Devotion, Grace, Truth, and/on the Spiritual Quest
by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda
Om Upasana
by Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda
Devotion, Grace, Truth, and/on the Spiritual Quest
by Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda
Q&A originally printed in the Mananam Series, Devotion: Loving God
What is devotion?
Devotion is defined in various ways by various teachers, but the one thing that is common is the element of love. A
mind totally turned toward God in love, demanding nothing—not even liberation—is a mind filled with devotion. A constant flow of thoughts in love toward the Supreme is devotion. Longing for no one else, nothing else but the Lord, this attitude of the heart is love. This state is called exclusive love (ananya prema) and this total love for the Lord is devotion according to Sage Narada, the author of Narada Bhakti Sutras.
Does divine grace act when we reach the limit of the finite and try to attain the Infinite?
The Lord—the Divine—and His grace are not two separate things; they are one and the same. The sun and sunlight can never be two different things; sunlight is the very nature of the sun. Sweetness is the nature of sugar. Heat is the nature of fire. The Lord is divine Grace.
Therefore, God cannot give grace until you allow Him to enter your life. To invoke Him is to invite His Grace. To the extent the heart is open for the inflow of the Higher, to that extent we are under the grace of the Lord. When we try to reach the outer limits of the finite and enter the realm of the Infinite, it is God's grace alone that functions in those dark and dreary moments before the cheerful dawn.
What is the highest Moral Truth?
Love is the greatest morality given to man, and hence, "Love thyself" is the greatest moral injunction that all scriptures and Vedas tirelessly repeat. Unless the student is prepared to receive this great advice, however, he is apt to misunderstand the great Vedic injunction as an advice to love the body, and to cater to all low thoughts and ideas. "Love thyself" does not mean loving the body or meekly obeying the mind and intellect. The body, mind, and intellect are gross matter envelopments that seemingly limit the illimitable supreme Consciousness, which is the real Self in us all. By identifying with our false matter envelopments, we have projected ourselves into the world as a separate ego, and all our doubts on morality and spirituality have come to confuse us.
The shifting of our identification to the real Self is automatically living the highest moral and spiritual life. This is accomplished through love, in love, as love. Love alone is the law and the life of the Self. Self-Realization is the experience of love in its absolute nature. You have loved yourself the most. "Realize thyself." And thereafter you know nothing but love for the outside world. There is no greater moral truth than Love.
When the devotee's mind melts at the contemplation of the loving form and the infinite qualities of the Lord, in the warmth of His supreme single-pointed love, the sublime fusion of finite with the Infinite takes place. At that supreme moment of bliss in the dynamic experience of the Whole, there is no individualistic part beyond the Whole that can converse with It. At the time of God-consciousness, that is, during the vision of the Lord, in the infinite embrace of the Reality, the unreal totally fades away.
It is ignorance that gives the devotee . . . the false notion that he is merely a part of the whole and that he is the seeker. With Ishwara darshan comes the real Knowledge that God alone is, that the I-concept is false. The devotee, in a flash of illumination, realizes that it was only the Lord of his heart within him that played the great divine play of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching the world of objects, which, in themselves, are also nothing but the Lord's manifestations. When the ego dies away, what remains is nothing but an infinite, homogeneous Bliss experience that is God. Where there is God, there the I-sense cannot be. Where the I-sense is, there, God is indeed far away.
How can an aspirant attain transparent sincerity and earnestness in the quest for God?
Sincerity and earnestness are the flowers of the Love plant that grows in the garden of the heart. In cultivating these flowers, the gardener has to prepare the soil, sow the seed, water the plant, and protect the crop. Then, it will blossom forth in the thrills of the springtime.
The imperfections in the world of objects provide us with the sorrows and despairs of life, which plough the field of the heart. Japa, the repetition of the Lord's names, is the sowing of the right seed. With regular and intense meditation upon the form of the Lord of his heart, the seeker waters the seedlings. Truthfulness (satyam), non-injury (ahimsa) and celibacy (brahmacharya) constitute three posts around the plant. Truthfulness is at the intellectual level, non-injury is at the mental level, and celibacy is at the physical level. Living up to these principles constitutes the right conduct of life. Along with these principles, the fence of dharma (the rules of moral and ethical living) should be put up to guard it from the ravages of grazing animals!
