A short spoken teaching (transcript excerpt) by Gurudev arguing that solitary techniques—meditation, silence, austerities—often fail without divine grace and devotion (bhakti). The speaker recounts personal efforts and bodily austerities, then emphasizes making the divine a close friend (Anatha Bandhu), joining a devoted sangha, and avoiding harbouring injustice or negativity in the heart. Mythic imagery (Samudra Manthan and Shiva holding poison) is used to illustrate how negativity must be handled without letting it contaminate love or devotion.
Chapters
I did meditation and I practiced silence also. But nothing worked. Still I. Whatever you do, still the world and its attachments, issues of the world doesn't leave you. You may do many things. But till your blessings are your grace is there. Your compassion Raya means your compassion and your blessings are there. I will keep these things. The worldly thing gets into my head. And I keep reeling in. I took different while I was walking bare food, taking dip in the river. These are all ATI Sheila means too many rules, too many things. I practiced. I practiced o morning. Getting up and doing this and that. So all these things I did. And then I got tired thinking of enlightenment. I punished my body a lot. I tortured my body, punished my body. But Ratipati Pita Nina, Rati Pathi is Manmatha. Manmatha's father is Vishnu. Till your blessing comes to me. Now think of this. So everything depends on the grace and your blessings. You do whatever you want. But unless there is grace, nothing works. Till your blessing doesn't come, these things doesn't work. Sh I did meditation and I did practice silence also. And I decided I am going to get a lot of merit. Dharma, Artha, Kama Moksha, All Purushotta, big Purushotta I will achieve. Nothing works. Until I came into the Sangha. People who are bhaktas, who are devotees, none of this work. So main emphasis in devotion. Anatha Bandhu. Anatha Bandhu is. Unless you feel you are totally orphan. Orphan means I have nothing else. Only divinity and Lord is the relation of the Anat. Anat means you have nobody to rule over. Only one divine. The divine is ruling you. Then Anatha Bhandhu. And he is your great friend. Unless you make divine your close friend, your dear friend. Feel that connectivity with the divine. All the substance, whatever you do. That means if you are just simply sitting meditating without getting connected to divinity, it's not going to work. A devotee will never think injustice has done to him or her. Should not think you know why. The moment you feel injustice has done to me, your Bhakti starts drying out. So a devotee always feels that Sarvam Vasudevamidhi. There is every wave, there is Vasud everywhere divinity. Because divine is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. And God is everywhere. You think he will allow injustice to happen to you? No. That is in your heart. You don't harbor injustice in the worldly activities. You may feel somebody has cheated you. You take whatever action you need to take. Be watchful Be careful. But thorns are there. You don't have to step on them. And if a thorn has hit you, you simply have to remove it. Don't harbor or sit and brood that oh injustice has been done to me. Then the negativity seeps inside of you. You know when the samudra, mantan, the gods and the demons, they came together to churn the meru mountain from the churning. What first they got was poison. When poison came, nobody want to take it. That's when shiva came. And Shiva took the poison immediately. Parvati came and held him in the neck. So the poison did not go into the heart, it stayed in the neck and the neck became blue. And so Shiva vaska Neela kanta. The blue throat one. There is so much psychology in this. When you see good or bad, when you see injustice, when negativity comes, you can't just brush it under the cup. That will be self deception. So you criticism is okay, you criticize. But it should not come with venom inside with the feelings. But this skill we don't know. The negativity goes into the heart and we do everything from that rage and anger. And when it comes from the heart then our love dries up. So it doesn't bother you, it doesn't take you off. Wonderful state you are in. Negativity should just be only from their level, if at all. So if you keep looking to perfection everywhere, it's not going to exist. And when we see imperfection, that's when we get angry at others. Actually we are getting angry at ours. So keeping your emotion pure at the same time able to criticize is. I am telling you this. It is not an easy job. But that is where Sadhana and all this satsang, all this helps you. This knowledge will help you. That's why I said you have to be in the sangha and people are there. Everybody is devoted. The energy is different. And that energy, you know, just come in, you feel uplifted. Remember, don't harbour injustice in your heart. If it is there, take it out and put it out. Havai.
