Pravachan 2 : Introduction to Spirituality (Part 2)

 

1. Happiness-Unhappiness

1 a. Nature of happiness and unhappiness

Each one of us has experienced moments of happiness and unhappiness. Although everyone struggles for happiness most of the time we experience that we beget unhappiness. Normally in the present times a human being experiences happiness 25% of time and unhappiness 75 % of time. Most of us do not know how to gain happiness hence everyone tries to find happiness as well as avoid suffering through their five senses, mind and intellect; though it is temporary. This means that a person tries to eat his/ her favourite dish, tries to go on a holiday, tries to pursue different hobbies in order to gain happiness and also avoid sorrow at the same time. A person opts to take medicines to combat disease, repair a tv set etc. to avoid sorrow. Even this does not bring permanent happiness. A famous Saint from Maharashtra, Saint Tukaram Maharaj had perfectly said that ‘Sorrow is like a mountain where as happiness is like a barley seed’. In this context Swami Vivekanand has also said that happiness and sorrow are two sides of the same coin. Everyone wants only happiness but happiness comes with a cloud of sorrow.

1 b. Reasons behind happiness and unhappiness.

We all have the innate desire to become one with the Omnipresent God from whom we have been created. We will see what are the different reasons behind happiness and unhappiness and its remedies. There are physical, psychological and spiritual reasons

behind happiness and unhappiness. Physical sorrow is sorrow caused due to physical diseases. When somebody cheats us or insults us we feel bad, this is psychological sorrow or grief. When a person tries hard to achieve something but continuously faces failure, eg: unsuccessful in getting married, etc. such incidents brings sorrow in our life and are spiritual in nature.

1 c. Remedies for unhappiness

If the reason behind sorrow is spiritual then the remedial measures should also be spiritual. How can we identify with intellect that the reason behind sorrow is spiritual? The answer to it is that with the help of some symptoms we can make out or predict. For e.g: we see in some families that most of the family members are in distress. In a family, a son is mentally retarded, the second son got divorced within 10 days after marriage, the third one left his education in between, the daughter in the family is highly qualified, cultured and good looking with highly paid salary but still not getting married due to different reasons. Due to all these problems in the family the mother and father are quiet disturbed and under stress. In short, what we see is everybody in the family is in grief. One trying hard but always unsuccessful, all such incidents reveals spiritual distress. In short, we can say that the reasons behind sorrow which cannot be analysed with intellect, could be spiritual in nature. Therefore the real remedy for this is to do sadhana (spiritual practice).

1 d. Sakaam and nishkaam sadhana

Dharma preaches us that the significance of human birth is final liberation. To achieve final liberation, one should perform spiritual practice everyday for at least 2 to 3 hrs with body, mind and intellect. There are two types of sadhana (spiritual practice) sakaam sadhana and the other one is nishkaam sadhana. Making efforts to merge with the God principle is called sadhana. When sadhana (spiritual practice) is done with expectations it is called sakam sadhna for e.g: Sadhana done for well being of the family, for a happy marital life etc. Sadhana done without expectations is called nishkam sadhana.

With the help of sakaam sadhana, expectations are fulfilled and by nishkam sadhana spiritual progress takes place along with fulfillment of desires, as per Krushna’s saying in Bhagwadgeeta. God has assured to fulfill the wishes of the devotee (bhakt). Person performing sakaam sadhana will be benefited materialistically but God realisation will not take place. The goal of human birth is final liberation. If sadhana is performed without any expectations it will lead to attainment of final liberation (moksha).

 

2. Principle of Karma and its fruits

There are two principles that are described in Hinduism – The first one is the principle of karma (action) and its fruits and the other one is that of rebirth. The principle of karma states that an individual has to bear the fruits of each and every karma (action) that he does. If one does good deeds (good karma), he gets merit (punya) whereas he has to face the negative consequences if he commits sin (paap). One accumulates merit by doing things like taking care of parents, donating to a temple and the like. On the contrary, one incurs de-merits by doing things like stealing, telling lies, hurting others by his words etc. One gets to enjoy happiness due to the accumulated merits where as he has to face sorrow due to the de-merits.

Let’s take the case of a person who has committed a theft and has escaped without being caught. He might go scot-free in the materialistic world, but he can never escape punishment in the court of God. There is a log maintained at God’s side which captures good/ bad thoughts, words and actions committed by all individuals.

