Who Is Very Dear To God ?🔗

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THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

A person who is free from ego, who is free from worry, anxiety and irritation, who has understood the futility of his goals or wealth, is dear to Krishna.

12.14

A person who is established in forgiveness, who maintains equanimity of mind, who trusts Krishna, who is committed to his spiritual awakening, who is satisfied and united with yoga is dear to Krishna.

In all the previous verses, Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna to do this or do that. Now, He is not saying do this or do that. He says, ‘Those who do all these things are very dear to Me. If you don’t do these, that too is okay. However, if you do them, you will be very dear to Me— yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ.’ In other words, it is emotional black mail, not directly but indirectly, but all for a good cause!

‘One who is not envious, but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think of himself as a proprietor, and who is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, with intelligence fixed on Me, such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.’

Krishna says, ‘Who is not envious and a kind friend to every living entity.’ These are important qualities

Let us analyze our minds. When we honestly analyze our mind, we realize that if somebody came to you and told you he loved you, you wouldn’t believe it. The first thing you would do is figure out what he wants from you. You don’t believe you are worthy of being loved. Next, you don’t believe that somebody can honestly love you, because you don’t love anybody honestly. Because you are calculative, you expect the other person also to be calculating. All our love is skin deep and you know how deep skin is! Here, He says, ‘A person who is a kind friend of everyone, who honestly serves, feels the friendliness in everybody and is free from false ego.’ Now we should understand the term ‘false ego, ahaṁkāra’.

At least there is one positive point regarding the superiority complex. With a feeling of superiority, wherever one goes, one gets a big beating from society. But with inferiority complex, society does not attempt to correct you. It is a cunning way of hiding yourself from life.

You will not even know that you have a problem. A person who looks for name and fame, and a person who doesn't want name and fame are both egoistic. If you ask for name, you are egoistic. And if you don't, it shows passive ego. Whereas a person who lets things happen and a person who allows things to flow, lives in reality. Kṛṣṇa makes a comment, 'After all, who is going to know who you are? Why do you think you are a big person and your name is so great and that everybody knows your name? You think you are great, that is why you don't want name and fame. Nobody knows your name, relax.'

A master tells a disciple, 'Please press my feet.' The disciple says, 'Oh, I am a sinner, how can I touch Your feet?' He does not want to do it because he is lazy. So he says, 'I am a great sinner. I am impure. How can I touch Your feet; how can I do that?' Later, a devotee brought fruits and prasād, offerings. The master put a little in his mouth and left the rest. The next day, he saw nothing on the plate. He asked his disciple, 'What happened to the fruits and prasād?' The disciple answered, 'It was guru prasād, offering to the master. I could not let it go for a waste. I finished the whole thing because it was guru prasād.'

Look at the mind, how nicely it handles different situations! Wherever we want, we insert whatever is convenient. The moment you understand the futility of your goal and wealth, that nothing is going to be with you forever, all of these divine qualities radiate through your being.

You will be transformed into a person who is established in forgivingness, who maintains equanimity of mind, who is satisfied and united with yoga. Actually, when you are blissful inside, you radiate these qualities. A man who is totally blissful inside radiates pleasantness for absolutely no reason.

We realize how irrelevant, unproductive and inauthentic worry is. Only how consciously you live, with what consciousness you choose to live remains with you. Only the consciousness of completion remains with you. When you understand the importance of your state of being, you automatically start radiating pleasantness and joy.

One more thing you should know is that imagination and visualization are two different things. Imagination translates into kalpanā in Saṃskṛit, while visualization translates into bhāvanā. Bhāvanā is different from kalpanā. Kalpanā means imagining things that are not there. For example, if you think of an elephant with ten trunks, that is imagination, kalpanā, that which is not there. But bhāvanā means visualizing that which is present but maybe eluding you.

'Such a devotee of mine is very dear to Me, yo mad-bhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ.' Kṛṣṇa says that if somebody lives in this manner, that devotee is close to Him. He doesn't say 'Do or don't do.' He does not want to make more rules. He is tired of making rules. He has reached a point where his attitude is, 'If you can, do it, otherwise, what can be done?' He is in a relaxed mood.

I think this happens to all masters. After some time they say, 'Alright, do whatever you want, what can be done?' They can guide or show you only to a certain extent. Beyond that if masters persist, people start thinking that the masters have some vested interest in making people enlightened.

KNOW ABOUT DEATH?

Masters just share to enrich with what they have, out of completion, joy and bliss. You are not ready to trust the Master. You keep resisting Him.

When the Master says drop ‘I and mine,’ people are afraid that the Master may pick them up and take it with him! People are suspicious. That is why Masters sometimes say, ‘This is the right way, but do as you want to do.’‘ One who has fixed his mind and intellect upon me, mayy arpita mano buddhir (12.14),’ says Kṛṣṇa.

It is difficult for the devotee and disciple to have this attitude of surrender to the Master or the Universe. As long as things go the way the person wants, as long as the Master allows the devotee to do what he wishes, the Master is a great master and worthy of celebration. But once the Master turns serious and takes up his responsibility of spiritual surgery on the disciple, he wants to run away.

A Master takes his responsibilities seriously. His major responsibility is surgery; it is the surgery of the cancer of ego. Once the disciple makes a commitment, the Master makes his commitment too. It is dangerous to run away from the operating table. You lose your whole life by running away. You may have to wait many births before you get another chance.

Here, Kṛṣṇa is in the same mood and He says, 'Such a devotee of Mine is dear to Me,' that's all. He is talking about the commitment that the devotee makes to Him. He says, 'One who makes that commitment to Me and fixes his mind and intellect upon Me, he is dear to Me and will be liberated.' So says the great Master of the Universe.

- The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam

❖ What is Ego?

❖ What causes irritation in the inner space?

❖ What is the root cause of worry?

TURMERIC GANESHA

MATERIALS NEEDED:

PROCEDURE Mix turmeric powder with a little water to make a dough. Make a small idol of Ganesha. Decorate your Ganesha as best as you like. Visualize that your Ganesha is alive and interacts with you in your inner space. Have a friendly chat with your Ganesha while you offer light, fragrance, flowers and/or food offerings to him.

INFERENCE Meditating on gods and goddesses is not imagination. It is visualization. Perceiving what is there but what you are unable to see at this moment is visualization. Gods are there. You cannot see them; that is all. You are supposed to fall in tune with them, like tuning your television. Visualization of Gods and Goddesses is tuning yourself to higher truths.

PROCEDURE:

Topic of discussion is “Why do disciples run from the Master when he does surgery on their Ego or inauthenticity?”

Conclusion: We resist the Master when he asks us to drop our sense of “me” (Identity) and “mine” (possession). However, committing to the Master and fixing the mind and intellect upon God is critical for our spiritual growth and expansion.

BOOK XII, VOLUME XI