Index…                                                                                                    Previous…

Upadesa Sara

Sloka 24

Relation between Individual and Totality

 Consciousness identifying with individual conditioning is the jiva and identifying with the Total conditioning is Isvara. Verse eight explained that worship without difference between the jiva and Isvara is superior to worship with a difference. How can there be both, difference and oneness between the jiva and Isvara? This is now described.

isa-jivayor-vesa-dhi-bhida,
sat-svabhavato vastu kevalam.

isa-jivayor – between Isvara (the Lord) and jiva (individual); vesa-dhi-bhida – there is difference from the standpoint of the body (gross equipment) and intellect (subtle equipment); sat-svabhavato – from the standpoint of their true nature; vastu – supreme Reality; kevalam – alone is

From the standpoint of the gross and subtle equipment, there is difference between the jiva and Isvara. But from the standpoint of their true nature, the supreme Reality alone is.

The strength of a single body, however strong, will always be finite. The jiva identifying with one particular gross body is naturally limited in strength (alpa-saktiman). Since no intellect could possibly know the entire cosmos, the jiva identifying with a particular mind-intellect (subtle body) is limited in knowledge (alpajna). The finitude of strength and knowledge is only due to identification with the individual gross and subtle equipment.

Now, the individual cannot exist apart from the Totality. The gross body cannot exist but for the five great elements of the universe. The total would be incomplete without any individual. The individual is born, exists, and merges into the Totality alone. Also, the individual is an essential constituent of the total. In the total ocean alone do all the individual waves arise, exist, and merge. Each wave has limited strength and form but the ocean is all-strength and all-forms. Similarly, Isvara, the wielder of the total gross equipments, is Almighty (sarva-saktiman). As a wielder of all subtle equipments He is omniscient (sarvajna). Water itself is called the wave and the ocean due to its identification with different conditionings. Similarly, Existence itself is called the jiva and Isvara because of the difference in gross and subtle equipments.

An individual contesting for the post of President of a country is an ordinary citizen of the country, wielding only one single vote. On making a clean sweep at the polls, he becomes the President and thereafter wields total power. As a citizen, he was ruled over, and now as a President, he becomes the ruler. This is the difference between the individual and the Total. But from the standpoint of their true nature, there is no difference whatsoever. They are one.

Next…

Index…                                                                                                       Previous…

Upadesa Sara

Sloka 25

Vision of the Lord

 The conditionings are a result of ignorance and therefore, illusory. The qualities of limited knowledge of the jiva and omniscience of Isvara are only relative but their oneness is absolute. The true vision of the Lord is not different from Self-realization – the realization of one’s own nature. The following verse elaborates on this.

vesa-hanatah svatma-darsanam,
Isa-darsanam svatma-rupatah.

vesa-hanatah – to one who gives up (the gross and subtle conditionings); svatma-darsanam – vision of the Self (Self-realization); Isa-darsanam – vision of the Lord (God-realization); svatma-rupatah – as the Self;

One who gives up the conditionings gains Self-realization. The vision of the Lord as the Self is true God-realization.

 The idea of giving up the conditionings appears suicidal. The path of Self-enquiry does not advise us to literally give up the body, senses, and mind or to destroy them. What is to be given up is the ignorance-born false notion that ‘I am the body’. When the ‘I’-notion in the body is given up, the pure Self which is of the nature of Existence-Consciousness is realized. The nature of the Lord too is Existence-Consciousness. Therefore, Self-realization is God-realization.

Can we not gain the vision of the Lord as a particular form, say, Bala Gopala or Sri Rama through meditation? It may be possible to gain such a vision by the grace of the Lord and the intensity and fervor of our practice, faith, and devotion. But such a vision of the form should not be mistaken for the vision of His true nature. A form, since it is seen, is inert, finite, and perishable. The Lord is sentient, infinite, and imperishable in nature. Therefore, we should strive to gain the vision of the Lord as one’s own true nature.

Next…