Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

Today a point comes to my mind. It is something very subtle, very significant, but as usual will not generally be noticed, heard, absorbed properly, and acted upon. So I will not be surprised if most of you become indifferent to what is heard.

See, we have a number of temples in our country. All these temples have a fairly good number of devotees also. They have faith in God, they go to the temple, they worship, they also make some offers. In this way, many crores of people are connected to temple and worship. And the minimum that a person can do is to chant the name of God or Goddess. So nāma japa, either loudly or silently, collectively or individually, is a routine, is a culture of this land. In spite of it, if you enquire into the devotees themselves, they will say, “I have been doing all these things, but God is as far away from me as he was when I started the first chanting of God’s name.” Can you tell me why it is so?

There are ashrams, who encourage nāma japa, and crores and crores of nāma japa have been done. There are some people who write also; nāma japa in a written manner. In spite of all these things, with every writing or chanting you must have a proportionate degree of nearness towards God. Suppose God is 1000 kilometers away when I start chanting, with every chant either I must go nearer to God at least by one millimeter or he should come nearer to me by one millimeter. But does it ever happen? Apparently, no. What is the reason?

I would like to tell you in a very important manner, in a research-oriented manner that when we wake up from sleep in the morning till we go to sleep in the night, we are always interacting with the world, with the objects of the world. This interaction is an expression from us. We are expressing; something from inside expresses itself through the sensory organs to establish contact with the objects. Again we work upon them. So it is always expression, and in order to express you use your energy or the source. This expression is not at all absorption. What we want is a change in our inner being. Means what? A change in the form of purification, reformation, refinement, expansion, elevation, and finally enlightenment. These are the processes and outcomes which should accrue to the mind and this is helped by the intelligence.

So intelligence is the only tool which can act upon the mind and bring about the transformations you want. This transformation will come not by an expression, but by an infusion, by an absorption. Even when you chant the name of God, the thought of God, the name of God, first of all perhaps arises in the mind, and it is passed on to the vocal system, then finally the sound comes. Oṃ namaḥ sadāśivāya oṃ namo nārāyāṇāya. I am only expressing, but where is the absorption or infusion? If the nāma japa has to result in infusion, then you will have to listen to the chanting. The mouth produces the sounds, and the ears will have to hear whatever is produced, and then the effect will have to be absorbed. This absorption is different from expression. So maybe expression takes place but not absorption. So you should chant to your own hearing and to your own absorption. How many people do this? I think nobody does it.

Are you chanting simply to produce the sound, or are you chanting to make a sādhanā by virtue of which you will absorb and have the impact of your own chanting? In the same manner, when you write the name of God, you will have to look at it and absorb it, look at it and absorb it. Expression and absorption are mutually opposite, one is different from and opposed to the other. In order to bring about changes and transformations in the mind and the intelligence, what you have to do is you have to do infusional introspection.

I chant the name of God. Who is this God? What is this God? Where is He? He is present everywhere and always. If He is present everywhere, do I recognize Him? Do I see Him or think about Him, consider Him to be present in everything? If He is present in everything, what should be my attitude towards anything and everything in this world? A sight by the eye, a sound from the ear, a touch from the skin, a smell from the nose and a taste from the tongue, in all these things, apart from the normal sensations produced by the senses, I must also be able to feel or recognize the presence of God. That recognition becomes an intelligential function. Suppose you recognize, then your attitude towards all will be one of respect, regard, acceptance, and assimilation.

In Bhagavad Gita, he says,

Nirvairaḥ sarvabhūteṣu – you will not have vaira towards anybody in this world, when you start recognizing that your pet and beloved God is present in one and all. So along with the nāma japa, unless this kind of infusional introspection is there, I don’t think even nāma japa will be able to purify you. By an expression, purification will, if at all, not come, or even if it comes it will be negligible. So to chant the name of God is one, but to act, think, and speak according to the chanting is altogether different. Think about it very seriously.

Why is it that in spite of devotional practices, we don’t become a devotee; our life is not transformed as a devotional life? When you become a devotee, even the food that you eat will be a devotional item – whatever you see, whatever you hear. Now people will immediately say, “Swamiji, this is an ideal, not to be had in one life.” Absolute excuses!

Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, kṣipraṃ bhavati dharmātmā, a person very soon becomes a dharmātmā, a very, very devotional, pious soul. He becomes! So it doesn’t take much time provided you are able to absorb your nāma japa, provided it instills infusional introspection by virtue of which not merely chanting but thinking about God, and finding out, engaging the intelligence and the mind. Who is this God whom I worship? Has He come closer to me? Have I gone nearer Him? Why is it that the distance is not reduced? Am I perceiving Him everywhere? If I perceive him apart from what the eye sees as a human being, a beast, a reptile, a tree or otherwise, the intelligence should also be able to comprehend the presence of divinity, my God in that. Unless this concurrent perception or cognition is there, I don’t think any kind of devotional exercise is going to transform the mind.

This is why Srimad Bhagavatam says:

Understand that God is present everywhere. Start right from the sky, the highest. Vāyu, agni, salilaṃ –water, mahī – earth, jyotīṃṣi sattvāni – luminaries, all kinds of beings, diśo – the eight directions, drumādīn – trees, creepers, reptiles etc. everything. Sarit-samudrāṃśca – the rivers and the oceans, all these together form the physical and visible body of God, and thinking in this manner, prostrate before Him. Prostration is an expression, but thinking and inducing in the mind a sense of divinity towards all is an introspectional process and its outcome.

So I am tirelessly saying for the past 59 years. The practice of devotion is meant to bring about devotional transformation in the devotee. You are praising God and chanting the name of God not to bring about any effect on God, His being. It is an exercise like any other activity that you perform and the first and last person to be benefited by devotional activity is the devotee himself, and with every devotional practice, a proportionate degree of devotional transformation, sublimity, and divinization should take place. If it does not, the practice is meaningless and fruitless, at least fruitless. So the responsibility to bring about the transformation rests with the devotee and he should always try for that. By expression, the change may not come but by infusion it will come instantly also.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.