Daivam - Part 1

“ Effort (udyamam) , initiative (sahasam) , courage (dhairyam) , intelligence (buddhih) , resourcefulness (saktih) and perseverance (parakramah) – where these six qualities exist , there the Lord will always be helpful.”

To accomplish something , you need not merely effort but well-directed effort (udyamam) . Then , you need initiative (sahasam) ; courage (dhairyam) , which is sustained enthusiasm ; intelligence (buddhih) ; resourcefulness (saktih) , in the form of manpower , money power , raw materials and infrastructure ; and then perseverance (parakramah) which includes the ability to face failures . Though there will be other competitors in the game , when you follow the rules of the game and win , then it is called parakramah . But even when you have every one of these six qualities , still there will be some unknown factor which can cause a problem . There could be a slip between the cup and the lips . Any number of things can happen . You may get exactly what you expected , less than what you expected , more than you expected , or something quite different . 

People generally do accept this concept , but they do not completely understand it . Someone might say , “ I was driving , and for no reason at all , I had a flat tyre . Then God helped me by sending someone  , who stopped and changed the tyre for me . God’s grace is great .” But , then the question is , “ Why did He give you the flat tyre in the first place ?” The person thinks that the flat tyre was given by some bad luck , or the Devil . Actually everything is earned by you ; it is karma-phala ( results of your actions ) according to the order , and it comes to Ishvara (the Lord) who is the order itself .

Therefore , in the Vedic culture , Ishvara is taken as a partner in all of our undertakings . This culture is alive even today . We always take into account that unknown factor , called daivam . By one’s own effort , one has to invoke that daivam . I would tell the Lord , “ If there is any impediment , please remove it” . I may have all the six ingredients for success but still there could be something that makes the difference between success and failure . By my prayer , I invoke daivam , to take care of that unknown element .

PRAYER – A DELIBERATE ACTION

A cow gathers no punya for giving milk to its master , nor papa for kicking him . This is because it has no free will as humans do . However , for a human being , the free-will must accompany a deliberate action to accumulate punya-papa . Thus , while we enjoy our free will , we find there is a lot of pressure involved . It is like when you give some money to your brother-in-law to start a business , you are definitely reaching out . But by this action , you also want some peace at home or you want to win that person . This is an act of charity , under pressure . If your eyes are on punya , then you take it as an investment . Thus , very few of your actions are totally free . In any reaching out action , there can be psychological pressure , circumstantial pressure , value commitment , and so on . 

On the other hand , a prayer is the only action you can undertake where your freedom is total and complete . Prayer is a deliberate action on your part , and therefore , it is karma , subject to punya-papa . Prayer is a means for invoking the seventh factor , the grace (daivam) . There can always be many hidden variables , which I cannot control at all. All I can do is pray , out of my own volition . When you invoke Ishvara through some ritual with certain awareness , something happens to you because it is a deliberate action on your part . The Lord can be invoked in any form . 

Action is the final expression of a human being . If you want to give your best wishes to your close friend for his birthday , what could you do ? After all , the wish belongs to the heart . In your heart you can just wish . That should be enough . Why should you send a birthday care or a bouquet of flowers or a gift ? The reason is , that acts makes the wish real , it gives it a form . When I congratulate you for your achievement , it is a form . Even talking is a form . We have associated words with certain meanings through a common understanding . The script is a form . You can go on and on . Every form is reducible to other forms . Finally , the truth is formless , into which all names and forms resolve . That is the Lord . 

In any religion , you have to have some form , either a symbol or an action , in order to pray . In the Vedic vision , however , the whole world , which is full of forms , is Ishvara (the Lord) . Therefore , involving the Lord in any form is recognizing Him to be everything . That I can invoke the Lord in any form is a privilege granted by our scriptures through the understanding of Ishvara .  These forms , given by our ancient books as words or actions to invoke the Lord , are a blessing for our psyche throughout the childhood and adult life . I can place a flower at an altar or do an elaborate ritual of puja . This is a means to invoke the seventh factor . Just saying , ‘ Help yourself ’ is not enough . Seek help from ishvara . You can invoke the Lord to cause a change through your attitude or your value-structure . 

~ Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati 

Idol Worship

What is an idol ? We say that the whole creation is bhagavan ( the Lord ) . Every form is the Lord’s form ; therefore in any one form I can invoke the Lord . Traditionally some forms have been handed over to us and the bhagavad-buddhi ( seeing it as the Lord ) is associated with those forms in our mind . Today , they spend a lot of money creating such an identity . 7 O’clock means a blade , Lux means a toilet soap . Who creates that buddhi ? The commercials in the media .

For generations , the Lord is worshipped in certain forms and those forms have been handed over to YOU . The tradition did not begin just yesterday . It is coming down to us for generations – a great benefit . When I see Ganesha , I recognize the form as the Lord , not as a strange creature with an odd head and a big belly . I recognize the form as the Lord and this is what we call ‘tradition’ . This is a treasure , we should understand . Just to create that buddhi of ‘Lux’ as a toilet soap , you have to do so much publicity and keep doing it ; otherwise people will forget and soap would mean to them Rexona or Hamam !

Idol worship is handed over to us generation after generation . Even atheists in this country have to first accept Ganesha as God and then negate that there is no god ….We have inherited this particular legacy and therefore , the idol invokes in us the devotee and that is a great heritage .

Nobody worships an idol ; everybody worships the Lord . An idol od Lord Siva was supplied by a Rajasthani sculptor to a temple in Bombay . Certain parts of the idol , the eyelashes , the lips , the naga (snake) and etc. , were colour-painted by the sculptor . In course of some five or six years , that painting got erased . The manager of the temple wrote to the sculptor asking him to come to Bombay and repaint the idol . Do you know what was the reply of the sculptor ? He wrote , “ Do you realize what you are asking me to do ? Who am I to paint the Lord ? If you want a new idol , I will make one and send to you , but I won’t paint my bhagavan .” Why ? Because the sculptor creates a statue , and idol and not the Lord . Until the installation ceremony , the idol is a stone only , it is not the Lord . During installation , they do prana-pratishta (imparting life to the idol) by mantra and samskara – just as , by samskara , a person is made a dvija (twice-born) ; by the diksha of Gayatri-mantra , you make him a different person .

Similarly here , even though it is a stone idol , it is given ‘life’ by samskara and the last act of the sculptor is to open the eyes . He brings a fine chisel and hammer with him and when the samskaras are done , he opens the eyes of the idol . Till then , the eyes are covered . The sculptor removes bits of stone covering the eyes and then he is the first person to fall at the feet of the idol which is no more an idol for him . Now it is the Lord that he worships .

Even in a lump of haldi (turmeric) powder , we can invoke the Lord by saying “ asmin bimbe mahaganapatim avahayami ” – I invoke the great lord Ganesha in this lump . In water also , you can invoke the Lord . All you have is water in a bucket and you say , “ganga ca yamune caiva Godavari sarasvati narmade sindhu kaveri jale’smin sannidhim kuru” – “ O Ganga , Yamuna , Godavari , Saraswati , Narmada , Sindhu and Kaveri , may you all be present in this (bucket of) water .” In this manner , everyday , you bathe in the Ganga , Yamuna , etc. without having to go to the respective rivers .

All that is there is the attitude . It is everywhere and everyday , it is the same . What is there in the picture of your father ? It is just a photograph , but you place a flower there . Why ? As a mark of respect to your father . Without such forms of expressions of respect , of friendship , of love , life will be nothing . Even the people who criticize idol-worship do worship some books and places . So , you may ask me , “ Why they worship the Lord ?” . Don’t ask me why do people worship idols . You never worship an idol , you always worship the Lord .

Well , for self-realisation , why do you worship the Lord ? To know that the Lord is everywhere . Until you know that , you have to keep your ego under check . In fact , the Lord is everything and so your ego is swallowed by the Lord . But you think you are different from the Lord and so you place a flower at the Lord’s feet and you ego is kept under check . Worship brings about antahkaranasuddhi ( purity of the mind ) , which is needed to understand that the Lord is everywhere .

“ I am everything ” is self-realisation and it is the same as “ The Lord is everywhere .” Self-realisation is not the elimination of thoughts . It is knowing the fact that I am the Self which is everything or that the Lord is everything and that Lord I am . This is the knowledge for which I require a pure mind . For that , I seek the Lord’s grace by worship which is an action , an act of devotion .

~ Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra

The Mrtyunjaya mantra is a Vedic mantra meant for healing. It is a prayer to Lord Siva. Mrtyunjaya means victory over death. Lord Siva is said to be Mrtyunjaya, the conqueror of death, and therefore, the Mrtyunjaya mantra is meant for victory over death. This prayer is often chanted to restore the health of someone who is suffering from physical pain or illness. You can also chant this mantra for a dying person to be granted a peaceful death. It is the bhävana that you entertain in your mind for his or her release from this life. The words of the prayer are :-

Om tryambakam yajamahe sugandhim pustivardhanam,
urvarukamiva bandhananmrtyormuksiya ma mrtat.

“ We worship the fragrant, three-eyed Lord Siva who nourishes us. May He liberate us from the bondage of death like the urvaruka fruit (which separates effortlessly from the vine). May He not let us turn away from immortality! ”

Tryambakam, the three-eyed Lord, yajämahe, we worship. Sugandhim, the fragrant one, pustivardhanam, one who provides nourishment. We worship the three-eyed Lord Siva, who is fragrant and who nourishes us . Amba means eye and trayambakam is the Lord with three eyes. Trayambakam is thus another name of Lord Siva. The third eye of Lord Siva represents knowledge. It is said that when Lord Siva opened his third eye, fire emerged from it and burned ignorance, and the passion that is born of ignorance. It is held that with his third eye, he sees what others do not see. What we understand and appreciate is only the perceptible world of names and tangible forms. However, we do not recognize the presence of the one Self that informs everything. Just as the same gold manifests as all ornaments, this Self is the substratum or basis of every name and form that exists. To see that Self, we require the eye of knowledge in our own mind. It is this knowledge that the third eye of Siva represents.

 

The significance of the third eye of knowledge is that it destroys all the sorrow, pain or unhappiness that is born of ignorance. As we study in Vedanta, all forms of unhappiness result from an ignorance of the true nature of the Self,or an ignorance of the true nature of Reality. They could also be the result of having a wrong perception of the Self. Only knowledge can remove this wrong perception and give us the right perception. Lord Siva embodies this knowledge.

Two adjectives are used to describe Lord Siva, sugandhim and pustivardhanam. Sugandhim means one who is fragrant. Pustivardhanam means one who gives nourishment. Lord Siva is said to be fragrant with goodness and virtues. He embodies all the virtues and goodness. Pustivardhanam is the one who always showers his grace upon the devotees and provides nourishment at both the physical level and the spiritual level.

The first line, om tryambakam yajämahe sugandhim pustiivardhanam, says that we worship this Lord Siva, who destroys ignorance and bestows grace. The second line is a prayer: urvärukamiva bandhanän mrtyormuksiya mä’mrtät, O Lord release us from the bondage of death.

The word death can be understood in different ways. One way is see it as being physical death. Death can also be understood as being nothing but ignorance. We can chant this prayer to the Lord for release from our suffering at the level of the body, our suffering at the level of the mind, or the suffering that arises from ignorance. Please release us from the bondage of death, of suffering, and of ignorance, and give us liberation or release.

How do we want to be released? There is a very beautiful example here of the urvaruka, a sweet cucumber-like fruit. This fruit grows on a creeper and when it is ripe, separates from the creeper effortlessly. We pray that we may be released from pain, suffering, and ignorance as effortlessly as the ripe urvaruka fruit separates from the creeper. The reference is also to the ripe urvaruka, which is fragrant, tender, and sweet, unlike the unripe fruit, which is hard and sometimes bitter or sour. Therefore, we also pray to the Lord to make our mind like the ripe and delicious urvaruka fruit; ready for the knowledge that will release us from the bondage of death. Freedom from the bondage of death is understood as immortality, which is our nature. The prayer asks the Lord to separate us from death, but not immortality. May we abide in immortality that is our nature!

This is a prayer, which heals our mind from sorrow. It also heals the body from its pain and suffering. Students of Vedanta can chant it to be healed from the bondage of ignorance, so that we gain the knowledge to abide in our own true nature. This mantra is also chanted for the welfare of others. When the prayer is chanted with the right intonation, it gives peace and becomes more effective.