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Thread: Hindu Universal Prayers

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    Hindu Universal Prayers

    A unique feature of several prayers in our Vedas, Upanishads and other scriptures is that they are universal. In this thread we contemplate on the import of some of these Hindu Universal Prayers.

    asato mA sad gamaya

    An audio version of this mantra is hosted at:
    http://www.astrojyoti.com/shantimantras.htm

    ॐ असतो मा सद् गमय ।
    तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय ॥
    मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय ।
    ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

    aum asato mA sad gamaya |
    tamaso mA jyotirgamaya ||
    mRutyormA amRutaM gamaya |
    aum shAntiH shAntiH shAntiH ||
    --Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28

    Lead me from the 'asat' to the 'sat'.
    Lead me from darkness to light.
    Lead me from death to immortality.

    'sat' and 'asat'

    Notice that we have not translated the Samskrta word sat in the first line. This word, like many other Sanskrit words, has several meanings. Only the combined import of some of those meanings can give us the real significance of the word sat. There is no equivalent English word that can convey what sat does, so we have retained it.

    The three philosophical connotations of the word sat are: existence, reality and truth:

    • Existence means that which exists--everywhere in space and beyond, at all times (present, past and future), and in all states (waking, dreaming, sleeping). The word omnipresent only partially expresses this facet of sat, because omnipresence covers only space and not time.

    • Reality means that which remains the same--constant, unchanging, existing everywhere and always, as detailed above. As pure and consummate knowledge, such reality is all-knowing, omniscient.

    • Truth is such Existence and Reality, which is Absolute and only One, without a second. Such truth is all-powerful, omnipotent, and prevails as the Ultimate Truth of everything.

    Therefore, sat is the Existence of the One Reality as the Absolute Truth, which is infinite and eternal. There is no second entity other than sat. Its nature is sat (omnipresent Existence), chit (omniscient, all-knowing Reality) and Ananda (omnipotent, all-powerful Truth of goodness, peace and bliss)--all rolled into one.

    On the contrary, asat means, philosophically, that which is 'non-existence, non-reality and untruth'. However, the non-existence is not one like the hare's horn; the non-reality is not one that can never be seen; and the untruth is not the complete negation of truth.

    How can there be a 'non-existence that in fact does exist', a 'non-reality that in fact is seen', and an 'untruth that in fact is not actually untrue?'

    An asat that fulfils the above criteria can only be conditional--one that exists only under certain conditions, like some of the subatomic particles that the physicist experiments with.

    Hindu sages say that such an asat is not an adyanta asat (complete, extreme, start-to-end unreality that never exists) but a prAtibhAsika sattA (apparent, subjective existence), which is also the vyAvahArika sattA (practical, operational, derived--hence conditional--existence).

    Our manifest, object-filled world is an eminent example of such an asat: it exists under a continuous flux of change, apparent only to the senses, and as a truth limited by space and time.

    Just like the Absolute Zero of Physics, the world we live in, and the universe it is part of, have an Absolute Reality as its substratum. This AR is easily reachable--mentally and intellectually--with a simple question put to every object of gross matter: "what is it?" This question would peel off layers and layers of gross matter and end up with 'energy' as the ultimate answer--the ultimate constituent of all gross matter.

    We can as well ask "what is behind that energy?", but the answer we get would no longer be physical, because at that level the metaphysics takes over.

    The metaphysical answer to what is behind energy was known to the Hindu sages of the Vedic times. Today it has become apparent to the modern scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman, after the pioneering work of Albert Einstein.

    To reach that answer, we would need to rephrase our question: "what keeps up the energy at the required levels of flow, crystalization, and vibration to give shape to the forms and objects of the world?" Without further ado, the answer is: Universal Consciousness, also known as the Universal Self, or pratyag-AtmA. The substrate of this pratyag-AtmA is Brahman, the Absolute Truth.

    The forms and figures on a computer screen are sustained by continual refresh of electrons from the electron guns inside the screen. In the same way, the forms and figures of the world are sustained by continual refresh from the Universal Consciousness that pumps up the energy required.

    Thus, the universe and the world we live in, with all their inhabitants, exist only in the consciousness--in the mind--of God, as his thought waves. If he withdraws those waves, the whole universe will vanish in a moment, at the flick of a switch as it were.

    Another eminent example of asat are we, the humans. We too are made of layers and layers of matter--gross and subtle--, right up to the components that make up our mind: ahamkAra (ego), buddhi (wisdom), chitta (the 'hard disk' storage of our mind) and manas the mind proper. Behind all such layers of matter is our Self, the Atman, which is the same as the Universal Self or Brahman. The Self in us is reached intellectually by the famous simple question that RamaNa Maharshi gave us: "Who am I?". And the Self is realizable by contemplating and meditating on this question.

    Therefore, in the first mantra, we pray, "Lead me from the asat to the sat."

    'tamas' and 'jyoti'

    At a physical level, tamas means 'darkness'; at the mental level, 'ignorance' or avidyA.

    At a physical level, jyotis means 'light, sun, sunlight'; at the mental level, 'enlightenment' or Atma darshanam.

    In the waking state, we live from borrowed light: from the sunlight at daytime and agni (fire) in some form in the artificial lighting created by man for the nighttime.

