Correspondence
Exclusiveness Must Grow From Within
18 December 1994
Dear Gurudev,
Namaskaram. It is rather unfortunate that I could not meet you before your departure from the city. The problems in the office and the house are in an aggravated state. No doubt, Gurudev is the only companion during one’s spiritual journey towards the Eternal Abode, but I do not know why nothing is happening to support me steadily on the spiritual path. I am wondering whether it is my weakness or the lack of blessing of my Gurudev.
The problem now I am facing is about finding a suitable accommodation and my lack of monetary resources to support the family members according to their concept of comfortable living. In the office too, the situation is not al all comfortable.
The only solution lies in ‘ADOPTION OF THIS BHAKTA’ for ‘EXCLUSIVE BHAKTI LIVING’ and a strong monetary support to look after the family. Can’t it be made to materialize, my Gurudev, by your strong blessing or Sankalpa? There is no alternative. I can only pray and beg of you to do the needful physically, mentally and spiritually at the earliest so that I don’t get drowned in the whirlpool of Karma.
Am I wrong in demanding the ‘Prasada’ for adoption to exclusive bhakti with a suitable infrastructure? This prayer can be fulfilled only by you, mystically. But I am not sure how much I am dear to you or close to you to have this blessing.
I am writing all these out of great love for you and great confidence on your spiritual might to thrash my prarabdha, which is playing all this tricky game to destabilize my spiritual confidence. I am sure, the time has come for blossoming of the “Exclusive devotional adoption living” through the Grace of my Guru.
With a sobbing heart,
Yours in eternal love,
_____________________________________________________________________
29th December 1994
Dear and blessed –
Harih Om Tat Sat. You have been raising this point of exclusive devotional life, and on that ground wanting a new lifestyle and life-situation so that such an exclusive pursuit will be possible. There is a clear conflict and confusion in your thinking. As long as the conflict is there, neither will the mind be peaceful nor the sadhana can progress. Remove the conflict by reflecting and introspecting properly.
It is the sadhaka who makes a sadhana of his life. Are you a sadhaka, and if so, should you not make a sadhana of your life wherever you are and whatever you do? Life becomes an exclusive pursuit only when the sense of exclusiveness grows in the mind and becomes wholesome. To enable such a growth, proper introspection and the correction as well as sublimity it will bring about, alone are needed and will help. Why not do this well?
Arjuna felt that the war being fought for winning kingdom was wrong and sinful. He wanted to leave the war-field and become a renunciate. Krishna advised him about the right insight and perception. Arjuna assimilated the truth and the whole attitude changed. The external situation prevailed with the same features but the mind’s vision got transformed drastically. What had been a conflict became harmonious. To strike harmony in any situation is spiritual wisdom and sadhana.
Sudhama was in stark poverty; Susheela felt the pressure all the more. But they also felt that their minds, given exclusively to the love for the Lord, should not feel disturbed by poverty. The deeper introspection made them purer and life continued with more devotional growth and excellence. And came at last the riches also, to wherever they were.
Dear -, remove the basic conflict. You are a devotee. Your devotion should and will sustain you wherever you are and will be. A new place or a new situation is not going to make your devotion wholesome. Exclusive devotion is a growth and fullness of your mind and heart. To make the mind so, you need only mind-orientation. That stage is no more there for you, when you needed external factors to shape your devotion.
You need more sublimity, purity and a sense of dis-identification. Your body was born not because you wished for it. All the wishes and needs began to work only after the body was born. Let nature, which brought forth the entire course also lead it. Dis-identify yourself from it. Be egoless and free. In that freedom, the sense of impersonality and everything else also will take place. But do not expect that a magic will follow and then you will try to become impersonal. This is a crucial note and caution.
Your thoughts on what would be best for you are not proper. Pursue instead the path of straightforwardness and reconcile with whatever you have. Think that a change in the life situation will take place only when it is called for in the impartial judgement of the Impersonal Providence. That will deepen your austerity and make you deserve the progress more and naturally.
Even now, after so many years, you still speak of corrupt people to be approached corruptly, facts to be presented in a mis-factual manner, etc. Know for certain that a seeker’s direction or standpoint is far different: Arjava or straightforwardness must replace everything.
When Janaka asked Sage Ashtavakra about how jnana is to be sought, vairagya is to be earned and freedom is to be realized, the Sage replied:
“Should you be desirous of moksha, O son, shun the objects like poison. And take to patience, straightforwardness, compassion, contentment and truth, like nectar.”
Leave the external things- the fondness for them. Grow fondness for the qualities of the mind and heart. Begin a new note. Let it grow into exclusiveness. Whatever be your external situation- sufficiency or insufficiency – try to feel fullness of heart with all that. This alone is sadhana. And very day and minute of your life offers scope for this.
Love and ashirwad,
Yours
Swamiji
An excerpt from Vicharasetu – March 1995