Baba
Cultivating bhakti
Namaskar,
This letter addresses a few key points related with Sadguru Baba’s guidelines on sadhana and dhyana.
Was I sleeping in sadhana?
Sometimes when doing sadhana one may feel some type of sleepy feeling. That means they wasted their time.
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Needed ingredient for mantra japa
Next Sadguru Baba guides us about an important element of sadhana: the repetition of the mantra.
Ananda
Marga ideology states, "People do japa kriyá in a very crude manner. It
can be said that their method of incantation is like the talk of a
parrot. Parrots talk, parrot say so many things, without understanding
the meaning, without understanding the spirit of what is meant. Japa
kriyá becomes as meaningless as the talk of a parrot for those who do it
without love or emotion. It even loses the value of internal
suggestion, intro-psychic suggestion." (1)
Here the point is that love for Parama Purusa is needed when one does their mantra japa, otherwise their sadhana will be dry.
Think
of it in this manner. In worldly dealings, when two lovers are deeply
infatuated with one another then they can gossip together for hours and
days on end and never get tired or bored with each other. They will have
endless things to say and talk about. But if two people are not
infatuated or in love with each other, then they will not like to spend
even two seconds together exchanging the feelings of their heart. So
love is the main thing.
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And this is the way it works in sadhana / dhyana as well.
How to cultivate love for the Supreme
The
question then arises, "What is the way to develop love for Parama
Purusa?" Baba says to do japa and involve with Him all the 24hrs in
manan, shravan, and nididhyasana, as well as kiirtana and dhyana etc. If
one sincerely engages the mind in His thought then bhakti will surely
develop, by His grace.
This
is based on the yogic tenet: "As you think, so you become." When the
mind is goaded toward the thought of the Supreme then gradually one will
develop a greater affinity towards Him. That is the way the mind works:
one becomes absorbed and colored by the object of its ideation. Even if
one's mind is very dry and barren - devoid of spiritual longing - but
if slowly that mind is goaded towards the Supreme through manan,
shravan, and nididhyasana etc then bhakti (love for Parama Purusa) will
slowly sprout and blossom in the mind. This works in social life as well
as in spiritual life. For instance, two parents might think incessantly
about their daughter studying overseas. And by this mere thought, their
love and longing for their daughter grows. Likewise in spiritual life,
by thinking of the Supreme all the 24 hours then gradually one's love
for Him increases until finally the bhakta becomes completely immersed
in His divine love. So love is the main thing.
And
the unique aspect about love is that it flows from high to low. For
instance, a mother has far more love for her baby than the baby has for
her. From the outset, the mother's quantum of love is extremely high and
slowly the baby develops love for the mother. And in the spiritual
realm, Parama Purusa has an unending amount of love for His progeny,
while the sadhaka slowly develops love for Him. Yet as one's love for
Parama Purusa grows and the sadhaka takes a step forward on the path
towards Him, then Parama Purusa takes many more steps towards the
aspirant. So love is the main thing.
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Special recipe: constant ideation
In
worldly experiences, those who have close proximity with someone often
develop a closeness or infatuation for that person and their image comes
in the mind. Because they see that person each and every day and they
are constantly reminded of them as that person is on their mind -
through constant interaction in a favourable way. In this process,
feelings of closeness develop and their image comes in the mind. Verily,
there are numerous cases where co-workers end up getting married. So
love is the main thing.
The
same theory is working in the spiritual realm. When one ideates on Him
throughout the day through manan, shravan, nididhyasana, japa, kiirtana,
and svadhyaya etc then invariably love develops. And when one has love
for Parama Purusa then automatically and effortlessly His image will
come in dhyana, and one will naturally be ensconced in His blissful and
eternal flow - and the time will pass this way. And even if you try to
push His image out of the mind it will not go away, rather it will
appear more vibrant and clear than before. So love is the main thing.
And that will grow through manan, shravan, nididhyasana, japa, kiirtana,
and svadhyaya etc.
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Conclusion
The
above points are important aspects of sadhana / dhyana. And by applying
them to one’s own personal spiritual practice, the sadhaka will be
successful in their march towards Parama Purusa.
in Him,
Dharmayoddha’
Reference
1. Ananda Vacanamrtam - 1, Who Is Gopa?
* * *
The below sections are entirely different topics, unrelated to the above material.
