Bhagavatam-daily 30 – 11.07.20 – To become your own guru, observe and infer in harmony with guru

Atmano gururatmaiva purushasya visheshataha yat pratikshaanum anabhyam shreyo asavanu vindate 11.720 shramad bhagavatam Krishna is responding to uddhava’s question or request for knowledge by placing the onus on the seeker to take the responsibility for seeking and learning so he says here atmano gururatmaiva so for the atma who is the guru atmaiva certainly the atma is itself the guru self is the guru of the self purushasya visheshataha purushasya visheshataha in a special sense Vishwanath ji translated it as foremost the self is the most important spiritual master of the self most important in what sense we will discuss yat pratikshaanum anabhyam we know it is direct sense perception by inference by logic reasoning and inference shreyo asav anuvindate shreyo is the long term benefit asav is such a person anuvindate can attain so the verse is stating that the self is the self is the guru of the self because by observation and inference the self can attain long term benefit now is this verse meant to say that there is no need for spiritual master the self is the guru of the self no not at all because if we just look at the context such a proposition will be countered because just now Uddhava has submitted to Krishna and it is described how how he was enquiring how he had offered obeisances how he has enquired very submissively so essentially Uddhava has surrendered to Krishna like a guru like Krishna is his guru and Krishna has not rejected so within the context of accepting guidance from a spiritual master one has to take responsibility to be one’s own spiritual master that means what we will try to understand that here the key is pratyaksha anumana bhyam that actually normally we say that pratyaksha anumana are unreliable and shabda alone is reliable so actually it is not that pratyaksha anumana are entirely unreliable for a functional purpose in this world we do rely on pratyaksha anumana if I am driving on a road and I see a truck coming in front of me I don’t say pratyaksha is false and keep going straight and ramming into the truck I move my vehicle aside so pratyaksha anumana anumana also we use for a practical functional purpose you know if we hear from a room suddenly some great noise coming some scream coming of somebody and then we hear a bullet wound being shot bullet being shot and then thud we hear somebody falling and immediately we understand even if the door is locked and we cannot see anything we infer from whatever we have heard that there must be a thief or a murder let me call the police immediately so these are functional ways in which we use pratyaksha anumana and we are not meant to give up using pratyaksha anumana at all in fact most of the battle of Kurukshetra was fought using pratyaksha anumana so these are vital ways of acquiring knowledge in this world and of functioning in this world but they cannot give us knowledge of the realities beyond this world for that we need shabda but apart from that point also we can use pratyaksha anumana to verify for ourselves experientially the truths given in shabda so pratyaksha anumana bhyam shreyo so this can work in two ways if a person is one self thoughtful a person is one self sober then one will understand by observing the world that this world is temporary it is dangerous and it is not meaningful in and of itself there must be some destination beyond this world only then this existence can have some meaning my heart beats for immortality I want to live forever and my heart beats towards mortality with every heartbeat I am moving closer and closer to death why this existential rupture at the very core of my being what is my innermost aspiration and what is my most undeniable reality why there is big big contradiction because our existence is two dimensional there is a spiritual side which is meant to be eternal and there is a material side which is meant to be temporary which is perishable so now this initial perception that there must be something eternal beyond this world me which must be eternal this sort of perception and a thoughtful person can come or at least get pointed towards that just by looking at this world so even by observing this world one can start thinking is there something beyond this world what is the point of it all that is one way where pratyaksha naman can also begin our seeking so for us as devotees who have already become seekers and in fact are treading on the path to Krishna pratyaksha naman can serve as confirmation and realization of shabda what does the word realization mean realization essentially means that we accept as reality what the scriptures teach as reality we accept as reality what scriptures teach as reality this means that the scriptures say this world is a place of misery then we have to when we observe the world around us we see how even wealthy people, even powerful people they are all subject to misery at any moment what to speak of misery, they are subject to mortality they may die at any moment sometimes heads of state who can move who have command over thousands and millions of people they get shot in one moment by just one bullet wound or one bomb explosion so now the point is that here it’s not difficult to perceive that there is no lasting shelter there is ultimately misery and not only ultimately intermediately also there is a lot of misery often intolerable misery so as devotees when we hear something from scripture and then we focus on trying to see how our experience can become congruent with scripture, how through our experience we can realize the veracity the authenticity, the truthfulness of what scripture has taught us so when we do that connection connection between our observation and inference from that observation in this world and what we have studied in scripture, that connection is what will bring realization so this is actually called as Shastra Mulak Hanuman which is called also as Vichar Shastra Mulak means rooted in Shastra Hanuman Hanuman is a reference here it’s used it’s called as Vichar, it’s a systematic contemplation so such contemplation is important for us to gain realization and conviction of the scriptural truths so Purushasya Visheshataha means it is in this sense we learn by observation and inference the truths that match with scripture and the truths that confirm scripture and in that way we gain realization of scripture so scriptures tell us that practicing Bhakti is joyful now whenever we get joyful experiences in Bhakti, you should remember this is scripture see how I am experiencing them to be true and other times when you don’t experience that joyfulness we should know that scripture also tells that that there will be poison in the big nectar in the end so again I am experiencing the poison now so again scripture is true and if I keep perceiving despite the poison the nectar will come and then we keep perceiving sometimes we don’t feel like chanting at all but somehow we may be pray to Krishna, recite a few verses and then push on permanently struggling to absorb ourselves in Krishna and after sometime as the holy name makes contact with our consciousness slowly the modes of passion, ignorance their influence subsides, we come to goodness and rise beyond we start relishing the holiness so we start experiencing the nectar in the end and that also can give us realization of scripture so the spiritual master can give us knowledge but it is for us to transform that knowledge into realization and that requires using our sensory and mental faculties in harmony with scriptural revelation to reinforce and to confirm and to realize the scriptural revelation and those who can do this will become gurus will become their own gurus and they will make rapid spiritual advancement and by that we can actually march back to Krishna amidst all the distractions