D. DEVOTION, FAITH, SURRENDER
Truth alone can liberate us. Falsehood cannot liberate us. Deluded thinking is a trap. Mind is the seat of delusion. Mind is the seat of erroneous thinking. We do not realise it, but it is so. Mind is, therefore, the main barrier between you and He who is nearer to you than your nearest, the indwelling Reality, God. Therefore, with humility and simplicity we must approach God in true faith, in absolute trust, setting aside contrary notions that are created by the mind which is maya.
Yesterday, an elderly lady approached me and said, “Over forty years ago your Master promised me that I would certainly attain Self-knowledge, atma-jnana. For forty years I have been striving. Why have I not yet attained?”
It is in this context that I share with you this vital factor, this vital inner state, this one vital condition that one might call undivided love. I answered the person: “Yes, it is true that you have been striving for forty years, but at the same time you have also been striving for many other things.
If it had been atma-jnana only for which you had been striving—that being the only desire, only wish, only yearning of your entire being, the longing of your heart, that being the only aspiration of your entire life, and you had directed all your love towards that attainment—who knows, by this time you would not be putting this question to me.”
Then I asked: “Did Holy Master say when you would attain?” She said, “No.” I said: “Lord Krishna said: ‘ bahu-nam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate (At the end of many births the wise man takes refuge in Me).’ When your preoccupations and occupations are many, then you have to bide your time. Self-knowledge has been one of your loves, but in addition you had your children, your husband, your home, your possessions, your social life and your own personal life where many things were important to you.”
So, the progress of the spiritual life, its evolution, is a gradual diminishing of diversities in our interests and occupations and a progressive focussing on that one ultimate self-chosen goal of our life. We have to carefully test our lives and see whether this process is taking place—a gradual narrowing down of the area of our desires, aspirations, activities and occupations.
In the beginning, it is many, it is diverse and the field is large. And as sadhana, spiritual life, proceeds, it tends to become lesser and lesser. But even that is not enough. The ultimate aim, the desideratum, is to arrive at a stage when there is a total unification of the entire being upon the one non-dual aim, object, goal of all aspirations. When that comes, it heralds a new day.
This is the teaching put before us by all the saints and sages. In the Gita it is referred to as ananya bhakti ( ananya—where there is no other). When Jesus was asked: “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” He replied: “The Lord our God is one, and you shall love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” And Lord Krishna said: “tam eva saranam gaccha sarvabhavena bharata (Seek refuge in Him with all your being, O Arjuna).”
So, in various ways the scriptures point us towards undivided love. For it is said that where the love of your heart is, there your mind is. And where your mind is, towards that you will inexorably move. That is the law. Where the heart and mind are, that is the direction your life takes.
And, for overcoming all the distractions of the mind, the restless wanderings of the mind, the one thing needful is undivided love. Even in ordinary life, when you like something, when your heart is centred on it, then you spontaneously engage in it, you are drawn towards it and absorbed in it. Even the passing of time is not felt. Where there is this liking, this love, everything becomes natural, spontaneous, easy, effortless. There is no struggle.
Have you got the same liking for brahma-jnana? Have you got the same taste for sadhana, for the Divine Name, for ultimate illumination? Have you got the same keen interest, keen longing? Then it comes. But we are beings who have diverse longings, diverse interests. Many things are tasteful to us—too many, one might say. There is not that undivided love.
There is a verse that says: “kantha-avarodhana-samaye smaranam kutas te.” The poet asks: “If for your whole life you have been dwelling on and thinking of objects as objects, then how can you hope that at the last moment you will suddenly become a great bhakta, start thinking about God and repeating His Name?” He says: “Impossible! Therefore, ever cultivate the continuous, unbroken habit of God-thought.”
Similarly, we should cultivate and harbour within our hearts undivided love. Such love has to be carefully cultivated by doing everything that you do with a deep love in your heart: “I do this for God, for the love of Him. Everything I do—sitting, eating, drinking, lying down, working, typing, speaking, moving—I do for the love of that Being who dwells within me, who is constantly by my side, in whose presence I am living each moment of my life.
