Sivaratri Talk -Upasana Yoga (10/03/2013)

In our tradition, our scriptures have given us several spiritual and religious sadhanas for daily practice. Among all these practices there is one practice that is very important, useful, and very efficacious. And that is upasanam or upasana. It is so important and presented in the Vedas as upasana kandam. And one ashrama, the vanaprastha ashrama, is specially designed for practice of Upasana.

            The word “Upasana” literally means “staying or sitting near”. It says staying near or in proximity but does not say staying near what? We are supposed to fill up properly. We should not interpret it as staying near television or staying near Naivedyam; it should be understood as staying near God. Ishwarm Upa Asanam (Asnam means staying or sitting, Up means near, and Ishwaram is God). This Upasana is also known as “Upa vasah” (Vasah means staying). So if the devotee wants to stay near with the Lord on special occasions like Sivaratri day, Vaikunda Ekadasi etc the entire day, he/she will not have time even for eating food.  Therefore by the implied meaning of “Upa vasah” began to mean “not eating food.” Upa vasah means staying near the Lord that we don’t have time for cooking food, or eating, or visiting New Woodlands hotel! We want to spend the whole time with the Lord. This proximity (of staying near the Lord) has two dimensions; one is physical proximity and the other is mental proximity. Physical proximity is doing puja or visiting temples; but more important is mental proximity, by which I mean, the mind dwells on the thoughts of the Lord. Mentally dwelling on the thoughts of the Lord is mental Upvasah Between physical proximity to the Lord and mental proximity to the lord, which is important? Mental proximity is considered more important and efficacious. I could be in the temple and mind may be dwelling on the tasty “panjamritham” mentally! Therefore manasa upavasah is more efficacious than just physical. Even the scriptures declare that among Kaeeka, Vachika, and Manasa activities, mental one is the most powerful. Even in Japa they talk of three types; one is vocal and loud repetition of the mantra (Vachika Japa), the second is whispering repetition (Upanshu Japa), and the third is mental repetition (Manasa Japa). We may consider loud chanting as spending more energy but Sastra says that “Manasa Japa” is Uthamam. What I want to emphasize here is “mental proximity to the Lord” is very important aspect of Upasanam.

            This Upasana, our elders, prescribe as a regular activity. Not just for one day in a year like Sivaratri but a daily Nitya Karma. The daily practice of Sandhya Vandanam is considered to be the most important Upasana. Therefore Ishwara Upasanam is considered to be Nitya Karma where I enjoy the presence of the lord or thoughts of the Lord in my mind. There is this story of a Nayanmar that Swami Dayananda loves; among the 63 Nayanmar there was a Nayanmar who was a great Siva Bhakta by name Pushalar or someone. He built a temple for Siva mentally. The Nayanmar built a temple in the mind while parallelly a local king was building a most expensive temple. The King fixed the time of Kumbhabisekham; Lord Siva appeared in the dream of the king and said his appointment on that day was already booked. The Lord also has a dairy and HE also has bookings and appointments; My bhakta is doing a Kumbhabisekham and that is very important for ME and therefore you change the date. The King’s ego was hurt: I have spent so much money and how can the Lord give importance to someone else. Then the king asked,” Where is this temple?” and the Lord gave him the address, somewhere in the outskirts of Chennai. The king visited that place and found nothing. He found the Nayanar and when the king queried about the temple, the Nayanmar said,” I have built the whole temple in my heart and I have fixed the Kumbhabisekham.” That is when the king realized that Manasam is more powerful and efficacious than Vachikam and Kaeekam. Therefore this manasa upasanam is one of our Nitya Karma. But unfortunately Sandhya Vandanam is now an endangered species; many people who are supposed to do don’t even know the mantras. Sandhya Vandanam can be replaced by Ishwara Upasanam like manasa puja. What is the daily Upasanam that is prescribed by the scriptures? The purpose of Upasanam is to refine ourselves both externally and internally, which is called a samskara karma. There are 41 samskarams in the scriptures and one of them is the Upasanam. The word “samskara: is defined as “dosha appanayanaka purvah guna adharam” – removing the impurities both externally and internally and adding more virtues. As the 16^th chapter of the Bhagawad Gita “Asureem Sampath elimination” “Daiveem Sampath acquisition” is “Samskarah”. According to the scripture “Samskaras” are required and the ultimate stage of spiritual and religious life is “offering ourselves unto the Lord”. Initially we offer various things to the Lord in the form of naivedyam, bananas etc but the ultimate stage (which is the ninth stage of Bhakti) is “Atma Nivedhana Roopa Bhakti”. You would have heard the sloka: sravanam kirtanam visnoh smaranam pada-sevanam arcanam vandanam dasyam sakhyam atma-nivedanam; varieties of expressions of Bhakti and the ultimate stage is the bhakta does not exist separate from Bhagawan. As we saw in Taittiriya Upanishad, Bhagawan-Bhakta division must be removed. Dwitha Bhaki must culminate in Advaitha Bhakti in which the devotee offers himself to the Lord. And if I have to offer myself, I must purify. Like if we are offering flowers in a puja we must clean all the flowers. Not only physical cleaning but also spiritual cleaning like sprinkling “Bhur Bhu Sua Om”. If I am to offer myself to the Lord, I must likewise refine myself. Nitya Upasanam is self-refinement to make myself fit to offer myself to the Lord. Ishwara Sayukyam Ikyam.

