A Commentary of Bhakti Sutras
Vol. 8 Awakening The Divinity Within
By H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
At St. Mathicu du Pare Canadian Ashram on July 26th, 2002
Om Namoh Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namoh Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Om Namoh Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Divine should be allowed to permeate in whole of our life, in all our life activities. It sounds little funny to say that we should allow the divine to permeate, but in fact it is true. There is an expression that says, “Wake the divine up”. Man is awake first and then he awakens up the divine for God is sleeping. In each and every one on this planet it is God but the God is sleeping. Rationalist is used to ridicule the ancient concept that the God is sleeping and every morning people go to temples and pray and wake, awaken God. This sounds very ridiculous. Is God has to wake you, or do you have to wake God up?
First a man awakes, the humanness awakes in you first, from the inertia, from dullness, which doesn’t experience anything. The human quality wakes up, then you experience pain and pleasure. The stone does not experience pain and pleasure but the human being does. First the man wakes up, and then he awakens the divinity within him. So man has to awaken up the divinity, kindles the divinity up. And those who have awakened the divinity in themselves and to the core of those men, the God has woken up in them, are called saints. And I tell you, ‘’You are a saint too.” Wake up the God in you, he is sleeping, His sleepy is very fragile, it wakes up very fast. You don’t have to beat drums and going up to the minaret and shout loud. He is not in the heaven somewhere. He is hiding right where you are.
There is a story, when God created men, He felt bad. (laughter) So “I did a mistake” because men will come to Him with all complaints “ Oh, why you did this, why you did that”. So God really got worried and scared, wherever He goes, man follows Him even if God goes to the moon, Armstrong will up be there to catch Him. God was a little worried because everything He does is wrong. Say man complain it’s cold, if it’s cold, says it is cold. If it’s hot, he says it is hot. It’s raining, it is raining. If it doesn’t rain, it is no rain. He could not satisfy men. He created so many things to satisfy men, but still men remain unsatisfied, grumbling, groaning, complaining. And God went to a saint say, “I am in a deep trouble. What do you say? (laughter) They even drag me to court. What do you say? What is your (advice)?” The saint told something to him in his ears, the saint said, “You go and hide in the heart of man, that’s where he never goes. He goes everywhere else but never goes into his heart. God was, the sparkle came in the eyes of God, he is so happy. He just sneaks into the heart of man and sleeping there ever since, having a good nap, (laughter) is resting. If someone reaches the heart, then all the complaints disappear. And one in a few thousand years goes to the heart, by the time they reach, they have no complaint. So God is safe in the heart of human, heart of every being, every living being. Man has to wake the God up. God is asleep. Have you seen the mythological picture of Vishnu sleeping on the bed of a serpent. Serpent is a symbol of alertness, awareness, and God is happily sleeping. The Goddess of wealth is right at his feet. She is there. God wakes up, she’s also with him. Enlightenment is awakening the divinity within you.
The next Sutra says, Mukhyatastu mahatkripyaiva bhagavatkripa leshad va
But prominent among all these methods is the company of the enlightened, company of the saint. And a tiny ray of grace from the divine. The main means for kindling love is to be with one who is in love. To be like a child, you have to be with a child. To be happy, be with a happy person. You want to be miserable and upset, be with someone who is grumbling all the time soon you would become them. You know often disgruntled people form a group, they remain together. A happy person and a disgruntled person cannot sit together, cannot talk together to each other. Because a disgruntled and miserable person want someone to say yes to whatever they are saying. And who can say yes to someone who is disgruntled, another of the same kind. You be with a child, you catch those qualities of a child. You play with them, you become innocent like them. You be with a saint, be with an enlightened and you start becoming like that, in your behavior, in your feelings, in your thinking, in your ... .
Mukhyatastu. Most important of all these ways and methods are the company of saints of the enlightened. The grace of divine Mukhyatastu mahatkripyaiva bhagavatkripa leshad va, a little bit of divine grace comes into your life. One glance of it catches the move. Mahat the word is so beautiful. Mahat is an element like, you know the five elements, earth, water, fire, air, ether, ego, mind, memory...mind, memory, ego. Beyond ego, the element which is existing in the whole creation is called Mahat. Atom - ego is an atom. Beyond the atom that field of the existence is called Mahat. And one who reels that inner space is called Mahatma. You all being Mahatma sometime or other, how much has been stable in you is what you have to look into. They can’t come back to the little mind that grumbling, groaning, complaining... Grace flows from that innermost space that we are. Company of the one who is free will bring freedom to you. If you are in company of rich persons, you won’t starve, you don’t have to worry about the shelter, you don’t have to worry about your transportation. Company of rich will make you rich. Company of happy will make you happy. And company of a free, of one who is free, will bring that freedom. And the company of one who is in divine love will make you shining that love too. Hmm...
