Sadhana Panchakam - Post 11

The Brahmachari / spiritual seeker, following the previous 2 instructions, 

 

§ - has studied the Vedas and obtained some basic knowledge; 

 

§ - has diligently acquired the skills to attain success and perfection in work.

 

With these two, he is equipped with Knowledge and Skill. As important as they are, they are not sufficient. On their own, they are secular in nature. 

 

These first two Steps are the two secular coaches of the train. They concern the vast information in the Vedas, and the preoccupation with work.

 

In case the student gets too carried away by them, Sankara has thoughtfully introduced further spiritual coaches into the education train. They are:

 

§  Dedication of actions to God,

§  Renunciation of Desires 

     and

§  Finding God.

 

In this instruction, we are driven by Devotion to God.

 

When Perfection is perfected, so to say, i.e. when it has done its job, we should open the doors of our life to Devotion.

 

As much as Perfection is a very important step, Devotion is found to be greater than it. We do not give up Perfection, but we offer it to God and place it under His direction.

 

A caterpillar does not leave the leaf on which it lives until it gets a firm footing on the adjacent leaf. Then it crawls over from one to the other. It is the same with us when we crawl from Perfection onto Devotion.

 

Dedication superior to Perfection

 

It is very important for us to be convinced that Devotion is superior to Perfection, otherwise we will not be motivated to shift from one to the other. Here are some reasons that show the superiority of Devotion over Perfection.

 

     i.            Perfection itself can be dry, not emotionally satisfying. When Love or Devotion enters the picture, we see clearly the difference between the two.

 

  ii.            What was hard work in aiming for perfection, becomes effortless in the presence of love. With love, one never comes to the state of boredom in work. Ask a mother if she ever gets tired of cooking for her family.

 

iii.            What love can bestow, discipline can barely reach. 

 

What do we mean by offering or surrendering our actions to God? What is being expected of us? 

 

During a havan, we say “idam na mama” after making each offering into the fire. 

 

In real life how do we say “idam na mama”? By delving a bit deeper into this question, we find that two things are expected of us:

 

1.    Pleasing God: Now we are asked to divert our attention from the Ego and place it on God. Hence the immediate change required is to do everything to please God.

 

The God to whom we make our offerings could take many forms. The only point to bear in mind is that it must be someone or some Power greater than our Ego. 

 

2.  Surrendering Ego: Surrender is not a slavish mentality as some people may imagine. It does not mean cowing down to a person in authority for fear of criticism or any other such notion. It is the voluntary surrender of one’s ego with the full knowledge of all its limitations and defects. From the highest standpoint, such a thing as an Ego does not really exist, so we should give no importance to it. 

 

We should voluntarily surrender it. By all means possible, self–centredness has to be thinned out and selflessness has to be installed in our heart. This is the essential meaning of Surrender.

 

Now, we shall go more deep into “God” in vedantic sense 

 

Swami Sivananda writes, 

 

"At whose command does the sun rise punctually in the morning and set in the evening? The sun is miles and miles away from the earth. What a great wonder it is that from such a long distance the sun is able to send light, heat, energy and vitality to all living beings inhabiting this fair earth? 

 

There are countless millions of suns much larger than the one that we see but which appear to us as tiny stars on account of their being remoter than the sun with which we are acquainted. It takes millions of years for the light to reach this earth from these stars. Velocity of light is 1, 86, 000 miles per second. Light from distant stars has not yet reached us even now.

 

What a marvel it is! All these stars, planets and satellites are revolving in the sky in fixed orbits from day to day, month to month and year to year under immutable definite laws.

 

Now the question arises whether all this organisation is the work of some intelligent Creator behind or is the product of a fortuitous combination of particles of matter, Anus, Parama Anus, Dvi Anus, atoms and molecules? It is the former hypothesis that appeals to our intellect. 

 

The Vedas also quite endorse the verdict of our reason. They emphatically declare that the sun and the moon, heaven and earth were created by God.”

 

What is the means to find such a God?  We shall see, in the upcoming post.

  

Love.