According to my Guru ji,
practice
contributes to only five percent, or even less
towards our spiritual progress.
More than ninety-five percent of our spiritual growth
depends on our attitude towards the practice.
Whenever
I used to practise meditation in my early days,
as a student in third year of the pharmacy college,
the first thing most of our friends used to do
was come together in one room,
make tea and then
sit together and meditate.
After we finished our meditation,
then we would take a bath,
because of the inconvenience in hostel life - water.
But if you have the opportunity
of taking bath earlier,
it is better to keep your physical body clean and neat,
then you meditate.
It will be better for us.
If we can do some breathing exercises before
this meditation, it will be even better.
According to my Guru ji,
practice
contributes to only five percent, or even less
towards our spiritual progress.
More than ninety-five percent of our spiritual growth
depends on
our attitude towards the practice.
So there is the practice element
and there is the attitude element
associated with our practice.
What do we understand by attitude, or
simply put in Hindi, Bhav?
Let us see, I give one small example.
If you are told one month ahead of time that the PM,
Shri Modi ji, is coming to your home,
what would you do,
or the Principal of your college is visiting your home
with a lot of joy, for you stood first in the University?
The preparations for that whole month will go on with
a lot of excitement and joy.
Per contra,
let us say,
a person announces - whom you do not like at all -
someone is coming to your home,
whom you do not like,
how would you receive that person?
I will share with you a small joke.
But it is a very important one expressing
our attitude towards people we welcome.
There was one very happy family
living in one small city,
husband and wife.
One day, in those days,
they received a telegram.
The husband is very happy.
He received a telegram that mother is coming.
And with such joy, he goes to his wife
and says, “Mummy is coming home.” He is so happy.
But then, his wife is very disturbed.
He goes to the railway station,
brings mother home,
but it is not mother, it is mother-in-law actually.
And when he knocks the door and the wife opens,
“Oh, mummy, mummy, why did you not tell me
you are coming?”
She says, “I had sent you a telegram.”
The husband also says,
“I have already told you mummy is coming.”
“Hum ne to kuch khana nahi banaaya abhi tak (I have not cooked anything yet)”
So this is a matter of attitude, you see.
If mother was to come, you would cook good food.
If your mother-in-law is coming,
your attitude is different.
So, how do we receive God in our heart?
Is it with a lot of love,
or is it something that you are doing out of fear?
Almost all the religions,
they teach only two things –
one is fear and second is the temptation for Heaven,
saying, “If you do this ritual a few times a day,
or a few times a month,
then you might go to Heaven.
Swarg mein jaaoge.” Only two things
religion is expert with.
In Gujarati, we have beautiful Bhajan (devotional song)
and it invokes the presence of Lord Krishna.
It is inviting Lord Krishna in such a way that,
“My Lord, please come to my home just once.
I will make you forget your Vaikunth (Heavenly abode).”
With such an attitude when we practise,
the conditions that we get through meditations,
it is like a new birth.
It can become a new birth each time we meditate.
We can become a newer person each time
we meditate because there is a new condition
being born again and again, again and again.
That is continuous transformation.
If I am going to remain the same person all the time,
then I remain stuck. I am not evolving.
For a greater evolution
there has to be a continuous change
in my consciousness, with my chetna, with my chitta.
And new conditions cannot be born unless and until
we become so receptive with ‘rightful attitude.’