The Aim Of The Human Life...

 nar tanu guru sanga govinda radhe

prema pipasa tinom, laksya dila de

Three things are absolutely essential for attaining our ultimate aim of Divine Bliss and God-realization. First is the human body. In this human form, you can work towards your goal, and practice the spiritual discipline necessary for God-realization. This is not possible in any other form of life. But, even though we have obtained the human body infinite times, we have not attained our goal. just getting the human body actually caused more harm, than good. why? What is the cause behind? Because, we have to reap the consequences of our actions in the human body. We reap the consequences of actions preformed even in other bodies but those bodies are only 'bhog yoni' which means that in them, we only suffer or enjoy the consequences of our past actions; there is no freedom of actions. But in the human body we have freedom of action and we also experience the consequences of past action- both are there.

The human form is equipped with a superior faculty of knowledge. If this knowledge is not applied in the right direction it turns with great speed in the wrong direction. The human being very cleverly engages in sins like stealing, making up lies and in giving others trouble; animals cannot do that. What stealing will a dog do? He takes something and runs while you are watching: But a human being can steal even from a bank locker. He has superior knowledge which is required even to sin. Both good and bad deeds require knowledge. To the degree one has greater knowledge, one can commit bigger crimes. So we have committed infinite sins in the human body. Therefore, this human body is the best of all bodies, and also the worst! It is the best, because it is in this body that Tulsi, Meera, Sur, Kabir, Nanak and Tukaram Became great saints. It is also the worst, because if one does not follow the path towards God realization, then one is forced to move on the wrong path. Why i that? Because you cannot remain inactive even for a moment. You will be forced to move in some direction – either East or West. But you will have to move. You cannot remain stationary even for a second. So if you are not going in the right direction, you will have to go in the wrong direction. Therefore, the human body is also the worst of all bodies. This statement is also true; and of course it is true that it is the best of all bodies. That is why Tulsidas has expounded in this very beautifully in the Ramayana in this manner.

“nara tanu sama nahin kavaniu dehi

Jiva caracara yacata jehi,

Naraka svarga apavarga niseni

Gyana biraga bhagati sukha deni.”

There is no body equal to the human body. Why is that? Now listen to the reason. ‘There is no body equal to it.’ His words carry a double meaning. There is a secret hidden in this statement. It can mean ‘there is no body as the human body’ or it can also mean ‘there is no body as good as the human body’. Tulsidas has very cleverly written that every living being desires for this human body – but to obtain hell! Why has this been written? Does this mean that living being desire the human body for going to hell! No, Tulsidas implies that human beings possess the special faculty of knowledge and being careless by misusing this power of knowledge engage in sinful activities and as a result they go to hell. So the first consequence of the human form is described as hell. Some people who are a little discerning go to the heavenly abodes by engaging in the Karm – Dharm (rites and rituals – duties prescribed in the scriptures). And there are a rare few who are even more intelligent, who desire liberation (moksha or apvarg). So there are three things – narak (hell), svarg (heavenly abodes) and apvarg (liberation). There are three types of activities – good actions, bad actions, and actions that are neither good nor bad. First are inauspicious or sinful activities that lead to hell. Second are the auspicious or virtuous activities that lead to heaven. Third is the state of doing neither sinful nor virtuous activities. It is aspired by the gyanis, and it results in liberation. But, there is something even greater – ‘bhakti sukha deni’. Devotion combined with knowledge and renunciation, in which knowledge and renunciation remain subordinate. The human body gives you these four things. So, the glories of the human body have been sung by the Vedas, th Darshan Shastras, the Purans and the Saints because it is a fact that there is absolutely no other body in which we can attain our goal. So the human body is the first necessity. Now the second is ‘proper association’ with the Guru. Not mere meeting with the Guru but proper association with him. We have met Gurus infinite times, in infinite lives. But, we did not associate with them in the proper manner. We went to them, offered our obeisance, listened to their lectures and even nodded our heads afterwards “yes, yes, I understand”. But that’s all. We did nothing practical about it. Our minds remained attached to the material world. So proper association is required. Thus the human body is the first necessity and proper association with the Guru is the second. That is why God’s grace is considered to be a reason fo attaining the human body.

