“I knew I don’t like MacBook, but I bought it to look cool to my friends,” said one of my students after my recent discourse on Pursuit of Happiness at Surat’s SVNIT. What was he really after? The joy of impressing. Every one of us tries to impress someone or the other in some way or the other. This is evident when you type “tips to impress” on Google or YouTube. Impressing others to feel joyful and wholesome is intrinsic to us. Many a time we succeed to impress others to winning their appreciation, awe, reverence, or relationship. But does that really bring us everlasting joyfulness and wholesomeness? No. We end up trying harder to impress the world again.
There is one person, having impressed Him once we need not impress anyone else in the world. By impressing Him our very yearning to impress others will dissipate. By impressing Him we shall feel unlimited joy and wholesomeness. And that one person is God. This is the verdict of all the scriptures of all the religions. Here are the five easiest ways to impress God:
1. Sing the heart out
When words are not put into sentences but in rhythm, they touch the heart and give joy. All of us are habitual to sing. We sing out our feelings about something or someone. When the subject of our singing is glories of God or things related to Him, then such singing reaches its perfection. Such singing is called Sankirtan. All scriptures declare that Sankirtan is the best and the easiest way of cleansing our hearts from all dirty things and attracting the attention of the Lord.
2. Dance in Joy
When the sound of Sankirtan enters the ear and touches the heart, we cannot resist dancing in Joy. And such dancing in joy, during the Sankirtan, is very pleasing to the Lord. One need not to be an expert dancer to please the Lord, he has to just dance in Joy.
3. Eat till the neck
“A person who steals or takes away another person's property, in need or greed is called thief” is the definition of the thief. And Krishna declares in Bhagavad Gita that He is the source and owner of everything. So when we are taking away gifts from nature, without first offering them to Krishna, we are acting no better than thieves.
Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita: “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.” So, preparing nice, simple vegetable dishes, offering them before the picture or Deity of Lord Krishna, and bowing down and praying for Him to accept such a humble offering enables us to advance steadily in life, purify the body, and create fine brain tissues which will lead to clear thinking. And when we accept the Prasadam i.e. remnants of the food offered to Krishna, we become purified of all contaminations. Thus just by eating Prasadam, we can come close to God.
4. Offer obeisances in respect
“Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me,” says Krishna at the end of the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. When we lower our head before the Deity, the false ego from the soul vanishes. So even if one is very poor and has nothing to offer to God, he can please God simply by offering obeisance with genuine respect.
5. Relish the beauty
Even if one cannot sing, dance, eat or bow his head to Deity, he is not deprived of the chance to please the Lord. One can please the Lord simply by admiring the beauty of the Deity in the temple.
