The body is the very root of Sadhana, fully
equipped to reach to Lord. He bestowed on us this form to enable us to rid
ourselves completely of our woes and all our burdens. If we waste this precious
legacy by becoming attached to sensual
pleasures and keep our mind on these worldly attractions instead of thinking of
Him, there is no greater folly and no greater loss to us. This is tantamount to
looking down on Divine grace and abusing the rare opportunity of human birth.What
is more painful than carelessly neglect this precious gem? If there is need for
repair we don’ t have to undertake it ourselves. We shall simply give notice to
its owner, the Lord, who gave it and sustains it. It is like a rented house,
good if it remains but no loss if it perishes. Because it is associated with the effulgent
Atma it is sentient. Thoughts of the body wither up love. We can only
experience the joys of love when we are forgetting the Ego.
If we are unable to bear the
initial strain and pressure and succumb to temptations in the process of
purification, and leave Him to proceed along the path of Maya, He feels sorely
mortified and disappointed. The path becomes more and more slippery and storms
when moving higher and higher towards the Lord. We must not lose our foothold
even though wave after wave may dash against us. With body, mind and soul we
should rely on Lord’s Name. So long as we rely on ourselves, believe in our own
abilities and power we are bound to be miserable. When sorrows and difficulties
come we should know that they come only after taking Lord’s permission. We
should regard them as His gifts and bear them patiently. Many a time have we
come to this world but for not worshipping the Lord were not able to put an end
to this coming and going. May we not forget Him also this time. The Name is like the sun, it drives away
the darkness of heaps of sins, and
awakens Prema in our hearts. The Shastras regard human life as more precious than any other life form as in
no other form has the soul this choice.
Once we see that only God prevails right
Sadhana begins. All activities should be turned into worship. We have to try to
keep our love for Him alive and aglow by making Him our closest, dearest,
constant companion in all thoughts, words and actions while we carry out
our responsibilities . Without forgetting oneself love does not come. Gradually
we will feel that we have no free will and power. Everything lies in the hand of the Lord, what is His
will only will happen .We should not be taken up with worldly pleasures and
sufferings and regard our wives and children as our own, thereby forgetting the
Lord who alone is our true friend at all times, in all conditions, and His Name
which is our only lasting resource. Name is the only resort we have. When
the Name is made our own the Lord Himself is our own. The Name itself will
show the right path. Nobody needs to be asked for help or guidance as Name is
the light in darkness.
If we withstand the sufferings involved in the
process the LORD will choose us as His instruments, He will gradually raise us
and make the normal laws of His creation inoperative in our case. Our Lord’s
special grace has been experienced by many in mysterious ways in which He maintains
invisible spiritual contact with each one of us and saves us just at the right
moment of danger. He takes our sins and miseries and gives in turn purity and
love. By touch, look or a few words He imparted Bhakti in many. The Lord’s
person is as glorious as His Name is
sweet. He is very merciful but loves to
play. After charming He hides Himself from time to time. When He remains hiding
we should not miss the goal, have full faith. Certainly we will receive His
grace, there is no doubt about that .He who sees that incomparable beauty loses himself.
He, who takes Name can never forget it. The charm of the Name is such that at its very
sound transient worldly happiness flies at a distance and individuals are
submerged in eternal spiritual happiness. Whoever takes His Name though
surrounded by constant difficulties will be gratified, so much result with so little effort has been
ordained for this Yuga. In this Kali Yuga there is nothing else, nothing
else. The real fruit of chanting the
Lord’s Name is the attainment of the highest goal, His unalloyed Prema. Let us always strive to be immersed in
love. The more we extend the circle of love the more will be the joy, the
narrower it is, the harder and more merciless and joyless we become. Prema is
much higher than ordinary devotion – it is the saturation of the heart. If the
mind is full of wealth, woman etc. Prema cannot find a place there. In the
Prema ocean myriads of venomous, deadly reptiles can be found like Kama, Krodha,
Lobha, Mada, Moha and Matsura and if its
waters are stirred with selfishness they will bite. If we play with Him this
false play will not attract us any longer. If true love awakens in the heart
God is no longer looked upon as God but as most intimate, as our very own. Not ‘I’ but ‘You’ should be the souls cry. Let
us always distinguish between Atma and Anatma. May we be aware day and night
that we are the Self. By constant awareness of this, day and night, until it
tingles in each drop of blood , we become it totally. One single idea should
prevail: I am never born, will never die, but am the blissful, all-knowing,
almighty, ever glorious Self.
