Geeta Dhara – Gurukul

Lord Krishn pronounces the verdict, addressing Arjun, that whereas the riches of piety bring about perfect liberation and realization of the supreme state, the store of devilish impulses shackles and degrades the Self. But Arjun is at the same time assured that he need not despair, for he is blessed with the treasure of divinity.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Since it is established, O Pandav,
that while the treasure of divinity liberates
and the demoniacal state acts as a shackle,
you have no need to grieve for you are blessed with divine riches.”

Possessed as he is of a sacred disposition, Arjun will surely attain to salvation and thus to the state of Lord Krishn himself.

But in whom do the wealth of divinity and demoniacal impulses abide?

Lord Krishn adds:

“There are in the world, O Parth,
two kinds of beings, the pious, on whom I have already dwelt at length,
and the devilish of whom you will now hear from me.”

There are in the world two kinds of men, godlike and demon-like. When sacred impulses are active within the heart, man is godlike; but he turns devilish if he is rife with demoniacal inclinations. Whether born in Arabia or Australia or anywhere else, people all over the world are divided into only these two classes.

After having spoken at length so far of godly disposition Lord Krishn now proceeds to enlighten Arjun on the traits of demoniacal temper.

He further sings:

“Wanting in inclination to both engage in proper action
and avoid improper acts, the demoniacal have neither purity
nor the right conduct, nor even truthfulness.”

Men with devilish predilections are ignorant both of that which is worthy of being done and of that which ought to be escaped because it is unrighteous. So they are bereft of innocence, just conduct, and of the eternal verities.

How their minds function is represented in the following verse:

“Since the world, they say, is unreal,
without shelter and God,
and created by itself through mutual (male-female) intercourse,
what else is it for except physical indulgence?”

With such an assumption, the only purpose of worldly life is enjoyment of sensual pleasures. What else is there besides them?

“Depraved and dim-witted because they hold such a view,
these malicious and cruel people are born only to ravage the world.”

With their nature corrupted by their dependence on a mistaken outlook, the only purpose of their existence is to destroy others.

“Possessed of arrogance, conceit and wantonness,
and immersed in insatiable lust,
they subscribe to false doctrines out of ignorance and act wickedly.”

Maddened by ego and cherishing desires that cannot be satisfied, these ignorant persons entertain mistaken beliefs and indulge in religious practices that are in fact unholy and corrupt. Even the presumably sacred ceremonies and sacrificial rites performed by them are nothing but perversions.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Beset by countless anxieties that stretch right up to death
and absorbed in the enjoyment of sensual objects,
they are firmly convinced that satisfaction of carnal desires is the highest goal.”

Gratification of sensual desires is the only happiness for them and they are so enamoured of this thought that they strive only to have as much of pleasure as they can, for there is to them nothing beyond this.

“Chained by hundreds of bonds of illusory hopes,
and at the mercy of desire and anger,
they wrongfully endeavour to store wealth for the satisfaction of their lust.”

Even a single rope is sufficient to hang a person, while these people are enmeshed in innumerable aspirations. Addicted to lust and anger, they are engaged day and night in wrongfully amassing of riches for the gratification of sensual desires. It is further said in this context:

“Their perpetual thought is:
I have gained this today and I shall have that wish;
I have these riches and I shall have more in the future.”

And-

“I have slain that enemy and l shall also slay other enemies;
I am God and the holder of sovereignty.”

Besides being under the illusion that they are perfect, strong, and happy, they are also vain regarding their great fortune and noble birth, and they mistakenly believe that they are unequalled.

“Thus deluded by ignorance they think:
I am wealthy and noble-born.
Who can equal me?
I shall perform yagya, give alms, and lead a life of bliss.”

They are victims of even more delusions. However, there is a problem here. All that these men do are said to be an outcome of ignorance. Is it, we may ask, also ignorance to practise yagya and charity?

Before further dwelling upon the problem, Lord Krishn takes up the question of the ultimate end of these ignorant, deluded men.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Misled in many a way,
entangled in the webs of attachment,
and inordinately fond of sensual pleasure,
they fall into the most defiled hell.”

Lord Krishn will later throw light upon the nature of this hell, but in the meantime he reverts to the problem of the apparently sacred acts of the ignorant:

“These conceited persons,
intoxicated by vanity and wealth,
offer ostentatious sacrifices which are yagya only in name,
in violation of scriptural injunction.”

