Vivekji shared that in September 2016, we began a course on devotion called Vedanta in Ramayana. We all know the katha of Ramayana, but how does that relate to us? We invested two and a half years studying Vedanta in Ramayana and the summary of these two and half years is humility. In January of 2019, we continued our course on devotion, but shifted from Ramayana to Bhagavata, and the summary of these two years is surrender.

Vivekji reviewed the course so far using the responses from a quiz taken by all the students. Here is the summary –

Bhagavata Mahima — the opening prayer of Srimad Bhagavata. The two sons of Bhakti are Viveka, differentiation, and Vairagya, detachment. What is emphasized here is that Bhakti is more than just a ritual. When it comes to bhakti or devotion, we are deeply immersed in rituals — chant this, offer this, but where is the insight or independence? That is why Bhakti was young, but the sons were old. Only when the sons heard Bhagavata, did they come to life also and that is why our course is called Vedanta in Bhagavata. The word Bhagavata going backwards; ta — boat, va — best, ga — go, bha — light. So Bhagavata is the best boat to go to Light, and this light is inside out.

Skanda one — Rishi Shaunaka asked Rishi Ugrashava six questions. Bhagavata began in Naimisharanya. Aranya means jungle or forest, and Naimi means Naimihi Shirayate — where the mind becomes quiet. So at least one hour a week this is our Naimisharanya. 88,000 seekers were gathered in Naimisharanya, engaged in rituals and karma, but they were engaged in vichara as well. They were trying to find meaning in their actions and purpose in their day.

The six questions that these seekers asked:

1. What is the greatest good for all? There is no gender, no position, but includes all, including animals, plants, stones.
2. What is the purpose of avatara or the incarnations of the divine?
3. What is the performance of avataras? What did they do when they incarnated?
4. What are the passings of avataras? What did they do as hobbies — additional details?
5. What is the play or leela of Bhagavan Krishna?
6. What is dharma’s home?

At this time, we are at question five in our course. Bhagavan Krishna manifests and then un-manifests. So at the end of Bhagavata, we will study where Dharma’s home is.

Skanda two — What should every human do? -Contemplate. The focal point of this skanda is sadhana — disciplines or practices. Rishi Shuka tells Raja Parikshita to contemplate in answer to his specific question — What should a dying man do? That is context based, so the question is basically — What should every human do? Contemplate on svarupa or your nature. If we are unable to do that, then contemplate on Vishwarupa, see divinity in all stones, all plants, all animals and all humans. If this is hard, then focus on the Ishtarupa or a murthi, on a specific form and name. Then expand Ishtarupa to Vishwarupa and then Svarupa.

In Skanda two, one of the highlights was the Chatushloki Bhagavata. The original text was only four verses and this was taught by Bhagavan Narayana to Bhagavan Brahma. Summarizing:

Verse 1 — Infinity is real

Verse 2 — Illusion is unreal

Verse 3 — Creation is relative

Verse 4 — Extraction is release

What it means is that while you are engaged in creation, try to extract illusion from Infinity.

Skanda three — Jaya and Vijaya symbolize calmness — dama and quietude — shama. Jaya or a calm body leads to Vijaya, a quiet mind, and only then can we become closer to the divine, just like Jaya and Vijaya, who are the gatekeepers of Bhagavan Narayana. But just having a calm body and quiet mind is not sufficient. We need the knowledge or Vedanta to become one with God. They acted egotistically, so they manifested as three sets of brothers. We have already seen Hiranyaksha and Hiranyakashipu; then Kumbhakarna and Ravana; Next we will meet Dantavakra and Shishupala, as that is who Jaya and Vijaya will become. A lovely portion of Skanda three was the Kapila Upadesha, where an enlightened child teaches his parent about enlightenment.

Skanda four — The fourth skanda flows through the framework of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha — the Purusharthas or the purposes in life. We studied Daksha in terms of Dharma, Dhruva in terms of Artha, Raja Prithu in terms of Kama and Puranjana in terms of Moksha. A lovely portion was Raja Prithu’s address to the people. He says that leadership should provide them with ease(safety), employment and education. Employment is when someone is engaged as an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Education here means knowing our role and responsibilities. Summarizing Skanda four, there is only one purpose in life and that is Moksha or Independent Joy. When we are clear about the ends, then everything we do becomes the means — bathing, walking, talking, resolving. But if we are not clear about the ends, then we get stuck.

Skanda five — Bharata is Rishabha Deva’s son. Those who follow Jainism follow Rishabha deva. He is also an incarnation of Bhagavan Narayana. He incarnated for two purposes- to show us what it means to be the ideal Grihasta or householder and what it means to be the ideal Sanyasi. The context does not have to change — you don’t have to change your sexual orientation, your income. You have to have the same purpose if you’re married or not and the purpose of our life is freedom. Rishabha Deva’s son Bharata was so great in all ways that we call our motherland Bharat. And the fifth skanda ends with the description of naraka or hell. The reason for naraka is so that we don’t engage in nisheda or prohibited actions, actions that take us away from happiness. We have all been to hell. If we go to hell, come out, and go back again, that means we have never learned what the purpose of that hell is — that sadness, that anxiety, that stress.

