A VITAL CONVERSATION – PART 3
Note: If you haven’t read the other 2 conversations, you can find the links below:
(This is the concluding part of the vital conversation Sri Swamiji had at Bengaluru Anjaneya Swami Temple during the first week of December 2018. It is a free flowing divine gush of divine knowledge and love. We have taken much care to preserve it’s freshness.)
Q) Guru Maharaj why do some who come to satsang not aspire truly for liberation and only some aspire for God realization?
With a sweet smile adorning the divine face of our beloved Guru Maharaj, the answer gushed forth.
All our devotional scriptures clearly show that a soul is gently guided towards a satsangham of a Mahatma by accrual of merits over millions of births only.
Of these rare souls who are fortunate, you can find not all have the strong vaasana(innate tendency) to progress in path of spirituality esp Bhakthi and Mukthi.
Some have the merit of punyam and also the intense vaasana(innate tendency) towards the path of spirituality. So when they are fortunate to be in the satsang of a Mahatma, due to their ‘taste and preference’ for spiritual activities like bhajan, pooja, hearing pravachan, japam, etc they joyfully involve themselves in these activities and by the grace of the guru their thirst for bhakthi or hunger for liberation also grows steadily and by grace of guru they also progress steadily.
Others who had the punyam to be in satsang, do not have much taste and ‘preference’ for satsang activities. So they are happy just to come discuss their problems with the satguru and do not find much taste for the core satsang activities. They do not have ‘spiritual’ vaasanas to find deep interest in satsang activities like bhajan, pravachan, pooja, japam, chanting etc.
In any case just even darshan of a mahaan is very benefecial for a person’s welfare and beyond..
(While this conversation was going on, a person came close to Sri Swamiji and muttered something. Sri Swamiji smiled and replied something and directed him to come later; seeing the puzzled look on the face of the listeners , Sri Swamiji resumed to engage in a nectarine conversation)
“A person just told me, ‘Swamiji! I have a personal problem, which is lust !’ I told him, ‘ My dear, it is not a personal problem, but a universal problem!”
Lust is a universal problem in all creatures. Like thirst and hunger this desire is also embedded in all, as a fundamental desire in all humans by nature.
Yet, it can be managed, controlled and reduced greatly by one who does not feed it. What you feed, grows-right? There are three factors to consider and work on to ensure we do not feed it and also reduce lust.
The first factor is purely internal. Our Upanishads say that a portion of what we eat (the subtle portion) actually becomes our thoughts. So the first step naturally is controlling our diet-what we eat/drink.
The ‘Right’ food helps to influence ‘right’ thoughts. There are two types of ‘fire’(agni) in one’s body – a)fire in our stomach (b)the one that is there throughout our body upto all the pores in our body.
The food should be fed only to the extent of quenching this fire – in quantity and more importantly in quality. Any food which merely caters to the palate(tongue) but does not help in enhancing quality of thoughts should be avoided -(eg)
(1) Salt – should be taken minimally
(2) Spiciness of chilli and excessive tanginess in food (‘puli’/ ‘kaaram’) should be avoided
(3) Food stuff which generates ‘heat’ like mangoes, papaya etc should be avoided as much as possible. Even our tradition has it that it directs us to consume mango, etc only in the night.
A regular harmonious food habit as shown above actually reflects in EEG reports etc also, I hear.
The second factor is the influence of our surroundings and environment that we live in. Those outside which pulls our attention and influences our thoughts (e.g)
(1) What we see and read does cause ripples in our mind. Anything that provokes lust and desire does ‘feed’ lust.
(2) People with whom we regularly interact and emote with. Their tendencies and character subtly influences our thoughts and actions.
(3) Whatever we hear and speak – like food to stomach, what we hear and speak are also food to our mind and thoughts. Any provocative music, speech etc does ‘feed’ lust.It is the same for what we speak. We need to think about something before we speak. Right? So if we speak about matters relating to lust we have already fed it in our mind before we speak about it.
Hence if we are careful with our senses like eyes, ears, touch and smell and do not direct it towards triggers which feed lust, we have a better chance of controlling lust.
How does these scenes, sounds etc feed our mind? Let me explain with a simple example. Some of you watch horror movies, don’t you? All these scary visuals and sounds create fear in us. How did they from outside inspire fear within us!
A little deeper insight reveals that the ‘fear’ was already inherent in us, deep inside as a latent tendency. These visuals and sounds merely triggered and provoked that emotion hidden deep inside us.
Now let us directly address this aspect on lust. When someone puts up a very provocative poster in the roadside, many watch it and it triggers lust in them – as ‘lust’ was an innate tendency already in us. However if one were to put up a giant poster of our Bhagavan Krishna few would even notice or gather to see, and even after seeing it is dismissed as ‘nice picture’. This clearly shows for many Bhakthi is not innately present to trigger any emotion when you see the picture.
While for a true baktha just the mention of Krishna’s name or a picture can trigger love resulting in tremendous bliss.
The third factor is using a catalyst to destroy lust. With the first two factors taken care of, one must spend as much time as possible to do japam (chanting divine name)/ Dhyanam (meditation). This will compliment the first two factors to reduce lust consderably. That japam/dhyanam should also be directed to calm our mind by focussing on ‘one’ thing- preferably the divine nama given by our guru.
So, what is “satsangh”? A place where for the time spent -(eg 2 hours) one does not allow the mind to wander and retains it in a state of harmonious divine thoughts(satvikam) as opposed to ‘sloth’(tamas); ‘passion’(rajasam).
Hence for steady spiritual progress, we should hold steadfast to the path and only the path shown by our guru. Simply allow our mind to merge with guru’s mind and our mind should not have any independent existence apart from the guru’s mind. Then we progress spiritually.
Simply put success in the journey of spirituality is simple the extent to which we can hold the mind and thoughts in state of ‘satvikam’.
As we increase our nama chanting and dhyana we can increase the share of satvika state of mind and hence reduce ‘sloth’-tamas and ‘passion’- rajas.
If we can do it solely for the purpose of pleasing the Lord or guru(for bakthas who aspire to the vision of Bhagavan) or for controlling the mind for mukthi, these above practices yield maximum results. It gets frittered away if it is not done in ‘aloneness’ as much as possible or when it is done more for pomp or show.
(It was time for Sri Swamiji to have darshan of Hanumanji. This conversation also came to an end. Like any utsav this divine conversation also culminated beautifully in the sanctum of Sundara Anjaneya Swami!)