Rendered arrogant and senseless by wealth and worldly honour, these persons perform ceremonies and sacrificial rites which are only nominally yagya, and sacrilegious to boot. They do not observe the mode of worship laid down by Yogeshwar Krishn.

“Subservient to vanity, brute force, arrogance, lust and anger,
these wicked and degraded persons have a feeling of enmity to me
who dwells in them and in all others.”

According to scripture, memory of God is yagya. They who forsake this way and perform only nominal yagya, or do something or the other instead of yagya, abhor God and are hostile to him. But there are persons who continue to abhor and are yet saved.

Are these enemies of God also going to be saved?
Lord Krishn’s answer to the question is that it is not so.

Lord Krishn adds:

“I forever condemn these abhorring, degraded,
and cruel persons, the most abject, among mankind,
to demoniacal births.”

They who worship in transgression of scriptural ordinance are the lowly-born and the most degraded of people, and it is they who are judged to be perpetrators of cruel deeds. Lord Krishn has declared earlier that he hurls such degraded persons down into hell.

Now he reiterates the same when he says that he dooms them to perpetual devilish births. This is hell.

If the torments of a common prison are terrible, how much more so must be the endless fall into inferior forms of life? So it is imperative that one must always strive to acquire the treasure of divinity.

“Instead of realizing me, O son of Kunti,
these ignorant fools, conceived in devilish wombs birth after birth,
are doomed to fall yet lower to the most degraded slate.”

This degradation is given the name of hell.
So let us now view the origin of this hell.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Since lust, anger, and greed are the three gateways to hell
because they are destructive of the Self, they ought to be forsaken.”

Lust, anger, and greed are the three bases on which demoniacal impulses rest. So giving them up is a profitable enterprise.

“The person, O son of Kunti,
who escapes these three doors to hell,
practises what is propitious for them
and thus attains to the supreme State.”

Only by keeping away from these three ways to hell is a person equipped for conduct that may reward them with sublime good and the final beatitude of attaining to Lord Krishn.

Only by abandoning the three perversions can a person perform the ordained task, the outcome of which is the ultimate glory of redemption.

“The one who transgresses scriptural injunction
and acts indiscriminately according to his will
achieves neither perfection nor the Supreme Goal,
nor even happiness.”

The scripture in question is none other than the Bhagavad Gita itself, which Sri Krishn has described as “the most mysterious of all knowledge”.

The Bhagavad Gita is the perfect scripture; and the one who ignores it and acts wilfully is deprived of accomplishment, salvation, and bliss.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“So scripture is the authority on what ought and ought not to be done,
and having learnt that you have the ability
to act according to the provisions laid down by the scripture.”

Lord Krishn told Arjun to do the ordained task. Besides stressing the ordained action, he has also pointed out that yagya is that action. Yagya is an image of that special form of worship which completely subdues the mind and leads one to the eternal, immutable God. He now adds that desire, wrath, and avarice are the three main approaches to hell.

Only after renouncing these three evils does action commence-the appointed action which Lord Krishn has repeatedly portrayed as the conduct which brings one the highest glory and supreme good.

The more a person is engaged in external worldly business, the more alluring is the form in which desire, anger, and greed manifest themselves to him. The ordained action is on the other hand something to which access is secured only after the giving up of lust, wrath, and greed, and it is only then that such action is transformed into habitual conduct.

For the person who rejects it and acts wilfully, there is neither happiness nor accomplishment, nor the ultimate absolution. And scripture is the only authority that prescribes the righteous as well as the unrighteous.

So it is incumbent upon Arjun to conduct himself according to scripture and that scripture is the Bhagavad Gita.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

In all twenty-six attributes are catalogued and,
whereas all of them subsist only in a seeker
whose meditation has ripened to maturity,
they partially exist in all of us.
They lie in dormancy even in men who are dominated by evil impulses
and
it is because of this that even the most fallen sinner
is
entitled to redemption.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Fearlessness, inner purity, steadfastness of yog for knowledge,
charity, continence, yagya, study of scriptures,
penance, and uprightness,..”

