Often people ask this one question as to how come India, which is most rich in its spiritual values and religious worship in comparison to the rest of the world, yet is found to have the highest amount of corruption
There is a temple in almost every home and everywhere there are multiple temples, mosques, churches and other houses of worship. There are thousands of pilgrimage sites and large crowds gather at these sites. Throughout the year religious festivals are celebrated on grand scales at the temples.
Despite all this religiosity, we experience rising amount of corruption, crime and unlawful behavior in the people. In other words, the minds and hearts of the people are becoming worse and more impure.
Let me assure you that it is not because of poverty or illiteracy. The corruption is found even in the rich and educated class of people. It is everywhere and in almost everyone. Most of you must be aware of this fact through the media. But why is it so, that those who are seen to be spiritual are also so corrupt?
Let me explain this through a simple analogy. Suppose someone fills a bottle with dirty waste, seals the bottle top tightly and submerges the bottle in the holy river Ganga. After few weeks he takes out the bottle and opens the lid and asks one to drink the contents of the bottle, because it was pure and holy now, as it was submerged in the holy waters of the Ganges. Will anyone drink it? No. Why?
Because the person will retort back by saying that the bottle top was tightly sealed so the dirty content from inside the bottle didn’t get mixed with Gangaji at all. Thus it has not become pure or holy as Ganga water.
Thousands of dirty water sources, and sewages are flowing into the holy river Gangaji and Yamunaji and people are joyously drinking these holy waters without any hesitation, because the filth when mixes with the most pure holy waters of the Ganges it takes the form of pure Ganga water.
Likewise, we will have to see what kind of worship or spiritual practice one is performing. Is it with the mind attached in the material world with dirty thoughts, simply a physical drill with the senses or is it the true devotional longing with the mind attached in God, desperately longing for His Divine Love? Is our filthy mind and intellect ready to get dissolved in supreme consciousness and be part of its divinity? The answer is mostly NO!
How will our mind get absorbed in God – the Supreme Purity?
It can be done easily through proper spiritual practice and devotion. The million dollar question is: Who is the doer of the spiritual action? Unfortunately, it is the mere physical sense and action organs such as visiting places of pilgrimage as tourists not as devotees.
In other words only the legs are marching in the places of pilgrimage and not the mind, only the hands are offering the prayers and not the mind, only the tongue is parroting the mantra or reciting the scriptural verses, or chanting the holy name, and only the fingers are counting the rosary beads, with the mind attached in other material thoughts.
Not even a single tear drops in the remembrance of the Divine Beloved Lord whose devotion is being practiced. Thus, wherein does the filth lie? It is in the mind. This is where all our thoughts and ideas get generated. The root of all the evil, vice, sin and corruption is the mind and it is firmly attached in the filthy material world like the sealed bottled in the Ganges. The mind needs to be opened and attached to God.
“Maneva Manushyanam. Karanam Bandh Mokshayo”
The scriptures proclaim that mind alone is responsible for bondage or liberation. Only when we shall practice devotion with the mind, then the mind will become pure. More the mind becomes pure; more the rise of thoughts towards spirituality and righteousness would be experienced.
Just by preaching to become virtuous, spiritual or good one does not become virtuous or free from corruption etc. Corruption will come to an end when the mind becomes pure and mind will only become pure when devotion or any spiritual practice is performed with the loving attachment of the mind in God and shedding tears in longing for the Love of God.
Thus the reason for corruption everywhere and especially in India is due to hypocrisy and false spiritual practice and most important, the impurity of the mind.
How to practice devotion and do our regular activities in day to day life?
It is very simple, actually since eternity, we have mistakenly understood ourselves to be mere physical bodies. Thus we forgot God and got attached to the physical relations and the Mayic world.
We must remember that our true ‘self’ is the soul (ansh) and that God is the (Anshi) the origin of the soul.
In the 8th chapter 7th verse of Shrimad Bhagawad Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjun: ‘Tasmat Sarveshu Kaleshu Mamanusmar Yudhya Cha.’ “Oh Arjun, remember me at all times and fight the battle”.
This shlok explains the simple remedy to success. Lord Krishna gives the message to the world. That while performing any action we need to have our minds exclusively fixed in the remembrance of God.
It is the sad truth that 99.99% of us don’t practice this instruction. Our minds do not get purified at all because the majority of spiritual teachers do not teach the people to practice devotion in the correct way and we do not practice the devotion properly.
In order to purify our hearts and minds, we need to practice devotion in the right way and that is to lovingly remember the form of God i.e do Roopdhyan, and cry out in desperate longing to meet Him and receive His Divine Love.
Because the true Vedic knowledge is not being promoted, ninety nine percent of the people simply practice their Sadhna with their sense or action organs. They do puja with their hands, go to temples and have darshan of the deities or the saints with their eyes, listen to the scriptural narrations with their ears, chant the Lord’s name with their mouth, read the scriptures or recite the scriptural verses with their tongue, and with their feet they march in the places of pilgrimage.
Any spiritual practice that is done with the sense or action organs and not the heart and mind, is merely a physical drill and is not true devotion to God, and is not taken note of by God as devotion. Hence, unfortunately all the time and effort people are putting in performing spiritual practices, will not be accumulating the spiritual merit needed to increase the purity of their hearts and minds.
Shwetashwetaro Upanishad 4/6 & Mundakopanishad 3/1/1 says:
“Dua Suparna Sayuja Sakhaya Samanam Briksham Parikhswajate.”
This beautiful Shlok describes 2 birds sitting on a branch, one eating the sweet and bitter fruits of the tree, the other bird is watching from above.
It is a metaphor describing how Our Beloved God is seated in our hearts, watching and recording our every thought. God is omnipresent, but we don’t feel this or remember it all the time.
If we consciously remember the presence of God next to us while performing any action, (like working at the office, find him in the next seat or at home, find him seating with your family , etc,) we will be saved from doing wrong actions.
In case at any given time, if a bad thought arises in the mind, then we will get a push from inside, that “Oh! God will take note of my sinful thought, I must do the right thing….otherwise how can I receive His Divine Grace?”
If only we could remember this simple practice alone, people would improve. This way faults will reduce and all the unrighteous deeds that people do would slowly subside and eventually come to an end.
With proper Spiritual Guidance from True Saints and the Vedic Scriptures, our minds will purify and corruption will finish. Thus, the richness of our true Divine heritage will permeate the minds of the people of world and no one will be able to blame anyone.
Thus, if we move in the direction of virtue and righteousness that our divine scriptures illustrate, connect with God realized Saints and change the wrong way of our spiritual practices, build the attachment of our hearts and minds in God and worship with love and longing, always remember that God is always with us and watching us, no matter where we are and what we do, we will then be the change and India will flourish in a golden age of spirituality.
Sushree Gopeshwari Deviji is one of the foremost preachers of His Divinity Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj. gdidi@usbm.org She is a teacher for (JKP) Radha Madhav Dham, Austin, TX www.RadhaMadhavDham.org
Sushree Gopeshwari Devi
