"Ma Bhaista"

“Ma bhaista vidvan taba n’asty’apayah

samsara-sindhos tarane’asty’apayah

yen’aiva yata yatayo’asya param

tam eva margam taba nirdisami”  :-  
 ( Vivekchudamani; verse-43)

 “O the prudent one, do not fear. For you there is no danger. There is a way to cross the ocean of worldly life. I shall reveal to you that very method by which sages have reached other shore.”

The method of Vedanta is to hear about the Brahman then reflecting and then meditating there after absorption in Brahman. Hearing (sravan) means properly listening to the instruction by the Guru about the oneness of the individual self and the Brahman. Reflecting (mananam) means thinking of the words thus taught by the Guru and to raise the conviction and remove all the wrong and contrary notions about the oneness of self and Brahman. And meditating (nididhyashyan) means constantly thinking about Brahman, constantly dwelling in the stream of ideas of nondual Brahman.

Thus the seeker with the urge to know the supreme goes to the Master who is well versed in Upanishads and is pure, sacred and immersed in the divine bliss of Brahman and, and pays his Sradhya to the feet of his master. The master then narrates the Knowledge that annihilates all the bondages, all boundaries all the ignorance and describes the oneness of the individual self with the Brahman. After deep and continuous contemplation of the Brahman by the grace of Guru the disciple sinks in the depths of homogeneous identity of oneness and is absorbed in Brahman. Losing the small identity of limited self one then wonders in the realm of infinite bliss and finds the actual identity of his self. Being one with the universe, one then becomes a lover; finding the true love, finding everything in his self and his self in everything; all the separate identities gets lost,mixed,mingled like a wave returning  to its true identity of ocean, becoming the ocean itself.

This is the path of Vedanta; a place, a platform where everybody has their own room. The Advaita Vedanta does not discard any sect or any opinion or any dogma rather it pays the appropriate tribute to the each step of the stair to the peak. Vedanta believes in acceptance, not tolerance. The Advaita Vedanta or the non dualism speaks of unity, oneness where all duality ends, all the differences of cast, creed, sect, dogmas, doctrines everything vanishes. And here one finds the true harmony. Hence follows the divine fragrance of love; and in this ocean of divinity every one takes a dip, everyone finds a place of their own, every heart is completely fulfilled with divine joy and bliss. It is then; the human being finds the true meaning of life.

To conclude one instance of practical Vedanta must be cited; or what this practice of true spirituality can do; it must be mentioned of a small story from an extraordinary life of a common man; who in his intense urge to know the truth reached to the feet of his master and achieved the Nirvikalpa Samadhi and started preaching the words of his master.

Few years back there has been some sort of disturbances between the inhabitants of state of Assam and the inhabitants of state of Bihar; the disturbance was very intense. There was imposition of article.344 at Guwahati the capital of Assam; which prohibits public gathering. The authorities actually wanted to control the group clash between the two communities because many people were being hurt, injured and some even died. So to control the infighting the paramilitary forces were brought in. At that time many common people from all strata of life gathered at the premises of headquarters of International Vedanta Society, at Amingaon to the north bank of river Brahmaputra to witness and enjoy the company of Sri Bhagavan, the core and founder of International Vedanta Society. Around three hundred people had been together that evening enjoying and dancing and chanting unaware of the situation outside. Group clashes were so intense that some people died that evening just few kilometers away from ashram. Suddenly the paramilitary forces entered the ashram premises without knowing that this place is a holy place. But they got stunned, as they saw the Assamese; the Biharis the Bengalis the Hindus the Muslims everyone present were chanting in ecstasy, there was total unity among those people who were totally unaware of the outside group clashes. The scene was so divine that it touched their heart and the commanding in officer spoke to the swamiji; it is really inspiring event going on here... please continue this and if there is any disturbance in this harmony inform us.

This harmony among the people were brought by none other than Sri Bhagavan; who in his endeavour to liberate human beings from bondage of ignorance fought with everyone, to establish truth he fought with people, society even with his near and dear ones. His main call is man is god. He loves man. And what his divine love can do is just another instance. During the Bharat bandh after the Godhara incident early this decade, Sri Bhagavan from his divine discontent was repenting about the present day scenario and had been asking his sanyasin disciples to erect an ashram building where everybody from every religion from every cast, creed and from every strata of society could come and pray and could find peace. To raise such an ashram He asked his sanyansins to go to each and every door and collect alms.   At that time few of his Muslim devotees were there and inspired with the bold and enlightened idea of Sri Bhagavan they came out to contribute for such a great cause and forwarded their alms to Bhagavan, becoming the first contributors.

Religions and their scriptures are meant to be realized and man in whom the truth has taken live shape is the light houses of this human civilization. Advaita Vedanta not only reforms but revolutionizes. The International Vedanta Society is a living demonstration of this; bringing in mass movement where people think for each other, work for each other and the difference vanishes in the unbounding flame of divine love of Bhagavan.