JEEVITHA RAHASYAM
(The Secret of Living)

The ultimate Godhead is one. It is convenient to call it by the neuter gender word "Brahman". It is the all-pervading, self-luminous, eternal spirit, the final cause of the universe, the power behind all tangible sources, the consciousness which animates all conscious beings. It is a vast, ageless, boundless ocean of which the visible universe is just a wave. You and I are just fragments of that wave. We cannot give up the wave or the ocean. We can only merge the names and forms of the fragments. Once we enter the depths of the sea, it is all calm, all peace. Agitation, noise and confusion are only at the outer layers. In the innermost recesses of the heart, there is a reservoir of "Shanti" (Peace), where we must take refuge.

The divine state of man is his natural state. One should, by one's own efforts, discover this divinity in oneself. This Divinity is "Brahman", which never changes while everything else is changing. The lives of the sages of the Upanishads were buoyant with the joy of recognition of this Divinity and sacredness in the world. The spirit of the Upanishads is one of life, not death; one of health, not illness; one of joy, not sorrow. They constitute perhaps the zenith of human thought.

What does this imply for the day-to-day life of an ordinary human being ? Man's life is a long jouney to Divine Perfection. For undertaking this journey, you have to acquire 5 cardinal virtues- purity, self-control, detachment, truth and non-violence. Everyone should cultivate these cardinal virtues in all their generality. As opposed to these virtues, there are 6 deadly sins : kama (desire, lust, sensuousness), krodha (anger), lobha (avarice, greed), moha (delusion, infatuation), mada (pride), matsarya (jealousy, envy). These are the vices (gates to hell), which make man degenerate and lead him to barter his honour and character just for a few pieces of paper called money. Starting on the road to Divine perfection, one must fight these evils from the very beginning. The uphill task of perfecting these virtues and suppressing these evils, is a never ending exercise. One who has gone a long way in perfecting them is called a "Dharmatma".

This brings us to two of the most complex concepts in Hinduism- Dharma and Atman. Atman is the inner Self in every human being. The ultimate teachings of the Upanishads is that this Atman and Brahman are the same (Ayam Atma Brahma). Dharma means "that which sustains". Everything that goes with the natural order or state of things is 'Dharma'. Dharma of a fire is to heat; of a doctor is to heal; of a student is to study and so on. Doing one's own dharma (swadharma) creates harmony. Whenever you depart from your swadharma, you create imbalance and perturbation in yourself and your environment. So dharma connotes stability and adharma connotes instability.

The dharma of the Atman, which is embodied in a physical form, is to crave for ideal perfection and to work up its return to its unfettered divine state. Any action which contradicts your 'swadharma' sets off an expanding ripple in the universe and thus contributes to instability and unhappiness. It is in this context that Lord krishna (in the Bhagavat Gita) emphasizes 'swadharma'  and urges arjuna to fight rather than retire to the forest as a hermit.

How does one know what one's dharma is ? The ability to identify one's dharma in a given set of circumstances is what distinguishes human beings from animals. Hunger, sleep, fear and the sex urge are common to men and animals. But the understanding of dharma is the extra quality of man, and without dharma he is just an animal.

Rites and Rituals

All religions carry a store of rituals in their armoury. They are just like the various forms you have to fill up and sign to get anything done in the civilized world. Rituals cannot themselves deliver any good. They are useful only with a change of heart-the will to turn away from doing evils. They serve to show repentance (prayas-chitta). No scripture implies that sin could be removed by means of distribution of gifts or observance of fasts, without an antecedent change of heart. The 'vote of thanks' at the end of every meeting is only a ritual. It is essential and, if done properly, is an enjoyable and refreshing affair.

In the cycle of 'Samsara', the soul (Jiva) travels from body to body, as the "law of karma" operates. Our own past determines the conditions and limitations of our present lives; the thoughts and deeds of our present lives, in turn, condition our future lives. So our future life is in our hands entirely. This is the law of karma. It is a moral law analogous to the law of cause and effect. As we sow, so we reap. What sprouts is what is already in the seed. Every thought and every deed leave impressions (vasanas) in our mind and go with the mind, even after death, into our next life in a new body. Thus a man's birth and circumstances are determined by his own actions in the past. The disembodied soul, carrying with it  a subconscious mind, looks for a suitable environment where it can pursue its own tendencies and perhaps unfulfilled aspirations and thus is born in a family environment most congenial to such tendencies. It is our own character and actions that shape our destiny. We are entirely responsible for our fate of things. This explains why there is so much inequality in the world around us. These inequalities of life are due to ourselves. Using our "free will" we can alter our future by our thoughts and actions in our present life.

