An Appeal to All Blessed Souls

Gurucharanam Saranam

An Appeal to All Blessed Souls

Mukundan P.R.


Great preceptors (rishis) impart the guidelines of dharma in each age - the cosmic scheme behind life and the duty of man according to the aeonic changes. The Rishis are considered the guiding authorities on dharma, justice and duty owing to their omniscience, life of self-abnegation and spiritual elevation. But due to our ignorance, we still follow rituals and traditions that create divisiveness and disharmony in the society. The ‘sudra’ represents the ignorant and downtrodden class in the world whose spiritual and materialistic elevation is destined to be actualized in this age. But for its realization, they require the guidance of an omniscient seer, who could show them the path of liberation.

The Brahmic Will to be self responsible for the divine dispensation for god realization existed from the beginning of creation itself and continues incessantly. It is the same godly will that manifests as the Subtle Being, Godhead, as a Deva, Sanyasi (sage) or a Rishi and accepts worship through these mediums in the course of ages. But there is a concept known as Yuga Dharma. Different aeons like Krita, Treta and Dwapara had their characteristic dharmic dispensation, which in the present age – Kaliyuga undergoes significant changes. These changes in the dharmic code (Yuga Dharma) are brought about by great seers of transcendental knowledge, who manifest as the embodiment of enlightenment and divine abstraction as willed by God.

Even during the ages of Treta and Dwapara that were oriented for polytheistic worship of Devi-Deva (gods and goddesses), the words of Rishis, the enlightened seers were depended upon as the guiding principles. At the time of Maharaja Janak, the judgments in regard to dispensation of justice were taken by the wives of Yagnavalkya, the great rishi of that age. They had the divine insight to decide on matters of justice without even seeing the contestants, the accused or the accuser. The blind folded goddess of wisdom has been accepted as the symbol of justice even today. Despite differences in rituals, in the matters of justice, the words of a seer (jnani) are taken as authoritative. The uniqueness of the Indian spirituality or Sanatana Dharma is this tradition.

We are ignorant about the differences in the result (virtue, punya) earned from the observance of customs, rituals and worship followed by us at the present time. Due to the moral degeneration and lack of virtue in conduct, majority of people have become ‘Sudra’. The word Sudra here includes people from all castes – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra. All ignorant and fallen people irrespective of caste, color, nationality and religious denominations are termed as Sudra, a qualitative term. As per the four fold caste system, the present age Kaliyuga belongs to the Sudra class for their uplift and enlightenment. The term ‘Sudra’ used here, as already mentioned, is a qualitative term used in a universal sense and includes Christians, Muslims, Budhists, Jains etc. and also the spokesmen of the modern computer age and the apostles of various ideologies and concepts. Therefore the word ‘Sudra’ embraces both the potentialities and also its limitations. The limitation of the Sudra is that he has no wisdom to dive deep into the spiritual light hidden in the historical past and apply it in life in the present age so as to enhance and enrich the glitter of his or her soul through a noble and righteous path of action.
According to Manu, the ancient law giver, this fourth age of Kali is earmarked for the Sudra for his liberation and enlightenment. But we should not think lightly of our lack of awareness and inability to understand the demerits in the customs, rituals and worship we follow at the present age, which are incapable either to liberate us from our (negative) karmic mould or to give us the blissful evolutionary soul experience. We might see the observance of caste system as insignificant which created the evils of social barriers and discriminations; we might ignore too the ignorance that termed spiritual consciousness as communalism. But how do we evaluate the corruption in the path of eternal dharma proclaimed by the Rishis in accordance with the Will of Brahman? How do we see the vested interests that disturbed the harmony at home causing motherly and fatherly curse and sorrow?

How can you justify the horrendous actions by which sinners who are useless for their home as well as the society, performing evil actions and accumulating great burden of sin, at last adorn the clothes of a Sanyasi, get elevated in the society with the support of caste or religion? How can you justify the wicked action of those men who castigated and belittled the sages, the embodiment of sacrifice and divine enlightenment and from whose mind, the pearls of wisdom churned out of the ocean of transcendental truth emerge; of those who raise the men of letters (mere scholars) to the pedestal of seers thus destroying the divine tenderness of dharma? The Sudra, the fourth in the caste hierarchy has got the right by divine decree to earn the karmic and ancestral purity required for the birth of noble souls and experience godly realization in this age. He has also got the luck to safeguard the oneness of mankind till the end of creation. But in whom does the karmic virtue exists to lead him to this goal – in the depth of the heart of a Seer or in some tantric rituals?

