The paathi is singing from the Bani of Sant Tulsi Sahib from the book: Ratna Sagar...
Apakeerthi jag mein badi,
Sab sir daare ghoor,
Apakeerthi jag mein badi,
Sab sir daare ghoor,
Laaj kadhi aave nahi,
Saanchii kahe na moor.
Laaj kadhi aave nahi,
Saanchii kahe na moor.
THIS IS THE BANI of Tulsi Sahib from His writings in the Ratna Sagar. This is the extension of the Bani we had heard yesterday. And in this Bani, Tulsi Sahib is explaining how the unscrupulous people go into this cycle of life and death. He explains that after getting this precious life form as a human being, these people waste this life form and then, as a result, they have to go back into the lower life forms. He has also explained into which life forms they will go from here.
So, He's talking about these people who are unscrupulous and, in society, they want status in society. They like their ego to be fed and they want everyone to respect them. If people do not do that, or they are not getting the desired status, then they are willing to do unscrupulous things and even cause harm to others to achieve that. And such people, to hide one lie will tell another hundred lies. But they are not willing to accept their mistake.
Yeh tho upar jag byohaaraa,
Man andhar ka suno bichaara.
Yeh tho upar jag byohaaraa,
Man andhar ka suno bichaara.
So, after talking about the outward traits of such people, Tulsi Sahib now gets into their minds and explains what is there in the minds of such people.
Man ichchaa sang saath chalaave,
Ichchaa man sang tarang utaave.
So, they do their deeds — the mind following their desire — they get all these further desires with all of the things they are doing that lead towards desire. And they are driven by such desires. Even when a person dies, because of the things that he has done in the past, all of those things come together and that drives a new desire. And that is the desire, which he has in his mind at the time of death.
Kal has created karma, or deeds, as the essence of this world. And, as a result, for any human being at the time of death, all these karmas, all these deeds that he has done, a mix of all of these, essentially drive his desire. And it is according to that desire and the mix of these karmas, that the Lord of Judgment decides an appropriate place for that soul to go and the other life form where it will be able to serve or redeem the karmas that have been created out of this.
The mind is an element of KalNiranjan and the desire is an element of Maya. So, it is something emanating from Maya. So, Niranjan and Maya, using the mind and desire, are pulling the soul in two different directions; and they have a very dominant place in this body. They drive the soul. The soul is completely driven by these two things.
What actually should have happened was that the soul should have been the all-powerful, the mind should have listened to the soul, and the desires should have listened to the mind. But what is actually happening is the desires rule the mind. So, the mind chases the desires. And the soul is driven by the mind. So, it is exactly inverse from what should have happened.
Man ichchaa sang saath chalaave,
Ichchaa man sang tarang utaave.
Jah man lagetahaa tan jaave,
Man man mile milaap kahaave.
The mind and desire throw up a wish and it is in working towards achieving that wish that the person starts making efforts. And, it is because of this cycle between the mind, desire, and these wishes, that the soul is entangled and it has become a jivatma. It has lost its entire powers and it is driven by these. It is captive between the mind and the desires.
So, in this, whether we do good things or we do bad things, the result of both these will be given back to the soul.
Jah man lagetahaa tan jaave,
Man man mile milaap kahaave.
Jaise nadhi lahar ki laharee.
Jaisee baas chale man keree.
It is like the wave of the river that goes back into the river itself. Like that, our addictions are taken on and manifest in the mind. So, the mind also becomes a manifestation of that addiction.
Jaise nadhi lahar ki laharee.
Jaisee baas chale man keree.
Yeh jag jeev lahar mein maatha,
Duniya naam pado yahi baahthaa.
He says, “Just like the wave of the river goes back into the river, like that, in the mind, there are these thoughts, which are continuously coming, and these thoughts arise and settle in the mind itself. And mind is constantly in a state of change because of these thoughts.” This is what Tulsi Sahib is describing as ‘the world’. He has given the name duniya to this.