            The next question is “How do I know I getting refined or not?” What are the indications of spiritual, religious refinements? In our dharma sastra the indications are given. These Nitya Upsana must refine me and confer me with Asta Atma guna; by following Upasana one will get eight fold virtues. The practice of Upsana is called “Upasana Yoga”. When I do upasanam for worldly benefits it is called “Sakamam” but with objective is to refine myself and offer myself to the lord it is “Nishkama Upasana yoga”. What are the eight virtues we have to develop?

            Daya is the first virtue – consideration for other people or being aware of other’s difficulties. That sensitivity for others is first guna. The second is Skhesma; patience. Whenever I want things done, I can use violent method also. Or by non-violence also. By shouting at people and threatening people, I can get things done. That Sastra says violence is not good; always try to get things done in a pleasant non-violent method. Violent method should only be the last resort. That means I should have lot of patience. You can point a gun at someone, and they will immediately comply. But non-violent methods require patience. Therefore to have daya you must have skhesma. The third is “anasuya” – not having jealousy on seeing the prosperity and progress of others. The fourth is “Shaucham” that is having purity at thought, word, and deed level. My motives are always noble. Then the fifth is “Anaayasah” – enjoying a disposition always which is calm and quiet at physical, mental and vocal levels. The sign of a calm disposition in the mind is a relaxed body language; my words at the vocal level reflects calmness and gentleness. You can request someone to stay away in a calm manner or you can get agitated and yell, “Get away.” Anything we can say gently or rudely. So if I can be gentle in my body language, in my verbal language, and even at thought level; it is called “Anaayasah” or “Calm Disposition” (Ayasa Hinah) and chief benefit is freedom from stress and tension. The sixth virtue is “Karpanyam which is freedom from self-pity. All the time complaining “I am miserable, I am miserable”. Self-pity or low self-image is called “Karpanyam” which is what Arjuna felt in the first chapter of Gita. “I have one qualification and which makes me proud is that I am a bhakta of the Lord.” So freedom from self-pity or “Karpanyam” The seventh one is “Aspruhah” – freedom from greed and attachment. And the eighth and last one is “Mangalam”. The word”mangalam” means a pleasant and cheerful and endearing personality. People enjoy coming near me; just seeing me they will not run away. As I have always said: Some people give happiness wherever they go, some people give happiness when they go away. Meditate on this! So having a pleasant, cheerful, and endearing personality in spite of having problems! Everyone has problems and it does not mean that I have to distribute my misery to everyone around. This is called “mangalam” These eight virtues are called “Astau Atma Gunah” which makes me fit for “Atma rupa nivedhana bhakti”. These eight qualities must be developed through nitya ishwara upasana. Shivaratri day is an auspicious day to take a vow that “I will spend some time daily for Ishwara Upasana”. Not only will it refine, it will also give me physical and mental health. In fact your BP will come down, you can test. Without medicines you can eliminate blood pressure.