Total absence of fear, inner sanctity, constant endeavour
and
meditation to acquire the truth, complete self-surrender,
subduing of the mind and senses, conduct of yagya,
offering sacrifice to the fire of self-restraint
as well as to the fire of the senses,
offering pran and apan as oblation to each other,
and
last of all the process of worship that entails sacrificing oneself
to the fire of knowledge which is achieved by the inner workings
of
the mind and senses rather than by the yagya
that is performed with oilseeds, barley-grains and an altar
(Sri Krishn accepts no such ceremonial act or sacrificial rite as yagya ), meditation upon the Self
which is the discipline that prompts one towards
the identical Supreme Spirit,
penance that moulds the mind
along with the senses in accordance with the cherished goal,
and
integrity of mind and heart as well as of the body
and
its senses, are some of the traits that characterize pious men.

“Nonviolence, truthfulness, abstinence of anger,
renunciation, tranquillity, absence of malice,
compassion for all beings, disinterestedness, tenderness,
modesty, abstinence from futile effort,…”

True nonviolence is salvaging of the Soul, for degrading the Soul is violence.

As Lord Krishn has avowed, he will be the destroyer of all mankind
and
generator of varnsankar if he does not carry out his task conscientiously.
Since the character (varn) of the Self is that of God,
his straying about amidst nature is varnasankar:
this is injury to the Soul and his deliverance is nonviolence
in the true sense.

Truthfulness is not speaking what is apparently real or pleasing.
Is it truth when we say that these clothes belong to us?
There can be, in fact, no more blatant a lie than this.
If we are not masters of our own persons that are mutable,
or
changeable,
how can the clothing that but covers them belong to us?

The Yogeshwar himself has spoken of the nature of truth to Arjun
in asserting that there is no dearth of what is true in all the three divisions
of
time-past, present, and future.
The Self alone is true; he is the supreme truth.
This is the truth we have to fix our eyes on.

Some other attributes of a righteous man are abstinence from anger,
surrender of whatever one has,
renunciation of desire for the rewards of good as well as of evil action,
absence of fickleness, avoidance of undesirable acts that are contrary
to
the aspired-for goal, feeling of mercy for all beings,
non-attachment to objects even when the senses are associated with them, feeling of tenderness, shame at straying from the object,
and
keeping away from futile effort.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Magnificence, forgiveness, patience,
purity of thought and conduct,
and absence of animosity and vanity-are all attributes of the man
endowed with divine riches.”

Glory is a property of God alone and the one,
who acts by virtue of this divine magnificence partakes of it.

No sooner did Angulimal look at Mahatma Buddh
than his thoughts were transmuted.
This was because of the inherent greatness
of
Buddh-the greatness which generates blessedness.

Lord Krishn finally concludes his enumeration by telling Arjun
that
some other marks of the treasure of divinity are forgiveness,
steady temper, innocence, hostility against none,
and
total rejection of the feeling of conceit.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

It is this most secret knowledge that Lord Krishn imparts to Arjun.
Sages of attainment do not reveal it to all,
but they also do not hide it from the deserving.

If it is hidden from them,
how will they achieve their object?

Lord Krishn sings:

“There are two kinds of beings in the world,
the mortal and the immortal:
whereas the bodies of all beings are destructible,
their Souls are said to be imperishable.”

The person male or female,
who has restrained his senses along with the mind,
that is,
whose body of senses is steady, is said to be imperishable.

The ‘‘perishable’’ person exists today,
but may not exist even tomorrow.
But this too is Soul in a particular condition.
There is, however, another Self beyond these two.

“But higher than both of them is the one
who pervades the three worlds to support and sustain all,
and who is named the eternal God and Supreme Spirit (Ishwar).”

The unmanifest God, the imperishable,
and
the Supreme Being are some other names by which he is known.
But truly he is different and inexpressible.
He represents the ultimate state beyond the mutable and the immutable
(the perishable and the imperishable).
He is different and beyond words.

Lord Krishn introduces himself as a Soul in such a state.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Since I am supreme by virtue of being
beyond both the perishable ( body) and the imperishable (Soul),
I am known as the Supreme Being ( Purushottam ) in the world
as well as in the Ved.”

He is reputed as the Supreme Being in both the world and the Ved
because he has transcended the destructible, mutable kshetr
and
even gone higher than the immutable, imperishable, steady Soul.

“The all-knowing man,
who is thus aware of my essence, O Bharat, as the Supreme Being,
always worships me with perfect devotion.”