Mahatsangastu durlabhagamyo amoghascha
It’s very difficult to get the company of saints. durlabhagamyo Not possible not everybody can get it. gamyo -- you cannot understand the whole mechanics, you cannot understand the depth, the phenomenon. amoghascha it is simply fantastic. amoghascha It cannot be described in the language. I t cannot be described in words. It cannot be captivated in expressions. So deep it is. durlabhagamyo amoghascha -- not everyone can understand.
There is a story. The saint was living outside a kingdom. And slowly people came to know about him, many people started going and they will finding solace and relief. Their desires get fulfilled, their problems get solved, healing would happen, all these would start happening. The news reached the king also. And the king wanted to visit because when he hears something there is a desire to go for it. But before a king would go, he would usually want to check out whether this person is really genuine. You know there are so many people claim to be saints, it becomes another business. Spirituality has not remained just spirituality but it has become a business. Exploitation. So the king wants to be really careful about this, so he sent his commander chief first to check out “You going check out what this man is, what is he doing and all that.” So the commander chief went, when he came, the saint came out of his hermitage, welcomed him, gave him a hug and spoke to him, some knowledge and nice words. The commander chief was happy and satisfied, he asked all the questions. And you know usually the questions.... People ask questions, they don’t wait for answers. Simply ask questions, just to check out, the mind is somewhere else. So the commander chief did that. And he was satisfied. He went back and gave a report, “He seems to be a nice man. Nothing seems to be fishy about it. I inquired everything. I looked around, went around the kutir, saw the people all up. They are very nice people.” He gave a good report.
But the king was not very sure, he wanted to be doubly sured because the commander chief is a little thick-skin, not that sensitive you know. So he sent his minister, “You going check out.“ So the minister came to see the saint, he didn’t come out and greet him, he didn’t do as much as he did for the commander chief. But he just sat there and spoke a few words, did not pay much attention, so the minister also went back satisfied. Because you know usually people get too much attention to minister and try to butter them. What you call - butter them? Uhh......butter them up, so they want to impressed them, trying to get something out of them. So the minister is very weary about it. If someone praises him, he won’t believe it because he’s used to this sort of things. So he is cabinet minister, so he is not buttering him up for he is not praising him, he’s just dealing with him like another normal person. He got satisfied, he went back, gave the king a good report, “This man doesn’t seem to have any agenda because he didn’t try to please me in great manner or anything but he was warm and nice, kind.”
Hearing all these, the king said, “All right, let me go myself.” So the king himself went. When the king went, the saint did not even see him, he turned his back. (laughter) But those few moments the king spent there, he could feel that vibration, that love, that serenity. He didn’t even talk to him. He just looked at him once in a time then turned his back. And that was enough for the king. He was filled with gratitude. The king left. But the disciples the people who were around the saint, they got throughly confused. They said, “What is he doing?” They went and said they cannot understand you. “In fact you should be doing the other way around when the king comes, you should welcome him, you should really talk to him, giving him advice. But you did the reverse.” So the saint said, “ You know a good horse runs by the shadow of a whip.” You don’t need to whip the horse, just look at the shadow of whip it runs. So a sensitive person can feel, can experience the presence. One who is insensitive thick-skin reeling in his mind, just going in the mind, go on doubting questioning.
Mahatsangastu durlabhagamyo amoghascha. Not many could feel Jesus. Jesus was right there, just twelve innocent simpletons could feel and experience Jesus. But the intellectual highly read people had no idea of who he is. It needs certain sensitivity. And that also comes by grace only. It’s nothing you can do about it. That’s why: Labhyate api tatkripyaiva. Only by its grace even that is available. durlabhagamyo amoghascha - indescribable of the company of divine, of the saint, of an enlightened. And once that is God, that’s it, you got it. The ways of saints are very different. Hmm...
Once Mikey has organized a big program for me in Los Angeles. So it was in expo or some whole-life expo, big program, I’m going to speak there. Few hundreds, maybe a thousand a couple of thousand people would come there, some big program. So they made advertisement, posters, arrangement everything all over. And I go there, I’m flying all the way from Montreal I go to Los Angeles, but I did not go to that program. (laughter) So Mikey was one hand he was happy told Guruji has come, and immediately I (Guruji) said I am not coming to the program, I will be here. We will have satsang in the evening. If anybody wants to come, let them come from there. So Mikey went, I said Diyva and you all go to have program and talk and do what you want to do. You know it was very confusing for Mikey, he could not understand “What is this? I did all these arrangement...blah blah...” (laughter) Never mind, you can become so strong that would do the job. You know those who would be coming here, they will come. Three people will come from there. They come to meet me here where I am.
