Practice to Perfection🔗

12.9, 10 If you are not able to fix your mind upon Me, then 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.

Why does Krishna speak about abhyasa yoga? In the last chapter,

Krishna gives Arjuna a glimpse of the Universal Consciousness, viswarupa darshan yoga. However, Arjuna is unable to stay in that state permanently. Arjuna comes out of the experience because of fear or old samskaras, old embedded memories of past desires. He slips from that state of consciousness. Therefore, Krishna speaks about abhyasa yoga, how to establish oneself in that Consciousness. That's why He speaks about abhyasa, which is practice.

‘Oh Arjuna, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulatory principles of bhakti, devotion. In this way, through this abhyasa, you will be established in Me.’

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, digest 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.

Krishna continues and gives more tips for establishing ourselves in that Consciousness and radiating bhakti. Krishna 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. Krishna gives us various options and instructions. The first thing He says is, ‘Oh Dhananjaya, fix your mind upon Me. With constant practice, try to attain Me. If you are not able to practice, then perform actions for Me.’

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had advised a lady to meditate upon the form of Goddess Kali. She said that however much she tried she was unable to meditate on Kali. She tried time and again and she was always distracted. She came to Ramakrishna upset that she could make no spiritual progress.

Ramakrishna 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, Ramakrishna 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 Kali!

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.’

Discipline and constant practice are essential for perfection in any endeavor. We are willing to accept this for material goals and undergo difficulty to achieve health and wealth, but not for spirituality. We usually think two things about spiritual experiences. First, that it isn't possible for us; that it is only for some rare saints in some far off cave in the Himalayas. Second, if at all we realize it is possible for us, we wonder how it can really be useful in our life. And supposing we feel that it can be of some small help, we conclude to let it happen naturally over the course of time; there's no need to bother about it now. No!

We now have God's word to tell us that it is not so.

Krishna refers to controlling the mind through constant practice of meditation, dhyana, 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 incessant and obsessive focus upon the Divine. Meditation is a way of life.

Since He knows that we may not be able to lose ourselves in devotion to Him, He offers this as an alternative. 'If the mind cannot be focused on Me,' says the Lord, 'try this. Practice again and again uniting with Me through meditation.' When neither seems possible, Krishna offers one more way. 'Do whatever you must. Do your duty as you need to and are able to. But then, surrender what you do to Me. Do what you do for My sake.' By performing whatever we do with total faith in Him, and with a deep feeling of surrender to Him, we reach Him.

Krishna implies two things through His statement. First, the results of whatever is done with an attitude of

surrender to Him, belong to Him. Our responsibility is to do, and to do it well. We have the right to 'doer-ship' not 'owner-ship'. The Lord is the owner of the fruits of actions that we perform on His behalf.

When we learn to do this, we automatically imbibe the concept of non-attachment to the end result. What happens is in His hands, not ours. 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. Whatever happens is right and for the common good. If we travel with this awareness, whatever path we take is the right path. Whatever destination we reach through this right path is the right destination.

The Tamil epic, Periapuranam, describes in detail the lives of sixty-three great saints, all enlightened Masters. If one studies their lives, one finds that many of them did nothing great. They went about their daily chores like many of us do, but they worshipped the Divine with a fierce awareness. If they picked flowers for the deity, they did so with single-minded focus and devotion. Noting else mattered. When they prayed or sang, their mind, heart and being were immersed in the delight that they experienced. Their very bodies felt the form of the formless. Idols of stone and metal spoke to them. Such was their awareness.

When we offer prayers, our worship turns into a chore, work. In the case of these Masters, their work became worship. If you watch people who spend time in rituals, you find that they are in a hurry to finish and move on. Move on to where? Where can they go away from the Divine?

The worst culprits can be found in places of worship. For them, worship becomes a commercial operation. God is for sale and they are the merchants. The amount one deposits in the collection box determines the attention one gets. The kingdom of heaven comes in economy, business, and first class rates. If you search well, you can also get discount fares to heaven.

