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NEVER-FAILING SÂDHANÂ

(Autobiography of Poojya Gurudev Pt. Sriram Sharma Acharya - Continued)

Man has his own limitations like a child. He potentially gets infinite strength from his Creator, the Omnipotent God. This, however, is conditional. Children do not know proper utility of objects and cannot take care of them. So they are given cheap toys, petty balloons, rattles, whistles, lemon juice balls, toffees etc. When a child grows up, understands his responsibilities he gets everything in inheritance without demanding anything. For this he is not required to beg, beseech pathetically or offer prayers. God and divinized human beings are keen to give a thousand times more than what we ask for, provided we have demonstrated our competence to utilize the divine gifts for noble and altruistic purposes and not for gratification of our perversely petty, egoistic desires and hungers.

It does not serve any purpose to give false assurances for the future. Proof has to be furnished how, whatever has been given so far, has been utilized. This is the basis of preparing the performance graph, which is examined before promotion is granted. I had to give convincing proof of my competence and sincerity during past several births. When everything was found to be in order, gifts and grace were showered on me.

Whatever Sugreev, Vibhishan, Sudama, Arjun got and whatever they did was not the result of their own ego-centred efforts. The supreme power of God was working from behind the curtain. Canals get water from rivers. Distributaries, which supply water to the fields, get it from the canals. If there is any disorder or mishap anywhere there is bound to be a breakdown in the entire chain. Man can establish intimate relationship with God on some definite basis. There is no scope in it for anything like flattery. God does not play favourite with anyone. He is bound by the laws underlying the smooth working of His cosmos. He is impartial.

My personal human competence is almost insignificant. Whatever has been accomplished should purely be considered the result of Divine Grace, most of which is being showered not directly but through the medium of my Gurudev, although it hardly makes any difference.

How could this sublime achievement be possible? It was possible by cultivation of competence or worthiness. It is also known as Jivan-sadhana. It is intimately related to upasana. Electric current flows through a metal wire and not through wood. A dry log of wood burns far more quickly and brightly than a wet one. A mother takes up a child into her lap when he is neat and clean. If he is stained with filth and dirt, she will first wash and clean him and then take him in her lap and feed him. For securing nearness, proximity to God, purity of character is a must. Several persons had remained soiled with carnal cravings in their previous lives but the moment they took to faith, devotion and sadhana their lives were transformed beyond recognition. Valmiki, Angulimal, Bilva-mangal, Ajamil became saints in the true sense of the term, the moment they surrendered themselves to God, although their past lives were far from pious. We adopt the policy of Ram nam japana paraya mal apana (mechanically taking Ram’s name but coveting what belongs to others). We go on doing evil deeds and yet think that by worshipping God merely through outward symbolic acts, we will escape from retribution for our trespasses. Is this not a great delusion?

Before dyeing, a cloth has to be washed clean. Before sowing it is necessary to plough the land. To earn the grace of God one has to lead a pious life and become a sadhak. A sadhak alone can become a true devotee. In the absence of Jºvan-sadhana the thoughts, character, diet and daily routine of a person will all be disorganized. Such a person will always remain restless on account of greed and desires and he will never be able to concentrate his mind. No purpose is served merely by performing karma-kand and symbolic worship. Worship is directly related to inner feelings. With sublimated feelings alone a person is able to assimilate righteousness in his attitudes, actions and nature.

When a respectable guest pays a visit or there is a function, the entire house is cleaned and whitewashed. If God is to be invited to occupy the chamber of the heart, it has to be first cleaned of all the dirt and dross, which fill it. For this one has to take recourse to self-growth. These facts were explained to me and I thoroughly assimilated them. After all, why do we lead a contemptible life? Greed, delusion and pride, these three are at its root. A man having these vices is bound to be dragged towards hell.

Actions are shaped by our subtle tendencies. Our physical body is governed by our mind. Mind alone and not the body should be considered responsible for all the misdeeds. Keeping this fact in view, I considered it appropriate to cut the roots of the poisonous tree of ego-centered cravings and started Jºvan-sadhana, considering mind as the basis.

Crimes are often committed due to economic compulsions and temptation. A pledge was, therefore, taken by me to lead a simple life of an average Indian. Whatever the income, it should be spent economically, according to local conditions, on the principle of ‘simple living and high thinking’. In principle, most of the people give it lip support, but when it comes to practice they find it difficult to do so. It requires unshakable firmness and resolve, as members of the family have also to be prepared to follow it strictly, not only in principle but also in practice.

