Sadhana Panchakam, Instruction 36

Translation and Commentary by Jayaram V

5.4 See the world as troubled by That

Badha means trouble, difficulty, obstacle, suffering or affliction. Any obstacle which stands in between you and your goals is a kind of difficulty or obstacle (badha) only. Having inquired into the nature of self and realized that the eternal supreme-self pervades all this, now the initiate has to contemplate upon the troubling aspect of his own existence and the world. He has to understand the nature of suffering, the cause of suffering, the universality of suffering. He has to see how the world being a projection of the self is unreal, unstable and unreliable for lasting peace and happiness and how due to the impurities of the mind and body and the power of maya all beings are subject to delusion, ignorance and bondage and bound themselves to the cycle of births and deaths.

The truth is that the ultimate source of all suffering is God only. His creation is meant to subject the embodied beings to desires, delusion and egoism and keep them bound to the mortal world. We exist as a part of his great play. Therefore, for liberation and for solution to escape from bondage and suffering we have to seek the help and intervention of God. While there may a hundred reasons for our suffering, we can trace them all back to Brahman, the source of all.

It is validated by the Vedas themselves. The Upanishads state that in the beginning of creation Brahman manifested upon earth as Death or Kala. He is verily the lord of the world. He is responsible for the orderly progression of Time. Hence, Kala also means Time. Time eventually culminates in Death as things in the objective world decay and disintegrate or die. We also learn from the Upanishads that everything which exists here become food for the Lord Death, who has an insatiable hunger for all things without an exception. Since Death pervades all and consumes all in our world, the Aitareya Upanishad (1.1.2) describes the earth itself as Death (prthvi maro).

While heaven is the world of immortal gods (devalok) ours is the world of mortal beings. Since it is ruled by Death and is subject to the laws of Death, it is known as the world of Death (mrityulok). Everyone who is born here is subject to death, decay, aging and sickness. A seeker has to see how Death pervades the whole world and how it manifests as impermanence. By that observation, he has to cultivate distaste and indifference towards it, and withdraw his mind and senses into himself to abide in himself. 

The world is an effect, and the self or Brahman is the cause. Just as the worlds appear and disappear in the mind due to imagination (vikalpa) the worlds appear and disappear on the surface of the Self due to creation (vikalpa). Its essential purpose is to keep the embodied beings deluded and bound to the mortal world. When one realizes the truth that only the self is real and permanent and the world is unreal and impermanent, one cuts all worldly bonds and becomes free. From that freedom of being arises the ultimate freedom of self-existence.

Contemplation upon death is an important spiritual practice by which one realizes the need to overcome death and achieve liberation. We may not consciously think about Death, but it is always there at the back of our minds. Most of our actions are meant to find peace and happiness by securing our lives against Death and its numerous manifestations and influences. Death resides in our bodies as desires, karma, ignorance, delusion, egoism, attachments, weaknesses and so on. Because of them our bodies can never escape from Death or from suffering. Fortunately, the influence of Death is limited to the field of Nature.

Therefore, understanding Death important to resolve it. One has to contemplate not only upon Death but upon its numerous manifestations and how it afflicts all and keeps them bound to the mortal world. The fact that the world is ruled by the lord of Death is affirmed in several Upanishads and the Bhagavadgita. The universal form of Lord Krishna which manifested before Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra and filled him with fear and awe was the terrible form of Kala only.

When Arjuna wanted to know who he was, he replied thus, “I am Kala, the Destroyer of the world, vast and mighty, who manifests to destroy the world.” He also informs that he is the source of all. All actions and their outcomes are predetermined by him and humans participate in his play to enact their destined roles. No one can change the outcome of any actions which has already been predetermined by the divine will. Such descriptions give us the impression that while in the beings he remains as a passive witness, in creation he plays an active role to ensure the order and regularity of the worlds which he creates.

Death is also known by other names such as Mrityu, Time, Yama and Mara. Yama is the lord of the underworld (Narak) and the upholder of Dharma (dharmaraja) who punishes the mortals upon their death according to their sins. He is the same god, who taught Naciketa the knowledge of the self, liberation and intricate details of a secret fire sacrifice which he named after him and by which one could achieve liberation.  The problem of Death and suffering can be resolved by abiding in the self through contemplative absorption. Death is the gulf between the mortal and immortal worlds and it is traversed by the self only.

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