(adapted from a lecture of Swami Paramarthananda)
Svetasvatara Upanishad (6-18) states:
yo brahmaṇaṃ vidadhati purvaṃ yo vai vedaṃsca
prahiṇoti tasmai I
taṃ ha devaṃ atmabuddhiprakasam mumuksurvai
saranamaham prapadye II
Seeking Liberation, I take
refuge in the Lord, the revealer of Self-Knowledge, who in the beginning
created Brahma and delivered the Vedas to Him.
The Vedas that have been
handed to Brahma, and coming down to this present day is a guide book for
living and offers guidance for living to those who have the trust in the
validity, efficacy and utility of Vedas. Those who have shraddha in
Vedic teachings were called Vaidhikhas, who are now called as Hindus. Vedas prescribe a life-style that is
God-centred for its followers. For a
devout Hindu the day starts with the remembrance of God and in every activity
during day God is remembered. For
instance during bath God is visualised in the heart and bath is considered as
an abhishekam to the Lord. Pradhakshinam
a Hindu does in temple is a symbolic
declaration that his life will be centred around God only, Not only the daily chores but also all other
aspects of Hindu life like music and dance, art and architecture are all
centred on God.
The scriptures not only give
the instructions but also teach the significance of each action. But over the period of time, the backup teachings
were lost and the scriptures are not studied with sraddha; only the
traditions are maintained with the result the practices now appear to be ‘meaningless
rituals’ to the younger generation. But
one will understand that rituals like puja are not meaningless if one learns
the principle and purpose behind it. Let us see a few salient points of the
backup teaching in support of the God-centred lifestyle, starting from the
common definition of God.
The common provisional
definition of God is ‘Srsti Kartha’, creator of the world. Scriptures themselves refine that definition
for serious thinkers, the reason being that according to Vedas nothing can be
created or destroyed, which idea is echoed by modern science through its law of
conservation of matter and energy. Only
transformation takes place; nothing is created, nothing is destroyed. Before
the world came into existence, it was already existent in potential form only. What was potentially existing in an
un-manifest form alone comes to manifestation in what we call ‘creation’. This
un-manifest form is called the seed of universe. This 'seed', which existed before the emergence
of the universe, is called God.
This Lord Krishna points out
in Bhagavad gita (7-10),
bijaṃ maṃ sarvabhutanaṃ
viddhi partha sanatanam [7.10]
O Arjuna!, may you
understand me, the Lord, to be the very cause or the seed of the entire
universe.
Sri Adhi Sankara also
mentions in Dakshinamurthy stotram:
bijasyantarivankuro jagadidaṃ
prannirvikalpaṃ punaḥ
mayakalpita desakalakalana
vaicitrya citrikṛtam I
(first half of sloka 2)
This universe,
undifferentiated at first like a sprout within the seed, becoming manifold
through maya's aspects of time and space.
From that 'seed' - which is
called God - alone, the entire universe, consisting of all the galaxies and
planets and all living beings, emerges. Then, the scriptures point out that you
can divide the entire universe broadly into two categories. One is, inert material universe - called acetana
tattvam; and the second is sentient living beings - which is called the cetana
tattvam. So this manifest universe consisting
of cetana- acetana tattva dvayam, evolved out of that one 'seed', called
God. That means both the tattvams
existed in God in potential form and emerged out of it in ‘creation’. Lord Krishna names them in the Bhagavad gita
as Puruṣha and Prakṛti, Purusha referring to the chetana
tattvam and Prakṛti referring to the achetana tattvam. Purusha evolved in the form of living
beings. Prakṛti evolved in the form of the inert principle. So, the first lesson of the backup teaching
is; the God, which is the centre of our life, is the 'seed' of the universe,
which is cetana-acetana tattva dvayam.
The second lesson arises
from God being the seed of the Universe.
As God is seed, God is kaaranam and universe being the product is
kaaryam. From this kaarana-kaarya
sambanda we can draw certain conclusions.
One of the popular examples given in the scriptures to illustrate kaarana-kaarya
sambanda is gold and gold ornaments, gold being the cause of various gold
ornaments made out of it and gold ornaments, the product i.e. gold, the kaaranam
and gold ornament the kaaryam. From
the study of their features; we can draw four conclusions regarding kaaranam and
kaaryam
1) Gold,
the cause, is one only from which various ornaments of different designs and shapes
are made. So while kaaranam is one, eka, Kaaryam is many, aneka
2) Gold
only is the substance that has weight in all ornaments, which are all gold +nama+rupa. Without gold the ornaments are reduced to weightless
nama and rupa, So kaaranam
is the essence, sara, and Kaarayam having no substantiality of
its own is asara
3) Gold
was there in the past, before it was converted into ornaments. Gold is therein
the present as ornaments. Even if the
ornaments are melted in future, gold will still remain. So kaaranam, in
relation to kaaryam is present in all the three periods of time and so
permanent, nitya, while kaaryam temporary, existing in the
present only, anitya.
