Discourse 1 (Part 4)
Swami Pritam Muni
Vadodara, 20.8.09.
Divya Sanskriti, December, 2009.

Intone prolonged Om three times with me.
Om, Om, Om.
Jai Bhagwan to all brothers and sisters.

We have previously talked about workers. There are three categories of workers, ordinary, medium and outstanding. I had mentioned then that I believed that you were all outstanding workers. After that everyone accepted some responsibility or the other. Today we will consider how many outstanding workers Dadaji has in his service. Dadaji has said, “Life is a game of striking a balance between action, inaction and destiny.” It is possible that one in saffron clothes may not be a sannyasi while another clothed in normal attire is a sannyasi. Lord Krishna says in the sixth chapter of the Bhagvad Gita, “One who has sacrificed the desire for the fruits of all action and dutifully performs actions is a sannyasi and yogi; he is not a Sannyasi who has merely renounced the sacrificial fires. One does not become a Sannyasi merely by renouncing the sacrificial fires nor does one become a yogi merely by  renouncing all action.” The Lord has clarified here who can be considered a sannyasi and yogi. There is nothing here concerning mere vestments or outer clothing.

Once a scientist in Delhi, Dr. Yogesh Arora, had posed me a question. Various questions had arisen in his mind after listening to some Saints of various contemporary lineages. He posed many questions till one in the morning. Then he arose, offered his respects, and said, “Muniji, I am satisfied.” He had been inquiring from me why I took Sannyas and  where was the need for me to don saffron clothes.     
Such a question is natural. I just mentioned that one who has sacrificed the desire for the fruits of all action and dutifully performs actions is a sannyasi and yogi; he is not a Sannyasi who has merely renounced the sacrificial fires. One does not become a Sannyasi merely by renouncing the sacrificial fires nor does one become a yogi merely by renouncing all action. Consider the traffic policeman. He is positioned at his duty station; he is dutifully doing all that he is required to do; but, unfortunately, he is dressed in civilian clothing. He goes through all the motions needed for directing the traffic but the public is still confused. Some who know him obey and follow his signals but the rest ignore his directions and do as they wish and invite fines and punishments. Now, had this policeman been performing the very same duties in his prescribed uniform, that would have been convenient both for him as well as the public. I am telling you in a few words what I had extensively explained to Dr. Yogesh Arora in Delhi. But sannyas is a vast and deep subject. It cannot be explained in brief.  Sannyas denotes a comprehensiveness of life. It represents the highest peak in the game of life beyond which there is no height. That is what should be the direction of all our lives. That should be the direction of all souls.

There is a narrow but long road. There is a market with shops on both sides. There are a few sadhaks standing on one side of the road. Across the road from them there is a temple. God is seated there. Their Guru is seated besides them. The Guru says to his disciples, “One visible in front is God. Look straight into that temple from here; barely visible in line with the bridge of your nose, that is God. But if you wish to have proper darshan, walk up to the temple and have darshan there. But remember that you have only ten minutes in which to do this. You will need four to five minutes to reach there. If you walk straight without any deviation you will reach in time. But the moment the allotted ten minutes are over, the doors of the temple will close without a second’s delay.”

All the disciples set out for the temple. They had been walking barely a minute when they were assaulted by the enticing aromas of sweets and condiments from the shops. Some of the sadhaks thought that they still had  few minutes out of the allotted ten minutes for other pursuits. Besides, they could also walk faster and make up for lost time should that be necessary. So they turned to the shops for a taste of all that the shops had to offer. That done, they continued on their way. There was sweet music coming from somewhere. Some of the sadhaks now turned in that direction. So it went on. There was some other distraction at a third location, some game in progress at a fourth. At the fifth, there was a crowd of people, some with garlands in their hands as if to welcome someone.  Some of the sadhaks had been walking steadily since three or four minutes and were just short of their goal. But some of them now got distracted by the welcoming crowds and now turned in that direction to be welcomed and made much of. Further on there were others, experts in the pleasures of the world. They offered welcome to the sadhaks who had neared their goal and invited them to partake of miraculous potions in their possessions which would confer great powers and accomplishments. Some of the sadhaks thought they might as well experience this as well and got waylaid. So it went, from one shop to another, and soon the allotted ten minutes were over and the temple doors were shut. Hardly anyone reached it in time.

