HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

The New Year is around the corner. The current mood is nostalgic, excited, and optimistic. This is, perhaps, an apt occasion to invite the attention of our visitors to a pithy verse that is supposed to be offered as a respectful obeisance before every reciting of Mahābhārata. It runs as:

 

Nārāyaṇaṁ namaskṛtya naraṁ caiva narōttamam I

devīṁ sarasvatīṁ caiva tatō jayam udīrayet II

 

This verse directs us to first offer our salutations to Nārāyana. But who is this Nārāyana? Our Purānās say that— Nārāyaṇaḥ paro 'vyaktāt— Nārāyana is that invisible, formless transcendental pure consciousness that is the abode, support, and impeller of living beings. Maharshi directs us to first salute that Parabrahman.  He then directs us to salute the man too! This is a bit surprising, for it is all right to salute Parabrahman, but why bowing to a mortal man? 

Pundits, of course, have an answer: Dehō devālayah prōktah jīvō devassanātanah— the body is a temple and the life enshrined in it is the eternal Lord. So, conceptually, they mean that man is Nārāyana. Maharshi therefore proclaims that there being no difference between jēvātma and Paramātma, man too deserves to be saluted.

Yet, we, the mortals, feel that there is a difference. And that difference is more due to a delusion—the belief that our physical body is the real “I”. Thus, man distanced himself from Nārāyana. Hence, he remained as a mere man. Now, the question is: How does a man who thinks that he is different from Nārāyana deserve a salutation along with Nārāyana?

 

It is perhaps to obviate this dilemma that the Maharshi tagged an adjective, narōttamam (the supermost human being ) to Nara man. In other words, he is saying that it is only the best of men and Nārāyana are the same. And that’s what even Gita says: uttamah purusas tv anyah paramātmety udāhrtah … … it is that man who realizes this indwelling spirit becomes an emancipated soul. Such a man of illumined consciousness and Nārāyana become one. It means if a man becomes Uttam purusha (supermost human being), he certainly deserves to be saluted along with Nārāyana.

 

Here, we must appreciate one fact: Nārāyana, by nature, is pure consciousness while man can only become that by ardent practice of Dharma and Nishkāma karma. As the saying goes— Manushyānām sahasreshu— it is one in a lakh that can become a super-being, a question arises: How does one become a super-being? 

The sage’s answer is: devīṁ Sarasvatīṁ. After narōttamam, we are directed to salute Saraswathi. Now, who is this Saraswathi? She is the Goddess of Vidya (learning). Vidya could be either para or apara. Apara vidya is knowledge of the physical world and para vidya is the knowledge about Aatma, which ultimately leads one to Mōksha— the summum bonum.  So, it is Para vidya that merges Nara man with Nārāyana— jēvātma with Paramātma. Sages say that Sa vidya ya vimktaye— “Knowledge is that, which liberates! It is by bowing to Devi Saraswathi that we are in a way praying to her to grant us that para vidya to join God.

There is yet another underlying meaning in our salutation to Saraswati: ‘Sara’ means to crawl and Maharshi, perhaps meant to say that it is by slowly crawling upwards to Nārāyana by shedding off one’s grossness/manliness that one can attain immutable oneness with Parabrahman.

 

It is only upon such liberation that man attains the Summum Bonum. That alone can be said as Jayam (victory) for man. Then alone it can be declared: tatō jayam udīrayet— Jayam be announced. In other words, it is vidya that leads us to liberation, and this liberation ultimately facilitates our merger with Nārāyana, and it is only upon reaching the divine destiny that man can be said to meet with Jayam. That’s why Maharshi is advocating namaskar to Nārāyana, narōttamam and Devi Saraswati.

 

There is another meaning hidden in the words ‘Devi Saraswati’: the authorless/Divine revelations. They are nothing but Vedic literature. And this Vedic literature introduces to us two doctrines: Dharma and Mōksha. It tells us that the practice of Dharma leads us to relative Jayam while realizing God within oneself leads to the absolute Jayam i.e. Mōksha.

 

It is about these two doctrines— Dharma and Mōksha— that the whole of Mahābhārata talks about through the journey of Pandavas, various Vākhyanas and Upākhyanas. Thus, the whole essence of Mahābhārata, as my māstāru often commented, Vyasa Maharshi decocted into this simple verse and highlighted its significance by placing it at its very beginning—perhaps, for our meditation.