'Hari ki baat' With Vinod Ji Agarwal

We all know that our mind remains obsessed with the thoughts about our dear ones. The word 'dear' implies somebody whose glance calms the eyes, whose voice gratifies the ears, whose touch soothes the body, whose name tastes sweet to tongue, whose nearness enchants us and above all, whose memories are pleasing to the soul. So we just need to passionately wish that God becomes dear to us and rest happens own its own. If He blesses us with this kind of sacred sentiment, then all our ordinary activities 'effortlessly' strat revolving around Him only. The example of Gopis can be illustrated here. Lord Krishna ignited the flame of His love in their hearts due to which they could think of nothing else than Him while their physical bodies would remain busy in the household chores. Moreover, contemplation on God surely makes us see Him and His Sight has its best reward of restoring the seeker to his natural state of being (sehaj awastha) i.e. accepting life just as it comes and feeling blissful in every type of situation. Practically, constant remembrance of God has little to do with ritualistic worshiping rather it is about recollecting the fact that this whole creation belongs to my beloved God and hence no creature can deserve my bitterness. On that basis, not having animosity against anybody and cheerful acceptance of everything in His Name signify a high-class spiritual life.

Raag means attachment with somebody in the world who makes us feel happy. Raag becomes anuraag when we feel attached to God and this is called Divine love. Attachment exists at physical level and hence subjective to change. Often when we fail to obtain the response as per our expectations, some sort of negativity naturally enters our heart. But that is not the case with love as it only grows to get condensed in the form of 'bhaav' (spirit). Bhaav is a permanent impression affixed on soul through which a devotee connects to His beloved Lord. Now the question arises how to feel this kind of affinity with the one who is omnipresent but invisible. The answer is that it naturally happens when we start dealing with God as a close friend, guardian, lover or whatever way we like. Actually He is already wanting us to lovingly draw closer to Him but our perspective of looking at Him as Almighty only keeps us away. All the rituals of worshipping, fasting and other customary protocols are initially essential to foster our keenness for Him. It is like learning ‘A’ by referring to an ‘Apple’ but in process we have to move ahead of the word while grasping the alphabet. Sadly, many of us tighten our grip just on religious references while the one who is being referred to is skipped. The devotees who are able to maintain their hold on Him, their formal adoration gradually recedes or mode of its performance changes. As love is always felt new, the moods of devotees too vary from being fully submissive to being annoyed even. Lord grants them a few moments of union which triggers their emotions for Him. They wish to have more and more of this sweet time but He seems to be delaying it. Consequently, the spirit of surrender remains intact but the insatiable love starts taunting Him. This is an implication of faithfully directing all our feelings (negative as well as positive) towards Him only. Devotional lovers thank Him for the exotic showers of His love, feel remorseful for His habit of disappearing too soon, long for His return, complain for undue delay, argue against His probable remarks and reminisce about the golden time spent together. None of these moods refutes the dedication of devotees rather all of these add flavors to their rapport with God. In fact, this intimacy goes to the extent that they believe all their actions (right/ wrong) being done at His behest alone.

All the ways to God are equally significant but a seeker has to choose one as per his personal preference. Recognizing the fact that we all have different kinds of nature, spirituality offers us multiple options to initiate our spiritual journey. Intellectual people may opt for Gyaan maarg (knowledge based), industrious temperament finds its fit in Karm maarg (action oriented) while our emotional tendency takes us through Bhakti maarg (devotion). If we are clear about the purpose of our life and fully prepared to strive hard for it, the appropriate path would surely make us succeed. 'Appropriate' is a relative term and spirituality is liberal enough to let us begin by any path chosen on the basis of our self analysis. However once begun, we must not stop or divert just like we travel straight by only one route for arriving at a geographical location. Moreover, as we are aiming towards Supreme bliss, we ought to start feeling delighted, though partially, at our first step itself. So this can be taken as a criterion to confirm our voyaging by correct route because if we do not find our spiritual activities delightful, it signifies some sort of lack on our part. In that case, we need to re-evaluate ourselves or sincerely seek guidance from our mentor as cure may not be effective without adhering to the proper regimen. Most importantly, our objective is to arrive at a destination and entry at the arrival point requires leaving the path even. Hence their is no contradiction about the ways to God as each certainly leads to Divine bliss. Time taken to cover the distance upto Him ofcourse depends upon our speed, which in turn, is a derivative of our zeal to reach.

Shri Radha and Shri Krishan are substantially a single entity behaving as two for the sake of their Divine pastimes. As an ordinary lens of a camera can capture only the outer surface but an x-ray detector reveals about the internal structure, it is a devotional insight which enables us to genuinely visualise their indistinguishability. So saints try to explain the relationship of Yugal Sarkaar through various aspects, four are presented here -
1) Shri Radha is primarily known as 'Mahabhaav' - the extreme love/ an unquenchable thirst for Lord Krishna, who in turn is the epitome of 'Ras' - the bliss. Thirst exists just to have ras while ras has little value in the absence of thirst. So both of them are integral to each other. They live in constant union yet feel the pain of being away due to their ever growing love.
2) Shri Radha is also considered as the soul, internal potency of Shri Krishna. Just like Yogis experience bliss in the company of their inner self, Shri Radha Krishna take delight in each other. Often a question is raised - why did they not get married? For this one must understand that marriage is a social custom to bring two beings together. How can anybody marry his own self?
3) It can further be viewed as a wave repeatedly rising up and then merging back in the ocean. As wave can not be separated from its source, Shri Radha and Krishna are inseparable too. Liquid mercury is also seen breaking into small droplets and restoring multiple times in a closed container. Likewise, the unified form of Radha Krishna splits up for their mutual pleasure, yet remain one. Their dual appearance embodies love in its purest form which extends beyond physical dimensions and hence question about marriage stands inapplicable. Nevertheless, due respect is paid to the holy belief that Brahma ji officiated their wedding ceremony at an early age. Perspective of all the devotees is always meant to be venerated.
4) From scientific point of view, Shri Krishna can be taken as element and Shri Radha as energy. For that reason, it is said that Shri Krishna can be easily attained through the mercy of Shri Radha as energy only makes the element active.

