‘My mind does not find interest in japa and meditation. What shall I do?'
`Mind is a machine that works just in the manner you run it. We have to consider—how much time in twenty-four hours we try to do japa and meditation and how much time we spend in other works.
But what is the remedy? A simple remedy is to try to keep the mind engaged in the thought of God for some more time. Sri Ramakrishna has said, `Do you know how the mind is? It is like a cloth just returned from the washerman. It takes the colour you dip it in.' If we keep the mind in worldly thoughts for much time, those very thoughts will continue to rise at the time of japa-meditation.
If you want to relish a thing for which you have no taste, you have to try to direct your mind to that very thing. Repeated efforts ultimately develop relish. And Ramakrishna prescribed the way also: (1) to chant the name of God, (2) to keep holy company and, (3) to occasionally think of God in solitude.
To chant the name of God means japa, meditation, worship, visit to places of God, and service to God. Holy company means to mix with those who think of God and love Him. Again, mixing with them does not mean just to sit near them; it means to assimilate their ideas and follow their examples. Otherwise it is no sâdhusanga (holy company). The third way is to live in solitude occasionally. A short stay in solitude from time to time is necessary.
(1) Japa: The first means prescribed by Sri Ramakrishna—to chant the name of God, i.e. to think of Him and worship Him—is the way of acquiring devotion. This devotion has been called vaidhi bhakti or preparatory devotion. By the cultivation of this preparatory devotion, gradually love of God develops. A verse in the Bhagavatam says, bhaktyâ samjâyate bhaktih—devotion begets devotion. Supreme devotion, i.e. love of God, develops through preparatory devotion and as a result symptoms of devotion like thrill, horripilation, etc., manifest in the body.
(2) Holy Company: Sâdhusanga does not mean just to live with a sadhu or to visit him. It means that you have to accept him as your ideal and try to follow his examples.' A sadhu is he whose company activates God-consciousness. Those who come in contact with him become influenced by his feelings. That's why sâdhusanga is efficacious.
(3) Solitude: The third means prescribed by the Master is occasional stay in solitude. We are so habituated to live forgetting God that we have no comprehension of the real nature of samsâra (worldliness).
Neither a monk nor a householder achieves anything until he realizes that worldly concerns are worthless and God alone is real.
The above column have been taken from the article: How to Reach the Goal? By Swami Bhuteshananda
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Regards,
Tirumalanath
tirumalanath.neelaiagari@gmail.com
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