Shri Bhagavan uvacha
Ashochyaananvashochastvam
Pragnavaadamscha bhaashase
Gathasoonagathasoomscha
Naanushochanthi panditaah
Meaning: You are lamenting about someone who need not be lamented upon. And then you speak like a wise man as well. Learned people do not mourn over either living or dead
Nah thvayvaaham jaathu naasam
Nah thvam nay may janadipah
Na chaiva na bhavishyamah
Sarvey vayamataha param
Meaning: There never has been a time when I have not existed, you have not existed, and these kings have not existed. There shall never be a time in future as well, when we all do not exist.
Na jayate mriyathay va kadachith
Naayam bhootvahbavitah van a booyaha
Ajo nithyaha shaasvathoyam puraano
Nah hanyathay hanyamaanay shareeray
Meaning: Atman has never taken birth nor has it ever died. Never has it perished nor regenerated. It has always existed from time unknown and does not die when the body is killed.
Jaathasya hi dhruvo mrithyur
Dhruvam janma mrithasya cha
Thasmadparihareyarthay
Na tvam shochithumarhasi
Meaning: Death is sure for all that has taken birth. And rebirth is sure for all that has died. So you have no rights to lament upon something that you cannot change.
This has been a longer run with verses unlike previous posts where we went one by one. But this was done as I felt all these verses read together would make more sense. Let us try to analyze the same
In fact these sentences are self explanatory and hence needs very less analysis. The underlining statement is we are not what we physically “are”. Basically we are not what we call each other by names. We are actually the Atman - Atman, which never dies.
Bhagavan in the first verse mentioned in the post states that grief of losing beloved ones or things and intelligence cannot co-exist. We feel sad either on loss or on fear of loss of our life or our beloved ones. But then that grief does not have any base, once we realize that our beloved ones have not died and have in fact just changed their bodies just like we change our soiled or torn down dress. This is again a comparison beyond compare. So a learned person never falls indefinitely sad over the death or loss of the beloved.
It is to be understood that there never has been a time we never existed. So we are not we the physical body that we have taken shelter temporarily but the Atman. And one thing is for sure, those that have taken birth shall surely die – the one that takes birth is this body as Atman has always been there; it has never died so there raises no question of it taking birth again.
Then do not we have right to fall sad or cry when our beloved departs? Even Swami Vivekananda cried our loud when his beloved friend died. But when his disciple queried, he said “It is just a reaction of my senses it is bound to happen”. But we should not allow it take over our brains or thoughts and spoil this wonderful life. As a fact, most of the sadness that we show is just show off. We feel our love for someone at its maximum when we feel we are losing them, right? But on thinking deeply, is this love not selfish. We mourn because we may not be able to see them or love them anymore. How many times would we have wept thinking that those who left us would miss us or will not be able to be with us anymore? No, it is not the same.
Many times it would have happened to us that we start hating or at least stop loving a person who was once our best friend or whom we loved very much (could be our relative as well) just because they do not reciprocate the same any more. So was not our love to them conditional? We hear people saying “I would not be able to live without you for even a moment” and the same people living happily ever after separation.
Earlier I was mentioning that the sadness that we show is more or less a show off. How many of us would have actually regularly called and spoke to the family in which a death has happened before the event and how many of us do the same, say after a month or so. Then what was all that we showed off during the ceremony. I know I may be sounding too practical or even cruel. But I myself have felt this many times. Many times after I have cried, and later questioned myself. I know I am not able to put what I want to communicate in the right words, but I hope I might have ignited a spark or two in the reader’s minds.
Our mind is very much conditioned. We actually cry because we are expected to cry. We walk into a house where somebody has died and we find the in mates roaming around, welcoming guests and speaking to all without carrying a sad face, our immediate comment would be “Oh!! They are not at all sad in the demise of that person” or “It seems they were waiting for him to die”. So our society has set some unwritten rules which lies deep beneath in our minds and comes up as time arises.
Many times we see people who have well controlled themselves after initial outburst suddenly show a sad face accompanied with saddest of dialogues on seeing somebody who has come to pay homage. Till that time he or she was OK but then suddenly what happened? The most humorous scene is like say after a month or two; somebody walks in who was not able to see us during the death ceremonies. People who were till that moment laughing, watching TV or Cinema, show up with a sad face.
