Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

Often I feel that most of the people including many of you here do not have the required degree of respect and devotion towards our scriptures and scriptural writings. In our Samadhi Mandir, as a part of the daily program we have two items. In the morning we have a Gita and Vishnu Sahasranama recitation. Vishnu Sahasranama and Gita are recited on alternate days. In the evening, we have some very good verses to constitute our sandhya prayer. All of them are enlightening, devotion generating and also dispassion generating. These are the two routines. In addition to that you have pushpa-samarpanam and prabhata-rashmih here.

Our Ashram is primarily a knowledge institution. Our idea is to spread knowledge about life on the one hand, world on the other and particularly the human personality because life is an expression of the individual. The individuals put together become a family, a social segment, a nation, a globe as a whole. So life is an expression of the individual. Where from does this expression start? Where does it end? This is something to be understood. As part of the human life and its expression, we come across the world. So the world also has to be explained. All our wisdom, plans and processes are to explain these three facts. Inevitably, God also becomes part of the discussion.

Religiously speaking, God is the source of everything, terminus of everything and is the power and process of sustaining everything. It is all a question of explaining matters to people. I think enlightenment is the greatest persuasion so far as human being is concerned. Even if you explain to a thief that thieving is not right for himself, for his family, for the world at large, I think he will stop thieving. This is what happened in the case of Ratnākarā who became Vālmiki Maharshi. If you are able to penetrate into the hearts and minds and intelligence of people, I think all the problems will be solved.

Ours is a democratic country. We have democratic elections where we elect the assembly and the parliament. They are supposed to represent the wishes of people and needs of the people. But in so doing, you will find, the individual interests and compulsions take over democratic objectives and there are troubles, problems, improprieties etc. Ultimately they are questioned upto the Supreme Court level. And in the Supreme Court level you will find, there election does not stand, democracy does not stand, there it is the intelligence and the heart of the judges that finally will have to solve all problems. So you should understand the place of enlightenment. The judiciary is supposed to be guided by enlightenment. The judges always ask the advocates, "Will you please enlighten me on this subject? What do you have to say?" And they refer to the learned advocate etc. when it comes to a question of giving judgment.

So you should understand, the place for wisdom and enlightenment is supreme in human life. Our Ashram is one where this wisdom is being discussed and made available. Bhagavad Gita is one of the prasthāna trayam. We have the Upanishads, the age old Upanishads. Then we have Brahmasutras, then we also have Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad Gita is equal to Upanishads and Brahmasutras. And in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is having a dialogue with Arjuna where Arjuna’s secular and war problems were resolved. You should understand this. Many people miss it. Bhagavad Gita is not a spiritual scripture. It is a secular conversation that took place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra before fighting the war when Arjuna felt he could not fight. So the purpose of the dialogue was to make Arjuna understand the need for war however cruel and notorious it was and then make him fight. So it was a conversation.

In the conversation, the main subject Krishna introduced was yoga. We recently had an International Yoga Day where āsanās were particularly taken by the whole world. 192 countries belonging to the United Nations participated in this International Yoga Day. But they have considered only the physical aspect of yoga. But in reality, the yoga is something very internal and mental. What is the yoga that Krishna was speaking about? "Arjuna, you are fighting the war not for victory or avoiding loss. Victory and loss should not be your consideration. The war has come as a reality, confronted you. You fight the war just like you will rule the kingdom. You will have your daily meal and sleep. It is part of life, part of the world. You are not fighting with sleepers, sleeping people. They have come here to fight either to kill you or to get killed by you. This is a dharma however cruel it is."

So there is a lot of enlightenment that was necessary for Arjuna and that was given. Every chapter of Gita is called a yoga chapter. It starts from vishāda yoga, continues upto eighteen chapters. In the sixth chapter, he (Krishna) concludes it saying,

Every shloka will be interpreted differently. Tapasvibhyo’dhiko yogī, the yoga at one point needs meditation. Meditation means sitting in a place, closing your eyes, making the back, neck and head erect, interlocking your fingers and putting them on your lap and then be focused only on the mind and make it withdraw from the external involvements and be focused on its own essence. This is the practice. This yoga practice is meant for making the mind calm, even and placid, this is the summum bonum of life, he says. This practice of yoga primarily centered on the mind and helped and perfected by the intelligence, this yoga is the essence and goal of life, he says.

We are taking to austerities with a view to achieve something. He says the best of austerity is the evenness of the mind. Many people are reading many things knowledge wise. He says, “No. Even that kind of a knowledge intelligence is not sufficient. Yoga is supreme." A number of rituals and yāgās are performed considering them to be very sacred and divine. He says, “No. This yoga of the mind, yoga of the buddhi is still superior. Therefore Arjuna, become a yogi.” Who says this? - Krishna. To whom? - Arjuna. When? -  In the battlefield of Kurukshetra. He says, this war should be fought as a yoga. It should be a yoga-sādhana. It should not be a fight showing your physical prowess or gaining kingdom and ruling the country. It should be fought as a yoga-sādhana. My dear souls, if you understand Gita, your whole life will have to be a yoga-sādhana. If you succeed in making it so, then your life will become fulfilled. Otherwise not.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.