Practice To Perfection
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THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM
अथ चित्तं समाधातुं न शक्नोषि मयि स्थिरम् । स्थिरम्
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय
॥ १२=९॥
atha cittaṁ samādhātuṁ na śaknoṣi
mayi sthiram I abhyāsayogena tato
mām icchāptuṁ dhanañjaya
If you are not able to fix your mind
upon Me then Arjuna, with the
constant practice of Yoga, you try
to attain Me.
POWERFUL COGNITION
Complete with the mind through constant practice of meditation.
अभ्यासेऽप्यसमर्थोऽसि मत्कर्मपरमो भव ।
मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन्सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि ॥ १२=१०॥
abhyāse’pyasamartho’si
matkarmaparamo bhava |
madarthamapi karmāṇi kurvan-
siddhim avāpsyasi
If you are not able to practice even
this yoga then performing your
duties and surrendering all your
actions to Me, you will attain
perfection.
POWERFUL COGNITION
Do your duty as you need to and are able to. But then, surrender what you do to Me. By performing whatever you do with total faith in Krishnan, and with a deep feeling of surrender to Him, we reach Him.
INTRODUCTION
If you are not able to fix your mind upon Me, then O Dhanañjaya (Arjuna), with the constant practice of yoga you try to attain Me. If you are not able to practice even this yoga, then performing your duties and surrendering all your actions to Me, you will attain perfection. Here Kṛṣṇa talks about Abhyāsa Yoga. What is Abhyāsa Yoga? Abhyāsa Yoga is the practice or method of yoga of holding the mind constantly in a state of union with Divinity. It is the state of complete immersion in the consciousness of Kṛṣṇa. Why does Kṛṣṇa speak about Abhyāsa Yoga? In the last chapter, Kṛṣṇa gives Arjuna a glimpse of the universal consciousness, Viśvarūpa darśan. However, Arjuna is unable to stay in that state permanently.
Arjuna comes out of the experience
because of fear or old saṁskāras, root
thought patterns of past desires. He
slips from that state of consciousness.
Therefore, Kṛṣṇa speaks about
Abhyāsa Yoga, how to establish
oneself in that consciousness. That's
why He speaks about abhyāsa, which
means practice. He gives a solid path,
or a solid solution to take care of our
whole life, to establish ourselves in
that consciousness. Continuously,
again and again, in our daily life, let
us receive these ideas, intranalyze
these ideas in our consciousness and
let our inner space be filled with these
ideas. Let us not waste a few
moments.
Let our whole inner space be filled with these great thoughts. That is the way to establish us in that super consciousness. Kṛṣṇa continues to give more tips for establishing ourselves in that consciousness and radiating devotion. Kṛṣṇa instructs continuously over the next four verses. He gives various options, step-by-step.
He says: If we can't do this, do that. If we can't do that, do this. The first thing He says is, 'Oh Dhanañjaya (winner of wealth), fix your mind upon Me. With constant practice, try to attain Me. If you are not able to practice, then perform actions for Me. In this way, develop the desire to attain Me. '
Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahamsa had advised
a lady to meditate upon the form of
goddess Kālī. She said that however
much she tried she was unable to
meditate on Kālī; she was always
distracted. She came back to
Rāmakṛṣṇa upset that she could make
no spiritual progress. Rāmakṛṣṇa
enquired whether the lady’s attention
was diverted to someone or something
else. The lady confessed that she was
thinking of a young nephew, a child,
whom she was fond of. Immediately,
Rāmakṛṣṇa advised her, ‘Focus your
attention on this child whom you
love. Meditate upon him.’ The lady
came back after a few weeks satisfied.
Having started her meditation upon
the child whom she loved, she could
meditate. And once she could
meditate, she could transfer her focus
to goddess Kālī!
The mind can be trained. What is important is concentration. Once we learn to focus our attention completely on something, single-pointedly, we can train the mind to be like a laser beam.
That laser beam can then be transferred to any object with equal facility and success. Vivekananda has said, ‘Once you learn all that there is to be known about a handful of clay by focusing your complete attention on it, you will know about all the clay everywhere in the world.’ Kṛṣṇa refers to completing with the mind through constant practice of meditation, which is part of the yogic path. Meditation is not about sitting down with eyes closed for half an hour every day or every other day or when we get time. Meditation is an incessant and obsessive focus upon the Divine. Meditation is a way of life.
GOALS:
Impress upon the
students that when we
then start focusing on
the path, not the goal,
we focus on the
process, not the
product. And when we
do this, our
performance gets better
because we no longer
are stressed by what the
end result might be. We
are no longer worried
since the outcome is in
safe hands.
ASSESSMENTS
- What is Abhyāsa Yoga?
- What is Meditation?
- What is the best attitude to have towards one's work and its result? Who is a Karma Yogi?
- What is the best service one can offer to the Master?
ART OF THE DAY
ART OF THE DAY:
WATER PAINT
MATERIALS NEEDED
- Straw
- Water colour Paper
- Cups
- Tissue papers
PROCEDURE
Mix liquid watercolors in individual cups with water. Dip the tip of the straw in any one of the liquid watercolor cups. Then place the straw tip over a sheet of paper, so that a drop of water colour falls on the paper. Now blow the straw to move the paint around. Wash the paint of the tip of the straw by dipping in a cup of water and wiping with a tissue paper. Now repeat this process with different colors.
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
PROCEDURE:
Let’s play “Beat the Minute”. It's a fast paced, race to think and name things in a given category in One Minute. One person will have to take on the role of timekeeper and scorekeeper. The timekeeper will set the stopwatch to show a 1 minute countdown. The class coordinator shall name for each participant, one item that belongs to a distinct category of items. And the participant will have to name as many items as he/she can think of belonging to the given category before the minute runs out. The number of items named will have to be counted by the score keeper. The participant naming the highest number of items in any given category will win. Better think fast, so you can Beat the Minute!
ACTIVITY OF THE DAY:
INFERENCE:
The mind can be trained. What is
important is concentration. Once
we learn to focus our attention
completely on something, single-
pointedly, we can train the mind
to be like a laser beam. That laser
beam can then be transferred to
any object with equal facility and
success.
Let the streams of colours flow in
whichever direction they choose.
You just focus on just repeating
the process and do not worry at
all about the end product. You
can never go wrong with blow
painting!
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY
WORKSHOP OF THE DAY:
VAAKYARTHA SADHAS
Topic of discussion is
"Right of doership versus the Right of
ownership within the concept of non-
attachment to the end result.
Conclusion: This non-attachment and lack of expectations is the hallmark of a karma yogi. Working on the mission of the Divine is a sure guarantee to reach Divinity.
- BHAGAVAD GITA -
BOOK XII, VOLUME VIII