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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.
We are still discussing about the qualifications, characteristics, traits or pre-requisites for seeking the supreme truth.
To seek and know the supreme truth is to have an infinitely glorious gain, this you should understand. I always tell people, particularly the devotees, that our mind is the greatest treasure that you can think of. There are so many devotees who are very devoted to God. In spite of their seeming and professed devotion, they are not able to have a mind, a devotion that becomes a treasure. Devotion enriches the mind, empowers the mind, elevates, enlightens, expands the mind! There is nothing which can fill the mind so much as can devotion. But unfortunately, the devotees are not able to make devotion a treasure!
Everyone in this world, if at all has made money or riches; it has only been on two accounts. One - by farming on the earth; secondly - by harnessing, utilizing, extracting mineral salts, so many different types of ores etc. from the earth, converting them into different types of goods and then marketing them. And they get the money from the public, you should understand, the consumers.
What do I mean by that? All the riches, including the currency notes and coins; all have come from earth as products. So earth gives them all the riches. So the source of riches is the earth and this earth has been produced by God! So you tell me who or what is this God? According to me, he is the richest source in the world!
To think of God – by saying rich I don’t mean mere money, all kinds of resources proceed from God and he is a repository of all this. So to rely upon God, will be to become immensely resourceful! Will not a son of a rich man be equally rich? In the same manner, if you are a devotee, it makes you a son or a daughter of God and being so you are as Godly as God is!
In this way if you start filling the mind with beautiful divine thoughts, will you not find that the devotion is a great treasure? We are not able to make it a treasure - that is where I feel very, very sorry for. I see a number of devotees, but they are not able to make devotion a treasure, a wish yielding tree, a kamadhenu. Coming to the point of discussion that we are having – we spoke about
śama, dama, titikṣā, uparati, śraddhā, and samādhāna. Now I will go back to mumukṣutva –the aspirationfor liberation.
Liberation is an inevitable factor, so far as your life in this world is concerned. If you want to live here freely, joyously, comfortably, with confidence, ready to assimilate any impact that the world gives you, equally ready to generate any extent of output necessary for performing in any field and achieving the maximum; you must have a sense of freedom. Your mind should not be a narrow one; it should be a broad one. Instead of having a well dimensional mind, you must have a lake dimensional mind. From there you go into the oceanal mind and finally end up with a spatial mind and it is absolutely possible.
Everything starts from this freedom. Desire is a constriction, fear is a constriction, hatred or dislike is a constriction. Let the mind be free from all this constrictions. Then your performance, though within the 24 hours and with two hands, you will find the performance will become far greater, more effective, facile, and fulfilling!
Shankara puts in this way
मन्दमध्यमरूपाणि वैराग्येण शमादिना ।
प्रसादेन गुरोः सेयं प्रवृद्धा सूयते फलम् ।।
mandamadhyama rūpāpi vairāgyeṇaśamādinā |
prasādena guroḥ seyaṁ pravṛddhā sūyate phalaṁ||
Vivekachoodamani 28
Generally people do not have a yearning for this wonderful freedom inside. Maybe some people have it in a low degree. Some people have it in a mediocre measure. Some have burning aspiration. Suppose it is of a mediocre or even a low level, Shankara says;
mandamadhyama rūpāpi –You can enhance and empower it. By what?
vairāgyeṇa śamādinā – You can increase the impact for this aspiration for freedom, making the mindfree. In what manner? By generating more and more of dispassion; the strength of dispassion.
Śamādinā - By understanding that desire free mind will perform better than the desire onstrictedmind. Then above and beyond all, he says;
prasādena guroḥ seyaṁ-The aspiration for liberation will become more and more enhanced, more and more powerful, more deep, more profound, more magnificent, more resourceful, so to say – provided you have the blessing and the benediction of the guru.
So in the matter of spiritual life and seeking, guru bhakti becomes the only denominator on which the seeker’s welfare, progress, fulfillment, creativeness, effectiveness, and achievement depend. To have the loving care from a guru, from a satpurusha, a mahapurusha; to have un-declining reliance on him; this is something very, very rare.
Shankara again puts it in this manner;
मनुष्यत्वं मुमुक्षत्वं महापुरुषसंश्रयः ।।
manuṣyatvaṁ mumukṣutvaṁ mahāpuruṣasaṁśrayaḥ
Vivekachoodamani 3
Three things are rare in this world……
दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतद्येवानुग्रहहेतुकम्
durlabhaṁ trayamevaitaddevānugrahahetukam
Only by the blessing of God these three can be had, what are they?
manuṣyatvaṁ–to be born a human being.
mumukṣutvaṁ–to have an aspiration to become invariably free, the joy of ecstatic freedom.
Thirdly ,
mahāpuruṣasaṁśrayaḥ–depending upon, relying upon, having available before you, a mahatama, amahapurusha, on whose words, on whose association, on whose loving care, concern and blessing, you can always bank upon.
Now these three are very rare. So, what did I say? mumukṣutva is the important factor even if it is on a low key or a mediocre level. By śama and dispassion, moreover, the most important factor, the blessing, benediction and guidance of a guru. This will grow tremendously and bear fruit.
वैराग्येण शमादिना प्रसादेन गुरोः सेयं प्रवृद्धा सुयते फलम्
vairāgyeṇa śamādinā prasādena guroḥ seyaṁ pravṛddhā sūyate phalaṁ - So, the guru bhakti - being able to see him, understand him, before you somebody is there, who represents this spiritual wisdom and fulfillment. So to have an insight into the whole subject, by virtue of your proximity to the guru, you can ask him any questions, make him talk to you in any manner, put anything before him; he will lovingly answer you. Now, that kind of a confirmation and a resourceful training, it is very, very rare. By that your mumukṣutva will increase many fold and bear the fruit.
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