Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

I was speaking about interactional sadhana during the past few days. I will take up the subject again.

If you read the scriptures and understand them, you can pick up the most central, ultimate and concentric statements made by them. It depends upon your skill, keenness, tenacity to land on such statements which will cut short your sadhana and make the sadhana smooth and wholesome.

Bhagavad Gita contains 700 verses in all. You cannot say that all the 700 verses are equally important. They are important in this sense, you can recite Gita and the recitation itself is a sadhana. If it was only one verse, you will feel bored. You need some diversion. So, the 700 verses give you a beautiful assortment where your intelligence and mind can dwell very interestingly and enlightenmentally.

But in the whole of Bhagavad Gita verses, you can pick up a few, it can be anything, even one verse, two, a dozen, or maybe a score of verses. All these put together will completely fulfill you. In the same manner, in the Upanishads you will find, in Ramayana, Mahabharata, Sreemad Bhagavatam, everywhere you will find some ultimate, concentric, specific and microscopic statements. It all depends upon how you pick them up, how you are able to land on them. The interactional sadhana which I have been speaking about, is one such process.

I would like you to think about the genesis of life and activity in this world. When a child is born from the mother’s womb, you tell me, whether the child cries or the world cries. And what is this crying? Unless the child cries, it will not begin to breathe. The lungs have to be activated. That activation results in crying, producing sound. See, the lungs were not perhaps operating in the mother’s womb. When the umbilical cord is cut, the child becomes an independent living unit. And it has to breathe, respiration should be there. And the initial respiration is what results in crying. It is not a cry in mental distress. But it is a cry in a need which produces a kind of a stifling or distress. I maybe wrong, but this is what I have heard and understood. That apart, the world remains the same. The addition is of the child. And the child breathes, the world does not breathe. The panchabhutas do not breathe. The child opens the eyes to see the world. The child begins to hear sounds. The child begins to taste things placed on the tongue.

You tell me very clearly, the entire life and the activities and interactions that follow, are from the individual, not from the world. From the individual, perhaps to the world. The whole life is interactional. And the interactions result when the individual begins to act through the senses. The senses are on the body, they themselves cannot work. They have to be propelled and activated by the inner personality where alone consciousness is there. Are you with me?

So, the activity is from the individual, in the individual, of the individual, by the individual, for the individual. This point you should understand. "I interact with the world. People like me also interact." So, in the interactions, there is interpersonal interaction, inter living beings interaction, otherwise it is interactions with the inert panchabhautik world, they are the maximum. So, all the interactions are, as I always say, initiated by the individual, they rest upon the individual, they also conclude and terminate in the individual.

So, when I say interactional sadhana, it is the sadhana based upon the individual. "I interact, as a result of the interactions I get the impacts, mind propelled the interaction, the same mind is impacted by the outcome of interactions. So, every time it is my mind that interacts with the others, receives the interactional impacts and outcomes."

Now the sadhana portion is, give rise to the best of interactions from a pure mind and pure mind is the one which is free from desires, possessiveness and ego. You can capture the entire world but in that process you should not have any ego, possessiveness or desire. The test is there. The mind can be with these three, the mind can also be without these three. Without the three, it is pure. With the three, it is impure. So you decide for yourself – am I going to interact with the world with an impure mind or a pure mind? To make the mind pure, where will you work? In yourself. No flower can purify you. No collyrium can purify the mind. No sandal paste can purify the mind. No bhasma will purify the mind. Mind has to be purified by a mental process.

So, have the right attitude, have the right objective and whatever is contrary to these, feel and say, "No, I don’t want them, I don’t want them, I don’t want them." Dissuade them, dissuade them, dissuade them. If you continuously dissuade, any trait whatsoever, it will simply become extinct. But the point is, you only say that "I don’t want it. I want to become pure." See, I want to become pure and crying will not work. You find out where is the impurity and mentally dissuade it, dissuade it, dissuade it, dissuade it. Mind has got tremendous effect. It has effect on matter also.

Now, when you interact especially interpersonal interactions, you will find a number of displeasures. People will speak to you in a wrong manner, in an offensive manner. Now, all these are done by others. Can you stop them? No, No. They also have an existence in this world as you have. So, multiple reactions and multiple approaches will be there from the people. So, you have to develop a wholesome and sublime attitude by virtue of which you will make a provision for all these in the world, and whenever their impacts come to you, you will reinforce your mind in such a manner that any impact from the interaction will be only assimilated by you. Now, when I say this, many of you will prove ignorant. When I say you should assimilate them, “Swamiji, how to assimilate?” Our mind can assimilate the entire world. Your mind is not a personal, individual, constricted mind. It becomes constricted when you don’t know its potential, when you are not able to think about the expansiveness the mind has.

Everybody’s mind is reflecting the endless world. You are seeing a mustard. The same eyes see a mountain. The same eyes capture the sea. The same eye engulfs the entire space with countless number of stars and mountains. Tell me, is the mind only mustardly or is it spacial? You are not going to the entire world in its entirety. I remain here and look at Sahyiyadri (Western Ghats). Sahyadri is far away on the east, but I am sitting here and capturing the Sahyadri here. I can draw a line from here which when extended as a straight line will go over the Sahyadri peak. So, unless I experience the mountain, in reality, how can I make such an observation or conclusion?

So, the mind is not a mustard. It is magnificent. It is the mind that gives the dimension to the world. The mind employs the eyes, looks at the objects, looks at the world and the mind says, “Here is the vast sea.” Vastness is an assessment made by our mind. All the dictionary words are from the human mouth and tongue. The mountain has not said, “I am a mountain.” The sea has not said, “I am a sea.” The space and stars have not said, “We are space and stars.” All these are our assessment made with the help of the senses and the assessing authority or medium or source is the mind.

This mind when it starts practicing interactional sadhana , mind you, mind you, the sadhana covers the entire range of the world. Not that you pick up the world, no. The world is seen reflected and interacted with by your mind. So the sadhana is applied to the mind and the effect is on the whole world. Will you please understand this point? The entire interactional sadhana consists in sublimating your raga and dvesha – attraction and repulsion. The entire sadhana consists in eliminating, dissolving three traits – possessiveness, desire and ego. Don’t tell me, "I cannot do it." You have to do it. Otherwise declare that I am unspiritual and get away from here. You have no other business to do as seekers. Sublimate your mind, purify your mind, make it serene, only by your own personal effort. Don’t say: " ‘X’ hindered me, ‘Y’ hindered me, this is unfavorable, that is unfavorable, this is calamitous." No, No, No, No, No!

Sri Rama was banished to the forest. Sita was abandoned by Rama. Pancha Pandavas with Draupadi lived thirteen years outside the palace. All these persecutions they underwent. Compared to them, what is your persecution? You are not able to make friends with two or three people. That is all your persecution. My dear souls, please be fond of others. Give a place for them. Do not try to complain and find faults with others. You must be able to live harmoniously with even the most faulty person. Suppose you have an invalid child, don’t you accept him? Suppose you have an insane brother, do you not accept him? So, you want blood relationship to be a precondition for your fondness. I am very sorry. I am very sorry.

So, the interactional sadhana is solely based upon your mind, no matter with what you interact, where and how. Please think about it properly.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.