D. SURE GUARANTEES OF SUCCESS
God’s grace and the guru’s blessings are in abundance, I assure you. What more is needed? Sincerity and self-effort. Unless there is a deep desire in you to be saved, to be uplifted, not all the gods of the Hindu pantheon or of any religion will be able to uplift you.
Therefore, you require mumukshutva. Unless you have this burning desire for liberation all the other spiritual qualities will be of no avail. You must have a tenacity of spirit, a doggedness, a do or die attitude that you will not compromise with the spiritual quality of your life, you will not budge one inch from the insistence on the total perfection of the spiritual quality of your thoughts, your emotions and sentiments and your actions—your being and doing day by day.
“About that there is no compromise. I stick to the ideal. I refuse to lower it even by a hair’s breadth. I live, move, breathe, eat, drink, sleep, think, feel, act only to attain the great liberation, only to regain my total Self-experience.” And such sincerity and self-effort does not mean absence of humility. When Arjuna declared: “I will act according to Thy word,” he first said, “ My delusion is gone through Thy grace, O Krishna.” So we acknowledge our perennial deep debt to God for His graciousness.
But God’s grace and the guru’s blessings must be completed by sincerity and self-effort—a sincerity that is always present, never absent, and a constant, unremitting and unceasing self-effort. With these two together, nothing on earth can prevent the seeker from attaining liberation. This is certain! This is the truth and the fact!
31. BE CLEAR ABOUT THE GOAL
Worshipful homage unto the Supreme Reality, the eternal, the unchanging, the ever-enduring sat, Existence, that which alone is the Reality!
The path that leads to the realisation of this Reality is the path that gives certainty to life, significance and meaning to existence; it endows one with strength, and then ultimately becomes the liberator from all error. It provides for the human individual soul a purpose, and purposefulness is the secret of strength; it is strength.
Certainty is strength. Certainty is a power that overcomes all that stands in the way. Uncertainty is weakness that lays one open to all the contrary pulls and pushes that abound everywhere in the phenomenon called life. Uncertainty is like a traveller moving through a jungle unarmed and unprotected or a soldier on a battlefield without his arms.
Certainty endows one with a sense of purpose and a sense of overcoming. It is the strength of a seeker who knows what is to be attained. Because, when the goal is clear, when the path is visible and known, and the direction is definite, then life becomes a powerful movement forward towards the goal. Therefore, it is necessary that we know what we are striving for, that we know what we are seeking and that we have a definite plan and purpose.
There should be no delusion. There should be no confusion. There should be clarity of thought. The Upanishads give us an analogy that Vedantins oft meditate upon and that jijnasus oft contemplate: pranavo dhanuh saro hi atma brahma tallakshyam uchyate apramattena veddhavyam saravat tanmayo bhavet (Om is the bow. The individual self is the arrow. Brahman is the target. The target is to be hit by great vigilance. Then alone shall one merge into Brahman, even as an arrow enters into a target).
The key word here is apramatta (careful, watchful, vigilant). A person who has no delusions—who has no confusion, who is very clear and definite about what he has made up his mind to reach—has no lack of clarity; he has no uncertainty; there is not the least doubt in his mind. He is sure. He has chosen after great thought; so, there is no hesitation. There is a total integration of all his being towards that self-chosen goal. Every bhakta, every jijnasu, every yogi, every Vedantin, every sadhaka has to be apramatta. He has to attain that state where there is no doubt left.
The verse says that you yourself are the arrow. You have to speed straight, unerringly towards the target that you have set for yourself, moving in that one, unified, single direction towards the Goal Supreme, towards that divine destiny that you have known to be the one and only thing that imparts meaning to life, that makes life worthwhile, that gives significance to life. Having no more doubt about the destination to be reached, you make yourself like unto an arrow that speeds straight towards the target.
