Actually, dispersion of consciousness is actually at different levels one could be doing anything and the consciousness would not be dispersed, and one could be doing ‘the’ work and yet the consciousness will be dispersed.
Both ways, you are right, therefore the common factor is in either…whether you are doing this or not doing anything, the basic point is: “Take the delight in the presence of the Divine”. Ultimately Bhakti is one of the best means of arriving at this.
Sri Krishna…this is our main point now when we come to Bhagavad Gita… I think now we can switch over to Bhagavad Gita…
Yes, just one thing…Once in the car you have told me, we were talking about playing and prayer to the Lord, you have said how by this continuous offering may be it is a physical way of offering the results, but when actually one starts getting detached to the results… and one ask the Lord to correct oneself…a methodology of the work as…???...because at present we are all doing…so, that process would be the three things…???
See, what I was telling you was…
…offering the three things…actually happened by that.
Basically the question is regarding prayer: all offering, all activities, which we undertake, when we stand in front of the Divine…we may call it ‘sacrifice’, we may call it ‘offering’, you may call it by any name, basically there is only one fundamental activity from our side and that is: namaskuru(IX, 34). Sri Krishna tells Arjuna: namaskuru. He himself says so to Arjuna, He gives the secret, He says: namaskuru. When you stand before Me, and you look at Me as the Divine, your one general automatic action from your side should be that of offering salutation to the Divine: praṇāma. This is the best and natural activity of human being. You might say: what is the highest activity of human being? praṇāma: constant salutations to the Divine is the most natural activity of human being. Now, all offering, all prayers ultimately must result or must be nothing but expressions of this salutation.
But this namaskāra, salutation to the Divine…In fact as Mother says in one of Her prayers: “I salute Thee infinitely”, there is no stoppage. It is not as if you offer Pranam and there is an end of it: it is infinite Pranam, that is to say there is no end of it and that is the real condition of the true individual. You do Pranam, and then you do Pranam, and then you do Pranam, and then you do Pranam and it goes on, and on, and on…and our life is nothing but a constant activity of Pranam. The highest condition that which we can aspire in our life is when we can do this Pranam all the time, infinitely, and there is not end of it. This is the only thing that we are here on earth to do: ‘to do Pranam to the Divine’. It is the culmination of all the Karmayoga, Bhaktiyoga, Jnanayoga. Ultimately you should arrive at a point where you can fall at the feet of the Divine without any desire to get up from His feet. It is not as if you fall at the feet and now you stand up, now Pranam is over: there is no such thing at all as far as the highest aim of life is concerned.
Now, when you do Pranam there is always a return from the Divine, because Divine also is doing Pranam to you, because basically it is the interchange between the Divine and yourself. As Sri Aurobindo says: “If Bhakta is seeking the Lord, the Lord is seeking the Bhakta even more ardently”. What can we seek for? We do not know how to seek the Divine, but Divine knows very well. Therefore His seeking of the Bhakta is even more ardent: He is after you much more than you can be after Him. He loves you so much that He can’t live without you; you can live without God, but He can’t live without you at all, so He is looking for you so ardently, with such a tremendous heart that He is all the time beseeching.
In fact this is how we see in Sri Krishna-Radha’s relationship that Sri Krishna constantly asks for forgiveness from Radha and wants that Radha should be pleased and then He accepts all the faults on His side: such is the love of Sri Krishna for Radha that He admits all faults on His side only for the sake that Radha may be pleased with Him. This you might say is the highest form of prayer; you may not use the word ‘prayer’, you won’t use the word prayer, but this Namaskar is the real prayer.
Now, the highest way in which this prayer can be manifested is what? A constant confession: ‘I love You’. This is all. The highest confession that you can make Him Namaskar is only this ‘I love You’. So, Lord whispers into your ears: ‘I love you’ and we respond by saying: ‘I love You’. And this is the highest activity that you can conceive in the world. Again you can call it prayer, or you may not call it prayer, but this is what automatically happens when you stand before the Lord, the only thing you can say is ‘I love You’. Now, this word ‘I love You’ is the highest form of prayer which is called: ‘unpolluted Bhakti’. Most of the Bhaktis are vivicariṇi: they are vivicar. It is simply to bribe God as it were, it is to take from God something: it is vivicariṇi bhakti, but the supreme bhakti is avivicariṇi: there is no pollution at all, simple confession ‘I love You’, and that is all. And if you can tell the Divine ‘I love You’ then the Divine returns and what more do you want? All the lives are fulfilled, there is nothing more to be needed after you have received the Divine’s love, what more do you want? You are full. The love, the whole breath of life is nothing but Divine Love.
In one of the great experiences of the Mother in 1962, when there was a real tearing off of all the vibrations which are in our consciousness, of ‘ignorance’, even at the level of the cells of the body, She declared: “Death was an illusion, sickness was an illusion, (…), Only Love, and Love, and Love, and Love—(…)”. These are Her supreme words in that experience. In that condition sickness is impossible, death is impossible, there is only one vibration and that is ‘Love’. And Mother speaks of huge vibrations, huge pulsations: this is one of the best experiences that one should read. If you read in the “Agenda” of 1962, April 13th, you will get the description of that great experience: ‘huge pulsations of Love’. The world is nothing but a huge pulsation of Love.
And therefore from our side the only thing that we should be able to do is to confess to the Divine, ‘I love You’, and the Divine’s answer will be ‘I love you’. And this conversation is the highest conversation that is possible in the world and we should not look for anything else: it is complete fulfilment. Now, if you consider this highest condition, that all we call ‘prayers’ and ‘worship’ and all this, it looks so dry, and you feel ‘What is this prayer that I am doing? What is this worship that I am doing, doing Puja and all this, it looks so artificial as if lifeless?” But because we are lifeless at present these are the methods which are proposed that you should awake to God, you should worship Him. Actually the idea of worship looks so barren, because basically you ‘try’ to worship. Actually ‘truly’ worship is a wonderful thing, but normally when we start doing Puja, it is so lifeless, it is as if we are constrained to do it, we want to finish as soon as possible, (laughs), we want to go out of it, time is over, we have done all the rituals which are necessary, all that is prescribed is done, so it is a very lifeless sort of thing. There are also prayers: ‘O God, give me this, O God, give me that, it looks so meaningless. You are before the supreme Divine, and His presence is enough! What more do you want?