Something deep in you must have stirred why not
we go and find out some method by which we can be happier.
Happiness is the goal of life actually. Only misfortune is, our
happiness seems to be disturbing other people's happiness and
therefore the strife or the conflict. Unless we learn to adjust to
each others' happiness there seems to be no way of living together
and here again what we have got accustomed is the competitive
world. We have come from competition to what we generally call cut
throat competition. We have been deteriorating ourselves from one
stage to another stage.
So how to be settled, how to keep up our balance
and go about in life? This is exactly the problem which I see with
most of us. It may be a school examination, it may be a job
procurement or it may be a promotion or anything, any one of these
problems that we have or a marriage of some body or the health of
somebody else - these are all the various things that seem to
disturb us beyond limit and our mind has come to a state of total
restlessness. So happiness which can be approximately brought under
the category of a settled mind or a peaceful state of mind is
disturbed so badly that we are restless. The mind is wavering so
much, flickering actually, that we would like to have it settled on
something and whenever there is something that is happy that means
something which you consider as a good thing that happens to you,
your mind seem to get settled for sometime at least. Your son
passes an examination or you get some promotion or you get a job,
some such thing, some small reliefs whenever you get, you feel a
bit settled for sometime may be an hour or so. Again you get
further problems so you again are restless. So, even when we get
some sort of a relief, we have found it is so very temporary or
transient that it seems to be elusive. We seem to be having the
knack of getting into a problem every few seconds. This is the life
which we are leading, and from here we are trying to know what is
it we can do. People said that if you worship this God you get that
relief, if you do that mantra that will be good, all sorts of
things have been told and all sorts of efforts have been made. If
you have been satisfied with those efforts you won't have come
here, the efforts were not commensurate to the task in hand
perhaps, I do not know, or your efforts itself were half hearted.
Whatever is the reason, if you have found some answer already in
tradition and if you have liked some God or a Goddess and you are
satisfied with it then you won't have come here. The mere fact that
you have come here shows that there is still some restlessness
behind it.
So finally what exactly is the thing that we can
offer here? That's the question I would put to myself and I would
also like you to put to yourself - so what is it that you are going
to deliver to us?. You come, you stay for two days with us, you
share with us certain ideas. Good talk, good people, is that all?
Or are you going to find a way of life? Our intention is that you
should be in a position to find a way of life which should be
satisfying for you though will not give you the rest that you so
eagerly hanker because that seems to be something far off. So long
as we are living, there will be a certain amount of restlessness.
If the heart comes to rest then you know what happens to you. The
heart cannot come to rest, it must be active, it must be restless,
it must be going on beating and in that there should be a rhythm,
there should be a balance. If it is out of balance then we find
there is something wrong. You are aware of the palpitation of the
heart or you feel the heart beat then you know something wrong has
happened. So long as the stomach is working alright you don't feel
it. Suppose it starts aching then you know there is a some problem
somewhere there, but that does not mean that the stomach is not
working, it has been working it will continue to work, liver will
continue to work, every internal organ will continue to work and
you are not aware of it. So activity by itself does not mean
restlessness but pure restlessness is possible only when you leave
the body. That is not any way our goal. We would like to live, live
happily in a balanced condition.
So this balanced condition is the goal to which
we have to go. That exactly is the meaning of the messages of all
the great saints including that of Bhagawan Krishna who says that
you should take both the labha and dukha (labhalabho jayaa
jayo) everything you must take with equanimity. With
equanimity does not mean with the same attitude. When you are in a
state of joy you will be in a state of joy, if you are in a state
of sorrow you will be in a state of sorrow. It is ridiculous to
expect a man who is supposed to be joyful to be sorrowful and who
is supposed to be sorrowful joyful. Both these things are very bad
interpretations that have happened, but you should not get
unnecessarily too much excited about it, it is but natural for you
to react. Suppose some thorn pricks you, to say that 'No,no I don't
bother about it' doesn't make any sense because you will definitely
bother about it, it will bleed and it will pain and it is natural
for you to say all those things. Similarly when you have some good
atmosphere you can say it's definitely beautiful place, beautiful
setting etc there is nothing wrong about it, but getting unduly
attached to it is the problem. Either to pain or to pleasure if you
get unduly attached, you are in troubles. For everything there is a
due time, proportionately, give importance to that extent that is
required. If we understand these basics then you will understand
the system of SriRamChandra's Rajayoga better. How it helps you, enables you to
come to this particular state of mind where your mind will be in a
balanced state and not unduly disturbed by things. Things will
definitely happen to you both good and bad according to your karma or past actions. You cannot
wish it away nor you can get something which is not there because
that is against all fundamental principles of science. We expect
something to happen for which you have not worked. The cause gives
you the effect, according to your action so will be the result. To
expect a result which is not proportional to your action is not
proper nor is it permitted in scientific principles. They are
equal, equal in proportion. I think this much of a broad
introduction I thought was necessary before I talk about the system
itself.