The word ‘duniya’ is, in Hindi, referred to as ‘the world’. The foundation, or the essence, of this word was developed more in the Mohammedan culture by someone. And the essence of this is that there are two aspects to everything. There is a male; there is a female. There is a joy; there is sorrow. There is love; there is hatred. So, like that, there are two aspects to everything, and that is what is, in Hindi, called duniya — as in ‘dual’.
So, Tulsi Sahib says, “It is these thoughts which continuously are emanating in the mind, and the mind is continuously in a state of flux following these thoughts. And this is what the world is.
Yeh jag jeev lahar mein maatha,
Duniya naam pado yahi baahthaa.
Man ki kala anekan hoyee,
Man ichcha sang baadh bigoyee.
The mind also has many facets. It has got many strengths — like the soul has strengths and is of the essence of God Almighty — like that, the mind also has strength and is an element of Brahm. It belongs to the Triloki — the ruler of the three worlds.
So, everyone is under the influence of the mind and the mind rules right up to Brahm. So, wherever the soul is in all these three worlds, it is under the influence of the mind. And the mind also does not die. So, if the soul does not cross to Par Brahm with the Grace of the Master, it cannot get separated from and kill the mind.
Man ki kala anekan hoyee,
Man ichcha sang baadh bigoyee.
Madira ko kalvaar banaave,
Peeve dhaam deyi dukh paave.
Tulsi Sahib refers to a tribe called Kalvaar. This Kalvaar is a tribe, which makes alcohol. They make different types of intoxicants. So, He refers to these desires as kalvaar, and He is saying, “This kalvaar in the mind, which is all the desires, are ruling the mind and they have made the mind intoxicated with the different types of thoughts and desires that they are throwing at the mind.
Madira ko kalvaar banaave,
Peeve dhaam deyi dukh paave.
Man bhatti kalavaar chadaave,
Kalvaarin pee peev chakaave.
So, these wishes or desires in the mind keep doing all the things. The desires have the mind intoxicated and, between desires and the mind, wishes are created and they follow those wishes. And the result is that the body suffers because the two of them do all this. It is the body, which has and bears the illness.
For example, if you do something criminally then, in the police station, they will beat the body. But these two — the mind and desires — are the things, the main culprits, doing everything.
Even after death, when we carry our burden of karmas, the mind and soul are there in the astral body. So, when they are in the astral body, the hell is in the astral body. And all the sufferings that are given as a result of the bad deeds that the mind has done, all that is given to the astral body.
Now, the astral body is so subtle that even if you touch it, it feels pain. So, in that kind of a state, they are being given sufferings in hell.
So, the mind and desires, through the senses, are driving everything and the body is suffering. And the end result is that one has to go into the cycle of life and death.
Man hai mukar kalaar,
Kalvaarin ichcha bhai,
Bish ras visham vikaar,
Raath diwas karathe rahe.
Tulsi Sahib says, “It is the mind and the desires, which are doing everything, and they are driving the soul into doing all of this. And the soul within the body is suffering as a result.
Jaagrath mein man laage joi,
Pahunche supane mein tah soi.
Jaagrath mein man laage joi,
Pahunche supane mein tah soi.
Tulsi Sahib talks about the different states of the mind. When one is conscious and awake, the mind is already manifested in the world, and all the desires, and all the thoughts outside. And when one goes to sleep then, in that half sleep state, the mind goes in the dream state and is doing karmas in the dream state.
When we are awake, the mind and soul are at the Eye Center and we are in a conscious state. When we go to sleep, the mind descends from the Eye Center to the level of the throat, which is where Adi Maya sits. And between AdiMaya and the mind, they conjure up the things, which basically we raise as desires in our dream state. Then from there further, when the mind descends down to the level of the heart — where Shiva resides — then we are in deep sleep where there is no dream state. You are in deep sleep. Again, when the mind comes up from that level of the heart back to the level of the throat, again, we are in a dream state. And then, when it comes back at the Eye Center, we are again conscious.
