Nishkama Worship

When we want to awaken a deity within us, we have to begin our worship somewhere. But the mistake that we make is, we seek the shelter of gods and goddesses only when we encounter problems – our child might be sick or we may be facing a lawsuit. It is not at all necessary to go to the gods for these things. It is not necessary to worship to have a desire fulfilled. It is better to perform worship with a nishkama, desireless, feeling. If the devata awakens, perhaps you will win the lawsuit automatically, and you may also lose it – because sometimes the loss is good for you. It is possible that what you think is good for you becomes harmful for you in the long run. This has happened in many cases. On the other hand, what you think is harmful for you may end up being good. There are many things that we do not know.

My experience is that one should not ask the gods and goddesses for anything. There is only one thing that you can and should ask for: faith. Ask that your devotion, faith, worship and belief do not break under any circumstances. You can pray to God to keep your relationship with Him intact. Say to Him, “May my relationship with you never break. May it always remain strong and steady.”

When I came to Rikhia, I established the Tulsi Chaura, and asked for only one boon: “May your worship be performed every day. So keep my body healthy. May I never have to cancel your worship on account of a fever.” And all through the years of my sadhana, I did not even sneeze once.

If you want to ask God for something, then you have to know how to ask for it. Once a little boy went to a shop and asked for a clay pot. The shopkeeper shooed him away saying, “Bring fifty paise and then I will give it to you.” The boy went to his father and reported the incident. The father said, “You can get the pot free if you ask for dahi worth fifty paise.” So the boy went back to the shop and asked for fifty paise worth of dahi. And he received the dahi in the clay pot! You need to have the same policy with God. Why should we ask for this and that? He knows. Doesn’t the mother know that the child is hungry or sleepy? If an ordinary mother can know so much about her child, then wouldn’t God know everything about us? Yes, He would.

However, God has a big weakness. He does not want to lose His devotees. God’s biggest weakness is that if He finds a sincere devotee, He does not want to lose him. At the same time, He cannot fulfil every demand of the devotee. He can only change things a little bit, for God also operates by a law. The way the prime minister, president and the judge who passes the hanging judgement have to abide by the law, God also has to abide by the law. One who has made the law has to follow the law.

This whole creation is made on the basis of certain rules. A human baby is born after nine months, but a dog’s litter is not born after nine months. There are rules for everything. We know the time of sunrise and an eclipse five hundred years away. This means that this whole world, the creation and this body work by a law. Both sorrow and joy are part of it. Birth, death, disease and old age have been written down in it. Yet we say, “Please save my child. If my child dies, God, I will stop worshipping you.”

When we do this, God is placed in a very difficult position. The father doesn’t want to lose his son, but he cannot agree to the son’s demands. For, if the laws are broken at one place, there will be problems everywhere. The whole system will go into disarray. Imagine if the sun rises half an hour late one day or does not rise at all on another day. The sun, the moon, the stars and the seasons all have their own timing.

Thus, to benefit from this weakness of God, you need to have devotion towards God. God should feel that whether or not I fulfil Swami Satyananda’s desire, he will remain my devotee. Only then God pays compensation. If we pray for our sick child at many different temples and yet the child dies, we should still be able to say, “God, it must be your wish that I lose, so I lost. I will continue my devotion.” Only then God compensates for your losses. Always remember this. This is the truth and a matter of experience.