There Is An Inner Meaning For Every Story In Our Puranas

May 1974, Summer Course 1974 - Bharath, Brindavan

Published English.

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, students! boys and girls!

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From time immemorial our have been prescribing sacrificial rites like . In these , two parts are contained, namely and or recitations. Some people think that and are the same. That is not so. It is common knowledge that different flowers are collected and put together in the form of a garland. Here the flowers are not new. They are already there. The garland is new and is made by a person who puts the flowers together. On the same analogy, the are like the flowers and the are like the garland. The are already there and are not new. The stotra is like a garland and is composed by the by grouping the together. This or the , is protecting the stotra and is also called (one who protects the by regrouping them into ). This kind of song which comes from the two has been called . Not only this, is invited to come to the yajna with his chariot having the two - as the horses. Here the word , which has several other meanings in a different context, means a song. In order to invite to the hall of yajna, they sing a song with one and it is called “One Song”.

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Sometimes, the inviting song consists of three . Then the three are associated with , and . They have also been mentioned as or earth, space and sun. The basis for all the three aspects is the primordial sound or .

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This sound of has been recognised by the as identical with , the only letter that is significant. From time to time, people are making enquiries as to who can chant this sacred and who cannot. The however have made no such distinction. Since this sound of or has been recognised as universal and is the life force in all the , it has been accepted that anyone can utter it at all times. Without the sound of sacred , the will become lifeless. Any individual, if he utters this sacred sound towards the end of his life, will merge in God. The has declared that this sound is sacred to everyone and forms the basis of all creation.

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We all know that the sound consists of three distinct sounds, A, Uh and Ma. In , and in all our , this sacred sound of runs like the life string. There are three reasons for man to be born. One is the sin, the second is an unfulfilled desire or some experience and the third is lack of knowledge or ignorance. The feeling that he has not fulfilled a desire and his wanting to take birth again to fulfil such a desire is one main reason. Man does several bad things and commits a sin. He has to be reborn to experience the consequences. Ignorance makes you seek a rebirth under these circumstances. These three constitute the basis for our rebirth.

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Sage has stated in his that uttering the name of will enable us to free ourselves from the three shackles which lead one to be reborn. He has also given the meaning of by splitting the name into three parts , A and Ma. is the basic letter for or fire, A is for sun and Ma for the moon. The three letters respectively signify , Sun and Moon. The fire burns away all the sins, the sun sheds light and removes the ignorance and the moon cools the agitation in one’s mind. Thus, the utterance of the name removes your sins, your ignorance, your agitation and eliminates the possibility of your getting a rebirth. In this context, he has also identified the sound of with the name since both bring the same result. As is the very basis of all the , so also is the basis of all the creation. The three important aspects of , and Sun contained in the name are synonymous with , and and are the basis for the whole world.

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Although , and are apparently different and described as distinct, yet they are inseparably connected to each other. Just as , the sound of , is a total manifestation of three different and distinct letters and their aspects, the word or is a total manifestation of all the three aspects of , and . This aspect of is also known as or the word of Veda and the same thing has been referred to as or a well-versed in . is a Vedic word and has nothing to do with , the son of . There is a saying that one derives pleasure from the thought of God is and the name has a connection with this.

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It has been mentioned earlier that or the Swan is the vehicle for . is synonymous with the sound “” which stands for in haling and exhaling breath. By uttering , the word is created and represents the word. That is why we say that rides over the swan. This is the inner meaning. In our , different Gods have been described as riding over different kinds of animals making it look absurd. These are symbolic descriptions, all of which have sacred and significant inner meaning. But, the modern people fail to appreciate our culture, due to their ignorance of these inner meanings.

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Just as we point to the moon who is far away in the sky with our finger, the indescribable contents of our sacred and the invisible divinity have been described, to some extent, in terms of commonly understood items like carriers, chariots and so on. This is only a method of conveying abstract ideas to people in terms of things they know in their daily lives. Sometimes, this process of learning causes confusion and error.

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There is a small example for this. At one time a learned was explaining a particular description of Lord in our , to a group of people. Amongst the group was present an illiterate cowherd who had complete faith in God. He listened to the who described Lord as riding on a white and giving to devotees who pray earnestly, and answering their prayers. With implicit faith in what he had heard, he went to the forest as used along with his cattle and started praying to the Lord to come riding on a white and partake in the rice porridge which he had brought for himself. He also took a vow that he will not eat his food until the Lord appeared before him and partook the food brought by him. The Lord did not appear before him. Days went by and the devotee was starving and becoming thinner and thinner. The Lord was moved at this distress of the devotee and came in the guise of an old . The devotee saw the old and since his appearance did not match with the description of God which he had in his mind, namely a dark-complexioned individual riding on a white , he would not recognise Him and closed his eyes and started praying for His . After a little while, he opened his eyes and asked the who he was. The replied that he was the Lord come in that form; but the illiterate devotee would not believe it as the idea that the Lord would come riding on a white was so firmly imprinted in his mind. Thus, by adhering to a symbolic description intended only to help the illiterate people, without knowing the sacred inner meaning, he deprived himself of food and water for a long time.

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We have to learn from this story that the have always described the Lord in many different forms as conceived by the writers, from time to time. In reality, no one can declare with any definiteness that the Lord has one form or another. The Lord is omnipresent and can assume several forms. It is best for us to realise this truth and accept divinity in all living beings. Whoever comes to us and in whatever form he comes and seeks our love and attention should be given the love and attention we would give to God Himself.

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One devotee started worshipping as a picture or a photo. Ever since he started this, he met with several difficulties. He thought that probably worship of does not suit him. He kept that photo in a closed and brought the picture of and started worshipping the picture of . Then his troubles not only did not disappear but they became worse. He was very disappointed and put away the picture of , also, in the closed . He brought the picture of and started worshipping . That day he prayed to in the traditional manner and put up some incense for . He found that the smoke coming from the incense sticks was going into the closed . He felt very upset that the offering he made was going to the pictures of and who never responded to his prayer. In his anger he took a piece of cloth and tied up the mouth and nose in each of the pictures, believing that thereby he would be preventing them from receiving his offerings and the fragrance of his incense. Immediately, the Gods appeared before him and he wondered how and why they did not respond to his prayers but responded spontaneously when he decided to punish them. However, he wanted to clear his doubt by asking the Gods themselves and ventured to enquire why they responded with their grace the moment he decided to tie up their mouths and noses. To this, the gods replied that all his prayers earlier were directed towards lifeless pictures, but the moment he started tying up the mouths with a piece of cloth assuming the gods as filled with life, they appeared before him.

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Respect for mother, father, and God will be real and meaningful only when it comes from the depths of your heart. If it is superficial, the world may be deceived; but the Lord will not be deceived.

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! students, boys and girls!

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