Kabahunka kari karuna nara dehi

Deta isa binu hetu sanehi

(Ramayana)

Out of compassion, God sometimes awards the human body to someone. This is the first grace. Furthermore proper association with the Guru is an exceptional grace (second grace). Merely meeting the Guru is not grace. It becomes special grace when we associate with him properly. Without this proper association, it is like having fifty-six delicacies laid out before you, and yet not eating. If we simply sit before the food and stare at it, we will die of starvation. If water is there but we refuse to drink, we will die of thirst. Similarly, merely meeting a Saint will not help. If we associate our mind with His, surrender unto Him and unite our intellect with His, then this is the second and even more special grace.

We have met infinite Saints in infinite lives. They explained everything to us and we also accepted it. Already we have been blessed by both these graces before. It is the result of this that you are seated here today. This is not your achievement. Just think over it by yourselves – what wonderful thing have you done to get the human body and get correct knowledge of spiritual principles? How much study of the Vedas and other scriptures did you engage in? On what basis did you receive these two graces? But, you still did not attain your goal. The third grace is even more essential – it is the thirst for Divine love. In other words the hunger for food must be there (the intense yearning to attain). This is called ‘mumuksha’ or intense desire (for liberation) by Shankaracharya. The Braj Rasiks call it ‘lalsa’ or ‘craving’. It is called by various names. There should be a thirst, hunger, craving, intense desire, yearning and intense eagerness and longing to attain Divine Love. One should reach the point of not being able to live without it. Thirst has various levels. The level of desire to attain something can be of various classes. There is an ordinary level – “it would b nice to get it”, a little effort is made and then, “forget it, it cannot be obtained”. Then there is this level – “no I have to obtain it, no matter what!” and the corresponding effort is made. Similarly the levels of thirst for Divine Love, is different for everybody. It depends on our detachment. What is the level of our detachment from the world? How firm is this knowledge within you – that this mother, this father, this wife, this husband, this wealth, this world is not for you, not for the soul, not at all? There is nothing to be gained for the soul there, not even 0.1%. We are divine souls, parts of God. This world is mayic, material. It has been created by God for the maintenance of the body; not for the soul. If this knowledge remains in your mind cent percent at all times and in all places, the thirst for Divine love and detachment from the material world would be stronger. Repeated practice is required to make this firm until the day comes when it is absolutely firm in your mind that the world is not mine.

Did he die today? Yes. When he was dying, leaving his body, he must have thought, “I will have to leave my mother, my father, my son and daughter, this building I constructed. Everything is being left behind. I am going alon. What happens to all this I considered ‘mine’?” How would he be feeling at that time? That time is coming, for all of you too. Then how would you feel? Just think about it, by yourself.”I will have to go alone. No one will accompany me. All that will accompany me is the record of my activities good and bad. I will have to reap the consequences of them.” How will we feel at that time? So the speed with which we attain our goal, ill depend on the intensity of our thirst. We have received two things (the to means to attain our goal) – the human body and the right spiritual knowledge through the association of the Guru. Both have been obtained. Now we will have to create the third for ourselves. This is our work. This is not the work of God nor of the Guru. God did His work in giving you the human body and and gracing you with the association of the Guru. The Guru has done his work by giving you correct knowledge of spiritual principles. What you would not have attained or understood by millions of years of reading scriptures has been delivered to you by him within no time. Beyond this is the third thing. Practicing devotion, making an effort to meditate on God – this will not be given by God or any Guru. If God and Guru could give this to us, then countless souls of innumerable universes would be with God and not in the world. The fact is that God is ‘satya sankalp.’ The best quality of God is that He is ‘satya sankalp.’ This means that whatever God thinks, comes into being. There is no need for God to do anything; He has to merely think. Of course the Vedas use words such as – “smitam viksitam, suptam” meaning that God looked, and God smiled. No, no. He did not smile. He merely resolved.