This is the story of our lives. From the moment of our birth, we are engaged in an unending chase. In truth, there should be only a single pursuit in life. We are at a critical border from the moment of birth but the distracting shops and markets and malls of the world beckon to us from the moment we begin our run. There  is a bhajan of Bapuji: “Barely out of one snare, he gets ensnared in another, cries out from the inner recesses of his heart.” This is our condition but we have not been able to understand.

What we see as necessity, as need, is mostly delusion. In reality, we have no real need of most of the things we consider needed or necessary. Still, we consider material wellbeing, knowledge, conveniences, comfort as necessary. That is delusion. Most souls wander from one lifetime to another in this delusion without understanding or attaining what is their only one true need or necessity. The truth is we have only one need, only one necessity, and that is the attainment of Truth, the attainment of the Paramatma, the Supreme Soul.  Before that, all else is mere arrangement of our affairs through our shortcoming.

I was earlier speaking about our earlier gurukul system. Thousands of years ago these were our educational institutions where knowledge was imparted but it was spiritual knowledge.  The first knowledge to be imparted was spiritual knowledge, then the knowledge of the art of living. Those who successfully acquired this knowledge made progress in life. The best of them had a high degree of vairagya (detachment) and were not attracted by the allurements of the world. Those of them who were less able adopted the householder’s life. But even in the latter case it was not that they became bound by the householder’s condition, became addicts to comfort, spent their whole life taken up only by offspring and relationships. Rather, they adopted this way of life more so that they may not fail in the higher pursuit because of the aberrations of mind. So the householder’s life was accepted as a compromise, so that life could be passed there in accordance with the spiritual tenets without inviting the risk of failure inherent in pursuing the higher calling of the renunciant’s life and failing therein due to the mind’s failings. So the route chosen was one of gradual progression through the householder and vanprasthi stages and then on to the higher calling of the renunciant engaged in the sadhana of liberation. The householder stage is meant for those who lack the capacity to straightway take on the highway of the moksha marg. It provided an opportunity to burn away wants, desires, leftover longings and hankerings of previous lives through indulgence in them according to the spiritual tenets.

But somewhere we have changed. Instead of finding release we have clung on to them for to long. Grahasthshram, the householders state, is meant to be undergone according to the spiritual tenets to burn away remaining desires etc. not to get further entangled in them.

The Scriptures have in fact said that an individual can adopt the renunciant life, can renounce his home and hearth,  after he has one offspring. Going further, they have said that an individual in any state can renounce the world when blessed with intense vairgya (detachment). If one is incapable of this, then at least when the offspring has grown to adulthood, has settled down in life, then the parents aught to hand over the household to him and take themselves to the forest to live there the life of a vanprasthi.  Many tell me hat they will make their home itself their tapovan, the place of their penance. But in real life it is almost never seen that someone has made his home his tapovan. We have become addicted to comfort. We fear that if we go to the forest we will not have the comfort of a fan or air conditioner, nor get the food we are accustomed to. Many reasons arise before us why we should not leave and go but in reality that is what we aught really to do. Only then do we realize how bound and shackled we had become, how circumstances prevented us from doing what needed to be done. When death comes, will not we all have to leave everything behind? Is it not better then that we leave everything before death makes us do so?  It is better to retire  to the forest before illness sends us in interminable rounds of hospitals. But if we do do so, what is there to be done in the forest or the ashram? Vanprastha.

Vanprastha means to bake one’s mind and body. The body has become addicted to comforts, conveniences and ease. There is distress at the slightest inconvenience. So  it is good to subject the body to the heat of discomfort and inconvenience, manage with very little, live very simply; make do with only the bare minimum necessities. Temper the mind also in the heat of penance. It is seeped with desire, aberration, lust, anger, likes and dislikes, pride and such impurities and needs to be purified. If we look into the core of  burning pyre we can see a small flame of saffron color. To be sannyast (in the state of sannyas) means the destruction of all one’s desires and attachments whether of person or thing or place of abode. One who has given up all desires whether concerning this world or the other is entitled to enter the state of sannyas. Viewed from his definition, there will not be many sannyasis to be seen. I often see that many in the brahmchari or householder or vanprasthi station of life are seen wearing saffron clothes. Brahmchari means one who is still a student, in the stage of learner, prior to adulthood. It is the state of preparation for walking the way of Truth, Dharma, God.

So, it is often seen that many in saffron clothes are still brahmcharis or householders or vanprasthis. Sannyasis are rare. We would be blessed to see one if our destiny has ripened. I have traveled extensively over this sacred land of ours but have seen only professors and mangers in the vestments of sannyas. By Professor I man those learned in our Scriptures; by manager I mean those running the affairs of Companies and such. That is also service, but it is not sannyas.

