The attachment of the mind goes both ways, with the feeling of love or the feeling of hatred, like or dislike. So any kind of emotional feeling in your heart and mind that pulls you toward that person is remembering that person. You could be eating, and the thought may come about the person to whom your mind is attached. You may be sweeping, you may be working, you may be very busy at work, and yet, just for a fraction of a second, the thought comes and bothers you. And that lingers around. This is remembrance. Even inanimate things, people get so attached to these things.
Like Shree Maharaj Ji was saying the other day when was delivering a lecture when satsang (spiritual association) was going on. This one person would get up, go out, and then come back and sit and listen. A very good devotee, but (he had) a very bad habit, a very bad attachment. Again, he would get up, go out, and come back.
So Maharaj Ji said, “What is he doing? Every time I see him…”
So one day, Maharaj Ji followed him. So when Maharaj Ji had finally given the talk and got up to go back to his room, that was the time this person actually was rather thinking of taking a longer time. So the devotee stood up, he got up quickly, and as Maharaj Ji had gone one way, the devotee went the other way. Maharaj Ji then turned around. He didn’t have to turn around, but he just turned around, and saw the devotee going there. The person didn’t see Maharaj Ji seeing him, and Maharaj Ji immediately went and followed him. The devotee had a packet of cigarettes in his front pocket, and that’s what he was doing. He was a chain smoker. He just couldn’t stop it. He was such a good devotee, but (he had) this attachment to cigarettes. Yes, tea, cigarettes, alcohol - these things create attachment. Just imagine! They take power over our mind when the mind is the most powerful tool that God has given us. And the key to the mind is in our hands, not even in God’s hands. Which way we switch it on or switch it off is up to us. And we just let it go (under the power of the attachment) like that, and then we become slaves.
So, Maharaj Ji took the packet out and took all the cigarettes. There was a match and he lit it and put it in his mouth! Maharaji put it in his mouth, and lit it all! And it kept on burning until it started burning Maharaji’s lips. And that devotee started crying like anything. He fell at the feet of Shree Maharaj Ji, and he vowed and made a pledge. He promised Shree Maharaj Ji that from today onwards, he was not going to do this.
The Guru has to do all that to teach us a lesson. So much the Guru has to go through to get this mind of ours engaged, involved, and attached to God and to the Divine Saints, to themselves, to the Guru Himself, so that we can continuously remember our Divine Beloved Lord. Our mind may continuously seek to drink that Divine nectar rather than these material, pleasure-giving, sensual, temporary things that are going to totally destroy us anyway one day.
So sadhana or remembrance is the key word.