So’ kamayat

He desired. And, it happens. Whatever He desires, happens. “Let there be creation” it happens, “let there be annihilation” it happens, “let the world be maintained” it happens, “let a body come into being” it does, “let the body come to an end, let Me become Formless” it happens. Whatever He thinks, happens. This is His greatest quality. This quality also exists in the Saints. These eight qualities of God are completely bestowed by Him to the Saints. But neither God nor any Saint was capable of thinking “let the infinite souls bound by maya be delivered, may they all go to Golok.” Some Saint could have made such resolve, and we would have attained our goal, for free. Look at the intense effort made by the Saints! They write books and make so much effort for our sake. Why are they trying so hard? All they needed to do was to make a resolve and it would happen. No. This is something we have to do. We have wasted infinite lives in the hope that God and Guru will do this for us. This foolishness has to be given up. This is something we have to do. This is expected of the individuals souls

udyanam te purusam navayanam

This is something that has to be done by the human being. He has to personally move in the upward direction.

na avayanam

He should not take the downward path, towards the material qualities of goodness, passion or ignorance. Therefore, we have to increase our ‘thirst for Divine Love’. There is only one mind and two things that can be obtained and accepted – one poison and the other nectar. One maya and the other God. One Superior or upward path and one inferior or downward path. We have to choose one out of the two. There is no third choice. And you cannot remain without making a choice; because you cannot remain inactive. There is a natural desire for attaining Bliss, your ultimate goal. Therefore you will have to choose one side of the two. So choose the right side, and the right goal.

tayohsreya adadanasya sadhu bhavati

The Vedas say, ‘sadhu bhavati’ So, in this way, we understand that three things are rare to obtain. Of these we have obtained to, the third is something we have to do and obtain. We have to increase our hunger, our thirst for Divine Love. We should increase it by constant practice and attain our goal. We need to constantly remember one thing, about this human body; which we do not do. What is it? There is no guarantee of the next moment. We think, “how old am I after all? I am just ten years old, 20 years old, 40 years old, 50 years old, thats all”. Don’t think like this. Don’t you see with your own eyes, what is happening in this world? A child is born, utters his first cry and dies! Children die in their mother’s womb. They are born dead. A boy has successfully passed his I.A.S. examinations. His father and mother are thrilled! Congratulations are being sent. Sweets are being distributed. The boy meets with an accident on the wy, and dies! You hear of such incidents daily. You need to think that could happen to you.

kimascaryam

The greatest cause for astonishment in the world is that even though we see it happening all around us, we think that it will not happen to us. We continue in our carelessness. We hear of a billionaire or a Prime Minister or President who was sitting down perfectly hail and hearty one moment and was dead of a heart attack in the next! Time spares no man – not the king, not the pauper, not the Saint or anyone else. Everyone will have to go and leave the body. When will this happen? No one knows. Therefore, do not continue to delay.

na svah sva upasita kohi janati kasyadya

mrtyukalo bhavisyati

 

Do not procrastinate. Who knows, the next moment may be your last. Prahlad advises –

kaumara acaret prajno

Being practising devotion to God in childhood. Who knows whether or not you will attain youth or not? But what do we do? “He is just a child. This is the time for study, for playing around.” Youth comes, “this is the time for enjoyment.” We die in the process of doing all this. This has happened infinite times, not just once or twice. We did not create a thirst for Divine Love within ourselves. We did not create this intense yearning to meet God. So we need to understand these three things and reflect on them, again and again. We have to repeatedly take the mind away from the world and apply it towards our goal. This will happen only by practice. But, if we do not do this, then –

tatah sargesu lokesu sariratvaya kalpate

We will have to spend millions of ages roaming around in the 8.4 million species of life. We have spent infinite lives this way and ill have to continue wandering like this in future too. Our stubbornness will be of no use to us. “Look, I don’t get involved in all this trouble. I will do whatever the mind desires.” Thats all right. The living being is free to choose his activities. You can keep doing whatever your mind says. But you will not be free, when the time comes to bear the consequences! You ill have to reap the fruits according to the Divine Law. Your independence will not work there “I don’t accept the consequences.” No, you will have to.

jo jas karai so tas phala cakha

Therefore, we should be very careful; and stopping procrastination we should practice devotion to attain our goal.

