I had no plan till now to speak to you. But Kasturi mentioned that those of you who are here for many years have not had the chance of even reverential salutations (namaskaram) for three months, that is, from before Sivarathri, when streams of devotees started coming in. He stated that you are all hungry for darshan. Since I am spending hours and hours talking with the devotees who are anxious to leave this place, I put in My appearance at the devotional singing (bhajan) sessions; twice a day, just for a minute or so, to receive arathi (worshipful waving of lights) and leave. I find you are all sad at what you misinterpert as neglect. So I shall administer some tonic to your drooping hearts. Well, you have the chance to see, experience, and be sanctified by the incarnation of the Lord; you got this chance as a result of the accumulation of merit in many previous lives. That merit has brought you here, when I have come down. For this chance, sages and demi-gods have prayed for long in t...
The spiritual process may be compared to the conversion of milk into butter. The body is like a house. The heart is the vessel in which the milk of consciousness is boiled over the stove of devotion. The vessel is covered by the lid of sraddha (earnestness). When the fire of Viveka (discrimination) is lit, the cream of understanding comes up from the boiling milk. To prevent the cat of Maya from getting at the milk, the door has to be barred by the gate of Sujnana (wisdom). After the milk is cooled by Santhi (tranquillity) and the buttermilk of the Divine Name is added to it, the curd of Divine Grace is formed. When this curd is churned with the rod of knowledge and the rope of love, the whey of ignorance is separated and the butter of the Atma Reality (the Jiva) emerges. It is such a realised Self who attains oneness with the Divine.
The first type is a sadhana which the monkeys practise and is called the Markata sadhana.
The second is called Vihanga sadhana and is typical of sadhana practised by birds.
The third is called the Pipeelika sadhana or the sadhana practised by the ants.
So far as the monkey is concerned, it goes to a tree, plucks a fruit but does not eat it then and there. It then jumps from one branch to another. In this process it loses this fruit altogether! This is a kind of sadhana where we want quick results. We want to see God quickly and in this process we go on changing the objective of our sadhana every day and change from place to place like a monkey.
I remember telling a questioner in Maharashtra, while in the previous Body, that there are three types of devotion:
The bird method (Vihanga) where, like a bird swooping down upon the ripe fruit on the tree, the devotee is too impatient and, by that very impatience, loses the fruit, which falls from his hold.
The monkey method (Markata) where, like a monkey that pulls toward it one fruit after another and by sheer unsteadiness is not able to decide which fruit it wants, the devotee hesitates and changes his aim much too often and thus loses all chances of success.
The ant method (Pipeelika), where like the ant that slowly but steadily proceeds toward the sweetness, the devotee moves direct, with undivided attention, toward the Lord and wins His Grace!
