Secrets of Spiritual Sadhana-9 [Sadhana Karu Pyare]

Sadhana Karu Pyare is a unique philosophical compilation set in 54 lines and arranged in the form of couplets (dohas). In these lines, Shree Maharajji has summarized the entire philosophy of the knowledge of God and Guru (Philosophy of Divine Love). Swamiji explained the complete set of 54 lines at the Puri Sadhana Shivir in 2008, which we will reproduce in this series. 
This is the next line of "Sadhana Karu Pyare" series.

roke unate prem māṅgo, daras  māṅgo pyāre

hvai ke ati vyākul karahu nit karuṇ krandan pyāre

māṅgu jani una bhukti muktin, bhoolihuṁ tum pyāre

Our goal is to attain the love of God.  We need God's love and it is priceless.  If it could be valued in terms of money, we may have paid the price.  If we ask God what is the price, He might say, "A 100 million".  We could even try to bargain and ask for a discount of 50%. God replies, "What price can you pay for this? It is priceless".  At times, people snatch or steal things that cannot buy.  If we try to frighten God similarly and ask Him to give us His love, God will say, "What can you do to me? I have unlimited powers and you cannot overpower me".  

So, we cannot attain His love forcefully.  Then what can we do? We can only love God and ask Him for His love.  We can ask God for His love, and He will give it to us.  It is that simple.  But there is a condition we have to fulfill in order to receive His love.

God showers His love when a devotee asks Him with the true intention of receiving Divine Love.  Only then will a devotee receive God's love.  What if we ask God to grace us with His love and He says, "What will you do if I do not grace you?" We could say that, "Alright, I will continue to smoke and drink the way I used to".  God says, "Then in that case, you do not have the true desire to receive My love." 

"First, you must create the true desire to attain Divine Love.  You must feel anxious and cry, and then ask for My love".  Cry the way a child cries in front of its mother.  The child does not consider itself to be a highly qualified individual or capable enough to get milk on its own.  Hence, the child cries in front of its mother for milk.  The mother understands the reason why the child is crying and hence comes running to feed the child.

At times, the kid gets smart and pretends to be crying; the mother understands that he is acting and when he cries seriously, the mother understands that too.  God says that you must cry and ask for love the way a small child asks its mother for milk. Do not consider yourself to be wealthy. Instead, consider yourself to be helpless.  The mother might be mistaken.  The child might be crying due a stomach ache, and the mother might think that the child is crying out of hunger.  But God says, "I do not make such mistakes.  I know everything and I am seated within you.  There is no question of mistakes.  You must create the desire to attain My love, and leave the rest to Me".

Shree Kripaluji Maharaj has just advised us that we have to shed tears and ask God for His love and Divine vision.  Now, he tells us the opposite, i.e. what not to ask for.  He tells us not to seek material desire and liberation.  Materialistic people are egoistic, and they ask for these two things since the goal of a materialistic person is to get away from sadness.  According to the Darshan Shashtras, it is our final goal to be released from the sadness in the world.

trividhadukhātyantnivṛittiratyantapuruṣhārthaḥ

The Sankhya Darshan says, "The goal of human life is to attain freedom from sadness and a life full of happiness".  It is for these two reasons that we want liberation and material desire. Through material desire, we ask for the material happiness, and through liberation we ask Him to end our sadness.  There are a lot of challenges that we can face due the desire for liberation.  If we ask God according to our intellect, we may get into trouble because we ask according to the level of our intelligence. 

For example, if we take a small child to a jeweler's shop and ask him to choose between a diamond necklace and a chocolate, he would definitely take the chocolate. The child does not understand the value of diamonds and only understands a chocolate.  Similarly, we have seen material love. We have no idea about the love of God.  That is the reason we ask God for good health, marriage, wealth, fame and so on.  We run behind such material desires.  Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says that if we keep running behind such material desires, we will not be able to attain God's love.

merī chāhī mat karo, maiṁ moorakh ajñān terī chāhā meṁ prabho hai merā kalyāṇ

There are two main challenges on the path of God's love. Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji's principle student and disciple, Roop Goswami had written in Bhaktirasamrut sindhu-

bhukti mukti spṛihā yāvat piśhāchī hṛidivartate, tāvadbhatisukhasyād kathamabhyudayo bhavet

"Liberation and material desire are two of the biggest impediments in bhakti.  As long as they are present in our hearts, the desire for God's love does not arise."   If we want to practice devotion to attain God's love, we must remove the desire for liberation and material pleasure from our heart.

Once there was a king named Sanjay. He was a very greedy person. A devta, celestial god, appeared in front himand asked the king to spell his desire.  Sanjay asked for a baby who would give only gold i.e. if the baby vomits it will be of gold, his sweat will be gold and so on.   The devta thought that the king's bad days have begun. Soon, Sanjay had a baby named Svarnasthivi.  Now when Svarnasthivi vomited it would be of gold.  The baby's sweat was gold and everything the baby expelled from its body was made of gold. 

Sanjay had now become very rich and everybody around came to know about it.  He was not able to tax the people as before.  People understood that there might be some other source of income. Gangsters now tried to find out the source of this wealth and heard about his kid.  They kidnapped Svarnasthivi and took him with them.  They decide to kill him and distribute different parts of his body. One took his hand, the other took his leg, and the third person took his head.  The king heard of this, and started crying. The devta arrived and told him that whatever he had asked for has become the reason for his sadness.

We have been asking for liberation and material desire since countless lifetimes, but now we have to learn to ask for just two things, i.e. God's vision and His love. Shree Maharajji says, "Ask God to give us the intellect and understanding so that we can pray and attain His love.  Pray to God and ask Him for increasing detachment from the world, so that you can do more seva.  Since your goal is to serve Him, this type of desire will not be considered selfish because it is done with the aim of attaining His love and vision.  Make His seva your goal and ask Him for His love".

.... To be Continued

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