Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.27

Ascribe Doership to God and Anxiety will Vanish
Our doership is only partial, only slight, only nominal. Real doership rests fully with God. So the resultant pleasure or pain should not affect us; it may, if at all, affect God! We should therefore carry the conviction that it is God who does everything, we are only His instrument. We, however, assume doership; at the commencement of a job, we are beset with anxiety; during the execution of the job, we feel anxious because of diffidence about the outcome; and we feel disappointment at the final result. So throughout life, the man who is afflicted with anxiety never gets happiness and contentment. Anxiety is like white ants; its depredation is unnoticed, and becomes apparent only from the ruin wrought by it. Similarly, anxiety in an unnoticed way eats into faith, but only when faith is thoroughly undermined do we come to realize it.
If anxiety is to be thrown overboard, today is the auspicious day, and this moment the most auspicious! It's now or never. In the Mahabharata war, Lord Shrikrishna became Arjuna's charioteer and guided his position in battle, and Arjuna only discharged arrows towards the target. In short, Arjuna handed over the reins to God, and worked as little more than an arrow-flinging machine. Let us similarly become a machine in the hands of God, for He is the prime mover. Let us deliver ourselves to Him, trust in Him, and live chanting nama.
Let us give all doership to God, to whom it truly belongs; thereby we can get free from all anxiety, and live always in joy and happiness. In everything that happens, maintain the feeling and the awareness that it is God who is doing it, and therefore must be in our ultimate interest. What do we lose, and what is the difficulty, in maintaining this feeling? In practical life we should not spare effort, put in the maximum. But have an innermost conviction that its success or failure is in the hands of God, and is in our ultimate interest. With such conviction, where is the cause for anxiety of any kind? And once we get rid of anxiety, what remains is our natural heritage, the natural state, of bliss. This joy does not have to be obtained from anywhere, it is only overshadowed by anxiety. The sadhaka should unshackle himself from anxiety, and what remains is sheer freedom, sheer joy.
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Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-Oct.27

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-Oct.27

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.26

The Flood of God's Grace
When sowing, only pure, unrotten seed is selected. Devotion with some ulterior, mundane object in view is like rotten seed. Pure seed has to be carefully developed, evolved. One may begin by sowing available rotten seed; similarly, one may start devotion with some mundane aim in view. As one proceeds, one may realize the importance of undertaking devotion for its own sake. God should be prayed for this purpose. After sowing, there should be opportune rain. This is not in our control, but God arranges for it. Now if the field is hollow, water may accumulate there, and must be drained, lest excess of it decay the roots. The excess water may be drained into the adjacent field, in all likelihood with advantage to it. To breach the bund and let the water to the needy corresponds, in the case of God's grace, to benefaction. With spiritual progress, the sadhaka often gets certain occult faculties; for instance, what he says comes true, he can make out what passes in another's mind, can go to another place unseen by others, and so on. At such times he must avoid the temptation to use such faculties for selfish purposes; he has to be specially alert in this regard. If used at all, they must be employed only to relieve others' distress, never for any selfish end.
It would obviously be wise not to base one's happiness on other persons or things or circumstances. This has to be learnt by practice. However, the mind cannot remain vacant; it must be provided with some occupation. God is that occupation. Because God is eternal, complete in Himself, and blissful, these qualities automatically percolate into the mind that keeps contemplating on Him. One can only imagine how sweet life must be to a mind so soaked in Him. Have an abiding consciousness that you and all that exists belong to Him; then life becomes such enjoyable fun!
The grace of God will be experienced if nama is chanted with a pure heart. A sadhaka should do his duty conscientiously, and live happily, leaving everything else to God, or to sadguru.
A thing comes or is lost as destined. Why should we then vainly feel miserable or joyful? When we know that everything belongs to God, we can leave everything to His care, and be carefree, joyful.

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Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Marathi-Oct.26

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan in Kannada-Oct.26

Sri Maharaj's Pravachan-Oct.25.

Genuine Yearning and Utter Surrender
God is not attained merely by eschewing carnal pleasures, not by abandoning the family, not by resorting to a forest, nor by living amongst people. Truly speaking, God is not attainable by any particular physical act or procedure. We find saints who live as ordinary householders; there are others who live as recluses.
The chief requirement is genuine yearning; such yearning is fifty per cent of the battle; it is the foundation for the edifice to follow. With this, the next part of the task becomes easier. If the yearning is there, it is not essential that sensual pleasures be discarded. One must genuinely feel that he belongs to Rama, and surrender oneself utterly to Him; that is, in the heart of hearts, genuinely and wholly live for Him. Do you think this will interfere with your prapancha?
In service, does one always find a kind and considerate superior? Do we not serve him, without demur, physically, though at heart we may not like him? So, we should determine mentally to belong to Rama, though physically we may toil, willy-nilly, for prapancha; it will turn out even better than otherwise expected, because Rama Himself, in Whose name we do it, feels it incumbent to ensure that it does not bring Him discredit. Bibheeshana approached Rama in a truly humble spirit. Coming as he did from the enemy's camp, and being the very brother of the opponent, he was naturally a suspect, and Rama's counsellors all advised putting him to death. But Rama put forward the decisive argument: ''He has come in complete surrender, and it is therefore my duty to protect him.'' And He not only spared his life, but, further, gave him the kingdom of Lanka. That is why I say that Rama protects those who approach Him in sincere surrender.
You are so many coming to me, but has a single one of you asked me to take you to Rama? Am I here to provide you with mundane favours? Is not your approach similar to that of a thief who goes to visit Maruti in the temple and vows to crown it with a gold pinnacle if he has a good 'scoop' that night? What you should pray for is, 'God, give me complete contentment in whatever condition you choose to keep me in; let me wish to ask for nothing.'

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