Dear all,
Happy Baba' day .
Today I am uploading the 3rd part of Anusthan-A Discourse By Upasani Maharaj Of Sakori.Readers can get back to other parts of the Anusthan from the links provided just below this post .Jai Sai Ram.
HOW THE GOD OF ONE’S CHOICE (FAVOURITE DEITY) MANIFESTS HIMSELF
The jeeva state or the ego is the prime source of our sorrows and sufferings and as such it is in our best interests to destroy it as soon as possible. If you push on your Anushthan regardless of obstacles and obstructions till the close of the prescribed period, the object of your prayers or the God of your choice will reveal himself to you even where you sit in Anushthan.
This revelation may be in one of two ways. (1) The deity may manifest itself before you as a separate entity maintaining an individuality of its own. Thus the worshipper and the object of worship stand face to face. This experience will, in the first instance, be brief but by persistent Sadhana it can be made to last longer till at last, when the Anushthan is complete, the deity stays with you as long as you like and will appear to you whenever you wish and will give you counsel or direction as per your requirements.
(2) It may be that you may completely lose your body-consciousness and feel you the object of your worship. This experience of oneness with God (Soham) is indeed a higher state of development and here there is no duality or separate individuality of the worshipper and the object of worship. In the early stages this experience also will be momentary and the body-consciousness will again and again intrude upon this divine consciousness.
But by patience and perseverance the Anushthan should be perfected. Then you are for ever established in the state of divine consciousness and even if the body-consciousness may thrust itself upon you on occasions, it cannot disturb, much less break, the stream of God-consciousness which courses steadily through. No Guru (Spiritual Master) is obligatory for this kind of Sadhana. Any one with an elementary knowledge of spirituality can by himself practise this kind of Anushthan and attain the cherished goal of life.
What is essential is that the time dedicated to God should be held sacred and should be utilized only for spiritual purposes. The question may be raised as to how it will be possible for men and women in service who are not always masters of their own place but may be obliged to go hither and thither on duty to carry on Anushthan. I say unto you, “If you are not masters of your place, do not worry. If you cannot maintain a fixed place for Anushthan, let go the place but stick to the time. By carrying on your prescribed Anushthan at the proper time in your temporary residence, you will derive the same benefit as in the original place. Even if you cannot carry your place with you, you do not leave your time behind.” It may however be questioned” What if we are otherwise engaged at that time by a call of duty?” It is indeed an obstacle.
Your concern should be to maintain the time of your Anushthan at all costs. In proportion to the strength of your purpose will be the measure of your successs; for providence is ever watchful and takes care of you. The ancient practice of Sandhyavandan (twilight prayer) laid down for the twice-born is based on this principle of the importance of timely prayer.
The Mussalmans never miss their time of prayer. Even while traveling in a railway train, they will kneel down and pray at the prescribed time of the Namaj. As a rule God will see to it that no hindrance comes in the way at the time of your Anushthan. If circumstances so conspire that it is not at all possible to carry on the Anushthan at the prescribed time also it should be continued as soon as normal conditions are restored and no sin will then be attached to the period of lapse. On the contrary if you become negligent and indolent and put off the Anushthan, it all goes waste.
A DEVOUT HOUSEWIFE REFORMS HER HUSBAND
A spirituality minded and devout housewife will be of immense help in the proper discharge of her husband’s Anushthan. A wife is generally termed a Dharmapatni or Sahadharmacharini. This term, however, is appropriate only to that wife who renders active assistance to her husband in the discharge of Satkarma. Though the husband may not naturally be inclined to Satkarma, the example of his devout wife will put him to shame and he will very soon be induced to copy her.
The wife should strictly adhere to and keep up the traditional practice of wearing a sacred cloth at the time of worship, cooking and eating and arrange the materials of worship etc., whether the husband takes to it or not. If she is asked to remove them, she should implicitly obey but repeat the process every day. If she is rebuked for her persistance, she should answer: “I follow the tenets of Stridharma (duties of a woman). Please do not come in the way of my duty. If you have taken a vow of not performing any religious austerities viz., Sandhyavandan, Puja etc., don’t do so. My parents have brought me up in the traditional religious path. As you are my husband. You are my God. At the same time my parents too should command from me the respect and adoration due to God as has been laid down in the scriptures (Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava i.e., Let thy mother be a God unto thee, let thy father be a God unto thee). Therefore it is incumbent on me to obey both. If your commands do not harmonise, I shall be put to inconvenience and trouble in carrying them out, but I am prepared to bear them patiently.”
