Upadesa Sara
Notes from talks by Swami Advayananda, Chinmaya International Foundation
Talk 3: 22nd May, 2022
‘What is the need to pray, go to a temple or remember Bhagavan? All that matters is to do good work and make the world a better place to live. All well-intended actions will give the right results.’ Often we hear such statements especially from people who are involved in a lot of good work like working for social causes. In the first verse of Upadesa Sara, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi explains, why it is not sufficient to do good work to achieve the Supreme. In this talk, Swami Advayananda ji unpacks the arguments and thoughts about action, results, doership and the laws that govern them.
In the last talk we saw that even though the Purva Mimamsakas were following the Vedic rituals and actions sincerely, they didn’t have the means to come out to achieve the final goal – moksha. The reason was that in their entire scheme of action and result, they didn’t have Ishwara in it. The sequence was Karma – Apurva – Apurvaphala/Karmaphala with no place of Ishwara.
There is a relationship between KArya and KAraNa which is explained as: kArya niyata pUrva vritti kAraNa. Meaning: That which necessarily precedes action (karma/karmaphala/result) is cause. As seen in the earlier talk, Jyothisthoma yaga performed accurately results in attainment of swargaloka. A question that arises is that when the Jyothisthoma yAga has ended, how is it that the yajaman is not attaining swarga immediately? How is it that the Shastras say that the Jyothisthoma yAga give the result (the effect) when the yAgas (the cause) have ceased to exist? It is here that the Purva Mimamsakas introduce the concept of ‘Apurva’ which means ‘unique effect’ which functions as the ‘preceding cause’. Since the Apurva has been generated by a certain action, the action becomes the distant cause and Apurva (can be equated to ‘punya’) becomes the immediate effect that precedes the action. But in this law of cause-effect, when the Lord is out, there is no concept of moksha (liberation from bondage). In other words, the maximum that one can aim for is swarga (a certain type of state to revel in for some time) and not moksha.
Lord Shiva thought that there was essential goodness in the Tapasvis because they were performing the actions with utmost sincerity and their goals were noble. It was only that they had gone astray which is why they had become egoistic. Since there was an essential goodness in them they could be helped. Their focus had changed from moksha to attaining siddhis. Here, Swamiji takes a moment to explain Siddhis as exceptional accomplishments gained in the course of actions. Vedas being the storehouse of all types of knowledge, if we don’t have the right goal, we maybe misled into aiming for something that is not necessarily the best thing or maybe even wrong things to aim for. Here, one may feel why Vedas would give knowledge about wrong practices as well. We need to understand that knowledge is of all sorts. And Vedas being apaurusheya (that which has not been written by someone) but something that the rishis ‘saw’ (not necessarily through their eyes), it is doesn’t contain only the knowledge that a preceptor may preach.
The tapasvis of Darukavana were seeking pleasurable states (like swargaloka) by means of action but forgot that the pleasures in any loka would end because it has been created. These results cannot lead to fulfillment. When Lord Shiva demonstrated that by their actions they cannot achieve certain things, the Tapasvis realized their mistake. Here, Swami Advayananda ji says, “Action is not meant for bondage. Action is a stepping stone for liberation. Purpose of action is not just for fulfillment; it is meant for ‘chittashuddhi’. It is this guidance that the Tapasvis had lost. In order to give them (us) the direction to move forward in the process of evolution (which was their original goal), Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi brings Bhagavan into the picture of action.”
कर्तुराज्ञया प्राप्यते फलम् । कर्म किं परं कर्म तज्जडम् ॥ १॥
We perform an action to get Apuva. But who decides that? Did karma (action) decide that? Action is not sentient. It has been created by an individual. It can utmost be a support but not the master of the individual. Neither you, nor the action, can decide what the Apurva is. Then how can the action be supreme (as the Purva Mimasakas think) if it cannot decide what its result is? It is here that Bhagavan Ramana asks – Karma kim param: How is action the ultimate/supreme (when it cannot decide what its fruits should be)? Karma tajjadam: Action has no power to think, it is not sentient. How can such a thing decide the result of action?
Looking at the cycle of action, we see: Karta-Karma-Apurva-Phala-Karta. The karta (doer) performs karma (action) which gives a unique effect that acts as the preceding cause for the phala (result) that will be enjoyed by the karta (doer). But the karta in the first verse of Upadesa Sara under whose ajna (command) only the phalam is received is not the doer-karta. It is the Karta because of whom all these laws exist, the Creator of all these laws in whom these laws exist. But often, we forget about the Karta (with a capital K) and think that it is the karta (with a small k) who does all the amazing things. Here’s an anecdote from Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda ji’s life when he took the opportunity to drive this message to one of his devotees. Once Gurudev was invited to a devotee’s home for a bhiksha. The hostess offered him a sandwich and said that it’s an Italian sandwich she made. She probably wanted Gurudev to make note that she made something very special, so she repeated it 3-4 times. On that Gurudev exclaimed, “Oh wow! It was so good. What did you make in this sandwich? Was it the bread?”. She replied, “No, Swamiji. I bought the bread from a bakery.” “Then was it these vegetables?”, he asked. “No, Swamiji. I bought those from a vegetable vendor.” “Was it the butter or the sauces?”, And he continued with each and every ingredient of the sandwich to which she regretfully said ‘No’. “Then what exactly did ‘you make’ in this sandwich?”, Gurudev asked.
How many times do we get into this notion of ‘I being the doer’? How close are we to the Tapasvis of Darukavana? Bhagavan, with all his karuNa, keeps coming in different forms to remind us of this first verse of Upadesa Sara so that we get back on track and don’t forget about Ishwara in the scheme of things. Let us all see Bhagavan through all the actions that we do.
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