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8th YEP course
We Must
Stunned stands man today at his own incompetency. In spite of his great and stupendous achievements in all other fields, he is not yet capable of handling satisfac¬torily his own personal problems, both emotional and intellectual. He is over-whelmed by his own emotional imbalance. He is staggered by the complexities of his own intellectual predicament.
Generally a man feels that his subtle problems of love and hate, jealousies and greed, in short, his personal lusts and passions, flood him out of himself and his known and recognized efficiencies. He feels paralyzed when his intimate personal problems storm the tiny world of his daily existence. Naturally, life becomes a burden to him. Objects of pleasure, which he so labo¬riously acquired and accumulated, turn bitter to his own taste. In all relationships he seems to experience a lingering sense of failure at every turn. His entire life thus comes to welter in a pathetic and chronic con¬sciousness of total futility.
The Rishis of yore had recognized the inescapable symptom of acute exhaustion of the individual mind. Our mind is a brilliant instrument. It can soar high to the subtlest peaks of knowledge: it can rig with its endless ingenuity, machinery for actualizing its scientific theories into solid contributions to society and people. We have done all these in our own times.
Yet, the very laboriously conceived and ingeniously assembled appliances of power and prosperity, of plea¬sure and happiness, of productivity and distribution now maliciously turn, as it were, upon the very scientists, who have conceived them, and have multiplied problems for man to solve. Against these arrayed forces of sorrow and destruction, the very creators of the scientific era and the generation who .glorify the achievements of the materialistic age, have no remedy at all, nor have they any known defense scheme so far. Under the pressure of the mounting pile of problems—human, social, national and international—a groaning society is listlessly rolling in voiceless agony, sobbing in tearless pain, tearing themselves in disgust with their naked hands ! Is this progress?
Indeed, the individual mind, at moments of its alert quietude and grand poise, can receive intimations from higher knowledge, and in such awful moments of electri¬fied attention, the human mind can gain some glimpses of the laws of nature in the orderly universe around it. But the truth still remains that the individual mind is limited. Where this fact is not recognized—either due to man’s vanity or due to his negligent enquiry into the range-of-use of ‘mind’, his tool of investigation—there we have a very miserable exhibition of folly, sorrow and suffering from otherwise easily avoidable pain.
When we recognize that an automobile, which can luxuriously run over highways and super-ways, cannot run over water and cross a river, we are not insulting that vehicle, but are only intelligently recognizing its limitations. The human mind has miraculous powers to contact, estimate, recognize and reorganize the objects outside itself. But the very same mind, in itself, has its own imperfections and incapacities. Perplexities scatter our mind when it is used for solving our personal problems that threaten the subjective life of the indivi¬dual in us. When problems regarding the rights and duties arise, challenging our security and comfort, when problems of emotions crop up, when questions of our right relationship with the world of things and beings burst forth in tidal dimensions, when we face our self-ruinous habits, world-destroying ambitions, disturbing lusts, shattering selfishness, or benumbing sorrows, suddenly we realize that we are torn apart within, and we have no answer to these inner problems. Much less we cannot defend ourselves against them, with all the artillery we have created, the machinery we have rigged, the scientific knowledge we have mounted, or the incom¬parable age of prosperity and pleasure we have inaugu¬rated.
Still, it is a fact that we have no other choice than to live here—and we have to win the purpose of our life in spite of all these odds that stand against us. The only instrument of defense is our apparently powerful—but in actual fact—very frail mind. How are we to strengthen our fortress against the incessant onslaught of the world of challenges around us? In case man is not capable of meeting these problems, he, being the very creator of it all, will be hounded down by the very ‘Frankenstein’ that he has conceived and created, and has successfully let loose upon himself and his community of fellowmen the Satan embattling with God for Supremacy and power!!
Today the world has no remedy for this excruciating malady of the age. Each problem is diligently met by the modern intellect with yet another and more powerful solution—and each solution instead of confronting the problem and crushing it for us, has been so far joining the array of our enemies and threatening us in added strength, with firmer determination to destroy us, the very creators of them all!!
We must, therefore, seek for strength within to marshal our abilities against our self-created enemies, who sur¬round us on every side. This is done by tuning our limited conditioned mind to the Total-mind, the Uni¬versal Creative Energy, and God. This Higher-mind is ever-present, everywhere, for all to partake of Its Infinite strength and endless solace.
