Thursday, April 2, 2020
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan- April.1.
Associates Greatly Influence One's Life
The kind of persons we associate with, greatly influences us. Their influence affects and moulds us very greatly, and almost unknowingly. Persons going by different conveyances travel automatically at the respective speeds of the vehicles. When we travel by a railway train, we cannot control who should take the next seat. If he be a smoker or a tobacco-chewer, we must tolerate him even if we have a nausea for tobacco. Undesirable or bad company is thus troublesome, often even debasing. On the other hand, the company of the good is always profitable, elevating, promoting beneficent desires and noble thoughts.
A sannyasin may be living under the shelter of a tree, and without food. Anyone who goes to him there must partake of the same shelter, and go without food like him. Suppose one went to Saint Ramadas; he would ask the visitor, too, to accompany him with the begging bowl and go to solicit food in the neighbourhood. If, however, a person visits a saint who is a householder, he will see to it that the visitor is fed.
Food carries with it a trace of the desire of the person who provides that food; so we should even request if necessary, for food in a saint's place. It is not easy to keep in constant physical company of a saint, for we may be living away from his residence; even otherwise, busy as we are, working to make a living, how much time can we spare for his company? But one can be assured of beneficial company in the form of nama-smarana anywhere and at any time.
Desire cannot be satiated by indulging it, but only by living in God. Peace of heart will only come when we feel convinced that everything takes place at His will, and therefore, we should not expect or desire for a particular result. Only then can we attain complete surrender to God.
If we repeat the holy name while keeping in the company of the good, we certainly get free from the shackles of 'the-body-am-I' feeling. The food eaten in different countries may vary, but the water needed to digest it is the same all over the world; similarly, whatever the method of worship one follows, it does not come to fruition without nama. Therefore take to nama in all earnestness.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan- March.31.
Reform Yourself, the World Improves to that Extent
We consider ourselves to be the sole doer of everything, and grieve if eventually we come by misery. What is the ground for boasting 'I have done it' when I cannot be sure of the result beforehand? Even to say that 'I dedicate every action to God' nurtures pride. There are many persons of God-fearing conduct, but they too, are not free from the pride of doership. Really speaking, we cannot become spiritual merely by doing even noble deeds; to realize that one is not the true doer is the key to success in spiritualism. A man lands himself into pleasure and pain by vainly assuming doership. We should rise above both of these by ascribing doership to God, to whom it belongs in reality.
It is quite often presumed that a prisoner who feels happy in the confines of his cell must be really happy. Are we not like that prisoner if we think there is nothing beyond the body, and seek pleasure in sense-objects? But just as the prisoner will no longer feel pleasure in his cell once he breathes the free air outside, one who has tasted the supreme bliss that is God, will attach no value to sense-pleasures.! Perhaps today we cannot purge the mind of sense-pleasures, but it does not mean that we cannot turn it to God at all. We should coax the mind just as we pat a shy horse. We should tactfully bridle the mind when it tries to deviate from the correct path. Nama-smarana, to which we are today disinclined, should be forced on the mind, and thereby the mind should be weaned from the sense-pleasures which it cherishes today.
We manage to surmount difficulties in worldly life; why, then, should we be afraid of impediments we come across in spiritual life? If discerning thought cannot make us happy in the present circumstances, we can never hope to be happy.
Can one succeed in the spiritual quest merely by retiring to mountains and caves? Were it so, even monkeys could have achieved it. The lower animals are unable to restrain their passions; but man can discriminate between good and bad; this is a special gift of God to mankind.
Do not bother to reform the world; that is a task for great souls. Reform yourself, and the world is reformed to that extent.
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