Such a worshipper is not separate from Lord Krishn.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“I have thus instructed you, O the sinless,
in this most subtle of all knowledge because, O Bharat,
by knowing its essence a man gains wisdom
and accomplishes all his tasks.”

Lord Krishn thus enlightens Arjun on the most secret knowledge,
by being well acquainted with the essence of which
a man becomes all-knowing and gains his object.

So this instruction by Lord Krishn is a complete sacred precept in itself.

This mysterious knowledge of Lord Krishn was most secret.
He told this to only devotees.
Rather than for all, it was meant only for the worthy
who are spiritually ready to receive and profit by it.
But when the same secret teaching is put down in black and white,
and
appears in the form of a book,
it may seem that Lord Krishn has imparted it to all.

But in truth it is only for those who are fit to receive it.
Even the manifest form of Lord Krishn was not meant for all.
But he kept nothing back from the worthy Arjun.
Arjun could not have been saved if his charioteer had kept secrets from him.

This uniqueness is to be found in all accomplished sages.
Sri Ramkrishn Paramhansdev was once ecstatic.
His disciples asked him for the reason.
Alluding to an eminent contemporary great soul, a realized sage
(who had controlled and subdued all his senses by abstract meditation),
Sri Ramkrishn said that on that day he too had become a Paramhans like him.

After a while he told the disciples
who followed him aspiring-with mind, action and speech-for freedom
from passion and worldly attachment,
“Don’t ever be in doubt now.
I am the Ram who was born in Treta.
I, too, am the Krishn of Dwapar.
I am their sacred Soul.
I am of their form.
If you have to attain, behold me.”

In precisely the same way revered Gurudeo used to say,
“Mark you that I am but a messenger of God.
Real sages are messengers of the all pervading, preeminent,
changeless Supreme Spirit;
and
it is through them that his message is received.”

Jesus Christ exhorted men to come to him, all who labour and are heavily laden, and he would give them rest by revealing to them God his Father (Matthew, 11:28).

So everyone can be a son of God.
Albeit it is a different matter that going to sages is made possible
only through sincere striving for the accomplishment
of
worship and meditation.

The revered Maharaj Ji used to say the same about himself to all.
He neither supported nor contradicted any view or doctrine;
but he did tell those who earnestly craved for liberation
from passions and worldly attachment:

“Just look at my form.
If you aspire for the ultimate Spirit,
contemplate me and have no doubt.”

There were many who were skeptical, but, through demonstrating
by personal experience and conduct,
and even by berating them,
he made them give up their irrelevant assumptions
among which are included the many rituals and ceremonies
dwelt upon by Lord Krishn and thus induced them
to have faith in him.
He exists timelessly as an accomplished sage.

Likewise, although Lord Krishn’s glory was a mystery,
he revealed it to his earnest devotee,
worthy and affectionate Arjun.
This is possible with every worshiper
and
sages have thus brought millions on to the spiritual path.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

When the Soul gives up a body, he carries the inclinations of its mind and five senses into the new body he assumes. If the sanskar is enlightened and morally good, the Soul attains to the level of enlightenment and moral virtue. If he bears rajas-dominated sanskar, he gets through to the medium level. And if the sanskar is characterized by tamas, the Soul climbs down to birth in lower forms of life and indulges in sensual pleasures through their mind that controls the senses.

This is usually not seen, for the vision that is needed to perceive it is the vision of knowledge. Just memorizing something is not knowledge. Yogi are enabled to see it only by concentrating the mind on the Self. Thus knowledge is achieved from practice and accomplishment, although it is true that study of sacred works inclines one to it. Men who are skeptical and devoid of accomplishment do not gain the desired object even though they endeavour hard for it.

Thus there is here a portrayal of the stage of realization. So it is but natural that the attributes of this stage are dwelt upon. Throwing light upon them, Lord Krishn says that he is the light of the sun and the moon, and he is also the brightness of fire.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Know that the radiance of the sun
that lights up the world, and of the moon and fire, is my own effulgence.”

Next he points out the sage’s task:

“Permeating the earth,
I support all beings with my radical energy
and like the ambrosial moon,
I provide the sap that nourishes all plants.”

“I am the fire, possessed of pran and apan,
within the body of all living beings that consumes the four kinds of food.”

