The Light of the Enlightened – Bhagavad gita verses 2.67-2.72

Dear Malathi
Bashyam is nothing but what comes out when we evaluate our experiences against what has been stated in the Scriptures. Unfortunately, a person undertakes such an exercise only at a stage when he is confined to his home most of the time! Any lesson that he learns at that stage becomes virtually meaningless as he can not apply them to his life.
It is so heartening to see that a lot of younger generation is evincing so much interest in understanding the essence and spirit of Gita. I am doubly happy that the lessons that I have learnt are found useful by people who are half my age. I am beholden to Him for this opportunity given to me to share my experience.
Sri

 

Dear Pavithra
My maternal grand mother always used to tell us that the way to pray to God was not to ask for anything but His Grace. She would tell us that the people who go to Temple to submit a list of things they need for the consideration of God would not remember even a single item of their requirement if God really manifested Himself before them! His overpowering Presence would simply blunt our mind to ask for anything and we would simply stand in total awe before Him. In support of this, she would tell us several stories too! When you say "The more we keep asking God "Please give me this...please gvie me that...", instead of saying "Thank you God for everything. Please guide me with your Divine Light", the more we will end up longing for material things rather than being happy." I am reminded of that great lady who taught us Spiritualism the way she practised it.

That 'Gratefulness diary' is very typical of Reader's Digest. It is nothing but what people refer to as 'Counting the blessings'. Many of us have simply lost the art of counting our blessings. When we go to bed, we carry all the unpleasant memories of the day in our sleep and these memories consolidate as hatred and other malicious feelings. When we wake up the next day, we are even more determined to 'settle scores'! But if counting blessings is our last activity before falling asleep, we wake up feeling a lot better and more positive.
Sri

 

Dear Aishu
That song 'Kallai mattum kandal kadavul theiriyadhu' is based on the famous 'Tirumanthiram' of Thirumoolar that says,
'Marathai maraithathu maamadha yanai,
Marathil maraindathu maamadha yanai'
What we choose to see is left to us. This also implies that there are two levels of looking at a thing. We may either look at its spiritual content or only the temporal one. For the latter we need to follow only our physical senses but the spiritual content becomes visible only when we examine it under the Inner Light.

When we master the use of Inner Light, nothing will disturb us because at this level, we may perceive the Divine Correlation in everything that happens to us and others around us.
Sri

 

Dear Sudha
The term 'Maya' is very difficult to understand when we shop in a supermarket or gloat over our new limousine. Such solid things which we can touch and feel, things that make us momentarily happy, how can all these be 'Maya'? Adi Sankara gives a beautiful answer to explain this. Suppose we dream of something dreadful happening to us like a tiger chasing us in a dense forest. For those few minutes, we go through all the physical and mental torture as if the tiger-chasing is real. Then we wake up and are relieved to find that it is only a dream but then our psyche took it as so real and not a dream that we find ourselves soaked in cold sweat and our body still trembling.
Sankara says that when we wake up from this dream called life, we realise what 'Maya' is all about.

There is an interesting difference between the importance that we attach to this myth called life and to the serenity of a spiritual dream. When Raja Raja Chola completed the Big Temple and fixed an auspicious day for its consecration, Siva appeared in his dream to tell him that He would not be able to come on that day as He had committed to be present at another Temple being consecrated. As no other Temples were being built around that time, the King came to understand that it was a Temple that a Sivanadiar had built in his dream brick by brick for several years!

Sri

 

Dear Sri
The Maya part of our life can be seen from many examples of our own life. For example, what at one stage of our life appeared as the most indispensible part of our life, gets totally forgotten as we progress through life. What appears as the source of all our happiness is not really so. Ramana Maharshi explains this beautifully. A dog bites at a dry bone and starts bleeding in its mouth because of the injury caused by the sharp ends of the bone. But the dog imagines it to be the blood coming from the bone and drinks it happily. He says that all the happiness that we derive from external objects is already inherent in us. It is a myth to think that we get it out of external things.
Sri

 

Dear Corallux
That is a great teaching of Sai. Being at the evening of my life, I am able to relate to it better. Hundreds of people have come into my life in my last 65 years. It will be preposterous of me to classify them as good and bad but I have no doubt that every one of them came into my life for a reason. I must confess that the negative ones had a greater sway over me for a while and it was during this period, I started ruminating over the life I led. Then my focus shifted from the people who had a negative influence over me to the ones that had a positive effect. It was an enchanting experience that the negative ones slowly faded away with the emergence of positive ones as light dispelling darkness. And I am happy that it was not the other way!
Sri

 

Dear Kamla
That's a beautiful summing up of what is sought to be conveyed in these verses of Gita. Yes. The Light is there waiting for us to open our eyes to it but we are busy combating our darkness with more darkness!
Thank you Kamla for that superb line which falls in the category of 'Quotable Quotes'
Sri