Thursday, January 9, 2020
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
Sri Brahmachaithanya pravachan -jan.8
Constant Association will Create Love for Nama
When her child falls ill, the mother becomes anxious, and loses even appetite and sleep. In short, she becomes totally restless. Do we feel similar restlessness at even a small impediment in the chanting of nama? It is necessary to chant nama with the firm conviction that it is our natural and prime duty, that to live without it is like being dead, that our supreme interest lies in chanting nama, nay, that we are born solely to chant nama and ultimately to become one with it. If this is done, love for nama will inevitably come. That we do not develop love for nama only indicates that we do not chant it with the requisite conviction and zeal. The sole remedy for this is to chant it resolutely and with perseverance, in whatever manner one can. Such practice of nama alone will gradually lead us to the goal. He who waits for more favourable circumstances to chant nama will never begin at all.
Nama may be chanted aloud; or mutely, operating the lips and the, tongue but without voicing; or again, altogether silently, mentally. Living in nama purifies the heart; and in a pure heart springs love for God. It is essential to chant nama with love which is born of judicious thinking and conviction, rather than merely in profusion by rote. Love for nama is, as a matter of fact, inherent in it. Just as butter in milk or curds is not visible but rises to the surface on churning, so also love for God becomes perceptible on chanting nama. Even ordinary words affect the mind and evoke feelings; then, will not chanting of nama evoke love for God? So, to begin with, try to spend all your "spare" time in chanting nama.
We feel attachment even for' a house in which we have lived for a long time. Love for nama will be similarly evoked by constant association with it. Maintain awareness of Him as you sit or act, talk or walk.
An addict to a narcotic needs progressively larger doses to get a "kick" out of it. We should similarly become "addicted" to nama. Every worthwhile thing calls for considerable effort to achieve it; but there is no means comparable to nama for achieving so much for so little and with such ease. So keep your mind ever attached to nama.
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Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-Jan.7
Ardent Longing Necessary for Love of Nama
Most aspirants wonder why they are unable to develop real fondness for nama. A little thought will, however, show that the question is itself incorrect. It is like a question by a woman who has not yet borne a child, "How can I experience maternal love?" Maternal love, as everyone knows, comes naturally to a woman who bears a child. The correct question to ask would therefore be, how the woman will bear a child. Similarly, an aspirant should ask how a desire to chant or meditate on nama will be created. Who, really, prevents us from chanting it? None, indeed, but we ourselves. Really speaking, all that we have to do is to resolve to chant nama and begin to do it. It is our duty to practise nama, and love for it will naturally follow. Just as, for a woman, her child and natural maternal love are inseparable, so, too, love for nama is inherent in the practice of it. If we do not experience love for nama, the evident reason is that we do not repeat it with the requisite earnestness.
"But", a sadhaka may argue, "I do repeat nama and yet do not experience love for it. Why is this so?" If we honestly and thoroughly search within ourselves, we discover that we do not repeat nama with real sincerity. We do it only superficially, not at all from the heart. We repeat nama solely because the sadguru or the saints ask us to do it, or even merely as a recreation or occupation for an idle mind. Of course, even so, nama will do its job. We should have intense yearning for nama, as a mother has for her firstborn after years of childlessness.
An earnest sadhaka should keep himself aloof from women. Even a siddha should remain away from women, although he is mentally detached. Spiritual development should be natural and unconscious, like that of the body. In the spiritual quest, to preserve and maintain what is achieved is even more difficult than the achievement itself. A sadhaka should never entertain the idea that he has achieved something; one who entertains that notion has, in reality, achieved nothing.
A woman should not give up nama-smarana even if the husband does not favour it, nor need she fear that she is thereby transgressing the limits of marital duty.
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