We started the class with opening prayers, pranayam and meditation.
During this ongoing crisis of the Covid 19, it is very easy for us to get overwhelmed and anxious. We briefly discussed ways to keep ourselves calm and peaceful as much as possible. It is very important to keep up our everyday Sadhana, and if possible enhance it further. It also helps to see and appreciate even small things in our day to day life and being grateful for all that we have. We should try to see the goodness in people, no matter the situation or the equation we have with them. Seeing the goodness in everyone and everything is easier said than done. However, it can be started slow, and with conscious effort and practice, this can be achieved. It again depends on the sadhana package we are following. Sadhana helps develop vairagya or detachment. We then reach a point when we are able to reset our perceptions about the people we are interacting with. We need to do this reset everyday !
We discussed some examples for this. One was about a small businessman in India, who purchased books, shirts etc from Chinmaya ashram very frequently. He ran a business with all handicapped staff. Curious as to why he bought so many things so often, someone asked him. His answer was that he bought them to gift them to certain people who he had business interactions with and who expected bribes from him. Gifting these items was his way to touch the good side of them and influence them in a positive way, which might reduce their desire to take the bribes in future. He chose to see the goodness in people.
Another example was the story in which Lord Krishna was asked to manage the footwear of people. He did even that job with utmost love and commitment. It shows that whatever be the work, whoever be the persons we are interacting with, we can give our best and also see goodness or Brahman in everyone.
We watched Gurudev's videos for Shlokas 6, 7 and 8. A brief summary is as follows :
There are two pre requisites for successful spiritual seeking. Firstly, all the actions should be surrendered to the Lord, for He is the highest goal to be reached. Every action should be guided by the aspiration to achieve the goal. The mind cannot be allowed to dissipate into other things that can deviate us from the goal.
Secondly, for sometime everyday, bring all mental attention to the Lord EXCLUSIVELY.
A person can choose either a path of devotion or a path of contemplation. When all actions, physical, mental or intellectual are oriented in the Lord, all the emotions and thoughts become one with him. With steady contemplation, the vasanas are exhausted. As the vasanas are getting exhausted, the mind and and intellect become more steady. Steadier the mind, greater the contemplation. Greater contempletion in turn reduces the vasanas. After these cycles of vasana exhaustion, a time will come when one is uplifted from the shore less ocean of death and plurality. How long this takes, depends on the amount of vasanas each person has.
nice summary!
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