Sincerity of Purpose
amandeep
Two things are of paramount importance to scale the heights of
devotion. One is guru's grace, without which neither a start nor
progress on the path of devotion can be made. The other is utmost
sincerity of purpose from the disciple to tread the path of devotion.
Das will try to highlight both here.
Avtar Bani mentions that the lord master's grace can even purify a
great sinner:
THOU FORMLESS ONE 232
No matter if a person is lowly, uncultured, a sinner and a murderer;
No matter if a person is a back biter, greedy, ill-tempered, a
gambler
and a wretch;
No matter if a person is a thief, drunkard, robber and a debauch;
In case such a person falls at the feet of the True Saint as knows
the
Omniscient.
He gets rid of all these vices, he is blessed by the divine grace;
Avtar says, all the sins get washed away with the grace of the True
Master.
However, once the grace has been received in the form of brahm-gyan
and
also the company of saints, then it is sincerity of purpose which
determines the changes in a devotees life and his growth in saintly
qualities.
Primarily our mind is the instrument of action in our body and it is
he
who guides all our deeds and the lord almighty is witness to the
function of the mind as he sits in our heart. If we do an action
which
overtly may look spiritual but is covertly meant for some other
purposes then we lose the connection with the almighty and do not
enjoy
the bliss and happiness that devotion is supposed to bring to a
devotees life. Absence of bliss and happiness directly translates
into
barriers to spiritual growth.
Even Avtar Bani mentions the same
THOU FORMLESS ONE 234
The walls cannot be erected on the foundation of sand;
Likewise, the edifice of Truth cannot be built unless the foundations
are true.
God cannot be pleased by any clever designs;
A boat loaded with stones cannot be taken to the other shore.
One is accepted in the realm of this God only if he is true from
within
and without;
Avtar says, man gets redeemed only if he is innocent.
Unless we are honest to the lord almighty of our weaknesses and seek
his grace to get rid of them, it will be very hard to cross the chasm
of worldly life to a holy life. We need to acknowledge internally
(and
with awareness of the lord almighty presence in our hearts and
thoughts) that god is of greatest importance in our life and then act
with utmost sincerity in all respects. Some aspects of sincerity I am
highlighting here:
Satsang (congregation) - Physically one can be present in satsang to
show our faces and meet all who are gathered there. But what is
needed
is our mental presence where we listen earnestly to all speakers, try
to remember their guidance for treading the holy path and then imbibe
these directions in our life.
Service - One is sometimes witness to situations when a person
refuses to do a service saying it is inappropriate for him. This
directly goes against the principles of service. Service is devotion
of
highest kind, where our self is being offered to the almighty as an
offering. When we accept whatever duties are assigned to us without
question or comments, we surrender our self. The very act of
accepting
these duties without question means that we accept the presence of
god
almighty in the saint assigning the duties. We then proceed to do
these
services - and the services are being rendered to the guru (in whom
is enshrined the lord almighty currently) as we are acting for his
cause in the world. Thus this service becomes an offering of our ego
to
the god. This is very purifying and cleans our heart.
Instead of adopting such an attitude to service, some may imbibe the
attitude of displaying there capabilities and skills and then blowing
their trumpet among one and all. This behavior is tantamount to an
egoistic behavior and does no good to the one doing service and takes
him further away from god.
Sumiran (remembrance of god) - we can do an overt chanting of the
guru mantra, showcasing others that we know the mantra without an
internal identification with the meaning of mantra and of the
presence
of god. In this kind of sumiran there is no sincerity and it is just
a
show to others. However the true beneficial sumiran is when we
acknowledge his presence with us (Tu Hi Nirankar), surrender unto him
(main teri sharan) and seek forgiveness for our misdeeds and sins
(mainu baksh le). Then we leave the rest in his just hands as knows
what is best for us.
Reproducing here a fable from Ramana Maharishi illustrating the same:
"THERE WAS ONCE a guru who had eight disciples. One day he instructed
them all to make a copy of his teachings from a notebook he had kept.
One of them, who had lived an easy-going life before renouncing the
world, could not make a copy for himself. He, therefore paid a couple
of rupees to a fellow disciple and requested him to make a copy for
him
also. The guru examined the copy books one day and, noticing two
books
in the same handwriting, asked the disciples for an explanation. Both
the writer and the one on whose behalf it was written told the truth
about it. The Master commented that, though speaking the truth was an
essential quality of a spiritual aspirant, it alone would not carry
one
to one's goal, but that sraddha (sincerity of purpose) was also
necessary. Since this had not been exhibited by the disciple who had
entrusted his own labour to another, he was disqualified from
discipleship. Referring to his making payment for the work, the guru
sarcastically remarked that "Salvation" costs more than that and he
was at liberty to purchase it rather than undergo training under him.
So saying he dismissed that disciple."
Finally to sum it up - nobody can bring sincerity into us. We have to
bring it in ourselves. As it is a conscious decision we make about
whether we want to live a holy life or not and if we want to live a
holy life - do we give it a priority above everything else in life or
is it just one of our several priorities in life.