SatyakAma JAbAla

सत्यकाम जाबाल

The Two Streams :

The Upanishads in the यजुर्वेद are of the two kinds :

The शुक्ल यजुर्वेद and the कृष्ण यजुर्वेद.

This is what I think as a student of the Upanishads. No claim is made that my knowledge is correct and perfect. Please check yourself if you don't agree.

The story of Satyakama JAbAla is about a disciple of JAbAla Rishi who was sent by his mother to the Gurukul of JAbAla Rishi for learning the VedaVidyA from the Rishi.

Rishi JAbAla asked him, - who was his father? Satyakama, a mere boy of 6 or 7 years of age didn't know the answer. So the Rishi told him to ask about this to his mother. Satyakama went to his mother. His mother told him that she had been a housemaid in many a houses and didn't know who might have fathered him.

SatyakAma returned to the Sage / Rishi JAbAla and told Him what was told to him by his mother.

Hearing this JAbAla thought a little and said to Satyakama : You speak whatever your mother told to you without fear. I  take it that your Father was therefore of the Brahmin class (ब्राह्मण वर्ण). However I give you my JAbAla Gotra / जाबाल गोत्र.

Hence now onwards you will have this name : Satyakama JAbAla - The one in my Gotra (the Traditional branch of a Vedika Rishi / Sage).

Because Who-so-ever aspires for Truth is verily a Brahmin indeed and should be treated like one born as a Brahmin.

There are two major Upanishads in the name of JabAla / JAbAli Rishi. One of the two is JAbAlopanishad a short one, and another is somewhat detailed and is so named bRhajjAbAlopanishad.

We know KaThopanishad. This is about the story of Nachiketa and Yama. The father of Nachiketa was one वाजश्रवा / vAjashravA. Yama in this text addressed NachiketA variously also as Gautama, Kaushika, Bhargava, AruNi Ouddalaki as well. 

They all belong to Rishi bhRgu / ऋषि भृगु, विश्वामित्र, भार्गव . 

Rishi bhRgu is one amongst the 7 famous Sages together described as "Saptarshi". Gita tells

"ऋषीणामहं भृगुः" and "कवीनामुशना कविः।।"

Evidently, since times immemorial, the Sanatana Dharma prevailed all over the globe. We can connote "अङ्गिरा", "AngirA" to "Angel", and JAbAla-Rishi to Gabriel.

We know Gabriel was the Arch-Angel - आर्ष अङ्गिरा Who gave instructions to the three most Prominent Prophets of the three Abrahmic Religions.

The relevant point is : If many of those belonging to these religions aspire for getting connected to सनातन वैदिक धर्म /  Sanatana Vaidika Dharma, what might be their Gotra / (Gott in German, God in English)?

Shouldn't they give a thought to this?

Maybe they would wish to get connected to the JAbAla Gotra.

Again, to what Social Class / वर्ण they may select for them?

This depends purely, entirely upon their own understandaming, determination and inclinations. Everyone is always free in Sanatana Dharma to think for oneself  accordingly and no any one other could enforce upon him except the stream they want to join to.

The "Birth" in a race is the  जाति / "Caste" while the वर्ण - ब्राह्मण, क्षत्रिय, वैश्य  and शूद्र are a social class and depends upon the quality of actions and tendencies as is described in the Gita - Chapter 4, stanza 13 :

चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः।।

तयोस्तु कर्तारं मां विद्ध्यकर्तारमव्ययम्।।१३।।

(अध्याय ४)

Therefore it is implied that all humans are equal in their rights and are free to decide for themselves what Gotra /  गोत्र  and class वर्ण they might belong to, and no one else can impose upon him what  Class / Gotra according to and in what race one is born into.

The last but not the least important is the gender. Of course the gender has its own Dharma / nature and accordingly as no one can go against one's natural and Dharma / spontaneous tendencies, and the two genders have some different and basic characters of their own, this too is according to what one thinks fits for oneself and there is no conflict any in the Sanatana Vedika Dharma.

***

 

Thought, Effort and Will.

Automatic Divine Action

--

All sentient beings find themselves in a world where though they have a certain freedom of action, they are always in doubt if they have a future of their own choice. Every moment in their life a new perception of the world and of oneself arises and accordingly they begin to think what they want, what they hope and  what they fear, desire, what will make them happy. All the time all their priorities keep on changing constantly. It's only humans who can think of something as a God, Someone who controls the individual and the collective life and also the world around them. We don't know if the animals and all other living beings except the humans might have such a notion of God.

Only because of  the fear and desire, hope or despair, and because of the imagination of an assumed and unknown "future", one begins believeing in such a God in the imagination. There are others who too suggest, even force one to believe such a God of the imagination of their own. During long time, this becomes a tradition, and also part of the sub-conscious mind of all those who belong to that society. The sub-conscious however is the store-house where all information of the verbal kind and of the kind in the experience is maintained in the memory. There is also a strange pattern and all that which has been experienced so far is known as if is inter-related. So the memory causes the thought and conversely thought also stirs the memory and every moment an altogether new perception takes place. When the abstract notion of "I" / "Me" takes place, soon its counter-part "a World" also assumes Reality and though both the two thoughts are intertwined and interdependent Realities, the "I" / "Me" refers to the assumed "self", while the "World" is believed to exist independent, apart and "other" than the "self".

Memory strengthens the apparent duality of "oneself" and the "world" in memory, but one is always rather oblivious of the fact that the two are inherently one and the same aspects of a single phenomenon and perception.

The "Me" / "I" tries to attain certain objectives in a projected "future" in imagined, assumed "world".

The "I" / "Me" are thus but two branches of the one and the same thought and perception and none of them exists independently and apart from the other.

This is the root-cause of Conflict. There are certain physical needs and one can achieve many objectives at the physical level, but the "idea" "I shall try and achieve a certain goal" is basically a contradiction in itself. For the simple reason that the thought that says "I" / "Me" in the present moment is not the same as the thought that arises in the next moment as "I" / "Me". The two are two structures, entirely and altogether different configurations of the two different states of mind. The illusion that the two are one and the same is because of  In-attention only. When there is attention, mind becomes silent, fully aware of the situation or the phenomenon.

In this awarenes, "I" / "Me" is known and understood well in its entirety.

Though there is "no-one" who can claim to have known or understood.

Still, if given a thought to, everything appears as if repeatedly happening and unhappening. Whatever appears to have happened is no more in the next moment. That is what could be said "unhappening".

"Worry","Fear","doubt","conflict","suspicion" "apprehension","agony", anxiety", excitement, "depression, all arise and soon dissolve too. But whatever could be said to "happen" and "unhappen" remains as the underlying Fact, The Automatic Divine Action, if you would like to give it a name.

He was asking -

"Why do people commit suicide?"

The evening was approaching at the door. The delicate sun-rays were illuminating the sky. 

Giving continuity to thought is tremendously grievous a happening.

Unfortunately and sadly, though one may or may not escape from the thought. Attention and awareness is the only way to freedom from the thought. Attention and awareness is not an action to be performed or to be done deliberately through effort or will.

Attention and Awareness is therefore :

The Automatic Divine Action.,

Worth the name.

***