Skanda six — The subject of this skanda is poshana or grace. Tat anugrahaha — means that whatever difficulties that we have in our life can be dismantled because of Bhagavan’s Grace. The idea is that based on our intention and how we think, speak and act, we should all be in hell, but look at the opportunities we have to study Bhagavata, to be healthy, to have privilege, and all only because of the grace of the divine. The example we studied was Ajamila, an 80 year old man, whose son was by chance named Narayana, and as he was dying, he was calling out to his youngest son Narayana and he was saved from that miserable death. It is the power of the Nama. Later, we studied a very devotion-filled portion of Bhagavata, about an Asura named Vritra, who told Indra, who was selfish — Kill me as the sooner you do that, the sooner I will be with my Bhagavan. Indra was very much engrossed in the form of Vritra, thus a beauty to God’s form. We also studied about the Narayana Kavacha and how to create a force field around us.

Skanda seven — In this skanda, it is Rishi Prahlada who is the Maha Bhagavata. His father was Hiranyakashipu, who was most egotistical with no sense of surrender, the complete opposite of Prahalada. We can be born in such adversity, but still be calm and quiet. So this teaches us not to blame or make excuses. That is why Rishi Prahalada is the Maha Bhagavata. He also shares with his peers (little kids), the Navada Bhakti or nine ways to practice devotion and Vivekji had shared a framework for what we should input and output. In this skanda, we also explored the responsibilities of every demographic in humanity and we focused on Grihastas. As Grihastas, our two responsibilities are being grateful and generous. We should be grateful for everything we have and everything we are and generously share of ourselves. Those who live for their family and community are good, but those who live for society and humanity are the greatest — from dharma to sat-dharma. Be grateful, be generous.

Skanda eight — What is needed to evolve from dharma to sat-dharma — Smarana, dana, pratijna and raksha.

• Smarana — we navigated the Gajendra moksha prasanga. It is only when Gajendra remembered the divine that he was saved.
• Dana — this is where we went through the Kshira Sagara Manthana — the churning of the milky ocean. The asuras were always wanting. The suras were trained in advance to just give whatever came out of the milky ocean, and the more we give, the more we get. So finally, who got the Amrita? It was the Suras, particularly Indra.
• Pratijna — to promise or follow through with our commitments. And that was learned by Raja Bali. He followed through by giving himself up. He did not fall back on his promise, so who is now protecting him? Bhagavan Narayana. If you choose God, God will choose you.
• Raksha — was learned by Raja Satyavrata. Raja Satyavrata put in a lot of effort to protect this little fish as it kept getting bigger and bigger. And then what did Bhagavan Matsya do? He protected all.

The churning of the milky ocean was a lovely portion of this skanda eight — what came out first is kalakuta or poison. When we engage in more introspection, there will be many parts of us that we do not like. How jealous, how temperamental, how frustrated we are, but we have to endure, so that finally Amrita comes out of us — become fearless. So we have to go from Humility to Surrender to go from dharma to sad-dharma. The fulfillment of humility is surrender.

Skanda nine — Skandas nine-eleven magnify ‘Trust’ as a virtue. The first two skandas are to identify with Raja Parikshita, and to identify with what he needs to do, that is contemplate. Sections three, four and five relate to belief — become more of a believer and details are given on creation and special creation. Sections six-eight are trying to nurture faith, if we recall skanda six that is poshana, etc… Sections nine-eleven are trying to nurture trust. The more faith we have in ourselves, the more trust we have in our guide. We trust the Creator. When we complete skanda ten , we should keep checking ourselves to see if we are becoming more trusting of the Creator and ourselves.

That completes our review. And now to bridge the ninth skanda with the tenth skanda, the ninth skanda helps us to do something with our vasanas or blueprints — vasana kshaya, vasna parivartana and vasana nasha — exhaust, substitute and dis-identify with our blue-prints. We got to hear about seekers like Raja Ambarisha, who for an entire year, did not eat or drink because he was so identified with his Creator. Raja Bhagiratha never met his ancestors, but he put in so much effort to identify with Bhagavan Narayana and Bhagavan Shiva, for Devi Ganga to help his lineage. And then we met Parushurama, who left his family and lived for humanity, and in doing so, his family benefited.

Finally, we met Bhagavan Rama. One insight we may or may not know is the original documentor or author of the Ramayana. The original thinker was Bhagavan Shiva, but the original writer was Rishi Valmiki. He didn’t write it for Bhagavan Rama, but wrote it for Devi Sita. He wanted this to be Sitayana, but what came out is Ramayana. The point is that They are not different. When Devi Sita was giving birth to her sons, she was with one who loved her so much and that was Rishi Valmikiji.

The tenth skanda leads us to the fifth question that Rishi Shaunaka asked Rishi Ugrashava about the plays or leelas of Bhagavan Krishna, not in a childish way, that he played with snakes or danced with girls, but in a way that we can identify with and how this could change us.

As we begin Skanda ten, Raja Parikshita (the one who doesn’t know, like us) is asking Rishi Shuka (the one who knows). “Tell us why Bhagavan Krishna manifested. What did He do when He manifested?”. The one who knows everything inside and outside, tell us in great detail.

To be continued..next week.

Notes by Prashanti Gogineni