Krishna Calls:
At the outset, I have a confession to make. That I do quit reading. If you have been under the impression that I am an obsessive reader who gobbles up anything and everything comes his way, think again. I just quit reading "The Problem of Rebirth" by Sri Aurobindo at the 50th page.
So be happy. I know it's a familiar feeling. We all start a book with enthusiasm and after few pages some distraction comes. Particularly in this visually disturbing world, a beep in your mobile takes your attention off. We put the book aside never to touch it again and feel guilty at a later date.
I have also done it. Many a time. Like the smokers quit very often. But what I do is to pick up another one immediately and get on with it. Book, I mean, not cigar! Making it a habit. Will you stop brushing your teeth for entire life just because the door bell rang on a particular day when you were brushing? Or you had tooth ache one day and couldn’t clean your mouth?
Reading material written a few decades back is fun. How about one written a century back? Sri Aurobindo's English was a challenge as the long winding sentences never seemed to stop and the reader has to hold a lot of stuff in his head to make meaning. For instance, what do you make of this sentence? “The one question which through all its complexities is the sum of philosophy and to which all human enquiry comes round in the end, is the problem of ourselves – why we are here and what we are, and what is behind and before and around us, and what we are to do with ourselves, our inner significances and our outer environment”.
But the content and subject are so powerful and enquiry-based. After all, rebirth is not just unfathomable for a noisy mind but also beyond the physical frames of references we are used to.
So, what I replaced in my hand is a little powerful gift from again Shri K M Krishna Kumar, our Senior Trainer on Krishna’s Gospel. It's a little book of "Srimad Bhagavatam”: The Wisdom of God, came with his blessings on the occasion of my last promotion in my career. Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math it is an easy-to-read SOP Manual from the Almighty Himself!
If a century old stuff is so tough to crack, how about Bhagavatam which is God-dahm-old! Spoken thousands of years back. However, this little book is so readable and attractive that it reveals THE Truth-The Wisdom of God in a straight-forward manner. Many pieces of the celestial jigsaw fall in place. For instance, can you believe, if I say, it also starts with the Big Bang detailing how life manifested in the first place.
Lots of the spiritual stuff I read seem to flow from this Gospel. To quote one realized truth: “The Self alone is real. The world of the senses is super-imposed upon it. See the one reality, the divine Self, and so liberate yourself from thinking about the world of the senses. He who knows the one reality, beyond the objective world, has true knowledge.”
In the end, one word of caution. If you imagine, as we normally do, that Krishna is a person(ality) talking to you, your understanding will go haywire. Even you may be put off listening to “I am everything” kind of expressions! Whereas, if you have experientially connected with THAT one inexpressible, infinite, silent and spaceless unmanifested ONE, then it will make a lot of sense.
While reading it, keep an open mind, though ‘open-mind’ itself is an oxymoron! After all, this is the difficulty of communicating the unspeakable. In Tamil language, we have a famous saying: “Those who have seen Him cannot speak and those who speak have not seen”.
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