The greatest difficulty in this connection is about the attitudes prevalent in the society. People think that when everybody is indulging in riotous merry-making on his well-earned or ill-gotten wealth, why should we exercise control on ourselves? It is very difficult to convince members of the family in this matter. Still, if we practice what we preach and try to convince people by logic, facts and results and our resolve is firm, it is well nigh impossible that persons close to us will not be influenced. If economic malpractices are sought to be eradicated, it is necessary to educate the minds of the people on these lines. With this resolve I remained firm in my convictions. Our family in Ghiya Mandi, Mathura, consisted of five members. Till we came to Hardwar in 1971, we managed our expenses within two hundred rupees per month. This could be possible by thrift and by maintaining a standard different from others, although my income was above average as I had inherited ancestral property. It was also spent in the education of children of other members of the family and nothing was accumulated to breed vices and addictions. Thus an important aspect of Jºvan-sadhana could be practiced.

A man has a propensity for adorning, embellishing and enriching one’s own family and he wants to leave behind huge wealth in succession at the time of his death. Children of the people who indulge in unrestrained gratification of desires are bound to become addicted to luxuries of all sorts and thus a chain of extravagance and squandering of money starts. Ill-gotten wealth is bound to be spent in licentious living. I learnt a lesson from the experience of the downfall of others and did not allow such an outlook to enter in my home. Thus a cultured, refined family grew up.

People squander away a lot of money and time in bragging, pomp and show, ornamentation and fashion. There was no scope in my life for such ego-inflating and self-glorifying trivialities, as an atmosphere of Brahmañ-like politeness and simplicity was maintained throughout my personal and family life. We had formed the habit of doing all domestic chores with our own hands. For years Mataji grinded flour at home and prepared meals herself for the family and guests. A domestic servant had to be engaged only when, on account of extraordinary expansion of mission’s work, it became difficult for her to spare time for household work.

It is a false notion, born out of a perverted sense of values, that those living in pomp and show are regarded ‘great’ while those living in simplicity are considered to be unlucky or backward. It did not ever apply in my case. It would have been a different matter if poverty had become our lot on account of sloth or incompetence. But in our case it was a voluntarily and gladly adopted way of life in adherence to high and noble ethical principles. None of my relatives, friends etc. who came in my contact regarded it as poverty but as an example of setting Brahmañ traditions. There are people who by giving up chillies or putting on wooden sandals make loud proclamations of their simplicity and righteousness. But spiritual life is truly lived by an all-inclusive self-restraint and discipline in which one has to consciously endeavour every moment to transform his entire way of life into that of a true Brahmañ. This entails a gradual and long sadhana. In this respect, I rigorously trained myself and also all those who were linked with me.

Life is affected by accumulated evil tendencies and habits. Passion, anger, greed, delusion, pride and jealousy, all tried to deflect me from the righteous path, but they were chased away before they could establish a foothold in my psyche. They succeed only when a person is caught unawares or lowers his guard. I kept a constant watch on my attitudes (guña), actions (karma) and nature (svabhav) with a view to ensuring that righteousness of a sadhak has been incorporated in them. It is a matter of satisfaction that I can humbly claim to have emerged victorious.

At birth, everybody is crude and unpolished. Every soul brings with it, from previous lives, a greater or lesser load of evil tendencies and impressions. They cannot be eradicated all at once. Grace of the Guru or p¿ja-path (rituals) also does not serve this purpose. The only way is to struggle hard against the evil tendencies. A parallel army of noble thoughts, duly trained, should be kept in readiness to fight it out as soon as an evil thought creeps in. Evil thoughts and tendencies cannot exist for long if they are not allowed to consolidate their position in our minds. Their strength is limited. They mainly depend on habits and conventions, while good thoughts have always the strong support of logic, facts, proof, wisdom, etc. The authors of ancient scriptures have rightly pointed out that ultimately truth alone prevails. In other words, it is the divine virtues and noble tendencies that form part of our real higher nature; evil tendencies are only aberrations and shadows without substance. When monkeys and bears can be trained to display amazing feats, there is no reason why a raw and crude human mind could not be refined and made righteous through concentrated sadhana.

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