| SAPTHAGIRI - April 2003 | ||
| Previous | Contents | Next |
Kasttavasttham aham upagato nastayaraksya manah
sunyagare vyapagatasuhrt bhumimavestamano
dukhayisye yadi bata ! jaranmadhava ! tvam prasida
O Madhava ! It is pitiable indeed that I becoming miserable with age, weakened by starvation and protected by children and relatives having no respect or regard for me: that I should remain lone suffering in a neglected room, and there rolling on the ground without being cared for by relatives - O Lord Thou shall be sole Protector.
Of all the situations hitherto visualised by the Poet, the one depicted here is the most poignant, and blood-curdling. That one who loves and being loved while remaining in perfect health should be neglected at the moment of his death will be painful to one who remains bed-ridden. Suffering becomes very poignant when it arises out of neglect by those who are dear and near ones. Shakespear's King Lear is an example of neglect by daughters who turn out to be ungrateful. But here the poet does not attribute any motives to the relatives. O man! thou has come lone in this world and lone thou shall go. The Poet prayed God at the time of his entry into the world; and now at the time of his exit also he seeks the help of the Lord. For the devotee the Lord shall be his sole support and protector.
smaram smaram nirayapatanam sasvadutpreksamanah
mrtyostrasyannapi jaratanispuho marttumiccha-
stvannamoccarnamaga nayanneva ma deva ! bhuvam
O Lord ! Constantly thinking of the various sins committed due to the powerful ignorance of youth and the expectation of my being thrown into hell, I become fearful awaiting death at any moment; and with the oncoming age and the consequent suffering then I become disgusted and wish to die. O Lord may I then not turn out to be one who fails to utter your name.
The last moments in the life of man are most critical for him. All that he had been determine his present birth; and all that he is, does in this life up to the moment of his death, determines what he will become in the worlds beyond and in the lives yet to be. 'The entire thoughts and feelings of his during the span of his life stand condensed as it were' into a single state of mind at the time of his departure from the body. This is a strong article of faith among the Hindus. To them whatever acts sinful or otherwise one might have committed during the entire stretch of one's life one would be saved from the hands of the Kinkaras of Yama by the utterance of the Divine Name. The angels from the heaven would protect him and take him to Vaikuntha, the abode of Purushottama. It is this faith that has been articulated in the above verse. "O Lord, let not my mind fail to utter your name when I am suffering and awaiting death".
Bhagavat Gita in Chapter VIII verse 5 to 8 states :
5 antakale ca mam eva smaran muktva kalevaram yah prayati sa madbhavam yati na 'sty atra samsayah
6 yam yam va 'pi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram tam tam evai 'ti kaunteya sada tadbhavabhavita
7 tasmat sarvesu kalesu mam anusmara yudhya ca mayy arpita manobuddhir mam evai 'syasy asamsayah
8 abhyasayogayuktena cetasa na 'nyaga mina paramam purusam divyam yati partha 'nucintayan'
'He who at the time of death departs leaving his body remembering Me only comes to my status. Of this there is no doubt'.
'Thinking of whatever state, he at the end gives up his body, to that does he attain, O son of Kunti, being absorbed in the thought thereof'.
'Therefore at all times remember Me and fight. When thy mind and understanding are set on Me to Me alone shalt thou come without doubt'.
'He who meditates on the Supreme person with his thought attuned by constant practice and not wandering after anything else He, O Partha reaches the person Supreme and Divine'.
Much therefore depends on what a person is at the critical moment of his departure. Aurobindo in his Essays on Gita writes :
"For whatever form of becoming his consciousness is fixed on at the time of death and has been full of that always in his mind and thought before his death, to that form he must attain, since Prakriti by Karma works out the soul's thoughts and energies and that is in real fact her business. Therefore, if the soul in the human being desires to attain to the status of the Purushottama, there are two necessities, two conditions which must be satisfied before that can be possible. He must have moulded towards that ideal his whole inner life in his earthly living; and he must be faithful to his aspiration and will in his departing. 'Whoever leaves his body and departs' says Krishna, 'remembering me at his time of end, comes to my bhava', that of the Purushottama, my status of being. He is united with the original being of the Divine and that is the ultimate becoming of the soul, para bhavah, the last result of Karma in its return upon itself and towards its source .... In a certain sense we may say that it becomes God, since it unites itself with the nature of the Divine in a last transformation of its own phenomenal nature and existence." (vide. pp. 280, 281).
