“Shri Manache Shlok” — Shloka/Verse 136 — a Dialogue With Our Mind
By: Shashi Kulkarni
Tags: Fear, Spirituality, Mindfulness, Lifestyle, God

Introduction

Samarth Ramdas Swami teaches us how our mind is our friend, our enemy, and how it can be our Guru.

Note that this is focused on our own internal dialogue, with ourselves, with our mind, so wherever there are references of God, it will still apply to every human being, irrespective of religions and beliefs about God. Just replace the name of God with the one from your own religion, and if you don’t believe in one, talk with your mind.

Marathi Language Phonetics Transliteration

Refer to my article on the Marathi language phonetics transliteration — which is being used in these shloka explanation articles.

Shlok/ Verse # 136 from “Shri Manache Shlok”

Shloka in Marathi (Verse in the Marathi language)

भयें व्यापिले सर्व ब्रह्मांड आहे।

भयातीत तें संत आनंत पाहे॥

जया पाहतां द्वैत कांही दिसेना।

भयो मानसीं सर्वथाही असेना॥१३६॥

Shloka/verse in English

Bhaye vyāpile sar̥va br̥amhāṅda āhe

Bhayātīta te saṅta ānaṅta pāhe

Jayā pāhatā dwaita kāhī disenā

Bhayo mānasī sar̥vathāhī asenā — 136

Meaning

The whole universe and living beings in it, are filled with fear. But the saints see the fearless infinity that is God.

Seeing that, their sense of duality vanishes, and along with that, the fear vanishes from their minds.

Keywords and their meanings

भये —bhaye — fear; व्यापिले —vyāpile — filled with; सर्व —sar̥va — all; ब्रह्मांड — br̥amhāṅda— universe; आहे — āhe— is

भयातीत — bhayātīta— fearless; ते — te— that; संत —saṅta — saint; आनंत — ānaṅta— infinite; पाहे —pāhe— sees

जया — jayā— whom/which; पाहता — pāhatā— seeing; द्वैत — dwaita— duality; काही — kāhī— whatsoever; दिसेना — disenā— sees not

भयो — bhayo— fear; मानसी —mānasī — in the mind; सर्वथाही —sar̥vathāhī — absolutely; असेना — asenā— is not

निरूपण — Explanation or conceptualization

In this world, every living being is living with some kind of fear all the time.

For the animals, birds and insects it is the survival of the fittest and the fear coming with that.

For us human beings, there are numerous reasons for having fear. Everybody will have their own versions and reasons.

There is fear of diseases like cancer (oh, someone in my family died due to cancer), heart attack (oh, I have high cholesterol), COVID (well, this does not need any further explanation) and others. Fear can be also of security, theft, accidents, death, public speaking, fear of failure, fear of losing jobs, facing tough challenges, flying on planes, using the elevators (lifts), fear of high altitudes, not having enough money to survive and many others including fear of insects, spiders and even cockroaches.

This fear keeps us away from achieving what we really want in life.

Swami Vivekananda also has said the same as Samarth Ramdas Swami.

“In wealth is the fear of poverty, in knowledge the fear of ignorance, in beauty the fear of age, in fame the fear of backbiters, in success the fear of jealousy, even in body is the fear of death. Everything in this earth is fraught with fear. The moment you fear, you are nobody. It is fear that is the great cause of misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It is fear that is the cause of our woes.”

Most of these fears are due to the feeling of something coming to an end or losing something dear to our hearts or necessary for us to survive.

But, in this world, there are few who have conquered fear. It does not even touch them.

Saints.

Saints are fearless.

They know that the supreme God, the brahman — ब्रह्मन्, does not have a start and does not have an end. It is infinite. Was there all the time, and will be there all the time.

They also know and have realized that, they themselves are not separate from this ultimate supreme God — the Brahman — ब्रह्मन्, but have unison with him. There is no duality.

As the Taittiriya Upanishad has explained, सत्यम् ज्ञानम् अनंतम् ब्रह्मन् — How do we define this Brahman? Satyam dnyanam anantam Brahman — the supreme being.

It is Pure Existence, सत्यम् — satyam, the Ultimate Truth.

It is Omniscience, All-Knowledge, so it is called ज्ञानम् — dnyanam.

It is everywhere, infinite; therefore, it is called अनंतम् — anantam.

Saints also know the truth that Aham Brahmāsmi (अहम् ब्रह्मास्मि) — “I am Brahman.” I am not separate from Brahman.

Again Swami Vivekananda has also said the same as Samarth Ramdas Swami.

“The whole cause of the fear is this dualism, the idea that I am separate from the universe, separate from God. But as soon as we have realized that “I am He, I am the self of the universe, I am eternally blessed, eternally free” — then will come real love, fear will vanish, and all misery cease.”

The best of the best saints know this. They do not separate themselves from the supreme reality — God. Hence they do not have any fear in their minds. What is to fear when God is with us all the time?

There is nothing for them to lose. There is nothing for them to worry. There is nothing for them to fear about coming to an end.

We should all try to understand at least a little bit of this thought process and then we will be able to conquer the fear.