Keeping this point that goal is a balanced state
of living, when do we get into this particular state of mind? When
do we get it? Generally, the states of mind has been classified
under -a disturbed condition called kshipta or it can be a
dull condition of a moodha or it can be a state of
vikshipta i.e. with reference to a particular goal or
object in view your mind running after that or similar to that and
then you have got the state of mind called ekagravritti
and then that is concentrated at and then finally you have got a
state of mind called samadhan-settledness. If you look
into yourself you have got a problem, say for example, you have got
to get a reservation to go to some station. There is lot of crowd
and you are not very sure whether you get it or not. This is the
problem let us say. I am taking a very very routine example. You
can get agitated about it, just disturbed whether I will get it or
not, I do not get it what exactly is happening and all - a kshipta state of mind. One thing is
I am not bothered about it -moodha state of mind - I apply whether
it comes, does not come, I don't bother. The next one is the
vikshipta state i.e. you would like to know who would be the people
who will be in a position to help you whether I should go for a
emergency quota, should I go to the traffic superintendent ask for
the circumstances which I have got to travel and all that so you go
and try to do i.e. related thoughts, all related thoughts but still
not settled thoughts. Ekagravritti would mean making definite
attempts - yes, this is the way in which I shall go I will
concentrate on that and I will get it done.
Say for example, your physiological state is
hunger. I would like to eat something just that type of talk or its
alright as and when it is served I will take it or you can get into
a state of mind what are all the other foods I would like to have
which would be more tastier for me or may be healthier. You can
change the parameter - this type of state of mind or you can
definitely say I want this I want today only this particular piece
of food and you try to get it.
See in all these cases what you find is your
mind is running between the goal and the goal orientedness is not
that clear and when goal orientedness is there then I would say
that you have reached the ekagravritti. Till you have not got the
goal orientation, your mind is not having any ekagravritti. It will
be just running around. Why not this, why not that. Peace of mind
is what I seek. Ok, today I will go to this temple, tomorrow I will
go to that baba, third day I will go to that river, fourth day I
will go to that pilgrimage. You have got all sorts of ideas to run
around. So, our state of mind is to be judged from the goal that
you are seeking. So, if you have this clarity in your mind then you
can say most of your states of mind are not ekagravritti but has
got so many alternatives before it and therefore it is disturbed.
When you come to a state of ekagravritti then it leads you to a
state of achieving. Once you know, once your mind is definitely
oriented towards it, you will definitely make attempts to get it.
Main problem is this goal clarity.
What is our goal? If you put this question, what
is your goal of your life and if you have got an answer for it then
I think you can say that half the problem is solved. At present we
do not know. The same thing is put by the youngsters in a different
language when they say "we don't know what is the meaning of life
sir", "I don't know why we are living", "why I am asked to do this
particular course why I am asked to do that course", "why my father
says that I should do this I really don't understand", and I see so
many people in the streets in spite of all the best of
qualifications "what is it that is going to happen to me" - this
type of questions are there haunting the minds of the younger
generation and it did to some of us earlier. All this is mainly
because we didn't know what is the goal, what is it we should ask
for.
So I would say that your goal of life is
something that you have got to determine first and as I said the
one goal that you cannot deny is you would like to be happy. This
you can't deny and this you cannot get unless you see the others
also are happy. If you are happy and the other man is not happy, he
will definitely see that your happiness is disturbed, somehow he
will ensure that. It may be due to strike, it may be just throwing
stones or it may be some protest or dharna whatever it is he will
definitely spoil it, because we are condemned to a social living.
You cannot isolate yourself, you are condemned to that. By birth
you are condemned to social life. There is a family, there are
certain number of brothers, certain number of sisters, uncles,
everybody with you have got to adjust. There is no alternative even
if you are going to say I don't get into the world I will be in my
own family. Even then you have to adjust with all these people. You
can't say that I will try to be happy to the exclusion of all
others.
So this is one thing that we are all
interconnected is the fundamental point and we have got to
understand. Modern life has unfortunately given a wrong picture
that we are individual and that we can get ourselves isolated. My
aspirations are different from the aspirations of other people,
this is the general feeling that everybody has. He has been told
so, as against the general truth that we all live together and
interdependency is the truth. We are interdependent whether we like
it or not. We are not independent, we can never become independent.
We are interdependent, that is the truth but we have been made to
swallow the illusion of the modern world namely that we can be
individualistic, isolated and in the process we have been trying to
insulate ourselves. Isolation we try to achieve by insulation by
which I mean, I try to not to bother about what is happening
elsewhere. I try to put an insulation tape around myself and
thereby you are trying to get yourself excluded from others but it
doesn't work and therefore this strife. So basic point that we have
to learn is that we are interdependent which is an essential factor
for getting at happiness. If we want happiness we should know the
logic of interdependency. We should know the way of
interdependency. Without knowing the value of interdependency, the
question of happiness does not arise.
