Sharanagati

Those, who had achieved the causeless mercy of Lord Nityananda – he is the archetype of guru, the teacher, the help – who had achieved the mercy of a master, for them the material desires become insignificant. Why? Because I have got something much better. I’ve got a higher taste. And if we feel the higher taste it’s VERY easy to give up the lower taste. When you only fight with the lower taste, it’s almost no end of the story.

Therefore we need a higher cultivation. A lower taste means anartha – no artha, no value. So if we cultivate no values, what kind of results we expect? Therefore we have to cultivate good values – that is, you remember – artha pravritti. Anartha nivritti – non cultivation of any values and atrha pravritti – cultivation of values.

But how to do this? Simply if we practice with pure intention the devotional tradition and if we check everything on the balance of acceptance – that I can fully accept with my heart and soul –then I can perform on the appropriate level, in the necessary mood. If I cannot give my heart fully, if I cannot agree fully with the advice or with the steps, it will be very difficult to reach the goal. We can do, we can perform, but the result will be missing, it will be postponed.

Therefore it is suggested by Shrila Shridhara Maharaj that we should measure the things on the scale of guru, shastras, sadhu. The basic principle is the shastras, the scriptures; then the advice of the spiritual master and the practice of the saints. And there is a very important fourth element also and this is the heart and soul. Sometimes we are ready to neglect this element; although I feel that this is very important. And if we have the willingness to take, to perform, to follow even the most difficult and the most unusual expectation, then we are off the hook, it’s not necessary to perform that.

Once a young man was calling me and he told me: “O, I’m going to marry.” Very nice, my boy! And he said: “And the lady is also a devotee and she is very nice! The only problem is that she is living in a different country. And whenever we talk on the phone, very nice conversations we have. But when I suggest to her that she should come to me or I should go to her, she rejects!” Because this devotee is of very fiery nature, so if he wants something, he wants it very fast, very quick. So I told him: “My dear boy, you have to be ready to wait for seven years and then you can be sure the lady will come.” And he was shocked: “I have to wait for SEVEN years!!!” And I tried my best to make him understand that he doesn’t have to wait seven years – only he has to have the WILLINGNESS to wait for seven years.

In the same way, if we have this WILLINGNESS then we can perform. If difficult or demanding advice is coming to us and we have the willingness, then either it will be very easy to perform, or we don’t really have to perform, to take the trouble. By achieving mercy, by getting mercy we can go very smoothly. And divine mercy never leaves us. One great mistake is when you feel that I’m not connected. Show me one place where Krishna is not there! Show me one moment when you are not connected! This is a permanent, an overall contact! This is the way to establish a permanent state of consciousness. Therefore I fully agree as I have learned from Ashoka that love is not a feeling, this is a vision, this is an approach. This should be a permanent state of our consciousness, not transitory feelings. Because that is “sthai”, that is permanent. Sthai is the next step; when you have this anartha nivritti and artha pravritti, when you cultivate your values, then you can come to an established level. So our vision to the world should be this generous, this friendly; we must have a friendly view.