Pointers for Blissful Living – Part 3(1-6 March 2014)
A series of spiritual discourses was held at the Chinmaya Mission ashram located at 159 Road 703 from the 1st to the 6th March 2014. The discourses took place from 6:30pm to 8:00pm daily followed by dinner prasad. These discourses were based on the ever-popular Shri Ramcharitmanas. A special bhajan sandhiya night was also held on the 2nd of March where musicians from the Chinmaya School of Music ( Chinmaya Naada Bindu) delighted the audience of almost 200 people with their beautiful soul-stirring bhajans.
Puyja Swami Abhedananandaji, the current spiritual head of Chinmaya South Africa commenced the discourses by describing how most people spend alot of time trying to make something eg, a good career, house, family etc. However, all these material things won’t accompany us when we leave this body at the end of our life. The only thing that accompanies us into the next birth is the type of mind we have made in this birth itself. A question raised by Swamiji was “what type of mind do we want? One that is full of anger, hatred, jealousy or one that is full of patience, self- control, compassion, dispassion, faith and devotion? Swamiji then added that our minds can be developed and changed and be made most wonderful.
Pujya Swamiji described the four categories of people that believe in God, those that do rituals, those that remember God with an incident, those who love God and those who have urgent want to see God here and now. It was emphasized that by attending regular satsangs or discourses, the following points form an impression in our minds. They are 1 ) God is there, 2)He knows all, 3) He is all –powerful and can do anything, 3) God also forms relations, He listens and can be made happy/unhappy. When we are aware of God’s presence then, we are careful about the actions we perform.
It was mentioned by Swamiji that the 3 ways to build tremendous faith are 1) be good readers of our life 2) attend satsang 3)go on pilgrimage( teerth) It was explained how everyone in this life wants some sort of power, be it money power, intellectual power, power of healthy body ,etc. Power always exists with the powerful. The Lord is the most powerful therefore He is the ocean of all powers and qualities like dispassion, love and knowledge. Therefore, if we require anything, it is best for us to approach the powerful directly.
The power of chanting the Lord’s name was also described in great detail by Swamiji. The name of the Lord is not man- made but nature made and pervades the whole world. There is absolutely nothing which can exclude the name of Lord. It was mentioned that normally anything that is easily available, has a lesser sense of importance. Repetition of Lord’s name with faith and devotion is much emphasized in our holy scriptures but ,because it is easily available, it is overlooked and taken for granted .
Swamiji discussed how before making object, it is preceded by a thought. All thoughts have a sound which is different from the external sound we hear. Thought, sound and object has a specific relation. Swamiji also explained how behind every emotion(bhav), object and thought is a nature made sound which is one with that particular object. For example, there is a mantra of wealth. When the sound (mantra) is chanted which corresponds to thought of money, it can make the object of money appear. Another example is that the Gayathri mantra corresponds to intelligence, and any person who chants this mantra will have brilliancy. Anything chanted with commitment, faith, intensity for a long time can fetch anything inside and outside.
Swamiji described how chanting the name of God purifies the mind at four levels. It was mentioned that Ahalya represents intellect which was wedded to tyagi ( Gautham Rishi) but when the intellect gets associated with Indra( bhog) then it will be destroyed. Chanting the name of God removes the inertness of the buddhi and corrects the wrong notions. This was illustrated by Ahalya who redeemed herself by her repentance and patience in waiting for Lord Ram.
It was also highlighted by Swamiji how Tadaka was killed by Lord Ram with a single arrow. In the same way, one arrow going towards satsang, takes away all our worldly desires and makes us single-pointed towards God. Tadaka represents the false hope that some better day will come. World, relations, fame, power will never give joy. The mistake is in the intellect that sense of joy is there.
Swamiji emphasized that chanting the Lord’s name breaks a person’s ego (ahankar) in the same way that Lord Ram broke the bow of Lord Shiva. Ego( Ahankar ) is based on imaginary bigness and a person doesn’t leave his wrong point or bad habits. He is selfish and thinks only of himself, therefore he can’ t serve his family, society or even the Lord and Guru. Swamiji described how when we take Lord’s name, where I(ahankar ) is there, Lord starts sitting on the ahankar and removes it.
It was re-iterated by Swamiji that the chanting the Lord’s name corrects our wrong notion at the intellectual level, removes worldly desires at the mind level, removes our ahankar and increases our appetite to listen to Lord’s glories. Swamiji explained how anything can come to us by 1) having a strong desire 2) following the rules to get that particular thing and 3 ) it is not against Cosmic rules or unrighteous(adharmic). This means that if we have a strong resolution, even the Lord can appear before us. Our prayers can be deep, intense and answered when one experiences utter helplessness as in the case of Gajendra who surrendered to the Lord. It was re-emphasized that Lord Ram didn’t exclude anybody, demons, animals, humans where-ever He went. If there is one who accepts us and loves us unconditionally, it’s God only. Therefore, let us do those actions that will be pleasing to the Lord and melt His heart so that we are under the umbrella of His protection and blessings.
