Liberation From Birth And Death
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THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
12.6
ये तु सर्वाणि कर्माणि मयि संन्यस्य मत्पराः ।
अनन्येनैव योगेन मां ध्यायन्त उपासते
॥ १२=६॥
ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi
mayi sannyasya matparāḥ I
ananyenaiva yogena māṁ
dhyāyanta upāsate
But those who worship
me with single minded
devotion, renouncing all
activities unto Me.
POWERFUL COGNITION
Surrender all your actions and the fruits of those actions to Krishna.
तेषामहं समुद्धर्ता मृत्युसंसारसागरात् ।मृत्युसंसारसागरात्
भवामि नचिरात्पार्थ मय्यावेशितचेतसाम्
॥१२=७॥
teṣām aham samuddhartā mṛtyu-saṁsāra-
sāgarāt I bhavāmi na cirātpārtha mayy
āveśita cetasām
regarding Me as their
supreme goal, whose minds are set in
Me, I shall deliver them soon from their
ocean of the birth and death cycle.
POWERFUL COGNITION
Serve Krishna. Meditate upon Krishna. Consider attaining Krishna consciousness as your supreme goal. Be devoted to Krishna. It is Krishna's promise "When you surrender to Me, I shall liberate you.'
INTRODUCTION
But those who worship me with single-minded devotion, renouncing all activities unto Me, regarding Me as their Supreme goal, whose minds are set in Me, O Pārtha, I shall deliver them soon from the ocean of the birth and death cycle.
Kṛṣṇa makes a promise here. Kṛṣṇa says unequivocally, 'I shall deliver them from their material existence, the ocean of saṁsāra, the cycle of life and death, mṛtyu-saṁsāra-sāgarāt. All that the Lord asks is that the devotee be devoted to Him. Kṛṣṇa says, 'If you surrender to Me, surrender all your actions and the fruits of those actions to Me, do my service, meditate upon Me, remain single-minded upon My consciousness, I shall then liberate you. I shall make sure you never need to be born again.'
It is the roar of a lion. It is the roar of the King of this Universe. ‘Surrender to Me and I shall liberate you. Serve Me and I shall liberate you.’
To most of us, God is only a concept
and we worship that concept. Most of
the time, we beg of that concept. We
pray, ‘Give me this O Lord, give me
that O Lord.’ When we have one
prayer answered, we begin the next. As
long as God answers our prayers, as
long as the Master provides us with
what we ask for, our faith in Him lasts.
The moment the prayer goes
unanswered, our faith dissolves.
We move on to another God or Master.
We do not realize that often God does
not answer our prayers out of sheer
compassion, out of sheer love for us.
From time to time, God in His
infinite wisdom turns down our
requests such as wanting to become
rich, wanting to be well, wanting to
have children, and so on.
We then move awaylisten.
Surrendering to the Divine is not
conditional. It must be total. There
can be no ‘ifs’, ‘ands’, or ‘buts’. It
cannot be, ‘If you grant my
prayers, I shall be devoted to you.’
That is business. Most of our
relationship with God is business.
from Him.
There are three kinds of
surrender. First, there is
surrender of one's intellect.
For many, this is possible.
Once we understand that
there is a Universal energy
far greater than us, most of
us can accept and surrender
intellectually to that
supreme power. At least we
can say, 'I surrender.'
That's how many of us
prostrate in a temple or
before a master. The entire
body touches the ground
signifying our surrender.
For that moment, our ego
takes a vacation.
Surrender at the next level is emotional. One can melt at the thought of God or master. There is love, there is gratitude pouring out of our hearts and we feel tears streaming down. We become bhaktas, devotees. Rāmakṛṣṇa said, 'If you have tears in your eyes when you think of God or your Master, be very clear, this is your last birth! You are ready for liberation.'
We are ready but not liberated until we reach the last and third step. This step of surrender is the surrender of one's senses. Our surrender is total at this stage: complete, spontaneous, instant and natural. Kṛṣṇa says, 'When you surrender to Me, I shall liberate you.'
To reach Him,
we must
surrender totally
without
deviation. Our
senses must be
surrendered to
Him. Our entire
consciousness,
our complete
awareness must
only be of Him
and nothing else.
Nothing else
needs to be done.
The technique is
so simple.
Surrender and I
shall save you,'
says the Master.
GOALS:
The message
of Krishna for
the students
is that
Surrender is
the simplest
technique for
liberation.
ASSESSMENTS
- Why is our faith in god or master conditional on our prayers being answered?
- Why does god sometimes not answer our prayers?
- What are the three kinds of surrender: intellectual surrender, emotional surrender and surrender of all senses?
ART OF THE DAY
ART OF THE DAY:
TEARS OF DEVOTION
PROCEDURE
An Art Critic is a person who specializes in analyzing, interpreting and evaluating visual arts. Look at this photograph with the eye of an Art Critic. What do you see?
The poet Rumi wrote about 'tears of devotion', thus: "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of the Power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief and unspeakable love."
INFERENCE
If you have tears in your eyes when you think of God or your Master, it is gratitude pouring out of your heart. Emotional surrender prepares us for liberation.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
PROCEDURE:
Most ancient Hindu
Temples floors have the
engraved inscription or
carvings in stone on the
temple floor showing
devotees doing sashtanga
namaskara in the direction
of the main temple deity.
Sashtanga namaskara is a
full body prostration done
with folded hands where
the entire body touches the
ground to signify the
surrender of our ego or
intellect and as a mark of
respect to God. It is a
symbol of dropping the ego
and taking refuge at the
Lord's feet.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
PROCEDURE:
Let us now learn how to do a Sashtanga
Namaskara. The posture of the
salutation differs according to one's
gender. Follow the illustrations below:
INFERENCE:
We must surrender our ego in order to take refuge in God.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
INFERENCE:
All the above concepts
demonstrate that matter can
change its form. Matter can
become energy. Energy can
become matter. All matter at its
core is energy. The source or
form of energy may differ eg.
light energy, wind energy,
thermal energy, sound energy,
electrical energy, kinetic energy,
potential energy etc. but the
energy itself is one and the same -
it is cosmic energy. This
superconscious energy is what all
cultures and religious traditions
refer to as "God". Therefore,
everything is God. To love god is
to have loving devotion towards
all beings.
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY:
VAAKYARTHA SADHAS
Topic of discussion: “What is surrender of the senses?”
Conclusion:
To reach God, we must surrender
totally without deviation. Our senses
must be surrendered to Him. Our
entire consciousness, our complete
awareness must only be of Him and
nothing else.