And what is it that impels you? What is it that impels an arrow forward? It is the bow, and what is that bow that impels you, that gives force? It is none other than that one mystical symbol, the pranava, Om. Om signifies or betokens an alert state of inner spiritual wakefulness, an ever-awake spirituality. Whether the body is in its wakeful condition, dream or deep sleep, you are ever awake spiritually. For you there is no sleep; you are alert, ever awake.
And it is this ever-awake condition of spiritual awareness that will guarantee the straight, onward flight of the arrow, meaning yourself, towards your target which is Brahman, God-experience, Self-realisation, illumination, bliss beyond all sorrow. That is the target, the objective, and you have to reach that, enter into and become one with that supreme target.
That is possible only if there is no uncertainty, no vacillation, no confusion, no hesitation: “I have known what it is that I aspire after, long for, wish for in this my life. Having pondered it well, weighed the pros and cons, deeply reflected, and having seen what this world is, known its hollowness, its absolute pettiness, its purely evanescent nature where everything is transitory and subject to decay and dissolution, I have turned away, I have now known what there is to be attained.
“Having known that in this pettiness and nothingness there is no great significance, except that in and through this wilderness I can attain that state of everlasting light and blessedness, I gather together all my energies, all my potential, my entire life, and readily, willingly, gladly, with great enthusiasm, zest and zeal I dedicate myself for this great attainment.
“This is what I am. That is what my life constitutes— the flight of this sharp arrow, speeding from the bow towards the target. That is what my life is; that is how I conceive it. I clearly see my life to be this speeding arrow going unerringly in the direction of the Supreme Goal, which is nothing less than Brahmanhood, God-experience.”
Thus clearly knowing oneself and knowing what one’s life is, one should speed on towards that great Goal. That is the essence of the moment by moment, day-to-day life of the true seeker, the classic yogi. He is ever intent upon this achievement. And everything has meaning for such a being only with reference to this great quest and attainment. If it is not relevant to that great attainment, then that thing ceases to have any place in the true seeker’s life.
This is the life triumphant. This is an effective life. This is a life where uncertainty is minimal and purposefulness is maximum. Such a life alone is a life that makes one thrive and gives joy, satisfaction and great inspiration!
This needs to be considered in relation to one’s life. Does my life have a definite purposefulness, a clear-cut goal? Have I set my direction? Have I adopted a set of principles that will help me move in this direction? And finally, have I an ideal which inherently contains within itself all these three?
32. DEVELOPING A LONGING FOR GOD
Worshipful homage unto the omnipresent Divine from whom we are never apart, in whom we dwell and who dwells within us as the very life of our life, the eye of our eye, the ear of our ear, the breath of our breath, the prana of our prana, the mind of our mind, the very heart of our heart, the innermost essence of our being!
“Eko devah sarvabhuteshu gudhah...” “Isvarah sarvabhutanam hriddese’rjuna tishthati...” —The Supreme Spirit is hidden in all beings. The Lord, Isvara, dwells in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna. Thus, variously, the scriptures again and again bring to our attention this truth, this fact, that we are never apart from, we are never in any way remote, distant or disconnected from, the Being whom we are seeking, the Being whom we refer to as the parama lakshya, highest goal, of human existence.
When we say parama, highest or supreme, we always think of it as something beyond, something distant or remote, something that requires a long journey to reach. We always think in terms of a long process, but they point out to us that it is an inner journey. We do not have to cover distances. We only have to remove obstacles—formidable obstacles within ourselves—the greatest obstacle being ourselves. And, metaphysically speaking, the lesser obstacles are certain factors within our own personality that are contrary to the Divine Reality, which, therefore, veil It. They stand in the way, they obscure It; they obstruct our perception of It, our experience of It.
Also, the inveterate tendency of our psychological self is to always move away from the inner centre and move outside to external objects, propelled by the desire for the possession and enjoyment of external things. It is the tendency of the mind to imagine that happiness, peace and the fulfilment of our lives lies in striving for, possessing and experiencing external things, and thus it moves outward in the wrong direction due to this wrong notion. Therefore, the most familiar, the most intimate appears to be remote. Not that it is, but we make it so.
