Antardarshana

teevra-samvegaanaam-aasannah

Patanjali provides the gradations of our efforts. If one sits with intent feeling with shraddhaa-veerya-smriti, one is bound to reach samadhi. Patanjali gives a lot of importance to human endeavour, sankalpa. Patanjali is not throwing us to the mercy of unknown destiny, unknown praarabdha. He says - Yes, they are all there but teevra-samvega. If you sit and establish with deep intent feeling, you are very near to samadhi and will plunge into it very soon. Like Dhruva. Like Nachiketa. Dhruva said - O’ Mother, tell me where to find that Narayana, how do I find that Narayana? Mother said - Bete, if you want to experience Narayana, you have to go to the forest, you have to meditate. Dhruva said - Ma, bless me, I am going. At the age of 8 or 9, he got into the deep forest and he sat. He did not know how to meditate but his Mother had given some clues, like the basic posture of meditation. Then Narada appeared. He asked Narada - Tell me, how to meditate on Narayana? Narada said - Bete, it is too difficult. He said - Don’t bring all those negative thoughts. I am asking a direct question. If you know how to contact Narayana, tell me, otherwise get lost from this place. Then Narada initiated him into the ashta-aksharee mantra - Om Namo Naaraayanaaya. Dhruva started meditating. Even now you can see Dhruva in the north of the sky. Even now Dhruva is there to inspire you, saying that if you all become Dhruva, you will succeed.

Intent aspiration is important. Develop that intent pure fire. You must have a deep desire, the conviction, the commitment. We lack the commitment and we want quick results. We take a Coconut seed, we put it in the soil, pour water, and dig it out every day to see if it is growing. That seed has to go through a lot of changes. It has to bulge with water, it has to shrink. Have you seen how sprouting of a plant takes place? The seed goes through a transformation. First, it bulges out. Then it shrinks and keeps on shrinking, providing all the energy to the unseen plant which is inside it. Then it tells the plant - Now I am giving way to you - and separates itself into two. You have to then protect the young plant from stray cows. You have to erect a fence around it. One can do all this only when there is teevra-samvega.

One has to establish oneself in teevra-samvega, but this is only for first class sadhakas. For other sadhakas, Mridu-madhya-adhimaatra tathopi-visheshah

Mridu means very soft; we all are very soft, very mild. We don’t want to disturb our day to day activities. We don’t want to disturb and without disturbing anything, if we get ten or fifteen minutes, we will sit down to meditate! This is Mridu bhaava. I don’t want to miss the fun of the world but in the midst of it all if I get 5-10 minutes, I will chant 8 Gayatri every day. If you are that mridu; then Gayatri will also be mridu to you like sprinkling a few drops of rasna in one cup of water. Will you like it? No. This is mridu, you are not getting satisfaction and at the same time, you don’t want to give it up, so you chant only 8 Gayatri.

Another group is called madhyama, the middle. They say - Guruji, we are going to practice 48 Gayatri every day. Slight concentration. The third group is adhigama -- Tell me Guruji, how much I have to do every day? If I say - You have to do 108, they say - yes, we will do 108. This is Adhigama - great zeal. In sadhana, even though the Guru has given initiation to ten people in the same manner, all ten will not grow equally. Even in the classroom, even here, I am speaking and you people are listening but we don’t know who is where?

For many people nowadays, satsanga means to kill time or to tell stories. That is why we are all interested in Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavata. Only stories. We are all interested in listening to the story of Rama, the story of Krishna but we do not want to listen to our own story. We analyse life through the story of Rama but we never analyse ourselves through our own stories. That is why we are not able to develop a relationship with those stories. They are there only to be heard and worshipped. After listening to the story, you do Aarati, have prasada and you think I have earned punya. Again, the next day, one more story, do naivadya, prasada and it is all over. We are analysing Rama’s life. Rama says - Don’t analyse my life. Why are you analysing my life? Use my life as a mirror and analyse your own life. We argue - Look at that Rama. Does he have any brains? Even after Seeta entered the fire and came out, he suspected her. What kind of a king is he? If I were in that position, I would have .....

Where do we stand? mridu, Madhya or adhigama? At what level are we standing? The Guru graces in accordance to the level. Do not blame the Lord. Do not blame the Master. Find out where you stand. You receive according to your capacity. The Lord is very impartial. He pours equally. You receive in accordance with your deservedness. Deservedness and desire. We live in desire but we do not develop deservedness. Mere desire will not give you anything. You have to convert desire into deservedness.

People think shradha is faith but according to my Gurudeva, the definition of shraddha is where your body, your intellect and your mind integrate themselves, harmonise themselves and work in the same direction, that is called shraddha. Your body has to listen to your mind; your mind has to listen to your intellect. Your intellect says that you must sit for one hour but the body says I can’t sit for one hour, the mind says I can’t stay with you for one hour and the fight begins. You lose your energy throughout the fight. So what is shraddha? It is a round table conference between the body, mind and intellect. They have to sit together and they have to discuss the issue.

Aatma-prasadana - to satisfy the constituents of the self. What are those constituents which are helping you? The body, mind and intellect. This is just like satisfying your family members. If your wife and children are satisfied, they will support you.

Once we have understood that our house is full of dirt, is messed up and that there is no order, all we need to do is clean it. Time does not come in the way, age does not come in the way and nothing is too late in life. Even if you do not have the samskara but have realised that there is something wrong inside, start now. Then the samaskaras will come to you. My Baba used to give an example. A hall may be pitch dark for thousands of years but to light it, one strike is enough. We don’t need hundreds of years to light the hall. If you realise that there is something terribly wrong inside, then that is the beginning of sadhana and new samskaras will start emerging. So, even if you do not have the shodasha-samskaara, you do not worry. Start now. Build new samskaras and give them to youngsters. Do not repent that you could not do anything in your younger years. You are so fortunate that at least now you can do it, you still have a lot of time and your entire life is only a preparation for death. It is not a preparation to live.