We have a habit of keeping us reminded of all good moments and then make ourselves sad. We believe we have no right to laugh, speak loud, be happy or even smile, if someone near has died. We can even see people scolding young children, who are totally unaware and telling them “you are not supposed to laugh or play when someone has died.” We can hear people saying especially women “see her husband is dead and still she wears bindhi, wears silk saree etc”.
Dears, I know there are exceptions and may be my examples too are a bit over board. But I hope I have been able to communicate what I intended to.
I am not saying we should not be sad and that we should never miss or remember people. But yes there is a limit to it. In fact, I adore the South Indian clan who take out the dead to cemetery in a procession, like a celebration with musical band and dance. It actually celebrates death. Death is nothing to mourn but a natural progression of the Atman. And if we really take this message to heart, next time we will not leave our senses out of control and our brains shall definitely rein them in.
Earlier, I said Love is selfish but let me add only one relation that I have found as an exception to this is love of parents to their children. With exceptions, the love of children back to their parents is also conditional and driven by selfish motives. Else we will not see parents complaining after marriage of their kids, or we may not even see so many Old Age Homes coming up. Just doing a flash back to our story as in movies, just see how much pains they have taken to bring us up to this stage. When we were not capable to so anything for ourselves, how much pains they would have taken to give us everything we need even without us asking for the same. How many times our parents would have cleaned our excretions? And today we cannot stand to listen to their advices. “Mom, there is a huge generation gap. You never know what we need”. Yes, there needs to be a change in approaches here and there but then are we doing right? We cannot wait to hear our parents say something more than once, the third time we say “come on, enough is enough. How many times would you tell the same thing? I am sick of it”. But they never fell sick hearing us cry in our babyhood, cleaning our excretions or whatever it may be. And even today however we may treat them; they would be the only ones and only ones who would be there for our aid when we would be in some trouble. Yes, they can be wrong but then there is a way to correct them as well. We can always tell them “with due respect, I disagree to your point of view.” But no, we straight away shout on their faces.
Ok coming back to the verses, we can summarize it as: We are not what we look we are. We are nothing but Atman and this Atman is never destroyable. This Atman is nothing but the Param Athman, the Para Brahmam. And this is well said as Aham Brahma Asmi meaning “I am Brahman”
Ashochyaananvashochastvam
Pragnavaadamscha bhaashase
Gathasoonagathasoomscha
Naanushochanthi panditaah
Meaning: You are lamenting about someone who need not be lamented upon. And then you speak like a wise man as well. Learned people do not mourn over either living or dead
Nah thvayvaaham jaathu naasam
Nah thvam nay may janadipah
Na chaiva na bhavishyamah
Sarvey vayamataha param
Meaning: There never has been a time when I have not existed, you have not existed, and these kings have not existed. There shall never be a time in future as well, when we all do not exist.
Na jayate mriyathay va kadachith
Naayam bhootvahbavitah van a booyaha
Ajo nithyaha shaasvathoyam puraano
Nah hanyathay hanyamaanay shareeray
Meaning: Atman has never taken birth nor has it ever died. Never has it perished nor regenerated. It has always existed from time unknown and does not die when the body is killed.
Jaathasya hi dhruvo mrithyur
Dhruvam janma mrithasya cha
Thasmadparihareyarthay
Na tvam shochithumarhasi
Meaning: Death is sure for all that has taken birth. And rebirth is sure for all that has died. So you have no rights to lament upon something that you cannot change.
This has been a longer run with verses unlike previous posts where we went one by one. But this was done as I felt all these verses read together would make more sense. Let us try to analyze the same
In fact these sentences are self explanatory and hence needs very less analysis. The underlining statement is we are not what we physically “are”. Basically we are not what we call each other by names. We are actually the Atman - Atman, which never dies.
Bhagavan in the first verse mentioned in the post states that grief of losing beloved ones or things and intelligence cannot co-exist. We feel sad either on loss or on fear of loss of our life or our beloved ones. But then that grief does not have any base, once we realize that our beloved ones have not died and have in fact just changed their bodies just like we change our soiled or torn down dress. This is again a comparison beyond compare. So a learned person never falls indefinitely sad over the death or loss of the beloved.
It is to be understood that there never has been a time we never existed. So we are not we the physical body that we have taken shelter temporarily but the Atman. And one thing is for sure, those that have taken birth shall surely die – the one that takes birth is this body as Atman has always been there; it has never died so there raises no question of it taking birth again.