Lord Krishn referred to various kinds of fire-of knowledge, of God, of restraint, of the senses , of yog , and of pran-apan; and the resultant from all of them was said to be knowledge. Knowledge itself is fire. Assuming the form of such fire, it is Lord Krishn who accepts and assimilates the food generated by the four modes of recitation, namely, baikhari, madhyama, pashyanti, and para that are endowed with pran and apan (it will be remembered that recitation is always by means of inhaled and exhaled breath).

According to Lord Krishn God is the only food-manna-with which the Soul is so placated that it never feels any hunger again. We give the name of food to accepted nutrients of the body. But God alone is the real food.

And this food is brought to ripeness only by going through the four steps of baikhari, madhyama, pashyanti, and para. Some wise men have also called them name (nam), form (rup), revelation (leela), and abode (dham).

At first the name is pronounced audibly. Then, gradually, the form of the adored God begins to take shape within the heart. Subsequently, the worshiper begins to view God’s dalliance in his breath-how he pervades every atom of the universe and how he operates everywhere. Perception of the works of God within the sphere of the heart is leela. Rather than enactment of folk plays based on the legends of Lord Ram and Lord Krishn, it is perception of the operations of God within the realm of the heart that is the true leela.

And the supreme abode is reached when the touch of God begins to be felt after the perception of his operations. Knowing him thus, the worshiper comes to dwell within him. Dwelling in this abode and dwelling in the Supreme Spirit-after feeling his touch in the perfect state of transcendental recitation (paravani) are simultaneous events.

Thus, equipped with pran and apan, or shwas and prashwas, and progressing gradually through baikhari and madhyama to the culminating stage of para, the food that God is, is ready and available and also assimilated, and, of course, by then the eater of the food is ready, too, to partake of the sublime nourishment.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Seated in the heart of all beings,
I am their memory and knowledge
and also the strength that overcomes all impediments;
I am that which is worthy of being apprehended by the Ved;
and I verily am the author of the Vedant as well as their knower.”

Lord Krishn exists as the omniscient presence in the heart of all beings and it is because of him that the Supreme Spirit is remembered. Memory here signifies the recalling of the forgotten essence of God. There is clearly here a representation of the moment of realization.

Knowledge that comes with memory and the ability to overcome difficulties are also gifts from Lord Krishn. He is also a fit subject for knowing by all the Ved. He, too, is the author as well as end of the Ved.

Knowledge comes when he is separate, but who will know whom when the worshiper has perceived him and become one with him?

Lord Krishn is also knower of the Ved. He said that the world is a tree, of which the root is the God above and all of the branches below are nature. The one who can distinguish the root from the branches that are nature knows the essence of it, and he is versed in the Ved (sacred knowledge).

Here he says that he is such a one-knower of the Ved. He thus puts himself on a par with other scholars of the Ved. Thus it is again stressed that Lord Krishn was a sage who knew the truth-truly a Yogeshwar among yogi.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

Illuminated by neither the sun nor the moon,
nor by fire,
the God who is the ultimate state is self-radiant.

Lord Krishn sings:

“That after reaching which there is no return,
and
which is illumined by neither the sun nor the moon,
nor
by fire, is my supreme abode.”

After this ultimate home has once been reached, there is no rebirth.
And everyone has an equal right to it.

“The immortal Soul in the body is a part of mine
and
it is he who attracts the five senses
and
the sixth-the mind-that dwell in nature.”

Lord Krishn now explains how it is so:

“Like the wind carrying a scent from its source,
the Soul that is lord of the body
also bears along with him
the senses and the mind
from its previous body
and
assumes a new one.”

The Soul carries with him the propensities
and
mode of action of the mind and five senses of the body
from which
he departs and takes them into his new body.

The next body is immediately assured
and
that is why Lord Krishn asked Arjun earlier
how he had happened to be a victim of the misconception
that the departed Souls of ancestors would fall from heaven
in the absence of obsequial rice-cakes
and
water-libation offerings.

However, the immediate question is what the Soul does
after going into a new body
and
what truly are the five senses along with the mind?

“Governing the senses of hearing, sight, touch,
taste, smell and also the mind,
he (the Soul) experiences objects through them.”

But it is not seen to be so and everyone is not able to see it.

“The ignorant are unaware of the Soul,
endowed with the three properties
and
departing from the body
or
dwelling in it and enjoying objects;
only they who have eyes of wisdom discern him.”

So naturally the next verse is on how to secure this vision.

“Yogi know the essence of the Soul
dwelling in their heart,
but the unknowing who have not purified themselves of evils
fail to see him
even after much endeavour.”

