We are all used to having heard the Bhagavad Gita read or recited. It was a discourse given by Lord Krishna on the battlefront to Arjuna. Here in this above video, which my wife shared and asked me to listen to, a much less known conversation is recorded that between Uddhava and Sri Krishna. It is called the Uddhava Gita. Uddhava questions the events leading to the Kurukshetra battle. Here Uddhava hesitantly questions Sri Krishna for what he believes to by inaction on the part of him to intervene at many instances and prevent those shameful events from taking place. Here Sri Krishna opens our eyes to the truth that although we talk about God and his presence we tend to put him aside when we engage in unlawful deeds. This is when disaster strikes. If only we remember every instance of his presence we would never make a mistake. We often listen to ourselves rather than the Divine and his divine voice or Manasatchi that watches our every move. When Agathiyar is in our thoughts day and night we shall never make a wrong move. An upcoming guru who later fell into disgrace held on to a beautiful concept that impressed me. I took his message and never saw the messenger. He asked us to consider what our guru would do in our place before we even make any move. Bringing the thought and his presence at these times will stop us from making the wrong choices. But he too eventually fell for it, putting aside all his gurus for that one moment, that brought on to him much misery and defamation. But I tend to see the other side of the coin. Maybe he had exhausted his karma and desires but as others' desires needed to be fulfilled certain unprecedented events have to take place. Otherwise, both parties cannot possibly come out of the cycle of karma. Sadly, we do lip service most of the time and brush aside the very principles we hold to at times where our personal and individual desires take hold of us. That is when we are caught in the trap of our own making. Then we rush to him for help. If there is no sign of him we start deriding and accusing him even questioning if he is at all present. That is the mode of man. I too need to remind myself of the dangers, not what is out there but the hidden vasanas that await the right moment to spring up from the depth of my heart. This is where we need a guru to help us deal with these past vasanas and rather than keep them under check, to exhaust them either in the fire of sacrifice, charity, Yagna, or meditation. A watchful guru keeps tab of our moves and saves us in the nick of time provided we do not sideline him at those moments.
Uddhava's story itself is very enlightening. The Deccan Herald carried this story.
Sri Krishna in wanting to enlighten Uddhava gave him an insignificant chore, sending the learned Uddhava to Vrindavan. He was to pass a message to the milkmaids or Gopikas that Sri Krishna was not returning to Vrindavan as promised. Sri Krishna could have asked anyone else to pass the message on to the gopikas. Why Uddhava? In delivering this insignificant message Uddhava learned the significance of devotion to a personal God.
Uddhava promptly went to the gopikas and told them that they should not weep for Krishna and that they should invest their energies in acquiring Brahamajnana. He tried to teach them the virtues the yoga and meditation, instructed them to ignore the body and how these practices would lead to samadhi.
But the gopikas taught him instead guru bakthi and devotion to a personal God.
The gopikas told him that they were in Krishna samadhi all the time and were constantly experiencing the three yogas of meditation, wisdom, and devotion.
Uddhava wanted to impart theoretical knowledge, while the gopikas were instructing him in the priceless value of direct experience. (Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/content/466097/story-krishna-uddhava.html)
There is a lesson for us too from this episode. This clearly exemplifies the way of the Siddhas, that of direct communion and direct experience rather than theoretical and classroom education. Agathiyar too told me that what is generally achieved through Hathayoga is now possible through tapas and puja. "அடையோகம் தன்னில் கிட்டும் சித்தி எல்லாம் அவையனைத்தும் தவமொடு வழிபாட்டில் பெறுவாய்."
Later at the tail end of Sri Krishna's tale, Uddhava is summoned again to bring a message again this time to his Yadava clan informing them of his eventual death.
This was the context behind Krishna’s revelation to Uddhava of the Hamsa Gita or the Song of the Swan otherwise known as the Uddhava Gita.
“The restless mind,” says Krishna to Uddhava, “easily falls victim to the illusion of diversity, which leads to the conception of good and evil and the discrimination between prescribed action, inaction, and prohibited action. By controlling your mind and senses you will see the world in your own self, and your own self in Me, the Supreme Lord.
Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/content/466097/story-krishna-uddhava.html
This is exactly what Mahin shared with me too over the telephone conversation last night. As I spoke to him about choices and that of switching off all that exists by simply telling oneself that "Nothing Exists", he gives me a better option, that of accepting everything into one's fold and living in harmony with it. I was amazed at his in-depth insight. That is what Sri Krishna told Uddhava too, "See the world in your self and your self in Me." Agathiyar had mentioned this too that he is the Prapanjam and that the Prapanjam is in him too.