Discourse on Yoga Vasishtha
Day 96, February 8
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Ganesaya Namaha
Sri Saraswatyai Namaha
Sripada Vallabha
Narasimha Saraswati
Sri Guru Dattatreyaya Namaha
Sri Ganapati Sachchidananda Sadgurubhyo Namaha
asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityor ma amrtam gamaya
Om Santissantissantihi
Please lead me from untruth to Truth, from darkness to light, from death to immortality. May there be peace.
Yoga Vasishtha Dhyana Slokas:
yatassarvāṇi bhūtāni pratibhānti sthitāni ca
yatraivōpaśamaṁ yānti tasmai satyātmanē namaḥ || 1
jñātā jñānaṁ tathā jñēyaṁ draṣṭādarśana dr̥śyabhūḥ
kartā hētuḥ kriyā yasmāt tasmai jñaptyātmanē namaḥ || 2
sphuranti sīkarā yasmāt ānanandasyāṁbarē vanau
sarvēṣām jīvanam tasmai brahmānandātmanē namaḥ || 3
Om santissantissantihi
The Vaktru Prichchaka Lakshana – the attributes of a speaker and the questioner – are being discussed in the Mumukshu Vyavahara Prakarana.
Vasishtha expressed his happiness at the rare attitude of renunciation felt and experienced by Sri Rama. Rama’s mind was now totally calm and at peace. What He has is Satvika Vairagya. It has naturally occurred to Him. There is absolutely nothing unnatural or artificial about it. It is not anything put on, or pretentious.
It is only by God’s grace that devotion, wisdom, and dispassion are granted to us. We must keep offering prayers to obtain the above.
Sri Rama, Your mind is like a fertile and well prepared ground which is ready to receive the seed. You are most well qualified.
We all have to prepare our minds also similarly, to earn the qualification to receive the grace of Guru and receive initiation. To obtain bliss, to enjoy the fruit, we must first be qualified and eligible. Unless one is deserving, even if wisdom is given, it will not be absorbed by us. It will become a burden if we are unable to handle it.
Prasaadaat ..
Prasadam is given to us at the temple. Some of us first enquire what prasadam is being served, and if it is our favorite item, we then decide to visit the temple. It is not wrong to do so if at least it is making us go to a temple.
A temple is not a restaurant. Prasadam is not the delicious food alone that is given there. It is actually God’s grace that is given as Prasadam. It is Amrita, it is food that has been offered to God, tasted and blessed by God.
We must have such a reverential feeling when we receive the prasadam. The feeling is most important when we receive the services of either a priest, a doctor, or Guru.
The success of a physician’s treatment depends on our faith and feeling. It is always good to close the eyes, and pray with concentration for recovery while consuming any medicine. It makes the medicine more effective. Prasadam therefore, is not the physical food substance, but the blessing of God.
Why does God show mercy upon us? He is the Lord of this world. It is His duty to protect us. He creates, sustains and dissolves. He is our Lord. No one in this world is ever an orphan. No one should ever feel like that. In the spiritual sense, God is everyone’s protector. One is never abandoned by God. He protects everyone.
If we pray, if we do sadhana, if do good deeds, share our food, and chant prayers like the Hanuman Chalisa, He will be pleased and will shower His grace on us. We have to follow all the procedures that we are taught, so that God will be pleased with us. If we get good thoughts, it means that Sadguru is blessing us.
O Sri Rama, by God’s blessing, Your mind will become auspicious and will rush towards spiritual enlightenment. Good deeds produce a good mind. Good mind produces good thoughts. Good thoughts produce good deeds. This is the procedure in which God blesses us. The step is for us to do good deeds. Then we get good thoughts and by God’s grace we proceed towards obtaining liberation through enlightenment.
The Upanishad also says that the same devotion we have towards God, we should have towards Sadguru also. Only then, the essence of the teachings of the Upanishads will be grasped by us. New meanings will become apparent to us. New insights will occur to us.
How do scientists make discoveries? Why is it we do not get the ideas which they get? It occurs only through God’s grace or by the merit earned in their past lives. Those who have total faith and devotion towards Sadguru will be blessed thus.
verse
When we pray to Lord Siva, we must also have the retinue in our contemplation, including Mother Goddess. Sri Rama Pattabhishekam also includes the entire group of Mother Sita, Rama, the brothers of Rama, the Gurus, and friends and helpers of Rama. Such pictures are auspicious to keep at home. It promotes the feeling of togetherness and harmonious relationships.
Mother Goddess is Maya Shakti. She should be worshiped along with Lord Siva. Prakriti and Purusha should be worshiped together. She is the Goddess or power of illusion. Lord Siva keeps Maya under His control. When Lord Siva is prayed to, after many lifetimes it will yield its fruit. If we have devotion in our hearts now, if we have the inclination now to pray and offer worship, it is a result of our past merit earned over many lifetimes.