4) Gold
has independent existence and is satyam as compared to ornaments which
do not exist without the gold and have dependant existence, asatyam. So kaaranam is satyam and kaaryam
is asatyam.
Applying this to God and universe
we learn that God is eka, sara, nitya, and satyam while universe is aneka,
asara, anitya and asatyam.
But universe has its own plus points like variety, beauty and novelty
but it has no stability to rely upon as it is asara, anitya and asatyam.
Human beings suffer from a feeling of insecurity, which is termed samsara. Among many definitions of saṃsara, one definition is, the sense of insecurity. As a child one clings to mother for security
and as one grows up this clinging for security continues, only it gets
transferred to various objects of the world like money, fame, relationships
etc. Freedom from the feeling of
insecurity, called Moksha, cannot be attained through reliance on anitya
vasthu, the objects of the world. Worldly
objects are like a cardboard chair. They
can look beautiful in various designs but you cannot lean on them or sit in
them as they are not stable and strong enough. Emotionally leaning on any object of the world
for security leads only to emotional trauma.
Therefore, scriptures guide us that if one wants to solve the
fundamental problem, then one must turn to God for security. Spirituality
begins when one recognises the problem of insecurity and turns to God who is sara,
nithya and satyam. Rely on God for
getting out of the feeling of insecurity, is the second lesson of scriptures.
The third lesson of
scriptures arising from the previous two is on “How to find God and security?” Scriptures present it in two stages. The first stage is preparation of the mind to
find God. Because, God is an extremely
subtle principle, being ultimate seed and cause beyond even time and space. So in the first stage one makes use of the
world to refine the mind using world as a field of service i.e. by serving the
world in different areas through pancha maha yajna. When with a refined mind one seeks God through
scriptural study with the help of a guru, one discovers God in oneself as one’s
Own Self, Athma. God being the kaaranam
pervades the kaaryam, the world, as gold pervades the golden
ornaments. The infinite, nitya
God pervades the finite anitya universe with its sentient and insentient
divisions. And so what one discovers is;
“In this very world, in every object, in
every living being, that includes ‘me’, God is there and so in 'me', the imperishable God is available within
the perishable part of 'me'.
In
kathopanishad Lord Yama teaches the same to Nachiketas:
angusthamatrah puruso madhya atmani tisthati
I
isanam bhutabhavyasya na tato vijugupsate I etadvai
tat II (2.1.12)
The Purusha (Athma),
of the size of a thumb, resides in the middle of the body as the Lord of the
past and the future; knowing Him one fears no more. This verily is That.
When one seeks the God and
discovers It as one’s own Athma, then life is no more a struggle for
security but an expression of security and one does not need anything else for one’s
peace, security and happiness as one has found them within oneself. Then life becomes successful and meaningful;
because, one would have solved the fundamental problem of samsara.
But, all these are possible only if one takes the guidance of the guru and the scriptures
and leads a life which is God-centric. And
the rituals in Hinduism are really a periodic reminder to the devout Hindus not
to get lost in worldly pursuit, swerve from a God-centric life and forget the
real goal of discovering security in that God which is one’s own Self only.
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This
Island was the capital for the most of Andaman Islands from 1858 until an
earthquake took its toll of the island in 1941.
It was the headquarters of the
Indian Penal Settlement for nearly 80 years. Then it had everything
at that time like bazaar, bakery, stores, water distillation plant, church,
hospital, cemetery etc, but now all of them are in ruins. In 1941, the Japanese
converted the site into POW camp, and built war installations, remnants of
which can still be seen, like the dilapidated bunkers with tunnels. During the period of Japanese occupation
Netaji Subash Chandra Bose visited the island and hoisted the Indian tricolour
at the top of the Government House. The island was reoccupied by the British in
1945 and after independence it became part of the Union territory of Andaman
Nicobar islands. In April 1979,
the island was handed over to the Navy, which set up a small post, INS
JARAWA, named after one of the indigenous tribes of the Andaman group of
islands. On 30 December 2018, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi renamed Ross Island as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
Island in a ceremony in Port Blair. The island is full of palm and coconut
trees and spotted deers are seen in the island. We spent our time in the island leisurely
walking among the ruins wih periodical rests here and there until it was time
to join the boat for the next island, North Bay Island.
North Bay Island is a beautiful beach island, placed just
northwards of Port Blair. There
are various adventure sport activities available at North Bay beach. These
activities include scuba diving, sea walk, speed boat cruise, snorkelling etc. This is also known as Coral Island as there
are corals spread over a large area underwater. Coral Safari is a semi-submarine
which takes you into the deep sea in a most comfortable 100 seater cabin, fully
air-conditioned. We went on this safari,
watching the undersea world through the large glass windows inclined at 45
degrees. The trip was for one hour and
we reached the ship for coral safari by riding a boat from the shore. After the
ride we returned to the hotel for night stay.
