The Rain Clouds

FOR the last two hours, you were fully immersed in the aanandha of Krishnathathwa (Reality of Krishna) and of Vedhasaara (essence of Vedha), which are both the same. How grand it would be if all the moments of life you were imbibing this aanandha undisturbed! Iyengar spoke on Krishna-thrishna, the thirst for Krishna! What an appropriate word, that! The thirst for worldly goods can never be allayed; trying to satisfy it makes it only more acute. Thirst can never be quenched by drinking salt water, which is the objective world. Human desire is illimitable, without end. It makes you pursue the mirage in the desert; it makes you build castles in the air; it breeds discontent and despair once you succumb to it. But, develop the thirst for Krishna, you discover the cool spring of aanandha within you. Krishna Naama (name) makes you strong and steady; it is sweet and sustaining.

Gouranga, the great example of this thirst, is so called because his heart was so pure that it had no touch of blemish at all. He is called Krishna Chaithanya, because he lost his chaithanya, that is, became unconscious of the world outside him, when he heard the name Krishna and became Krishna conscious!

Yearning of Gopees for Krishna

Look at the gopees (milk maids of Gokulam) and their yearning for the Lord! They never swerved from the path of bhakthi, of continuous smarana (remembrance) of the Lord. When in pain you shout “Ayyo, appa or amma”; but the gopees always called on Krishna only, whether in joy or in grief. A gopee was moving along the streets of. Brindhaavan selling butter and ghee and milk; but, she was not crying aloud the names of her ware; she was calling aloud the names of Krishna: “Govindha! Dhamodhara! Maadhava!” The gopees forgot the very purpose of their visit to Brindhaavan, their very livelihood, their task of selling and earning. They stood watching Krishna, running along with a hoop and ignoring all else, they ran behind him with a ball of butter in the hand, offering it to the Divine child who had captured their hearts, calling on Him to receive the gift; “Govindha!” Dhamodhara! Maadhava!”

When one of them was rolling on the ground in terrible anguish at the separation from Krishna, they sat around her and instead of assuaging her grief by turning her thoughts away from Krishna, they augmented it because they themselves could not think of any other subject to talk to her than Krishna’s glory and Krishna’s prema! They sat around and sang, “Govindha! Dhamodhara! Maadhava!” Whoever has the thirst, Krishna will quench it; whoever calls on Him in the agony of that thirst, Krishna, the rain-cloud, will answer that call and appear.

You can understand Raadha (Krishna’s consort) only if you can fathom the depth of that thirst. Raadha believed that Krishna is the Aadhar (basis); she did aaradh (worship) to Krishna in a continuous dhaara (stream); in fact, she is Dhaara or Prakrithi, which is another form of the Lord or Pursuha Himself. How can those who are full of evil tendencies and impulses grasp that relationship?

In this Kaliyuga, the principle of Prema (Divine Love) is not in evidence. It is smothered in jealousy, conceit, hatred, fear, falsehood and greed. That is why it is best referred to as the kalaha-yuga (the age of faction), marked by fights between mother and daughter, father and son, teacher and pupil, guru and guru, brother and brother. The recitation of the name of Krishna is the best method for cleansing the mind of all these evil impulses.

You may ask, “If we engage ourselves in this pastime, how can we earn our livelihood?” Well, let me assure you, if you have pure and steady faith in the Lord, He will provide for you, not merely food, but the nectar of immortality. You have that mighty potentiality in you, to discover the Lord within and compel Him to grant you that nectar.

Make the thirst for Krishna grow in you

When you say that Krishna was born in Gokula, then. He grew up in Brindhaavan, that He ruled over Mathura and that He later reigned at Dhwaaraka, what do those statements signify? The manas (mind) is the Gokula! where He was born (where He is born even now to whoever takes the spiritual path); the heart is the Brindhaavan where He grows, where prema (divine love) for Him develops; the Chith is the Mathura which He rules over and the Nirvikalpa stage is Dhwaaraka where He installs Himself, as the reigning monarch. Make the Krishna-thrishna (thirst for Krishna) grow through these stages and you will be saving yourself! You will be joining the ranks of Raadha, Meera and Sakkubhai (devotees of Lord Krishna).

Once upon a time, we used to hear of three famous names Lal, Bal and Pal; they were famous in the days of the national struggle. But many do not know now who they were. At least, Lal and Pal have disappeared from the memory of the people; a large percentage of even educated persons will flounder if you ask them who Lal and Pal were. Bal, meaning Bala Gangaadhara Thilak, is still known to many, because he has made a contribution to spiritual knowledge, being a saadhaka himself and a good student of Geetha for which he wrote a commentary. So, saadhana alone makes life worth while; the rest is mostly froth or fake or failure, flashes of the moment.

Three principles to guide you

The mind must become bhakthimaya (saturated with devotion to God); the intelligence must be transformed into jnaana-dheepthi (the splendour of universal wisdom), or jnaana (Divine Knowledge); the body must be a willing and efficient instrument for saddharmacharana, (the practice of righteousness). Such a life is indeed the crown and glory of humanity. The rest are contaminated, contained, caged lives!

There is no use asking a doctor to advise you about the plans for the building you propose to raise; nor is it wise to ask the engineer for a balm to assuage pain. Go to the proper Guru and learn from him about at least three principles to guide your lives.

• Dharma : What is dharma, why should it be followed, what does it allow, what does it condemn, etc.? — these have to be clearly known. The Geetha is the best text on Dharma: the first word in it is dharma and the last word is mama (mine). So, it teaches each student what exactly he should consider as “the dharma which is mine!” Each one must evolve his own dharma based on Aathmadharma, the faith that the Aathma (soul) is his true reality.
• Bhakthi · Bhakthi (devotion) is like a king, who has two aides-de-camp called jnaana (divine knowledge) and vairaagya (non-attachment). Without these two bodyguards, bhakthi is never secure or safe. Bhakthi must be built upon the foundation of jnaana; it must flower as “detachment from the world.” The jnaani is the sthitha-prajna (unmoved by agitating feelings and emotions), unshaken by the storms of fortune, good or bad; the vairaagi (the detached), is the person who has rid himself of the three gunas (qualities of the mind); and the bhaktha (devotee) is he who is all prema (Love). Bhakthi, jnaana and vairaagya are three peaks of the same Himaalyan range. Prema creates dhaya (compassion); vairaagya induces dhama (tolerance); and, jnaana leads you along the path of

Put out the fire raging within you

(3) Saadhana- When the house catches fire, you run about in desperate haste to get succour and to put out the flames; but, you do not realise that the fire raging inside you is even more devastating and devouring. You must take up the duty of fire fighting in right earnest and never rest until the flames are put out. Start the fight right now. Start serving your parents, your teachers, the elders, the poor, the diseased, the distressed. Do not foster factions and divisions. Promote love, concord, co-operation, brotherliness. Do not look upon people as belonging to this state or that; all are in the state of bondage to the senses, to the objective world. Join the company of the good, the striving, the yearning saadhakas and you will soon reach the stage of peace within and harmony without.