According to Madhva 'Madbhavam' means having a nature akin to Mine (madvabhavah), of possessing inexhaustible bliss untouched by pain, which becomes fully manifested only in release. It cannot be construed as becoming identical with the Lord for as the Moksadharma says the Muktas are dependent on and rest in Him: 'The Lord of all (ksetrajna) is established as the goal of Muktas' (XII. 342. 42). According to Madhva, 'ante' in verse 5 above of the Gita qualifies the participle form 'smaran' (remembering) and not the act of giving up the body. According to him one cannot miss the point that the moment of death should synchronize with remembering God in order to attain union with Him. Abhyasa yoga that is constant practice, itself, is conceived as the means.
The importance of the state of mind at the moment of death is emphasised in Chandogya Upanishad III. 14.1 and Prasnopanishad, III-10 also. In the instant case we find in our poet an urge to commit an end of his life for the sins committed in his early youth and the bodily ailments accompanying his old age. But he cautions his mind not to plunge into something disastrous, but be thinking of God, the Saviour of mankind. One cannot be thinking of God unless one has developed and practised the utterance of His Name much earlier in life. 'Let my mind not fail me to utter the Name of the Lord at the last moment' is probably consistent with his practice earlier and also serves as a supplicant to the Lord not to forget him when His help is most needed. The very composition of the Satakam is a pointer in that direction. We have to develop love of God even when we are in the midst of earthly life. At every stage of life he thinks of God and seeks His help. The final thought arises only with reference to objects previously ruminated upon in one's thought. Therefore the Lord says at all times until departure remember me day in and day out. Engage yourself in action appropriate to your station and stage in life, which would make you remember me.
Bhaktas have no claim to anything other than the love of God and the utterance of His name always.
muktva muktva bahumalamanir vrttsaucah sayanuh
svasyasavyasana paripurnnarttirasannamrtyu
stratavyoham tava vipadavasttham gatascakrapane !
O Chakrapane (O Vishno), Pray save me from that catrastrophic situation I may be in, when with age I lie lonely on bed, make both the calls on bed, and being unable to cleanse my bed as well as my body, I roll in that dirt, and with the immanence of death I feel suffocated, as the soul is not parting the body.
Bhakti samvardhana is a composition of a devotee of Sri Rama, who it appears experienced life in its totality. He visualises various situations in life any person may have to undergo. Probably his experience is subjective or one arising from situations he happened to witness in life, and which had affected him deeply. Those situations as herein visualised do occur every day not only among persons not well placed in socieity but also among persons who are affluent. When the end draws near and becomes certain those who are near and dear to us leave us alone perhaps in fear of death.
vacam ghorair ghuru ghuru ravaih klistakantha kaphena
ksubhyat pranasvasitarabhasoddhuta marmmasthibanda
soham visno ! jaya jaya mukunde vanim bruvani
O Lord! when the people around say' the end of this person is imminent - what a pity' and I hear the same; when the phlegm accumulates in the throat obstructing the passage of the breath making a sound 'ghuru, ghuru'; when the excited life breath pierces the bones and the knots of the body and I suffer immensly then may Thy Grace help me to utter O Visno! O Mukunda ! hail to Thee.
maghepyucaistanati sahasa kandisike janowgha -
dyavabhumy orvita tavapusah pretara jasya dutan
pasyantam mam parama ! krpaya pahi pankeruhakse !
O Lotus Eyed (Pankeruhaksa)! When in a thunder storm there is terrible movements of wind spreading darkness all around people hear the the fearful sound of the thunder and see the flashes of lightening; and when people becoming fearful seeing the messenger of death prowling about; at that time O Parama Purusha ! O Compassionate Lord do protect me.
vayadirnnani bhrukutivikadat ugradamstrat kutani
drstva drstva yamabhata mukhanyasu santrasyato me
natha ! trata bhava mrtidasa samkate pankajaksa !
