A Summary of the Srimad Bhagavata Maha Puranam: 8.2- ( END) Swami Krishnananda.


=====================================================================================================

Wednesday 29, July 2026. 06:20.
Books
Srimad Bhagavad Gita
The Glory of God: A Summary of the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapuranam: 8.2. 
8.Concluding Message: The Stages of Ascent to Moksha - 2.
Swami Krishnananda.

=======================================================================================================


The consciousness of the nature of one's bondage is the beginning of sadhana. This is what is told to us in the Yoga Vasishtha, in its description of the stages of awakening. “Something is very wrong with me right from the beginning. I do not know my past, I do not know my future, and even today, just at this moment, I cannot understand what circumstances I am passing through.” This is the beginning of wisdom, and is called subheccha in the language of the Yoga Vasishtha—wanting to know what is good. Though the nature of the good is not actually known, there is at least a desire to know it. Subheccha is the first stage of sadhana. We do not want to be bad; we want to be good.

The next stage of sadhana is an effort to find out what is good. It is not enough if we merely want the good; we must know where the good lies, and strive for it. This is self-analysis. Satsanga, study, attending discourses of mahatmas, worship, japa sadhana, are all helpful in investigating into the nature of the problem and then deciphering the nature of the ultimate truth. These first two stages, subheccha and vicharana, are mostly the preliminary stages of spiritual practice, and yet they are difficult enough for a person who is not acquainted with this way of thinking, just as a person who does not know cycling cannot sit on a bicycle even for a moment until he learns it.


By such kind of continuous, assiduous investigation into one's own bondage and what is good for oneself, the mind which is fattened by being fed through sensory life becomes thinner and thinner, and that which was once opaque due to the desire for enjoyment of the objects of the world—due to which, the light of the Self within could not be reflected, as sunlight cannot pass through a brick and can pass only through a clean glass—becomes thinned. In the earlier stages, due to the thickened form of the mental process, the very idea of there being something called the Atman within may not be possible, but after assiduous practice in this manner, the mind becomes thin. That condition is called tanumanasi, a threadlike condition of the mind where it is transparent and reflects the true nature of everything.

According to the Yoga Vasishtha, these are the first three stages of actual sadhana, spiritual practice. By continuing this practice for a long, long time throughout one's life, the sattva, or the purity in one's person, flashes forth, and the sun of knowledge begins to dazzle through this mirror-like clean mind that has been attenuated through the absence of desires. This is a pure sattvic transparent condition of the mind, free from any kind of distraction or lethargy, i.e., rajas and tamas. This in itself is a great achievement that we have flashes of insight in our sadhana. This state is called sattvapatti.


Because of the bliss that we enjoy by the experience of this light of the Self emanating from within one's own self through the mind that is so transparent, we do not feel a desire for anything that is outside, and we feel that we are sufficient in ourselves. Our very being is a joy to us, and we do not want assistance from any other thing. Detachment automatically, spontaneously takes place in this stage. This is the stage of asamsakti, non-attachment. It is not the non-attachment that has been inflicted by deliberate austerity, but a spontaneous event that is taking place on account of the knowledge arising spontaneously in the sadhaka—asamsa. We have to take several births, normally speaking, to attain this state of asamsakti, or sattvapatti.

Total detachment is unknown to mankind. We always cling to something, either in the mind or socially, physically, materially. Total satisfaction in one's own self, free from having any desire to contact outside oneself, is something unimaginable for the common man. But such a state is reached by the intense practice of self-investigation—asamsakti, as it is called.


Then comes the higher state, called padarthabhavana. We do not recognise that the world is really material. It is no more an object. All the things in the world appear as a congealed form of universal power. It is as if the ocean of universal force gets concentrated into little knots here and there in space and time, to which we give an appellation of objects, persons, things, etc. There are no persons, no things, no objects, ultimately. They are concentrated pressure-points of universal force. We will never see anything material afterwards. It is all one inundating force permeating all things, looking like objects, persons and things. This is padarthabhavana.

