Who Is A Demon ?🔗

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THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness or cruelty, and ignorance — these qualities belong to those born with demonic nature, O Pārtha (Arjuna)

The instinct to survive is what is called ‘I’, and the instinct to possess is what is referred to as ‘mine’. The person who understands that both are illusions is a complete person.

A person who is ready to look into his mind, to contemplate whether he is living rightly or wrongly, always lives rightly.

dvau bhūtasargau loke'smin daivaāsura eva ca daivo vistaraśaḥ prokta āsuraṁ pārtha me śṛṇu Pārtha

(Arjuna), in this world there are two kinds of created beings, one is divine and the other, demonic. I have explained at length to you the Divine qualities, now understand the demonic qualities also, so that you will understand and live your life blissfully and happily

When one drops the cognition of ‘me’, one experiences peace and completion; when one starts working based on the cognition of ‘You’, one experiences tremendous bliss.

Everybody is born ready for divinity

All actions done out of arrogance, out of pride, out of ego, for name and fame, and for power, are demonic in nature. Such actions are performed out of ignorance, and ultimately lead to their own downfall. The instinct to survive is what is called ‘I’, and the instinct to possess is what is referred to as ‘mine’. The person who understands that both are illusions is a complete person. Such a person realizes that the instinct to survive does not help, and no matter what one may have, one still cannot survive forever. The instinct to survive is pure illusion. Suffering is from arrogance, never from sensitivity. A person who is sensitive never suffers. We suffer from words when we stop them, when we resist them, when we make our own meaning out of them. When we do not make meanings out of words, we do not suffer.

Only when we face the instinct to survive and the instinct to possess and experience completion, will we enter the space of fearlessness.

Try this simple experiment: Try living for others' sake out of gratitude for just one week. Try to live with the new root-cognition of 'You'. We live all our life with this 'āsuri sampat,' what Kṛṣṇa calls demonic nature, the inauthentic attitude of 'me, me, me'. When you don't give attention to 'me', you will never be 'in tension'. When you replace your root cognition of 'me' with 'You', a deep inner healing, a deep completion happens in you. Whenever you become a hollow bamboo, you are a flute in the hands of the Divine. Whatever happens through you will be divine; you will imbibe the divine nature.

the root cognition happens in us keeping the ‘I’ as the center; He gives a simple technique to replace the ‘I’ with ‘You’ so that the cognitive shift happens. This same system will be used for the Divine nature. Enrich others with the space of ‘You’ which will naturally make you express these divine qualities in life. Enriching will be just your lifestyle. You will understand that enriching the ‘You’ enriches the ‘I’ back. Enriching others enriches you back. Experientially you will understand that ‘you’ is one with others, others are one with you. Automatically you will become blissful, free from anger and full of dhārmic (righteous) qualities. Above all, you will feel tremendous fulfillment, what I call the space of completion. Anything you do with the space of ‘you’ will make you radiate these beautiful, divine qualities.

There are four muktis or levels of liberation: sālokya mukti, sārūpya mukti, sāmīpya mukti and sāyujya mukti. Sālokya means ‘same place’; it means we will be allowed to stay in Vaikunṭa, Viṣṇu’s abode. We will have a residence in heaven. Sārūpya means we will have the same form as the Lord. For example, we can see Jaya-Vijaya, the gatekeepers of heaven; they have the same ṣaṅkh (conch), cakra (discus), gadā (mace), padma (lotus)—all the accessories of Viṣṇu in the same svarūpa (form). Sāmīpya (being near) is being in the inner circle; the cakra that Viṣṇu is carrying has achieved sāmīpya mukti! Becoming enlightened oneself is sāyujya mukti. Sāmīpya mukti is the best Enlightenment because we can enjoy Him forever! It is like an ant forever enjoying the sugar candy. Sāyujya mukti is like becoming the sugar candy. This is for all the ṛṣis. For devotees, the ultimate state is sāmīpya mukti. Even if they run after the Divine, people with the root cognition of ‘I’ can never reach the Divine, because the Divine runs away from them.

How we are centered and where our inner space is focused is what makes our life demonic or divine. The person who is ready to look into his mind, the person who is afraid about whether he is living rightly or wrongly, always lives rightly. Only the person who is arrogant is demonic. The person who is demonic never considers whether he does right or wrong. He thinks that he is always right. Lord Kṛṣṇa explains that living with transcendental qualities, that is the right space of 'you', one achieves liberation or Enlightenment—nivṛtti. By living with the space of 'I' we create more bondage. The demonic qualities make for bondage, meaning pravṛtti. A person who is divine tries to chisel or correct himself, whereas a person who is demonic tries to correct others. Please understand that when we live with the root cognition of 'You, You, You', we completely forget ourselves; we disappear into Existence. We are in bliss. If you throw away the 'me', that alone liberates you, and if you start working on 'You', you experience tremendous bliss.

When the focus is on ‘you,’ as in caring for enriching someone with no expectation, with no conditions, we slip into a state of bliss. This state of bliss is our natural state.

When we are in a blissful moment, when we feel blessed by Existence, let us be enriched that moment. That is when we are closest to God. Let that moment be of gratitude, prayer, and meditation. In that moment, remember God existentially, not verbally. Let your whole being feel the vibration and become overwhelmed with the beyond. Don’t lose that moment. It is precious. Everybody is born ready for divinity. If we miss it, it is totally our responsibility. We miss it because we never look within.