“I live, move and have my being in Him. Therefore, everything that constitutes my life will be done with love for Him, for His sake, leaving nothing out. Kayena vacha manasendriyair va buddhyatmanava prakriter svabhavat, karomi yat yad sakalam parasmai, narayanayeti samar-payami (O Lord, whatsoever I do through my body, speech, mind, senses, intellect, soul or unconscious natural impulses, I dedicate as an offering unto Thee, the supreme, all-pervading Spirit).”
Therefore, with great love, offer up everything to the Lord—everything—mental, verbal, physical, winking, breathing, sleeping, waking up, whatever constitutes your life. Leave nothing out, for you are in His presence. And, if you are offering everything that you are doing to that adorable Presence Divine, it cannot be offered with indifference, it cannot be offered without love. It will be dry then. It will not be fit to be offered to that Being. Even the least thing must be done with devotion, bhava. Nothing should be left out. Do all things with intense bhava, with great love.
So, let this be you. Be a centre of love. Be a constant stream of love. In all that you do, let this love manifest, let it be part of it. Then it becomes acceptable to God. With great love, Vidurani fed Lord Krishna the skin of the plantain fruit she had pealed. In her joy and excitement she mistakenly offered the Lord the skin rather than the fruit. But it was so filled with the love of Vidurani that the Lord relished it and went on eating. Not only one plantain skin, a second also, a third and a fourth. He was not imbibing the skin of a fruit; He was imbibing pure love.
If such love is exercised in everything that you do—in the minutest thing that you are engaged in doing day after day—feeling the immediate presence of the Lord everywhere, at every moment, then it will be possible for you to live in love, to act in love, to speak in love, to do everything, even the most insignificant thing, with love.
This will grow into undivided love. You will become an embodiment of undivided love. You will become love personified. And thus the portals to supreme blessedness will be opened up. You will not have to go to the Lord; He will come to you. The Lord will come to you.
He is without and within already: “I dwell in the hearts of all. I am constantly by your side.” Again and again, in half a dozen ways, the Lord tries to tell us this truth through His admonitions and His divine wisdom teachings to Arjuna.
Thus, let everything that you do be done with undivided love. Then you have the key. You have the secret key for ending up in total undivided love—which is God now, here. That love is God now, here, in whose presence we are all gathered together. May His grace shower upon you!
Worshipful adorations to the one, non-dual Universal Consciousness that alone exists, that alone pervades everywhere, eternally. May we seek to adore and worship It with our entire being. May we be aware that It is not a remote, unapproachable Reality, but that It is more real than anything that we are perceiving through our five senses. May Its grace be upon you all!
Bhakti or devotion is of two kinds. The more common is the ceremonial and ritualistic method of expressing our devotion through elaborate external worship. This bhakti always has a tinge of self-seeking through the meticulous following of the injunctions of the scriptures regarding puja: “May the Lord be propitiated and pleased. May He grant me prosperity, good health, well-being, progress on all fronts—domestic, social, professional, financial.” So, there is always a give and take.
But the bhakti that crowns us with liberation, illumination, is nishkama (selfless). This bhakti seeks nothing but the great privilege of loving the Lord. This bhakti seeks nothing other than the Lord Himself—God for God’s sake, devotion for the sake of devotion. It not only seeks nothing else, but it goes one step further. Even if something is given, it refuses to accept it: “varan na yacha raghunandana; yushmad-pada’bja-prema-bhaktih satatam mama’stu—I seek no boon. I seek no favour other than one-pointed devotion at Thy lotus feet.” It is this bhakti that is to be practised if you want to make this life worthwhile, attain the supreme Goal and become forever blessed.
The bhakta sees the defects of all created things: yad drisyam tannasyam (Everything perceived is subject to decay). He realises that all created things are temporary, transitory, subject to decay and dissolution. They are perishable and imperfect. They are useful, but they can become a diversion, a bondage, a net, a nuisance and a prolific source of sorrow also.
