Lord Krishna said in Srimad Bhagwat Purana that there are eight objects of His worship. By adopting even one of thess, one can easily attain to divine joy, divine love, divine contentment and divine bliss.
‘with the necessary material he must, connected in Bhakti, free from ulterior motives worship Me, his worshipable Guru, with the help of an idol, or with an altar, a firew, the (position of the ) sun with water or with Me as being present in his own heart, in Brahmin (twice born), and in his Sadguru.
1. Idol : An idol of god, goddess,Bhagawan or any Brahmajnani Guru may be worshipped with the necessary materials be worshipped with the necessary materials prescribed for worship in order to attain to Me, the Absolute Consciousness. Rendering services toand worshipping My idoi and looking at it with fixed gaze is also akin to my worship.
2. Altar: offering oblations into the altar in fire sacrifice chanting slokas like ‘it is for indra, it is not mine ‘it is for Varuna, it is not mine’, ‘it is for kubera, it is not mine’ and therby get rid of the sense of ‘my-ness’ is worship of Me, prescribed by shastras in performanace of yajna.
'It is not mine'... The sense of ‘I-ness’ and ‘mine –ness’ belong to maya. They are illusory. ‘Things are not mine. I consider the body as ‘I’ am I am not that ‘I’ I am the pure consciousness that continues to exist even after the physical death.’ –oblations with such an insight is worship of Me.
3. Fire: Offering oblations and ghee into fire with mind fixed on Agni, god of fire, is worship of Me.
4. Sun: Offering oblations of water to the sun god, facing the sun for doing wor- ship, meditation on form of sun god with closed eyes is worship of Me. This is con ducive to intellectual development and it is a Sadhana, worship of God.
5. water: water is a from of Mine. I should be worshipped by tarpana, offering oblation of water to the departed souls. When a devotee full of devotional faith, offers water to Me, I accept it with all love. The devo tee beholds the Supreme Being in the from of water or takes a bath invoking sacred riv ers the water, or takes achamana (sips water three times, repeating the Names of the Lord, prostrations to keshava, prostra tione to Narayana). These are the ways by which reverence is shown to and God is beheld in water. This gives peace and merits. This is a form of worship of Me.
6. Heart: worship God abiding one one’s own heart. Repeat My Name rhythmically with breathing.
Some people ask, ‘God is in the heart? Then heart is larger than the God!’
God is experienced in heart. God pervades all the countless universes. A seed is tiny in appearance but a huge banyan tree is hidden it. How many trees are contained in a seed? Nobody, not ever all the scientists collectively, or Lor Brahma Himself, cam tell it. Nobody again can tell how many men could be reproduced by a single man in the success-sion of endless generations? Infinite is God, infinite are objects of His creation. Is there any limit to which a seed can multiply? A mango stone is sown and it grows to a mango tree. Suppose a thousand mangoes are produced by that tree. Now eat away the thousand mangoes and sow the thousand stones. Thousand trees are grown. Sow all the stones of mangoes grown on these thousand trees. How many trees, how many mangoes, how many stones… go on counting. Is there any limit to the number of seeds single seed of mango or banyan can produce? All things created God are limitless like these seeds. So do not consider Yourself as the body which takes birth and dies; you are the pure Con- sciousness that animates the mortal body. That is why the Lord suggests this form of worship in the heart.
How to worship in the heart? One should meditate visualizing the four-armed or two-armed form of the Lord or watch the inhalations and count all exhalations. This is internal meditation. Be a witness to events of happiness, sorrow, desire, anger… Do not be influenced by them. This also is mode of antarang upasana (proximate aid to to liberation) of the Lord. There are various effective modes of worshipping the Lord.
7. Brahmin: One should behold Me in Brahmins. The virtuous and self-restrained Brahmins are akin to God. Those who are of virtuous conduct and habits, who make efforts know the Supreme Brahman, such Brahmins are akin to Me One should worship them and assimilate their virtues.
