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According to me verse 7 ishoupanishada, can help me enhance my Krsna consciousness because it has change my perspective about the concept of 'ekatvam'. It gave me an understanding of rising from the mistaken oneness to real oneness.
Verses 7- One who always see all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with supreme lord, becomes a true knower of things. What , then can be illusion or anxiety for him.
Complete Realization of ekatvam
My understanding-
The example given in the purport is of the drop and the ocean. The quantity of salt present in the drop is never comparable to quantity of salt present in complete ocean, but the salt present in drop is qualitatively equal in chemical composition to all the salt present in ocean.
Similarly, there are 2 aspects to ekatveam, that is oneness in quality with absolute truth and second being the subordination in quality with absolute truth. Though considering that oneness in quality with absolute truth bring detachment from worldly things but at same time it is breeding ground for pride to flourish, which can ruin the devotion. This is the common blunder by impersonalist school. But the other aspect, subordination in the quantity of absolute truth brings humility and this path of devotion. Caitany caritamrita states that jivera swaroop haye nityare Krsna das. Once we cultivate this humility than detachment follows and hence this being the safe path to save our bhakti.
Even in shistashtakam by Caitanya Mahaprabhu, have first talked about trinadepe sunuchaine... in verse 3, that is cultivating the mood of humility first than in verse 4, he talks about detachment, na dhanam na janam na sundaram.... Progressively following these verses make us reach towards kirtanaye sada hari, the ahitukey bhakti.
So, first comes humility which attach us to Krsna and gives us higher taste than detachment becomes easy.
Application for my Krsna consciousness-
The pandava nirjal ekadashi is very difficult for me to follow and I always struggle staying without water. And since my husband kept it swiftly, it made me feel bit envious of him. So gone Pandava ekadashi, I benched it nirjala but the day went in sleeping and just distracting myself in useless things. So for the hack of doing it, I did it and for subsequent days basked in the glories of my achievement, wasting valuable time which I could have utilize cultivating my Krsna consciousness. Now, with this new found wisdom I plan to keep ekadashi on fruits and water and use that time reading scriptures, chanting more rounds of japa and avoiding distraction in form of gossips or useless you tube videos. By connecting to krsna will serve my purpose of keeping ekadashi more than my show off austerity to stay without water. Maybe in near future, I could get that higher taste of Krsna consciousness that detachment comes automatically. But at the moment I have understood to focus more on reading and chanting.
Ekatvam- Between the energy and energetic there is sense of oneness
My understanding-
According to the purport of this verse it states with the example , although from analytical point of view heat and light are different from fire, but there is no meaning to word fire without heat and light. In synthesis, therefore heat, light and fire are same.
The further elaboration to this example is given by Jiva Goswami, who points towards diversities in this apparent oneness from the example of sun. Sun have the fiery radiance around it's orb and that it have rays coming out of it and than there is reflection of sun in river. Although everything depend upon the sun but the gradation of heat and light emitting from them is different. The orb would be very hoy and fierce as compared to the rays emitting from sun and the reflection though carrying the heat of the sun would have least energy of all. Replacing the sun God as Krsna, the fiery orb as the svarup shakti or antaranga shakti or internal potency, rays for tathasta shalti, marginal potency or we jeevas and the reflection by bhairanga shakti or external potency or material energy, we get the understanding that although everything depend on Krsna but still there is gradation of the energies. Internal potency can bring us closer to krsna and the external potency can take us away from krsna and as being the marginal potency, the jeeva shakti, we have a choice to make. Although apparently everything is dependent on Krsna.
Application for my Krsna consciousness
People argue that every spiritual path in form of different religious beliefs would take you to same goal, as everything has been created by god and would lead to him. With this new understanding of Ekatvam, I feel there may be various roads by which one can reach the top of mountain and there maybe apparent oneness that all these roads leading to the mountain but still they are not all same, some one would be short cut, some would be long one, some would have lots of obstacles while taking it and some would be more conducive than others for journey and some may never reach the top and end abruptly. Thinking of this oneness and everything created by lord, I used to be distracted by my friends practising meditation , yoga, art of living courses and used to indulge in them and getting astray from my KC path, thinking I am following a spiritual path whatever I take. But with this new found gradation of energies and having the understanding that only by taking the shelter of internal energy represented by our Gurus and acharyas, can quickly take me to my destination rather than wasting time on hit and trial methods of other paths under the impression of so called oneness. Therefore I have made an habit of listening to lectures of my Guru maharaj HH Jayapataka Swami maharaj everyday without fail. So that I remain focus towards my goal. As Srila Prabhupada used to say everyone is dancing in rasa dance, someone dance directly [under shelter of internal potency], some dances indirectly {under the shelter of material energy} but everyone is dancing.
Ekatvam- See full picture of oneness
My understanding-
The complete picture of oneness is not only seeing unity in diversity but also seeing diversity in unity. The first step of spiritual realization is that beyond this diversities in this world like brahman, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra, seeing unity, that everyone is spiritual spark, panditah sam darshana... But at same time in this spiritual unity there is variety of individual soul who have a unique and individual relationship with Krsna. The ekatvam is that all these spiritual soul love krsna and take delight in krsna but in their own individual unique way.
For example in canto 10 of srimad bhagvatam in chapter 31, gopi geet, depicts intense love of gopis for Krsna. It is sung by gopis when Krsna disappear from rasa dance. Although the gopis have intense longing for Krsna and in these prayers they intend to call him back , which shows their unity. But at the same time the entire chapter is like symphony of prayers sung by different gopis according to their individual mood, some prayers were sung by Lalita, some by Vishakha , some by Indulekha, showing the diversity in their unity. Therefore meaning that Ekatvam is not just bareness of oneness but fertile land of reciprocation.
