Manah Sodhanam - Verse 20

I went to my very close friend's parents 60th birthday celebrations today. What a beautiful occasion it was! The renewal of vows, something that has caught the fancy of the west in recent times, has been in practice in our culture for ages. Surrounded by all the near and dear ones, uncle tied the knot again to aunty, on his 60th birthday. I could feel the emotions surging through aunty -a bride again and so very beautiful. How blessed the couple are to have lived such a full and wonderful life. I pray God to bless them with many many more years of togetherness in love and good health and happiness.  Time really has the power to make all things right and all things precious.

And by the way, is it only me or do many people experience this feeling of guilt when they while away time without doing anything productive? I was trying to indulge in a lazy Saturday afternoon, mindlessly browsing the facebook and happily lolling in the bed, trying to take a short nap. But then, this constant feeling of guilt - the guilt of not having posted an entry in two days made me jump out of the bed and open my laptop. Here is verse 20 :)

ANVIKSIYA SOKAMOHAU  DAMBHAM  MAHADUPASAY

YOGANTARAYAN  MAUNENA  HIMSAM  KAYADYANIHAYA

Here, Sage Naradha says that grief and delusion should be conquered by self -knowledge, hypocrisy by serving the noble ones, obstacles in yoga by silence and injury to others by controlling one's physical activities.

In Vedanta and all other spiritual texts, they say that time itself is an illusion. The concept of time -as past, present and future does not actually exist. It is only when the duality comes in, space arises. And only because of space, time comes into play. To elucidate, "I" am this universe. There is only this supreme "I" or the Paramatma. When the I fail to identify with the supreme "I", only then all this he, she , him, her, they, it...all these come into play.

Only because I identify many other separate separate entities, space comes into picture. And when space is there, I bring in time -the time taken to travel from point A to point B in the space that I have created because of my ignorance. I seriously hope I have made some sense here. What I am trying to convey here is, we are all one huge, interconnected mass. There is nothing that separates us. And when there is nothing to separate us, then where is the question of space and hence time? I am yet to actually experience this Truth, but slowly, this concept is starting to make a lot of sense to me.

Coming back, if I understand that there is no concept of space and time, then where is the question of grief -which is associated with the past, fear -which is associated with the future and delusion and confusion -which is associated with the present? Hari Om!