This Divine-Mind is ever ready to cooperate; water in a clean lake is ever there for any thirsty pilgrim to partake of its cool comfort. Let us seek and reach this Divine Mind. Let us approach Him through Love. Let us seek Him with Love. Let us surrender unto Him in Love.
When our mind, thus, in love gets tuned up to this Divine Power House we shall get re-charged, and a mind so replenished from His inexhaustible splendor shall feel rejuvenated, replenished, and revived. Once this alliance sacred and divine is made, we shall find how all our actions gain a new luster, a greater fullness, an added momentum. To live in such a true and dynamic atmosphere of sincere “prayer”, in a sense of at-one-ment with the Lord, is the secret of gaining a fuller effectiveness in actions and feeling a greater sense of fulfillment in our life.
Pray we must. And let it be a true prayer—not a clamor for gaining anything from Him. Let us discover a pure love, flooding our bosom and lifting us upon its soaring billows into fresh horizons of the mighty Total-mind…We Must.
Let us reach and claim in love Its Omnipotent power, will and knowledge as our own…….We Must.
Let us in prayerful meditation realize what our real nature is, through the grace and strength supplied by the Total-mind, God, the Lord of our Heart…..We Must.
In Meditative Silence
When a spiritual seeker feels the irresistible urge break asunder the shells of his limitation and hatch himself out as it were, from the mortal egg into greater world of the Self, he is fit for meditation.
The vital moments of silence that we reach in our medi¬tation are the eternal islands of Truth among the endless billows of life’s activities, struggles, temptations and desires. We are not accustomed to this inward silence. We are foreigners, self-exiled from our own Real Nature of peace and serenity. We know not how to delve into this silent existence, vital and vibrant, and translate it into a way of living, at once Divine and Omnipotent.
When we are thus completely and totally in that state of silence, we are in the vital realm of truth. In that moment of silence, if we can consciously gain an entrance into the message of its vitality and come to live its full glory, we are then living the very destiny of Godhood. But unfortunately even when we reach there, we know it not and fail to digest our experience. We lack the knowledge of its identity as the experience; we are to know this to be ‘the Supreme and the Eternal’, Though in that silent moment of meditation we are experiencing the Absolute Self, the All-Pervading and the Omniscient, we are not having the consummate satis¬faction and the Bliss of Perfection, because we know not that ”This is that”: Ayam-Atma Brahma. With ‘knowledge’ (Gyana) this experience starts giving us the joy that it actually is.
Invoking Lord Ganesha -By Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda
Gaie Ganapati jagavandana
Sankara suvana bhavani nandana
Gaie Ganapati jagavandana
Praise be to Ganapati, the son of Shankara and Parvati, worshipped by the
whole world.
Siddisadana gajavadana vinayaka
Kripasindhu sundara saba layaka
Gaie Ganapati jagavandana
Praise be to Ganapati with the elephant face, the abode of success, the
leader par excellence, the ocean of compassion, most handsome and capable
of everything.
Modaka priya mudamangala data
Vidyavaridhi buddhividhata
Mangata Tulsidasa kara jore
Basahi siyarama mana more
Gaie Ganapati jagavandana
Praise be to Ganapati, who is fond of modakas, who is the giver of joy and
auspiciousness, who is the giver of joy and auspiciousness, who is the ocean
of learning and bestower of intelligence. With folded hands Tulsidas beseeches,
\’May Rama and Sita ever dwell in my heart\’.
This is the first song in Vinaya Patrika, written by Sant Tulsidas. In thiis
series of songs in the form of letters of submission to the Lord, Tulsidasji
appeals to Sri Rama in a truly soul-stirring manner. The first song is an
invocation prayer to Lord Ganesha. He is called Ganapati because He is the
Lord of ganas, the demigods who are Lord Shiva\’s attendants. The word gana
also means \’groups\’ – groups of sense organs, organs of action, pancha pranas
(the five vital airs or life forces) (the five vital life forces), antahkarana (the four
inner equipments) the pancha mahabhutas (the five elements) etc. He is the
master, and naturally guides and leads them in the right direction.
