Ramanodayam, Oct 2020

Editor’s note

Milk of Mango & Coconut

There is a song by Kudhambai Siddhar, the literal meaning of which is either perplexing or comical.

For those having mango milk on the mountain,
Of what use is coconut milk? Kudambai!
Of what use is coconut milk?

This is actually a great example of a song in sāndhyābhāṣā that alludes to the experience of self-realization.

The white sap that oozes out when an unripe mango is plucked is called ‘milk’, or rather ‘mango milk’. This sap can bruise the lips upon touching it. When a drop of this ‘milk’ can be hurtful, how strong must he be who has drunk it all, climbed the mountain and stays there? Having had the ‘mango milk’ he is at peace at the mountain top. Who is he?

That which bothers others such as the ‘mango milk’ doesn’t bother him. The hidden meaning in this verse is that the suffering we experience is because we give in to our 5 senses.

Even when the thieves of the five senses break in upon me, art Thou not still in my heart, Oh Arunachala ? — Aksharamanamālai, 11  

Oh Arunachala! If Thou art inside, these senses dare not trouble me! We act as per the dictates of our senses. Our senses are like the aforementioned mango milk. Right from the moment they come in contact with us, they give us nothing but suffering. The cure to the bruises caused by the milk of mango is Coconut milk. To rid oneself of the karma that has been accrued due to the senses one should immerse in anushtānam (practices) like puja, japa etc. But jnanis like Bhagavan have prevailed over their indriyas (five senses), and hence they are not afflicted by any such suffering.

Those who are in that high state of jnāna do not require any practices like puja, japa etc. These practices are like the coconut milk that heals the bruises. Without having a sense of doership, Bhagavan’s activities were always niṣkāma-karma. From providing water to cool down the low-caste women who were picking twigs in the scorching Sun to removing the doubts of learned greats like Jagadguru Sankaracharya, Sri Narayana guru etc, Bhagavan did everything with utmost care and at the same time, devoid of any attachment. There was no need to do any prescribed rituals for one who has transcended it all. He stood past the ‘coconut milk’ like karmas.

While he was beyond traditions, rituals, puja etc., he was also aware of the difference in the capabilities of the aspirants. He proclaimed that such practices are not necessary to those of his most ripe disciples.

At the same time, Bhagavan did not approve of those who were not ripened inside but maintained a facade of spiritual awakening. He pronounced that such people needed the rituals till they ripen.

Bhagavan did not hold traditional views. His teachings were filled with a scientific temper. Jnanis like Buddha taught that desire causes suffering and hence one should control one’s desires. Bhagavan did not stop at “control desire” but went further and stated “Through self-enquiry find out to whom the desire arises. Then you will realize that the desire arises when the ego arises. When you look further, the ego will merge with its source and all the desires (thoughts) will also submerge”.

“I have a desire” is a state of separation; there are two - I and my desire. This separation will lead you to ignorance. When you enquire and realize that the subject and object of desire are not different, the veil of ignorance is removed. The twin state of seer and the seen arises when the ego arises. When there is complete peace and the mind is silent, the ego merges with its source. The desires that arose due to the outward projection of the ego is all gone.

Do you find such self-enquiry difficult? Fret not, if you offer every action of yours to God, even the ones that had their origin in desire, in due course, will lead your mind in the right direction, states Bhagavan:

Desireless action [niṣkāma-karma] dedicated to God will purify the mind and it will show the path to liberation. — Upadesa Saram, verse 3.

If action is done without any desire for its fruit and with the devotional attitude of offering the fruit to God, it will purify the mind. Desires do not touch the pure mind. And the mind now understands and follows the direct path to liberation.

"Control, control the senses Five,"
Thus say those who know not;
None, not even the Immortals
The senses Five control;
When you the senses Five control
Verily are you an inert mass;
(There is a way alternate open)
Sublimate them toward the Lord
That Wisdom's Way, I learned. — Tirumandiram, 2033

Some will say that one should control and suppress the five senses. Even the devas are not capable of doing that. By forcefully controlling the senses, one becomes an insentient being. The true way is the path of self-enquiry that channels the senses in the right direction, thereby purifying them.

At the outset even if one is driven by desire, when the result of the actions are dedicated to God then slowly dispassion arises and steadies our heart. A steady mind does not wander as per the diktats of the senses but stays in the Self. When a practitioner follows such ‘desire culling’, it gradually takes one to the state of Brahman.

Due to delusion, we have a desire for all things external in the initial stages. “You inculcated the desire to attain You - the sat-chit-ananda (existence-consciousness-bliss). To rid me of the worldly desires you made me mad about Thee. Bestow upon me the cure (medicine) to rid me of my desire for even Your Grace and be one with You by realizing the Self” says Bhagavan:

With madness for thee thou hast freed me from madness (for the world);
grant me now the cure of all madness, Oh Arunachala! — aksharamanamālai, 66

The same essence is conveyed again in the 86th verse:

Though Thou hast loosed me from the mists of error and made me mad for Thee, why hast Thou not yet freed me from illusion, Oh Arunachala? — aksharamanamālai, 86

Bhagavan, who has thus extolled the greatness of Bhakti Yoga, pointed out that another way to cull the desire is by constant meditation (dhyana) in the Supplement to the Forty Verses, verse 25:

By meditating constantly on ‘I-I’ as Siva, completely free from all limitations, one overcomes all attachments. — ulladu narpadu anubandham, 25

Bhagavan’s teaching is that after knowing that Siva is the self-effulgent knowledge which shines forth and once all the imagined forms are removed, meditating ceaselessly as “I am that Siva” or “I am Brahman” (aham brahmAsmi), will disentangle you from worldly desires. Just like how the sail is pushed by the wind in its direction, the mind, when externally focussed, gets swayed by the various forms, likes and dislikes. Similar to an anchor that moors the vessel to the sea bottom, if the mind subsides in the heart in deep meditation, the mind is purified and merges with God.

