Lead me from the asat to the sat.
Lead me from darkness to light.
Lead me from death to immortality.
(Brhadaranyaka Upanishad — I.iii.28)
Tuhan
tuntunlah hamba dari jalan yang sesat menuju jalan yang benar, dari
jalan gelap ke jalan terang, hindarkanlah hamba dari kematian menuju
kehidupan abadi....
Menang
jadi abu, kalah jadi debu...... Waktu berubah, manusia berkembang ke
segala arah. Semoga semua situasi dan kondisi akan membantu kita semakin
bijak dan dewasa dalam melangkah, dalam mengenali dan memahami beragam
aspek kehidupan.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra menjelaskan
A mantra (Sanskrit मन्त्र - manas - mind, consciousness, soul +
tra, trayate - to free; "liberating the mind, consciousness, soul, atma
from repeated birth and death") is a sanskrit
(sometimes - in other languages, especially in buddhism and other
religions outside India) sound, syllable, word, or group of words
(usually starting with word ॐ (Aum, Om), which is itself the most famous mantra) that is considered capable of "creating transformation" (cf. spiritual transformation).[1] Its use and type varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra.[2]
Mantras (Devanāgarī मन्त्र) originated in the Vedic tradition of India, becoming an essential part of the Hindu tradition and a customary practice within Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism.
In the context of the Vedas, the term mantra refers to the entire portion which contains the texts called Rig, Yajur or Sama, that is, the metrical part as opposed to the prose Brahmana commentary. With the transition from ritualistic Vedic traditions to mystical and egalitarian Hindu schools of Yoga, Vedanta, Tantra and Bhakti,
the orthodox attitude of the elite nature of mantra knowledge gave way
to spiritual interpretations of mantras as a translation of the human
will or desire into a form of action
http://archives.amritapuri.org/bharat/mantra/asatoma.php
menjelaskan
This is true prayer—the seeker’s admission of his sense of
limitedness and his heartfelt cry for assistance in transcendence. It is
not a prayer for the things of the world. It is not a pray for food,
shelter, health, partnership, riches, success, fame, glory or even for
heaven1. One who recites these three mantras has realized that such
things are full of holes, soaked in pain and, even in abundance, will
forever leave him wanting. It is in this full understanding that one
turns to this prayer. The essence of each of these three mantras is the
same: "O, Guru, help me free myself from my sundry misunderstandings
regarding myself, the universe and God and bless me with true
knowledge."
It is in this spirit that people throughout
the world are regularly chanting these mantras, and in which they are
chanted twice daily at Amma’s ashrams—both at the conclusion of the
morning arcana and after the evening arati.
The first mantra—asato ma sadgamaya—means,
"Lead me from the asat to the sat." In fact, it is best to not translate
sat (nor its negative counterpart asat) for, as with many Sanskrit
words, sat has many meanings and not only are most of them applicable
here, their deliberate combined import provides a depth that no one of
them could hold independently. These co-applicable meanings include:
existence, reality and truth. (Co-applicable meanings for asat being:
non-existence, non-reality and untruth.)
We often speak of religion or philosophy as a
search for Truth. But only in India’s philosophy of Advaita Vedanta has
the concept of "truth" been so meticulously and successfully dissected.
According to Advaita, for something to be considered true in the
ultimate sense, it must be true not just at one given moment, but always
be true—true in all three periods of time: the past, present and
future. In fact, Advaita goes one step further. It says if something
does not exist in all three periods of time that it does not truly
exist, it is not ultimately real. Thus, truth, existence and reality are
one and the same. That reality, Vedanta says, is what we call God.
The universe and its things are in a constant
state of change. The planets are in constant motion, their positions in
relation to each other and the other astral bodies are in continuous
flux. The seasons similarly are ever-shifting. Scientifically, we can
easily understand that our bodies (and the cells within them) come into
existence, are born and then go through periods of growth, sustenance,
deterioration and death. In fact these six modifications are
part-and-parcel of everything in creation. On the level of emotions, we
move back and forth between happiness, sorrow and anger. Even our
intellectual convictions rarely stay fixed for very long. So, according
to Vedanta, we cannot call this world ultimately real. It is not
ultimately true. Ultimately, it does not exist. It seems real etc. but
it is not. Such a thing is called asat.
The seeker giving voice to this prayer has
come to understand the finite nature of all the objects of the world,
and he wants the Guru to guide him from the asat to the sat. He is fed
up with depending on things that are not real. Why? Because just as the
sandcastle is always washed away by the tide, dependence on the asat
always ends in pain. Sat is our True Self—the blissful consciousness
that ever was, is and ever will be. Being beyond time, this
consciousness can never be washed away by the time’s tides. In fact, sat
is there as the essential part of all of the asat objects. It is a
matter of separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were.