It is not easy to develop devotion. To understand that God is all pervading, all knowing, all powerful, all loving, and all protective is a blessing. Some people become afraid that their devotion may become excessive and they may develop too much dispassion and may abandon their families. No such fears should be entertained. No such thing will happen. It will take countless births, and perhaps some Yugas to reach such a state. Devotion must be developed and increased day by day with deliberate effort.
kriyaa ..
Now Sage Vasishtha gives us the means to do sadhana. He explains the procedure. Keep doing Satkarma, good and noble deeds, without expecting any return. Early in the morning perform Surya Namaskara, visit temple, offer worship and prayers.
People climb 99 out of 100 steps and discouraged, unfortunately turn back. One should not keep the result in mind. One should let that thought go. One should not be preoccupied with obtaining the desired result for prayers. Rewards will automatically be obtained when the time comes.
You went, you fed the hungry. What is the benefit? That you filled another living being’s stomach is reward in itself.
Do penance. Keep chanting the mantra given by Guru. Many people are forgetting to chant the mantra. At least 108 times daily one should chant, if not at least 54, or at the least 18. Before accepting initiation, one must think deeply whether they can handle the responsibility. It is wrong for people to receive initiation from Guru and fail to do the japa. We keep changing our lifestyle and become negligent in carrying out our spiritual duties.
Now many devotees are confused. Do we do Guru mantra or do we do Hanuman Chalisa? Do at least 18 times of the Guru Mantra and then do the Hanuman Chalisa. This is a special directive given to us now by Sadguru, which we must follow.
One must be disciplined. Children are disciplined by elders. Adults have to discipline themselves and set rules and restrictions for themselves. They must set boundaries for themselves.
One must earn well and give generously to charity. One must go on pilgrimages. One must visit ashrams, and temples regularly. By doing these, all past sins, troubles, and sorrows will get dissolved. Then our minds will be motivated to contemplate on God. Earlier, we learned of the five means granted to us by Lord Brahma for our redemption, such as Truth, cleanliness, pilgrimages, penance, and service.
It will automatically happen, the way a fruit falls from a tree when a crow lands on a branch. It is called Kakataaleeyam/ Coincidental, that we will receive our rewards for our actions.
We do good deeds. Sins get destroyed. Mind gets drawn towards God. These things happen simultaneously. Jantoh is the term used. All living beings have to eventually reach God, not just the humans.
Now the eight attributes of Gautama are disclosed to us. One must understand one’s own attributes. The mind is capable of being noble, peaceful, compassionate, and kind without a reason towards all beings.
One must feel kindness towards all creatures. There should be calmness and composure. One must be free from jealousy. Everyone has the desire to grow and develop. But one should never compare with others and resent the progress of others. If such a tendency is there, it will retard one’s progress.
Sage Viswamitra made that mistake of always comparing his achievements with those of Vasishtha. It was only when he gave up that flaw, he made the desired spiritual progress. Wishing ill upon others should be completely absent from the mind.
Dattatreya’s mother is Anasuya. She is free from jealousy. Atri Maharshi is over and beyond the three Gunas. Lord Datta chose such persons to be His parents. Sri Rama also went looking for Mother Anasuya to visit in the forest.
Cleanliness is most important. Now we practice Svaccha Bharath – Clean India. It does not matter what soap you use. But, one must be clean physically. One must take a bath before listening to spiritual discourses or doing scriptural study. Doing dhyana is okay at anytime.
One must avoid getting exhausted. It is important to give exertion only where needed. One must avoid overexertion towards minor and insignificant matters, both mentally and physically. One should avoid getting needlessly upset. Small tasks should not be given too much importance. We are not speaking about Yoga practices here.
Vesha amangala mangala karaki – is how Lord Siva is described. While appearing unholy, the Lord grants auspiciousness. We sing that in a bhajan.
Seeing us, others should get transformed into positive ways.
One must be free from cruelty. One must never harm others.
One must be free from desires and covetousness. Although one may possess everything, one must remain unattached to the possessions. Nothing is indispensable. There is nothing that we cannot live without.
A man lost his mobile phone which dropped into the water from a bridge. Out of indiscretion and over attachment to the phone, he jumped into the water to retrieve it and lost his life. We read it in the news recently.
Dharma Sastra defines the attributes such as these that we have to cultivate.
verse
One performs an action to fulfill a desire. The desire and action get linked and it goes on extending into an endless cycle. It will never stop.
One must do good deeds because it is one’s duty to do so.
It is good to water a Tulasi plant. The benefit is explained in the beginning itself that the family will be healthy and good. Worship of Tulasi plant will safeguard the life of the husband. One should not stop watering just because the husband became sick. One should not tie the cause and effect all the time. Because you watered it thus far, at least the husband is alive. Not every action produces immediate results that are immediately evident. Some duties are mandatory. The explanation for why one should prostrate to God and Guru cannot be given in a few minutes in an understandable way. One must simply follow the rules and procedures to ensure well being.
