ONN 23/11/2024 Vedic Wisdom
If you want to move ahead in spirituality you'll need to renounce worldly desires. Someone may say, No I will keep all my worldly desires and I will also practice Bhakti.
The scriptures and the holy men told us, this is impossible. Krishna says in the Gita:
*mayy eva mana ādhatsva*
*mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya*
*nivasiṣyasi mayy eva*
*ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ*
_Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt._
And in 18.54 He also says,
_*My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding.*_
In the Bible it also says in, Matthew 6:24-26
“ _*No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord]*._
So if we're desirous of *Bhakti* we need to detach the mind from the world. Now sometimes we misunderstand this and think you give up worldly desires only when you're a *Sanyasi* . For us *Grhastis* or householders we're allowed to pursue our worldly desires. Whatever stage of life you are or whatever is your social condition, if you don't absorb your mind in God, you're under Maya's control. You cannot remain in a pending animation in-between.
If your mind is not absorbed in God, there's only one reason, it's stuck somewhere in the world. It's very difficult to understand this subtle attachment but that attachment is what is coming in the way of our surrender to God.
When we talk about *vairagya* , we're talking about inner giving up of worldly desires. This is the very meaning of spirituality. But Krishna says, that is not the main thing!
Giving up worldly desires means you're running in the wrong direction, so stop! 🛑 You were running in the world of material wants, now you understood the happiness you need is not in this world, so you stopped.
By stopping your race in a wrong direction, does not get you to your destination immediately 🤔 Nope!
Supposing you're in Ghana and you're driving towards Takoradi, somebody asked you where are you going, you said, I'm going to Nigeria. This road doesn't go to Nigeria, it goes to Côte d'Ivoire.
Really🤦🏻♂️You slammed your break and stopped!
By stopping your movement forward, has that brought you to Nigeria 🤔 No! It only means that your movement towards! wrong direction has now stopped.
So find out which road leads to Nigeria and forge ahead in that direction. So to remove your mind from the world is not enough. You now have to absorb the mind in Krishna. That's real renunciation!
_What is called renunciation you should know to be the same as yoga, or linking oneself with the Supreme, O son of Pāṇḍu, for one can never become a yogī unless he renounces the desire for sense gratification._
Bhagavad Gita 6.2
_And of all yogīs, the one with great faith who always abides in Me, thinks of Me within himself and renders transcendental loving service to Me – he is the most intimately united with Me in yoga and is the highest of all. That is My opinion._
Bhagavad Gita 6.47
Hare Krishna 🙏🏼
Stay Tuned!
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