SUNDAY MORNING PRAYERS AT THE ASHRAM
SHREE PEETHA NILAYA, 2 DECEMBER 2018

Ik vraag jullie om 10 minuten lang alleen maar ‘Vitthala’ te chanten. Sluit je ogen en chant ‘Vitthala’.

Er ligt eigenlijk een geheim in deze Naam verborgen. Kijk, er is onderzoek naar de Naam ‘Vitthala’ gedaan. Heel vaak worden mensen die lijden aan hartproblemen, door hun arts verboden om intensieve lichamelijke oefeningen te doen. In India, vlak voor of tijdens Kartik, vooral in Maharashtra, lopen de mensen allemaal naar Pandharpur, waar Panduranga is. Ze lopen dus door heel Maharashtra. Dit gebeurt al jaren. En wanneer beginnen ze te lopen? Ze wachten altijd op een teken. Bij de samadhi van de heilige Dnyaneshwar kun je dit op een foto zien. De heilige Dnyaneshwar is een van de belangrijkste heiligen in Maharashtra en gedurende deze tijd wachten de mensen op het teken.

Kijk, op de tempel bevindt zich Kalash, zoals je hier vanbinnen de Moolashtanam kunt zien, de kleine tempel bovenaan, daar is iets als een bloem, niet? Zie je het? Dit is eigenlijk Kalash. Deze Kalashes zitten vast. Ook in Pandharpur zit de Kalash bovenop de tempel vast. Maar op de dag waarop de heilige Dnyaneshwar de zegen geeft, beweegt de Kalash. Je kunt dit op YouTube bekijken. Dit is dus het teken. De Kalash beweegt letterlijk van links naar rechts. Maar normaal gesproken staat hij vast. Hij staat helemaal op de top. Dit is dus het teken dat de mensen ontvangen om de reis naar Pandharpur te beginnen. En gedurende de hele reis chanten ze “Vitthala, Vitthala, Vitthala, Vitthala”. Het is bewezen dat mensen die ziek zijn, deze pelgrimstocht normaal gesproken niet te voet kunnen doen; hij duurt twee weken. Vanaf sommige plaatsen duurt hij wel een maand, maar als ze Pandharpur bereiken, gaat het prima met ze. Er is niets met hen aan de hand. Waarom? Omdat ze ‘Vitthala’ hebben gezongen.

Kijk, de wijzen gaven ‘tha’ als beej-mantra voor het hart. En als je ‘Vitthala’ chant, zit daar het woordje ‘tha’ in. Dus als je de Goddelijke Naam chant, zorg je automatisch voor je lichamelijke gezondheid. Net zo met ‘Radha’. Radha opent je spirituele hart. Dus zelfs als je maar 10 minuten ‘Vitthala’ chant, houdt je dat gezond. Chant nu 10 minuten lang ‘Vitthala’, okay?

‘Vitthala, Vitthala, Vitthala, Vitthala, Vitthala, Vitthala…’

 [Na het chanten] Chant dit dus elke dag, 10 minuten maar; het zal je gezondheid perfect houden, het zal je mind perfect houden. Het zal je toewijding aan de Heer helpen toenemen, omdat je Zijn Naam chant. Zoals Bhagavan Krishna in Hoofdstuk 12 van de Gita uitlegde, toen Arjuna Hem de vraag stelde: “Wie van de devotees heeft Uw voorkeur? Wie is er dichterbij en wie is U het liefste?” Natuurlijk heeft Bhagavan geen voorkeur; Hij verwelkomt iedereen die op wat voor manier dan ook aan Hem toegewijd is. Maar Hij zei: “Degenen wiens mind voortdurend aan Mij overgegeven is, die zijn Mij het liefste”. Dus zie je, op het bhakti pad is het heel eenvoudig om die Genade te bereiken. Natuurlijk bereiken anderen die Genade ook, maar anders. Sommigen doen het op de moeilijke manier, maar anderen kiezen een meer liefdevolle en gemakkelijke manier. Ik geloof dat jullie allemaal van makkelijke dingen houden. Dus daarom heeft Hij Zijn Naam volledig van Zichzelf doordrenkt, en hoe meer we geabsorbeerd worden in onze dienst aan Hem, hoe meer we getransformeerd worden, hoe meer Liefde in ons ontwaakt.

