We often hear
people talk about some individual
sadhakas as Srividyopasaka
or Anjaneya upasaka
or something similar to these.
What does the term upasana
exactly connote? The term upasana
literally means 'residing
nearby' or in other words, residing
by the side of our ishta devata
. It is a known fact that for
those who are in the very initial
stages of acquiring atmagnana
leading ultimately to liberation,
worshipping an idol or one's own
ishta devata becomes absolutely
necessary. Moorthy aradhana
or worshipping an idol helps a sadhaka to concentrate his attention and
focus his mind for purposes of
meditation. This ishta devata
can be any one of the deities
in the Hindu pantheon. It can
be an idol, a picture, or some yantra, with the help
of which one can try to achieve
concentration. Such a concrete
object becomes necessary in this
effort
. Lord Krishna considers
such devotees as the best yogis,
who with their mind fixed on Him
are always engaged in worshipping
Him and meditating on Him with
unstinted faith .
It is extremely difficult or almost impossible to
bring to mind something without
a name, a form or other
attributes to focus attention
. To those who are attached to
the body and would like to fix
their mind on the attributeless
Brahman, this effort is
fraught with difficulties. The
following Gita shlokas
illustrate this :
̙̥⨙ ̍
͍t̙H =̲t
*
̜t̲t Ht̘ t: **
I%͌Ft̜t̘̥H̲HZt̲̘
*
+H
ͷ Otz:L z̈́̏t
**
(Bhagavadgita
12-2,5 )
As mentioned before, worshipping the ishta devata
is the initial stage of a sadhaka
and as sadhana matures,
idol worship gradually wanes and
gives place to acquirement of
real knowledge or gnana.
There are two kinds of upasana : saguna upasana and nirguna
upasana. Saguna upasana
belongs to bhaktiyoga while
nirguna upasana relates
to gnanayoga. Aadi Sankaracharya
did not stop with assiduously
propagating
Advaita siddhanta
and nirguna Brahma tattva but
advocated saguna upasana
and established the six vedic
religions known as shanmata.
He also visited a large number
of temples in the country during
his digvijaya
and composed a large number of
hymns in praise of the various
deities there. Lord Krishna, while
replying to queries by Arjuna
, says that both saguna upasana
and nirguna upasana are
equally great. But as long
as one entertains attachment
with
the body , nirguna upasana
is difficult to practise.
To those sadhakas who pray
to God considering Him with form
and attributes and different from
them, God grants with grace His vision according to their respective mental propensities.
Those who have realised
that the individual soul and the
Universal Soul are one and the
same become one with Brahman
, the Ultimate Reality.
To succeed in
bhaktiyoga
it is important
to observe the following: niyama, nishtha, upasana,
dinata ( humility ), seva
( service unto God and fellowmen ) and atmasamarpanam ( self-surrender
to God ). The objective of upasana
is to remove the ills of the mind
and
cleanse it so that it becomes
suited to single-minded devotion.
In this task of obtaining single-minded
devotion ,
association with noble
souls plays a major part. The
Lord declares in the Bhagavadgita
as follows:
"O! tormentor of foes,
only
by undivided devotion it
is possible to see Me in this
way ( with four arms ) . Only
through devotion it is possible to realise Me and become united with Me.
H
t̙̍̍ E +ͥ̌%`ʍ
*
bt Z tu Z ̜t̏
**
(Bhagavadgita 11-54)
Upasana when related to Vaidhi Bhakti or devotion with disciplines
and regulations , includes
four practices: Worship
(Puja), chanting (japam),
remembrance (smaranam)
and meditation (dhyana).
Worship (puja)
: This is to consider Lord as
a member in our family and to
share with Him our daily experiences,
joys and sorrows .
In other words ,
we have to identify ourselves
with the Lord
in whatever we think, speak
and do and to surrender to Him
all the results of our actions
with complete detachment. The
prayers that we submit to the
Lord should come from the bottom
of our heart, which alone will
entitle us to receive His grace.
Chanting
(Japa ) :
Chanting the glories and
names of the Lord comes next in
the upasana marga. The thing chosen
for chanting can be a mantra, the Pranava, or any chosen name of
the Almighty. The chanting should
be done repeatedly with our mind
completely focussed . When
done this way, the sound waves
vibrate in the entire surroundings
bringing about absolute goodwill
and welfare thus paving the way
to peace. When the mantras are
in the form of sound waves they
obtain for us the grace of the
particular deities propitiated
by the mantras. Lord Krishna says
in the Bhagavadgita b̍ `̙̏b%Ѳ meaning ' Among
the sacrifices. I am the sacrifice
of chanting '.
