Posted on: 14 Oct 2017
Datta Veda Sutram: Navaama Adhyaayah (Nineth Chapter)
[The knowledge, devotion and practical sacrifice associated with God are specifically mentioned as jnaana yoga, bhakti yoga and karma yoga respectively. The common word is yoga, which means association with God only. This avoids the confusion to misunderstand the knowledge, devotion and practical sacrifice associated with worldly items. The word ‘yoga’ clearly gives emphasis on the association with God and not with world.]
[Today, the word yoga is used in the subject of development of physical health and the path to relieve tensions and miseries of world so that one can enjoy the pleasures of world with full physical health and mental peace. The main aspect of God is forgotten. Even Sage Patanjali, who has written Yoga Sutras, mainly keeps God (Eshwara) as the main target to be achieved. He said that control of mind is yoga (Chittavrutti nirodhah) and such control is towards worldly items only.]
[Of course, physical health and mental peace are essential for the devotee to do service to God. This is part of the path only and not the goal. Hanuman maintained both these perfectly for the effective service to God Rama. Up to Pratyaahaara, the fifth stage, in the path, both these are dealt by Patanjali. But, today, people have made both these as the target. The other three stages are related to concentration on God. Some people stop with the fifth stage and some others take the other three stages also and keep some worldly item like a point, respiration, etc., as the target on which the concentration is to be done. All this is the atheistic tendency of materialistic life and shall be condemned by devotees.]
[People, sometimes, misunderstand the similes given in preaching the concept as true and divert from the actual aim. Six concepts dealing with attractions by worldly bonds are compared with lotus flowers attracting black bees (blackness indicating the ignorance) and with whirlpools in the worldly sea attracting the swimmer. A foolish ignorant devotee of Shri Veerabrahmendra Swami cuts the body of his wife to see these lotus flowers or wheels!]
[Mind, which is attracted by these worldly bonds, is compared to a serpent travelling as waves through these wheels or attractions of worldly bonds. Mind is nervous energy, which propagates in the form of waves like a serpent. This snake means just the mental attraction.]
[Sahasraara, the final wheel in the topmost part of the head, indicates intelligence finding the truth of God, which is compared to a lotus flower with thousand petals having Shiva Lingam (God) in the center. The mental attraction (Kundalini) starting from the bottom of the body travels through these six worldly attractions (wheels) to reach the stage of intelligence or knowledge doing sharp logical analysis in thousand ways (petals). 'Thousand' means many. By travelling in wave-path, the mind can escape the rotating wheels, which means that you can externally satisfy the worldly bonds in curved way by keeping the internal real attraction to God. Fighting with worldly bonds to get tensions is unnecessary when you can cross them by tricks and external acting. This is not a sin because God is beyond the justice also. If you do so for the sake of an illegal worldly bond, it is a sin.]
[The important concept here is that the attraction of God perfectly decided by sharp analysis of the scripture drags the mind towards God and there is no need of any individual effort of mind to cross the worldly bonds with force. Hence, trying to cut the worldly bonds as a pre-requisite of God's devotion is meaningless. The medicinal strip falls down naturally when the wound is healed. Dragging the strip by force results in danger. This is the essence of attainment of God crossing the world through devotion. The taste of divine nectar results in natural and spontaneous rejection of drinking coffee. Such rejection is not a pre-requisite of drinking divine nectar since one cannot attain divine nectar by forcibly rejecting coffee. This is very very important point in the spiritual path, which will shut the mouths of worldly people warning real devotees against the devotion to God.]
[The concept of the existence of these lotus flowers or wheels in the spinal cord (meru) does not exist either in the Veda or in the Gita. The figure of speech of these similes is misunderstood as reality either due to ignorance or due to over-intelligence to exploit innocent devotees. The blind disciples of such blind preachers can't be helped in anyway due to their blind faith in devotion towards blind preachers. The attractions are said to be in the spinal cord in the sense that the attraction is a mode of awareness or nervous energy only that flows through the bundle of nerves called as spinal cord.]
[The association of devotee with God called as Yoga is heard in the Veda telling that two birds are associated (sayujaa...) and in the Gita (yuktatamomatah, satatayuktaanaam...). The association of devotee with God is in two ways: i) Association of both in human incarnation and ii) Association of both as separate God and devotee.]
[The human incarnation is like sugar (God) dissolved in milk (devotee) as we see Krishna. The second type of separate God and devotee is like sweet milk mixed with rice in the case of which you can see rice (devotee) and sweet milk (God) separately as we see Radha and Krishna or Hanuman and Rama. Both types of divine association are equally sacred. In fact, one need not be attracted to the human incarnation, since the relationship between the climax devotee and God (in which God is servant of devotee and in human incarnation both become one) is greater than the former.]