Jaagrath mein man laage joi,
Pahunche supane mein tah soi.
Chal bal kare reethi darsaave,
Jaagrath se supane mein paave.
When some of the desires are un-satiated by the mind in the conscious state, it tries to accomplish these desires in the dream state because, in the dream state, it is in a much more powerful state.
Chal bal kare reethi darsaave,
jaagrath se supane mein paave.
Lahar ute jo man ke maahi,
So tadroop dekh darsaayi.
He says, “That wave of desire which is run in the conscious state, when the mind is not able to fulfill that desire, it goes in the dream state and fulfills that desire. So, that way, the mind chases the desire and, in some form or the other, it tries to achieve that desire and do that karma.
Lahar ute jo man ke maahi,
So tadroop dekh darsaayi.
Ya man man ichha jiv baandhe,
Karam karoor thaahi mein faandhe.
So, that way, the mind and desires tie the jiva, tie the soul, in karmas, which it cannot untie itself from or get untangled from for several lives.
This is not the first time that we are here in this world as human beings. We have had such births tens of millions of times before. Sometimes we would have been born as a king, sometimes as a pauper. So, we have been coming into this world time and again as human beings. And the kind of burden that we have built up over these millions of lives is bigger than the Himalayas. The kind of burden of our deeds is enormous. And it is only with the Grace of the Masters that we are able to cut those karmas and become free of those karmas so that the Master can take us out of this realm of Kal.
Several rishis and munis have tried to redeem their karmas by various practices and they have done this for over fifty thousand years and sixty thousand years. That has been the level of practice and austerity that they have gone through. But, even then, they have not been able to get rid of their karmas.
So, in this one life, it is the Master with His Grace Who is able to redeem this huge, enormous burden of karmas and take us out of this ocean of life.
In any of the previous lives, if we had had the company of the Masters, then today, we would not be sitting here in the company of the Masters. And even if we would have come in the company of the Masters, but had not taken that to our heart, had not gone and surrendered to the Masters, then we would have remained devoid of Their Grace and that is why we are coming back into this world.
Ya man man ichha jiv baandhe,
Karam karoor thaahi mein faandhe.
Jaise maal bhare vyaipaari,
Jaay disanthar beche jhaari.
So, He explains how we carry these karmas. It is like a trader, he carries his goods. And so, he goes from one country to the other country and he carries those goods with him. And then he gets rid of those goods or sells those goods in the other country.
Like that, the karmas that we build in this life, we have to go in the other forms of life and we have to redeem those karmas.
Jaise maal bhare vyaipaari,
Jaay disanthar beche jhaari.
Aise karm kareedho lekha,
Chourasi ke bhogh alekha.
Tulsi Sahib says, “As a result, the jiva goes into the chaurasi, into the 8.4 million life forms. He goes there and starts redeeming all his karmas.
So, why does he do that? It is only because he has built these karmas in this human life. Because Kal has made karmas as the essence of life and, therefore, whatever karmas we are building up, we have to redeem those karmas. And, for that, we have to take birth again in different life forms and pay that off.
Aise karm kareedho lekha,
Chourasi ke bhogh alekha.
Jo hisaab kaagaz mein hoyi,
Dharmrai bugathaave soyi.
So your karmas are written by Chitragupta on the basis of the Lord of Judgment. So, the Lord of Judgment decides, on the basis of the karmas that you have incurred, on how you will be going and redeeming these karmas. Whatever karmas we do, whether we do those consciously or subconsciously, those karmas have to be redeemed. And the Lord of Judgment makes a decision on the basis of our karmas of how those are going to be redeemed.
Jo hisaab kaagaz mein hoyi,
Dharmrai bugathaave soyi.
Narak swarg dohu bane karoora,
Ya mein se koi baache poora.
