MIND TO GOD

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OM NAMAH SIVAYA

 

SIVANANDA DAILY READING FOR 9 APRIL

MIND TO GOD

 

Give the mind to God and then you will be liberated. You will be

free from birth and death. You will get the highest bliss. There is

no doubt of this. Worship God in the poor and the sick. Service of

the poor and sick is worship of God. Destroy ghrna (disgust and

loathing) when you serve the sick. Then you will get chitta

shuddhi (purity of the mind) quickly. Service of the poor and the

sick is a powerful remedy to bring about the purification of the

mind.

 

When you meet a real, sincere karma yogi, who is plodding in

the line for six or seven years, you can at once feel his purity,

his selflessness, his inner joy, his inner peace, his inner

strength, his inner spiritual growth. You can feel his nearness to

God. You can see occasional flashes or glimpses of divine light

during satvic moments. He has a pleasant feeling of having justified

the divine command in the grand plan or scheme of things.

 

People do not want to remove mala (impurity) by selfless

service. They do not want to remove viksepa (mental distraction)

by upasana (worshipful contemplation). They think that service

and bhakti are nothing. They at once jump to open the kundalini

(the inner spiritual power) and raise the brahmakara vrtti (the

notion that only Brahman is real). They will only break their own

legs. Rather serve and worship. Jnana and yoga will come by

themselves. Kundalini will be awakened by itself.

 

In the neophytes, in the path of karma yoga, the idea of being a

separate worker, the idea of agency, may be strong. You feel that

you are doing all the works. However, in course of time, when the

heart becomes purer and purer, you will actually feel that some

higher power, God, is working through you. You will feel that your

body and mind are only instruments in his hands.

 

"When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right

hand doeth". St. Matt. VI - 3. Begging without any selfish motive,

is not begging at all. It is pure yoga. It is for spiritual

upliftment only. Remember - you cannot deny pain, you cannot

wipe away all the pain in the world - but you can rise above pain

by recognising your self.

 

-Swami Sivananda

 

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JAI MA