If we think that Lord is only Nirguna nirakara, then we show no respect or tolerance for those who worship him with form. To make us understand how to worship Him, The Lord explains how to do the sadhana to gain this understanding.
मय्येव मन आधत्स्व मयि बुद्धिं निवेशय |
निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशयः ||
Mayyeva mana aadhatsva mayi buddhiM niveshaya
Nivasishhyasi mayyeva atha uurdhvaM na saMshayaH
Word Meanings:
Mayi eva – In me alone : ManaH – mind : Aadhatsva – fix : mayi – in me: buddhiM – reason: niveshaya – let penetrate : atah urdhvaM – thereafter :
mayi eva – in me alone: nivasishyasi – you will live:
na samshayaH – there is no doubt about it
What is sadhana ? Sadhana is a small means to large amount of peace in our life & it never gives sorrow. Therefore it is said in our scriptures – Adhyatma Vidya Adigamah. In our daily life we should try and learn to understand the scriptures.
Adhyatma Vidya Adigamah also means we should discipline our lives in such a way as to always be in the path. Unless we do this with dedication and discipline we cannot be successful. We should not have the
attitude “( yawn ) that if I get up, I will meditate, If I get time, I will do the puja, if I feel like it, I will read the scriptures”. Then there is no use. Discipline is important in spiritual practice just as much as in daily life. Whenever we think we have too much work to do., the first victim is the puja. Only the puja is always in the way!! Nothing else. Therefore the best way to be self- disciplined and think of the God is to have a method. For instance, yesterday Shree had posted about worshipping together as a family and the merits of organized daily prayer!
We know a lot about others and the outside world but have no idea about the inner self. Adhyatma Vidya means that the knowledge of “Who we are, How does our mind work? What is the Jeeva that lives in this body? Who is the paramatma who is behind everything?”. Therefore Adhyatma vidya Adhigamah also means understanding all of this.
After this the second Sadhana is sadhu sangatir evacha – Whom we are with is very important. Sadhu sangatir evacha means that we should be with people with whom our concentration on God does not get lost. If by being with some people we lose our concentration on Lord, it is not Sangati but Durgati (miserable existence).
The third Sadhana is Vasana Samparityagah We are living our lives inspired by vasanas. We are trying to win over these vasanas. If we live to satisfy our desires, we become slaves of it. Slaves can never be happy. If we live as masters of our desires, only then we can be happy. For e.g.: If we start craving or desiring for something then the desire has won over us.
The fourth Sadhana is PraaNa spanda nirodanaM – What is karma? In our life, we should have the independence to act or be freed from action. We should not get stuck in karma and then want to be freed from it. In the fifth chapter, Arjuna asks, “you say both karma yoga and karma sannyaasa are good. Which is better? The Lord says both are necessary. If we do Karma at all times, we become tired by action. If we renounce all actions and sit idle we might become lazy.
For e.g.: Suppose I am driving a car and I keep driving without stopping at the red light,. the policeman will stop and ask..”Do you have a driving license?” I say “Yes”. “Then why didn’t you stop at the red light”. I cant answer, “It is a driving license and not a stopping license”!!
Stopping is a part of driving. In this way, “praaNa spanda nirodanaM” means just as we have independence to act, we also have should be free not to act. Then we will not get bogged down. Therefore, we should not be stuck in the same job or same place for a long time, so much so we come too attached to leave. If we understand this, we free ourselves. In short, these are the four aspects of sadhana.
Now we shall see how the lord describes sadhana. The first Sadhana “Mayyeva mana aadhatsva mayi buddhiM niveshaya” Involve the mind and intellect on God. Meaning what? Mind means each of our actions and feelings towards it. All our likes and dislikes should make us closer to God. We should get his vision.
