Wednesday, February 11, 2009

THE LORD AND HIS DEVOTEES

A landlord may be very rich, but when a poor tenant brings a humble present to him with a loving heart, he accepts it with the greatest pleasure. So the Almighty Lord, though so great and powerful, accepts the humble offerings of a sincere heart with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction.

I am content if I have realised Him. What if I do not know Sanskrit. He bestows His mercy equally on all His children who yearn to know Him, be they learned or ignorant. Suppose a father has five chidren. Some of them can call him Papa ; others can perhaps say only ' Ba or ' Pa' and cannot pronounce the whole word. But will the father love the latter less than the former ? He knows that they are mere infants and cannot correctly call him father. The father indeed loves them all in an equal measure.

It is the nature of a child to soil itself with dirt and mud, but the mother does not allow it to remain dirty always. She washes it from time to time. Similarly it is in the nature of man to' commit sin ; but if man is sure to commit sin, doubly sure is that the Lord devises methods for his redemption.

The Lord and Hi a Devotees

As the same fish is dressed into soup, curry, or cutlet, and each man has his own choice dish of it, so the Lord of the universe, though one, manifests Himself differently according to the different likings of His worshippers, and each one of them has his own view of God which he values most. To some He is a kind master or loving father, a sweet smiling mother or a devoted friend, and to others a faithful husband or a dutiful and obliging son.

The fish may be far away, yet when a sweet, savoury and attracts bait is thrown into the water, they hastily rise to it from all quarters. Similarly the Lord approaches quickly the holy devotee whose heart is full of devotion and faith.

The divine sages form, as it were, the inner circle of God s nearest relatives. They are like friends, companions and kinsmen of God. All ordinary persons form the outer circle, they are merely the creatures of God.

Sunlight is one and the same wherever it falls ; but only a bright surface like that of water, or of a mirror or of polished metals, reflects it fully. So is the light Divine. It falls equally and impartially on all hearts but the pure and pious hearts of the good and holy Sadhus alone receive and reflect that light well.

It is the nature of a lamp to give light. With its help some may cook their food, some may forge deeds, and some others may read the sacred scriptures. So some with the help of the Lord's name' try to attain salvation, while others use it for accomplishing their evil purposes. His holy name , however, remains untainted in its purity.

Bhagavan (the Lord), Bhagavata (His word or scripture) and Bhakta (devotee) are all one and the same.

How does a true devotee look upon God ? He looks upon Him as the nearest and dearest relative, just as the shepherd women of Brindavan (Gopis) saw in Sri Krishna not Jagannatha (the Lord of the universe), but their own beloved Gopinatha (the Lord of the Gopis).

Why does the God-lover find such ecstatic delfght in addressing the Deity as Mother ?• Because the child is more free with the mother than with anybody else, and consequently she is dearer to it than anybody else.

A patient in high fever and excessively thirsty imagines that he can drink a sea of water; but when the fever subsides and he regains his normal temperature, he can barely take a single cupful of water and his thirst is easily quenched with even a very small quantity of it. So a man, being under the feverish excitement of Maya and forgetful of his own littleness, imagines that he can receive the whole of the Infinite God within his heart, but when the illusion passes away, a single ray of Divine light becomes sufficient to flood him with the eternal bliss of God.

Some get tipsy with even a small peg of wine, while others require two or three bottles to make them intoxicated. But both feel equally the pleasure of intoxication. Similarly, some devotees become full of ecstasy even by a ray of Divine glory while some others get intoxicated with the Divine bliss only on coming into the direct presence of the Lord. But both are equally fortunate since both are deluged with the bliss of God.

God is like a hill of sugar. A small ant fetches from it a tiny grain of sugar, and a bigger one takes from it another grain considerably larger in size. But in spite of this the. hill practically remains as large as ever. So are the devotees of God. They become ecstatic even with a little of a single Divine attribute. No one can contain within him the realisation of all His glories and excellences.

The breeze that comes from the ocean of Brahman affects every heart on which it blows. The ancient sages Sanaka, Sanatana and others were softened by this breeze. The God-intoxicated Narada obviously got a glimpse of that Divine ocean from a distance : and so forgetting his own self, he had been wandering over the world like a mad man, always singing the praise of Lord Han. Sukadeva, a born ascetic, only touched the water of that ocean thrice with his hand, and ever since he had been rolling about like a child through the fullness of his ecstasy. And the great teacher of the universe, Mahadeva, drank three handfuls of the water thereof, and has since been lying motionless like a corpse, intoxicated with Divine bliss. Who can fathom the depth, or measure the mysterious power, of this ocean ?

The Master said to Keshab Chandra Sen : Why do they, the members of the Brahmo Samaj, dwell so much upon the glories of God's works and say, O Lord, Thou hast made the sun, the moon and the stars ? Many are they that are charmed with the beauty of the garden, its glorious flowers and sweet odours. But few seek the Lord of the garden! Which is the greater of the two—the garden or its Lord ? Verily the garden is unreal as long as death stalks in our midst; but the Lord of the garden is the one reality.

After having taken a few glasses at the bar of a tavern, who cares to inquire how many tons the liquor in the barrels there weigh ? A single bottle suffices for one.

" At the sight of Narendra I get inebriated with joy. Never have I asked him, Who is your father ? ' or How many houses have you got as your own ?

" Men value their own possessions ; they value money, houses, furniture; hence they think that the Lord will view His own works—the sun, the moon, and the stars—just in the same light ! Men think He would be glad if they speak highly of His works."

How sweet is the simplicity of the child! He prefers a doll to all the wealth and riches of the world. So is the faithful devotee. No one else can reject all wealth and honour, and be taken up with God alone.

The truly pious man gives three-fourths of his mind to God; only the remaining one-fourth he gives to the world. He is more alert in matters godly, like the snake which grows furious when its tail is trampled upon, as if its feelings are more located in its tail than anywhere else.

Referring to the Master, a well-known Brahmo missionary once said that the Paramahamsa was a mad man, and that too much cogitation over one and the same subject had unsettled his mind, as it had happened with many European thinkers. The Master afterwards said, addressing this missionary, " You say that even in Europe learned men become mad by continuously thinking of one subject. But is the subject of their thought matter or spirit ? If it is matter, what wonder if a man should become mad by constantly thinking of it. But how can a man lose his intelligence by thinking on that Intelligence whose light enlightens the whole universe? Is this what your scriptures teach you?"

Dive deep into the sea of Divine love. Fear not. It is the sea of Immortality. I once said to Narendra, " God is like a sea of sweetness. Would you not dive deep into the sea ? Suppose, my boy, there is a vessel with a wide mouth containing syrup of sugar, and you are a fly anxious to drink of it. Where would you sit and drink? Narendra replied that he would like to drink from the edge, for if he happened to fall into it, he was sure to be drowned. Thereupon I said to him, ' You forget, my boy, that if you dive deep into the sea Divine, you need not fear danger or death. Remember that the sea of Sachchidananda is the sea of Immortality, having everlasting life for its waters. Be not afraid, like some foolish people, that you may run to excess in your love of

God."

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