When speaking about the ultimate reality,
Sages say it is of the nature of sat-cit-ananda: pure existence, pure
consciousness and pure bliss.
The second mantra—tamaso ma
jyotirgamaya—means "Lead me from darkness to light." When the Vedas
refer to darkness and light, they mean ignorance and knowledge,
respectfully. This is so because ignorance, like darkness, obscures true
understanding. And in the same way that the only remedy for darkness is
light, the only remedy for ignorance is knowledge. The knowledge spoken
of here is again the knowledge of one’s true nature.
Currently, in the darkness of our ignorance,
we believe ourselves to be bound and limited (otherwise we would not be
reciting these mantras in the first place). But the Guru and the
scriptures are telling us that, in truth, we are not, never will be and
never have been bound. Eternally we sat-cit-ananda. The only thing that
can remove our ignorance regarding our true nature is a spiritual
education at the hands of a True Master like Amma. At the culmination of
such an education, light floods the room, as it were; darkness
vanishes.
The final mantra—mrtyorma amrtam
gamaya—means: "Lead me from death to immortality." This should not be
taken as a prayer to live endless years in heaven or on earth. It is a
prayer to the Guru for assistance in realizing the truth that "I was
never born, nor can ever die, as I am not the body, mind and intellect,
but the eternal, blissful consciousness that serves as the substratum of
all creation."
It is important to remember that, with all
these mantras, the leading is not a physical leading. The Atma is not
something far away that we have to make a pilgrimage to, nor is it
something we need to transform ourselves into. Atma means "self." We
don’t need to transform our self into our self. Nor do we need to travel
to it. We are it. The journey is a journey of knowledge. It is journey
from what we misunderstand to be our self to what truly is our self.
What the mantras really means is "Lead me to the understanding that I am
not the limited body, mind and intellect, but am, was and always will
be that eternal, absolute, blissful consciousness that serves as their
substratum."
Once, when discussing these mantras, Amma said the first step in attaining the knowledge for which one is praying when they chant these mantras is satsang: listening to spiritual talks, reading spiritual books and being in the company of spiritual seekers and, of most importantly, spiritual masters. "We need to continuously be fed the knowledge that our true nature is the Atma and not the body mind and intellect," Amma said. Through satsang, our attachment to the asat gradually lessens. "Slowly as you understand that everything in the world—all worldly relationship, all worldly things—are ever-changing an impermanent, your attitude towards the world changes. We gain detachment." As we become more and more detached, our desires also naturally decrease, because we know that the things of the world are impermanent and cannot bring us lasting happiness. As the desires decrease, the mind becomes less and less agitated. It obtains serenity, stillness, peace. Then, with this stilled, subtle, penetrating mind we can finally come to realize our true nature.
Once, when discussing these mantras, Amma said the first step in attaining the knowledge for which one is praying when they chant these mantras is satsang: listening to spiritual talks, reading spiritual books and being in the company of spiritual seekers and, of most importantly, spiritual masters. "We need to continuously be fed the knowledge that our true nature is the Atma and not the body mind and intellect," Amma said. Through satsang, our attachment to the asat gradually lessens. "Slowly as you understand that everything in the world—all worldly relationship, all worldly things—are ever-changing an impermanent, your attitude towards the world changes. We gain detachment." As we become more and more detached, our desires also naturally decrease, because we know that the things of the world are impermanent and cannot bring us lasting happiness. As the desires decrease, the mind becomes less and less agitated. It obtains serenity, stillness, peace. Then, with this stilled, subtle, penetrating mind we can finally come to realize our true nature.
—Vedarat
* * * * * * * * * *
1 In Vedanta, heaven—or rather
heavens—are accepted as part of the lower reality. Unlike in other
religions, going to heaven is not the professed to be the ultimate goal
of life. According to Vedanta, heaven can be likened to a vacation
resort. After death, if one has done enough good deeds in life, one can
go to heaven for a very long time. But eventually he will have to return
to the earthly plane. Thus even though one may be in heaven, he is
still bound and mired in ignorance to his true nature. [As it says in
the Bhagavad-Gita:
From Brahma Loka to the lowest world,
all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place O Arjuna.
But one who comes to me, O son of Kunti,
never takes birth again. (Gita 8:16)
The human goal according Vedanta is Self-realization. The Atma is the ultimate reality. When one realizes his true nature, he attains spiritual fulfillment in this life itself. Then, upon death, he does not go to any heavenly abode but simply merges into the supreme reality.
From Brahma Loka to the lowest world,
all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place O Arjuna.
But one who comes to me, O son of Kunti,
never takes birth again. (Gita 8:16)
The human goal according Vedanta is Self-realization. The Atma is the ultimate reality. When one realizes his true nature, he attains spiritual fulfillment in this life itself. Then, upon death, he does not go to any heavenly abode but simply merges into the supreme reality.
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