Bhakti in Sriramchandra's Rajayoga

We have all assembled here again to share our feelings. The quarterly Journal we release carries the dictum mach-chitta mad-gata-prana bodhayantah parasparam. There we left it. The second portion of it is kathayantaśh cha māṁ nityaṁ tuṣhyanti cha ramanti cha. This is what Lord Krishna has stated in his very long dialogue with Arjuna. The main point for us is Matchitta Matgata Pranah. That is the people who are totally oriented to me, and who live in my consciousness. Matchitta - in my consciousness people who live, Matgatapranah - who seek me, they all join together to share their experiences. This is what we have been doing in all our congregations.

What is the essential thing that we share? Krishna was known to give immense joy and happiness to whomsoever he met. But the Ananda that he was trying to give the early part of his life was all childish pranks, trying to enjoy along with people of Gokulam who are the blessed people He showed his greatness to them and at the same time shadowed it with his very very silly methods. The ananda was of the physical type, was of the emotional type. Krishna distributed very freely to them because that is what they wanted.

There is oneness between Krishna and Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Shahjahanpur in the sense that Ramchandra also gives immense happiness. That is what we experienced for the past one hour. But this is not emotional, this is not physical. I t is something is related to our spirit ananda, atmananada is what we get, where as in the life of Krishna he was distributing for all those gopikas and gopis the happiness that will come from play which perhaps includes also His rasalila. When we critically examine, this is one aspect of abheda between these two great personalities and Ramchandraji is continuing the same job as that of Lord Krishna by not only distributing happiness at the higher levels of consciousness, perhaps having failed in the lower levels.

We are all enjoying the hospitality of Gauranga because this Hall belongs to him. He is a great Krishna lover, and the path of Love is what he has distributed but we all know that he and his disciples spread the message at the materialistic, at the emotional levels. The samadhi that they gain is of the lower order. Truly samadhi they were, even now, many of them get into it but that is of different order but the ananda that we get is beyond the senses. The ananda that Krishna gave was one of senses. This is the essential difference. That is the reason why many people move towards the culture of the ananda of the Krishna type. There is nothing wrong about it, there are several stages of progress. Each person finds his way of happiness. Happiness is what God wants, to live happily is what Babuji wants.

In today’s message you will find Babuji saying “Lord Krishna had originally introduced bhakti in Raja Yoga in a way the yogis know, because he knew the time was at hand when life would be uncertain”. This is very profound message. A life span is not likely to go beyond perhaps a 100, though many doctors may differ from me and then say for eternity we will see that you live perhaps with an ailing body in a nursing home being attended to by all sorts of attendents, who will be either cursingly or blessingly attend to us. There is something like vardhakya, there is some thing like getting old, you should accept that, that is the natural path. Don’t deny the old age, accept it as a blessing of the divine which helps you to think about the divine. That apart ‘Life would be uncertain’ therefore what? So yoga should be completed before that. So don't struggle to move on waiting for the day of yoga. I will give you now instantly that is what Sri Ramchandra says.

Here in the first part of it ‘Lord Krishna had originally introduced bhakti in Raja Yoga’ what is the bhakti that we are talking about in the Rajayoga? It is not the bhajan, it is not the kirtan, it is not the dance and drama, it is not the songs. That is the bhakti that others know and that is the bhakti which grants sensory and sensual enjoyments. The bhakti that yogis know is that of constant remembrance.