When such a state of universal recognition of a pervading force is attained, the only one thing that remains for a person—who is really not a person but is a centre of force—is to identify one's own localised point of existence with this universal force so that what exists is not a sadhaka with a universal power, because this sadhaka has gone into the very bosom of the sea of power. It is cosmic prana, cosmic mind, cosmic intellect, cosmic consciousness—whatever we may call it. This state of immersion of one's own being into the pervading presence of universal force is true liberation. In that condition, whether we exist in this body or do not exist in this body, it makes no difference. While we exist in the physical body even with this realisation, we may be called a jivanmukta purusha in the language of the scriptures. The mind is not concentrated on the body; it is concentrated on that to which this body belongs.


It is then said to be salvation where even this little appendage of the body born through past karma drops completely, and the pure existence, the soul as it is, merges into the Universal Soul. This is called moksha, for which sadhana is practised. We do not live in this world for any other purpose.

The consciousness of the aim of existence is a primary modification of any kind of spiritual aspiration. Routine activity, doing the same thing every day, chanting the same mantra without knowing its implications, and actually in practical life getting immersed in the oblivion of one's relationship with this universal force, is not sadhana. There must be an actual awakening to this great fact of one's vital relationship to the all-pervading power, the immersion of oneself with it, the communion of oneself with it, the self-identification of oneself with it, being it, and having an experience of only one existence. This is moksha, for which purpose we are striving. May God bless you!



END.

=======================================================================================================================

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Glory of God : A Summary of the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapuranam : 2.7 - Swami Krishnananda.

Image
------------------------------------------------ Monday,  October 05, 2020. 5:56. PM. Chapter 2: The Process of Creation-7. ----------------------------------------------- 1. Incidentally, we have to say how the Bhagavata came into being at all. It was written by Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa, the great sage, after he completed writing the Mahabharata and the seventeen Puranas. It is said in the beginning of the Srimad Bhagavata that after having completed the Mahabharata, the great epic into which every knowledge has been pressed into service by the wise Vyasa, he felt that something had been left out and he had not completed his work, and he was disturbed by this ‘something’ which he could not properly comprehend. 2. At that time Narada came and asked, “What is the problem? Why are you looking despondent?” Vyasa replied, “I have written everything conceivable on dharma, artha and kama in the Mahabharata, yet I feel that something has been left out. I have to complete my mission, but I...
Read more

"Vishnu Puranam" : Lakshmi-

Image
Lakshmi   Brahma also wanted to create a son who would be just like him. When he thought of this, a son appeared on his lap. But the child kept on crying (rud) and thus came to be known as Rudra. He was crying because he did not have a name. The crying stopped when Brahma gave him the name of Rudra from the word for crying. The child, however, began to cry once more and did not stop until he was given another name. This happened seven times. And so Rudra also has the names of Bhava, Sarva, Mahesha, Pashupati, Bhima, Ugra and Mahadeva. Rudra’s wife was called Sati. She gave up her life because of what her father Daksha had done and was born again as Uma, the daughter of Himalaya and Menaka. Mahadeva married Uma yet again.   There was a sage called Durvasa who was descended from Mahadeva. Once upon a time, Durvasa was wandering around the world. And in the hands of a pretty woman he saw a beautiful and fragrant garland. Durvasa wanted the woman to giv...
Read more

"The Prachetas" :

Image
The Prachetas   Among Prithu’s descendants was a king called Prachinvarhi who married the daughter of the ocean, Savarna. Ten sons, the Prachetas, were born of this marriage. They performed very difficult tapasya (meditation) for ten thousand years under the ocean.   Maitreya asked Parashara, "Why did the Prachetas perform difficult tapasya for ten thousand years?" And this was Parashara’s answer.   Brahma had asked Prachinvarhi to ensure that the world became full of people and Prachinvarhi passed on the task to his sons. But the Prachetas did not know how to go about this task. Their father told them to pray to Vishnu, for didn’t Vishnu offer the solution to all problems? It was after paying to Vishnu that Brahma had created the universe at the beginning of the original creation. On hearing their father’s instructions, the Prachetas prayed for ten thousand years.   When the ten thousand years were over, Vishnu appeared ...
Read more