We had started this discourse by examining who is a true Sannyasi and a true yogi and had seen that one who has sacrificed all desire for the fruits of all his action  is a true Sannyasi and a true yogi. Thus, there can be a Sannyasi even within a home as well as outside of it. We can make preparation for it in the present, irrespective of our condition.

How should we prepare in our present life for sannyas in future life? What type of karmas should we do to prepare ourselves for it? How should we direct our lives, or how live in the grahasthashram to prepare for a life of sannyas in future?  True we all exist, live out our lives in one way or the other. But how should we really live so that it may be considered the best kind of life? You would have heard the name of King Janak. He was also known as Vedehi Raja Janak. Many meanings can be derived from it. The learned have shown the meaning of ‘vedehi’ in many different ways but we shall try to understand its meaning in simple language through a small story.

Once Shivaji Maharaj went to see his Guru Ramdas. We will accord more weightage to the meaning of the incident than to its factual veracity. Shivaji went to his Guru and offered his dandvat pranams and said, “Gurudev, please accept my pranams, I am fully surrendered to you”. Ramdasji was at that time engaged in some discussion with his disciples. The entire community of his disciples was present there. The discussion continued for some time. After a while, Shivaji Maharaj arose, offered his respects once again to his Guru and said, “Guruji, I shall take leave now.” Ramdasji called after him, “Son, Shiva, come here a minute”. Shivaji returned and Ramdasji asked him, “Where are you going?” Shivaji gave whatever reason it was that compelled him to leave. “But you have surrendered to me, given me your word that you will do what I say. So now where do you go? You have surrendered to me fully so your kingdom too is now mine, even your body is mine too. So if it is some matter of state that takes you away that is hardly right.”  Shivaji resumed his seat, at a loss to understand as to what he should do. “What are you thinking?”,  Ramdasji asked, “You have surrendered your mind to me too so you have lost your right to make your mental calculations”. Shivaji caught his Guru’s feet, at a loss for words.

Understand surrender well. Is your surrender conditional or unconditional?  A Guru can have lakhs of disciples but a truly surrendered disciple is rare indeed.
Lions do not travel in flocks. One is enough to make the whole forest tremble.

Surrender – it is a much soiled word. Ramdasji Maharaj tore off a piece of his saffron loincloth and gave it to Shivaji. “Take this,” he said, “make a flag of it and hoist it above the tallest spire of the royal palace. Go and rule as you have been ruling before, but remember that now the Kingdom is no longer yours, it is mine. I merely make you its manager. But do not ever scold anyone without reason; if without cause you take to task any of my loved ones, or if there is cause to say something to someone or point someone to the right way and you are negligent in that, or obstruct one of my loved ones in making progress, or there is one deserving of punishment and you have failed to mete it out and have thereby caused harm to my Kingdom, then you would have failed in carrying out your duty properly. If at any time again you consider the kingdom yours, that too would not be proper. You are not the owner. So long as you are entrusted the management you merely have to manage it dispassionately without emotion or thought of ownership.

Shivaji Maharaj returned to the capitol and hoisted the loincloth and ruled. You can understand how he must have ruled. Do whatever is necessary – if someone has to be reprimanded, do that; if someone has to be praised, do that; if someone has to be persuaded, do that; if someone has to be begged ad cajoled, do that too, for the kingdom belongs to Guruji. If it were of one’s own ownership, one could do as one pleased but it is Guruji’s kingdom so everyone has to be begged and cajoled. All this has to be done because one has surrendered to Guruji and one is doing all for him without bringing emotion or feeling into the picture or without any attachment due to any sense of ownership.

To some extent you have all begun to walk the right path. You have to remain ever vigilant. You may ask me, “Munij, how should one live in the context of family life?” Live the way I have indicated to you. Consider that home, family, wife, children, wealth, property, everything belongs to God and he has entrusted it all to you to manage on his behalf but he is the real owner. You have been appointed Manager for a given length of time. Your occupancy of the position is commensurate with the amount of rent you have paid in the past through your karmas. “Look around you; none that you see are yours, they are all mine”. We can be considered to have made a small beginning in the right direction if we can begin to get adjusted to living in the way we should, given our circumstances.

Bear all this in mind.  Let it percolate into your lives with proper understanding. Understand from the following story how valuable is human life.

