Glory of constant remembrance

God has gifted us with discrimination, faculty of reason & judgement which should be made use of and waking up from that slumber of infatuation.

There is no spiritual discipline equal in value to an uninterrupted remembrance of the Guru with form or without form, qualified or absolute. We may call him as our Friend, Master or whatever might be pleased to choose but remains after all our Guide or the Guru as he is commonly called. It can be easily accomplished if we treat all our actions and work to be a part of Divine duty entrusted to us by the Guru whom we are to serve for ever. This course of discipline leads to God Realisation - "total Bliss".

If we are not able to realise God in this human existence it means a tremendous loss, a great disaster. One should naturally be engaged in his or her action attending to vocational duties in order to make a living but ensure never letting 'Guru' slip out of one's mind. Even if there is any deficiency or shortcoming in the discharge of worldly duties, it can be rectified by the dint of Constant Remembrance of the Guru who is the cardinal link between man & the God. For however great a sinner may be, he gets reformed and redeemed through exclusive devotion to the Guru. Therefore, this human body should be devoted to that very purpose for which it has been vouchsafed to us.

God has gifted us with discrimination, faculty of reason & judgement which should be made use of and waking up from that slumber of infatuation. All our efforts should be made to accomplish the object of God Realisation before the human frame drops down. To devote the mind to this highest pursuit is to make the best use of it persistently depending on 'HIM' all the time. If one practices constant contemplation on the Guru while doing any activity, such actions will cause NO impressions and further Sanskaras.

At present we enjoy all sorts of facilities in this material plane such that our mind is totally engrossed in our mundane affairs. However, it is the Guru's Grace that we are born in this Kaliyug where endowed us with intellect and senses for carrying on constant contemplation of the Divine and Meditation. At this time spiritual literature is available everywhere at a low price. If we fail to realise God even when blessed with such facilities, it will be a great peril in our existence and even thereafter.

Through unbroken Remembrance of the Guru, it is possible to overcome all one's evil propensities, addictions and other defects to end all one's miseries and attain the highest Bliss in the form of God Realisation - "ANANDAMAYA".

Why do we Remember God?

How we must purposely remember God in each moment, lest we think we're independent and forget that he is our Creator and judge.

Introduction

• "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, 'I have no delight in these days.'"
• The word remember conveys where your focus is.
  • Illustration: We often forget about gravity, but without it we couldn't function here on Earth. We also rarely think about our car's windshield, but without it we would have bugs all over our face and our hair blown in all directions.
• Is God like that to you—some gravitational force that keeps things going but is rarely given much thought? Or like a car windshield, do you look right past him and forget what he does?
• God is not like a windshield or gravity, which don't care whether you acknowledge them or not.
• When you go a while without remembering your Creator, you function independently of him. God cares about that.
• If you don't remember your Creator, you won't have trust and confidence in God, and it will be difficult to ask him for things.
  • Illustration: When McClellan and his wife take walks and meet someone, they know the courteous thing to do is to acknowledge their presence and say hello. You don't walk up to a stranger and say, "Hey! My name is Bob. Can I borrow your lawn mower?"
• You know intuitively that you don't ask for things until you've established a level of trust and relationship.
• Your prayer life will be dead and boring if you don't have a relationship with God, because you know intuitively that it's not courteous to ask for things when you haven't established a relationship.
• Does this mean you should stop asking God for things? No! It means that you first need to start remembering your Creator. But how?

Walk through the day with your Creator.

• You begin to remember your Creator simply by talking about your day with him.
  • Illustration: When McClellan and his wife take a walk, much of their time is spent talking about the things that surround them.
• You can start talking to God about what's on your mind at that very moment.
• God doesn't have to be the period at the end of your day or the capital letter of the first word of your sentence; God can be the sentence that underlines your entire day.
• You remember your Creator when you start walking through your day with him.
• Once you've acknowledged God's presence on a daily basis and established a level of trust with him, it will feel much more natural when you ask him for something.
• Many people beat themselves up for having a poor prayer life, because they can't focus themselves for a half hour each morning, but you can just pray about the stuff that comes into your day, all day long.
• Though it takes a little while to learn this skill, you will build a sense of God's presence all day long and find that you are able to ask about things that you never would have thought of in the morning.

Remember that we are creatures.

