Hindu Article-Need for effort

[Guest guest]

Need for effort

 

 

 

CHENNAI: : Among the prerequisites for embarking on the spiritual

path by undertaking scriptural study, control of the senses and the

mind is paramount. The Bhagavad Gita drives home its importance

repeatedly and Lord Krishna pointed out to Arjuna why control is

necessary, "The senses are naturally disposed to move towards their

objects. Whichever of these senses the mind pursues, that sense

carries away the mind as a gale does a ship on the high seas." A

doubt that a seeker is bound to get when this is emphasised again and

again is why the Guru or God cannot make this happen.

 

In his discourse, Swami Omkarananda said a spiritual seeker would be

able to elicit divine grace only when he makes the necessary effort.

Effort and divine grace are often likened to the two wheels of a

chariot and they both will work only in tandem. Just as a doctor can

only prescribe the right medicine and the patient has to take it to

be cured of his ailment, so also the Guru can only teach and the

disciple has to practise the teaching taught by him. As for divine

grace it is always available and one who strives will receive it.

There is also the human tendency to be fatalistic by attributing

one's failures to Karma without making the required effort to

succeed.

 

The scriptures are very clear that man has to strive whether it is to

achieve worldly objectives or the spiritual goal. If after putting in

all possible efforts a person does not meet with success, then he

must understand that it is his Karma, which is acting as the

impediment to the operation of divine grace. So it is in order not to

get dejected that Karma can be invoked and the person must redouble

his efforts to succeed. Like a flame burns brighter when it is

rekindled, so also the Self shines in all splendour the more a seeker

engages in spiritual practices.

 

Why is it that in spite of such repetition of the important teachings

by the scriptures, preceptors and men of wisdom, the majority do not

understand spiritual knowledge? Sankara pinpoints the uncontrolled

mind swayed by the senses as the reason. The Katopanishad relates

Yama telling young Nachiketa that very few people take to the

spiritual path and among them only a fraction understands the truth.

Hence without self-control Self-knowledge is not possible.

 

copy right: the Hindu-daily