[The value of association with God is to be determined by the level of devotion of devotee towards God. Hanuman defeated Rama in war. Krishna was always a servant at the feet of Radha. The human being-God relationship is closer than the relationship between separate God and devotee. Even then, the human incarnation has to bow before the external climax-devotee. Hence, value of association is not in the physical closure or staying close to God. The value is on the level of the devotion of the devotee. Radha stayed far from Krishna and Rukmini stayed very close to Krishna. But, Radha was proved to be a greater devotee than Rukmini.]
[The yogi or devotee associated with God always shows the practical proof of his/her devotion to God and hence is mentioned as yogi showing always proof of practical sacrifice as said in the Gita (karmayogena yoginaam). This does not mean that he/she is not having the theory (knowledge and devotion). This means only that the yogi proves always himself/herself as a true devotee by practical proof. Hence, theory (Saankhya) and practice (yoga) are one and the same indicating their co-existence in one devotee (ekam saamkhyam cha yogam cha – Gita). The Gita removes the misunderstanding by saying that leaving practice and sticking to theory only is not good since practice alone gives the true proof of real devotion (tayostu karmasamnyaasaat…).]
[A blind follower of practice without theory like Mandana Mishra was criticized for neglecting totally the theory. This only means the need of eyes and legs for the human body, which does not refuse either eyes or legs. When a person is giving blind stress on legs only, in such context, Shankara gave stress to eyes saying that eyes are most important among the human parts (sarvendriyaanaam nayanam pradhaanam). This does not mean that Shankara is saying eyes alone without legs are sufficient! The stress on eyes is with respect to the context of stress on legs alone. Such stress on eyes does not mean that eyes alone are sufficient and there is no need of legs!]
[Due to the tremendous attraction towards the really wonderful personality of God, mind naturally drops its attraction towards worldly bonds and travels to find out the ultimate true God determined by sharp analysis of scripture in many ways. This is the actual concept. This is told in terms of figure of speech that a serpent (mind) sleeping in the bottommost wheel awakens and travels towards the topmost intelligence (flower) containing many ways of analysis determining the ultimate true unimaginable God. Serpent means mind travelling in curved paths to reach God simultaneously satisfying the worldly bonds. The essence is about the natural powerful attraction of mind towards topmost God awakening from the ignorance (sleep).]
[In the bottommost place of body, Mulaadhaara chakra lies, indicating tamas or matter in solid state representing earth, which is the rejected excretory matter in the bottommost portion of the digestive system. This means that the materialized world is very powerful plane of tamas inducing ignorance or sleep to the mind. This level indicates the stage of many people leading simple materialistic lives as the ultimate goal. This place indicates the bond with mother, which is very blind love. Shankara crossed this level (bond with mother) for the work of God and this is awakening of mind or serpent. The mother stands for the growth of this materialized body through the food given.]
[The next upper wheel is Manipura standing for liquid, which is a better dynamic state than the previous solid state. Some people are confused that this wheel is third, but, it is wrong since Shankara gave second place in the verse (kamapi manipure…). Some fellow by mistake reversed the order of verses on these second and third wheels in the Soundaryalahari written by Shankara causing this confusion. In the sequence of creation also, water stands in the second place from bottom (adbhyah pruthivi… Veda). This represents the bond with father, who gives education removing the ignorance. Liquid is dynamic whereas solid is static. But, this education is also worldly only and not of God. Space or sky represents father (akaashaadunnatah pitaa – Bhaaratam). The upper sky gives rain (sperm) and the lower earth receives it to conceive and deliver plants as food. Mother is famous for giving food. This wheel shows the place of urinary bladder and kidneys dealing with water. Both these wheels represent parents giving birth to child. Prahlada crossed the bond with father for the sake of God.]
[The third upper wheel is Svaadhishthaana standing for fire or heat needed for sex, representing the bond with life partner. This place indicates the main stomach in which hunger-fire exists as Vaishvaanara helping the digestion as said in the Gita. This bond is crossed by devotees like Buddha, Ramanuja, Radha, Meera, etc., who left their life partners for the sake of God's love. Fire occupies the third place in the sequence of creation starting from the bottommost earth.]