Constant remembrance is not a part of asthanga Yoga. Krishna brought it, remember me. That is why he says Matchitta Matgata Pranah - remember me. That is yoga, that is bhakti. Bhakti is not a few slokas being recited in the morning, afternoon and night. Incidentally bhakti is also not a ritualistic practices as many of our abhyasis do. I get up in the morning Sir, I sit in evening sir, I go to bed with His feeling. That is not bhakti, that is ritualistic. If you keep a constant remembrance of the Master in your heart that is bhakti. That is what Krishna wanted, Matchitta Matgata pranah - that is the bhakti he was talking about. That is what yogis know, to live in the consciousness of God. What is the consciousness of God? not play, not dance. Reformation and transformation of man to the higher level that is what he wants. That is what God wants. There are several ways of putting it, we can view it from the scientific angle also but the whole struggle has been some how or other we must move on. Move on to the higher plane of consciousness when we start thinking about the good of others and not exclusively our concern. If you take the excellent work done by Imperience trying to bring in sayings of Dr.K.C. Varadachari and how he understood Babuji Maharaj, the saying of Varadachari reads “The usual method of Raja Yoga that is being practiced without the help of the Divine connecting you with the Ultimate is of no avail. There is no yoga otherwise”. There is no Yoga without that connection. There is no yoga without this link that is being established and that is what Ramchandraji gives.

Yoga is not sitting in a asan, trying to do pranayama, yama niyama etc. All sorts of practices trying to somehow or other control the body physically and mentally, but not trying to take the assistance of the Divine. Remember Him, the remaining things follow. I am sick fellow, I know many of you are also sick, but what is that makes you sit like this and think about the Master. It is the connecting link that has been established between you and the Divine. That is what Pranahuti does. Feel the link, live the link, pass on the link. This how I would like to put Rajayoga of Ramchandraji.

You are going to spend most of the time in silence. Silence is tough topic, hours together to sit may not be alright. So we thought of you giving some material which you may contemplate about apart from the books of Babuji Maharaj which are available. There was a good man A.S.P lyyer. He wrote enormously about religious books, literature. On Bhagavadgita also he wrote, his version of interpretation what ever it is, copies of this was given last year or earlier to that. They are expensive, Bhavan’s publishes them. While going through that many of the abhyasis found there are good stories which they do not know otherwise. They culled it out, put together and then made a reading material of that. So, leisure time you can go through those stories, at home I am talking about. That is what their intention was. I try to change it as in the congregation also people talk and they talk all sorts of things, instead of that they may be reading some of them are only half a paragraph or one paragraph stories still worth while. That is being distributed after some time. Patrika is also there, apart from that Bhagavad Gita itself is there. In the Gauranga tradition there is a journal that comes. I was going through that and I found interesting statement that there is only one sastra and that is the Gita sastra and there is only one God and that is the Devakiputra like this the poem goes. That is they are asking us get oriented to Krishna in all aspects.

I ask, I plead that there is no difference between Krishna and Ramchandraji and since Ramchandraji is continuing the work of Lord Krishna in the higher plane, because transformation is what is wanted. Krishna tried to transform people by his miracles by His extraordinary counsels and when people did not care to hear he simply destroyed them. There is no other way he could think of bringing a transformation. Many of us resort to this also in our own lives. When our children don’t obey what we say, we try to beat them but I think beating has never resulted in any transformation. I think in this respect Krishna also has failed. He tried to destroy but then we are all back here. There are more Kamsas today, there are more Duryodhanas today, there are more Dussasanas today. I think Dussasana parvam is what is going on now. If we look at it from a different angle from the stories of Bombay and Delhi, we find a Dussasana parvam, a seperate parva is there now. This cannot be mended just like this. That is what we would feel but what Babuji would feel is, let us bring a transformation in such people, try to pray for them. He has made it compulsory for us to do the 9 pm prayer and he pleaded with all. How it is being practiced, I really don’t say anything about it because it is a matter of your conscience. I have nothing to talk about that but then, if you feel that Matchitta is there with Ramchandraji, if you are in tune with His consciousness, you cannot help doing the 9 p.m. prayer. If you don’t do that that means you are not in connection with Him. There is some loose links some where, but that is the time as Dr. Kuppuswamy was telling me ‘that is the time of the news, Narayana, what am I to do?’ I said throw away the radio. There is no other way. I leave the remaining day for you to contemplate the way in which you like to do, but these are the feelings I thought I can share with you.

Thank you.