My trips to Vrindavan always teach me a new lesson and this time it made me realise that there are many ways to reach Divine and no path is lesser or bigger than the other one.
There are 3 paths that a soul walks on to reach Divine:
* Karma Yoga: the path of Selfless Action.
* Bhakti Yoga: the path of Devotion.
* Jnana Yoga: the path of Self Transcending Knowledge.
And the essence to walk these paths is SURRENDER.
Surrendering your actions, thoughts and choices to Divine and not expecting any appreciation, reward or result in return.
Doing every Karma with a clear intention that it is your offering to the Divine.
I have been visiting Vrindavan very frequently for past 3 years and have been observing all sorts of devotees of Krishna. Some have come and settled in Vrindavan to find Krishna and some try to find him in temples and others try to see Krishna in garlands and flowers that they get as Prasad from temples.
You will find hundreds of Sadhus roaming on the streets chanting “ Hare Krishna” and many pilgrims doing ‘Parikrama ‘ of Govardhan parvat rolling on their belly or bare feet.
To say the truth I felt inferior to all of these devotees who were facing so much hardships to reach Krishna. I have not done any of it ever, this let to many questions…
Am I a smaller devotee of Krishna?
Will he love me less?
I don’t even fast on Janmashtami, will He still listen to my prayers ?
Does my soul guide still considers me his devotee?
I suddenly felt useless and insecure.
With all these insecurities cropping up in my head I reached Radha Raman temple and it was there, I found answers to all my questions and insecurities related to loosing Krishna.
Krishna has always used unusual ways to make me understand the fundamentals of life and spirituality and of course surrender and this time his teaching came to me in a very subtle way.
I am an observer by design and there are two devotees of Krishna that I always observe in silence and admire them when ever I visit the Radha Raman temple, but this time it was different as for the first time, I realised that both are living in Surrender and both are following their own paths with the desire to reach Divine.
None of them is doing a better or lesser job than the other.
If one is singing praise of Krishna and the other one is serving the devotees of Krishna by ensuring that the temple is clean and belongings of pilgrims are safe.
Which made me realise that two different people who are following two entirely different paths are silently doing there work with outmost devotion and dedication at temple.
The one on the extreme left is a bhajan singer who no matter how much noise the pilgrims make or whatever is happening around him, keeps playing his instruments and singing bhajans and the one on the right takes care of cleaning and maintenance of Temple with a warm smile on his face, often he is the first one to greet you by chanting “ Radhe Radhe” at the gate of the temple shooing off monkeys, which hover around the shoe shelves.
One is following the path of ‘Karma yog ‘ and other the path of ‘ Bhakti yog’.
None of them is smaller and also with it came the realisation that God does not asks you to do big sacrifices or huge tasks to prove your surrender to him. He wants you to do small little things with love and devotion.
What you do, does not matters, What matters is your intention or feelings behind doing something and if your intention or feeling is of Surrender and if everything that you are doing is without the feeling of doer-ship in it.
Trust me it gave some relief to my shaken “Meera Mode” that I love to believe that I stay in.
The next set of questions that came up to my curious mind was:
what am I doing with my life?
Is my life worth an offering in the feet of Krishna?
I am not a very religious or ritualistic person, so am I not serving Krishna?
Then the concept of Karma Yogi came to my mind.
Which I think is important for all of us to know and understand.
It just came to me as a download or guidance as I would like to put it across and I felt as if Krishna was talking to me.
Krishna said “ If you are loving and taking care of your family, friends and people who approach you for healing, in the way you would love me and take care of me, if you can see me in everyone you meet, then your life is an offering to me. If you are not taking ownership of all the healing that happens through you, then you are doing ‘Nishkam karma’ and you are serving me through serving people.
If your choices are not based on your emotions and are not driven by expectations,then you are following what I am guiding you at.
If you are doing as I say and are listening to your inner voice which is nothing but my fragment that resides in you, like it does in every single thing that exists on this planet, then … My Dear!! You are living in complete Surrender to Me. I don’t want you to do rituals or fasting to please me, I want you to serve the mankind and it will be the biggest offering that you can give me and trust me, I will be very Happy.”
Every single word that I got made it so clear for me to understand that My path was crystal clear in front of me and also assured me that I am following the correct road map that is designed for my growth.
I would say that what ever you do, be it be cooking a meal for your family, to doing your job well , or if you are helping a relative or a stranger… it could be any thing that you are doing right now or you were doing 5 min before you started reading this post, can be an offering to Divine if you were doing it with unconditional love and without any expectations or Sense of doer-ship in it, if your action was devoted to Divine, then it is an act of Surrender and be assured that you are walking on the right path and correct direction.
Love and Light
Inner Journeys 