The subject of today’s discourse is: What is The Path of Salvation? The longing for salvation is an innate tendency of the human mind; that is, each and every human being cherishes an inward desire for all-round emancipation. But in the absence of proper guidance, this human aspiration for emancipation remains unfulfilled. I said yesterday that in the pursuit of emancipation various actional urges and aspirations in the human mind have emerged.

Just as human beings attain freedom in social, cultural, moral and other spheres of life, they also attain freedom in the spiritual sphere as well. This spiritual freedom means to become one with Parama Puruśa in order to attain permanent salvation from physical, psychic and spiritual bondages. That is, the microcosms become one with the Macrocosm. This is the real emancipation. When spiritual aspirants undertake long and arduous spiritual practice, they always set out on their spiritual quest keeping the goal of Parama Puruśa fixed before them.

Now a question may arise: how can a spiritual aspirant place Parama Puruśa before his or her eyes, and why should one do so? And another question may also arise: what is the source of strength or capacity of a spiritual aspirant? We know from our philosophical knowledge that the Supreme Entity is always with human beings. Now what one should do is to fix one’s vision only on Him. As far as Parama Puruśa is concerned, He is always watching human beings: His vision is always on us. If there is some slight mistake in one’s ideation, all one’s endeavours in search of Parama Puruśa will become fruitless.

Human beings do karma (action) and think that thereby they will attain liberation from all actional bondages. Although it is true that through actions human beings can attain freedom from actional bondages. Whenever people perform actions they should always be aware that Parama Puruśa is always watching them, and they are performing the action not for their own personal satisfaction but for the satisfaction of Parama Puruśa. When a human being does something to please Parama Puruśa, this is called gopii bháva. The Saḿskrta word gopii means one who is in the very habit of pleasing Parama Puruśa. Now the actions of people who just perform actions without any love for Parama Puruśa in the core of their hearts, are fruitless – it is impossible to attain salvation through these types of actions devoid of cosmic ideation. The path of salvation lies elsewhere.

There are some people who perform rigorous penance: they sit in the middle of a ring of flames and in the process suffer a great deal. Others remain seated with their heads bent down and their legs upwards, thus subjecting themselves to much physical torture. They believe that this type of penance will lead to the exhaustion of their actional bondages accumulated for lives together. But this is not correct. The secret is that while performing any action, one must remember that Parama Puruśa is always watching one’s action. A genuine spiritualist will have to establish a relation of love with Parama Puruśa. Those who remain oblivious to this truth become unsuccessful in their mission, whatever might be the intensity of their penance. But when people undertake penance with cosmic ideation then Parama Puruśa will Himself guide them not to perform such rigorous but fruitless penances – as if He is telling them internally, “Just keep doing whatever I have told you to do.”

There are other people who practice yoga according to their belief that the intense practice of yoga will pave the way to salvation. While it is true that the systematic practice of yoga leads to spiritual emancipation, what is important is the type of yoga that is practiced. Yogashcittavrttinirodhah, suspension of all psychic propensities is yoga. What to call this suspension in which the mind and sense organs stop their functioning and the unit consciousness is also suspended? According to psychology, when the psychic pressure is removed, then the old suppressed propensities of that mind will again be revived and resume their original state. This type of yoga is only for display, to earn a few coins from the public to fill one’s belly. As a saint observed:

Muŕmuŕháye jat́á báŕáye mast phire jaesá bhaesá
Upar Khák lágáye man jyaesá ká taesá.

[Some people shave their heads, wear long beards, and move like big buffaloes; they smear their bodies with ashes, but internally their minds remain unchanged.]

Man ná ráuṋáiyá, ráuṋáile yogi kápŕá [“Instead of colouring your mind you simply dyed your cloth, O yogi!”]. These are useless pursuits.

Now what is the real yoga? Sarvácintáparityágoniscinta yoga ucyate. If the mind’s propensities are suspended, then all thought-processes will automatically stop. Will this lead to the Supreme Attainment? Certainly not. Theoretically when one’s psychic propensities are withdrawn, this is yoga no doubt, but is it the real spiritual yoga or unification? No. The real spiritual unification is defined as Saḿyoga yoga ityuktah jiivátamá Paramátmanah: when the unit consciousness and the Supreme Consciousness are fused into one, that is the real yoga. When does this take place? When the spiritual aspirants establish a relationship of sweet love with Parama Puruśa. In the absence of this sweet and loving relationship, human beings are bound to maintain a distance from Parama Puruśa out of fear. This is called mahimnabodha in the scriptures. “While Parama Puruśa is such a vast and exalted Entity and I am such an insignificant creature, how can I go near Him?” This sort of inferiority complex on the part of a spiritual aspirant is immensely harmful, and spiritual aspirants must be aware of this. I may be a very small creature, and indeed a drop of water is very insignificant in comparison to the vast ocean of water; but although small, that tiny drop of water is inseparably associated with the ocean itself. That drop never thinks that because it is a mere drop, how can it be associated with the great sea. In the same way, the arduous yogic practice of spiritual aspirants becomes meaningless if they fail to establish a sweet relation with Parama Puruśa.

There are still others who think that through the cultivation of knowledge they will attain Parama Puruśa: “Through knowledge I will know the true nature of Parama Puruśa and thereby my mind will attain emancipation.” This sort of thought is equally defective. How can one attain Parama Puruśa through knowledge? There is infinite knowledge, infinite strength and capacity in Parama Puruśa. From whatever angle of vision one looks at Him, one will never be able to fathom Him. The amount of knowledge or power or memory that is in Parama Puruśa is certainly lacking in any individual. Then with your small brain, with your shallow intellect, how will you understand him? So a person of knowledge is bound to become a cent per cent failure.

