Parikshit listens to all this. How will all the sins for one go? Is it by performing tapas. One who performs rigorous tapas can get rid of his sins.
What is the meaning of tapas then? It is of 3 types - Speech, Mind and Body. Say if one wants to have darshan of Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupathi, one staying at the bottom of the hill daily climbs up the hill every day to have darshan of the Lord, say for 41 days with great observance. Then as he has tortured his body to do this, this is tapas. But that alone is not enough, there has to be bhakthi in him. Many people have no money and because they are not getting food they are fasting, does not mean they are really in "fast" for a cause to attain the Lord. There are many who have no home and living on the streets but we dont call them as people who have abandoned everything and are in detatchment.
What then is the aim for them? if the aim is Bhagavan only then it is called tapam (or tapas). If the aim is not bhagavan then it is not tapas.
If one does not eat for several days or stays without sleep or stands on one leg to break records or as he has no other work, God will not come for all this. It is said in the Bhagavatham, "Shramamevahi Kevalam".
What is the value of all this, the only value is the difficulties he underwent in order to perform these feats. The fruit of all this is not bhagavan and he does not have the chittam of the bhagavan. So its not what you do that matters but what is the intention,. what for are you doing this tapas.
Many will come to me and ask, you are asking me to do nama japam, mantra japam but when will this nama/mantra bear me fruit. How much should I do - 1 crore, 2 crore. Its not like that.
Only one Name is sufficient you will get the bhagavan kripa. Here its not the name thats important or the count, its how much of deep wanting you have of seeing the God, for one who has a great force of seeing God, like Draupadi who just cried "Govinda", one nama is enough. Only with just one cry, you will get the bhagavan if you have the deep craving for it. Even if you dont have that not to worry as you start telling the nama the craving and the force will come little by little and in that method of chanting you will ultimately get the bhagavan.
So for one what is the sign that he is progressing in the spiritual path. Only if he gets the deep craving to see the bhagavan every day and if he engages himself in the activities that develop his craving for seeing the bhagavan and the worry of not being able to see the bhagavan stays permanently and this takes one into more and more of bhagavath vishayam (things related to bhagavan) then there is a sure sign that you are progessing well in your spiritual life.
Not just about getting siddhis. One can even walk on water but thats not something great or surprising. Likewise one can even fly or think of any object to fall into his hand or perform levitation all this is not surprising. What is great is that one should cry for the bhagavan, not just because he is faced with difficulties by going to the temple and crying to get rid of our problems.
Thats just self-pity - low profile.
Instead we should think of the bhagavan kripa and the feeling of being separated from God thinking so we should cry and feel with our body and this viraham is what is the greatest wonder we can think of.
If one controls breath or with mantras siddhis will come, there is no relation between that and the bhagavan all that is pure occult. For one with these powers need not get jnana or see the bhagavan. So what you do is not important but what is the intention behind this thats important. Therefore tapas is of 3 types - body, fasting to see the bhagavan, vachikam - saying nama all the time. For the tongue also there is a pativrata dharmam, that is the tongue should not speak of anything else other than the bhagavan.
With our tongue saying nama always thats also a tapam by itself. You know what is preventing the sakshathkaram of the bhagavan - not your job nor your family but its that mental thought that comes to you often which is to say something else other than the nama, that false feeling we can do this or we can do that other than the nama. Ignoring of the nama we often do that is what is preventing you from seeing the bhagavan. Whatever the sannidhyam thats present in the archAvatara moorthi inside the temple is there in the nama itself. Nama is bhagavan itself. There is no difference between nama and nami. So nama is enough, this nama will take me to the bhagavan, dont listen to what anybody says, dont fear, dont turn your mind here and there. Mahans have shown this royal route. So if you go in this route easily you can see the bhagavan. If one is doing ramayana parayanam daily and doesnt know how much he has done that itself is tapam for him. Similarly for one who is doing the parayanam of the bhagavatham daily. Likewise one who is saying the harikathas thats tapam for him. There is also the mental tapam, thinking of bhagavan always with the mind.
