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Preparation for Mantra_Diksha
(Spiritual Initiation)
Swami Bhuteshananda
Continued from the previous issue
Purification of one's conduct is even more important than purification of food. We shall state here the five types of good conduct.
1. We should pray for the welfare of all. We should behave in such a manner that no one's feelings are hurt and no harm is caused to anyone. We must not do anything by which anyone is hurt physically or mentally or whereby evil befalls anyone. The scriptures speak of Ahimsa or non-injury. It not only implies not hurting physically or mentally anyone, it also means not to think ill of others or harm others. This must be practised in thought, word and deed.
2. We must hold on to truth always in such a way that under no circumstance should we deviate from it. We should never have recourse to falsehood. We must honour our commitments. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, `One who holds on to truth rests in the lap of God.' He further says, `Truthfulness is the austerity for Kaliyuga.' I am not saying that it is easy to stick to truth. It is not at all easy. We will have to make a lot of sacrifice in life to observe truthfulness. Hence, it is never an easy job. But we should not forget that holding on to truth is our ideal.
3. Let us not cheat anybody or deceive anybody in any way. Let us not get anything by cheating somebody. Let us be satisfied with what is due. This is honesty in our dealings with others. It is of great help in the spiritual path.
4. We have to bring all our sense organs under our control. Let us not be guided by them. Control over one or two sense organs will not do. All the senses are to be brought under control. It is a must for spiritual life.
5. Life is meant for thinking of God and for realising Him. Lead a simple, straightforward and natural life. We should not seek luxury. I do not mean that all should wear clothes like beggars or live miserably. I mean we should strive to maintain ourselves with minimum requirements. We should be absolutely free from greed. The man who earns thousand rupees a month wants to earn five thousand instead. Another one earning five thousand a month wishes for ten thousand monthly. In a similar fashion others are after a target of one lakh from ten thousand and even one crore from one lakh and so on. This is how our desires are continuously increasing. Such ever increasing cravings keep the mind constantly restless.
Hence it is advised to control the mind. No one's mind feels satisfied or peaceful even after getting all the treasures of the world. That is mind's very nature. The more one gets, the more he wants. Our craving for objects of enjoyment goes on increasing with the supply of objects to the senses just as the addition of clarified butter to fire further kindles it instead of reducing it. These desires cause mental unrest. They confuse the mind too.
Some people say, `We want peace'. I say, free your mind from desires, you will get peace. As long as desires are there, there will be no peace. For, we nourish so many desires that it is impossible to satisfy all of them. So the mind gets disturbed. Why don't we get peace? Because our mental desires are not being fulfilled. It is not easy to fulfil all these desires and expectations. While satisfying one desire ten more desires crop up. He who has enough to eat and clothe thinks, `Do I simply want food and clothing? Is it enough to have mere sustenance? I don't have a scooter and car--no horsecoach!'How then can we enjoy life?
On the contrary, if someone has all the objects of enjoyment, but is physically unfit, he cannot enjoy even with everything available. Hence desires don't subside. King Yayati enjoyed life in all possible ways in his youth. As he became old he no more had the strength to enjoy but he observed that the desire for enjoyment was intact. What to do? He prayed to God, but He said, `You have passed your youth. All right, if any of your sons agrees to give his youth to you, you will be able to enjoy again.' Yayati called his sons and asked them if they could give him youth. None except Puru, the youngest one, agreed. Getting back his youth Yayati again indulged in sense enjoyments. Then it occurred to him, `I have enjoyed life for such a long period but the desire for enjoyment has not decreased at all. It is growing all the more just as the flames of fire leap with the addition of fresh fuel. The mental unrest is increasing hundredfold.'
This is human life. We say, we want peace. We also think that we shall get it by praying to God. But we pray to Him only for obtaining objects of sense enjoyment. There is no other need to call on God. If God grants us enough wealth and prosperity, if we can live happily with friends and relatives, we say, `God is gracious'. On the contrary, if we fall into tragedy, like the falling of a thunderbolt, we label Him as bad. Suppose a young man in the family dies or some such mishap takes place, we say it is a conspiracy of God. We say, `Look, what has God done!' God loses His credibility. Our main objective in praying to God is to get our desires fulfilled. The moment we fail to get them fulfilled, our devotion vanishes. We can never have peace of mind through contemplation of God with such an attitude. Whether He keeps us in happiness or misery, does us favour or disfavour, under all circumstances we must accept all as His benign will. We must accept happiness or misery, whatever comes to our lot, with willingness. We should receive them with a grateful heart. We should not only not dread death, we should accept and welcome it without the least resentment. Such an attitude comes from self-surrender. It is written in the scriptures: he who has been able to surrender himself gets peace of mind. All the sense objects and enjoyments of the world become insignificant to him who wants God from the core of his heart. As a result of constant remembrance of Him his mind becomes so much concentrated on God that it loses attraction for everything else, just as the man who has a philosopher's stone in his possession does not care for petty things. Other objects of enjoyment become insignificant.
Rabindranath Tagore has depicted a beautiful incident in his poem Sparshamani (literally meaning `philosopher's stone').
