ViBha Class Notes: March 13, 2022
The most significant impediment for us feeling independently joyous is known as vipareeta bhavana. Bhavana means feeling or identification and vipareeta means erroneous or wrong. It makes us feel separate from Infinity, Divinity and this is why in our culture, Nididhyasana or Dhyana is the antidote or corrective agent to vipareeta bhavana. Nididhyasana means nitaram dhyaihi. Dhyaihi means to think and nitaram is perpetually. We all know in a simplistic sense “As you think, so you become”. If we only think “Aham Brahmasmi”, that will become our bhavana and we will feel this, we will identify with this.
For a Bhakta or Bhaktas like us, we may feel sometimes that we are undeserving of the experiences in our life. If we reflect on all of our bhagya, suppose we have a supportive family, suppose we have not had to go through any traumatic experience, we feel like we don’t deserve this. We feel the weight of our papa or the heaviness of our wrong thinking, speaking, acting, we feel that we don’t deserve what we have in our life. A Bhakta may feel this, but a Bhakta also knows that her/his Bhagavan is sulabha or accessible. Our Bhagavan is accessible independently, through our Shastra, through our Sadguru, and so whenever we have this sense of “I don’t deserve this”, specifically in reference to any negative notions we have, about papa or wrong doing, give that to Bhagavan as He is accessible.Whatever is holding us back from being Infinite or Divine, give that to Bhagavan. A completion to Bhagavata is Bhagavatah idam where we feel we belong to Bhagavan. Bhagavan is the One who creates, who conserves and so on, so we feel we belong to Bhagavan.
Shrimad Bhagavata essentially has thirteen Sections or Skandas. These sections are:
- Glorification – Skanda Zero – Mahatmya
- Qualification – Skanda 1
- Application – Skanda 2
The last 10 sections are more technical and when we search Bhagavata, the following ten Sections are the ones that show up –
- Creation – Skanda 3
- Diversification – Skanda 4
- Position – Skanda 5
- Protection – Skanda 6
- Inclination – Skanda 7
- Intensification – Skanda 8 – from Dharma to Sat Dharma
- Disidentification – Skanda 9
- Absorption – Skanda 10
- Liberation – Skanda 11
- Consumption – Skanda 12 – destruction or dissolution
These thirteen subjects can easily be externalized, but what we have to understand is that this is our journey from vipareeta bhavana to Aham Brahmasmi. It starts with the glorification of our nature and consumption is to BE that nature. Put more simply, one of Acharya Shankara’s teachings starts with Satsangatve – starts with satsanga and ends with Jeevanmuktih. That is what these thirteen subjects are about as well. Glorification is satsanga, and it continues into Rshi Shaunaka asking these six questions and then Raja Parikshita and Rshi Shuka, and then finally to Jeevanmuktih. And when we get to this Skanda, this poisonous snake does bite Raja Parikshita, but he is already liberated, jeevanmuktih, so he doesn’t know that the snake bites him or that the body dies, because he knows that he is Brahman, like Rshi Shuka.
Analysing these subjects more, there is a famous teaching in Bhakti shastras –
- Yena Kena prakarena manah krshne niveshayet
Yena kena prakarena (that means, this means or any means), manah (mind), krshne (in Krshna), niveshayet (to absorb, to reside) – By that, this or any means, our mind should be living in, absorbed in Krshna. This is the teaching of Bhagavata, this is our practice. When, how this is achieved is less relevant than this actually being achieved. In our culture, liberation typically follows Bahikarana sadhana or purification. Then, when one is purified, then comes shravana, manana and nididhyasana – listening, reflecting and contemplating.
The best students are liberated with shravana, and not nidhidhyasna. They don’t need to contemplate, just listening leads them to liberation. The next best students through reflection; the least best students through contemplation, and we can see how much is involved in contemplation. So when our mind is absorbed, how our mind is absorbed is less relevant than these methodologies. In a very straightforward way, Kamsa is more enlightened than us as he thought about Bhagavan Krshna more than we think about Bhagavan Krshna. And this is beautifully stated in Bhagavan Ramana’s Upadesha Sara. If we follow his flow of teachings, it begins with karma, but the ends is stated in the middle, which is Bhakti. Then later on he brings in Jnana. The implication is that we have to be established in our own heart, our own self. So Shri Ramana is teaching that it doesn’t matter if it is karma yoga or bhakti yoga or jnana yoga, but that this is what needs to be felt. So as we continue to reflect on these teachings, “yena kena prakarena manah krshne niveshayet”. We should think lots about what we have journeyed through thus far because the eleventh Skanda is intense in terms of jnana.
Srimad Bhagavata describes the journey of a Bhakta in how they seek, and this is overtly shared through the six questions that Rshi Shaunaka asks on behalf of all the Bhaktas who are gathered in Naimisharanya (where the mind becomes quiet). When a bhakta’s mind becomes quiet, he ask questions like –
- What is the greatest good for all beings? A bhakta with a quiet mind is not thinking about themselves only.
- What is the purpose of an Avatara? If one analyzes this it goes from more logical to more faithful.
- What is the performance of Avataras?
- What is the passings of Avataras?
- What is the play of Avataras?
For a typical student, the question asked would be – Why does Bhagavan take an Avatara?, whereas a student who has faith, just wants to know about the Avataras.
- What is the home of Dharma? Reflecting on this – What is the home of Avatara? We have understood from the Bhagavad Gita that Bhagavan Krshna comes to establish Dharma. So an Avatara is one who manifests and unmanifests. So a Bhakta knows that Bhagavan will manifest and unmanifest, but what does His home become? If we have not interpreted this yet, it is Bhagavata. Bhagavan Krshna will openly share that He has become Bhagavata.
