My Karma !!!

After a long gap we are back. The comments kept us out.

I was in sringeri recently for a talk, it was a bhashya parayana with a lecture everyday in the evening. Tried to skip (will understand why later) this programme, but, let us say I went. Before i went for the talk, since i was there for only the talk, another Acharya of a very prestigious ashram had raised a storm. He had said, the teaching method the others were following was wrong, there can be no sakama and nishkama in upasana but only in karma. (Sakama - karma performed with desire, Nishkama - karma performed without desire). Since, the Q & A did not solve this, some sadhus out there asked me to give a fitting reply.

Since, i was delivering a lecture on Brahma Sutra Adyaya 4 Pada 1 & 2, i included this in the talk itself.
I said that, there are many places in the upasana khanda where there are other results prescribed. First negative results, when the disciple goes to the Guru to learn more about the particular upasana he is doing, the Guru asks him what type of Upasana they are doing, one says "eye as Brahman" the Guru says you will loose the eyesight, then the other says "ear as Brahman" Guru says you will loose your hearing. So much for the Guru, one goes to him to get the fear removed and the Guru puts in him more fear. But, that is to attract him to the complete Upasana. In Taiteriya, Chandogya, Brhadaranyaka etc there are many a Upasana with results from gaining Son, wealth, food etc....

So, clearly as in Karma in Upasana too we can have Sakama and Nishkama adjectives.

Apart from the Sruti explanation, if the Upasana is only Nishkama and if the result is Brahma Vidya, if one meditates for even for a second, then, his release from the Bondage is gaurenteed.

Cooking Stories

These are some interesting cooking stories, which happened and not cooked up :).

When I was in Virakth Ashram, my neighbor Atmananda, who is from Maharashtra, gave me some beaten or parched rice (don’t remember which one it was) and asked me to prepare some upma. Upma is a fastfood variety of south india. I read somewhere recently, in some cooking competition someone won by preparing this item. Generally in south, rava - granules of powdered rice is used. The method of cooking is (oh, everyone wants to start a cooking class, even shihan hussaini - the famous karate man and I hear he is multi-talented., who throws everything everywhere, hope the food he teaches to cook, is not for throwing like that), 1. Fry the rava dry. 2. Pour some oil and in it little lentil (optional  tomato, vegetables  etc) and 3. Pour water in a vessel, after it boils pour the rava and stir till it gets cooked. Easy. Now, this I tried. After 15 minutes when he came by to see the progress, the parched rice was floating in water, I have not poured the right mount, and the water was excess. Seeing this, he got angry and told me to do abhisheka (holy bath) with it, and in a huff left the place. See, marathis prepare it with onions etc and will be dry, this I learnt later.

The previos experience was in the beginning, and the next episode was when I had just left Virakth Ashram, and have come to Ram Nagar. I with My neighbours Swami Vishnu Das ji and Br. Brahmatma Swaroop ji had gone to Dehradun, there they bought instant idiappam. Idiappam is a south Indian version of Chinese noodles. On the way back they were discussing on how to prepare. They didn’t know to, i volunteered not just because, they did not know. But it is fairly easy. You follow almost the same method in upma, but don’t fry the noodles. And add lemon juice later and mix it properly. So, with this knowhow I was ready in the evening to prepare this lemon-idiappam. My good/bad time, when I put the idiappam noodles in water, in matter of seconds it absorbed all the water and it became like a semi-paste. Ad what followed was a disaster. When the product is cooked (!!??!!) and brought for eating, both my neighbours had a funny expression on their face. There is a expression in tamil “sollavum mudialla mellavum mudialla” – they could neither say nor swallow, no pun intended ;).  

I said good/bad time because, from the next day I was not allowed inside the kitchen. They said, we liked your job, we may not be experts like you, but we will manage without your help.

The L(e)ast Temptation

In the last post, I spoke of the mantra prayoga (application) and that it should not be done, though how may ever it be tempting. But, when I was going through a very old book on prayoga, which came to me accidently, I was tempted. Don’t jump into any conclusion. This is not any prayoga of ordinary kind. Any mantra can be applied for satvic karma(peaceful, like attracting others etc), or rajasic karma (making others fight, controlling tohers) or a tamasic karma (killing others). But this prayoga which I saw is not of any of these types. The book promised that, if a particular deity is worshiped through fire oblation (yagna) with a special type of twig (the tip portion of the branch only) and from a specific tree, for 1008 times then he is sure to get the darshan of this godess.

It is not like, I have not had any experience with the mantras, that I wanted to perform this karma. But, the means is very simple, and in my grasp, which made me do this. During this period accidentally (maybe, master oogway (kung fu panda) will dismiss this 4^th time ‘there are no accidents’ :) ), in a nearby place, which belongs to army, they had cut branches of this very tree I wanted. Normally, though it is not a military cantonment, they don’t allow anyone inside this premise. When I asked for the permission to remove the twigs , they allowed me without any second thought. So, I went to this place with two sacks (a big jute bag) and started to break the tip portions of the branches. Since the wood was not totally dry, I had difficulties in breaking, I even got swelling in the fingers because of the friction-burn.

After collecting the necessary articles, I fixed an auspicious date for the performance of the homa. After performing my daily duties, of puja etc., I started the homa. The mantra was not a big mantra, did not have too many bija aksharas (root or esoteric characters) and the deity too is not a very famous one. But, as in other places, the solution to the problems are always simple. So, hereto, the simple looking mantra did deliver its goods as promised. During  performing the homa, I had a counter to have the ahutis (the fuel / the food that is thrown in the fire) I perform counted and this I stopped after around 950 chants, I didn’t want to loose the concentration in something silly as counting. Though the number of ahutis is a part, I have now made sure that I will perform more and not less. And there is a mimamsa (karma peoples) statement, ‘ adikasya adikam phalam’ – greater will be the result for greater karma, or in other words the result is directly proportional to the performance. So, after 950 chants, I was totally focused in the mantra, and not the finishing. So, after some time I did have the darshan as promised. I am not finishing this story simply, nor is it so simple.

I have in a previous blog, said about the fear even to meet the God. So, now this time, I was not having any fear, and not only that, I was very prepared to have the darshan.  But, even that preparation didn’t take the surprise from me, when I had the vision. On the other side of the kunda (one can see the place I did the havans in virakth ashram in the collection of photos in our site), just opposite to me, I saw a woman sitting with her back to me, she was wearing an off-white saree, and had no blouse, so her right side of the shoulder was bare and had her hair tied or bound like a ball loosely, this site was not the surprise though. When she turned, instinctual fear shook me, but I was determined to have the darshan completely. When she turned to her right and looked directly at me, what I saw still stands in front of my eyes, She had a wheatish complex, her eyes were big and red, and had a big vermillon (kunkum) on her forehead. And after a few seconds, I lost this vision completely and she disappeared as she appeared. I completed the homa with a poornahuthi (the completing oblation) in the fire.

From then, I had no doubts in any of prayoga shastra. And though we may doubt the veracity, and whether the author had used the application (applied) etc.. We should understand that these prayogas are gained only from the guru by the disciple. So, there is no need to doubt. But, to remind again, the application only makes the mantra enemy to the user :) or should it be :(.