66. SAMPATHKARI SAMAROODA SINDHOORA VRIJA SEVITHA:
She who is surrounded by Sampathkari (that which gives wealth) elephant brigade
In the last post we have seen the war between the bandasura and lalitha devi. This should be take in a philosophical way. Bandasura is the ego a person possesses. the brigade of elephants here represents the strengths of hinduism with which devi tries to curtail our ego and selfishness and turn ourself into the true devotee of the supreme. The different forms represents the various ways by which we can attain salvation. Our ego is the essence of thses few lines of LS.so for the next few days we are going to dwell on this topic of egoism and how it affects mankind.It is a means of looking into ourselves.Most people on this Earth are following another path for the moment, the path of self-indulgence and self-interest and selfishness.There are three untraditional paths, three worldly margas: anava, karma and maya. The last two bonds, karma and maya, are the first to begin to diminish their hold on the soul as one proceeds on the path to enlightenment. And when these fetters begin to loosen, the anava, the personal ego identity, thoughts of "me," "my" and "mine," should also begin to go, but often don't. When karma and maya begin to go, anava often becomes stronger and stronger and stronger.People who are living totally on the anava marga are not religious, and if attending religious functions, they stand with folded arms, on the outside looking in. Their only emotions are for themselves, their immediate family and friends, but only if the latter prove useful to them. Selfishness and avarice are two descriptive words for their lifestyle. To their immediate family, they are protective, kind and resourceful, provided the spouse, sons and daughters are productive and equally as concerned for the family welfare. The animal instinct prevails of "Let's preserve the nest, the lair, at all costs."
The businessman on the anava marga is generous by all appearances, gives enough to gain praise, adulation and to make friends. In proportion to his wealth, he gives a pittance. There is always some attachment to the gift, some favor to be eventually reaped. The gift is a purchase in disguise. The anava margi in giving charity would always want adulation, credit, name to be mentioned, and if it is a large amount, some control in the use of it. There are strings attached. He may even follow up years later and wreak criticism and havoc if the gift given in cash or kind is not maturing in value.
In contrast, the devotee of God on the kriya marga would know that he was only giving to himself through indirection, and place his gift freely in the hands of those he trusts. Trust is always preceded by love. There is no difference between the two, except the method of follow-up. The anava margi becomes the law. The kriya margi knows that divine law will work for him if he follows the path of righteousness, while the anava margi is driven to manipulate the law in fulfillment of each of his concerns.
Emotional ups and downs are contingent to the anava marga. Four steps forward, three steps backward, a step to the side, six steps forward, two steps backward, a step to the side, six steps backward, three steps forward, a step to the side -- it is an amazing dance. It's a maze. They all think they are going someplace. This dance of ignorance is not one of Lord Siva's favorite dances, though it is definitely one of His dances. He does it with a smile and a sneer, mirth and a tear on His face. He actually has most of the world doing this dance now. Ignorance is equally distributed throughout the planet. The intrinsic ability to ignore, consistently and persistently, the eternal truths of the Sanatana Dharma is one of the great qualifications of the anava margi.
Television is a window into the anava marga. We see extremely successful professional people who maybe have started on the anava marga and have bypassed it to the artful acting portrayal of people on the anava marga. We can see in their eyes, they have a life that is seeking and searching, understanding and knowing, and their magnetism keeps them before the public year after year after year. These are the professionals. Then we see on TV the anava margis by the dozens. They come and go, are hired and not rehired.
Before the anava marga, there is only confusion, unqualified thoughts, desires that are only motivative or directional, not crystallized into any kind of a concept that can be manifested toward a fulfillment. The confusion arises out of the drive for self preservation. All animal instincts are alive in such a human being. He does not hold to promises, does not seek to strive, is a proverbial burden on society. Society is made up of anava margis and those who live in the other margas. Deception, theft, murder, anger, jealousy and fear are often the occupation and the emotions of those living without a personal identity, a well-defined ego.
A personal identity and well-defined ego is the anava, and the pursuit of the development of that is the marga. Each purusha, human soul, must go through the anava marga, a natural and required path whose bloom is the fulfillment of the senses, of the intellect and all the complexities of doing. It is prior to our entrance upon the anava marga and while we are happily on the anava marga that we create the karmas to be understood and overcome later when we walk the charya and kriya margas. You have to understand before you can overcome. This is the time that we "do ourselves in" and later understand the all-pervasiveness of shakthi, the laws of karma, dharma, samsara. Yes, of course, this is the time the mischief is done.The anava margi looks at God from a distance. He does not want to get too close and does not want to drift too far away, lives between lower consciousness and higher consciousness, between the manipura, svadhishthana and muladhara and the lower three, atala, vitala and sutala, which represent fear, anger and jealousy. He does not get into confused thinking. That is super lower consciousness, in the realm of the talatala chakra. He is guided by reason. That is why he can come into the other margas.
Therefore, God is at a distance. He sees himself pluralistically, separate from God, coexistent with God. Those who fear God anger easily. They fear their elders. They fear their government. They fear impending disaster, and they fear disease. God is just one item on the long list of things that they fear. They are not on the path of spiritual unfoldment. Their higher chakras are dreaming benignly, waiting for the consciousness to explore them. Only when someone begins to love God is he on the path of spiritual unfoldment. Only then is he a seeker. Only then does his budding love begin to focus on religious icons. Only then is he able to nurture his love into becoming a bhaktar and at the same time a religious person, a giving person. This is the charya path. We come onto the charya marga from the anava marga. We come to Lord Ganesha's feet from the anava marga. He is now the guide. The personal ego has lost its hold.
The anava marga, and the glue that holds it together, is ignorance of the basic tenets of Hinduism. There is no way one can be on this marga if he truly accepts the existence of God pervading all form, sustaining all form and rearranging all form. There is no way this marga could be pursued by one understanding karma, seeing his manifest acts replayed back to him through the lives of others, his secret diabolical thoughts attacking him through the lips of others. The anava marga does not include this knowledge. The dharma of a perfect universe and an orderly life, the consciousness of "the world is my family, all animals are my pets" is an abhorrent idea to someone on the anava marga, especially if he is casted by birth in this life. The anava margi abhors the idea of reincarnation. To pay the bill of one's indiscretions in another life is not what anava is all about. There is a forgetfulness here. When you renounce your childhood, you forget that you ever were a child. You forget the moods, the emotions, the joys and the fears and all that was important at that time.So according to me the annava margis have Bandasuras in them and lalithambika with her weapons tries to reddem us from that agorish marga and shows us the path to redemption.
