ViBha Class Notes: October 24, 2021

Shri Krshna Chandra Bhagavan Ki Jai!

What is the difference between history and itihasa?. The difference is that in itihasa, the focus is not on an event or events, but the focus is on purpose, specifically the purposes of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. These are going to be re-ordered in terms of importance, from least to most

• Kama which is pleasure
• Artha which is possession
• Dharma which is position
• Moksha which is peace

An itihasa has these purposes, and within an itihasa, when explored using Vedanta, there are not purposes, but a singular purpose and that is Peace or Moksha. Karma, Artha and Dharma are only valid if they are facilitating an evolution towards Peace. So, after almost a hundred hours of Vedanta in Bhagavata, what we are focused on is learning to be a Mumukshu. A Mumukshu has one purpose only and that is Peace. Their want, desire, need, is Moksha. The way we need to brush our teeth, the way we need to be validated, the way we need oxygen, for a Mumukshu, Peace is the same way. They cannot live without this need. In Bhagavad Gita, this is described as Ananya Bhakti. Anya means others and Ananya means no other.

What is holding us back from marrying Bhagavan Krshna? It is not context, that we are already married or that I’m a male, but that we want to marry Bhagavan Krshna and others. Others could be a being or a position. As long as there is an and..Bhagavan and.., we will never marry Bhagavan Krshna. His expectations of us are absolute expectations. And that is why Vivekji always shares to have higher expectations of ourselves and lower expectations of others. He expects that we love Him, and not and.. but only Him. If we love Bhagavan, we will love Moksha only. If we can develop this and are trying, then we will become a Gopi or a Devi, from the section that we are studying right now. All of the devis that have engaged in a Vivaha with Bhagavan Krshna, this is Ananya bhakti or Mumukshutvam.

In case we are wondering how we are to practice this, one way is to be clear that all relationships in our life, not just with beings, but also with circumstances and articles, should only be interdependent. All our dependencies should be functional only. This is called the right contact, where we should never allow ourselves to succumb to dependence. If we are not clear about interdependence, we will naturally devolve for this to become dependence and that is what happens to most of us — the lack of clarity.

What is so tight about this message is that when Shri Lakshmana asks Shri Rama ‘What is Bhakti?’, Bhagavan Rama’s response is dependence. When one depends on Bhagavan, that is what Bhakti is. When we depend on Bhagavan Krshna, then all our other relationships will become clearly inter-dependent, because we have one dependence in our life. Our sole support is Bhagavan Krshna. Shri Lakshmana asked that question for us. He has already been living like that. He never stopped looking at Bhagavan Rama, leave alone stop thinking about Him. Even Devi Sita, in this leela, momentarily looked away and thought away from Shri Rama, but never Shri Lakshmana. The way we can solidify the chapters that we have been flowing through in Bhagavata recently is to be clear about dependence and interdependence.

Summary of a few chapters:

In Chapter 60, there was the dialogue between Bhagavati Rukmini and Bhagavan Krshna, where Bhagavan Krshna is testing her Mumukshutvam and she passes. It is not her test, but actually ours.

Chapter 61: Some of the highlights are that each of Bhagavan Krshna’s vivahas led to ten children. So Bhagavan Krshna had one hundred sixty thousand and eighty children. If we are overwhelmed by none, or one or more children, we can learn parenting techniques from Bhagavan Krshna and these Devis. As we try to develop the right contact with relationships, it is revealing to know that even Bhagavan Krshna’s children did not listen to Him. And at the end of Mahabharata and at the end of Bhagavata, it is a very tragic happening where Bhagavan Krshna has to be instrumental in the destruction of His own children as they did not listen.

Each of Bhagavan Krshna’s Devis felt that Bhagavan was with them only. They only loved Him and they felt that He loved them only. That is Ananya Bhakti. They had a lot of help, but each of these Devis personally attended to Bhagavan Krshna. This is an important message for us as we can hire someone to clean our home, but we cannot have someone else to do our Sadhana.

Chapter 62: Raja Bali’s eldest son was Bana and he was a great bhakta of Bhagavan Shiva. When Bhagavan Shiva used to dance, Bana was the one who used to play the instruments as he had a thousand arms. Bana had a daughter called Usha, who was having dreams about this divine being. She had a friend called Chitralekha who was a painter, and who wanted to help Usha. Chitralekha told her that she would paint pictures of beings so that Usha could identify the divine being. So finally Chitraleka paints an image of Aniruddha and Usha confirms that he is the one that she was dreaming about. So Chitraleka goes to Dwarka and as if captures Aniruddha and brings him to Usha. And they are together in Bana’s kingdom.

Chapter 63: Despite the number of children of Bhagavan Krshna, they noticed that Aniruddha was missing. It was actually Rishi Narada who pointed it out. They came to understand and appreciate that he had been missing for four months during Chaturmasya, as he was trapped in Bana’s kingdom. So they all travel to Bana’s kingdom to bring back Anirudha. Shri Krshna is described as Aniruddha’s Guardian Angel — the original Guardian Angel.

They enter into Bana’s kingdom. As Bana is a devotee of Bhagavan Shiva, Bhagavan Shiva says that if you have to fight Bana you have to fight me first. Bhagavan Shiva is shooting missiles that are heat oriented and Shri Krshna is shooting missiles that are cold oriented to equalize each other. At one point, Bhagavan Shiva creates this being called a Jvara — fever that is very hot. Then Bhagavan Krshna creates another fever that is very cold. And they fight with each other and finally Bhagavan Krshna prevails over Bhagavan Shiva.

And then Bhagavan Shiva prays to Bhagavan Krshna and in his prayer, he asks for Bana to be spared. “With intelligence infatuated by thy Maya, the Jivas get intensely attached to children, spouse and house and roll up and down in the waves of the ocean of Samsara. After having obtained birth as a human being, as a result of the Lord’s grace, a human who fails to serve His feet, but lives for indulgence in the pleasures of his uncontrolled senses, is a traitor to himself.” We always think of traitors being external, but when we focus on Kama, Artha, Dharma instead of Moksha, we are traitors to ourselves. No wonder our lives keep going up and down and up and down because there is no holding on to the center.

Bhagavan Shiva is praising Bhagavan Krshna and with this prayer, Bhagavan Krshna says to Bhagavan Shiva, “I will do whatever pleases Your heart”. Who does Bhagavan Shiva love? Bhagavan Krshna. Who does Bhagavan Krshna love? Bhagavan Shiva. Only those that interpret wrongly have this fight over Vaishnavas and Shaivites. Bhagavan Krshna tells Bhagavan Shiva that He had already promised Rishi Prahlada that He would never harm anyone in his family. He says that He only, as if harmed Bana to humble him. Relating this to our lives, we may interpret what is happening to us as harming us, but if it is humbling us, then it is not harming us, but helping us. So Bhagavan Krshna cut off nine hundred and ninety-six arms of Bana, but let him keep four and told him that no one would be able to take these four arms from him. See the subtlety here as Bana had pride that he had a thousand arms. But Bhagavan Krshna let him keep four arms and told him to remember why these four arms remained — because of Bhagavan Krshna’s Grace. So we too should remember that irrespective of the hardships that come into our lives, that it is not harming us, but helping us. We have to orient ourselves to realizing that the hardships are helping us.

Discussion: What does it mean to be a Hindu? And how has your understanding been formed?

Externally, some states are celebrating Hindu heritage month, but many Hindus don’t know what it means to be a Hindu. To be a Hindu, we have to know purpose which is Moksha and to follow that. If either of this is missing, then legally we are a Hindu, but not a genuine Hindu.