(Pujya Bapuji’s 72nd birth anniversary: 11th April)
(From pujya Bapuji’s nectarean discourses)
Why do we celebrate birthday? The idea is to take stock of the knowledge, peace of mind and Bhakti cultivated in the past years and to make further progress on the path of attaining God- realization, equanimity and glory of the real self.
What is ‘birth’? Manifestation of the Unmanifest is caller birth. And what is Avatarna (incarnation)? Avatara means descent from above. For example, if the president of a nation comes to his office to help a stenographer, works with him and assists him in his work, it is Avatarana. The terms Avatarana, birth, manifestation, have their respective meanings and interpretations; but the question is what benefit we derive from comprehending these. By understanding the meaning of these and reflecting thereon we will be delivered from the bondage of karma body-consciousness, identification with pain, and delusion of pleasure and pain.
Celebrating the jayanti of the Lord, Avatarana divas of a saint, or our own birth-day, if it is celebrated in accordance with scriptural dicta, it appears to be a worldly karma (ceremony) but it aims making for progress in the otherworldly sphere. If the celebration takes place in the presence of a saint, it elevates one spiritually as well.
Some people celebrate their birthdays by cutting cakes, blowing out lighted candles and with the blown air send droplets of saliva contaminating the cake with millions of bacteria. People eat that and sing’ Happy birthday to you.’ This is the western style of birthday celebration, but the Indian culture disapproves of it Out life should proceed from darkness to light we have come through many a species living in the in the dark. Now we should illuminate our life with the radiance of our real Self. Take me from darkness to light’ is a Vedic prayer. Blowing out lighted candle, cutting stale cakes and distributing it! Horrible! A sensible man will find the sight of one eating such cake nauseating. For the cake has been contaminated with millions of bacteria coming with puffs while blowing out the candles Some people celebrate birth-day by this western style. Satsang has enlightened the people on this subject. So there is a decline in the number of people following this style blindly. Yet some people continue to blindly ape the western style.
The objective the celebration of birthday should to make a resolve to expand the servicer we rendered in the past with our body, to increase the loving remembrance of God we have done by our mind in the past, to increase the Knowledge we have attained by our intellect in past year. Thus we should increase the field of selfless services, knowledge of the Truth (Supreme Self), and devotional love in our life. These three things will make your birthday tremendously helpful in elevating you. But drinking and revelries make the birthday more of a ruin-day.
The body is ADHI BHAUTIK or the physical reality mind, intellect and ego belong to the ADHI DAIVK or transcendental. The knower of these two is ADHYTMIK Truth that transcends both. Lord Krishna mercifully reveals His own experience:
‘He who thus knows, in true light, my divine birth and action, leaving the body he is not born again: he attains to Me, O Arjuna.’ (Gita:4.9)
The Lord says, ‘’O Arjuna! He who knows MY birth and action to divine, his birth and action too become divine and he come to me. He becomes one with Me.’’ Their state is like two lakes whose waters mix after the separating wall is demolished. It is not possible then to distinguish the water of one lake from that of the other. Similarly when the jive forgets its body-consciousness and the Lord, divinity is constrained, their substratum, the Supreme Brahman forth in its own glory.
When the unmanifest jiva gets manifested it is said to have been. But what has come into manifestation is bound to get dissolved into its when. Then Jive is said to have died when the body is dead, it is con-signed to flames. Its water element will merge with cosmic element; its air and fire elements merge into their respective comic counterparts. The remaining earth element ashes and bones will merge into the earth element. Thus the manifest become Unmanifest and it is called death. Again elements be come manifest and it called birth. So the dissolution of elements or body becoming Unman fest is death, and elements coming together to from a body which is Mani fasted is birth. This cycle of birth of birth and death goes on. So The Lord says:
‘He who thus knows, in true light, my divine birth and action, leaving the body he not born again: he attains to Me, O Arjuna. (Gita:4.9)
So the Lord descends to the earth and that He dose out compassion and mercifulness. Because He descends out compassion, the Lord’s birth is said to divine; it is an incarnation. The Lord comes to the earth to save us from trouble, and to reinstall Love, Knowledge or propriety of conduct in the society. He lives Like we do; He laughs and we cries; He eats and drinks all does like we do but all this is done for elevating us. He is always equanimous in all circumstances. The birth that takes place to elevate us called incarnation.