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DISCOURSE 8
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out your worldly activities in various places ? If you want to do some business you obtain a licence. You will get a sales-tax number. You will fill in the income-tax returns and submit them. How many rules you have to obey in all these things ! Yet you obey those rules. Even if you may not like them, you adhere to them, because you want to carry on your business; and you want to earn money. In these matters, you have an aim; you have a purpose; and you have a strong desire to attain something. The same is the case with the matters relating to Dharma also. If you have a strong desire to attain some objective there will not be any neglect, or contempt or dislike for prescriptions but you will develop respect and a liking for them. If you perform an activity understanding it fully, you will surely respect the prescriptions relating to the time, place, seat, Mudra (posture) etc.
WHEN DO YOU WORSHIP THE PARAMATMA ?
You must think of this point. "What is the proper time for performing this austerity ?" "I want to worship the Paramatma but I am free only in the mornings; I do not have time at noon.... Brother, your heart must be pure. You may worship the Paramatma at any time you like.” To-day, we come across many intelligent people who speak in this foolish manner. Such people think that punctuality is essential in all their worldly activities but they do not care for punctuality in the matters relating to Dharma. Those people perform spiritual activities either as a matter of ostentation and show or on ac. count of someone's insistence. In their hearts, they do not have love and devotion for the Paramatma. Love and devotion for the Paramatma are absent in most of those people who perform spiritual activities according to their convenience. In large cities like Bombay, devout people go to the temple even before the sunrise and perform worship in the temple. There is no knowledge of the manner of performing the worship; nor is there any feeling of exhilaration! That is lack of method due to hurry. That is thoughtless convention. In this kind of worship of the Paramatma, we discern no concentration, no peace of mind, and no sanctity. They come out of the temple
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