Dharma Vahini - Concluding Post 45

Dear All,

By now, after all the previous 44 posts, we would surely be aware and be clear about what the diagram given below means to us.

Let us learn and be clear of Atma-Dharma in the context of all the following relations / situations.

·       Whatever we get from the family members,  near and dear ones - good or bad;

·       Whatever we receive from our boss / other staff in the Organization - Good or Bad, happiness or pain;

·       Whatever we get from the society, friends / so called enemies - good or bad.

Only if we lead our life with the clear focus of approaching and nearing Lord day after day, week after week of our attending Bhajan / Satsangh, to reach Him, to merge with Him and to exist as Him, then we would be existing in a state where all the good / bad / pleasure / pain explained in various situations from various beings / society at large, will not affect us too much and even at some times, if we do get affected given the fact that after all we are human beings with feelings, we can reach out to Lord, communicate in silence and immediately come out of all our pain / miseries. 

The seed for this massive / major vahini gifted to us by the Poorna Avatar Sai was sowed in the first theme “Purpose of Human Birth” when we read the following lines of Sri Parama Hamsa Yogananda, when God responds to the anguish of man as to why so much pain / so much misery is there in God's creation and if pain is the only thing in this creation, then why God created this creation at all.

God says,

“No joy of the senses, no joy of possession, can match the joy of God. Though I had everything from eternity to eternity, I began to think, I am all-powerful, and Joy itself, but there is no one else to enjoy Me. I will make souls in My image, and clothe them as human beings with free choice, to see whether they will seek My material gifts and the temptations of money, wine, and sex; or whether they will seek the million times more intoxicating joy of My consciousness.” 

Dear Readers,

If at all, we sincerely seek the million, million times more intoxicating joy of God's consciousness (which is our Atma-Dharma as elaborated in all posts in Dharma Vahini), then, we can be in Bliss, as explained below.

Love and Jai Sairam.

Dharma Vahini - Post 44

Dear All,

Now, let us deal with Atma Dharma and Svadharma with respect to our purushartha, the relevance of all our acts while living in this objective world. 

The  four Purusharthas - Dharma / Artha / Kama / Moksha have been dealt in great detail in karma posts as well in an earlier post under the current theme.

In the context of Atma-Dharma, one of the 4, Moksha or liberation or Merger with God has to be only focus, which has been repeatedly mentioned in all the previous posts.

So, the other three  purusharthas, especially 2 of them,  Artha (pursuit of material wealth and comforts) and Kama (fulfillment of aesthetic desires) have been shown under the bigger rectangle of Atma Dharma which is Moksha in this context. 

What does this mean in the context of Artha and Kama?

Artha

• As human beings, living in society, having our family, we have to engage in activities for earning wealth and related comforts.
• Even while we pursue various activities for the above purpose, either working in an organization and earning salary or owning an organization and earning profits or even while doing hard work and getting paid on daily wages, our frame of mind has to be exactly the same, as explained in the context of a Bhajan singer entering the hall on Bhajan day.
• So to say, the heart is soaked in its focus on merger with Lord. Along with such a  heart, all other virtues required in earning wealth - Honesty, Loyalty, Integrity, Avoiding excessive desire for wealth, not adapting unfair means for earning wealth etc., automatically come together!!
• The rule applied is the same here also as in the case of Bhajan singing. There is no use talking in vacuum on all principles of honesty, control of desires etc., if one is not clear on his / her ultimate goal. How??
• See, if your heart is illumined by your focus on Lord, then such a heart will in turn, will illumine all your actions while pursuing Artha.
• If such illumination is not there and you try to talk of principles and good virtues in vacuum, there is a lot of possibility that your monkey mind will dominate you in one way or the other, one day or the other and you may end up acting as slave to the dictates of your mind.

Kama

• As regards fulfillment of your aesthetic desires, the desires at physical level etc., again, if you are convinced and have conviction to be in communion with Lord, to merge with Lord, then, all the required virtues in this aspect will fall in place automatically

Author recalls a conversation between Swami and a devotee, though he has given it in an earlier post also. 

To a devotee who cried out to Lord to be always present in his heart as Hrdaya Nivasi, Swami turned back and said, 

"You want Me to come and stay (rather install) in your heart. Well, have you ever looked at your heart where you want Swami to come and stay for ever. How dirty is it, How many desires in it.., please clean up your heart, as you clean your house before a guest comes to stay with you and then call Swami, Swami will rush to you".

• So, when we keep our heart pure, then Swami is there in our heart. When He is present, can we have excessive Kama?? Can we always be indulging and craving for physical pleasures?? Can we adapt immoral means for satisfying our desires??? Never.

