23 Jun 2023
[Ms Thrylokya asked:- Swami! can You briefly give the steps of spiritual effort (Saadhana) of a human being to be done in the spiritual path to attain the grace of God along with the precautions in those steps so that a devotee can take it as the resume of spiritual constitution in the Nivrutti path?]
Swami replied:-
i) Jnaana yoga or learning the spiritual knowledge:- This aims in knowing all the details of the divine personality of God so that complete attraction to God results. This knowledge shall be complete so that all the details of God are known. This knowledge must be true so that there is no lie, which may affect the attraction in a negative way. The preacher must be the Sadguru or the human incarnation of God, who is both guide and goal. If you miss the Sadguru, you can study well the past spiritual knowledge given by a past Sadguru like Krishna etc. You can take the help of a guru or a preacher, but you must logically analyze before accepting it. This step belongs to intellect or buddhi.
ii) Development of theoretical devotion on God or Bhakti Yoga:- The attraction said in the above step is the theoretical devotion to God, which is emotion and inspiration based on the above knowledge so that it is never blind. The important care in this step is that this devotion must not become impure by aspiring for some fruit in return from God, be it even in salvation. This devotion must be true love related to the mind and the truth of the love to be proved is practical devotion or the following Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga itself is practice and this cannot be proved by any theoretical step. The above and this step belong to theoretical phase by which you can aspire for theoretical fruits related to intelligence and mind like better knowledge and better way of emotion respectively. Such aspirations are not wrong because a real saint never aspires for practical worldly benefits. But, in the spiritual path also there is place for practical fruit, which is the constant association with God since practical means reality. God Krishna told that theoretical fruits are for theoretical devotion and practical fruits for practical devotion (Ye yathā māṃ…—Gita).
iii) Karma Yoga or practical devotion:- This final step is related to devotion only because it is a test for the true love present in theoretical devotion. It is like the pollution certificate for the vehicle. You cannot say that you need not be tested practically because you are sure to express practical devotion if necessary. Your such capability can be expressed only by this test and if you are capable of such practical devotion, why hesitate in giving this practical test? A saint can sacrifice his physical energy as service (Karma Samnyasa) since he lives on begging only. But, a householder is expected not only to do this, but also do the sacrifice of fruit of work (Karma phala tyaaga). The Veda speaks about the sacrifice of money (which may be from ancestral property also), but money from hard earning is more valuable due to stronger bond (God always competes with strongest bond in testing true love). This also says that every soul must work and earn at least to face the test. In this final step, sacrifice of money is very much stressed by the Veda and the Gita. If the guru is not caring for the misunderstanding of devotees (which is that the guru is stressing this point since He is really aspiring for the offering of money or Guru Dakshina from devotees), such Guru must have been the Sadguru because He is telling the concept stressed in the scriptures and does not care about the negative misunderstanding since He is not in need of anything being the creator of all things in the creation! Shirdi Sai Baba was Sadguru and hence, was directly demanding for the Guru Dakshina.
If one follows these three steps with utmost care about the precautions, one is sure to succeed in the spiritual path. The sequence of these three steps was proved by the sequence of the three divine preachers called Shankara (stressing on knowledge), Ramaanuja (stressing on theoretical devotion called Vedanaa) and Madhva (stressing on service or Seva between master and servant). Simple examples also can prove this sequence. On hearing the details of Mumbai (knowledge), you develop mental attraction (theoretical devotion), you walk upto the railway station (Karma Samnyaasa) and purchase a ticket to sit in the train (Karma Phala Tyaaga). This is the end of your effort. Even Rukmini heard the details of Krishna from Naarada (knowledge), developed attraction to Krishna to marry Him (theoretical devotion), sent a love letter to Krishna through a priest (Karma Samnyasa) and rewarded the priest with a jewel (Karma Phala Tyaaga). Rukmini married Krishna with no worldly desire and remained as servant by pressing His feet always and this shows her pure true love. In this whole subject, the last step is very important because real fruit comes only to it. Karma Yoga is the mango plant in which only mango fruits appear. This does not mean that theory is neglected because theory is the source of practice. Knowledge is like water without which the plant will die. Theoretical devotion is like the fertilizer without which the plant cannot grow into a tree to yield the fruit. Without the mango plant, even 100 tanks of water and 100 bags of fertilizer cannot yield a single mango fruit, but, without water and fertilizer, the mango plant cannot even grow into a tree and no need to speak about its fruit!
God Krishna was the contemporary human incarnation in the time of Arjuna. While preaching the Gita to Arjuna, Krishna mentioned the word ‘I’ in the place of God whenever reference to God came. This means that the ultimate God comes down in human form to the earth so that long penance of devotees can be avoided to see God for clarifying spiritual doubts. You can also serve God directly and can see the enjoyment of your service by God in human form with your own eyes! For these facilities, devotees of climax level pray to God to incarnate on earth in human form in their time. Hence, in the above topic, the concept of contemporary human incarnation of God is very very important. Therefore, in the above topic, you must add the word “contemporary human incarnation” in the place of “God”.
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