What happens to the devotee who is able to offer all his actions to the lord and surrender himself completely to the lord? The lord says:

तेषामहं समुद्धर्ता मृत्युसंसारसागरात् |
भवामि नचिरात्पार्थ मय्यावेशितचेतसाम् ||

TeshhamahaM samuddhartaa mR^ityusa.nsaarasaagaraath
Bhavaami na chiraatpaartha mayyaveshitachetasaaM

Word Meanings: : Paartha – Oh Arjuna : Mayi AveshitachetasaaM – whose minds are firmly set upon me : TeshaaM – of those : Nachirat – very soon : MR^ityusamsaarasaagaraath – from this ocean of birth and death : AhaM – I : Bhaavami samudharta – become their saviour :

Meditation on God, with form. In everything we eat see, smell, taste and touch we perceive God. For such a devotee, the Lord gives an assurance “such a devotee of mine, I will relieve from this ocean of birth and death – mR^ityu sa.nsaara saagaraath. In this world of endless life and death.

What is ocean of life and death? We are born every second and we die every second. When something good happens – for eg., If we get a lottery, we are very happy. Later if we lose, we become sad. This cycle is life and death. As long as we are subject to happiness and sorrow, we are subject to life and death. But if we do not react to the happiness and sorrow then we are closer to God.

Once, a man’s wife won a lottery. He was very scared how to tell her. He was wondering that, if he suddenly told her that she won 1 crore, she might die of heart attack. So he told a friend of his, who went to her and asked her, “Assume you get one crore, what will you do with this”. She replied, “I will give you half” and the friend got a heart attack.

As long as we are in mR^ityusa,nsaara saagaraath we become happy even for small things and even small upsets make us very sad and we are constantly in fear. Once there was a party. One man got up and announced, “let us divide people into two categories – those who are afraid of their wives and those who are not. One person alone was standing in the side of those who were not afraid of their wives. So he was called aside and asked, “Are you not afraid of your wife?’ He said, “Not at all. I am here only upon her orders”. The second dimension of mR^ityusa,nsaara saagaraath is that people fear death every moment of their lives and when they offer all actions to the lord and think of none other than Him, they will lose this fear of death,

Thirdly, even beggars eat by begging. Saints also get biksha and yet saints are not in poverty or disgrace, because they know that only God gives them. Shivaji’s teacher Samartha Ramadas said, “we don’t take food given by mortals. Lord Sriram gives others and they feed us.”

One cannot call himself a devotee and then cry and worry about his problems. This is an insult to God. Some people say, “Although I have lot of faith in God, I am worried”. Devotion and worry cannot go together.

“samuddharta” – the lord will soon lift us out of troubles, therefore never be sad and full of sorrow. Even saints and great devotees get sickness, but they are never ill. Saint Ramakrishna had throat cancer and was in a lot of pain. Once a devotee said, “ you call mother to cure the world, why don’t you call her to cure yourself”. Ramakrishna said, “I am not sick at all, because in his view, he was not having any problems”. Having some reason to be sad is one thing, but becoming sad is entirely another. God says, “I make my devotees such that, sorrow of life and death won’t make him sad”. If you wan’t to take home just one thought, “Let us just make this resolution. If in our lives we will not become sad even in moments of sorrow, then only we are true devotees of the saguNa saakara God.

There is no one whose life is without sorrow. As children, when we are rolling in the mud and dirt, our mother pulls us out to give a bath. We don’t want it. She slaps and cleans us. After we are clean. we don’t have time even to thank her, we are so happy. Just like children, we also become dirty with sin. God puts us in his lap and using sandpaper he cleanses us. In every moment of sorrow, we are in his lap. Kunti devi prayed to the lord, “If you wan’t to give me something, Give me sorrow. In sadness, we get the strength not to be sad.

Who is not sad? However, when sorrow comes and we are not sad, it means that God’s grace is on us. That person who gets this freedom is a true devotee.

Once Uddhava went to the Gopis and started talking about knowledge. They listened and then asked? “Is it over yet?”. We have only one mind and that is already with Kanhaiya – so where do we have the mood to listen to you? As long as our mind is on the lord, there is no room in it for any other emotion. Swami Vivekanand says, “Sorrow is felt only if our vision moves from embodiment of happiness or joy”. Only if mind deviates from God, do we feel sorrow. When eyes are moved away from light, we see only darkness. If the mind is constantly on the Lord, who is the embodiment of happiness, then no sorrow is felt.

Not everyone can be alone. So if you are alone and feel lonely, then you are not prepared for formless worship. On the other hand, if we can be alone and be at peace, and without worry, then we are entitled to worship the lord, without form. In general, a devotee is afraid of this and so begins worshipping the Lord with form but later understands that one and the other are the same.

Therefore not everyone can worship the formless lord, however, everyone can easily worship the lord with form and both lead to the same results. It does not matter who or which is better, but we need to see what we are capable of? Can we ask, “Who is better? A doctor or an engineer? When a boy is small and you wan’t to know whether he will be a good doctor or an engineer, then we check his capability. If you ask him what is 2+2, If he says 5, then he can become a doctor. If you ask him, “How will you cut a frog?, With a knife or saw? And he says “yuck”, then you say, “you better become an engineer” because he does not have the mentality to be be a doctor. Therefore the question here is not which form of worship is better or who is the better devotee, but what is our capability and that alone will determine, how we worship.

Sometimes, we start competing in Sadhana. Life is not a competition. Sadhana is not you do 4 times, so I should do 6 times. We should first understand what is suited for us. For some people puja is something that we love while others can read scriptures for hours. Singing Bhajans, playing tabla etc, might inspire another person. So do not compare and compete with others. He made 4 garlands, I made none. He meditates for 4 hours but I do not meditate etc. Every person is different and is suited for different types of Sadhana.

If we compare our experiences with others, we start doubting. We should first determine how we are inclined. If it is towards meditation, then as the Lord says, we would be able to “Samniyamendriyagramam etc etc…. Control senses, steady our mind and be able to meditate on the Nirguna Niraakara Lord. However this does not mean that the devotee should have no regard for worship of the Saguna saakara Lord.

Gold as a metal is without form and qualities. Nirguna nirakara. It can be made into anything either necklace, nose ring etc. That is not the meaning. We should be able to see that behind the different forms, there is one single formless God and it is the same formless Lord who is appearing in all these different forms. For most of us our mind is fixed on form and we expect a particular form. In Chapter 11, the Lord showed his peaceful form with four hands, conch, Chakra, gadha etc. this is Saguna saakara Lord. But when he shows his ferocious form, then we are afraid. So even while looking at the Saguna sakaara Lord, we only like the present form. But if we truly understand the Lord, we will know that it is the same Lord who is calm as well as fierce.

If we think that Lord is only Nirguna nirakara, then we start feeling that we should destroy all form. To make us understand how to worship Him, The Lord explains how to do the sadhana to gain this understanding. We shall see this in the next post.