Divine Message on Mahashivaratri (Part-1)

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O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[First message on Mahshivaratri] The message from Lord Shiva can be understood from the lives of the two divine incarnations of Lord Shiva, which are Anjaneya and Adi Shankara. The life of the human incarnation is always the message of God. Anjaneya did personal service of the Lord in human form and Adi Shankara did the social service through the propagation of divine knowledge. In fact, social service is also the personal service of the Lord since this entire world is His family only as He is the divine Father of all the souls (Aham Bija Pradah pita… Gita). The family of the Lord like Sita, Lakshmana etc., is nothing but the innermost circle of the family of the God, which consists of liberated souls. Hence, the service in both the ways is the personal service of the Lord. Therefore, the service to the Lord should be done according to the requirement and will of the Lord. In whatever manner the Lord is pleased, that should be the path of your service because the ultimate aim of the service is only to please the Lord. You can become near to the Lord by doing the possible service but from the circle of the near devotees, one becomes dear to the Lord by doing the service desired by the Lord.

Brahma represents the divine knowledge with the Vedas in His hand. Vishnu with full of ornaments represents the attraction to the Lord, which is the devotion. Shiva with full detachment represents the final stage of sacrifice through service. Thus, knowledge, devotion and service are the three subsequent steps as established by Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva in the sequential order. Rukmini heard about Lord Krishna from Narada and that is the first stage of Knowledge about God. Then she was attracted to Him, which is the second stage of love or devotion. By devotion, she obtained the Lord as her husband. In the third final stage, she served the Lord by pressing His divine feet constantly as the incarnation of Shri Mahalakshmi. In fact, service is only the practical devotion, which is the real proof of the love. Therefore, devotion and service are only theoretical and practical forms of the same love. There is no practice without theory and without practice, the theory is not real. Therefore, Vishnu and Shiva are the two forms of the same essence (Shivaya Vishnurupaya). The dance of Shiva indicates the action or work or practice. In doing the service, the full concentration is possible only when all the worldly bonds are dissolved. Without the dissolution of the worldly bonds, the practical love or service to God cannot continue. Therefore, Shiva represents the dissolution of the world. Here, the world means the network of all the worldly bonds only. Therefore, Shiva means the dissolution of worldly bonds and not the physical world. Even if the soul is dragged out of this world, the attractions continue in the soul as vasanas or samskaras. Hence, dissolution of the world is not the solution. When worldly bonds are dissolved, there is no need of dissolution of the physical world. Even in the final dissolution (Maha Pralaya), the souls remain with their worldly attractions and therefore, there is no significance of the dissolution of the world in the spiritual path. When there is no use and need to dissolve the world, why should there be dissolution of the world at all? The Lord created this world with so many plans and if He dissolves the entire world without any use to the soul, it is foolishness. When He wants to take rest, He will withdraw Himself from the world and take rest. He need not destroy the world and take the rest. When the academic work is over for that day, the school need not be destroyed and rebuilt on the next day. The teacher and the students will withdraw themselves from the school for rest. Similarly, in Maha Pralaya, God will withdraw Himself from the world and the souls also withdraw from the world and take rest for some time in a state of deep sleep, called “Avyaktam”. In fact, God does not need any rest and therefore, God is aware of the whole world because His awareness is the basis of maintenance of the world. If God is not aware of anything, that particular thing does not exist at all. Hence, the rest is only for the sake of the souls.

The dissolution of the worldly bonds can be done even by the knowledge straightly without the intermediate devotion. Realization of the unreality of the worldly bonds can destroy these bonds. Such destruction of the worldly bonds is neither permanent nor useful. When you have not tasted the divine nectar (Amrutam), your detachment from coffee is temporary and also useless. It is temporary because you will be attached to the coffee within a short time since you have not tasted the Amrutam. Hence, the detachment from coffee without tasting Amrutam is only temporary. If you have tasted Amrutam, you will not taste coffee even if you are forced. Hence, the detachment due to devotion is natural, real and permanent. Without Amrutam, if you detach from coffee, there is no use. Your detachment from coffee is expected to help you in trying to achieve the Amrutam. If you are not trying for Amrutam, what is the use of leaving coffee? Therefore, you cannot attain Shiva without attaining Vishnu. You have to attain the detachment (Shiva) only through attachment to God or devotion (Vishnu).

Shiva Lingam represents…

The Shiva Lingam represents the energetic wave. The primary energy (Mula Maya) is in the form of waves only from which matter, awareness and work forms of inert energy (light, heat etc.,) have come out. The wave nature of matter is also established in science. The awareness and the work form of inert energy like light are represented by wave only since matter is fundamentally represented by a particle. Lord Shiva in Shiva Loka is the energetic gross body of light in which the subtle body made of awareness (causal body) exists and all these three bodies are charged by the unimaginable God. Hence, the medium here is only awareness (causal body), qualities that are the kinetic energy of awareness (subtle body) and the human form of the light energy (gross body). Therefore, the entire medium consisting of three bodies is only energy, which is represented by the wave. Awareness is also a special work form of energy only. Hence, the Shiva Lingam represents the entire imaginable medium of the three energetic bodies, which happen to be the medium of Lord Shiva or any other deity.