To alter these outgoing tendencies—this deluded thinking of the mind that our happiness is in worldly possessions, contacts, and experiences—becomes an indispensable part of our sadhana. And it is an extraordinary quality of this delusion that it doesn’t allow the deluded being to perceive that he is deluded. On the contrary, he will argue and fight and try to convince others that he is perfectly clear, rational and logical.
So, all the world is in the grip of this delusion that does not permit them to know their delusion; on the contrary, makes them convinced that they are right and that those who do not think like them are deluded. Thus it is that this bhranti, this delusion, being created by maya makes the being move in a direction contrary to his ultimate goal which is within. It is through satsanga and svadhyaya that this delusion is removed and ignorance is replaced by right understanding and knowledge. That marks the turning of our direction towards God.
We must come to the conviction, the continuous, unalterable conviction that God is present right here, nearest to me as my innermost being. God lives within me; we are never apart. And the next conviction is to know that this Being is the only source of true happiness, peace and satisfaction. There is no other source.
The third conviction is that this Being, who is ultimately the only source of true happiness, is, therefore, the highest value in life. There is nothing greater, nothing more valuable, nothing more important.
If we make seeking Him our most important task in life, if we develop for Him a great longing, a great desire and an overwhelming yearning: “In this life, before I pass away, I must attain God, I must experience that Supreme Being, I must,” if our whole being becomes filled with this urge, then there is absolutely no doubt, it is absolutely certain, that in this very life, in and through this very body, God will be experienced. There is no room for doubt or despair.
No matter how deluded the world outside may be, no matter how chaotic and absurd, no matter how outrageously human society in this world may be acting, it does not matter if your interior is all right. And it is in the firm conviction of God’s existence and in His most intimate and nearest presence, plus a great conviction that He is the one and only supreme value, the one and only thing worth attaining that you develop within you a great longing to attain and experience God; in fact you become of the nature of God.
Then you may be absolutely certain that nothing can deprive you of that experience. It may be a question of a little sooner or later, but the experience is certain. There is no doubt about it.
Let us, therefore, adore the Supreme by acknowledging His immediate, indwelling presence and by telling Him: “Thou art my all in all. Thou art everything for me. Thy attainment is my life’s only desire.”
Worshipful homage unto the eternal, infinite, all-pervading, supreme, non-dual Reality, the one alone that exists and whose existence manifests as existence in all things that exist.
The ocean exists. Therefore, waves exist. If there were no ocean, there would be no waves. The central orb of the solar radiance exists, and billions of rays radiate in all directions. If the sun did not exist, there would be no light. There would not be one single ray in this universe of ours. Even so, the existence of all things that exist cannot be separated, cannot even be conceived of, as distinct and separate from the one, ultimate, supreme, non-dual source of all existence, that which is Existence Absolute, sat.
Thus, all existence owes its existence to that supreme sat, to that Supreme Being, to that One alone that exists eternally, beginninglessly, endlessly. To that Supreme Existence which is the beginning, middle and end, the alpha and omega of all that exists, our worshipful homage!
Loving adorations to the spiritual presence of worshipful and beloved Holy Master Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji, who thought it fit to impart such insights to sincere seeking souls, to sadhakas with jijnasa (the desire to know), to sadhakas with grahanasilata, the willingness and readiness to receive. For this is essential: the willingness to approach, the willingness to ask for knowledge, and the willingness to receive.
Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. So, this is the condition preceding any achievement. There should be eagerness to receive. There should be desire to know. There should be willingness to fulfil all conditions, so that it may be bestowed and so that it may be received. This is the essence of the quest and its successful, fruitful culmination—a continuous eagerness to obtain, and a great willingness to fulfil the conditions so that it may be bestowed. Plus, the patience to work for it and to bide one’s time.