Ganapati is the leader, most worshipful in his world (jagvandana). If we
emulate him and master our sense organs our organs of action and our vital
life forces, we can also become jagavandana, respected and revered in the
world. We should learn to control ourselves, instead of trying to control others.
Ganesha is the son of Lord Shiva and the joy of Mother Parvati.
Symbolically, he stands for knowledge and is the son of shraddha (faith) and
vishvasa (trust).
In Ramcharitmanas, Sri Tulsidasji says:
Bhavani sankarau vande
Sraddha visvasa rupinau
Yabhyam vina na pasyanti
Sida svantashtamisvaram.
My obeisance to Bhavani and Shankara, the form of shraddha and
vishvasa, without whom we cannot see the Lord sated in our heart.
Knowledge is thus the son of shraddha and vishvasa. In the Geeta, it is
said: shraddhavan labhate jnanam – the person with faith attains Knowledge.
Ganesha is Siddhisadana, the abode of all siddhis – achievements,
accomplishments and powers. One who has control over himself and possesses
faith and knowledge, becomes the very abode of all success, siddhisadana. All
of us are born to succeed. It is a different matter that we often seem to
specialize in failing! We fail because we do not perform to our potential. If we
tap all our inherent talents and powers, we are sure to succeed.
Ganesha is valled Vinayaka (visista nayaka) the incomparable leader. The
mantle of leadership falls naturally on one who gained mastery over himself,
has faith and knowledge, and commands success in all his endeavours.
One of the essential qualities of a good leader is compassion. Lord
Ganesha has it in abundance. He is called Krpasindhu – the ocean of
compassion.
Ganesha is described as Gajavadana, with an elephant\’s face. The
elephant\’s trunk has enormous strength and is also capable of recognizing fine
distinctions. We should also develop subtle discrimination along with strength
of mind and sharpness of intellect.
Tulsidasji calls the elephant faced God Sundara – beautiful. Good looks
alone do not make a person beautiful. Only a person who is disciplined, has
faith, knowledge and success, is truly beautiful. If one spends all one\’s time
taking care of the body and cultivating physical beauty and refrains from doing
anything out of fear of sullying one\’s hands, it cannot be called true beauty.
Ganesha\’s beauty is that he is capable of doing everything – saba layaka.
Ganesha is very fond of modakas. Moda means joy. In Kathopanishad, Lord
Yama tells Nachiketa: \’sa modate modaniyam hi labdhva – he rejoices, having
attained the Supreme, which is the cause for all rejoicing.\’ The only joy-giving
thing is our own Self. In the Panchadasi it is said: \’iyamatma paranandah
parapremaspadam yatah – this Self is of the nature of the highest joy\’, being
dearest (to us). Pure Consciousness is blissful, since it is our own Self. Ganesha
loves to revel in his own Self – modaka priyah. For gross-minded and
extroverted people, joy is only in enjoying objects of the world. They do not
know the sweetness and pure bliss of the Self that is enjoyed by the wise. Sant
Jnaneshwar says that Vedanta is modaka – it teaches us about our own Self.
Ganesha bestows joy, auspiciousness and goodness – mudamangala data.
The very name of the Lord gives joy and auspiciousness. In Sri Ramcharitmanas,
Tulsidasji says:
Rama bhagata hita nara tanu dhari
Sahi sankata kie sadhu sukhari
Namasaprema zapata apayasa,
Bhagata hoy mudamangala basa.
For the sake of the devotees, Sri Rama assumed a human form, bore many
hardships and brought joy to the saints and good people. The devotees, who
chant His name lovingly, become the abode of joy and auspiciousness.
Sense pleasures give us joy, but not mangalam – auspiciousness. Tapas and
fasting give mangalam, but not joy, of course some ascetics find joy in
performing penance also. However, even to the common man, the mere
chanting of the Lord\’s name gives joy and auspiciousness.
Finally, with folded hands Tulsidasji requests a boon from Lord Ganesha:
\’May Rama and Sita ever dwell in my heart.\’ Rama is ananda and Sitaji is
shanti. After all, in the final tally, whether they know it or not all want only
happiness and peace. Thus the attributes of Lord Ganesha teach us a lot of
things. If we try to emulate him, we can also gain joy and peace.
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