Jai Shree KrsnaGuruji
Purity of mind and our body:
Lord Shree Krsna says, “Purity is non-attachment to work.” It is to perform work at 100% of your effort without attachment to the outcome of the work.
With the mind fixed on God. Use the body as the vehicle to perform His work. Fulfill the purpose for which He has given you this life.
Keep the mind pure with thoughts of God. Do not burden the mind with the attachments of this material world. Pursuing the path of devotion itself will work to purify the mind.
Keep the body pure by working for Him and not getting involved with sense gratifications. The energy, the sexual energy of the body should not be used for pleasure. The energies of the body should be used to rise higher.
The body is an instrument, a tool that should be kept in good working order.
Repetition of Lord’s name:
Keep on repeating the name of God constantly, but not like some four-letter expletive when things are not going as planned.
Take His name. Constantly.
You may or may not be given a mantra, but don’t be bothered–just take his name. Take the name of God at all points in time. Take His name when you get up in the morning, throughout the day and when going to sleep. Take His name with love towards Him.
Shree KrsnaGuruji has warned: Do not say mantras that have not been given to you by your Spiritual Master. If you have not been given a mantra, then simply repeat the Lord’s name.
Austerity:
Be disciplined. Be disciplined in your mind and with your body. Be disciplined in your study and pursuit of the Truth. Once you are put on the path, be disciplined and follow the sadhana (practice) by your Guru.
Do the best with what you have, be humble among others and do not want for anything outside of your spiritual weal.
Offering of oblations in the sacred fire:
Offering of oblations in the sacred fire has multiple meanings.
Firstly, when offering to God, use the best that you have. Do not search for discounted items or packaged deals for an offering. Shree KrsnaGuruji has said to make an effort, even if it is very simple, make it the absolute best which you can offer and do it regularly. Offering should be good and perfect.
Secondly, know that offerings are also made to the gods within us. These are the gods that are there in our human body. Have you heard it said there are so many gods? Well, you find them within. From the top to the bottom, we are filled with the divine.
The divine has taken different shapes in our body, could be in the form of an organ, could be in the form of a particular neuron, it could be anything. It is responsible for doing certain jobs for this body.
When you are offering oblations in the sacred fire, let us say the fire is the pit of your stomach, that is also a hundi, the place where you offer. Offering should be native to the place where the body is born. Do not upset the stomach with nonsensical stuff.
When offering oblations in the sacred fire of sight. Can you just see good stuff? Do not consume videos or media on your phone that are not good and surely you know what is meant here.
Doing pooja at home is good for you. It brings God into your being and the place where you stay. So, do offer the best when offering oblations.
Faith in oneself:
Positivity is important. Don’t see the downside. Don’t begin with, “I don’t think I can do this. I don’t know about this subject. This is not possible.” The small self, that petty is the person that you believe you are, is always giving negatives. See the upside of it.
You are essentially part of the divine. Sometimes it is important that you lose today because there is something greater for you in the future. Never give negatives to yourself and never become negative whereas others are concerned. Give the other person a chance.
Never give up on yourself. You may be hanging by a very thin tread, but don’t give up. Never underestimate your qualities which have been given to you by God. Those qualities are not your own. All these things-obstacles, troubles, talent and abilities have been given to you by God alone. So have that faith in yourself.
Hospitality:
Any person who comes to your house, please offer them water and some sweets if you have some. Don’t just say, okay come in, what do you want? Offer them something. Shree KrsnaGuruji always says, “Atithi Devo Bhava” meaning “The guest is God.” So, treat them that way.
There are many accounts of the Lord, Saints and Sages giving darshan in forms that were not recognisable to the one meeting them. Always think that God is present in others and use your intellect too!
Worship of Me:
Here Lord Shree Krsna is saying that you need to worship Me–the Supreme Divine Person. The Lord is not talking of any deity or demigod or any other person. He says, you have to worship Me!
