Day 14: Final Giriraj Dandavat Parikrama Musings
- Today is Govardhan Puja and Shea is fixed on closing the circle on this day as our specific puja to Govardhana
- It’s clear I have some sort of stomach flu at this point. I just feel like vomiting all day, and yet here I stand and fall (or the body rather) being dragged to Completion
- What an extraordinary gift the body is! Like the Abrahamic traditions, Vedānta (and yoga schools) tends to emphasize what appears to be a hard split between matter and spirit (at least for the novices) which usually translates in the mind as “matter bad; spirit good”
- Holding on to this thinking probably longer than is healthy often leads to an animosity towards one’s own (empirical) self; as one attempts to bury the “bad-matter” self behind the screen of the symbols of the “good-spirit” self— ie a certain dress, a certain jargon, a certain way of acting, a liturgy, an ideology, a lineage, etc. — ending up an open wound screaming for reconciliation and healing but unheard by the self
- I’ve now come to appreciate the purpose of teaching the distinction of matter and spirit as meant to actualize our wisdom eye so that we abandon the relationship of exploitation of the body for paltry things and honor the body as the gift from God that it is
- It is our Prabhu that gifts the body for the pursuit of dharma-artha-kama-moksa [10.87.2 SB]
- The primordial elements of nature (mahat, ahankara, etc.) prayed to the Lord (3rd Canto Ch 5) that He may enter them by his śakti of cohesion so that the bodies for performing the respective sadhanas (including bhakti) is made possible. Dandvat parikram would not be possible without the gift of this body.
- dṛtaya iva śvasanty asu-bhṛto yadi te 'nuvidhā II mahad-aham-ādayo 'ṇḍam asṛjan yad-anugrahataḥ “Only if they become Your faithful followers are those who breathe actually alive, otherwise their breathing is like that of a bellows. It is by Your mercy alone that the elements, beginning with the mahat-tattva and false ego, created the egg of this universe.” [10.87.17] The obeisances of the body before God (along with mind, and voice) is the ultimate consummation of that prayer and gift of primordial nature’s elements in tandem with God’s grace. It is the ultimate honoring of the their song and their gift!
- And for those who may not yet experience the Theophany that is life right (numinous) now, this offering obeisances is the height of intelligence and cleverness: “This process is the supreme intelligence of the intelligent and the cleverness of the most clever, for by following it one can in this very life make use of the temporary and unreal to achieve Me, the eternal reality.” [11.29.22 SB]
- So as we sealed the circle a rite that started two weeks ago, and I struggle to hold back vomiting, I am thankful for the gift of the body. Despite its condition, persevering — no doubt due to all sorts of mysterious grace— and doing me, the soul, a good turn.
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