TV Channel

No saint has attained higher consciousness or realization without bhajan. Bhajan does not mean only chanting or singing. When you meditate, close your eyes and ask, "What are you doing?" In the local language, we say, "Bhagavān kā bhajan kar rahe hai." I am remembering, I am meditating on God. "Bhaja govindam, govindam bhaja, mudāmate." Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya is chanting. Swāmījī spoke about the Brahma Sūtra. While correcting or rewriting the Śaṅkarabhāṣya on the Brahma Sūtra, Swāmījī Śaṅkarācārya, Ādiguru Śaṅkarācārya, closed his eyes and began to chant, "Bhaja Govindam, Bhaja Govindam, Govindam Bhaja Mūḍhamate." The final essence is this: "Bhaja" means to remember God. Learn of God, meditate on God, try to concentrate on Him. You have to become one with it. If you cannot become one, you will not realize that. Salt melts; the solid form of salt melts in the water but does not become one with the water. The water is still separate, and the salt is separate. But the great saint Kabīr Dās said—sorry, Rahim Dās said—that the street is so narrow that you cannot walk two together. Two have to become one to pass through. That means the bhakti, the love. You have to become one. Rahiman also said, "dhagā prem kā, mat toro chitkāyā." This thread of love is so gentle, so fragile. Do not break it. Through your doubts, when the devotee or practitioner has a doubt, then it is like lemon and milk. So you have to ensure that in your citta, in your vṛttis, in your consciousness, there is nothing but only one, and that is the supreme, or God, or your beloved, or what you think. With this kind of bhakti yoga, I have two aims. One is that you are praying for material things. But Swāmī Amaradānjī said that general prayers are: "God, help me that I get a son." Mostly, they are asking for a son; I don’t know what else. "God, help that my children get a good education. God, help them pass the examination. God, help that they get married. Please, God, help that we get a job." This is sākāmī bhakti. Niṣkām bhakti is love without any expectation. People ask me to explain the difference between kīrtan and bhajan. Kīrtan is just the name of God. There are many kīrtans, many names of God. "Rādhe Rādhe," the name of Rādhā. "Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa," the name of Kṛṣṇa. "Śrīman Nārāyaṇa, Nārāyaṇa, Viṣṇu, Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa," Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī. "Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya." And so many kīrtans. There, if the bhakta has no doubts in the heart, only unconditional love, then that becomes one with the supreme form of God through this. But it is said that bhajan is better, because bhajan has more benefits. For you, it contains teaching, the answers, the wisdom; the name of God is inside. And therefore, poetry, the ślokas, the stanzas, the bhajans—this is all where your questions are answered, where you arrive, where there is love. Where there is love, there is no question of why and how. These three questions disappear; then it means you are doing the bhajans, meditations, or your mantra. Mantra is the power of resonance, the sound. Mantra is a compact energy. "Mantra": "man" is the mind, which we all are still fighting to understand—what the mind is, and what the mind is made of. Like Buddha said, everything is void, but what is then after that? So one question has an answer, and the other answer will again have a question. Therefore, you have to come to a point of avoiding everything and approaching directly. When someone has a heart attack and the doctor comes, finishes everything, and performs a bypass, we need a bypass. That bypass is finally devotion. No saint came without devotion. No one achieved that reality without devotion, whether Buddha—if you are talking about Buddha, which is not long ago—or the great saint, the author of the Sāṅkhya philosophy, whom even Kṛṣṇa mentioned: "Siddhānāṁ Kapilamuni." Mahāmuni Kapilācārya is the author of the Sāṅkhya philosophy. Even he, you see, was always in meditation, bhajan, bhakti. Meditation, mantras, singing—it means receiving, it means humbleness. And there you have to have the master, the guru. You cannot learn without this. If you avoid the guru, it means your ego is too high. Till now, no one has achieved that reality, which is what we call the guru, without the guru. A very nice question was asked: why then is the guru always high and the disciple low? One professor came to me, and he had also talked, and he explained it very nicely and simply. There are two glasses. In this glass is water, and the other glass is empty. Now, I would like to pour this water into that glass. Should I hold this glass up, or should I hold the other one up? Similarly, the knowledge, the blessing, the wisdom flows to the devotee where there is devotion—meaning surrendering—and when you are receptive. In bhajan singing, you find the answers, questions and answers, the name of God, and certainly the devotion.