top of page
Commandment 1 - Dr K C Varadachari Commentary

Rise before dawn. Offer your prayer and puja at a fixed hour preferably before sunrise, sitting in one and the same pose. Have a separate place and seat for worship. Purity of mind and body should be specially adhered to.


The ninth commandment is simple and straight forward. It says that one should live in such a way as to arouse in all or all-round a feeling of love of God and pious living. One becomes imitable and an example to others. Secondly, it provokes not love of oneself or for oneself but to God. For one begins to ask oneself how it is that one lives so nicely as to evoke love for the individual himself because of the love that he has for God. The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad states that not for love of oneself does one love another, nor for the sake of love of another does one love him, but for the love of the Supreme Self or God does one love another. Because he sees God as the source of all life and love does he love everything or rather does he not shrink away from another. This view-point of God towards man and all is what is natural, whereas the way to love things in this world for the pleasure they give and so on is unnatural. God shines on all equally in so far as He is the inner force or Anna (food or spiritual power that sustains all according to their status and evolution). Our aim being to reach the highest we mould ourselves in the manner of godly living and godliness which is precisely the experience of love to all.

​

Unless one loves all one cannot get the return of love. Love leads to real piety because it is the love of God in all and it is selfless.

​

God's Nature is similar to that of the sun. His love flows to all in equal measure. One who loves God also begins to love all and draws all towards the Divine. The Kenopanishad states the condition of one who loves God. All beings seek him with love. Thus one develops the Divine nature when one loves God only and thus stirs the inward love within each and every one. God's approach to each individual or being is individualised and unique. This is the occult mystery of the unity of the One and the Many. The One manifests in the Many and in diverse ways It links Itself up with every one individually. There is only the unity of the source which relates all to one another. Thus in the Natural Path we link up ourselves with God through love and discover that we love all and that others love us with Divine love. Even if in fact anyone seeks to love us differently it is our duty to make it possible for them to love us through Divine love or love us for the sake of the One Supreme and Ultimate Godhead or Reality.

​

It is true that Reality has a peculiar fascination for man which is distinct from the fascination for man which the unreal has for him. Our work is to withdraw from the fascination of the many as many and seek love of the One which is the essence of the many.

​

In spiritual life one has to learn the three 'R's - ridicule, repression and respect even as in ordinary life of education people say that one must know how to read, write and do arithmetic. One who loves God is ridiculed at the beginning; if one gets over that state he finds that others put hindrances of all kinds before him and if even then he persists and goes indifferent to either ridicule or repression people begin to be serious and seek to know why anyone should seek God and not the world. A shock thus coming to one leads to reevaluation and naturally one reaches the state of love of all and gains love of all.

​

Master speaks of the deserts of love only when one reaches the higher states. However, to practice the love of God in one's everyday life is to gain the love of all others who see in him the same essence of Being.

​

Nature is indeed working her own natural way and if one lives in conformity with her then he also becomes more and more attuned to the Ultimate Being.

​

The most natural way or living is Godly life for man and this life cannot be in contradiction to any other way of life when it is lived naturally. Man goes beyond the realm of hatred and passion and rejoices in the Being of God.

​

A truly Godly life is possible only through the love of God and such a Godly life produces in all beings the love and the piety that is central to the very life of the Abhyasi.

Pujya KCN Commentary
bottom of page