Articles for Saadhana

As you know, we have been discussing the great text called the Śrīmad Bhagavad Gita.

It is true if we say Śrīmad Bhagavad Gita, otherwise Bhagavad Gita also is alright. Generally the word 'Srimad' is used for Bhāgavatam – Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, because there is another Bhāgavatam called Devī Bhāgavatam. Somehow that Bhāgavata thought came to my mind. That is why I described Bhagavad Gita also as Śrīmad Bhagavad Gita.

We have been discussing the Bhagavad Gita message for the past so many weeks here, during the special three month session that is going on in the ashram. Last night, I was discussing some of the important concluding verses of Bhagavad Gita. In the eighteenth chapter - altogether Gita consists of eighteen chapters and the concluding one is the eighteenth – and there too we have almost come to the end portion of the chapter. So the verses are very, very conclusive. It is worth contemplating upon, not only for hours, but for days and months.

I don’t know whether all of you have thought about it. When a child is born in the human society, it is actually an outward expression of the inward presence and power. Generally by Soul or Self, we refer to the power and presence that animate our body. It is very subtle, supra-material and supra-energial, so cannot be visible at all at any time. The birth of a being marks the outward expression of the so-called inward Soul. Ever since the body is born, all our activities, interactions, expressions and the others are outward. This outwardness is generally called worldliness or even secularness, you can say. Everything that we do is sensory, bodily, whether it is speech, sight, smell, hearing or any other sensation. It is all gross, solid, outward, visible and hence secular.

What is religion proposing to do? Religion proposes to bring about a diversion or withdrawal in this secular continuous involvement. So it has evolved some methods of worship and adoration, keeping God in front. And who is this God - somebody or something extremely distant and invisible. So, instead of asking people to stop their secular activity, religion gives them a counter occupation. Have a religious setting like an idol or a picture or a pooja room or a shrine. Use different materials like flowers, leaves, fruits and such other things. Chant some mantras, divine chants, and offer them in the name of the invisible God. So you have an activity no doubt, but the activity is a counter activity to take the mind away from secular thoughts and secular involvement. Religion progresses in this manner.

A person gradually becomes a devotee. He starts loving God, wants to be devoted to God always, but he finds that ever since he wakes up in the morning, he has only secular involvement, worldly involvement and occupation. So, there comes a crisis. How long can he be religiously involved? Maybe half-an-hour or one hour. But the day consists of 24 hours! Suppose you deduct the hours of sleep – 7 or 8, then 16 hours, of which half-an-hour of religious involvement will not make anything. Every day you occupy yourself religiously for half-an-hour and you occupy yourself secularly for the rest of the period. So when are you going to divinize yourself or feel a touch of divinity? So there comes a crisis! This crisis is sought to be resolved by spiritual and philosophical thinking and a change of the attitude in oneself.

Yesterday I was referring to an important verse – what is that?

सर्वकर्माण्यपि सदा कुर्वाणो मद्‍व्यपाश्रय: ।

मत्प्रसादादवाप्नोति शाश्वतं पदमव्ययम् ।।

sarva-karmāṇyapi sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ |

mat-prasādād-avāpnoti śāśvataṁ padam-avyayam ||

(Bhagavad Gita 18.56)

What does it mean?

Sarvakarmāṇyapi sadā kurvāṇo madvyapāśrayaḥ - Krishna says to Arjuna, sarvakarmāṇi, all karmas and activities, kurvāṇo, be doing; we are always doing all activities throughout the day. So where is something additional here? There is nothing additional. Go on doing all the activities throughout the day. The difference or addition is only in one point – mad-vyapāśrayaḥ, mad-vyapāśrayaḥ, relying upon me, resting upon me.

What does it mean? You are active bodily, sensorily, and otherwise in the world - maybe domestic activity, professional activity, societal activity, even religious activity, which is very small. Continue to do all these activities and interactions, but, but how? Mad-vyapāśrayaḥ - resting completely on God, relying upon Him, fixing yourself mentally and intellectually on God. So the only additional element is mad-vyapāśrayatva, mad-vyapāśrayatva. If you do so, Krishna says – mat-prasādāt-avāpnoti, by my blessing you will attain the supreme abode!

My dear souls! Listen to me very carefully! Unless you are sensitive and attentive you will not be able to gain the import of the message. Every activity, we are already doing. So, what is additional? Nothing! The additional element is only instilling into yourself - developing, preserving a new wholesome attitude of having your restfulness in God, dependence on God. So the Godly factor is introduced in the form of an attitudinal orientation - once you do that, then you will attain the Supreme Abode, He says!

If you adopt this attitude, do you know what will happen? The entire secular nature of life and activity will completely change and you will start feeling a sense of divinity, Godliness and wholesomeness throughout. Our body itself is a creation of the spirit. Without the mind, intelligence and ego, the body can never move at all. Though it is a gross movement in our activities, what really takes place is the inspiration and the instigation provided by the spirit. So, all activities, instead of being secular, worldly, material, gross and physical will suddenly – you will find - get transformed into a divine expression. This divine expression is accomplished not by a process of withdrawal, as many people seem to think, but on the other hand, by bringing about a wholesome change in the attitude with which you do all work. The activities are not tampered, they are not replaced - they are left to themselves. But from the inside - from the core of your personality, a new attitude is developed to envelope, cover and enfold all the activities.

If you are sensitive enough, you should understand how the process works. Initially everyone is made to take up an alternate called the religious activity. That alternate remains short-termed. It is very, very short every day so it will never achieve - it will never be able to gain our end. So remaining active and interactive, the secular feeling about activity is completely overcome. Mad-vyapāśrayatva, it is something like adding salt to every vegetable preparation that you make. The vegetables are there, but you add salt to everything. In the same manner here, you are adding a feeling of Godliness to every and all the activities you perform. If you start doing so, you will find the attitudinal orientation will go on increasing, deepening, rising, expanding, until at last, all the day’s activities get engulfed by divinity. This is the goal!

We start initially offering materials to God. In the place of materials, every activity is offered to God. Now nothing is offered. You only have a sense of dependence and reliance and restfulness on God, and the activities are allowed to be what they are!

This attitude becomes so powerful, so prominent, so pronounced, that everything in the whole of the day in the form of activity becomes completely spiritualized and divinized. This is the secret of spiritual life! You continue to live in the world. But worldliness gets dissolved in you. You remain active and inactive. But all the activities cease to be secular and everything becomes an expression of divinity.  Now the point before you is – are you perceptive enough, are you discreet enough, are you intelligent enough, are you persevering enough to understand this message? Imbibe it! Imbibe it in ample measure and display and manifest it throughout the day. You don’t have to go anywhere. Be where you are! And become divine … and divine … and divine! The sense of materiality should dissolve in its very source, and you must be able to feel and display divinity in its place.