The Path of Peace

Vihaya kamanyab sarvanpuman scarati nihsprhah nirmano nirahankarah sa santimadhigacchati

‘He who has given up all desires, and moves free from attachment, egoism and thirst for enjoyment attains peace.’
(The Gita: 2.71)

Give up desire. Even the heavenly bliss pales in front of the bliss one gets from renouncing desires. On the other hand a heart filled with desire suffers more grief than any one in hell.

Don’t desire for sense – enjoyments. The body is being maintained by providence anyway. Have no attachment towards anything because everything because everything is ever changing. Know this and be contented. The Supreme Self, the witness to these changes is eternal. Know the majestic glory of the Eternal and be one with that. Enjoy both, the ever changing and the Eternal. Don’t allow yourself to be dragged down by the ever changing and do not turn back from the Eternal.

‘Howsoever bad our misfortune,
the saints mend it.
They however are helpless when
We turn our back to them.’

The only thing we are required to do is not to turn back. Whatever fate has in store for us
It will be set right. The centuries old darkness can be dispelled in no time. Similarly, the centuries-old wanderings of transmigratory existence can be arrested instantly.

For ages we have been wandering through numerous forms of life because of our desire, lust and attachment. O desire! Be off. Whenever desire crops up in your mind, admonish her, “Now I have no time to attend to you. You have deluded me for centuries. O yearning! You have made me hanker after sense-objects for centuries together. O attachment! You have killed me so many times in different births. O ego! Good bye to you. You alone have been destroying me for ages. Now I will assimilate Lord Sri Krishna’s words. I will accept the Lord’s words and experience. I will assimilate and accept Sri Krishna’s teachings and renounce you, O lust, attachment and delusion. I will translate his teachings into my life so that I get established in Krishna Consciousness.
“Get rid of the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’, of the pairs of opposites like pleasure and pain. Destroy all ignorance and differences. Have no attachment and no hatred; eradicate all defects from the mind. Root out desire from your heart. Being Supreme good to your Real Self. Destroy duality; Contemplate on Self abiding in all.”

Thoughts of duality breed all vices like attachment and hatred, fear, grief, worry, remorse, desire and the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. O my mind! Contemplate on the universal self. Say good-bye to desire and attachment and all sense of duality.
What is desire? I want to get something; to seek pleasure in doing something, grasping something, seeing or listening something. We have been hankering after these desires for ages. We didn’t get an iota of happiness. If ever we got something it was short-lived. Had we got lasting happiness, we would have possessed go downs full of happiness.

Had we got lasting happiness as much as the water on the tip of a needle, we would have had tons of happiness with us by this time. But nothing of that sort happened and we are left with zilch for all our efforts. Therefore Lord Sri Krishna says:
Vihaya Kamanyab sarvanpuman
Scarati nihsprhah

‘Puman’ in this verse means one who despite having the ability to enjoy sense-pleasures renounces them to take the spiritual path. He completely rids himself of desire and the sense of ‘I’ and ‘mine.’ One who has the power to take revenge on the enemy and yet forgives him as ‘Puman’.

Renounce desire; next renounce longing as well. Even after this, attachment or the sense of ‘mine’ is left. This too brings misery. Renounce the sense of ‘mine’ as well.

But even after renouncing attachment, desire and longing, there remains the ego of renouncing these. This ego too has to be renounced. Ego is of two kinds – natural ego (an evolute of Prakriti) and unnatural or ignorance-borne ego.

Natural ego is limited to the body alone. It preserves and protects the body. It says, ‘I am the body. I am a man, I should take this type of food, etc’ If the body feels hungry, the natural ego provides food to it; if the body is tired, it takes it to the bed. If the mind feels bored it takes the body to a place of entertainment. Natural ego is not that painful.

Ego in transient things like ‘this is my house, I have this much money, I have this much land, I have so many friends’ is unnatural or ignorance-borne ego.

Renounce the desire for enjoying sense pleasures but renounce also the pride of renouncing the desire and the unnatural or ignorance-borne ego.

Garuda was the servant of the Lord (Vishnu). Once, the Lord was bound by serpents. Garuda finished the serpents. Then he was overcome by egotism, ‘Had I not been there, what would have happened to the Lord?’ This made him peaceless.

He tried various means but failed to attain peace. Without the Lord’s grace, the jiva cannot attain peace of mind. Garuda went to Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva came to know that the servant was finding faults with his master. He sent him to Kakabhushundi, the crow sage. From Kakabhushundi, he listened to the knowledge of ultimate truth. Only then he regained his peace of mind. Only then could he get himself rid of his faultfinding attitude towards his master. He developed reverence and faith for lord Rama, which eradicated his agitation and disquiet. He had lost faith and peace of mind by the darshana and in the company of God; but by listening to the Lord’s divine tales his faith and peace of mind were restored. Garudaji became blessed, peaceful and composed. Glory be to satsanga. The story of the Lord proved to be more significant than the Lord’s darshana.

Jay and Vijaya were attendants of Lord Vishnu. They were proud of being sentinels of God. Once they insulted Sage Sanaka and his brother sages and didn’t let them in to Lord Vishnu’s mansion for His darshana. They were cursed by the sages and had to be born thrice.

Desire, longing, the sense of ‘mineness’ and ego or the sense of ‘I ness’ are the causes of rebirth. If one renounces these four, one becomes liberated here and now.