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I have, after all, the same subject to speak about. What is that?
You imagine Uddhava, the chosen devotee, who was living very proximate to Sri Krishna. Of course, Sri Krishna’s life was an administrator’s life. He also has the additional dimension of spirituality, devotion and the like. But main life of Krishna was that of a ruler, an administrator, involved in very huge battles, directly himself and also through the others. And his life was itself meant for relieving the earth from the excess load caused by the wicked people.
So this was the main intention. So you cannot say that it was a whole satsang so far as Uddhava is concerned. Uddhava was a trusted person, a councillor also. So, Sri Krishna was mostly dealing with his own Dwaraka household problems, on the one hand, and the larger societies, the kingdoms and perhaps the whole of India’s political and social destiny.
So the satsang part available for Uddhava from Krishna would be naturally little. That I agree! But nevertheless, Uddhava himself was totally devoted to him whether he was a councillor or somebody else, and who had a lot of errands to perform in Dwarka, so far as Uddhava is concerned, he was completely devoted to Krishna. So he was a full-fledged wholesome devotee.
How many years would have passed? Quite a few decades! When Krishna was 125 years, parallelly Uddhava also must have been parallelly old, maybe a little younger to Krishna. After so many years of association, when Krishna, after having fulfilled his duties as a human born on this Earth, decided to depart, after destroying the Yadava clan, Uddhava was very much upset. He felt that “So far I was associated with Krishna and now that he will be leaving the earth, I will be totally finding an unbearable situation. So, I cannot bear this!” So because of the devotional pull that he had, he said, “You take me to wherever you go.”
स्वधाम नय मामपि svadhāma naya mām api – This is the best and the highest of prayers that a devotee can submit before the Lord! Please take me where you are! Actually God is everywhere, so where is the question of taking anyone to where God is? Everyone is surrounded by God, penetrated by God. So there is no question of leaving a place to go to God and reach him in another place. So these are all products of ignorance and illusion. So Krishna said, “No! It is true that Dwarka as well as this earth would not be suitable for you to live. It will be completely rid of all the auspiciousness after I have left. Dwarka will be swallowed by the sea and people – in a widespread manner – they will be given to all kinds of wicked, destructive and fissiparous tendencies. So what should be done? So you better go, Uddhava,” he says, “while I am still here, confidently you go. And for that you have to get rid of your undue attachment and strings towards your family members, relatives and the like. Keep me in your heart. You are a great devotee of mine and see me all around. Go to Badarikashrama. Sit between the Nara-Narayana mountains there, and contemplating upon me, allow the time to pass and take away your body.”
Why I am presenting to you this picturesque imagery? The idea is – you should understand that Uddhava was a great devotee, Having the privilege of being very close to Krishna and eating whatever Krishna was leaving over, wearing whatever dress Krishna was wearing. Such a great privilege and proximity he had! Even then he says, “My dear Lord! I am not able to do what you want me to do.”
सोSहं ममाहमिति मूढमतिर्विगाढस्त्वन्मायया विरचितात्मनि सानुबन्धे ।
तत्त्वञ्जसा निगदितं भवता यथाहं संसाधयामि भगवन्ननुषाधि भृत्यम् ।।
so'haṁ mamāham-iti mūḍha-matir-vigāḍhas-
tvan-māyayā viracitātmani sānubandhe
tattvañjasā nigaditaṁ-bhavatā-yathāhaṁ
saṁsādhayāmi bhagavann-anuśādhi bhṛtyam
(Srimad Bhagavatam 11.7.16)
Uddhava had no second thought. He should do what his Lord says, but he was unable to do. And what is the reason?
He says; सोहं ममाहमिति मूढमतिर्विगाढः so'haṁ mamāhamiti mūḍhamatirvigāḍhaḥ. Hmm….This is our trouble! We have developed a wrong notion that I am this body. Actually the spirit is not the body and “I” refers to the spirit. When we consider our body to be ours, the body relations also become ours. Both are wrong! And that is because of the witchcraft, the Maya, that you have unleashed and thrown. So please instruct me so that I will be able to get over this delusion and illusion and act according to what you say; namely, I will be able to leave, I should be able to leave Dwaraka and you, and do as you say, sit in Badarikashrama, contemplating upon you.
Now the whole instruction started from this point. Now, what I want you to understand is; are you able to place this request and also the following conversation in your mind? The mere proximity or the mere practice of devotion, will it be able to penetrate into your mind and set right the errors and the stains in your mind? I think it requires an altogether different process of inner penetration. What is inner penetration? If you drink some water, the mouth passes it on to the stomach and it penetrates the whole system. In the same manner, what can penetrate our mind, our intelligence; this is something that you have to think. That is why in all our purāṇās and itihāsās, whenever there is an insufficiency, a problem, a grief, a misery or other things, there results a dialogue or a conversation between a very good Knower of truth and a seeker of truth.
What decades of close proximity with Krishna could not bring about, Uddhava was able to achieve, by seeking instruction from Krishna and Krishna giving the instruction. Why? Every word is unlike food gulped by the stomach. A word strikes the eardrum, and after the eardrum, it is all ideas, knowledge. What is idea and what is knowledge? It’s very difficult to explain, because when it comes to you in the form of sound, it is energy. But before becoming energy, it was a kind of a subtle vibration of consciousness and that is not like a physical or a chemical process. So we cannot explain what is this knowledge process, but nevertheless we experience it.
So the words uttered by Krishna were received wholesomely, with a lot of receptivity by Uddhava and every word started entering into the mind structure and the intelligence structure of Uddhava. As I say, when you put salt or sugar in water, it gets dissolved in water. Suppose there is half a litre of water and I start pouring good pure milk into that water, if I pour about three or four or five litres, you will find the water has totally disappeared and it has become milk. In the same manner, Krishna’s words carrying wonderful, spirituo-philosophical truths, ideas and inspirations; all of them started trickling into the mind, the heart, the intelligence, the skull of Uddhava, as a result of which all of them got dissolved into Uddhava’s inner personality.
He received them so much that the water in Uddhava’s mind, the water in Uddhava’s skull; that completely transformed into the milk of the instruction. This is what happens.
So, my dear souls, especially U., I want you to understand, your presence in this Ashram will become meaningful only if you are able to assimilate and absorb these words. And I want a clear evidence. What is that? We are absorbing, all of you are absorbing and the absorption results in a transformation of the mind, an enlightenment of the intelligence, and an expansion, a kind of a purity as a result of which you will be able to live like air and space in this world.
Never tell me that a particular grief, a concern or otherwise…. what is this concern? It is not material. It is something in the way of a mental thing, an intellectual thing. Ignorance is of the intelligence. Agitations and delusions are of the mind and heart. Both of them are subject to the penetration by truthful words, spiritual truths. Let them penetrate into your heart. Allow them to penetrate. It’s not hearing. It’s not listening. It is something far deeper than that. Imagine this conversation! Simply by a process of instruction running into 24 chapters, Krishna was able to put sufficient material into the mind and heart of Uddhava, as a result of which he said, “Yes, I am leaving. All that I want, my dear Krishna, are your sandals. I want your sandals.” He prostrated and wetted Krishna’s feet with his tears, got up, placed the sandals which Krishna gave on his head and started turning back, walking, walking towards Badarikashrama.
All this transpired in a matter of about three or four hours. Can you imagine the lightning transformation, spiritual instruction, truthful words, conveyed by a Knower of truth to a seeker of truth! What a lightning transformation can it work! I would like you to reflect upon this very well so that your mind and intelligence will also be transformed, not in years and decades but in weeks, fortnights and days.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