[The fourth upper wheel is anaahata, standing for gas or vaayu, who is said by the Veda to be the strongest of all deities (Vaayurvai kshepishthah…) and this stands for the issues. It is placed in chest containing lungs dealing with respiration of air. The bond with issues is very very powerful and anaahata means that nobody could beat it so far! This is also the place of heart, which stands as abode of real love. Buddha crossed this for the sake of God's work by leaving His just born son. Gas or air stands in the fourth place of creation starting from bottom.]
[The fifth Vishuddha wheel stands for the space in the throat that delivers knowledge through speech and this stands for the blind bond (without analysis) with a preacher. The word by itself is inert sound energy and the word is uttered according to the will of mind. This is a junction of awareness and inert energy. The preacher also stands in the junction of knowledge and ignorance to uplift the student from ignorance towards knowledge. This blind bond should be also crossed because analysis is always needed before following a preacher. There are several blind people following their preachers without analysis and such blind bond shall be also crossed. The space is in the fifth place from the bottom. Ramanuja refused the preaching of His preacher finding defects. Kumarilabhatta also refused his preacher for the same reason.]
[The sixth wheel is Aajnaa representing awareness in the level of mind. This place denotes the third eye of knowledge between two eyebrows standing for the mental concentration and devotion to a specific form of God alone as the target of devotion. Such devotion by itself is good, but, many a time, it leads to the abuse of other forms of God. Mind stands for emotional devotion without analysis. Example for crossing this bond is Shankara, who worshipped God Shiva mainly, but worshipped other forms of God also with equal devotion. Jaambavan is opposite example of blind love to Rama refusing Krishna.]
[The ultimate level or goal of spiritual journey is the topmost brain standing for intellectual analysis in several directions to establish the true unimaginable God in its center. In this seventh wheel, the central God is represented by Shiva Linga, which is in the form of a wave indicating energy i.e., the first energetic incarnation or first address of unimaginable God called as Datta (Datta means unimaginable God given to the souls by the expression through a medium). The important point is that mind is not reaching this place after crossing the lower ignorant worldly bonds, but, is reaching this level due to natural attraction to God. Hence, there need not be any effort with force to cut the worldly bonds and travel towards God, which is impossible and an utter failure. Due to attraction towards God on knowing the knowledge with many details of God will naturally lead the mind towards God. Hence, efforts to develop attraction to God by knowing all the details of God through spiritual knowledge is essential and effort shall be put in that direction. By effort, you shall attain the divine nectar and taste it. Dropping of other drinks will be a spontaneous and natural consequence of tasting divine nectar and there is no need to put effort to resist other drinks.]
[The scripture on Yoga Sutram written by Patanjali speaks about the miraculous powers to be attained by the yoga or association with God. The miraculous powers are needed to establish the existence of unimaginable (miraculous) God. Only for this purpose, miracles are required and God performs miracles through a devotee whenever the occasion for it arises. But, unfortunately, the miraculous powers are given lot of importance by devotees also for solving their personal problems, which are the punishments of their sins. Interference with the doctrine of deeds and fruits (karma chakra) is not liked by the deity of justice. Thus, the miracles are misused by devotees for their personal solutions and also for others' solutions as business. Some other people follow yoga for their physical and mental health. If one concentrates on any point with uniform direction, mental concentration can be attained, which is useful in worldly affairs. The actual aim of yoga is mental concentration on God in the spiritual path. In this way, yoga is teased in several ways in this Kali age.]
[The mention of lotus flowers and wheels is not at all found in the Veda, the Gita and the Brahma Sutra, the three authorities of spiritual knowledge. God Datta is said to be the founder of yoga (Yogi Raja). God Datta feels very bad for these misinterpretations of yoga in which the actual concept compared is lost and only the comparisons like wheels and flowers remained! Some people mention the names of great devotees as the followers of yoga as if they have seen them and heard their preachings directly. In due course of time, their preachings might have been distorted as wrong concepts appearing today.]
[The miraculous powers are always attained by devotees from the pleased God and not by exercises done to improve the concentration of mind. People are exploiting the innocent devotees for earning in wrong ways, which is a great sin. Patanjali says that the miraculous power like 'whatever you say becomes true' can be attained in case you don't speak lie in your life for selfishness or injustice. When you follow this commandment of God to speak truth (satyam vada – Veda), God is pleased to give you that power. Hence, devotion with practical philosophy pleases God to get the miraculous powers and not by mental concentration on flowers and wheels!]
[Some people try to attain foolish miraculous powers, without which the same fruits can be attained otherwise. A saint attained the power to walk on water after effort for thirty years. Shri Paramahamsa told him that the cost of his effort is one rupee, which is charged by the boat for crossing the river without such miraculous power! Interfering with the administration of the deity of justice to avoid punishments of sins through miraculous powers is also not liked by God. But, demons through horrible torture in penance get some miraculous powers from God, who is also their Father. Such powers will destroy them finally, which are not used for the propagation of spiritual knowledge and devotion.]
