French honour to former VC

Mahamandaleshwar Pranav Chaitanya

Man is engulfed in the bindings of nature. He spends his whole life in fulfilling the basic needs of food, water, clothing and seeking company of others. The desires of earning name, fame and luxuries of life keep us running for the whole life and the inner atma (soul) struggles to get freedom from these bonds. That process which frees us from the bindings of Prakriti (with inner consciousness) and Jadhta (Matter, without inner consciousness) is Adhyatam (spirituality).

When the basic needs of life are fulfilled and a person realizes that his desires are not getting fulfilled even after regularly feeding them, then he looks for some other means of fulfillment in life. There starts the search for soul (atma ki khoj tabhi shuru hoti hai). Once a gentleman from England, who used to give lectures on music at BBC channel, approached me. After giving a talk on Rabindra Sangeet, he said, "Swamiji, I am still not satisfied. I have learnt many musical instruments but now I think I must learn tabla, to complete my knowledge on music." I explicated his condition by taking an instance from Chhandogya Upanishad. In chapter 7 of the Upanishad, a reference comes of Narada muni who went to Sanat Kumar to have some knowledge. Sanat Kumar said, "I will teach you what you have not learnt." Narada muni went on to reply, "I have learnt four Vedas, Grammar, scriptures, Quran, Bhut vidya (Physics and Biology), Nakshatra Vidya (astrology and astronomy), Pitri vidya (effect of stars, Maths), tark shastra, Nidhi shastra (arts and skills). What else remains? But I am still unsatisfied and this is the reason of my coming to you." Till the time, a person doesn't strive to know Atma, he remains dissatisfied. It is rightly said, Shokam tarati atmavitta (Atma veta hi shok ka atikraman karta hai) Sanat Kumar explained further, "All the knowledge of matter and resources keep man dissatisfied. These are all merely naming forms or words. Bigger than the name is Vaak (from where the word originates). Mann (mind) is even bigger than vaak. Prana is even greater than Vigyan (science). In the end is Bhuma or (Brahma) which is the source of all knowledge, knowing that one becomes complete. Antatah bhuma ev sukham." Slowly taking from the form to the formless, Sanat Kumar guided Narada and this ultimately led to the quenching of Narada's thirst for knowledge. Wherever there are two, the dwait (duality) is seen or heard, there is unfulfillment. But where (yatra nanyat pashyati ) the duality ends, there the person becomes complete. So to become complete in life, the knowledge of the supreme is o be strived for and therefore dharma is needed.

(As told to Geeta Nagrath Anandi)