Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

I don’t know how to bring this matter home to all of you. Our mind is the most important factor in our life. We get up because of our mind. We see, not because of the eyes alone, but because of the mind which makes the eye see. We eat, we sleep, everything is done because of the mind. Will you please understand this? So, mind is the foundation of our life, the superstructure of our life, everything is mind. It is in the mind level that we want all kind of improvement and benefit.

Yesterday somebody was asking me, “Swamiji, how to have vairāgya?” Vairāgya doesn’t come. The question is - have you tried for vairāgya? And what kind of an effort did you make? It is very good that you feel that you should have vairāgya. But if vairāgya you need, please remember that “I need vairāgya, I need vairāgya, I need vairāgya, I must have, I must have, I must have. Why is it that I am not having? What is this vairāgya? If I have vairāgya, what is the benefit? Is there any description anywhere about vairāgya - dispassion, and the benefits it will give?”

In this way, you should think quite much about vairāgya. This is what I call, spend fifty mind hours on vairāgya. The fifty mind hours, not all of a sudden or at one time but you have to repeatedly think about vairāgya.

How will you think about vairāgya? It is just like you learn your lessons in school and college and other places. When you were learning each lesson, how many times did you learn? Each letter, how many times did you write? Every word, how many times did you write before it became part of your life? When you grew old you did not have to write each word many times because the letters were written and your intelligence has grown. It is capable of remembering. But there is a practice, in the case of vairāgya also that practice should be done.

How to develop vairāgya? Reflect upon vairāgya. In Srimad Bhagavatam you will find there are many places where vairāgya, vairāgya is described, described, described, described. One important verse which I like very much from Srimad Bhagavata on vairāgya is…. Suka Maharishi says that the people who know sufficiently much about God, about the soul, about jnana, about liberation, they are called either scholars or knowers. Such people should feel so much of independence and sovereignty in them. They should never depend upon anybody. They should never go before the rich and start begging.

Suppose there is a person who reads Srimad Bhagavatam. He should read and recite it from his own heart to his own contentment for the satisfaction of the inner Lord. There should be no other consideration at all. He should not think about, before whom he is reciting or speaking. “What will people think? Can I say this?  Can I not say that?” This kind of a consideration should not be there.

And then he(Suka Muni) speaks a verse. It is a verse on the zenith and nectar of vairāgya.

You know I can recite this verse in the whole of my life. What does it say? kasmādbhajanti kavayo dhana-durmadāndhān. Kavayaha means, the wise people. Kasmād - For what reason? Dhana-durmadāndhān bhajanti, why are they going and standing at the doors of the rich people, expecting some reward to be given and whenever they read or recite, they try to dilute it and not present the scripture in its own manner? Why? Why? Why? What is the reason? And he is making a few propositions.

cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi diśanti bhikṣāṁ
naivāṅghripāḥ para-bhṛtaḥ sarito’pyaśuṣyan

What is it that you want? You want to move about wearing something on your waist to cover the private parts of your body? You want some clothes. Okay, go to the streets. Many people have thrown away torn pieces of cloth and they are lying strewn there. If you pick them, nobody will object and everybody will be happy because that much of garbage has gone away. So go to the streets, collect these torn pieces, stitch them and wear them. As long as there are people in this world, these torn pieces of refuse also will be there.

Cīrāṇi kiṁ pathi na santi - Are there not such pieces of cloth lying strewn, spread on the streets? Pick them up, stitch them and wear. That is sufficient for you.

Naivāṅghripāḥ para-bhṛtaḥ sarito’pyaśuṣyan, so far as eating is concerned, nature and God have produced trees and plants. They bear their fruit. None of the fruit is for the plant or tree itself. It is always meant to be plucked and eaten by the others. Maybe birds, animals, primarily human beings. They have not stopped bearing fruit and they don’t say, “Don’t come to me and pluck them.” They are bearing the fruits and offering them with open hands. “Come and take in any manner you like. I shall be happy. Even if you don’t take, I will drop it below. But before that, pluck, remove and make use of it.” This is what the trees and the plants are calling. So go, pluck whatever fruit you want, eat and fill your belly.

So far as water is concerned there are perennial rivers, they don’t dry up at all. In the rainy season as well as in the summer, there are rivers which flow. Maybe the flow is a little less in summer. It is natural. Sarito’pyaśuṣyan. Have the perennial rivers gone dry? Then why are you afraid? Go there. Step in. Step down, with your own hand collect water and drink as much as you want.

Ruddhā guhāḥ kimajito’vati nopasannān - And what about a residence for you, a hermitage for you if you want? He says, there are many caves naturally formed in the mountainous regions. Their mouth is never closed with a door. All the caves are open. Have they ever closed their doors? No! Ruddhā guhāḥ kimajito’vati nopasannān, go, deep inside, stay there. You will not be affected by heat or even cold. It is a very comfortable place. As long as the mouth of the caves is not closed, why are you worried about a residence? Forget everything.

Ajito’vati nopasannān, There is a great Lord, all protector, all invincible, ever ready, always kind. That unconquerable Lord, unsubdueable Lord, has he ever said that, “All of you come and take refuge under me. I am overloaded, overcrowded, my hands are full. So I will not be able to do.” Has he ever declared like that? No. Then why are you worried? Why do you go and beg before the rich? Read the sastras in your own manner, delight and rejoice in them.

What a great shloka is this? I have uttered this shloka to my heart’s content very well.

I think we should go on singing, singing, singing, singing, and when you sing for many, many hours vairāgya will no more be in the sky or around you. It will start trickling from within your own heart, from within your own head and you will start getting full, full, full.

Vairāgya, any other quality for that matter, virtue for that matter, is to be practiced. You have to install it in your mind. So, a mind effort is required to install these virtues in us. Alas nobody understands this, nobody tries this. That is my, my grief and torment. Everything can be cultivated. There is nothing uncultivable. But that effort should be there. It is not physical. It is mental. It is inward.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.