Understanding the connection

Sunahu Sadhak Pyare - Part 2

God is bliss personified and we are an eternal part of God.

ब्रह्म या आनन्द के ही अंश हैं सब प्यारे,
चहत नित सब आनंद याते जीव सब ही प्यारे ।

brahma yā ānanda ke hī aṃśa haiṃ saba pyāre,
cahata nita saba ānaṃda yāte jīva saba hī pyāre ।

"All jiva are an eternal part of Brahm or bliss. Being a fraction of absolute bliss we naturally desire to attain bliss, as it is an object's inherent nature to unite with its whole."

It is also a self proven fact that all fractions naturally serve their whole.

For example the flowers, branches, stem, roots etc. constantly serve the tree. In precisely the same manner, the senses serve the soul by giving material matters to the soul to make it happy. The soul rejects them since they are material and soul is divine. Since, beginning-less time, every jiva is waiting for divine happiness as only that bliss can can satisfy the soul. Worldly objects can only satisfy the senses, since the both objects and the senses are material. So what is that divine matter which is acceptable to the soul?

अंश निज अंशी का सेवक, जगहुँ महँ रह प्यारे,
ब्रह्म या परतत्त्व अंशी, श्याम ही हैं प्यारे ।

aṃśa nija aṃśī kā sevaka jagahum̐ maham̐ raha pyāre,

"even in material world every fraction is a servant of the whole. Brahm, also called par tattva, is Shri Krishna".

There is a entity called "Par Tattva". What is that?

वदन्ति तत्त्तत्वविदस् तत्त्वं यज्ज्ञानमद्वयम् ।
ब्रह्मेति पर्मात्मेति भगवानिति शब्द्यते ॥ भा १.२.११

vadanti tatttatvavidas tattvaṃ yajjñānamadvayambrahmeti ।
parmātmeti bhagavāniti śabdyate ॥ bhā 1.2.11

"Those who know the supreme entity say that He has eternally exists in three forms. Brahma, Bhagavāna and Bhagavāna".

The Vedas say paramaṃ parastād (परमं परस्ताद्) which means He is beyond everything. That superior most entity, which is greater than the greatest is Par Tattva (पर तत्त्व), the Supreme power.

Everything has a originator (cause or reason) but the Supreme power does not have an originator. For example the originator of earth is water, the originator of water is fire, the originator of fire is air, and the originator of air is space. The originator of the entire world is Maya (cosmic energy) and the originator of Maya is God. But there is no originator of God. He is the ultimate cause of all causes. He is the reason for everything, from an insignificant insect to Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shankar.

That is why Lord Krishna says in the Gita,

ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः ।

"mamaivānśō jīvalōkē jīvabhūtaḥ sanātana"
Bhagavad Gīta

"All living beings are my eternal children".

All living beings can be divided into two categories

Non different inseparable part (स्वांश) - Swansh refers to the souls that are part of God's own personal power.
Different separable part (विभिन्नांश) - Vibhinnansh refer to the souls that are part of one of God’s external power’s.

All incarnations of God viz. Brahma, Vishnu, Shankar, Eight Maha Sakhis, Laxman, Bharat, Shatrughan, and Balram are Swansh. Since eternity, they are endowed with all the powers of God and are governors of Personal power (Swaroop Shakti) of the Supreme God. Swaroop Shakti is the supreme power of God. All forms of God are governors of Swaroop Shakti. They are not different from the Supreme God.

Vibhinnansh are of 2 types - eternally free from Maya (Nitya Mukt) and eternally bonded (Maya Baddh). Both are part of God's intermediate power(Tatastha Shakti). Eternally liberated (Nitya Mukta) souls have never been under the control of Maya. Maya Baddh have been under the control of Maya since beginning-less time but don't need to remain so. They can practice devotion to become free from the bondage of Maya. After achieving liberation from Maya, they too will live in Golok along with God’s inseparable parts – the Swaansh. But they can never become Swaansh. They will forever remain Vibhinnasnh.

So, there are 2 types of souls. They are all parts of Shri Krishna. Some are part of Swaroop Shakti and others are part of Tatastha Shakti. Vibhinnash are governed by Maya, while Swansh are the governors of Yogmaya.

Maya and Yogmaya are two different entities. We are under the influence of Maya, hence our actions are governed by the three modes of Maya i.e. Celestial (Sattvik), Worldly (Rajas) and Demonic (Tamas). God and Saints work with the power of Yogmaya. They appear to be performing the actions of Maya like ordinary human beings, while being totally untouched by the effects and consequences of the various modes of Maya. Yog means to perform the work of Maya without losing one’s original personality. That is the miracle of Yogmaya. Maya on the other hand with its three modes of ignorance is enslaving, and is the cause of the bondage of a material being.

ब्रह्म या परतत्त्व अंशी, श्याम ही हैं प्यारे,
जग चराचर जीव याते, श्याम सेवक प्यारे ॥

brahma yā paratattva aṃśī, śyāma hī haiṃ pyāre,
jaga carācara jīva yāte, śyāma sevaka pyāre ॥

Guarang Mahaprabhu defined jiva as

जीवेर स्वरूप होय कृष्णेर नित्य दास

Jīvēra svarūpa hōya kr̥ṣṇēra nitya dāsa

"The individual soul is an eternal servant of Shri Krishna". Jiva did not become a servant one fine day; jiva is an eternal servant. Yet, having forgotten this eternal relationship, individual soul is forced to undergo the punishment of roaming in the cycle of birth and death. The living beings are found from earth all the way up to the Brahmlok, which is the most luxurious abode in the material realm. Some of those jiva are mobile or and some are immobile. All material beings, in all abodes, are servants of God. There are jiva in divine abodes like Golok, Vaikunth-lok, Durga-lok, Saket-lok, Shiv-lok. They are also Shri Krishna's servant. Only Shri Krishna is the Master of all.

