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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
See, why don’t you think in this manner? We ourselves are evolving the idea of God. This idea is evolved because we find a very stupendous, a very magnificent, great world around us. We are a part of it. And this world could not have been created by a human. So we consider the source of world as God. We would like to be connected to Him. Therefore we make an idol of God or a picture of God. The picture is a very small item. However big the deity may be, it will still be small because the world is very, very huge. And using that idol, by worshipping it variously, we try to get connected to God.
So the purpose of doing pooja is to be connected to God. And you feel connected also. Here, what is the basis of this connection? An idol or a picture which you have made which you feel represents God. And keeping that picture or idol in front, you do something in the way of a devotional exercise or worship. One is a factor of time, another is a factor of an object representation. So the picture or idol represents God and you worship that for a period, specific period like half-an-hour or fifteen minutes.
If the fifteen minutes of worship of a particular idol can make you connected to God for that particular period, why don’t you try to develop and expand it? For example, the entire world is a picture of God. Actually it is! The entire world is a picture of God and I am worshipping the whole world as I will be worshipping a picture or an idol. So the idea of God expands in your mind, it covers the whole universe. Because you are constantly in the universe, you are connected to it, your connection with God also becomes constant, throughout.
So from the half-an-hour limited idol pooja, can you not grow into a continuous pooja of the whole world? If you will spend some time to think about the idea, you cannot say no. It is developing your devotion and bhakti and worship from half-an-hour to the whole day. In what way is it bad and in what way is it difficult? How can an idol become God? If an idol can become God, the whole world made by God can itself be the better representation of God. Why don’t you think in this manner? It is this kind of a thought process and introspection that goes by the name:
This is what I mentioned yesterday. “I am the source of everything and I am activated by everything. Thinking in this manner, reflecting in this manner, people remain associated and connected with me.” 'Bhāva-samanvitā:' - Through that factor in them from where all the emotions and attitudes emerge, namely the mind.
Why don’t you spend some time to understand this verse, to understand this suggestion? ‘If I worship God for half-an-hour I become joyous. Can I not extend, cover the entire twenty-four hours of the day?’ What prevents you from thinking in this manner?
It is just like a man who has got a small measure of wealth trying to have more and more of wealth. Any company or industry would like to increase its business from whatever it is now, 500 crores company, they will want to be declared as 1000 crore company. The 100-wālāh will decide 2000, like that. Here also, your devotion must be made to expand and grow as a result of which you will be able to remain a twenty-four-hour devotee. It is only expanding and enlarging your idol, your picture.
I don’t know why people say that “This is not possible. This is difficult.” I give you 1000 Rupees as a gift and I said, “I would like to increase this gift to 1000 crores.” Will you not receive it? Will you not be happy and wanting to have it? In the same manner, this devotional treasure, half-an-hour treasure is ought to be increased to twenty-four hours.
The body remains the same, the world remains the same, but all the change that is coming is in your mind. Why don’t you think about it? It is such a beautiful thought! This is where Krishna says:
It is the icchā and dveṣa, love and hatred that dominate and overpower your mind that poses the problem in recognizing and realizing God throughout the world throughout the twenty-four hours. If you are able to be equal to love and hatred constantly arising in your mind, then you become seated in Brahman.
Ihaiva tair-jitaḥ sargo yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ. Instead of taking a love position and a hatred position, if you are able to remain even in both.
Nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma tasmād-brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ, brahman is nirdoṣa and sama, equal. Therefore, if the mind practices equality, it is able to remain fixed there, then you are fixed in Brahman. It is this one verse that perhaps clinched the issue for me years, years, years back.
I think you should think about, reflect upon it, that reflectional process alone brings about transformation. So from half-an-hour devotion grow to twenty-four-hour devotion and worship.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.