• It's interesting that the writer of Ecclesiastes uses the word Creator. It's the only time the word is used in the entire book.
• Once you remember that you have a Creator, you remember that you are a creature—a created being.
  • Illustration: Imagine that you've baked a batch of gingerbread people. You have the power to make them live. You soon realize they're not all going to be good gingerbread people. You can't always tell who's with you and who's against you, so you decide to disappear. Some of them say, "We knew it! There was no baker all along. We can do whatever we want!" But others say, "How could we think, reason, speak, sing, and write poetry if we didn't have a baker? We owe everything to the baker!"
• The minute you forget that you are created, you start down a road of independence that is the root of all evil.
• God says: Remember that you are someone's masterpiece. Somebody made you; you are not your own.
• In the New Testament, the story gets even better. The apostle Paul tells us that not only are we made in the image of God, but we're redeemed and purchased with his own blood.
• Once we start thinking of ourselves as creatures, we may think, I don't like the idea that I belong to somebody. I want to be free.
• Or we may think, I am not independent; I am dependent. And since I belong to someone else, one day I'm going to have to answer to the baker.
• Ecclesiastes 12:6 says, "Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well."
• That is a metaphor for your life coming to an end. The writer tells us to remember God before that happens.
• Ecclesiastes goes on to say: "And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it."
• The Hebrew word for spirit means "the breath of life." The author is saying that the breath of life God breathed into us goes back to the One who breathed it.
• As the author writes in verse 8: "Vanity of vanities … all is vanity!" A good paraphrase of that verse would be: Fleeting, fleeting! Everything is fleeting!
• If you try to hang on to something, it slips away. So remember your Creator while you still have the ability to remember.
• This whole section of Ecclesiastes 12 talks about how our bodies decline as we grow older.
• In this context comes that great injunction in verse 6: Remember your Creator before the end.
• The thought that we belong to somebody and are accountable for our actions puts us in our place.

Conclusion

• In Ecclesiastes 12:9, the author says that the teacher taught people knowledge. He wrote down his wisdom in delightful ways, so that the people could remember it.
• The author says, "The words of wise men are like goads." When an animal stubbornly didn't want to move or got stuck in the mud, the shepherd would use a goad to poke the animal along.
• The Book of Ecclesiastes serves as a goad to us.
• The author boils it all down to this: "Fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment."
• The Creator creates things and holds his creation accountable.
• That may be distasteful to some people—whole kingdoms and philosophies have been launched to try to avoid that very simple thing—but we are accountable.
• As the text says: "God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil."
• We don't get the final say in things.
• We do what we can with what God gives us. He says: Do the right thing, and let me worry about the outcomes. In the end, I'm the only one you have to answer to—and no one else.

Guru Raghavendra Swamy

Sri Guru Raghavendra Swamy(Kannada: ಶ್ರೀ ಗುರು ರಾಘವೇಂದ್ರ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ) (1595-1671), one of the influential saints in Hinduism, lived in the 16th century. He advocated Vaishnavism (worship of Vishnu as the supreme God) and the Dvaita philosophy advocated by Madhvacharya. He is considered by his devotees to be a reincarnation of Prahlada, the devotee who was saved by Vishnu in his avatar as Narasimha.

He was an ardent devotee of Sri Moola Rama and Sri Panchamukha MukhyaPranaDevaru (the five-faced form of Hanuman - Pancha meaning five, mukha meaning faces). He performed penance at a place called Panchamukhi, where He received darshan of Hanuman in the form of Sri Panchamukha MukhyaPrana. There is also a huge statue of Sri Panchamukha Hanuman at tiruvallur, near Chennai.

Mantralayam in present day Andhra Pradesh, close to the Karnataka border, is the abode of Raghavendra Swami. The Raghavendra Mutt in Mantralaya (previously known as Manchale) is visited by thousands of devotees every year. Raghavendra Swami attained samādhi at Brindavan (sacred tomb) which is located at Mantralaya. Sri Raghavendra Theertha is also known as Guru Rajaru and Rayaru lovingly by his devotees.

Early life as VenkatanathaACharyaru

Sri Thimmanna Bhatta was the grandson of Krishnabhatta, a Veena scholar, who had taught the Veena to King Krishnadevaraya. Initially, this couple had two children named Gururaja and Venkatamba. By the grace of Lord Venkateswara, a third child was born in 1595 A.D. at Bhuvanagiri in Tamil Nadu to Sri Thimanna Bhatta and Smt. Gopikamba. They named him Venkatanatha (some also say that he was called either Venkanna Bhatta or Venkatacharya).

Venkatanatha proved to be a very brilliant scholar at a very young age. Venkatanatha's brother Sri Gururaja Bhatta took care of his upbringing after their father's demise. The initial portion of his education was completed under his brother-in-law Lakshminarasimhacharya's guidance in Madurai. After his return from Madurai, Venkatanatha married Smt.Saraswathi. After his marriage, Venkatanatha went to Kumbakonam. There he studied the Dwaita vedantha, grammar and literary works under his guru, Sri Sudheendra Theertha. He was very well versed in bhashyas and debated with various scholars and prevailed over them. He was also a skilled musician and played the veena, which he had learned in his childhood from his father, very well. He used to teach children Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic texts. He never demanded any money for his services and he had to endure a life of poverty. Many a times, he, his wife and child had to go without food several times a week. But this never deterred the faith he had in the Lord.

Venkatanatha was in the habit of chanting stotras and mantras always in his mind. Once while he was touring Kumbakonam, Venkatanatha was invited to attend a function, with his wife and son. The hosts did not treat him well and wanted him to earn his food by running a chore. So they asked him to make some sandalwood paste, using a grinding slab. The paste was given to all the guests, who smeared it on their bodies. Immediately, the guests complained of a burning sensation all over their bodies on which they had rubbed the paste. Surprised by this, the hosts questioned Venkatanatha, who replied saying that he was chanting the Agni Suktam while grinding the sandalwood, which had resulted in the cool sandalwood create a burning sensation. Such, it is said, was the power of the mantra when chanted by Venkatanatha! Venkatanatha then recited the Varuna Mantra and succeeded in relieving the guests of their agony.

Ordination into Sanyasa as Guru Raghavendra

His gurugalu, Sri Sudheendra Theertharu, was looking for a successor to his math. Sri Sudheendra Theertha had a dream where he saw the Lord indicate that Venkatanatha was the right person to succeed him as the pontiff of the math. So Sri Sudheendra Theertha communicated his desire to Venkatanatha. Venkatanatha was devastated by the request of the guru as he could not take up this responsibility for he had a young wife and a son to care for.

But by divine intervention and after being blessed by the Goddess of Learning herself, Venkatanatha changed his mind. The sanyasa ordination was to take place on the second day of the bright half of Phalguna Masa in 1621 at Tanjore. On the day Venkatanatha was to ascend the peetha, Saraswathi was required to stay at home. However, at the last minute she was seized by a desire to see her husband's face for the last time. She ran towards the matha throwing caution to the winds. Unfortunately, deeply engrossed in the desire to see her husband, she did not see an old and unused well on the way, and fell into it. She drowned and died. Since her death was an untimely one, she became a ghost. Even as a ghost, her only desire was to see her husband and so she went to the matha. By the time she arrived, the function was over Venkatanatha had become a Sannyasi under the name of Sri Raghavendra Theertha. Sri Raghavendra sensed his wife's presence immediately and sprinkled some holy water from His Kamandalu on her, granting her moksha or liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. This was her reward for a lifetime of dedicated and selfless service to Sri Raghavendra.

Last speech and Brindavana

Before entering Brindavana in 1671, Raghavendra Swami gave a soul-stirring speech [1] to hundreds of devotees who had gathered to watch the event. Some quotes from that speech are as follows -

• "Without right living, right thinking will never come. Right living is performing one's ordained duties according to one's station in life without hankering after the fruits of the actions and on the other hand offering all one's activities to the Lord. This is real sadachara (right living). This is real karma yoga."

• "Social work done for the good of worthy people should also be considered as the Lord's worship. In short, our life itself is a worship. Every action is a puja. This life is precious. Every second of our life is precious. Not even a second that has gone will come back. Listening to the right shastras and always remembering Him is the highest duty."

• "Always keep away from people who merely perform miracles without following the shastras and yet call themselves God or guru. I have performed miracles, and so have great persons like Srimadacharya. These are based on yoga siddhi and the shastras. There is no fraud or trickery at all. These miracles were performed only to show the greatness of God and the wonderful powers that one can attain with His grace. Right knowledge (jnana) is greater than any miracle. Without this no real miracle can take place. Any miracle performed without this right knowledge is only sorcery. No good will come to those who perform such miracles and also those who believe in them."

