Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

One point is running in my mind. It is about building up one’s own personality. Our body cannot be built up so much because it grows by its own biological laws and processes. So, we have to give the body the necessary food, nourishment, and preferably exercises. Of course, by various muscular and other exercises you can build up a very tufty and showy body. That part is different. But the body completes its growth at the age of twenty one latest. We can hardly do anything about it. That is the time when we become an adult and as an adult we are concerned about ourselves, what we do, how we live, how we interact with the world. So, all the choice, selection, will, resolve, everything comes after that. And the inner personality namely mind and intelligence, also ego, they give an infinite scope for development, growth, expansion, and elevation. This is a point that nobody thinks about. Even if one happens to think, he doesn’t follow it and make it into a culture.

In the matter of this self-development, inner personality development, I think our culture stands unique in the world. Everybody has to know what our culture is, what are the characteristics, excellence of the culture. This culture is recorded in a very documented manner. So much so that you can never doubt it. If there is a document before you, there must have been an author for it. It must have been a human being and he must have been your predecessor.

Our documentation starts from prehistoric age. All the Vedas were composed and presented in the prehistoric times. From then on, we have periodically many presentations on the subject. Our Ramayana is a presentation from Tretayuga, Mahabharata is a presentation from Dwaparayuga and whatever is there in Kaliyuga you already know. But we don’t have a Kaliyuga scripture as such, so to say. But the Srimad Bhagavatam which we have before us was written about fourteen hundred years back according to people who are experts in studying the language and literature of the text. Now, in this culture you will find everything and all about the inner human personality development, how to handle it, how to employ it, how to reinforce it, how to empower it, how to enlighten it, how to become excellent in the matter of development, application and achievement. In fact, all our literature contains only these things and nothing else.

In a discussion, our ‘X’ raised a question, “To live as a brahmacharin, there is a restraint and there is a difficulty.” etc. This is where you must have a love for our scriptures. What do you think of brahmacharya? Better have an evaluation about it. In this world, you will find many people doing many things. All of them are not brahmacharins. Our Prime minister apparently is one or has been one. In West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Roy was a brahmacharin, P.C. Ghosh was a Brahmacharin, Ajoy Mukherjee perhaps was also a brahmacharin. Where do you find brahmacharins in this world? Why? Because it is difficult to become a brahmacharin. That is why you should aspire to become one.

You go to the Kathopanishad. Nachikethas, a young brahmacharin was sent by the father to the abode of death. He went there. Yama had gone on a special mission. He had to manage a large number of deaths together. So he personally went. By the time he came back, it was three days. When he came back to his palace, he found a brahmacharin from the earth was remaining in his house unattended to by all. Yamadharmaraja got so afraid and sensitive about the whole thing. He said, “Bring water. Let me wash his feet. I am very sorry that we have neglected. Anybody who neglects a brahmacharin who has come home, he spoils all his fortunes and possibilities here and elsewhere. So, all that I can do is I can do a recompense for my neglect. So, ask for three boons.” Nachikethas started asking for the three boons one after the other.

What do you understand from this? A brahmacharin from the earth who was neglected by Yama, Yamadharmaraja was afraid that the whole of his life and future, everything was threatened. What is the status of a brahmacharin? Is there any comparison between a brahmacharin and a householder? And all are householders in this world.

(Point) Number two: In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna makes a very important description. यदिच्छन्तो ब्रह्मचर्यं चरन्ति, yad-icchanto brahma-caryaṁ caranti (Bhagavad Gita 8.11). Brahmacharya is a great discipline, vow and austerity. The highest, he says in terms of austerity and vow. 'Yad-icchanto', People undertake this brahmacharya with a view to attain the supreme goal of human life.  A brahmachari need not be glorified in the newspaper or a novel. Fire need not be glorified for its heat and brilliance, burning property. Water is not glorified anywhere for its flowing power. Air is not glorified for its blowing power. Ākāśa is never glorified for its interpenetrating nature, all-engulfing nature. A Brahmachari is like fire. He is like sun. He is like space.

One must have an evaluation. When we take up Brahmacharya, you should understand, you are taking up something which is the most adorable, the most admirable, the most exemplary. The very decision! After all, when a person becomes an ascetic, what are the vows he takes up? He says that, “I shall be truthful. I will rely upon God for everything. I will remain austere and pure. I will always look for inner ecstasy and fulfillment. My focus is not the outside world but my own mind, my inner being which shows the outside world, which contains the outside world, which makes the world what it is. So, I am opting for the greater gain.”