    In the waking (jAgrat) state, our consciousness is focussed on our body, mind and the external world. What we see of our body, the physical self, is from the borrowed light; what we see in our mind is also from the borrowed light of Atman reflected distortedly by our mind into colored thoughts and emotions.

    Although we associate ourselves with the body, mind and world, ironically, we cannot see any of them in their full perspective. There is always a hidden part, something in shade, something in darkness, which is not seen. Thus, in the world of borrowed or distortedly reflected light, some darkness always persists, and that is tamas, ignorance.

    In the dream (svapna) state of sleep, our body and the external world no longer exist for us because of the shift in consciousness from the body to the mind. In this dream state, the mind creates its own world, which we see as the forms and figures of our dreams, in the mind's distortedly reflected light. Perhaps there is more darkness and ignorance in the 'tamasic' world of the dreams than in the external world.

    The body, mind and world--all disappear in the state of deep sleep (suShupti), and a mysterious darkness seems to prevail all over. We are practically dead in that state. Yet, when we wake up after the deep sleep we feel the peace and happiness of having slept well, although we were not conscious or aware of it.

    The knowledge of peace and happiness in deep sleep is conveyed to us by our Self, the Atman, also known as Brahman, which is svayam prakAshaka (self-shining and giving out that pure light of knowledge). Thus, the state of deep sleep wherein we enjoyed peace and happiness, is actually the state of absolute light without any shadow or gray-shades of ignorance, though we were not aware of it while in that state.

    To become aware and be conscious of the state of absolute light that gives us the true knowledge of our Self as sat-chit-Ananda (existence-knowledge-bliss), which is felt as peace and happiness, we need to get into the fourth state called turIya.

    TurIya is not actually the fourth state, but a state that comprises four parts--in other words, the essence or substratum of all the four states of existence. TurIya manifests itself in every tiny and large interval of time between the 'ins and outs' of our waking, bipolar world. To be more precise, the three other states are actually projections on the state of turIya.

    Thus the state of turIya prevails at the junction of duality in the world: at dawn when the night meets the day; at dusk when the day meets the night; in the interval between our breathing in and out; between two clock ticks; between two thoughts; between the intervals of any systolic and diastolic states of vibration.

    The key to enlightenment about our Self--with a clear perspective of the shades of ignorance that veil it--is to be aware of the 'turIyac' moments in our life. This awareness will gradually lead to the larger awareness that we did not have in the state of deep sleep.

    Therefore, in the second mantra, we pray, "Lead me from darkness to light."

    'mRutyu' and 'amRutam'

    The word mRutyu means 'death; Yama, the god of death'. mRu and mara means 'death, to die' while mAra means 'to kill, slay'. maraNam is a common word in many Indian languages for 'death'.

    The Sanskrit dictionary published by Monier-Williams, shows that these roots are the source of the words: 'mors, morior' of Latin, 'mreti' of Slavic, 'mirti' of Lithuania, the Gothic 'maurthr', German 'Mord, morden' and the English 'murder'.

    amRuta the opposite of mRuta, thus means 'not dead, immortal, imperishable, indestructible'. The drink of the gods that confers immortality is also known by this name. Like many Sanskrit terms that fuse duality into a single word, amRuta also means 'poison' and 'antidote for poison'.

    The physical body becomes dead one day, and then the soul goes on to live in its subtle bodies in subtle worlds. The individual ego, the jIvAtma, carries the vAsanas, the karmic impressions of past and current births, and eventually returns to live another life in another physical body. Thus the jIvAtma, the individual soul, experiences its karmic afflictions over countless births until all its karma is dissolved and it finally attains mokSha, release from the cycle of births and deaths.

    Although mokSha is a far distant goal for an ordinary soul suffering from the mortality of births and deaths, its Atman, the Self, stays amRuta, immortal--and sattA, unchanging existence--across births, deaths and rebirths. We cannot do much to accelerate the dissolution of all of our past karma, but we can at least minimize them in the present birth by becoming increasingly aware of the 'turIyac' moments that immunizes the jIva, the individual self, from the pangs of sufferings, death and fear of death, and confers the light and bliss of amRuta from the self-shining Atman which is our core.

    The road to mokSha is long and paved with the stones of birth, life and death, but by training ourselves to abide in our 'turIyac' moments, we can progressively experience the amRuta, the nectar of sat-chit-Ananda, the true nature of our Atman, the Self, even while we pass through the lives destined for us by our own karma. This is why it is said that mokSha can be attained here and now by Self-Realization. A jIva that attains such mokSha even while it is embodied, attains the state of jIvan mukta, liberated while living.

    Therefore, in the third mantra, we pray, "Lead me from death to immortality."

    Notice that shAntiH (peace) is invoked three times in the fourth and last line, preceded by the praNava mantra aum. This repetition is for invoking peace for our soul that lives in three worlds during its cycles of birth: the bhu, bhuva, suva, physical, astral and the heaven.

    aum shAntiH shAntiH shAntiH
    "Aum, may there be peace, peace, peace."
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

  2. #2

    Re: Hindu Universal Prayers

    Namaste Saidevo ji,
    Excellent thread.
    Thy right is to work only, but never with its fruits; let not the fruits of the action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction.

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