The Tantric and Vedic rituals and chants which were reverberating in the last century have almost come to a stop. Sri Marthanda Verma, the Travancore Maharaja used to feed thousands of Brahmins and give away handfuls of gift to them in expiation of sins, but for the last forty years the ceremony has become lifeless; the noble minded give importance to ‘Sadhu Pooja’ – the worship of sages than to the feeding of Brahmins. Who are the Sadhus or the Sanyasis? Is he a lowly beggar who has lost all hopes in life due to penury and lack of virtue or are they the ones who get afflicted by incurable diseases owing to their vices and sin and as a last resort adorn the clothes of a Sanyasi? No, on the contrary, as mentioned before, the seers are great souls who have sacrificed their life, body and mind for the cause of dharma. We should expect the fulfilling action that would be venerated by the ensuing generation, not only in our land but all over the world, only from such seers. The purity of their heart symbolizes the weighing scale of dharma and adharma. They are the divine personification of sacrifice and austerity.
What the world searches today with a longing heart is for such a seer of sacrifice through whom the grand unfoldment, development and fulfillment of Yuga Dharma is to take place. Do we respect that Universal Guru seated in the hearts of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ, Prophet Mohammed, Janaka, Vishwamitra, Maitreyi and Gargi imparting eternal, transcendental enlightenment? If we are waiting for the coming of that great Soul, the leading Light of the five-fold Gurus, the protector and elucidator of the concept of Yuga Dharma, why do we open ‘Bala Gokulams’ all along the roadside? Would we have been celebrating Krishna Leela which reminds us of the ‘Deva Dasi’ system rooted in base sensual enjoyment instead of the noble thoughts on God? Would we ever try to portray Lord Krishna who for the first time blew his Panchajanya for the establishment of Yuga Dharma as the lustful, sensual ‘Gopala Krishna’ through texts like Gita Govindam - creations out of great ignorance? Whatever it is, we are also the inheritors of that pernicious tragedy.

It may be due to the fact that we are also part of that sinful tradition we could not well understand Guru (Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru) and the Santhigiri Guru parampara. Nevertheless, Santhigiri Guru Parampara has reached the penultimate peak of luck. We have discovered the deposits of transcendental truth in the boundaries of Guru Parampara, born from the sacrifices of Guru. Through this medium God has prepared for us, in the form of Navajyoti Sree Karunakara Guru, we have become the possessors of Cosmic Mind. Like Gargis and Maitreyi, the Jananis (Sanyasinis in Santhigiri Ashram) blessed with transcendental vision ennoble this Guru lineage through the worship of Guru.

This Guru Parampara which receives revealed words from Brahman, the Supreme Light of God promises the certitude of the divine birth of great seers, the initiators of great concepts, like Janaka and Vishwamitra in the coming ages. (It refers to the performance of ‘Guru Pooja’ in Santhigiri Ashram, by which Guru cleanses the ancestral and spiritual impurities and debilities and through which a generation with mental and physical prowess would take birth in the families thus purified by Guru).

In the divine experience of great souls, they see Guru as the illumination of all godly abstractions and the ever lasting, sublime light of love. We consider this glory as the ultimate path of refuge for all people and the entire creation. Lo, through that path of protection, we first walk, nearer and nearer. O Guru, you are enthroned as all Godly abstractions and divine consecrations. You exist as the Cosmic Will and the glorious abode of our veneration.

Submitting our prostrations at your holy feet, we purify the flaws in our ancestry, spiritual practices and customs and also find a solution to the familial curses and sorrows of our mothers and fathers. We have become singers of the glory of the universal path of liberation. We have fulfilled through this the prayer of great sages, the result of their penance of several ages. This path of purity is the fulfillment of God’s wish from the inception of creation itself.

We, the Santhigiri parampara, submit this in front of the whole world with a prayer for the mercifulness of Guru.

(Excerpts from ‘India O’ Rise’ published by Santhigiri Ashram, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala)

India: A Fractured Civilization

Gurucharanam Saranam


INDIA: A FRACTURED CIVILIZATION
Guruvani- the Sacred Words of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru
(Translated from the original Malayalam)



What is the state of elevation of the Saivite; and of the Vaishnavite; and of the devotee of the Sakti cult? All are the same. One prefers Sakti, the other prefers Siva. Yet another person prefers Vishnu. This alone is the difference. Stages of inner evolution do not form a part of these. For a change to come about in a person who ‘sees’, and for a change of stage, he should get the knowledge of all the three. Otherwise he traverses his chosen track but the others remain unknown; all three paths should be seen simultaneously. There is one story or the other to block this course as he progresses, bent on his inner flight.

When one takes to any one of the three-faced Saiva, Sakteya and Vaishnava traditions the knowledge of all the three should be gained. There is no such possibility and that is the worst of India’s calamities.