            Then the next question is “how do I practice upasana”. Several methods are mentioned in the scriptures. And one method is “manasa puja” which is a beautiful and convenient form of upasana which does not involve the physical body. Doing a puja requires a lot of physical fitness. And for most of us sitting itself is a project! Somehow they sit; most of them say,” Swamiji we don’t want to sit in front of you; so we don’t need a chair.” Then I will tell them,” Please sit in the chair. If you sit on the floor then I will have to lift you up.” …..(laughs) “So at least for my sake, take the chair.” So even a ritualistic puja many of us are not able to do; Sandhya Vandanam is a beautiful daily ritual and if you can do them, it is fine. But if cannot, then you can sit in any posture including an easy chair, we can do a “manasa puja” if you don’t doze off. And many of our Acharyas have written several “manasa puja slokams” on several deities. There is “devi manasa puja” and “Dakshinamurthy manasa puja” but the simplest and most beautiful one is “Shiva Manasa Puja” which is only five slokas.  Rathnai Kalpitham asanam, Himajalai snanam cha divyambaram Naana rathna vibhooshitham mruga madha modhanvitham Chandanam, today being Sivaratri, I wanted to quote this. Jathi champaka bilwa pathra rachitham, pushpamcha deepam Thada Deepam deva dayanithe pasupathe, hrud kalpyatham gruhyatham ll

You can mentally chant this sloka and visualize the Lord taking an asanam and the asanam made up of all precious stones. And you can do that because it is a mind thing!.......(laughs). You visualize the most expensive jewelry and mentally offer each one of them. Souvarne nava rathna Ganda Rachithe, pathre Grutham Payasam Bakshyam pancha vidam Payo dadhiyutham, rambha phalam panakam Saaka namayutham jalam ruchikaram, karpoora gandojwalam Thamboolam manasa maya virachitham Bhakthyo prabho sweekuru ll Chathram Chamarayoryugam vyajanagam, chaa darshakam nirmalam. All these are offered to you by devotion; may you kindly receive. Careful, you should not say: I am offering and may you accept them with devotion…..(laughs) because in Sanskrit the word “bhaktya” comes in the wrong place. We have a booklet and may you learn this simple sloka and then you can do a beautiful manasa puja which is equal to daily sandhya vandanam. Those of you who have taken “sanyasam” from Sandhya Vandanam can replace it with this beautiful manasa puja. After the third sloka the puja is over. The fourth sloka Aathma thwam Girija Mathi sahacharaa, prana sarreram gruham lPooja theey vishayopa bhoga rachana, nidhra samadhi sthithi l Sanchara padayo pradakshina vidhi, , sthothrani sarva giraa lYadyath karma karomi thathad akhilam, shambho thavaradhanam. At the end of the sloka we have to do “etha sthanam prateshtta payami” which means you have to send back the Lord to his original place. Then the question will crop up as to what is the original place of Bhagawan? You may think it is “Kailasa” but what the Sastra says would shock you,” the original place of Shiva is your very own heart only.” Yo veda nihitam guhayam parame vyoman so'snute sarvan kaman saha brahmana vipascita. So after the puja I install the Lord in my own heart. That means my body becomes a temple. I am carrying the Lord with me always. This bhavana is wonderful for throughout life, we have this sense of insecurity. Insecurity is one universal problem. It grows more and more when we are growing old. We want all the relations to be around us all the time. Paka Balam….(laughter) Unfortunately our present day lifestyle is such that all our relatives are scattered all over. Children are everywhere except near me! They are in America, Russia, Japan, Australia and only we oldies are left behind in India. You cannot even summon them for an emergency for flight itself takes 19 hours. By which time I will reach Kailasa itself…(laughter). We don’t have any support and Sastras says,” don’t rely on any local support”. They themselves are not sure of their lives. Therefore what is the best support? HAVE THE LORD IN YOUR HEART. Therefore I am always with Ishwara. Thereafter Kara charana krutham vaak kayajam karmajam vaa l Sravana nayanajam vaa maanasam vaa aparadham l Vihithamavihitham vaa sarva methath Kshamaswa l Jaya Jaya katunabdhe sri Mahadeva Shambho ll For the sake of our survival we often compromise with ethical and moral values. All the values are going away. Even those who wish to follow values complain to me,” O Swamiji, It is easy for you to preach. How does it matter to you?” …(laughter). We are regularly violating and we are regularly doing himsa (everyone has a mosquito bat at home and daily centuries!) All these are pappams and what Prayachitams we are doing? Sandhya Vandanam is a Prayachitam and that also we have renounced. We commit so many pappas and we don’t do Prayachitam it will take me more and more away from God. Therefore daily prayachitam is daily Upasanam, and very important. According to Sastra, Sandhya Vandanam must be done thrice a day. Even if you do once in the early morning, it is a very good practice. If anyone is not doing, you can start from tomorrow itself. Sandhya Vandanam is a wonderful spiritual and religious practice. It is called manasa puja.

