2013 Guru Poornima

Philosophy

Our Real Mother

Know when God will bear all our burdens

Philosophy

Right Age to Start Devotion

At what age should one start devotion?

Kids Story

Lord of Lords

जो था ईश्वरेश्वर, गोविंद राधे, भक्ति वाय दासानुदास बना दे ॥

jo thā īśvareśvara, goviṁda rādhe, bhakti vāya dāsānudāsa banā de

The word Ishwar means the one who rules.

ज्ञाज्ञौ द्वावजावीशनीशावजा, ह्येका भोक्तृ भोग्यार्थयुक्ता ।
अनंतश्चात्मा विश्वरूपो ह्यकर्ता, त्रयं यदा विन्दते ब्रह्ममेतत्॥
श्वेताश्वतरोपनिषद्-1.9

jñājñau dvāvajāvīśanīśāvajā, hyekā bhoktr̥ bhogyārthayuktā ।
anaṁtaścātmā viśvarūpo hyakartā, trayaṁ yadā vindate brahmametat॥
śvetāśvataropaniṣad-1.9

There are 2 sentient entities. One is all-knowing and the other is little knowing. One is the ruler and the other is the one being ruled. One is Ish (Almighty) and other is Anish (helpless), means one is the master and other is the slave. One is the whole and the other is a part of that whole.

But Brahma, Vishnu, Shankar, Indra all are also called Ish. Are there many Ish (Gods)? No. There is one Supreme Lord.

परमं महेश्वरम्।

paramaṁ maheśvaram

"He is the Lord of all these lords".

यस्मात्परं नापरमस्ति किंचन्।

yasmātparaṁ nāparamasti kiṁcan।

"Nothing is beyond Him".

तमीश्वराणां परमेश्वरम्।

paramaṁ maheśvaram

"He is the Lord of Lords. His name is Shri Krishna".

यस्यैक निःश्वसितकालमथावलम्ब्य, जीवन्ति लोमविलजाः जगदण्ड नाथा ।
विष्णुर्महान्स इह यस्य कलाविशेषो, गोविंदमादि पुरुषं तमहं भजामि ॥
ब्रह्मसंहिता

yasyaika niḥśvasitakālamathāvalambya, jīvanti lomavilajāḥ jagadaṇḍa nāthā ।
viṣṇurmahānsa iha yasya kalāviśeṣo, goviṁdamādi puruṣaṁ tamahaṁ bhajāmi ॥
brahmasaṁhitā

"That Mahavishnu is a single art of Shri Krishna. Therefore, I worship that Govind who is the cause of all causes."

And under Mahavishnu are innumerable Vishnus. Shri Krishna has no Master and no family. He is unfortunate in that sense. But He is the supreme Lord of all. Despite being the master of innumerable powers, one of His own powers makes Him so submissive that He submits to the will of His beloved servants. As He says to Durvasa -

अहं भक्त पराधीनो ह्यस्वतंत्र इव द्विज ।
भा. 9.4.63

ahaṁ bhakta parādhīno hyasvataṁtra iva dvija ।
bhā. 9.4.63

I am under the control of my devotees. Even though Vedas proclaim that I am

सर्वतंत्र स्वतंत्र

sarvataṁtra svataṁtr

totally free

ह्यस्वतंत्र इव द्विज

hyasvataṁtra iva dvija

but I am telling you, I am controlled by my own devotees.

नाहमात्मानमाशासे मद्भक्तै: साधुभिर्विना ।
श्रियं चात्यन्तिकीं ब्रह्मन् येषां गतिरहं परा ॥
भा. 9.4.63

nāhamātmānamāśāse madbhaktai: sādhubhirvinā ।
śriyaṁ cātyantikīṁ brahman yeṣāṁ gatirahaṁ parā ॥
bhā. 9.4.63

I love all my devotees without any discrimination, even more than my soul.

Shri Krishna told Uddhav

न तथा मे प्रियतम आत्मयोनिर्न शंकरः ।
न च संकर्षणो न श्रीर्नैवात्मा च यथा भवान्॥
भा 1.14.15

na tathā me priyatama ātmayonirna śaṁkaraḥ ।
na ca saṁkarṣaṇo na śrīrnaivātmā ca yathā bhavān॥
bhā 1.14.15

I don’t love my son Brahma, Shankar, Balram, my wife Lakshmi or even my own soul as much as I love a bhakt (devotee) like you.

And what is bhakti (devotion)? It is the name of a divine power of God. The bhakti, which we perform, is not real bhakti. It neither purifies the mind nor is capable of enslaving even a mere human being, let alone enslaving God. Bhakti (devotion) means to remember God while engaging the mind. God is all pure; hence his remembrance purifies the mind.

Attachment to any material person or thing further contaminates the mind. Just like clean water becomes dirty when kept in a dirty pot. But God is so pure that He can never be contaminated with the association of dirty things. Our mind being full of material attachments is dirty. Yet engaging our mind in the remembrance of God does not make Him impure. Instead His association with the mind makes the mind pure. Like the river Ganges oozes out from a small opening called Gomukh. As it travels through the Indo-Gangetic plains multiple small and big rivers and dirty drains keep merging in it. By the time Ganges reaches Haridwar it takes a gigantic form. Yet because Ganga is pure, it does not lose its own identity and purity. Rather all other merging drains, streams and rivers become pure as Ganga. Precisely in the same manner constant remembrance of God and God realized saints makes our mind pure.

रवि पावक सुरसरि की नाईं ॥

ravi pāvaka surasari kī nāīṁ ॥

So by performing bhakti, we can cleanse our mind. But the bhakti that subjugates God is divine. That is not the material bhakti of our mind. That Divine bhakti, is the inner most power of God. He does not grant it to anyone easily. But when the mind is cleansed of all material attachments then the spiritual master makes it divine and grants that divine bhakti immediately as a gift.

साधनौघैरनासंगैरलभ्या सुचारादपि । हरिणा चाश्वदेयेति द्विधा सा स्यात्सुदुर्लभा ॥
भ.र.सिं.

sādhanaughairanāsaṁgairalabhyā sucārādapi ।
hariṇā cāśvadeyeti dvidhā sā syātsudurlabhā ॥
bha.ra.siṁ.

That power of God (devotion aka bhakti) is so inaccessible that despite intensive selfless worship for eons, one cannot achieve it. Even God does not bestow it easily.

Devotion to Shri Krishna is an eternal divine power. It is not a fruit of severe practice. Devotion is achievable only by divine grace after the purification of mind. So, the aim of practice of devotion is purification of mind only. Once the mind is purified, God bestows his grace upon the fortunate soul becomes the slave of His own servants.

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Bibliography - Learn more

(1) Daihik Taap

(2) Example of Detachment

(3) Self-Realization vs. God Realization

Philosophy

Our Real Mother

Lecture given by Shri Maharaj Ji on 9th Apr 2012

There are 2 types of mothers – 1. The mother who gave birth to this body – You know this type of mother. All living beings are born from their mother in one of four ways -

Born from sweat (svedaja)
Born from eggs (aṇḍaja)
Born from land (udabhija)
Born from womb (jarāyuja)

In every birth, the soul assumes one of the 8.4 million lifeforms. And in those innumerable life forms, their offspring also take the same form. Hence each soul has had mothers of all forms.

Arjun was not present when his son Abhimanyu was slain. When he learnt of his son’s death, he was devastated and requested Shri Krishna to show him Abhimanyu just once. Shri Krishna reasoned with him and said, “You have been seeing your son for 16 years, what great difference will it make, if you see him once more?” Overcome with grief and love for his departed son, Arjun insisted to see Abhimanyu just once. Shri Krishna finally conceded to his request and called the soul of Abhimanyu. With the power of Yogmaya, He bestowed on him a body identical to the one he had prior to his death. On seeing his son, Arjun ran towards him with open arms and said, “Son!” Abhimanyu commanded him, saying “Stop right there. Who are you calling ‘son’? The one who was your son was killed on the battle field and his body is still lying there. I am not your son. You have become my son, father and mother etc. infinite times and vice - versa. Don’t call me your son.”

It is a philosophical truth; that during the last moments of one’s life, one remembers that person with whom he is extremely attached and in his next lifetime takes birth close to the same loved one. If you love God, you will go to His divine abode, if you love celestial Gods, you will attain heaven, if you are attached to any of your family member, friend etc. you will take birth in their close association.

Jadabharat, a great Paramhansa is an eminent example for this. Once, Jadabharat was sitting on the bank of the river Ganges. A pregnant doe was roaming around next to the river. Just then a lion roared out loud. Scared by the lion’s roar, the doe jumped to go across the river. As she jumped hard, her baby fell into the river and started sinking. Jadabharat was overcome with pity and he rescued the baby deer and brought him to his hermitage and started tending to it. As time passed, Jadabharat became increasingly fond of the baby deer. As he was about to die, Jadabharat called his disciples and instructed them to take good care of the baby deer. Due to his attachment to the deer, he was born as a deer in his next lifetime. Everyone is given a birth based on the attachment of their mind in the present life.

So, we get a different mother in every life-time. But the mother who gives birth to the body is not “Our” mother. We are the soul. God made the body inside the mother’s womb and the soul comes from outside into the mother’s womb and enters the body. Soul was not made inside the mother’s womb. Soul is eternal. The soul keeps getting different forms of bodies in each lifetime. Just like you keep changing clothes the soul keeps changing bodies. But the soul itself remains unchanged. Before birth, according to our karmas, God decides what form of life does the individual soul take and who will be the parents of the soul. Some children are born in households where the father, mother are alcoholics, drug addicts and the child becomes like that. Robbers too have children and they teach the child to rob and kill. Some souls, who have performed a lot of devotion in the past lives, are given birth in a family where the parents chant “Radhey Radhey”, day and night. Those children start babbling “laade laade” from a very early age.

So God is our original Mother. She always remains with us, protects us, helps us, just like the physical mom takes care for her child, protects the baby, looks after all the needs of the baby, cleans the baby, feeds the baby etc. The physical mom may turn away her child if he becomes abusive or starts misbehaving, but our Divine Mother always helps us. Kans, Shishupal all these demons were given the same land to live on, were given the same water to drink and were given the same air to breathe as a saint does. God does not turn water into poison for Ravana. God says you too are my child. And if you have gone astray then I will punish you for your misdeeds.

When we get worldly sufferings we tend to blame God, or fate, or time.

कालहिं कर्महिं ईश्वरहिं मिथ्या दोष लगाय ।

kālahiṁ karmahiṁ īśvarahiṁ mithyā doṣa lagāya ।

The fact is that it is nobody’s fault except yours.

Our mother Radha Rani is such a mother, who never changes, her love never reduces and she never leaves us alone. But we are so attached to the material mom that we forget the Divine Mother. We call bodily relatives OUR relatives. These relatives are related to your body, not to YOU. You have only one relative. Laxman Ji said to Bhagwan Ram

गुरुपितु मातु न जानउँ काऊ ॥ मोरे सबइ एक तुम स्वामी ।

gurupitu mātu na jānaum̐ kāū ॥ more sabai eka tuma svāmī ।

We recite the verse in temples

त्वमेव माता च पिता त्वमेव त्वमेव बन्धुश्च सखा त्वमेव।
त्वमेव विद्या द्रविणं त्वमेव त्वमेव सर्वं मम देवदेव ॥

tvameva mātā ca pitā tvameva tvameva bandhuśca sakhā tvameva।
tvameva vidyā draviṇaṁ tvameva tvameva sarvaṁ mama devadeva ॥

You are everything to me. We say it but we don’t believe it. Means we try to fool God. You can fool the world by words such as, “I can’t live without you”, “I’ll die without you”, “without you I’ll end my life etc”. And the listener tends to believe these words. But God cannot be fooled because He notes your innermost thoughts. He lives inside the machine that generates the ideas, He keeps reading them. So you can’t fool Him.

Now by the grace of God-realized rasik saints, we have attained the knowledge that only Shri Radha Rani is my real mom. There are 2 forms of that knowledge. 1. We say I know, and the next moment we forget. Means the knowledge is not firmly established. 2. The other form is after knowing, the knowledge firmly settles in your mind. Just like without any proof, you consider your mother as your mother.

But we don’t accept God to be our real father/mother. He is sitting inside, still we don’t accept Him. We say in words, “yes I know he is sitting inside”. Think! if you know there is poison in this food, do you continue to keep eating? If you have not had food for 4 days and as you were about to eat food, your wife tells you that there is poison in it. You will leave the food alone and walk away. Does your wife tell a lie? Yes she does. So maybe this time she was lying. Well what if she was not? I don’t want to eat poison and die. You make a firm resolution based on a single statement of your wife. Ved Vyas says, Saints say that God is sitting inside and notes your thoughts. Yet you don’t believe that. And you think, “Nobody knows what I am thinking”. You receive guests in your house with a smile, with full confidence that nobody knows you do not like having guests at this time. You forgot that your father is noting down every thought of yours.

You can’t hide anything from Him. But you forget this, hence commit sins. In this world all sins are committed only because we have forgotten that God is sitting in our heart and notes down every action. And later we will have to face the fruits of our action. If everyone were to remember this 1 point all the time, “He is sitting inside me and noting all my thoughts”, then you would try not to think anything bad. If not all then at least 50% of the crimes will disappear. But nobody believes that. They might be ministers, maulvi, priests, sages, seers, ascetic or an ordinary human. Until you attain God this problem will not disappear.

So we have to decide firmly that He alone is my father/mother. We have to decide, means we will have to repeat it to ourselves a million times “He alone is my father and mother”. By repeatedly thinking so, the idea will take firm root. Yes, He is sitting inside me. Then naturally you will have the feeling oh noone can hurt me for He is with me. When you have a bank balance of a 1 million, 1 billion, you always have this feeling I am rich and most lose their humility. If somebody insults them, they plan of taking revenge and go to the extent of getting the other person killed. Some others advice them, hey you will get a capital punishment for manslaughter. O don’t worry, I will give him a million and get the case dismissed. I’ll bribe the magistrate, give him 5 million. This is the intoxication of worldly power. If you always felt His presence, you will never commit a sin. Many crimes are avoided for the fear police, army etc. If you were to fear God then you won’t sin. For in God’s court there is neither any need of witnesses, nor can one bribe. God notes your ideas and not the physical deeds.

That is why he is saying, “O Radha Rani, you are my real mother. These worldly relatives are good to you as long as you fulfill their motive”.

Ram once invited everyone in his kingdom to a discourse. All came and sat down to listen

एक बार रघुनाथ बोलाए ।

eka bāra raghunātha bolāe ।

This body keeps changing and all physical relatives too keep changing. Only I am your eternal relative.

त्यागहिं कर्म शुभाशुभदायक

tyāgahiṁ karma śubhāśubhadāyaka

When people heard the lecture they said

तुम बिनु अस सिख देइ कि कोउ । मातु पिता स्वारथ रत सोउ ।

tuma binu asa sikha dei ki kou । mātu pitā svāratha rata sou ।

Nobody can give us this precious knowledge except you! Father and mother expect us to serve them, hence they teach accordingly. When children don’t do according to the parent’s wishes then parents write the will in favor of others rather than the children. And then some children kill their parents. All this happens in this world. The entire world is based on one's selfish motive.

What do you want? Money? Why? I will buy all luxurious things. Why? Then I will get the happiness. Why? Has anybody gotten such happiness after which they desired for nothing else? In our world there are several billionaires viz; Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani etc. you can ask them, have you gotten that happiness. If they were to answer honestly then they will have to say you are better off than me. I can’t go shopping freely; my kids can’t go to any public place freely. People will kill us. We too have all the physical ailments, in addition there are myriad of mental problems as well. Even our life is not secure. When we go somewhere then there are body guards all around us and I am armed too. Is this what you call a happy life? See we can go to the market freely.

So God’s indifferent form is Radha Rani. You have to practice to consider Her your everything. Only by practice you will attain your goal. By listening and saying alone you won't get your goal.

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Holi

Philosophy

Right Age to Start Devotion

According to the scriptures, attaining a human form is very difficult. Human beings pray to the celestial Gods (devataas like Indra, Kuber, Varun, Agni etc.) and these devataas pray to God to attain a human form.

Having attained the human form, we do not realize how precious it is. We indulge ourselves in material pleasures for sensual gratification. We devote our full attention to our family and their needs. When somebody asks a little boy/girl to do devotion, he/she replies – this is not the age to start devotion. There is still time and we can do that when we are old. When you ask a young person to do devotion, he/she flatly refuses and says that it is for old people and life is for enjoying. When you ask a middle age person to do devotion, he/she replies that there is still time for it after retirement. Now is the time to earn money, enjoy life and look after the welfare of the family. By the time retirement comes, many ailments plague the body and there is very little strength left in the body, thereby making it difficult to perform devotion.

We forget the fact that death can come to anybody at any age at any time. It is ironical that a father, who is taking son's body for burial, does not think about his own death, though the reality may be that he dies of a heart attack on his way to the cremation ground.

Life is very uncertain. Do not think that you will live in this human form forever. Whatever your age, start doing devotion!!!

Getting a human life is very difficult. In human life getting the association of a God-realized saint (Mahapurush) is still more difficult.

Now getting the association of a Mahapurush in your lifetime and surrendering to Him is even more difficult. Whenever we had the opportunity to meet a Mahapurush, we looked at Him as a normal human being with little extra knowledge. That is all. We used our limited intellect to judge him and refused to accept his great qualities and surrender to Him.

Now that you know that human life is rare, transient and the only way to attain God, don’t be callous. Start your devotion today with absolute resolve to see Him today. Increase your longing to meet Him. If he does not appear in front of you today then perform devotion the next day with reinforced rigor. When your devotion increases in this manner one day He will have to come.

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Bibliography - Learn more

Human Form: Boon or Bane?

Selfless Devotion as Taught by Prahlad

Kids Story

Divine Grace in Disguise

Bhakta Purandaradasa, the “Karnataka Sangeeta Pitaamaha” (crest of the music –world of Karnataka), lived in the 17th century. The story of how he became a devotee of the Supreme Lord (bhakta) is very unusual and inspiring.

Srinivas Nayak was very opulent yet a great miser. He was a great devotee in his previous life but his ancestral affluence made him so money minded that he became an eminent miser having no indication of his intrinsic devotion. His wife Saraswati was a great devotee of Shri Krishna and generous as well. She used to give alms secretly without revealing it to her husband, since he was fed up of her generosity.

Eventually due to devotion of Srinivas in his previous lives, and amiable nature of his wife, he was very dear to Lord Krishna, Hence Shri Krishna, the embodiment of mercy, thought of delivering him from material attachment and awakened dormant devotion of his heart.

So, Shri Krishna took the form of a poor Brahmin and approached Srinivasa Nayak for money in order to perform the thread ceremony of his son. Even though days rolled by, Nayaka did not give anything, but the Brahmin too did not relent. He visited Srinivasa Nayaka's shop again and again. Finally, after six months Nayaka decided that he had to do something to get rid of the Brahmin. He had a collection of worn-out coins that were more or less worthless. He poured this in front of the Brahmin and asked him to take one and never come back. The Brahmin went away, seemingly crestfallen.

Saraswathi, Nayaka's wife, was a kind hearted soul who in her own way, tried to make amends for her husband's miserliness. The Brahmin, who knew this, went directly from Nayaka's shop to his residence. He narrated his story and how her husband had sent him away with nothing.

Saraswati was appalled by her husband's behavior. She wanted to help the poor Brahmin, but felt helpless since she could not give anything without her husband's permission. When she explained her helplessness, the Brahmin asked if she had something given by her parents (which, presumably, she could give without asking for her husband's permission). She agreed and gave him the diamond nose-stud that her parents had given her.

The Brahmin took the ornament straight to Srinivasa Nayaka's shop. When Nayaka became angry with the Brahmin for coming back, despite his instructions to the contrary, the Brahmin clarified that he was there not to beg, but to pledge an ornament and take a loan. Nayaka was skeptical and asked the Brahmin to show him the ornament. When he saw the ornament, he was perplexed because he immediately recognized it as the one belonging to his wife. When questioned about the ornament's antecedents, the Brahmin told him that it was a gift from a benefactor.

Asking the Brahmin to come back the next day, Nayaka safely locked away the ornament in a box and went home. When he saw his wife without her ornament he questioned her about it. She tried to stall him with non-committal answers, but he insisted on seeing it immediately. He was angry because he thought she had given away a valuable ornament to a beggarly Brahmin.

Saraswati felt the ground giving way under her feet. She knew that her husband would punish her if she told him the truth. Unable to think of an alternative, first she prayed Shri Krishna to save her, then after having no answer from Him, she decided to commit suicide. She poured poison into a cup and lifted it to her lips. Just as she was about to drink the poison, she heard a metallic sound. Lo behold, wonder of wonders, the ornament was right there in the cup. She could not believe her eyes. Her heart filled with gratitude, she prostrated before the idol of Krishna and took the ornament to her husband. Nayaka was astounded as it was the very same ornament that he had safely locked away in his shop. He quickly excused himself and ran back to the shop to check. The box in which he had safely locked away the ornament was empty! He was now completely and totally dumbfounded.

He went back to his house, and pressed his wife to tell him the truth. She told him everything that had transpired. This put his mind into turmoil.

After deep thought and God’s inspiration, he came to the conclusion that the Brahmin was none other than God Himself. He recalled all the incidents that had transpired in the previous six months. He was disgusted with himself, and his miserliness. He felt that his wife had conducted herself far more decently and generously than himself. Since it was his love of money that had made him ill-treat the Lord, he gave away all of his wealth with the Lord's name on his lips, and became a Haridasa, a devotee and Lord Hari and started singing the glories of Lord Hari. He wrote and composed music for over 400,000 spiritual songs and became famous as “Karnataka Sangeeta Pitaamaha Bhakt Purandardas.”

Moral
1. Bhakti is immortal. Even a small part of devotion performed in any previous life, transforms into good fortune.
2. God is such a good friend of His devotees that he may make any effort to rectify the life of His devotees, despite of his negligence.
3. He is also a friend of humble and pure hearted ones.
4. Greed ruins the life.

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संदर्भग्रंथ सूची - और अधिक जानें

Who Builds Our Destiny?

Links of 2-4 related articles to go here