Saturday, September 22, 2007
GITA 108 DAYS - Day 54
54. Performing rituals is not serving God
Undertaking rituals is not serving the Lord. Great Sankaracharya himself apologized to the Lord saying that he has committed three ‘mistakes’ – “I mediated upon Your form knowing fully that You are form-less.! I extolled Your virtues with words although words can never describe You. I went around in pilgrimages pretending to scale Your entire abodes and thereby tried to limit Your unfathomable vastness”. When we do these, we should do it with the full knowledge of their limitations and realize that they are not the truth itself. When we go to a temple, we should have this attitude or otherwise, the Lord will be a mere stone for us. Old temples were never used to be covered in gold nor were there any notices showing information on the cost of doing certain rituals. One shouldn’t go to a temple to get a job, cure a disease or pass an examination. One should go to the temple to seek the truth and to attain mental peace.
Serving God is to inquire into Him and one wins over the delusion of maya by becoming an inquirer. He is unattached and is dependent on nothing. He doesn’t have any worldly relationships and he is unaffected by the three ‘gunas’ – satvic, rajasic and thamasic. He has no concern about anything to be gained or anything to be protected. He has discarded the fruits of actions, the sense of ownership of actions, and all dualities such as sorrow and happiness. He has even abandoned and surpassed the Vedas to be steadfast in the chosen path of self realization. Such a person is not affected by maya.
Bhagavan declares that all the three kind – satvic, rajasik and tamasic- of emotions have been originated in Him. “They all exist in Me, but they are not Me”. It is like the ocean declaring that the waves are in me, but I am not the waves. We do not realize God as we are covered by the three gunas. Only those who look internally within will know God and win over the power of maya. Those who are engrossed in sensory pleasures and demonic attitudes will have their knowledge veiled by maya. Such people will end up doing evil acts and such fools do not attain God.
Three types of people worship God. -those who are suffering due to the fact that they are not achieving the desired objects, those who are desirous of gathering knowledge or wealth and those who want liberation. Among these, some are very rare and special- they are men of wisom, steadfast in their conviction that the Lord is not different from them.
Undertaking rituals is not serving the Lord. Great Sankaracharya himself apologized to the Lord saying that he has committed three ‘mistakes’ – “I mediated upon Your form knowing fully that You are form-less.! I extolled Your virtues with words although words can never describe You. I went around in pilgrimages pretending to scale Your entire abodes and thereby tried to limit Your unfathomable vastness”. When we do these, we should do it with the full knowledge of their limitations and realize that they are not the truth itself. When we go to a temple, we should have this attitude or otherwise, the Lord will be a mere stone for us. Old temples were never used to be covered in gold nor were there any notices showing information on the cost of doing certain rituals. One shouldn’t go to a temple to get a job, cure a disease or pass an examination. One should go to the temple to seek the truth and to attain mental peace.
Serving God is to inquire into Him and one wins over the delusion of maya by becoming an inquirer. He is unattached and is dependent on nothing. He doesn’t have any worldly relationships and he is unaffected by the three ‘gunas’ – satvic, rajasic and thamasic. He has no concern about anything to be gained or anything to be protected. He has discarded the fruits of actions, the sense of ownership of actions, and all dualities such as sorrow and happiness. He has even abandoned and surpassed the Vedas to be steadfast in the chosen path of self realization. Such a person is not affected by maya.
Bhagavan declares that all the three kind – satvic, rajasik and tamasic- of emotions have been originated in Him. “They all exist in Me, but they are not Me”. It is like the ocean declaring that the waves are in me, but I am not the waves. We do not realize God as we are covered by the three gunas. Only those who look internally within will know God and win over the power of maya. Those who are engrossed in sensory pleasures and demonic attitudes will have their knowledge veiled by maya. Such people will end up doing evil acts and such fools do not attain God.
Three types of people worship God. -those who are suffering due to the fact that they are not achieving the desired objects, those who are desirous of gathering knowledge or wealth and those who want liberation. Among these, some are very rare and special- they are men of wisom, steadfast in their conviction that the Lord is not different from them.
# posted by Sukumar Canada @ 6:21 PM 
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Good to have such expositions. Can the original stanza by Shankaracharya on the 'mistakes' committed by him be please quoted in the original Sanskrit? Thank you very much.
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