Gita Satsangh Chapter 16 Verses 1 & 2 (reply to Sriramji & Shyamji)

[Guest guest]

Thank you both for your thoughtful replies.

 

In response to Sriramji, I agree that from a subjective point of view, the

child's state of surrender is very desirable. However, if the basis for our

surrender/faith is not firm, then in time we are bound to become disappointed.

Basically, a firm faith in something not firm will not remain a firm faith!

 

I very much enjoyed reading Shyamji's post. In terms of prayer, there is

certainly a mitigation of fear that takes place in prayer since we have faith in

prayer and in the paramAtmA who we are adressing through the prayer. However,

the difficulty seems to be that while prayer does certainly help in eliminating

obstacles, despite our prayers, obstacles (especially adhyAtmika ones, as

Shyamji points out) do arrise. So once again, its the same thing - we have to

faith in the power of our prayer.

 

Approaching it slightly differently, I think that the issue is what we feel

responsible and what we should feel responsible for. Normally, we feel

responsible for the body, mind, name and fame, pleasant and unpleasant

circumstances, our success and failure, whether our sAdhanA is moving in the

right direction or not, whether our mind is pure or not, and so on. However,

here, instead of all these countless concerns, we have only one responsibility

and that is taking refuge in Ishvara. This simplies everything greatly, reminds

me of: " vyavasayAtmika buddhi ekeha kuru nandana, bahushAkhA hyanantAshcha

buddhayOvyavasAyinam. "

 

I once again thank everyone who made this very useful discussion possible. I

have some more thoughts about this topic but maybe for later...

 

Regards,

 

Rishi.