Kenopanishad Part 4

Continued From:  http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2015/02/kenopanishad-part-3.html

The acharyan narrated an anecdote to explain the grace of the Lord and His supremacy.

‘Once, the Devas defeated the Asuras in a war. The Devas celebrated their victory.

‘Look at how we made the Asuras run for their lives!’ they exclaimed. ‘They did not dare to face our power!’

The Lord realized that the Devas had given rise to false ego (ahamkaram). He felt bad for them and wanted to teach them a lesson as, false ego causes down fall. Out of compassion, to protect the Devas, He took a giant form and stood in the form of a Yakshan blocking their path.

The Devas were returning to their homes when they saw the huge Yakshan. The moment they saw Him, they were overcome with fear.

‘Who do you think that person is?’ they asked each other. ‘We shouldn’t celebrate till we make sure that this person is not an Asuran who has come to avenge the defeat of his friends.’

‘Agni,’ called their chief Devendran. ‘Please go over to that huge person and find out who he is.’

Agni started towards the place where the Yakshan was standing as tall as a huge mountain.  As Agni neared the Yakshan he started to feel scared. He couldn’t bring the courage to interrogate the Yakshan. The Yakshan understood Agni’s fear and to start the conversation rolling, He asked Agni, ‘who are you?’

‘I am Agni’, replied Agni with trepidation. ‘I have the power to burn anything.’

‘Really? Can you burn this blade of grass?’

‘Sure!’ answered Agni looking at that insignificant blade of grass. He then used his power to reduce the grass to ashes, but in spite of his efforts the grass remained green.

Accepting defeat Agni returned to his companions.

‘I was unable to find any information about Him. He asked me to burn a blade of grass, but affected by some magic, I couldn’t reduce it to ashes!’

‘Vayu,’ called Devendran. ‘You are the strongest amongst us. Find out about the Yakshan for us.’

Vayu now approached the Yakshan. As before the Yakshan asked, ‘who are you?’

‘I am Vayu and I can blow anything!’

‘Can you blow this blade of grass?’

Vayu looked at the tiny blade of grass. He blew with all his strength, but was unable to even move the grass by a few millimetres. Vayu accepted defeat and returned to his companions.

‘I myself will go and gather information’, said Devendran.

As Devendran approached the Yakshan, the Yakshan vanished from their view!

We would wonder why the Lord as Yakshan did not test Devendran. The reason was because, Devendran is the leader of the Devas. The Lord appointed Devendran as the ruler of the Devas and it would be a bad management technique to humiliate the leader in front of his followers.

‘Where did this person go?’ murmured Devendran as he searched for the Yakshan. At that moment he saw Parvati Devi approach him. Parvati Devi is the epitome of Brahma Vidhya.

Devendran paid his obeisance to Parvati Devi and inquired about the Yakshan.

‘Para Brahmam came in the form of a Yakshan to teach you a lesson’, said Parvati Devi. ‘You had mistook His victory as your victory. It was because of His sankalpam that you could defeat the Asuras. You did not understand this and mistakenly believed that you had defeated the Asuras because of your powers! It is the Lord who gives you your powers.’

The Devas immediately understood their error. They glorified the Lord for coming to them in the form of a Yakshan to help them understand their mistake,’ the acharyan concluded the narration.

Why did Parvati Devi come to explain about the Lord and not Goddess Sri Devi? 
Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2015/04/kenopanishad-part-5.html

Reference:

This series is based on the notes adiyen took after listening to the discourse in Tamil on Kenopanishad by Sri U.Ve.Karunakarachariar Swamin. This series is for the benefit of people who do not understand Tamil. Those of you who understand Tamil please refer to the following link to listen to the original discourse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wBXKT9cCQo

I have done my best to take notes with due diligence; any error(s) in the series is because of my mistake only. I apologize in advance for any errors that I have made while writing this series

Kenopanishad Part 3

 Continued From: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2015/01/kenopanishad-part-2.html

In the second part the acharyan continued his lecture and said that, ‘if you think you know everything about Brahmam then also you have learnt very little about Brahmam.  Like a journey which never ends , the research into understanding Brahmam is a never ending process. ‘

To this the disciple confirmed that he has understood in the last two words of the above slokam by saying, ‘manye vidhitam.’

Except the last two words, the rest of the slokam is by the acharyan. This is evident because, the acharyan asks if the student has understood by asking ‘manyase’ which is in 2^nd person. To this the student’s reply is given in first person as ‘I have understood’ which is shown by the word ‘manye’.

The one who knows Brahmam as ‘only this’ doesn’t know Brahmam but, the one who realizes that he can’t know everything about Brahmam attains Brahmam.

The above statement gives rise to a doubt. How is very little knowledge about Brahmam sufficient to attain Moksham?

The above statement seems equivalent to passing an examination by writing answers to only one question. The above statement is true because the Supreme Lord is like a liberal examiner and He grants us moksham out of compassion even when we don’t know everything.

There are 32 Brahma Vidhyas. To practice Bakthi Yoga at least one of the Brahma Vidhya must be practiced. Each Brahma Vidhya requires the contemplation of the Lord’s six main attributes along with an attribute specifically mentioned by that Brahma Vidhya.

For example, the Sandilya Vidhya instructs the worshipper to see everything as Brahman. As the person practicing this Brahma Vidhya sees Brahmam as the antaryami of all, he shouldn’t have any quarrel with anyone. Every kind of fragrance should be visualized as emanating from Brahmam, every deed should be visualized as being done by Brahmam and this Brahmam should be understood to have Sri Vaikuntham as His abode. Along with above qualities the worshipper should also meditate upon the following basic six qualities of Brahmam.

The practitioner of Brahma Vidhya knows that, Brahmam is Satyam because, it neither grows nor decays. Our body is not satyam since it undergoes changes. Brahmam is full of bliss anandham.

Brahmam is full of countless numbers of auspicious attributes and is free from negative qualities. This is known as amalatvam.

Brahmam is knowledgeable. Brahmam is the Lord of Sri.

The nithyasuris and mukthatmas also have qualities like anandam, gnanam, satyam, amalatvam etc, but these qualities exist in them because the Lord has blessed them with these qualities.

Constant meditation upon the qualities of Brahmam without a break in concentration should be like the steady flowing stream of oil. Such meditation will grant emancipation.

As Bakthi Yoga, which has been described above is very hard to follow, it is sufficient to practice prapatti. The main thing to know is that Lord Sriman Narayanan is our only saviour. We should lead a carefree life by serving the Lord and by not going after dharmam, artham and kamam. By being truthful and performing our prescribed duties, we can attain Him.

The Lord is the means as well as the end. He is the one who makes us victorious. While people find it easy to blame the Lord when they are defeated, no one thanks the Lord when they are victorious. To illustrate this, following story is narrated by the Upanishad.

Reference:

This series is based on the notes adiyen took after listening to the discourse in Tamil on Kenopanishad by Sri U.Ve.Karunakarachariar Swamin. This series is for the benefit of people who do not understand Tamil. Those of you who understand Tamil please refer to the following link to listen to the original discourse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wBXKT9cCQo

I have done my best to take notes with due diligence; any error(s) in the series is because of my mistake only. I apologize in advance for any errors that I have made while writing this series

Continued On: