Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

'X' was reminding me yesterday about the commonly uttered statement,

This is from Bhagavad Gita. Krishna, assuming the position of God starts speaking and clarifying what God is, who God is, what is He, how are we to think about Him etc. It is one thing to speak of God in the third person. I think you should listen to me very attentively. Even if a person speaks about God and gives descriptions about God, referring to God in the third person, even then, the descriptions, the knowledge etc. are provided by the speaker. So, it is the God in the speaker’s own imagination. God does not have a mouth and He will not speak at all. So, when I speak about God, I am speaking and I am describing Him, illustrating Him, explaining about Him, there also, it is not God who comes into the focus. It is the speaker and the exponent. One (Point number one).

The second point is that instead of referring to Him as the third person, where also, I don’t know whether you will follow me and come along with me, even when I refer to God as the third person and I start describing Him, the whole description is my product, my creation, everything is mine. So, instead of referring to God as the third person, when one starts speaking about God in the first person, can you tell me, is there any difference? In the first, the speaker and exponent is that person, in the second also, the speaker and the exponent is the same person. In one, he refers to God as the third person, in another he refers to God as the first person. That is how you find in Bhagavad Gita, gradually Krishna takes the position of God by referring to Him as the first person. I don’t think it makes any difference at all! When somebody refers to God in the first person or in the third person, in both cases, the speaker is the same person and the description is offered by the same person. It is very intriguing to know that only in India perhaps, this first personal reference to God becomes very, very important and unique.

Kapila, the son of Devahuti, started speaking to the mother and throughout his description, he started identifying Himself as God and he started referring to Him as the first person. Normally, one will not refer to God in the first person, always in the third person, that is very safe. But nothing prevents the human from referring to Him as the first person. If you start referring to God in the first person, that shows that God is very close to you and you are very close to Him. And what is the maximum of closeness? To be one with each other. This also is a position the seeker can attain. I wanted to mention this incidentally because today I have to speak about it.

So, I was thinking as to how shall I explain this. Krishna claiming himself as “bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ.” What does it mean? So, this point came to my mind, I thought of telling you.

Now coming back to ananyāś-cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy-aham. There also Krishna is striking the first person, that first personal position. Let that point remain there. Ananyāś-cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, what does it mean? Those people who worship me, God, paryupāsate, all around. That upāsana or worship is to be a continuous one, unbroken one.  It cannot be localized or focused on a particular idol which is limited or in a temple or in a puja room or in a person. It should be a worship that is continuous and all-comprehending. What can be that worship? Can it be with flowers placed on an idol, can it be a prostration offered before an idol or in a temple, can it be in the form of some materials offered to fire? No, no no. If the worship has to be continuous and all-fold, it cannot be anything material at all. Any material by itself is very specific, limited and separate from the rest.

When we offer a flower to the idol, we take the flower in our hand and we offer it in the idol or picture. The picture will invariably be at a certain distance from us. So, when we collect the flower, it is not offered. When we pass it to the idol, that passage, that little space you travel, that is not also offering. Only when it falls at the feet of the idol or at the bottom of the picture, it becomes an offer. So, the offer is more or the non-offering time is more? I have taken it in my hand. I chant a mantra and I move it to the idol or to the picture. All these durations, I have not made the offer. Only when I place it at the specific spot, we call it an offer.  That is for a few moments. The rest of the moments it is not puja. I don’t know whether you understand and appreciate what I say.

So, the continuous puja is something different.  How can it be material, external or physical? That is why Krishna says "ananyāh cintayanto māṁ", the puja has to be, has to be, has to be in your mind. The mind is always with us. There is no time when we are away from the mind or the mind is away from us. That mind should develop that ananyatva. Ananyāh cintayantah – so  the worship has to be mind-based and if it is mind-based, it can only be in the form of thoughts, feelings and emotions, mind’s products. Feelings and emotions are generally generated by the thought. Thought generally consists of letters and words. So, the idea about God will have to be properly touched up and you should feel that God is present everywhere. "He is omnipresent. Because he is omnipresent, I cannot miss Him. I am surrounded by Him. I am penetrated by Him. There is nothing like God plus or God minus." This kind of an exclusiveness about the concept of God will have to be cultivated and this exclusiveness is what is meant by ananyāh.

Normally we give a place to God; we also give a place to all other things. The all other things are much more than the single God. So, there is no exclusiveness there. So, you must have the concept of God in such a manner that you will remain exclusive about Him. There is nothing besides God, away from God, different from God, outside Him. Everything is He Himself. Ananyāh, this kind of a cinta, thought, if you are able to foster, fostering such an exclusive thought and remaining enfolded by it, this is what is meant by all-fold or all around worship. What does it mean? It is a process taken up, pursued, intensified and perfected by the mind if at all.

Paryupāsate. And it is not that one man with a lot of difficulty attains this. No. Ye janāḥ, plural number is used. Once you start understanding that the approach to God is mental and it is in the form of thought and idea about God, I think the whole worship undergoes a drastic transformation in you. Ananyāh cintayo ye janāḥ paryupāsate, so, the upāsana or worship does no more becomes time based, place based, process based, action based, ritual based, no, no, no, it is not material based. It is based on your own mind and the mind fostering the thought that God is something you can never get away from. He surrounds you and penetrates you. This kind of an ananyatva, exclusiveness should be picked up and that should govern your devotional thinking. For such people, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ, "nitya" means nirantara, continuous, unbrokenly, abhiyuktanam, those people who think of God, think of me in this manner, they become united with me because they are surrounded by Me; they are penetrated by me. There is no time when they will become separate or I will become separate. So, this constant unitedness with God can be had only by your mind by a correct process of thinking. Just see? I don’t know how many people will appreciate it and reflect upon it to make it true of themselves.

Ananyāh-cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, so, all the other forms of upāsana should stop and you should take to this inner, unbroken, wholesome, all around, all fold worship. For such people who are nityābhiyuktānāṁ, who are constantly, constantly, constantly united with Me, yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy-aham, I look after their yoga and kshema. Kshema means ensuring the welfare of whatever you have in the form of health, prosperity and everything that you can add. Then whatever is desirably to be had by you, for your own fulfillment, either for your own fulfillment or for the promotion and pursuit of whatever benevolent activities that you wish like doing or you do. In a simple statement: "Ensuring whatever you have and bringing to you whatever you further need, Kshema and yoga, this I ensure.”, He says.

I would like you to contemplate upon this statement and make sure that you become "ananyāh cintayantah paryupāsate nityābhiyuktānāṁ" – that nityābhiyuktata, abhiyuktata means being united, nityābhiyuktata means being united ever and ever. This situation you should be able to bring about, develop, intensify. It is such a beautiful process, no tension, no strain. When people say that “I struggle very hard.”, why should you struggle in order to think about God? It is a very light exercise, it is a very light pursuit. Please understand the whole process. It is a mind process, a mind pursuit and in the form of thoughts primarily arising from, resulting from, thinking about God properly in God’s own dimensions and nature. He is the omnipresence. Once you accept that He is omnipresent, where is the time when you will be away from Him or distant from Him? “ananyāś-cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yoga-kṣemaṁ vahāmy-aham".

Krishna was born of Devaki. He was a friend of Arjuna. He grew up, but He strikes a Godly dimension where earlier he referred to God in the third person; now he starts referring to God in the first person. Whether in the third person or first person, the exposition and the exponent make no difference at all. But our people develop so much of knowledge and realization about God and they feel so confirmed and clear about it, that from the third person sometimes at least they shift to the first person and start speaking about God. Perhaps their words spoken as the first person carry more of authority, intensity and oneness.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.