So this interdependency, we have been told that
we are all brothers and sisters, I also accosted you as a brother.
If you go to a rotary club he also calls you a brother, you go to
some other communist also he says comrade which means nothing but
brother. Everybody says he is a brother of somebody else but then
the brotherhood seems to be something that has been quite elusive
we have not been able to achieve that. It seems to be more in words
than in action. We have not been able to achieve it with
philosophy, with arguments. Though we know the necessity of feeling
the brotherliness, none of us have been behaving as brothers to
each other because that demands certain amount of sharing.
Brotherhood demands certain amount of sharing so the insulation has
to go. If brotherhood has to come, insulation has to go but that we
are not prepared to. We have been told not to leave that
individuality, we have been told that we have to come up to our
optimum utilization or the best utilization or whatever it is.
This brotherhood is something that has not been
working well is a fact that if you see straight from the period of
Ramayan till today the same story is going on. The brothers were
prepared to be brothers perhaps - perhaps, I don't know. Why I am
saying perhaps also I will try to justify later if any one of you
ask, but Dasaratha chose to perform the coronation ceremony for
Rama when Bharat was not there. What made him think so I do not
know. You and I in our family also, for small matters, we all want
that all our family members should be together, for any small
function. Why is it such a great emperor missed this point that he
should invite Bharata first, after all he has gone to his
grandmother's place or grandfather's place he should have been
asked to come and then he could have fixed this. There was some
apprehension on his mind I don't know what it was and obviously
it's not an answer, there is no answer there but that is the
concept of brotherhood only. Perceived problems of brotherhood by
the parents led to Ramayana's problems, it is nothing else. The
perceived problem by Dasaratha and an apprehension by Kaikeyi that
led to the whole of Ramayan. You can't deny that. It's a problem of
brotherhood. If they were such good brothers, this problem should
not have been there and I think the husband and wife were trying to
convince each other about the other man's logic. Whatever are the
other stories behind it I am not interested.
When you come to the problem of Mahabharat, it
is again the brothers -problem of brothers. If you take into
Vali-Sugriva, again it's a problem of brothers. If you take Ravana
versus Vibhishana it's a problem of brothers. If you take the Mogul
brothers you know the Aurangazeb and company - they fought each
other and they killed each other. Our own Hindu kings have been no
better and you can see the history how each man tried to kill
others including the great Krishnadevaraya. The whole story is the
same - the story is of brotherhood.
Though everybody recognized brotherhood as a
value, brotherhood as a reality has not come. It has been elusive,
it has been evading us. The main reason for this as we understand,
as our Master puts, it is because we try to feel brotherhood with
each other individually instead of understanding the origins from
which all of us have come together. We have all come from the same
base and therefore we are brothers not because of any other reason
not because of a commonness of ideology which is governing,
communism or rotarian or any other system but the common bondage is
because of the one source from which we have all come. Now, easy
said but how do we feel this? How do we feel that we have come from
the same base. You say so, sir what is the guarantee it is? I am
questioning the existence of God Himself, where is the question of
your saying to me that we are all coming from the same base? This
is the question that is put to us. That is where we say if you look
into yourself you will know from where you have come.
Every person has stated that unless you try to
look into yourself, the antharmukha happens, unless you try to look
into inside, you are not going to gain the truth but in the process
everybody has been applying only external methods. You are asked to
think about a God or a Rama or a Krishna but then you are presented
an idol or a picture or some portrait given by somebody else which
is outside again. Instead of enabling you to see inside, it only
worsens the problem of making you see elsewhere and so my Rama is
different from your Rama. A person has got a Kodanda Rama, another
person has got Saranagata vatsala Rama - two different things. A
Kodanda Rama fights, a Saranagata vatsala gives blessings so you
can't fit them into the same place. You have got a Balakrishna, you
have got a Parthasarathy right? This is the type of concepts that
we get when we try to externalize. Though we are asked to think
about the essence of God we are also given at the same time certain
adjectives of God and these adjectives of God have become more
important to us than God Himself. This is the fundamental point
this system of yoga addresses.
Therefore we say you meditate on the Divine light in the heart
without luminosity and do not bother about any other form of God.
