Bhagwad Gita - Post 147

Quality#5

Sama Dukha Sukha

Balanced in pleasure and pain

Whether pleasure comes or pain comes, a true devotee  accepts both with equanimity. 

Devotees have faith that only efforts are in their hands, while the results are in the hands of God.  So whatever results come their way, they see them as the will of God, and accept them with equanimity.

Pleasure and pain are things which are related to the body / mind, which is conveyed or observed by the mind through the senses.

Some readers from Muscat  may also go back to brief talk on Kaye Na Vaacha verse where it was explained that not only the  fruits of the actions that we undertake are to be surrendered to God but the body, Mind, Indriya (senses), Svabhava (our tendencies / nature), our Anthakarana (Manas Buddhi Chitta [without ahankara]) - all are surrendered then and there to the supreme God. When all the possible  medium / faculty from where thoughts. words, actions emanate are surrendered to God, then who can be there at all to differentiate between good and bad results of the actions??

Swami says, “True joy comes from equanimity. Do not be carried away by or attach any importance to worldly things. Use your time and effort to control the vagaries of the mind and develop mental steadiness. Equal mindedness; means that you remain unaffected by victory or defeat, by profit or loss, by joy or sorrow. 

Accept whatever happens, whatever comes your way, as the gift of God, to be enjoyed with great satisfaction, regarding it as a gift of love given to you for your own good. When your heart is not swayed by worldly things, when you treat all people and all things with equal mindedness, then you will experience true joy. Then your heart will be filled with feelings of love and satisfaction, and you will know the true joy of devotion.”

(Source - Sai Baba Gita, Collection of Divine discourses on B Gita)

When the individual ego (Ahankara) itself has been transcended, then who is there to take in these pleasure and pain and who is there to be affected by either of them?

Quality#6

Kshamee

Forgiving

Devotees never think of punishing wrongdoers for their emotional satisfaction.  Harboring such negative thoughts toward others ruins one’s own devotion.  So accomplished devotees refuse to harbor unforgiving thoughts in all circumstances and leave the task of punishing wrongdoers upon God.

Does our Lord of lords not teach us - “Love lives by giving and forgiving”?

In fact, a true devotee crosses even the stage of forgiving because, in his intoxication with the Love of God, he is in fact unable to find anything wrong, anyone doing wrong in this creation. In this state, who is a sinner and who is there to forgive the sinner??

Quality#7

Santushta Satatam

Ever content

Always in a contented state, they are never greedy, and never ask for anything.  Always contented, they are yogis whose self is united with God.

Contentment comes not from increasing our possessions, but by decreasing our wants.  Devotees no longer look upon material objects as the source of pleasure, and thus are content with whatever they get. 

If we go further subtler, what can be that which disturbs our contentment? 

It is our sense of incompleteness that makes us search for happiness outside us. A true devotee, ever in constant and incessant remembrance of God, is able to find his God within his heart. If his Lord is there inside his heart (as LOVE), then can he ever be not contended? 

Will he have anything to look outside to get him any happiness which can be more than the happiness / joy of having discovered the presence of Lord within??

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 146

Dear All,

Let us move on to the next few qualities of a devotee whom Lord considers as near to Him.

Quality#2

Maitrah, Karuna

Friendly & Compassionate to all

Maitri comes from the Sanskrit word for friend. The root of love for ourselves and others is friendship. 

You must learn to befriend yourself before even thinking of loving other people. 

If you are constantly at war with yourself, how do you think you can live peacefully with another? If you cannot love yourself, you cannot love anyone else.

Remember the talks on “Love All” in Sai Center in the context of  Loving the entire creation which is subsequent to Devotion transforming to Love. 

One who finds / discovers / realizes  God as love within himself, cannot help loving the entire creation of the same lord. 

Karuṇa

Compassionate

Compassion, in this case, is the desire to relieve the suffering of others. 

The notion of the word karuna is that having related to our own suffering we know how scary the darkest parts of our mind can be. 

We then see others grappling with similar afflictions and our heart goes out to them quite naturally. 

We have empathy for them. And, thankfully, because we have learned to befriend ourselves, we know how to skillfully help others do the same thing. 

When we realize that we can help others because suffering is the universal affliction, we can all be there for each other.

Quality# 3 & 4

Nirmamo, Nir Ahankarah

Free from attachment and ego

Nirmamo: They have no sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness. 