Mind cannot comprehend what comes out of consciousness. Many times your intuitions, you are unable to reason them out. Intuition is beyond reason. And a saint works through intuition, not so much with the reason. That’s why it becomes very difficult sometimes to work with a saint, because logically it works from not reason but from intuition. I know of a saint who asked people to put the chair on that side, little later he came and yelled at the same people, “Why did you put those chairs there? You should have put on this side.” They said, “You only told us...” “Oh, no,no. Put the chair there.” Scold them for no apparent reason. Sometimes those are very insane. This happens in Zen Buddhists, Zen masters used to do this. This training you know, there is a saying in the ashram, Guru said that, “If you get a slap in the ashram, you will never get it anywhere else in the world. If you undergo a punishment here, you will not have it anywhere else. If you’re bearing any hardship here, you will have no hardship in the world anywhere.”, but not that everyone should undergo hardship. But that’s a saying that, so you scold them “Why you put those chairs there”, a person gets confused, cannot understand, we can leave and run away also and you know because something bigger is coming, is on the side, is blossoming somewhere something is happening, beyond comprehension.
Another story - a master and disciple were walking in the forest, and there were few colleague boys in the back who were teasing them. They were walking a few steps behind and they kept teasing them, teasing the boy, the disciple there. But the disciple kept quiet. Then they had to cross the river. All the colleagues got into a boat. And the master and the disciple also got into another boat. And they were crossing the river. So happened the boat in which the colleagues were in turned upside down. When it happened, the master gave one slap on the disciple. The disciple did not react, he didn’t say anything a word, but he got the slap. And he said: “If you have reacted to those guys, you could have saved their boat from capsizing. It’s your fault.” (laughter) Are you getting what I’m saying? If you have reacted, they have been teasing you, you should have teased them back, abused them a little bit then their karma would have been over. Because of your patience, they got a bigger punishment now. You are going to save them, all the four of them, drag them out of it. It’s your fault.” That’s why says: aganmiyo ununderstandable, ganmiyo is that which you can understand, which you can comprehend. But the company of wise, of the free is incomprehensible, ununderstandable. durlabhagamyo amoghascha. Labhyate api tatkripyaiva. Even that is obtained by their own grace, not by your doing something. You cannot just say “See, I serve so much, I did so much charity so it’s my right to have the company of the saint, of the seer, the master.” No, you have done all the good things but that’s not the qualification. (laughter) It is purely the choice of the divine to grant you that. Do not demand that. Do not demand God. “God, I did so much, so many prayers so many things, give me your company.”
Once a nun died and she went to hell. When she was sent to hell, she thought it is a big mistake that man there who is alloting the rooms. (laughter) The housing has done a great mistake. “They’ve done a serious mistake. No, no... I have been praying to God all my life, day and night. So I must be having my room in heaven. You must have exchanged somebody, check up your records.” So they went through the record two three times, the housing list says, ”No, Madam, sorry. Your room is there in hell.” And she said, “No no. I’ll go to God. Take me to the Supreme Court. (laughter) I’ll find it out with god.” She went to God says, “Is it justice? I have been praying for you all my life, and you put me in hell???” So God says, “Yes, so you don’t bother me here also, (laughter) at least you can leave me a peace, you’d better be there.” And she says, “ Look at that taxi driver. You put him in heaven, you put me in hell?” I say, “Yes, that taxi driver when he was driving so rush, people in the car started thinking about me at that time. (laughter) They really pray so sincerely. So I put him here.”
Ways of the divine is unfathomable. If you are so soaked in worries, you become you look like a bundle of worries. You look at a child when he is very happy, he looks like a bubbling ball of joy. A baby, three months old baby or four months old baby, is giggling and smiling. It’s a ball of bliss, bubbling bliss like that when you are so in divine love, in the serenity. When you are full of the divinity, all immersed in it, there is no difference, tasmin tat jane - between Him and His people there is no gap.
Look at someone comes to punish a child, the father says: “No, I take the responsibility. If child did mistake, it is my responsibility. Don’t say anything to my kid.” Won’t you say that? If someone comes and starts blaming or scolding your kid, will you keep quiet? Because the joy of your kid is your joy, the problem of your child is your problem. There is no difference there. Because you are part of him and the child is part of you. Same way the divinity looks at you. tasmin tat jane bhedabhavat. You have ample number of stories about how the Divine always takes care.
Tadev sadhyata tadeva sadhyataam
It’s only that is worth attaining in life. Do not miss opportunities to sit in satsang. Do not miss opportunities to be in good company. Even few moments in life that you gain, those few moments you treasure the memory in you, the very memory, rememberance of such moments can take you across ocean of misery. That much for today.
Sri Radhe Radhe Radhe Sham Govinde Radhe
Sri Radhe Radhe Radhe Sham Govinde Radhe Sri Radhe
Govinde Radhe Radhe Sham Gopale Radhe Radhe Sham
Govinde Radhe Radhe Sham Gopale Radhe Radhe Sham
Sri Radhe Sri Radhe Sri Radhe....
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