If the husband gets wild, she should gently remonstrate with him in some such was as the following. “What cause of offence have I given you? Have I set before you any unclean or undesirable objects such as a shoe or excreta and the like? The beneficent results of our austerities will be far reaching and will extend to our progeny as well.” Her persistence and tenacity of purpose will slowly tell upon the husband and he will gradually learn to respect the sentiments of his wife and allow her to have her way.
This is the first step in the reformation of the husband. A little later he will slowly learn by degrees the wearing of a sacred cloth at the time of meals and the reciting of the usual prayers etc. If by chance a friend of his, a finished product of modern civilization and one used to sit at the table and dine with his boot and suit on, pays him a visit, he will be surprised at his friend’s orthodoxy. He may ridicule him and jeeringly ask when and by whom he has been initiated into those fantastic superstitions of our foolish fore fathers.
The host may feel a little abashed and will thrust the whole blame upon his old fashioned wife. The guest will thereupon express his disapproval with a sneer, adding that women are always conservative, irrational and bigoted and to follow them will be to plunge headlong into silly superstitions and meaningless conventions. Then the host may get a little confused, feeling a sort of inferiority complex and command his wife to put away all the rubbish and serve them without further ado. After meals the friends will smoke a cigar or two crack a few jokes, put on their goggles and hurry away to their offices. Not withstanding the gibes and ridicule of his friend, the influence of the wife’s austerities will not fail to make itself felt upon her husband in a greater or lesser degree; and in course of time he will fall in with his wife’s aspirations and be take himself to the prescribed religious observances.
If again his old friend happens to be his guest and finds fault with him for his orthodoxy, he will now answer “Let it be. Our ancestors have trodden this path and handed it down to us. It has stood the test of time and the lives of our fore fathers bear the incontradictable evidence of its merit and veracity. Why not we too adopt it and derive the same benefit as our forefathers?’ He thus gets well established in the path of righteousness and will refuse to be shaken by the mockery and ridicule of his friends.
If his good old friend repeats his visits to the gentleman’s house off and on, he too will very soon come under the influence of the good example of his friend and his pious wife. He will begin to wonder why his wife had not been brought up on such healthy and righteous lines, for she would then have enabled him too to perform the worship of God and other meritorious acts.
The picture of his friend’s wife will imprint itself prominently on his imagination; her docility, devotion and sense of duty impress him so well that he will address himself to his wife and enquire of her whether her parents had never inculcated to her the righteous path of religious observances, devotion to God and the like. “Let alone my parents,”will be her sharp rejoinder, “What about your honoured self? What have been your ways of life so far? It is you, sir, that have led me along theses lines of modern civilization. By force of habit they have been so deeply ingrained in me that they have become my very nature and it is impossible for me now to shake them off. Undoing, you know, is more difficult than doing. Habits are harder to break than to aquire, more so bad habits.” As there is engendered in him an earnest desire to reform himself, this gentleman will, in the fullness of time, train his wife and himself on the model of his friend and wife. Thus the couple will also lead a pious and a religious life. The successful completion of an Anushthan depends directly uupon the strength of purpose of the individual. “Be wary and watchful; fill the minutes as they come and go with good thoughts, good words and good deeds.” An obstacle is meant to be a stepping stone to success.
At this point Baba once more invited the devotees to sit inside the zopadi if it was muddy outside. But not a soul stirred from his place.
Coming Next:
- The Path Of Self Purification.
Post Already Posted:
- Introduction and Preface.
- (a)Experience of opposite states as the time of God-Realisation.
- (b)Attainment of God through wifely devotion.
- Anusthan-A Discourse By Upasani Maharaj Of Sakori -Part 1.
- Anusthan-A Discourse By Upasani Maharaj Of Sakori -Part 2.
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