When I see the messengers of Yama with hell fire emitting from their rounded eyes, possessing a big cave-like mouth separating their lips, with curling eye-brows and having large bending teeth (like the tusks of a boar) which are fearful and I suddenly get terribly fear stricken - at that moment of death and sorrow, O Pankajaksha, Thou shall protect me.
netronmesam vidadhatamakhande ca phenaya manam
a lokyalokya ca vamabhatananantara vepamanam
pranapaya vyasanasamaye raksa mam cakrapane !
At the time when my breath becomes hard (due to closure of trachea) and I swirl my body and I lying down urinate unconsciously, when I occasionally open my eyes bulging out and staring at others; when froth comes out of my mouth and seeing the messengers of Yama I get terribly fear-stricken and my soul is leaving the body, O Chakrapane pray protect me then.
svase chinne mahati ca calata urddhvamurddhvabhidhane
dehaddehi mama vighatate yavad asadya tavat
saksat bhuyastavamiha bhagavan prarthhaye tirtthapada !
I pray O Tirthapada (whose feet are holy) that shall manifest before me at the time when the Urdhva Vayu together with draws ksudra, tamaka, chinna, and mahan vayus and the Jiva leaves this body.
svasthanebhyah krtadrdhataraughatamutghatitanam
matprananam vidadhati yada yatanam dehayogam
mrtyordutassiv siva tada pahpimam padmanabha !
When my pranas undergo intense and severe pain caused in the course of its determined movemnets forward after piercing the bones and the sensitive regions and the messengers of Lord of Death (Yama) throw it into linga sarira (the subtle body assumed for the purpose of fulfilling the Karma-phala) at that time when I move away O Padmanabha, I pray that thou shall protect me.
pasaih pascat krtabhujayugam gadhamabaddhagatrah
kastam ! kastam ! pitrpatibhataih kantake niyamanah
tratavyosmi pracurakarunavasa ! te vasudeva !
O Vasudeva ! when with the deafening sound of their humkara (the sound that comes out of their nostrils creating terrible sound, harsh to the ears and deafening) the messengers of Yama belabour me with iron rods and bind my hands behind my back and tie them tightly with my body, it is great pity indeed!; and thereafter drag me over the thorns, O Lord! Thou the ocean of unlimited mercy should then be pleased to protect me.
santaptabhirbhrsamata ito valukabhisca parnne
yavanniye vigatakarunaih sraddhadevasya dutaih
tavat bhaktabhyada ! bhagavan uttamasloka ! pahi
O Bhagavan ! when the messengers of Yama drag me with the least mercy over a tortuous pathway full of pits and over burning sands where there is neither shade nor water, then O Protector of devotees be pleased to come and protect me.
vegannitah praharanaparaih kinkarair angusena
ajnam srotum tadanupurato darsito dandha pane-
ssnatrastoham manasi dayaniyosmi laksmipate ! te
O Lakshmipate ! when the messengers of Yama fasten my body with a hook and drag me a thousand yojanas now and then belabouring through the perilous pathways of desert sands and present me before Yama to hear his judgement against me and I then remain trembling with fear then O Lord be pleased to have Thy mercy on me.
papanyakarnya ca mama tada hanta ! tenoditani
yavat papi cirataramayam dandhyatamitykandhe
rosat ajnapayati ca jagannatha ! raksyosmi tavat
When the Lord of Death, Yama sends for his writer, Chitragupta who having read an account of all my sinful deeds, and I having understood the same, angrily directs that I should be punished in hell for long, O Jagannatha ! Thou should protect me then.
puyasratasya sakrds asipatratavi namadheya
lalabhaksyapyatha bahuvidhe kastamanytra yavat
patye tavat paramapurusa ! tvam prasida prasida
O Parama Purusha ! (The Supreme being) when the messengers of Yama put me in the great Naraka called 'tamisra'; in the dark hell called 'raurava'; in the river called 'lalada baksya' and in various other Narakas, O Lord, be you then be pleased to bless me.
'Tamisram' is a hell filled with complete darkness; 'raurava' is a hell filled with poisonous snakes and very many other fearful creatures; 'andhakupa' is dark well; 'puyasrotasya' is a hell river full of pus; asipatradavi' is a hell forest having trees; containing leaves which are sharper than a razor; 'lalada bakshya' is a river containing semen.
