Thus Spake the Divine - The Directive of our Acharya

Thus Spake the Divine

"The Directive of our Acharya"

“Meditate on God and motivate others to meditate too”. This is the directive of Adi Shankara Bhagavadpada to the Go through this Chapter which exhibits how our Poojyasri Maha Periyava has religiously adhered to the directive of His Guru!

The prime directive of Acharya to us, the descendants of Sri Adi Shankara Bhagavadpada’s Peetam, is that we must always meditate on God and we must motivate others also to meditate on God. Why should we meditate on God? It is because God has transformed Him into our own selves. That means, the main goal is to identify our own real self which is identical to Him. How do we identify who we are? If we don’t know the answer, it is just enough to meditate on God, whom we comprehend as the personification of all good attributes. Since “He” and “We” are identical, He would grant us our own i.e. His own real self. Once we engross ourselves into Him, all attributes will vanish and there will be a state of “no attributes” (Nirgunam) within our own selves.

When one holds the responsibility to guide the other person towards the right direction and if that other person commits a mistake, then that mistake will transpire as the mistake of the person who has not led him in the right direction. If you all don’t move in the right direction, then it means that I am useless, who happens to be the Guru of you all. The moral standards state that the sins of citizens will fall on the king; the sins of the wife will fall on the husband. Likewise, the sins of the disciple will fall on the Guru.

For an ordinary Guru, there will only be a few disciples and the sins committed by them would befall on the Guru only to some extent. If the Guru happens to be the Guru of the entire world (Jagad Guru) then imagine the magnitude of sins that will fall in his account; the entire sins of the world will fall only on him.

Meditation on God is the only way to alleviate sins. That’s why Acharya has directed us saying, “Encourage the people to meditate on God; if they don’t meditate, you meditate on God on their behalf”. I am trying to fulfil that duty to the best of my efforts. I am trying to meditate on God on all your behalf. But if you all meditate with your best efforts, to that extent, the load on me will reduce.

We should meditate on God to the extent possible to purify the mind, to endure the impacts of erstwhile sins and not to commit new sins. Time should not be a constraint for doing meditation. If we can minimise the time spent on unnecessary gossips, time will definitely be available for meditation. One should consider that meditating is of paramount importance in life. Irrespective of the status whether one is very wealthy or suffering from poverty, undergoing sorrows or enjoying happiness, suffering from an ailment or enjoying good health, one should meditate on God as long as time permits.

Apart from ensuring that we do meditate, we should also encourage our known circle of people to meditate. We should not become angry if they don’t meditate. We should speak to them with kindness, so that it impacts them. Kind words will melt people irrespective of their personality.

I have told you about the directive of the Acharya “Do meditate on God; also motivate others to meditate”. Whether I am motivating you to meditate or not, I am at least able to fulfil my duty to the extent of passing on the directive of the Acharya to you to meditate. When this birth (Janma) comes to an end, we should be in a position to claim, “Oh! We have reaped the benefits of having taken this birth. Now, we can leave this world without any fear”. May God Parameshvara grant us all His blessings to help us get that determination and satisfaction!

We have committed a number of sinful acts with this wicked mind. Had we meditated on God since our childhood, by this time, many of our sins would have got extinct. Even now, we are accumulating more and more sins. As long as we fall at the feet of God and meditate on Him, we have attained the purpose of having taken this birth. Acharya has built the stepping stones for us to reach that state. These steps start from the Karma, travel through the Bhakti and culminate at the Wisdom.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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