Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-May 13

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-May 13

Sri Brahmachaithanya Pravachan-May.12.

Maintain Mental Equilibrium
Humility is a quality that manifests itself mainly through physical action. While trying for self-betterment or advancement, due regard should be paid to the merit or worthiness of others. Hypocrisy resides primarily in the mind. It should be employed only for a good purpose such as covering one's own nobility or greatness of heart. Ahimsa, or abstinence from mental or physical violence to others, is a quality that pertains to both the mind and body. It should be judged by the motive that prompts the action. Speech should be controlled so as not to hurt another's heart, and in action one should avoid causing bodily injury. To allude to or lay bare another's fault or shortcoming is meanness of mind. Hankering after popular esteem ruins a single life, but hypocrisy and violence ruin several lives. Hatred leads to violence, so we should never harbour a grudge or hatred in our heart. All passions are inimical to the attainment of God, but of them, enmity and hatred are the worst. Selfishness generates hatred; nama is the most potent antidote to selfishness.
The human tongue has a twofold function: speaking, and eating. We should employ the tongue to tell the truth and to talk gently, pleasantly, neither harshly, nor to teach others, nor to brag. Regarding the other function, namely, eating, the tongue should be used with great restraint. We should purify the heart, and attempt to practise the good qualities which the saints' behaviour exhibits.
Where pride or vaingloriousness threatens to attack, it should immediately be countered by nama-smarana. An evil thought or tendency should be immediately opposed by remembrance of nama. The Cosmic Spirit was no less immanent in the demon Hiranyakashyapu than in any other creation, but it was hidden to himself owing to his swagger, like a field with an overgrown hedge. The Lord had therefore to manifest Himself in a very unlikely place, the wooden post which he kicked to spite Him. So we should hold pride severely in its limit. Be proud that you belong to Rama, so that you do nothing unbecoming. Prahlad did not say that he would like to see God, but he insisted that he would not give up the nama. We, too, should similarly adhere steadfastly to the nama.
* * * * *

Sri Maharaja's Pravachan in Marathi - May.12

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-May.12

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-May 12

Sri Brahmachaitanya Pravachan-May 11.

Read Little, but Bring it into Practice
Many people have a consuming passion for acquiring "knowledge", and they feel unhappy if they cannot indulge this restless obsession, which amounts almost to an addiction. An opium-eater does not feel satiated until he is stupefied by the drug. He needs an increasingly large dose to create that feeling of satiation, until, at last, he needs lethal quantities. The passion for "knowledge" has a similar career. One may thus spend the whole life-time in acquiring "knowledge", without ever putting an iota of it into practice; what is the net gain of this?
It takes less than half an hour to eat a full meal, but five to six hours to digest it. If a man merely keeps eating, he will evidently have indigestion, lose his health, and eventually even succumb to death. Such, too, is the case with mere voracious reading to what one can put into practice. Self-improvement cannot be effected by mere reading nor even by understanding a subject, but by practising it in life. We should therefore attach importance to practical application rather than mere academic understanding. True philosophy aims at broadening the mind and outlook, eradicating our selfishness, and replacing it by selflessness. Principles of philosophy are not a matter of mere postulation, but are to be demonstrated by practising in life.
A material thing can at the most be a means of happiness, but we delude ourselves and treat it as happiness itself. As a result, instead of trying to be happy with things that we have, we endeavour to obtain more and more things, and only make ourselves more unhappy. Uncertainty of success makes us anxious and miserable in the beginning; during the endeavour, the travails of the effort make us miserable; in the end, we are frustrated if the expected result does not follow; while if we do realize the expectation, fresh hopes and expectations arise and kill the joy of realization. In brief, we thus suffer unhappiness throughout. On the other hand, if we work without entertaining any expectation, the very act of working becomes its own reward and gives us satisfaction. It is for this reason that saints unanimously affirm that the spiritual quest is like a cash transaction, not one with deferred and uncertain payment.
* * * * *