Tulsi Sahib says, “The soul and mind are going up and down. They are going to heaven; sometimes they're going to hell; sometimes they go in other life forms to get out of all of this. He says, “It has to be a brave man who will get out of all of this. And, for that, he will have to go and surrender to the Will of the Master.
Most people believe that salvation lies in going to heaven. So, if we do good deeds, then we get salvation and we go to heaven and the soul gets free there. But that is not the case. All these are mirages created by Kal. And these are not places of salvation.
For example, if someone does the jap or someone does the worship of Vishnu, he will go to Vaikuntha. Or if someone is doing it for Shiva, he will go to Kailash. And, like that, if others are doing mantras or they are following some other deities, then they will go to heaven.
So, all of these people, for the japas or tapas, or this worship, they achieve a limited time period where they are allowed to go to either Kailash or Vaikuntha or heaven. And there it is only as long as those good karmas remain that they will be staying there.
Again, that's not a place of salvation or any such thing. There is everything that we are seeing here. It is in the astral form at a higher level. So, otherwise, there are families. There are all the other vices that we have. So, all these kinds of things are there, even in heaven.
Likewise, all these munis who have gone there and are staying and enjoying heaven, when the power of their jap gets over, when the power of their austerity gets over, they will be sent back to this earth.
Tulsi Sahib, therefore, says, “The person, or the soul, keeps bouncing across all of these planes — the heavens, hells, and this earth — and is not able to get free of all this until he gets a true Master Who showers His Grace and takes him out of this.
And asajjan reethi,
Janm janm joni pade,
Andaz mein bisraam,
Teen tatt tan man ghare.
Tulsi Sahib says, “Those people who are unscrupulous and have had bad deeds here are then born in the egg-bearing state, which are like birds. So, they are then reborn as birds.
Ab yeh asajjan reethi ki,
Karani karam gathi yo bhayi,
From here, Tulsi Sahib explains how the person goes into the next life form as a result of the karma that he has done here.
Ab yeh asajjan reethi ki,
Karani karam gathi yo bhayi,
Mar ke andaz ki khaani mein,
Tan paay ke bugathe sahi.
Tulsi Sahib talks about these unscrupulous people. He had explained, in the earlier part, who these people are and their characteristics. These are people who will go in a congregation of Saints and they will make fun there, and they will make laughter there, and they will make all the people unfocused on what is being explained there. They will not listen to what is being said —or such other things as were explained earlier. So, He tells now how these people will now go into the next life as birds.
Mar ke andaz ki khaani mein,
Tan paay ke bugathe sahi.
Ap kai bhai tez tat bas,
Baas mein kaaya kahee.
He says, “These will go into the bodies of ‘three elements’— of air, water, and fire. They will be given the life of these birds who lay eggs.
So, He says, “Like different people, according to their karmas, go into different lives, such people who are unscrupulous and have these characteristics go and become birds in their next life.”
It is also possible that, as a human being, the person also gets the next life as a human being. There are some people who are pious. They do a little bit of devotion in their lives. And there are people who are ethical. They do not cause harm to others and they are pretty content with what they are getting. Such people — some of them — will likely get another human life.
Ap kai bhai tez tat bas,
Baas mein kaaya kahee.
Saagar kalap ke baadh
Fir fir yoni mein aave vahee.
Tulsi Sahib says, “Once they go in that life form, there are several other forms that they will continue to go in, and it will take several yugas for them to take birth as a human being again.” Therefore, Masters say, “From tens of millions of lives that a soul has suffered before, with the Mercy of God, it gets a human body. And with the Grace of the Masters, it comes in the company of the Masters.
Later, Tulsi Sahib also explains how, from the form of birds, they also go in the other forms of these 8.4 million life forms and how they suffer in these different life forms also.
Saagar kalap ke baadh
Fir fir yoni mein aave vahee.
Koi karm ke anusaar kari,
Char khaan mein uthpathi rahee.
