By: Ramaswamy Seshadri
Sai Satcharita states we suffer in our lives since we are bound by Sansar. By being caught in the transmigration of karmas, we remain ignorant of Sai Parabrahman – God as our True Self within. How is it possible to experience a life of limitations and sorrow when we are Lord Sainath, the God ourselves – ‘Aham Brahmasmi?’
In quoting verse 145 of Vivekachudamani, Lord Sainath describes how Sansar comes to exist by asking us to imagine a tree: “Ignorance is the seed for the tree of Sansar. Body identification is the sprout, desires are its tender leaves, work its water, body its trunk, pranas are its branches, the sense organs its twigs, the sense objects its flowers, different miseries born out of the varieties of actions are the fruits, and the individual Jiva is the bird perched on top of it.” The same is echoed by Sai Maharaj as documented in Sai Satcharita Chapter 32.
Any tree manifests itself through a seed and the seed of ignorance causes Sansar. But ignorance of what exactly? Of forgetting that we are God and there is only Sainath Parabrahman. We then become identified with Sainath Parabrahman the Anatman as everything that is not God: a physical body that creates our waking state, a subtle body that as the mind plays itself out in dreams, and the causal body that exists due to Vasana. Such sprouts produce desires within us. Why? Because the body needs food to survive, the mind plays out its impressions in the waking and dream states and finally, the causal body needs to fulfill previous karmas.
Like any tree, the physical body grows into adulthood giving the tree of Sansar its deep grounding in Avidya. Its branches consist of the five pranas that control their physiological functions. To become a fully egocentric agent in the world of Maya as a pluralistic matter, the body starts transacting within duality through the sense organs and their respective objects. For example, the eyes perceive a world outside oneself, which is perceived as the only reality, “I see this world and to live, I need and want this.” We then run after sense objects seeking happiness in them, forgetting that they don’t exist but are constructed by the mind.
However, Das Ganu Maharaj points out that it is already at this point that the fall into Sansar cannot be stopped. By comparing the flux of our actions with water, Lord Sainath places the main culprit within Sansar on selfish actions and their endless, unfulfilling results. We have become bound by the fruits of our doer-ship and enjoyment.
The fall from Brahman as the Supreme Reality into a separate Jiva in life is complete. Through his tree simile, Sainath Parabrahman shows us that while we live in this world of relativity, we cannot stop Maya and Sansar from being a part of our individuality. We can gain control by going within by taking the standpoint of the eternal ‘Sakshi’ as the Inner ‘Witness’ to all – by affirming “I am Sainath Parabrahman the God, never these thoughts and experiences.”
We suffer in life because we identify with an external world that is only relatively real. Therefore, cut down the tree of Sansar by taking the position of the Observer and you will have gained an independent, inner freedom that defies words.
Leave a Reply