Importance of Tattva Gyan by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj

If you can remember tattva gyan (philosophy) at all times,  you are unlikely to comment sin.  Even if your mind does wander towards the world or bad thoughts, you will immediately remember that Shyamsundar is sitting inside of you, noting your every thought.  You even tend to hide things from your Guru and therefore commit sins by maintaining your privacy.  However, this privacy is ruining you because it is a big stumbling block on the path of devotion.  You fail to believe that God is omnipresent.  If you believe it, you will realize God.

Thus, tattva gyan is extremely important.  There are several topics related to tattva gyan i.e. What is raag-dvesh or panchmahabhut or abhinivesh and so on?  However,you need only remember three points : sambandh, abhideya and prayojan.  What is our relationship with Shree Krishna? What should we do to establish and complete that relationship, and what is the aim behind what we are doing?  As your tattva gyan deepens, you will keep moving closer to God.

"Desires" - Which ones are condemnable and which ones are worth adopting?

All material desires right up to the abode of Brahma and even the desire for moksh (liberation) are condemnable and all desires relating to Shree Krishna, for the sake of our happiness, are neither condemnable nor adorable.

All desires relating to Shree Krishna purely for his happiness are praiseworthy and should be embraced.  The nature of devotion is that all desires for our own happiness are to be completely discarded.

It is in our nature to make ever new desires by constantly thinking and imagining that there is happiness in the material world.  This nature of ours will continue to torment us until we reach the last stage of God-realization.  At that level, it will become your very nature to love Shree Krishna wholeheartedly.  In fact you will not be able to survive without loving him.  Even a moment of forgetfulness will torment and suffocate you.  Therefore, the aim of all our desires should be to love and serve Shree Krishna solely for his happiness.

God Alone is Ours

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says that God has declared in Vedas that he alone is everything. All the souls belong to him. All of us who think that our worldly relations with our mother, father, husband, son, etc. to be true are actually ignorant. This is because they are temporary and stay with us until the point of death. We will again create new relationships in our next and subsequent lives. We may take birth as not just human beings, but other lower species too. In that case, a dog, a cat or a bear can be our father! In the same sequence, we have already made infinite fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters, etc., in our past infinite lifetimes. We can't trace them now. We can't reach them. So how can they be truly ours?
 

Just as waves are born out of an ocean, collide with each other and separate after sometime. The relation of a wave with other waves is temporary, whereas the relationship of a wave with the ocean is perpetual (it comes out of ocean and it merges back into ocean). Similarly, the soul, which resides in our body, will transmigrate into another body after death.  We will have a physical mother of that body again. There are 8.4 million species of life and we (soul) have traveled from one species to other because of our good deeds and sins. This human form is received very rarely.  It is scarcely available even to the celestial gods of heavenly abodes. 

                                      divyo deva eko nārāyaṇo mātā pitā bhrātā suhṛit gatiḥ

“O souls! I alone am your mother, father, brother. Not even this but everything you can imagine!” 

The material world and material relatives are all temporary. None of them are truly yours. You get deceived in every life by believing that your father of this current lifetime is your real father. It is nothing but a play-act of limited time period. So we should contemplate upon this fact repeatedly that we are eternal souls over and above our physical body. Soul is our real identity. So if this knowledge is firm, our mind will be detached from the worldly relations and we can attach our mind towards God with ease who is our true relative!!!

Detachment

jaga mahañ sukha dukha dou nahiṅ, asa ura dhari le jñān
sukha māne dukha milata hai, sukha na jagat mahañ mān

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj explains the true meaning of the word ‘detachment' and attachment’.  Most often the word ‘attachment’ is associated with love.  But this is not the complete meaning of the word.  Attachment means absorption of the mind.  This absorption of the mind can either be through love or even through hate.  Thus, whether it is through feelings of love or feelings of hate, or in any other way, the absorption of the mind in all cases is referred to as attachment.  When there is neither attachment through love nor attachment through hate that state is referred to as detachment or Non-attachment.

Ved Vyas ji says:

kāmaṁ krodhaṁ bhayaṁ snehamaikyaṁ sauhṛidameva cha
nityaṁ harau vidadhato yānti tanmayatāṁ hi te

“Whether the mind is attached to God through lust, anger, fear, love or through any other emotion, the result is attainment of God.”

Saint Kabir said:

kabirā khaṛā bajāra meṅ, sabakī māṅge khaira
nā kāhū soṇ dostī, nā kāhū soṅ baira

Detachment is living in the hustle and bustle of the world without feelings of friendship or enmity towards anyone.

Once you detach your mind from the material world, only then you can think of attaching it to God. We have only one mind and there are two areas where it can be attached-either in this material world or in God. There is no third realm where it can get attached. If our mind is engrossed in the thoughts of this material world, how it can love God?

The mind is attached to the world, because it is the firm decision of the intellect that there is definitely happiness in the material world.  In order to detach it, our intellect should make a resolution in every possible way and accept the fact that there is neither true happiness nor sorrow in the world.  When you think that worldly objects are the source of happiness, then, in their absence, you will feel sad.  Accept this fact that there is no real happiness in the world.

