In the previous episode, we had witnessed the twenty-fifth aspect of “Dharma” which Sage Sukhaachaarya is explaining to King Parikshit. As a sequence, we’ve seen three aspects of “Dharma” back to back, starting from “Shravanam”, Keertanam” and “Smaranam”. All these three aspects of “Dharma” are of paramount importance to a person who is ardently seeking the path of attaining “Moksha”. In due course of yesterday’s episode, we had witnessed the significance of the “Dharma” called “Smaranam”, wherein Sage Sukhaachaarya explains that it is our ardent “Dharma” to keep thinking about Bhagawan all the time. The thoughts might be of His divine plays, stories, events, slokas, names, or whatever. For this, we need to focus our mind towards Bhagawan and it is only with this steadfast focus, would we be able to think of Bhagawan continuously without a break. For this focus to be attained, we perform something called “Meditation” or “Dhyaanam”. The main agenda behind performing “Dhyaanam” is to attain this focus of mind which we are talking about here. We’ve also discussed in due course of the last episode, various phases through which we transcend through the meditative experience. The primary goal here is to “internalize” Bhagawan within us in such a way that we’re entering into a world of indefinite and immortal bliss.
Of course, for normal people like us, it might be difficult to attain this state sooner, but we should make a conscious effort to move forward in this regard. Just because we might have tried for one or two days and we would have failed to control our ever-wavering mind, we should not give up. We should be prepared to take on the initial onslaught of our mind. As I had mentioned yesterday too, only when we sit down to meditate, will our mind wander from Asia to Europe to Africa to America to Australia! All sort of weird thoughts would start coming into our mind only when we sit down to meditate. This is normal for all of us, and we shouldn’t get startled by this happening. However, the main point here is that, we should never give up our attempts. The more we try, the more we succeed. As we make it a habit of sitting and meditating every day, slowly and automatically our mind will come under our control. The wavering of our mind would come to a halt as time progresses. Of course, for some people results can be witnessed within just one or two days, whereas for some people, it might even take months. But however, even if it might take months for us to control our thoughts, it is still fine! We should never get upset with ourselves for this and we should constantly keep trying.
It is only once we reach this state of total mind control, will we be able to experience the blissful state with Bhagawan. So let us make it a point to try meticulously again and again. We should always remember that we would be able to taste success only with repeated failures. We might see this even in our professional life as well isn’t it? We might go through lot of hardships at our workplace every passing day and finally after many years of experience we might get a top position in an organization. If we’re prepared to face those difficulties for our career improvement, why shouldn’t we be prepared to face these difficulties for our spiritual improvement? We can definitely do it! Especially with the lockdown period that is currently in place in many countries around the world, we would have much more time to dedicate for our spiritual growth. Hence, let us use this time constructively for meditating and attaining atleast some amount of spiritual progress.
Readers might remember the story of “Dhruva”, which we discussed few episodes back. Readers might feel free to refer our earlier episodes to get a hold of this important story. What did Dhruva do? He make a steadfast resolve within himself to see Bhagawan in front of him somehow or the other! With that resolve, he started to meditate deeper and deeper each day and by the end of the sixth month, Bhagawan appeared in front of him! If a little child can achieve this feat within six months, why can’t we? Hence, it all depends on how much of “Vairaagya” do we possess and it is a real test for all of us! Hence, let us do the needful!
With this note, we shall move on with the next aspect of “Dharma” as narrated by Sage Sukhaachaarya to King Parikshit thus:
“Seve ijjyaavana daasye sakhyam aatma samarpanam!!”
Here, Sage Sukhaachaarya talks about the twenty-sixth aspect of “Dharma” thus – “Seva” for the society. There are certain recommendations given in the Vedas, for all of us to follow so that these actions of ours would be of immense benefit to the society as a whole. For instance, digging of wells, ponds, etc. which would supply water for hundreds and thousands of people, building of temples so that many people can assemble at a spot and worship Bhagawan, performing “Homas”, “Yagnyas”, etc. for the benefit of the world, etc. The process of performing “Homas”, “Yagnyas”, etc. for the larger benefit of the world is called “Ijjya”.
We might have a question here – How can we do all these “Homas”, “Yagnyas”, etc. on a large scale, given our financial constraints, etc.? Isn’t this only for wealthy people? Why should we do all these rituals and how will these rituals benefit the world? An important and an interesting answer awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 😊
The Indian Dharma 