Bhagavan said, ‘Those are dearest to Me whose minds are surrendered to Me through their devotional practice, through constant remembrance of Me’. Bhakti is like this, you see. The more we are serving, the more that service becomes part of our life, the more it grows. It is like when it is raining, what happens to the rivers? Normally the rivers are very little, no? The stream is flowing, the river is flowing, but when it’s constantly raining, the river is flooded. So, this analogy of the river flooding: the more your devotion is towards God, the more you absorb yourself into your devotion towards God, the more you start to flow with His Love. And that flowing, you know, that tremendous stream of Love which you become, when you meet Him that Love finds its place. Very often people think that, ‘Oh, you know, if I’m doing so much, what will happen?’ Have you ever noticed the river when it meets the sea? When the river is flowing towards the ocean, how strong the river is! But when it meets the sea, the river becomes calm because the waves of the sea break the flow of the river. So, automatically the river becomes calm. But that doesn’t affect the flowing from the beginning. Previously at the beginning of it, or in the middle of the river, the river is still flowing the same way, but it becomes calm only when it meets the ocean. Such is bhakti also. Your bhakti must flow, your devotion, your Love must grow, you must be flooded with Love.

Here again I will remind you, Love is not what you understand of love. Because what you understand of love is a limited love. But Love in itself is not limited. If one has found true Love, one will realise that Love is ever-growing. That’s why I take this analogy of a river that is flooded. When one is continuously fully absorbed in devotional service, that Love will transform you into that flooding river of Love until the Lord Himself gives Himself to you. And when the Lord reveals Himself to you, then you enter into His blissful state. So, this is what that Divine Name of the Lord does. It’s not just a random name. His Name holds the eternal bliss in itself. His Name holds this unconditional Love of who He is and He is ready to shower it, to give it to you. But to receive that Love one must be ready. If you are not ready, He doesn’t.

Often I have heard people say, ‘Why I can’t feel Him? Why He doesn’t show Himself to me?’ He IS already inside of you. The essence of who you are is only Him, but you see yourself different, you see yourself as being separate, you know. You don’t see yourself as one. And when you see yourself as separate, then you can’t serve Him. Then in place of thinking of Him, you will constantly think of yourself. Then the ego will rise. We are separate from Him, but our mind should be fully absorbed in Him. So, like that, He reminds us that He is the most caring and most loving and we have to transform ourselves to become like Him, because it’s only Him that lives within us. There is no one else other than Him. And that you realise, when you realise that you are here to serve Him, not to serve only your pride and ego. As long as you think that you are here to serve your pride and your ego, He will never reveal Himself. Even that love itself will be different. Then you will have different understanding of love.

So many people ask me, ‘When will I meet my soulmate? Oh, Guruji, make me find my life partner’, and so on. I am giving you the life partner, I am showing you your soulmate; do you want to hear it? No, no, you don’t want to hear that. Look at all these saints. They have experienced Him for them to be able to express that. Earlier Bhavani was singing, ‘Chinna Chinna…’

So, in my understanding this means He is coming slowly, slowly, no? So, step by step, He reveals Himself, but in a very shy way, not in a very prominent way. He is very shy because He likes to enjoy your relationship to Him. And this is a beauty of love, you know. If He just reveals Himself, and you are not ready, you know very well how the human mind is, you know. The human mind is very greedy and very selfish and very ungrateful above all. The human mind likes to take, take, take and it forgets. So many people I have seen who have received so much Grace, but because it has been easily given due to their karma, it is also easily forgotten. So, Bhagavan is very clever. That’s why He doesn’t reveal Himself. He comes step by step. The more you purify yourself, the more you cleanse yourself, the more the mind comes into the state of surrender. That’s why He said in Chapter 12, ‘Those whose minds are surrendered constantly to Me.’ That’s what He wants. He wants your mind constantly focused upon Him.

But what do we do? We focus our mind on ourselves. Our Self, yes, if you know your Self. But what we think of ourselves is the thing what we have on the outside, no? What we are wearing, how we look on the external side, that’s what we call ourselves. But that’s not who you are. So, that’s why you take just 10 minutes with yourself and your Beloved; not much.

You know, when you are in love you have lots of time to give to your loved one, no? So, how come when you are in love, you have full time for that and when that love diminishes, you don’t have time anymore? You see, it’s not about anybody else. It’s about you. Understand that. If you want to find peace, if you want to really grow spiritually, if you want to grow also materially in anything, it’s about you knowing yourself so that you can give yourself to Him in every moment of your life. If you look for that love or understanding or peace in somebody else, you will not find it. You will find it when you take time with yourself and Him. And that’s not much. Just 10 minutes, sit with Him, forget everything, just chant. Forget your worry, forget your husband, wife, children, everything. That 10 minutes is between you and your Beloved Lord, the soul and Paramatma. You will see that your life will transform, it will get much better. Your worldly things will get much better. So, try it and see.

Jai Gurudev!