They are wrong, they are right, they are true, they are false is
not a matter of discussion here. The point to note is if you have
got to internalize yourself, you cannot internalize with an
external object. Some people ask us the question "why not we
meditate on the bruhmadya?", "why not we meditate on the
nasikagra?" Please note here also you are trying to externalize
your vision. You are looking out here and ultimately what is it you
are striving to get? To go inside, how do you do that? That is the
reason why SriRamchandraji Maharaj says I am not going into merits
or demerits of those systems but if you meditate on the Divine
light in the heart without luminosity it is easier for you to
achieve your goal. And why do we try to achieve this goal? So that
we understand our origins. Once I understand the origin I will be
in a better position to live with you. Till that time social
manners alone shall help me, nothing else can help me, therefore,
social customs, social manners, everything has to be followed till
you get to know what is inside. In the beginning itself if you say
I am going to get rid all of all those things, you will only be
bringing disharmony. Therefore the samanvaya is made by
RamChandraji who says do not bother about all those things continue
to do but try to look into yourself. Try to look into yourself,
into your heart thinking that there is a Divine light without
luminosity because light again means invariably some brightness.
Light unfortunately has been confused by us with luminosity, more
lumious it is, more bright it is, more valid it is. Not true,
because what happens is when it is bright you cannot see. When
something is focused straight on you cannot see what is there
behind, only this light will be seen, the source of light you will
never know. If God is the source of light and if your concentration
is on light you will never know the source you know only this. That
it is a matter of a particular kind is further argument to which I
am not going to now. As you do your sadhana you will know better but our purpose is to
go to the source and not to the expression because we are searching
the source not its expression because we ourselves are an
expression of that. You and I are expressions of the same Divine
and we have got the same right as any other expression but what we
are searching is the source and in this process if we are going to
go for manifestation, another manifestation, you have missed the
point.
So the most important point that is stressed in
this system is the meditation on the Divine light without
luminosity in the heart. The purpose for this is that we should
know the source. Why should I know the source? So that I understand
my interdependency with all. Why should I understand the
interdependency with all? Therefore I can be happy. If happiness is
my goal, if settledness is my goal, I have to understand that I
have to be interdependent. At present my energies are such that I
would like to protest, I would like to win over, I will conquer
you. No, there is no question of conquering each other. This
process will continue. The Rayalaseema strife will start. You
conquer now by annihilating somebody, that fellow conquers you
after annihilating you. Somebody else comes, this process will
continue, you will never live together. If you have to live
together in harmony, the concept of conquering does not arise, the
question of understanding arises. When can you understand? You can
understand only when you know your source. So if this is the goal
that you are keeping in mind and you start with the sadhana then there is some point otherwise there
is no point
O Master! Thou art the real goal of human life.
That's how the prayer starts and why is it I feel independent? "I
am yet but a slave of my wishes". Because of my wishes I am
independent. If my wishes are the same thing as your wishes are,
there is no independence. If common good were to govern us than the
individual good then the problem is not there. "I am yet but a
slave of my wishes" is just another way of putting I am terribly
individualistic, I am terribly feeling independent, and I would try
to make every person to work for me. Rather than all of us working
together for a common good I will ensure that all of you also serve
me, serve my interest. These are our wishes. What are our wishes?
Our wishes are always try to how to control others. I am yet but a
slave of my wishes, which is what is happening, it is stopping my
advancement. Where? to learn the interdependency. It leads me to
independence whereas I have to learn the value of interdependency
and who is to help me in this? Thou art the only God and power to
help me, "Thou art the only God and power to bring me up to that
stage". Why? Unless I know the common bond with You I will not be
in a position to see this, unless I know that I am from You and I
am not that independent, I will not be in a position to understand
his problems. Once I know You, I will be in a position to know all.
This is what from the beginning everybody has said it. Once you
know Him you will have everything else but everybody thought of
knowing Him for his own good for his own independent living that is
the mistake of traditional thinking in sadhana. Each man wanted to
become a realized soul exclusively for himself without any concern
for others. I would like to realize so I go to Himalayas, I go to
some other place, I try to live a solitary life. Solitary life -
that means what? Independence has gone to the extreme, you would
like to be totally independent of all others and just don't bother
but then creation itself is interdependency, we have all come
together to be interdependent. So the value of God, the value
initiated by God, value initiated by life process - you don't want
to use the word God, you use the life process if you want or you
use the word prana if you want
or you use the word elan vital if you want. The One for
manifestation is just trying to make us understand the value of
coexistence whereas sadhana till
recently was meant to be something that is exclusively your own.
You have nothing to do with others, I will realize, I will get into
satchidananda swaroopa and there I am lost. I am not bothered about
other peoples' existence. Such people do not live; they do not live
the life that God wanted them to live. We have to live a life of
interdependency; we have to tell the glory of God. Each one of us
have been made so very delicately by God that each one of us have
got a message to give to others. In our obsession to know about our
own greatness we are misunderstanding our own nature and we don't
understand that we have got a message to give to others. A thorn
has got a message, a flower has got its own message. Everything has
got a purpose. You and I are not meaningless creatures here. We
have a meaning whereby we can show and express our love to others,
our concern for others, concern for the welfare of others. So long
as my orientation is towards you it is possible but I have been
told all that time that I should bother about myself including
sadhana. So the sadhana that we
do is for the general good and not for our individual good and
general good is not possible without individual good and individual
good is not possible without a general good so it is something that
goes together. That's why we have been asked to live the
sahajeevana concept. It is a very tough concept.
sahanaabhavathu sahanoubhunakthu. These are all the vedic
statements. Why? Why should we live together? We have to live
together then only we will be happy. If you are living on your own
you will never be happy. That is one of the reasons perhaps why so
many sanyasis after having gone elsewhere have also turned back
again to the same society to come back to us and tell us they have
got a message to give. They have got something to tell. If he had
gone all alone, he should have gone all alone. Why should he come
back again?
