Waves of Devotion

Dhanurdhara Swami August 26th, 2024

Suffering is when we either don’t have what we are attached to (hankering), or we lose that which we are attached to (lamenting). Therefore, the greatest suffering is death where our present life ends, and everything connected with it is taken away. Death, however, is the illusion of non-existence. Our greatest problem therefore doesn’t exist. Death and all material problems are thus ultimately perceptual and not actual.

 

All spiritual processes therefore deal with raising one’s awareness or perception with an understanding that the higher the level of our perception (the more we are free from illusion), the higher our contentment. We will discuss a few of those processes here.

 

Yoga: The purpose of yoga is to bring the mind to sattva, which literally means the nature of being or reality. The mind is a lens or mirror which in sattva, or its true nature, is not distorted or stained by frivolous thoughts. This is accomplished by meditation, or the focus on a single thought or object, which quells the other thoughts distorting the mirror of the mind and brings it to a higher level of perception and contentment.

 

Dharma: At any moment we are faced with a myriad of choices. Dharma is the science of correct or righteous action, the option we choose which elevates the mind to a higher level of perception and contentment.

 

Karma: Karma is God’s law that provides a destiny to give us realizations that elevate us to a higher level of perception and contentment. Reality is like an intricate crossword puzzle and realizations are the pieces of that puzzle. Karma gives us those realizations that help us fill in the picture of the ultimate truth.

 

Śāstra: Our mind is composed of two types of thoughts—kliṣṭa-vṛtti, bad or troubling thoughts and akliṣṭa-vṛtti, good or untroubling thoughts. Bad thoughts are attachments to those things degrading to our consciousness (lying, lust and so on), and aversion to those things that are elevating for consciousness (simplicity and sexual restraint and so on). Good thoughts are just the opposite—attachment to elevating thoughts and aversion to degrading ones. A good and peaceful mind is therefore one with elevated awareness due to a predominance of good thoughts. But how do we change the mind? We change the mind by good ideas which come from the śāstra. If śāstra is presented properly, it will inspire us to contemplate the benefit of good thoughts and then see the world through them. If this is done repeatedly, those thoughts become firmly embedded in our mind as akliṣṭa-vṛtti and we no longer see the world skewed by our selfish desires.

 

Bhakti: The first glory of chanting the holy name is ceto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ, it cleans the mirror of the mind.

 

One time a student was visiting me for a retreat in Colombia. It was a very challenging time in her life. She said she would just come to my class and that was it. Somehow, she decided to sit just for a few minutes for Jaya Jagannath’s class on the Yoga-sūtras which was directly after mine. It was so engaging that she stayed for the whole thing. Directly after class she came to see me and with fervor expressed her realization after hearing the morning classes, especially the Yoga-sūtras, reflecting on her own challenges, “It’s the mind!”

 

Conclusion, our problems are perceptual and not actual!

 

 

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