By restraining their minds from all directions
and
through earnest endeavour yogi perceive their Soul.

But men with an unaccomplished Soul,
that is,
with unclean mind and heart,
fail to see him even though they strive for it.

This is because their mind and sense organs are impure.
Only by making a strenuous effort to subdue their mind are sages
enabled to apprehend their Self.
So contemplation is a necessity.

~Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans.
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

Accomplished sages have striven to explain the nature of the world by various analogies.While some have described it as the forest of worldly life, others have represented it as the ocean of mortal existence. In a different context the same has been called the river or abyss of worldly life. Sometimes it has also been compared to the hoof of a cow. Apparently they all imply that the extension of the world is only so much as that of the senses. And the stage at last comes when even this fearsome”ocean” dries up.

In the words of revered Goswami Tulsidas Jee, the mere naming of God dries up this ocean. Yogeshwar Krishn, too, has used “ocean” and “tree” as epithets for the world. He has said that he soon delivers his loving devotees, who contemplate him-the manifest God-with firm concentration, from the gulf of the mortal world. Lord Krishn declares that the world is a tree which yogi who are seeking for the supreme goal have to cut down.

Lord Krishn sings:

“He who knows the Peepal (Fig) tree that the world is,
with its roots above and branches below
and which is said to be imperishable,
and of which Vedic verses are the foliage, is a knower of the Ved.”

The root of this everlasting Peepal-like world is the God above and its boughs are the nature below. A tree does not even last till the symbolic tomorrow, but the tree of the world is indestructible. Two things are immortal according to Lord Krishn. The first of these is the everlasting world and then beyond it there is the eternal Supreme Spirit.The Ved are said to be the leaves of this tree of the world.

The man who observes this tree well along with its root and is aware of its reality is an adept in the knowledge of Ved.

The man who has perceived the truth of the world-tree rather than one who has merely perused holy books, is a true knower of the Ved. Study of books only provides a motive for proceeding in that direction. It may well be asked at this point why the Ved are needed instead of leaves. Vedic verses, which generate well-being, are useful because they motivate from the very point when after a great deal of wandering about a Soul goes through his last birth which is like the final shoot of a tree. This is the turning point where the straying ceases and the seeker begins to proceed confidently towards God.

He adds:

“Its branches nourished by the three properties extend high and low, objects of the senses are its shoots, and its action-engendering roots stretch below to the world of men.”

The boughs of sense-objects and their enjoyment, nourished and cultivated by the three properties, of the treelike world spread everywhere above and below, even going back into the earth and sprouting new shoots. They extend from the worms and insects below to the godly state and creator above, but they can bind only those who are born as men according to their past actions. All other births are only for the enjoyment of sense-objects; only human birth is subject to bondage in keeping with action. And-

“Since its form is not to be seen here as such
and it has neither an end nor a beginning,
nor a secure foundation, this immensely-grown tree should be cut down
with the axe of renunciation.”

The world-tree does not have a firm existence because it is changeable. So it has to be felled with the axe of total abandonment. It has to be cut down, not worshiped as it usually is because of the superstitious assumption that God resides in the roots of this tree and that its leaves are the Ved.

However, since this tree has grown from God’s own seed, can it be cut down? In fact, the meaning of this cutting down is escape from nature which is accomplished by renunciation.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Then that goal should be sought for,
after arriving at which one does not have to turn back again,
with a sense of total submission to that primal God
whence all worldly life is born.”

But how to effect the quest for this God? The Yogeshwar lays down that self-surrender is an essential condition for it. There should be the feeling that “I am at the mercy of God”-the Infinite Being from whom the primordial world-tree has sprouted and grown. This tree cannot be cut down without seeking shelter under him. Lord Krishn then speaks about the signs from which one may realize that the tree has been cut down.

“Men of knowledge who are free from vanity and delusion,
victorious against the evil of infatuation,
ever-abiding in the Supreme Spirit, total devoid of desire,
and liberated from the contradictions of joy and grief,
achieve the eternal goal.”

The destruction of vanity, delusion, infatuation, desire and of the contradictions of pleasure and pain is possible only by complete self-surrender to and abiding constantly in God. Only through this do men of true wisdom attain to the eternal state.

The world-tree cannot be severed without this attainment and renunciation is needed up to this point.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~