Now let us come to the ultimate purpose
of Bhakti Yoga. It is the attainment of Grace from the Lord of
worship. Grace does not mean that God is
sitting up there in the heavens watching every one of our thoughts and movements and is dispensing
justice by His moods of pleasure and displeasure. No. God is in the innermost recesses of our
hearts. He resides in us as declared by Himself in Sloka
61 of the 18th chapter of the Gita. As a
permanent resident of our hearts He knows our sincerity and anguish. His
response to the worship is very often an over-flowing of His ever-present Love
to His children, irrespective of the external characteristics of the
devotion. He does not calculate the
value of the things we offer Him, He only values the
feeling behind our offering. It is only the attitude
that matters.
Grace is over-flowing of the Divine Love
into the devotee’s heart which is crystalline pure. It is in such crystalline
purity that Divinity shows its own reflection.
Ultimately whether it is karma
yoga or bhakti yoga, it is the attitude with which one is approaching one’s
task that matters. That is what decides whether what is being done is dharma or adharma. Any secular or religious
action if it is done without an iota of selfishness or desire for
gratification, in a spirit of detachment, dedication and surrender, will in due
course become a habit or a way of life and this is what Hinduism demands of its
followers. But this means an enormous amount of self-discipline. Those of us who
have strong will perhaps can attempt this
self-discipline by ourselves. But those of us who need a better motor-force
than just will-power would rather seek divine help and appeal to Him for
success in this attempt at disciplining ourselves.
In secular life, particularly,
the attitude of surrender to the Supreme Will of the Divinie,
the attitude of dedication to the cause of the organization that we work for or
that we own (by His Grace!) and an absence of egoism from everything that we
do, including the management of our subordinates or employees – these are the
ways in which our religious attitudes have to be transmitted into our daily
worldly life.
Whether it is the secular part or the
religious part of our lives, one has to start by changing one’s attitude to
daily matters of life. The control of the mind, which is the fundamental thing
to attempt is a never-ending war with oneself. In this war, the only thing that helps is to
keep close to the source of all strength, energy and power in the world, namely
God. The attitude of an undercurrent of awareness of the omnipresence of God is
what Hinduism strongly
recommends for every one of us, whatever
may be our station in life. This undercurrent of awareness can be illustrated
by a very mundane example, which almost verges on the silly.
All of us have memories
of our visits to Indian temples. Think of a temple situated in an
out-of-the-way location like a remote village, where there is no organized
system of caretaking of your footwear which you leave outside the temple
entrance. You go inside the temple, do your prayers, visit the various
secondary shrines or sannadhis
inside the temple, perform archanas, wait for the archaka to finish all the
formalities of distribution of prasad to you, have a look at the architectural beauty of
this ancient temple, react to the conversations that comment on the dilapidated
nature in which they have been maintaining
these temples, throw away statements like: if only it were America, they
would have done it this way or that way, respond positively to the temple
authorities’ request for donations for such and such a celebration that is just
round the corner -- -- thus you are engaged in multifarious thoughts, dialogues
and actions. But all the time, virtually all the time, in your mind there has
been an undercurrent of worry about the security of the costly footwear
collection that you and other members of your family have left outside, you
have not forgotten where you have kept
them, you have not failed to recall
their price, you are trying to speed up matters within the temple so that
quickly you may rush to the gate and recover them. Whatever worship or darshan you may be doing inside the temple, whatever
enthusiasm you may be feigning to show in resonance with the genuine enthusiasm
which the other members of your family are showing in that worship or darshan, all the time your subconscious mind is with the
footwear outside.
Well, the point is made. That is what one means by an undercurrent of awareness.
Now the plea from Hindu religion is only
this. In the above illustration, God’s matters, worship, temple, etc. these
were all on the outer layers
of your mind whereas the inner layer of your consciousness was
filled up by the material problem of the safety
of the footwear. Can you reverse the status of these two? While you keep
all your material world worries, anxieties and activities, desires and
ambitions, plans and strategies, rush and hush, on the outer layers of your
mind, can you keep at the bottom portion of your mind,
in a constant, continuous and unbroken way the awareness that God is present in
you and around you and that you must thank Him for every moment of your
existence? If we can train ourselves to make this constant awareness, as
part of our system, there is nothing in the world that can overwhelm us,
because the strength of the mind now is the strength of the divine. If one has
this constant awareness, it will be very difficult for one to stoop to
something mean, wrong or corrupt ways of life and behaviour.
Copyright © V. Krishnamurthy