Brahmacharya + Naam Jap = Victory over the Three Worlds

In Shri Hit Radha Keli Kunj, Vrindavan, an intimate conversation with Pujya Shri Hit Premanand Govind Sharan Ji Maharaj. Sadhaks bring their questions about their life and sadhana, and Maharaj Ji gives their answers.

Complete Pravachan

Words of Pujya Shri Udiya Baba Ji Maharaj that strengthen both our conduct and our spiritual practice. Question: Maharaj Ji, how does one develop interest in bhajan? Answer: Interest in bhajan comes only by doing bhajan; it does not arise on its own. The one you hold as your iShtdev, your worshipful deity, whose naam, rupa, leela and gunas are constantly.. Sometimes you are doing naam jap, sometimes contemplating the rupa. Sometimes you are singing the leela, sometimes hearing the leela, sometimes performing kirtan of the naam, sometimes hearing naam kirtan. Sometimes you are doing seva.

Through this practice, upasana matures continually. Interest in bhajan develops. Interest in upasana develops. Whatever we think about constantly, that is what has its effect. Yesterday two young boys, in different places, asked me: I was just about to commit suicide. It's only that I got your video, and that is why I have come to you. I am tired of living. Young children, whatever you contemplate, that is what has its effect. You simply fell into negative contemplation, thinking only worldly thoughts, and did not engage your mind in naam, did not engage your mind in Prabhu.

An empty mind runs like a devil towards the desires of the world: sometimes negative feelings, sometimes positive feelings. Struggling with both, it reaches depression. When you reach depression, you clearly hear and see it. There is no joy, no bliss anywhere. It feels like you should commit suicide. I tell them, brother, before committing suicide, have you made a booking somewhere, so that when you leave the body here, you will get a five-star hotel there and be well looked after as a ghost? A preta-atma does not even get water to drink; even if it wanders on the bank of a river, it cannot drink a single drop of water.

It cannot eat a single morsel. Crying "hai hai" all the time, in some yuga, or in some year, in some yuga, it comes face to face with some mahatma, and its welfare happens, but it wanders for ages. Such people who commit suicide certainly attain the preta yoni. Therefore, whatever you contemplate, that is what will have its effect. The world is asat, it is a house of sorrow. Bhagwan says, dukhalayam ashashvatam, and if you contemplate the world, your thoughts will become full of sorrow. There is a great need for adhyatma; every person needs it. Without adhyatma, one cannot possibly escape shoka, santap, dukh, udvignata, vishad, depression.

How long will medicines protect you? How long will you keep sleeping? If you do not do naam jap, if you do not contemplate Bhagwan, then when consciousness comes, there will be contemplation of the world. The world is perishable in sorrow. It will take you right back there. Therefore do naam jap, listen to the leela of Bhagwan, listen to satsang, and never sit idle uselessly. If you are sitting completely empty, engage in naam. Otherwise, do some work. Everyone needs to work; work is absolutely essential for the body. If you are a householder and not finding any work, then just do labour. Nothing is lost by it.

If you work eight hours, you will get ₹550 or ₹500. Service to mother, father and family is done. Depression will not occur. Depression happens to the cowardly man, to the sinful one, who keeps contemplating uselessly. Therefore, to increase interest in bhajan, we will have to do bhajan. When one is joined with Bhagwan, one becomes joyful and immersed in new feelings. There is such a positive, constructive feeling that even in the greatest calamity, one conquers it with a positive attitude. From where does this strength come? From naam jap. From the upasana of Bhagwan.

Maharaj Ji, we hear that devotees attain divya drishti. So how is divya drishti attained? By bhajan, through bhajan divya drishti is attained. There is no kshetra that does not give darshan: the kshetras of great siddhas, the kshetras of great forms of Bhagwan, the great maha-acharyas all appear and give darshan to those who do bhajan. On the banks of the Ganga, there used to be a downpour of experiences, because there was complete solitude, no arrangement for food, no arrangement for anything, nothing but disorder in life, and with constant bhajan vritti, a shower of experiences kept falling.

Here the experience is different. The experience on the Ganga bank is different. In such cold, with no clothes on the body, only a kopin, and tri-kal Ganga snan, there is no food. There is no tea or breakfast; there is no room for these at all. And the vritti that is only mantrakar, the experiences that come in that state will not come sitting in a quilt. The experiences that come in disorder do not come from eating halwa. Experiences do not come from eating halwa and puri. This is the life of siddhas. The siddhas have attained the mature stage. Whether they are kept in palaces or in a hut, it makes no difference to them.

