Articles for Saadhana

Today I thought of telling you something about our life in the ashram. Our N. was asking, “Swamiji, there is a lot of sukha in this world. Is it not also to be enjoyed or experienced? How can we say no? It is good that spirituality is something very desirable, I would like to pursue it. But I would also like to have sukha in this world.” I answered him that day; I would like to answer it a little more in detail today.

My dear children, in this ashram, if you ask me, I can say about me, and it is mostly true, invariably true of Nutan Swamiji and Ma, and about the others you have to ask them. I am very very happy in this ashram. I do go out. I am being looked after in a very tender manner, very affectionate manner by people. All the convenience that is possible in each place is being made. And we talk to people who come to hear us with a lot of interest and concern. In spite of it, when we come back to the ashram, I feel a little more comfortable and happy. It is not that I am unhappy in other places. I only want to highlight that in the ashram, I am living very comfortably and happily. And what do I do? I either speak, or think, or read, or write. Either I read, or I write, or I think, or I speak. Nothing else I do. And whatever is necessary to look after my body, like taking bath, having food, etc. this also I do. I would like N. and the other children to understand that in terms of sukha, I think we enjoy the best of sukha in the world available for a human being.

Perhaps you know that every day from Monday to Saturday for about half an hour, Asianet, a very leading Malayalam channel, TV channel, whose broadcast reaches the entire world, Asianet is telecasting a programme where I speak. It is going to be a programme lasting perhaps for one or two years, if we are able to run it. Now this telecast requires to be shot periodically. So today and tomorrow I have asked the producer to come here with his team for recording or shooting my speech. I wanted to have about 50 hours of shooting and every month, 3 days, about 7½ hours every month. So much so that 7½ hours from new production and 2 hours from the stock, that will look after each month, because we have to travel, etc. But we have not been able to record 50 hours. It is much less, about 35 or 30 hours. So there is a struggle going to be to fulfill the requirement of Asianet.

Now I have to speak. This means I have to read also. There are some portions which I am not familiar with in Shreemad Bhaagavatam. So I am reading. So whenever I get time, I go to my table, take the book. You know, to understand Sanskrit words, sentences, combinations, conjunctional words, etc., it is not easy. Sometimes a word occupies half-an-hour or 1 hour or two days attention. I have to sometimes ask Satish, ask Ma, ask Nutan Swamiji to help me in finding out the meaning of a particular word or a combination. So I would like you to understand that we are very good students, perhaps unlike many of you or like many of you. We spend a lot of time looking into the books, going into the structure of words, trying to extract the right meaning, think very fast, very deeply, in a very subtle manner. And whenever we understand, whenever I try to understand a word and a combination and, especially, in Sanskrit, it gives me not only delight and joy; it gives me a super ecstasy.

Now N. was wanting to have sukham. But I tell you your Swamiji has sukham to the power of infinity. Whatever is maximum enjoyable by the human mind, that sukham I have. And wherefrom do I get? Not by looking at any object dress, eatables or other things. I get it from my own thoughts, my own reflections, and the suggestions come to us from the books, from the texts, especially the Sanskrit texts. Yesterday, an email message came running into 6 or 7 A4 sheets. It was something important, discussing a current problem of Hindu religious and spiritual organizations which are sought to be maligned by some interested parties. Because it has got contemporary interest and relevance, I hurriedly read through all the pages yesterday. Normally I wouldn’t have read. So do I lack any sukha? Certainly not! I have abundant sukha. But the sukha is produced by my mind and intelligence, all by themselves.

Now I want N. to think during his stay here whether any sukha is experienced 1 millimeter away from the body or sukhas are experienced in the body and inside the body. In the body what all sukha do you experience perhaps! You put on a cloth. The cloth is in touch with your skin, so you are constantly in touch with it. Then when you eat delicious food, you chew it, so it is there in the mouth; a smell is somewhat in the nose. But if you think, if you are intelligent you will find even that the dress I am in contact with, it is known by my mind. So any form of sukha which you are referring to may appear to be in the bodily or sensory level, but in reality it is in the mind level. Mind alone produces joy. But it produces joy with the help of outside objects. But the producer of joy is the mind. So joy is an emotional generation. And it is generated by the mind.

What are we getting, spiritual people? We are getting all the joy and super joy from our own mind and intelligence without the usual objects around you. So we live in a cottage alone, we start reading books, scriptural books, we think about them, we speak about them, we write about them, we talk about them. And the people who come here, you know, a family of five have come. The moment they arrived, I felt so happy. I don’t think their own parents would have been so happy seeing them as I felt happy when I saw them. They are living somewhere in Jamshedpur. And they said we would like to come to the ashram. Why should they come to the ashram? They are nobody to us, we are nobody to them. Either related by blood or matrimony we are not. But nevertheless, they felt like coming. So there is a fondness and an interest. For what? Is it for just seeing Swamiji and others? No! They have interest in what we speak and what we point to. So the very fact that they are spiritual seekers and they are interested in spiritual wisdom and spiritual joy makes them very very dear to my heart. So when they come I feel extremely happy.

Maybe N. doesn’t have good friends, but I have a number of good devotees. Very good devotees I have. In fact our whole ashram is looked after by such devotees. I would like to openly say again and again that there is no drop of blood in my body which is not belonging to our devotees and disciples. They look after the body, they look after the ashram, they make offerings, and with those offerings we buy materials, food, anything and everything. All these buildings, every brick in the building, every colour in the building, it is all the offerings of the devotees. So they have so much of fondness for us. And without our asking, they make these offerings. If we ask, it will not be right. So how much care and attention they have. So when I look at them I feel extremely happy. And you know I have one advantage, N., I have no problem of looking after all of you. You are looking after yourselves. So unlike parents, I have no difficulty with my children. Everybody is self-sufficient; they live in their own quarters at distances. But I get a joy which the parents even miss.

So in terms of sukha we are not behind, we are extremely forward. And you know reading the books – I was not able to leave what I was reading. I was reading the description of the encounter between Narhari and Hiranyakashyapu. The manner in which Veda Vyasa has described the encounter, the words he is using, the combinations he makes and the import it conveys. On the one hand there is beauty, on the second hand there is depth, in the third you will find a profundity and a magnificence, the ability to generate, convey and instill emotions in the listener. So by the description, a devotee’s mind goes on swelling and imagining and the fear vanishes. Fondness for the Supreme Almighty grows, a confidence swells, an appreciation goes on extending and extending. And there is a skylike expansion in the mind. Now this is what we are doing.