Monday, October 7, 2019
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.6.
Reach Blissful Divinity Through Saguna Worship
It is true that the Divinity is, in the ultimate analysis, limitless, non-attributive, and purely blissful. It can, however, be attained only through loving and worshipping the tangible form. It is for this reason that Shree Samartha has advocated that a true devotee should understand the attributeless form but continue to love and worship the tangible form, an idol.
An eternal truth must be peaceful and blissful; and the Cosmic Reality certainly has these features. It created the universe, and pervades it. Creation, therefore, must necessarily be full of peace and bliss. It is a delusion if I find it otherwise. To be able to see, there must be an outer eye backed by proper power of vision; that is, both are necessary. Similar is the relation between the formless, attributeless Cosmic Reality and the tangible form, the idol.
The Cosmic Reality is the eternal truth; this creation is pervaded by that Reality. The Lord desires peace throughout creation. Now this peace cannot be a product of circumstances. It should be intrinsic. Peace must exist where there is no duality. So he realizes peace whose mind is focused on the single point, the Lord, his circumstances notwithstanding. Activity in the world entails misery of one kind or another, but the pursuit of God yields one and only one kind of experience, namely, blissfulness. Constant chanting of nama is the only means to that end.
If we want to attain God, who is the pinnacle of sattva-guna, we, too, must first imbibe it thoroughly, must get saturated with it. A sick person must be careful in three respects: he must avoid unwholesome food, take the prescribed diet, and take the prescribed medicine in specified quantities at the specified timings. Similarly, one who wants to get free of the clutches of the cycle of births and deaths, will have to be careful in three regards: first, avoid the contra-indicated things such as bad company, immoral conduct, indifference to religion, falsehood, hatred, jealousy, etc; secondly, carefully cultivate conducive things such as association with the saintly, righteous thoughts, reading sacred books, righteous behaviour; and thirdly, chant nama ceaselessly. Love and worship the tangible form of God, and earn the eternal bliss that is characteristic of Ultimate Reality.
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Saturday, October 5, 2019
Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.5
Vanquishing Pride is True Sacrifice
Can we describe the colour of water? God is, likewise, indescribable. His appearance is like what you imagine Him. We see Him according to the magnitudes and proportions of our various passions. The more mitigated one's passions, the nearer one is to the true perception of Him. It is unwise to ask how a single Rama can be perceptible to many at the same time, for He is omnipresent, subtly inherent in all creation.
The Ultimate Reality is neither born nor dies; it exists everywhere, timelessly. Why, then, some may ask, celebrate His birthday? It is like this: some children were rollicking in the hall of the house, unaware that grandpa was at home and in the adjoining room; he just cleared his throat aloud, and that made the boisterous boys aware and silent. So, too, by celebrating a specific day annually as His birthday, we only re-awaken ourselves periodically that God is omnipresent; with this consciousness ever fresh in the mind, we shall indulge our senses and passions with some regulation, not licentiously.
That Universal Reality which even the vedas gave up the attempt to describe, the saints succeeded in attaining, and so brought Him within ken, made Him tangible, by giving Him a certain form, name, habitation. In our state today, we need to pray to such a tangible deity, in order to attain the blissfulness which lies with only the Cosmic Spirit.
Mere erudition leads to pride, and consequently not to God, to whom any sense of separateness is intolerable. In fact, true sacrifice calls for complete annihilation of separateness and the consequent pride. The proper purity of heart will come about by always acting without consideration of self altogether. Thus to shed all idea of a separate, individual self, is the true essence of sacrifice.
Only he who has recognition of his own true self realizes God, by expanding his identity to include the entire creation. Man's real importance, uniqueness, lies in resisting passions. Mere abstract morality is like an orphan, unless founded on the concept of a Supreme Being. Paramartha consists in a morally impeccable conduct, treating everyone with love, helping others, and chanting nama incessantly; and this everyone should sincerely pursue.
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