In time, the plant grows, and in its own maturity, in the springtime (as the heart gains in the Lord's grace) it blooms forth with noble flowers of sweet-scented sincerity and earnestness. The buzzing bee of mumukshutvam (an all-consuming eagerness to break the chains of limitations and reach the freedom of the Beyond) would then kiss these glorious flowers into their pregnant fulfillment, their fruits. Verily, there is nothing nobler than these fruits, which represents Bliss absolute.
Who is better: A man who strives for Self-realization (samadhi), or one who serves society thinking of every being as a visible form of God?
This question is exhaustively answered in Ishavasyopanishad. The tragedy of humanity today is that too many people serve the world thinking that they are helping their generation. Unfortunately, one of the curses of the world is the so-called service rendered by men who are unfit to serve.
Selfless, dedicated service to the world in an attitude of worship is the way and the path. To bring out the faculties that have been given to us, fully and entirely, to serve [all] . . . is the greatest adoration that man can pay to his Creator. Thus, in the beginning, the seeker discovers in selfless activity a means to purify himself, whereby his mind expands to accommodate the whole universe of creatures. By this process, his ego, with its vanities, lusts, greed, and selfishness, are all removed. A mind so purified comes to manifest its powers of contemplation, and thus the seeker enhances his capacity to meditate.
Meditating under this stepped-up momentum, the person rises into new heights of self-discovery of the Oneness of life, and this, in turn, makes him more and more a dedicated servant of mankind.
In short, truly selfless actions help one's meditation, and successful meditation makes the meditator more and more selfless and loving. In this mutual synthesis, the seeker marches ahead into the portals of the Self, wherein he experiences samadhi. After this Self-realization, service of the world is not a means to an end, but the fulfillment of wisdom. He cannot but act, as the birds cannot but sing in springtime. Such great men alone have ever successfully served society. All others in the name of service pour out but death and disaster, sorrow and destitution into society with their so-called schemes and plans.
Why should we serve society and the nation? Why should we share our earnings with the downtrodden? The answer, as discovered by our rishis, is because action is inevitable; we cannot keep quiet for even a moment. Every living organism must work. When we apply for leave and stay at home, we still do a lot of work, such as disciplining the children, quarreling with our spouse, and so on. Even when lying in bed, our mind wanders everywhere, seething with activity. When we are asleep, we are dreaming, breathing, pulsating with life. There is absolutely no escape from work. But we have a choice in selecting the nature of work, either good or bad. It is here that we have to exercise our faculty of discrimination.
. . . Our rishis considered the whole cosmos as one, and all things in it as limbs of this cosmos. Though all of us belong to different castes, colors, states and nations, and though we differ physically, intellectually, and emotionally, the presence of life is in all. So when we serve others, we are merely serving ourselves! What we do to others will come back to us.
The world is giving us so much, so many comforts, and so many facilities. How can we repay this debt? Whatever we may do to repay, still we will be deeply indebted to society. Our attitude should be that even if we have to suffer, everyone else should be joyous. With this spirit of service, life will be full. Whatever we have must be shared with others.
What are the three conditions necessary for devotion?
In Verse 20 of Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna points out three conditions that are absolutely necessary for devotion to yield its promised dividend.
"Fixing their thought on Me:" Thought is the content of our subtle body. Both the mind and intellect are nothing but thoughts. It is not sufficient if they leisurely wander around the concept of the Lord, but they have actually to penetrate, delve into, merge, and ultimately dissolve themselves to become the very ideal perfection that the Lord represents. The word used in this verse indicates not merely a thought contact, but an actual thought penetration. In fact, human thought takes the form of, gathers the fragrance of, and even puts on the glow of the qualities in the objects of its contemplation. Thus, when a devotee's thoughts gush forward in sincerity, in a newly found urge of irrepressible love toward the Lord, the devotee, as a personality, ends for the time being, and he himself acquires the glow and beauty of the Lord of his heart.
"Ever self-controlled, worship Me:" The second condition necessary for a devotee to accomplish his evolution through the path of devotion is that he must have sufficient balance in himself to exercise regular self-control while worshiping the Lord. The mind, by its very nature, will always try to run away, and the art of keeping thoughts balanced at a point of concentration is called self-control.
The Sanskrit word upasana, though it can be translated as worship, should not be misunderstood by the superficial suggestion that automatically comes to us when we hear the word worship. True upasana is an inward act of attunement with the higher Principle, so as to get ourselves completely merged with It.
"With supreme faith:" Faith is generally understood as blind belief, but blind belief is not shraddha. Shraddha is a belief in something I do not know, so that I may come to know what I believe. Without developing this faculty, a devotee may not succeed sufficiently in bringing about the divinity in himself even after years of practice.