True Association...

Sat satya satya ho Govinda Radhe

sang satya satya ho to laksya dila de

You might be familiar with the word satsang. Sat means ‘Saint’ and sang means ‘association’. If sat, the Saint, is genuine and our sang, association with him, is also genuine, then we will attain our ultimate goal of God-realization and Divine Bliss. The Vedas state:

Tadvijnanartham sa gurumevabhigacchet

Samitpanih srotriyam brahmistham

(Mundakopanishad)

A true Saint is one who has complete knowledge of all the scriptures, and also practical experience of God. He should have the ability to impart theoretical knowledge of the scriptures to us and also, he should have attained the vision of God; he must possess the treasure of Divine Love Bliss. If someone has a cheque book but nothing in the bank account, what will be the use of the cheque book? If one merely talks about God without having surrendered to Him and without having attained Divine Love, then talk merely increases his pride.

Now what is ‘true association’? There seems to be some shortcoming from our side in our association with Saints. In course of innumerable lifetimes, we must have met Saints countless times. Countless times! Saints are always present on the earth and we have also been here since eternity. So all these Saints, Tulsidas, Surdas, Meera, Kabir, Nanak, Tukaram, Shankaracharya, Nimbarkacharya, Madhvacharya, Vallabhacharya – are personalities that we have seen, heard and met. We were present in their lifetimes, we went to them, and we heard their lectures, but we did not gain any spiritual benefit. We said to them, “You are not a true Saint,” and they said to us, “your association is not proper.” Now, to claim that we have not met a genuine Saint even once, is sheer madness. In our innumerable past lives, we have met uncountable Descensions of God, so how is it possible that we have not met any Saint? We did meet them but our mistake was that our association with them was not proper. What do we mean by sang or association? It can be of three kinds. We possess three things: body, mind, and soul. Amongst these three, which one must be associated with God and the Saints? The scriptures say that we must associate with all three. The surrender must be complete. Complete!

Yahi sarvatm bhaven

(Bhagavat)

God says we must offer all that we have in our possession. It is true that whatever we have is impure but we must offer it anyway. God does not expect us to offer Him Divine things from Golok (the Divine Abode of God). He saya, “Whatever you possess, offer it to Me.” Of our three possessions, the mind is the most important. This mind has two states: mind and intellect. The advaities (monoists), mention four states, but that is not important. In the Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna Himself has mentioned only two states of the mind:

Maiyeva man adhatsva mayi buddhim nivesaya

(Gita)

“Arjun! Surrender your mind to me, and surrender your intllect also to me.” Arjun thought, “The mind is one, then why is He asking for two things?” Shri Krishna said, Yes! Yes! There is only one mind, but it has two states. When it thinks, it is called the mind, and when it takes decisions, it is called the intellect.

God says, “I have given you a chariot. What does this chariot comprise of? First of all there is the body of the chariot. Then there are horses pulling the chariot. In the mouths of the horses are the reins. These reins are in the hands of the driver, There is also a passenger who is seated in the chariot.” God says, “Why have I given you this chariot? So that you may come to me. Come as you are. Do not be pretentious; don’t put on a show.” Amazingly, we have been traveling on this chariot since uncountable lifetimes, and yet we have not reached God. Even thought His abode is very close. All we have to do is to turn the chariot in the direction opposite to the one which we have been moving, and then we will reach Him. In this analogy of the chariot, the horses are the senses, the reins is the mind, the chariot driver is the intellect, the passenger is the soul; and the chariot is our body, the human form, which we have attained through great good fortune. Our task is to take the chariot towards God, in other words, surrender to him. Instead, we have been going in the opposite direction. It is like someone has to go to Allahabad, which is in the east, but he is going westwards to wards Lucknow.

