Spirituality Studies 10-1 Spring 2024 15 Michael James Even though one places whatever amount of burden upon God, that entire amount he will bear. [18] When God is effortlessly bearing the entire burden of the world and all the jīvas (Sa. “souls” or “living beings”) in it, why should we suppose that we have to bear any burden of our own? Therefore, as Bhagavan sings from the perspective of a devotee in verse 9 of Śrī Aruṇācala Padigam: Supreme, I am supreme among those who are destitute of the supreme wisdom to cling without attachment to your feet. Taking the burden for yourself, may you ordain my activity to cease. For you, who bear, what is a burden? Supreme, separating from you and grasping this world on my head, what I have got is enough. Arunachala, who are the Supreme, do not intend me henceforth to be separate from your feet. [19] What is metaphorically referred to here as “your feet” (Ta. niṉ pādam) is the Supreme himself, who is what appears outside in the form of the holy hill Arunachala, but who is always shining in our heart as our own being, “I am”, so “clinging without attachment to your feet” (Ta. “niṉ pādam paṯṟu aṟa paṯṟudal”) means being steadfastly self-attentive without attachment to anything else. By being so steadfastly self-attentive, we will remain without any activity, surrendering our entire burden to God, but since this requires all-consuming “love” (Sa. bhakti), it is possible only by his grace, as Bhagavan implies by praying: “Taking the burden for yourself, may you ordain my activity to cease” (Ta. “bharam uṉakku eṉa, eṉ paṇi aṟa paṇiyāy”). Since he effortlessly bears, carries or supports everything, nothing can be a burden for him, as Bhagavan implies by asking rhetorically: “For you, who bear, what is a burden?” (Ta. “bharittiḍum uṉakku edu bhāram?”). However, though in fact he alone bears everything, by rising as ego we seemingly separate ourself from him, and hence it seems to us that we have to bear the burden of responsibility for ourself and others, and thus we suffer needlessly, until finally we have had enough of this foolishness and cry out to him in anguish, “Supreme, separating from you and grasping this world on my head, what I have got is enough” (Ta. “parama niṉ pirindu i-vv-ulahiṉai talaiyil paṯṟi yāṉ peṯṟadu pōdum”), and therefore pray to him, “Arunachala, who are the Supreme, do not intend me henceforth to be separate from your feet” (Ta. “paramaṉ ām aruṇācala eṉai iṉi uṉ padattiṉiṉḏṟu odukku uṟa pārēl”), in which uṉ padam can mean either “your feet” or “your state”, though these two meanings amount to the same, because Arunachala, his feet and his state are all one, namely the one infinite, indivisible and immutable supreme reality, pure “being-awareness” (Sa. sat-cit), which is what exists and shines eternally as “I am”. Since he is the one reality that underlies the appearance of both subject and objects, namely ego and everything known by it, he does not actually do anything, but just is as he always is. However, as Bhagavan points out in the fifteenth paragraph of Nāṉ Ār?, though he does not do anything and therefore “even one action [Sa. karma] does not adhere to him” [20] (thereby implying that he is untouched by and therefore unaffected by any action whatsoever), everything happens “by just the special nature of the presence of God” [21] (thereby implying by just the special nature of his mere being, which is always just as it is without ever changing in any way whatsoever). Therefore he does everything without ever doing anything. This is what Bhagavan implies by saying that the power of God drives all kāryas (whatever needs or ought to be done or to happen) in the third sentence of this thirteenth paragraph of Nāṉ Ār?: Since one power of the Supreme Lord [Ta. oru paramēśvara śakti] is driving all kāryas, instead of we also yielding to that, why to be perpetually thinking, ‘it is necessary to do like this; it is necessary to do like that’? [22] In this context “all kāryas” (Ta. “sakala kāriyaṅgaḷai-y-um”) means both “everything that needs or ought to happen” and “everything that needs or ought to be done by us”. Everything that happens, meaning everything that we are given to experience, is what is called prārabdha (Sa. “fate” or “destiny”), which is the fruit of our past actions that God has allotted for us to experience in our present life. In our past lives we have done numerous actions, both good and bad, the fruits of many of which we have not yet experienced, and the stock of such hitherto “unexperienced fruit” is called saṁcita, from which God selects (not by doing anything but “by just the special nature of his presence”) which fruit we are to experience as prārabdha in each of our lives. He selects and allots these fruit in such a way that will be most conducive to our spiritual development, so whatever we are given to experience is not only the fruit of our own past actions but is also the will of God, and whatever he wills is what is ultimately best for us. In order for us to experience whatever God has allotted for us as prārabdha, certain actions of mind, speech or body are necessary on our part, so he will make our mind, speech and body do all such actions, as Bhagavan explained in the note he wrote for his mother in December 1898:
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjkyNzgx