Don't Shortchange YourselfSunahu Sadhak Pyare - Part 18
|
When you call Him out wholeheartedly, He will appear in front of you and order you to ask for a boon. Be cautious and do not get stuck in mediocre levels of bliss! Ask for the selfless divine love which is the highest thing. Remember Love controls even God. All other powers are controlled by God, yet love controls God. God controls liberation, liberation controls knowledge, knowledge controls karma and deeds control all the living beings. Lord Krishna declares in Bhagavat -
अहं भक्तपराधीनो ह्यस्वतन्त्र इव द्विज ।
साधुभिर्ग्रस्तहृदयो भक्तैर्भक्तजनप्रिय: ॥ भा 9.4.63 |
ahaṃ bhaktaparādhīno hyasvatantra iva dvija ।
sādhubhirgrastahṛdayo bhaktairbhaktajanapriya: ॥ bhā 9.4.63 |
"Although I am fully independent yet I am under the full control of my devotees".
शेष महेश गनेश दिनेश, सुरेशहुँ जाहि निरंतर ध्यावें ।
जाहि अनादि अनंत अखंड, अछेद अभेद सुवेद बतावें ॥ नारद से शुक व्यास रटें, पचिहारे तऊ पुनि पार ना पावें ॥ ताहि अहीर की छोहरियाँ, छछिया भर छाँछ पे नाच नचावें ॥ |
śeṣa maheśa ganeśa dineśa, sureśahum̐ jāhi niraṃtara dhyāveṃ ।
jāhi anādi anaṃta akhaṃḍa, acheda abheda suveda batāveṃ ॥ nārada se śuka vyāsa raṭeṃ, pacihāre taū puni pāra nā pāveṃ ॥ tāhi ahīra kī chohariyām̐, chachiyā bhara chām̐cha pe nāca nacāveṃ ॥ |
Thakur Ji spread his tiny hands in front of jiva to begs for some buttermilk . Yet the gopis refuse and they say, “you will get buttermilk only if you dance to please us". He dances again and again on the rhythm of the clapping of the gopis only to get a handful of buttermilk. Why? His father Nand Baba owns 900 thousand cows! Does He not get milk and butter in His home? He does. But the gopis heart with over flowing with the power of selfless love for Him. It is that love which makes Him their slave .
So, we must not make any other desire except selfless divine love for Him alone. We have to cry from the innermost corner of our heart for His love just like an infant cries to call out for his mother for milk. The little child cannot speak; we can speak to ask for His love. When a beggar asks for food, we can hear the pain in His voice and see it in his eyes. Because he is really starving. So the voice comes from within. Precisely, when from the bottom of your heart we call out to Lord Krishna for love, He comes running to His devotees.
Selfless love means, we should ask for love to serve Him for His pleasure, Not for our happiness. Desire of self-pleasure is the cause of roaming around 8.4 million life-forms.
So, we must not make any other desire except selfless divine love for Him alone. We have to cry from the innermost corner of our heart for His love just like an infant cries to call out for his mother for milk. The little child cannot speak; we can speak to ask for His love. When a beggar asks for food, we can hear the pain in His voice and see it in his eyes. Because he is really starving. So the voice comes from within. Precisely, when from the bottom of your heart we call out to Lord Krishna for love, He comes running to His devotees.
Selfless love means, we should ask for love to serve Him for His pleasure, Not for our happiness. Desire of self-pleasure is the cause of roaming around 8.4 million life-forms.
खूब तरसाया है इन ख्वाहिशों ने तुझे, तू भी अब इन ख्वाहिशों को कुछ तरसती छोड़ दे ॥
|
khūba tarasāyā hai ina khvāhiśoṃ ne tujhe, tū bhī aba ina khvāhiśoṃ ko kucha tarasatī choड़ de ॥
|
"These desires have tortured you immensely, now you forsake these selfish desires". Then these desires will think who he has accepted as the Guru that he does not desire me anymore. He has been my slave since eternity, everyday he used to make new desires.
So, your happiness lies in making Shri Krishna happy, don’t desire for your own happiness. And ask for love so that you can serve Him to make Him happy.
So, your happiness lies in making Shri Krishna happy, don’t desire for your own happiness. And ask for love so that you can serve Him to make Him happy.
स्मरणयुक्त रो के माँगो, प्रेम हरि का प्यारे ।
उनके सुख को मानु निज सुख, लक्ष्य यह रखु प्यारे ॥ |
smaraṇayukta ro ke mām̐go, prema hari kā pyāre ।
unake sukha ko mānu nija sukha, lakṣya yaha rakhu pyāre ॥ |
There are three things, Hari, Guru and the power of devotion that unites you to Hari/Guru. Have single-minded devotion to ONLY these three. Choose one avatar – form to facilitate meditation upon His divine form.
If your deity will change again and again (Ram, Krishna, Durga, Shankar and Hanuman Ji etc.), you will fail to focus on any divine form. But, if you always focus on one form, one name and the pastimes of the same form, at least one divine form of God will be firmed up in your mind and you will be able to remember Him anywhere any time. The form and pastimes of God are sweetest in Avatar of Shri Radha Krishna. Moreover, They bless with the highest thing – love. Hence we should wisely worship Shri Radha Krishna with a firm comprehension that all other avatars are not different from our deity. Since God is one, He descends in many forms.
One day you meditate upon kachapavtar, next day narsingh avatar, next day matysavatar, next day shukravatar then you won’t be able to meditate properly on any form. Even though these are all descensions of the same God, still for your own benefit focus only of Radha Krishn. They alone should remain your deity. It is also important to know that one should choose only one spiritual master being completely surrendered to him. Otherwise you will be confused and lose reverence and faith for both of them. Listen to his philosophy and instructions only. Do not read too many scriptures.
There have been 5 main Gurus of bhakti, Ramanujacharya, Nibarkacharya, Madhavcharya, Vallabhacharya and Gaurang Mahaprabhu. Their philosophies too vary a little. If you read all their literature then you will spend all your time contemplating if this is right or that is right. And in case you read the philosophy of Shankaracharya then you will definitely get totally muddled up and your practice of devotion will weaken. You might say, “I just hear what he said. I know what I have to do. Different philosophies will not confuse me!” But hearing or reading all this will have an impact on your mind. You will cultivate numerous doubts. Then you will go back to Guru Ji to ask for clarifications. If you keep cultivating doubts and your Guru keeps clarifying them then when will you perform sadhana?
Hence, Hari means Radha-Krishna, Guru means the saint who is guiding you and sadhana means the way he is telling you to perform devotion. Stay inside this periphery. Simple callous remarks from others like,”Do you worship Shri Krishna?”, “You don’t fast on Ekadashi? That is a sin” will sow the seed of doubt. Now you feel bad for not fasting on that day. But if you were to firmly believe in the path professed by your Guru, and somebody comes and says, “O you don’t worship an idol of Shri Krishn?”, you will be able to ward off doubt by thinking,”My Guru told me to make a mental form of Shri Krishna and worship Him mentally since idol worship is full of impediments. Impediments like you want to adorn your Beloved with the necklace of finest diamonds. But you barely earn enough to provide food for your family. Now you are upset how to adorn Him with a diamond necklace. But mentally, you get the largest, shiniest diamonds, even better than the Kohinoor diamond and there I put it around Shri Krishn. You did not have spent a dime on doing that”. In our world often when the house-holders worship God, they run into several obstacles like children disorganized the things in the altar, spouse moved things according to their own convenience. Then the aspirant gets upset and has arguments with wife, scold the children. Is this practice of devotion? In idol worship you need a lot of stuff and you want good quality stuff too. Both of those are obstacles.
During the monsoon season in Vrindaban, several temples are decorated and swings are hung. People throng those temples when the temple is decorated. So decorations are more important than Shri Krishna? There was once a rich man called Seth Hargulal. He had donated a swing for Shri Krishna which is studded with several precious stones. It was a few hundred thousand at those times, now it is worth millions. Once a year Shri Krishna sits in that swing. On that day hundreds of thousands of people flock to the temple. Now-a-days police manages the crowd. Earlier in that massive crowd several people used to get crushed. So why is there so much crowd on that day? O! the swing, in which Thakur ji is sitting, is worth millions. In other words they are saying on this day it is Thakur Ji plus 2 million worth of swing. Every other day it is only Thakur ji. This is the extent of our knowledge !
So be steadfast as far as Hari Guru and sadhana is concerned. Steadfast means don’t think of anything apart from these 3. Something else might be right for somebody else. If our goal is fixated then we will keep moving forward.
If your deity will change again and again (Ram, Krishna, Durga, Shankar and Hanuman Ji etc.), you will fail to focus on any divine form. But, if you always focus on one form, one name and the pastimes of the same form, at least one divine form of God will be firmed up in your mind and you will be able to remember Him anywhere any time. The form and pastimes of God are sweetest in Avatar of Shri Radha Krishna. Moreover, They bless with the highest thing – love. Hence we should wisely worship Shri Radha Krishna with a firm comprehension that all other avatars are not different from our deity. Since God is one, He descends in many forms.
One day you meditate upon kachapavtar, next day narsingh avatar, next day matysavatar, next day shukravatar then you won’t be able to meditate properly on any form. Even though these are all descensions of the same God, still for your own benefit focus only of Radha Krishn. They alone should remain your deity. It is also important to know that one should choose only one spiritual master being completely surrendered to him. Otherwise you will be confused and lose reverence and faith for both of them. Listen to his philosophy and instructions only. Do not read too many scriptures.
There have been 5 main Gurus of bhakti, Ramanujacharya, Nibarkacharya, Madhavcharya, Vallabhacharya and Gaurang Mahaprabhu. Their philosophies too vary a little. If you read all their literature then you will spend all your time contemplating if this is right or that is right. And in case you read the philosophy of Shankaracharya then you will definitely get totally muddled up and your practice of devotion will weaken. You might say, “I just hear what he said. I know what I have to do. Different philosophies will not confuse me!” But hearing or reading all this will have an impact on your mind. You will cultivate numerous doubts. Then you will go back to Guru Ji to ask for clarifications. If you keep cultivating doubts and your Guru keeps clarifying them then when will you perform sadhana?
Hence, Hari means Radha-Krishna, Guru means the saint who is guiding you and sadhana means the way he is telling you to perform devotion. Stay inside this periphery. Simple callous remarks from others like,”Do you worship Shri Krishna?”, “You don’t fast on Ekadashi? That is a sin” will sow the seed of doubt. Now you feel bad for not fasting on that day. But if you were to firmly believe in the path professed by your Guru, and somebody comes and says, “O you don’t worship an idol of Shri Krishn?”, you will be able to ward off doubt by thinking,”My Guru told me to make a mental form of Shri Krishna and worship Him mentally since idol worship is full of impediments. Impediments like you want to adorn your Beloved with the necklace of finest diamonds. But you barely earn enough to provide food for your family. Now you are upset how to adorn Him with a diamond necklace. But mentally, you get the largest, shiniest diamonds, even better than the Kohinoor diamond and there I put it around Shri Krishn. You did not have spent a dime on doing that”. In our world often when the house-holders worship God, they run into several obstacles like children disorganized the things in the altar, spouse moved things according to their own convenience. Then the aspirant gets upset and has arguments with wife, scold the children. Is this practice of devotion? In idol worship you need a lot of stuff and you want good quality stuff too. Both of those are obstacles.
During the monsoon season in Vrindaban, several temples are decorated and swings are hung. People throng those temples when the temple is decorated. So decorations are more important than Shri Krishna? There was once a rich man called Seth Hargulal. He had donated a swing for Shri Krishna which is studded with several precious stones. It was a few hundred thousand at those times, now it is worth millions. Once a year Shri Krishna sits in that swing. On that day hundreds of thousands of people flock to the temple. Now-a-days police manages the crowd. Earlier in that massive crowd several people used to get crushed. So why is there so much crowd on that day? O! the swing, in which Thakur ji is sitting, is worth millions. In other words they are saying on this day it is Thakur Ji plus 2 million worth of swing. Every other day it is only Thakur ji. This is the extent of our knowledge !
So be steadfast as far as Hari Guru and sadhana is concerned. Steadfast means don’t think of anything apart from these 3. Something else might be right for somebody else. If our goal is fixated then we will keep moving forward.
Bibliography - Learn more
Some Pointers to Explore our Literature
Indulge yourself in spiritual material - Click on the images below or the headers
Divya Sandesh
|
Divya Ras Bindu
|
Spiritual Terms
|
We would love to hear from you. Please
|
To get notification about our publications please subscribe by entering the information above
|