Whether they receive halwa as per their prarabdha or remain hungry, that too makes no difference to them. But a sadhak, how should his bhajan grow? He should keep contemplating only this: he will eat only that, he will see only that, he will listen only to that, he will meet only those through whom his bhajan grows, because divya drishti is attained only through bhajan. Is there any position, spiritual or worldly, in the three worlds that cannot be attained through bhajan? Everything will be attained through bhajan. Do bhajan and the ashta siddhis will be attained. Do bhajan and nirvikalpa samadhi will be attained. Do bhajan and the darshan of great souls will begin.

Do bhajan and you will get the divine darshan of Vrindavan. When ordinary people do bhajan, their world begins to look different. Their vision changes. Then what could be lacking in the life of one who does bhajan wholeheartedly? Divine vision is attained through bhajan.

Maharaj Ji, what does one see when one attains divine vision? One sees divine Vrindavan, where the rasa is continuously happening, the divine Priya Pritam, and the divine rasa-vilas. The whole animate and inanimate world is seen within Priya Pritam. How does one see Priya Pritam?

When you become blind to this world. I do not want to see this world; I want to see Priya Pritam, and I weep before Priya Pritam, saying, "If You find me, then by Your grace You will meet us." Without weeping, who has ever found Him? This is a certain truth. Only when there is weeping for the Lord do They become pleased. Whoever wants the love of the Lord's lotus feet must also adopt vairagya towards the world. Vairagya does not mean becoming a baba; it means renouncing attachment from within. We say that through brahmacharya and naam jap you can conquer the three worlds.

Hold on to two things. Baba is saying, "We say that through brahmacharya and naam jap you can conquer the three worlds." Brahmacharya and naam jap are an unmatched sadhana, but both are very difficult. Continuous naam jap is very difficult, and remaining steadily in brahmacharya is also very difficult. Through brahmacharya and naam jap you can conquer the three worlds. If at the beginning bhajan starts out of showing off, I do not oppose it. I say that even the showing off will one day become true bhajan.

If you even put on a show of bhajan, then slowly your arrogance will be destroyed and your bhajan will begin to become pure. But dambh will only be given up when there is satsang with sadhus. True bhajan happens only when one takes refuge in a mahapurush. You have done many external sadhanas, but you have not made them internal sadhanas, and that is what brings spiritual progress. Baba says that through brahmacharya and naam jap you can conquer the three worlds. Even if you have naam jap but only brahmacharya, the work will not be accomplished. Brahmacharya is the sadhana, and the goal is Shri Bhagwan. Do the sadhana and attain the goal.

Remain in brahmacharya for the sake of the goal. While remaining in brahmacharya, continuous naam jap will give you everything. Do not worry about darshan of Bhagwan; worry about bhajan of Bhagwan. Somehow, let your bhajan begin. The essential point is this: the gap and the chasm that Maya has created between us and the Supreme, namely gold, woman, and fame, must be filled through bhajan. You must cross these chasms, and that happens through bhajan. You sit idle, contemplating the world, and call yourself a gyani or a bhakt. What kind of gyani or bhakt are you, if you contemplate the world? A gyani is one who remains established in his own true nature. A bhakt is one who remains immersed in contemplation of Bhagwan. Everything else is pure worldliness.

Do you think gyan and bhakti are a game? Neither the gyani nor the bhakt talks about the world or contemplates the world. Only a vagabond contemplates the world and talks about the world. We do not call him a gyani or a bhakt; we call him a vagabond, a cowardly man. Pujyapad Baba Ji Maharaj says that the true fruit of bhajan is that the world appears as sorrow. As the Lord says, "duhkhalaya dukh yo". If you keep the mind empty of bhajan, then kaam, krodh, lobh, and moh will all pounce upon you and corrupt you.

Hanumant, calamity is the Lord's doing; when it comes, there is no sumiran or bhajan.

Whether one lives at home, outside, on the road, or in the body, Tulsi says: let your love remain fixed on Sitaram.

Remembrance of your Ishta is the essential point. Nowadays, everyone who looks around has become a preacher, but they do not do bhajan. Pujyapad Baba says: without doing bhajan, will you understand the meaning of the words of the scriptures? If you have not performed bhajan in the proper way, then even if you read the scriptures, you will not grasp their meaning. You will not attain stability.

Look, the more bhajan you do, the more the scriptures will awaken within you without your having to read them. The essential point is bhajan. The one who does bhajan does not like sensual enjoyments. The one who has developed a craving for sensual pleasures is only acting out bhajanananda; he is not truly bhajanananda. If you want to attain any progress at all, then do bhajan. Baba is saying: you are weak; the Name of the all-powerful Lord is mighty. Take its support. By taking support of the great, one crosses over very quickly. The greatest is Bhagwan, and greater than Bhagwan is the Name of Bhagwan.

Ram is greater than Ram's name.

How can I describe the greatness of the Name? Even Ram could not sing the praises of the Name's virtues.

