There are many ways to God and action is one of them— Kriya means action. In the Bhagavad Gita it says, “By works alone [meaning right action, right attitude, giving up desires for the fruits of actions] King Janaka and others of the ancients attained me.” Even if God apparently gives you nothing of inner awareness for years you may still feel satisfied as you see yourself changing and growing.
A young man who was initiated by his guru and then given the job of bringing in wood for the kitchen stove and the fireplace in his guru’s ashram. Day after day this man carried out his task with great dedication. Bringing in the firewood was his sadhana.
One day, as he was unloading the wood from his shoulder, a few hairs from his topknot got caught between the logs and were pulled from his head. Looking at them, the man realized his hair had turned white. His whole life had passed and he had done nothing but carry wood. He thought of all the wonderful spiritual experiences he had hoped to have. Now he had attained nothing. He was so unhappy he began to weep.
Just as the first tear was about to fall from his cheek, his guru rushed over and caught the tear in his hand. “If even one tear from such a great soul should touch the ground,” his guru said, “this whole country would be plunged into famine. Don’t you know what you have attained?” Then his guru touched him and the disciple went into Cosmic Consciousness.
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Our Guru, Paramahansa Yogananda said, ”I used to get into mental ruts, and many months would pass when I couldn’t meditate deeply. Yet I continued to make the mental effort. Progress came fast when I suddenly realized that I had to be more determined to control all my habits and exercise my spirituality.”
With these words Guruji is stressing the importance of learning how to behave—yama/niyama—the dos and the don’ts from Patanjali’s eight steps to union with God. One of the first questions our third President Sri Daya Mata was asked by a guest from abroad at the 1989 Post-Convocation Satsanga at Mother Center was, ”Ma, how do I get Divine Mother to respond?” And I’ll never forget Daya Ma’s reply, as I was behind a camera filming the event. She answered, ”How do you get Divine Mother to respond? That’s very simple, just become more divine. And that begins with Yama/Niyama, the first two of Patanjali’s eight steps to union with God.”
We’re always looking for some special technique or secret Mudra to help us go deeper in meditation. When all we really need to do is learn how to behave.
Whenever we say an unkind word, whenever we’re greedy, whenever we’re immoderate with regard to any of the senses, we’re throwing pebbles into the lake of the mind. We feel guilty, become restless. And we won’t be able to do well with the third of Patanjali’s 8 Steps—Asana or proper posture. In other words, when we feel guilty, when we’re restless, we won’t be able to sit still in meditation. And when we can’t sit still in meditation, we won’t be able to do well with the fourth step—Pranayama or life-force control, no matter how many Hong-Saus, Aums or Kriyas we practice.
Some people meditate for years and never go deeper. They always keep circling around on the surface of their meditations for this very reason. They don’t behave morally or spiritually. They steal someone’s idea, or they tell a “little” lie, get involved in a “little” cheating. Or perhaps they are greedy or undisciplined with regard to the sex force. Or they keep losing their temper and say unkind words to others. As long as these devotees keep on like that, they will never go deeper in meditation, no matter how long they sit before their altar.
So we need to regularly take time, make time for introspection, and find out what undesirable habits are creating the restlessness in our consciousness. Socrates said the unexamined life isn’t worth living. And our Guru also hits the subject of introspection very hard. He said, ”Millions of people never analyze themselves. Mentally they are mechanical products of the factory of their environment, preoccupied with breakfast, lunch, dinner, working and sleeping, and going here and there to be entertained. They don’t know what or why they are seeking, nor why they never realize complete happiness and lasting satisfaction. By evading self-analysis, people go on being robots, conditioned by their environment. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress.”
Guruji points out that sooner or later we need to break the habit of our strong attachment to the physical body and get back to God. There is no other alternative, no other choice. We’re all prodigal sons and daughters of God. We need to reclaim our divine birthright. We need to rediscover our infinite potential. And that begins by understanding that we will never go deeper in meditation, never find lasting happiness, as long as we keep on allowing ourselves to be dragged down by our habits, moods and desires.
And that’s where introspection comes in—taking the time to honestly look at ourselves so that we become aware of our shortcomings—those massive blocks in the immense wall that separates us from God. Patanjali said, ”Awareness is the pillar of yoga.” Because once we’re aware of our shortcomings, we can take definite steps to eliminate them. But if we don’t introspect, we’re not aware of our shortcomings—we don’t change, we remain the same, we become psychological antiques. We come back incarnation after incarnation with the same habits, moods, and desires. We come back incarnation after incarnation and go through the same pain and suffering. So, it’s really quite simple. Either we change or we continue to suffer. Either we change or we remain on the surface of our meditations.
And if we think we don’t have any bad habits, all we need to do is ask our friends and loved ones. They’ll tell us. And then once we’ve targeted our undesirable habits, we can go to the Lessons and use Guruji’s powerful techniques for eradicating them once and for all. And then the magic happens—we find ourselves so much calmer, so much more focused in meditation. Which immediately empowers us to go deeper than we ever have before.
In divine friendship and love,
- In divine friendship and love,
Bro. Balananda