Then do not we have right to fall sad or cry when our beloved departs? Even Swami Vivekananda cried our loud when his beloved friend died. But when his disciple queried, he said “It is just a reaction of my senses it is bound to happen”. But we should not allow it take over our brains or thoughts and spoil this wonderful life. As a fact, most of the sadness that we show is just show off. We feel our love for someone at its maximum when we feel we are losing them, right? But on thinking deeply, is this love not selfish. We mourn because we may not be able to see them or love them anymore. How many times would we have wept thinking that those who left us would miss us or will not be able to be with us anymore? No, it is not the same.
Many times it would have happened to us that we start hating or at least stop loving a person who was once our best friend or whom we loved very much (could be our relative as well) just because they do not reciprocate the same any more. So was not our love to them conditional? We hear people saying “I would not be able to live without you for even a moment” and the same people living happily ever after separation.
Earlier I was mentioning that the sadness that we show is more or less a show off. How many of us would have actually regularly called and spoke to the family in which a death has happened before the event and how many of us do the same, say after a month or so. Then what was all that we showed off during the ceremony. I know I may be sounding too practical or even cruel. But I myself have felt this many times. Many times after I have cried, and later questioned myself. I know I am not able to put what I want to communicate in the right words, but I hope I might have ignited a spark or two in the reader’s minds.
Our mind is very much conditioned. We actually cry because we are expected to cry. We walk into a house where somebody has died and we find the in mates roaming around, welcoming guests and speaking to all without carrying a sad face, our immediate comment would be “Oh!! They are not at all sad in the demise of that person” or “It seems they were waiting for him to die”. So our society has set some unwritten rules which lies deep beneath in our minds and comes up as time arises.
Many times we see people who have well controlled themselves after initial outburst suddenly show a sad face accompanied with saddest of dialogues on seeing somebody who has come to pay homage. Till that time he or she was OK but then suddenly what happened? The most humorous scene is like say after a month or two; somebody walks in who was not able to see us during the death ceremonies. People who were till that moment laughing, watching TV or Cinema, show up with a sad face.
We have a habit of keeping us reminded of all good moments and then make ourselves sad. We believe we have no right to laugh, speak loud, be happy or even smile, if someone near has died. We can even see people scolding young children, who are totally unaware and telling them “you are not supposed to laugh or play when someone has died.” We can hear people saying especially women “see her husband is dead and still she wears bindhi, wears silk saree etc”.
Dears, I know there are exceptions and may be my examples too are a bit over board. But I hope I have been able to communicate what I intended to.
I am not saying we should not be sad and that we should never miss or remember people. But yes there is a limit to it. In fact, I adore the South Indian clan who take out the dead to cemetery in a procession, like a celebration with musical band and dance. It actually celebrates death. Death is nothing to mourn but a natural progression of the Atman. And if we really take this message to heart, next time we will not leave our senses out of control and our brains shall definitely rein them in.
Earlier, I said Love is selfish but let me add only one relation that I have found as an exception to this is love of parents to their children. With exceptions, the love of children back to their parents is also conditional and driven by selfish motives. Else we will not see parents complaining after marriage of their kids, or we may not even see so many Old Age Homes coming up. Just doing a flash back to our story as in movies, just see how much pains they have taken to bring us up to this stage. When we were not capable to so anything for ourselves, how much pains they would have taken to give us everything we need even without us asking for the same. How many times our parents would have cleaned our excretions? And today we cannot stand to listen to their advices. “Mom, there is a huge generation gap. You never know what we need”. Yes, there needs to be a change in approaches here and there but then are we doing right? We cannot wait to hear our parents say something more than once, the third time we say “come on, enough is enough. How many times would you tell the same thing? I am sick of it”. But they never fell sick hearing us cry in our babyhood, cleaning our excretions or whatever it may be. And even today however we may treat them; they would be the only ones and only ones who would be there for our aid when we would be in some trouble. Yes, they can be wrong but then there is a way to correct them as well. We can always tell them “with due respect, I disagree to your point of view.” But no, we straight away shout on their faces.
Ok coming back to the verses, we can summarize it as: We are not what we look we are. We are nothing but Atman and this Atman is never destroyable. This Atman is nothing but the Param Athman, the Para Brahmam. And this is well said as Aham Brahma Asmi meaning “I am Brahman”
Really great post, Thank you for sharing this knowledge. Excellently written article, if only all bloggers offered the same level of content as you, the internet would be a much better place. Please keep it up.
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Eric Stalker
Owner of Moscow Mule Cups