PUJYA SHREE MOTA

Thursday, July 26, 2012

HUMILITY VERSUS INFERIORITY COMPLEX

We should develop respect, dignity, trust, love, faith, humility and good behavior towards our elderly. It is very desirable. We may develop respect not only for elderly but towards people that we consider as respectable and act accordingly to develop the bhava of respect. At the same time we need to careful about inferiority complex lodging in our being under the disguise of respect. Humility is one thing and inferiority complex is another. There is a big difference between the two. One is a virtue while the other is a hindrance in getting clear perspective and vision.

Pujya Shree Mota
Jivan pagaran
Edition 3; page 115.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

BHAVNA ( ભાવના )

 God has blessed us with memory and its energy. Humans have misused other kinds of divine energy including the memory, by creating and fostering animosity among people. At the same time with the help of this energy, humans have tasted the divine nectar also.

This energy can be divided into two parts : We can express both the past and the future into present. Memory has played a part in the evolution of physical and spiritual life of humans. This memory can also excite the imagination of future and can transform the future into present. We get absorbed into the pleasant dreams and alluring experiences. From other view point it can also create the enthusiasm to get near our goal also. Sadhak needs to master the art of using this energy for his own development. When the memory creates lively remembrance of the past, we should not get mixed up with that but instead learn from it and give constructive direction to our natural tendencies. We can definitely get entangled in the recollections that are backed by emotions and to some extent by bhavna. But we should not pay any attention to that. Even if we are indifferent to that by no means it should be ignored. These recollections will be useful to us, if we do not have any desire or attachment to these recollections. Memory is such a tremendous form of energy that can reproduce and present even minor past associations in front of our eyes, as if it is real and lively. Memory has such tremendous energy and yet emotions and bhavna are more subtle and its energy is far more than memory. Nothing is impossible for us if we constantly try to develop this energy of emotions and bhavna. It is a tool that helps us to enter incomprehensible and unimaginable heart center ( love and devotion ). It has various forms from physical to subtle and subtlest. We may not get ourselves involved into detail analysis but we must have the understanding of its effect on us. We will notice that our understanding and vision of our experiences get subtle as emotions and bhavna get subtler. It also reveals deeper meaning and purpose of the experiences.

We may not think about the results of our efforts and continue to offer our works to God. But at the same time we cannot be oblivious to its effects on us. We must have a clear vision as to our chitta's ( psyche ) attention to God. Even when our unstable natural tendencies rebel we should notice its effects on our faith, surrender, enthusiasm and curiosity. Only way to tell if we are truly engrossed in this path is to see increase in these characteristics. As we get deeper in sadhana the fight between good and evil gets subtler in us and we should understand ourselves very clearly at that time.

In general emotions and bhavna are the steps for developing our lives. At the same time it can be a hindrance in this development too. This is because the site of action of emotions and bhavna being in the mind. As we progress in our sadhana, mind fears loosing its empire and rule over us. Mind uses emotions and bhavna to maintain its rule over us. Mind and impressions in chitta ( ચિત્ત ) likes to continue functioning in the same old ways and this becomes more powerful when emotions and bhavna is added into the equation. We must pray for the descent of the grace of God to fight this difficult battle of getting rid of these old impressions. This support of the grace is most important in one sense and yet it is not in other sense. We must aim for the development of bhavna and use the support of grace for that purpose only  and should not consider this support as the main goal. Otherwise there is a real danger of falling into this craze of support. This craze is a form of dullness and it is not easy to come out of the situation. We will progress if we use this support in our being in right way with purity.

Pujya Shree Mota
Jivan and karya
Edition 1; pages 204 - 207.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

ARGUMENTS -- A FORM OF MENTAL DISTRACTION

I develop more bhava towards the one who carries out given advice with faith and love, without unnecessary on going arguments,  interferences, with quarrelsome attitude and use of intelligence ( બુધ્ધિ ). Series of arguments is like addiction. It is one thing to satisfy the sincere urge to know when one is in doubt, and other to argue for the sake of argument. One is necessary while the other is not helpful. In fact it is harmful. It is considered an art amongst the intellectuals and has been the source of continued disagreements and oral fights. Just as there is itching in the body, this is a form of mental itching ( distraction ).

