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Articles
Discourse of Sadguru Sri Nannagaru at Sri Nannagaru Ashram
Arunachala, 27th February 2005
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Question: Did desire bring me here, is it prarabdha, or is it your Grace that brought me here?
Answer: Destiny doesn’t have strength. Prarabdha or destiny is 100% related to the body. To the one that is born there is prarabdha and karma. But to the one that is not born (who ever exists) there is neither. What is in our destiny only we ask God to grant. God says, ‘I have granted’, because that is what anyway is in your destiny.
How many people in this hall can say, ‘I don’t want anything apart from moksha.’ If a broomstick in our house is missing when it is time to sweep, if God asks us what we want, we would ask him for a broom tick. The maya in our mind is such that when we get a thought (at whatever time), we feel the thought alone is truth and forget moksha.
Our body is ageing but we are still like children. If Mother sends a child to get oil from the shop, the child stops and forgets about the oil if there is entertainment on the way. Similarly, we have forgotten what we have come here for. Depending on the intake of food, there is body growth but spiritually we are like small children. The other name of Grace is God. God is not without power and Grace. If he was devoid of them then he would be just a dead body, not God.
Always remember, as long as we don’t lose attachment to name and form, no-one in this world can make us happy. Similarly, if we lose the attachment, no one can make us sad. As long as we think so-and-so form is me, we cannot come out of sorrow. To know answers for questions is information and with information we can’t come out of sorrow. Even if you are the president of India, what will you do with it if you are filled with sorrow?
Take insult and praise equally said the Lord in the Bhagavad Gita. When attached to name and form, if anyone praises, you get pleasure and if anyone insults you get pain. He asked us to practice equanimity. So, if you lose attachment, even if someone praises or insults you don’t feel anything. If for any reason you are getting sorrow that means that you don’t have jnana.
The teachings of Maharshis, Yogis and Mahatmas are to bring you out of sorrow. Even to ask for moksha, your mind has to have preparation as you can’t ask for it unless you are fit. Suppose a person is suffering from a headache and God happens to give darshan, he will ask God to relieve him from his headache – this is Maya. God is willing to give anything to the one who has the desire for liberation. But whatsoever God offers, they will reject and ask only for liberation.
We should give happiness to everyone and not sorrow. People are already in sorrow so you shouldn’t additionally give them yours. A jnani also looks at the world, but he is equal to not seeing it because he is not apart from it and so doesn’t see it separate from himself. The one who has a face can get shaved, but for the one who doesn’t have a face, where is the question of shaving?
The effort we make should be without expectation, if there is expectation, we fail. If God comes to you and says, that he will not give you liberation for one million years and you accept wholeheartedly and with humility, because you don’t have expectations he might give it you the very next day. But if you are impatient he will delay. We go round the Hill. We do chanting, puja, meditation and visit holy places and Temples. All these prepare the mind. Like the doctor prepares his patient before an operation or surgery, similarly, all these efforts prepare us for salvation.
It is a problem whether a desire gets fulfilled or not because if it gets fulfilled we become proud and if it doesn’t get satisfied we get depressed. In either case, we will not be normal. All these matters are related to the mind. We have to cross this barrier and unless we overcome nature, we cannot cross it.
Dreams are of many kinds. Ramanuja would get answers for his mathematical problems in his dreams. Some people get dreams of things that are to take place in the future. Mahatma Gandhi got dreams that projected his latent subtle tendencies. Some people get dreams of things that are to be fulfilled. Similarly, sitting here talking to each other, all these are 100% unreal. We spend more time in the waking state – this is also unreal. But because we spend more time in it we feel it’s real. The one that sleeps wakes up and the one that wakes up, sleeps. The one that is beyond the three states (waking, sleep and dream) is the Self. It has no relation whatsoever to these states.
We are afraid because we think that the body and mind is us and when told to detach from them we are frightened because we think that is ourself. Vivekananda would say, ‘Whether you read the Bhagavad Gita or do japa – it’s enough just to be peaceful.’ Rather than the Truth in our heart, we are fond of the God in the Temple. For many lives we have become accustomed to looking externally – we are more fond of shadows than the real.
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| Translated By: Dr.Usha |
Courtesy: Meenakshi Ammal, Tiruvannamalai |
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