February 2020
Editorial
The Vedanta Kesari
10
O
Seek God Wholeheartedly
nce a theatre artist who had come to perform in a devotional play at the Dakshineswar Kali temple, asked Sri Ramakrishna, “How does one realise the Atman?” Sri Ramakrishna replied, “Longing is the means of realising Atman. A man must strive to attain God with all his body, with all his mind, and with all his speech.” This was also Jesus Christ’s counsel to a Jewish lawyer who asked “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus gave two commandments, of which the first is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” What does it mean to strive with all our mind, all our speech, and all our body? It means to hunger for God with our whole personality. Our mind should be filled only with the leela and teachings of the Lord; our ears should hear only the singing of His name and glories; our eyes should behold only His form and His devotees; our lips should constantly repeat only His name; and our hands should serve only the Lord and His devotees. The scriptures teach us, “Whatever ought to be given up, has to be given up with body, mind and speech, and whatever ought to be accepted, has to be accepted similarly. Then and then only will the aspirant be fit to realise God.” A perfect example of one who practised this is Sri Ramakrishna. As soon as he heard that wealth was as worthless as a clod of earth, he “took a few coins and clods of earth and threw them into the Ganga, repeating over and over again, rupee–earth, earth–rupee.” This idea became so internalised that if he even unwittingly touched a coin, his body retracted with sharp pain! To overcome the vanity of his high caste and acquire humility, he thoroughly
cleaned with his own hands the drain of the temple sweeper’s residence. Again, in order to reinforce his knowledge that Shiva is in all beings, “he ate and put on his head, as Prasada, a little of the leavings from the leaf-plates of the poor people” at the Kali temple. The body and the senses have their own animal level intelligence and instincts. And the mind is a huge storehouse of samskaras – positive and negative. Harmonising thought, word, and action is the first step in disciplining and sublimating these instincts and samskaras. This disciplining will empower us to understand and experience subtle spiritual ideas. And this unification and purification of body, senses, and mind is called Trikarana Shuddhi. The first step towards Trikarana Shuddhi is to hold on to truth in our everyday life. In general, even those of us who are serious about spiritual life, become hypocrites due to carelessness or laziness. We have one thing in our mind but something else on our lips. Again we say one thing and act differently. And an untruthful personality can never realise the ultimate Truth. Once Sri Ramakrishna agreed to visit a neighbouring devotee’s house. But he remembered about it only late at night. Immediately he went over to the devotee’s house. Though the household was asleep, he stepped into their premises just to keep his word. There are numerous other such examples from the life of saints. Though it may appear impractical, the point is, it is the way to train the mind to hold on to truth. Finally, another thing we can practice is to put all our mind, all our speech, and all our body into whatever work we do – everyday activities and duties of life. This will give us the strength to seek God wholeheartedly.