Many family lineages are being cited like Parasurama Gotram, Viswamitra Gotram, Sankara Gotram and so on. But all these are within the folds of the Trimurthi tradition. As far as the cleansing of the gotra is concerned, everything should be included. That is, all the four divisions of the Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra should be taken care of. Otherwise in cleansing the gotra, everything would fall apart. What has gone wrong with India is that it is fragmented thus.

When the faculty of Darsanam (inner visions) develops in a person under a Vaishnava guru, that guru would be a guide in darsanam related to the Vaishnava tradition. He would not be able to guide with regard to Saiva-Sakteya experiences. The claim of the Vaishnavite, Saivite and Sakteya that the respective tradition of each is the highest holds no value. What does it amount to when one claims that one’s own tradition is high and the others are just right or good?

If a guru does not gain the stature of the Devendra, Parasakti and Ganas how could the disciple get such stature?

As we have not received knowledge transferred in this way, we do not know the true aspect of the concept of Manvantara. As the knowledge about Manvantara has been handed down in a distorted manner, all those belonging to these three traditions are warring amongst themselves. Therefore, we Indians are not able to stand united. And nature itself, in agitation, caused the Asian continent to be fragmented. Lack of unity like this will cause one disaster or the other with the changing of each yuga.
An example of this pertains to the planet Jupiter. Isn’t Jupiter a big planet? It is said that the face of it changed after a comet dashed against it. The area will be in ruin in due course. Here, we are able to receive the knowledge of events of the past 20 million years. For getting to know matters related to millions of years in the past, the right knowledge of Manvantara needs to be gained. But the mistake of India is that the gurus have not been able to perceive Manvantaras and move forward accordingly.

When the Asian continent was not fragmented a lot of people migrated to this place. They followed the life styles prevalent here. When the continent was partitioned into several countries, many people remained here. They evolved mantras and tantras and created the Vedic religion. The Vedic practitioner became the authority here. This is why the people are not united. People would not touch to show intimacy. They would avoid bodily contact in transactions. Thus distances increased and people moved away from one another.

The Trimurthi tradition was pursued keeping these distances. Nothing remained of the four-faced action. The four-faced phenomenon represents the creation of the four Vedas. It was said that Brahma created the four Vedas. There is no history related to Brahma. For that history, the knowledge of the Manvantra needs to be acquired. As the knowledge of the Manvantara was lost even the knowledge of Brahma was lost. The Brahma of the Trimurthi tradition was misconceived as Brahman. Brahman is all pervading. Brahma is not so. Brahma relates only to the aspect of creation. Still it was made to believe that Brahma was above everything. However, Brahma is not everything. The story of Brahma can be told only by Manu. As far as Manu is concerned, little is known. Thus a story was told that Manu, born of the Sun, gave it to Ikshwaku. In that history there was no place for Manvantara. Thus we fell into error. Vedic ritualism became dominant with the emergence of the four-fold caste division - Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra.

When darsanam develops in this manner it would be like a haze of smoke. Pay attention to what the Guru has to say if it comes up. If you don’t pay attention you will go into the path of error and slip into more mistakes. Then you will depart from here. If you go, you will be returning with no sense of direction.

The faculty of darsanam develops here through the Guru’s grace. Only such a Guru can give the direct knowledge of the Trimurthi and the stature of the ganas. When it starts emerging clearly, one distinct from the other, there would be a temptation to get away and talk about it. Yield to it and you will lose your way. That deviation will not be perceived either. Your conception is that there is the possibility of the Supreme One arriving here embodied. If the Supreme One incarnates how would you identify Him?

Q: It is said that the term bhagavan (lord) indicates the taking shape of six parts. Sri Krishna is seen and spoken about as Omniscient. Sri Krishna was the most evolved among those who came so far. He is also the Paramatma.

Guru: Yes, but it is not complete at that. It is true that Krishna is the foremost figure among those who had come till then. But his coming was a littile before the beginning of Kali Age. Therefore, we could not be given the Dharma of Kali. People could not be corrected and guided into that dharma either. Kali Dharma should be corrected only after ascending the eighth stage. Only Arjuna was corrected instead. Only Arjuna comprehended. Still he feared having to kill his preceptors and elders. It is then he is asked, don’t you believe in me? The faith is there. Still the fear persists. Krishna says then: They are not killed; they are not made to kill either. What is said at this stage — that is the Dharma of Kali given in this manner — has not been imbibed correctly. The Yuga Dharma has not been put into practice. It is the likes of Drona and Bhishma who have been killed. They were learned and came of royal families. Through the learning of mistaken scriptural concepts they upheld the Trimurthi.