Application for my Krsna Consciousness
I used to feel that the kirtanyas are very dear to Lord as they can make lord happy with their sweet melodies , therefore I used to belittle myself for not having singing qualities. But with this understanding I know every service done with loving devotion, how menial it may be, is accepted by Lord. As a self taken service of preaching my patients to go vegetarian some way or the other, whether scaring them because of their disease, quoting from scriptures or scientific journals, I used to think it to be negligible service in front of those magnanimous kitanayas. But now with this new found conviction that it's my unique way to plough a sattvik ground in my patients as being the doctor, I have gained confidence to preach them about hari naam mantra meditation too. To some like minded people I gifted beads to chant and Bhagvad Gita to read. And when I get positive reviews and how their life is changing for good, it gives me more conviction, confidence and content in my Krsna Consciousness.
Ekatvam- Dynamic relationship of meeting not merging together.
My understanding-
The river ocean metaphor is wrongly decoded by impersonalist that as river ultimately merges in ocean similarly we living sparks are like river that will finally merge in absolute truth. But the real ekatvam about this metaphore is explained by devotees like Queen Kunti prayers, who in SB 1.8.42 says that let my consciousness flows towards the lord as Ganges flow towards the ocean. That in reality, is not merging but a dynamic meeting that take place between the devotee and the lord. According to Srila Vishvanath Chakarvarty Thakur, when river flows towards the ocean, nothing holds the river back as there may be obstacles in the path of river but still river makes his way towards the ocean. And at same time river hold nothing back as it surrender all it water to the ocean. Similarly when devotees consciousness flows towards Krsna than nothing can hold the devotee back and devotees hold nothing back.
The dynamic of Ekatvam is that when two people love each other intensely, they may be two individual but one in heart. And even if they are staying away, there is constant meeting of Heart. Same was case of yagnic Brahmin wives who when asked by Krsna to go back to their Brahmin husbands argued that once river have left mountains how it can go back to the mountains. Krsna explained them, that we have become one in hearts and he would always stay with them.
Application for my krsna consciousness
So this understanding cures my anxieties of frequent of having no physical devotee association and going to the temple because of frequent lockdown situation post covid 19 pandemic. Thinking that I have lost devotee association, my krsna consciouness will dip and taking virtual association not as potent as the physical one, I was quiet troubled in my mind. But now that since nothing can keep devotee away from krsna as nothing can stop river, therefore the way I utilized this lock down period of constant remembrance of Krsna by attending virtual lectures , virtual festvals like rath yatra, janmasthtami, Radha ashtami, etc and starting this Bhakti shastri course counts. And with this enlightment about Ekatvam I am also learning the concept of Manas seva too that can really help my krsna consciousness. In bhagvad gita 5.17 states, when a devotee offer everything to the lord than he swiftly goes back to godhead. Therefore understanding that devotees hold nothing back from the lord, like river hold nothing back from ocean, so I am utilizing this period of lockdown by serving my home deities by cooking lavishly for the, growing my own flowers in my garden and reading srimad bhagvatam to them. Some how other trying to show my sincerity and commitment to the instructions of my Guru maharaj and krsna. Surely and certainly but gradually it will enhance my consciousness towards Krsna.
Anupasyate ekatvam- Seeing oneness with jnana chakshu
My understanding
Srila Prabhupada says that seeing Ekatvam is not difficult to see as when the light is off everything may seem same in darkness. But when the lights are turned on than only we can distinguish things and see how we can spiritulize them, learning the concept of yukta vairagya. We can't whitewash every material thing to be spiritual just in the name of applying the concept of ekatvam. We have to see with the knowledge of scriptures as well as follow the previous acharyas to have this understanding. For example only satvik food can be used to serve krsna and be prasadam, even though food is material. At same time poison is also material but can't be used for prasadam. At same time we can't reject all material things too. Many impersonalist philosopher rejects money as to be materialistic but Srila Prabhupada saw money as Laxmi and hence used Laxmi in service of Narayan. Srila Prabhupada demonstrated how to have spiritual vision.
The ABC of spiriual life is to distinguish based on knowledge that this material, this is spiritual. Like having the understanding that I am not material body but spiritual soul and hence shouldn't be caught in this material world. But at same as we advance we have to develop the spiritual vision to discriminate what material can be used in service of lord and can be spiritualize. Like Srila Prabhupada used modern technology for service of Lord in form of Dictaphone. Seeing everything spiritual means seeing everything with spiritual Vision. And because of this spiritual Vision Srila Prabhupada saw Americans as forgetful suffering souls pulled by modes of passion and ignorance and covered by strong coverings of maya. He saw the potential in them that one day they can also become the devotee and serve Krsna. He saw the spiritual spark in them and guided them in best possible way for each of them to somehow connect to krsna.
Application for my krsna consciousness
Sometimes when you are frustrated due to work pressure, you think of quitting your job and that's what I was thinking to do too. But now I can understand that how I can use my profession as private practitioner in service of krsna by preaching my patients as it was advised by my Guru Maharaj, HH Srila Jayapataka Swami, that apart from being the doctor of body , be a doctor of soul too. So instead of seeing my patients as physically diseased I can also try diagnosing their bhav rog, disease of material existence by knowledge of scripture and help them some way to come closer to the supreme doctor Krsna by preaching them about Krsna consciousness in my unique way of giving them medical perspective on verses of bhagvad gita. Sitting in the chair of doctor, maybe few listen to me seriously and paves their way back, back to godhead. It will not only help me to fulfil the instruction of my Guru maharaj but also give me an opportunity to share his burden of preaching forgetful soul. It will keep me connected to my guru maharaj and via him to krsna too.
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