O N Kaul
THE PRAYER : Asatho maa sath gammaya: “From this transient world of decay lead me to the everlasting world of Bliss; ” Thamaso maa jyothir gamaya: “Give me the effulgence of Thy Grace and illumine my soul with truth “;Mruthyor maa amrtham gamaya : “Save me from the torture of birth and death , destroy the cravings of the mind which produce the seeds of birth .”
Man’s life must be a perpetual Sadhana ; any day is a good day for starting Sadhana. Sow in the field of your heart the seeds of good thoughts charged with humility ; irrigate it with waters of love ; protect the growing crop with the pesticide called courage ; feed the crop with the fertilizer of concentration ;then the ‘bhakti’ plants will yield the harvest of ‘jnana’ the eternal wisdom , that you are He, for,you were always He, though you did not know it so far. The individual can fulfil himself only through the service of others , expansion into the universal Sadhana has to enlarge the vision , enhance the experience , and enthuse the Jivatma to merge in the Parmatma.
From the experience of saints and sages ,you can realize that the joy got from the external world is infinitesimal when compared with the Bliss won through spiritual discipline. To win that bliss, Sadhana full of Vairagya (detachment, renunciation) is essential. When boring is done to draw water from the bowls of the earth ,the pipe has to be kept free from air so that water can rise up . If air enters , the water will not rise . So too ,be sure that attachment to worldly things does not mar your Sadhana. Prema will not well up if sensual pleasures or personal pride invade the mind. There are three things which one should keep in mind , namely I will not think of anything else except God ,I will not do anything else without the permission of God and I will have my attention completely fixed on God.
But the Ashrama Dharma and the Varna Dharma ( the code of moral conduct prescribed for the castes and for those in the Four Stages of Life —Student , Householder ,Recluse and Monk) do not hinder in any way the discipline of fixing the mind on God or of purifying the mind of evil or worshipping the Lord through all one’s actions , words and thoughts. The distinctions of sex or caste or status or stage of life affect only those who live in the awareness of the body as Reality and who act as if the world is absolute and eternal.
“Spiritual discipline, intensification of japa (recitation of holy name) ,Dhyana (meditation) ,Seva (service) and Sankirtan (singing that comes from the heart and with joy )—— these can achieve the same end ,without landing the human community in the morass of animality .”
Placing your burden on Destiny and keeping quiet means diminution of effort . With effort and prayer, new Destiny can be attained .Without effort and prayer, Destiny and grace are not gained . Start the effort! If the seed of True wisdom that I sow do not come up as good saplings and give good harvest,I too am effected. On the other hand , if they grow well and fructify into the harvest of Ananda, how happy I would be .That is my food. This is the Seva you should do to me .There is nothing higher than this .
People hesitate to enter the field of sadhana , though they crave for the harvest of joy .They are not willing to spend a pie , they are reluctant to do an iota of exertion; but they want Moksha to drop from the heavens on their laps .They would fain have the vision of God thrust painlessly into their brain ! When Maitreyi was given by Yajnavalkya vast wealth in the shape of gold and cattle , when he left hearth and home on his spiritual quest, she asked him whether they would be of any use for her in her quest. When her husband replied that they were transient and cheap when compared to the wealth of spiritual experience ,she cast them off and sought the precious wealth of Thapas (austerity) and Sraddha (faith).She got eternal joy through them .Study of scriptures and religious texts and such books without effort to practice , results in ill-health, Being false to one’s profession eats away one’s self-respect and one starts getting ashamed of oneself .So learn to practice and digest. That is the advice I give you.
When you are depressed by what appears to be loss or calamity , engage yourselves in Namasmarana , the recitation and recollection of the Names of the Lord ; that would give you consolation , courage and the true perspective . Remember the distress and calamity that the saints underwent with enthusiastic welcome and be calm during every storm . People laughed at them and called them mad ; but they knew that they were in the Grace Hospital of God ,not the mental hospital of man. They had full faith in their destiny and so they had full faith in God ; they laughed when calamities tried to cow down their eagerness , for they knew their latent strength , the strength of the Atma (Divine Soul) within. Just as the wild elephant ,roaming in the forest as head of the herd , is trapped and trained to sit on a three- legged stool in the circus ring , the mind of man too has to be trained by a systematic process of discipline —Sama ( control of senses), Dama ( detachment) , Uparathi (practice of withdrawal of senses from the objective world ) , Thithiksha (vigilance , fortitude ) , Sraddha (steady faith )and Samadhana (mind control )—so that it may subserve the best interest of man. How much more is the need for proper qualifications in the spiritual field , for winning the grace of God? You aim high ,but you make no effort to reach that height.
The eyes have to be trained to discover the footprints of God ; in this process, the mind has to be mastered . The mind is the pivot of thought and feelings .the mind is the thinking aspect of Brahman; the Absolute Consciousness . The absolute Self manifesting itself in imaginative activity is Mind .However , instead of turning towards the Absolute it turns outward and starts using the senses as its instruments .It forgets its source , the Atma. How and why this happens is inexplicable .We know that this happens and it can be avoided and prevented . The intellect cannot grasp the secret which is called , Maya ( The mysterious , creative and delusive power of Brahman through which God projects the appearance of the Universe ) , for it too is bound by it .One has to transcend the intellect in order to understand it . That is a fact and the fact has to be faced. The mind is the background of the world . If thoughts and activities of the mind are sound , healthy , non-violent , filled with love morally harmonious , then, peace is near at hand and Brahman can be attained . That is why Sadhana is to be strictly pursued to train the mind inward , towards God, its source.
In order to attain and understand Divinity , we must undertake Sadhana and behave in a way that is like the Divine .
You are advised to spend time in Meditation Or Japam or the quiet pursuit of Namasmarana ; for peace and joy are not to be found in external nature . They are treasures lying hidden in the inner realm of man ; once they are located man can never more be sad and agitateds. So use this holy atmosphere , this splendid chance , these precious days to the fullest . With every inhalation , utter the name of God; with every exhalation utter the name of God. Live in God, for Him, with Him.
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