Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

This Ashram is an abode of spiritual wisdom. We don’t teach anything in the secular way. But we do emphasize on character, behavior and interaction. Our focus is on the person and not the things belonging to him. Our personality is consisting of an external, physical, matter-energy aggregate called the body, including its various limbs, but all of them are inert, insentient. At the same time, we are sentient, we speak, we think, we do, we design, we execute, we achieve. All these are not possible for the body alone, because it is an inert matter-energy aggregate. So, everything that we do, that we experience, even the feeling and experience that ‘I have a body, I am living in a house, there is world around me.’, all these are apprehensions, comprehensions or experiences, not of the body, experiences which the inner personality provides. That inner personality is consisting of mind, intelligence and ego. Spiritual wisdom is that which deals with only this inner personality.

When you, namely your mind and intelligence are organized, whatever we do, you do with the body and bodily limbs will also be organized. When the mind is upset and it refuses to become better and better, your performance also will be bad and worse. I always ask a question, “Our mind is always coupled to a number of, a variety of constrictions. Every constriction constricts the mind, so we have a constricted mind. Is it better to act with a constricted mind or is it better to live with a free, relaxed and expansive mind?”

Spirituality makes your inner personality free, light, stable and luminous. You should understand this point that everything in our life is for, by, in the inner personality. Our mind designs to do something, it makes out a shape or a procedure for it and the mind itself employs the physical organs to execute it and fulfill it. Every activity arises in the mind, is supported and sustained by the mind and is also terminated by and in the mind. Will you reflect upon this one sentence I am saying? Let the activities be gross, they are involving huge substances, but what I say, the fact, that is absolutely true, absolutely true. Everything is from the mind, by the mind, for the mind. When you have completed an act, does the body register it? Do the eyes ever say that you have completed so many acts? No, no, no. ‘Yes’ and ‘no’ are propositions of the mind. So, mind is the sole focus. This is what we emphasize here.

In Srimad Bhagavatam, Krishna presents many legends, and one of them is called Bhikshu Gita. Bhikshu means a mendicant. There was a Brahmin who was fabulously rich and he was protecting his richness even by holding an umbrella they say, during the night. But he was very miserly. So, he would not give his riches to anybody nor allow the family members also to enjoy. Whenever something is to be spent, he will wonder why so much.

In my poorvashrama birth place, there was one ‘X’. Whenever he used to go to a shop; he will need something like a half a kilogram of an item. You know, he will ask them the price of the quintal. “What is the price of a quintal of this item?” Then he will come to lesser quantities and finally will say, “So, the one kilogram I want. Half a kilogram I want will cost so much, is it not?”.

“No, no, it will cost 25 paise more.” And he gets shocked, disappointed and he argues with the shopkeeper. A very famous man.

I think we have to be very liberal. So, this man never spent the money even for the family members. Not to speak of giving somebody who asks for a loan. Which person either in the home or outside will have respect for such a person? So, he was always an object of hate for the others. But he could not protect his wealth. It was confiscated by the Raja. Part of it was robbed by robbers. Part of it was snatched by the relatives. Ultimately, he lost everything.

But he was a Brahmin. So, he understood that destitution is though not desirable, once it is there, we should not run away. So he decided ‘I will become a mendicant.’ With a leafy umbrella, a small bag made out of cloth, he tied it, put it on the shoulder and he started walking. People recognized him and they started saying, “Then he was a rich man. He did not give anything to anybody, very selfish, very miserly. Now, this is also an imposter’s life for him. He is not a true mendicant.” So they came around him, started scolding him. But he already had an ascetic resolve. So he never said anything. Finding him un-responding, they started spiting on his face, passing urine on his head, throwing abuses. You know, even then, even then, what he said? He sang, he sang. This is called Bhikshu Gita. Please understand, this is what our country is. We are not afraid of anything. We are not afraid of poverty. In fact, we marry poverty. I am one who embraced and married poverty. And we love to do it. We cherish it even now. When all these people started teasing and all that, he finally said,

All of you should learn this. Nāyaṁ jano me sukha-duḥkha-hetuh. None of these people is responsible for my sukha and dukha.

