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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
India is a land of devotional culture. I don’t think there is any village here which does not have a temple. Our tradition is that whenever there are ten Hindu homes, our homes, there should be a temple, a public place of worship for them. We make houses to live comfortably and happily. Maybe initially we are happy that the house has been made and we have the necessary conveniences, but as you live as a family, you will find various frictions, troubles and torments arise. These torments can be objective as well as subjective. Whether objective or subjective, mind is the one factor which is feeling the impact. Perhaps many people do not know this.
With many things, one’s mind may not be contented. With few things or even with nothing, the mind can float in contentment. That is how in this land, right from the Vedic times, many people have taken to sannyāsa, only to experience the joy and the fulfillment which such renunciational life will bestow. Sannyāsa is a life where you keep away from all kinds of possessions, relatives, the usual friends and the others. Always the sannyāsin looks into his mind and from the mind he churns and brings forth contentment like churning curd and having butter to beautifully float in the very curd. That is why we have an expression called ‘Kaivalya navanītam’.
Kaivalya means a state of liberation. Navanīta means new butter. Our kaivalya or liberation is called beautiful, fragrant butter. What does it mean? Wherever you live and whatever you do, the mind is the focus for us. This mind is not all happy and contented, however luxurious and comfortable and convenience-full one’s house his. Throughout the day when we are working, in spite of the success or achievement that we aim at and partially achieve or progress towards, you will find subjectively there is tension, there is tension, there is stress. The stress is subjective but the activities are objective. We are getting educated, we are getting training, all to become experts in our professional front which is objective.
See our Raman, a Bank Manager from Madras, from Chennai has come. He says, “My bank did not give me my leave at all. All the days, I was going to the office.” Obviously, he does not like it. He would like to have a little freedom. Apart from the physical occupational fatigue it produces, there is also a measure of tension, “I am not able to do what I want.” This kind of a tension and stress and strain which are subjective in character cannot be avoided in our activity front.
If the subjective tension has to be removed or redressed, it has to be removed by a subjective process. What is that subjective process? That is where devotional practices, spiritual contemplations, yogic practices etc. come in and help you. It is in this context that our people say that whenever there are ten homes, there should be a common place of worship. In the common place of worship, individually nobody has anything to do. A priest is appointed to set right the deity. Somebody is appointed to look after the services, attendant services, jobs. You don’t have anything physically to do. Even in one’s own house, you will have to do puja yourself, it is a burden. You simply go there, worship, relax and come away.
Any place of worship is an abode for people to come in, spend some time carefree-ly, relaxingly and find joy, freedom and fulfillment. So the tensions and burdens which household life produces, generally is dropped in front of the deity in the temple, and the devotees go back with a sense of release and unloading. It only remains to this level. But we are not progressing in the path of devotion.
We should understand devotion is an emotion which develops in our mind, thinking about God. We only think about God. God doesn’t do anything for us. You have to remember Him, you have to be fond of Him. You have to be paying your obeisance, regard to Him, in whichever manner you want to register your devotional fondness and reliance, you are free to do. So all the devotional practices are evolved in this manner.
Nothing at any point in your devotional practice is meant to benefit the object of your devotion namely the Lord. Once you understand this, the devotee should always examine his mind to find out – ‘Is my devotion effective? In what way has the mind changed? Do I have tension-producing items in the mind or are they becoming lesser and lesser?’ This is where we say kāma, krōdha, lōbha, mōha, mada, mātsarya are the six emotional enemies for us. By the practice of devotion you should ensure that these emotional enemies are dropped one after the other. Do not be passionate or over-passionate. Do not be angry or irritable. Definitely don’t have hatred towards anybody in this world. Do not have greed. Do not be deluded. Do not have a sense of infatuation about anything. Mātsarya - Do not have any competition with anybody.
You are churning your mind with the help of God and every time you should pray or feel if at all for the purity of your mind, for the expansion of your mind, for the knowledge and clarity of the intelligence. It should not be necessary for you to go anywhere in order to worship, in order to feel devotional sublimity. It is true that we are all used to temple worship, going to holy places. It is necessary no doubt, but it cannot be throughout our life. As in any path of education there is a promotion at the end of the year, you leave the school, you leave the college, you leave the research centers and you carry the benefit of the research with you, in the same manner, you must be able to carry the benefit of devotion. For that, the devotion has to be applied, tested and improved in your own mind.
Krishna says many things in Bhagavad Gita and one shloka is very important.
‘People can come to my state, whatever I am in, they can also reach and have. And many have come to my state. But how and why? By doing jnana tapas, knowledge austerity.’ What is this knowledge austerity? Knowledge austerity takes place when you start using your God thought, Godly thought, Godly memory, Godly devotion - For what?
Vīta rāga bhayakrodhāh. For dropping and transcending rāga, bhaya and krodha . Raga means love and passion. Krodha means when it is interfered with, you get angry. Bhaya means fear. Our mind is a rope made out of these three strands - Love, hatred and fear. In anything that you do, that action should not be motivated by any kind of an undue love or fondness. ‘That action is appropriate, it is necessary, therefore I do it.’ Similarly, no action should have the motivation from hatred or dislike or unpleasantness. Never do anything unpleasantly.
Bhaya - Fear. Fear means what? Imaginary fears. Always the mind fosters fear. If something happens to me, if my son dies, suppose I fail, suppose I don’t get this, I don’t get that… By fearing, you are ruling out from your life, the place and purpose of God at all! God is there to look after everybody, to keep the whole world consisting of infinite number of planets and celestial bodies in balance and position. He cannot go on allowing people to die, die and die, prematurely. We are human beings. We take about 20-21 years to grow bodily. Anything that takes time to grow will also last long. That is why we are able to live up to 120 or above 100 years. One fifth of the time, we have taken for growing. Having such a life, we are not supposed to die prematurely or at young age. There is no system for it. But sometimes it so happens. It may be an accident or an adversity, but generally God doesn’t kill anybody, doesn’t destroy anybody. He has given you air to breathe, water to drink, vegetables and other things to eat, a beautiful earth to live on. Sun rays and moon rays are there, so many stars also are there. All these things are meant for man to live comfortably. So don’t fear either death or anything else. Suppose you are travelling in a car, you should fear. It is not a fear at all. You should learn to drive in such a manner that no other vehicle hits you and you also do not hit another. Don’t say “He has hit me.” You must have sufficient forethought to make sure that such an accident does not take place. But don’t imagine a fear and stop driving or avoid driving or avoid walking on the footpath of the roads. So I think we have to be very careful, we have to be intelligent.
Vīta rāga bhayakrodhā manmayā māmupāśritāh. We should feel God and Godliness only to avoid rāga-dvesha-bhayās.
Māmupāśritāh. When you worship God, the purpose of worship should be, “Let me get rid of rāga-dvesha-bhayās.” Use your worship for this purpose, this purpose, this purpose. Then it becomes a jñāna-tapas. “And by that many people have got purified and they have attained me.” He uses the present tense. That means it can happen, it does happen, it is going to happen.
My point was that there are temples, there are devotees, crores and crores of them but you will find most of them, almost all of them, they don’t make devotion the way it should work. Practicing devotion for ten years, twenty years, if the distance to God is not reduced, understanding of God is not gained, can you say the devotion has fulfilled its purpose? It is all because we refuse to think about God, think about devotion and how it can grow. So in our sastras you will find devotion is repeatedly explained, the benefits are extolled and at every time it is said, “This is how you have to grow, this is how you have to grow.” All these are very clearly mentioned. Either you open the book, read and understand or listen to some wise people who will explain it. Then I think everything should become changed.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