[The Gita says that equality towards misery and happiness is yoga (samatvam yoga uchchyate - Gita). This is actually the nature of God towards this creation containing both comedies and tragedies just like a cinema for a spectator. Yoga means intensive association with God. There is a saying that if you make friendship with a person, you will get his behaviour in six months! If this is the case, the intensive association with God must give the nature of God to the devotee so that the devotee also can be entertained in this creation by equally enjoying both comedies and tragedies in his life. If such behaviour of God is attained, we can say that the association or yoga with God is really deep. The Veda says that this world is created by God for His entertainment.]
[The continuous enjoyment of both tragedy and comedy coming one after the other is called as bliss or ananda (aasamantaat nandati). Ananda stands for continuity and not for higher quantity of happiness because any living being confined to a particular grade (like Gandharva, Indra, Bruhaspati, etc.,) cannot withstand the quantity of happiness beyond certain range specified to that grade. Hence, equality in enjoying comedy and tragedy can alone make the happiness to continue. God also is entertained with continuous enjoyment of tragedies and comedies present in this creation (just like spectator of cinema) and such continuous enjoyment is bliss. Therefore, enjoyment of bliss means enjoyment of tragedies and comedies continuously. Such equality called as yoga becomes the essential aspect of bliss. Hence, Yogi alone is eligible to enjoy the bliss or happiness continuously. Krishna advises Arjuna to become Yogi to have such continuous bliss (tasmaat yogi bhavaarjuna).]
[There is no need of any effort for the devotee in the climax since God takes care of everything from fundamental to climax as in the case of Prahlada. Even these climax devotees practice the efforts in the spiritual path for the sake of guidance to the lower devotees (lokasangrahamevaapi – Gita). Shankara was a climax devotee, but composed several prayers on different forms of God for the sake of the followers. Such a climax devotee does nothing for himself/herself and is called as yogaarudha (yogaarudhasya tasyaiva – Gita). Actually, effort is necessary only for the aspirant starting the journey in spiritual path (aarurukshoh... Gita).]
[Spiritual efforts to get and improve the attraction to God are like hearing the stories of God (tatkathaashravanaadishu... Bhakti Sutram) and inspiring devotional songs. These efforts may give full effect or partial effect or no effect depending on the fertility of minds of devotees. Efforts are always done hoping for the best fruit, but you cannot bring a directly proportional relationship between effort and devotion (fruit). If you force an atheist to hear such speeches or songs, he will just mock at these in the end.]
[Spiritual effort is expected to yield the positive fruit even though we can't be sure about it. However, hoping for the best, effort shall be put to improve the devotion in the case of the theist. For such spiritual efforts, some time and energy are needed, which are always limited only for any limited human life. In such case, there is a need of saving time and energy for spiritual efforts by diverting the mind from worldly issues, especially unnecessary worldly works (like sinful over earning) not related to basic needs. In this way, at least, initially a little detachment from worldly bonds is needed so that the saved time and energy can be diverted for spiritual efforts. This means, at least, on some days, you should divert your mind from worldly pleasures so that you can save some time and energy to be spent in the efforts that are expected to increase the devotion and such occasional break is essential for the health to be maintained also.]
[Such detachment from worldly pleasures is recommended in five steps along with the care for the physical health of the body, which are Yama, Niyama, Aasana, Praanaayaama and Pratyaahaara. These first five steps are needed for all types of souls including atheists, who are very particular of the enjoyment of worldly pleasures only. Excess enjoyment of worldly pleasures is not good for physical and mental health and from this angle also, all the souls including atheists need the implementation of the first five steps.]
[The devotion or fruit does not have proportional relationship with the spiritual effort put by the aspirant. There is absence of proportional relationship between detachment of worldly bonds and the true devotion (attachment to God) since detachment from worldly bonds does not bring attachment to God directly without the intermediate spiritual efforts, which are also not sure to give true devotion. Detachment from worldly bonds does not give attachment to God but, attachment to God will give spontaneously the detachment from the worldly bonds. Hence, detachment from worldly bonds is only needed for the spiritual efforts, which need not compulsorily develop devotion. In the initial stage, there is a necessity of detachment from worldly bonds for putting the spiritual effort hoping for the best positive result. Therefore, there is a direct proportional relationship between the spiritual effort put and detachment from the worldly bonds in the initial stage. Unless you detach from worldly pleasures to some extent, you can’t have time and energy to be spent for spiritual efforts, which are not having compulsory proportional relationship with the fruit of effort or true devotion. The essence is that unless you stop seeing cinema in TV at least for one day in a week, you will not have time and energy to spend in spiritual activity in the beginning stage and also such break is necessary to maintain your health needed for your enjoyment of TV. At least, the time and energy saved by you from this occasional break to maintain your health may be used for spiritual effort!]