Bhagavatham tells the story of Sudhama. He was very poor and as his wife told him to, he went to Sri Krishna to ask for help. He got his respect and was well treated. He then left and Krishna did not give him anything. Moreover Krishna even ate the beaten rice (chivda/avil) that Sudhama brought. When Sudhama left, he thought, “I came as a beggar and leave the same way. Such a rich man, the husband of Lakshmi and He did not give me anything!! Why did he do this?”
All such questions in his mind were centered on God. “Why didn’t he give me money? If I took money/jewels, then thieves might come to steal and even if the police come, they might wonder how a beggar like me has so much money and will hit me and might take it away. So only to avoid all this trouble he did not give me anything”. So his doubts and reasoning thoughts were centered on the lord. This is the meaning of “mayyeva mana aadhatsva”.
We’ll take another example, also from Bhagavatham. Once there was a king who had many wives and no children. Standard story. He prayed to God and finally he got a child. But his wives were jealous and they poisoned and killed the child. The king was weeping with sorrow when Narada came there. Narada always makes an appearance in such situations. He summoned the “Jeev/Individual Soul” and asked it to enter the body. See how your parents are crying!! The Jeev asks, “Who is my mother and Who is my father?. In each life, I have a pair. If I have to satisfy all, then I will have to cry all my life. I was never theirs and will never be. There is no use crying”. When the king and his wives heard this, they get vairaagya and told Narada. You made us see the truth. We keep saying, “Mine” for all objects, but the only thing, which is “Mine”, is the lord. All thoughts should be centered on the lord. “Mayyeva mana aadhatsva” therefore means that every incident in our life should be interpreted in such a way that it happened for our own good. In each of our lives, good and bad incidents happen. In both we should be able to see God.
Secondly the lord says, “mayi buddhiM niveshaya” meaning concentrate your intellect on Me. How to concentrate the intellect on God? We are always concentrating our intellect on making money. Once, a man died. He was taken to the cemetery. Since it was noon, the log owner was eating. His kid saw them and said, “A Customer has come. Come out soon”. To him every dead person was a customer. There was no happiness or sorrow, because the mind is only on money.
We should concentrate our intellect on the lord somehow or other yena kena prakaarena. This can be done in mainly two ways. Firstly, we should get “Vairaagya” about the world in the inner self and secondly by understanding how to keep the lord in our mind at all times. Therefore “mayyeva mana aadhatsva, mayi buddhiM niveshaya” means every incident in our lives will become a sadhana and lord’s grace will be there in our lives at all times.
Now what happens to the person whose mind and intellect are constantly thinking about the lord?. The lord says, “nivasishyasi mayyeva” – Such person will always reside in me – In every action he will bring God. Every action should be surrendered to God. Therefore the lord says very explicitly, what is required of his devotee. There is no requirement of garland, thulasi or golden rudraaksha. No need for any make-up. No need for full stop (.), U turn(U), railway lines (=) or electric poles(|). No description of clothes to be worn whether yellow or red, torn or ironed. The sadhana required by us is to purify our minds and offer it to the lord.
It does not matter what song you listen to but more important it is what you get out of it. There is no need to say I listen only to Bhajans and then be so ill-tempered that no one wants to come near you! If our mind is truly on the Lord, it will not cry or make others cry, it will not be sad or make others sad.
The lord says, “mayyeva mana aadhatsva, mayi buddhiM niveshaya, nivasishyasi mayyeva”. If we reside in the Lord, we must have two characteristics. The Lord is disturbance proof. Disturbance is in the narrow minded. The more broad minded one becomes, there is no disturbance and nothing should bother us. A true devotee will not be disturbed by the world and this is the greatest sadhana. We have come to improve ourselves, not the world. Secondly, when we are devotees, we will always be peaceful at heart because our mind does not get disturbed by anything and therefore, we will always have solution to all problems which is born out of this mental peace. We become one with God. When the lord said this, Arjuna must have made a face. “Chanchalam hi manaH krishNa, pramaadhi balavad dhR^iDhaM – the mind is always agitated and it is too powerful for me to control– So Lord says if you can’t do this, never mind and gives a second option. We shall see this in the next post..
