Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

I think it was yesterday that I mentioned about

The entire crux of spirituality is applying a control and regulation over the senses. Bhagavad Gita as a śastra must have something called apūrvata in it. Apūrvata means something exclusive to the text. That exclusiveness is, it repeatedly emphasizes regulation and moderation of senses, all our activities including sleep, wakefulness, everything. This moderation is a very important factor in individual life, its growth, success and fruition.

See, the Pandavas as well as the Kauravas - Duryodhanas, both of them were nurtured in the same Hastinapura palace. They were brought about primarily by no less a person than Bhishma who himself was an embodiment of austerity, spiritual wisdom and sacrifice. Bhishma when he was young, for the sake of enabling his father to marry Satyavati, a fisher girl, the father wanted Satyavati’s children to inherit the throne.

Then this young boy who was already a son of Shantanu said, “Okay. He will inherit the throne. I will not.”

“You may say this now. Suppose you have children, they will not stand by your promise.”

Instantly he said, “I will undertake lifelong celibacy.” That is why even the skies pronounced him as Bhishma, the great.

So, this Bhishma was such a person who had so much of sensory control. He willingly laid down his weapons in the battlefield allowing Pandavas particularly Arjuna to hit him and make him fall from the chariot. He himself disclosed the method for it. So you can imagine the greatness of such a person.

The Duryodhana brothers and Pandava brothers, both of them were nurtured fondly by him. So you can imagine the value association these brothers could have had in the hands of Bhishma. But Duryodhana did not agree to abide by anything that Bhishma said. Throughout Bhishma’s life and Duryodhana’s life, Bhishma was always giving him the right instruction, reprimanding him, chastising him but he would not budge an inch. At the same time, Pandavas were very obedient and receptive to what he said.

Why I am mentioning this? Only to indicate that 'nigrahaḥ kiṁ kariṣyati'? Sadṛśaṁ ceṣṭate svasyāḥ prakṛter-jñānavān-api, even a man who has great knowledge, he will also follow his nature which he has inherited and acquired. There is no point in others trying to restrain a person. Can you restrain your child in the matter of, do not see any evil but the child wants to see the evil? Can you close the eyes always? No, we don’t have the freedom.

Then where is the salvation, if you ask, yes.

You should understand that we all have a body. And the body is a seat for our sensory organs. These sensory organs always carry a twofold force – rāga and dvesha. Whenever the senses see objects, that interaction irresistibly brings about a twofold force. One is attraction, another is repulsion. Consider these things to be your enemy in your path and do not come under their sway. So, not coming under their sway is something to be employed, striven for by the individual. I cannot restrain your senses. You have to restrain it yourselves. The parents cannot restrain the senses of the children. The children have to restrain themselves. This is the point, this is a very important point.

Though prakrti is very great and prakrti will force us, understand this prakrti operates through attraction and repulsion over the objects of the senses and if you decide to moderate them, you can. Because attraction and repulsion are only in the level of the senses, the mind and also the intelligence. But beyond that where your real identity is, these will not reign. So there is every chance for you to improve.

I have been preparing a write up for our advocate to be presented in the High Court because we have been trying to resist the tendencies and temptations of the people to excavate this hill. We are ourselves on the slope of a hill. We have to develop.... In a hill any kind of a construction or even cultivation has to be done only by leveling up. That leveling operation itself we will find, it involves cutting of earth to the tune of eighteen feet if you want to have a building here. You can see it. So we have split level construction, different terraces etc. The whole hill has been terraced so much so that there is no water flow from the hilltop down. But the people are so much greedy and possessive that they want to completely level up the hill because it is all under individual proprietorship, ownership.

So, from 1995 by presenting a mass petition to the revenue divisional officer we got a stay. Even then it will not work. The police will be mobilized by the people, many, many things happened and we filed two petitions in the High Court and finally a petition filed on behalf of the temple and the Ashram in 2007, a very good judgment came in 2010 saying that it should not be excavated, the hill should not be tampered with. Now, one land mafia man has gone in for a review petition. Our advocate himself is a little jittery. He said, “You should be prepared to go to the Supreme Court. I will try to fight out the case. If High Court refuses, instantly they will go and appeal. Please file a caveat there.”

Now what I am wondering is, what is behind it? It is that sensory attraction. Somebody has purchased at the back of this Ashram, two plots of land which we wanted to buy to prevent excavation. But at night, the seller changed his stand. He told somebody else, somebody offered a higher price and it was sold. Somehow we have bought a plot in between, only to save the hill. Just imagine, to live in this world!

So I am saying, Kerala is a land of God. It is almost interspersed by Western Ghats. So the land of Kerala is having a lot of undulation. Everywhere it is undulating mostly. So, everywhere there is a chance for leveling and excavating the Earth. What is it that we are looking after? Our petition was not against the people. We made Kerala Government, the District Collector, the Grama Panchayat etc. including the Superintendentof Police respondents to our petition. So it was not against an individual. And the government also said whatever they had to say. And they never said anything like excavation. I am going to tell the Court that the Ashram land, we have got about six acres of land, more than (that), we are sitting on something like 100-200 crores worth of money. If we decide to level up from the bottom point up to the end point, you cannot imagine, it will be millions of cubic feet of earth. And every cubic foot of earth costs at least ten rupees now I am told. Just imagine! And nobody is there in this village of Panchayat to fight it. Everybody will be mobilized by the land mafia, nobody has approached me. And in our absence, people will excavate. When we are not there, particularly I am not there, they will try to do something.

So what I am wondering is, it is all this sensory attraction everywhere. Unless there is a clear effort on the part of the individuals to restrain and regulate the senses, I don’t think there can be any kind of a spiritual progress or spiritual purity and fulfillment.

Our śastras say right from the Mahabharata times, an individual will have to be sacrificed for a family, a family may have to be sacrificed for the sake of the society, the village may have to be sacrificed for the sake of the state. It is all very clear. All the legislations are only to restrict the individual liberty but give the liberty, at the same time ensure societal and public welfare and cohesion.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.