Posted on January 27, 2018 by shantanup
Bhagavad Gita 18.65 says: Have your mind fixed on Me, be My devotee, be a sacrificer to Me, and bow down to Me. Thus you will come to Me alone. This truth do I promise to you For you are dear to Me.
Bhagavad Gita does not give a complete picture of what is true on the relationship between man and God. In this verse it says be a sacrificer to Me and bow down to Me: that is Jihad and I resisted that as being anathema to me. Only Islamic people engaged in Jihad. Dharma was and remains important to me: how to maintain my dignity and run my family and contribute to the welfare of planet and human societies. But I did bow to God in days gone by and was prepared to follow through a mission that I considered He might have for me for the betterment of mankind, so engaged in that pursuit. This continued until it became clear that there was no mission remaining other my own objective of working for truth and justice and living my life productively and acquiring knowledge. As far as I could see He had not shattered the world with the implications of the shloka in the Bhagavad Gita ‘ Yada Yada hi dharmasya …dharma sansthapnarthaya sambhawami yuge yuge’. It was therefore all a personal journey that seemed to have been arranged for me.
I surrendered to God. There was no alternative once I knew He was guiding me in my activities. I surrendered because I quickly saw that He was more knowledgeable and more intelligent than me in fathoming the complexities of the legal situations that I was embroiled in and I needed His help in combating the utter evil that I faced. So He guided me effectively through what I was engaged in terms of resisting the persecution mounted on me by the UK State. He protected me from those enemies that I had for some strange reason somehow acquired. From this engagement I also gained knowledge and through such surrendering ultimately attained ‘the supreme position of Vishnu’, where one got all one’s directions from God without looking out for messages to act in particular ways and still did not make mistakes in running one’s life. That was what living is all about.
The word worship needs to be clarified. If one surrendered to God, is that worshipping God? I did worship Him periodically for what good He had done for me. But living in surrender was also just the reality that I had adopted out of self-interest. I did not pray, perform ritualistic offerings such as flowers or music to God to express my devotion. I figured that God did not need us to do that. There were more important things to do with ones life. So when we did make offerings it was only to satisfy our own needs. God did not need us: we needed God out of self interest. Once I had attained the supreme position of Vishnu there was no question of surrendering to God any more. I became all the God I needed. There was no need for any further worship. Having said that He had awoken my search for Him years ago. So He needed me for a purpose. So my life of devotion and surrender to God were intrinsically linked. I was to expose the cruelty of the UK State towards an innocent immigrant from Hindu India.
In Hinduism, there are all kinds of practices. These practices are often stepping stones on a spiritual journey that may be undertaken for those who are so inclined. In my days gone by I was well into bhajans and classical Indian music. So I craved for God through such means. On reflection they were not anything more substantial than just passing phases in the search for knowledge. But they were important in the sense that they showed that I was always deeply involved and devotedly so with God. But there was work to be done.
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