Ganga, Vedanta and Kabuliwala
Ganga, Vedanta and Kabuliwala .......
Ever
since I heard the song - Ganga aaye kahan se Ganga jaye kahan re
.... गंगा आए कहाँ
से गंगा जाए कहाँ रे .... (Where
does Ganga come from, where does she go to), in touching voice of Hemantkumar
in the film “Kabuliwala” - based on an equally touching story by Rabindranath
Tagore - I was fascinated by it. The song kept gradually revealing a deeper and
deeper meaning along my journey on the spiritual path.
As Krishna says in
Bhagvad Geeta (Ch. 2: 28) the life before our eyes, in the present moment, is
the only form that is expressed, and that is the middle portion of the entire
life thread; neither the beginning nor the end of this life force is ever
revealed to us. (अव्यक्तादीनी भूतानी व्यक्त मध्यानी भारत अव्यक्त नीधनान्येव
तत्र का परीदेवना).
In the same manner, the water
of the flowing river that you touch at this very moment is the only reality before
you; the water that has passed has gone, and the water that is upstream has yet
not arrived - like “Time”!
Next line of the song depicts
a good juxtaposition of the black, dark night and a bright day as ups and downs,
- the agony and ecstasy, superimposed inseparably on the streaming life.
Then
few lines express a deeper philosophy of Advait (non-dual) Vedanta: there are unlimited
varieties of pots: glass, clay and colorful bowls - but to a thirsty soul,
craving for water, types of pot really do not matter. It compares here with what
St. Kabir said: “कबीर कुआँ एक है पनिहारी अनेक, बर्तन सब के न्यारे भए सब में
पानी एक”.
What we see as millions of
forms, shapes and varieties, is nothing but manifestation of a single supreme
reality, ब्रह्मन - the
consciousness or Chaitanya. But we keep on differentiating between one
person and the other, till we get that divine eyesight to penetrate through, beyond the
gross physical form of this body-mind complex.
I have displayed a photograph
of a Master teacher of Advait Vedanta of our times: Swamy Dayanandaji - who led me on this path. Photographs of river banks in
this clip are mostly around our Ashram, at Dayananda Nagar, Rishikesh, shot during attendance at Vedanta Camps of 2011 and 2019. Pictures of clay and glass pots are all
taken from internet, with thanks to the copyright holders.
Now with
this prologue, please enjoy the video clip, placed below:
Comments
Post a Comment