Justam yada pasyatyanyamisamasya mahima

Namiti vitasokah

(Mundakopanishad)

The Vedas say: “Turn around. Take either a right about-turn or a left about-turn, and reverse your course. God is standing just behind you, waiting for you.” But we do not wish to turn around. We have accepted one another as mother, father, son, wife and husband and we are seeking our goal of Bliss through them. We are begging door-to-door for happiness, and the ones we are begging from are also beggars for the same happiness. All the beggars are fooling each other. Each one is promising, “Come to me. I will make you very happy.” Mother, father, wife, husband, son, everyone is saying this. They are deceiving us, and we are being kicked around everywhere in the world. At times, we do realize that these people cannot give us happiness, since they are begging for it themselves. But this knowledge does not remain for very long, and we quickly go back to the world, searching for that elusive happiness. Thus, it is mainly the mind and the intellect that must associate with the saint. And of these two, the intellect is main. The mind is a mere servant of the intellect. It simply does what the intellect tells it to do. Write this down in letters of gold! You people say time and time again, “Oh! My mind does not want to think of God. My mind is telling me to sleep. My mind is telling me to go away from here.” Granted the mind may be telling you to do all this, but you must learn to control it with the intellect that God has given you. Even a little child controls his mind with his intellect. He is going to school, and on the way he sees hot jalebis being made in a sweet shop. His mouth starts watering. He wishes to eat the sweets, but has no money with him. He thinks to himself, “Go ahead! Steal the jalebis.” Then he thinks, “No, No! If I am caught, I will get a beating. Just keep walking straight to the school.” The child looks longingly at the jalebis, and yet keeps walking. What has he done? He has controlled his mind. The mind could have instructed the hand, “Hey! Pick up the jalebis.” But it could not give this order to the hand, against the decision of the intellect. Of all the works that we do in the world, there are very few that are in accordance with the interest of the mind. We do most of our works despite the disinclination of the mind. Look at you people gathered here. You have left your homes to come here for practicing devotion. I accept that you have great devotional feelings, and have renounced a lot to be here. Yet, in the morning when the wake-up bell rings, your mind does not want you to get out of bed. Yet you do so only because you have to. You reason to yourself, “I must get up. If I don’t then I will get a scolding from Maharajji.” You get up unwillingly. It is the same in your homes; when the child is woken up by Mummy or papa, he does not like it, but gets up anyway. And Mummy and Papa do not wish to get out of bed themselves. They do it forcibly too. Papa gets out of bed because he has to go to work; Mummy gets out of bed, because she has to make breakfast.

All day long, you do many things against the interest of your mind – as a mere act, a show, a charade. You welcome someone who comes to your house, though from within you are not interested to receive him. It can be said that 99.9 percent of your acts are done merely because you have to, and not because you want to. Since the mind is your servent, it does what the intellect instructs it to do; it cannot revolt against the intellect. This intellect is a great power that God has given us, and e must use it to control the mind. But we accept defeat before the whims of the mind. We do what our mind wants instead of following the dictates of our intellect. We must make the intellect govern the mind, and not allow the mind to govern the intellect. Now let’s talk about the intellect. In every lifetime, our faulty intellect has prevented us from associating with Saints. It takes pride in our degrees, “I am a B.A.; I am a M.A.; I have a Ph.D. My hair did not turn grey in the sun; it has come from a long life of experience. How can I blindly accept Tulsidas and Surdas as Saints?” Our intellect always questioned the actions of Saints, “Why does he wear these clothes? Why does he sit like this? Why does he stand like this? Why does he talk like this? We have always done this. We even criticized God, then why should we spare the Saints. The Scriptures, God and the Saints unanimously state that when God bestows his Grace, He takes away our material possessions.