There was a boy of about twelve or thirteen years of age. He set out to go to his uncle’s house or to the college, anywhere, that is not important. He set out to go somewhere. His father gave him a bag with two or three sets of clothes. He had also given him a paper. “Take this”, he said, “it will be useful to you in times of need”.  The boy  was sitting in the market. He was very hungry.   He went into a restaurant and purchased khaman worth about twenty or thirty rupees. The shopkeeper said he did not have a plate or any other container in which to serve him and asked the boy to fetch a piece of paper from somewhere so that he could be served. The boy remembered that there was a piece of paper in his bag  that his father had packed for him. He produced the paper and was served his khaman which he ate with great relish. Having finished, he threw away the paper as not being of any further use. In reality, the piece of paper was a check for ten lakh rupees. With it, the boy could have purchased several entire shops of khaman, let alone a few pieces of the snack. In the same way, God has given us a blank check in the form of human life. We can write any amount in it which we care to for he has given us freedom to write out our own check. If we choose to spend the check of life in worthless pursuits our condition is no better than that of the boy of our story. He threw away a check for ten lakh rupees after eating a few pieces of khaman.

We should understand the significance of life. We can apply our lives in a proper way only if we understand the significance of life. There is a person on his way somewhere. He sees two events at the same time before his eye. In one, he sees a child fall off his cycle. At the same instant, in another event, he sees that a truck is coming from the opposite direction while a person appearing to be lame is crossing the road. The truck is approaching at great speed. He sees that in a minute the truck will overrun this lame person. On the other hand, there is this boy too who has  fallen off his cycle. Which way is this onlooker to turn? Your intelligent response may well be that he should turn towards helping the lame man. There are two situations here. The onlooker considered both. The question before him was of significance – what is more important? To what work and for what purpose should the present moment be given? He looked towards the boy and thought that at most he would get injured but still be able to rise again on his own, if not immediately then after a while. On the other hand, if he missed immediately going to the help of the lame man the truck would certainly crush him. So he chose to rush o the aid of the lame person and pushed him away from the path of the onrushing truck. Why the choice? The boy on the cycle no doubt needed help, but the lame person was in greater and more dire need.

So too do we have to consider how we spend our time, to what cause we apply it. We should be spending our time on work of significance. If we consider the work of Dadaji and Guruji to be important, of significance, there would be s many big and small karmas that would not even cross our minds. Secondly, let us learn to speak plainly, not hesitate, consider the work of spiritual and cultural revival to be of importance and experience pride in doing it. Reduce your own karmas to make room for Dadaji’s work.

Who is friend and who is foe? One who assists you on the path of spiritual progress is your friend; one who assists you on the path of spiritual downfall is your foe. For the most part, foes are more to be seen in the garb of friends.

I will narrate an incident of my pre-sannyas days. I used to be in service at that time and lived with my brother and sister in law. But it was difficult to undertake pranopasana there because mantras and all sorts of sounds used to emerge spontaneously during sadhana. Further, my diet also was very limited. So I restrained myself. I made alternative arrangements and hired a separate premise and placed a board outside indicating my hours of availability from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. I was no doctor or lawyer. Still, I did place a board outside my room indicating the hours when I was available. Many friends and relatives used to come and knock on my door even after the board had been put up. There was a Brahmin sister living there who used to tie a rakhi on my hand. Many sisters used to do so. She used to tell the visitors that I was in sadhana and was unavailable at that time. The visitors used to continue trying to meet me but that Brahmin sister would not permit them to come upstairs for that purpose. She was adamant even if my elder brother or a close friend called. I used to say my best friend is God and while I am engaged in a  meeting with him all other meetings must wait. So, if you understand what is important and what is not you would know where to allocate your time. My rule was nine to three for the world, all the rest for God.  At three I would disconnect from the world and reconnect only at nine the next morning.           

The work of cultural revival is just as important as sadhana. You will relish it if you will undertake it considering it to be sadhana.

There was a bird. One of its wings had got severed but the other was very strong and capable. If that bird wanted to fly, could it do so? No, it will not be able to fly even though the will is there and one wing is strong and able.  It takes both wings to fly, even if they are a little weak. Just as it is important for both wings to be fit and active for the ability to fly it is also important that both sadhana and seva have a place in life for a life to have been well spent. Both must go together. I believe that seva would have to be accorded pride of place as being more important of the two. One who has sadhana but lacks simplicity, understanding and good qualities becomes evil.    One who accords sadhana first priority, but lacks simplicity, understanding and good qualities is likely to misdirect the powers gained through sadhana.