Thus, three main conditions are enumerated in this stanza as essential and unavoidable for one to become a true devotee: 1) perfect faith, 2) steadfastness in worship, and 3) merging one's mind totally in the concept of the Lord. If these are accomplished in anyone, the Lord considers him as a most steadfast devotee.
What should be the attitude of a devotee when offering gifts to the Lord?
An offering can be efficient only when it is accompanied by two required conditions: a) devotion and b) purity of mind. To the extent these conditions are absent, all offerings are mere economic waste and superstition-breeding false beliefs. If properly done, making offerings to the Lord can serve as a good vehicle to tread the spiritual path of self-development.
How can we remember God throughout our everyday activities?
Lord Krishna says in the Gita, "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give, whatever you practice as austerity, O Kaunteya, do it as an offering to Me" (9.27).
Through all activities of life, one can constantly live in the spirit of devout offering unto the Supreme. Throughout the Gita, it has been consistently insisted upon that one's mental attitude is of supreme importance, much more than the mere physical act. This is a fact that ordinarily seekers forget. All acts of perception and our reactions to the perceived—be they on the physical, mental, or intellectual levels—can be devout offerings unto Him. This is not an unnecessary make belief or a mere fancied exaggeration, nor is it in any way difficult for an individual to practice. The one Self revels everywhere—in the teacher, the devotee, and the Lord. In all of life's transactions, we behave, act, and deal with names and forms; all of them are upheld only by the Self. To remember the Self during all transactions of life is to remember the Substratum.
In a cloth shop where there are cotton clothes of different colors and sizes, textures and prices, the shopkeeper is advised always to remember that he is dealing with cotton clothing. This cannot be very difficult for any good shopkeeper, and it will be safe and profitable for him to remember this fact, for it would prevent him from entertaining misconceptions and thereby either charging the exorbitant prices of woolens, or selling off his goods too cheaply!
Just as cotton is in all cloth, gold in all ornaments, the Self is the essential Substance in all names and forms. A devotee who can constantly remember the Divine in all his contacts in life alone is the one who can give to life the reverence it deserves.
It is a law that as you give unto life, so shall life give unto you. Smile at life and life smiles at you; frown at life and life frowns at you. Approach life with due reverence and respect, born out of cognition of the divine Essence in it, and life shall respect and revere you. When all activities are performed in this spirit of offering, not only does our love for the Supreme increase, but our entire life also becomes sanctified with a noble purpose and a divine aim.
In the context of the Gita's insistence on single-pointedness of mind, and devoted contemplation of the Self, seekers are provided with an efficient and secret method by which they can remember the Supreme constantly, not in the deep jungles or secret caves, but right in the field of life's contentions.
How can we reconcile the apparently conflicting ideas of self-surrender and self-assertion, the former of the bhaktas and the latter of the Vedantins?
The apparent conflicts need not be reconciled; the apparent has to be rejected. Self-surrender and self-assertion are merely two sides of the same coin. The bhakta surrenders his self: the ego. The Vedantin asserts his Self: the divine Light within him.
Thus, a devotee grows in his God-love to ultimately become a true Vedantin, and a Vedantin starts his career in bhakti. It is self-surrender alone that can evolve us to the state of self-assertion. Hence, there is no conflict at all between self-surrender and self-assertion, as you suspect.
By surrendering the delusory sense of separateness, the yogi in his perfection realizes the true nature of the Self in him. The principles of self-surrender and self-assertion seem as conflicting ideas only to the novice uninitiated into the Creed of Love, which is the natural and the logical process in the noble science of Brahma Vidya. Negate the ego through surrender, and once this is achieved, the Super-man so born necessarily comes to assert his divine nature.
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Om Upasana
by Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda
Please explain the term "upasana."
The literal meaning of upasana is sitting near: upa (near) and asana (sitting). Sitting near doesn't mean physically
sitting near someone; upasana is done only by the mind. When we sit near someone, there is the possibility of
imbibing the qualities of that person, just as wood kept near a fire catches fire. So, meditation on a particular deity or ideal should result in the meditator imbibing the qualities of that ideal. If we succeed in that, only then can we say that we have done real upasana.
Upasanas can have different forms. If, for example, we do upasana of Shri Ramachandraji, then we should imbibe His qualities, particularly those of abidance and steadfastness in dharma.
What is guru upasana?
