Deivathin Kural Series - 114

Om Namah Sivaya.
Deivathin Kural # 114 of 08 of Dec 2006.
1. To-day's title is 'Bakthi', that is, 'Devotion', occuring in pages 513 to 516, in Volume 1 of Deivathin Kural, Tamil version, published by Vanady Padippagam, Chennai.
2. One super-intelligence is exhibited as so many life forms. If you can set aside the appearances, the reality will be the only residue. At that stage, there will be no more actions. When the one reality, is seen as the Universe and the World and so many life forms, a variety of jobs or actions to be taken, evolve. When the Time and Space conundrum is surpassed, the knower, knowing and known; become one and the same. That is self realization. That is undifferentiated state of the Soul or Self. That is the Jeeva's true, real, state.
3. Not knowing this true state, we are believing the unreal world and life-forms, as real. The reason for this is called Mayai or Maya. It is the power of Maya, that the One Brhmam is seen, as so many. The Maya Universe is run in a most cogent and orderly fashion, under an inter-dependent set of stupendous rules and regulations of Nature. The actionless Brhmam, when seen in Maya as the Universe, entails the actions of Creation, Maintenance and Destruction. What is actionless, formless, attributeless, Brhmam; is the dynamic, Easwara with form and attributes. It is this Easwara, that is known severally as Bhagawan, God, Deivam, Swami and Saguna Brhmam.
4. Our nature is to keep on doing some work or the other, all of the time. Even when we are doing no work with our body, even when we are not speaking, that is doing work by using the mouth; our mind is forever thinking of something or the other. This is also work only. When we bring this mind to a stand still, and become thoughtless; then and then only, we can experience our oneness with Brhmam. But this mind is incapable of keeping quiet! How to train it to stop thinking?
5. To train this mind to become thoughtless, the way is through Bakthi or Devotion. The actionless Brhmam can be experienced only by a thoughtless, that is actionless, Mind! When this is found to be well nigh impossible, change the Tactics! Concentrate your mind on the dynamic, actionful, attributeful, Brhmam, ie.,Easwara or Saguna Brhmam. All the time think only of God, that is Easwara. Turn all your actions God oriented. By your body, do Namaskar and Pooja. By your speech, chant the Slokas and Mantras and do Bajan. By your mind, think of God and meditate. He will approve of all your actions and take you to the 'actionless Brhmam.' This ceaseless thinking of God, is Bakthi or Devotion. Think of God with Love, that is Bakthi or Devotion.
6. All the dichotomy of life, of good and bad, happiness and sadness, positive and negative, and so on; have all come from the oneness of God only! When this individual loses his separateness, all the differenciation of good and bad, beauty and beast, desire and hate; comes to an end; and integration takes place.
7. But now, in the condition that we are presently in, we can not understand this oneness and integration. In this stage, we should think of Easwara as an embodiment of everything great, beautiful, mighty, ennobling, and compassionate qualities. We cannot just think of, let alone comprehend, the attributeless, colourless, formless Brhmam. Like the white light of the Sun, passing through a prism gets refracted in to multi coloured spectrum of Violet, Indigo, Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red; the Nirguna Brhmam becomes the Saguna Easwara, through the prism of Maya, and displays all the multivarious colours and qualities and attributes.
We cannot concentrate on the Nirguna. We can think of the Brhmam with qualities. While doing so, if we pay attention the the bad qualities, that will be reason for our continued immersion in Maya. Instead, if we can give our sole attention to the redeeming and ennobling qualities of Easwara, some of those qualities will rub-off on us too.
8. Whatever, the mind concentrates on and pays attention to ceaselessly, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, it becomes that. This is acceptable to modern psychologists too. As we keep thinking of God as a repository of all noble, salubrious and beneficient qualities, our own bad qualities take leave. We become full of Love and Compassion, ourself. We become incapable of hurting anyone. Sinful ways steer clear of such people. So, Bakthi is the best method of overcoming sinful habits. Not only that, devotion is the route to realise our true nature. For the mind to be stilled without a semblance of any thought, and for the powerful inner light to engulf us in brilliant, 'Atma Jyoti', dirt and dust of the mind has to go. Bakthi is the way!
Sambhomahadeva.