Chapter VIII
Everything is pure, everything is God
"Do not entertain
in your mind the idea of purity or impurity while doing this spiritual practice
or meditation. There is nothing impure in the world. When the Lord is immanent
everywhere and in everything, how can anything be impure? Even if something appears
to the ulterior eyes as impure, the moment it contacts the name of the Lord, it
becomes purified.
Note this point! If
someone discovers a treasure while answering the call of nature, will they
hesitate to take it because he is impure at the time? Purity and impurity are
the result of the mental reactions of a given moment. When one is giving money
to someone, one talks of the auspicious time and the purity of the hour. But
when one gets a chance to take money, every moment is auspicious! The mind is the
reason for both attitudes.
Similarly, no thought of
purity or impurity will bother you if you have full faith in the love of the
name of the Lord. On the other hand, if you feel some compulsion and some
discontent, all kinds of possible and impossible obstacles will present
themselves. Therefore, give up all such feelings and strengthen the faith in
the unshakable holiness of the name and its appropriate form. Firmly believe
that everything is made holy by His name."
Introspection
There is a beautiful couplet of Kabir
which goes like this.
Bura Jo Dekhan Main Chala, Bura Naa Milya Koye
Jo Man Khoja Apnaa, To Mujhse Bura Naa Koye
Translation
I searched for the crooked, met not a single one
When searched myself, "I" found the crooked one
This exactly echoes the truth given by
Swami in the dhyana vahini portion covered above.
This doha deals with our perception
behavior and tendencies. It has been invariably noticed that we tend to find
fault with someone else for our situations and circumstances. Our
"I", the ego, always tries to put blame on others. Non-awareness of
our own self is the cause of this attitude. Resultantly, we find ourselves
being busy in criticizing and condemning others and conveniently term them as
crooked or evil.
When our heart is pure, when we are in
tune with our SELF, no matter how the world is, no matter what wrong / impure
things us are there around, our pure mind fails to recognize impurity in
anything that we come across, anything that we experience.
Do not reject Him, cultivate love for Him
"Cultivate love (prema) for the Lord. It has infinite potentiality. An
iron chain can be broken with ease, but not the chain of love that binds you to
the Lord. The cruelest of animals is also overpowered by love. This is the
illusion (maya) of the
Lord! If only the floodwaters of this love were directed not to the lakes and
shoals on the sides of the river but to the ocean of the Lord’s grace, what a
holy task it would be! Then the individual (jivi)
would realise the purpose of life. This is the highest liberation (moksha). To direct that love on to the name and the form
of the Lord without interruption — that is real meditation."
Introspection
The subject has been covered in so many
talks on Bhajans taken up in Sai Centre in Muscat.
Also, there is a dedicated session on
“LOVE IS GOD” which is available in Author’s youtube channel.
In one of the talks on Love and Service,
Love was explained in three stages
Stage 1 - Loving God with Form
Swami has beautifully written on this,
“To direct that love on to the name and the form of the Lord without
interruption — that is real meditation.”
This is the beginning in spiritual
journey in the path of Bhakti where, the devotee engages himself in whole soul
devotion towards his chosen God and such devotion transforms to Love for God.
Stage 2 - Loving the God within
This is stage 2 in the context of service
/ seva which was explained. Otherwise, in the path of Love, this is the
ultimate stage where, the bhakta experiences the Love for his God deep
within himself, as LOVE.
Stage 3 - Loving God / experiencing the Love within as Love without
Having discovered God as Love within,
with such abundance of Love, when the bhakta gets into the world, he
experiences nothing but LOVE in everyone, in everything around.
And the manifestation of His love,
sharing of His supreme Love with everyone around who are now no more separate
from him, is what is called “True Seva”.
Swami
continues,
It is not right to
reject the Lord, who is eternally related to you, and to be misled by this
world with which one is related for just two days! As already written,
The relatives come up to
the outer gate, or maybe up to the burial ground, but your real relative is the
Lord, beware!
The Lord will never give
you up. Considering the number of births you have had, you have had countless
mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, friends, and enemies. Do
they subsist today? Do they remember the relationship? You are no one to them,
and they are nobodies to you. But you and they have the Lord in common as the
unchanging relative. He subsists throughout all the births; He is eternal. He
watches over you from birth to birth. What greater tragedy can there be than
forgetting such a Lord?
With the senses weakened
and powerless and refusing to function, with the parents, wife, children, and
relations all crowding on one side and the messengers of death compelling you
to pack up for the journey without delay on the other —who knows when this call
will come and how? Before that moment comes, be ready with the thought of
God."
Introspection
Rather than writing further on what Swami
has revealed, it is appropriate to quote few lines of a famous Hindi Bhajan
here.
दो दिन का जग में मेला सब चला चली का खेला कोई चला गया कोई जावे कोई गठरी बांध सी भावे कोई खड़ा तैयार अकेला रे चला चली का खेला रे खेला रे खेला रे
This world (and your life) is like a Fair
which goes on for few days only, the life is a game of coming and going.
Someone has gone, someone is going, someone
else is ready to go, all alone. Life is a game of coming and going (birth and
death)
मात-पिता सूत नारी भाई अंत सहायक नाही फिर क्यो भरता पाप का ठेला रे फिर क्यो भरता पाप का ठेला
Mother, Father, Children, Wife - None of
them are going to be your support till your end, knowing this well, why do you
still keep on adding to your Karma due to your attachment towards all of them?
ये तो है नश्वर संसारा भजन को करले ईश का प्यारा ब्रह्मानंद कहे सुन चेला रे चला चली का खेला रे खेला रे खेला रे
This world is ephemeral, Engage yourself
in singing the glory of Lord, Being in love with Lord can only get you
Brahmananda, otherwise, life is a game of coming and going!
Love.
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