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Let us begin with collective chant of the Gayatri Mantra: “Om Bhur Bhuvah Swah, Tatsaviturvareñyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi, Dhiyo Yonah Prachodaydt ||”

Sisters and Brothers,

Puja-Upasana (worship of a deity and devotional practices) in one form or the other is an integral part of the endeavors of spiritual development. This is a common observation among the ordinary people who are religious, theist, or aspirants of spiritual progress. Many of the spiritual masters, yogis, siddhas and seer-sages have also taken its support and risen high on the illumined (eminent) path of spirituality. But there is a great difference between their approach and what is followed and practiced by the masses. Look at what most of you do in your so-called puja-upasana? You have made a mockery of everything. Your faith, your sadhana (endeavors of self-refinement and spiritual enlightenment), everything is superficial, haphazard.

I have been regularly doing puja-upasana and have also inspired many seekers of spirituality for this. For twenty-four years (as part of Mahapurascharas Sadhana) I have thoroughly practiced it for six hours early in the morning every day. This has continued till date. Now also, I get up before 2 am – even during the peak of winter when most of the world is fast asleep. In those hours of absolute calm, I do my puja- upasana for about four hours every day with bsolute engrossment in the japa of Gayatri Mantra. Had it been only a superficial act, a child’s play, or blind-faith, why would I do it so sincerely? And why would I initiate so many people in it?

Friends, I have motivated and initiated millions of people to do Gayatri Upasana. In many of my articles, I have also written about its importance. I would like to motivate and guide many more seekers like you, and I am determined to continue that even in this last phase of my life. I wish that all the devotees earnestly follow the illumined path of puja-upasana. If you don’t do it through heart, if you are not sincere in doing it, your ‘ritual’ of worship, your ‘devotional practice’ would only make a mockery of puja-upasana. ‘Devotees’ of this kind are worse than the so-called ‘atheists’ who simply don’t believe in God.

The atheists, for example the communists, reject puja-upasana outright, as they don’t find any rationale behind it. Their approach is correct. They are honest to their rationality. I am sure if they ever experience the reality of God, or if they are given the light of wisdom behind puja-upasana, they will grasp and adopt it thoroughly and prove to be true devotees. They are not shaky and superficial like many of the so-called ‘theists’ and ‘devotees’, whose faith, whose conceptualization of God, and whose devotion are shallow, hazy, illusory, strayed, and self-centered, and arbitrary like their own mentality and character. What kind of devotee or theist you are if you ‘worship’ and ‘pray’ the Almighty to bless you and fulfill all your wishes, but you don’t accept and follow His disciplines and you ignore the duties assigned by Him? Aren’t you dishonest and ungrateful? You pray simply to convey your demands and beg for their fulfilment! In return of your act of ‘worship and devotion’ you want to buy and ‘rule over’ the entire creation? You want that God should mold His system of Nature and alter His rules, as per your convenience, desires and needs!

Understand the Meaning of puja-Upasana:

Please note, your singing of devotional song or chanting prayers, without the purity and depth of heart and sincerity of mind, is like attempting to bargain for precious jewels without any price. It’s like trying to grab fruits sans any hard work or payment. It’s like a theft, a foul play.

You sit on a cozy seat and chant some mantra or some hymn from religious texts with movements of the beads of a rosary in your hand and consider it a spiritual endeavor! And, you beseech so many favors in return! You ‘pray’ for riches, promotion in your job, good health, for your spouse, children, their happiness, success and what not...! Your list extends with the number of chants! Don’t you know that nothing worthwhile can be gained freely in this world? Then why do you aspire to get so much as blessings of gods as a result of your act of chanting their names, or singing paeans of their divine powers? Such practices and beliefs show that in reality you are an atheist.