Tulsi Sahib says, “They are also born as trees and insects. There are more than 3 million life forms in the form of trees. And there are more than 2.7 million life forms of insects. And there are nearly 1.4 million life forms of birds.” So, if one goes only in this cycle, it will take several kalpas to come back in the form of a human being.
Koi karm ke anusaar kari,
Char khaan mein uthpathi rahee.
Jug jug vathan karike rahe,
Nar ke joni paave nahi.
So, thereafter, how much ever the soul tries, it does not get the human birth and it suffers a lot in all of these life forms.
Jug jug vathan karike rahe,
Nar ke joni paave nahi.
Jas baat mein koi bruchch fal,
Pad pad pake gir ke bhuyee.
He explains that “Like the fruit falls from the tree, then it forms another tree, and so on and so forth.” So, that way, the soul keeps going back and forth in these life forms. Now, Tulsi Sahib further explains how the soul comes back into the life of a human being.
Jas baat mein koi bruchch fal,
Pad pad pake gir ke bhuyee.
Koi santh aay utay mukh,
Jab khaay nar joni bhayee.
Tulsi Sahib says, “Where a fruit of a tree falls, and if a Saint happens to eat that fruit of that tree, then that tree gets a redemption — it gets the life of a human being.” So, it is the luck of that tree that that fruit somehow reaches the Saint and the Saint eats that fruit. And, because of that, the tree gets the Grace and it gets the life of a human form.
Masters have been very graceful and They have extended a lot of Grace. And, as a result, we are seeing humanity, which is growing so much. So, it has a lot to do with the Grace that the Masters have showered on all these different life forms.
So, that is the reason. For example, where Masters do agriculture and the field has a crop of rice or wheat, and the Masters shower Their Grace on that crop — there are so many plants in that crop — and each of those plants gets a redemption and they get to become human beings. Likewise, these grains of rice that are eaten, or the grains of wheat that are eaten, all of these plants also get a redemption and they become humans.
So, that is the reason why humanity has increased so manyfold. Now, they have got the human life but only a few of them will somehow reach a Master in that human life. Otherwise, again, they will do all their karmas and then they will go back in that chaurasi.
This I will relate to you as an eyewitness. In the Bangalore ashram, in Kengeri, at the entrance of the ashram, we wanted to create a small place for the watchman to sit. So, there was a big mango tree there. We wanted to make a small room for the watchman there near the gate and there was this mango tree. So, Somanath Baba Ji called a carpenter and he asked that carpenter to cut that tree down so that room could be made there.
Other sevadars went to Baba Ji and they told him, “This tree is so nice. It gives such sweet fruit. So, why don't we make the room somewhere else? Let the tree be there only.”
Baba Ji told them, “See? Now you are only saying that the fruit is sweet. Don't you want to give it a redemption from here?”
So, we cut the tree and made that room there. That carpenter there immediately requested Baba Ji— he did not have a child— so he requested Baba Ji, “If you are going to give him a human birth, then why don't you allow that human to be born in my house?”
Somanath Baba Ji simply smiled and He left.
And, thereafter, that carpenter cut that tree and they removed the roots, etc., and that room was made there. That room is still there where that tree used to be. And about one and a half years after that, that carpenter had a son.
So, as soon as he got that baby boy, that carpenter came with that baby boy in an automobile. He took an automobile and came in the early morning and he placed that baby at the feet of Somanath Baba Ji.
So, Somanath Baba Ji looked at him and He started smiling and He said, “Oh, he’s very cute. He looks like a mango!”
So, such things happen with the Grace of the Masters.
Koi santh aay utay mukh,
Jab khaay nar joni bhayee.
Dahi jogi se sanjoy as koi,
Aani ke barthe sahee,
Tulsi Sahib says, “Such incidents happen with the Grace of the Masters. The souls who are there in the lower life forms get a sudden acceleration to a human birth.”
Dahi jogi se sanjoy as koi,
Aani ke barthe sahee,
Karani kare nahi paar paave,
Sant ki kirpa bhayee.
Radhaswami.