Bharat Darshan – Whole Blessings for Whole Vairagya

 Annapurne, Sadaapurne, Shankara pranavallabhe,
Jnana Vairagya siddhyartham, biksham dehi cha Parvati.

The above Shloka is part of the Sri Annapurna Stotram composed by Sri Adi Shankaracharya.

Annapurna (Annapoorna, Annapurneshwari, or Annada) is the Goddess of Food and Nourishment. Hence, Annapurna is a form of Shakti, Power, Force, and Energy and is described as a special manifestation of Goddess Parvati, the consort of Lord Shiva, the Lord who sustains the creation and may eventually cause its dissolution.

The word Anna is translated as Food and Grains and the word Purna means Whole, Full, or Complete. Fullness comes from Fullness and Fullness remains forever Full.

Annapurna Devi symbolizes the abundant nourishment she gives to all. She is the Mother Principle and Lord Shiva symbolizes the Originating Principle or the Father Principle. She is the Mother Goddess of all Life. In the Indian Tradition the ritualistic worship of Food and the devotional offering of Food are highly praised. Food is considered sacred and prayers are offered before consuming Food.

In the Indian Tradition, Food is considered only as a means towards Moksha or Liberation, the Ultimate Goal of human birth. The process to attain Moksha demands acquisition of Jnana or Knowledge using the path of Vairagya or Detachment. For Jnana (the awakening of spiritual knowledge about true or real Self) and Vairagya (dispassion, detachment, freedom from all other worldly desires), the seeker begs it as the alms of Grace, Mercy, and Compassion granted by Mother Annapurna.

Akshata or Akshinta, the Whole Blessings granted by Mother Annapurna:

Akshata is a Sanskrit word which means Whole. Akshata or Akshinta refers to the Unbroken and Uncooked Rice Grains offered to the deity during worship and other religious ceremonies to invoke the Whole Blessings of Mother Annapurna, the Sustainer of Life. Akshata are often sprinkled over the heads of the seekers of Whole Blessings of Life with prosperity, fertility, and bounty. Akshata are used in all auspicious occasions such as the performance of marriage ceremonies.

The Whole Concept of Whole Vairagya:

Vairagya is a Sanskrit word that translates to detachment or dispassion. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (1:15), the essence of Vairagya is described as: Dispassion, the conscious mastery of the control of desire for objects seen, perceived, or heard. King-Sage Bhartrihari composed 100 verses popularly known as Vairagya Satakam.

The goal of renunciation and non-attachment to life is not attained by avoiding the consumption of food which sustains the mortal existence. In fact, food is the spiritual medium that provides the connection between the energy dependent man and his energy provider. The chemical energy required for the performance of all living functions involves the act of cellular respiration.

Man is a created being and is constituted as a Spiritual Being. The Spiritual Knowledge required to establish, to maintain, and to sustain the human existence is implanted in the living, corporeal substance of the man and it cannot be acquired or learned from any external source. At a fundamental level the existence of man is not related to the physical and mental work performed by man. It is true that man must satisfy the sensations of hunger and thirst by performing actions to gather and consume food and drink but its transformation into a new form of chemical energy which alone sustains life does not depend upon any external source of Knowledge.

I ask my readers to carefully review the concept of Knowledge acquired through the Learning Experience for the attainment of Vairagya.

The concept of Whole Vairagya is based upon the following propositions:

1. Existence (What You Do – the performance of vital, living function called Cellular Respiration) always precedes Essence (What You Are in terms of your acquired Knowledge, Learned Experience, and through your physical, and mental effort or Practice or Abhyas).
2. Man is a Created Being and is constituted as a Spiritual Being. The Spiritual Knowledge is innate, and is implanted in the Living Substance which performsSpiritual Functions such as Consciousness, and Nutrition for it is aware of its own energy-dependent existence in its given external environment.
3. Spiritual Knowledge is not acquired through man’s physical or mental work. However, man can discover his own true or real Spiritual nature with the help of the Learning Experience.
4. The Lord God Creator is present in His entire creation but He remains detached, aloof, disinterested, and may even seem to be estranged from His own creation. But, man is not free and is always trapped by the shackles of conditioned, dependent, earthly existence.
5. The earthly, mortal, transient, ephemeral, and physical existence of man at any stage of his existence, in good health or ill health depends upon the Unconditioned Love of God who delivers the Whole Blessings of Mercy, Grace, and Compassion even if man is ignorant and is not aware of God’s existence. And,
6. The man who realizes that he has no deliverance, no liberation, and that there is no release from his bonding, his attachment, his yoking, his partnership, his association, and his spiritual connection with Lord God Creator attains Whole Vairagya or gets detached from the things that derive their existence from attachment to the World.