Posted on: 04 Feb 2005
[On one hand the scriptures preach about prayers by words and on the other hand they advise silence (Mounam). On the one hand the scriptures preach devotion, which is mental expression and on the other hand they preach the control of the mind without any expression. How can one correlate these opposite concepts in the spiritual effort?]
In the first stage, a servant is sitting and singing songs in praise of the owner without doing any work. He is asking for remuneration for his song from the owner. The owner refuses to pay the remuneration because the singer has already got happiness by singing and that happiness itself is the remuneration for the song. One cannot get two remunerations for a single job even if you treat the singing as a job. In the second stage, the servant is doing work and is also singing. The owner will pay only for his work and not for the song. The servant is singing while he is doing the work in order to get happiness to forget his tiredness from the work. Therefore, here also only the work is remunerated and not the song. In the third stage, the servant is advised to stop singing because his energy is wasted in the song. If he works without singing, all his energy can be concentrated in the work and the servant will get more remuneration. In this third stage it is only an advice and the servant is not blamed for singing. Singing is not wrong at all. But singing has no remuneration.
Similarly in the first stage people pray and express devotion without proving their love in action. In this stage, the people get peace and bliss by the prayers and the expression of devotion. They cannot charge the Lord again for their prayers and devotion [They cannot expect the Lord to give them something in return for their prayers]. In the second stage, people participate in the mission of the Lord by sacrificing their work and the fruit of the work. While working for the Lord, they pray and sing devotional songs, which give them peace and happiness. Their prayers and songs are not wrong at all. But they will get the fruit from the Lord only for their work and not for their prayers (words) or devotion (mind). In the third stage, they are advised to stop the prayers and expression of devotion by practicing silence and control of the mind. The reason for this is that they can save their energy, which is wasted in prayers, and devotion and which cannot bring any fruit from the Lord. The energy wasted in these two channels can be diverted to the work alone and more work can be done so that they can get a better fruit from the Lord. Of course, they should not expect any fruit for their work. Then only will the Lord be pleased and give the real fruit. But if they concentrate all their energy only in the work, they can get a better real fruit from the Lord even though they do not aspire for any fruit.
Please note that we are not finding fault with the prayers and devotion. We are only saying that you are wasting your energy in those two channels, which cannot bring any fruit from the Lord. If you control those two channels, better fruit is given to you. If you need relaxation by prayers and devotion, you will be in the second stage. Thus, there is no contradiction, because in the third stage it is only an advice in the light of Yoga. Yoga means concentration of the entire energy in one channel that is useful. The root word of Yoga is ‘Yuj’, which means to unite the dissipated streams of energy in various useless channels and concentrate the whole energy as a single stream in the useful channel.
The third stage is the highest stage. Hanuman never uttered prayers and never expressed devotional feelings on the Lord as per the Valmiki Ramayana, which is the only authority [on the description of Hanuman]. Hanuman concentrated all His energy in the work of Lord Rama. Lord Rama also never expressed His love through words or feelings on Hanuman. He too silently gave the highest real fruit to Hanuman, which is the post of the future creator (Brahma). The Veda says “Yato Vacho Nivartante Apraapya Manasaasah”. This means that words and mind cannot touch the Lord and will return back to you. He will never hear your prayers and will never respond to your expression of devotional feelings. The reason is that they are giving you the immediate fruit, which is peace, happiness and satisfaction. It is like a self-employment scheme. Since the fruit is immediate and automatic, the Lord need not pay any attention. But when you work for Him by sacrifice, you do not get peace, happiness and satisfaction. When you offer the sweet to the Lord, you suffer with hunger although you may feel it as happiness. But the Lord is not a sadist. He will pay His attention to you and will give you the real fruit. Therefore in this highest stage, silence and control of the mind are recommended by the Gita (Mounam Atma Vinigrahah). In the second stage, by prayers and devotion, you are as if eating the sweet. Why should the Lord pay attention for that? You are getting enjoyment in eating the sweet, after all. Why should He pay you for the cost of the sweet that you are enjoying yourself? When you give the sweet to Him without aspiring for getting paid its cost, the Lord will be pleased by your sacrifice, which alone can prove your real love for Him and then He will reward you with the real infinite fruit at the appropriate time and place. He will delay in giving the fruit since He wants to see whether or not you have sacrificed the fruit expecting something in return. If you have sacrificed the sweet with a business-like attitude [expecting something in return], you will come out with your real color when He delays in giving you the fruit. The Lord is thus the topmost genius.