They stand on their own as points of interest.
* * *
== Section 2: Prabhat Samgiita ==
Inundate my heart
Note: Only those who sincerely practice the higher lessons of sahaja yoga meditation can understand this song in the depths of their heart.
"Ámár jiivane ámár paráńe, nrityer táler eso go, tumi..." (Prabhat Samgiita #0313)
Purport:
Parama Purusa, please come in my life and in my heart with the tempo of dance. Leading the path of materialism, my life is full of sadness. Kindly manifest Yourself within me and fill my heart with joy, happiness, and bliss. My Supreme Entity, Baba, affectionately flash Your world-captivating, mind-intoxicating, heart-satiating, and charming smile, so I can forget everything and become ensconced in Brahma bhava.
Parama Purusa, You are the touchstone. By Your wish, please transform my black, crude, aspiritual life into gold, full of bhakti. Be gracious and remove all my bad samskaras and make my being pure.
Parama Purusa, Baba, I request You to flood my stagnant dirty pond with the flow of a distant, divine fountain. My mind is filled with a narrow, limited outlook - isms and dogmas; please drench me with universalism and neo-humanism. By showering the spiritual flood of refulgence and eradicating all the dark miseries, dye my mind in Your exquisite, crimson radiance. Baba, inundate my heart with parabhakti - highest yearning for You.
Drowning in materialism, my life has lost all its charm; it is full of misery and sadness. Please come in my existence and make my life meaningful…
== Section 3: Important Teaching ==
Horror of avidya tantra
The
following is the full account from Shabda Cayanika of the depraved
sadhaka Khagen who fell prey to the allurement of avidya tantra and
occult powers. Here below Baba is narrating the story.
---
I
kept on going and going and going. The palásh forest was not as close
as I thought it had been from a distance. After walking for a while, I
came to a halt at one spot. To my left was a somewhat deep ditch where a
dog had fallen in. He was still barking faintly in between pauses. I
realized that this middle-aged creature had come to the last limits of
his short life.
What
an awful thing! Who could have done such a cruel deed? The dog showed
no sign of any injury, that is, he hadn’t been attacked by any animal.
If a tiger had attacked it would have seized him or her by the throat or
the neck. That is the way that felines attack, from the tigers of the
Sundarban jungle to the domesticated housecat. Even a common cat catches
rats and mice in that way. A wolf would have attacked the stomach or
the back which is how canines attack, from the lion to the fox. When
kakt́esiyás creatures attack, however, they attack from the tail end.
Their nature is to attack other animals from behind and swing and shake
them about.
The
dog appeared completely uninjured. From looking at him, it appeared as
if some unnatural means had been used to arrest his blood circulation
and bring him seemingly to the point of death. Almost as if someone was
rapidly squeezing the last drop of its life’s essence. After a few
minutes navel-breathing began. His dog-life did not have long to go.
There was no water nearby. If it had been rainy season then some water
could have been found in puddles and holes, but it was now the end of
the cold season and water was getting scarce. There was none to be found
anywhere. Alas, I thought, if I could just put a few drops of water in
his mouth, his throat would not be dry during his last moments.
The
dog looked at me with sorrowful eyes. Suddenly my eyes fell on a
hillock directly across from the ditch, what we call d́uḿri in Rarhi
Bengali. In Rarhi Bengali we call a large mountain páháŕ, a smaller,
medium-sized mountain páháŕii, a smaller hill d́uḿri, still smaller
t́ilá, and even smaller d́hibi. When I looked closely, I could see a
motionless, imposing naked human figure.
I
started moving slowly in his direction. After I had gone a little ways I
noticed that he was sitting absorbed in meditation in the siddhásana
posture, completely motionless. He seemed to be an extension of the hill
itself. The only difference between the two was that the hill was
reddish yellow and the human figure was bright and fair-complexioned. I
crossed a vaenci-shiyákul thicket, approached very close to him and saw a
Tantric sadhaka sitting in a bhaeravii cakra yantra. My curiosity was
aroused. I went even closer, close enough to touch him, and took a good
look. What did I see, to my amazement, but someone well-known to me,
Khagen… Khagendranath Ghosh.
