Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

Years back, decades back, I was staying with ‘X’. X’s husband was Y; he was High Court Advocate, a very silent man who will not be expressing so much but I think he was very, very substantial as a person and as an advocate also. ‘Y’ did not have much of interactions with me but he had a lot of regard and perhaps fondness also. At one point of time he was telling me, “Swamiji, you should write a book describing and narrating how Bhagavadgeeta as a thought process, as a cultural kernel came to be evolved in our country.” It is not that Bhagavadgeeta is taken up; the language is mine, not necessarily his. It is not that we take Bhagavadgeeta as an occasional or a circumstantial dialogue that took place suddenly in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Bhagavadgeeta is the sustained and sustainable outcome gradually evolved in our country as a cultural thought process and outcome. I would like you, to write a book like this. Whenever people tell me, generally the idea starts growing in my being like an embryo in the mother’s womb, a fetus. Then I started writing ‘Song of the Soul’. That book is only something like hundred and odd pages. I could not complete it because the press which was printing it, itself came to a transition and subsequently a collapse. Nevertheless, when I was progressing in the writing of the book I was very, very ecstatic and there were occasions or maybe quite a number of days when I felt that I was an ethereal type of person.

When I was writing poetry again referring to Krishna’s birth I have written it up to the birth of Krishna. What is this Krishna, how was he born, is there anything called providence, does it have a wish and a will, is it connected with the world? The world is primarily inert. Living beings are very, very few here. The panchabhūtas are all inert. So in this inert creation does providence have a vibrant living relationship? Is he really concerned with the developments in the society particularly the human? The human society is evolving and in the evolution a lot of scope is there for the variety of people. Nature abounds in variety in every field. When it comes to the question of human society it abounds in the same variety in a very enhanced and far more complex manner. The variety is not so much in our physical features, complexion, physiognomy etc. The complexity of human nature is maximum evidenced in the mind, its tendencies, habits, responses, reactions, predilections and the like and the ability of the intelligence to argue and arrive at facts and truths every time. Now the mento-intellectual variety is very, very amazing, amazing and this also gives a kind of an option to the human being. So, the option given to the individual and the option given to the other individuals to join one or not, this makes the society very, very complex. In such a complex society, are we to leave everything to providence or are we to leave everything to the variety which is inherent in nature? Is there any blending of the two? All these are very, very important questions, very important questions.

I have always felt that the human society is not a granite block. It is subject to transition, transformation, reformation, refinement. Just like nature is sometimes is favorable to us, it is calm and cool and the seasons favor us. Suddenly you will find there are floods. There is drought, there is a cyclone, a hurricane. Why should it happen in nature? Ultimately it is for some kind of a balancing, balancing. Some pressure occurs here, some pressure occurs there. There is suddenly a rush of wind and the atmosphere so to say into that region. Now ultimately, in the whole course of revolution means constantly cyclically movement, movement , there are number of factors that take place. People say that in Surat 60 years back before the recent earthquake there, there was another earthquake. We generally speak of a 60 year cycle Prabhavādi ṣaṣti samvatsarāṇām madhye. Prabhava is the name of the first varsha and subsequently there are 59. These 60 years are moving in a cyclic manner. Now the question arises, are the things in the world, in the planets and the heavenly bodies taking place just in an inert manner or is there anything called intelligence, supreme intelligence behind it? These are very, very important points. So, somehow I started thinking about the subject and I feel human society will never remain static.  Suppose the society is good and a few years pass all the people will become stale about it, will start feeling stale.

In Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayana there was one scene which I remember. Rama’s rule was much more than even Dasaratha’s. Dasaratha’s rule also was righteous. Rama’s was perhaps even more. Everyone was happy, there was peace, plenty everywhere. So, the spies who went out to know what is taking place in the talks and the behavior of the people, they came back and said “All people are happy. Everyone is contented. So much so that they have found life to be stale.” Yesterday is today, today is going to be tomorrow. There is nothing different or more. This kind of a situation had come.

Then they said, “Maharaja, we should do something which will suddenly activate the people and put them into an orbit of action.”

