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Daily Devotion - II
(as heard from Baba)

Reproduced from Niladri magazine - Guru Purnima July 2009 issue

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !!

By Dr. P.K. Samantaray, M.D.

Do you have a predominance of tamas? You feel lazy, don’t want to do anything. Feel sleepy just as you sit to pray. Alright. Just before sleeping only think that you are sleeping at the lotus feet of Sri Radha Krishna. And when you wake up remember that you had been sleeping at their lotus feet. That sleep of yours becomes devotion.

Does rajas predominate? You are very fond of a variety of material enjoyments – good food, good music, good living. Just remember only prior to enjoying, that Sri Radha Krishna’s grace has bestowed you with these enjoyable things, because of your prayers. Offer it first to Them. That enjoyment becomes devotion.

Whatever quality may be influencing your behaviour, convert it to devotion simply by joining it or uniting it with the thought of Sri Radha Krishna. That is your best method of worship.

Sri Radha Krishna become very happy even with the offering of a leaf, a flower or a little water. Suppose you know how to dance well, then dance before Them and make Them happy. If you can sing, then sing their glory and please Them. If you are adept in playing a musical instrument then perform for Them. In Vrindavan at the Radharaman temple, artists from all over India come and offer their talent for the pleasure of Natwar Nagar.

Listen to this funny tale. A sadhu mahatma was sitting surrounded by his disciples. A common man came up to him, saluted very humbly and said, “O great soul! I do not have a single good quality in me. Neither can I sing nor dance, nor play any musical instrument. I can’t even draw a straight line properly. I don’t know how to cook. I don’t have any efficiency in anything. Then how can I serve Sri Radha Krishna?”

The saint asked, “Very well. Can you tell lies?” Perplexed, the man replied “Yes, of course! That doesn’t require much intelligence. I can tell lies left and right.”

The saint replied, “Good! Sit down and use that skill you have as a jester before Sri Radha Krishna. Tell as many lies as you can before Them. Make them happy and They will laugh at your performance.

That gentleman did exactly that. Within a short while, his lying habit disappeared and he became a devout devotee.

In devotion, the lowest of the low is also eligible. For heinous sinners, condemned culprits, the wayward, hopeless and lost cases, it is the most appropriate, effortless simple path to be adopted in life. All good qualities and behaviour automatically accrues to the person who has decided to tread the path of devotion.

For the saatwik person, the aim is to achieve peace of mind. Therefore he endeavours to detach his mind from the perishable, mundane world and attaches it to Sri Radha Krishna. If your mind is engrossed in this transitory, ever-changing fragile world, then naturally you will have no peace, but rather turmoil in mind. A saatwik person behaves in a friendly manner with all, but is not necessarily ‘friends’ with all and sundry. He loves only Sri Radha Krishna. Neither is he unduly attached to worldly things nor jealous of it.

Take the person saddled with multiple desires. For wealth, for enjoyment, for acquiring vast property or achieving success in some venture, he expresses devotion to Sri Bhagawan. A servant serves the master for wages. His actual motivation is earning wages, wealth, family and home. God is a means to achieve his cherished goals.

The genuine knowledge-seeking, questioning devotee is better than the desire-motivated devotee. He is after the ultimate knowledge – God realization. Therefore he practices devotion. Devotion is his means and God is his supreme aim. The only drawback is that after achieving his aim, he will not pursue devotional practice any more. He is not sure whether God exists. He has some doubts and wants to confirm the existence of God by his practice of devotion. Devotion is a means for him and not the ultimate destination.

The devotee in dire difficulties and frightened of life is better than the ‘knowledge-seeker’ one. For the former, Sri Radha Krishna is absolutely real and true. His God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He has firm faith that the solution to all his problems lies with Sri Bhagawan. Therefore his heart is totally devoted to Them.

There is another type apart from the ones listed above. He has a single unified desire to meet Sri Radha Krishna. His heart deeply pines for their company. Why? He is in love with Them. His love is one-pointed, not scattered like ours. He is the best of the lot, as he wants to serve Sri Radha Krishna and please Them with his whole being. No other desire or expectation mars his deep pure devotion.

Think how much parents worry over their children. If they do not return from school on time, they are driven mad. If the loved one does not arrive at the determined hour, how anxious the beloved becomes! This is the mental condition of the scared devotee. When the mind loses its rigidity and becomes fluid, then only the deeply etched impressions of several lifetimes vanish.

Question: You said He is omnipresent, means present in each and every atom. Then why should we so intensely pine for Him? Has He absconded somewhere?

Answer: Just a minute. Do you feel His presence now? Does your heart acknowledge His omnipresence in its depth and entirety? Book knowledge and practical experience are two different things. To convert your learnt knowledge into practical reality, this intense, eager mental yearning is absolutely and unquestionably necessary.

For son, daughter, wife, for wealth, family, name and fame how much have you not wept? Now cry a little for Sri Radha Madhav. Express a little sincere yearning for Sri Govinda and that little effort will put an end to all your weeping of eons.

Sri Ramanujacharya used to call this stage of mind as ‘taap’ (heat). Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu named it ‘deep pining’ and Sri Vallabhacharya referred to it as a state of ‘doubtlessness’. Sripad Shankaracharya called it “mumukhya’ (deep longing). At Vrindavan it is described as “total temptation”.

The great gopis enacted the roles of the above-described four type of devotees in the night of nights – the rasa night. When they arrived in the forest grove near Sri Krishna drawn by the flute-song, renouncing their family home, honour and prestige, Krishna asked them to return home. Devastated and hurt, the gopis were then in the state of ‘Aarta’ frightened ones.

Thereafter Krishna comforted them and assured them of His love, and smilingly started the rasa dance. When the gopis became a little proud of having attained such close proximity to Him, Krishna disappeared. The desire-laden gopis became “artharthi’. Their wealth of expectation was Sri Krishna.

When Sri Krishna again reappeared, the gopis asked Him about love and the actual state of the loved one. This is their state of seeking devotee.

After that they all joyfully participated in the maharaas dance in a state of ecstatic immersion, losing their individual identities. This is the state of the gyani devotee (the knowledgeable devotee). Now they experienced the state of the Absolute in direct touch.

Question: How can anyone recognize in somebody when devotion has awakened from its dormant stage?

Answer: If by listening to Sri Radha Madanmohan’s qualities, pastimes, name recitation, and seeing Their form one experiences thrilling joy, goose-bumps, choked voice, loud singing and dancing then you can be sure that devotion has come alive in his heart.

We are sitting at home in cool comfort silently. Let us watch our mind. Thought pictures of job, office, wealth, friend, foe, son/daughter, mother/father, servant/neighbour, events problems are flowing serially in disorderly linked manner. The flow of though is unstoppable. Where you have attachment, a liking or devotion, those thoughts and events are coming in odd sequence and frequency. You have to reverse this ‘dhara’ (flow) and make it ‘radha’. Instead of the world, home, family etc., only sweetly smiling Sri Radha Govinda should be seen in our mind’s eye.

Sleep with that thought and awake again remembering that beautiful scene. We should be garlanding our devotion around His next time and again. Then only devotion will achieve the depth as well as the height of excellence.

 

Jai Guru

Jai Sri Radhey