BG4.25

Avismrithitvatcharanaravinde

Bhavabhave mesthubava prasadat

So prays Kulasekara Alwar in Mukundamala. He says he should ever remember His feet. Nammalwar and Thirumangai Alwar also state that His feet are the only asylum. Today’s [18^th October, 2007] is from Kamyavanam, about 10 miles from Nandgaon. Here Sri Krishna has played and performed pranks. This is kamya or kama vanam and will increase kamam in us. Is kamam good or bad? As long as we develop desire for learning or in forming good character or in making our children good citizens or in devotion to God, we have to nourish kamam. For mean and cheap things we should totally avoid kamam. Also desire could be there but it should not become greed. We are on the top of a small hillock. From here if we look down we see a pond called lukaluka kundam. Sri Krishna used to play in the waters with His gopi friends. The friends will reach pinnacle of happiness and a little more may make them dead. At that time, Sri Krishna would disappear and when all His friends long to see Him, He would appear on the hilltop and play flute. With the left foot firmly on the ground and the right foot bent and crossed with only the toes on the ground He would play on the flute and delight His friends. A calf would be behind Him and lick His feet. This is available here as imprints. We can see only the left foot print and since the right foot was bent its imprint is not there. We can also see the hoof prints of the calf. Alwar asks the Lord whether He lifted the Govardana hill and as Sri Vamana measured the entire universe with His feet. The Lord told that those feats couldn’t be repeated now. Alwar says that he never wanted that but asked the Lord to show the majestic shoulders, which lifted the hill and the feet, which measured the universe. We were not fortunate to have been born when Sri Krishna was playing but at least we are fortunate to see these imprints. From this charan pahadi we will see the 24^th sloka. From 25^th sloka He is going to describe the various types of Karma yoga. But first the famous 24^th sloka:

brahmarpanam brahma havir
brahmagnau brahmana hutam
brahmaiva tena gantavyam
brahma-karma-samadhina

"A person who sees Brahman in all activities of a yajna, views Brahman and Karma as same and gets atman darshan."

The one who sees Brahmam in all one’s actions will reach Brahman. Sriman Narayana is the Brahman and He is the inner significance in all karma. Bahaman karma samadhi = viewing Brahman and karma as same. Our daily routines like eating, sleeping, etc., are all viewed as Brahman. Advantage of this is we will not do bad things. We will not be greedy to grab others’ properties. We will never do cheating or scheme to create problems for others. Then, brahmaiva tena gantavyam = he will get atman sakshatkaram. Here Brahman means atman. Brahmana = by the jeevatman. In homam or yagna, we would have noticed a person sitting in front of the sacrificial fire. He is karta. He holds wooden or metallic ladles. With these he would scoop ghee or cooked rice or curd and offer in the fire. The offered materials such as ghee are called havis and the process of offering is called ahuti. Brahmarpanam = the ladles etc used to offer havis is considered as Brahman, brahma havir = the havis is considered as Brahman, brahmagnau = the fire is considered as Brahman, brahmana = the karta is considered as Brahman, hutam = ahuti is done or offered. So Brahman [ karta] offers Brahman [havis] with Brahman [ ladle] into Brahman [fire]. He, who sees Brahman in all, views Brahman and karma as same and gets atman sakshatkaram. When one eats food, the hand that feeds, the mouth and the person doing are all considered as Brahman and the entire process is for the happiness of the Brahman. He gets atman sakshatkaram. .