreme Lord, who is extolled by the Vedas, Upanishads and Devatas to be her son. ‘This is my son’- she thought when seeing that Supreme Lord whose sports are infinite and whose effulgence is limitless. In other words, he had once again filled her with the feelings of ‘I and mine’. Isn’t this surprising?
Let us return to the story.
Hearing the statements made by Maharishi Śuka, Emperor Parikshit enquired, “O revered sage! The Supreme Lord, who incarnated as Krishna grew up drinking the breast milk of Yashoda. What saintly meritorious deeds did Yashoda and Nanda perform previously in order to be blessed with this supreme fortune? This pious couple had the chance to play with the Lord, to kiss Him, serve Him, shower parental love upon Him”.
Once He had taken on a human form, the Lord went through every stage of mental and physical development akin to a human child. He laughed and wept like a child. He experienced hunger, thirst and sleep. Yashoda and Nanda could tend to His needs at every hour, just as parents tend to the needs of their little children.
“What special austerities did they perform? How could such luck land in their lap? I am yearning to know these details. O great sage! The childhood activities of Krishna destroy all impurities from the minds of the humans, don’t they?”
All the residents of Gokula had been rendered pure merely by watching the childhood activities of Krishna. Every form of impurity that was hidden deep in their mind was sucked out. Yashoda and Nanda were talking to the Lord, playing with Him, bathing Him, hugging Him. Like a normal infant, the Lord even played in murky mud. He showed that even grime that attaches to his body smells sweet like perfume.
Vishnave namah