The one who is with nary a desire to reach God, but content with the worldly pleasures and in pursuit of only that, will not even attain those comforts, affirms Bhagavan in the 14th verse of Bhagavad Gita Sāram:

He who abandons the injunctions of the scriptures and behaves according to the impulses of his desires, will attain neither perfection nor happiness nor the highest state of salvation. — Gita Sarah, 14

This famous sloka from Bhagavad Gita explains how the downfall of a jiva happens:

ध्यायतो विषयान्पुंस: सङ्गस्तेषूपजायते |
सङ्गात्सञ्जायते काम: कामात्क्रोधोऽभिजायते || 2.62 ||
 

dhyāyato viṣhayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣhūpajāyate
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate (Bhagavadgita, 2-62)

Attachment to objects is born when one ponders only on them. Of attachment is born desire, and of desire, wrath. From wrath arises delusion; from delusion, failure of memory which causes the intelligence to perish, and from this loss total destruction (downfall) ensues, says Lord Krishna.

The same message is expressed by Bhagavan in the 33rd verse of Atma Sakshatkara Prakaranam: ^[2]

Dispassionate, having renounced all (goal-oriented) action and association with others, one should forever meditate on the Self seated in the Self turned ever Self-ward. See the importance of this. — Anmasakshatkaram, 33

Desist from all activities (karmas). Rid yourself of all desires. Turn away from society. Thereafter, meditate upon the Self, which is within oneself, in oneself. This is the path shown by Bhagavan.

This morning questions were put by a visitor, by name S.P. Tayal:

It is an onerous task to attain knowledge without Guru’s grace. By constantly meditating upon the Guru, we will notice that the veil of ignorance lifts and we realize the Self that is effulgent within. This example is shown in ‘Vageesha Kalanidhi’. A visitor goes to a new town in the dead of night. It is pitch dark and he has no clue where he is, what is nearby etc. He decides to go to bed and figure everything out in the morning when there will be light.

He wakes up at the crack of dawn, and sees the Sun rise in the east. He is able to see everything around him clearly. He sees a mountain nearby that was absolutely not visible the previous night. As soon as the Sun’s rays light up the daytime, all objects become visible in their natural form. He sees colorful flowers, deep ponds, lofty mountains. He, then, turns around to see where he lied down in the night. It was a filthy place near a dilapidated wall. The filth, the mountain, the dilapidated wall - all were hidden from view in the middle of the night.

Did the mountain appear anew? It was there already but was hidden by darkness. Light made the mountain visible and he, now, starts climbing it. As he goes up, he is able to see more things - his vision increases but his eyes are still the same. Elevation gain removes the barriers that were blocking his view. At the crest of the mountain, he consumes the honey from the comb in the sandalwood tree.

Arunagirinathar explains this in the 8th stanza of 'kandar-alankaram ^[4]'.

Is it not amazing that the great six headed spiritual preceptor (Murugan)
Has graciously taught me the supreme bliss of Siva knowledge
That is as blissful as honey at mountain-top and pointed out to me 
The uniqueness of the Primal Being remaining alone & timeless in the wilderness?

Meaning: The unique Auspicious Bliss [Sivānandam] which arose from the Great Effulgence of Your Grace at the summit of Real-Wisdom which is beyond Time was expounded to me by my Guru Guha.

Every word in this poem is worth pondering over and meditating upon.

Annamalai mountain was formed by the effulgence formed from Lord Arunachala’s grace. Did not Bhagavan see the jnāna-mountain, Arunagiri, that was formed by Arunachala’s grace? When he climbed up this jnāna-mountain, all the objects (hurdles) that blocked the view of the vast expanse of Self were removed. At the crest of this jnāna-mountain, due to his immense love, he attained the honey of self-knowledge. Where intelligence fails, love and grace work as Arunagiri’s light, says Arunagirinathar. He refers to mountain, honey that is bliss - all these are not physical objects. They can only be seen if our internal eyes are open.

The internal eye, referred to by Bhagavan as ‘The Self, the real eye, is infinite’, should open. The sage objectifies these as physical objects just so we can understand.

Timeless refers to the state of bliss that has no beginning or end.

Wilderness refers to the boundless sky of consciousness (ie, heart space) and the honey that was found here.

Remaining alone means that no one from the same breed (group) is present there. The jasmine flower is said to remain alone if it is a lone flower in the creeper that might be filled with leaves, tendrils etc.

Alone indicates that no other object (from the same or a different breed) exists. Such a thing that is beyond time, space, breed cannot be known but only experienced.

Bhagavan also conveys the same message in aksharamanamālai,

The house of open space, where there is neither night nor day — aksharamanamālai, 91

Thou didst (show Thyself) dancing in transcendent space — aksharamanamālai, 85

The same message is reiterated in the 27th verse of Atma Sakshatkara Prakaranam ^[5] as well.

The grace of our spiritual guide (desikan) enabled me to attain the blissful honey that is beyond time and space, states Arunigirinathar.

‘Til next time!