Therefore the bhakta does not run after them. He says: “I shall be wise; I shall not be foolish. I do not want petty things. Everything created is alpa (petty). Everything here from the Creator down to a blade of grass is only a delusion. Out of these perishable names and forms, I cannot get imperishable satisfaction and happiness.” Therefore, the bhakta rejects them.
That is the bhakti that one should practise. And this bhakti only becomes possible if we use our intellect to do vichara (enquiry) in order to generate viveka (discrimination). Vichara and viveka will produce a vairagya (dispassion) that is real, that is enduring. And vairagya is the essential condition for progressing in devotion, meditation and illumination.
Lord Krishna has made this plain to us in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Bhakti, jnana and dhyana (meditation) are to be supported by vairagya. Then alone one perseveres until the attainment of illumination and enlightenment. Bhakti, jnana, vairagya, these triune streams, have to exist together, flowing in an unbroken current within the hidden inner dimension of our spiritual being.
This is to be remembered always. This is to be cherished and nourished. This is to be practised and perfected. This is the guarantee of spiritual attainment, illumination, liberation and divine perfection here and now in this very life in this very body.
Keeping this in mind, diligently exercise wisdom in the form of constant right enquiry, reflection and discrimination. Practise resolutely, motivelessly, desireless devotion and love for the Divine. And support both these by a state of permanently established dispassion, vairagya. May the Supreme Reality whom we adore grant you these three and crown your life with blessedness. May you become embodiments of bhakti, jnana and vairagya!
Worshipful homage unto that supreme, eternal, all-pervading Reality, the beginningless and endless, cosmic Spirit Divine—that is within and without, above, below and all around us, and which is interpenetrating every cell of our very being!
Do you feel Its presence in every cell of your very being? Do you feel Its presence with you always—to your right and to your left, in front of you and behind, above, below and all around you, surrounding everyone you see? Do you see every tree and plant surrounded by the divine presence of God? Do you see every creature, large and small, that you encounter from morning till night surrounded by this Divine Presence?
The Supreme Being shining with the splendour of a million suns is shining here and now over each and every one of you. Do you feel yourself in this light? Are you living in this light? Are you walking in this light? If not, what is your belief?
Are you literally trying to evoke this feeling, this bhava, within you? Are you trying to live in the light of this truth, the fact that our ancients realised—their living experience—in their own deep inner lives and then proclaimed to others. Namostv-anantaya sahasra-murtaye sahasra-padakshi-siroru-bahave (Salutations to the Infinite Lord of a thousand forms, who has a thousand feet, eyes, heads and hands).
What are these words to you? Are they only svadhyaya or do they have some vital, living meaning for you—a meaning that enters into your very life every day, that is with you when you sit, stand, eat, sleep, walk and talk, when you are alone or amidst a hundred people? Are you trying to recapture, trying to actually relive the experience of your ancient sages and seers?
If you are not doing it, what value is your spiritual life? It is a dead spiritual life with no living flame of aspiration to enter into that experience. If the sages entered into glorious realisation, what is that to you and me? In what way does it make even one whit of a change in your present state or my present state unless and until it is actively imbibed, actively made a part of our own consciousness?
Yajnavalkya may be a liberated soul, but what does it mean to us if we are bound by our senses, if we are bound by our desires, urges, cravings, sentiments, emotions, imaginations and memories? If we are creatures dominated by our lesser self, then what does the presence of the higher Self mean to us? What value does it have?
You may not disbelieve it, but your belief and faith is not a living faith. It is not a faith that transforms your being. It is not a faith that urges your every movement; it does not infil your day-to-day life. A living faith is what is necessary. A painted picture of a blazing fire may look absolutely realistic, but it will not keep you warm; it cannot dry your clothes; it cannot even light an incense stick. What is to be our spirituality? A living fire or a painted picture?
