This is the next line of "Sadhana Karu Pyare" series.
Continuing from the last issue...
jag meṁ katahuṁ rāg jani karu, dveṣh jani karu pyāre |
hari meṁ guru meṁ hī rahe nit, rakt tav man pyāre ||
While explaining the secrets of sadhana, or devotion, Shree
Kripaluji Maharaj further enlightens us about Ananyata, or single minded
devotion. We have to practice undivided devotion towards God. 'Ananya'
means 'no other', or exclusive. If an individual's mind is attached to
anyone or anything other than God, then he will not be called as an 'Ananya' follower.
Loving God alone is what ananyata means. God repeatedly stated in the
Geeta:
ananyāhśhchintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate
tameva śharaṇaṁ gachchha sarvabhāvena bhārata
sarvadharmān parityajya māmekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraj
"Arjun, you must practice exclusive devotion."
ek bharoso ek bal ek ās viśhvās | ek rām ghanśhyām hit
chātak tulasīdās ||
So, what is the meaning of Ananyata? 'Ananya Prem' means
to love just God and Guru, nobody else. Here arises the main
difficulty. We have been practicing devotion in our previous lives
also. This is not the first life in which we have practiced bhakti.
If you have taken birth in India, then it is because of your sanskars, or
merits accumulated in the previous births. Moreover, if we are coming to
the satsang, then that means we have an eagerness to meet God; we believe in
God. This is a definite proof that we have done spiritual practice in our
earlier life. But the mistake that we did was that we never practiced
single-minded devotion, which means we did not love and attach our mind to God
alone. Shree Krishna says in the Geeta:
māmeva ye prapadyante māyāmetām taranti te
"The one who comes under my shelter alone and
surrenders completely to me, I will free him from the clutches of Maya.
If you do not apply the word 'only', then I am not responsible for your
attaining the Divine fruits of your sadhana." Ananya implies that
the mind should be exclusively attached to the Divine realm of God and nowhere
else. And what do we do? We are attached to our mother, father, son,
daughter, television, etc. We keep telling God that He is also ours,
whereas He expects exclusive devotion. We shed tears for God and Guru,
but we also shed tears while bidding goodbye to the newly wed daughter at home.
We shed tears when our children are sick. This proves that we are
attached to people other than God. By this, our Ananyata, or
exclusiveness towards God, gets destroyed.
God says, "Look, You keep only Me in your heart.
If anybody else resides in your heart, then I will go out. Understand my
condition by reading all the scriptures and implement it. In this world,
from an ant to Lord Brahma, everybody is within the three modes of Maya.
If you love them, then your heart will remain impure. If you love Me,
then it will result in purification of your heart."
Let us consider an example. Our mind is like a dirty cloth
that has accumulated dirt since innumerable lifetimes. Our aim is to wash
it and make it completely dirt free. If we wash it with fresh, dirt-free water,
it will become clean. But, if we wash it with dirty water, the cloth will
become dirtier. What do we mean by 'clean' or 'dirty' water? All mayic
objects are considered dirty in terms of their effect on our heart. Only
entities related to God are considered clean. The Names of God, Forms,
Virtues, Pastimes, Abodes, and Saints are all pure. Hence, for
purification of our hearts and mind, we have to carefully pay attention to the
condition called Ananyata, or exclusive devotion.
We attach our mind to material things and human
beings. Not only this, we attach our mind towards celestial gods and
goddesses, who are under Maya. By doing so our ananyata gets
destroyed. If we attach our mind to the celestial gods, we will not
attain the Supreme God. Yet, this is what we all do in today's world.
Some people worship God, but in addition, they also worship celestial
gods or worldly beings for material benefits, and therefore they do not attain
the Supreme God, Shree Krishna. We have only one mind and that should be
focused on Divine subject alone.
We collect deities of celestial gods and then make a mockery
of their worship. We put all the deities in together in a vessel to bathe
them. Then we put them in one big towel and dry them, while they collide
against each other. Then we sprinkle chandan towards them. Is this
the way to do worship? When we take bath ourselves, we apply soap very
carefully so that it does not go in to our eyes. We make sure that water
does not go in to our ears. But, we put the idols of all deities together
in a bucket carelessly and wash them together! The reason that people
give is: "Swamiji, We do not have the time to worship each god
separately. I have to go the office, so I have to finish the pooja, or
rituals, in ten minutes." Then why did you collect so many
gods? Their answer is, "This is the tradition that has been
continuing from my ancestors. My grandfather brought this deity from a
holy place to worship. Then a saint came to my house and gave me one more
deity, so I kept it." What is the reason behind all this?
yānī kānī cha mitrāṇi kartavyāni śhatāni cha
"Make many friends. You never know who may help
you in bad times." We say, "O Shree Krishna, please listen to
me", and He does not listen to us. We put Him away without
care. We then say, "Hanuman ji, please listen to my prayers." Hanuman
ji also did not listen. We go to Lord Shiva and say, "O Shankar ji, you
listen to me." Shankar ji also did not listen. Now, if Shankar
ji also does not answer our prayers, we start worshipping spirits or ghosts,
and even visit the graves of Mullahs, thinking that they could change our destiny.
For this kind of devotion that we do, God says, "It will not work.
You have to practice undivided devotion."
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