[There are three points: i) detachment from worldly bonds in the initial stage, ii) spiritual effort put for getting true devotion and iii) the true devotion expected for the spiritual effort. (i) is proportional to (ii) since more the detachment more will be time and energy available for spiritual effort. But, (ii) is not proportional to (iii) because of the defects present in the preacher and in the devotee. Hence, (i) is also not proportional to (iii). This means that the spiritual effort may result in total or partial true devotion or total or partial false devotion of devotee due to respective merits and defects of preacher and devotee. Hence, detachment from worldly bonds cannot give attachment to God or true devotion. However, in the initial stage, hoping for the best, spiritual effort must be done for which detachment from worldly bonds is essential primary step based on which the initial five steps of yoga are suggested by Patanjali.]
[The first two steps called yama and niyama relate to the controlling principles of external sense and internal mind respectively. Both these are mutually supporting each other. More the contact of senses with worldly objects, more shall be the mental attachment to world. More the mental attachment to world, more shall be the attachment of senses to the worldly objects. A simultaneous control on both is necessary to detach from world to some extent so that: 1) Spiritual efforts can be attempted and 2) The physical and mental health can be saved. This means that such withdrawal from worldly pleasures is not only needed for the spiritual aspirant, but also, for the maintenance of health during enjoyment of worldly pleasures by atheists.]
[The third step, aasana, gives perfect physical health, which is done by several physical exercises. This gives stability of physical health resulting in stable mind also since a sound mind exists in sound body. The fourth step, praanaayaama, deals with the exercise of breathing, which helps in retaining oxygen for more time (kumbhaka) so that all the oxygen in the inhaled air is completely utilized for purification of blood. This is also the step related to the physical health. The fifth step, pratyaahaara, is withdrawal of mind from worldly objects, which is very much essential for diverting some time and energy to the spiritual efforts and also for maintaining the basic health needed for the worldly enjoyment of atheists.]
[The last three steps are dhaaranaa (catching the object), dhyaana (concentration on the object with mind) and samaadhi (full determination evolved by intelligence to stick to the object). Samaadhi does not mean simply becoming static by over-concentration as misunderstood by all. The word ‘samaadhi’ split gives true and complete determination in the final stage (‘sam’= true, ‘aa’= complete, ‘dhi’= decision taken by intelligence). These three steps can be applied by both theist and atheist in their selected objects. The theist selects God as the object and the atheist selects only success in IAS examination (without God to become collector) as the object. Hence, all the eight steps of yoga (ashtaanga yoga) is applicable to theist as well as atheist.]
[For atheist, only worldly achievements, which are 1) Needed for basic needs and 2) Needed for extra unnecessary pleasures also are the objects in this eightfold path of yoga. But, the word yoga is specified to God only and hence, this eightfold path becomes simply course of action (karma) in the case of atheist. For the theist, achievements needed for basic needs of life and needed for attainment of pleasing God and getting His grace stand as uniform single action called as karma yoga. In this path, the worldly work done for basic needs is included as a part of the spiritual work only because without maintaining the body and other family members needed for the practical life, spiritual work simply confined to God only is not possible. The theist also may do effort to become collector to do service establishing the justice and in such case, this effort is also included in the spiritual work only. An atheist aims to become collector for the satisfaction of ego or for more sinful earning and such extra work is not included under the work done for the basic needs of life.]
[By detachment from some worldly pleasures, spiritual efforts can be done to achieve the devotion to God. By such spiritual efforts, even though devotion is achieved, the quality of devotion decides the directly proportional relationship of devotion to God and detachment from worldly bonds. If the devotion developed by spiritual efforts is instrumental (God is used as instrument to protect the worldly bonds and to achieve worldly fruits), more the devotion, more shall be the attachment to worldly bonds! If the devotion to God developed by spiritual efforts is Nishkama karma yoga, which is true love as on the issues, in which no aspiration for any fruit in return exists, then only, more the devotion to God, more will be the detachment from worldly bonds. Hence, the initial detachment from worldly bonds for the sake of spiritual efforts becomes fruitful only when the resulting devotion is true without aspiration for any fruit in return.]