Free from attachment here means what??

Free from excessive attachment towards objects, human beings, relationships etc. which emerge due to our Ahankara, Ego. 

How??

You take up any excessive attachment you have in this world or you have had in the past, in this world and introspect the very base of such attachment.

You will realize that the attachment is 100% born out of your own attachment / identification with Body, Mind and Intellect. 

They never believe that they exist independently outside the supreme beatitude of God. Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person nor the devotee of the Universal Being ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God. 

Free of Ego - it is an abolition of personality — either by self-surrender or by inner communion of spirit with Spirit. 

No sense of ‘I’-ness (Nirmamo). ‘I’ does not exist, because there is only one ‘I’ that can exist — the Supreme ‘I’ — and, therefore, nothing belongs to me. 

Neither have they any sense of existing independently by themselves, nor have they a sense of possession of any article whatsoever in this world. They are free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness.

Dear All,

It may be noticed that out of the qualities given till now, No hatred towards any one, friendly, compassionate, free from attachment and ego, the subtlest quality observed, which cannot be seen or witnessed at a grosser level by anyone who comes into contact with such a devotee is,

FREE FROM EGO

And, how this quality, “Free from ego” is explained above??

Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person (in the path of devotion) nor the devotee of the Universal Being (in the path of Jnana) ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God.

A whole theme “MANAS BUDDHI CHITTA AHANKARA (MBCA)” has been allocated only for explaining the process of  “getting free from ahankara”.

And, come to think of it, unless one is not free from ego, how can one be a friend, how can one be compassionate, how can one be free of attachment, how one can be free of hatred, as per the commentary on all these qualities??

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 145

Dear All,

Let us start getting deeper on some of the qualities out of the 26 qualities given by Sri Krishna in the previous post.

Quality#1

Adweshta Sarva Bhootaanaam 

No Hatred towards any Being in the creation.

We will focus on Swami’s  direct instructions / discourse on this quality, referring to few discourses.

“It would be utter foolishness to give a golden cup to a child or to give a sword to a madman. A golden cup, which is highly valuable, should be given only to a person who would appreciate its value. Such a person will derive great joy from it and know how to use it. 

In the same way, the one who knows the value of devotion will use it to fill himself and others with pure joy. Genuine love will never give trouble to anyone, it will never lead one to hate another. 

In the 12th chapter of the Gita, the desirable qualities of a devotee are enumerated; they start with 'Let there be no enmity directed towards any creature in the world.' Repeating parrot-like, "Lord, I love You", "Lord, I love You", while at the same time giving trouble to others cannot be considered devotion.

You become a devotee, filled with love and devotion, when you surrender yourself completely and are ready to carry out every command of the Lord. Arjuna, out of pride and egoism was feeling dejected; but after listening to the Lord, Arjuna fell at the divine feet and said, "Lord, I am Your disciple. Teach me what is good for me. I surrender myself fully to You." 

Up until that time they were treating each other as brothers-in-law. Arjuna was married to Krishna's sister. But once Arjuna said, "I will do as You say. I will carry out Your commands!", he became a devotee. 

The transformation took place in his mind, as he changed the relationship from a brother-in-law to that of a disciple, with the Lord as his teacher. Such a mental transformation is absolutely essential for a devotee. Without this, whatever level of closeness you feel you may have developed with the Lord, your devotion will remain fruitless and useless.

Being aware of these high principles, do your duty in life. Maintain an even mind and make sure that the work you do is good, and that it is always appropriate to the occasion. 

These verses from the Gita should not merely be memorized but they must be put into practice. When you fully understand their meaning and practice them in your daily life, your worries will soon leave you and all your sorrows will disappear.

(Extract from divine discourse delivered in September 1984)

I quote Swami

“ Love is transformed into poison if hate contaminates it”.

“Devotion towards God goes ill with hatred towards fellow men”.

“Despising brother man, you cannot at the time worship God, if you do, God will not accept that hypocrisy”.

And Swami goes beyond all this when He says,

“The mere removal of hate from the heart will not ensure Ananda. Love must be cultivated, uproot hate and plant love…. The Bhakta must be free from hate and be full of Love. Besides, his love must express itself as service of the distressed and the grieving”.

Unquote.

(All the  above quotes are extracts  from the book -  "Message of the Lord".) 

Love.