Yasyahamanugrahnami harisye tadhanam sanaih

(Bhagawat 8-22-24)

But we do not accept this truth. We think, “This cannot be. The one whom God graces becomes a billionaire. If he is childless, God gives him a child. If he doesn’t have a mother, God provides him with a mother. If he is fatherless, God gives him a legal guardian.” In other words, our personal philosophy is that when God or the Saints grace us they give us worldly possessions. But the statement of God and the Saints is the opposite of this. So a fight ensues between our intellect and God’s words. The intellect says, “I don’t accept this point.” “But the Vedas are saying it, and so does the Bhagavatam.” “They may be saying it, but I cannot agree.” I ask you, how many people are there in India who accept the philosophy that when God graces a soul, he snatches the world away from him. I ask you all, how many of you agree to this philosophy? I don’t see a single person who really does. There is not one amongst you who would say on receiving an insult, “this is good for me”, ho on becoming ill, losing wealth or on the death of loved one would say, “this is the grace of God.”Does anyone of you have the courage to say this? So your faulty intellect does not allow you to associate with the Saint. It clashes with the principles of the Scriptures, God and the Saints. It says, “I don’t accept this.” We may not explicitly say it in words, but in our heart of hearts we think, “this doesn’t sound right.” So then how are we associating with the Saints? Association means accepting their words fully from within. If the Guru scolds you, how many of you feel, “look at the grace I have received today? My Guru has personally scolded me.” Sit by yourself and reflect on this. What is the state of your intellect? You do not feel fortunate on being scolded by your Guru, on the contrary, your mood is spoilt. You may not abuse Him on His face, but within your heart you become extremely annoyed. “He scolded me in front of everyone. I would not have minded if He had scolded me in private.” How much you love self respect! You desire respect despite the fact that you are a slave of lust, anger, greed, attachment and ignorance. Yet, you are not prepared to be reprimanded for these even by your Guru. This is the condition of your intellect!

This means your intellect is not associating with the Saint. Once it surrenders, the mind will follow automatically. So you must attach the intellect to the instructions of the Guru, and upon receiving them, be overwhelmed with gratitude. You should realize His grace in His each and every instruction. Not only when He praises you, but also when He criticizes you, insults you, scolds you, or reveals your faults. You should feel overjoyed from within in each instruction of His. If you can think in this manner, it means that you are surrendering the intellect, and now your salvation is certain. When this golden day arrives, your work will be done. Until you accept this from within, you are only fooling yourself by thinking that you have surrendered to God and Guru. And even if you have, it is only one percent or ten percent. That is all! However, you feel from within, “I am fully surrendered, am I not? Yes I am.” But to whom are you asking this Question? The intellect. It is this intellect itself that is the cause of your ruin, and yet you are asking it. Do you think it would pass judgment against itself?

So if truly associate with a Saint, it ill not take you long to reach your destination. The Guru instructs, “chant mara mara (kill,kill)and you will attain Ram.” We did not accept the millions of instructions of our Guru from the Vedas and other scriptures, then how can we ever accept such instruction? But look at the surrender of Valmiki. His Guru simply instructed, “keep repeating mara mara until I return,” and the disciple said, “Yes Guruji.” He did not use his intellect to question the instruction. “What does this word mara mean? How long should I go on saying mara mara?” No questions! He enthusiastically followed his Guru’s instruction and became Valmiki the Saint. This is surrender. This is association – true association.

Your Guru gives you a flower or throws a necklace towards you. You should feel that he has given you everything. Instead you think, “hmm! I have got a small ordinary necklace. That person has got a nice one.” How wrong are these thoughts? The intellect is so distorted; it has been spoilt since eternity. That is why it is not willing to surrender. It does not take it even a second to rebel. The Guru asks, “Why are you sitting like this?” The devotee answers back immediately, “how else should I sit?” What a contradiction of thought and speech with that of your Guru! You all do this. And you do not even realize your mistake, for if you did, you would endeavor to correct it and not repeat it in future. You answer back even to your Guru. You may not say it, but even if you feel it from within, it amounts to the same thing. So if you are ever fortunate enough to associate truly with a Saint, it will not be long before you attain your goal.