दासभूतमिदँ तस्य, जगत्स्थावर जंगमम् । श्रीमन्नारयणः स्वामी, जगतां प्रभुरीश्वरः ॥
पद्म पुराण

dāsabhūtamidam̐ tasya, jagatsthāvara jaṃgamam। śrīmannārayaṇaḥ svāmī, jagatāṃ prabhurīśvaraḥ ॥
padma purāṇa

"Every living being is a servant of Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna is the one and only master"

Accepting this fact is one’s ultimate success. Just accept yourself to be a servant of Shri Krishna and you have nothing more to achieve.

What is the duty of a servant? To please the master! And pleasing the master means, doing everything exclusively for his pleasure. This is done only when one forsakes about one’s own preferences or happiness. A vague understanding around this concept is the biggest barrier in one’s life. A servant must go according to his master’s wish.

Even in the world, when a master or employer asks for something say a cup of tea or a particular file from the cabinet, if the servant were to bring sweets, the master might let the servant go. A servant must serve the master as per the wishes of the master. Serving according to one’s own desire is serving yourself not your master.

A Guru, disciple relationship is very similar. The true meaning of serving the Guru is to please Him by your loyal service. Do not serve the Guru as per your wishes or preferences. Simply follow the guru’s instructions without using your intellect. Since, it is the intellect that must be surrendered.

मय्येव मन आधत्स्व मयि बुद्धिं निवेशय |
निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशय: ||
गीता 12.8

mayyeva mana ādhatsva mayi buddhiṃ niveśaya |
nivasiṣyasi mayyeva ata ūrdhvaṃ na saṃśaya: ||
gītā 12.8

Our intellect has been ruining our lives since eternity. We have to manage our intellect by associating it with the intellect of our master. That’s why Lord Krishna said to Arjun in the Gita “Surrender your mind and intellect to me alone.” By far, we have been suffering from unnecessary stress and tensions due to our intellect.

Hence, the only duty of a servant is to serve the master and service means to work for the pleasure of the master only. Memorize this and remember it forever. Incorrect understanding of this concept is the only reason of our failure. We want our master to go as per our choice. For example one disciple requests his Guru to eat a rasgulla. The Guru feels uncomfortable in eating sweets. The disciple insists with the Guru and even quotes the line of Ramcharitra Manas to convince him to fulfill his request.

राम सदा सेवक रुचि राखी ।

rāma sadā sevaka ruci rākhī

"Lord Ram always honours the choice of His devotees."

What is this? You are trying to make your Guru obey your commands for your pleasure. It is a perverted behavior! Even the most well educated and highly qualified amongst you, make this mistake. It is a severe spiritual offence against your master. In a nutshell, your master’s wish should be your only wish.

धर्म सेवक है इहै बस, श्याम सेवा प्यारे

dharma sevaka hai ihai basa, śyāma sevā pyāre

Now the question arises, if we are an eternal servant of God then when and why did we start running towards worldly pleasures? And, why do we consider ourselves to be the body? This ignorance causes many other problems. For example, due to our belief that ‘I am the body’ we start considering ourselves to be a Punjabi, Gujrati, Bengali etc. and then - I am Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya etc. and then I am an Engineer, Collector, Commissioner etc. These are the names of your of state, caste and profession respectively. Who are you? We have forgotten our true identity. The moment we realize our true identify that I am the soul, all these problems will cease to exist. We will then be able to understand that material matters can never make the divine soul happy. Just like ears can only hear and not see even with the help of a telescope, because, visual objects are not the subject of the ears; similarly material matters cannot satisfy the desire of the divine soul? Hence, the subject of soul is only divine bliss of Lord Ram or Krishna. This understanding will result in cessation of ignorance. For example a girl, who always considers her parents home to be her very own, gets immediately detached from them after being married and becomes totally attached to her husband's property. This sudden detachment from her parent’s house happened only because she understood the fact that now her desires will only be fulfilled by her husband. Now, if her husband’s car is stolen she starts crying, saying that her car has been stolen. In the same manner, we have been eternally attached to worldly matters because of the misconception that we will surely attain happiness by material matters. This perverted faith did not develop in one day. Ved Vyas Ji says that this has existed since eternity.

भयं द्वितीयाभिनिवेशत: स्यादीशादपेतस्य विपर्ययोऽस्मृति: ।
तन्माययातो बुध आभजेत्तं भक्त्यैकयेशं गुरुदेवतात्मा ॥
भागवत 11.2.37

bhayaṃ dvitīyābhiniveśata: syādīśādapetasya viparyayo'smṛti: ।
tanmāyayāto budha ābhajettaṃ bhaktyaikayeśaṃ gurudevatātmā ॥
bhāgavata 11.2.37

Now it has to be redirected towards God. How? This verse says that you should consider your Guru to be equivalent to God and to be your soul. And then practice devotion to Lord Krishna. See the same verse is telling about the reason of being averse from God since eternity. Now it says about remedy that after being surrendered to God just once, one cannot turn away from Him. Since Maya cannot overcome God just as the dark cannot overcome the light. Surrender to God of one time is good for ever.

Whenever we will accept the fact that God is happiness, thus He is the only source of our happiness, we will immediately turn towards Him being naturally detached from the world.

सदा पश्यति सूरयः ।
वेद

sadā paśyati sūrayaḥ ।
veda

So, we must confirm this knowledge firmly in our mind forever that Maya did not overcome the soul one day. Rather all the individual beings are controlled by Maya since eternity. But one can surrender himself to God anytime. After that Maya would go forever along with the three modes, five agonies of mind (Panchklesh) and so on.