Therefore a sadhaka is called a jijnasu; he has a keen desire for knowledge. There should be this thirst; there should be this longing. There should be this continuous, keen eagerness to know and to proceed towards the state of illumination, of enlightenment. In other words, to go on fulfilling all the minimal conditions that are essential for being a ripe receptacle. They say that you must be an adhikari, you must be a deserving one.
And if one is to keep up this longing, this keenness, this eagerness, one must have sustained enthusiasm. If you allow your interest to flag, enthusiasm will wane, and you will be in danger. Otherwise, where there is this keen enthusiasm and there is keen interest and eagerness, that itself is an armour, that itself is a power generator that can confront anything, overcome anything, ward off anything.
Therefore it is that a genuine, authentic positivism is an indispensable requisite of successful spiritual striving and ultimate attainment—a keen positivism that looks at the positive aspects of things and exults that God has been so gracious, that rejoicingly moves forward with enthusiasm, with interest, with eagerness, longing for nothing else, wishing for nothing else, caring for nothing else, and paying attention to nothing else but this central quest.
This indeed is the sure guarantor, that which ensures the successful culmination of the spiritual quest, the successful fruition of spiritual sadhana, the successful attainment of enlightenment and illumination. Be this so in the life of each and everyone of you!
34. TODAY MOVE ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
What one ardently aspires after, what one has one’s heart and mind set upon, and for achieving which one lives, breathes, strives, thinks and feels—if thus one’s entire life means a calm but a firm and determined movement towards the supreme goal that one wants to achieve; if the attainment of that goal is the paramount value in life; if, more than anything else, the entire love of one’s heart is set upon that goal; if day and night one’s mind is ever engaged in finding ways and means of drawing nearer and nearer to that goal—then nothing in this world can stop us from moving towards that goal and ultimately reaching it, provided that while we are moving in that direction, we are always vigilant and careful to see that no part of us moves in a contrary direction.
There is a very descriptive expression in the English language: “back to square one.” It comes from a game, and means that after having made a lot of effort and progress, if you suddenly make a wrong move, then you find yourself right back at the beginning—back to square one.
In several mountain areas of India, the means of transportation is by a very narrow gauge railway. And the interesting feature about this railway is that on the steep inclines there is a third rail between the normal ones which is notched with a series of teeth—cogs. Each car also has a third wheel with similar cogs. On steep inclines, where the train might slip backwards, the third wheel is let down in order to catch hold of and grip the central rail. It is designed to prevent any possibility of the train backsliding.
Now you have a clear idea of what you must do. Not only should you strive to move towards the Goal, but, simultaneously, you must also have a mechanism within your own psyche. It should be a device wisely formulated by you through your own wisdom, common sense and intelligence, by drawing guidance from all sources of wisdom such as svadhyaya, satsanga and listening to elders, through reflection, discrimination and enquiry. You make a device so that as you are progressing and moving towards the Goal, you ensure that there is no possibility of sliding back, what to say of back to square one. Back to square one is eliminated altogether. It is impossible. On the contrary, you ensure yourself against even a little reversal, a little backsliding.
It should all be onward, upward, goalward, Godward, with no possibility of deviation, no possibility of derailment, no possibility of slipping down even one little bit. That is why the Lord said that together with abhyasa (practice) you must keep on developing and increasing vairagya (dispassion). Abhyasa should get valiant, effective and powerful support from vairagya: “I will see to it that I am on guard, awake, alert, vigilant and dynamically engaged in seeing that the movement is ever in one direction only and not in a contrary direction.”
This is the fruit of effort. This is the fruit of ardent yearning, strong longing and a very great sustained enthusiasm and determination that thus my life shall be and not otherwise. It seems to be a great task. It is a great task, yet it is not a great task. You can reduce it to a simple, possible and not very difficult task. How?
God in His great wisdom, love and compassion has so made it that your life, this long journey towards immortality and divine perfection, is rationed out to you only in tiny sections of little, individual days. Each section is a very limited time period relieved by periods of restfulness, recuperation and renewal. You are only required to attend to one section at a time, not all of life at once.
