Get Back To The Source

Excerpts from Gurudev’s discourse on the Narada Bhakti Sutras

- 

Body and mind work on completely opposite laws. To build the body, you need to put in effort. Effort is the language of the body whereas effortlessness, letting go, relaxing, is the law of the mind. If you want to remember something, the harder you try, the longer it will take. But when you relax, you will remember easily. The mind needs no effort to develop. But that does not mean being lazy and just sleeping. If you want to learn how to play the guitar or sitar or to learn karate, you need to put in effort. But if you want to appreciate something, if you are in love with something, if you like something, it does not need any effort. If you make an effort to love somebody, or like something, that effort itself will prove to be counter-productive.

So, there is nothing that you must love, you must like. It is impossible. No ‘must’ or ‘should’ applies when it comes to your feelings. ‘You must feel this way’ is an erroneous concept.

So, the Rishis said, tasyah sadhanani gayantyacharyah - how to blossom in love; they sang the means, the methods. The methods are so effortless, like singing. True singing comes effortlessly. To make an effort to sing is not as good; it doesn’t carry that energy or that power, that force. Singing must be effortless. That is why if you sing from your heart, you will never feel tired. But when you are exerting to impress someone else, then that effort you put in the singing brings exhaustion in you. Satsang is singing from your heart, from your feeling, which brings more energy into your system. When you sing in Satsang, you feel more energized, revitalized, lively. The