VERSE 3:VERSE 3:
iishvaraarpita.N necChayaa kR^itam |
cittashoodhaka.N muktisaadhakam||
ईश्वरार्पितँ नेच्छया कृतम्।
चित्तशोधकँ मुक्तिसाधकम्॥
(karma ) - actions
ishvara-arpitam : offered to the Lord.
na ichaya krtam : done without desires.
citta shodakam - purifies the mind
mukti sadhakam - aid in liberation.
"Actions done with the attitude that they are offerings to the Lord, without desires , purify the mind and are a means to liberation."
Having understood that the world is an ever changing, dream like entity, what should we work for ?
It is like a student preparing for an exam, and then he is told that he exam results do not really matter at all.
now what shall he write the exam for ?
To purify the mind.
What is this purifying the mind ? an impurity is what gives us the feeling of incompleteness. We feel incomplete, insufficient in various ways and whatever makes us feel insufficient or incomplete is an impurity. It is important to understand that the aim of spirituality [all these teachings sadhana etc] is not to invoke a sense of incompleteness or bound individual. If a particular encounter with a mahatma makes one feel incomplete and empty within, that is either not a proper encounter or that is not a mahatma at all. We should not be like those frogs that pull each other down. We need to tell ourselves and everyone else : We are of nature Pure Bliss, how can we be suffering / bound. and this is really the starting point of Spirituality, where we are not ready to accept bondage but are investigating into it to see that it is a myth !
True purification of mind is to recognize that the states of mind are not going to affect us ! And this has to take place at the level of the mind alone, because the Self does not need sadhana, neither does the body. so lets be clear that only mind needs this understanding and the understanding should lead us to be untouched by the states of mind.
This particular verse of Bhagavan brings in Ishvarah , And the two most significant words here are "non-desiring" and "ishvara-arpana or offering to ishvara".
Ishvara is another name for Being or Presence or Silence [they all mean the same]. If we observe mindfully, all this is Presence. The plants, the birds, stones, mountains, rivers ... they are all merely Presence. Being. And suppose we clap our hands. It arises from that "Being" and resolves in that "Being". A bird flying in the sky, it as if arises from that Being and resolves in that. It is like a prayer. A prayer arises from Being and leaves us with being. When we chant OM , at the end of it we are resolved in Self - Silence. That is why its a prayer. it Leaves us in silence ... infact we are ever in that Presence alone , and yet , at times we might require the aid of a sound to resolve in Silence, because we are lost in the mental chatter. Thus, When Ribhu Gita says "Svayam eva Svayam Pashye", See yourself by yourself ... someone may say look within, someone else may say look outside ... but the point of the matter is ... its not where one looks , but what one looks that matters. As Presence its both inside and outside. infact there is no inside or outside if we speak from the standpoint of presence and so , its not where one looks that matters but whether we are one with the Presence or not that matters.
So when the verse says "let your actions be offerings to that Presence, without any desire", when its without desire, every action is an offering to the presence. there is no desires, then those actions are really not actions anymore ... every movement is an expression of inner fulfillment and hence pointer to the Self. This is simply just being.
But if we cannot do it, it would become a practice to again and again direct our attention away from the result to the Presence ... this is Karma yoga. We do this again and again until one resolves completely and it becomes natural. And we do this with wisdom or understanding that there is no point in trying to achieve a lot of success here , this is after all dream like. We cannot do this through will power. We need wisdom that the world is dream like and we use that to again and again knock off the result driven mindset and start reveling in the Presence through each action. This karma yoga with wisdom leads to just being eventually.
The actions are also aids this way to resolve in the presence. Because in and through all actions , we see action-less-ness. This is the beauty.
Please see how we have already touched upon Self Inquiry in this verse. Self and Ishvara are just two names for the same thing. When one says offer your actions to Self ... what does that mean ? One cannot do anything for God. One does something and via it if one were to recognize one's own Fulfilled Nature, that is an offering for God. When the limited "I" is resolved, what ever action aids one do it, that very action becomes an offering to God. And thus, through an action when one resolves the limited "I" that is discovery of God !
Why can one not simply sit ? Why should one perform an action at all ?
This can be an interesting question to ponder. the best answer is try not doing anything. If the mind settles down , naturally reveling in the Presence, then there is no need to perform an action. Then there is not even a need to do self inquiry.
But what if one simply falls asleep ?
Please see. that means tamasic qualities are very strong. one is getting bound by them,
so one needs to do something. get up and act ... but as one acts , one acts in the Presence ... God ... Self ... use the action as an aid to get out of the tamasic tendency and then knocking off the desire through wisdom that this is all a dream, perform the work in the present moment ... reveling as the Presence/Being. Do we see the point ?
what if one gets agitated and cannot keep his or her feet from moving at all ? Move them ... move them leaving the idea that i am moving , and see through those very movements the motionless presence !
Do we see the advice ? Its such a strong and clear advice - so direct and clear. And its very interesting that this very advice is already touching upon self inquiry.
Not only is Self Inquiry taught in various vedantic texts [Ribhu gita: svayam eva svayam pashyet. lot of other references, even vijnana bhairava tantra talks about it ...] and not an invention of Bhagavan Ramana ... Self Inquiry is the natural culmination of all sadhanas. We will see this more and more as we proceed with the text.
Love!
Silence
