68. Intensity alone is enough🔗

There is one more story about the power of intensity. It is a very beautiful story from the life of a saint called Ramdas. Ramdas was a great sadhu who lived in Varanasi a few hundred years ago. He belonged to the suppressed class of society - the so-called ‘low caste’. He wanted to take deeksha (spiritual initiation) and practice spirituality. But the local Guru who was supposed to initiate him said, ‘No, I will not initiate you, because then all the low-class people will want the initiation and will make it impure.’

So Ramdas went to another guru and asked him for deeksha. This guru said, ‘I am not qualified to initiate you, but I will tell you one trick. This Guru goes to the river Ganga every morning before dawn. If you lie down quietly on the riverbank steps before dawn, he will surely step on you by mistake in the dark. Being a pious man, when he steps on you, he will surely call out God’s name - Rama, Rama or Shiva Shiva! Take that as your mantra, and his touch on your head as the initiation!’

So Ramdas went, and the whole thing was executed exactly as planned. But the Guru was not filled with God’s name. To chant God’s name at the moment of crisis, you should be filled with God’s name. So the moment he slipped and saw Ramdas he said, ‘You buffalo! You are here!’

But Ramdas was very sincere. He thought, ‘Whatever word came from my Guru’s lips is my mantra!’ So he took ‘buffalo’ as his mantra! He sat in one corner and started meditating on ‘buffalo’!

The story goes on to say that his intensity and sincerity was so deep, that Shiva appeared in front of him in the form of a huge golden buffalo and blessed him!

How did it happen? One day there was a festival in the local Shiva temple. The deity of Shiva was being brought out of the temple door for the procession. Suddenly, the deity was stuck at the door and not coming out! The priests who are carrying the deity don't know what to do. They can't understand why the deity was not moving past the doors, even though the doors were wide open. Ramdas was sitting outside and watching the whole scene. To him the deity appeared in the form of a huge golden buffalo. He saw that it was stuck in the door because its big horns were coming in the way! So he told the people, 'Just bend the deity, it will come out.' They don't understand what he is saying, but they bend the deity, and it comes out! Then Shiva appeared and gave darshan to all the people. Shiva wanted to show the whole world that he has accepted Ramdas' devotion. Later on he became enlightened, lived in Varanasi and left the body.

See the power of intensity! Understand: you don't have to bother about what technique you are following, who is your master, who is your teacher, whether he is enlightened - nothing is needed. All you need is this one thing: abhyaasa vairaagyaabhyaam tannirodhaha - intense, constant practice.

If you read about the life of the sixty-three main Shaiva saints, the Nayanmars, you will see that it is not that as if have done some great tapas, meditating eighteen hours per day, doing this pranayama, doing that hatha yoga... they have not done all these things. Some of them are such simple people! All they did was just pluck flowers from the garden, make a garland and offer it to Shiva's deity, that's all! Just the intensity of the practice - nothing else was needed! Abhyasa and vairagya, intense practice. Everything else will fall in place. There is a beautiful story of a Shaiva saint called Sakhya Nayanar - the Buddhist Shaiva saint! He was forcibly converted to Buddhism at a young age, but he felt strongly connected to Shiva. As a Buddhist, he could not worship Shiva. What to do? So he kept a Shivalinga in a corner in of his Buddhist monastery. Every morning, he would come to the Shivalinga with a stone. Visualizing the stone to be a flower, he would throw the stone at the Shivalinga. If anybody questioned him, he would say, 'I am throwing a stone at Shiva because we should not worship these deities!' And the story says, just by throwing stones, this saint pleased Shiva and Shiva appeared and gave him darshan and enlightenment! Many times, we forget the power of intensity - abhyasa and vairagya. Whatever may be the obstacle you are facing in your spiritual journey, all you need is this one truth. I tell you: with intensity and constant practice, you will be guided to the right master, right teaching, right technique and right enlightenment experience.

ACTIVITY

Today, in whatever you do, remember this: All I need is this one thing - intense, constant practice.