Verse 36 onwards are echoes from the Garuda Purana where the life's after-life journey is very frightfully described.
kincit kalam parama nubhavisyami yadyapyudaham
na sradheyam mama khalu tathapyetadasyavasane
yajjanma syat punariti vibho ! muktikamo bhavati
By the performance of beneficient deeds known as 'ishta purta' (viz. the construction of tanks, wells, way-side inns; rest houses, all for the benefit of the public) I can enjoy though for a short time the excellent happiness of Swarga; but even that O Lord, I do not care for as such. For after exhausting the enjoyment of the merit therefrom, I will have to come back to this earth again repeatedly. I desire only to that mukti which gives me eternal liberation.
From this Verse and the following ones we find a distinct change in the attitude of the devotee who by his visions of hell and the terrible suffering therein develops vairagya which is one of the essential steps in the development of Bhakti. He feels that his sole concern is the Lord. Happiness and sorrow are both ephemeral to him. The sole and the abiding factor in Bhakti is an abject surrender at His Feet, by becoming His Dasa. Those devotees who have no other thought than the thought of the Lord alone, are bound to be protected by the Lord. In the Gita the Lord says : "ananyah cintayato mam ye janah paryupasate..." (IX-22). If we can cast ourselves entirely on the mercy of the Lord, He bears all our cares and sorrows. We can depend on His saving care and energizing grace. In Gautamakhila we read : 'Those who think of the unalloyed Primeval Lord alone, laying aside all other thoughts of the mind are "ananyas" (exclusive devotees). They enter Him. 'The Mokshadharma (XII-323-49) also tells us that the Lord's essential form (mandala) is perceived with deep love (sam) by reason of its effulgence (prabha) by those who have become fully attuned to Him by remaining His Ekantabhaktas for ages. (vide The Bhagavadgita Bhasya of Sri Madhavavarya, rendered into English by Dr. B.N.K. Sharma pp. 208, 209). Sri Ramanujacarya translates the word 'yoga' as 'prosperity' and 'kshema' as 'welfare' thus meaning that those devotees who are Ekanta bhaktas do not return to Samsara.
By long suffering in Hell or even while living on this earth, or having the terrible and horrifying visions of suffering after death in Hell, our devotee all the time prayed the Lord for His protection and has thus turned into His Dasa. The Lord is his sole concern and he has become His Ekanta bhakta. His sole reliance on Lord and Lord alone for protection has given him the vision of the Form of the Lord, which he praises in the latter part of this Satakam.
saddhyassiddha api bahuvidha ye ca ye caranasca
ye kepyanye disi disi nabhovartmana sancarante
tesam sthane nahi mama ratirnnatha ! nityetaratvat
I do not aspire for the status of 'Gandharvas' or that of 'Turangavadanas' or that of 'Vidyadharas' or that of various types of 'Sadhyas' or 'Siddhas'; or that of 'Charanas'; and not even that of the space travellers. For Lord! they are ephemeral.
These are ethereal beings possessing lighter and luminous bodies with freedom to move about. Yet they are ephemeral in existence. They are the bodies of dead persons who had earned some merit while in soul's sojourn on earth. When they have exhausted the merit of their good deeds they have to return to earth, as Karma Bhoomi, for their further evolution. In their present existence they cannot fly to eternity. Having taken to the path of Bhakti and developed vairagya our devotee interests himself in eternal existence with peace which he gains by holding fast to the feet of the Lord as His Dasa.
stoyanajnaca prbhuratha marut kinnareso mahesah
ityastau ye disamadhivasantyekaso lokapala-
stebhyo me sprhayati hrsikesa ! moksecchuratma.
O Rishikesa ! I do not aspire for the status of Indra, Agni, Anthaka (the Lord of death), the chief of Yatudhanas viz. Nirati, Varuna (the Lord of Water), Vayu, the chief of Kinnaras (vaisravanan), or those who become the chiefs of Ashtaadikpalas, O Lord my mind does not aspire for any of them but only for moksha.
nyekaikasmad anubhavati yajjivanamayamatma
tasmadicchamyupasa mavidhanena naiskarmmyasiddhim
yasmat siddhyet prama a mrtam deva kaivalyanatha !