Therefore, you only contend with one day at a time. You make up your mind: “Today is going to be a divine day. Today is going to be a God-oriented movement. Today is going to be a day in which I’m going to be a perfect replica of God who is my Father, in whose image I am made. He is divine, and so am I. Divinity will infill every moment of this day. This day—that is sufficient. I will attend to making this day a perfect day. I’ll attempt, by every means possible, to make this day a grand symphony.
“I will attempt this with all my sincerity, with all my honesty, with all my earnestness and with all the powers of my being. I will revel in it. I will rejoice in it, I will exult in trying to make this day a thing of beauty and joy for all—within a joy for me, without a joy for others—for it will bring out all that is auspicious, blessed, bright, beautiful, divine.” Thus bring to bear your entire powers, all your sincerity, all your earnestness and all your enthusiasm. That’s all you’re required to do.
It is not to think of spiritual life in terms of whole years or long periods, of a great struggle or a big journey. Nothing, nothing, nothing! You are only expected to attend to the day that has dawned and that is in your hands. Look to it, make it perfectly spiritual, sublime, noble! Then you have a golden key to success in a simple, easy, nevertheless, unfailing, effective way.
This is the secret. This is within the possibility of everyone. Strive with all your might just for this one day—the gift of God, today. God bless you in this effort!
35. HOW GURUDEV BECAME WHAT HE WAS
Gurudev was an extraordinary combination of selflessness, service, devotion, divine love, prayer and worship; an extraordinary combination of discipline, self-control, conquest of the mind, concentration and deep meditation. He was also an expert hatha yogi, a great tapasvi and a singer of the Divine Name. Combining all methods, he shone as a bhakta, a jnani, a super karma yogi and as one who had mastered his mind—a raja yogi. How did this happen? What did he do?
He was like any other person. He was educated in English medium schools, studied medicine, plied his profession in Malaysia, had a progressive, successful career. What is it that he did that made him a world figure, and today we are reaping the benefits of his achievements, his strenuous practice of the spiritual life, his deep meditation, his realisation? Hundreds and thousands throughout India and the world over have been the beneficiaries of his life and his teachings.
What is it that he did? He was given something by God, and he put it to the best of use. He carefully cultivated it. In the thirteenth chapter of the Gita, Lord Krishna makes a significant statement to Arjuna: “This body is known as the field.” A field is a place, an area, which has a potential to produce, to bring forth, to give you a certain harvest. If you labour, if you do the needful to arouse this potential, to activate its ability to produce, then it will bring forth many useful things.
By what means does a person with a certain area of land arouse its potential, make it capable of producing? If it is left as it is, if it is denied water and care, it will produce nothing, even if it has been sown with seeds likely to produce a rich harvest. They will simply dry up. But if water is applied to the field a miracle happens. It not only activates the potential of the field to produce, but it does the same to the seed, the other factor that is involved.
This means that we have to have a deep desire, subheccha, to put whatever we have been granted to the highest use, to do all that is necessary—unreservedly, without hesitation, without laziness or lethargy—to labour hard, to provide it with that triggering factor, and to do all that is necessary to bring out what it is capable of bringing out. And this body, this human personality is a field capable of producing a rich golden harvest provided we diligently work upon it and put to the highest and best use whatever it has received.
This should be our objective. But then, we must be fully aware of one significant fact about this field which our body, mind, intellect and personality constitute and that is that it is neutral, it is amoral. It is neither good nor bad, neither daivic nor asuric. It is there. It has potential to produce. What this potential for producing will give you depends upon what you put into it, how you utilise it, the way in which you deal with it, the way you activate it. It is like your echo. Whatever you call out, good or bad, comes back to you. Whatever you create is what you have.
