Let’s first see what it takes to please our senses and people around us. And then, we will compare that effort to what it takes to please God.
For most people, ‘Wake up, work, feel worn out and repeat’ is the routine during weekdays. ‘Chitchat, movies and masti, friends and family, variety of food, and out-door’ is the general routine during weekends. May be if time permits, seek some wisdom and visit a temple. Do something to help anyone in need when you can. So, all these years and all the hard work that we have been doing is to please our senses or please someone. Why is it on-going? Is there no definite end to it?
When we fulfil a desire of a sense organ, the intensity of the desire increases for the next instance! Not only our own sense organs, but trying to satisfy any other beings around us will be of the same nature. We can neither satiate anyone around us including the superior powers such as devathas (indra, brmaha rudra, vaayu, varuna etc), nor satiate our own senses once forever. Ex: If we save Rs.1000 every month for a few months, we will want to save Rs.5000 every month, and then Rs.10000 and it goes on. We must keep working harder and harder to satisfy our desires.
What is the reason for this nature in everyone or everything? It is because they are by themselves incomplete and whatever we give them depletes after a while. And therefore, the desire arises again, now with multiplied intensity because the organ remembers the feeling from last time. So, the fuel we use to fulfil the desire intensifies it. So, there is no end to it.
However, God is not of that nature. He is easily satiable. He is not keen on what we offer him. There is no requirement for any special abilities or any external objects. We are by ourselves good enough. A genuine desire to know Him is all He looks for; the rest is taken care by Him! In fact, He does not need anything external because He is by himself complete in all aspects at all times. However, we will remain incomplete until we recognise His presence. Trying to satiate our incompleteness with things that do not have the ability to fulfil us makes us work round the clock with no sustainable benefit. He feels sad for our situation and keeps trying to awaken us through His scriptures, His stories with devotees, His avatars etc on how we can feel complete and fulfilled!
Bhagavad Vishayam, 6th Thiruvayamuji speaks of this unique and great nature of God! But, when we know God does not need anything we offer to feel satiated, then why even offer anything? Here’s the reason: We are animate, meaning we react. Vedas say, ‘He exists as a deity, in every being, in yourself, in pala kadali, in parama padam, and at times as avataras such as Rama, Krushna, Narasimha etc.’ So, this knowledge makes us react. That is why whatever we do throughout the day should be a reaction to that knowledge. We serve God through all activities we do: be it work or working-out, read or dance, cook or eat, play or rest. This knowledge keeps us obedient towards the deed, and makes us work for needs and not greed.
Let the focus NOT be around satiating our own desires or pleasing someone else. Let it be around leading our life with right knowledge, as passed on from a right acharya! God then owns the responsibility to give us a satiating condition – a permanent, and blissful state, which is good for the entire existence. Become part of this great mission under His leadership. After all, don’t we tell our children to ‘dream big’? Why should we not do the same thing?! Let’s dream big, a dream of greater joy for everyone!
– From the discourse of Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swami, Bhagavad Vishayam (the week of August 6th)