Literally, guru upasana means sitting near a [spiritual] teacher. If you think of it in a physical way; when a guru sits, he looks out at the world. Since the students are seated facing the teacher, they do not see what he sees in front of him. Suppose a student gets up and sits next to the teacher. What will happen? From a physical standpoint, he will see what the teacher sees. Guru upasana means to tune our minds to the vision of the teacher so that we are able to look at the world as the teacher does. It is our attunement with the ideal that is the real purpose of upasana.
How can we practice upasana for our spiritual growth?
Upasana can be a spiritual practice, a kind of exercise. This kind of upasana has a particular meaning and purpose—to maintain a steady and single-pointed flow of thought toward the ideal. Here, sitting near is done with the mind. The mind constantly dwells upon the ideal, excluding all other thoughts. Like a stream of oil being poured, the flow is continuous, steady, unbroken. In the same way, to maintain that one thought of our deity or ideal is called upasana. Through this we achieve not only single-pointedness and concentration but also purity of mind because we are thinking of the Lord.
A person can practice this kind of upasana every day for a definite period of time, say, 20 minutes, half an hour, or one hour, depending on one's capacity. Usually our mind is distracted; to bring it to a single point and to think steadily along only one particular line of thought for a long period of time is called upasana.
Are there different types of upasanas?
Upasana can be of two kinds, saguna (with attributes) and nirguna (devoid of attributes). In saguna upasana, we take an object and superimpose a lofty ideal on it, and then meditate on it. The symbol may be an ordinary object made of stone or wood, but we do not regard it as stone or wood. We may see the idol is an object, but we don't think of it as an object; we think only of the Lord.
Our mind is not able to immediately comprehend the formless, nameless, and attributeless. Thus, in saguna upasana, there is a deliberate superimposition of a lofty ideal on an ordinary object. Here duality of the meditator, and that which is meditated upon, remains.
In nirguna upasana that which is meditated upon is my own Self, my own true nature. This upasana is done only with the sense of identity with the Self and is really of the nature of knowledge.
What is the difference between knowledge and upasana?
Knowledge is a matter of fact, whereas upasana is a matter of faith. If we take the object as the Lord, then it is based on faith, isn't it? In saguna upasana we are deliberately hold on to the superimposition. The scriptures describe the deity in this or that form, and that is how we have to meditate upon it; we cannot create our own version. Thus, this upasana depends on faith. The result of upasana occurs after some time.
In knowledge we have to know the object as it is; a stone is to be known as stone. Knowledge depends upon the means of knowledge, and the result of knowledge is immediate. For example, when we open our eyes and see an object we immediately have knowledge of it, as both the object and the means of knowledge (our eyes) are there. This is the difference between knowledge and upasana.
Why is Om also known as pranava?
Om represents both saguna as well as nirguna Reality. There is the absolute Reality, which is nameless, formless, and attributeless. And That alone manifests as the cause of this entire world, which in Vedic language is called as saguna Brahman. The absolute Reality is called nirguna Brahman. Om represents both these aspects and that is why it is called as pranava.
Please explain the meaning of pranava.
The word pranava comes from the Sanskrit root, nu. Nu means to salute, to praise. With the help of pranava, one can praise or meditate on the deity of one's own choice—the manifested aspect of Reality that is saguna, or the absolute Reality that is nirguna.
How does Om represent both the manifest and the unmanifest?
This entire world is manifest as gross, subtle, or both. It is experienced by us as various names and forms. All these names are nothing but words; words are nothing but alphabets; alphabets are nothing but sounds; and sounds are only vowels and consonants.
Of the alphabets, the first letter is A. According to the science of phonetics, the sounds that we produce all start from the throat and range between the throat and the lips. In this way, the first sound is A (parting of the lips) and the last sound is M (closing of the lips). A stands for the vowels, and M stands for the consonants. And different modifications of that A are pointed out by the sound U.
The Upanishads say that all words are nothing but A. And given different modifications, they become U. Per Sanskrit rules, A and U combine to sound as O. Thus, AUM [the basic, all-inclusive] sound becomes Om. The entire world is nothing but names, and all names are nothing but words. And words consist only of these vowels and consonants that are represented by A, U, M.
Thus, when we chant Om, it represents the entire manifested world. When one chanting is over, what remains is silence. That silence represents the nirguna, the attributeless Reality. From that silence alone is sound produced, and again, when the sound is gone, silence remains. Against the background or canvas of silence alone is sound heard. This silence is therefore there all the time, when we speak and when we don't speak. This is why Om represents both nirguna and saguna.
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