Spiritual discourse

The basis of various practices and paths to self-knowledge is one's association with great people, and it is only through their talks and discourses that the path to self-realisation becomes easy for the seekers.

Everyone in the world seeks happiness. Not knowing where it lies, we end up getting deeply stuck in unhappiness. For some, happiness lies in money, for others in one's offspring, power, property, fame, gourmet food, art and knowledge. But in fact we can never find contentment in these worldly possessions or relations. Even temporary self-control and avoidance of temptations for various sensations and things will not lead to contentment. The worldly desires only end forever when we realise the truth and experience the Eternal. Meditation, spiritual knowledge, and an unbroken remembrance can eliminate our ignorance.

How can we find lasting peace and happiness from a transient world giving temporary pleasures. Thinking and desiring worldly things only lead to bondage, sorrow and repeated births. Whereas thinking and aspiring for the indestructible, eternal reality will result in unending bliss and liberation from attachments to the material things and relations. This is the Nature's timeless principle.

To attain lasting bliss and love we should seek the source which is God or Eternal reality. An unwavering faith and devotion is required to follow one of the countless methods or paths for self-realization. This can only become possible with the grace and the company of saints and a guru or teacher. Therefore, satsang or association with devotees and guru is the main requisite for the goal to attain Bliss. The people we associate with have deep impact on us.

Satsang (association, sang; sat, truth) is when we perform actions and behave according to the sayings of religious texts and of great people, when we visit saints or great personalities, paying obeisance to them, listening to them, and deliberating on what we have read in spiritual texts. Through satsang, we get transformed and start understanding our true blissful nature that helps us to cross this ocean of suffering and liberate us from the unending cycle of births and deaths.

However, it is very difficult to have satsang, and to have a spiritual teacher or guru is even more so and can happen only through the grace of God. Vibhishan said when he met Hanuman:
अब भा भरोस मोहि हनुमन्ता ।
बिनु हरि कृपा मिले नहिं संता ॥

Devarishi Narad says in Narad Bhakti Sutra:

महत्स्गस्तु दुर्लभोअग्म्योमोधश्च ।

The company of holy men and women is rare, unreachable and infallible. It can be had only with God's grace because there is no difference between god and His devotees.

Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bhagvad:

साधवो हृदयं मह्यं साधूनां ह्रदयं त्वहम् ।
मदन्यत्तेन जानन्ति नाहं तेभ्यो मनागपि ॥

'The saints are my heart and I am theirs. They do not anything else except me and I do not know anything except them.'

In fact, we start understanding the value of satsang and seek the shelter of God only by the grace of saints. Brahma says in Srimad Bhagvad, 'Jeeva (human beings) are subject to pain, pleasure, fear, anguish, greed, grief due to their attachment to money, relations, home etc. and only until they do not take refuge in God and consider themselves mere physical bodies appropriating the worldly things as their 'own'. This 'mine-ness' is the sole cause of their suffering.'

As soon as we consider God to be our everything, He takes our responsibility. Therefore, our supreme gain is attaining God.

Sri Krishna says in Srimad Bhagvat Puran:

सर्व धर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।
अहंत्वा सर्व पापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥

Give up all wasteful activities and come in my shelter. Do not worry, I will liberate you from all your sins.

Narad Muni says in Narad Bhakti Sutra:

सुख दुःखेच्छा लाभादित्यक्ते काले
प्रतीक्ष्यमाने क्षणाद्धर्मपि व्यर्थ न नेयम् ।

Do not waste even a single moment without singing Lord's praises waiting for the total eradication of pain, pleasure, desire, gain etc.

Sri Shankracharya says:

विषादृगं किं, विषया समस्ताः ।

Ques: What is extremely poisonous among all types of sense-gratifications?

Ans:  All the worldly sense-gratifications.

विस्मृत्य सकलान भोगान्
मदर्थे त्यक्त जीवितान् ।
मदात्मकान महा भागान
कथं तास्य्क्तु मुत्सहे ॥  - भग्व्द्व्च्न

How can I forsake those who have renounced all the sense-gratifications of this world and are established in my devotion.

Saint Kabir says:

एक घरी आधी घरी, आधी  से भी आध ।
कबिरा संगति साधु की, कटे कोटि अपराध ॥

Do not waste a single moment or even the half of a moment in seeking the company of a saint whose association will purify your mind  and eradicate all your sins. There should be complete faith in the Guru or spiritual teacher, because it is through the grace of Guru that one can cross this ocean of life. Only a washer-man like a guru can clean the dirt of this cloth called the mind and thus purify it. As Meera says:

धोया न मैला होय, हरिजन धोबिया मन धोय,
जीवणा दिन दोय ॥

One should adopt any path to realise God and follow it daily wearing the devotional jewellery of the love  of God. Meera says:

भक्ति का आभूषण सजो ॥

God showers His grace on them who surrender to Him taking only His shelter. Not only this, He even says that he is bound by
vow to do so, as:

जो जन ऊधो मोहि न बिसारे, ताहि ना बिसारुं पल पाव घड़ी रे ।
वो मेरा मैं उनका रे ऊधो , भक्त काज मै देह धरि रे ॥

Associating with saints (satsang) was the main part of Meera's spiritual practices and she forsake worldly customs for this. Whatever she learnt and gained from satsang she had put forth in her verses. She wrote many poems on spiritual knowledge, yoga, and devotion.