Remembrance (smaranam):
It is necessary to practise
remembering our Ishta Devata
at all times . If we constantly
practise this ,
remembering the deity will
become
second nature with us without
any conscious effort. The above
point can be illustrated with
an example: A working mother leaves
her 3 year old child in the care
of a maid and attends office.
Even though she may be engaged
in a number
of duties in the office, the thought
of her child will always be there
at the bottom of her mind. This
is smarana or remembrance. In whichever way we may get engaged
in different types of activities,
or worldly chores, the thought
of our ishtam should dwell
in our mind constantly.
Meditation (dhyana
) :
Next in the upasanamarga
comes meditation or dhyana.
Constant thinking of our ishta
devata, makes it easier for
us to concentrate on this moorthy
in the lotus of our heart . We
should meditate on our ishta
devata with full faith and
dedication. Then our
body becomes the temple
of which our heart is the sanctum
sanctorum . Meditation helps to enhance devotion.
Proper and incessant meditation
of the Lord helps us attain His
qualities in due course. Upasana
has
great power. It unifies
the meditator and the object meditated
upon ie the Lord.
Mundaka
Upanishad (2-2-3) says,' Take as your powerful bow, the Omkara in the
Upanishads; attach as an arrow, your jiva sharpened by upasana ;
consider , as the chord , your mind unified
by dhyana ; and aim at the target aksharabrahma .' In
Katha Upanishad, Yama imparts to Nachiketas
the secret of meditation on the Brahman with the help of Pranava or
Om.. Other Upanishads like Taittiriya , Prasna , Mandukya, etc. also speak on the meditation on Omkara.
Taittiriya Upanishad says that one should meditate that the Omkara is
Brahman and all this is Omkara. According to Prasna
Upanishad Omkara represents both Parabrahman and
Aparabrahman, signifying
the unmanifested and the manifested
aspects of God respectively ;
one who knows this
attains either of these.
Mandukya Upanishad states that
all the manifested world is Omkara
and all that exists in the past,
the present, the future, and beyond
is again Omkara.
The fruit of any type
of sadhana is the attainment
of the Supreme Reality, which is beyond words. Only
those who have experienced
Brahman know what
it is. But even they will find
words inadequate to express their
experience. The Supreme Truth
is beyond the material world and
is a great secret and has to be
propitiated as such. The Lord
has explained the nature of these
two different types of
sadhakas , namely
saguna upasaka and nirguna
upasaka in the following and other shlokas in the Bhagavadgita:
̍
Os◙: Ftʜ z ُ̨̍t
*
Os◙̩ ̜ u ̥̄ %͌OZ\t**
+͏ ZtzZ̜ `t ̘̗̍̍F
*
ٜ̌ ̍t̥: ̘O̥Ͳt
ͷ : **
K̏
̥t ̘t ̫Z\ҍt
͍OZ\t *
Ft t`̍ͷ H: s̨t
**
(Bhagavadgita 14-19 ,
9-30 , 31)
" ""When
the seer does not see anyone other
than the three gunas as
the doer and knows Me, beyond
all the gunas, in essence, he becomes united with me. Even if someone
is unrighteous, he should
be considered as noble if he worships
me with undivided devotion , because
he has come to the right conclusion
that there is nothing superior
to worshipping Me with devotion.
He very soon becomes a noble soul
and attains eternal peace. O!
Arjuna,
know for certain the truth that My devotee does not meet with destruction."
Also the Gita says that
the Supreme State to be attained
both by saguna upasaka and nirguna upasaka is the
same.
tt:
z tt͜Ot̥ Ѳ̍Ot
͍̥tэt ܙ: *
t̘ Z̆ ٝ ̆ t: u:
t ٜs **
( Bhagavadgita 15-4 )
""After
that, such a Supreme State should be sought after reaching which there is no
return to this world. Also one should supplicate with absolute sense of
surrender and meditate with determination on the Supreme Soul( Lord Narayana ),
from whom the tree of worldly life has
started and has grown from time immemorial"
