Most if not all have heard of the sloka asato maa sadgamaya. This is a sloka from the Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad. It goes as follows.
असतो मा सद्गमय
तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय
मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
Meaning - Lead/direct me from untruth to truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. Om peace, peace, peace.
Now this is what people know in general. I was thinking about this the other day when an interesting duality struck me. The word मा in the above sloka means 'me'. For those aware of shabdas in Sanksrit, it is the prathama purusha ekavachanam of the yushmad shabda. However, the word can mean something else also. It can also mean 'do not'. I will explain. The following lines are from the Bhaja Govindam written by Adi Sankaracharya.
मा कुरु धनजनयौवनगर्वम्
हरति निमेषात् कालः सर्वम्
मायमयमिदमखिलं हित्वा
ब्रह्मपदं त्वं प्रविश विदित्वा
Meaning - Do not pride yourself over wealth, friends (or people support) and youth. Time takes away all of them in an instant. Understand that all of this is maaya and attain the abode of Brahma (moksha actually, not literally the abode of Brahma).
The first word here mean 'do not'. If I extend this logic to the first sloka it will mean do not lead me from untruth to truth etc. So does this mean that man should strive to attain these for himself than be dependent on anybody, even God? Ramakrishna Paramahamsa talked about the concept of absolute surrender to God. My idea seems to be in direct contradiction to his viewpoint and I do not consider myself anywhere worthy enough to question his logic. So probably it means that man should work on his own after a point rather than be dependent on his guru or anyone else. Complicated thinking, eh?
