Yesterday I told how Ramona saw people praying and shopping at the same time. I had to think of something that Kabir said about this kind of topic:
Mala To Kar Mein Fire, Jeebh Fire Mukh Mahi
Manua To Chahun Dis Fire, Yeh To Sumiran Nahi
This means:
The mala is turning in the hand and the tongue is turning in the mouth
but your mind is turning everywhere, how come you call this meditation?
I said yesterday already that it can be meditation when you are walking in a forest instead of sitting in front of an altar but you go for shopping with the aim of shopping, of talking and of occupying your mind with something else. How is that meditation?
As I said, the sense of the mala is to bring your mind back to your prayer if it by chance gets distracted. When you go out with this idea of occupying your mind with something else like clothes, then why do you take your mala? Why do you pretend to be praying? You are not really praying because your heart is not in it. You are faking a prayer!
Kabir also says in other verses that it is fine if you are praying while doing something and I have mentioned this already several times that it is for me fully meditation if someone is with heart and soul occupied in cooking for example. I also do not have anything against using a mala for praying but why do you use the mala just for showing that you are praying, even if you are not? Some people say they are in Bhakti, they are always in a prayer, but tell me how can this be? You are shopping, your mind is into colours, clothes, bargaining and at the same time your hand is holding a bead trying to remind you of your prayer which you obviously don’t have any interest in. It is meditation when you are connected with God.
Today our friends Susan and Lawrence arrived at the Ashram.
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It is is a shame when any good thing becomes a ritual or empty practice. There is a benefit in awareness of practices and present-mindedness.
Being able to do many things at the same time is considered as convenient (in western societies). Technical progress allows us for example to sit in the train, talk on the phone with our headset and surf in the internet, our mobility is steadily increasing. People unlearnt to concentrate on only one task. Maybe some of us have to be so mobile because of their job, but can’t we take some time only for praying?