8. Sadguru: Pointing to the eighth object of worship, Lord that the culmination of all other worship is Sadguru who has attained to Me as his own being, Truth, Consciousness, Bliss Absolute whom I wor-ship whenever I incarnate Myself in human form. Sadguru is venerable to Me also. When I incarnate on this earth, I become his disciple and worship him. He who engages his life, body and mind in following commands of such a Guru, becomes one with Me.
He was blessed with the grace and knowledge of the perfected Guru…’
The Bhila woman Shabari and puranapoda engaged themselves in service of their respective Sadguru and became one with God. One one comes by a Self-Realized Sadguru, one attains the spiritual heights ized Sadguru, one attains the spiritual heights beyond all forms of worship. Kabir ji says:
‘My Sadguru is a rare hero; attacks with the weapon of ‘word’.
With the cannonball of love, he be stroys the castle of delusion.’
‘I am a Maharashtrian… I am a man… I am a woman… I am happy… I am un happy…’- this delusiness and sorrow are in the mind; I am a witness to them> Do you want to experience ‘visions’ of your choice? The mind will see the visions. What will you get? Our preconceived notions and the social religious background delude us and it appears to us that God- Realization is very difficult.
People think, ‘bapuji has practiced severe austerities. Buddha austerities; I did a lot of drudgery wandering from place to place; all because I did not know the Truth. when I got an insight into the Truth, it was very easy. I did not have to exert one hundredth part of what my Gurudev (Swami Sri Lilashahji Maharaj) had to. And you people are getting the same what I got in less than one thousandth part of exertion that I did out of ignorance. To the people sitting before him) what efforts are you making? You just have to listen. Is it difficult to listen? You are merrily getting what can not be attained with decades of self-mortification.
‘Laugh, play and meditate. Hear al-ways about the teachings on Brahmajnana.
Says Gorakhnatha, I am always with those who eat, drink but do not become slaves to their minds.’
Is it difficult? Other then this, Ravana had successfully built the golden city of the Lanka; Hiranyakashy was so advanced in penance that he created the golden city of Hiranyapur. But all their advancement was confined to the realm of body, mind and intellect. By means of their intellectual prowess, penance and cncetration they made achievements but they did not attain Self-existent bliss. What they got after sixty thousand years of self mortification was consequently destroyed. If those two men had come into contact with Self- Realized Guru and had followed their teachings, they would have attained indestructible reality with the grace of Sadguru, I attained That indestructible in just forty days. So describing the glory of Sadguru, the Lord says that worship of such a Sadguru makes one at tained of Me easily and directly.
Self-surrender
Once, the great saint Daduji was going with his disciples. One the way, they had to cross a drain carrying rainwater, which was so small that people crossed it just by taking one step on a stone kept in the drain. That day, the stone gad been removed by somebody. There was very little water in the drain but there was a lot of mire and so it was difficult to cross the drain. The disciples started search- ing for a stone so that Gurudev could cross the drain. But Rajjab said, ‘’Gurudev! Shall lie in the drain. Please step on my back, and cross the drain. Daduji said, ‘’No dera son! Your clothes will become wet and dirty with mire.’’
Rajjab said, ‘’Gurudev! You have taken so much of trouble to save us from the mire of worldly life! You are taking care of us at the cost the Self Bliss of Samadhi. This mire is better than that of the worldly life. And body will serve some useful purpose at least if it is of any use to you, Gurudev!’’
Daduji said, ‘’Get up my my child!’’
Rajjab prayed in a pleading voice, ‘’O Gurudev! O deliverer of sinners! Let my body be sanctified and blessed by the touch of your pious feet. Please be kind to me and cross the drain by stepping on my back.; The usefulness of my body lies in rendering service to you.’’ Daduji was so much pleased with Rajjab’s dedication to service and single minded devotion that he hugged him affectionately. What greater gift can there be for a disciple!
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