Gratitude Is Flowering From Form To Formless

We relate and we worship through the idol; not the idol, understand. When you see the deity the idol is not remembered. If you remember the idol, the deity is not remembered. When you see a stone elephant, you will not see the material. If you see it as a material, you can't see it as elephant. An artist will see it as an elephant, but will not see it as a material.

If there is a wooden elephant, a elephant carved on the wood, a person who is involved with the wood business, if he sees it, he will say 'oh sandalwood, wonderful wood, high cost, this must be the cost.' He will be talking about the wood, but he can never see the elephant. If an artist, if he sees it, he will say 'oh beautiful sculpture, beautiful carving, elephant, amazing.' He will not see the wood.

So the moment you see the wood, you will not see elephant. The moment you see the elephant, you will not see the wood. It cannot happen at the same moment. It can happen only in the next, next moments. Even if you see wood-elephant-elephantwood one moment you can see only as elephant, only in the next moment you can see it as wood, the next moment you can see it as an elephant.

When you see this as God you will not see it as the world. When you see this as the world, you will not see it as God. If you see this whole cosmos as the world giving you fear and greed, you cannot see this as God. If you see this whole thing as God, you can't see this as the world; there won't be any fear and greed.

The whole thing happened in Ramakrishna's life; just an ordinary deity, statue, he started seeing it as God. He was never able to see it as a stone or a statue. And it might have started in a very raw level, but slowly, slowly, slowly, just because of his very intensity, the whole thing became alive and led him to ultimate enlightenment.

In the villages of Bharat they burn the dead bodies using a big stick to turn the bodies. Once the whole body is burnt, they will throw the stick also in the same fire and that will also get burnt. Same way the Master's form or God's form is used to burn the attachment with all other forms.

When all the other attachments to the form is dropped, this form is intelligent enough to disappear by itself or to guide you beyond the formlessness. The Master's form or the God's form is intelligent enough to lead you to beyond all the forms, and to lead you to the very form itself.

This is the moment of ultimate gratitude. The Master's or God's form has liberated you from everything and liberates you from himself also. Then suddenly you will see that His form will not be there anymore in your inner space; but you know He is there, He is there, He is there, intensely present, intensely present.

As long as you feel connected with the form, sometimes you will see that He is present, and sometimes you will see He is absent. You will struggle to feel connected; maintaining that feeling connection continuously. You will struggle to feel the connection continuously.

When you are able to feel connected to Him beyond His form, you are liberated even from that form, you will suddenly see His presence is there intensely, continuously and guiding you and radiating.

Question: What is the reason we do puja at the Gurus feet? Why do people want to touch the Gurus feet?

Swamiji answers: It's an ancient tradition in the Vedic tradition. When you are showered so much by the Guru with His knowledge, experience, love, blessings, and everything. When He showers you, out of overflowing gratitude, you don't know what to do, so you offer whatever you have at His feet. That is the way the tradition of Guru puja started in the Vedic tradition. This is the oldest ritual.

Understand, the oldest and sacred ritual is Guru puja. The moment the first disciple was initiated; Parvathi-Adi Shakthi is the first disciple. The moment she was initiated with the experience of Shiva, in that extraordinary gratitude she fell at Shiva's feet, and offered whatever she had at His feet. So the first ritual of Guru puja started

Because of the overflowing gratitude you pour yourself at the feet of the Master. And the same way touching the Guru's feet is also the feeling of offering yourself at His feet. There is no logical reason for why Guru puja is done, why people touch the Guru's feet. It is an emotional feeling connection. For some people it looks like why should I do it? For some people it is life; they can't live without it.

Understand, it is the individual's emotion. I also wanted to tell you one more thing. Do all this only if you feel intensely connected to it; not otherwise. It should not be done as a ritual. See, as far as yoga is concerned, whether you want it or not, it has to be done, because you are working on the body. But when the Guru puja comes, it is in your mind. Your mind itself should feel it. Out of ecstasy and joy, you should be pouring it.

So there is no logical reason for – 'what is the reason we do puja at Guru's feet? Why do people want to touch the Guru's feet?' There is no logical reason. Just, that's the way it is; that's all. That is the way it is.

Gratitude is Prayer. Generally our religious life starts in prayer and ends in gratitude. Prayer has got different dimensions. It gets matured as you get matured. Prayer is the bridge towards your higher Consciousness. Prayer is the bridge to take you beyond the sufferings of the planet earth. Prayer is the technique, is the method to lead you to the Super Consciousness state. Let us understand the various dimensions of prayer step by step. Prayer has many different forms. Nothing is higher, nothing is lower. Whatever way you can start, you can start. But naturally you will be growing towards the higher level of consciousness.

First thing prayer starts in the physical level – going to the temple, praying to God, praying to the moorthis of Gods and Goddesses and doing some puja, doing some havan. The first level of prayer is the physical thing. Prayer should be started in a physical way. First prayer starts in the level of physical worship.

Then next it goes to the level of verbal worship - you chant the stotras, you chant the mantras, you do the naama japa - chanting by words, you worship the Divine, you pray. Now you come to a little higher level. First puja then japa - stotra and repetition of mantra. All these things are verbal prayer.

Verbal prayer plays a major role in keeping the mind in higher form, in the higher level - remembrance of some sacred syllable - continuous repetition with awareness. That is an important thing; without awareness repeating will become an unconscious habit. Please don't do that.

The more your mind is filled with some sacred syllable, sacred words the more your inner chattering will be cleansed. Your inner chattering has almost become like junk. So much unnecessary things you throw into it. So much suppression, so much anger and violence you suppress inside your being. Where will all that go? It will go and disturb your inner chattering.

Your inner chattering is made out of the stuff that you suppress inside. If you suppress too much of violence, if you suppress too much of sex, if you suppress too much of anger, those things only will come out in your inner chattering unconsciously.

All your inner chattering is made of the same stuff that you suppress inside. What you put inside, that only will come out. If you put mantras inside, the sacred syllables inside, the Divine words inside, the stotras inside, good words inside, you will see you are radiating the same beautiful words, the same beautiful feeling, the same beautiful bliss. The more you chant the right words; less you will be chanting the wrong words.