Do Not Bargain With God

Study Circle: 09/30/18

Do not bargain with God
Now, people pray to God to relieve them from pain, grief and loss, to confer on them health, strength and wealth but if you develop an intimate attachment to Him and make Him yours, then He will manage to give you all that you need. Do not demean the relationship into bargaining: give me this, then I shall give you this in exchange. If you insist on wages, you become a coolie (unskilled laborer). Become His own. He is providing for the idler, the insane, the shirker; can he not provide for you? The father feeds the sons, whether they are idlers or shirkers or steady workers in field or factory. When you offer God a fraction of your wealth, you do it out of conceit that the wealth is yours, that your hand is upper and the recipient’s hand is lower.

The ideal poem: SSS vol 6 chp 35.

Questions:
1. Swami says that we should not bargain with God.  In your opinion what are some reasons that can make man feel the need to bargain with God at times?

2. Swami says that we should make God ours.  Reflect a little.  How can this be challenging to an individual?

Have viveka (discrimination) and vairaayga (detachment) as security personnel

The mind too will disappear as soon as the enquiry starts, for it is like cloth composed of the warp and woof of yarn. Each yarn is a desire, a wish, an attachment. Remove them and the cloth vanishes. Delusion is the cotton, desire is the yarn, mind is the cloth. Through vairaagya (detachment), the warp and the woof can be pulled out. The saadhaka (spiritual aspirant) must have as his security personnel, viveka (wisdom) and vairaagya. Then he can move through the world unharmed. A sanyaasin (monk) once went right into the house of a zamindar (landowner), but he was surprised to find that the master of the house was having a mud bath; when asked why, he said, I want to show that I cannot afford anything costlier; though to tell you the truth, for you are a monk to whom I can confide this, I have hoarded a pretty heavy pile for a rainy day. The sanyaasin called him a fool and exhorted him to spend it on good works while he could. Do not be like the bees, which get only smoke for all the days of toil they spend at the hive to hoard the precious honey in the combs. They are smoked out and the comb removed for the honey. Do not postpone its disposal until the last breath, he said.

The one Purusha: SSS vol 6 chp 36.

Questions:
3. Swami mentions that a spiritual aspirant must have as his security personnel, wisdom and detachment.  In your opinion what is spiritual wisdom and why do you think we need it?

Please share your thoughts.

Relationship between all beings and God

Give the world only secondary importance; the primary place should be reserved for loosening its coils. The Jagadjanani (Mother of the Universe) will hurry towards you and caress you only when you cast off the dolls and cry. Yearn from the very depths of the heart, yearn with your whole being. Leave no sesham (balance) of attachment in the mind; then only can you get the grace of Sesha-saayee —He who reclines on the Supernal Psychic Serpent. Do not care for the cynicism of the worldly minded; they may try to drag you into the by-lanes, away from the royal road of viveka-vairaagya. Even Avathaaras are targets for small men who reveal in pouting venom on the great; how then can those who seek to expand their affection and universalise their vision escape? The Paandavas never lent their ears to slander about Krishna; they had an understanding of His Glory and they surrendered completely to Him. Krishna too reciprocated their love. He declared that Dharmaraaja was His head, Arjuna His shoulders, Bheema His trunk and Nakula-Sahadeva His feet. He Himself was the heart. That was the relationship between the Paandavas and the Lord. That is the relationship between all beings and God; only the Paandavas recognized it, believed it and benefited by it, whereas Others do not. The Lord is the Hrudayavaasi (dweller in the heart).

The one Purusha: SSS vol 6 chp 36.

Questions:

4. Swami says that we should yearn from the depths of the heart, and that we should do so with our entire being.In your opinion, what do you think we should be yearning for, and what do you think this will look like on a daily basis?

Affirmation: I am peace

Life Application skill: Please come up with one based on today’s reading.