VMA 1.37 :: Vrindavan is the light of the Self

June 23, 2019

If Vrindavan, the light of the Self,
which is endowed with a great effulgence
that is the source of all the light manifest
in the sun, moon, fire and lightning
a million times over,
should manifest itself in one’s heart,
then the desires for wealth, sons and heaven
will never again enter his mind.

vṛndāṭavī yadi ravīndu-hutāśa-vidyut-

koṭi-prabhā-vibhava-kāri mahā-prabhāḍhyā |

ātma-prabhā sakṛd api pratibhāti citte

vittaiṣaṇādi nahi tasya manasy udeti ||

Commentary

Prabodhananda Saraswati continues to use language that is redolent of his life as a Vedanta scholar. Here he says that Vrindavan is the light of the Self, knowing which all desires are eliminated. In Vedanta, the light of the Self means spiritual knowledge: (dīpād ity-ādīnām apy ātma-prabhā-rūpaṁ jñānam, Ramanuja to Gītā 13.17).

When one has achieved this light, the darkness of other desires, lust, is eliminated. The three kinds of desires (aiṣaṇā) are mentioned first in the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad.

etaṁ vai tam ātmānaṁ viditvā brāhmaṇāḥ

putraiṣaṇāyāś ca vittaiṣaṇāyāś ca lokaiṣaṇāyāś ca

vyutthāyātha bhikṣā-caryaṁ caranti |

"When the Brahmin knows that Self, he rises above desires for sons, for wealth, and for worldly achievements, and lives the life of a mendicant." (BAU 3.5.1)

“Once it is known, you will ask for nothing else. Once nectar is drunk, nobody would ask for any other drink. Knowledge of the Self is that which frees one from the tortures of hunger, thirst, sorrow, confusion, old age and death. It is the absence of the realization of this ātman that makes us grief-stricken in many ways.”

The word dhāma, by which one refers to the abode of the Lord, has the original meaning of light or effulgence, i.e., prabhā. It appears in the very first verse of the Bhāgavatam, dhāmnā svena nirastakuhakaṁ satyaṁ paraṁ dhīmahi: “I meditate on the Supreme Truth, which by its own effulgence (dhāma) is completely free of all illusion.”

The union of these concepts can be found in the Upanishads and the Gītā:

na tatra sūryo bhāti na candra-tārakaṁ

nemā vidyuto bhānti kuto’yam agniḥ |

tam eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvaṁ

tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti ||

"There the sun does not shine, nor the moon and stars, there is no lightning, what to speak of fire! There everything is light because he is effulgent; by his effulgence all this [visible creation] is illumined." (Kaṭha Up. 2.2.15; Muṇḍaka Up. 2.2.11)

sa vedaitat paramaṁ brahma dhāma

yatra viśvaṁ nihitaṁ bhāti śubhram|

upāsate puruṣaṁ ye hy akāmās

te śukram etad ativartanti dhīrāḥ ||

"Those wise ones who, having become desireless, worship the person who knows this supreme abode, this Brahman, in which is placed the universe and which shines bright, transcend this human seed [i.e., the ignorance that leads to repeated births in the world]." (Muṇḍaka Up. 3.2.1)

na tad bhāsayate sūryo na śaśāṅko na pāvakaḥ |

yad gatvā na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama ||

There the sun does not shine, nor the moon, nor fire. That Supreme Abode (dhāma) of mine is the place where going, one never returns. (Gītā 15.6)

So here, Srila Prabodhananda Saraswati equates the dhāma, or bodily effulgence of the Lord, the sandinī energy of the Lord, with Vrindavan, attaining which one will never want for anything else. It is also being equated with the saṁvit or consciousness energy of the Lord. The Dham is the environment in which the Supreme Self exists, in which he expresses himself in the form of the Divine Couple, and which is, in itself, consciousness of the Supreme Self in the form of the Divine Couple.

Therefore, all the Vedanta has its conclusion in Vrindavan; this is the Supreme Abode.