Sharanagati

(continues from the previous Monday)

“One should hold one’s body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus, with an unagitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon Me within the heart and make Me the ultimate goal of life.”[1]

“Devoid of fear.” Fear is a very old friend of human beings. Many times we can see that the power that drives people is fear. If you look at yourself, you will also find your personal fears. They are many. But basically all these fears can be traced back to one ultimate fear – the fear of death. Why it is there? It is there, because we do live, we exist – therefore nonexistence is very fearful, it is very strange for us. This is such a strange feeling that makes you fearful. But if we understand that we are eternal souls, then this fear is removed. So, life is ours. We live eternally. There is no reason to fear. Remember that.

And “completely free from sex life”. Touchy question. ‘Sex is the goal of my life!’ Not my life, but this is the goal of life. ‘It’s so interesting!’ Although the same old story is repeated hundreds of times, but still it’s interesting. ‘All right, maybe this is not a function of my heart chakra, a little lower, but still it’s a chakra, it’s my system, God has given this to me for some reason – either to use it or misuse it. Maybe this was the reason.’ Or maybe to subdue it?

Sexuality is a natural function, but practically it is according to our acquired second material nature. This is a very powerful driving force of nature for multiplication. And this multiplication comes from the divine function of creation. Divine creative power is represented by human desire for multiplication. Why then it is said that we have to be free from it? Because if we examine our life, so much time and energy is wasted on this biological function – which is performed by the pigeons and even the flowers. It’s not a big deal. We should find some higher goal of our life than simply this biological function of multiplication. Because as fathers and mothers you know that this engages you so much – I mean the consequences, to raise a kid – it’s a very nice duty, but it’s a very demanding duty.

The expression in the verse was: brahmacari-vrate sthitah; sthita means “firm” in brahmacari-vrata, vrata means “vow” and brahmachari means “to live according to Brahman”. Brahma means “divine, godly” and chari means “action”. So it is not limited to refraining from sexuality, but it means that you live as a student and practitioner of the divine science. And such a period, as a student, is very, very useful. It doesn’t mean that you can never have a family or you can never have children. Yet such a training period when you raise and use your energy in the highest possible sense is very beneficial. And brahmacharya, as a celibate student life, is glorified by the Vedas all over. They say that the brahmacharis are the glory of the world. All the angels and all the demigods are praising the brahmacharis. Because they have dedicated their lives to God Supreme, fully. Their actions are for the Supreme, in harmony with the supreme will, divine will.

So, it’s very glorious to learn how to control this natural function. And if we can control all these functions – subdue the mind, get rid of the fear and stop a little bit this sexual instinct – then “one should meditate upon Me within the heart”. Then your meditation will be very fruitful, because your attention is not diverted by other factors.

So, this is the way to practice meditation properly. Your sankalpa, your determination should be to purify your existence, and this is the know-how, this is the way how to do it properly. And even the very knowledgeable classical yogis acknowledge that purity of the heart is very important in the chakra system. Because when your energy starts to awake, when the kundalini-shakti is raising the hoods, that means your system is activated. The power residing in your basic chakras starts to move upwards. As the basic chakras are the down three chakras and intellectual chakras are the top three chakras, the intermediate transmitter is the heart chakra. And even these yogis acknowledge that after raising your energies to the crown chakra, it will descend back to the heart. That means you will be a very mild, very gentle, very nice human being, very warm-hearted. But if the heart is not pure, then this transfer of energies up and down is broken and you might face big problems.

So, what is the practice of the bhaktas? Do they sit in meditation to awake their kundalini? Or do they meditate their heart chakra to be purified passively? No, we chant the holy names, because Mahaprabhu said that this is the best way to purify the heart. And your chakra system will automatically be harmonized and activated. Therefore if you follow the principles of bhakti-yoga, practically you can accomplish anything that you like.

[1] Bhagavad Gita 6.13-14