Hari OM
Application - that is what 'Workings-days' are about!
Having called upon the Lord to provide a 'boat' of safety for us, how are we to steer it?
Maa Ôa]< [i[pu{yan! ][mip _avtae _ai´hInan! pdaBje
Maa ïaE;< ïaVybNx< tv cirtmpasyaNydaOyanjatm!,
Maa Sma;R< maxv Tvamip _auvnpte cetsapûuvanan!
Maa _aUv< TvTspyaRVyitkrrihtae jNmjNmaNtre=ip.15.
Maa draaksham kshiina-punyaan kshanam-api bhavato bhaktihiinaan padaabje
Maa shrausham shraavyabandham tava charitam-apaasyaanyad-aakhyaana-jaatam,
Maa smaarsham maadhava tvaam-api buvana-pate chetashaapahnuvaanaan
Maa bhuuvam tvat-saparyaa-vyatikara-rahito janma-janmaantare'pi ||15||
O Maadhava! Even for a moment let me not see those who have shrinking merits with no devotion to your lotus feet; let me not hear any poetry that has other content than your story. O Lord of the Universe! Let me not remember those who abandoned you in their heart! In life after life, let me not become one who is denied the opportunity to worship you.
In scribing this verse, the king-guru echoes and honours one of the great invocation shanthi-paths of the Sanskrit oeuvre. If anyone thinks that to be a bhakta is to have blind faith, they must think again! Far from being blind, we must be alert to that which would distract or mar our connection with the Higher. We must see and hear and smell and touch only that which can be seen to be of that Truth. This then takes us back to shreyas and preyas, the trigunas, and understanding how our senses and desires can deceive us. What is more, it is best to seek the company of those who at least appreciate our bhakti, even if they do not necessarily have the same ardour as ourselves. To be among those who actively condemn and jeer and curse that faith would be deflating indeed.
This verse, then, is a call for purity. However, this is not to be understood in the sense of condemnation of those other things. This risks us becoming bigots in our own right. Everything is of the Higher, remember! Even that which is excreted from our bodies. What is expected is that we will understand that all this must exist and go through its process. Those who live low lives in this existence may have karma which results in sainthood in the next life - or even this one. We are not to know this. All that we can be responsible for is our part and action in the world, and it is up to us to live as high values as we are able. Having devotion and riding the 'boat of the Lord' should make this somewhat easier for us.
How are we to respond to those who would decry our faith? Science proves faith! Men had faith that the moon could be reached - then they worked towards that end. Higgs et al. had seen things going on in the universe which suggested something at work which could not be seen. They posited a theory, offered the workings of it, but not until some forty years later did the particle known as the boson make an appearance. The faith of the physicists was based upon past observation coupled with experience and coloured with a projection of likely outcomes. This is no less the case with the Rsis of antiquity. Vast intellects who observed experienced and had posited the likely conclusion… that there is a force far beyond our current state of measurement, but which can be perceived by the most subtle and fantastic instrument of all time. The very Consciousness by which we ask the question in the first place. To work our way back to that, we must clear away as much of the detritus of the world that we can.
