Upadesa Saram - Post 6

कायवाङ्मनःकार्यमुत्तमम्|

पूजनंजपश्चिन्तनंक्रमात्||

kāyavāṅmanaḥkāryamuttamam |

pūjanaṁjapaścintanaṁkramāt ||

To be done with the body, speech, and mind, worship, japa, and contemplation are superior in that succession.

We have three means to express ourselves: the body to express our actions, the speech to express our words, and the mind to express our thoughts. These three can be used to worship the Lord in the following manner, as described in this verse: 

i) Pooja / Ritual worship: by means of the body, we perform sacred worship of the Lord using a form. 

ii) Japa / chanting of mantras / Namasmarana: by means of the speech, we perform the repetition of the Lord’s Name. 

iii) Dhyana: by means of the mind, we perform meditation or contemplation upon the mental form of the Lord or His qualities. 

Serially Superior: 

What this means is that the succeeding instrument is more subtle and therefore more effective or superior to the former. Superior to Pooja is Japa, and superior to Japa is meditation. 

Worship Method	BODY	SPEECH	MIND
Pooja	Involved	Involved	Involved
Japa	û	Involved	Involved
Dhyana	û	û	Involved

This is a gradation from a grosser form to a subtler form of worship. However, one has to practice the former to be prepared for the latter, in the sequence given above.

Pooja: Starting a Special Relationship with God 

Pooja is by no means to be considered an “inferior” practice to be rejected. In fact, it is the best preparation for Japa and meditation. 

Pooja starts our relationship with God. 

In life we have various relationships with different people. We ourselves are different to different people. It is the same network whether we are at work or in social circles. We take great pride in describing or designating what our role is to various people. But do we often hear someone say he is a devotee of God? Have we even considered that as a possible relationship? Can we not add God to our list of contacts?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Those of you who attended the last month satsangh at sadan can recollect the “Bikshu Pada Prasarana Nyaya” shared with you at the end of the Satsangh.

The bikshu’s asking for a space to stretch his legs is “adding” God to the list of your contacts, may be the last in the list, to be attended to. 

Once you add Him to your list of contacts or list of TO Dos to be attended daily, then, as shared in the talk, like the Bikshu occupies the whole mansion for doing Seva to his Gopala Idol, Lord will Himself find His way to the mansion of our heart, gradually! 

Pooja or ritualistic worship can be as elaborate as possible or as simple as just lighting a camphor / offering a flower to the Lord.

Japa - chanting the name of Lord.

Japa does not / should not involve any physical action. Japa could be chanting of one chosen name of lord like “Om Namah Shivaya” or “Om Sri Sairam” etc. 

You are speaking while you are chanting and the mind is listening / taking in the impact of the chanting.

Thus, Speak-Hear-Speak-Hear- Speak...... forms a cycle. 

The more mind is involved in this cyclic process, the lesser your distractions are and more would be your focus on the Lord whose name is chanted.

Dhyana - meditating on the Lord

This is a more subtle mode of worship where, your body and speech are not active but your mind is actively meditating on your chosen Lord, your experience with the lord, the Glory of your Lord etc.

This is a very effective process of worship.

Imagine, Swami is in Puttaparthi till He existed in form or is no more in physical form even in Puttaparthi after He chose to end His physical existence in 2011.

But with the power of your mind and the focused meditation on Swami, you can bring that enchanting form, right into your thoughts, right in your pooja room, right in front of you and you can almost experience Swami speaking to you, right there!

Most of us would have experienced Swami seated on the throne in our centre during a bhajan session or a satsangh. 

It is all due to our channelizing the enormous power of our mind towards our God, withdrawing our mind from all other worldly thoughts.

While pooja and Japa is possible to be undertaken by mere will, meditation has to happen, it cannot be just willed and done.

You can create most conducive environment in your room, with dark ambiance, with dim blue lights, with a focused beam on Swami’s photograph or on Aum symbol painting, select a suitable asana for you to sit and meditate, even play a soothing meditation music / Aum chant etc. but still, it is not necessary that your mind is withdrawn by you from various thoughts, about the office pending work, about some bad experience that you had at home / at center etc. yesterday etc. 

But, practice must be on. Every time your mind betrays you and goes out, you have to take the support of Japa and bring the mind back to the shrine, to the Lord’s name and form and draw your mind towards Lord.

That is why regular satsangh is very important in our life. It is important to be in good company, to keep listening about God’s glory so that all these things have a positive, satvic impression/impact in your mind / heart and it becomes more and more easy with such heart / mind to meditate on our Lord!!

Jap Dhyan bina Samyog nahin

(Without Japa and Dhyana, as explained above, union with God is impossible)

and all our japa, our dhyana has to culminate in our conviction,

Bhagawan bina koi Apna Nahin!!!

Love.