Sakar-Brahm ni Anuvruti
- The acceptance of the positive angle or observance of another’s virtues without any hesitation whatsoever, with our minds and intellect is known as ‘brahm ni anuvruti’.
There are three fundamental stages of the sadhana; Agna, Anusandhan and Anuvruti. We should become our own gurus and scrutinise ourselves and analyse which stage of the sadhana we have reached. The state of our spiritual tranquillity and equanimity should not be dependent upon anything or anyone. Those elements of the 14 lok or 51 Bhutt which easily accept and persist in observing the virtues of those who praise us and co-operate with us as well as those who insult and oppose us, have reached the anuvruti stage.
- Those of our elements which have attained the stage of anusandhan will be constantly striving to live according to the wishes of the pratyaksh swaroop but in its own individual way which may not appeal to everyone. There will be many who will approve of our behaviour and many who will not. By the same token, we too will approve of certain people’s behaviour patterns and disapprove of others. All of this is due to gnané-yukt anusandhan – a consciousness founded on our intellectual knowledge.
Thus our behaviour is influenced to a great degree by our own characteristics (ang) and our ego (swa). Therefore if we find ourselves scrutinising the speech, actions and behaviour of others, we should be alerted, introspect, pray and endeavour to look to improve ourselves rather than others. We should become neutral and ask ourselves: “What is the importance of ‘I’? Who am I? Am I not the slave of the Lord? Then why do I dislike the behaviour of His devotees? Why do I disapprove of them?”. We should make a firm resolution to accept without any doubt that their behaviour is inspired by the Lord. If we sincerely abide by the resolution then those elements will progress from the anusandhaninto the anuvruti stage.
- In the stage of Agna–Swaroop, certain elements which cause us to take offence and criticise the behaviour of others, do so as they have not yet been purified. Thus, they prevent us from accepting the Lord as the instigator and inspirer of all events and deem their own beliefs to be true. This in fact is only an illusion. Therefore, we should insist that those elements strictly abide by the commands (agna) given by the guru or the pratyaksh Guruhari. We should not relent until these elements have been purified and eventually reach the anusandhan or anuvruti stage.
In this way, we should endeavour to purify our whole being – our aim being to establish purification of each element of the 14 lok and 51 bhutt such that every step we take, every word we speak, and every thought we conceive is inspired by the Lord, i.e. that we have achieved the stage of Gunatit-bhav.
For instance : our eyes
Anuvrati Stage: When we encounter some-one, no matter what they say or do, we would remain absolutely un-perturbed, and neutral and would ask the Lord: “How should I serve you in this instance? Please guide me and inspire me.” We would then act according to His inspiration.
Anusandhan: When we encounter some-one, no matter what they say or do, we would accept the Lord as the controller and inspirer of their actions. However certain elements within us will not be so neutral, will be biased by their own beliefs and will act as they deem fit. The result is an inner conflict of beliefs which ultimately hinders us from seeing and accepting Maharaj as the controller of everyone and everything, i.e. we are unable to see and accept the ‘leela’.
Agna-swaroop: When we see someone or hear something regarding some-one, the eyes instantly send messages to the mind regarding that person. The elements of the mind which have preconceived ideas and opinions will begin to scrutinise the behaviour of that person without stopping to consider that it may have been inspired by the Lord. Our behaviour towards that person is not neutral but biased in some form or other, it is influenced by the biased ideas and opinions held in the elements of our mind. That person can sense these feelings, feel offended and may conceive the same feeling and opinions about us which we will also experience!
Thus we should repent, begin to pray and do séva if any element of our mind leads us to take offence of, or ponder upon, the behaviour of any devotee. As those elements are immersed in the power of the Lord, they will become calm and tranquil. They will be purified such that they will not bear any feelings of attachment or malice and will become incapable of acting in a manner which contradicts our convictions and beliefs. In order to achieve this, we must repent and give ourselves the penance of half an hour of japyagna, and do half an hour more than our normal share of séva. In this way, those elements will be punished and will refrain from not accepting the lord as the supreme controller and judging others’ behaviour.