Saturday, November 12, 2011

Need for both light and darkness

Darkness cannot stand the glare of light. But to perceive the full brightness of light one needs total darkness as both darkness and light are complementary and opposite to each other. What is darkness to light, so negativity is to enlightenment. Negativity can never sneak into an enlightened mind for such a mind achieves total control over the senses. Thus, negativity in any form, is helpful for alerting, probing as also enlightening the mind of a spiritual seeker. Debarshi Narada, the wandering sage, was a Brahmachari, as also a Brahmajnani and a great devotee of Vishnu.

Once, as he had withstood and spurned the lure of the god of love, Kamdeva, a sense of ego prevailed over him. Being Antaryami (omniscient), Vishnu could read his mind; He created an illusory kingdom where a beautiful princess was placed in Narada's way. As it happened, Narada was so tempted by the beauty of the princess that he attended the svayamvar ceremony as a suitor. Meanwhile, as Vishnu had transformed Narada's face to that of a monkey's without his knowledge, Narada was summarily rejected by the princess.

Thus, as he was helped to regain his true Self by Divine Grace, the kingdom vanished from his sight. Advaitist Shankaracharya became a jnanayogi at an early age. One day, he was going towards the Ganga for a bath. Suddenly, he noticed a Chandala (outcaste) coming from the opposite end. To avoid contact he asked the Chandala to step aside but the latter did not heed his request. Shankara was perturbed and warned him again. Seeing Shankara's anger, Shiva as Chandala replied "O Brahmin! Who are you asking to step aside, the body or the atman? How would they move, as both are inert? Is there a difference then between a Brahmin and a Chandala?" Shankara accepted the truth with humility.

In the Mahabharata, once king Viswamitra was amazed by the divine power of Brahmarshi Vashista and entreated the great sage to endow him with Brahmarshihood. Vashista did not oblige even at the risk of earning his ire. A dejected Viswamitra relinquished his kingdom and went to the forest to meditate for several years. Indra, the king of devas, afraid of his austerity, sent his court dancer, Menaka, to disrupt his sadhana and this paved the way for the birth of Shakuntala. Narada and Shankara, both being Brahmajnanis, should not have any misgivings on negativity.

That they both failed in the face of reality indicates that they achieved the exalted state thus far theoretically only, through meditation. Hence they were required to face reality - which proved to be the acid test for their absolute perfection. As for Viswamitra, when he was lured by the apsara (nymph) he definitely did not attain the state of 'Chittashuddhi'. However, after the incident, he left the place in quest of his unfinished journey to divinity and finally succeeded. Ramakrishna Paramahansa says that as boiled paddy ceases to germinate, a realised soul can never be lured

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