Srikrishna Narayana

The Gopikas continued, “O Lord, deluded by your illusion, all the living entities are filled with feelings of ‘I and mine’ and are rotating in the path of fruitive activities”.

I, mine, my wish, my children, my will, my word is law, my children should abide only by my dictates, I have given birth to these children- in absolute foolishness, the person latches on to these wrongful notions of ‘I and mine’. These feelings of ‘I and mine’ – are the root for all fruitive activities and bondages. This is the worst disease that has caught hold of living entities. These wrongful feelings cause the person to rotate in the cycle of fruitive activities.

“O Lord, being foolish I too have considered this illusionary body, children, house, spouse, wealth, my relatives, my agricultural fields and other such objects to be real. I have been deluded completely”.

People say- my children. Who in reality is your child? Who was whose child in another birth do you know? Do you have any idea whose father you were in another birth? Do you know to whom you were a mother in another birth? Whom will you father in another birth? Do you think that these children in this birth will follow you to another birth? Do you think that your relatives of this birth will come back as your relations in another birth? There is a famous verse in which the poet says- I have no idea of the innumerable births I have taken thus far. We are taking births in innumerable wombs – at times as a fox or a dog and so on.

For this reason, at times suddenly feelings of affection arises in us towards strangers whom we come across during our train or air journeys. While standing in some queue or in a theatre we get drawn towards certain strangers. There are some who fall in love with strangers whom they meet in trains or in queues and decide impulsively to get married to them. Such impulsiveness takes them towards ruin. Can this sudden attraction be described as love? Never. It is at best a temporary friendship, purely temporary acquaintances. Can the person who safeguards your mobile when you dip into the river for a bath, or the person who stands behind you in a queue be addressed as your family? Is it right to follow them and allow ourselves to be cheated by them?

It is the same with life too. We have no idea who were our children in our earlier lives. We do not have any idea of the total children we have had across births.

Don’t you feel ashamed of seeking to be born again and again? Do you have any idea of your address in your past birth? Do you have any idea where you will take birth in future? Do you know your future mobile number? Can you go from home to home trying to find your address of your past life? Can you go to any home and declare that you were its owner in your past life? The person who makes such claims will be instantly admitted into a mental hospital. Can you go to strangers and declare to them that they were your relatives in your past life? Can you run behind the donkey merely because it was your aunt in your past life? If the Lord had to bless you all with the memory of your past lives, you would have gone crazy. What would be our fate if we were to recognise the stray dog as our spouse in one of our earlier lifetimes?

For this reason, the Lord has fixed a tape recorder which has only the required intelligence. He has fixed it deep within a hard outer covering known as the skull. If that tape recorder fails, as in coma, it is the end. Only the life force remains, but for all practical purposes the person is no longer alive. He would be artificially kept alive through aid of ventilators and tubes. It is addressed as a coma state when, in reality the person is as good as dead. Of what use is such life?

When a person falls off a two-wheeler, the first organ to be checked is the brain. Doctors make sure there is no brain injury. All other organs can be substituted with plastic organs but not the brain. The whole body can be substituted with plastic pieces, but it is on the strength of the intelligence and brain that we sustain. If the brain is handled wrongly, the person loses complete memory. During accidents, when the brain is damaged the person forgets even his name. he fails to recognise the people closest to him. Such fine memory and intelligence the Lord has packed within our brain. Using that intelligence you are behaving as you please. ‘My family, my prestige, my name, my watch, my daughter, my grandson or my grand-daughter’ – we are eternally screaming in this manner.

‘My chappal, my dress, my house, my niece, my nephew, my uncle, my family, my wife, my son’ – in these wasteful feelings of ‘me and mine’ we rotate endlessly. Do you realize how deep you have sunk in this illusion? You are so possessive of that slipper, yet, how will you react the day it tears? You will simply throw it away. You were so possessive of that dress, but the day it faded what did you do? You discarded it. What happened to your mobile which stopped functioning?

Trapped in this delusion and believing them to be our owned goods, we falsely consider them to be real. Can you take your beloved body or your cherished home with you upon death? For years, you have been admiring your body standing in front of the mirror. Do you realize that one day or the other you have to leave it behind? If you accept that you will leave it, when why are you getting trapped with attachments now?

The only possession we have is Self-knowledge. It is the only one which takes us closer to God. Remember that only your good and bad deeds will accompany you upon death. These relatives will accompany only till the crematorium. Thereafter we have to travel alone. When you leave will you carry this address with you so that you can return here later on? You do not know into which womb you will fall. Once again in that birth you will begin-‘my body, my house, my family…’

Please listen to this attentively, else it cannot be grasped. My words are very harsh, but yet when heard attentively the message can be grasped. Everything visible to these eyes is bound to disappear one day or the other.

Narayana Narayana