Udar bhare...

Udar bhare bhar soye

We have accepted external things to be sources of happiness. He sings well; he has nice voice. He plays the tabla well. We did not try to go internally; we didn’t practice going to the heart of the matter. Granted the mind is sinful, but at least feel badly about it. If you try 50 times, the mind will go to God just once. Tomorrow it will go to God after 49 tries. Day after tomorrow it will go to God after 48 tries. If you persevere in your practice, the mind will eventually start meditating on God. When you were born, you didn’t know how to turn sides. Think about it! A baby has such soft, delicate skin, and it just lays on its back. Now you are 6 feet tall; you are big and strong. But how do you feel when the doctor prescribes complete rest for a few days after surgery? You think to yourself, “Oh God! I’m going to die.” Imagine how a delicate little child feels.

From that point you went on to being an adult and you started walking and running. No Jagadguru comes to lecture to a baby, “Listen, son, you should try to sit. Now that you are able to sit, you should try to stand up.” The child doesn’t speak or understand words, but still he becomes so successful. You have all gone through these stages in your life. Why do you accept defeat in the Godly area? You often say, “What can I tell you? I understand everything, but it just doesn’t happen.” “Happen?” Tell me something. Does anything happen by itself? You are all sitting here fully clothed. Did you get dressed automatically? Did the clothes automatically fall around your body and get you dressed? No, no. I took a bath. Then I put on different articles of clothing and covered my body. Why don’t you go without clothes? What will people think? Oh, you care so much about what people say, but you don’t care about the soul. Do you even care about what will happen to you once you die? You are so careful about clothes. Women keep fixing their sari all day long; men keep adjusting their tie all day long. Everything should be in place.

We are careful about things related to the body. When it comes to the mind, we do what it wants to do. We like listening to the mind; what can we do? The mind tells us to go to sleep; it tells us to gossip; it tells us to go here and there. This is a very bad thing. Realize your carelessness; feel badly about it. Bring the mind to the forefront and then do what you have to do. Recite the daily prayer, perform arti, do something else, or do nothing. Just meditate with the mind. But if you do anything without the attachment of the mind, God will not take note. It’s like multiplying into zero. Whether you multiply zero into zero, or a million into zero, the end result will be zero.

Without the attachment of the mind, devotion practiced with the senses, is not accepted; God doesn’t take note of it. It’s called ‘acting,’ and to put on an act in front of God is not good. If you act in the world, it’s very well and good. In the world, where you should put on an act, you work in ‘fact,’ whereas with God, where you should be genuine, you put on an ‘act’. You are careless where you should be careful. This is not good. Start taking care. Resolve to yourself that from today onwards, you will involve the mind in devotional practice. Then you will see how far you will reach within even 10 days.

You have heard about Valmeeki, who couldn’t utter even the name of Ram. Did you ever think how he and others became God-realized? They took a firm resolve and succeeded. They who were overcome by lust, anger and greed, succeeded. Tulsidas was so attached to his wife that in the darkness he mistook a snake to be a piece of rope. So lustful he was, for his own wife! But then he took a resolve to practice devotion, and he attained Ram. Valmeeki wrote the Ramayan (story of Ram) even before Ram’s descent.

Everything can happen with practice. So, you must stop being careless.