Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-Sept.4.

Be Prideless to Achieve Devotion

Vritti or impulse is only a reaction to the impact of the external world on us; It may be pleasure, pain, pride, desire, avarice, etc. It is the real spiritual task to keep this vritti steady. Diversion of vritti towards God amounts to devotion. Devotion to God results in the vanishing of sensuous attraction. Devotion is quite natural. Every one wants it, because devotion means fondness, and everyone is fond of something or other. However, devotion is not possible without becoming prideless, and you cannot attain God without devotion. No one except God Himself can give His love. The devotee and God are not separate. Therefore, just as God is omnipresent, the devotee is also present everywhere. The devotee gets merged into God, and therefore, like God, sees nothing but bliss everywhere. It is the essence of the spiritual path to realize and practise the feeling, 'I do no exist, You (God) alone exist' or 'I am He (God)'; and the only means to achieve this is maintaining continuous awareness of God.
There is only one way available at present to realize God, and that is to remain in His name. Just as the Ganga remains sacred in spite of a number of rivulets and currents pouring their flows into its waters, our prapancha also, howsoever dirty it may be, could stand clean and pure, if we keep constant remembrance of God. There is no alternative to nama-smarana. To renounce all that leads to forgetting God is vairagya, and to follow only such things which help in remembering God is viveka. Rama is really steelhearted in the matter of duties, but at the same time, He is equally tender-hearted towards his devotees. He abandoned Seeta for the sake of duty, while He protected Bharata due to His love for devotees.
Out of my advice to you, whatever you may practise, that alone will come to your help. All of you should practise nama-smarana; there is no other path of your welfare. If there is anything which is naturally available to you, which is devoid of any upadhi, and which does not depend on anyone, it is nama. Rama will certainly bless him who takes it with a pure mind and heart.



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