OM !
INTRODUCTION TO UPADESHA SARAM: A few days ago I prepared a power-point presentation and showed it to my friend. It contained just pictures without any text. He saw that and was not sure what I was trying to convey. Later on as I explained each picture he understood the import. If someone else gave a totally different interpretation to those very same pictures he would probably get a totally different meaning from it.
In our lives too, various events take place and we look at them. They are like static pictures [or at best dynamic movies -- a movie is only a collection of pictures anyways] stored up in our memories with some "Interpretation" attached to each picture. When I was a kid if a dog had attacked me, there would be a picture of a dog with an associated interpretation "dogs bite"
. If as a kid I saw only a few cute dogs, then there would be "dogs are cute" interpretation. And these interpretations run into our subconscious mind. We surely don't know what all is there in the subconscious mind ... lot of interpretations and images stored in the memory and the subconscious. Totally unknown to us.
So when we look at the world and the various situations, we look at them with a certain interpretation which makes our world. The events "as they are" do not convey anything. Someone failed in an Exam, and he interpreted "I am not good for studies, I need to concentrate on sports where I am better". Another person failed in the same exam and concluded "I am a failure, fit for nothing". Yet another person may conclude "I need to work harder". So various interpretations, same event.
The world appears to us as it is, only because of our interpretation of the events. A person was chanting Srimad Ramayanam and a monkey came there , he interpreted it as Hanuman! Probably someone else might have interpreted the same monkey as a nuisance.
Its ultimately our interpretation that makes this world for us. Vedanta says that "God is everywhere"... and if for a few moments we take this to be true, then it means that we are constantly meeting this God every day, every moment. In fact there can be no moment we do not meet God, coz God is everywhere... right now... to our left, right , up , below, within and without !! As if embracing us ... now! But then we certainly "Miss" him all along, we think he is not here! We think he has to be found. So naturally it means we are missing God not because we lack his experience but because we interpret these experiences in our own ways.
The same thing applies to ourselves too. Vedanta says "You are Ever Purna, Complete or Fulfilled". And we experience a sense of "emptiness", we feel we lack various things in life. We see that without some objects [or some people] our lives remain empty and unfulfilled. This is not what we experience ... this is really our interpretation of our experiences. The Events themselves, as we already saw, are dumb. The events do not come with a commentary. Right now if there is a huge calamity ... an earth quake or a tsunami ... it just happens. The nature does not say "This was bad", nor does it say "This is good"... its mute. The entire creation remains mute. Its only we who comment upon it and say "This is really a tragedy". Please note that I do not mean to say "this is not a tragedy". All I mean to say is that the events are not our experiences. Our experience is an "interpretation" along with the event. And that "interpretation" is our offering , our side of the story. Events are just dumb without our interpretation. So if Vedanta says we are ever fulfilled and lack nothing and we feel we lack lot of things ... where is the gap ? the gap is created by our interpretation of the events. The gap is in the way we look at the events and situations ... more particularly the gap is in the way we look at ourselves.So here is a question: What if we just "See", sans all interpretations / commentaries ? Just see ? We will return to this later...
in a simple poem called Kaupina panchakam,Sri Adi Shankaracharya paints a very nice picture of an enlightened saint. This picture is very much like Bhagavan Ramana's
. He says :
kaupinavantah kalu bhagya vantah ... a person with only a lion cloth is indeed blessed, he is indeed Lukcy. He has got bhagya, luck.
He is blessed not because he has a lion cloth
. Its indeed true that there are much richer people and more successful people ... but internally they remain unfulfilled while this person has nothing and yet is fulfilled.
Its also important to note that he is fulfilled not because he has only a lion cloth ... otherwise give him a nice dress and he would become unfulfilled. The simplicity is not in the external circumstances ... its within ... in the very way he appreciates or looks at himself. How does he look at himself ? What is his vision ? How does he look at the world ? what is it that makes such a person live a fulfilled life ? Shankara adds:
Vedanta vakyeshu sada ramayantah ... he always revels in the Truth revealed by the Vedanta. Which is not to say that he has memorized all the vedantic works and is therefore happy
. This is to say that he "Revels" as that which those words point to ! What is "That" ? Its his true nature -- its He as He truely IS, sans his "interpretations" and "conclusions" about himself. He therefore lives a blessed life. Shankara has presented us with a possibility ... we can remain extremely satisfied even when our possessions are minimal!This person is living a fulfilled life even when he has just a lion cloth while we have all the possessions in the world and yet we remain unfulfilled. Why ? Because we miss the truth revealed by Vedanta. The saint with a mere kaupina, lion cloth [Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi] has experiences very similar to ours. He too had tooth ache and various kinds of physical sufferings and yet he remained aloof and equanimous and we miss it not because we do not have some exotic experiences but because we have a tainted vision -- we see exactly what the saint sees but we miss the fulfillment which is our true nature and he does not. Thats the difference.
This gap can only be sealed through an upadesha - a teaching from a guru who has seen the Truth. This teaching is his vision, the vision that enabled him to remain untouched and aloof. This teaching is not yet another interpretation. This teaching simply dissolves all our interpretations about ourselves and the world , leaving us as we are. This text is an upadesha: its called upadesha saram ... meaning the "Essence of Teaching".In 30 verses Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has consolidated the entire vedantic teaching.Upadesha Saram was written by Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi at the request of Sri Muruganar. Sri Muruganar was writing some puranic story about people who believed that Karma [Vedic Rituals, in the context] alone could lead to Moksha. In order to correct them, Lord Siva himself descends to earth. While writing this puranic story in poetic form, Sri Muruganar requested Bhagavan Ramana to write the part where Lord Siva taught the Truth to the rishis.
Love!
Silence
