Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

One point that all of you should understand about the spiritual pursuit of any kind or denomination is that the whole pursuit is proceeding from you, is resting upon you, and is also concluding in you. It may be the path of devotion where God becomes the focus; it may be the path of wisdom where the Self or wisdom becomes the focus; it may be the path of what people generally call “Karma Yoga”, where constant involvement in activity is the focus, or it may be the path of yoga where exclusive meditation may be the focus. What I want you to understand is - take away the external relationship from all these practices. You may worship God, therefore what? Worship is your act and your pursuit. Every action is primarily and ultimately meant to benefit the actor.

A person goes and works in an office. He may give them some productivity. Very good! That productivity so far as they are concerned, they have employed you. For him his employment is benefiting himself. So far as you are concerned, you are working there, and you are getting a certain remuneration. So the benefit of your action is the remuneration you get. Every time an action is supposed to benefit and enrich the actor and not the acted upon; this you should understand very clearly.

Suppose you are taking the path of devotion, the path should be handled, understood, and enriched in such a manner that the devotee who practices devotion is enriched and fulfilled as much as possible. How you understand God, how you rely upon Him, what do you do with that reliance. You know your worship is your worship. It is your act. Your reliance is your reliance, reliance of the mind, guided by the intelligence, so ultimately what is the beneficiary here? The beneficiary is your own personality, particularly the mind and the intelligence.

That is why in our pursuit of devotion, the devotee should be always thinking in such a manner that his pursuit enriches him every moment, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, decade, and so on. Once this focus on oneself is properly assessed, I think all the rest will vanish.

There are many religions in this world, they will perhaps come and also go. There are different practices which may flourish for a while, thereafter disappear, but if you cling on to this particular point, you will find that is an understanding and a philosophy which are never going to be extinct from this world. There are two words in our spiritual culture - vastutantra and puruṣatantra. You should make it vastutantra. My practice is my practice. To do it rightly is my responsibility. When done rightly, it will benefit me. If done wrongly, it will not benefit me. Suppose you pin your devotion on God, it becomes indefinite, indistinct, and often abortive also. Devotion is an expression and pursuit of the devotee, and it is for the devotee to handle it in his own manner or in such a manner that his devotion will fulfill him.

All the thoughts about God, all the glorifications about God should be done in such a manner that you are benefited at every point. We take a number of materials for worship, we have a variety of idols, a variety of Gods and Goddesses. All this variety is just like the variety in dress and style that you find in the market, all this is ultimately worn by the human body. There comes the commonality and the singularity of the focus. You may worship because people are interested in variety, so a variety of names, figures, shapes, histories have been given. But whatever you resort to, the beneficiary is you yourself. The more and more you place your focus on you, the devotee, you will find, the progress is faster, confusion is lesser, clarity is more. Srimad Bhagavata says

It begins to say (that) worship starts with an idol, and the one who worships the idol is the most uncultured and unreformed devotee. The second devotee or the middle level is the one who fosters four different attitudes constantly in his mind, and towards God it is only one of fondness and love. That’s all what God wants from you, if at all. prema maitrī kṛpopekṣā (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.02.46) - maitrī means friendship and intimacy with the devotees and knowers of truth. The people who are rustic in their thoughts and ways, and unnecessarily critical and shallow - have sympathy for them, they may ridicule you and mock at you. Have sympathy for them. And the people who hate you, have sannyasa about them, and renounce them from your mind. Now these are four attitudes of the mind because the mind is with you, and the attitudes are of the mind. You can pursue them for a much longer time, and towards God only one feeling - prema.

Then he says, who is the best of the devotee? The best of the devotee is one who makes use of his fondness and love towards the lord as a cord, as a strand, as a rope and he ties the feet of the lord, so that he will never get out of his heart. If he is able to tie the feet of the lord with the cord of love, as a result of which, visṛjati hṛdayaṃ na yasya sākṣāddhariravaśābhihito.apyaghaughanāśaḥ - Lord Hari, who is the destroyer of all sins, is not able to leave your heart because you have tied his feet with the cord of love. Where from you will get the cord? Not from the market! You have to make your own cord of love from your heart. The heart and mind you have, make the cord of love and tie him. That devotee is the supreme he says - Srimad Bhagvatam – supreme. So this is the extent of freedom that the devotee is given and this is the focus he is asked to bring about.

So my dear souls, understand: Always, with any kind of a practice, what we are going to touch up and improve is ourselves, our personality. There are four levels, the sensory level, the oral level, the mental level, and the intelligential level. Your action should be good and sublime and noble, similarly your speech should be harmless, benevolent, benign, the thought should be good, noble, and elevating, and the understanding should always be focused on the truth and the imperishable. If you are able to bring about this discipline and reformation, there is nothing like that. Have this focus.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.