The best form of worship

When I wrote my earlier post regarding meditation and chants, an action-oriented and one of my favorite posters responded about her commitment to actions round the clock depriving an opportunity for sitting down for chanting and meditation. Then, the question that came up for discussion is whether an action is considered meditation.

Before we get into the depth of actions, we need to understand the three paths that lead to one’s eternal saturation and they are Path of Devotion (Bhakti Yoga), Path of Action (Karma Yoga) and Path of Knowledge (Jyana Yoga). While repetition of name (Bhakthi Yoga) is equivalent to a kitten trusting a cat to hold it in her mouth to carry around and protect it from harm (Marjara Kishora), building highest of knowledge (Jyana Yoga) is equivalent to a monkey letting her baby to hold her waist while the monkey moves from tree to tree leaving the baby to rely on her own strength to hold her hand around her mother’s waist (Markata Kishora).

But what is the best path for people like us who are engrossed into a family life with responsibilities of caring for the parents, siblings, spouse and children? Even though all paths are taught in scriptures as leading to one destination, path of action is most talked about in Bhagavad Gita. To discuss how we practice the path of action to achieve the desired result of eternal saturation is the purpose of this post.

However small an action is, there has to be a complete commitment to such an action. Constantly striving to improve our skills to perform our day to day actions better and better is the most important step in achieving a great sense of fulfillment. Whatever we do, we should not have likes and dislikes and preferences for one action over the other. All actions should be done with same mindset of devotion and commitment. However, priority of actions is left to the individual’s discretion. Secondly, by saturating actions with love, work can be transformed into worship. Thirdly, the action has to be offered to the Lord (done selflessly). When it is done with that mindset, it gets sanctified into sacramental worship. When we don’t expect the fruits of the actions, we eliminate the desire for success and the earthly fear of failure. When we eliminate the desire for success and fear of failure, we lose our ego.

The questions that I would prefer to ask myself always is a) am I doing it with a mindset that no one else can do it better, b) am I looking for someone to appreciate me for my actions to feel a sense of fulfillment and c) am I doing it with a pride of ownership or feel responsible for such actions? I feel that when work is done as best as I can (skillfully), my worship is accomplished. It is then for the Lord who has accepted the worship to confer on me what is considered best. This attitude will make the work unattached with no expectation of fruits of action. Regular practice of this discipline will render the consciousness clear and pure. It will promote pure consciousness (Chithashuddhi).

The body of us is the field (Shetra) where the consciousness (Shetrajna) resides. We can nourish and cultivate the field for an optimum yield. There are three entities called mind (manas), speech (vaak), and limbs (organs of action) reside in this field. True humanness is in the unity of thoughts, words and actions. In Vedantic parlance, this unity is described as triple purity (thrikarana shuddhi). When one sees the world (Prakrit) with deep love, it is nothing but reflection of love pouring out of fountain head residing inside. A human being can recognize divinity only when he/she achieves harmony with everything inside and outside.

 

Dear Balajee,

Absolutely. Doing our actions with full commitment and dedication is a divine action whatever name we call it. Especially, when human beings dedicate their life for the services of humanity, they lead by example. Mother Teressa did not practice any religion when she helped the lepers on the street. What motivated her to move to India and serve the poor? It is her dedication and commitment to her action.

Viswa

 

Dear Kamla,

Your early visit here is as much excitement to me as your comments for this snippet. As I mentioned many times in the past, it is not the original post but the responses I get from elite members of IL that really motivates my thoughts and refine me to become a better human being.

As you rightly pointed out, it is a process that needs to be practiced for life. Making our actions as an offering is a remarkable effort and it gets better and better by changing our manobhava.

What a great chant that is for the benefit of others, I give below the meaning:

"O Lord, kindly forgive all the wrong acts and omissions,
whether I committed them knowingly or unknowingly,
with my hands, feet, words, ears, eyes, or mind.
Glory to you, Mahadeva, who is the ocean of kindness and compassion, and the cause of happiness."

Viswa

 

Dear Bhucat,

Thank you for your kind words and for your response. Unless it is simple, it is difficult for me to comprehend. When I say it in forum like this and when I get responses from those who have been leading life with conviction, it further refines me and make me a better person. We are very blessed to have souls like your grandmother to teach such valuable lessons. Those questions really help me to fix my issues and change the manobhava very quickly when I go on a wrong path.

Doing actions as an offering is the greatest way to lead life and it comes naturally once we put ourselves into rigorous practice to develop that manobhava. Chithashuddhi gives us joy that is indescribable and nishakhama purifies life everyday.

It is me who need to be grateful for such wonderful responses from members like you and make me learn more.

Viswa

 

Dear VJ,

I always believe that our mind does everything to make us independent separate from our divinity. Then we begin to believe we are this body and mind. Once we realize that the purpose of this body and mind is to understand the purpose and consequences of our past actions and dedicate the fruits of our current actions with a mindset of an offering. It makes us shrug off our ego and do it with the mindset to help ourselves by helping others.

More than offering flowers, fruits, leaves, dishes, etc. to the Lord, it is important to offer our good attitude, character and the fruits of our actions to the Lord.

As I said earlier, your responses make me learn more.