Amrit Vani: Get Associated with the Real Source of Power — 2
(Translation of a discourse by Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya on the topic "Ṣakti-bhaṅḍāra ke sātha Juḍeiṅ" — continued from the previous issue)
Friends, I was telling you that you could reach up to the high realms of God. But, how? Well, look at a creeper! What is its strength and status on its own? It can't even stand up to any height and would remain fallen on the ground. But when it takes the support of a mighty tree, then? It clings on the tree and reaches as high as the top of the tree! You also cling to God, take His support directly. What is the height of God? Is there any limit? You can also rise (evolve) beyond every height provided you remain 'clung' to Him (to divinity). What you will have to do for this?
Take His support. Surrender yourself to Him. Follow His discipline; adopt His (divine) values; live as per His Will; move in the direction of His light. Then you will always remain with Him. Your 'self' will merge in Him; you will become one with Him. Have you seen the kites flying in the sky? How does it happen? It is tied with a thread and the thread's other end is in the hands of the player. The latter releases the thread loose, or tightens it, moves it under his control. But suppose the kite refuses to give its thread and its control to the player — then? Suppose it tries to fly free on its own — then? Then it will remain on the earth with its thread spread here and there or entangled to something. If you don't want or can't leave the cord of your life in the hands of God, you can't live according to His disciplines, can't accept His Will wholeheartedly at every step of life — then don't wish to fly high (in the sky of serene dignity and unalloyed joy).
You might have seen that a mirror reflects whatever is in front of it. It appears like the object in front of it. Your mind is like a mirror. If you keep it surrounded by darkness, haze, dirt, it will also become like that. So, why don't you turn it towards light and purity? If you keep God in front of you, go near Him (near divinity), then you will experience that He is seen in your inner self; your life is illumined by His glow; your strength is energized by His power. When you stand in front of a mirror you see your image in it. The same way, if God is always present in front of the mirror of your mind, His image will be seen there.
Have you heard the melodious sound of a flute? Have you seen a flute? What is it? It is simply a hollow cylindrical structure having some holes on its surface. The wooden cylinder hollows itself and surrenders to the musician, allowing him to play it the way he likes. You also empty yourself of your ego, unending desires, and worries, and hand over your complete charge in the hands of God. Let Him play and be ready to 'sound' according to His tunes.
Have you ever seen a puppet-show? The threads of the puppets are tied in the fingers of the master of the show. He moves his fingers with mastery and makes the puppets dance and act wonderfully. The viewers enjoy the show. Children and the ignorant would think the puppets have presented such good dance. But, in fact the mastered skills and control of the director produce the show. But all this would not be possible if the threads are broken or the puppets are 'separated' from the cords. So what you should learn from this example is to surrender your life's cord under the control of the Supreme Expert. Become His puppet and dedicate yourself to dance as per His direction. Handover the rudder of the boat of your life to the Supreme Navigator — then no breadth or depth, no storm of the ocean of the world would be able to hinder you.
How will you handover the cords of your being or helm of your life to God? This means that your goals, thoughts, desires, and aspirations should be devoted to divinity — should be aimed at, or imbibed with, benevolence, virtuous tendencies, feeling of auspicious welfare of all. Then see how enchanting, how cheerful, how wonderful your life will be!
Why don't you get connected to the perpetual generator of unlimited power-supply? A bulb lights up when it is connected with the flow of electric current. Similar is true of the fans, coolers, and so many appliances around you. If a bulb is not connected to a source of electricity then it hardly costs (values) anything — may be about 5 or 10 rupees or so. If there is no electrical power supply, neither heater will warm the room nor the cooler would cool it; you won't be able to get any air from the fan unless its wings move. If a generator of domestic electric supply itself can make so much difference, then what about the generator of infinite power? You can't even imagine what astonishing things you can achieve upon getting connected to that Supreme Power-Source. It would indeed be the most convincing sign of your wisdom if you connect yourself with That Omnipotent, link yourself with His divine power-streams. Is it difficult? Not quite!
Haven't you seen the tap of a huge water tank? What is there in the tap? Nothing of itself. But when it is connected to the water tank, it can keep supplying water, thus become a source of water supply, as long as there is water in the tank. I have also connected myself with God. If a devotee thoroughly links his being to That Almighty, all His divine capabilities and resources will also be accessible to him. Don't expect that all this could be begged from Him by beseeching, praying, singing devotional songs of His supernatural praise, doing elaborate rituals and sacraments of worship and devotional practices. As I have told you several times, the only way to connect yourself with His divine power-streams is to follow His disciplines — follow the righteous path of duty with truth, compassion and selfless service, dedicate yourself to His Will — surrender your ego, selfishness and cravings. You have to make an attempt in this direction, if you seek His beatifying grace, if you seek Him.
Your attempt of self-refinement, your every step towards dedication to divine principles, is like sowing a seed, planting a sapling in His farm. Sowing one seed of maize can give rise to a plant that will produce about six corns; each corn would have about thousand seeds in it. Thus, on an average, six thousand corn seeds can be harvested by sowing a single one. Why don't you plant something in His magnanimous field? Why do you always want to be begging? Why do you always want to implore for His mercy? You want to hold all the seeds (all your natural capacities) with you and want to have a share in His crop without lending any helping hand or labour. This is not fair.
