God-centred life

(Adapted from Swami Paramarthananda’s talk)

Vedic scriptures advise its followers, the Vaidhikas whose popular name is Hindus, to lead a God-centred life.  The God-centred life is broadly divided into two stages. The first stage is Iswara Aradhanam to be followed by the second stage, Iswara Jnanam.  Iswara Aradhanam means worship of God and Iswara Jnanam means knowledge of God.   Without Ishwara Aradhanam, Ishwara Jnanam is impossible and without Ishwara Jnanam, Ishwara Aradhanam is incomplete.  In the first stage of Iswara Aradhanam worship is based on faith in God. It is based on Ishwara Shraddha that “I have faith in the existence of God”.  In the Bhagavad Gita (17-3) Lord Krishna says “sraddha-mayo 'yam purusho yo yacchraddhah sa eva sah (The man consists of faith: as a man’s faith is, so is he)”.

To practice Ishwara Aradhanam one requires faith in Ishwara and faith in Aradhanam or worship and basic information to implement this Aradhanam.  As regards Jnanam at this stage, the general information regarding God that Scriptures give, which is that God, is srishti-sththi-laya kartha – the creator, sustainer and resolver of the entire universe, is enough for carrying on Iswara Aradhanam.  The scriptures also give the message that Ishwara can be invoked in several forms for the sake of Aradhanam.  There are male forms like Shiva, Krishna. Rama etc., female forms like Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi etc., mixed form like ardhanareeswara, animal form like matsya, kurma, varaha, and human-animal mixed form like Narasimha.   In addition to all these forms one can also invoke God in symbols like Shiva linga or Saligram or Omkara.  So there are many forms and many options in which one can invoke Iswara for Iswara Aradhanam at home.  One can do this Aradhanam in a formal way learning from somebody on how to worship God in a formal way.  Or even a simple informal Aradhanam one can practice.  The simple informal Aradhanam is kayika puja or physical worship in which one offers a few flowers and have a simple arathi and a naivedayam of a fruit or two.  If one is not ready for kayika puja then one can have vachika puja where one does some parayanam of slokas or sthuthis in any language.  What is important is one should spend some time exclusively for Aradhanam and one should do it sincerely with devotion and concentration. 

Bhagawan is one having Bhaga and Bhaga is defined as the six-fold attributes of power, courage, fame, wealth, knowledge and detachment in infinite measures in the Vishnu Puranam verse:

Aiswaryasya samagrasya Veeryasya Yasasya Sriyaha I

Vairagyasya Jnanasya shannaam Bhaga itheerana II

So when one has not only faith in God but also the conviction that His Grace is with him in all his activities he is free of fear, worry and anxiety.  His attitude to all karma is one of Iswara Arpanam.  Not only he chants ‘Yadyatkarma karomi tattadakhilam Shambho tavaaraadhanam’, he lives it also and accepts the results, be it success or failure as Iswara Prasadam and he finds peace even in the midst of failures and adversities. This faith based Iswara Aradhanam will prepare an aspirant gradually for the second stage, which is Iswara Jnanam.

For entering the second stage three factors are required.  The first factor is a sincere, deep desire to know about God, which is named in Gita as jignasu bhakti.  The second factor is the help of a spiritual guide, Guru and the third factor is a subtle intellect and a mature mind to understand the abstract and subtle subject of nature of God.  The Ishwara aradhanam performed with Sraddah and Bhakthi will give one all the three factors: sincere desire, spiritual guide and also a mature mind.   Guru bases his teaching on the primary source of knowledge about God, Upanishads and on the secondary sources like Bhagavad Gita.  Even at the early stage of teaching one’s Iswara Jnanam undergoes a change.  God who was known early as srishti-sthithi-laya kartha comes to be known now as srishti-sthithi-laya-karanam.  Once one changes his knowledge from ‘kartha’ to ‘karanam’ other changes also follow.  Let us see the four important corollaries that follows from the revised karanam-karyam relationship based on the parallel analogy of gold and ornaments that have the karanam-karyam relationship.

Gold the cause is ekam (one) and from that one lump we have several ornaments. Therefore though karyam is many (anekam) karanam is one (ekam) only.  Secondly though Gold, karanam, can exist independently, the ornaments, karyam cannot exist independently and are dependent on gold for existence.   Whatever has independent existence is called Satyam and whatever is seemingly existent with borrowed existence, they are called mithya.  So karanam is satyam and comparatively karyam is mithya.  Further gold, the karanam, is in and through all ornaments, karyam and is the substance of all ornaments, Saram.  Also gold existed before ornaments are made and will continue to exist even when the ornaments are melted.  So karanam is nithyam (eternal) and karyam is anithyam.  Applying this to God, karanam and universe, karyam one makes the following deductions.

1)    God as karanam is only One (ekam) and He can be invoked in several forms as we have seen earlier and He is present everywhere and in everything in universe.

2)    God as karanam is the Sathyam and universe is mithya

3)    God as karanam is Nithyam and universe is anithyam.

4)    God as karanam is the Saram and universe is asaram.

Besides understanding God as ekam, nithyam, sathyam and saram and all worldly things as anekam, anithyam, asathyam and asaram, one learns another important thing.  Though there is variety, novelty and beauty in worldly things one can depend on God only for security as others are anithyam asaram and asathyam.  He also gets the firm knowledge at this stage that God is not only the truth beyond all forms, He is also the truth behind everything and He is in me also.  With this firm knowledge one can move to the next stage of Self-enquiry which is still more subtle.

How to identify the ekam, saram, nithyam and satyam Iswara residing in one is the next stage of enquiry about God.  A live being consists of body-mind complex which is achetanam (matter) and Consciousness (Chaitanyam that is chetanam).  The body is continuously changing; the mind consisting of thoughts is also changing and only the Consciousness that is aware of all the changes is the unchanging factor and is the Chit nature of Iswara.  The second factor Is 'I Am', which is constant in all statements about oneself like I am old, I am young, I am tall, I am a man etc. and represents the existence or satyam principle, the Sat nature of Iswara.  Sat Chit Ananda stands for the Karanam Iswara principle who is everywhere and who is in everyone also as the Consciousness principle. And when one learns to identify with that core then one can say with conviction: “Aham Brahma asmi”. This makes one’s life purnam, totally fulfilled.   

So the God-centred life starts with Iswara Aradhanam and leads one to Iswara Jnanam that gives the realisation that ‘I am Iswara’ and makes one a Jivan Muktha.

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