One must be active and exercise the body to maintain good health. As Television sets become small, people are becoming more obese, due to lack of activity. They get accustomed to using the remote and do not even get from the sofa to change the channels. TVs have curves now, but the human body is losing all its curves and is becoming like a barrel.
Expectation of rewards with a selfish interest, will prevent one from following the path of spirituality. Even the idea of liberation does not occur to such minds.
verse
One must learn to see reality as it is. But normally we get deluded and see what is unreal. Our understanding is skewed. We only see the body. We think the body itself is the soul. We have forgotten the existence of the soul. We do not see what we have to see. We see what should not be seen. We identify the body with the soul. We must develop the skill to see things as they are.
One needs to think deeply and clearly. One must develop the skill of subtle and sharp analysis. We become drowned in worldly affairs. One must set aside such an obsession with the world.
We need to develop concentration. Many people ask: why so many mantras? Why so many types of abhishekam? This lengthy procedures develops our concentration. If one begin to yawn and gets bored, then, there is no benefit.
Why do we do extensive rituals? Does God demand such elaborate worship? We do it to develop our focus and concentration. After half an hour of worship, by constantly having the darshan of the Lord, our mind must get absorbed in the deity. It should become free from external thoughts of worldly affairs. That is the purpose of elaborate and lengthy pujas.
By doing such focused worship, like an elephant that has broken its chains, the mind will become free.
verse
This flow of Samsara – worldly life (not wife and children) but birth and death, is difficult to endure. It is fearsome and it is impossible to understand its purpose.
This human in this body is like a huge animal that is obsessed only with physical life. The human is worse than even the cruelest of animals. Until such an obsession with the body is given up, the Almighty cannot be comprehended. It is most important to acquire Jnana – spiritual wisdom.
verse
Jnana itself is the technique. One must use proper plan to proceed. Proper strategy and implementation are required. Jnana serves like a boat to cross over this endless ocean of worldly life. Some great souls have exerted great effort to acquire Jnana, and in the end, in minutes have gone across this ocean. We must likewise, make every effort to get across this ocean called Samsara.
verse
I will now tell you the means to get out of this bondage of sorrow, Rama. This technique will rescue you from this ocean called Samsara – repeated births in this world.
Please listen with total attention to what I am about to say. The mind is highly unstable. The monkey moves its tail even while it is asleep. It is ever moving about. The mind is like a monkey. First listen with attention. Later you may pose questions if you have any.
verse
One is overwhelmed with having too many duties and responsibilities throughout the day. Even going to sleep becomes a chore sometimes. Even when the body is resting, the mind keeps running wild endlessly. All these actions and thoughts cause us great fear and sorrow.
Finally, we sit down with a sigh. Why? We feel rest and repose when all work is finished. We feel peace and happiness when there is nothing more to be done. But we must keep a distance from activities which give us sorrow. Many actions scorch us inside us because we indulge in them thoughtlessly. Be alert about what you are doing and why you are doing. Do not engage in actions without a purpose.
It is important to learn the meaning of the prayers which you chant. Otherwise it will be no better than a tape recorder repeating the sounds. The sound energy will still be there, but the meaning is lost.
verse
Mahatmas are living fearlessly and happily. How is it possible for them to live like that? They build hermitages in jungles and live amidst wild creatures. By the strength of their minds they make even cruel creatures become friendly. They do not harm them. By sadhana it can be accomplished.
How did such people live fearlessly in the jungle? The wild animals also became tame and avoided hurting them.
Fear follows a chain reaction. I read somewhere recently, an amusing description. A cockroach is afraid of a mouse, cat, dog, man/master, wife, roach. Fear goes around in circles because we do nothing to overcome fear.
We have no judgment as to what should be feared and what should not be feared. With spiritual knowledge one can overcome fear.
Most people are afraid of death. The one who is healthy is also afraid of death. This fear prevents us from enjoying life even when we can. One is afraid at night of all types of calamities and is unable to enjoy good sleep even when lying on a comfortable bed. The man is afraid of earthquakes, or the ceiling fan falling on his head.
Jnana alone dispels fear and sorrow. Remembrance of God alone removes sorrows and fear.
Everyone should keep chanting the Hanuman Chalisa. Please send in your count (to sgshanumanchalisa@gmail.com with name, location, and date). It is a special command from our Sadguru. The chant itself declares that remembrance of praise of Lord Hanuman will drive away all sorrows and evil spirits. When Hanuman is at our side, we have no need to fear anything.
We will continue tomorrow.
Jaya Guru Datta
Sri Guru Datta
Om Santissantissantihi