(Autobiography of Poojya
Gurudev Pt. Sriram Sharma Acharya-Continued)
Man
has his own limitations like a child. He potentially gets infinite strength
from his Creator, the Omnipotent god. This, however, is conditional. Children
do not know proper utility of objects and cannot take care of them. So they are
given cheap toys, petty balloons, rattles, whistles, lemon juice balls, toffees
etc. When a child grows up, understands his responsibilities he gets everything
in inheritance without demanding anything. For this he is not required to beg,
beseech pathetically or offer prayers. God and divinized human beings are keen
to give a thousand times more than what we ask for, provided we have
demonstrated our competence to utilize the divine gifts for noble and
altruistic purposes and not for gratification of our perversely petty, egoistic
desires and hungers.
It
does not serve any purpose to give false assurances for the future. Proof has
to be furnished how, whatever has been given so far, has been utilized. This is
the basis of preparing the performance graph, which is examined before
promotion is granted. I had to give convincing proof of my competence and
sincerity during past several births. When everything was found to be in
order, gifts and grace were showered on me.
Whatever Sugreev, Vibhishan, sudama, Arjun got and whatever they did was not the
result of their own ego-centred efforts. The supreme power of God was working
from behind the curtain. Canals get water from rivers. Distributaries, which
supply water to the fields, get it from the canals. If there is any disorder or
mishap anywhere there is bound to be a breakdown in the entire chain. Man can
establish intimate relationship with God on some definite basis. There is no
scope in it for anything like flattery. God does not play favourite with
anyone. He is bound by the laws underlying the smooth working of his cosmos. He
is impartial.
My
personal human competence is almost insignificant. Whatever has been
accomplished should purely be considered the result of Divine Grace, most of
which is being showered not directly but through the medium of my Gurudev, although it hardly makes any
difference.
How
could this sublime achievement be possible? It was possibly by cultivation of
competence of worthiness. It is also known as Jivan-sadhana. It is intimately related to upasana. Electric current flows
through a metal wire and not through wood. A dry log of wood burns far more
quickly and brightly than a wet one. A mother takes up a child into her lap
when he is neat and clean. If he is stained with filth and dirt, she will first
wash and clean him and then take him in her lap and feed him. For securing
nearness, proximity to God, purity of character is a must. Several persons had
remained soiled with carnal cravings in their previous lives but the moment
they look to faith, devotion and sadhana their lives were transformed
beyond recognition. Valmiki,
Angulimal, bilva-mangal, Ajamil became
saints in the true sense of the term, the moment they surrendered themselves to
God, although their past lives were far from pious. We adopt the policy of Ram nam Japan Paraya mal apana (mechanically taking Ram’s name but
coveting what belongs to others). We go on doing evil deeds and yet think that
by worshipping God merely through outward symbolic acts, we will escape from
retribution for our trespasses. Is this not a great delusion?
Before
dyeing, a cloth has to be washed clean. Before sowing it is necessary to plough
the land. To earn the grace of God one has to lead a pious life and become a sadhak. A sadhak alone can become a true devotee. In
the absence of Jivan-sadhana the thoughts, character, diet and
daily routine of a person will all be disorganized. Such a person will always
remain restless on account of greed and desires and he will never be able to
concentrate his mind. No purpose is served merely by performing karma-kand and symbolic worship. Worship is
directly related to inner feelings. With sublimated feelings alone a person is
able to assimilate righteousness in his attitudes, actions and nature.
When
a respectable guest pays a visit or there is a function, the entire house is
cleaned and whitewashed. If God is to be invited to occupy the chamber of the
heart, it has to be first cleaned of all the dirt and dross, which fill it. For
this one has to take recourse to self-growth. These facts were explained to me
and I thoroughly assimilated them. After all, why do we lead a contemptible
life? Greed, delusion and pride, these three are at its root. A man having these
vices is bound to be dragged towards hell.
Actions
are shaped by our subtle tendencies. Our physical body is governed by our mind.
Mind alone and not the body should be considered responsible for all the
misdeeds. Keeping this fact in view, I considered it appropriate to cut the
roots of the poisonous tree of ego centered cravings and started Jivansadhana, considering mind as the basis.
Crimes
are often committed due to economic compulsions and temptation. A pledge was,
therefore, taken by me to lead a simple life of an average Indian. Whatever the
income, it should be spent economically, according to local conditions, on the
principle of simple living and high thinking. In principle, most of the people
give it lip supports, but when it comes to practice they find it difficult to
do so. It requires unshakable firmness and resolve, as members of the family
have also to be prepared to follow it strictly, not only in principle but also
in practice.