The moment we return to Him He takes us into
His embrace, forgetting all our shortcomings. He knows so many ways of love,
has such diverse means of making us weep or smile. How greatly He suffers on
our account and how much He loves us. None knows how to fondle as He does. When
we get His endearments all burning
sensations will go .He is Rasamaya, full of Rasa.The moment we feel Him as our
dearest, closest His mysterious hand of love and mercy can be felt at every
step in our life.His grace is descending
always on us like a breeze but if we want advantage of it we must do spiritual
practices, just as a boatman must unfurl the sails before he can catch the
breeze. There is danger in delay. We should not fritter away our time in any
way. The doors against those who are deemed unfit to enter
are being fixed and closed one by one to the treasury which had no enclosure 500 years ago. Now is the play of causeless
mercy. Lord Haranath said “ I have come whether you called or not and I am
eager to play with you the play of holy Love.”
Bhaktas never care about keeping their
individuality or giving it up but surrender their will to God and allow Him to
make use of it in any way He likes. God expresses Himself through all their
deeds and thoughts. There is nothing like the nectar of constantly remembering
the blessed feet of the Lord. Bhakti is
incomparable and unalloyed bliss. We must live in His love which is the highest
meditation. No Tapas is equivalent to it. There is no greater wealth than pure
love. Lord Krishna said to Uddhava :”To a man who renounces all desires and
surrenders to me I shine in his heart as his very Self. The joy such a man
feels is something that no creature, bound by senses, can ever understand.
Misery, dissatisfaction and sin are all rooted in desire. The root of desire lies in attachment, and the root of attachment
in the sense of minenesss with reference
to the gross body and name. As long as we work with the attitude that we are
doing the work we cannot expect His grace, for the egoism comes in and the free
flow of divine grace is blocked. If
desire, attachment, mineness and self-love are renounced one gains peace. As
long as the mind continues to wander among worldly objects and stays away from God one can never know peace nor happiness.
Our daily thoughts should be all through God,
but how
can this be put into constant practice? Eat to Him, sleep to Him, see Him in
all. Then the whole soul pours out in a continuous flow to
Him, leaving no time to desire money, name or fame, nothing mundane. Then
comes to our heart that infinite wonderful
love of God. This is the kernel of Bhagavata Dharma as described in
Srimad Bhagavatam under the Chapter “The
Sermon of the Navayogis” which reads as follows:
Everything a man does while in his body – deeds,
words, thoughts, everything influenced by his past Karma – let him dedicate all
this, his life in its entirety, to the Lord, and make an offering of himself.
He who lives ever knowing that God is near him
can never commit any evil act or feel depressed
when he has to face any danger, loss etc. He ever feels himself diving,
swimming in the ocean of divine grace. All our weaknesses are destroyed.
Surrendering himself and his future in God’s hands he is entirely free from worry and is happy. So long as we
depend on our own exertions, on own
individual, independent power, we live under the spell of Ego, which does not
lead us to Him. Approach Him with all sincerity and open the heart to Him.
Stop looking to anybody else for help. Through constant immersion in the repetition of His sweet Name our minds
and hearts get purified, love and devotion increased. So long as the Ego
continues to function, God’s grace remains suspended. Instead of satisfying our
senses the object of our desire should be only to please the Lord. When this is the case lust is
transformed into love and will get purified. His grace demands complete
dependence, full submission and total surrender. The Lord is delighted when He
sees absolute disinterested love and devotion.
The outstanding marks which show that we are
making progress in Sadhana are: love for spiritual practice, want of tiredness
in Sadhana, reverence for great souls who sacrifice all self-interest, and
adamant faith in God. A servant of God is never sluggish, he remains always
busy in His service with constantly increasing zest and zeal. Whoever possesses
such marks moves with big steps forward in the spiritual field.
We can never imagine what an amount of care the
Lord is ever bestowing within the inanimate and animate beings of the world,
and how much He loves all. Manifested in all those forms He dwells in their
soul and
as inner controller.
15.5.2014
Ruth Baur
