Commentary on Prayer by Rev. K.C.Narayana

It had been my experience that several persons who were informed of the system of the Sri Ram Chandra's Raja Yoga telling me that they are not yet prepared for it and that unless they purify themselves they cannot start any sadhana. They also told me that they would come after making themselves deserving for such method. It is very amusing, and as Rev. Babuji said these persons want to complete their graduation before starting to learn A B C. This is one type of egoism. There are few others who say that they do not deserve to come to this path as they are hopeless sinners and are not prepared to pollute the atmosphere in the satsang. This is another type of ego which requires to be cleansed. There are a few others who join the system and then tell that they are hopeless individuals and do not deserve to be here and go on pitying themselves. This is yet another type of egoism. There are a few others who told me that there is lot of time to think about this and this can be taken up after retirement from active life or service. This is all because there is no clear cut idea about the life itself and the goal they are seeking.

For majority of the people the purpose of life is very vague and most of the time the question perhaps never arises. This is because from almost 6 months old the child is told about the various rhymes and songs starting with the imbecile recitation of 'baba black sheep, have you any wool'. We are told to learn by rote several nonsensical things which have no value for life as such. The so called education that we are getting imparted is nothing but the capacity for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of information which might help us in enabling us perform skills required for a social life. These are not educts but only adds on. Real education should mean educing some thing from within. That Divine resides in the heart of all and that it can be realized and we can live in harmony with it performing our social and divine responsibilities is totally forgotten. The technical skills we develop, even animals and birds have. The birds build their nests, the dogs trace out thieves. These skills if necessary should be learnt by us but they are not the real ones we should educe. The divine resource we have within has to be more exploited than the animal and human resources which we are trying to harness for the material prosperity of some one whom we serve or asked to serve. The traditional lullabies and divine stories told to the children are totally forgotten and our children are being taught songs and poetry which do not carry any morals. The Aesop's fables and Panchatantra stories are almost forgotten and in their place we have Riche Rich, Top Cats engaging the attention of our children. This lack of direction at the childhood is the root cause of lack of meaning in life that one ponders later in life and being confused gets lost in the maze of sensuous delusions and sensory illusions. The goal of life has to be imparted early in life. On the contrary the children are being taught to be 'first' in the studies, first in play and first even in eating! It is very unfortunate that comparison and competition which surely promote jealousy, greed and hatred are being taught to us from early childhood, instead of harmony and good will to others. This is the seed for the degeneration of the present day values of life. Human civilization would not have advanced to the extent to which it has if cooperation and goodwill were not the values advocated in earlier days. The ethical values of our earlier generations so carefully nurtured and preserved are losing their ground and today the words are 'kill', 'fire', 'envy'. To what levels we have sunk one can estimate for oneself. Porn and Violence are being taught from the beginnings of life and the modern media (thanks to our great advances in audio visual fields) and advertising are doing irreparable damage to human civility and culture. The funniest part of it is, these are being used to, what we are told, preserve our culture and tradition. The need of the day is to know the goal of human life.

The prayer of the system of Rajayoga of Sri Ram Chandra starts with a clear statement that "O Master! Thou art the real goal of human life". That means the goals set by our schools and colleges which are totally geared to economic worth of the individual by harnessing his human and animal resources is not the goal that one should set for himself. The Artha (economic) and Kama (pleasures and luxuries) are not the goals that are worth striving for. They become available anyway according to ones own capacities. The craze (greed) of every parent to see his/her offspring becomes an IIT engineer or an M.B.B.S., from National Institutes, though one knows pretty well is not likely to materialize however much they may try for it with all the home works and tutors and tutorials, is something that is amazing. There is no basic awareness that the potentialities differ. Greed has overtaken their common sense and the children are put to enormous but avoidable suffering. These values taught from the early childhood have so overtaken us we do not know of any other value. Life is just not earning livelihood. It has other purposes to serve. The need for satisfaction of animal needs (Kama), the need for earning money to satisfy our wants and needs (artha) are secondary to the means through which these are sought to be satisfied. The means should be Dharma and not Adharma. Today any means is good enough for achieving the satisfaction of kama and artha. That is where the dissatisfaction starts. Therefore, are the arisal of conflict and disharmony. This lopsided approach to life should give place to the holistic way of life. Dharma is not what Manu has stated or any other modern Manu has stated. To be balanced under all circumstances is Dharma. To be in tune with Nature is Dharma, to maintain ecological balance is Dharma, to give respect to all beings and existences is Dharma, understanding the temporariness of life and living according to the principle 'let us leave the World a bit better than what it was when we started life' is Dharma. To know the Master as the Goal means not to search for some God in far off heavens, but to feel Him in the caves of the Heart directing us every moment towards harmony which is personal, social and trans-personal lives. There are several social values developed over a period of time with the advancement of human civilization. Fraternal love is one such. But carried to the extremes without reference to the God's wishes can be ruinous. While the fraternal love has been rewarded in the case of Laxmana and Bharata because it meant good for all, in the case of Kumbhakarna this was not so and he was punished. Between God (good for all) and individual's satisfaction, God should be preferred. Similarly loyalty to the friend (Karna's dedication to Dhuryodhana as against the will of God), loyalty to the King (in the case of Krupa, Drona as against the side of God), Satya vratatva (in the case of Bhishma as against the side of God) all got doomed. Krishna was only pleading for somehow adjusting among the brothers and not go in for war. He was seeking peace in the name of their values of life the great warriors of the day of Mahabharat, these persons erred badly and therefore perished. To live and to love all is the meaning of life. This is best expressed by the Master as "Mould your living so as to rouse a feeling of love and piety in others". Such is the goal we should have and then only we feel our oneness of being with the Master realized. After all this universe is a material manifestation of the Divine, which requires to be loved and enjoyed. That is bliss, that is happiness, that is peace. It is our individual identity that makes us separate from the Universe. This identity is an illusion. There are no individual existences, all are interdependent beings. Whenever the individual tries to extricate from the interdependency, he becomes a Titan or an Asura. Titans and Asuras never were capable of such severance and ultimately they had to perish. Their values which are now borrowed in the name of independence of individuals both women as well as men is false and there is need to submit ourselves to the Divine or the Master so that our lives are happy and we make others happy.