The
greatest difficulty in this connection is about the attitudes prevalence in the
society. People think that when everybody is indulging in riotous merry-making
on his well-earned or ill-gotten wealth, why should we exercise control on
ourselves? It is very difficult to convince members of the family in this
matter. Still, if we practice what we preach and try to convince people by
logic, facts and results and our resolve is firm, it is well nigh impossible
that persons close to us will not be influenced. If economic malpractices are
sought to be eradicated, it is necessary to educate the minds of the people on
these lines. With this resolve remained firm in my convictions. Our family in Ghiya Mandi, Mathura, consisted
of five members. Till we came to Hardwar in 1971, we managed our expenses
within two hundred rupees per month. This could be possible by thrift and by
maintaining a standard different from others, although my income was above
average as I had inherited ancestral property. It was also spent in the
education of children of other members of the family and nothing was
accumulated to breed vices and addictions. Thus an important aspect of Jivan-sadhana could be practised.
A
man has a propensity for adorning, embellishing and enriching one’s own family
and he wants to leave behind huge wealth in succession at the time of his
death. Children of the people who indulge in unrestrained gratification of
desires are bound to become addicted to luxuries of all sorts and thus a chain
of extravagance and squandering of money starts. Ill-gotten wealth is bound to
be spent in licentious living. I learnt a lesson from the experience of the
down-fall of others and did not allow such an outlook to enter in my home. Thus
a cultured, refined family grew up.
People
squander away a lot of money and time in bragging, pomp and show, ornamentation
and fashion. There was no scope in my life for such ego-inflating and self-glorifying
trivialities, as an atmosphere of Brahman-like politeness and simplicity was
maintained throughout my personal and family life. We had formed the habit of
doing all domestic chores without own hands. For years Mataji grinded flour at home and prepared
meals herself for the family and guests. A domestic servant had to be engaged
only when, on account of extraordinary expansion of mission’s work, it became
difficult for her to spare time for household work.
It
is a false notion, born out of a perverted sense of values, that those living
in pomp and show are regarded ‘great’ while those living in simplicity are
considered to be unlucky or backward. It did not ever apply in my case. It
would have been a different matter if poverty had become our lot on account of
sloth or incompetence. But in our case it was a voluntarily and gladly adopted
way of life in adherence to high and noble ethical principles. None of my
relatives, friends etc. who came in my contact regarded it as poverty but as an
example of setting Brahman traditions. There are people who by
giving up chillies or putting on wooden sandals make loud proclamations of
their simplicity and righteousness. But spiritual life is truly lived by an
all-inclusive self-restraint and discipline in which one has to consciously
endeavour every moment to transform his entire way of life into that of a true Brahman. This entails a gradual and long sadhana. In this respect, I rigorously trained
myself and also all those who were linked with me.
Life
is affected by accumulated evil tendencies, and habits. Passion, anger, greed,
delusion, pride and jealousy, all tried to deflect me from the righteous path,
but they were chased away before they could establish a foothold in my psyche.
They succeed only when a person is caught unaware or lowers his guard. I kept a
constant watch on my attitudes (guna), actions (karma) and nature
(svabhav) with a view to ensuring that righteousness of a sadhak has been incorporated in them. It is a
matter of satisfaction that I can humbly claim to have emerged virtuous.
At
birth, everybody is crude and unpolished. Every soul brings with it, from
previous lives, a greater or lesser load of evil tendencies and impressions.
They cannot be eradicated all at once. Grace of the Guru or puja-path (rituals) also does not serve this
purpose. The only way is to struggle hard against the evil tendencies. A
parallel army of noble thoughts, duly trained, should be kept in readiness to
fight it out as soon as an evil thought creeps in. Evil thoughts and tendencies
cannot exist for long if they are not allowed to consolidate their position in
our minds. Their strength is limited. They mainly depend on habits and
conventions, while good thoughts have always the strong support of logic,
facts, proof, wisdom, etc. The authors of ancient scriptures have rightly
pointed out that ultimately truth alone prevails. In other words, it is the
divine virtues and noble tendencies that form part of our real higher nature;
evil tendencies are only aberrations and shadows without substance. When
monkeys and bears can be trained to display amazing feats, there is no reason
why a raw and crude human mind could not be refined and made righteous through
concentrated sadhana.