O Deva ! My Jiva called Jivatma enjoy the merits of all good deeds and very many other afflictions due to bad deeds, O Kaivalyanatha ! (the Lord of Immortality), I desire for only absolute Tranquillity (peace) and freedom from Karma (naiskarmasiddhi) and through that attain Eternal Bliss.
Life is a perpetual source of misery. Good deeds give good results and bad ones result in afflictions. Both are thus not such as to result in giving freedom from Karma. One has to take birth again for further Karma. Karma results in re-incarnation; ever remaining in cycle of birth and death. Therefore the effects of Karma should be destroyed in order to gain Eternal Peace and Bliss. It is eternal Ananda, the form of Sat chit Ananda that I should try to attain.
sannyasyatha prakaditapha lanyasu karmanyamuni
moksapraptaiya spprhayatimana syujhitasesasanga-
stvatpadabjasmrtim a nubhavamyeva laksminivasa !
O Lakshminivasa ! (the Lord who has Lakshmi remaining on His chest - viz. Vishnu) Gradually observing all yamas and niyamas, the essential and necessary eight constituents or angas of Yoga, renouncing all fruit bearing worldly actions, and abandoning completely the desire for the worldly happiness, and with a mind ever interested in Moksha alone, I always meditate on Thy Lotus Feet alone.
R.A. Nicholson in A Literary History of the Arabs (1930) p. 234 cited by Radhakrishnan in his commentary on Bhagavatgita @ p. 247 (foot-note) describes the state of mind of such a devotee who holds fast to the feet of the Lord in abject surrender to Him, thus : "Rabia was once asked' 'Do you love God': She replied. 'Leaves me no room to hate the Devil. I saw the Prophet in a dream. He said: 'O Rabi' do you love me? 'I said : 'O Apostle of God who does not love nor hate of any other thing remains in my heart'. That exactly what is meant by 'ananyam cinto mam' - a devotion of God in which nothing else has any place. The Lord has further affirmed this promise later in Chapter XVIII verse 66 of the Gita 'aham tva sarvapapebhyo moksayisyamima sucah" - "Grieve not, I shall release you from all evils".
sarvatmatvam tvayi ca kalayan purnnabhaktiprapancah
namanyucarya ca bahuvdhan anyacintavihinah
kaivalyarthi tava paramaham deva ! daso bhavami
O Deva ! After contemplating on Thy absolute and incarnated forms, with full faith and knowledge that thou art the inner being of all in the Universe, and with no other thought than the desire for Moksha, I chant Thy Bliss giving Names and becomes Thy Dasa.
Here the devotee takes to the chanting of Divine names of the Lord and wishes to become the Dasa of the Lord. He wishes not a position equal to God or a merger in Him. He retains his individuality but only as His Bhakta or a Dasa.
Bhakti may be divided into two (i) Apara Bhakti viz. the premature stage of development and (2) Para Bhakti - a mature stage of subjective experience. While Para Bhakti is of the nature of actual realization of the goal itself or the full maturation of the endeavour, Apara Bhakti is a stage prior to the attainment of that maturation and therefore it involves effort and gradual achievement; it is a process. The most advanced stage of Apara Bhakti is called Ekanta Bhakti which supervenes upon the fulfilment of the duties enjoined on the novitee in the Disciplinary Path of devotion, as a result of which Divine Grace flows into the heart of the devotee. This stage prepares the mind of the devotee fully and perfectly for the final realization or a leap into the unknown, and then the God blesses him with Divine illumination instantaneously. The first part of the Satakam indicates that the devotee has reached the stage of Apara Bhakti; and the second part deals with Para Bhakti, the maturation to which his practice of devotion by chanting the Holy and the Divine Names of the Lord has taken him. By constant practice he has reached that maturity - a stage of subjective experience wherein the devotee has the uncharacterizable, incommunicable and ineffable experience of unsurpassed Bliss and illumination always equated with self-realization or God-realization. It is also called liberation in life.
| Previous | Contents | Next |