Bhagavatam-daily 138 – 11.09.13 – Life’s small events can teach us more than the so-called big events

Thank you so so here how absorption in spiritual reality specifically in Krishna leads to liberation from material existence even while one is in material existence is being demonstrated through a seemingly mundane example tadaiva maatman tada eva tadaiva is when what was talked about in the previous verse that when the mind has attained mind has become fixed on the lord on the atmanya avruddh chitto so on the supreme lord avruddh chitto so it can, atmanya can also refer to the soul, basically it refers to the spiritual reality once the soul, once the consciousness becomes fixed on the spiritual reality na vedakinchit bahirantaram at that time one is no longer aware of externals or internals na vedakinchit, one is slightly aware of this, why not that which is external, that which is internal, that means what now actually external to us is physical material existence internal to us is mental material existence and we ourselves exist at the level of spiritual existence so what happens is that the soul becomes freed, na vedakinchit bahirantaram and when it is absorbed in the supreme lord then neither the external nor internal material existence can distract us ethe shukaro yurpatim rajantam as the example is given ishakaro isham means arrows ishu means a controller but here the word is ishu so ishakaro refers to one who is the maker of arrows yurpatim rajantam nirpati pati is lord or master, nirpati is the master of people that means the king, rajantam when the king was moving by ishu means in the arrow one’s consciousness was absorbed did not see right next to him parshvi right next to him like we say parshad one who is close, one who is associate one who is close to someone so here the avadhut brahmana in one verse is combining both the teaching as well as the illustration of the teaching so first he gives the principle and then he gives the example so the example let’s see what is it once he, while he was traveling around this avadhut brahmana he saw an arrow maker and now arrow making is definitely not a glamorous profession so certainly arrows are required and arrows have to be made well because if the arrow is not sharp enough it may mean that the warrior who uses that arrow will not be able to critically or fatally or decisively wound the enemy and then the enemy may retaliate and if the enemy retaliates then the warrior may die so although at the level of the arrow maker arrow making may seem to be a very simple activity you just have to sharpen some arrows but when one thinks of its consequences it’s a very very important activity and it has to be done very well so here what is stated is ithe shukaro so now the arrow maker was absorbed in making arrows and drupadim vrajantam as a procession of a king went by normally even in this world we see that when a famous person is going then now there may be because of security reasons that there are if a prime minister is going often especially in a city like India’s national capital Delhi the traffic gets routinely disrupted because there are so many VIPs who are travelling the prime minister is travelling as a big cavalcade of vehicles security vehicles which go before and after and so the disruption is so much that people cannot but notice not only people who are on the road themselves their movement gets disrupted they have to notice but there is so much as we say Allah wallah there is so much human cry that everybody has to notice it that people also who are in the shops or whatever they also notice it so now some people may choose not to focus on it because it’s a routine noise it’s a disruption but it’s a routine disruption and they notice it but they don’t pay attention to it but the Ishikara was not like that it was not that the procession of the king was so common to him that sometimes that which is familiar we are no longer conscious of it for example if we come to a if we are living on a place where there is a road which is right next to the on a house which is right next to the road then constantly we hear vehicles going by so if a vehicle is going by we won’t even notice it so only if no vehicle is going by then maybe we will notice it so it was not like that for Ishikara that the sound of the king’s procession going by was so commonplace that he would not notice it it was an unusual occasion spectacular occasion in fact for a king going along with his entourage so the Ishikara for the Ishikara for the arrow maker there could have been further justification the king or his associates will be my customers so he could say that the arrow maker is missing his customers but no even that was not an adequate enough reason for him to get his transistors absorbed so it was the arrow maker did not even notice the presence it was not that he noticed and neglected the procession but he did not even notice it he was so absorbed and what is significant is the avadhut brahmana normally if a king’s procession is going by all the eyes will be on the king and on the procession not so much on other people that avadhut brahmana was so sharp that he was not just simply interested in seeing the majestic elephants and the majestic crown and all the other materialistic things that are seen when a king is going by he was interested not in the king’s majesty but in the truths of life and that’s why he was absorbed he was aware of the reality all around and because he was aware of the reality all around so he noticed this particular arrow maker also and he learned from it so we sometimes think that something big and something outstanding something special has to happen and then we learn something from it but something something big that happens may not teach us something as valuable as something small that just would otherwise go just below our radar while something big had consumed all our consciousness so avadhut brahmana is so sharp that he is learning an important lesson by not just observing life’s big things but also while observing the small things while the big thing is happening so this arrow maker is absorbed in his job we may say it’s just mundane absorption but the point is a devotee always a serious spiritual seeker always has the learning mood and we bhaktivinoda said I get inspiration to serve Krishna determinately tirelessly by seeing how hard materialistic people work tirelessly for their materialistic causes for their materialistic purposes so similarly we also can get determination determination so just as single pointed absorption of the arrow maker was there in the job of making the arrow similarly a serious spiritualist can get this single minded absorption in the supreme lord in the supreme in the spiritual reality and by becoming absorbed in the spiritual reality by internally becoming completely engrossed in thinking of Krishna in remembering Krishna in serving Krishna in speaking about in serving Krishna internally one can become oblivious to the world the point here is not that all of us have to strive for this obliviousness towards the world no the point is to strive for obliviousness towards anything other than the service of Krishna so if our service is in this world certainly we have to be attentive by which we can become absorbed in our service but while being absorbed in our service we don’t let ourselves get distracted by anything and everything because the more we are distracted by things the less we can focus on the thing which we are intending to do so Krishna consciousness is so wonderful that we can be in this world we can be engaged in an activity of this world and yet we can be pursuing through that engagement in an activity in this world the goal that is supremely beyond this world and for being in this world but not of this world now the arrow maker was in this world and of this world but from the point of view of the world the king’s position was a big event but he was in his own world and therefore he was not in the outer world so if something material can get such absorption then the supreme spiritual reality can definitely help us attain that which is absorption and thus we can transcend material existence thank you