Sunday, October 13, 2019
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct 12.
To See God in Everything is True Devotion
The five basic elements arose from God. If we analyse miracles we shall find that they are but manipulations of the five fundamental elements with the extraordinary potency of God. Man is endowed with all potentialities of God. The Lord created the universe and is the natural proprietor of it. It is by His will and power that all affairs are conducted. We, all living things, are part of Him. So we should carry out our duties, and leave the result to His scheme and will. A question may be raised here: If everything is happening according to His will, why should I not consider my desire also to be by His will and give it full play? The question would be similar to asking, who causes darkness in the night? The evident answer is, the same sun that brings light during daytime. The catch is that in this case it is the presence of the sun, whereas the darkness at night is owing to his absence. Similarly, one may ascribe his desire to the will of God, only, it is owing to disregard of it. Briefly, then, one may say that my desire arises when I forget God. So one who aspires to realize God should remember Him and dedicate the sensory desire at His feet.
God can be attained as soon as the 'body-am-I' feeling vanishes. Just as a blue-print represents full-size structure, the idol represents the Cosmic Spirit in a concrete form. The construction of an edifice is facilitated by the blue-print. Contemplation should therefore be of a concrete idol, not of the attributeless abstract. Some people object to this. What else, I ask, can one do so long as one has the awareness of one's own body in a material form? To say that one belongs to Rama amounts to saying that one is the Ultimate Reality itself. Saying that the creation is unreal really means that it is not what it seems.
To be able to see the Ultimate Reality in everything is the culmination of devotion. So learn to be aware of the constant presence of God everywhere, all the time. Never think that God is away from you. Treat your body as having the attainment of God as the only purpose of the body. Applying the mind to God causes unconsciousness of the body as a separate entity.
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Friday, October 11, 2019
Sri Maharaj's Pravachan.-Oct.11.
Desire cannot Endure where God is
If we come across a very cruel person, we often dub him as "a butcher in his past life." This, however, is not correct; a man is not reborn according to his professional activity but according to his propensity, or passions. We have, therefore, to be careful in regard to motives. It is not the act but the motivating cause that justifies it or condemns it. We reinforce sensory pleasures with our desire, and get stuck in the mire of these. Desire will decay and will finally die only by living in the company of saintly persons. Association influences likes and dislikes. The resultant desire motivates all actions. Desire affects young and old alike. Even if a man feels fed up with desire, it clings tenaciously to him, even through death and go on into the next birth. It is, like God, eternal.
Desire occurs in three phases: the wish to have, if possible; the will to possess; and the yearning to have at any cost, the phase in which the yearning occupies the entire mind, and makes the mind uneasy without it. Now, what do we do when we want to remove a tree? We lop off the outer branches first and work towards the trunk and roots. Similarly when we want to destroy desire, we begin by plugging minor likes and dislikes, and working backward to loftier desires. In the beginning, pray to God for what you want. If He does not grant the prayer, acquiesce, as not being eventually good for you. Progressively, the very desires will die, and your mind will become agreeable to accept what He provides altogether giving up all desire.
It is puerile to think that God can be attained merely for the asking. Should we not at least make the effort to suppress unjustifiable desires? Even 'justifiable' desires should be indulged only so far as are permitted by moral and religious limitations. The desires of the wealthy generally become 'necessities', because they are accustomed to commanding them with their wealth; so, generally, they never get rid of desires.
Time hooks people with false hopes, and lures them on till death. So one who gets free from the clutches of desires liberates himself from both pleasures and pain. To live in one's own home with the unconcern of a guest will enable to mitigate desires.
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