2 a. The fruits of an action are also dependent on the intentions behind it

The fruits of an action are also dependent on the intentions behind it. A criminal chopping off the leg of a person is far different from a surgeon chopping off the leg of a person. Even though the action is the same, the intentions are very different. A criminal does it with the intention of hurting the person while a surgeon does it for helping the patient recover from a medical condition.

2 b. Prarabdha (destiny) accounts for 65% and willful action (kriyaman karma) accounts for 35% of all incidents in Kaliyug

Hinduism believes in rebirth. An individual needs to face the merits or de-merits of all his actions. It could be either in the current birth or in the next one. Usually, an individual faces the fruits of actions committed in the previous birth in the current one. The fruits of actions from previous birth is what we call as prarabdha. It is more commonly known as fate. Science of spirituality states that 65% of the incidents that an individual faces in a birth are based on prarabdha and the remaining 35% are based on an individual’s willful actions and are totally under the control of the individual. This means that 65% of the incidents that we face in our lifetime are the fruits of our actions done in previous birth.

For example – two students graduating with the same grades may not get jobs at the same time. One of them may get a job easily while the other may have to struggle to get one. Out of twin siblings, one could be very healthy, while the other could be weak. We would have seen lot of such examples. Modern day science cannot explain the reason behind all these. Why does an individual have to experience sorrow when he is spending his entire life in pursuit of happiness? The answer to this can only be given by Science of Spirituality. The reason for a person experiencing happiness or sorrow in a birth is attributed to the good or bad deeds that he has committed in his previous births.

 

3. Importance of Sadhana

3 a. Sadhana makes prarabdha (destiny) bearable for an individual

One may get perplexed thinking about what is the benefit of doing Sadhana (spiritual practice) if all events in our life are governed by prarabdha (destiny). The answer to this is that an individual has to face and exhaust his destiny at any cost. By doing sadhana, the prarabdha (destiny) becomes bearable for an individual. While doing a surgery, a patient is given anesthesia so that the patient does not feel pain. In the same manner, doing sadhana (spiritual practice) gives the strength to face the prarabdha (destiny). Difficulties cease to appear like difficulties due to the strength derived from sadhana. Additionally, an individual can get to experience how God takes care of His devotee even when he is in a sea of difficulties. A very good example of this is Saint Meerabai. She belonged to the royal family. She was an ardent devotee of Lord Krushna right from Her childhood. Her in-laws did not favor Her devotion to Lord Krushna and so they tried very hard to kill Her. They poisoned Her. Due to Her devotion, the poison did not have any effect on Her. This is a great example illustrating how God makes the prarabdha (destiny) bearable or reduces the severity of the prarabdha for an individual who has spiritual strength and devotion. Another thing to also remember is that we still have 35% of kriyaman karma (wilful actions) which can help us overcome the prarabdha.

3 b. Sadhana is needed for an individual to get liberated from the birth-death cycle

Just as attending school is necessary for an individual to get educated, so also one should do spiritual practice if one has to make progress in Spirituality. A soul keeps taking birth repeatedly till it makes spiritual progress and attains liberation (mukti). Will an individual who keeps doing good deeds but does not undertake any spiritual practice in his lifetime get liberation? The answer to this is ‘No’. The result of good deeds done by an individual, takes him to Heaven after death. He will remain in Heaven till the positive effect of the good deeds lasts following which he will again have to take birth on earth to face and exhaust the remaining part of his prarabdha (Destiny) of all previous births. A person who commits sin makes a decline in his spiritual quotient and he will not get a human birth immediately. On the contrary, he has to take 84 lakh births through the forms of worms, animal, bird, tree etc. Thus, the soul gets caught in continuous birth-death cycle when one does not undertake spiritual practice.

3 c. Why does one keep taking rebirth?

But we don’t make the necessary efforts for this. Ironically, most of us are not even aware of this aspect of human birth and get entangled in materialistic world – bungalow, jobs, cars, wealth etc.

When one does good spiritual practice, his prarabdha (destiny) gets wiped off and he gets liberated from the birth-death cycle due to the strength derived from the spiritual practice and also due to the blessings of Saints. An individual who does spiritual practice gets a place in higher regions of Heaven (swarga) after death – that is, Maharlok, Janalok, Tapalok and Satyalok. Spiritual practice can be continued from these regions and one can attain Moksha. This is why spiritual practice is of utmost importance.

