Do Not Delay
bhavi ka bharosa taju govind radhe,
vartaman men hi man hari me laga de
This wonderful doha by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj appears in Kripalu Bhakti Dhara, and his explanation of its meaning is:
A human body is received by a soul only after millions of births. Even if one receives a human form, it is only due to great fortune that he attains the association of a genuine Saint. Even if he were to receive the Saint’s association, he must still have faith in him. If only we could attain all these and realise where our true happiness lies. But we all have one fault: we postpone practicing spirituality. “I will do it, but I am still young. These are my days to enjoy. When I get old and retire, then I will do it.”
The Vedas explain: “Do not delay! Do not say or think, ‘I will do it later.’” Every day you see that people are dying. There is no guarantee you will live to see the next moment. Thousands of babies die every day. Young people also die. Then why do we delay our spiritual practice until old age? This is a very great fault. If we must catch a train at 7:30, we arrive at the station by 6:30. We never make the mistake of arriving at 7:29 to catch a train at 7:30. We are always careful in the world. When you are driving, you are aware of vehicles coming in your direction. You remain extremely careful until you reach your home. We always remain careful in the world. But what happens when the topic of spirituality arises? We postpone it, “I will do it later.”
When Ravan was dying, Lord Ram said to Lakshman, “Go to him and receive his teachings. He was a scholar of the four Vedas.” Ravan said, “Lakshman, perform good actions immediately and postpone bad ones for later.” A person thinks, “Today I am going to commit this wrongful act,” then he reconsiders, “No, I will do it tomorrow instead.” It may so happen that by tomorrow he changes his mind and saves himself from performing that action.
Imagine, a person was in a good state of mind to practice spirituality, to attach his mind to God, to offer his wealth in charity, but he said to himself, “I will do it tomorrow.” Firstly, who knows if he will live to see tomorrow? If he does, who can say that the positive state of mind he is enjoying today will continue the following day? There is no guarantee of this. The mind is so unpredictable that it can change completely in one minute. What to say of one minute, it can change in a second!
To be continued …
An English translation of a discourse delivered in Hindi by:
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
Do not delay your spiritual practice. But you must delay worldly things, and you must always consider the mind to be your enemy. This is another one of our faults. We consider the mind to be our friend. My mind told me, “Go to sleep.” My mind said, “Eat some sweets.” Do not believe what the mind tells you to do. And be stubborn with it as well, “Whatever my mind tells me to do, I will not do it!”
You all know the nature of monkeys. They are extremely active. So how do people train them to dance? First, they put the monkey on a 50 ft. leash, and he jumps around within that limit. If he tries to go beyond this, the leash pulls on his neck. After he repeatedly tries to go beyond 50 ft. and is unsuccessful, then he says, “Alright, I will just jump around here.” When the trainer sees that after one week the monkey has not tried to go beyond 50 ft., he then shortens the leash to 25 ft. Now the monkey tries to jump around up to 50 ft. but cannot. After this, the trainer reduces the leash to 10 ft., and finally when it is reduced to 1 ft., the monkey sits quietly. The mind is just like this monkey.
In ancient Greece there was a poor man named Diogenes. He used to beg for alms from a stone statue, “Give me some bread!” Can a stone statue give bread? People saw this and thought, “He was such a man of God and a scholar, but he has gone fully mad!” Some people mustered up the courage and asked him, “What are you doing?” Diogenes replied, “What can I do? When I go to people to ask for a little bread, they turn their face and walk away from me, or they motion me to go away. I am practicing asking this stone statue so that when I do not get anything I will not feel bad. I should not become angry and lose what I have accomplished spiritually.”
You too should not lose what you have gained. Therefore, consider your mind to be your enemy and do not put off your spiritual practice. Remember these two points.
An English translation of a discourse delivered in Hindi by:
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj
13 May 2010
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