            The second method of Upasanam is manasa parayanam. If we cannot do a puja, we can chant any slokam we know. But the chanting is also done mentally. What will happen if we chant vocally? The mouth will be chanting while the mind will be worrying. Because we know it by heart Jagath prabhum deva devam antham purushothamam I Sthuvan nãma sahasréna purusha saththo thithaha and we will be racing at the speed of a train. I know so many people do Bharatanatyam also while chanting! They even keep talking,” When did you come?” We will have conversations all over while chanting! So “manasa puja” is much more efficacious.

            The third one is “manasa japah”. Japa is taking any nama like “Om Namo Shivaya” or “Om Namo Narayanaya” or any word like “Maha Deviya Namah” and any mantra we can choose. We need not wait for initiation. People nowadays have different excuses. And one excuse is,” I have not been initiated.” Bhagawan HIMSELF is the best guru. We can get initiated by Bhagawan and take any nama and mentally chant. This is called Manasa Japah.

            And the fourth one is a very, very important Upasana which is vishwa rupa bhavanam. This is an integral part of all upasanam. In manasa puja parayanam etc we have a deity in front of us in the form of Siva linga or Saligrama or any moorties. But we should remember that these moorties only represent Bhagawan and that Bhagawan is in the form of the entire creation. According to Sastra the first avataram of Bhagawan is in the form of the world itself. This is the most beautiful and wonderful avatara because it is available throughout. If you read the translation of Sri Rudram, it says Lord, you are in the form of Akasha in Chidambaram, you are in the form of Vayu in Kalahasthi, you are in the form of Agni in Tiruvanammalai, you in the form of Jala Lingam in Tirivanni Kaval, you are in the form of Prithivi lingam in Kanchipuram” which means the Lord is the manifestation of five elements, panja bhootas. This Vishwa Rupa Ishwara Dyanam is the most important part of Upasanam. In Vishnu Sarashanam there is sloka is boo padam asura wilayah and in Sri Rudram we have the slokam “Jala Dara Kalasam Lingam Akasha Murthim” indicating the dome of the lingam is the sky. “Nakshtram Puspamalyam” what a beautiful description that all the stars are nothing but flowers on the Shiva Linga. graha ganda kusuma chandra vani arka natram, Kukshit Samudram Hima giri sayanam sapta pathala, vedam vaktram dasa dishi vadanam divya lingam navami. The ultimate lingam is vishwa rupa Ishwara. In the Vishnu Sahasranama the first name of Vishnu is “Vishwam” – the whole universe.  

