Articles for Saadhana

Gurupoornima 2015

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

All of you have come here to have a proper exposure, a precise exposure of spirituality or to spirituality, grasp the subject properly and make use of it when you go back or even after grasping from that very moment, make use of it. Keeping this in mind, I have been speaking one point after the other about the essence of spirituality.

Bhagavad Gita is actually a commentary on the Upanishads. The Upanishads we are discussing and getting exposed to during the morning talks, forenoon talks. Most of the Upanishads must have been not necessarily written by the authors but only uttered by the authors. Later on, they were rendered to paper or leaves. In the case of Bhagavad Gita it is not so. It is a well structured, grammatically alright written document. Veda Vyasa was supposed to be or is supposed to be the author of it. So the whole of it is written, something like a history written by a historian, the cultural history of our land.

Bhagavad Gita in particular is giving you a narration of the decline and fall of the Kuru dynasty when values declined and the rulers divided themselves on the ground of ruling morality and ethics where ethics itself was put to test. Will ethics rule the land ultimately or non-ethics? This means, will ethical people succeed or the non-ethical ones? The non-ethical ones had a larger number, much larger, more than one and a half times and headed by unconquerable leaders like Bhishma, Drona, Shalya, Kripa and the others.

So with a smaller number, the ethical people had to confront the larger number and that too unconquerable leaders leading the army. Krishna alone was there on the other side, the smaller number. Every time he was knowing how Dharma has to win itself. So there are many occasions when Krishna triggered, guided and led even gentle and timely violations in order to subdue adharma. This will be necessary. Nobody else could do it. So luckily Krishna was there who could understand it.

Why I am saying this? All these are properly recorded. In that recorded Mahabharatam appears Bhagavad Gita. Because of the subject of discussion and the comprehensiveness with which the subject is dealt with, it was separated and given a status of the spirituo-philosophical cultural record of the country. Bhagavad Gita is a commentary on the Upanishads and it is equal to the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras. So you can imagine how a historic record suddenly became an immortal scripture.

I was referring to some verses from Bhagavad Gita yesterday and the day before. Today I want to tell you something. Let us understand where the trouble is and what should be done. Krishna presents it in different ways but his primary message is - handle the mind and make it even, make it harmonious, you don’t have to think about anything else. Everything springs from the mind, survives in the mind, has to subside in the mind and the mind has to become sovereign not only to handle the seeming problems of the world but the conflicts in itself, the contradictions in itself. So the mind has to be self-sublimating. That is called yoga. Sublimate the thoughts, sublimate the reactions, sublimate the points of view, sublimate everything until at last you become sublimity personified. Move about in this world harmonizing every kind of an input and output. Be a self master. Be a personified mastery. This is what he says. And the key is the tool to apply on the mind to bring about this mental harmony and integration.

Arjuna listen. At the time of the very birth of everyone, every being is imbued, overcome with a delusion - the delusion arising from icchā and dveṣa. Icchā means desire, dveṣa means hatred. Different degrees and levels of these. In the matter of being deluded by icchā- dveṣas, there is no option before anyone. We get deluded right at the time of birth. So there is no option or escape in this.

Sammohaṁ sarge yānti paran-tapa - Understand that everyone including Krishna is subject to this delusion at the time of birth. Now what should be done? Something should be done about it.

If anybody wants to worship God exclusively, unbrokenly and that worship has to give him, bestow upon him ceaseless delight, ceaseless ecstasy, then the secret lies in his mind.

Yeṣāṁ tu-anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām - When I chant these verses, this verse, janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, you know, I don’t have to do any puṇya-karmaṇām. This puṇya-karmaṇām, that phrase, that word, I taste it. It is a very delicious item for my mind and heart. When I chant it, it is very tasty to the ear. Janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, puṇya-karmaṇām, puṇya-karmaṇām janānāṁ – For the noble people who have purified themselves, removed the sinfulness in them by puṇya-karmas, holy and noble activities.

What are the noble activities? Yajña, dāna and tapas. Yajña means anything that you offer to God, that is called sacrifice. It is not necessarily a ceremonial one. Whatever you feel I am offering to God becomes a sacrifice and you have to offer all your acts and all your life. Dāna means giving things to people who are not related to your body in one way or the other, either blood or matrimonial relationship. Beyond these you should give saying, “Please take it in a hearty sublime manner.” With how much of heartiness and sublimity you are able to give, that will determine the holiness you get.

Then tapas - austerity. All of you have come here, it is an austerity. Getting up early in the morning, being present for the prayers, attending here the programs, spending the whole of your mind and energy in the whole program, seven to eight days, it is a great austerity. These are the puṇya-karmas. From today onwards we are going to start packing the rice. Understand it is part of the great puṇya-karma - noble, holy, auspicious, sublimating, purifying act.

By doing the puṇya-karmas when the pāpa gets exhausted, he says, te dvandva-moha-nirmuktāh, the delusion arising from dvandva, they get liberated from that. Bhajante māṁ dṛḍha-vratāḥ - And being so, they worship me without any break. I would like you to know whether one of you has understood this message. You should tell me very personally, “Yes, Swamiji I have got it.” And the manner in which you tell me, I will understand whether you have understood it and it is going to be part of your life. This pushpa-samarpana is a puṇya-karma. The bhajan is a puṇya-karma. The prayer is a puṇya-karma.

If you serve the people in the Ashram who come here during the time, it is a puṇya-karma. But you know what I find? People don’t make it a puṇya. They bring so many personal elements there. Some people can take food and then serve in the second batch. All the people who serve in the first batch should take food in the second batch; they will prefer to be, “No not now. A little late.” By so doing, they are causing burden to the others. Any kind of a service you do is a puṇya-karma. Don’t think that it is restricted to pooja alone. That puṇya-karma.

I am very happy when our satsang hall is heaped with rice bags and rice packets. This is one puṇya-karma that we can think of doing and we are doing. But I always hear a murmur about it. “It is difficult, it is difficult, the whole place is cluttered here, people make a confusion.” and all that. When you have the feeling of puṇya about it, all these things will vanish. This is a puṇya-karma where physical activity is involved. Three kilograms of rice have to be packed, lifted, it is a weight you may not normally lift so many times three kilograms but it is a puṇya-karma. But many of you think - what? It is a physical, mechanical job. Yes it is mechanical. But we are doing it with a puṇya attitude.

So, yeṣāṁ tv-anta-gataṁ pāpaṁ janānāṁ puṇya-karmaṇām, they alone, dvandva-moha-nirmuktāh, that is the moha, delusion which grips you at the time of birth, and this moha you get freed from.  Then īśvara bhajana becomes spontaneous, ceaseless, ecstatic, delightful, delightful, heart filling, mind filling, intelligence filling, beautiful, like the full moon shine. Wah!

Because we lack this attitude of puṇya-karmatva, about it, we are like donkeys carrying gold and feeling only the weight of gold and not the value of it, we are doing all these acts and missing, missing the very puṇya in it. Let us not do it, be very careful and let your delusion be cleared.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.