Faith – The secret of achievement
4th September 2020Practice Makes Perfect – Week 4
14th September 2020Dear seekers,
Hari Om!
Please click on the link below, to download your ‘journal pages’ to help you with your reflection. Please note that these are formatted to be opened in Microsoft Word; they can be filled in within the document itself.
Sadhana 3 – Dedicate to Elevate
Each person’s duty is to be performed without likes and dislikes; in this way, the mind becomes purified through the performance of duty.
The ability to act is not something we produce ourselves; it is given to us by God. Countless others have also contributed to our ability to act. The results we achieve are also made possible because of others.
Acknowledging this, what is the best way for us to continue acting in the world?
What?
Dedicate your actions to God.
Why?
We must learn to live a life of dedication; to ask, ‘what can I give’, instead of ‘what will I get?’. In the words of Pujya Gurudev, ‘producing more than what we consume, and giving more than what we take.’
Actions offered at an altar of dedication will purify our mind and help us to escape the negative side-effects of desire-prompted action. We may dedicate actions to our family, to our community, to society, or to an ideal. The greatest altar of dedication is God; when actions are dedicated here, we will truly be able to accept whatever results come to us with a peaceful mind.
When we dedicate anything to God, we naturally want it to be the best. It should be free of faults or defects as far as possible. Dedicating our action will bring out the best in us.
How?
This sadhana is not for a specific time of day or action; it is to allow the attitude of dedication to permeate our whole day and each action we perform.
Begin in the morning with a sankalpa: Oh Lord, I offer everything to you.
Before each action, remember your iṣṭa devata and mentally offer the action at their feet.
You may choose to chant the mantra of your iṣṭa devata mentally or aloud before performing any action. E.g. om namo nārāyaṇāya, om namaḥ śivāya
You may choose to chant the shloka:
kāyena vācā manasendriyairvā buddhyātmanā vā prakṛteḥ svabhāvāt |
karomi yadyat sakalaṁ parasmai nārāyanāyeti samarpayāmi ||
Whatever I do with my body, speech, mind, senses, intellect, or due to my vāsanās, I offer it all to the Supreme Lord, Nārāyaṇa.
You may choose to dedicate specific actions every day; take the saṅkalpa at the beginning of the week to continue performing these actions with the attitude of dedication throughout the week.