Put Him in the forefront of your life. Yes, you should pay respect to Lord Ganesha and others, but finally, you are to worship only One Supreme Divine Lord. That’s it, nobody else.
Worship of deities will make you beholden to them and you will go to their heavens not Lord Shree Krsna’s.
Visiting of holy places:
Once in a while, you have to go to the holy places and take darshan of all those deities and divinities over there and pray to them, say hello and acknowledge their presence.
Lord Shree Krsna said that it’s extremely important to go to holy places so that you can take a little bit of that holiness with you.
You may be blessed to one day travel with your Guru to visit holy places. There is so much more there than meets the eye and only the Knower of Truth, your Guru, can illuminate that for you.
Working for the good of others:
This is an important part in the Lord’s Niyamas. Be your good self and work for the good of others. We are not here to destroy somebody else’s life or talk bad about others or do something bad to them. You are here to do good in this world.
When you do good to other people, without attachment to that, then that is going to come back to you as merit leading to better future lives. The more you do for yourself, the less merit you will carry into your future lives.
You should be able to do something for yourself, yes. But it is important to work your body for the good of other people, not for yourself. The primary motivation in your life should be that you should be of service to mankind. Remember, Lord Shree Krsna is the one who provides for all you are just a via media.
Contentment:
You must be content with what you have. You see, you may have only four garments to wear or just a few hundred rupees to your name. There is no need for you to go and earn millions or be wanting constantly.
That thirst that is there, “I want more, I want more, I want more,” is called desire, and that desire is the root cause of your destruction on the spiritual path.
Any kind of desire can be the cause of your misery. You should be content with what you have because God wanted you to have that. If God wanted you to have more, he would have given you more.
Service unto the teacher:
Lord Shree Krsna has said there is no difference in Himself and the Guru, your Spiritual Master.
He is always watching. Seva to the Spiritual Master has to personally come from you. How much effort are you putting in? You know, people pay money so that they can hire other people for singing, others for dancing, others for doing work. No. How much are you doing? Serving the Master is very, very important.
First, know who IS your Master?
Many in this world have absolutely no idea because they are seeking a Guru in a conglomerate, in a very big place. They may go and they say, “I want to do seva.” But the master there doesn’t even know who they are.
He doesn’t even know, because there are millions of people just like them and they have never met this person in their life because he’s on a very high pedestal and they have to go through the channels to try to meet him.
Don’t spend your time in some godforsaken place seeking a person who doesn’t even look at you. You’ve got to have a Guru for whom you can do direct seva.
Service unto the Guru means you should first have a Guru. And then you have to serve that Master. The disciple should anticipate what is needed. So, you should know him first. He should be giving you training and teaching you.
The Lord has said that serving the Guru is the most important principle. Even the Lord Himself had to serve His Guru, Sri Sandipani.
To be the company of your Guru and to serve Him is the greatest merit that a person can receive. You have got to have the presence of your Guru, and you have to experience the blessing of serving Him.
You are not becoming a slave; you are growing as a part of His family. You become Guruputra and Gurupriya (son and daughter of the beloved Guru).
Going forward
The Uddhava Gita, not an ordinary text. It is not some concocted text. These are the words of Lord Shree Krsna and not some fake person or some modern yoga class.
These restraints and observances constitute the Yamas and the Nyamas. Please always remember the lesson given here. It is imperative for your spiritual growth that you obey these, as they were enumerated and prescribed by Lord Shree Krsna himself and received through lessons taught by our Spiritual Master, Shree KrsnaGuruji.
If you practice them correctly, they will produce results according to your own desire of emancipation, realisation, liberation, knowledge of the Brahma, whatever you have in mind, including the highest goal of Love and Devotion for the Supreme Lord Shree Krsna.
This concludes the lessons here of the Yamas and Niyamas as taught by Shree KrsnaGuruji. May you reach your spiritual destination. God bless.
