In the previous episode, we had witnessed two more important characteristics of a person who has gained an absolute control over his / her mind. In fact, we’ve witnessed six out of the ten charactersitics over the past three episodes that Sage Kapilaachaarya is listing out and today let us continue with the seventh and eighth ones. For our reference, we shall re-visit the important slokas that convey this message. Sage Kaplaachaarya says thus:
“Tithikshavaha kaarunikaaha sugruthaha sarva dehinaam!
Ajaatha shatravaha shaantaaha saadhavaha sadhu bhooshanaaha!!
Mayiananyena bhaavena bhaktim kurvanti ye dhrudaam!
Math krutetyakta karmaanaam tyakthah svajana baandhavaaha!!
Madaashrayaaha kathaa mrshtaaha shrunvanthee kathanyanvi cha!!”
So far we’ve witnessed brief explanations of the characteristics “Tithikshavaha”, “Kaarunikaaha”, “Sugruthaha sarva dehinaam”, “Ajaatha shatravaha”, “Shaantaaha” and “Saadhavaha”. Today we shall move on to the next one in Sage Kapilaachaarya’s list:
“Mayiananyena bhaavena bhaktim kurvanti ye dhrudaam” – Here Sage Kapilaachaarya explains another important point – If a person has wrested control over his / her mind, he / she is supposed to focus the mind in its full entity towards Bhagawan, and not anywhere else. It is imperative that these people are profound devotees of Bhagawan with 100% faith in Him and love towards Him. This is an important characteristic that all of us should make a mote of. All of these days we’ve been cribbing within ourselves that our devotion towards Bhagawan never reaches 100% at any point in time. Why is it so? It is because we do not trust Bhagawan completely. We have some or the other prejudice sticking with us in whatever we do. In other words, we have the ego within us that we’re accomplishing our tasks all by ourselves and that, Bhagawan has no role to play in it. However, if we encounter a failure, we put the onus conveniently on Bhagawan and say that we failed because of lack of “Grace”! How unfair this can be on Bhagawan? When we experience victory or success in any task that we do, we attribute that success on to ourselves, and when we encounter a failure of any sorts, we put the blame on Bhagawan, directly or indirectly! Thus, the point here is that, whatever might be the situation – Success or failure, are we able to surrender the whole thing to Bhagawan, 100%? Many a times, the answer would be “No”! This is where we need to work on! While Sage Kapilaachaarya talks about complete devotion and surrender to Bhagawan, he tries to drive home the point that we should let go of our “Ego” completely. Only if we let our egos disappear, will Bhagawan’s grace flow on to us infinitely! Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma) puts this beautifully into perspective – If we try and hold on to our ego, we are indirectly blocking Bhagawan’s grace to flow into us. Rather, if we’re able to break this barrier called “ego”, this would automatically pave the way for Bhagawan’s grace to flow into us endlessly!
Hence, the message is that, we should work on reducing our ego levels slowly and steadily. Of course, this is not going to be an easy job by any means! This would take tremendous amount of effort and determination from our side to make this a reality. So let us strive towards it and make a head-start from today!
“Tyakta karmaanaam” – Moving on to the next point thus, Sage Kapilaachaarya drops a huge bombshell here! If we’ve to prioritize between our personal commitments and to address the urgent needs of an ardent Bhakta of Bhagawan, what would we choose? Would we choose our personal work or helping another person who is in a dire need? Most of the time, we would choose only the former and junk the latter! This is the nature of the world today! We give more importance to our own needs first, more than that of the others who are in dire need! Thus in other words, we’ve become too selfish and self-centered over the years and over generations! Now the question comes – Who is that person who has complete control of the mind? A person who is able to junk his / her personal commitments completely for helping another person who is struggling, is a real conquerer of his / her mind! Why is Sage Kapilaachaarya saying thus? The simple reason is, if we’re running behind our mind, it would direct us only towards our self-centric needs! We would never give even a little space and time for others. Whereas, if we’re wresting our mind under our control, we would be able to throw away our selfish needs, for a bigger cause of helping another person who is in dire need of help! Such a person is extremely loved by Bhagawan Himself, and His infinite divine grace is guaranteed for this person!
So for today, let us ponder over these two important points and let us make a self-analysis of ourselves here. If we’re able to overcome our self-centered nature and open ourselves to the service of the world, we would be at the start point of receiving Bhagawan’s endless divine grace! We shall wait till the next episode to witness the last two points of Sage Kapilaachaarya’s accord! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 