I
had known Khagen since I was a child. His parents lived in
Chakradharpur and he used to attend school in my town. After he finished
his studies he left that area. I had heard from his father that the two
of us were born on the same day. I was born most likely under the
constellation of Vishákhá and he was born a few hours later, most likely
under the constellation of Anurádhá. He was one class behind me in
school.
There
was a hereditary inclination towards spiritual practices in his family.
His grandfather, father and uncles all followed the path of sádhaná. I
remembered many years before, when he was studying in standard nine, and
he had asked me what the eight occult powers were and what special
practices existed by which one could attain them. I explained to him as
much as I knew at the time and pointed out that these were dangerous
things and that it was better not to tread that path.
Kśurasya dhárá nishitá duratyayá durgaḿ pathastat kavayo vadanti.
[The path is as sharp as a razor’s edge, difficult to tread. It is an intractable path. So realized persons say.]
Looking
at his face back then I thought that he seemed to be devising a plan. I
explained even more carefully the dangers associated with it and
counselled him to shun that path. Sádhaná should be done only for the
attainment of Parama Puruśa, not for any second thing. He asked me how
it would be if he did the sádhaná for attaining Parama Puruśa along with
the sádhaná for attaining the eight occult powers.
I told him: “Do you know how it would be? It would be just like eating bitter curry with sweet rice.” He fell silent.
Now I understood what kind of plans he had been hatching deep inside. I could see with my own eyes the fruits of his plans.
Khagen
was totally absorbed, like a tree immersed in meditation. He didn’t
blink at all or move even a finger or a toe so I kept quiet for some
time and remained standing there, not disturbing him. At one point, I
looked over at the dog and saw that he had died. His tormented eyes
seemed to be looking in my direction, as if they were saying: “I am
innocent, without fault. Why should a person have removed me from the
earth in this way without any reason? Will you not redress this?”
I
looked again at Khagen and saw his fair-complexioned body gradually
start turning red. It stayed that way for a short time and then slowly
turned jet-black. I watched for some time longer until he gradually
turned pale, anaemic. Then I touched his body; it was as cold as ice and
harder than iron. A human corpse will turn cold but it never becomes
that hard. I was considering what to do or not to do, and then I
remembered that in such cases the body should not be cremated for
eighteen hours; one must wait. If it didn’t return to a normal state
within eighteen hours then one could begin cremating. I thought about
returning to town and letting someone know what had happened and then
returning, but I realized that it would take at least two hours to go
and come and in the meantime some wild animal might come and eat him,
thinking him to be dead. Finally I decided to keep watch over the body
throughout the night and then return to town in the morning to let
people know. There would be little possibility of a wild animal showing
up there during daylight hours. I remained standing there, looking now
at the unfortunate dog and now at Khagen.
Suddenly
I saw a point of light exit from Khagen’s third eye and enter into the
third eye of the dog. Then an even more amazing thing happened. Could it
really be? The dog’s tail started to move slowly two or three times.
Then again quiet. As it had been.
A
short while later, the dog’s tail again started to move slowly back and
forth, and some barks came from his mouth. What an amazing sight! Then
again everything was quiet, silent, still, not even a quiver.
Again,
moments later, the dog’s tail started to move. From its mouth came a
few soft barks. This time the dog seemed to be trying to stand up. It
rose to its feet then and fell down again. Then it was na yayao na
tasthao [“it remained in the same condition”]. Again the dog’s tail
moved a few times and again it barked a little. This time it stood up,
looked here and there, and then started climbing the hill.
It
approached us and then started circling around Khagen like a machine
with someone at the controls, like an ox with blinders tracing fixed
circles around the oil-mill. The dog didn’t enter the bhaeravii cakra,
but stuck close to its outer edge as it circled around. It was easy to
understand what a dreadful state it was in; it had no fear, no thought,
perhaps not even a sense of existence. It was a crude flesh-and-bone
machine, a mindless, energy-driven body. And in whose hands was the
switch for turning on the energy that drove him? You could not say that
it was living because behind it there was no independent unit mind at
work – it was acting at the urge of some other entity’s mind.
I
understood that this was all Khagen’s affair. He had mastered the skill
to kill an innocent creature and drive its body. It made no difference
whether the dog was alive or not because it didn’t have any independent
individual existence. Its existence was actually just like that of a
puppet.
