108 Names of the Moon: Chandra Ashtottara Shatanamavali #31

Moon - a royal planet

Om kamadayakaya namaha, Salutations to the One who is the giver (dayakaya) of desire (kama).


glossary
kama San. m. wish, desire; the desired one; lust; endeavour – personal satisfaction, any gratification of the ego or senses. ‘As long as the stars glitter, the sun won’t rise.’ (Kabir)
kama ‘The mind is the warp and woof of desire.’ ‘Desire is the cause of birth.’ ‘If a desire arises, analyse it. If it is good for you and not harmful to others, go ahead. If not, put it aside at once.’
dāyaka, giving, bestowing, presenting, granting; effecting; a giver, donor;

tamas, tamoguna Hin., San. m. the quality of darkness, gloom and inertia – sleep, passivity, idleness, dullness, stubbornness, confusion, delusion, lack of discrimination, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong or falsehood and truth, having little interest or ambition; lust, fear, greed. Tamas is born of ignorance, yet darkness is not necessarily ignorance – it may yet be the darkness that exposes the light.

tamasika San. adj. having the quality of tamas

rajas, rajoguna San. m. the activating quality (guna) of nature that allows the other two constituents to manifest themselves, and therefore this quality is associated with the creator, Brahma. It covers desire and ambition, attachment, passion, righteous indignation, pride, anger and envy.

rajasika San. adj. having the qualities listed above.

sattva Hin. m. sattva San. n. sattvoguna (sattva+guna) San. m. one of the three constituents (guna) of nature (prakriti) – the quality of light, the illuminating aspect that reveals all manifestation. It is expressed as harmony, equilibrium, purity, goodness, virtue, honesty, nobility, forgiveness, compassion, charity, wisdom, happiness.


Happiness is of three kinds. One type is of the nature of poison in the beginning but turns into nectar later. This happiness is secured through the awareness of the Atma; it is sattvic happiness. That is to say, the preliminary sadhana of sama, dama etc., which has to be gone through, appears hard and unpleasant; it involves struggle and effort. So the reaction may be bitter. In the Yoga Vasishta, Sage Vasishta says, “O! Rama! The boundless ocean can be drunk dry by man with great ease. The enormous Sumeru mountain can be plucked from the face of the earth with great ease. The flames of a huge conflagration can be swallowed with great ease. But controlling the mind is far more difficult than all these.” Therefore, if one succeeds in overwhelming the mind, one achieves the awareness of the Atma. This success can result only when one undergoes many ordeals and denials. The bliss that one earns afterwards is the highest kind of happiness. As the fruition of all spiritual effort one is established in the perfect equanimity of unruffled consciousness and the bliss that fills him is indescribable. It is ambrosial, equal to the nectar of immortality. Unruffled consciousness means the state of consciousness when it is devoid of thought. This state can be reached through appropriate spiritual effort. It is of two natures: Non-dual in full experience and the state of non-duality when dual thought ends. The first takes man beyond the triune of Knower, the Known and Knowledge and he is aware only of the Cosmic Intelligence or Brahma. The second stage is reached when all the attributes ascribed to God and man merge in the ONE which embraces the Cosmos and all its contents.

There is another type of happiness: On account of the impact of external objects on the senses of perception, pleasure mistaken as nectarine is aroused. But, in time, the pleasure turns into bitter and unpleasant poison. This is rajasic happiness. When man welcomes this rajasic sensory pleasure, his strength, awareness, intelligence and enthusiasm to reach the four goals of human endeavour known as Dharma, Artha (wealth), Kama (Righteous Desire) and Moksha (Liberation), becomes weak, for his interest declines.

The third type of happiness is tamasic. It dulls the intellect from the beginning to the end. It finds satisfaction in sleep, slothfulness and faults and derives happiness therefrom. The tamasic person ignores the path that leads to the awareness of the Atma; he pays no attention to it throughout his life. (Vidya Vahini)

Detachment is the second valuable virtue that education imparts. Empty a pot of the water that filled it; the sky that one could see within the pot as image or shadow also gets lost along with the water. But the genuine sky enters the pot. So too, when that which is not-Atma is discarded, the Atma remains and liberation is attained. But what has to be discarded is not objective impediment, sacred offerings or other ceremonies, named sacrifices or giving up hearth and home, wife and children and proceeding to the forest. But renunciation does not mean such gestures of weak-mindedness. These are not as difficult as they are supposed to be. If so minded, one can go through these acts easily and give up what the acts prescribe. The real renunciation is the giving up of desire. (vidya vahini)

Om kamadayakaya namaha, Salutations to the One who is the giver (dayakaya) of desire (kama).

 

 

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