A real meaning of life comes to a person only
when you live for others. This parahita and
parasukha are the basic points. Now the question is we
have been taught, we have been conditioned to think as if we are
all independent, as if our individual good is something that can be
achieved on its own, all these wrong notions have got into our head
and yes individuation is a process of life. Life individuates no
doubt about it, every cell goes on dissecting itself yes, but in
that very process it tries to coexist and if it does not then it is
called cancer. If it does not know how to coexist with others it is
called cancer. It's also growth, deserting serves growth, but we
should grow as healthy individuals. Interdependency you have to
learn, if not we become useless and I think today we have got so
many people who are suffering from that type of disease mainly
because psychically we are already affected.
So, the sadhana that we do enables us to come to this core.
It is not without any meaning we do this sadhana, not for the
Ultimate realization. What is the Ultimate realization? You have to
be a real man. A horse can be a real horse - a well trained horse,
a donkey can be a good donkey, a man can be a real man. To become a
real man is our goal. As on date we are not, we are animals. All
people are born as animals only, animal passions govern us, animal
thinking, animal needs and animal urges. Whole of civilization has
gone into this process of how to make this animal behaviour more
acceptable in society. Otherwise every one of us would be eating
like dogs, fighting for food. Such behavior of certain people who
grab the food - you must have seen yourself and you would have made
your own remarks saying that see this funny fellow he behaves like
that. Nothing new, it happens, the animality in man is such that it
is observed by us more but then we take pleasure in pointing out
others rather than looking at ourselves and how many times we have
been animals ourselves. More so with reference to the greater
urges. Apart from food, the other physiological needs are there
where you became really animals. Yes, how to regulate it? How to
regulate yourself? And that was the exercises of civilization for
the past ten thousand years and the system of family, system of
joint family are all based on these concepts. Today family groups
are being questioned, where people are questioning the institution
of marriage itself. Those of you who are aware of what is happening
in the other part of the globe know the institution of marriage
itself is threatened now because we don't want to regulate our
urges, we don't want to behave in a civilized manner. We do not
think of a common good. This is the problem today and unless you
know your source you will never be in a position to, that was the
greatness of our earlier seers. Family system was more prominent
and joint family system is I think is the unique privilege of this
country only where we have understood the value of sharing, the
value of cooperation, the value of tolerance. These were all social
values that we have developed, all these things are now questioned
and that is the reason why you are restless, your restlessness is
the direct result of trying to disturb the balance which has been
achieved. Internally you know that is the balance that is required,
the inputs today are different, you are not able to match these two
so you should get back to your moors, you should know your common
ground and that is the reason why we require a sadhana.
Now, so far, I said only one thing about the
goal and also the means given by SriRamchandraji Maharaj as
meditation on the Divine light in the heart, but that is not
enough. The system of Sri RamChandra's Rajayoga goes far far above this. This is the
beginning, second thing is how to control my urges? True sir, as
you say I am an animal agreed but how to control this? True you say
that I have been talking all sorts of things aggressively,
selfishly etc all these agreed but then how to better myself? Is
there a method by which I can do this? Is there a way or otherwise
is it just one more lecture that you are giving and asking us to
go? We have been hearing lectures, we can continue to be hearing
lectures. Do good, be kind, do not steal, do not bluff, do not
covet another man's property, do not fight. We have been hearing,
but then how to achieve this? I am unfortunately victim of that,
what am I to do? If you put these questions there is no answer,
everybody says you struggle, you somehow try to control, you try to
do this, you try to take certain exercises, be away from such
things. Negativistic thinking starts but then it will not fit into
the modern world. So two methods of meditation have been
prescribed; there is a point located in our chest region which we
call "A" and another point which is located in the same chest
region called "B". If you meditate on point A you get certain
advantages, if you meditate on point B you get certain other
advantages. One is meant to control your urges and another one is
essentially meant to develop the ekagravritti.