You might have heard the proverb — "Bhagvāna pahale hātha pasārate haiṅ, phira kuchh dete haiṅ." (God first spreads His hands before you, then only He gives something to you). It also implies the same fact — "first sow, then reap." Your offerings of worldly things in worship are not going to reach Him, neither does He ask for such things from you. What you give Him should be worth His absolute dignity. He wants you to awaken, ascend and realize your soul-identity beyond your false self-identity and self-pride. He wants you to become pious; He wants you to have integrity of character, compassionate and generous heart, balanced mind free of the smog of illusions and passions, righteous intellect. You need to refine your outlook towards life, towards the world, towards your own self. You need to transform your character, conduct, aims, in the light of elevated thinking of great saints and sagacious personalities. Your sincere endeavours in this regard, your dedication towards higher goals, would be the best offering from your side. Just offer these to Him — then see what His enormous grace bestows upon you.
You must have read and heard the stories of Sudāmā and Ṣabari in the holy texts of Mahābhārat and Rāmāyaṇa. First Krishna asked Sudāmā to give his tiny bag of few fistfuls of rice and thus helped the poor chap (who was also a devout sādhak and a sincere devotee who had surrendered himself to God) get rid of a sinful fate. And then? What Krishna gifted him back was much more than abundance of prosperity and good fortune. Materially helpless tribal woman Ṣabari's unflinching devotion pulled Lord Ram to her tiny hut in the forest. Ram asked her to offer him something to eat saying that he was feeling hungry. Did he really go there to eat? Did he go there to collect or to distribute some jewels or royal gifts? No.
The Supreme Creator and eternal master of everything obviously does not need anything. Wherever God goes this way, it is simply to test one's dedication, depth of devotion, nobility of character, and spiritual merit. That is why he asks the devotees to surrender before Him whatever he/she has. Ṣabari only had some Indian plums in her basket. So deep and thorough was the flow of devotion in her pure heart that she first tasted the fruits and then offered only the good ones to Lord Ram. She deserved, so she was blessed with the ultimate realms of devotion and beatifying peace and bliss.
Your devotion is not complete; you cannot have a unifying soul-relation with God so long as you are not ready to give Him whole-heartedly whatever you have, whenever He asks for.
True devotion is like unalloyed love. It surrenders one's entire being for the welfare of the loved one. You must have heard a lot about lovers like "Laila and Majnu." The story of their maddening love for each other describes many testing incidents. As Majnu did not have any riches or worldly status, Laila's father refused to marry her with him. Through some of her friends and servants, she made arrangements to help him stand on his feet. But she also wanted to test whether his love is true. So one day she sent a confidant to him with a message that "Laila is seriously ill and almost on death-bed. She needs infusion of fresh blood." Without a second thought, Majnu offered to give his blood saying that he loves Laila and can sacrifice anything for her. He allowed the medical person accompanying Laila's envoy to fill the pot (bottle) with his blood and said: "If more blood is required please do collect. You can collect my blood till the last drop is left in my body to save Laila." The envoy returned with the single pot of his blood and reported Majnu's feelings to her. This assured Laila that she has loved a genuine lover who is worthy of being her life-partner.
Indeed, love means giving, sacrificing. God also wants to test your love (devotional affection) for Him. You can't delude Him in the name of your devotion and make Him shower His grace to fulfil your selfish interests. God tests your devotion, the purity of your heart, at every step. He tests your generosity, your selflessness. His beatifying love, divine grace will always surround you like a life-partner, if your dedication, your devotion is true, selfless and unflinching.
Being born as a human being is itself such a precious gift of the Almighty. God has gifted you with such wonderful faculties and resources like the mind, intellect, hands, eyes, etc., using which you can carve your own destiny, can tread the path of life you want. Then why do you want Him to help you fulfil your ambitions? Why can't you be satisfied and happy by making best use of whatever you have? Don't expect Him to help you meet the day-to-day necessities of your life. His Law of Karma is absolute. What you find as sufferings and sorrows or favours and joys in your life are consequences of your own deeds (of the present or earlier lives). There are no biases or flaws in His law of destiny. He is the supreme symbol of truth and justice. He is the absolute judge. He cares for everyone. He wants every creature to evolve. He has given you the choice to merge yourself in His eternal purity, His infinite power. The only thing you have to do is to become His. Make His will your wish, your goal.
King Harishchandra had even sold himself to a cremator as part of his penance as per the circumstances created by destiny. "Selling oneself is like volunteering to enslave one's wishes, desires, life itself to the buyer." It is a wonderful thing in the case of dedication. Here the one who dedicates and surrenders himself also indirectly buys the buyer. After marriage a wife surrenders her life's cord in her husband's hands; since that moment she also becomes his 'better half', she begins to 'own' him. Similarly, a true devotee who surrenders himself to God also 'owns' Him. Such a devotee is always associated with the unbounded power of the Omnipotent. What more will he/she need? In spite of physically living like an ordinary human being, such a devotee remains merged in the ocean of divine bliss.
You should also liberate yourself from petty wishes and desires. Elevate and expand your horizons of 'self'. Transform your outlook towards life, towards your own self. Refine your thinking. Elevate your aspirations towards higher goals worth your dignity as a human being — the crown prince of the Supreme Creator. Give up your selfish attachments, arrogance, cravings and avarice. Apply your talents, potentials and ambitions to further beautify this world, which is a marvellous creation of God. A seed happily gets dissolved in the moist soil, only then it sprouts and turns into a sapling and grows into a blossoming tree. If you want to be blessed by divine boons, you also will have to make such grand sacrifices for high ideals and noble values. Devotional practices, chanting the sacred hymns or mantras, and meditation etc. are good and necessary to give direction but would not be sufficient. Greater achievements require greater endeavours. This is what I wanted to remind you today, so that your devotion, your quest for God may get righteous direction and lead you to the path of divine illumination.
OM SHANTI
"I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will not ask, 'How many good things have you done in your life?' rather he will ask, 'How much love did you put into what you did?'" — Mother Teresa
"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavour." — Truman Capote
"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." — Mahatma Gandhi
"Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value." — Albert Einstein