The first question – What is the greatest good? – is also the same question that Prince Arjuna asks, “What is Shreya”?, and Bhagavan continues with the Bhagavad Gita. The same question in Bhagavata is an orientation to Avatara. These are the Avataras that help us grow from logic or from belief to faith to trust, where the different Skandas are leading us to be more trusting. It all begins with Brahma or Brahman or Infinity.
- Avatara 0 – Bhagavan Narayana in Bhakti Shastra is the same as Brahman.
- Avatara ½ – Bhagavan Brahma, the Creator
Now that these two are established, according to Bhagavata, the Avataras start now –
- Sanaka Kumara
- Varaha
- Narada
- Nara Narayana
- Kapila
- Dattatreya
- Yajna
- Rshabha
- Prithu
- Matsya
- Kamatha or Kurma
- Dhanvantari
- Mohini
- Narasimha
- Vamana
- Parashurama – The Rama that uses an axe
- Vyasa
- Rama – Kodanda Rama, The Rama with a bow
- Balarama
- Krshna
- Buddha
- Kalki
So a Bhakta’s journey is these six questions, and Bhagavan’s journey is from Bhagavan Narayana to Bhagavan Kalki.
In the eleventh Skanda, the subject matter is Mukti or liberation. This Skanda is known as the head of Shrimad Bhagavata, just as Skanda ten is the heart. And that is why Skanda eleven is sometimes known as Ekadashi. In an Ekadashi vrata, the implication of fasting on the eleventh day is that the eleventh entity is the mind, which is more powerful than the organs of action and the organs of perception.
Skanda 11:1:16 – Rshi Shuka is speaking to Raja Parikshita –
When the Munis were tricked or tried to be made a fools of, these Munis spoke to these boys in great anger – “The one who will be born from this womb will be inert, specifically a musalam, a pestle. Just like a pestle grinds seeds and herbs, this will powder your family, your lineage”. Who are these young boys?
When Bhagavan Krshna was living in Dwaraka, countless Rshis came to live with Him. They wanted to see and be close to Bhagavan. And as long as those Rshis were in Dwaraka, Bhagavan couldn’t do anything to Dwaraka as those Rshis were powerful and they needed to be protected. So one day, Bhagavan Krshna encouraged them to go on a yatra to Pindaraka near Dwaraka. As they were journeying to Pindaraka, Bhagavan Krshna’s family, His children and grandchildren, were all being goofy, perhaps devolving into being careless. At one point they saw these Rshis traveling, and they dressed up Sambha, one of Bhagavan Krshna’s sons, like a woman and made him big in the mid-area, like he was pregnant. And Sambha was known to be the most beautiful amongst the children and grandchildren of Bhagavan Krshna. They took Sambha to these Rshis and said “This young woman is pregnant and is too shy to ask you what the gender of this baby will be. Can you please tell us?”. These were not ordinary Rshis – Rshi Vashishta, Rshi Narada were there and that’s when they shared that what would be born would be inert, specifically this pestle and this would be the cause of their family’s destruction.
Once this was stated, the Rshis continued and all of these children and grandchildren were in shock because they knew how powerful these Rshis were, after all Bhagavan Krshna was their father and grandfather. And when they unraveled that cloth, that pestle came out and fell to the ground and they were even more shocked. They immediately went to Raja Ugrasena. He was technically the ruler of Dwaraka and told him what happened. It seemed that everyone knew this happened, but no one told Bhagavan Krshna. No one, not even Raja Ugrasena. So what did Raja Ugrasena do? He ordered that this pestle be powdered and thrown into the ocean. And they did this, and the powder that was put into the ocean, somehow all of it got collected and washed to the shore and started to grow as a sharp grass with thorns. It wasn’t useful, nor consumable. In this grinding, there was a sharp piece that they couldn’t grind and so it was just thrown into the ocean as well. In one version, that piece was swallowed by a fish, that fish was caught by a fisherman who opened the fish, found this piece, found it unique and sold it to a blacksmith. That blacksmith then sold it to a hunter…
Everyone knew, but Bhagavan Krshna, but Bhagavan Krshna is Chit, Awareness. This chapter ends with the following verse –
Skanda 11:1:24 – Bhagavan Krshna knows the meaning of all. (What is the highest form of prayer? It is silence. Bhagavan already knows what we are thinking. We don’t have to think it. Just be silent.) Though He is Ishwara, one who controls all, and can undo all, He chose not to undo the curse of these vipras. As Bhagavan Krshna was in the form of time that destroys, so He sanctioned, He approved this curse. What Bhagavan Krshna was feeling right now was that the asuras had been corrected, like Kamsa, Duryodhana, and others. However, Bhagavan was sensing that the Yadavas, His own family, were going to become the asuras. And just like the asuras needed to be corrected, the Yadavas needed to be corrected as well. And that is how all of this is manifesting. Bhagavan Krshna lives, and all who want to be like Him must live, in an impartial way.
Last week’s RAW: To rate how impartial we are. Bhagavata is trying to make us partial to the One who is impartial. We are all Bhaktas. Bhagavan Krshna is 100% impartial and that is how we should live our life as well. Through this one act of making fun of the Rshis, much destruction is to come. So how should we practice being impartial? By being partial to the one who is impartial.
RAW: To think of a significant, difficult experience that we have gone through in our life and write about it, specifically where we are now in life since that experience – if that experience harmed us or helped us in the big picture. Analyze it now, now that we are on our journey of a bhakta.