People on the island of Bali follow the Hindu faith as well as the caste system. However, in their system the priest is not a priest by birth, but by his qualification. A priest need not be born a brahmin to qualify. On this island, worship is a way of life. Everyday men and women offer flowers and food to deities whom they house inside small home shrines, at the sea and at the communal temples. Religion and spirituality is part of their life.

When worship becomes a way of life, when spirituality becomes a part of daily life, there is an attitude of surrender to the Divine. One feels intuitively that whatever happens will be for common good, and whatever happens for the common good is good for oneself. It does not matter if our neighbor has more than what we have. In fact, we rejoice that the neighbor has more than what we have. We no longer have expectations. We have no expectations of what we hope to get. When surrender happens, there is no end-point that

one strives for. Wherever the path leads is the right destination. With focus only on the path and not on the goal, expectations of what may happen drop. Whatever happens is good. This non-attachment and lack of expectations is the hallmark of a karma yogi, one who has surrendered his actions to the Divine.

Krishna implies one more thing. He wants us to do His service. He wants us to work on His mission. He says, ‘Engage yourself in activities on My behalf, and you will attain Me.’

I tell people, ‘Do not worry about whether I am here physically with you or not. Do not feel unhappy when I leave for another location. If you chase Me, you will never be one with Me. Work on My mission. In whatever way you can, work on activities that benefit humanity. Work on My behalf. Then, instead of you chasing Me, I shall chase you. I shall always be with you.’ Working on the mission of the Divine is a sure guarantee to reach Divinity.

Q: If one dies on Maha Shivaratri or any other auspicious day, does the soul have direct entry into heaven?

I think I have already answered this question. Dying at an auspicious time such as Shivaratri or during a period such as Dakshinayanam, Uttarayanam (Sun moving South or North) and all these things, are psychological beliefs. When Krishna says uttarayanam, He means ‘when your energy moves upwards'. That is what uttarayanam is. When you are totally at ease with yourself, it is uttarayanam. It has no reference to the Sun moving North.

The idea of a fast pass into heaven is psychological and there is no such thing. Places like Disney World offer a discount on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because they do not get too much of a crowd. So on some days they have special offers and discounts. There is no special offer or discount in heaven. It depends purely on the quality of your life.

There is no heaven except in religious dictionaries. Heaven is not a geographical space. It is a space in your mind. If you reach awareness, you will be in bliss and you will be in heaven.

The word Shiva means auspiciousness that occurs spontaneously. It is uncaused, naturally occurring divine auspiciousness. Ratri also means intensity, and not just 'night' as we normally understand it. Shivaratri or Maha Shivaratri is the time when this uncaused auspiciousness is at its peak. The Divine will answer sincere prayers offered with deep awareness, be they for the good of the Universe.

Certain planetary configurations make some days especially conducive to meditation and identification with the Divine. That does not mean prayers will not be answered on other days or that anything that you intend casually on such a special occasion will automatically be fulfilled. In my hometown Tiruvannamalai, there is a festival at the temple every month of the year. This was

a method that our ancients developed to keep awareness of the Divine within us all the time.

There is a beautiful story of an enlightened Master. This Master was lying down in a temple with his feet pointed towards the altar, the deity. The priest was annoyed and shouted, telling him to shift his feet away from God. The Master replied weakly that he was too tired and asked the priest to turn his body around to whichever direction in which God was not present. The priest roughly pulled him up by his feet and turned him around. To his amazement wherever he dropped the Master's feet, a shivalinga (Shiva's form) appeared. The priest fell at the Master's feet and apologized for his lack of awareness.

God is everywhere all the time. There is no night and no place in which He is not present. His presence is not the problem. Your presence is the problem. Can you bring your mind to the present, to be present? So, do not worry about shivaratri and vaikunta ekadasi and such things. As far as the Divine is concerned, everyday is shivaratri and vaikunta ekadasi, as long as you are present!