Ideally, nobody needs to beg of God as He is well aware of all our requirements. Still, if we feel desirous of anything, we need not even hesitate to implore Him. Desires are natural to living beings and if these bring us into contact with God, we ought to appreciate them. However, one should be firm regarding two things- making demands on his Idol (Isht) only and second is to resolutely believe that He is our supreme well-wisher. Almighty is capable of doing anything in all His forms but when we beseech Him particularly, it establishes an affinity with Him. On that basis, a devotee goes to the extent of saying that despite knowing about desire being a taboo in devotion, he welcomes it as an opportunity to strengthen his faith. Moreover, when we take His every kind of response (fullfilling our demand or not) to be a means of our overall betterment, it helps us to heartily accept the upcoming situation as a part of His Divine play. Gradually, we learn to let the things happen instead of trying to make them happen and reach the stage of desirelessness (Nishkamta). This is well projected in an anecdote about Devarshi Narad. As he was mistaken by the beauty of a princess, he wished to marry her. So he asked His Lord, Shri Narayana to quickly 'do whatever is good for him'. Accordingly, Lord did not grant his wish because the transient attraction would have violated his perpetual vow of celibacy. Realizing this fact later, Narad Muni felt repented for his attitude and the incident gave a boost to his spiritual commitment. Many of the verses in Shri RamCharitManas guide us about what is to be actually sought from Divinity as Lord Shiva too says "I repeatedly beg of You to always bless me with constant devotion to Your lotus feet and association of saints." So we should try to be pleading for just one thing- God's love as this one fulfillment puts an end to all the other wants and life becomes really easy.

Naam Sankirtan is scientifically based on the theory of sound therapy. Every word originates from sound and each sound has its echo. So devotees repeatedly recite Lord's name (naam) so that its echo begins to be heard from inside (ajpa jap). This has been considered as the most effective means to experience union with God in Kalyuga. 
Sankirtan implies a group session of devotional singing. An apt harmony between swar (sound) and bhaav (spirit) enables us to get easily absorbed in Lord because music has the capacity to make our mind thoughtless. The 'Divine sound vibrations' render the whole ambience pure and thus provide a blissful experience to the attendees with a long lasting impact. If we are moved by any of the words/expression, the internal echo continues to repeat it even after the external session ends. Such a blessed state, of turning inwards, is a personal attempt as well as accomplishment. So for the ardent seekers, who feel painful longing for God, chanting brings profound results in a little time.

Devotion, in its simplest form, means addiction to God. While ritualistic adoration is done through the gross body, devotion is the advanced stage of passionately adoring Him by all means. A devotee's mind is found continually engrossed in God and so virtually absent from the world. This sort of obsession soon takes the form of Divine love as all the senses wish to savour Him only.
Also, devotion involves unconditional surrender and for that reason, devotees do not seek any change in the course of their destiny. Instead, they pray for strength to faithfully accept everything as a pre-set arrangement of Providence. In fact, our addiction to our Idol naturally make us indifferent to the worldly sorrows and joys. How can a drunken lover sense anything else than his beloved? In this way, devotion lifts us up from the physical plane and attaches to Him by permeating whole of our being with eternal bliss.
To conclude, Gyaan makes us realize the impersonal form of God, Bhakti provides for His perosnal attainment and Prem lets us take delight in Him.

Spiritual Mentor (Guru) is considered as a tangible representative of God. Even so, we should take utmost care while accepting somebody as our Guru and not fall prey to the prevalent trend of loud propaganda about heavenly pursuits. Genuine saints connaturally lead us to Divinity through their charismatic personality. Therefore, instituional net-worth and social spread are not the criteria here. If we try to trace out the origin of this lineage, Lord Shiva is found as the first Guru and Lord Krishna is said to be the Jagad Guru. As all the spiritual accomplishments come through the grace of God, we should take Him only as our guide and sincerely follow His words until He blesses us with a 'Sadguru' in human form. Further, Guru can be categorized as Shiksha-Guru and Diksha-Guru. Whoever teaches us something of the world is called shikhsha-Guru while latter shows us the way to God. When a seeker gets influenced by somebody to receive initiation from him, he is given a mantra which is, in fact, a seed to be planted, protected and nurtured for enabling it to become a tree which would give the fruits of bliss. On the other side, when 'Sadguru' enters our life on its own, little remains to be done on our part. He not only shows us the way rather makes us directly experience God and encourages us to fearlessly spread the resultant bliss around. However, the attainment of such a perfect mentor depends upon the fervour of the seeker which makes him eligible to partake of all the Divine fruits ensuing from the penance of his Sadguru.

All that is being shared here has been received through the words of revered saints, holy books and a bit of self observation.