Bhagwad Gita - Post 148

Quality#8

Yogee

Steady in meditation

Swami Sivananda says,

“The word 'Yoga' comes from a Sanskrit root 'Yuj' which means 'to join'. In its spiritual sense, it is the process by which the identity of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul is realized by the Yogi. The human soul is brought into conscious communion with the Divine Reality. Just as camphor melts and becomes one with fire; just as a drop of water when it is thrown into the ocean, becomes one with the ocean; the individual soul, when it is purified, when it is freed from lust, greed, hatred and egoism, when it becomes pure (Sattvic), becomes one with the Supreme Soul.

A true devotee is as much a yogi because his consciousness is absorbed in God. This absorption is not occasional or intermittent, but steady and constant because he is  established in his union with God.

Quality#9

Yataatmaa dridha nishchayah

Possessing form conviction

The quality of determination comes from possessing a resolute intellect. Since devotees tie their intellect to the knowledge of the scriptures and the instructions of the Guru, it becomes so resolute that even if the whole world tries to convince them otherwise, they do not budge an inch from their position.

“Everything is well with me. I shall attain God in this birth itself.” This determination, or dṛḍhaniścayaḥ, is what characterizes all devotees.

Sri Krishna calls it conviction. In the path of Jnana, it is referred as “Mumukshatvam”, intense craving for realizing SELF.

Quality#10

Madbaktah

Mind and intellect dedicated to the Lord

In the Kaye Na Vaacha, we say, “Manasa” and “Buddhi”, along with body, senses, inherent nature, tendencies are all surrendered to Narayana, the supreme Lord. 

The soul is a servant of God by its inherent nature, and as we become enlightened with this knowledge, we naturally dedicate ourselves to the Supreme Lord. In this surrender, the mind and intellect are of primary importance.  

When they are devoted to God, the rest of the personality — body, working senses, knowledge senses, worldly possessions, and soul — naturally get dedicated in His service. Sri Krishna says that devotees who exhibit these qualities are very dear to Him.

Saying is easy, but when one really dedicates his most important faculties, Mind and Intellect, then, what would be his state?

Such a devotee,  a saint says, “will not ask the Lord even for Mukti. So long as the subtle desire for liberation lingers in one's heart, he cannot claim himself to be a true devotee of the Lord. Though the desire for emancipation is of Sattvic nature, yet the devotee has become a slave of Mukti. He is still selfish and so is unfit to call himself a sincere lover of God. Can a true devotee dare ask anything from God, when he fully knows that He is an ocean of love and compassion?”

Love.

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.