• So, what happens?? Our physical / aesthetic desire fulfillment is confined to our spouse and that too, it assumes as much importance as spiritual pursuits which we take up with our spouse together. Nothing is over done!!!

Love.

Dharma Vahini - Post 43

Dear All,

After being clear on our Atma-dharma related to Bhajan singing, let us look at the Para-dharma related to the aspect of Bhajan singing, in this post today.

Let us refresh our thoughts on the second and third rule related to Dharma.

All worldly activities in daily life, all duties that we   undertake in daily life have their own importance.

All such worldly duties have to be illumined by our mind / our heart / our thoughts soaked in our ONLY focus - "TO UNITE WITH GOD / TO REALIZE GOD"

How do the above rules apply to a Bhajan singer??

Well, this question has already been addressed while dealing with the first rule in Bhajan singing. 

However, the following points are of importance in the 2nd and 3rd rule in Bhajan singing, which follow from the points which we have seen in the bullet points related to 1st rule.

·        The   Bhajan must be practiced very well.

·   Only Bhajan which suits one's voice, one's capability, one's   music skill level, must be chosen.

·   The Bhajan has to be rendered with utmost Bhava so that it serves all others present there and they also are able to immerse in the Bhava (with which you are rendering the Bhajan).

·    Any communication  between the singers / others / showing signs to each other for any aspect related to the Bhajan session / getting up / moving during the bhajan session etc. to be avoided. 

·       Singer should not be disturbed with any sound / any movement going on in the hall, with any mismatch in percussion etc.

·       Etc Etc.., (You may add many more points in this list with your experience!)

While these are all important (see the second rule - All worldly activities in daily life, all duties that we undertake in daily life have their own importance, and Bhajan assumes a very important part of our spiritual life), the most important thing to be learnt and followed 100% are:-

While these Dos and Don’t Dos in Bhajan singing are important, they must spontaneously flow from / they must be illumined by THE PRIMARY FOCUS ON UNION WITH LORD AND TAKING BHAJAN SINGING AS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO MERGE WITH LORD, WEEK AFTER WEEK.

Once a singer / listener is totally focussed on Lord and has merged / is merging with Lord in Bhajan session, how can he / she look around, move, agitated by any disturbance, disturbed by any mismatch in percussion, be conscious of singing / following, clap louder than required etc.??

Where do we go wrong sometimes / many times???

Instead of the Primary focus illumining the Dos and Don’ts (you may call them as para-dharma in Bhajan singing), we end up considering all these rules / procedures / Dos and Don’ts, as if these are our Main focus, as if these are the real purpose for which we have come to attend Bhajans, and we

get too much into all these things and in the process, we stand vulnerable, as the main focus is lost, the focus of merger with Lord is not guiding / illumining these rules spontaneously!

So, we carry that little ego of our body mind all the way while entering the hall, while sitting, while adjusting mike, while being nervous as to how our bhajan would go, while fuming if the percussion is not OK and at the end, if at all, if everything has turned out well, while walking out in white and white, with all apparent humility(!!) and at the same time, with our heart silently  wanting that "Appreciation" from the fellow singers / participants!!!

Lo and Behold, the purpose of Bhajan singing  is Lost!!!

Thus, instead of raising beyond our ego through this most beautiful process of Bhajan singing, we end up breeding the same ego, week after week, year after year while gaining seniority as "accomplished Bhajan singer"!

Note: Each one of you, reading today's post  sincerely (!!), is requested to introspect truthfully sitting before Swami in your home shrine and see if  today's post applies to you or not. If it does not apply to you and you are already 100% focused on union with Lord only while singing, then you can happily skip today's post, assuming that the post is meant only for the author himself!!!

Love.

PS- After going through the previous post and this post, those who  attend bhajans as listeners and not as singers, can derive their own Atma-Dharma and Para-Dharma easily.

All the points explained in the last 2 posts apply to listeners, except the aspect of singing.

Thus, in one line, if the focus (Atma-dharma) is clear (merger with Lord), then the listeners cannot judge quality of Bhajans, cannot rank the singers as per their quality of rendering Bhajans, cannot point out any mistake of singers / Percussionists / Co-ordinator / Centre host etc. 

And as far as their para-dharma of observing silence, not moving within the hall, not causing disturbance to others, not clapping too loud to distract others, not to sing in a scale quite contrast to the lead singer's scale etc etc, if the Atma dharma of merging with Lord in the one hour opportunity given to the listener is clear to them, then all other Dos and Don'ts (para-dharma) on their part is automatically taken care of and they just fall in place!!!!

Love.