One-Pointed Aspiration For God Alone

By

Sri Swami Chidananda

Worshipful homage unto the Great Reality, the Brahman of the Upanishads, That which is experienced by sages and seers of self-discipline, purity, intense aspiration, perseverance and determination. Those who give that Reality the greatest of all values, who regard It as the supreme value, who give It top priority, the central place in their life, qualify for the attainment of that Great Reality.

If that Great Reality counts as number two in one’s sense of valuation, then long shall one have to wait. If It is one among many goals, if It does not occupy the central place in one’s scheme of life, then one has to wait long. Making that Great Reality the goal of one’s life to the exclusion of all other lesser goals–thus indeed do they describe the nature of true aspiration. Ekagrata (one-pointedness), ananyata (single-mindedness), avyabhicharini (total dedication) are words used in connection with aspiration and devotion.

Gurudev, during his sadhana days, embodied all these hallmarks of an ideal sadhaka and seeker to the highest possible degree–total dedication to the ideal of God-realisation, one-pointed devotion to sadhana, and absorption in that great struggle–setting aside all other considerations, making this his sole goal, and wholeheartedly striving for it with all his heart and mind. Day and night he lived for that great attainment. Therefore, the attainment was his. All the great ones manifested in their lives, in their inner spiritual life and struggle, this total dedication.

This we must learn from them, receive and absorb from them. We must try diligently, sincerely and earnestly to gradually come to a state where no other consideration weighs more with us than God, to a state where God fills our entire life–He becomes the most important thing. This indeed is the one common factor in the lives of all the great ones.

This is the one thing worth asking for. We worship God, we try to please Him by various means so that He may make our lives comfortable, prosperous, successful, happy, long-lived. But seldom does anyone ask Him for devotion and devotion alone, one-pointed aspiration for Him and Him alone. Everyone wants things created by God, but very few indeed want the Creator and the Creator alone, Him and Him alone.

“Not what You have created, O Lord. I aspire for Thee and Thee alone.” In this way, those who brush aside all created things as being of little worth and value and set their heart on the One who is the source and origin of all things, they attain Him. “Mameva ye prapadyante mayametam taranti te (Those who take refuge in Me alone cross over this illusion).”

This is a world of things. You should ask for that Being who is beyond all things–the Thing-in-Itself. If you ask for lesser things, you get lesser things. He gives immediately what you aspire for. Whatever you ask, that is given. So we have to be careful about what we ask of God because He is a wish-yielding tree.

“Take away all desire from my heart, O Lord. May I not want anything except Thee and Thee alone.” This is what one should ask from the Supreme Being. Tulasidas says: “In my heart there is no other desire, O Lord, but for You and You alone.” This is what all the great teachers have taught us by their own living example. Therefore, at the feet of the guru as well as God, the one thing worth asking for is aspiration for attaining the Reality and the Reality alone. “Immortality is attained when one’s wish is to let go of all other things besides the one Great Reality.”

May we, therefore, during this New Year, ask God to bless us with an interior state where there is no desire for any temporary, evanescent created thing of this external world of ours. We must ask Him to bless us with that aspiration that hungers and thirsts and longs and yearns for that one Great Reality alone. For That alone is worth having–attaining which everything is attained, attaining which one goes beyond, is liberated from, all desire.

May you all aspire for That, ask for That, earnestly long for That, and pray for That. May you all attain That in this very life, and become forever blessed!”