Therefore we can get rid of our sins in these 3 ways of tapas. Our sins can be removed by brahmacharya also. Likewise if we control out senses or the mind or perform a generous act our sins will be removed. If one always stays with the truth, his sins will not get associated with him, One who is with strict observances also will have his sins removed. One who is with ahimsa and does not harm any living being will also not get attached to sins. Some people who are able to be with all the three types of taspasya and without commiting any sins even by word of mouth being with madhura / mrudu basha also will come out of sins.
But with all this the easiest route what "kEchit kevalaya bhakthya vasudeva pArayana. agham dhunvanthi". kEchit kevalaya bhakthya vasudea parayanah - they perform bhakthi only to Narayana / Ranganathar. kevalaya means perform bhakthi only to ranganathar with sole devotion just like Thondaraipodi azhwar.
Because of such a bhakthi towards vasudeva, agham dhunvanthi - their sins are all burnt.
How does their sins go? They only perform bhakthi to Vasudeva, dont do any pariharam or prayaschittam, no tapas nor torture their body. They just get bhagavath krupa or karuna. What Karuna - looking at the diety in the temple they can see the eyes, nose, the fact thay the diety has the abhayahastam, the mace and the diet has a mind as well.
If one comes daily to see the perumal to do prayers, even if he did not come one one of the days, perumal will look for him. if the devotee comes backasay after 2 days, perumal will be content. So perumal has an anticipation that the devotee will come to see him. Even if one puts a single tulasi at the feet of the Lord, HE does not forget. Even one day if you come to his altar, HE does not forget. That diety has worries and thoughts about us and when we come to see HIM, HE is happy. Such a person who has hari bhakthi, narayana bhakthi, how does his sins go? "niharam iva bhaskarah" - Sins will go away completely. There wont be any sins left at all. How? Like the mist in the morning when we get up to see covered fully. How then this mist is got rid of. By the Sun who has now risen well above, at 12 Noon gives strong heat and suddenly all the mist that was covered disappears. Similarly all our sins will disappear. Our Hari bhakthi takes a magnificient form just like the sun which comes at 12 Noon. As we do hari bhakthi without being tired of it and keep developing with it, when the bhakthi attains a high level, what happens is that all our sins are destroyed. All sins go away entirely and completely. How? Say in our garden we have laid a small mango plant, then we have a worry, say if someone doesnt close the gate outside properly, a goat will come in and eat away all the mango tree leaves and the tree becomes bare and dies. A cow comes in, the cow then takes the whole plant away and then throws it somewhere and walks away. We need to protect the mango tree, put a barbed fence around it taking care not to let a goat or cow come near and then when it becomes a big tree, any number of goats/cows can do nothing to the tree as it has now grown and with a big trunk with all its branches are near the top. Now it actually becomes very useful to the birds who come and eat its fruits, build nests. Similarly if we have done just bhakthi only means that bhakthi will eat away all the desire, anger within our minds and they wont surface again. If we, on the other hand just do bhakthi today, then leave it tomorrow, then again do it, do for just 10 days, forget it altogether then its no use. We should keep doing it without stopping - theevra bhakthi yogEna!!! its us and the bhagavan, whatever happens we should do bhakthi constantly and with great intensity, the bhakthi will then start growing and attain a magnificient state. In that state there will be competition between the bhagavan and the devotee. The bhagavan will think that this devotee did so much bhakthi but what have I given him in return, thinking thus the bhagavan will grant more and more wishes to his devotee. Likewise the devotee will be thinking he has not done enough bhakthi and thus there will be competition. The bhagavan will fail and devotee will win usually.
We should get down and see the depth of the bhakthi. Just like we take any subject and go deeper likewise we should not just simply go to a temple, do pooja and have darshan but we should constantly do the bhakthi, feel its blisss and experience the beauty in it.
Such a deep bhakthi to come easily, what is the way? BHAGAVAN NAMA!!! HARINAMASANKEERTHANAM !!! Sing with the mouth, think with the mind said nacchiar, the meaning of the workd "bhajanam" is exactly that. Speech, mind and acion should come toether. If we say "Govinda giri" - the hand must go up and the mind must think of the Govarthana girithari. The Speech, mind and body should come together which is actually called "bhajanam". Even though sri andal says "Sing with the mouth, think with the mind", we need the bhagvath experience to know the taste of bhakthi and what is needed to protect, just the nama alone is enough!.
