Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Tuesday, July 2, 2019
Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-July.2
True Service to the Guru
What after all, is the object of meditation, prayer, religious mortification, rules, sacrifices, etc. ? The attainment of God, or guru. If He Himself comes to you, where is the need for all the effort of sadhanas? Not only is all that not required but, if undertaken, it may only lead to pride of doership, which will actually injure the purpose. Now that you have submitted to guru, accept with gladness whatever happens, treating everything as his doing and will. See my hand in everything that happens, everything you do.
What do you think is real devotion to the guru? It does not consist only in bodily service, but, in implicit obedience to him. Of those who come to me, most have in their mind some worldly object --like financial betterment, a child, cure from illness, and so on. In effect, they come not to serve but to be served. You should come not for having a worldly desire fulfilled, but to seek the true fruition of human life. Occasionally I may grant a little of what a disciple desires, but it may be only like beguiling a child with candy to make it take a medicine.
That you ascribe omniscience to me is only superficial; if it were earnest, you would take care to do nothing underhand or sinful. Only he who has completely identified himself with me can really feel that I am truly omniscient. Surrendering yourself to the guru implies, nay, necessitates, that your mind completely merges with mine; if you achieve that you are in effect with me even if you are physically away, at a distance. I would like you to be free and frank with me, like a child with its mother. Open your heart to me. What trouble and expense you undergo to come here to meet me! And yet, when you return 'home', you go with empty hands; and it is this that pains me most. What you have really to pick up from me is love for God; and this is what you cannot obtain elsewhere.
True relief from the toils of prapancha can only come from nama-smarana. He who wants to meet me, be with me, must come with the utmost regard for nama; indeed, to love me is to love nama, and vice versa.
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Monday, July 1, 2019
Sri Brahmachaitanya Pravachan - July.1.
The Need for a Guru
The need for some kind of guide or guru is often felt even in this obvious, everyday world; how, then, can we dispute the need for a guru in the abstract and unknown field of spiritual knowledge? One who has had to bear the ups and downs of fortune, and has failed to discover genuine contentment in life, alone will yearn for someone to guide him, will earnestly look for a guru. The need for a guru arises only for him who knows the bitter side of life. One who pines for guidance is a worthy disciple; he who becomes aware of his own ignorance and incapacity can alone be really in search for a guru.
A person may argue that he does not follow the wrong or forbidden path, and does repeat the Lord's name, and therefore, needs no guru. The answer is that, even so, he does need a guru to preclude the rise of the feeling of doership in sadhana itself, because even a trace of such feeling strikes at the very root of spiritualism; indeed, spiritualism means acknowledging God as the sole power and doer. Saint Namadeo could converse with God, but even he was asked to surrender himself to a guru to remove the last barrier to his complete emancipation.
There is a general tendency to call a person a saint if he performs some miracle or arranges to have some mundane desire granted. A saint cannot be recognized merely from his appearance, dress, or even physical action. Only he can adjudge a saint who sees God in everything. We can call him a saint who purges the mind of mundane feelings and expectations.
Who can be called a true disciple? One who genuinely pines to find God, and treats the guru as the sole means to attain God; he thinks of the guru as his religion, his all in all, and never transgresses the guru's command, committing himself entirely to the guru's care.
Endless are the shastras and the vedas. The length of human life and its capacities are too limited to cope with them and grasp their teaching. The sadguru, the saints, have given us their cream in the form of nama as the sadhana; if we assiduously apply ourselves to nama, love for God is bound to arise. Let us take to it and live happily.
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