So if have you got to see the animality in you
is reduced you have got to meditate on point A thinking what? All
the people in this world are brothers and sisters and that they are
developing true love and devotion towards God. It is not you who is
object of attention here in this particular meditation. In that
point you meditate thinking that all the people in this world are
your brothers and sisters and that they are developing true love
and devotion to God/Master, put it whatever you like. This when
practiced develops into what we call, the love, universal love, if
you try to put the other way first universal love and then I will
come to this we will never be in a position to practice that. So we
have to consciously develop our mind to think that all the people
are improving spiritually, it's a great sacrifice, it is a great
exercise of your mind, it is a bit of a yajna actually where you
are using your mental power for the good of others. Thought has got
its own capacity, so your thought will be in a position to
influence others. Does it, does it not ? Whether it does in the
others or not, first of all it develops you, this we have seen. We
have experienced the changes in ourselves that we tend to develop
certain spiritual characteristics of tolerance, of more and more of
concern for other people. This is what we have seen in ourselves
developing, but the argument mainly is that all of us will be in a
position to move towards that direction. So this has been variously
discussed by Buddha, by Jain, every saint has mentioned the
importance of this universal brotherhood or universal peace, latest
of course is even Aurobindonian's logic of universal love, unity,
human unity, all these things are based on this, human unity is
another point that we have got to understand. How to develop that
they have not said, how to develop that is said in this system. You
practice it, you will see the change; you don't practice it
,naturally you don't get it, there is no complaint afterwards.
Whenever you follow a thing you must follow it fully, see whether
the result is coming or not then you should continue. If the result
is not coming, you can definitely stop. That is the type of
challenge with which SriRamchandraji Maharaj comes forward so the
same challenge is passed onto you, meditation on the points 'A' and
'B'.
This diversion of the flow of consciousness from
the lower realms to the higher realms is again another significant
practice that is done in the system, which you will see for
yourself. How this is made possible? This is made possible by the
influx of the Divine grace called Pranahuti, a very unique process.
The influx of the Divine which you feel in your heart during the
process of introduction continues, sometimes more consciously,
sometimes less consciously but always there. It is this assistance
from the Master that is the exclusive characteristic of the system
of Sri RamChandra's Rajayoga
about which we do not find elsewhere any talk. This naturally leads
to two more concepts of having a satsang and also having what we
call an individual sitting. Every abhyasi is asked to take individually sittings from
a trainer, whoever is the trainer, at regular intervals so that
your path is properly delineated and you progress in the desired
lines. So this continuous monitoring and help is something that is
exclusive to Sri RamChandra's Rajayoga and not had anywhere else. Satsangs many
people have. Satsangs invariably meant bhajans, keerthans etc
things and also certain amount of prayer for about 5 to 10 minutes
of meditation. Some places it is 15 minutes, sometimes it is less
or whatever it is, I am not going into other systems. Satsang here
we always say is keeping company with the sat that is the Ultimate consciousness. Satsangis
meeting together doesn't form a satsang as such. Only when you keep
company with the Divine then it can be called satsang. This is
achieved through of course a common effort also, all of us join
together once in a week, may be more, there may be other occasions
of the birthdays of the Masters when we meet, where we feel the
grace of the Master flowing and all of us feeling in the same wave
length. So this type of constant watch and monitoring is another
uniqueness of the system as compared to other systems where you
have got an introduction and afterwards you are on your own, may be
a mantra is given to you and then you are asked to be with that
mantra, proceed further and the mantra guides you further that is
what they say. Bhajans and keerthans are generally not advocated
here because as I told you in the beginning itself when you try to
externalize your senses you cannot go to the internal. We started
with the visual thing so when it comes to auditory thing it is your
bhajan and keerthan, or your own mouth also, you can put it your
voice also. So long as these are all sensory oriented Na Tatra
Vak Gacchati Na Mano Na Vijno Na Vijanimo will not make any
sense. When we say it is something beyond all the senses, if you
are going to say that I will try to go through the senses you are
not going to achieve that. The means and the ends must justify
themselves. So that is the reason why we do not give importance to
it, it does not mean thereby that I do not have my own ways of
singing to my Master. They are all individual, your own sadhana, we
do not try to propagate it to others for the simple reason it is my
way of crying. Each one of us cry in our own way, we pray to God,
another way of putting the word crying. Prayer to God has always
been a matter of crying. Instead of prayer I think most of the time
we will be justified in putting it as crying. We really cry, most
of us, when we go to God or when we think about God, we have got
some problem, we cry. If it is just like child, you simply cry you
do not even express your ideas, when you are an adult you have got
certain words to cry. So prayers for me always meant only crying
but when you don't cry and still pray then that is prayer.
