Chance.....or am I assuming too much as I say this......brought a book "tripura rahasya" to me.....
The book seemed alright with the cover nicely embossed and priced at 250 bucks.....I lingered around a bit in the bookstore to check whether I could buy something else....maybe a who-dunnit or maybe the latest cosmo....
Any moment my friend would be at the bookstore to pick me up....hastily I picked up the book , paid the cashier and convinced myself that reading comedy and comics alone won't give me material enough to write....
After dinner , I picked up the book......it said something about a devotee who had devoted a couple of years in translating it in English...."loser" echoed my mind.....to waste precious life in translating stuff when it could have been enjoyed otherwise....but the book completed change my perception of vedanta....
The book is a dialogue between Dattatreya , the Indian epitome of guruhood.....popularly known as the avadhuta...someone who doesn't follow the normal social rules of conduct.....and parashurama .....son of sage jamadagni...one of the avatars of vishnu...the preserver god....
Dwaita...dualism represented by parashurama.....a form of god who knows the truth but still believes in enjoying and being part of it without getting involved.....and adwaita represented by dattatreya the avatar of shiva....the ascetic lord.......who is so sensitive to pain and rejection , that he draws himself into a cocoon not even accessible to his own spouse....who he believes is responsible for drawing him out in the first place.....
the book teaches the dwaitins the errors of their ways in getting involved with the world...when in effect the entire world is a dream based on the sleeping vishnu's dream....
dattaterya allegorically explains with the help of stories , the various modes of worship and why each form of worship evolved.....
According to the hindu.....there is no apocalypse......there is no end.....things are always cyclical....only eternity and infinity is real......the western concept of final dissolution is just one phase of the cycle when vishnu rises from his sleep.....breaking his dream which in effect dissolves our world.....Eventually again he will sleep , dreaming worlds into existence...
A fascinating outlook on the concept of god granting boons to devotees is explained in the book...
According to dattatreya ....whenever a being rises above the human perception through the five senses....i.e. he consciously rejects the sensory inputs.....these inputs are the medium through which vishnu maintains the sleep of the individual consciousness.....thus preventing the individual from ever realizing that he himself is part of the all-knowing consciousness....of which even vishnu is a form.....it is a game in which the consciouness-vishnu deludes the consciosuness-man so that in effect the world of pain and pleasure could be enjoyed....
so when a devotee dhruva steadfastedly draws himself away from the world......he starts disconnecting himself from the illusory world....in the process realizing that he need not strive.....for what has one to do to become oneself......brings to mind the parable of chrsit "be still and know that I am god"...a more apt description would have been "be still and know that you are god"....
when dhruva attempts to wake up.....he is thwarting the original divine plan of wanting to enjoy duality.... which prompts vishnu to make an appearance and grant him boons...in effect binding him with illusory boons to the illusory world......
Dattatreya tries to explain that since vishnu is the creator of the dream he has power to grant invincibility to the dream residents as he just has to will or wish it.....and he still is the all-powerful , as just by waking up he can smash to smithereens the world of men....
dattareya extols parashuram to realise this and tells him the secret......the core of advaita....that each of us can create world out of nothing if we will so....if we focus our energies to do so......
He himslef explains the case of vishwamitra who by the powers of penance and concentration is able to create a parallel universe for trishanku when he is denied entrance into indra's heaven.
A very daring concept..nihilistic to the core...forms the basis of tripura rahasya...which throws aside worship, deities and even the trinity , plunging straight into the heart of consciuousness ...
a must read for all the vedantic enthusiasts.....who are tired of wrestling out meaning from the ramayan and mahabharaat....which are nothing but cock an bull stories in front of tripura rahasya.......
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