Prapanna-Jivanāmṛtam Chapter Two: Die to Live

Prapanna-Jivanāmṛtam


द्वितियो ऽध्याय

Dvitiyo ‘dhyāya

Second Chapter

श्री शास्त्र-वचनामृतम्

द्वितियो ऽध्याय

Dvitiyo ‘dhyāya
Second Chapter

श्री शास्त्र-वचनामृतम्

Śrī Śāstra-Vacanāmṛtam
Holy Scriptural Nectar

CHAPTER II

अहंकाराद्-अप्रपत्तिः--

अहंकारा-निवृत्तानां, केशवो नहि दूरगः

अहंकार-युतानां हि, मध्ये पर्व्वत-राशयः [५]

ब्र् वै

ahaṁkārād-aprapattiḥ--

ahaṁkārā-nivṛttānāṁ, keśavo nahi dūragaḥ

ahaṁkāra-yutānāṁ hi, madhye parvvata-rāśayaḥ [5]

Brahma Vaivarta Pūrana

EGO IS THE OPPOSITE OF SURRENDER 

AND THE PRINCIPAL OBSTACLE TO THE SIXFOLD PATH OF ŚARANGATI:

For those who are free from ego, Bhagavān Śrī Keśava is always with them; whereas there is a great mountain between the egoists who assert their independence and Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

 (5)

अद्वय-ज्ञानम् अनाश्रितानाम् एव जगद्-दर्शनम्—

यावत् पृथक्त्वम् इदम् आत्मन इन्द्रियार्थ

माया-बालं भगवतो जन ईश पश्येत्

तावन् न संसृतिर् असौ प्रतिसङ्क्रमेत

व्यर्थापि दुःख-निवहं वहती क्रियार्थ [६]

भागवत पूरन ३.९.९

advaya-jñānam anāśritānām eva jagad-darśanam—

yāvat pṛthaktvam idam ātmana indriyārtha

māyā-bālaṁ bhagavato jana īśa paśyet

tāvan na saṁsṛtir asau pratisaṅkrameta

vyarthāpi duḥkha-nivahaṁ vahatī kriyārtha [6]

Bhāgavata Pūrana 3.9.9

Those who avoid surrender to the One without a Second are lost without shelter. They shall wander forever in this world of birth and death.

"O Bhagavān,  as long as the jiva maintains this independence or false ego, and sees the world as a place for his exploitation and the body as a means for sense enjoyment, he cannot free himself of the entanglement of material miseries. As long as conditioned souls maintain their independence, separate interest, and false ego they will see the world as their playground, being influenced by Your external energy. Thus they remain trapped and wander forever in this world of birth and death. So, you will have to "die to live"- by dying to your false ego, your self-aggrandizing tendency, you can live, live in the world of service, divine service. "

The World of Birth and Death

Everyone is trying to live in this world avoiding death, physical death. They are trying to live without death, and that of course is not possible. Just as it is not possible in the ordinary sense to live without death, so you also, who are aspiring for divine life, don't try to live, without death! Die now! Die, to both your exploiting and renouncing tendencies, to really live in service divine.

Don't try to live in the plane of exploitation; that type of living, in our estimation, is to face death. 

But to die for Him, for Krsna, is really to live. The position of the Centre, and our relation with the Centre, is such. The Hegelian theory, that we should die to live, because Reality is by Itself and for Itself- it is very applicable in Vaisnavism.

 The World of Misconception

Reality is composed of unreal substance and real substance. We may see it like that. This is the world of misconception. Misconception means “I think something is mine, but really it is not mine.” Everything belongs to the Absolute. Everything belongs to him. But we say “it is mine,” and we quarrel with each other. Actually, everything within this world is the property of another. But as a result of misconception, we fight with each other and so many reactions result from that fight. The difficulty is that the soul is entangled in this mock fight.

Otherwise this world of fighting and misconception has no value. But the dust of spirit, a very infinitesimal part of the spiritual reality, is entangled in this world and concerned with this world of mock fighting. Without the spiritual energy within this world, nothing would remain. A magician’s sleight of hand is all based on misconception. It is false. Still we are perplexed by his tactics. That is also true. A magician or hypnotist can show what is not real to be real, and yet while we are under his spell we cannot deny its reality.

Separate Interest

Everything, including our own self, belongs to Krishna. But the difficulty arises when we see something other than Krishna. Separate interest. The consciousness of separate interest is the root of all evils. We are one with Krishna, but whenever the seed of separate interest sprouts, and we think we have some separate interest, that we are not included in the interest of Krishna, that is the root of such misconception.

False Ego

Our false ego should be dissolved, and the ego of self-searching should awake. And, God-searching is self-searching: to search for Krsna is really to search for our own interest, our own higher interest. If you search for Krsna, your own searching-interest is also included therein, it is represented there. So, only search for Krsna- and with the spirit of service, not with the spirit of enjoyment.  This is the idea here.

The ego, the false ego, must be dissolved. Ego means, the stored collection of separate interests of different types. Just as when an aeroplane has crashed, the authorities search in the wreckage, trying to find the black box; the record of the airplane's entire flight is there. 

The black box of Ego

Similarly, our material ego is like our black box; our plane is passing through different lives, but the box is there, with the recording. There we can trace in a person from where he is coming, and to where he will go.

Karma is recorded there; the result of karma in its most subtle form is reserved there, in that recording box; and examining that, it can be understood where from he has come. There are specialists who can read: "O, he came from the tiger species," or "He came from an insect," or "He came from the horse, his previous birth was as horse"; or from some other section, other species. 

And they can also see: "It is possible that in his next life he will have to go to such-and-such place, his destination will be there." This can all be traced, in the ego.

Die to Live: the soul's future destination

And that ego should be totally dissolved, so that our soul's future destination will be in the spiritual existence, and nowhere in the material world. There are so many planes of life in the world, in the universe of three dimensions- bhur-, bhuvah-, svah-, maha-, jana-, tapa-, satyaloka- but our goal, our destination, should not be in any of them. Neither should we go to viraja, the area beyond all the qualities of material nature, nor to brahmaloka, the non-differentiated world of spiritual light. Our aim will be only: "I want to have a ticket for Goloka, for Vrndavan. I want to go there to live; I have heard, and I feel, that there is my true home, the home of my previous generations."

Such kinds of feelings will come in us, when our inner self awakens, we will feel, "I only want to go there." And Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, they are distributing the ticket to that land.

अद्वय-ज्ञानम् अनाश्रितानाम् एव जगद्-दर्शनम्—

यावत् पृथक्त्वम् इदम् आत्मन इन्द्रियार्थ

माया-बालं भगवतो जन ईश पश्येत्

तावन् न संसृतिर् असौ प्रतिसङ्क्रमेत

व्यर्थापि दुःख-निवहं वहती क्रियार्थ [६]

भागवत पूरन ३.९.९

advaya-jñānam anāśritānām eva jagad-darśanam—

yāvat pṛthaktvam idam ātmana indriyārtha

māyā-bālaṁ bhagavato jana īśa paśyet

tāvan na saṁsṛtir asau pratisaṅkrameta

vyarthāpi duḥkha-nivahaṁ vahatī kriyārtha [6]

Bhāgavata Pūrana 3.9.9

Those who avoid surrender to the One without a Second are lost without shelter. They shall wander forever in this world of birth and death.