JUST IF WE KEEP SINGING THE NAME OF THE NAMA OF THE THE BHAGAVAN, THE NAMA WILL ALWAYS PROTECT US!!!
But with all this the easiest route what "kEchit kevalaya bhakthya vasudeva pArayana. agham dhunvanthi". kEchit kevalaya bhakthya vasudea parayanah - they perform bhakthi only to Narayana / Ranganathar. kevalaya means perform bhakthi only to ranganathar with sole devotion just like Thondaraipodi azhwar.
Because of such a bhakthi towards vasudeva, agham dhunvanthi - their sins are all burnt.
How does their sins go? They only perform bhakthi to Vasudeva, dont do any pariharam or prayaschittam, no tapas nor torture their body. They just get bhagavath krupa or karuna. What Karuna - looking at the diety in the temple they can see the eyes, nose, the fact thay the diety has the abhayahastam, the mace and the diet has a mind as well.
If one comes daily to see the perumal to do prayers, even if he did not come one one of the days, perumal will look for him. if the devotee comes backasay after 2 days, perumal will be content. So perumal has an anticipation that the devotee will come to see him. Even if one puts a single tulasi at the feet of the Lord, HE does not forget. Even one day if you come to his altar, HE does not forget. That diety has worries and thoughts about us and when we come to see HIM, HE is happy. Such a person who has hari bhakthi, narayana bhakthi, how does his sins go? "niharam iva bhaskarah" - Sins will go away completely. There wont be any sins left at all. How? Like the mist in the morning when we get up to see covered fully. How then this mist is got rid of. By the Sun who has now risen well above, at 12 Noon gives strong heat and suddenly all the mist that was covered disappears. Similarly all our sins will disappear. Our Hari bhakthi takes a magnificient form just like the sun which comes at 12 Noon. As we do hari bhakthi without being tired of it and keep developing with it, when the bhakthi attains a high level, what happens is that all our sins are destroyed. All sins go away entirely and completely. How? Say in our garden we have laid a small mango plant, then we have a worry, say if someone doesnt close the gate outside properly, a goat will come in and eat away all the mango tree leaves and the tree becomes bare and dies. A cow comes in, the cow then takes the whole plant away and then throws it somewhere and walks away. We need to protect the mango tree, put a barbed fence around it taking care not to let a goat or cow come near and then when it becomes a big tree, any number of goats/cows can do nothing to the tree as it has now grown and with a big trunk with all its branches are near the top. Now it actually becomes very useful to the birds who come and eat its fruits, build nests. Similarly if we have done just bhakthi only means that bhakthi will eat away all the desire, anger within our minds and they wont surface again. If we, on the other hand just do bhakthi today, then leave it tomorrow, then again do it, do for just 10 days, forget it altogether then its no use. We should keep doing it without stopping - theevra bhakthi yogEna!!! its us and the bhagavan, whatever happens we should do bhakthi constantly and with great intensity, the bhakthi will then start growing and attain a magnificient state. In that state there will be competition between the bhagavan and the devotee. The bhagavan will think that this devotee did so much bhakthi but what have I given him in return, thinking thus the bhagavan will grant more and more wishes to his devotee. Likewise the devotee will be thinking he has not done enough bhakthi and thus there will be competition. The bhagavan will fail and devotee will win usually.
We should get down and see the depth of the bhakthi. Just like we take any subject and go deeper likewise we should not just simply go to a temple, do pooja and have darshan but we should constantly do the bhakthi, feel its blisss and experience the beauty in it.
Such a deep bhakthi to come easily, what is the way? BHAGAVAN NAMA!!! HARINAMASANKEERTHANAM !!! Sing with the mouth, think with the mind said nacchiar, the meaning of the workd "bhajanam" is exactly that. Speech, mind and acion should come toether. If we say "Govinda giri" - the hand must go up and the mind must think of the Govarthana girithari. The Speech, mind and body should come together which is actually called "bhajanam". Even though sri andal says "Sing with the mouth, think with the mind", we need the bhagvath experience to know the taste of bhakthi and what is needed to protect, just the nama alone is enough!.
JUST IF WE KEEP SINGING THE NAME OF THE NAMA OF THE THE BHAGAVAN, THE NAMA WILL ALWAYS PROTECT US!!!
