All-fold Reliance on the Supreme

                                      Generally, one's saadhana is piecemeal – time-bound and place-bound. Thereby it becomes limited. To enable the seeker to get over such constriction, Krishna brings the principle of allfoldness, to generate a new note of wholesomeness and continuity. If the saadhaka cares to understand and reflect upon the proposition in all its depth, loftiness and attunement, he will surely know where lies the true focus of devotion and spirituality.

sarvakarmaayapi sadaa kurvaano madvyapaashrayaH
madprasaadaadavaapnoti shaashvatam padamavyayam

Bhagavadgeeta 18.56

By undertaking all activities with wholesome reliance on the Supreme, thereby acquiring the grace of the Supreme, one attains the eternal, imperishable abode.

                                         With discernment and astuteness, the saadhaka should perform all secular and other activities, without any exception whatsoever. While doing so, all that he has to ensure is that his mind completely rests and relies upon the Supreme. He should recognize that such reliance has the greatest sublimating effect. It has the inherent power and potential to look after all his needs. It will also safeguard, may be mysteriously, against any possible slips and errors he may incur any time, either in performing the activities or in assimilating their impacts, thereafter.
                                         How does this work? The seeker may wonder: Is it not necessary to think every time about right and wrong – the desirability and undesirability – of every action? The doubt is quite relevant. But a right understanding of the whole process will set aside all such doubts and questions.

It is a fact that all activities originate in and from the mind. Their impacts and effects too are in the mind alone. So, in avoiding any wrong action, taking to the right action, and assessing the virtuous and vicious, the mind and intelligence alone are the tools. What activity one takes up or what he avoids, verily depends upon the mind and its purity, the intelligence and its discretion.

                        The inner, wholesome restfulness on the Supreme will inevitably instill into the mind the subtle note of purity, sublimity and refinement. The intelligence gains clarity and thereby derives the distinct note of rationality and discrimination. After all, it is the association and interaction with the plural world that results in impurity and corruption of the mind and intelligence. Wherein then lies the true redress for these?

Dissuading the mind and intelligence from the plural world and infusing the sublimity of the transcendental Supreme is the best safeguard to ensure that only good actions are propelled and the right evaluations arrived at.

To regulate and refine activities, the stress is not so much on anything external. The mind and intelligence are the factors, first and last, to be touched up and elevated. They will imbibe the best of sublimation and enrichment by their wholesome attunement to the Supreme. Do not miss this point.

In fact, this is what Krishna meant in the 12th chapter, when he said: "mayi eva mana aadhatsva mayi buddhim niveshaya – fix your mind and intelligence on the Supreme Reality" (12.8).

How to develop this total reliance? Try to reflect upon the nature and magnitude of the Supreme, so that the meaning and relevance of wholesome reliance will become clear and forceful. Is not the Supreme Reality supremely intelligent, supremely powerful and supremely pervading? Will not reliance and dependence on such a source be far better than the reliance on any of the external perishable object sources? Which of the two will imbue the mind with greater potential, possibilities and outcomes?

When the mind remains anchored to the Supreme, the very source of the whole Creation, it is bound to become most qualitative and pure. Mind implies memory and emotions. These give rise to many an attitude, which can be benevolent as well as harmful.

Hence, the struggle, if at all, in human life is to have timely memory, healthy thoughts as well as right emotional responses.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

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