How can one attain Parama Puruśa through knowledge which in human beings is so limited? It is categorically impossible for human beings. Only in one way it may be possible, if a person of so-called knowledge develops love and attachment for Parama Puruśa, and by virtue of that love if he or she comes in the closest proximity of Parama Puruśa and says, sitting on His lap, “Oh Lord, kindly tell me what is Your real nature.” Now if out of love Parama Puruśa reveals His inner secret to such a person, then that person can know it, otherwise it will remain a secret forever.

There are still others who think that they can attain salvation by worshipping Parama Puruśa in a ritualistic manner by ringing bells or lighting candles, or offering flowers. No, they will also meet with equal failure because they are mere slaves of mechanical rituals. By following such rituals these people become bound within hard and fast routine activities. At a particular time they will light candles, ring bells, clean plates, offer flowers to the deity etc.; and in actuality as their whole attention is diverted to those mechanical activities, their cosmic ideation is completely forgotten. You may have seen that in the worship of certain deities some people are invited to the pandal (religious tent), and after a while they ask, “Well, the bell has already rung – is it time yet to receive the prasáda [holy food]?” They have come to such a state that their minds remain concentrated on the ringing of the bell in the expectation of the distribution of prasáda. And there are some people who surreptitiously approach the priest and whisper into his ears, “Can you please ring the bell quickly?”

As for those who chant the holy name of Krśńa but have no genuine love for Parama Puruśa, their minds are not on Him, they are simply thinking of the word “Krśńa.” And after some time their minds become diverted from the repetition of the word and become filled with undesirable thoughts – such as against whom they should file a lawsuit in the court, or whose field will be destroyed by their grazing cows, etc. This shows that unless there is genuine love for Parama Puruśa, the repetition of holy chants is useless and leads to wastage of both time and energy. Moreover, if during the repetition of holy names, Parama Puruśa is not the goal of one’s mind, then the power attained from that japa or repetition may also be misused. Suppose someone is sitting in meditation for one or two hours and thinking all sorts of undesirable thoughts – this is worse than not doing sádhaná at all because in this way the Sádhaka’s mind becomes even more degraded. There is a local proverb, “Gela bhaesá pánii me khuńt́ásamet” – when the buffalo runs into the pond, it drags its binding rope and stake with it.

Human beings meditate on Parama Puruśa and wrongly think that they are visualising. The question is, how can they visualise Parama Puruśa? The power to visualise Him comes from Him only – it is due to His Grace that the spiritual aspirants may catch a glimpse of Him. Thus the best approach is to think, “Oh Lord, please always maintain Your close vigil on me so that I may always act only according to Your desire.”

Now, who can think these types of thoughts? Only those who have deep devotion to Parama Puruśa. And those who bear no love for Him have nothing to say. If a person at the very sight of Parama Puruśa starts thinking within, “Oh, I have done so many misdeeds!” – is this the sign of one’s love for Parama Puruśa, or a sign of fear? Similarly, while meditating, if one thinks, “Oh Lord, tomorrow morning I must encounter my enemy in the battlefield. During that time do not keep your watch over me.” These are not the ideal thoughts for a genuine devotee: they do not produce any good result. On the contrary, people should always think, “Parama Puruśa is the very life of my life – I must love Him alone, and I will move according to His pleasure. He is the machine operator and I am the machine in His hands; I will work as and when He desires.”

What should be the nature of one’s love for Parama Puruśa? This entire universe is the creation of Parama Puruśa, and hence every microcosm is a child of Parama Puruśa. If I serve each and every microcosm, He will be pleased, and that will be the only way to establish a sweet relationship with Him: in no other way can it be done. Now what is the need to arouse love and affection for Him? In this way spiritual aspirants themselves will attain bliss. But those who are A-grade devotees will say, “We will establish a loving relationship with Parama Puruśa not so that we can derive pleasure from it, but rather so that He will be pleased thereby. Whether I get pleasure or not is immaterial.”

There is a story that once Lord Krśńa fell seriously ill. Various medicines were administered, but the disease could not be cured. Many physicians were consulted but no one could diagnose the disease. Finally Lord Krśńa Himself was asked, “What is the medicine for this disease?” He replied, “See here, if any of my true devotees agrees to give the dust particles of his or her feet, only that will cure my disease.” Then the sage Narada made a frantic search throughout the world to find such a true devotee, but as was expected, nowhere could such a devotee be found. Whomever Narada approached was shocked to hear such a proposal and protested, “How can we give the dust particles of our feet to the Lord? That would be the highest blasphemy, and for that we would be doomed into the lowest hell!” No such devotee as Lord Krśńa had suggested was to be found anywhere.

At long last Narada went to Vrajabhúmi, and there he explained the situation to the people. No sooner had they heard the news of Lord Krśńa’s illness than they cried out in chorus, “All right, we are ready to give our foot-dust for our Lord!” Flabbergasted, Narada asked them, “How can you say this? If your foot-dust is smeared on the forehead of the Lord, will you not incur great sin thereby?” The cowherds of Vrajabhúmi replied unhesitatingly, “Perhaps we may incur sin thereby, and we are ready to enter hell for that. But if the dust-particles of our feet can cure our beloved Lord, that would be wonderful.” This is the epitome of devotion, and to please Parama Puruśa we must develop this type of exclusive devotion.

So you should always remember one thing: that your spiritual practice, your mundane activities, your worldly ideology, your social, economic, and moral ideals in every sphere of your existence must be suffused with the ideation that you love your Lord, and you should love Him for only one reason – to please Him.