The scriptures tell us that the individual soul has endeavoured to know God in every moment since eternity. No soul can remain inactive even for a second. And we know this to be true from our own experience. Wherever we are and whenever it is, we are engaging in some form of action in every moment. Why? Because we are striving to be happy. We are striving to attain happiness. And it is this very happiness - the infinite, eternal, divine bliss that scriptures talk about - that we call Rama, Krishna, God and other such names. And attaining this bliss is such a goal that none of us can ever forget it.
Is there anyone in the world who does not strive to be happy? Is there anyone who can claim that they strive night and day to be miserable? Not only is this assertion absurd, but according to scripture, it is also impossible. It is the result of God’s causeless grace that we cannot forget our goal. If it were not, we would continue to wander in the 8.4 million species of life without remembering anything from our previous births. Some of you may wonder why it is that we (the individual soul) cannot ever forget our goal of bliss? Let us consider the answer to this intriguing question given by Jagadguruttam Shri Kripalu.
It is said that the soul has travelled to the celestial realm infinite times; it even went to the hellish regions infinite times too, and it has received a human body infinite times. It had the divine vision of God infinite times, and it met infinite Saints, infinite times. But what happened? It churned water in the hope of extracting butter. In other words, it searched for happiness in the world. There is happiness in the world, but that happiness is material. And since we are a part of God, a part of bliss, and that bliss is unlimited, divine, indescribable and supreme, it cannot be found anywhere in the material world. Despite our own experience of this in life, until today, we have not made the firm decision that happiness is not to be found in this material world.
We have experienced material happiness infinite times, but we forget because worldly happiness is temporary. The happiness that is God, however, is not like this. It is said that once it is attained, it is attained forever. To attain this bliss, knowledge of God is essential; God-realisation is essential. Regarding God-realisation, one who strives for millions of ages using his material mind will only attain material things. Granted, he may attain great supernatural powers and he may attain the greatest of material pleasures, but he can never attain the knowledge of God, the bliss of God, nor freedom from the bondage of maya.
For this, we must take the support of the path of devotion, bhakti, and the essence of bhakti is to surrender to God. We must beg for that bliss from Him, for that knowledge. And there must be genuine yearning in our begging too. To develop such longing, faith in God is an absolute must. And to have faith, you must have detachment, and to be detached, you must have profound knowledge about the reality of this world. You must repeatedly reflect on the nature of this world because just hearing theoretical knowledge once will never be enough. After listening you must reflect. You must revise the philosophy again and again.
Never consider that you already know everything. To know something means to accept it. And what does acceptance mean? When we always realise it. Thus, you need to always keep spiritual knowledge with you and put it into practice in your day-to-day life. Everything you have done in this world up to this point, you have done through practice.
When you were born, for example, you knew nothing. You did not even know your own mother. You did not know how to speak or how to sit up. But within 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, you accumulated all kinds of knowledge. So how did you do this? By practise. You toppled over hundreds of times while learning how to sit. Your mother held you, and you tumbled over. You have forgotten all this. We all fell thousands of times while learning to stand and walk. We hurt ourselves and cried too. But one day, we all stood up! And later, we all started running.
In the same way, you must focus your mind on spiritual knowledge again and again. By doing so, your detachment from worldly pleasures and pursuits will increase, your faith in God and Guru will increase, and so you will abide more and more to the instructions of your spiritual teacher. Then you will practise devotion. When a person is genuinely hungry, even a stale piece of bread tastes good. But when your stomach is full, even the tastiest delicacy will have no appeal.
Therefore, if you are fortunate enough to meet a genuine Saint and can develop genuine faith in him, then it will not take you long to achieve your cherished spiritual goal.
Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattva-darshan - the essence of Vedic wisdom, spirituality and devotion in daily life.
The scriptures tell us that the individual soul has endeavoured to know God in every moment since eternity. No soul can remain inactive even for a second. And we know this to be true from our own experience. Wherever we are and whenever it is, we are engaging in some form of action in every moment. Why? Because we are striving to be happy. We are striving to attain happiness. And it is this very happiness - the infinite, eternal, divine bliss that scriptures talk about - that we call Rama, Krishna, God and other such names. And attaining this bliss is such a goal that none of us can ever forget it.
Is there anyone in the world who does not strive to be happy? Is there anyone who can claim that they strive night and day to be miserable? Not only is this assertion absurd, but according to scripture, it is also impossible. It is the result of God’s causeless grace that we cannot forget our goal. If it were not, we would continue to wander in the 8.4 million species of life without remembering anything from our previous births. Some of you may wonder why it is that we (the individual soul) cannot ever forget our goal of bliss? Let us consider the answer to this intriguing question given by Jagadguruttam Shri Kripalu.
It is said that the soul has travelled to the celestial realm infinite times; it even went to the hellish regions infinite times too, and it has received a human body infinite times. It had the divine vision of God infinite times, and it met infinite Saints, infinite times. But what happened? It churned water in the hope of extracting butter. In other words, it searched for happiness in the world. There is happiness in the world, but that happiness is material. And since we are a part of God, a part of bliss, and that bliss is unlimited, divine, indescribable and supreme, it cannot be found anywhere in the material world. Despite our own experience of this in life, until today, we have not made the firm decision that happiness is not to be found in this material world.
We have experienced material happiness infinite times, but we forget because worldly happiness is temporary. The happiness that is God, however, is not like this. It is said that once it is attained, it is attained forever. To attain this bliss, knowledge of God is essential; God-realisation is essential. Regarding God-realisation, one who strives for millions of ages using his material mind will only attain material things. Granted, he may attain great supernatural powers and he may attain the greatest of material pleasures, but he can never attain the knowledge of God, the bliss of God, nor freedom from the bondage of maya.
For this, we must take the support of the path of devotion, bhakti, and the essence of bhakti is to surrender to God. We must beg for that bliss from Him, for that knowledge. And there must be genuine yearning in our begging too. To develop such longing, faith in God is an absolute must. And to have faith, you must have detachment, and to be detached, you must have profound knowledge about the reality of this world. You must repeatedly reflect on the nature of this world because just hearing theoretical knowledge once will never be enough. After listening you must reflect. You must revise the philosophy again and again.
Never consider that you already know everything. To know something means to accept it. And what does acceptance mean? When we always realise it. Thus, you need to always keep spiritual knowledge with you and put it into practice in your day-to-day life. Everything you have done in this world up to this point, you have done through practice.
When you were born, for example, you knew nothing. You did not even know your own mother. You did not know how to speak or how to sit up. But within 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, you accumulated all kinds of knowledge. So how did you do this? By practise. You toppled over hundreds of times while learning how to sit. Your mother held you, and you tumbled over. You have forgotten all this. We all fell thousands of times while learning to stand and walk. We hurt ourselves and cried too. But one day, we all stood up! And later, we all started running.
In the same way, you must focus your mind on spiritual knowledge again and again. By doing so, your detachment from worldly pleasures and pursuits will increase, your faith in God and Guru will increase, and so you will abide more and more to the instructions of your spiritual teacher. Then you will practise devotion. When a person is genuinely hungry, even a stale piece of bread tastes good. But when your stomach is full, even the tastiest delicacy will have no appeal.
Therefore, if you are fortunate enough to meet a genuine Saint and can develop genuine faith in him, then it will not take you long to achieve your cherished spiritual goal.
Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattva-darshan - the essence of Vedic wisdom, spirituality and devotion in daily life.
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