A poor brahmin used to worship Lord Shiva with a desire to become wealthy. The Lord said, `Go to Vrindavan, meet Sri Sanatana Goswami there and learn from him how to get wealth.' The brahmin went to Sri Sanatana Goswami with the hope of getting rid of poverty. Sri Sanatana said, pointing out a particular spot on the bank of a river, `Under the sand a philosopher's stone is embedded. Dig it out and take it. All your poverty will be removed and you will get infinite wealth.' The brahmin hastily single dug the spot and obtained the stone. The moment he touched his iron amulet with it, it instantly turned the amulet into one of gold. Astonished, the brahmin now thought that in spite of such a precious object close by, how undisturbed was the Goswami. He went to Sanata and asked, `Please give me a fraction of that treasure, having which you don't consider this precious stone as precious.' Saying this, the brahmin threw away the philosopher's stone into the river.
In the words of Rabindranath:
`Je dhane hoiya dhanee,
manire manona mani,
tahari khanik,
Magi ami natosheere,'
eto bali nadineere felilo manik.
Srimad Bhagavatam (11/2/53) says:
That person of confirmed faith and experience is the greatest among the devotees of Vishnu, whom all the wealth and resources of the three worlds will not detract even for a trice from his firm grasp of the holy feet of his Lord, which is yet only a distant aspiration even for celestials seeking it.
He becomes so contented with the joy of communion with God that all worldly possessions and treasures become insignificant for him.
Here it must be noted that this dispassion for everything worldly has not to come out of disgust following failures or blows. The attraction for God is so strong that everything else becomes insignificant. Sri Ramakrishna has given the illustration of the attraction of iron by a magnet. If two magnets, one small and the other big, are placed on the two sides of a piece of iron, which magnet would pull the piece of iron? The bigger one, for sure. God is the biggest magnet, as it were. His attraction is irresistible. When once His attraction is experienced, then nothing of the world will be able to attract the mind any more. Then nothing can take us away from His lotus feet. Our progress towards the Lord is also the test of attraction for Him. If we want God as well as worldly riches, then it means that our love for God is a mere pretence.
Generally people remember God with the intention of getting wealth and happiness. They do not want Him for His own sake. Our real objective is wealth and prosperity. And God is one of the means of acquiring them. If the means does not work up to our expectation, we do not hesitate to throw that means away. In other words, we shall give up even God! We must remember that to get only happiness from God is an impossibility. Misery, poverty, obstacles, accidents also come from Him only. People just forget God in their happy days but remember Him when they are in trouble. While others go on lamenting in distress, a devotee holds on to Him all the more firmly in such a situation. He remembers Him more intensely in the midst of suffering. We know the life of Kunti. Her entire life was filled with continuous suffering. She roamed about from one forest to another with her husband. Then her husband died and she came to Hastinapura with her minor children. Even after getting the kingdom the Pandavas, her sons, were deprived of it by the conspiracy of the Kauravas. This was followed by Pandavas' long life in the forest and one year of anonymity. Next they had to roam about in the forest with the mother. Kunti led almost the whole of her life in danger and suffering. Then came the war of Kurukshetra. At the end of the Kurukshetra war when Sri Krishna came to take leave of her, she prayed to Him, `O Madhava, when we are in the midst of happiness we forget you. But we invariably remember you in danger. I therefore beg sufferings from you so that I may remember you constantly.' How large must be the heart to ask for suffering from God? Although such prayers are rare amongst us, we must not forget that such prayers alone are the ideal ones.
We simply mutter the name of God verbally but remain steeped in worldliness. We ought to seek Him because He is our greatest benefactor under all circumstances, our all in all, the Soul of our Soul, nay, our very Real Nature. Man loves himself the most. He loves other objects because they are dear to the Atman. In other words man loves Atman alone. It is from this standpoint that God is called Paramatman, i.e., Atman of one's atman. We should love God because He is our true Self and not for any other reason. This is called ahaituki bhakti, unselfish devotion. Sri Ramakrishna has talked about this type of bhakti time and again. The devotee in this kind of devotion does not seek anything from God because he has no other cravings. He feels completely satisfied by whole hearted surrender to God with love and devotion, without seeking anything in return. Such an ideal devotion towards God is the ideal of Sri Ramakrishna. If we fail to raise ourselves to such a high level, we should at least remember that thirst for worldly possessions and sense pleasures should not be allowed to shift our attention from God, the centre of our life. Petty desires will be there, body and mind would like to fulfil them. Let them be and let them do it, but they should not cloud our power of judgement to such an extent that we forget God and make enjoyment and worldly possessions as the very purpose of life.
Another key point in Sri Ramakrishna's teachings is that we should be sincere in repeating the name of God. It is not important how many thousand times we chanted the name of God or how long we meditated. Someone may eat vegetarian diet and undertake severe austerities wearing a single piece of cloth and so on. These are of least importance if they lack sincerity of purpose. The important thing is whether we are able to love God wholeheartedly. Due to such a love for God, all other worldly attractions would fade into insignificance. We should always keep it in mind.
Srimad Bhagavatam says, `A genuine love for God reduces all other attractions of the world.' We are to tread the spiritual path with this standard. One may lose consciousness while singing of God, one may meditate the whole life sitting in one place, one may perform lakhs of japam for years, one can go on pilgrimages one after another. None of these really matter. Feeling the constant presence of God in our heart is what really matters. There will be no space left for anything else, or any other person or even any other thought in such a heart. We ought to offer all our love and adoration to Him. We shall have to surrender ourselves completely at His feet. This is the gist of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual teachings.
And if we succeed in loving God with our whole heart, we will be able to feel His presence in all the creatures of this universe. I sincerely pray that all of us may be able to live our lives holding fast to this ideal. May this ideal influence our lives to such an extent that everything of the world becomes insignificant. By His grace everything is possible. I pray to Sri Ramakrishna that all of us may have such intense love for God.
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