Pujya Shree Mota
Jivan pagathi
Edition 6; page 50.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

BHAVA ( ભાવ )

Bhava means unexpressed foundation ( base, like the root of the tree ) of thought. Thought is an expressed form of the bhava. So we must give utmost importance to this bhava. At present we do not have much understanding of this. Till we have the understanding of bhava, we should give importance to its outer expression in language, thought, actions, karmas and with effort ( sadhana ) try to infuse this bhava in outer expression, with deep knowledge and devotion. With living practice of inspiring this inner bhava of heart into the physical world, it will definitely have outer expression. This living touch of the inner bhava will have the effect on the outer physical and there will be a transformation of the outer physical. We have to give importance to karmas but more than that, we need to maintain continuity of this inner bhava at beginning, middle and end of the work. Our whole attention and aim is to  be focused on this expression of bhava. For the one who expresses this bhava in one's karmas, there is nothing like being cheated in the world. Bhava is one's protector. In some obscure way this goodwill expressed from one's heart will keep one in appropriate work with lively spirit. When this goodwill enters other person and becomes concentrated, focused and purposeful, other person becomes the tool for this expression. This leads to oneness with the other person. This means that goodwill from our heart will make the other person behave in a similar fashion. Because of this living bhavna in one's heart, no body can do substantial harm to one who gets absorbed in developing ones goodwill fearlessly and depends upon it.

Human beings tend to mix their past thoughts, beliefs, understanding, habits and insistences into goodwill ( bhava from the heart ) and then try to measure, understand and act accordingly. Here they make mistake, deceive themselves and fail to get trained and comprehend the issue. How can they ever achieve the pure form of bhava? The importance and effect of this goodwill gets diluted because of this admixture with one's nature. One needs to be free from this nature and thus cultivate heartfelt goodwill. A scientist who gets deeply involved in his research is always thinking and contemplating about it all the time. He does this automatically according to his own standard and everything else in his life is of no importance to him. Sadhak's vision, natural tendencies and thrust towards his life should be similar  and only important thing in his life should be to express the bhava. There is one difference between a scientist and a sadhak. A scientist can let go his relatives and his surrounding. But for the sadhak that is not possible. All this is given to him for the purpose of expressing his bhava. He should accept and use all these as a step towards his progress. He needs to consider everything as himself and their sole purpose is for expression of God's bhava. It has no value without this purpose.

It is not difficult to understand all these in life, if it is thought of as expression of God's bhava. Yet in real life it is difficult to act like that. The issue is inability to keep and maintain conscious and living awareness of this fact while performing the karmas. It is not difficult if one keeps the awareness. Why is then there is no awareness? First there is no deep interest and second there is not enough enthusiasm. Humans should not feel hopeless because of these defects. One needs to expresses this goodwill with God's smaran-bhavna and mental memory. One who continues to make an effort to practice the given tool incessantly, with the sole aim of developing heartfelt inner bhava and expressing it as a living ideal  into his daily activities and in all circumstances, will definitely meet his goal. One has to miss or loose everything ( all beliefs, thoughts , understanding, nature etc ) while cultivating the goodwill. As one practices to cultivate this goodwill, one feels as if one is loosing the burden, one item at a time. This loosing is the real earning in one's life. One feels stressed if money is lost in business. But it is not the same in our effort. If one feels any discomfort or stress, it is from lack of enough preparation of the soul. The soul that is prepared to loose everything with deep knowledge can get somewhere. In fact there is nothing to loose here. Human is unnecessarily afraid of this process and in fact he is undergoing the process of gaining something. Human mind tends to concentrate on the loosing process. Once one concentrates on gaining something at all the moments and gets engrossed in it, there is no awareness that one is loosing anything. A scientist will not care if he looses all his money and possessions for his research and steadfastly sticks to his plan till his death. He may not succeed yet the victory of his life lies in continuous, definite and doubtless contemplation of his research. We may be blind but if we walk with the support of Shree Bhagawan's bhava ( God's bhava ), we will definitely reach our goal.

Pujya Shree Mota
Jivan and karya
Edition 1; pages 201 - 204.