God-realisation Demystified — the Correct Approach
There are millions of temples, mosques, and churches all over the world and there are various types of religions. It appears as if there is a lot of spiritual teaching going on too. Yet, if you look around in the world, you will see that societal unrest is everywhere. Prisons are overcrowded and courts are congested as crime rates continue to increase. Dishonesty, corruption, violence, and other immoral behaviour is seen everywhere. With so much going on in the name of religion, you may wonder why this is so. Jagadguruttam Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj explains the cause and the true meaning of religion. Most people do not follow the correct method to attain God’s love.
People are chanting God’s name. People are reading sacred literature. In India, people are reciting passages from the Gita, the Vedas, the Koran and the Bible. Followers of different faiths read and recite their own texts and they engage in various forms of worship too. People visit holy places as well. When asked, “Have you visited the four dhams?” most joyously reply, “Oh yes. I have reserved my seat in Vaikuntha by visiting them.” In this way, devotion is being done to fulfil our various wants and desires. People travel great distances to spiritual places, carrying with them their bags of worldly desires. Offerings made in some of these places runs into the millions! But hasn’t anyone realised (have you realised) that the God in that deity or any other deity for that matter is the same God that resides in your heart?
The Vedas state, “God is our all-in-all. He does not leave us for even a fraction of a second.” In your infinite lifetimes, you have been everywhere. You entered the body of a dog, a cat, a donkey and even a mosquito millions of times, and your beloved, the Supreme Lord, accompanied you. He is all-pervading, but more importantly, He resides in your heart. Shri Krishna repeatedly says this to Arjun in the Gita. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad states, “When you leave your body, He also accompanies you.” Shvetashvatara Upanishad says, “O humans! You are endowed with a superior intelligence, so accept the fact that I am seated within you, when you are searching for Me in temples and mosques.”
Devout people in the main do have a divine sentiment of sorts towards a stone idol, and this is all right. God is present in the temple too. But more importantly, God is personally present in your heart, always and everywhere, noting down your every thought. You have not yet accepted, understood, or practically applied this spiritual principle stated in the Vedas and other scriptures in your daily life. Instead, people perform the external things they were taught to do in the name of devotion by their teachers. “Chant so many rounds on your prayer beads; recite this passage so many times,” and so on. You did this (you still are doing this), but mindlessly like some physical drill.
If you multiply zero with a million or even a billion the result will still be zero. If you shackle someone’s feet and say, “Quick march,” how far will he go? Similarly, your mind is presently shackled to the world. You still firmly believe that happiness is to be found in the world and that you should run in that direction. Have you earned your million yet? “No, not yet . . . but I will soon.” This disease of worldly desires is not only formed by human beings, even celestial gods form them! Indra, for example, covets the position of Brahma. There is no end to material desires anywhere in the material realm. And the key to all this is your mind.
Your mind is the machine from where these ideas and desires originate, therefore, it is your mind — your thinking — that needs to be changed. You must purify your mind. How do you purify your mind? By practising devotion. By bringing thoughts of God and Guru into your mind. The science is very simple: thinking of pure personalities (God and Guru) purifies your mind, thinking of impure ones (the material world) dirties it, that is, makes it more worldly and therefore less spiritually inclined. As a spiritual aspirant, you must continually strive to absorb your mind in His loving remembrance alone.
Shri Krishna tells Arjun exactly this in the Gita, “Attach your mind to Me alone.” When you practise devotion, engage your mind, not just your hands and feet. In your mind, bring your chosen form of God before you. Imbibe all divine qualities in that form and bring it to life in your meditation. Visualise Him, interact with Him, and serve Him for His pleasure through the blissful process of rupadhyan. Always remember that it is only God and His Saints who are the givers of true happiness.
Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattva-darshan — the essence of Vedic wisdom, spirituality and devotion in daily life.
