How can I become a Sthitaprajna?

[Ms. Geetha Lahari asked:- Paaadanamaskaaram Swami. Swami, You told that both Sthitaprajna and Gopika are two kinds of climax devotees. A Gopika is mad about God and leaves even the worldly duties. But, a Sthitaprajna controls the climax devotion and does both the worldly duties and service to God. Swami, I want to become like a Sthitaprajna. How to control worldly emotions and also devotion towards God? At Your Divine Lotus Feet -Geetha Lahari.]

Swami replied:- You must control worldly emotions but not the devotion to God. In the line of devotion to God, you must control yourself so that you will not lose the mental balance like Gopikas. Here, you are controlling yourself to avoid madness, which does not mean controlling the devotion to God. Having the same devotion of Gopikas towards God, you must do the worldly duties without attaching yourself to the worldly duties. You can attach yourself to God internally and do the worldly duties mechanically without attachment to the world. I gave an example for this concept and that is –––– A person, knowing the driving of bicycle very well, goes on travelling on the bicycle driving it perfectly and while driving, the person will be singing a song and also enjoying the song perfectly. His mechanical action is on driving whereas his mind is completely attached to the song he is singing. This is called Karma Yoga. Yoga means mental attachment to God and Karma means doing the worldly duties with full detachment to the world. When you become perfect in your worldly work by having some experience, this becomes possible.

A spiritual preacher asked his disciple to carry a pot, which is fully filled with oil, on his head and travel around the village without letting even a drop of oil to fall on the ground. The concentration is on the oil pot whereas the legs are moving to cover the distance round the village. This is an example for Karma Yoga. While doing the worldly duties, you can also do the sacrifice of service and sacrifice of fruit of work (both these are called as Karma Yoga or practical devotion) simultaneously to prove the truth of your love to God. The final essence is that you are maintaining theoretical devotion to God that is attained by studying the true and complete spiritual knowledge from the Sadguru and while giving the proof of your theoretical devotion to God through Karma Yoga or practical devotion, you are simultaneously doing the worldly duties also. A Sthitaprajna does:-

1) Worldly duties without any error and without any attachment to the world.

2) Learning spiritual knowledge from Sadguru.

3) Attaining theoretical devotion as a result of learning the spiritual knowledge.

4) Doing sacrifice of service to God to prove the true theoretical devotion and

5) Doing sacrifice of fruit of work to God to prove the true theoretical devotion. All these five characteristics make the soul to be called as Sthitaprajna since he/she (Sthitaprajna) balances all these five activities simultaneously.

In this Kali Yuga, everyone shall try to be a Sthitaprajna and not to be a mad Gopika. In Kali Yuga, the mentalities of humanity are worst and hence, in this age, the spiritual aspirant must be a Sthitaprajna so that one need not depend on others for the livelihood. In the previous ages, the humanity was patronizing the spiritual aspirants because the humanity was good and the spiritual aspirant was also sincere in his/her spiritual efforts. In this Kali age, humanity is bad and some spiritual aspirants are also hypocritic following the spiritual path to earn wealth along with the livelihood!

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