Ishavasyam Continued.
God is omnipresent. He is everywhere but most importantly; he is present within me. And so is he very much present in others. The reason why we do not like doing things alone. We like to share our joys, sorrows, laughter etc with others. We enjoy doing things for others.
Sharing is divine and pleasurable.
To make the mind more powerful and receptive to fresh ideas and to be able to gain knowledge; devotion plays an important part. Bhav bhakti and kruti bhakti. are two aspects of devotion.
Devotion is easier when done via idol worship, as it is easy to focus devotion on an idol rather than the whole world; as god is present everywhere.
Bhaav bhakti can be performed alone, but it is human nature to be krutisheel.. or doing work. The kruti bhakti needs others. To sing hymns in the Lords praise, listening to His stories, doing His work, all of this requires "others". One can not survive alone in this world. So the idea of co-existence. This can be sustainable if loving and peaceful. So the concept of oneness. That is me. What I like, the other likes, what I dislike, the other also dislikes. But that other is mine. This concept is Advait. This has its own charm.
The shlok
ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥
Meaning
1: Om, May God Protect us Both (the Teacher and the Student),
2: May God Nourish us Both,
3: May we Work Together with Energy and Vigour,
4: May our Study be Enlightening and not give rise to Hostility,
5: Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.
Us and together are the key words.
(At this; I couldn't help thinking about Modijis mantra - Sab ka saath, sab ka vikaas.)
Insaan bhagwaan se khud ke liye maangta hai, rishi Vishwa ke liye maangta hai.
Knowledge, culture, wealth when shared with others increase the love for them.
Communism is a result of the irritation of the "have nots" with those who "have".
Those who have have an inclination to have more. The mentality of accumulation stems from a deep sense of dissatisfaction. But it is often not realized that satisfaction comes not from accumulating, but giving, sharing.
Giving also has to be done gracefully, without making the other inferior. With a feeling of "This belongs to the Lord, we are just sharing his gift to us."
Individualistic society leads to unhappiness. Indian culture is benevolent but Indians are not.
Reaching out to people is very important and so is making them feel like your own. Aryans came from the North. Laden with divine knowledge, they embraced locals, of various tribes, cultures and various traditions. Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, stories, street plays and Puranas played an important part in unifying the diverse cultures which might have existed in this huge land of diversities.
Hence we see the Vedas completely different from the Puranas. Vedas is pure knowledge and rituals where as Puranas have fantastic stories which is a result of incorporating customs and beliefs of various tribes. For example, the worship of "Nagas" by some tribes may have led to the weaving of story of Vishnu lying on the Sheshnaag and the Neelkanth wearing the snake in the neck. The Vedas have no such depiction of the snake or for that matter Vishnu or Shiv.
So is the story of Tridev and their 3 consorts. The concept of 3 processes - creation (Brahma), sustenance(Vishnu) and destruction(Shiva) with the 3 instruments of Knowledge(Saraswati), wealth (Lakshmi) and power(Shakti)
Vedic culture is the Ganga-Yamuna culture. Both arise in the mountains of Himalayas but while Ganga is pure and white, Yamuna is dark and not pious. The story goes that Ganga is praising Yamuna and considers it shreshtha because Yamuna is witness to Krishna leela and bhakti. Whereas Yamuna considers Ganga to be shreshtha as it bears witness to sages and their divine knowledge. But their Samgam is considered most pious by the Hindus; hence indicating the equal importance and meeting of Gyaan (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion).
This symbolizes the merging of the dark and fair too.. of the oneness or inclusiveness of the various strata of society.
The need for unification of people irrespective of their work, social or economic status gave rise to the need for a structure or building where all would come together and participate as one. Thus the concept of temples. And the common activity of worship and prayers, and of imparting knowledge of unification through entertainment and recital of stories like Mahabharata, Ramayana and the Bhagvat Puranas and other mythological stories.
Over the centuries, the purpose got lost and just a caricature remains which is an inadequate representation of our glorious culture and our gift to the world.
When Hindus gave up reaching out to others and started becoming individualistic, the degradation of society started.
(Rise of conversions as a result of this)
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