These are points to ponder. These are things you should deeply consider every day. What exactly is the status of your spirituality? Is it a realistic painted picture or is it a real living fire that can revive you, bring circulation once again to your numbed body?
Consider these things that we chant every day: “I salute You, the infinite One who has countless innumerable forms.” “You are my all-in-all.” “He is present inside and outside.” What are these innumerable forms you mention in your chanting? What is God to you? Is He nearer than the nearest? To utter slokas and chants is very good. It evokes bhava. But to enter deeply into their meaning and imbibe their spirit, make it part of your life, is better. It is the one thing needful.
You should absorb all that you chant. It should bring a new vision to your eyes, your gaze. It should pervade in your own being as a force that grants you a divine bhava and divine vision. It should be a living factor in your life. That is the purpose, the objective, of remembering and chanting these sublime spiritual utterances day after day. That is the main purpose.
They must enter into your bones, into your every cell and begin to transform your life, be part of your life, become a force to take your life onward, forward and Godward unto realisation and liberation. They are meant for it. That is how you should relate yourself to these scriptural injunctions that in so many ways declare unto us that all this universe is infilled with the Lord.
Do it now! Time does not wait. Life ebbs away. Move towards the terminal point. Past time does not return. Realise this now and invest in the future by utilising the present to the highest use.
90. WHAT SHOULD BE OUR BHAVA AT THE FEET OF THE LORD?
Most of you are familiar with pictures depicting Lord Rama with Lakshmana, Janaki and Hanuman. In those pictures, Hanuman is always shown sitting at Rama’s feet: “I am at the feet of the Lord. I am the servant of the feet of the Lord, sitting at Rama’s feet.”
And much though we might have heard about his terrible deeds in Lanka, overcoming powerful asuras and despatching them to the abode of death, much as we might hear about his valour and his valorous deeds, extraordinary in nature, yet in the presence of Lord Rama we see that he is always sitting at His feet with folded hands and bowed head, ever intent and desirous of carrying out the will of the Lord: “Not my will, but Thine, O Lord.”
This way of life depicted by Hanuman is for our edification. For, in the presence of the Lord only worship is possible; humility alone adorns the person. Ego is not becoming. It is unbecoming to manifest the self-assertive, selfish nature or egoism in the presence of God.
Let this picture of Hanuman be upon your mind’s screen, your mental vision, always. If such a great personality, so strong, so redoubtable, so invincible, so full of courage, boldness and bravery, if he were to be a humble servant, in servitude, always holding himself in readiness to carry out the Lord’s will, how much more should be our bhava of being at the service of the Lord? For, what are we compared to Hanuman?
Ponder this particular aspect of your life. We all believe in the all-pervading presence of God: “Thou art omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient.” Our belief should not be a dry belief, a sort of intellectual concession we make to the scriptures and the exalted experiences of bygone sages and seers. “Let us behold Thee in all these names and forms. Let us serve Thee in all these names and forms.” Does only our tongue utter these words, or do we feel these words in our heart? If we do, if this is our faith, our true belief, our conviction, then in His presence would it be possible for us to be egoistic, self-assertive, selfish, vehement, aggressive? Would it be possible?
If our belief in the omnipresence of God is a living faith, a principle upon which we live our life, then safeguarded by this faith and conviction, we shall never dream of thinking anything unworthy of His inner indwelling presence, never dream of uttering anything unworthy about Him, never ever engage in any action that is unworthy of His divine presence. Rather, naturally, spontaneously, irresistibly, inevitably, your life will become divine. Your life will become one of virtue, humility, simplicity, having a spirit of service and practising the presence of God within and without. Your life will become ideal, noble, sublime, capable of bestowing upon you the peace that passeth understanding.
