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Harih Om Tat Sat Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
Day before yesterday, I recited Uddhava’s confession before Krishna.
This is the confession he made. I would like all of you to think seriously about what Uddhava says. Uddhava has been very closely associated with Krishna. As you know, that he was eating or he was having the ucchishta of Krishna, the food left over by Him. He was also using clothes which Krishna had used and left. Now so much of fondness, so much of intimacy, he had. This means Krishna also accepted him with that kind of an intimacy and fondness. And many decades have passed and at the end of all that, Krishna is asking him, “You leave Dwaraka and then go before I go.” Suppose Uddhava does not leave Dwaraka, then Krishna will have left, Uddhava will have to continue in the absence of Krishna. So, the better course was to leave Dwaraka when Krishna was there. It was at that time that Uddhava says that “I am not able to do what you have said.” And what is the reason? Two important reasons he says.
“I have a feeling of identity with my body. If I have the real identity सोऽहं – ‘I am the soul’, then there is no problem. Because this body I consider to be myself, I don’t give any recognition for the body-different entity. Naturally, whatever is there around the body as relations, friends and also many articles for the use of the body, I am very much tied to them.”
The entire spirituality rests upon these two propositions. सोऽहं ममाहम्
Now look into the Gita scene where the same Krishna was speaking to Arjuna. There also it was his problem.
See? The scene was war. Here there is no war scene; a very peaceful and a quiet atmosphere in Dwaraka. There also, Uddhava’s mind is churned by a wrong identity and also a wrong possessiveness. In the case of Arjuna also, what was the trouble? If all the people assembled there were not his relatives, Bhishma was not his grandfather and Drona was not his teacher, then Arjuna would have had no problem at all. Sometimes I have said that Bhagavad Gita has got a very rare meaning. What is that? Bhishma represents the ego and Drona represents the possessiveness. Arjuna was suffering from his own mind’s ego and possessiveness. Here also, Uddhava is suffering from the same ego and the same possessiveness. The contexts are widely different. There it was a scene of war where forty-five lakhs of warriors were killed by one another. Here, no killing. It is only going to take place later. In a peaceful atmosphere, Uddhava also suffers from the same. .
All of you are seekers, you have come to the ashram and most of you are brahmacharis, brahmacharinis etc. But my dear souls, understand, today or tomorrow you are going to meet the same difficulty or crisis. We are all born of our parents. The parental ties and filial ties are strong in us. But the moment you take up a wholesome pursuit of spirituality, I think these ties will not and cannot remain so strong and troubling us. When a person takes up sannyasa or embrace wholesome pursuit of spirituality, understand that it is a rebirth for him. I always say when people come to take deeksha from me, understand that this is the real birth, a rebirth. The first birth was of the body, now it is of, you can say the soul. Now, will you be able to respond to the new birth? Will you be able to orient yourself, orient yourself, enrich yourself, enlighten yourself after the spiritual wisdom whereby at any point of time, either the thought or the memory or the sickness or the denials, nothing about your blood relations should be able to affect you. This is the most noble, rewarding and most fortunate path, highly benedictory. When you have taken up by virtue of its own blessings, everyone will be blessed. You don’t have to worry about it. It is not that you should be there to serve your father or mother. Somebody else will come and serve the father and mother. After all, this is a very, very fortunate path. The parents should be greatly blessed because a child of theirs has embraced this path. But nevertheless, often the mind twists and turns matters and there will always be likely this, what you call the so-called attachment and identity. I think this verse is very, very important.
There is something very special here. Uddhava is telling directly “Krishna, त्वन्मायया विरचितात्मनि”. Generally, God is invisible and unknown to us. Here Krishna represents the invisible and unknown God and Uddhava addresses Him saying that “By virtue of your own maya, you have instilled into me a wrong identity and a wrong possessiveness and I am suffering from it. It is very deep in me, not easily removable. Therefore, तत्त्वञ्जसा निगदितं भवता यथाहं - You told me to leave everything and go. I am not able to.” So, Uddhava says “Make me fit to do it”. Where is this bondage? The stain is in the mind. And what can penetrate the mind if at all - the intelligence. Through what - through knowledge. So, knowledge is the exercise and pursuit that the intelligence has to take up in order to touch, improve and sublimate the mind so that where the wrong identity and possessiveness crop up, there itself they will be removed. The whole process of removal is by an enquiry or a sadhana in the level of intelligence. This is why jnana sadhana becomes the pinnacle of seeking or even devotion.
“Whatever instruction you have given me saying ‘Go right now’, that order or that command, I must be able to obey and fulfill. So, that fulfilling will be possible only when you instruct me.” What is meant by instruction? Activating the intelligence of Uddhava, making it reflect upon the truth as a result of which the mind will not put up this trouble. There will be enlightenment and he will be able to leave easily.
My dear souls, our philosophy is very, very great. Our spirituality is very, very subtle. We are all living with a lot of attachment, with a lot of gratitude, gratefulness and what not! Ultimately, the point is that सोऽहं and ममाहम् should be completely dispensed with. I don’t know whether people will like this kind of an exhortation. But somehow our culture has been surviving on this and it has been preserving this. Everyone agrees that this is the right path and this is the end and fulfillment of human life.
Harih Om Tat Sat Jai Guru. Jai Guru.