The Mind is the Performer of Action-Part 2

(Part 2 – Synopsis of a lecture given by Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj on November 17, 2009, in Bhatinda, India)

Action refers to your mental motivation, your intention. Because of this, it is the mind that is the cause of your liberation from Maya or your bondage in Maya.

Those who do perform religious rituals and scriptural recitations don’t do this while engaging the mind. They read the Gita, Bhagawat or Ramayan, or any other scripture with their tongue. They are merely reciting the words. Some people use prayer beads, but this is just the physical activity of the hands.

Some take a ritual bath in the Ganges River. During the time they are bathing, where is their mind? “Oh, look, there’s a boat. Hey, that person is also here bathing. Oh no, my purse might get stolen!” But you are bathing in the Ganges! Do you know who Ganga Ji is? You reply, “This water.” This is the extent of your knowledge. Before bathing, ask your Guru about Ganga Ji’s personality. Invoke Ganga ji with your mind, and then take a holy dip in the river.

If a glass bottle was filled with urine or some other impure substance and thrown in the Ganges for twenty-four hours, after it was taken out and opened, would you drink it like the river water you ceremoniously drink when you are bathing? You would say “How could I do that! It’s dirty!” Similarly, you have immersed your body in the Ganga, but not your mind. The impurity you have to clean is in your mind, because ideas originate from the mind, not from the senses. Whatever physical actions your perform, they first begin with a thought. The mind alone is the performer of action.

So what is done in the name of devotion is all physical. A person goes on pilgrimage. He sits a plane and quickly arrives at Badrinarayan, then he immediately departs for Rameshwaram – in ten short days he covers the four principal pilgrimage places and thinks, “Now I’ll keep on doing mischief because this pilgrimage guarantees I’ll go to God’s abode.”

God does not make a note of these physical activities. If you multiplied zero by 100,000, the result will be zero. “But I multiplied it by 100,000 – such a big number!” Multiply it by a million. The result will be the same, because of the multiplier. Similarly, the consequence of mere physical activity amounts to zero – how was your mind involved in that?

Once in Mathura, there was a group of ten or twelve sadhus who regularly consumed hemp as part of their practice. On Shivaratri, they all became intoxicated by drinking bhang. One of them said, “Come on – let’s go bathe in the Ganga at Prayag.” They all enthusiastically agreed. Someone said, “How will we get there?” Someone else said, “Hey, the boats are right here. We’ll go by boat from Mathura because the same Ganga flows through Prayag. We don’t even have to ask anyone for directions!” They all sat in a boat. They were all big and strong so the whole night they were rowing. By morning their intoxication had worn off. They started to say to each other, “What happened? The bathing ghats here in Prayag look just like the ones in Mathura!” Some people were bathing nearby. The sadhus asked them, “Brother, is this bathing ghat in Prayag?” That man replied, “Oh come on, this isn’t Prayag. This is Mathura!” They all exclaimed, “Mathura? How could that be!? We rowed the whole night!” The man said, “Can’t you see? Your boat is still tied up over there!”

Like this the mind is attached in the world to our mother, father, children, husband, wife and grandchildren. But we verbally recite a prayer, “My Lord, You alone are my mother and father.” Are you trying to fool God? He knows everything because He is seated in your heart. Even the simplest person in India knows this philosophy.

When someone dies, everyone in the funeral procession recites, Ram naam satya hai (God’s name is the only truth). But if the corpse that was being carried to the cremation ground were to suddenly sit up, what would the father say? “Everyone be quiet! Stop saying this!” But why are you making everyone stop repeating this? “My son is alive – he just sat up.” But you should be even more excited to repeat this because this was due to the grace of Ram’s name! “No way, my son might die again! This should not be chanted all the time. We only say this after someone dies, and then, too, we do it reluctantly.” This is the quality of knowledge that we about God.

So the corruption that we see happening in the world is because there is no spiritual practice being done nowadays that matches the mind’s impurity. Absolutely no one is meditating correctly on God.

Before a ritual or scriptural reading takes place in a Hindu family’s home, first a mantra is recited. The priest says, “Alright, take some water in your hand.” You take it. “Sprinkle it overhead.” You do it. The priest recites a verse from the Padma Purana, “Whether you are pure or impure, whether you have just bathed in the Ganga or you haven’t bathed for a thousand days, no matter what state or condition, you are in, if you lovingly remember Shri Krishna, you are purified both internally and externally.”

But it’s highly likely that the priest himself doesn’t understand the meaning of this verse, or even if he does know it, he may feel it would be wasting time to explain it to the person who requested and is paying for the ritual, unnecessarily delaying when the priest will get his fee. And the person who has requested the ritual doesn’t know the meaning of verse and who has to meditate on God (the mind).

Continued in Part 3

© Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat and Bhakti Bliss, 2009
Reproduced with courtesy from www.bhaktibliss.wordpress.com