Swami Chidananda

[Guest guest]

Four Powerful Transforming Factors

 

Adorable Spiritual Presence, glorious all-pervading Reality, O Father

of all mankind, Almighty Being, eternal, supreme God of grace, love

and compassion! To Thee Who art the origin, support and ultimate end

of countless millions of created universes that exist within Thee as

drops exist within the vast, immeasurable, unfathomable and boundless

ocean, to Thee our reverential adorations and worship at this moment,

at this hour of the morning when Thy children are gathered together

here in silent prayerfulness and spiritual fellowship to begin their

day. May Your divine grace be upon them, and may they utilise this day

to draw nearer and closer to Thee in dynamic awareness of the awakened

consciousness of their real Being within!

 

Radiant Divinities! Beloved sadhaks and seekers! Today let us consider

four valuable means of making your life sublime, four valuable factors

that will keep your life moving towards the grand divine destiny, to

fulfil which you have been endowed with this human status. For the

power to feel, think, reason, understand, expand in knowledge and grow

in wisdom is verily the uniqueness of this privileged status of yours

as a human being on earth. These factors will enrich your human

status, adorn your spiritual life, enrich your sadhana and abhyasa,

and augment your movement towards your grand divine destiny of

atma-jnana, transcendental experience, God-realisation.

 

The first factor is the great power which the Supreme Power has

manifested and given to you, the power which can awaken, enlighten,

illumine and bring about Self-realisation. That is the power of

sabda-brahman, nada-brahman, the Name. The first primal expression of

Brahman took place as the mystical cosmic sound vibration, adya

spandana, in the form of the solemn, mysterious, divine cosmic sound,

the pranava (OM), the Divine Name. Maharshi Patanjali identifies this

particular sound symbol as the Name of that Nameless One, the Word

that expresses That which cannot be expressed†" tasya vachakah pranavah.

It is the source and origin of all names, the mantra which successive

saints and mystics, again and again, have dwelt upon and glorified.

They declared: “When you have the Name, what have you to fear? It is

God within you and without you, in your heart, in your mind, on your

tongue, on your lips.†Let the Name be your constant companion. Let It

be a propelling force and factor to take you towards God.

 

The second great force, power, dynamic unfailing factor, is

remembrance of God through the mind. When the tongue is uttering the

Name, the mind is to remember the Supreme Being. Again and again the

saints have stressed this one means of keeping our life moving towards

the glorious Goal†" keeping our consciousness centred upon that grand

Reality†" remembrance, remembrance.

 

The third factor is the feeling that you bring into your every

thought, every word, every action. What does it mean to you? Does it

mean something mundane, something prosaic, something material,

something worldly? Or does it mean something sublime, lofty and

spiritual, divine? What does it mean? What is the feeling that infills

you when you are living, moving, acting, day after day, moment after

moment, through your thoughts, your words, your actions, through your

vyavahara, your dealings with persons, beings, things, with life

around you? What is the bhav that infills you? That is something which

you have in your hand, because your bhav is your treasure. It is your

domain, your territory, your monopoly, your inner kingdom where you

have total say. If you have the sincerity, earnestness, wisdom, let

this inner kingdom of bhav decide for you whether your life is mundane

and prosaic, or lofty and spiritual, sublime and godly.

 

Last but not least is the fourth factor. What is the vision with which

you behold this world? Do you behold this world as something sacred?

See what the scriptures say, how the true sadhak should look upon

everything. Again and again our scriptures reiterate this great

vision, this great truth: The world is indwelt by the Divine, pervaded

by the Divine. What should be our vision? What should be our bhav?

Everything is sublime, everything is spiritual, and every act of

mine†" physical, verbal, mental, sentimental†" is verily divine. With this

vision, this bhav, whatever is seen, heard, tasted, smelt, touched,

thought about, remembered is my ishta devata (chosen Deity). Read

again and again Gurudev’s sublime composition, “Song of Immanence of

Ram.†Ponder its implication to you.

 

These four powerful forces, powerful transforming factors, can enhance

your spiritual life, make it fully God-oriented, give it a push in the

right direction, take you towards the Goal Supreme†" the power of the

Name which immediately links you up with the Unmanifest, the

transcendental Reality; constant remembrance of God in the mind; bhav,

the right feeling, sublime spiritual feeling in your heart; and

fourth, the right vision, which beholds the Reality everywhere, so

that you live, move and have your being in God.

 

With these four factors or powers accepted and applied, what power is

there in this universe that can stop your progress? What need is there

for you to think of miscellaneous things, fill your mind with doubts

and unnecessary, avoidable, superfluous questions, when at your

doorstep is the key to heaven? These forces will help you to overcome

everything, conquer maya, overcome life itself here and now. They are

living spiritual forces, powers that are real in this world of passing

unrealities. They will transform you and take you irresistibly to

God-consciousness.