So take the support of the Name, the support of Bhagwan's Name. Look, let me tell you: your sins have no end. In your accumulation are the cycles of the 84 lakh yonis; how many times you have gone round them. All those karmas are accumulated in you. How many times have we committed what sins? You think that in the present we will make a good effort, and business, job, success, and happiness will come. But who will bear the sins that you have committed, if success comes? Therefore, do naam jap. Naam jap will first destroy your sins.

After that, there is nothing but success ahead. Keep doing bhajan, bhajan. Through this, all your sins will be destroyed. Slowly, you will become a great soul. There is such strength in the bhajan and remembrance of Bhagwan that abhay pad is attained by force; the supreme state is attained by force. The one who remembers Bhagwan's naam forcibly brings even Bhagwan under his control.

Remembering Pawan's son, the pure Name keeps Ram under its own control.

Look, how great a thing this is. This is what you do not understand. You hear the glory every day, but you are not able to hold on to the Name continuously.

One who remembers the Lord has the power to transform even the most wicked, ill-natured person and deliver them. One who chants naam continuously is carried across, and reaches the Lord's abode (saloka).

Whether faith is there or not, whether the feeling comes or not, do bhajan abundantly. Do it even by force. If bhajan begins to happen with faith somewhere, then what more is there to say? Suppose your faith is in giving charity. You have great faith and you gave a heap of charity. But then one Vaishnav offence (vaishnav aparadh) is committed, and everything is destroyed. The sukrit, the merit of many lifetimes, gives its direct result in a moment. And if you did 500 names and a Vaishnav offence happened, then those 500 names are deposited in the Lord's bank. Now you will receive punishment, you must do prayaschit, and once the Vaishnav offence ends, the count begins again from 501.

Nothing is subtracted from the 500. That bhajan remains preserved in the Lord's keeping. That is why I say, understand this. Great pilgrimages, charity, and merit, all of it can be destroyed in a single stroke. But the imperishable bhajan is the bhajan of the Lord's naam.

Four things are attained through the bhajan of the Lord. First, the same aishwarya as the Lord. People wonder where the saints get such wealth. You do not know. My Lord created infinite universes in a single resolve. When you are his servant and do bhajan continuously, will that wealth not come to his feet?

This is a principle. Just as rivers, without any effort, run into the ocean on their own, so the wealth of the whole world comes on its own to the exclusive devotee of the one Lord, the dharmatma. The knowledge of the Lord's aishwarya, and the Lord's aishwarya itself, surround the one who does bhajan.

Second, an immediate solution to temporary problems. When you do bhajan and some immediate problem arises, its solution begins alongside it, because you are doing bhajan.

Third, the gunas of rajas and tamas, the gunas of maya that make you commit sins and send you to hell, are uprooted completely by bhajan.

Fourth, the end of birth and death and the attainment of great bliss. These four things happen on their own through bhajan. Do bhajan with full vigour. Do bhajan. What do you want? Whatever you need will be received. Truly believe it. Truly believe it.

When we came to Vrindavan, we had not one person's introduction, not one paisa, not one inch of land. Look, did we bring anything from Kashi? Did we bring a car from there? Did we ask anyone to give us a car? The Master's servant is run by the Master's will; how the servant is to be run, the Master knows. He is such a great Master that if he wishes, he can summon an aeroplane. What is the need? He has infinite universes. Whose are we? The advisers of great officials, ministers and so on, what are they called? "PA." We are the PA of Shri Ji. Advising Shri Ji? How, yes, now how will Shri Ji's PA function?

Think about this. Someone tied a gold watch on a saint, and gave him a suitcase full of new clothes. Disciples feel, what can we give our Gurudev? Everyone feels in their heart at all times, may my Gurudev command me and give me the chance to serve. Everyone feels they should serve their Gurudev. So when he went to a wealthy disciple's house, that disciple decked him out like a bridegroom.

A gold chain, a gold watch, a gold strap, and everything else. He was seated in a fine compartment on the train. Opposite him, two or three men in suits and boots were sitting. They said, "Baba ji, bhaiya, we don't have even as much as you are carrying right now. What difference is there between you and us?" Saints are serious. So he said, "Bhaiya, which station is coming next?" They named a station. He said, "Shall we go and have tea?" They said yes. He took off the watch, put the suitcase and everything there, opened the chain and put it there too. Whatever rupees he had, he gave them all to the tea-seller and said, "Make tea." The tea was made and drunk. The horn sounded, and he said, "All the rupees are for the tea." They said, "Baba ji, no." He said, "All of it is for tea." He said, "Make one more tea each." "Bhaiya, sit, one more tea each." They said, "No, the train is leaving." He said, "No, our mood has changed. Now we will drink tea. From here we will walk on foot." They asked, "What about the suitcase?" He said, "Someone gave it, someone will take it. Someone gave it, someone will take it. We are not under its control."