Even if one does not believe in rebirth or in the laws of karma or even if one is not desirous of incurring merit / demerit, he definitely cannot escape from it.

From the discussion so far, we would have understood that most part of the happiness and sorrow that we face in life are due to the effects of karma of previous births. If one has to go beyond good and bad deeds and attain Moksha, then spiritual practice is unavoidable.

Let us now try to understand one important aspect of spiritual practice relevant to the current time. In Kaliyuga, chanting is the prescribed spiritual practice. It has been observed that many people chant the name of the deity they like or in the manner that they feel is right. None of this chanting gets wasted and so it is fine to chant the name of the deity you like. But as per the current times, it is required to chant the name of Kuladevata in addition to what you are already doing.

 

4. Importance of chanting Kuladevata’s name

4 a. Chanting the Name of Kuladevata helps in spiritual progress

God chooses each individual to be born in that particular family (kula) whose family deity he needs to worship so as to make spiritual progress. That deity of the family (kula) is known as the family deity (Kuladevata). The word Kuladevata is a combination of two words ‘Kula’ and ‘Devata’. The family (kula) deity is Kuladevata. Worshipping of family deity (Kuladevata) activates the Kundalini Shakti (Spiritual energy) in muladhar chakra, which initiates the spiritual progress.

4 b. Chanting the family deity’s name benefits the seeker with all the Godly principles in the universe

When the subtle body has imbibed all the principles in the universe, spiritual practice is said to be complete. Chanting the names of deities like Vishnu, Shiva, Ganapati, etc. helps in increasing that particular godly principle. But to attract all the Godly principles in the universe and to increase it by 30% can be attained only by Kuladevata chanting. It is like taking vitamin A, B, C, D, etc. as a supplement to reduce the deficiency of that particular vitamin in the body. Just like a doctor who prescribes multivitamin for multiple deficiencies, similarly the family Deity’s name is like general tonic which increases multiple Godly principles which we are deficient in.

The family Deity (Kuladevata) is the presiding Deity of the pruthvitattva (earth element). Hence, if we begin our spiritual practice (sadhana) with the worship of this Deity, we do not face any kind of distress.

If one has both, Kuladev and Kuladevi, then chanting ones Kuladevi’s name is more suitable. Children always reach out to their mother first because she is closer; similarly it is easier to propitiate the Kuladevi.

4 c. How to chant the family Deity’s name?

The family Deity’s name should be chanted prefixing ‘Shri’ to it followed by the dative case (chathurthi pratyaya) and concluding with namaha. For example, if the family Deity is Bhavanidevi, one should chant ‘Shri Bhavanidevyai Namaha’. If the family Deity is Renukadevi, one should chant ‘Shri Renukadevyai Namaha’.

If one has only a Kuladev, then prefix ‘Shri’ before the Deity’s name followed by the dative case (chathurthi pratyaya) and concluding with Namaha. For example, if the family Deity is Shri Venkatesh, then chant ‘Shri Venkateshaya Namaha’. Similarly if Kuladev is Shri Ganesh, then chant ‘Shri Ganeshaya Namaha’.

Many of them are not aware of their Kuladevata, in this case one can chant ‘Shri Kuladevatayai Namaha’. Many have had spiritual experience that by doing this chant with faith, the seeker meets someone who guides him to the family Deity.

Marriage is considered to be a woman’s rebirth. Hence, after marriage a woman should chant the name of the family Deity of the in-laws.

Daily, one should do the chanting of Kuladevi for at least one to two hours or chant continuously. Chanting has no restrictions of time, place, shouch-ashouch, suver-sutak (period of abstention following birth or death in the family). This chanting can be done as per our time schedule by sitting in one place. Also, since chanting can be done anytime, anywhere, you can do it along with other day-to-day activities like cooking, watching television, mobile, travelling and should be done as and when possible.

4 d. In Spirituality, completeness can be achieved only by chanting.

To unite with the infinite Godly principle (Parmeshwar), one has to perform spiritual practice (sadhana) continuously that is, 24 hours.

One cannot study the Vedas and Upanishads as in Dnyanyoga, do all the dhyan-dharana (mediatation), tratak and pranayama as in Karmayoga, or worship Deity and do bhajan and kirtan as per Bhaktiyoga for all 24 hours. But one can certainly chant continuously for 24 hours and achieve completeness. Hence chanting is considered as one of the best spiritual practice.