Dear devotees,
Today I'll explain a line from one of Jagadguru Shree Kripalu Ji Maharaj's kirtan. Shri Kripalu Maharaj is the fifth original Jagadguru, mool (original) Jagadguru in the last five thousand years, and he has written many granth, many important books, and many many kirtan. One of these siddhant kirtans is called “Sādhanā Karu.” It tells us how to practice bhakti, how to practice sadhana. He says,
साधना में है प्रमुख मन, इन्द्रियाँ नहिं प्यारे ।
Sadhanā men hai pramukh man, indriyan nahin pyāre.
(The most important thing in devotion is that devotion should be done by the mind, and not only by physical senses.)
Sadhana, the path of bhakti. Sadhana means you do something to accomplish a goal. Our goal is God. We want to reach God, know God, get the Divine vision of Radha Krishna. When will that happen? When we receive Their grace. When will we get Their grace? When our patra is ready, when our heart is fully cleaned so that we have a fit vessel to receive Their grace. Then how do we clean it? Yes. That's the question. That's our job.
So, we have to prepare ourselves to receive the grace of Radha Krishna, the grace of Guru. How to do that? Sadhana. Sadhana is the means of purifying the heart, purifying the man. Then we become qualified to receive their kripa.
So Shri Kripal ji Maharaj is saying that, and it's obvious, it's logical - If your goal of sadhana is to purify your mind, then you have to do sadhana with the mind. So he says, “The body, the senses are not the primary thing in sadhana. The mind is.”
मोक्ष अरु बन्धन का कारण, एक मन ही प्यारे ।
Moksh aru bandhan kā kāran, ek man hi pyȧre.
(Mind alone is the cause of both liberation and bondage.)
When the mind is fully surrendered to Radha Krishna, then we'll get Their grace. We'll be liberated from maya and will receive Their infinite knowledge and bliss. But the same mind left in its impure state and attached in the world results in further rebirth, further bondage in this world. Therefore, we must do sadhana with our mind. Therefore,
ध्यान ही है साधना का, प्राण जीवन प्यारे ।
Dhyan hi hai sāḍhanā kā, prāņ jeevan pyȧre.
(Loving meditation is the life of devotion.)ध्यान बिनु सब साधना है, प्राण बिनु तनु प्यारे ।
Dhyan binu sab sādhanā hai, prāņ binu tanu pyȧre.
(Without true meditation devotion is like a body without life.)
Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj taking us further into this philosophy says, “Okay, we have to do sadhana with the mind.” So how to engage the mind in sadhana? Through dhyan. And more specifically, Shri Kripalu Maharaj uses the term roopdhyan. Because, if dhyan means meditation, so if we just say, “Meditate on God,” what will you do? It's too vague of a command. It's too vague of an instruction. We need something very specific - how to meditate on God. Shree Kripalu Ji Maharaj says, “Do roopdhyan. You want to meditate on God, then choose a specific form.” So, let's say we want to meditate on Radha Krishna, then do roopdhyan of Radha Krishna. Visualize the form. You can take the help of a beautiful murti, beautiful paintings, and on that basis, you then close your eyes and try to imagine that form in your mind. This is the roopdhyan meditation that we implement on the path of bhakti. This is how we engage the mind in sadhana.
Now we've made a connection with God. Radha Krishna are omnipresent, but until we do that exercise of dhyan, our mind is disconnected from them. That's why we don't receive Their grace. That's why our mind doesn't get purified. But as soon as we engage the mind in doing this roopdhyan, now there's a connection. So the mind, because of that connection with Radha Krishna, begins to get purified. This is the simple scientific process of sadhana bhakti.
So Shree Maharaj Ji says, “Dhyan hi hai sāḍhanā ka, prān jeevan pyāre. This roopdhyan is the life, praņ jeevan, the life of sadhana and without this dhyan, “dhyan binu, sab sadhana.” All the forms of worship, devotion, spiritual practices without having the mind engaged in meditation on God, they're all pran binu tanu (lifeless). If you remove the soul from a body what do you have? A dead body. Nobody wants a dead body, right? It's not of any value to us. So, the thing that gives the value is the soul, the pran. Similarly, all external practices of devotion whether they be kirtan, puja, path, jap, any type of spiritual practice, devotional practice, what is the value of that if the mind is not engaged in thinking of God? Then it's of no value. The thing that gives it value is the dhyan. The mind must be engaged in remembrance of God. Then the physical practice has value. And why does it have value? Because it should be helping us do the dhyan of Bhagwan. It should be helping us remember God. So the indriya, the senses, the body, whatever devotion we can practice with those is secondary. It's a helper. The main thing is man se dhyan karna, engaging the mind in remembrance of Bhagwan is the main thing.