The movement towards the Supreme Self can be contemplated only after traversing the constellations and reaching the eighth stage which can’t be termed ‘Paramatma’ or the Supreme Self. Krishna came upto that stage, but not in practical terms. To establish it on the physical plane he was making Arjuna act, himself giving the guidance as the guru.

Sri Krishna was born in the eighth stage. To move up from this plane he had to reveal to Arjuna everything from the very beginning. He needed to get his disciple Arjuna to do whatever was necessary for him to cross that stage. The stage after that pertains to the nine planetary fields. Eight out of the nine were realized. These forms dissolved. It is the colour of the sky of formlessness that has been attributed to Krishna. The nine planetary fields are tackled through making the disciple do whatever is required. That is Krishna needed to perceive the ninth planetary field and instruct Arjuna about that stage. But when Krishna reached this stage, the deities as well as devils attacked and gave him the chase. He needed to earn everything from the eighth stage and move up and instruct the disciple. Arjuna had been instructed up to the eighth stage.

It was the Deva’s stage that was shown in the field of Kurukshetra. Through the Kurukshetra war it was fully revealed. The next stage has no forms. There is only the colour of the sky. That sky has Sri Krishna pervading it. Arjuna has gone seeing Krishna in that eighth stage and accepting him as his guru. But Arjuna could not get to the ninth stage. The disciple needed to get to the ninth stage and perform action. Guru should not work in that stage. After traversing the nine planets, twenty seven constellations, twelve zodiacs and going beyond forms, thereafter the eighth, ninth and tenth stages are to be harnessed together. Dissolving takes place in the ninth. In the tenth there is no dissolving at all. It is transformation into that stage. There is no colour.

Some of those who visit here grasp the situation. Still they are not able to imbibe it. That is the shortcoming in their destiny. They would keep looking upto the same old thing. This is the problem when the Gurumargam (the Path of the Masters) is not properly followed. They will rotate within the old form. This colour and the form will be caused to change. The process will go on like this. This is what was shown to Arjuna. Sri Krishna said: Drona, Bhishma, Salya and the like are people who destroy the position in which we were before. You are not killing any of them. You are not causing to kill them either. That is the logic behind it.

Anyone would be able to give instructions on the external features of sanyasa—renunciation. Some would develop the faculty of darsanam as well. But how many would be in a position to perceive and explain it clearly? There was nobody until now to clearly tell about the layers of darsanam, the (spiritual) stages and their transitions. To seek clarification about the different stages in darsanam you have to approach a guru — whether you are a sanyasi (renunciate) or anyone else. Otherwise you are not going to evolve beyond the position you have reached. You will be going round and round in that position. You would desire that you would go there or go here and all that. Wherever you go, you will not get it. You will not get it even If you lie for days without even drinking water.

(I am) talking about the matter which (even) Vivekananda could not get clearly actualized because he did not get a guru of that stature. This was not clear to Jesus and Mohammad. It was not clear to Buddha either. That he passed away, after accepting alms is a proof of this. Whatever is eaten should be digested. Poets have written that Buddha has reached the state of Nirvana. How do these poets know what Nirvana is? The theory of poets that Buddha is higher than Sri Krishna by binding the concept of Nirvana (to Buddha) is the conception of the poets. Buddha ‘informed’ the children here (in Santhigiri) that he did not come with the knowledge, hence the error happened.

In the actualization process of transcending form, Guru is present as the Paramatma, the Supreme Self. It is in this Guru that the Supreme Self is seen. One must know what this Supreme Self is through the Guru. There is no knowledge other than this. This is Parabrahmam. It is difficult to get a guru who has been transformed into Parabrahmam. That Guru will be with everyone. Guru is what stays with everything — good or bad. A Guru of that stature infuses devotion (bhakti) to karma.

The man who has studied Vedanta and harnesses his Vedanta with the dictates of the planetary chart will not understand this. Vedanta proclaims that Guru is Brahman. What is that Guru and who is that Guru who has reached the realm of Brahman? Further enquiry should be related to that question. Didn’t Arjuna have vision? That is why Sri Krishna said, “Look, who was I, and who were you, and what were we?” It is after showing him this that Sri Krishna made Arjuna fight. Parasakti and the devas together blocked the evolution beyond the eighth stage after the war. Then Dwaraka went under the sea. It is at that point (Arjuna) said, there is no help, Krishna!

