Pujya Swami Ramsukhdasji Maharaj

[Guest guest]

The secret of taking complete refuge in God is not looking towards

any qualities or flaws in ourselves.

 

After taking refuge in God, a devotee should not even have thoughts

such as - my body should be like this, my intellect should be like

this, my mind should be like this, I should be able to meditate

deeply, my intentions and feelings must be pure, I must have

distinctive qualities, my behavior must be perfect, I should have the

kind of love for God where tears flow and voice tremors and chokes

with emotions on hearing about Him. A devotee should not doubt that

since such feelings and expressions have not arisen in him, therefore

could he truly be surrendered to God?

 

Such conversations are not tests of exclusive refuge in God. The one

who has completely surrendered to God, he does not even take notice

of any such thing even in his dreams, because in his eyes, such

things are nothing but useless baggage, that he does not need to

carry with him.

 

God shares the qualities of a true devotee in the Gita 'Adveshta

sarva bhutaanaam maitreha karuna evacha, nirmamoha nirahankara

samdukha sukhakshami. ' etc. (Gita 12:13-19). So a doubt may arise

that such qualities have not come in me ? The point here is that if

you begin to see qualities of a true devotee in you, you are likely

to become arrogant, whereas if you do not see these qualities, you

will become dejected. Therefore after taking refuge in God, one

should not look towards these qualities even by mistake.

 

But one must not confuse and misunderstand the meaning of what is

being said here. This absolutely does not mean that it is OK to go

ahead and engage in hostility †"

antagonism, hatred, attachment, or whatever one pleases. The point

here is that the attention should simply not go to the qualities. A

devotee that has taken refuge in God, all good qualities will come to

him naturally and on their own. However whether they come or go away,

should be of no concern to the devotee.

 

By all this the Lord is telling us clearly that at no time must we

test our surrender to Him(sharanagati).