When you know that the mother is there by your
side you don't cry - when you are a child, when you become simple,
when you become innocent. The moment you are independent and think
that you are intelligent then you would like to make noise. You
will try to demand and prayers have always been questions that we
have got or problems that we got along with the answer suggested to
God to implement them. You have got both the question and answer
given to God and then His job is to implement those answers, you
simply don't give a question to Him. What the mother would like to
give, you are not prepared to wait for it, you also suggest what
should be the thing that should be given to you. I have a problem
and this problem should be sorted out like this. So you have a
question, you have an answer, no choices for Him and that He must
implement, if He does not implement He is not God, if He implements
He is God, this is the way in which our mind is going. So you have
got all sorts of songs coming up and then you also say like Ramdas,
great saint, several things. For everything you have got an answer,
so the poor person here is not just given a question, an answer
also is given. This is the unfortunate level to which prayers have
come but true prayer is one like an innocent child who simply does
not know anything about it and is fed by the mother as and when it
is necessary and to the extent that is necessary. It is never over
fed, it is never under fed, no mother does it but that innocence is
what we have lost and if you keep the company of the Divine
continuously as we try to do then such an innocence is possible
then it is something you can see for yourself. By evaluating your
own prayers you can see whether you have grown spiritually or not.
You don't have to ask somebody else whether you have grown or not,
you evaluate your own prayers then you will see whether you have
grown or not. Whenever you have got a question and an answer given
to Him that means you are not grown much, only thing you have
learnt is you know that there is a God, to that extent you have
grown. Later on as you grow, you try to give up this answer
business, tell only the question and there were certain great
saints who said that it is blasphemous to tell our problems to God,
they called it blasphemous. The reason is, He is omniscient and He
knows everything why do you tell Him. He knows, why do you tell
Him, why do you insult Him. They took it as an insult to God to
tell your problems. Now, our level is not only we tell our
problems, we also tell our solutions lest He give some other
solution for the problem. So this is the present level of
degradation where the mind is in a vikshipta condition. As
I told you, prayers are in vikshipta condition, then it
goes on moving more and more towards God, then it develops
ekagravritti oriented towards God and then even that you
afterwards neither beg, you don't ask anything but you would like
to be in the company of the Divine, that type of prayer
develops.
Prayer is a very very interesting subject where
I always say, the first attitude that we should develop is we
should pray to God that we should pray. First of all we should pray
to God, for what? That we should pray because most of the time we
do not pray, we demand, and we have to continue to pray. The next
prayer is, first of all we should be enabled to pray, but our
ahankar is such that we do not ask. So this prayer, most of us
would not like to pray. Given an opportunity I will solve the
problem myself and we go to the extent of saying I would not like
to trouble God about all these things because your competence makes
you feel so. Your competence makes you feel that you can solve the
problem yourself and you don't remember God at all. Only when the
problem is beyond you then you start thinking in terms of seeking
help in prayer, as against the original thinking in this country -
for any action that you do first of all you seek the blessings of
the God and then only proceed, that is the level at which we were,
that is whatever you do it is only prayer. First we pray and then
we do, perform anything, but that attitude we have lost, now we are
very very competent people, we try to do, only when we know we are
not competent then we start praying for help, or replacement of our
efforts by His. First supporting your effort, then replacement of
effort i.e. first time you try to study well for the examination,
you don't remember certain things therefore you seek God's help
that I may remember all these things in the examination hall. The
other fellow who has got a perfect memory he doesn't seek that,
this fellow seeks. Third category of persons are there who do not
make any effort at reading but then go to the temple everyday
asking God to enable this fellow to pass the examination, that is
all the prayer. The prayer is, there is no effort there, totally
replaced, your efforts are to be replaced by His. Stories are
there, people must have got relief or perhaps did not get I do not
know but that is the level to which the prayers have come.
Prayers have never been that yielding to the
Divine and unless it comes to the level of yielding to the Divine
as SriRamchandraji Maharaj puts it, you will not be in a position
to proceed further. You are a slave of your wishes, this you should
understand. my independence is a problem, my interdependency is
reality. So we always sought the blessings of the Divine before we
started with the work. All your sankalpas were also only meant for
that. Now a days we don't do, only when it's in the critical stage
we either go to the government hospital or go to God. In both the
cases we fail. Last resort is the general hospital, last resort is
God/temple, both the cases we fail, we do not succeed and we blame
the hospital or the God, not our efforts. The prayer has come to a
peculiar stage now when we really don't pray but we think we pray
but prayer should be such that we should ask for an attitude of
prayer itself to come. Unless it comes, you will not be in a
position to say that you are stabilized in prayer. So this prayer
helps us to develop that type of submissiveness to the Divine and
we come to the conclusion that I am not all that very competent. I
am competent, I will do but I am not all that very competent
because there are certain instances where you find extraneous
circumstances effecting it so we try to see that it is not there.
So the sadhana aspect of it is
so tough mainly because we do not want to leave our
individuality.
So the system which enables us to come to a
point A and meditate also says along with it that you should pray.
Prayer gives you that submissiveness, makes you feel a bit less so
that the influx of the Divine is possible, otherwise it does not
work. Prayer never works unless you feel humble. Prayer in the
sense of I will do this yantra, this mantra or this yaga and
therefore the result should come have not been all that very
successful. Yielding to the Divine has always helped us, prayer
which yields to the Divine helps you. So when will you develop this
yielding attitude? Only when we definitely know that there is
something above us. This is a fundamental point and this you will
never know unless you practice yourself and practice helps you.