After knowing and following the path here, if you still go back to the old established traditions, there will be such ruination that one would not even know where one is going to reach. What I say is a subject not known to anyone till date. Your aim should be to realize this. This is what God has bestowed on you. Until you realize this you will not be able to bring up your children in obedience. If you are the ones who have understood this, shouldn’t you enquire and actualize it? Is it something to be bound and planted within the fort of some caste or creed and watered? No single person should work in this (Ashram) with such conception. Never should one do it. Misfortune will result.

God by his grace has granted the easiest way for you so that you can lead yourself understanding and defining this, imparting it to your progeny and fulfilling the dharma in life. For this, the children of India should become a model at home in this country and in the world. Instead, what has happened in contemporary India? Today, unable to find the means of livelihood many people have moved out from India itself and have done many sorts of things in fulfilment. They have become tiger or cat or whatever, in the name of redeeming the world. You should be able to absorb such knowledge as would enable you to bring up your children in propriety so that these tigers and cats do not jump on them. The liberation of our country and its existence will be affected through those children.

This is the Annunciation we have received. The world will certainly benefit provided you put in your best effort, doing and making others do without giving orders to one another; without insisting on doing it the way you want it done. You should become fully able to take on this work that will benefit the world by the Will of the Almighty. Whatever the people of the world should get, let them get it as the gift of India. It should be transferred to them through our little children. The need of the hour lies not in giving it through the Upanishads considered to be the fountainhead of Indian wisdom or through the recitation of scriptures (Vedas), nor through aphorisms considered sacred. For this seek at the appropriate place and struggle.

Your ancestors are not people with punyam (merit in the soul). If someone had come into riches, he will have offspring who will chop off the head of that wealth. That is exactly what we see in our midst. Parents with seven children become tearful and start wiping their nose if one child fails in an examination. It would appear that they are pained because the children who are to support the entire world have failed. I have this sadness that we don’t have mothers and fathers who think: ‘The poor who have neither the opportunity to study nor a proper meal to eat did not get this. My children got at least this much. May my children put to righteous use what is earned throgh the merit of the forefathers’. If a child fails in a subject these parents find satisfaction in the gestures of showing sorrow not found elsewhere. Then where would the children brought up by such parents stand? I would only call it as an absolute sign of dirtiness and recklessness. You should not become parents who ruin the country by making these disinclined children struggle and study unnecessarily turning them into plunderers, arsonists and thieves.

Likewise the rites and rituals you follow are also extremely dangerous. This is the cause of your devastation. It is a severe crime towards your family. It uproots not only the family but brings about havoc to the country itself. Today it is the educated who loot much more than the uneducated. Your children are imbibing the education that creates extremely rotten tendencies inviting destruction. You should give your children what is suitable to their innate tendencies. If (something) is given contrary to the tendencies, a bad aspect is being pushed into him. Do not thus allow the child to take up the ownership of karmadosham (error in action).

There is a type of ‘avadhoot’ (the wanderings of an ascetic) wherein one does not know how to dress, eat, drink or bathe. In the style of this, your children walk about in a useless manner, as though merged in God, drinking, defecating and vomiting, moving through filth of many types; they grow in front of the world as predators trying to learn gimmicks, in whichever place they reach.

Giving great weight to this ignorance, you have ended up offering bribes to get admission for your children even in nursery schools. Learning quite a few things from there, they would be turning to other things in order to nourish the wicked tendencies with a course of putrid action imbibed from an ideology that uproots everything. Even if such a child comes to the Ashram, what would he be doing? His efforts would be to take up the action that would invite danger, rather than finding a release from it.

Those of you who wish to be part of the process of the Ashram dharma should keep this in mind: ‘This is not just for removing the faults in me. This is also for removing the failings in the work of my forefathers. If there is release for me well and good! Otherwise let it be. But let this country be not ruined earning this ignorance through my children.’ Your work should reflect at least that much of love. Apart from this you are not asked to become renunciates. You may become renunciates when the time becomes appropriate and you get qualified. One need not forsake that desire nor forbid it. There is nothing to be achieved by resisting it.

I am not talking about the efforts related to renunciation. You don’t renounce. You become the children of our country. Live for the karma that would bring release for your progeny even without your knowledge. For that let your innermost being absorb that dharma which would bring to the world such children as would keep eternal vigilance for this country. Take that life or leave it according to your knowledge, experience and habit. There is no point in my telling you about that too, because I have become convinced that my loving and cajoling cannot prompt you to take it. But what I had to do I have finished doing. I have done the work which will prevent the transfer of hereditary negativity and the resultant ignorance of each one of you to your children. Believe this to be the karma performed by me so that you may be in possession of that karma; your dharma is to faithfully absorb it for which you have to renew yourselves. For that God has entrusted this world itself to you. I am giving you this good news with great expectations.