Put on, put on; take off, take off. If you understand that these are only words, then not even one rupee is ours, not one object, not one inch of land, nobody is ours. Only Shri Ji. Somewhere in a government department, somewhere, no signature of Premanand is needed.

Yes, when the rain was falling at Hit Dham, everyone was there too. The katha was going on, and at that time we prayed to the Lord: if you want this katha to be held and you want to give this suffering to the listeners, then we will not be able to bear it. They were trembling in the cold season, with rain falling, and yet such stubborn people, not one of them got up and left. Bhagvat charcha continued. Those who are old know all of this. Tulsi Ji, sitting in the field, arranged the satsang and the katha; the arrangements are his. The one who does bhajan of the Lord, you cannot even see his aishwarya. For Maharaj Ji, gold, silver, rupees, paisa, house, car, horse, this

So the butchers also have them, the people who kill innocent animals and sell their meat. They too have spouses, children, wealth and Lakshmi. If a sinner has all this, do you think it is the fruit of our bhajan? Oh, where can you see the fruit of bhajan? When God becomes subject to you through bhajan, what is maya? What is maya? What do you think? "Baba ji eats haram ka (unearned) food. Sit with us for four hours and see what babagiri really is." Oh, when someone fully takes refuge in God..

Oh, the splendour of saints, of God's lovers, of the great souls, can be known only by God, or if God makes it known. It is not outward. One attains opulence equal to God's. Equal to God's: the immediate end of present sorrow, the immediate destruction of rajas and tamas, the end of birth and death, and the attainment of supreme bliss.

Do you think bhajan is a game? Someone takes a mala and chants God's name, depends on God, and has surrendered to Him by wearing kanthi and tilak. The value of his life is God alone. Oh..

If one does it with pretence and drama, there is no ruin. Pundrak Vasudev was pretending, yet he attained sarupya mukti. And one who, sincerely wearing God's guise, takes even a few steps on God's path, God becomes bound to him.

When these worldly people used to beg for alms and eat, some wise elders were sitting there. One of them called out, "Friend, what is your life good for?" We were about to say, "It is not for kaam (worldly work), it is for Ram." Our life is not for kaam. Our life belongs to Shyama-Shyam. "Yes, Maharaj," we said. He said, "You ask for alms, we'll see. You beg and bring things." He went into the room, came out, gave darshan, and went back into the room. "No samaj, no service for anyone's welfare. What kind of life is yours?" There was no answer. The same again. He came to Hit Dham. "What is the meaning of the world?" Still no answer.

Now put the two together. Ask Balram Bhai, the Brajwasi. Earlier he used to see only the life of the Kashi ghats. Then Jugal Kishor, who now lives in Vrindavan, came. Talk to them and see. Both lives, the life on the Kashi ghats and this one, are not mine. Both were caused by my Prabhu.

Now, whatever He wants, however He wants, look at the vairagya of a sadhak. When surrender matures, the Prabhu may, if He wishes, have a golden crown waved over him. And if He wishes, He may have a garland of padukas put on him. For us, both are equal. This body is not ours, this life is not ours. Nath, it is a life sold to you. Now if someone applies sandalwood to it, it is your sandalwood, applied to you. If someone abuses it, it is not mine, because nothing of mine is left.

So now the question no longer remains: what will we be given? Where will we be kept? How will we be kept? That question no longer arises. What remains is this: whether it is plenty of ghee or just a handful of chickpeas, let it be as my Nath wishes. But opulence is equal to God's. A person who is engaged in sins, acts willfully, and does not do bhajan gets wealth through past merit. But within a short time that wealth, and everything else he has, is swept away and destroyed. It is possible that because of past sins you are doing bhajan now. Right now you have received no wealth, no splendour, no enjoyment. You are bearing many kinds of suffering.

But these sufferings will all vanish within a few days, like fog, and bliss will shine like the sun. Generally, those who are averse to God and do unscriptural deeds will never get happiness. It is possible, though, that they meet the company of some saint, and they too get reformed. If they begin to walk God's path, they will experience supreme bliss. Because in the Gita God has said:

api suduracharo bhajte mam anannya bhag sadhu samant samita hisa

Even if one of very wicked conduct worships Me with exclusive devotion, he should be regarded as a sadhu, for he has rightly resolved.

Whatever great wrongdoer he may be, if he comes to the refuge of My feet and begins to worship Me with single-minded devotion, I regard him as a sadhu, and you too should regard him as a sadhu. Then:

chhipti dharmatma main use mahatma banaunga

Quickly he becomes righteous-souled, and attains lasting peace.

I will make even a terrible evil-doer a mahatma. If a lowly, wicked person takes refuge in God through the influence of the company of a sadhu, he becomes a mahatma.

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Original video: Bhajan Marg (YouTube)