Short Notes
ISvara
balA atibalA
ISvara
In patanjali yOga sUtra, the following verses and the commentary thereof of Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood are relevant –
ISvarapraNidhAnAdvA ||
klESakarmavipAkaSayairaparAmRSTaH puruSaviSESa ISvaraH || I. 23, 24 ||
“Concentration may also be attained through devotion to ISvara.
ISvara is a special kind of Being, untouched by ignorance and the products of ignorance, not subject to karmas or samksaras or the results of action.”
Commentary of Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood –
“... According to vEdAnta philosophy ISvara is the supreme Ruler of the universe – its Creator, Sustainer and Dissolver. Brahman, the ultimate reality, cannot properly be said to create, sustain or dissolve, since Brahman is, by definition, without attributes. ISvara is Brahman seen within prAkRti. He corresponds, more or less, to God the Father in the Christian tradition.
What is important is the concept of devotion. Liberation, as we have already seen, can be reached without devotion to God. But this is a 1subtle and dangerous path, threading its way through the pitfalls of ambition and pride. Devotion to a personal ideal of God brings with it a natural inclination to humility and service. It sweetens the dryness of intellectual discrimination and calls forth the highest kind of love of which man is capable. We cannot even imagine Brahman until the moment of our liberation, but we can all imagine ISvara, according to our different natures – for ISvara has attributes which our minds can recognize. ISvara is all that we can know of the Reality until we pass beyond prAkRti.
If we set ourselves to serve ISvara, if we dedicate our actions and surrender our wills to Him, we shall find that He draws us to Himself. This is the grace of God, which Sri Ramakrishna compared to an ever-blowing breeze; you have only to raise your sail in order to catch it. And in the gItA, we read :
2Whatever your action – Food or Worship, whatever the gift, that You give to another; Whatever you vow to the work of the spirit, lay these also as offerings before me.
This kind of devotion requires, perhaps, a special temperament. It is not for everybody. But to be able to feel it is a very great blessing, for it is the safest and happiest way to liberation.
ISvara, it has been said, is God as He appears within prAkRti. But it must be remembered that ISvara is prAkRti’s ruler, not its servant. That is why patanjali describes Him as ‘a special kind of Being’. A man is the servant of prAkRti. He is subject to ignorance of his real Self (the Atman) and to products of this ignorance – egotism, attachment to sense-objects, aversion from them (which is merely attachment in reverse) and blind clinging to his present life; the various forms of bondage which constitute misery ..... ISvara is not subject to this ignorance, or to its products.
Man is subject to the laws of birth and death, the laws of karma. ISvara is unborn, undying. Man is subject to his samskaras – the deeply rooted tendencies which drive him or to further actions and desires. ISvara is free from samskaras and desires. He is not involved in the results of action.
Man, it is true, may become liberated. But even in this, he differs from ISvara – for ISvara was never in bondage. After liberation, man is one with Brahman. But he can never become one with ISvara. (Indeed, the desire to become ISvara, the Ruler of the universe, would be most insane of all egotistical desires – it seems to be typified, in Christian literature, by the story of the fall of Lucifer.) In the state of union with Brahman, both ISvara and His universe are transcended, since both are merely projections of Brahman.”
1'subtle and dangerous path’ - the following verses are relevant –
SrImad-bhagavat-gIta – Chapter 12 –
klESO(a)dhikatarastEshAmavyaktAsaktacEtasAM ||
avyaktA hi gatirduHkhaM dEhavadbhiravApyatE || 5 ||
“Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the Unmanifested; for the goal of the Unmanifested is very hard for the embodied to reach.”
2 - SrImad-bhagavat-gIta – Chapter 9 refers -
yatkarOshi yadaSnAsi yajjuhOshi dadAsi yat ||
yattapasyasi kauntEya tatkurushva madarpaNaM || 27 ||
The following couplet in nArada bhakti sutra is also relevant –
ISvarasyApyabhimAna(ni)dvESitvAt dainyapriyatvAt ca | (27)
“(And also) because God dislikes the reliance on one’s own unaided self-effort, and likes the complete feeling of misery due to the consciousness of one’s helplessness in independently working out one’s salvation, bhakti is greater.”
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balA atibalA
The following is the bala-atibala mantra in which Rama and Lakshmana were initiated by Sage Visvamitra. (bala atibala mantrOpanishad) Source - balA atibalA mantra
balAtibalayOH virAT purusha RshiH |
gAyatrI dEvatA |
gAyatrI chandaH |
akAra OkAramakArA bIjAdyAH |
kshudhAdi nirasanE viniyOgaH |
klAmityAdi shaDanga nyAsaH |
klAM angushTAbhyAM namaH |
klIM tarjanIbhyAM namaH |
klUM madhyamAbhyAM namaH |
klaiM anAmikAbhyAM namaH |
klOM kanishTikAbhyAM namaH |
klaH karatalakarapRshTAbhyAm namaH ||
klAm hRdayAya namaH |
klIM SirasE svAhA |
klUM SikhAyaivashaT |
klaiM kavacAya huM |
klOM nEtratrayAyavaushaT |
klaH astrAya phaT |
bhUrbhuvassuvarOmiti digbandhaH |
|| dhyAnaM ||
amRta karatalArdrau sarva sanjIvanADhyA avaghaharaNa sudkshau vEda sArE mayUkhE|
praNavamaya vikArau bhAskarAkAra dEhau satatamanubhavEQham tau balAtIbalESau ||
OM hrIM balE mahAdEvi hrIM mahAbalE klIM caturvidha purushArtha siddhi pradE tatsaviturvaradAtmikE hrIM varENyaM bhargO dEvasya varadAtmikE |
atibalE sarva dayAmUrtE balE sarva kshud bhrama upanASini |
dhImahi dhiyO yO nO jAtE pracuryaH yA pracOdayAt AtmikE praNava SiraskAtmikE huM phaT svAhA ||
EvaM vidvAn kRta kRtyO bhavati |
sAvitryA Eva salOkatAM jayati ||
ityupanishat ||
|| SAnti pATha ||
OM ApyAyantu mamAngAni vAkprANaScakshuH SrOtramathO balamindriyANicasarvaNi |
sarvaM brahmaupanishadam |
mAhaM brahma nirAkuryAM mA mA brahma nirAkarOt |
anirAkaraNamastu anirAkaraNaM mEQstuH tadAtmani niratE yE upanishatsu dharmAstE mayi santu tE mayi santu ||
OM SAntiHSAntiHSAntiH |
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