This meditation is extremely important to eliminate two problems faced by all human beings. Those are “Ahamkara” and “Mamakara”. Ahamkara is claiming ownership of body and mind. And claiming a few things around is Mamakara, my car, my house, my new chapels. One of the worries in any function is “my new chapel should be there when I leave”. Nowadays people do “Chappel Dyanam” for it is very, very costly. That is why I chose “wooden” shoes….(laughter) but nowadays wooden shoes are becoming a fashion. Now I am worried whether I will lose my chapels. So Ahamkara and Mamakara is claiming Bhagawan;s property as mine. According to Sastras Ahamkara and Mamakara is trespassing in God’s territory. And Bhagawan’s is clear: trespassers will be prosecuted. Whoever claims “I” or “mine” is subject to prosecution. And this prosecution is samsara in the form of fear, worry, attachment and most of the negative emotions are born out of Ahamkara and Mamakara. Whenever you are anxious, ask yourself “about what”? Not the auto rickshaw of some person. Because in that auto rickshaw, I don’t have ahamkara and Mamakara. I only get anxious when “I” and “mine” are involved. Those can be weakened only by the Vishwa Rupa Ishwara dhyanam. That is why in the “arathi” there is Hindi prayer tan-man-dhan sub kuch tere. I am not the owner of anything. I am only the user of Bhagawan;s property. The Lord has given me everything for my temporary use. And Bhagawan can take away anything including the closest body without advance notice, not even a sms …..laughter. A person may go to sleep and never wake up. Therefore I have to replace “ownership” idea with “usership.” As Bhagawan is the owner of everything he is the controller of everything. I don’t have control over anything including my body; I don’t know whether my body will be in ICU or You See Me. We don’t know. But I do have a freewill and I can play an “influencing” part. I don’t have a controlling freewill except an influencing freewill. Bhagawan can give me any experience according to HIS will or HIS law of karma. Therefore future is a continuous experience of favourable and unfavourable situations. If at all I can ask Bhagawan, I can only ask,” O God, give me the courage to go through any blessed experience that you want me to go through.” If I am engaged in various projects, I cannot ask for success all the time. Because Bhagawan will not give what I ask but what I deserve according to the law of Karma. I tell Bhagawan that I prefer success but I immediately add; give me the courage to receive any experience that you want me to go through. I use Vishwa Rupa Ishwara Upasana to gain courage and strength. The most important resource we need is life is COURAGE and STRENGTH because life is a mixture of opposites. Sukha Dukha, Labha, labou etc.

      So Manasa puja, manasa parayanam, manasa japa and Vishwa Rupa Dyanam is to get courage and strength to face the day. I will take a sankalpa that I will follow the karma yoga way of life. I have talked about Karma Yoga in 2013 New Year speech,” Pancha Angani”. Mayi sarvani karmani sannyasa adhyatma cetasa nirasih nirmamo bhutva yudhyasva vigata jvarah. I will recapitulate: a)   Keep moksha as primary goal b)      Dedicate every action to the Lord as an offering. Every Karmaphallam comes from the Lord and everything is fair. There is no unfair karmaphallam in the world. Therefore I accept any karmaphallam as Ishwara Prasadam. c)      Keep OFF all the expectation from the mind. Replace expectations with seeking courage and strength to deal with any situation whether it is tallying me or not. d)  Always remember I am not the owner or controller, I am only the user and influencer. e)   Learn to say from your heart, you are willing and confident of going through every experience, any karmaphallam. That is, be equanimous. As given by Lord Krishna, I chant this verse and take a vow that I will follow. Krishna when says it means “you chant” and when we say it will become “Krishna you chant” so we will make a slight change mayi sarvani karmani ,  sannyasyadhyatma-cetasa, nirasir nirmamo bhutva,  yudhyasva vigata-jvarah. Mayi will change to Dwayi and Yudhyasva to Yudheya. I take a resolution that I will follow Karma yoga. If I practice this upasanam regularly, I will have peace of mind, I will have spiritual growth, and at the time of death I will not have puner janma but I will merge with Ishwara. This is very beautiful Nitya Karma and this Ishwara Upasanam every one of us should do. And my request is please follow Upasanam daily and preferably at the time of Sandhya on waking up. Let us have the grace of Lord Shiva for implementing this Upasana Yoga in our daily life.