“What should be done? It should not be in the way of a quarrel or a fight but nevertheless what could be done?”

Then they said, “Something nationally festive should be done where all people will have a feeling of share and a participation.”

“What is that?”

“Let us do a Rājasūya yāga.”

Rājasūya yāga performed by the king means every citizen has got a place in it. It calls for a lot of effort, a lot of expenditure, a lot of management, a lot of organization. So, when the Rājasūya yāga was announced, suddenly there was a spurt in the minds of all people.

Why I am mentioning this? Don’t think that the society can remain, can remain always good. No. Goodness will become stale after sometime. The society also cannot become wicked for a long time. So everything has to move in a cycle. Any cyclic movement means the spokes of the wheel will be vertical, horizontal and again downwardly vertical, then again horizontal and it goes on moving. This is the only way any course in a cyclic manner can ever be. Now, this is behind the thought of our chaturyuga - kritayuga, tretāyuga, dwāparayuga and kaliyuga. We don’t know whether there was a kritayuga but an imaginative rational mind is bound to think of a situation where in pockets of the human society there will be very good and noble people. That means nobility is possible, goodness is possible. So they say there was a kritayuga.

What was that kritayuga? Every individual was living and functioning in a manner that it produced a lot of kritakrityata for him. Kritasya kritakrityatvād, all people were contended by doing whatever they do. We are telling the ashramites repeatedly, at least I am telling that you must be able to work joyfully, joyfully, joyfully, not work for joy, joyful work. This is what happened in kritayuga. A long period of time passed, far more than kaliyuga, four times kaliyuga. After that there was a change in the society and that change was marked by what? The corruption that crept into the mind of kaikeyi, one of the three queens of Dasaratha. The corruption did not come by itself. It was, it was injected into her by her own maid servant Manthara and she did so in a very gradual manner. Kaikeyi was really good perhaps but by listening to Manthara the goodness transformed itself into badness and wickedness of a very intolerable level. All transpired in the course of a few minutes first and a few hours next. This is what happened. But Kaikeyi’s corruption could not succeed. Her own son for whose sake she snatched the kingdom from Dasaratha and denied Rama said, “What is precious to my mother is dismissed by me. I don’t want.” And he started scolding and abusing his mother left and right in a very, very strong manner. You should read Ramayana of Valmiki to see what was the extent of abuses which Bharata was showering on the mother. The human nature is revealed. We have got fondness for the mother. Very good. But are we only a son or only a daughter? Are we not going to be one elderly later? So, what is expected of the individual - always clinging to the mother and father or standing independently? So here Bharata proves his integrity as an adult and starts totally differing from the mother. Now this is a corruption that threatened in the mother side.

The whole yuga transformed and we come to Dwāparayuga where Bhishma the great grandfather was living with all the people of the Kuru dynasty, Hastinapura. He brought up all the children, the larger number decided to stand by cruelty, wickedness, intolerance and destruction. Can you imagine the cruelty of Duryodhana team in making a wax palace and with a lot of friendliness, hosting Pandavas and setting fire to it? They thought that Pandavas were burnt but it did not take place. Now, Bhishma said, “Okay, I am helpless. You divide the country and go and live after yourselves.” The grandfather, such a great and glorious grand father who was the best knower of truth, the most powerful warrior, the most compassionate, everything good about him, in his presence the grand children proved a variety. That yuga also has passed.

Now we are in kaliyuga where things are still different and we have opted for democracy. All our puranas and itihāsas are written in monarchial times. Nothing is written in democracy. That is why we don’t have a guide before us. Now this is the way the human society is. Now when we speak of kritayuga there might have been or not a kritayuga but the fact remains it is better to tell people that there can be a kritakrityata and other people started from there, your forefathers were already self fulfilling in everything that they did. But there is a degeneration taking place and we are in the edge of the degenerated stage. Therefore act instantly with a sense of immediacy and go forward. You have the heredity in you. Never doubt. You can become good, great and glorious because we have such a past. This is how I am looking at the whole yuga structure and the nature of the complex human society.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.