What is it that prevents us from yielding to the Divine. It is our self-centredness and concern for ourselves. When Swartha overtakes Parartha problems of life get complicated. True it is that there are basic instincts like Kama and Krodha. There are also Lobha, Moha and Ahankar which are our own creation. It is necessary that the latter three are to be minimized if not totally eradicated. The basic instincts of Kama and Krodha are to be moderated. That we are not able to do these is mainly because of the fact that we are slaves for our wishes. Please note the difference between wishes and drives that are mentioned here. Instincts and Drives cannot be got rid off. The process of civilization is nothing but finding sublimation and moderation of the instincts. All the social customs and restrictions are geared towards this end. Acceptance of the fact that we are slaves of our wishes is a must. We always tend to defend all our cravings, wishes and desires as the most natural things we should and can have. This refusal arises mainly because of the Swartha we have. Even to accommodate others points of view happen to be viewed as sacrifice. The word sacrifice is now almost deleted from the Dictionary of individuals. Sri Ram Chandraji Maharaj makes this as the base for the second line of prayer "We are yet but slaves of our wishes putting a bar to advancement". The word 'yet' suggests that we have the hope of getting out of this level of being "slaves of our wishes". It suggests that we want to be obedient to Him and live in happiness. When self interest predominates conflict and disharmony result. When we work for the Divine, harmony alone stands.

The prayer does not end with the awareness of our being 'slaves of our wishe', it also states that we are aware that this position puts us in a handicapped condition and we are not able to advance in our journey. Unless the self is reduced to the nominal level and the interest of the whole of Universe predominates our advancement towards the goal is impeded. The need for Peace or Santhi in the Universe is paramount as compared to the individual Peace or Santhi. Rev. Sri Ram Chandraji Maharaj in his book 'Reality at Dawn' makes this point clear and brushes aside the effort at Universal peace through political institutions and asserts that individual peace alone can lead to Universal peace. Spiritually evolved people alone can live in Peace and the effort should be in that direction. Our being slaves of our wishes (generated by our drives, needs and aspirations) are all barriers to spiritual progress. All that we consider as bad and good are to be given up. This means the total Samskaras are to be washed away. Our incapacity to do that is obvious. Whatever means we adopt (building shrines and temples, arranging for Choultries for pilgrims, performing yagas and yajnas, participating in acts of charity and service, total dedication to the understanding of the real nature of Reality and self) they form samskaras of their own. That is the point stressed by Bhagawan Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita when he states "Sarvadharman parityajya". Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga are all useless. It is total dedication to the Divine and utter consecration of our life to the Divine that leads us out of this helpless state. But then to which Master are we supposed to surrender totally. Is He the Ishta Daivam, is He the Kula Daivam, Is He Agni, Is He Vayu, Is He the Indra? "Kasmai devah havisha videma?" The answer traditionally is either 1.The God behind all Gods or 2. The God of your choice. Neither of this is true. It is that God who is easily accessible, who can understand our problems, the God who was here very much and experienced all that we go through in our lives. It is that One who does not seek from us anything and is willing to part with everything. He has with Him provided we offer ourselves to Him. There is nothing that we can give to Him. The question of offering the yajna phalam to some God does not arise. It is He who gives us. He does the Pranahuti provided we are prepared for receiving the same. Such is the Master we should pray.

The last part of the Prayer of Rev. Ram Chandraji Maharaj states this. It is necessary to understand that the Divine is the driving force of our existence and it is He who directs our ways. Since we think we have our own problems and solutions for our existence there is confrontation and conflict in every aspect of our lives. The moment it is the Divinity that is expressing itself through us dawns, this illusion is gone and we participate in the Divine activity totally and integrally. To think about a Goal in far off heavens is a tough job. To feel in the core of the heart is natural and real. To meditate on the great deeds performed by the Divine in different geographical locations and try to impress the greatness of such Divine expression leads to conflict amongst religions and faiths. To know Him as the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer is difficult. To feel Him in our heart is natural and simple. He expresses Himself as the Divine light. A light which is beyond our comprehension but yet real. It is light without luminosity. It is light without being bright. It is natural, soothing and one with us. To such a Divinity (Master) we assert that He is the means and we say "Thou art the only God and power to bring us up to that Stage". The stage of the Master as the Goal in the first line and this stage of total surrender to Him in the last part of the Prayer summarizes the entire sadhana. The prayer therefore should be perennial and the constant remembrance is nothing but being aware of the state of Prayer. "Pray (beg) that you pray (be submissive) and continue to pray (constant remembrance) so that prayer (yielding) may continue" is the correct advice that we can practice and suggest to others for practice.