Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

This is a verse from Bhagavad Gita. I always say that Bhagavad Gita is a practical book of sadhana. It is not necessarily all religious. Very, very practical and pragmatic. Here you will find a very beautiful statement which also gives you some clues to religious life.

Yeṣāṁ tv-anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, for the people, the sinful tendencies. What are the sinful tendencies? Unsocial elements, harming elements, thinking bad of others, not feeling happy when others are happy and when others are prosperous, various kinds of mental cross emotions, indulgences also of these kinds, this is called sinfulness. Our mind has to become punyamaya, very holy and pious. So, the sinfulness must attenuate and must minimize and almost come to a nil position. How can this be done?

Janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, all our holy acts are meant to take away the sinful tendencies in people. What are the puṇya-karmās? Basically they are yajña, dāna and tapas. Under the yajña, we have everything right from vedic rituals to the ordinary pooja that you are performing. Looking after guests, being hospitable, charitable, try to chant the name of God, go to the temples, participate in whatever you can in the matter of religious festivals and things like that.

We have a practice of putting some alpana in front of my Gurudev’s picture. Early in the morning we have some practices like going  to the Samādhi Mandir, washing the vessels, collecting the flowers, then chanting, at the end waving the lamp, blowing the conch, anything that is not worldly in character but which has a super worldly note, all these are punya-karmās. Preparing pudding, preparing nivedya and offering it, thereafter taking it as a prasāda. All these holy acts, one or the other, they can be social, they can be religious, they can be spiritual, they can be ethical, planting, pouring water to the plants, feeding the animals, looking after cows, anything that you can think of. All these holy acts take away the sinful tendencies in people. And gradually you will find the sinfulness comes down. Janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām.

Then what happens? Te dvandva-moha-nirmuktā bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ. It is then that they become free of the dvandva delusion. What is the dvandva delusion? Strongly differentiating between sukha and duhkha and having a strong preference towards sukha, a prejudice towards duhkha. This is actually a delusion. Sukha is your experience, duhkha is also equally your experience. In both the experiences, your own inner presence is alone evident or expressed. Actually this differentiation is out of a delusion. So that delusion completely goes away. When the delusion goes away, the mind becomes stable. It has no desire. It has no unnecessary motivations, objectives etc. The mind becomes free and relaxed. At that time, bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ, that is the time you start worshipping God with a stability, poise and definiteness.

Generally when people worship God, that worship does not remain static. Every time think of God, trust in Him, rely upon Him, think about Him, read books which extol God, particular God’s descents where various items he performed with a view to achieve many things. So, that becomes a natural fondness for God. When you are fond of somebody, you like to speak about Him, think about Him, hear about Him and all that gives you delight.

So, this is a beautiful verse which tells you how punyakarmās are the only methods by virtue of which your negative and sinful tendencies can be removed and the mind gets rid of the dvandva delusion, being able enough to worship God continuously.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.