Re: [Fwd: manobodhaH - 9]

From the Bhakti List Archives

• March 7, 1998


namaskaaraM,

Thank you all for the feedback, mails & stories in response to the 
manobodhaH postings. I'm very happy with this participation :-)
makes the effort worthwhile :-) :-)

Srini's mail reminded me of the following:

"For a householder, Bhagavat Dharma or Bhakti is the way of God 
Realization. Here you do not reject action which is alloted to you
by God in the situation in which he places you, but do it in a
spirit of surrender or dedication to the Lord".

"The core of bhakti is chanting of God's name with surrender".

"Rememberance of God by chanting His name gives purity of mind and
puts the individual in tune with the infinite."

"There is no easier way to reach God than the singing of His name".

So let us always remember Him whenever we have a free moment or
better still let us make moments 'free' so that we can remember Him.
Slowly from 'moments' we will move to 'constant rememberance' ...

over to Srini ...

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From: "MS. SUDHA RANGRAJAN" 
Date: Fri 21:12
Subject: Re: [Fwd: manobodhaH - 9]

Hi Shree

Read the beautiful story sent in by giri and shanthi.

In that he makes a very pertinent point of how we have to tie our
minds to the lord to control it.

There was this person who went to a master and narrated his tale of 
poverty. Taking pity on him the master initiated him into a mantra 
which would invoke a spirit, the only condition was that the spirit
should be constantly given work, otherwise it would eat up the invoker.

The poverty striken man thought of all his needs and was not in the
least worried abt keeping the spirit occupied.

He went home and did the necessary purificatory rites and then chanted
the mantra to invoke the spirit. He then started off on the long list of 
all that he required. The spirit was most efficient and whatever he asked
was done in a twinkling of an eye. He had now exhausted his list but still
the spirit asked for more work saying that it would eat him up if he did
not give it work.

The worried man ran all the way to the master who only smiled and told him 
to go to his new house's backyard and install a pole and ask the spirit
to go up and down that pole as teh next work.

The man went back home and did likewise and thereby was saved from being
eaten up and the spirit was kept occupied and also available for use
at a later date.

The Spirit is the mind and when it is not required for use it should
be told to go up and down the pole of Japa or Kirtana of the lord. This
will keep the mind out of mischief while at the same time it will also
be available for use whenever we require it. 

To recoin an old saying 

Let "an empty mind be the Lords workshop"

Sri Ramakrishna used to say that the further we go to the east the more
we move away from the west. Similarly the more we cultivate the love
for the lord in our hearts the more the worldly desires will fall away.

Swami Turiyananda in one of his letters says that we need to patiently
wait at the door of the lord and wait for his grace. Do we not wait at
the door of our boss how gives us our salary and wait till he calls us
in. Likewise let us waitat the door of the lord of lords who gives us our
very life and this is one very good way to increase our devotion for him.

This much for now.

Thank u very much for sharing the Manobodha, am really enjoying it and
having fun. 

love

Srini