Thus, we would do well to reflect upon these great truths and lofty realisations which we have received as our inheritance from the sages of our radiant past. What could be the tremendous implications and import of these truths upon our day-to-day living, moving and having our being? They can be the key to blessedness, an unfailing guarantee ensuring against all acts unworthy of our devotion, our discipleship and our dedicated spiritual living—guaranteeing and ensuring that nothing in us will ever be unworthy of our ideal.
These truths are not to be neglected, not to be taken lightly or bypassed; we are not to be indifferent to them. These truths are to be deeply reflected upon, pondered, and earnestly applied in our daily life; they are to be recognised and paid attention to at each step, every moment, always. Then they become truths that liberate us, truths that transform us, truths that make our life divine. That is what we are after. That is what we are living for, striving for, working for. And these truths can make our life sublime, make our striving meaningful, worthwhile, make our sadhana fruitful in God-experience. There is no doubt about it.
You are the most fortunate human individuals on earth in that in this present incarnation you have been brought into the life spiritual. You have been drawn towards the Eternal, and you have been endowed with aspiration, a spirit of enquiry, and discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the eternal and the non-eternal, between the permanent and the evanescent. You have been endowed with discrimination and dispassion—priceless blessings beyond compare.
You are most fortunate, extremely blessed in that you have been brought into this way of life, directing your entire life towards the Supreme, and have been provided with all facilities for your evolution, all conveniences. You also have inconveniences, obstacles, difficulties and problems so that you may know how to deal with and overcome them. Due to them you may evolve spiritually, round off your angularities, arouse into wakefulness your inner resources.
So, you are fortunate to have all facilities, all conveniences and also all inconveniences which are blessings in disguise—seeming problems but means for evolving further and further. They are necessary ingredients for arousing from within you your inner resources: endurance, common sense, innate wisdom to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones, innate wisdom to look at things from a different angle. Thus, in every way you have been provided with everything required to move towards divine perfection—which is your destiny.
Therefore, great has been the grace, greater still has been the blessings, and greatest of all has been your determination to stick it out in spite of all apparent adamantine obstructions and obstacles: “This is all part of God’s divine plan for me. I accept it in toto and deal with it with wisdom, understanding, patience and perseverance as did the real seekers of yore in times bygone, those who reaped the benefit, the golden harvest of such perseverance.
“I have total trust in the Divine. When He has called me into this life, He will never abandon me. There is a meaning and purpose behind everything that He is now making me undergo. Deep within me I know that in all these things He is by my side. The Divine never abandons. Believing in Him, no one is lost. Placing one’s hands in His hands, one is sure of being guided to the destination. When He has called me to this life, He means me to live it to the ultimate end. I have set my hands to the plough and there is no turning back. I shall persist, persevere, until I reap the golden harvest.”
Such indeed is the stuff of those who achieve, those whose lofty, inspired examples of what a seeker should be fill the Upanishads. Therefore, I ask each one of you to persist, persevere, look not back. Forge ahead! Live in the Divine. Be aware only of the Divine. Think only of the Divine.
Set your mind, intellect, heart, your entire being, upon that one and only Reality of which you are an inseparable part, with which you are essentially one. Have your being fixed upon the glorious destiny that is yours as a birthright, that is nothing short of Divine-consciousness which is beyond all limited states of awareness, beyond time and space, name and form, and beyond this little, petty, false, deceptive human identity.
This human identity is the greatest of all obstacles. It is the last to be overcome, and, truth to tell, the one and only obstacle. All other obstacles are offshoots of this one, great obstacle—the “I”. “Then shall I be free, when ‘I’ shall cease to be. I am my problem. I am the shackles that bind me, the chains that hold me bound. I am samsara, I am prapancha, I am maya. I am my bondage.
“But for me, I am ever free. I am never bound. I am eternally pure, awakened and divinely perfect. I have neither birth nor death nor old age nor disease. That is me. But ‘I’ stands in the way of realising the me that I am in reality. Mano buddhy ahankara chittani na’ham, chidananda rupah sivoham sivoham (I am neither mind nor intellect, nor the ego-sense, nor even the mind-stuff. I am of the form of pure consciousness and bliss. Verily I am all auspiciousness and bliss). All that I think I am, all that I am bound up with, that I am not.”
