Giving up our pride

It is easy to determine if you have pride, says Maharajji Kripalu. A Saint will ask you how many tears have you  shed. If you have not shed any, your meditation and devotion are null. You must shed tears of humbleness. God only comes running to you when you shed tears. God does not care about your strength, power, or talent.

An example of the uselessness of strength is when Dushasan pulled Draupadi’s sari, which she had clenched in her mouth. Dushasan, who had the strength of 10,000 elephants, was easily able to pull it from her.  Krishn, who had been watching, knew that she could not fight strength with strength. Realizing her helplessness, Draupadi asked Krishn to intervene. Dushasan was able to get a hold of her sari but not her. Krishn had extended her sari infinitely.

We do not need to approach God with our strength. In front of him, our strength means nothing.  With what strength are we going to God?  What strength do we have?  Uncountable gods of wealth are His servants.  This does not just include brute strength, but financial strength as well. These are artificial sources of pride. The mind is far worse. We attend and listen to Saints, only to forget their teachings or not follow them at all. These Saints guide us to the direction of happiness to no avail. No one can do anything for someone else’s happiness. Not even your family and friends. We all dictate our own happiness.

Everything we seek in this world, such as family, a home, a career, is sought to fulfill our need for happiness. We try to extract happiness from these things, yet we forget that this is all in maya, and happiness does not exist in the mayic domain. How is it then possible to achieve happiness? For example, one blind person yells to another blind person to come to him and take his hand.  The second blind person hears this and takes the hand because he thinks that the other blind man is able to see. This same analogy of blind leading the blind is occurring in our world. Every relationship we have is based on selfishness. We expect certain things from certain people, and they expect something in return from us. This method of exploitation is done to benefit the “I” in the mayic realm. If they do not provide us with what we want, we dismiss them or decrease our attachment and increase our hatred. This is our selfishness.

So you must cry when asking God for His love. It does not matter which language you use to express your passion, so long as you cry. When you cry, do not bring up any mayic thoughts before Him. The mayic thoughts can be categorized as either bhukti or mukti. Bhukti is classified as all materialistic happiness up to Brahma’s abode. Attaining oneness with God by losing your identity and submerging your soul into His personality is called mukti, which is more dangerous than bhukti. You must not interact with either of them. Anyone who follows either of the two will deprive himself from experiencing the Divine Bliss, so stay clear from them.

Just cry and ask for Divine Bliss, without mentioning the world. There is no need to deceive God. Be yourself. You do not need to pretend you are a noble or a dignitary. If you try to deceive God, then he will turn away. As stated before, you must approach him as if you were a child who has no preconception.