The people whom you might call “atheists” are in fact true theists if they have faith in shaping their destiny through their own abilities and diligence. Those who believe in merit of good character and good deeds are true believers, irrespective of whether they follow any religious philosophy, any tradition, or not. Those who attempt for success through their own sincere efforts, self-refinement, and unflinching hard labor towards the worthy goals, cannot be called atheists, as they, unlike many of you (the so-called ‘devotees’ and ‘spiritual disciples’), do not crave or bag for anything ‘free of price’.

How can a farmer harvest the crop without working in the field? He has to plough the land, fill it with suitable soil, sow the seeds properly in the right season in the right manner, water the soil, guard the saplings, look after the growing plants, etc. For this he has to work so hard! He has to stand under the sun, drench his body in rains, dirty his clothes in the soil, and so on... He has to even sacrifice his sound sleep for months! This rule applies everywhere in the field of life as well; more so in the field of spirituality.

Soil and Water of the Field of Spirituality -Yoga and Tapa:

You know, spirituality is a source of divine transmutation. But you need to cultivate this source hidden in your inner self. Faith in God, His discipline, and divine values, sincerely doing meditative devotional practices (p¿j3-up3san3), are like planting the seed; But the seed will not sprout unless the field (of mind and its emotional core) is ploughed and nurtured with fertile soil and irrigated carefully. Cleansing of mind, focusing and constructive orientation of thoughts, etc are essential like ploughing and guarding. The endeavors of yoga and tapa serve the purpose of necessary nurturing and strengthening (the ‘sapling’ of spirituality). In this shivir (spiritual training session) you will get an exposure to yoga and tapa. Let us first discuss some basic aspects that are quite important in these endeavors.

You must note that your way of thinking, the nature of your thoughts make a lot of difference in your perception of knowledge, and also in your experiences of the world. If you think positive, the world, the circumstances around you, will appear beautiful, peaceful, happy, progressive and cooperating to you. On the contrary, negative, untoward thoughts would reflect accordingly in your experience of the world; you will find everything (every event and situation) here as wrong, vicious, deformed, hazardous, fearsome, and depressing. Calm down and ponder over; you will find that, in fact, the world is not so bad, unjust, cruel or haphazard, life is not so hard, and your circumstances are not so adverse or daunting, as they might appear to you. In reality you are not so weak or deprived, as your thoughts have made you feel. Flaws and faults are not so much in others, as they are in your own mentality. In this context, I recall an interesting incident that was reported sometime in the British colonial period. This happened during the inaugural ride of Queen Victoria in the first ever train-service in England. The first trip of the first train in England was planned after successful trials and thorough security checks. As per plan, the Queen sat inside the special cabin. There were many bodyguards in her coach and also substantial military and emergency medical services were arranged. While the train was moving at scheduled speed late in the evening, the driver noticed a shadow indicating that an elephant was walking besides the track. He whistled and called the security personnel, as there was a risk that the elephant would hit the train or disturb the tracks. With binocular the guards saw that the elephant was walking at the same speed as train, it appeared very big with a huge trunk and tail.

The security guards took out their guns and fired a few rounds outside in the direction where the elephant appeared to walk along the track. But that did not budge the animal. The shadow continued to appear running with the train. Then they stopped the train in an attempt to surprise and thwart the elephant. But the beast also stopped with the train! It was so dark outside that the soldiers did not take the risk of getting down at that moment. The driver now increased the speed. Amazing! The elephant also started running at the same speed! It was quite scaring. In view of the high risk of its attack, the train was stopped; the military unit on duty was asked to get down and attack it from multiple directions. Several soldiers got down with emergency light; but the puzzle intensified as they saw no one on or besides the tracks! Was it a ghost, some of them wondered?

Thorough search finally showed that it was a shadow of a wild grasshopper sitting on the light outside the train-engine that appeared like the shadow of an elephant! This ‘elephant-cum- ghost’ was caught immediately. It is said the grasshopper is still preserved in a museum of England. The caption below this specimen reads that this is the ‘elephant’ that delayed the Queen’s train by four hours and that did not die even after many rounds of bullet firing.

