EE7.5 - Puńya All Twenty-Four Hours

Puńya All Twenty-Four Hours

Published in:
Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 12
Bábá in Fiesch

Notes:

official source: Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 12

this version: is the printed Ánanda Vacanámrtam Parts 11 & 12, 1st edition, 2008, version (obvious spelling, punctuation and typographical mistakes only may have been corrected). I.e., this is the most up-to-date version as of the present Electronic Edition.

Bábá in Fiesch, which was published in December, 1979, and Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 12, which was published in 1980, each contained a version of this discourse. There were slight differences between the versions. The two versions may have resulted from two independent transcriptions of the same tape when the tape was available. The Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 12 version was reprinted in Ánanda Vacanámrtam Parts 11 & 12. Words in double square brackets [[ ]] here in the Electronic Edition are corrections that did not appear in the printed Ánanda Vacanámrtam Parts 11 & 12; they are mostly words incorporated from the Bábá in Fiesch version where that version seemed more logical.

Published in Bábá in Fiesch as “Bhakti – Devotion”.

Online additional information

There was an intellectual – an intellectual giant. His name was Shankaracharya. Although he was an intellectual he said, Mokśa kárańasamagráḿ bhaktireva gariiyasii. That is, “Amongst all the approaches, all the spiritual cults, devotion is the best – devotion is the highest order.” So a man [[who]] may or may not be an intellectual and who has not been established in the actional faculty, may attain salvation if only he has got bhakti in him, devotion in him. Truly speaking, knowledge or intellectual pursuit is itself a cult. The actional faculty is also a cult. But bhakti is not a cult. Bhakti is the goal. Devotion is not a cult – devotion is the goal. Shankaracharya, the great intellectual, said:

Tyaja durjana saḿsargaḿ bhaja sádhu samágamam;
Kuru puńyam ahorátraḿ smara nitya anityatám.

[Avoid association with the wicked and associate with the virtuous. Do good twenty-four hours a day, and remember the eternal.]

What is a devotee to do? Tyaja durjana saḿsargam – “you should give up the company of durjanas.” Who is a durjana? I will explain. A man whose company will deteriorate or deprave the standard of others is a durjana for those persons. Suppose you have fifteen degrees of virtue and another man has vice of twenty degrees. What will be the resultant balance? The resultant balance will be five in favour of vice. You will acquire five degrees of vice. So that man having twenty degrees of vice is a durjana for you. Have you understood the meaning of durjana?

However, if a saint who has got eighty degrees of virtue comes in contact with that bad man having twenty degrees of vice, what will happen? That bad man, that durjana, will become sajjana. That bad man will become good. But if you come into contact with that bad man, you will become bad because his degree of vice is more than your degree of virtue. So you should avoid the company of your durjana. A great man, a saint, may not need to avoid the company of that bad man because for him he is not a bad man. But for you he is a bad man. So you should avoid the company of such persons who are durjanas for you.

Thus durjana is a relative term. The first point – the first direction – of Shankaracharya was Tyaja durjana saḿsargam – “You should avoid the company of persons who are durjana for you,” whose degree of vice is more than the degree of virtue in you.

Bhaja sádhu samágamam – “try to be with sádhus.” Who is a sádhu? The man whose company will develop your standard of morality, your standard of virtue, and who will exalt you towards spirituality, is a sádhu for you. You should always try to remain with a sádhu.

Kuru puńyam ahorátram – “You should always be engaged in puńya.” What is puńya? There was a great saint who lived about 3500 years ago. His name was Vyása. Vyása wrote eighteen scriptures. Vyása said while explaining puńyam:

Ast́ádasha puráńeśu Vyásasya vacanádvayam;
Paropakára puńyáya pápáya parapiid́anam.

In those eighteen scriptures written by Vyása, the central idea was that whenever you do something good, when you render some selfless service to the society, there must be some reaction. Each and every action has got an equal and opposite reaction, provided those three fundamental relative factors – time, space and person – remain unchanged. This is the rule. If you do something good, naturally there will be a good reaction. Whenever you render any service to a man, and especially a selfless service, in reaction you will get something. You may or may not want it but the reaction will be there and that reaction is called puńya. And if you do anything bad, anything harmful or deteriorating, then that reaction is called pápa or sin.

Kuru puńyam ahorátram. You should be engaged in puńya work ahorátram. Ahorátram means “all the twenty-four hours”. As per occidental calculations of astronomy as well as of astrology, the day starts from zero hours just after twelve midnight. As per oriental calculations, the day starts at sunrise. From sunrise to sunrise – twenty-four hours – is the oriental system of calculation, and from zero hour to twenty-four hours, midnight, is the system of occidental calculation. Ahorátram – aho means “daytime” – from sunrise to sunset – and rátram means “nighttime” – from sunset to sunrise. So for all the twenty-four hours you should be engaged in what? puńya. And what puńya is I have just now explained.

Now, one may ask, “In the daytime you may do puńya work, but while sleeping how can you do puńya work?” The reply is that for doing puńya work, you require psycho-spiritual strength. For doing something bad you do not require any moral courage, or any spiritual strength. But for doing good work you must have moral and spiritual strength. That strength you acquire through dhyána and japa – that is, meditation and repeating the incantation within your mind.

Now this japa is adjusted to your breathing, inhalation and exhalation. So if you practise it properly what will happen? Even while sleeping, automatically this japa kriyá will go on in accordance with your respiration – in accordance with your inhalation and exhalation. So while asleep you can do this thing. This is called ajapájapa. That is, there is no special endeavour from your side – the japa goes on automatically. Thus during the night you can also do puńya. Kuru puńyam ahorátram – “For all the twenty-four hours you can do puńya.”

Smara nitya anityatám. You should remember always that you have come here for a short span. You won’t remain in this world for a long period. You may remain here, say, for ninety or a hundred years, or say for 150 years. Some saints like Traelauṋga Svámii lived here for 350 years. He lived in Varanasi in India and died in this twentieth century. But you are to live under certain limitations – limitations of time, space and person.

So you should always remember that you have come here for a very short span. It is just like a waiting room of a railway station. You remain there for a short period and when the train comes, you leave the waiting room. This world is just like that waiting room. You are to remain here for a very short span.

You should always remember this fact – “I have come here for a short span and I won’t remain here for a very long period. My home is elsewhere. I am just like a tourist.” You should always remember this fact. And as a universal tourist, you, while leaving for your permanent home, will not require a passport.