Two Paths – In Gita Verse 12.1 Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested?
Arjuna asks if there are two paths one is Bhakti Yoga and another is Mediation. Which one is considered proper?
I will write about both paths.
Bhakti Yoga: Devotion is the name for the change of direction of love. And with love we enter this world. Only with love can we go outside this world. But some symptoms of love are important to understand. The first symptom of love is its blindness. And whoever is not in love, considers the lover blind and mad. Will agree.
Because the lover does not think; Does not reason; Does not calculate; Does not worry about what will happen. Just take the leap. Like love is such a big event that it sinks in, and becomes one. Those who are standing around, will think that something is going wrong. Love should also be considered. Love should also be sensible. If there is no wrong step, it should be pre-conceived. Love will be seen blind to the wise.
But love has its own eyes. And to whom those eyes become available, he begins to consider the eyes of the intellect as blind. For one who is in love, the entire logic becomes meaningless. And the one who dances to the tune of love, who experiences that music, can leave all your thoughts like a penny. He got a diamond in his hand. Now your rings cannot be handled for this diamond.
Love seems blind. Because love does not have the eyes that are with the intellect. Prem has some other eyes. There is another way to see love. Love watches from the heart. And since we enter this world only because of love. We come into this world because of our love, because of the love of others. Our body is made up. We exist. This love has to be reversed. The name of this blind love, when it moves away from the world and turns towards the inner consciousness, is reverence.
Shraddha is blind love, but returns to the original source. Flowing towards the world, that same love becomes lust. Returning to God, that same love becomes reverence and devotion. As love is blind, so devotion is blind. Therefore, for those who are very intelligent, the path of devotion will not be known. There is no path of devotion for those who do a lot of thinking, those who do a lot of reasoning, who want to reach God even wisely.
Because no matter what the intellect thinks, it is very difficult to go beyond the ego. Love jumps out of the ego. Wisdom cannot get out of ego even after trying a million. Because when I think, I remain. When I calculate, I remain. I can do anything – I worship, I meditate, I practice yoga – but I remain.
Devotion surpasses me in the very first moment. Because devotion means surrender. Devotion means that I am no more, you are more important. And now I will leave me, erase, so that I can find you. This disappearance will be the way to get yours. And as long as I am, the distance from you will remain. The stronger I am, the greater the distance, the more distance there is. The more it melts, the more it melts, the more I melt, the more distance will disappear. This is Bhakti Yoga.
Path Of Meditation: Meditation is a simple process of watching your own mind. Not fighting with the mind. Not trying to control it either. Just remaining there, a choiceless witness. Whatsoever passes, you simply take note of it. With no prejudice for or against. You don’t call them names. That “This should not come to my mind.” That “This is an ugly thought and This is a very beautiful and virtuous thought.” You should not judge. You should remain nonjudgmental. Because the moment you judge you lose meditation. You become identified. Either you become a friend or you become a foe. You create relationships. Meditation means remaining unrelated with your thought process.
Utterly unrelated, cool, calm. Watching whatsoever is passing.
And then a miracle happens: Slowly slowly one becomes aware that less and less thoughts are passing. The more alert you are, the less thoughts pass. The less alert you are, the more thoughts pass. It is as if traffic depends on your awareness.
When you are perfectly aware even for a single moment All thinking stops. Immediately, there is a sudden stop and the road is empty, there is no traffic. That moment is meditation.
Slowly slowly those moments come more and more. Those empty spaces come again and again and stay longer. And you become capable of moving easily into those empty spaces with no effort. So whenever you want you can move into those empty spaces with no effort. They are refreshing, rejuvenating and they make you aware of who you are. Freed from the mind you are freed from all ideas about yourself. Now you can see who you are without any prejudice. And to know oneself Is to know all that is worth knowing. And to miss self-knowledge is to miss all. A man may know everything in the world but if he does not know himself he is utterly ignorant. He is just a walking Encyclopedia Britannica.
Freedom without awareness is only an empty idea. It contains nothing. One cannot be really free without being aware Because your unconscious goes on dominating you. Your unconscious goes on pulling your strings. You may think, you may believe that you are free but you are not free. You are just a victim Of natural forces, blind forces.
So there are two types of people. The majority Follows the tradition, the society, the state. The orthodox people, the conventional, the conformists. They follow the crowd. They are not free. And then there are a few rebellious spirits: Drop-outs, bohemians, artists, painters, musicians, poets. They think they are living in freedom. But they only think.
Just by rebellion against the tradition you don’t become free. You are still under the rule of natural instincts. You are possessed by lust, by greed, by ambitions. And you are not a master of these things. You are a slave. Hence I say Freedom is only possible through awareness. Unless one transforms one’s unconsciousness into consciousness there is no freedom.
And that is where only very few people have succeeded – Jesus, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Buddha. Just a few people Who can be counted on one’s fingers. They have really lived in freedom. Because they lived out of awareness.
That has to be the work for every seeker: To create more and more awareness. Then freedom comes of its own accord. Freedom is the fragrance of the flower of awareness.
These are the two paths. It depends upon you which suits your nature. Practice that.
Tags: Bhakti Yoga Meditation Two Paths