One more very significant thing about the system
of Sri RamChandra's Rajayoga
is the cleaning process. We have developed our samskaras by will,
by sankalpa. I wanted to do certain things, I have done those
things and my mind is attached to it. You want to get rid of it,
the same mind has to be used for it. You are the cause for that
particular formation of the samskara. You should be, your own mind
should be the one which enables you to get rid of it, so the
cleaning aspect of it is also there. Once you do all these things
what is it I get sir? What is it I get? You get to know in your own
physical frame there are many other higher aspirations coming up
immediately. The moment your heart is clean, automatically the call
of the atman is there and then
your mind moves towards that and from there once you know your self
then you also develop the true bakthi behind it. In the beginning
is there no bhakthi? Definitely not, in the beginning your bhakthi
is terribly self centered. You develop the bakthi to go to a temple
only because you wanted some relief. You like a Lalitha because she
is supposed to give something, you like some other God because He
gives. Oriented to ourselves, we have got certain petty prayers to
give, petitions to give and those petitions when they are answered,
we feel we are devoted and when we are not, that God is given up
and we go to another God but that is not true love, that is loving
yourself. True love to God develops only when your prayer is
stabilized namely that all other people are developing true love
and devotion towards God. When your prayer can come to that stage,
instead of your saying that you are developing true love to God, if
you can say that other people are developing true love towards God,
if your mind can be settled on that idea, then you can say that you
became a bhaktha because the basic purpose of bhakthi is to tell
the greatness of God to others. Purpose of bhakthi is to enable
other people to understand the greatness of God, not for yourself,
but bhakthi as today understood or preached is something that is
meant for you, it will give you this, it will give you that. So,
here instead of using the word Shraddha we are using the word bhakthi. In the
beginning we should use the word Shraddha not bhakthi. Shraddha enables you to do a particular thing with
certain amount of seriousness, commitment. You should at least see
that you solve your problem, that Sraddha takes you to some stage,
but bhakthi is something that is meant for others. Once you come to
that stage, you will be in a position to see how helpless you are
to pass on that message. It's a cry of a devotee that enables you
to understand the helplessness. In the beginning the helplessness
that 'I am helpless sir', 'I am not able to help myself' etc
things, seeking refuge as Vibhishana has done or Gaya. So all these
people have also said it is saranagati but they are only seeking
refuge for their problem but real saranya is one who finds it very
difficult to pass on the message of God to others. Bhakthi when he
is not able to tell to others then he becomes really helpless he
does not know what to do. Aho janaha! vyasanabhimukhyam, aho
janaha! vyasanabhimukhyam i.e, for these people the vyasanas
have become important for them, they don't think about You.
Vaktum samarto api he talks about names of God and he says
, Vakthum samarto api na vakthi kaschi. Though people are capable
of singing your praise they don't do. aho janaha
vyasanabhimukhyam, that's the cry and that is the real
surrender.
Real surrender is one when a man is unable to
tell what he has got in his heart to tell others and that is the
state in which most of us have been compelled to live in the
present life. You have a message to pass on but nobody is prepared
to hear you, they laugh at you or they scoff at you. It is against
that background only in the beginning I said I am happy that you
have all responded because it is difficult to find some people to
whom you can talk about God today. I can talk about yourself, I can
that when you go this particular temple sir you get such and such
relief yes you immediately accept, I say that do this mantra so and
so you will get this relief yes you will get it, you will get
enough number of people, by doing this you get some physical
advantages, some material advantages, yes they will but then if I
am going to say that you try to love God, try to live in spirit of
brotherhood, you try to live in a spirit of service or tolerance,
it is very difficult to find people today to hear that. The reason
is we have become so insulated and isolated. It's against this
backdrop that I always analyze the amount of opportunity you give
us to tell about this message because here we are not asking you to
believe that we are going to give you some comfort, no surely not.
You will get relieved of your problems, no, I don't suggest this,
my Master never said it. You may, you may not, that is all the
grace of God we don't bother but what you should learn is that we
are all here to live together and then we have got to share the
common interest, common interest of God that we all should be
happy. God never wants us to be unhappy, we have made ourselves
unhappy by our own exclusive concern for ourselves by our actions.
So under this backdrop if you see, the real devotion leads us to
this type of surrender, we really feel helpless. It is not showing
our greatness to you, it is showing your greatness. Your greatness
is to become one with the Master, you are capable of being Masters,
you are Masters of your own destiny, by your own thinking you have
become like this, so change your thinking you will be Masters in
your own way and happiness can be the only goal to which you and I
can aspire for. There is nothing more of the message from my Master
that I can give you.
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