BHAKTI YOGA - Part 5

Here is an Anushthana for 40 days. You will have to do Japa of Rama Mantra one Lakh and twenty five thousand times in the following manner for 40 days, at the rate of 3000 daily. During the last five days do 4000 daily. Get up at 4. a.m. Write down in a thin paper ‘Rama, Rama’ 300 times.

Then cut it into small pieces. Each piece will contain one Rama Nama. Then roll it with a small ball of Atta (wheat flour paste). Writing will take two or three hours according to your strength and capacity. Then you will have to cut one by one. You will have to do the whole process by sitting on one Asana. If you find it difficult to sit on one Asana, you can have change of Asana. But you should not leave your seat. Some use a special ink made of saffron, musk, camphor, etc., and special writing pen made up of a sharp-pointed thin, Tulasi-stick.

You can use ordinary ink and pen if you cannot get the above special ink and special pen. You will have to do the Anushthana on the banks of Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Kaveri or Narmada, at Rishikesh, Benares, Hardwar, or Prayag. You can do it at home, if you find it difficult to move to these places. Take milk and fruits and Palahar during these days. Two Punjabis, a student of law, and his father, are having this Anushthana in Rishikesh. Throw the balls in the Ganga or any river for fishes. You will develop wonderful patience. You will get Divine Grace. Study the whole of the Ramayana 108 times with purity and concentration. This can be done within three years if you can devote three hours daily. You can go through the book three times in a month. You will acquire Siddhis.

You will have Darshan of Lord Rama. Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga are not incompatibles like acids and alkalis. One can combine Ananya Bhakti (one-pointed devotion) with Jnana Yoga. The fruit of Bhakti Yoga is Jnana. Highest love (Para Bhakti and Jnana are one. Perfect knowledge is love. Perfect love is knowledge. Sri Sankara, the Advaita Kevala Jnani, was a great Bhakta of Lord Hari, Hara and Devi. Jnana Deva of Alandi, Poona, a great Yogi of late, was a Bhakta of Lord Krishna. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa worshipped Kali and got Jnana through Swami Totapuri, his Advaita Guru.

Lord Chaitanya was a fine Advaita Vedantic Scholar, and yet he danced in streets and market places, singing Hari’s names. Appaya Dikshitar, a famous Jnani of Adaipalam, North Arcot District, Madras, the author of Siddhanta Lesha and various other Vedantic books was a devotee of Lord Siva. It behoves, therefore, that Bhakti can be combined with much advantage with Jnana.

May we hear with our ears and see with our eyes nothing but what is pure, so that with our senses unperturbed, remembering God, meditating on Him, singing His praise and repeating His name, we may attain life as that of the Gods. Om Santi. Kirtan At Home This is an easy way for attaining God-consciousness. At night all the members of the house should sit in a circle and do Kirtan for one hour before the picture of Lord Krishna. The servants of the house also should be included. Sing any Name of the Lord as Siva, Hare Ram, Sita Ram, Raghupati Raghava Rajaram, etc., in a chorus with one Svara, Tala harmoniously.

Nada Brahman will be generated. You will forget the body and the world and enter into ecstatic state. Practise, try and feel yourself. Mere tall talk will not do. Just as the intoxication that you get by taking a dose of opium lasts for hours, the Divine intoxication that you get from Kirtan will last for some hours during the following day also. At night you will be free from bad dreams. During Kirtan a special spiritual wave comes from the indweller of your heart and purifies the mind and Pranamaya Kosha.

All diseases are cured thereby. Doctor’s bills are saved. Sattva flows from the Lord to your mind, just as oil flows from one vessel to another vessel. Kirtan gives you strength to face the difficulties in the battle of life. Singing the Names of the Lord is a mental tonic. Evening Katha At Home In the evening four people can join together and read regularly the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana or the Bhagavata. Svadhyaya or study of holy scriptures is Kriya Yoga. It is of immense benefit for householders who do not find much time for serious spiritual practices and constant meditation. The study itself is a form of meditation. When the mind is concentrated on Divine thoughts, it is filled with purity.

The gross mind is rendered subtle. What Should Ladies Do I want to say a word on the devotional nature of Hindu ladies. In India, religion is maintained by the ladies only. There is peculiar religious instinct in them. Hindu ladies are highly devotional. They infuse the religious spirit in the males through their daily conduct and practical life. They get up in the early morning, wash the house, take bath, do Japa, make a small temple in their house and keep there pictures of the Lord and Pooja vessels, etc. They keep the place sacred and in the evening do Arati and prayer. The atheistic male members of the house are forced to do some prayer or other through their influence, on account of fear.

In reality the ladies of the house govern the house. They are the manifestations of Sakti. The husband is not entitled to do any religious rite without her presence by his side. “Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra devatah, Yatrai tastu na pujyante sarvastatraphalah kriyah” —Manu Smriti III-56. “Where women are honoured, there Devas are pleased; but where they are not honoured, there no sacred rite is fruitful.” Such is the glory of Hindu ladies. My earnest prayer is that they should sing the Name of the Lord in the early morning as soon as they get up.

They should train their children also to sing the Names. The whole house will be charged with spiritual vibrations. Even when they cook and draw water from the wells, they should be singing in mild tone the Names of the Lord. A strong habit of repeating the Names of the Lord will be formed in two months. This itself is quite sufficient for attaining God-consciousness. Singing the Names of the Lord is a very easy method for getting Darshan of the Lord in this Kali-Yuga. Even when anyone dies, the habit of singing the Name of the Lord will come to his rescue.

Duties Of Womanhood

From time immemorial Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, Nalayani, Anasuya and Draupadi have been regarded as sacred ideals of Indian Womanhood. They are sublime and exemplary characters who have exalted womanhood to the height of divine perfection.

Modern women should draw inspiration from their lives and try to tread their path. As long as such characters continue to exercise their influence upon the lives and character of Indian ladies, so long they will be looked upon with admiration and reverence by their sisters of other countries. All of them were subjected to very severe tests in which their purity, courage, patience and other virtues were put to and nobly did they come out through those tests. Hindu women are, since the dawn of the early civilisation, distinguished for their disinterested love and self-abnegation. What a wife is to a Hindu husband is well illustrated by a verse in the Ramayana where Sri

Rama referred to Sita says:
Karyeshu Mantree, Karaneshu Dasee,
Dharmeshu Patnee, Kshamaya Dharitree,
Sneheshu Mata, Sayaneshu Rambha,
Rangecha Sakhi, Lakshmana Sa Priya Me.

“In counsel she is my counsellor, in action she is my servant, in religious performances she is my partner, in tolerance she is like the earth, in affection she is like unto my mother, in bed she is like the celestial Rambha and in play she is my companion. Such indeed, O Lakshmana, is my beloved...” This is the Hindu ideal of a wife.

From - Yoga in Daily Life