I
couldn’t bear it any longer. Such misuse of the human being’s hidden
internal powers would not help to elevate the human race. Rather it
would bog down one’s hands and feet in the quagmire of power and bring
stagnancy into one’s forward movement.
I
grabbed a fistful of hair and slapped him in the face; his body fell
over, just like a large, precariously balanced rock topples at the
slightest touch. His body was not a living body; it was like a huge
puppet carved out of a piece of hard iron. As Khagen’s body fell from
its seat another astonishing thing occurred. A point of light exited
from the third eye of the dog and entered into Khagen’s third eye. The
dog uttered a cry and collapsed on top of a rock. It was dead once
again.
I
looked over at Khagen and saw him slowly trying to open his eyes. He
looked at me and started to cry. Then with a weak voice he whispered: “I
have committed a great injustice, a great injustice. I didn’t listen to
you. Please forgive me.”
I
stretched out a hand and pulled him up. “You were studying in high
school then,” I said. “I told you these things were deadly, that this
was not a path to tread. Why didn’t you listen to me?”
He started sobbing and said: “I have done wrong, very wrong. Please forgive me.”
Khagen
wasn’t able to stand properly. His vocal cords were also not
functioning properly. I helped him to put his clothes on. At first I had
to use my arms to help him, but after a little while he told me that he
could walk by himself.
He
started walking by my side but very slowly. I did not scold him any
more along the way because he was not in a normal state. He was
somewhere halfway between life and death. When I got to the edge of the
muddy pond where I had been sitting, I saw that some black figure was
standing beside the pigeon-pea field right behind me. His body was not
luminous but rather fashioned from a black shadow. Lest Khagen be
disturbed or feel worried, I didn’t say anything. I pressed his elbow
and gently made him sit down. “Take some rest now,” I said, “then we’ll
go on some more.”
He
started crying and said: “I have committed such a great sin, yet you
still love me so much. I disobeyed you, yet you still don’t hate me.”
“That may be so,” I said, “but you’re my childhood friend. Don’t forget that.”
The
black shadow figure by the side of the pigeon-pea field gradually
started becoming pointed like a needle and a blue light came out from
that needle-like portion. I realized that Khagen might perhaps be
creating another disturbance here.
“Are
you practising márańa tantra [death-tantra] while you’re sitting
there,” I asked. “And was that the Avidyá Tantra practice for entering
another body that you were doing while sitting on the hill?”
“Yes,” he said, sobbing. Then he cried out: “Forgive me. Help me to forget all these things.”
“I
also want that,” I replied. “Come on, let us return to town.” We
continued walking side by side. I kept hold of his left elbow with my
right hand and pulled him along in a fashion. Glancing behind, I noticed
a point of light following us. Since I was looking at the point of
light, Khagen also glanced in that direction. He shivered and said:
“That dog, again that dog, again that dog is chasing me.”
“Wipe that dog out of your mind,” I said. “Repeat your Iśt́a mantra.”
“I am trying,” he said. “But I am not able to.”
“Think
of me for a little bit,” I said. “Think that I am pulling you along by
the hand. Then, while thinking of me, fix your mind at your Iśt́a cakra.
Try it. Then you’ll be able to do it.”
I
took a few steps forward and saw that the point of light had
disappeared into the void. Khagen cried out again, sobbing, and said: “I
have left that path, I have left that path. I don’t ever want to return
to it again.”
A
few years later I was once again sitting in that same place at the dead
of night bathed in moonlight. With the change in time comes a change in
place and person as well. And so it was, though it wasn’t a great
change. I remembered the incident of Khagen and the dog on that
full-moon night in Phalgun. Neither of the two was present.
During
the day I asked the local villagers for news about Khagen. “Yes, yes,”
they said. “Sometimes we see a half-mad fellow wandering the jungle
paths at the edge of the hills. He often goes around barking as if he
thought he was a dog. Whenever he sees anyone with glasses he rushes
after them, grabs them and says: ‘Prabhat, you have come. I have left
that path, I have left that path, bark, bark, I have left that path, but
that dog won’t leave me alone. Whenever I want to meditate or to repeat
my Iśt́a mantra that dog comes into my mind and starts barking
mercilessly. What can I do, tell me! It would be better to die.’” (1)
Reference
1. Shabda Cayanika - 2, Disc: 13