May the Divine continue to shower grace upon you as it has been showering upon you since birth into this present physical body. Unknown to you, the Divine has been shaping you gradually for this noble, sublime life through various means from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood. He has been working, directing, moulding, putting opportunities in your way, bringing obstacles, giving bitter experiences so that you may realise what life is, and bringing noble experiences so that you are confirmed in your faith in the goodness of God, in the goodness of human nature.
As a mother does for a helpless infant, He has brought you all that is needful, preparing you for this glorious renunciation, preparing you for this glorious nivritti marga, the path that leads beyond time into eternity, the path that leads to the Eternal Reality.
If you look back you will understand many events that you did not understand. God does more miracles through painful and unpleasant experiences than He does through sunshine and picnics, through pleasant experiences. When we understand, we are filled with gratitude, and we wonder why we did not understand. You only have to look at the present world and you will know what you have been liberated from. Therefore, we are filled with a deep emotion of humble acknowledgment of His perennial grace, a recognition of His ever-present grace and blessings in our life.
For verily I tell all of you here that the Divine has lifted you up from unrealities into the Reality. Verily I assure you that He has lifted you up from darkness into Light. And this is tri-vara-satya, thrice true. In truth and in fact, He has lifted us up from spiritual death into that flowing stream, that great upward movement unto immortality and everlasting life in the eternal Divine-consciousness that we call Brahman or That or Allah or Nirvana or the Kingdom of Heaven—a state of perfection. He has lifted you up from unrealities unto the great Reality, from darkness unto Light and from death unto everlasting Life in that state of awareness that we call by all these various terms.
Rejoice, be humble, be grateful, and stop not till the Goal is reached. Do not move in any other direction. Do not lose any opportunity. Do not allow a single moment to pass by without keeping up with this ascent of the spirit unto its own, unto its native state, unto its eternal natural condition of satchidananda-consciousness, which is the only real thing, that abides forever, that exists always.
Live in the awareness that God is here and now. He abides within you, and you ever abide in Him. This is the only truth. All others are figments. They are fancies and fantasies. The only truth is the here and now God and the fact that He abides in you and you abide in Him. Live in this truth! Glory be to each and every one of you! Glory be to God who has thus graced you!
92. RESPONDING TO THE CALL OF GOD
Worshipful homage to the infinite, imponderable Cosmic Reality, the transcendental Absolute, which is, at once, farther than the farthest and, nevertheless, nearer than the nearest. Remote, beyond the reach of the mind, closer to you than yourself, everywhere present, nowhere visible to this fleshy physical eye, nevertheless appearing in an infinite variety of names and forms, the one power behind all things, the one and the only doer and director of all things that take place and happen, that Being is the goal of your life. Attaining and experiencing that Reality alone you will ultimately attain total satisfaction, peace that is forever, for all times, and which peace is the greatest of all joy, happiness and bliss.
May the grace of that Supreme Divinity be upon you all, as it has been upon you throughout your life. Whether you know it or not, this grace has surrounded you, pursued you, impelling you in the right direction. It has irresistibly drawn you towards a way of life that is like a light in the darkness, that is the life sublime, the good life, the divine life.
Whether you saw its workings or not, whether you recognised it or not, it has been there propelling, pulling and attracting you in the right direction, making you take the right decisions, rescuing you in dilemmas and doubts, taking you through seemingly agonising situations, but always towards the ultimate peace, the greatest good, your supreme welfare, towards that gain attaining which there is no greater gain to be attained.
Grace pursues the sincere seeking soul, sometimes even in spite of itself. And grace does not always appear in nice and beautiful clothing. As the poet put it: Not perceiving what it is, the seeking soul is sometimes even frightened and tries to run away. But when God has chosen, there is no way of man escaping. When at last, not able to run further, the fearful, panting, escaping soul drops d