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Value of spiritual effort

CHENNAI: Supreme salvation is not easy to attain. Only the devotee who fixes his mind in the Lord is able to experience the infinite bliss of contact with the Eternal. Scriptures say that each Jivatma regains the mental impressions of God awareness developed in previous births and begins the spiritual quest from this point in each successive birth.

The story of Jadabharata (quoted in the Vishnu Purana and the Bhagavata Purana) presents deep insights into the philosophical reaches of yoga and God realisation, and illustrates the value of spiritual effort, pointed out Sri M. V. Anantapadmanabhachariar in a discourse. In the Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna assures that those who have attained a certain degree of righteousness are not really affected by certain slips and falls. King Bharata was reputed to be a royal sage with excellent spiritual attainments. After a fruitful reign he returned to the forest to meditate on the Supreme Brahman. One day he saw a pregnant deer on the banks of the river that gave birth when it was frightened by a lion’s roar. Realising that the mother deer had died of fright he took pity on the young deer and started to rear it with love and compassion. But when he died with feelings of love for the young deer, he was born as a deer in the next birth. The deer recalled its past by God’s grace and was born again in a pious family as Jadabharata who became a realised soul.

The state of Brahma Jnana which confers the unique vision of seeing God in every aspect of the universe automatically ensures that the entire universe is also in God. Lord Krishna says that He is not lost to such a person nor is such a person lost to Him. Attaining this state is the result of the practice of austere yoga and is difficult because the mind is fickle. One has to constantly strive for self control and also cultivate detachment. The Lord also explains the process of spiritual attainment as the ability to retreat from the outward objects of the world and view the Self as separate and distinct from the world.

Therefore it is advised that one focuses on God so that it becomes a habit and enables the attainment of salvation at the end of one’s life.

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