Na devatātmā graha-karma-kālāḥ. Nor the super-human Gods of the sky nor one’s own self.

Graha-karma-kālāḥ. Nor the different planets and celestial bodies like Rahu, Ketu, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, no, no, no.

Karma-kālāḥ. Nor my own karma done in the past.

Kālāḥ. Nor is time is responsible for it.

Then what is responsible?

manaḥ paraṁ kāraṇam-āmananti saṁsāra-cakraṁ parivartayed-yat ||

Mind alone is the sole cause. This mind is so powerful and its potential is so stunning that it revolves the entire world. He says mano-jaya is the greatest victory for everybody. You know how much I like,

Wah! How sweet! How sweet! You don’t have to point your finger at anybody. If somebody abuses you, and abuse is to his liking, okay, let him abuse and be joyous. Why are you suffering? He is abusing. So he is the wrong doer. Let him cry and weep. Why are you borrowing his cry? Examine your mind as to whether the abuses, any one of them is right and correct. Then prostate before him saying “I am happy that you have pointed out an error in me.” and remove it. Otherwise simply laugh over it. If you cannot do it, you will lose your sleep. There will be poison in your body.

What more do you want?

Dānaṁ sva-dharmo niyamo yamaś-ca. All these are references to different kinds of practice, discipline and austerity. Dānah, sva-dharmah, ācharanah, niyamah, many principles and practices, restraints. Yamah, deeper ones applicable to the inner being.

Srutaṁ. A lot of spiritual learning, vedic learning.

Karmāṇi ca sad-vratāni. Recitation of God’s names.

Sad-vratāni. Observation, observance of different vows.

Sarve. All these are.

Mano-nigraha-lakṣaṇāntāḥ, they have only one objective. Touch your mind, involve your mind, restrain it, regulate it, purify it, make it holier and holier, divine and divine.

Paro hi yogo manasaḥ samādhiḥ. And the supreme practice of austerity is manasaḥ samādhiḥ. It is the mind getting withdrawn from everything and getting immersed in its own essence. See, both of them are from Srimad Bhagavatam. Why don’t you understand this?

Now in this Ashram you will find we explain all these subtle propositions. For you to hear, absorb, reflect upon and make true of your own inner being, inner being, inner being. Our role is to provide the exposure. Exposure is an interaction between you and me. But rumination, reflection and introspection have to be done by you alone. Nobody else can help. That manana part is greatly missing, miserably. That is why I want you learn poetry, because it is poetry I am able to remember. And that poetry which is half music, that is very delightful.

शिशुर्वेत्ति पशुर्वेत्ति वेत्ति गानरसं फणी।

Even the cows, our crops, if you play good music, it seems the paddy, flowers and fruits of the paddy stem, they start swinging.

शिशुर्वेत्ति पशुर्वेत्ति वेत्ति गानरसं फणी। Even the cobras, snakes, they like it.

But the jnana, you have to think, think.

It is one’s own mind that turns and revolves the entire world for you. Wah! So, which is superior? The world or the mind? The mind is superior. Our ashram is one where we provide this kind of an exposure. What we speak is absolutely knowledge and knowledge alone. And we are using different texts so that there will be a consistency. Suppose I start speaking from myself, then myself and perhaps my teachings, writings etc. may become popular. That is not what we want. We already have the treasure of wisdom and we are referring everything to it and then presenting so that there will be something static to remain. And how many countless millennia have passed? We have preserved them, cherished them. Not that we have kept the books in our bookshelves. We have read, understood and we have practiced. And in the practice level, you will find this kind of a session is important.

So, our Ashram is a knowledge-oriented Ashram, knowledge-oriented. We don’t want you to sing and dance. No. You can dance but very gently and nicely. You should not lift your foot more than two are three inches from the ground, not jump. I also dance rarely, once or twice in a year. But it is a question of enriching yourself by wisdom. Enrich your being. Every day should be a day of enrichment. Every day should be a day of enriching activity from you, enriching contribution to the society and the world, and you should get more and more refined, refined and refined and there is a way of achieving it.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.