Most of Your Problems are Self-created:

Most of the problems, fears, and tensions in your lives are also like the grasshopper in this anecdote. It keeps scaring and worrying you in one form or the other.

Many of you are worried due to poverty or scarcities in your life. But this is mostly due to your own outlook. Don’t you get food to have meals twice a day? Don’t you have clothes to cover and protect your body? Don’t you have a roof to live under? Why are you worried and stressed, and running around to grab more comforts, more riches, more powers, and what not, when your basic necessities are met? You should be progressive but don’t let your cravings and worldly ambitions drive your life. Remind yourself of the bitter reality of the lives of grand ambitious emperors like Alexander the Great. Alexander had conquered most part of the world, accumulated enormous treasure. But he, like anyone else, died empty handed. It was only at the last moment that he realized that he can’t carry a single paisa along with him in the last journey to the disembodied world. How pathetic it must have been for him to have realized it in the last moments before death! He cried and said, had I realized this fact before, I would have lived like Socrates, like Buddha; would have made some worthwhile use of my life.... It is a pity that even most of those who know this fact in principle, also blindly chase the rat-race of materialistic possessions to quench their unbounded ambitions and longings.

Why can’t you change your outlook? Why don’t you realize that Nature has allocated only limited share for every one. Can you eat and digest beyond the capacity of your stomach? Certainly not! The same is true of every other resource available to you or earned by you. If you had realized it, you would have adopted a different philosophy, different path of life. Instead of accumulating wealth and hoards of other resources only for you and your dear and near ones, you would have prudently deployed your talents, your possessions, your time, for the welfare and progress of many others who need it.

A Universal Solution:

Friends, I have tried to convey this message since past four days of this session that you should augment your inner-strength and courageously choose the righteous path. You should make prudent use of your thought-power, talents and other potentials. For many of you, the measure of intellectual and other talents is confined to the monetary gains and worldly status. You have graduated in first class, got post-graduate degree with good grades, and then you got a good job; you are a class-I officer, successful professional, this and that, ....etc. Is this what your education, your intellect, your training and talents are meant for? I would call it a crude and preposterous ‘intellect’ that can’t even solve the problems of one’s own life, that can’t even have the wisdom of what is good and what is bad for the ultimate course of life, that can’t teach one how to behave with fellow beings, and how to control your ego, selfish longings, and passions. Is your intelligence guiding you in this regard? Is it able to control the agility and moods of your mind?

Before you complain about others, just recall, how have you behaved with people around you? How many of them have you hurt, and have cultivated animosity with how many? Remember, if your conduct is good, if you have cared and cooperated with others, you will also not be deprived of support and friendly cooperation in the moments of need. If you do not ignore whatever is already available to you and make proper use of it, there would never be any scarcity in your life.

It’s so unfortunate that we the intelligent beings simply don’t care and don’t learn to make the best use of whatever we already have. We are born with such a wonderful body. Instead of making proper use of its enormous potentials, we keep spoiling its natural health and strength in the indulgence of sensory pleasures. Then, at a later age we run after medical help to get rid of the weaknesses and health disorders in this very body!

Many of you want to have a long life full of pleasures. What will you do with it? You should know that it’s not the span but the quality and purpose of life that matters. If you had valued the precious opportunity of being born as a human, if you had the vision of the path of light and happiness, you would have really succeeded in life. You should begin with a new outlook towards life from this moment itself. Not only that, you should also motivate your younger generation to follow this glorious path, as Rukmani Devi, the mother of saintly scholar and revered social reformer Acharya Vinoba Bhave did. While most parents want their sons and daughters to be happily settled and be blessed by children and wealthy comforts, etc. she guided her children to the path of truth, benevolence, and beatitude.

Friends, we can acquire enormous happiness and worthy success in this very life, if we realize the precious purpose of life, learn to make adept use of whatever we have, and sincerely endeavor to refine and raise our potentials. If we resolve and sincerely endeavor tapa and yoga, we can also attain greatness and accomplish glorious milestones if our intellect follows the illumined path of righteousness.

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