• "Have devotion to the Lord. This devotion should never be blind faith. Accepting the Lord's supremacy wholeheartedly is true devotion. Blind faith is not devotion. It is only stupidity. We should have devotion, not only for the Lord, but also for all other deities and preceptors in keeping with their status."

After this Sri Raghavendra began reciting the pranava mantra and slipped into deep samadhi. At one stage the japamala in his hand became still. His disciples who understood this sign started arranging the slabs around him. They arranged the slabs up to his head and then, as per his earlier instructions, they placed a copper box containing 1200 Lakshminarayana saligramas that had been specially brought from Gandaki river. Then they placed the covering slab over it and filled it with earth. They poured twelve thousand varahas (abhisheka) over the brindavan that they had built.

Constant Remembrance

I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast Yogi who constantly remembers Me daily, not thinking of another, O Partha! (Bhagavad Gita VIII-14)

Constantly remembering the Lord throughout the life is the surest way of attaining Him. He who remembers the Lord by fits and starts, who remembers Him for six months and then leaves the practice, and again remembers Him for six months and so on, cannot attain Him.

Remembrance of the Lord at all times is known as Smarana. It is unbroken memory of the Name and form of the Lord. The mind does not think of any object of the world. It is ever engrossed in the thought of the glorious Lord alone. The mind meditates on what is heard about the glories of the Lord and His virtues and Names, and forgets even the body. It is contented in the remembrance of God, just as Dhruva and Prahlada did. Even Japa is only remembrance of God and comes under this category of Bhakti. Remembrance also includes listening to the stories pertaining to the Lord, talking of Him, teaching others about Him and meditating on His attributes constantly.

There is no particular time for practising remembrance of God. He is to be remembered at all times without any break, as long as one has one’s consciousness intact. Right from his getting up from sleep in the morning, until he is completely overpowered by sleep at night, a person is to remember God. He has no other duty in this world except the remembrance of God. The remembrance of God alone can destroy all worldly impressions. The remembrance of God alone can turn the mind away from sense-objects.

Generally, the mind runs outside, but the remembrance of God makes it introvert and does not allow it to run to particular objects of the world. The remembrance of God is a very difficult method of Sadhana. It is not possible to remember Him at all times continuously. The mind deceives the person. He may think that he is meditating on God but actually he will only be thinking about some object of the world or something to do with name and fame. The remembrance is equal to concentration or meditation. All the qualities which a Raja Yogi prescribes for the practice of meditation should be acquired by a Bhakta who wishes to practise Smarana-Bhakti. Smarana is swimming against the forceful current of the river of Maya. Smarana leads to exclusive meditation on God, as is practised in Raja Yoga.

The company of sincere devotees is an auxiliary to the remembrance of God. The service of Mahatmas and saints is yet another necessity. The mind cannot but remember divine things when it is in the company of divine people. Therefore, one should have Satsang and always live with a saint or a great Bhakta. He should not be perturbed by the censure or ridicule of the world. He should rely upon God and rest assured that He will help him in all troubles and grant final emancipation.

The remembrance of the Lord has given liberation even to those who thought of Him through hatred, just as a worm, through its hatred and fear of the wasp, meditates on it and attains the state of the latter. Haters of the Lord, like Kamsa and Sisupala, attained liberation through Vaira-Bhakti. Constant remembrance is the fruit of all the methods of Sadhana. This is the most potent method and the most difficult also.

A miser does not forget his wealth even while he is engaged in other duties. A lustful man does not forget his beloved at any time. A cow does not forget its calf even while it grazes. Even so, a worldly man, though he may be engaged in the duties of life, should practise the remembrance of God.

Prahlada practised the remembrance of God. He never forgot God at any time. He was tortured by his cruel father in all possible manner but the devoted Prahlada crossed all these troubles and attained the supreme Grace of the Lord. Prahlada was lost in the consciousness of the Lord. Such should be the ardent aspiration of all devotees. The seventh Skanda of the Bhagavata gives a beautiful description of how Prahlada practised Bhakti even amidst difficult and trying conditions.