Verse 3
Manushyaanaam sahasreshu
Kashchidyatati siddhaye;
Yatataamapi siddhaanaam
Kashchinmaam vetti tattwatah.
Among thousands of men, one per chance strives for perfection; even
among those successful strivers, only one per chance knows Me in essence.
In this verse, the word siddhi has been used for perfection. This is a
word loaded with numerous connotations and meanings.
Here are a few meanings of the word siddhi from the
Sanskrit dictionary: attainment of a supernatural power, accomplishment,
success, performance, fulfillment, solution of a problem, completion of a
task, healing, hitting the mark, maturing, supreme felicity, beatitude, an
unusual skill or faculty, perfection.
Sri Krishna uses the word
for perfection on the spiritual path, and says, “Arjuna,
out of innumerable souls, only a tiny proportion possess the human form.
Amongst those who have attained the human birth, only a few strive for
perfection.
Even amongst thousands of perfected souls, those who are aware of my paramount
position and divine glories are very rare.”
In modern age, with science reaching its peak
sophistication, with man getting so much of comforts / luxury at his beck and
call, with 1000s of avenues for man’s monkey mind to jump and to cling for (so
called) happiness, where does he stand with respect to the spiritual
instructions / discourses of Upanishads, Bhakti treatise, with respect to
teachings given by avatar / continuous downpour of sessions / discourses
given by realized masters ?
·
Amongst
the sea of humanity, few (may be 100 in a vast majority) actually
have interest to read / listen to spiritual teachings.
·
All others
are satisfied with ritual prayers / temple visits on occasions etc.
·
For these
human beings, God is the one who may bestow them money / health etc., and
for the same, they offer God something in return.
·
So, it is
like, "God, you give me this thing and I shall give you such and
such thing".
·
Out of the
100 human beings mentioned above, may be around 10 of them actually feel that
they should seriously reflect upon what they read / listen in their spiritual
journey.
·
Other 80
feel good while reading / listening to the discourses but as soon as they get
up, within no time, they are caught up in Samsara.
·
The
glitter of objective world is so strong that almost like slave, they get
carried away.
·
Lacking
conviction in the spiritual path, they often get carried away by the pulls and
push of this Samsara.
·
Out of the
20, around 5 or so actually contemplate seriously on such
teachings.
·
And, at
last, chances are that 1 or 2 among those 5 may
actually take the goal of God-Realization as the only purpose and
give their heart and soul for pursuing sadhana with dedication to
achieve that goal.
·
It is
about such a person that Sri Krishna has given assurance in a verse in last
chapter that he will be born in a noble family, get a conducive
environment, start from where he left in the previous birth, proceed to realize
SELF at the earliest, if not in the same birth.
Author can present a case study in this
present life in the last 9 years where, almost around 50+ devotees / beings would
have come to him to take up spiritual sessions.
Out of them, now, after 9 years, less than 5
remain, who are steadfast in spiritual sessions, imbibing all the
sessions imparted to them and engaged in non-stop, wholehearted spiritual
sadhana.
He lovingly keeps prompting
devotees about contemplating on spiritual teachings, as he knows,
any forcing in this path is never going to work.
Sometimes, he looks up to Sai and asks,
"You engaged me in this mission and now, You do not send Your devotees to take the lessons (which flows through me but essentially
given by You only), what do I do?"
Sai, (as though), smiles at Him and
says, "How many have taken my teachings from 1940 to 2010 seriously,
so why do you worry if you are not able to give to others, what I have bestowed
upon you?"
When a student tells Swami that during vacation,
he is going to spread Swami's Leela, Swami's glory in and around his
native place, Swami looks at him and says, "O I see, you will
spread My teachings / glory in just 2 months? I myself have been trying
for 60 years and have not succeeded".
When Swami says so, He points out that even if incarnation comes and wakes
up human beings, it is not necessary that all will wake up to His divine
call, take His teachings seriously!
Sri Chinmayananda writes,
“It is not sufficient that we know how
to eradicate our weaknesses and cultivate our inward strength, but we must
also live up to those ideals and try to bring about the necessary
readjustments in ourselves.
Very few can discover in themselves this
necessary urge to evolve. Of the thousands that hear intelligently, and perhaps understand
all the theory and text of Vedanta, only a few sincerely apply themselves
to live fully the Vedantic way of-life.
Even among a thousand such sincere seekers,
only a rare-few "come to know me and my real nature."
Love.
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