Thursday, August 22, 2013

(August 22,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Dearest Devotee to God

The Dearest Devotee to God
Divine Life Society Publication: Discourse 37: Commentary on the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

Yo ha hrshyati na dveshti na sochati na kankshati, subhasubha-parityagi bhaktiman yah sa me priyah (12.17): “Who is dear to Me? He who is neither happy nor unhappy, neither likes nor dislikes, neither wants nor does not want, asks neither for pleasant things nor unpleasant things, and does not even make a distinction between good and bad – such a person is the true devotee of God.”

The great geniuses of the spirit, whether they are devotees of the Almighty and visualize Him as a Supreme Person or as a Transcendent Eternal, have a common characteristic between them. Their behavior is of a uniform nature, though their internal methodology of attunement with the Supreme Spirit slightly varies because of the distinction that we are obliged to make between the personality of God and the universality of God.  

What is the nature of those who seek God, either as a Supreme Person or as an Impersonal Universal?

Universal Compassionate outlook: Eternally free from hatred towards any living being, they extend love and compassion to all creatures. Dislike and hatred, in any manner whatsoever, is unknown to them. It is not absence of hatred only towards some. It is absence of dislike and hatred towards anyone.

Friendly and compassionate at all times: They are very friendly with persons of any category whatsoever, whether high or low.

Free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness: They have no sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness. Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person nor the devotee of the Universal Being ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God. In either case, it is an abolition of personality – either by self surrender or inner communion of spirit with Spirit. That is no sense of ‘I’-ness. ‘I’ does not exist, because there is only one ‘I’ that can exist – the supreme ‘I’ – and, therefore, nothing belongs to me. Neither they have any sense of existing independently, by themselves, nor have they a sense of possession of any article whatsoever in this world. So they are free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness.

Pleasure and Pain are equal: Whether pleasure comes or pain comes, they accept both with equanimity. Knowing that pleasures and pains are only reactions to certain prevailing conditions, one is not perturbed either when there is a pleasurable sensation or when there is a sensation which is contrary. Pleasure and pain are equal. They are quick to forgive, and never get irritated or angry.

Being content:  Always in a contented state; never greedy, never asking for anything. Always contented, they are yogis whose self is united with God.

Determined to realize God in this birth:  Determination counts very much in actually attaining success. If we are diffident – “I may not even pass; where is the question of attaining first class?” – if this kind of feeling is there in the beginning itself, nothing is going to be attained. Here is the determination of the spirit of the seeker: “Everything is well with me. I am not doing anything wrong. My technique of meditation is perfectly all right. I shall attain God in this birth itself.” This determination, or dridha-nischayatva, is what characterizes all yogis and their mind and intellect is dedicated to the Supreme Being. They are the supreme devotees. They are dear to God.

No dislike or disgust towards anyone or anything: They do not shrink from anything, nor do they behave in such a way that the world will shrink away from them. We may have no dislike or disgust towards anything in the world, but the point is that the world should behave towards us in a similar manner. This is possible in heightened forms of self-expansion. When the moods of love and compassion rise to a sufficiently high pedestal, the aura of this great yogi touches everything in the atmosphere around, and the world will behave in respect of that person in a similar manner as the person behaves in respect of the world. That is to say, our behavior towards the world largely conditions its behavior towards us. So if we do not shy away from the world, the world will not shy away from us.  

Free from exhilaration, anger, fear, and from agitation of any kind: Getting exhilarated when something pleasant comes and becoming angry when something unpleasant comes; the fear that something may come and hinder our path of pleasure, and udvega - agitation caused when all these are present. One who is free from all these is dear to God.

Free from any kind of expectation and desire – inwardly and outwardly: Wanting nothing at all, and expecting nothing even for tomorrow. One who is inwardly and outwardly contented, free from any kind of expectation and desire, he is pure and is able to perform his duties to the utmost. Whether they are spiritual duties in the form of meditation or external duties in the form of relations with society, he is an expert, adroit and very precise in his behavior, and he will not bungle in his attitude. He does not talk much; he will not interfere with things; he does not take any initiative, and keeps quiet as if he is not interested in anything in this world. Yet when he starts doing a thing, he will do it in a more expert manner than anybody else in the world.

Free from grief of every kind: He has no sorrow, no grief, no feeling that something has come which he doesn’t want, or something has not come which he wants. This grief does not touch him because there is nothing that he wants, and there is nothing that he does not want.

Remains quiet and does not take initiative in any direction: If something happens, he acts in accordance with that happening. If nothing happens, he keeps quiet. He does not plan what he will do tomorrow and what he will do the day after that. He remains quiet, as if nothing is happening and the world itself does not exist. But if occasions arise when he has to take a step in a given direction, he does it in a most expert manner. Otherwise, he does not take initiative in any direction. Such a devotee is dear to God.

Equal in attitude towards a friend or an enemy. Whether he is praised or insulted, it makes no difference because, for him, words are only vibrations in the air and they make no sense. Only if we make sense of the vibrations, they seem to affect us. But vibration is vibration – and if we let them go, they vanish into thin air. Hence, neither praise nor insults make any difference to him. He is totally unaware of anything happening at all. They are empty words, with no sense or meaning for him.

No attachment to the physical body: Heat and cold, hunger and thirst are the usual concomitants of a human being embodied in a physical sheath. We cannot ask why there should be hunger, why there should be thirst, why there should be heat and cold. They are natural, and have to be borne with fortitude as long as the physical body continues. He does that. He is attached to nothing.

Ninda and stuti mean the same thing to him. "You are the best" and "Nobody likes you in the whole world" –mean the same to him and he takes both of them as prasad. Tulya-ninda-stutir mauni: talking not, saying nothing. Santushto yena kenachit: Whatever comes, he is satisfied with it.

Having no abode of his own:  He stays anywhere and any place is equally good for him. He does not have an attachment to any particular land and property. He has no particular homestead, no location, and feels that all is well at any place.

Mind is still and not agitated: Sthira-matir- He is still, not agitated and is established in understanding. Such a devotee is the beloved of God.

Whoever listens to this advice is also dear to God. Whoever devotedly hears this glory of the devotee of God is also a devotee of God. "I consider all of them as very, very, dear to Me who devotedly, intently, with concentration, listen to these glories of the great masters of the spirit – which is like nectar for the ears – full of faith and intent on Me only. I consider them as most dear to Me". With these words, we conclude the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.

Excerpts from:
Discourse 37: Commentary on the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda

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