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Worship
Sri Ramana Maharshi
Sri Ramanasramam
Tiruvannamalai, South India.
Worship is only self-enquiry
1. The purpose of worshipping the impersonal Supreme
Being is never to forget "I am Brahman," (Brahman = the
Supreme Reality)because the meditation "I am Brahman"
comprises sacrifice, gifts, penance, ritual, yoga, and
worship. The only way to overcome any obstruction that
may happen to your meditation is to forbid the mind to
dwell on it and to introvert the mind into the Self and
so witness unconcernedly all that is happening; there is
no other method. Do not even for a moment lose sight of
the Self. Fixing the mind on the Self or the "I" abiding
in the Heart is the perfection of yoga, meditation,
wisdom, devotion, japa (repeating one of God’s names or
repeating a mantra) and worship. Since the Supreme Being
abides as the Self, constant surrender of the mind by
absorption in the Self is said to comprise all forms of
worship.
If only the mind comes under control, all else is
controlled. The mind is itself the life current; the
ignorant say that in form it looks like a coiled
serpent. The six subtle centres are merely mental
pictures and are meant for beginners in yoga. Vedantists
consider it a sacrilege to regard the One creating,
sustaining and absorbing Supreme Self as a conceptual
deity like Ganapati, Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, Maheswara,
and Sadasiva. We project ourselves into the idols and
worship them because we do not understand true inward
worship. Therefore, the Knowledge of the Self, which
knows all, is Knowledge in perfection.
2. Distracted as we are by various thoughts, if we
continually contemplate on the Self, which is Itself
God, this single thought will in due course replace all
distraction and itself ultimately vanish; the pure
Consciousness that alone finally remains is the
realization of God. This is liberation. Never to be
heedless of one’s own all perfect, pure Self is the acme
of yoga, wisdom and all other forms of spiritual
practice. Even though the mind wanders restlessly,
concerned in external matters, and so becomes forgetful
of its own Self, one should be alert and think thus,
"The body is not I. Who am I?" Enquire in this way,
turning the mind backward to its primal state. The
enquiry "Who am I?" is the only method of putting an end
to all misery and ushering in supreme beatitude.
Whatever and however it may be said, this is the whole
truth in a nutshell.
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Real Worship
By Swami Vivekananda
Address at the Rameshwaram Temple
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol III
Published by Advaita Ashram, Mayavati, Himalayas.
It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony,
in the pure and sincere love in the heart. Unless a man
is pure in body and mind, his coming into a temple and
worshipping Shiva is useless. The prayers of those that
are pure in the mind and body will be answered by Shiva,
and those that are impure and yet try to teach religion
to others will fail in the end. External worship is only
a symbol of internal wosrship; but internal worship and
purity are the real things. Without them, external
worship would be of no avail. Therefore you must all try
to remember this.
This is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do
good to others.People have become so degraded in this
Kali Yuga that they think they can do anything, and then
they can go to a holy place, and their sins will be
forgiven. If a man goes with an impure mind into a
temple, he adds to the sins that he had already, and
goes home a worse man than when he left it. Tirtha
(place of pilgrimage) is a place which is full of holy
things and holy men. But if holy people live in a
certain place, and if there is no temple there, even
that is a Tirtha. If unholy people live in a place where
there may be a hundred temples, the Tirtha has vanished
from that place. And it is most difficult to live in a
Tirtha; for if sin is committed in an ordinary place it
can easily be removed, but sin committed in a Tirtha
cannot be removed. This is the gist of all worship – to
be pure and to do good to others.
He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the
diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva
only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He
who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in
him, without thinking of his caste, or creed, or race,
or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with
the man who sees Him only in temples.
Those who serve the servants of God are His greatest
servants.A rich man had a garden and two gardeners. One
of these gardeners was very lazy and did not work; but
when the owner came to the garden, the lazy man would
get up and fold his arms and say : “How beautiful is the
face of my master”, and dance before him. The other
gardener would not talk much, but would work hard, and
produce all sorts of fruits and vegetables which he
would carry on his head to his master who lived a long
way off. Of these two gardeners, which would be more
beloved of his master? Shiva is that master, and this
world is His garden, and there are two sorts of
gardeners here; the one who is lazy, hypocritical, and
does nothing, only talking about Shiva’s beautiful eyes
and nose and other features; and the other, who is
taking care of Shiva’s children, all those that are poor
and weak, all animals, and all His creation. Which of
these would be the more beloved of Shiva? Certainly he
that serves His children. He who wants to serve the
father must serve the children first. He who wants to
serve Shiva must serve His children – must serve all
creatures in this world first. It is said in the
Shastras (scriptures) that those who serve the servants
of God are His greatest servants. So you will bear this
in mind.
Let me tell you again that you must be pure and help any
one who comes to you, as much as lies in your power. And
this is good Karma. By the power of this, the heart
becomes pure (Chitta-shuddhi), and then Shiva who is
residing in everyone will become manifest. He is always
in the heart of everyone. If there is dirt and dust on a
mirror, we cannot see our image. So ignorance and wicked
ness are the dirt and dust that are on the mirror of our
hearts. Selfishness is the chief sin, thinking of
ourselves first. He who thinks, “I will eat first, I
will have more money than others, and I will possess
everything”, he who thinks, “I will get to heaven before
others, I will get Mukti (liberation) before others” is
the selfish man. The unselfish man says, “I will be
last, I do not care to go to heaven, I will even go to
hell if by doing so I can help my brothers.”
Unselfishness is the test of religion
This unselfishness is the test of religion. He who has
more of this unselfishness is more spiritual and nearer
to Shiva than anybody else, whether he knows it or not.
And if a man is selfish, even though he has visited all
the temples, seen all the places of pilgrimage, and
painted himself like a leopard, he is still further off
from Shiva.
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