Encourage the students to look within and try to feel the divine vibrations within. Students must internalize the understanding that when we focus on the well-being of others without expectations and conditions, we relax and our tensions disappear, and we slip into a state of bliss.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Cylindrical wood pieces of 7-8 inch length Decorative ribbons, colourful clothes Sewing needle, thread Paint, brush Beads, cotton/fillers, strong cotton thread

PROCEDURE:

The teacher gets help from a carpenter/ handyman for sawing the wood blocks into the figurine shape, and to carve eyes,nose and mouth, as shown below. First, get the student to draw facial features on the wooden head with a pencil. Then paint the face and let it dry. Meanwhile cut and stitch colourful clothes to make arms, shoes, headgear, blouse and long skirts (called Ghagra-choli) for female puppets or Top and dhoti (called Dhoti-kurta) for male puppets. Fill the clothes with cotton/fillers so that the puppet body looks puffed up. Embellish and jewel the puppet.

Finally attach strong strings to the neck, shoulders, hands, legs and head of the puppet. The strings are either looped with different fingers of the puppeteer or tied to a stick (equal distances apart) which the puppeteer holds to operate the puppets. Your beautiful puppets are now ready to perform.

The art of puppetry helps us create a space in us where we think and act as somebody else. Forgetting the “I” and “mine” gives rise to a new consciousness in you.

A SMALL STORY

Let me tell you a lovely history about a great Kṛṣṇa devotee named Taraṅgiṇi. The history goes that within twelve hours of Kṛṣṇa's birth, He was handed over to Yaśodā. He took birth at midnight, and before sunrise, He was brought to Yaśodā. This was because of a prophecy that Kamsa, His uncle, would come to kill Him at sunrise. Yaśodā brought Him up until He left his home, Vṛndāvan. Despite her bringing Him up, when Yaśodā asked Him to sing or play the flute, He would not Play. However, when Taraṅgiṇi, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa from a lower caste asked Kṛṣṇa to play, He would play for her. She would stand in a corner and would not come in front of Him. She would quietly enjoy His presence and music from a distance.

One day Kṛṣṇa forgot the flute and went away. He pretended to have forgotten the flute. Taraṅgiṇi noticed the flute and with love and care, kept it in her home to hand over to Kṛṣṇa. The next day Kṛṣṇa said, ‘Someone has taken My flute.’ He pretended to search for it. He learned that Taraṅgiṇi had the flute and went to her house. Since He was from a higher caste, He needed a reason to go to the area of the lower community people. Yaśodā would ask Him why he had gone there. She would punish Him, since higher caste people did not go to that area. Kṛṣṇa went to the area which was full of mud, dirty roads, and a hut with a thousand holes in it!

Kṛṣṇa entered the house and asked for His flute. Taraṅgiṇī was totally shaken to see Kṛṣṇa in her house. She was overwhelmed; she was unable to speak. She ran and brought the flute to Him. Kṛṣṇa continued His divine act, līlā, asking if He should play the flute. And who can refuse when Kṛṣṇa asks? She replied, 'My Lord, even Gods and Ṛṣis come down to listen to Your music, how can I say no?' He sat on the steps, and started playing; she sat in a corner filled with ecstasy. Yaśodā arrived at that moment. She felt terribly upset because He had never played the flute for her. She said, 'I take care of you; I give you food and look after you completely. You never play for me. Yet you come and play here for this urchin girl!'

Since Yaśodā disturbed him, Kṛṣṇa stopped playing. The tune that Kṛṣṇa played to Taraṅgiṇī is known as punnagavarali, ‘the broken tune’. Kṛṣṇa told Yaśodā, ‘You served Me, no doubt, but with the space of ‘I’. Taraṅgiṇī is devoted to Me; you are devoted to yourself. As long as I am your Kṛṣṇa, you take care of Me; that means you are devoted to yourself, you are centered on yourself and not on Me. That is why you are unable to digest five minutes of separation.’ Kṛṣṇa continued, ‘You have come all the way here; you are not even giving five minutes of My space to her. Taraṅgiṇī never asked Me to come to her house. She never expected that I would play for her. She is totally dedicated, with only the space of ‘you’.’

Then Kṛṣṇa blessed Taraṅgiṇi uttering, ‘You will have sāmīpya mukti; you will become a shanbaga flower and reside in My garland. You will stay with Me forever.’ So Kṛṣṇa blessed Taraṅgiṇi with sāmīpya mukti. He said, ‘May you become a flower in My garland and be on My body. May you be on Me. He then turned to Yaśodā and said, ‘Because you served with the cognition of ‘me, me, me’, may you not have any temple on planet Earth.’

Despite all her service, since it was centered on 'me', Yaśodā was unable to achieve Enlightenment. On the other hand, Taraṅgiṇi, being born of a lower community, was never even close to Kṛṣṇa. She was not allowed to serve Him; however, because she lived with the enriching space of 'you, you, you', Kṛṣṇa went to her home, blessed her with eternal closeness to Him, and gave her liberation. Many stories illustrate how the 'I' drives the Divine away, and the 'you' attracts the Divine

1. Let us discuss the pros and cons of having the 'I' instinct or the 'What's in it for me?' attitude

The instinct to survive is what is called 'I', and the instinct to possess is what is referred to as 'mine'. Only when we face the instinct to survive and the instinct to possess and experience completion, will we enter the space of selflessness and bliss.

BOOK XVI, VOLUME III