The Three Factors for Spiritual Success

From the teachings of

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti

Presented by Dada Rainjitananda

Pran'ipa'tena pariprashnena sevaya'

Success

• How to be successful in life?• What is success?• Real success.

Success in the physical plane

I have done Keeping my body – sensory and motor organs

– continuously engaged in action I have obtained various objects or done various actions which give me the feeling of success.

Or which society recognizes as evidence of success.

In Mental Plane

I feel successful for what I have. Or for what I have done Or for what I know Personal recognition Social recognition

In Mental Plane

Side Effects: much intellectual development may bring mental

imbalance.

Temporary Success

• Material objects do not last.• Social standards change.• Intellect fades away.

How to measure success?

Satisfaction

Happiness

Inner peace

Temporary or Permanent

Limited or unlimited

Finite or Infinite

Real Success

2,500 years ago a Prince, though having all the material wealth and pleasures of life, left his palace in search of a way to be successful in life.

A way to attain permanent success.

Spiritual Success

What is spirituality?

Spirituality deals with the permanent, the infinite, the unchanging.

Spirituality deals with the feeling of permanent bliss or Ananda

The Three Spheres

• Physical• Mental• Spiritual• A matter of subtlety

Understanding Spirituality• Many try to understand spirituality by

thinking, by reading, by using the intellect.• The intellect only reaches

the lower mental plane.

Understanding Spirituality

• Spirituality can not be understood by mere intellectual thinking.

• Spirituality is to go beyond one’s own mind.

• Beyond one’s “I-ness” into the Cosmic “I-ness”.

Attaining Spiritual Success

• To reach the spiritual sphere one has to transform one’s individual “I” into the Cosmic “I”.

• One’s “I am” into “You are”.• the drop of water becomes the Ocean.

The First Factor

The first factor is Pran’ipa’tenaSurrender to the Cosmic Entity

“Pran'ipa'ta means complete surrender to the Eternal Entity. The mental attitude that "whatever is, is from the Eternal Entity and nothing is mine" is pran'ipa'ta.

One who has ego, one who thinks that one's intellect, wealth and other things are one's own, is the greatest fool.”(from Discourses on Krs’n’a and the Giita by Shrii Shrii Anandamurti)

What is Surrender?Pitr purusebhyo namah rsi devebhyo namah.Brahma'rpanam' Brahmahavir Brahma'gnao Brahman'a'hutam.Brahmaeva tena gantavyam' Brahmakarma sama'dhina'.*

The act of offering is Brahma (the Eternal Entity); that which is offered is Brahma; the One to whom the offering is made is Brahma; and the person making the offering is Brahma.One will merge in Brahma after completing the duty assigned to him/her by Brahma.

Surrender

Surrender does not mean passivity.Surrender means activity.Pro-activity.The realization of the activity of the Cosmic “I”.Everything is done by the Cosmic “I” and not the little “I”.

The Second Factor

Pariprashna It means “Questions”. To ask

questions. Sometimes people ask questions

only for the sake of knowledge, only for the sake of debate, but it is not pariprashna.

Pariprashna

Pariprashna means to know what to do and how to do.

That is, the person is prepared to do something.

Pariprashna

He/She is prepared to do spiritual effort (sa'dhana‘), and for that purpose he wants to know how to do, what to do.

This special type of question is called pariprashna.

The Third Factor

Seva’ Service Selfless service to other beings. Offering maximum service to others

and minimum service to oneself.

Do all the good you can In all the ways you can In all the places you can To all the people you can

Pran'ipa'tena pariprashnena sevaya‘

Surrender, Proper questioning, Service

• The Three Factors for Spiritual Success.

• Pariprashna• You may ask your questions now.

THE END