Free Will

Man's will in each human life is completely free. He has a choice of action. It must be his constant effort to eliminate the evil and strengthen the good in himself. It is a continuous internal battle. There are 3 kinds of 'karma':
  1. Prarabdha Karma: At the beginning of every life a handful of all the accumulated karma begins to bear fruit. This portion has already started having its effects, like an arrow which has left the bow and cannot be recalled. People unknowingly refer this as 'fate'. No force on earth has the power to change it or its course. Our scriptures say that even divine force cannot erase the effects of 'prarabdha'. It determines our parentage, sex, environment and life-term. It constitutes the limitations under which we are born and are destined to live and work. It determines the initial conditions under which this life has to be carried on. 
  2. Sanchita Karma: All the remaining portions of our accumulated karma, in all our innumerable lives, comes under this. It has contributed to our character and our tendencies. It is like our bank account. With efforts, we can modify its impact. 
  3. Agami Karma: Every action that we do in the present life and every thought of ours contribute to this karma in our future life. This is entirely in our hands. It is up to us to act and feel in such a way that our 'agami karma' opens up a better future for us, if not in this life, certainly in our future lives.
Karma theory says in essence : Accept the past, act in the present, and shape your future. It is intimately connected with transmigration of the soul from body to body. Karma works itself out through transmigration. The theory of karma and the theory of transmigration of the soul explain almost all the anomalies of everyday life.

Karma Yoga

Karma yoga, the yoga of selfless, dedicated action, comes from an attitude of 'detachment'. You are acting in this world according to the role given to you, according to your 'swadharma'. If you can go about your duties for the sake of duty and not claim authorship, ownership or doership for yourself, you will not be subject to the experience of resultant pleasure or pain. Neither the good results nor the bad results of your actions will bind you. So long as any action binds you, you have to return to the cycle of 'samsara'. The ultimate purpose is to see that neither the good nor the bad keeps us in bondage. It is in this sense that Krishna advises Arjuna to fight the battle, rather than show attachment and compassion to his fellow-men and retire.

Karma yoga has two facets: one secular, and the other, religious. The secular aspect arises from the fact that karma yoga requires selfless, dedicated action. For this, it is not necessary (though advantageous) to go along the path of religious belief. All that is required is the belief in the equality of every human being and a natural respect for human dignity that democratic ideals would require one to accept. Thus one may encounter a staunch karma yogi, who does not believe in God and religion. He believes that each one of us must do his or her job sincerely and to the best of one's ability. He has no ambitions for himself. He will not yield to anybody in estimating the importance of his work. Such social service, done as a dedication to society, without the least self-interest, goes by the fascinating name of 'Yajna' in Hinduism. When a judge sentences a criminal to death, the result of the action does not bind the judge. The judge does not incur any sin. The Gita urges that every action must be done in a spirit of yajna.

The ultimate aim is the eradication of all 'vasanas'. One has to discover the right way to act in the living world. The initial attempt should be to avoid accumulating bad vasanas, by staying away from all sinful acts. One has to dilute the evil vasanas by divine vasanas, by doing many 'punya-karmas'. This dilution is not a simple process. Punya karmas will create vasanas which will gradually overwhelm the pattern of sin that already exists in the mind. Gita says : 'Do your assigned duty and do  it in the spirit of yajna'. The mystery of the yajna attitude is its conversion of even an act of selfishness into an act of dedication and detachment. It is the attitude with which you approach your karma that is important, rather than the kerma itself.

Now coming to the second aspect of 'religious' nature, Hinduism in all its grandeur answers-"Dedicate all actions to God". To one who believes in the sciptures and all the myths about Gods and Goddesses, karma yoga could come naturally. He simply thinks of God  as the director of all his thoughts and deeds and dedicates them to Him. This is called "Iswararpana Budhi". He accepts all the results of his actions as a 'Prasada' from God. This is called "Prasada Budhi". Once this stage is attained, he is not too far from "Bhakti Yoga".

