It has been a long time since I blogged last. Here is a piece which I mailed in Nov, and now blogging it.
Here is a subject which I hope you will all empathize with. This is something which has been occupying my mind for a couple of days & thought I should share.
One of the meaning of the word "Samkalpam" is a "this is good & likely to give me happiness" kind of a feeling in ones mind. (Kind of feeling in Sanskrirt is "bhaavam" - meaning innate natural disposition!!)
This samkalpam (more precisely a statement of intent) being a de rigueur for any karma I do, had been a kind of discomfort and I have poured out my feelings in many a piece in the blog, & which got a kind of "Samaadhaanam" after I wrote a piece about a Gita sloka, where the Lord talks about discarding all samkalpams, & which also gets reflected in my poem about "kaashi".
Sorry I am digressing.
There is a word "Arul" in Tamil which to my mind has really no parallel in English - the closest is "Grace". The Samskrit word based on my research (!!!) is "preethi".
Every Samkalpam as you are aware starts with "parameswara preethyartham" - which (contrary to a general interpretation meaning "for HIS pleasure") actually translates to "For His "Arul" or Grace"..... & Grace for what? For a speedy decay of all accumulated "cause-effect" paradigm resulting in this birth as Gulpa, Jinji, Swati & Vichu etc.
The samkalpam is thus probably very logical, but the problem is, when this extends beyond "speedy decay of prarabda" to the realms of giving me riches, progeny, happiness galore......The former helps in (a) detaching myself from "accrual of a result from the karma", & (b) retaining that excellent Bhava that HIS arul is needed to get over the Cause -effect cycle & to re-merge with HIM. (Karma is that of the mind & not the body is a rough translation of a Upanishad Vaakhyam and thus Bhavam is very important.) The latter however bogs me down to this material world with repeated encore of birth-death-rebirth cycle.
But as & when I reach a stage of paripakkuam & be in that state of awareness of my eternal oneness with HIM, even this "Seeking HIS grace" to rid me of my prarabda kind of samkalpams ceases to have any meaning....
This state of awareness is incidentally one of the meaning of the word "Yoga". Lord Krishna is perpetually in this yoga, yet He says that he was in yoga when He delivered HIS Gita to Arjun.....(does that mean that even for the Lord when He is in an Avatar form, He is bound by the Dharma of a Mortal?) ......No wonder "Gita" is indeed a fascinating song........
Do I make sense?
Love & may GOD bless.
Vichu
Narasimhan's Comments:
ReplyDeleteI too have expressed my wonder to you as to how the tiny individual soul could declare an intent to "bring pleasure or to gratify Parameshwara". I find your conclusion that preethyartham actually means " For His Grace" puts eases this discomfort, specially when it is read with " samasta duritakshayadwaara" preceding it. The full translation would now read, " thru the process of dimunition/removal/destruction( kshayam) of my duritam( that which is sinful in me) I seek the Grace
l
Great.
ReplyDeleteI thought wrongly that "duritha" meant Speedy .... Stand corrected Thanks.
Upaatha Samastha duritham ..... would it mean all those sins that have "come visiting" me ? ( Adayappatta ) is the tamil translation given "Not acquired/not committed, not accumulated, but those that have adhered to me kind...".
Which probably gives "prarabdham a big say.....& to say that those are also HIS will & HIS grace alone will remove it? A clear Drama......
Just giving a free reign to my imagination....
Love
Vichu
ReplyDeleteNarasimhan's Comments Contd....
The full translation would now read," I take a resolve to eradicate (kshayam) my duritam(that which is sinful) for the sake of obtaining His Grace". However it could also be taken to mean what is commonly understood as" I will ........to please or gratify Him for the sake of obtaining His Grace" as nothing would please God than the individual soul making such an enlightened sankalpam and He would shower His Arul. Thus your interpretation of sankalpam isn't necessarily "contradictory" to the popular understanding as long as the karma, any karma, is prompted by an intention to cleanse oneself to deserve His Grace.
Now the elaborate sankalpams may be redundant in the sense that we do not have to spell out what we are seeking through His Grace since He is the One that is entreating Himself from within us. But Not in the sense that the goal of all karma should only be the exalted state of re-merging with Him. Dasharatha must have stated his purpose without hesitation when he did his putra kaameshti yaaga just as Shankarachaarya's parents must have done too. Hindu kings have done it for their kingdoms as well as their subjects. Long sankalpams will therefore remain. They will drop off though as we spiritually mature, at least in bhaavam while the ritual may continue. I would not want to project my evolution beyond this stage for now.
Finally I find Prasaadam as being closest to Arul. All pooja sankalpams say, "(the respective diety) prasaada sidhyartham". If I am asked to rephrase our sankalpams I would say,"samasta duritakshayadwaara Shree Parameshwara prasaada sidhyartham". I would have spoken my mind.
God bless us all.
The meaning given in a website on Sanskrit -English dictionary for "Preeti" & "Prasaad" are as follows:
ReplyDeletePreeti : Friendly disposition, Kindness, Favor, Grace, Prasad : Cleanliness, brightness, purity, absence of excitement, Graciousness, Kindness, Aid, Mediation
There seems to be no special preference for "prasaad" instead of "preeti" . My take is you seek His preeti in sankalpam, & get His Prasd at the end. (Prasaadam sweekaromi is said in the last, not Preetim sweekaromi. I may be romanticizing though.
Love Vichu
Just another thought on samkalpam etc. One of the meanings of Upaatta is "begun". When upaatta is prefixed to samastha duritha would probably point out out to "praabdham" ..... So Nitya karmaa is to seek His Grace to eradicate the "prarabdham" which has led to this janma ..... It is not unusual that you seek dharma artha kaama moksha sidhyartham after saying parameswara preethyartham....in specific rituals, meaning get rid of "prarabdha" & get other boons up to final Mokshaa etc... Am I making sense....?
ReplyDelete