When Nachiketas was offered prosperity on the one hand, and sreyas on the other, he said, “I don’t want preyas - prosperity, I want sreyas - felicity.” And this Nachiketas is remembered even now. We don’t know whether there was a boy like Nachiketas and when he lived. But we have Kathopanishad as part of our Vedas where the story of Nachiketas and his interview with Yamadharmaraja is presented. There may be a Yamadharmaraja, may not have been, but the document is there before us. So, the message and content of the Kathopanishad, that can never be effaced from the culture of our land.

It is very difficult to live a life of discipline. Please go away from the world then. Everything in this world upon the earth is disciplined. The rising of the sun, the setting of the sun, the waxing and waning of the moon, the arrival of the monsoon, the beating of the heart, the bellowing of the lungs, the circulation of the body. So many doctors are dealing with our body because our body has a consistent order. It is functioning consistently according to some principles. They examine a patient and then say, "The heart is very good." They examine a patient and then say, “The heart is very bad. You have to undergo surgery.” How do they say that? Because the body behaves with a certain discipline, with a certain order. There is hunger, there is thirst, there is fulfillment of both. Unless you have periodical hunger, how will you live? I always feel that hunger and its appeasement, these are the greatest motivation and compulsion for everybody including a dacoit and a thief to live in this world. Thank God that we have hunger. Thank God that it calls for repeated appeasement.

When you walk, can you walk haphazardly? You have to place your foot in an orderly manner. One foot should not clash with the other. When we are making steps, the steps have to be uniformly distant, it must have uniform height. By mistake if you miss a step, imagine the colossal damage, danger that can come.

Our system gets used to a certain climb and when that calculation which is taking place in our brain goes wrong, you may topple, you may fall. So, never speak to me about having to have discipline in this world in your life. Today you get up at four o’ clock, tomorrow you get up at eight o’ clock, day after tomorrow you get up at twelve o’ clock, is it ever possible? You are living in the company of others. We have to take food uniformly at the same time, leave the kitchen, leave the dining hall, assemble for any function in a collective manner. So, without discipline, without orderliness, is there anything?

We go to the bank and get currency notes. They have counted and kept them in the form of hundreds and if it is a bank bundle, you don’t search it, you don’t test it. Why? It is supposed to contain hundred. The whole world will collapse if the bundles do not contain the specific number. I give a five hundred rupee note and ask for change. The other man gives me in different denominations, five hundred. He doesn’t say, “I will give you only 450.” Why? The paper I have given him has got a value according to the norms available here, disciplines and laws. Five hundred rupees and he has to give me in different denominations totaling five hundred.

You get a railway ticket, go to the station. The ticket was bought three months earlier. When you go there, you find a berth, a seat reserved in your name. The train starts in time, it takes you to the destination in time. Suppose they will say, “Today there is no train, this particular station I will not stop.” , suppose the driver says, there will be calamity, there will be disorder, there will be confusion. My dear souls, be wise, wiser and understand what is meant by orderliness, what is meant by discipline.

Coming back to brahmacharya, this is the greatest that one can think of. Unless you have an evaluation about it, you will not be able to take it up. To rely on God, the greatest human achievement, the greatest human fortune, the biggest human achievement. To rely upon God, to rely upon God, to rest upon the order of the world, the order is external, physical, chemical, biophysical, biological, biochemical. All these are in the Sthula, in the gross world.

When you enter inside, you have the psychological laws, the intellectual laws, the spiritual laws and the spiritual law is the one, the central one, where you rely upon God, the center of the universe. When you are able to rest upon the center of the universe, the entire circumference starts revolving around you with a rhythm and a magnificence and a splendor. My dear souls, it requires a penetrating intelligence, it requires a lofty perception, or at least be a fool to rely upon it faithfully. Either be a fool and rely upon it faithfully or be superbly wise to understand it and develop the necessary harmony. Brahmacharya, wah! It is something greatest, it is more valuable than giving hundred tons of gold to God in the form of an offering. All this depends upon how you look at our culture and how do you find the inspiration from it. This is where our scriptures are very great, unparalleled. One sentence from the scripture is sufficient to mend a man, to make a man, to make him perfect.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.