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti is intense devotion. This path is common to all religions. Morality and ethics are only the first steps. Just as a gateway to a temple is not the temple, morality is only a gateway to religious life. Man's mental anguish very often leads him to seek someone in whose embrace he can get solace and relief. His first resort is to nature and its powerful forces. Nature follows certain permanent patterns called "the laws of nature". Later man postulated the existence of a cosmic power which is the motive force behind every expression of nature. This cosmic power was called 'God'.

Godhead is nameless and formless. We gave a name 'Brahman' to it, in order to talk about it. No name or form will describe Him fully. Vedas say "all names and forms are His". An idol is only symbolic of this statement. If you mistake each god and goddess to be distinct divinities, you are missing the central teaching of Hinduism. An idol serves the same purpose for a religious devotee, as a flag does for an army. Hinduism clearly lays down that mental worship is superior to the worship of images. It must be admitted that all worship is idol worship. The difference is not one of kind, but only of degree. A common labourer and an intellectual scholar require different concepts of God to satisfy them. Hinduism has the courage to declare that each can worship God in whatever form which suits his competence and stage of spiritual evolution. The doctrine of "Ishta Devata" (favourite divinity) can now be understood.

Hindu tradition has mainly 5 types of Ishta-devata worship:
Ishta Devata
 Represented by
 Availability
Aditya, the Sun God or its derivatives,
the nine planets
 Crystal
 Vallam in Tamil Nadu
Ambika, the Mother Goddess, Sakti,
 in her various forms of Durga, Lakshmi,
Saraswati or kali
 Swarnamukhi stone
In the Swarnamukhi river bed
in Andhra Pradesh

Vishnu, the Protector-God,
first of the Trinity, or His various
Avatars, particularly rama and Krishna
 Saligrama stone
 In the bed of Gantaki river
in Himalayas
Ganesa, the elephant-faced God,
the primal God of all worship
 Red Sonabhadra stone
In the bed of  Sone river
in Bihar

Maheswara, Siva, the third God
in the Trinity
 Bana-linga stone
 In the Omkarakunda
of river Narmada in
Madhya Pradesh

This is the orthodox tradition of "Panchayatana Puja". In addition to these five, the Tamil-speaking people worship Lord Subramania, Murugan, Kumaran- the Six-faced God- as well.

It is this variety that gives richness to Hinduism. This method of worship is recommended to give devotion a concrete focus. Mark that it is God that is worshipped in the form of an idol, and not the idol as God. God can take any form and so the form of the idol is good enough. The Panchayatana Puja tradition is the intermediate stage between the worship of Godhead with form and the worship of the formless. These stones have certainly a form, but they are formless in the sense that they have no parts like face, eyes, body, hands or feet.


Whereas karma yoga can be practised mainly by persons who believe in the permanence of the 'Atman' and of the transcience of everything that is 'anatman' (not atman), bhakti yoga can be practised even by people who have very little conviction about Hindu-karma-theory. This is what makes it a universal religious practice, which Hinduism shares with other religions. It is the one path which is available to all, irrespective of caste, creed, sex, status, education, level of enlightenment, age or any mark of distinction. The path of bhakti yoga is thus open to all. It is truly universal.

Jnana Yoga

Of the three paths to perfection- karma, bhakti and jnana yogas-, the jnana Yoga is the most difficult, even to explain. It is prescribed particularly for highly evolved intellects. When one reaches this stage of enlightenment, one is far from the general run of humanity. There is always a distance that persists between God and man. Through karma and bhakti yogas, one can see God only in relation to the universe. Only through jnana yoga, one can see Him as He really is. Even though Godhead is so near to all of us, it is very difficult to realize Him. This is because we have to cease to be ourselves before we can know Him as he is.

There are many topics in  this homepage written specifically to explain the Advaita Philosophy as explained by Adi Sankara. For more details, we recommend the book: Essentials of Hinduism by V.Krishnamurthy.


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Related Topics:

1.Brahmajijnasa

2.Personality of Man

3.Nirvana Sootra

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