The field is there to produce and give you whatever you work for. You are the captain of the ship of your life. You are the master of your fate. You are the creator of your destiny. In the present, you create the quality of your future. What are you presently engaged in? What is the quality of your secret thoughts, seemingly unknown, but known to the Being who indwells you? He knows what you yourself do not know.
Your future, your destiny, what you produce for yourself and others, depends upon the quality of your hidden thoughts—hidden from men but not from God—your various sentiments and motivations and the various attitudes you cultivate towards the world and the things and beings that are in the world around you. These are the prolific creators of your now and your tomorrow. They can make you happy or miserable. They can create within you light or darkness, heaven or hell. For the field is there to give you whatever you produce out of it, depending upon the way that you deal with it.
Therefore, be wise. Be aware of this fact. Beware of its misuse. Put it to the highest use. Be your own greatest benefactor. May your right labours, in the right direction, with the right intention and the right objective be your own greatest benediction, your own greatest blessing.
Out of this, may immense good come to everyone with whom your life has to be lived, and may immense glory, bliss, peace and illumination accrue to you in the days ahead. Think deeply. Decide. How will you work? In what way will you labour? What will you bring forth from this field that God has given you? This the field cannot decide. It is the one that labours there that has to decide.
If you make the right use of this field of the human personality—the body as well as the psyche—for the good of all, the happiness of all, and for your own highest, supreme blessedness, then there is no power on earth that can deny you what is due to you, that can prevent you from getting what you have worked for.
36. DO YOU HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY?
The life of the Spirit, the life of sadhana, the life of laying by eternal treasures as distinct from perishable trifles, was brought home with full force and significance by the admonition of Jesus, the divine teacher of the Middle East, in the form of a query: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his spiritual life?” This was one of the great questions put before global mankind for all times. It places before each human individual a criterion to measure things, a measuring rod.
Similarly, Adi Sankaracharya in a very descriptive manner brings out more or less the same truth in the last line of each verse of his Guru Paduka Stotra: “You may have the wealth of the whole world, everything that can ever be desired, but of what use is it if your entire mind and heart is not totally absorbed in God and in following your spiritual teacher?”
This, indeed, is something that one should seriously consider. What are we engaged in? Are we engaged in laying by eternal treasures, or are we engaged in gathering trifles as life hurries past like a fast flowing river? Gurudev put it in his way: “Life is short, time is fleeting.” With each incoming and outgoing breath, the allotted life span of each jivatman’s residence in this earthly body is fast being depleted.
Therefore, the Upanishadic call: uttishthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata (Arise, awake, having reached the wise become enlightened). This call should be ringing in the ear of every true aspiring soul, every real seeker, every sadhaka worth the name of sadhaka. Then alone some achievement is possible—not in indifference, not in pramada (heedlessness).
Admonitions are not lacking. Saints, sages, siddhas, mahapurushas, scriptures, srutis, smritis, puranas all sound this call. They all give this caution; they all warn us: Before you know it, time will fly away. “Dinamapi rajani sayam pratah sisiravasantau punarayatah; kalah kridati gacchatyayus tadapi na munchatyasavayuh (Day and night, morning and evening, autumn and spring, come and go again and again. While time plays, our life ebbs away. Yet, alas, the wind of man’s vain desires does not cease but continues to blow unsatiated).” Every day this sloka must be sounding again and again in your heart.
Many years ago, to make us understand with what keenness, with what great sense of urgency one should engage in practical spiritual life, Gurudev wrote: “When your house is on fire, how courageously, how daringly, without caring for anything, you will plunge into the house and rescue that which is precious.” And here what you have to rescue is your own nija svarupa (true nature) from the clutches of desire and maya.
These great teachings should not go to waste. Are they all to be cries in the wilderness? Are they to be in vain? They will all be in vain if our mind is only intent upon petty sense pleasures. In his Gitanjali, Rabindranath Tagore compares this to children playing upon the shores of the sea of life, gathering shells, building sandcastles, and never thinking of the i