 

Importance of Human Life

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj in his speeches advises us strongly to do spiritual practice. We have got this human life only to do sadhana (devotion). Just observe that all other living forms have horizontal or inclined spinal columns. Only human beings have vertical spinal columns. This is symbolic of the fact that we humans have the opportunity to elevate ourselves upwards, through the power of knowledge. Hence, Shree Maharajji says, an individual has got this rare opportunity to uplift oneself spiritually by practicing devotion.

 The scriptures say :

durlabham mānuṣham janm prārthyate tridaśhairapi

There are 8.4 million species on earth and the human form of life is the rarest amongst them. It is so rare that even celestial Gods long to attain the human form. So do not waste this life in fulfilling the desires of these material senses. We have been doing this since eternity as we transmigrated in the 8.4 million forms.

āhār nidrā bhay maithunañch sāmānyametatpaśhubhirnarāṇām

Even animals pursue the pleasures of eating, sleeping, defending and procreation. We have got this rarest of opportunities of having acquired a human body, and we must attempt to rise above the level of these four basic activities, by using our intellect. If we know the importance of this human life then we will not waste even a single moment of it.

kṣhaṇārdhamapi vyarthe naneyam

Chanakya Pandit said: The biggest mistake and act of ignorance in our lives is that moment when we forgot to remember Shree Krishna. We lose that moment and it never comes back. So, we have to speedily progress towards attaining the goal of human life. This is our golden opportunity and we can make full use of it by utilizing every moment in remembering God. One day, we will have to leave this human body and go, whether we like it or not. This body will never remain with us.     

 In one of his bhajans, Shree Maharajji says:

                                                      avasar bītyo jāt are man 

O my mind! This golden chance is passing away.

We are asleep in an illusionary trance created by our own mind. We are approaching death everyday and yet we cheerfully celebrate our birthday. We do not realize that each day which is passing by, is not a joyful moment, but a matter of regret, that so much time has passed away and very little remains. So, without further delay and realizing that this body is temporary, we should start doing sadhana from this moment. 

Golden quotes

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj

• Knowledge is destroyed by associating with the base; with equals equality is gained, and with the distinguished, distinction.

• Dost thou desire that thine own heart should not suffer, redeem thou the sufferer from the bonds of misery.

• To friends and eke to foes true kindness show;

            No Kindly heart unkindly deeds will do;
            Harshness will alienate a bosom friend.
            And kindness reconcile a deadly foe.

• There is no greater grief in misery than to turn our thoughts back to happier times.

          O Memory! thou fond deceiver,
          Still importunate and vain;
          To former joys recurring ever,
          And turning all the past to pain.

GOD LIVES IN EACH AND EVERY LIVING BEING

God lives within each and every being, God says "If you wish to become a devotee then practice seeing God in each and every person, do not speak harshly to anyone, do not make him/her unhappy". Scriptures say that there is no greater sin than hurting someone else's feelings. Speak little, speak sweetly and increase your tolerance, increase your humility increase your sweetness. When you do this then the sadhana that you are doing; the devotion that you are practicing, will be saved up, it will not be destroyed.

DIVINE ASSOCIATION (SATSANG) AND MATERIAL ASSOCIATION(KUSANG)

There are only two areas in the world. One is divine,satya and the other is material,asatya. God and his saints who are beyond maya alone are 'satya'. Association with them through the complete involvement of the mind and intellect is referred to as 'satsanga', 'divine association'. Anything or anyone else apart from this naturally comes under the three modes of maya- 'tamasa','rajasa' and 'sattva'. Therefore, association with this area is referred to as 'kusanga','material association'. In short, whatever leads to the attachment of the mind and intellect to the divine is "satsanga",apart from this,everything else is "kusanga" or 'wrong association'.

LOVE GOD FROM THE HEART

एक बात याद रखो बस, अन्तःकरण का सम्बन्ध भगवान से और गुरु से हो. केवल सिर को पैर पर रख देने से काम नहीं बनेगा,आरती कर लेने से काम नहीं बनेगा,दक्षिणा दे देने से काम नहीं बनेगा. ये सब हेल्पर है. तुम्हारे पास जो कुछ है दो,सब ठीक है. सर्व समर्पण करना है गुरु को ,भगवान को, लेकिन इतने मात्र से काम नही बनेगा. 'अनुराग' सबसे प्रमुख है ,अन्तःकरण से प्यार.

Remember one thing that the relation of your Heart should be with God and Guru. Only Bowing your head to Guru's Lotus Feet ,only Doing Aarti will not do the work ,only Giving Donation will not serve the purpose .They all are helpers. Whatever you have you should give as we have to dedicate everything to Guru and God, but doing this only will not serve our purpose of God Realization. The main thing is Love for God from your heart, Love from the Heart.

AGE OF KALIYUG

There is no Age like the Age of Kali, in which one can attain God simply by chanting the holy name. Kaliyug is full of faults. However, its biggest virtue is that in this Age one can attain God by simply chanting His glories. In Kaliyug, the only recommended spiritual Sadhana is the chanting of Krishna’s names, attributes and pastimes. The action which bears fruit in twelve years in Satyug bears fruit in just one year in the Age of Treta. In Dvapar, the same action bears fruit in just one month. And in Kaliyug, the same action bears fruit in 24 hours.