Swadhyay: The sea itself entering the well

In the post "Swadhyay: Guidance from the masters living in the Sea to Come out of the well", we discussed the books written by the spiritual masters who had a direct experience of the sea, full of possibilities. These books generally contain their experiences and the guidance to come out of the well. In this post, we will discuss some of the books that are themselves like the sea coming to the Well of Ignorance to make us experience the sea directly.

The first book which has had a great impact on my life is "Ramayana". Ramayana is the story of two types of characters. One who lives life centered around Ram and the others whose life is centered around material or mental pursuits. It shows a range of possibilities to us. On the one hand, we have Manthara and Kaikeyi whose emotional mind was so centered around their attachment to Bharata that they sent Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita to the forest for 14 years. On the other hand, we have Kevata, whose emotional mind was so full of bhakti and shraddha towards Ram. On the one hand, we see the highly intellectual Dashratha getting disturbed after sending Ram to the forest, on the other hand, we see Janaka's intellect highly evolved and completely connected to Ram who did not get even an iota of disturbance even after her newly wedded daughter was forced to go to the forest for 14 years.

We see how the old samskaras may derail our life from spirituality in the form of characters like Kumbhakarana, Meghnatha, and Ravana. On the other hand, we also see how the old samskaras help us excel on the path of spirituality in the form of Vibhisana, Sugriva, and Sita. We see how a person can perform his Swadharma completely devoted to Rama by seeing the characters of Bharata, Hanuman, and Lakshmana. If We read Ramayana carefully, probably it has answers to all the questions that we face in daily life.

In Ramayana, there is also a story of Ram getting disillusionment with the world and finding life to be meaningless. Guru Vashistha and Vishwamitra answered all the questions of Rama at that time. The entire conversation of beautifully recorded in "Voga Vashistha". It's a beautiful book answering many questions straight forward.

The second book that is equally powerful is Mahabharata. Mahabharata is again the story of different characters whose center of life is around Krishna and others who have the center of life away. I feel that Mahabharata is the most comprehensive psychological analysis of life. It analyses all types of emotions and shows us all the possibilities. We can live life in a very narrow band like Duryodhana, Shakuni, and Dhritrastra; or we can live life full of possibilities like Pandavas. It tells us how the rational brain represented by Vidura becomes powerless with the emotional mind represented by Dhritrastra. It also shows how fixation with rules becomes the cause of our suffering and destruction, through the character of Bhisma. It also shows how the emotional mind plays tricks on us by disguising its real desire to become a great warrior with the duty of a friend.

The high point of Mahabharata is the teaching of Bhagwad Geeta, which comes at no other time than the battle of Kurukshetra. After all the injustice done to the Pandavas, the battle of Kurukshetra is about to start between the Pandavas and Kuravas. At this time, Arjuna gets disillusioned and confused between the duty as a relative and the duty as a warrior. Krishna clears all the doubts. While living daily life, we also waste a lot of time in these confusions and Bhagwad Geeta can be our guide in all these situations.

We also have many Purans and I loved reading "Bhagwad Purana". The stories in Bhagwad Puran have so deep meanings. If we sit quietly and contemplate on the stories of Bhagwada, they reveal all the mysteries of the universe to us.

There are many Upanishads that have disclosed all the secrets of life to us. I read many of the Upanishads and Kathopnishada is my favorite one. This is the story of Yama and Nachiketa. Yama offers all types of temptations to Nachiketa and Nachiketa has no liking for any of these offers. His mind is fully centered around the ultimate truth of the universe and he wants to know the same from Yama. Yama is finally forced to tell the same to him.

One contemporary book that may be placed in this category is “Savitri” by Sri Aurobindo. That book is so profound that whenever anybody reads that book, it takes one quite close to reality. It contains a very deep and profound truth. It is the story of Savitri bringing her dead husband Satyavan back from Yama. It is actually a story about setting the center of life back to the divine from this material world.

Each of these books is quite unique and tries to bring the sea of divinity to the well of human ignorance. Though, most of the time, it’s very difficult to appreciate the truth revealed by these scriptures with our ordinary level of consciousness. However, They do bring the sea directly to our well of ignorance. If we read these texts with a peaceful mind, they have the capacity to change our lives significantly.