1. Camp One : Awareness
'Gurudev, what is the first pre-condition in the pursuit of religion ?'
One day in the beautiful evening an aspirant asked to his master Rev. Guruvarya Narayanbhai Thakker.
The great master calmly replied: 'Of course, healthy body... शरीरम् खलु धर्मसाधनम् |'
'And to keep the body healthy.... ?'
Before his question was completed, the mentor retorted :
'To keep the body healthy, it is essential to have a healthy mind. As is the mind, so is the body and as is the body so is the mind. Actually body and mind are the either sides of the same coin.'
After a pause for a few moments, Guruji said with brilliant smile: 'Now you obviously intend to ask, how can mind remain healthy? Isn't it ?'
The disciple nodded his head with smile in affirmation.
Being a little bit serious, Guruji spoke : 'As a matter of fact, to achieve that goal one has to know what is mind. This can be achieved only by keeping awake. Wakefulness means to live with awareness. The same is referred as Sakshibhav (sense of witness) in Shrimad Bhagwad Gita.
What Bhagwan Swaminarayan refers to as being oneself at the entrance of awareness mentioned in Vachanamrit is made in this context. By keeping yourself aware, learn to observe the mind. Never tag it with your likes or dislikes. Keep on observing the mind neutrally without intermingling yourself with the vagaries of mind. lf you keep on observing the ego-centrism of mind with awareness, then the mind will become your friend and will help you with ease in your spiritual practices.'
This - the most remarkable fact is to be taken to the bosom of our hearts. It is well understood by all the experiences that the body is in total control of mind in all respects.
The body usually does not get into serious illness unless and until it is confronted with external difficulties or badly affected by an accident or fall prey to circumstantial serious infection. Many a time, it is observed that persons with strong will power do not experience any contamination from outside. Feeble mind fetches all types of ailments.
The feebleness of mind destroys even the immunity of our body to a large extent. Mind has a special tendency to give reactions. In the morning, what do you do after leaving your bed? You usually stretch the body or just yawn.
It is nothing but merely the natural reaction of mind. While talking with someone, if fly sits on your nose; automatically your hand will remove it. This is also a mind's reaction. Sometimes when a person whom you dislike the most meets you on your way and starts talking in sugar coated manner, our mind immediately thinks in reaction on the basis of bitter experiences of the past as This man is a great rogue. How cunningly he had cheated me ! Surely he must have some task to be fulfilled by me, that is why he speaks so sweetly. Thus our mind gives reactions of the present incidents on the basis of past experience.
Our life is thus full of mind's reactions. When mind stops reacting, whatever is evident is truth. Reactions of mind do not permit us to realize the things in their real forms.
By dint of reactions, mind creates the transparent curtains of thoughts between every events or objects or persons, consequently we comprehend or understand any person or object or event in accordance with our prejudices or past experiences. As a result, we always remain deprived of the reality.
In Ikshwanku dynasty, there lived a king named Janshruti. Once he asked a question to his master Raikava: ' O Godly saint ! Why does a man reap the fruits of his deeds in form of sin or virtue even after dedicating his sole being to the Almighty? '
In reply, the master hit the king's head with a nearby stone. When the king being enraged ordered to arrest the master & punish him, the master said : 'O King, lf you have dedicated everything belonging to you to God, you must realize that the hitting of stone has also happened by God's will. So please try to understand that when the body is dedicated to God, never mind whether the body being hit by stone or spears! But no, you forgot the truth and your mind reacted with rage. O King, you are still under the effect of mental reactions, so you are entitled to accrue the results of every sin and virtue. Even if every event owes its existence to circumstance, fortune or God, you become part and parcel in that outcome through your reactions.'
Finally, the master sermonizes the king Janshruti saying: ' O King, The supreme being by dint of whose power it exists sin-virtue, happiness-sorrow, creation-destruction, resides in you and in entire universe concomitantly. No need to add and subtract sin-virtue and happiness-misery to achieve Him. He already exists within you. The mind, surrounded by Him by virtue of His power, which you call your own out of egoism, keeps you occupied through strange reactions between you and the Supreme being. Be liberated from mind's reactions and observe the life. Doing thus, O King, you will be able to realize the God despite living in mundane life.'
If you observe every activity of each sense with full awareness, mind's habit of giving reactions is lost. The mind needs a seat to rest peacefully. Whenever the mind gets engrossed in any object or person, it gets temporary peace, but the peace experienced in worldly objects or mundane person is very momentary.
Hence if you want to give eternal peace to the mind, it should be allowed to have a shelter at the feet of Shri Hari - the God Almighty.
The peace and the bliss experienced by getting engrossed in the divine Form of God would be everlasting and supernatural.