Watering the root of the tree

Sadhana bhakti- Watering the root of the tree

Many a times in spiritual counselling, the solutions to one's day to day problems in career, family relationships, health etc given by enlightened spiritual masters is to strengthen the sadhana of loving supreme Lord by increasing the quantity as well as quality of that sadhana. It is said that if the root is watered then the water goes to all parts of the tree including branches and leaves. However, from a limited perspective it may appear that how the sravanam and kirtanam of Nama, Guna, Lila adi of supreme Lord can alter the problem in family relationship or career. May be some other techniques directly dealing with the issue is more essential. But the  matter of fact is that when there is a pain in the head , the medicine may not be directly applied to head but it may be taken in mouth through a tablet and once it goes in the human body system it cures the pain in the head.

Similarly, many a times the root cause of the problem in our life is our own wrong attitude towards the person and our unjustified expectations and tendency to use that person for our own advantage without seeing the person's own interests. When I was in the first year of my undergrad college, I was in admist confusion of what type of values to choose in my life. On one hand being opportunist and ability to seize all opportunities in one's favor for one's success was considered the best and on other hand another ideal was being honest and considerate and practising integrity to get whatever one gets without compromising with the ideals. One day after my first final exam got finished, I picked up my bag and was about to leave the classroom , I suddenly saw a xerox copy of the notes the next exam of was lying on the floor. From the handwriting , I could make out that the xerox copy was of notes of the topper of the class and before anyone could see I immediately picked it up and put it in my bag. That time I felt I have done a great work by picking up the notes first before anyone could see and saved my 20 Rs of getting a copy of xerox. I was more elated of seizing this opportunity rather than saving 20 Rs and I happen to tell it to one of my friend from other branch who was also connected to a spiritual group. I told him boasting about my smartness in picking up the notes. He first laughed with me but then he said that did you feel what would the actual owner of that xerox notes would be feeling now unable to find his xerox notes. How much anxiety he would be in now. Then I argued back that it cost only 20 Rs, why would such a small amount of money would make him so anxious. Then he said that there are two things-firstly just for saving your 20 Rs you are cause of even little anxiety to the other person. Also, it may be possible that his financial status may not be as good as yours and he may feel the loss of 20 Rs as well as the loss of time in the preparation of next exam for researching the notes as well as re-xeroxing the notes. After hearing from my friend, I really felt sorry for my action and took the steps to give it back its right owner. But the point which I want to emphasize through this example is that sometimes in our life our tendency for our own pleasure, comforts skews our perspective for other's feelings and perceptions. Our own self image and self respect in relations to other is also as important to us as the profits and benefits we derive from others. Therefore, sometimes we may win in the situations through our manipulative means but loose our own self respect. 

Sravanam and kirtanam of the Nama, Guna, Lila adi of the supreme Lord awakens as well as nourishes one's love for Him. The nature of that love is of samarpan and seva to the supremely beloved Lord. Nature of that love is that one starts to see everyone in supreme Lord and supreme Lord in everyone. That love results in purification of inclinations to hurt others and cause anxiety to others. Nature of that love is to act always for the pleasure of our beloved Lord.  Thus, strengthening of that love empowers us to take action with the ideals of sarve bhavantu sukhinah. This helps us to overcome our own abusive tendencies in relationships, in career, in health. Even in own body, the disease appears due to imbalance of certain chemicals in the body and overpowering of one chemical over the other. This is related to weakening of our immune system due to unbalanced lifestyle of eating, sleeping, working and recreation. Therefore reawakening and strengthening our love of Godhead induces in our chitta the tendencies to properly respect each and every organ of our body as the part of divine. Tongue is also as important as stomach. The eyes are also as important as mind. If we give more importance to pleasure of mind than the eyes we may tend to play video games for 10 hours without pause but then eyes get abused in the process. However, when there is respect for eyes as an important gift from the supremely beloved Lord we will never do such thing to the eyes. Happiness of one harmonizing with the happiness of others and this happens very naturally when one is able to see everything and everyone as part and parcel of his supremely beloved Lord. Similarly abusive tendencies of taking undue advantage of our colleagues in offices, our family members would also get reduced. Initially we may not even be able to see and accept that it is our own abusive tendencies which is the cause of the anxiety which is getting harboured in our mind but as we practise the process of sadhana bhakti with faith , we will not only be able to see the play of our karma in our lives but also develop strength to play our role without experiencing the anxiety.