Knowledge, devotion and service are the three subsequent steps in the spiritual effort. But devotion and service can be considered as one step only, which is the love to God. Devotion generally means only theoretical devotion, which is related to words and mind. But the devotion confined to words and mind only without action is unreal and is considered to be the attitude of a prostitute who shows love only through feelings (mind) and words. Similarly, the theoretical devotion aspiring for some fruit from God is the devotion of prostitute (Veshya Bhakti). But the same theoretical devotion without aspiration for any fruit from God is good and without the theoretical devotion, service (practical devotion) cannot be born. Even the practical devotion with aspiration for fruit from God is like the devotion of a merchant (Vaishya Bhakti). Therefore, either in the theoretical devotion or practical devotion, the absence of aspiration for any fruit in return is very very important. The devotion both theoretical and practical with desire is Sakama Bhakti and Sakama Karma (Kamya Karma) respectively. The same theoretical and practical devotion without any desire is Nishkama Bhakti and Nishkama Karma Yoga respectively. The service or practical devotion consists of action or work and hence, it is called as Karma. If the Karma is without desire, it is called as Karma Yoga and with desire is called as Kamya Karma. The word ‘Yoga’ here means the association with human form of God and Karma Yoga means the work or service done to that human form of God. In both cases of Kamya Karma and Karma Yoga, if the practical devotion exists, it means the existence of theoretical devotion in the mind. Without seed (theoretical devotion), the plant (service) cannot be born. But without the plant, the seed can exist. You can get fruit from the plant only but not from the seed. Therefore, there is no fruit for mere theoretical devotion without its subsequent expression of service whether it is done with aspiration for fruit or not. If the seed is unable to develop into plant, such seed is a false or useless seed for a farmer. We are seeing now the problems of the farmers with false and useless seeds, which do not grow into plants and give fruits. Hence, the theoretical devotion without desire for fruit is good but useless since no fruit can be achieved. You may say that since you are not interested in the fruit, you are satisfied with such fruitless theoretical devotion only. Such argument is only a misinterpretation of the truth to hide your selfishness.

Meaning of Aspiration Free Service

The aspiration for the fruit means the aspiration for the fruit that has come out on the plant. You must take a good seed and grow it into a plant, which should give a good fruit, and now in this stage, if you are not aspiring for the fruit, then only it is Nishkama Karma Yoga. Hence, you must do the service without aspiration for the fruit that has appeared for your service. You should not avoid the service saying that you are not interested in the fruit of the service and hence, you are not interested in the service itself. Hence, the Gita is stressing on the karma or work and also on the absence of aspiration for the fruit. Both are equally important and one without the other is useless. The Veda is also stressing on the work (Kurvanneveha…), sacrifice of the fruit of work (Tyaktena…) and the minimum enjoyment essential for the maintenance of your body and family (Bhunjedhah…). You can have the corresponding quotations in the Gita also (Kurukarma…, Phalam Tyaktva…, Shariira Yatrapicha te…). All these three aspects are the components of the total Yoga.

People have misunderstood this total Yoga and have become lazy by leaving work or service, which is essential for God and self also on the pretext that they are detached from the fruit of work. It is like not cultivating the field and not sowing the seeds in the field stating that you are not interested in the crop (fruit). This is not sacrifice of fruit because the fruit is not seen at all. This is not the sacrifice for the aspiration of the fruit because when the fruit is absent, where is the point of aspiration for the fruit? If the fruit exists before your eyes and if you sacrifice the aspiration for the fruit, then only it is the sacrifice of aspiration for fruit. Then, if your sacrifice of aspiration for fruit is real, it should be proved by actual sacrifice of fruit. Hence, the Gita mentions the sacrifice of fruit as the real proof for the sacrifice of aspiration for the fruit (Phalam Tyaktva…, Sarva Karma Phala tyagi…). People have misinterpreted this concept in two ways. One way is to sacrifice the work itself and becoming lazy under the hippocratic samnyasa. The other way is to sacrifice the aspiration for the fruit without the actual sacrifice of the fruit saying that the Gita means only the sacrifice of aspiration for the fruit without sacrificing the actual fruit. If that is so, how the Gita mentions the actual sacrifice of fruit? (Phalam Tyaktva…). The Veda also mentions the sacrifice of fruit (Dhanena Tyagena…). The misinterpretation is only to cheat one’s own self because by such cunning misinterpretation, nothing happens in the right way and something certainly happens in the wrong way, which is going to hell for such misinterpretation that misleads other souls also.

Hanuman did lot of work for the war and in fact, He was responsible for finding Sita. He did not aspire for any reward and the chain of pearls rewarded to Him was also sacrificed by Him. Here, you find the sacrifice of the actual fruit. Hanuman did not put on the chain on His neck and say that He has sacrificed the aspiration for the fruit! Similarly, Shankara left the mother actually for the sake of divine propagation of knowledge. He did not sit in the home serving His mother saying that He has sacrificed only the aspiration for the bond! Shankara also said that He is not for the salvation, which is the fruit of His service (Na Mokshasya Aakamksha…). Since the expressed service indicates certainly the existence of real and good theoretical devotion in mind, service itself means the devotion. Therefore, you have now two stages only, which are knowledge and service. Hence, Lord Shiva came down twice only as Anjaneya representing service to God and Adi Shankara representing the propagation of knowledge of God. Service means the real devotion as found in the case of your children to whom the real service is done without much expression of theoretical love to them, which must exist in your heart as fire for the smoke. Anjaneya also had the knowledge from god sun and His expressed excellent service to God indicates the existence of real theoretical devotion in the mind. Shankara also did lot of service in propagating divine knowledge and also expressed devotion through several prayers. Both have all the three stages but the stress is given on service by Anjaneya and the stress is given on knowledge by Shankara. Anjaneya is monkey representing the lack of firmness and Shankara is a bachelor representing hundred monkeys (Brahmachari Shata Markatah). But this monkey nature is only external cover and does not relate to the firm internal personality. Both did service of God leaving all the worldly bonds with firm determination.

To be continued...

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