So, Shree Kripalu Ji Maharaj has given the essence of all the spiritual practices. Just like Shri Krishna has also said in the Bhagavatam:
कथं विना रोमहर्षं द्रवता चेतसा विना । विनानन्दाश्रुकलया शुध्येद् भक्त्या विनाशय: ॥ २३ ॥Kathaṁ vinā rom-harṣhaṁ dravatā chetasā vinā. Vinānandāśhru-kalayā śhudhyed bhaktyā vināśhayaḥ
- Bhagvatam 11.14.23
He says, “Just a physical worship of Me will not purify your heart. You have to be emotionally engaged. You have to love Me. Your heart should melt for Me.” Kathaṁ vinā rom-harṣhaṁ. You should feel a thrill when you think of Me, Shri Krishna says, “Dravatā. Your heart should melt when you remember Me. Dravatā chetasā vinā. Vinānandāśhru-kalayā. You should have tears of love and longing for Me when you think of Me.”
See, Shri Krishna is telling us how to do devotion. Shvetashvatropanishad also says, “Bhao se bhakti karo.”
नयनं गलदश्रुधारया वदनं गद्गद्-रुद्धया गिरा। पुलकैर्निचितं वपुः कदा तव नाम-ग्रहणे भविष्यति॥
Nayam galdashrudhāryā vadanam gadgad-ruddhayā girā. Pulakairnichitam vapuh: kadā tav nām-grahaņe bhavișhyati.- Chaitanya mahāprabhu, śikṣāṣṭakama 6
“You have to love God, not just go through the motions of physical devotion.” Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji also says that it's not enough just to chant the name of Radha Krishna. He says, “When will that day come that while I'm chanting Your name, tears will come to my eyes, my throat will choke with emotion, my body will tremble with excitement in thinking of You. When will that day come?”
And Tulsidas ji also says,
जप तप नियम जोग निज धर्मा। श्रुति संभव नाना सुभ कर्मा॥ ग्यान दया दम तीरथ मज्जन। जहँ लगि धर्म कहत श्रुति सज्जन॥
Jap tap niyam jog nij dharmā. Shruti sambhav nānā subh karmā. Gyān dayā dam teerath majjan. Jahan lagi dharm kahat shruti sajjan.आगम निगम पुरान अनेका। पढ़े सुने कर फल प्रभु एका।। तब पद पंकज प्रीति निरंतर। सब साधन कर यह फल सुंदर।।
Āgam nigam purān anekā. Padhe sune kar phal prabhu ekā. Tab pad pankaj preeti nirantar. Sab sādhan kar yah phal sundar.- Ramayan
“All the devotional practices are for nothing unless they develop love in your heart for Shri Ram. In Ved Ved Vyas says, “It's just physical work unless we develop love.” Unless you develop rati (pleasure of love) for the lotus feet of Shri Krishna, it's just a physical labor.” What we're doing in devotion. The devotional practice should be a loving practice.
तेषां सततयुक्तानां भजतां प्रीतिपूर्वकम् । ददामि बुद्धियोगं तं येन मामुपयान्ति ते ॥ १० ॥
Teṣhāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam. Dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yen māmupayānti te.- Gita 10.10
Krishna says, “Satatam, lovingly remember Me all the time. Then I will grace you, and with My grace, you will know Me!”
So this is the essence of spiritual practice. I've given you quotations starting from Vedas all the way to Ramayan and also shown you how Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj has given this essence of devotional practice in one of his kirtans, “Sadhana Karu.” He actually has done this in many, many different forms in literally hundreds of different kirtan, he keeps explaining this essential knowledge to us and also in his lectures.
So, I would encourage you, if you want to go more deeply into this philosophy and this devotional practice, you can do your own educational process with Shree Maharaj as your Guru. Just plug in to the available resources. Shri Maharaj has two YouTube channels, official YouTube channels. One is his lectures’ channel. One is his sankirtan channel. We have the links for those at the front desk, the quick QR codes, so you can go directly to those YouTube channels and sign up. And we also have what you've just experienced here is a quick taste of our satsang here at Radha Madhav Dham in the style taught by Shri Kripalu ji Maharaj.
We have a more extended satsang every evening from 7:30 to 9:00PM, which, of course, you're invited to join in person, but you can also join remotely because we live telecast our evening satsang every day on the ‘Radha Madhav Dham YouTube’ channel. So, these are all resources available to you. And of course, we have our bookshop where all of the books of Jagadguru Shri Kripalu ji Maharaj are available in Hindi and many of them in English as well. So, we have different options for how you can go more deeply into this devotional practice.
Let us finish with a couple minutes of nam sankirtan… Let us do roopdhyan of Radha Krishna. Best as you can, try to visualize Their form as we do a couple minutes of chanting.
Please watch the video to fully grasp the essence of the discourse
