by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 19
May. 2002

SYMBOLISM ASSISTS UNDERSTANDING

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

The God is in everything and everything is God.

And if everything is God then everything assumes a status of reverence, worshipable, pujaniya. That idea is indeed hidden behind Isavasya sarvamidam jatkincha jagatyam jagat. All that is this universe is the Lord verily.

This wonderful idea is twisted by critics to brand Sanatana Dharma as a multi God, pagan religion of the uncivilised. But fact is, when sanatana dharma conceived and realised the concept of one Bramhan truth, there was no other religion worth the name in the entire civilised world.

It is necessary to understand these fundamentals in our path to God realisation. Things that superficially are discarded as stories, fables and imageries, are indeed enabling factors to understand a deeper philosophy.

As was said, these symbols were not kept confined to physical objects. Even happenings and events, natural laws and movements, all assumed for the seeker, a divinity. The only purpose was to keep the wavering mind, the doubting mind, firmly fixed to the pole star, - the Dhruva- of Parambramhan.

The other day, I was listening to a discourse. I came across another beautiful symbolism which drives home this point very well. I would like to share that with you, before we go into further philosophical analysis. See for yourself how every symbolism goes to condition our very life, our spiritual life.

Most of you must have visited Sangam - the confluence of three sacred rivers at Prayag near Allahabad. This is a work of nature. See how the mind goes to discover the divinity in it for its own advantage.

Please follow this carefully to understand where the seers are leading us.

There are three rivers that meet at this Sangam.

Firstly what are rivers ? Rivers being resources of life sustaining water are revered by all. They are described in the Vedas as Rtasya dhara- streams of truth and knowledge. The very life on this earth is dependent on rivers in many ways than one. Remember again the symbolic story of the Rk Veda when the serpent Vritra confined all the waters of the rivers within its coils. The world was to get destroyed until Indra with his weapon Vajra killed the serpent and released the water for the creation to survive. The life enriching rivers flowing down to meet the ocean have always fascinated our seers as symbols for streams of knowledge reaching out to the source of all knowledge and enriching its banks as she moves along .

This sangam that we are talking about is the confluence of three such rivers. We have Saraswati. She is the Goddess and symbol of harmony and knowledge. When she flows down from heaven to earth she brings with her this harmony and knowledge that enriches my life, your life, every body's life.

The spirit of Saraswati is the basis of all understanding of spiritual knowledge. The Rk Veda (1.003.12) says maho arNaH sarasvati pra cetayati ketunA dhiyo vishvA vi rAjati

Sarasvati_enlightens all understandings. Sri Aurobindo saw her as one who or which makes us conscious by the ray of intuition -- pra cetayati ketuna. Griffith explains : She brightens every pious thought.

She runs deep, not in the open like Ganga and Yamuna. So does true knowledge. Knowledge has no visibility. It is only realised.

After Jnanaroopa (knowledge personified) Saraswati, let us take the next river Yamuna. What she represents? Yamuna represents the message of Yoga. She represents Karma or the action. What is Yamuna's relationship with Karma? After expounding the details of Karmayoga to Arjuna Lord Krishna tells that the first recipient of the knowledge of this Karma Yoga was Vivaswata - that is the SunGod. Yamuna is the daughter of Sun, (Bhaskaratanaya). She has the direct knowledge from her father of the message of Yoga - KarmaYoga more particularly. When she flows down the lands, she brings to mankind this message of Karma Yoga.

Now let us think of the great Ganga- The Ganges. Ganga symbolises Bhakti Marga or the path of devotion. All along the banks of the river Ganges, we have innumerable temples, ashrams, places of rituals signifying the cult of Bhakti. No other river has this kind of character. Ganga is imagined to be a symbol of Bhakti as it is the only Goddess who is most closely associated with all the three aspects of Bramhan. The Bramha the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the transformer. Her association is of simple adoration. As the imagery goes, she is originally associated with Bramha the creator, residing inside the Pot of water - the Kamandalu that he carries. Since a river can not be kept confined and its waters must reach many, it must flow out. When the question of pouring her out of the Kamandalu came up she opted to be poured out at the feet of Vishnu out of seer adoration to him. But Ganga was destined to come down to the earth from heaven for the benefit of entire mankind. When she descended, she touched the head of Shiva. That is why we say, when you immerse yourself in the waters of Ganga, you immerse yourself in Paramatma himself , imbibe all three aspects of Bramhan (Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva) and obtain Moksya or liberation.

So, now one can imagine how these three rivers relate to life itself. The three rivers joining together flow as one great river to the ocean beyond. The life that we live is often symbolised as a river flowing down to meet the ocean, which again symbolises the ultimate Bramhan. There are many descriptions as to why the life is like a river and the ocean is like the Bramhan. We shall not go into that here. But what we are given to understand is that as a river has its goal as the ocean, so does the life its final goal to lose itself in Bramhan.

When the life's preparation starts to meet the ultimate destination, what is needed? You have to be enjoined or yukta to this journey in pursuit of The Bramhan. You have to be a Yogi first.

What are the paths of Yoga? There are essentially three major paths of Yoga. The Yoga of action (Karma Yoga), The Yoga of knowledge, (Jnana Yoga) and the Yoga of devotion (The Bhakti Yoga). Bhakti is essential. If one does not have the initial inclination, the adoration and submission to the Lord, the sadhana can not be sustained. One will always falter.

But what good is Bhakti without knowledge and understanding? We have talked enough about the imperativeness of Jnana. Unless one acquires knowledge there will be no progress beyond a certain point.