Sharanagati

(from a lecture of Swami Tirtha, 23.08.2016 evening, Ludasto) 

(continues from the previous Friday) 

This was the introduction so far. Now comes the story itself.

naimishe ’nimisha-kshetre
rishayah shaunakadayah
satram svargaya lokaya
sahasra-samam asata[1] 

“Once upon a time in a holy place in the forest of Naimisharanya the great sages, headed by the sage Shaunaka, assembled to perform a great thousand-year sacrifice for the satisfaction of the Lord and His devotees”.

This is the beginning of the story. There is a sacred spot in Northern India, it’s called Naimisharanya, Naimisha-aranya. What is the meaning of aranya? This is ‘forest’. And what is naimisha? It comes from nimisha, nimisha is like a ‘moment’. Naimisha is ‘belonging to a moment’ – so this is ‘The momentary forest’. What kind of special place is this? A momentary forest? A forest – it takes so much, hundreds of years to cultivate, to grow big! And how is it that it’s called ‘a momentary forest’? Very strange name. Why is that? And why on this spot these holy persons came together? Because actually this forest is a place of quantum leap. Yes, quantum jump, thousands of years back. Why? Because this is a spot where you can transcend time. Where you can go beyond the limited time and you can reach eternity.

So, it is a very special place. This is the place to overcome the limitation of time. Therefore they came together to perform a sacrifice. What kind of sacrifice? When we come together for a sacrifice, after half an hour everybody starts to feel uneasy. Now it’s ten to nine and you feel very uneasy on this sacrifice. While these saints came together for a thousand-year long sacrifice. Just imagine, we have been here together for three days and their perspective was thousand years. How can you perform a thousand-year long sacrifice? It’s very easy – either you alone sit there for one thousand years or you find 999 partners and you sit only for one year.

But this is not a joke. Because the main point, the main importance is the sacrifice. This was the purpose why they came together. So why we come together? To perform the sacrifice. They have come together thousands of years back; now we come together today –  but the purpose, the spirit is he same. Then we can jump back to their time, we can invite the same atmosphere, the same mood, what they were perceiving. Therefore we have to perform this sacrifice ourselves. And what was the direct purpose of this sacrifice? The satisfaction of the Lord and His devotees. So, if we perform our activities for the same purpose, that means we are in Naimisharanya.

I think that’s a very good topic of our meditation and also of our contemplation to travel back in time and to rise in the spirit. And not simply traveling way back in time, but also one step closer to eternity, to eternal values in order to transcend limitations of time.

(to be continued)

[1] Shrimad Bhagavatam 1.1.4