| Discourses On Gita By Acharya Vinoba Bhave |
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| Discourses On Gita |
| THE TWO ASPECTS OF AKARMA - YOGA AND SANNYASA |
| But
in nirguna, there is a ban on all this - the mouth is shut, the ears are
closed, the hands and feet bound. The poor sadhaka looks at this state of being bound in and shut up,
and is frightened. How could nirguna find a place in his heart? If he sat in silence, his mind will soon
be filled with a succession of unrelated thoughts. And the nature of the senses is such that they
invariably do what they are told not to do.
Isn't that so in advertisements? They write, "Don't read this," on top of something and everybody reads it first. You say, "Don't read this," to see that everybody reads it and reads it attentively. In nirguna the mind wanders. Not so in saguna-bhakti. Here there is arati and puja (ritual worship), and compassion and service to living beings; here there is work for the senses. Once you have engaged the senses in work, you can say to your mind, "Now you can go where you like." But then the mind wants to go nowhere, it is delighted to stay; without knowing it, it is one-pointed. But if you try consciously to concentrate it on something, it will run away and escape you. If you engage the various senses in noble and beautiful tasks, and then give the mind freedom to wander, it would prefer to stay. It will say, "I shall stay where I am." But if you order it to sit quiet, it will stay, "I'm off." |
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