A Painful End

History stands testimony to the fact that the carnages caused by man against man for wealth and power would go to make an ocean of blood. The tales of various kings who destroyed and plundered the world for wealth, territory and power are blood curdling, but the end of all these invaders and conquerors was full of pain, sorrow and regret.

The ambitious Alexander, after conquering many nations, was consigned to his death bed even when he was in his early youth. He told his friends on his death bed, “After my death, keep both my hands out of the coffin so that people may know that even Alexander, who possessed unlimited treasures, is going empty handed today.”

‘Remember that Alexander’s courageous attempts were of the highest order.

When he left the world, both his hands were empty.’

Mohammad of Gaznavi plundered the temples of Somnath and Nagarkot in the eleventh century he acquired immense wealth in this loot. It is said that when he was on his deathbed, he told his soldiers, “Place my bed amidst the treasure chests, which contain rubies, diamonds, emeralds, gems and jewels.”

When he was taken to the treasure chests, he stood up restlessly and cried bitterly holding the treasure-chests tightly to his chest and groaned, “Alas! I have squandered away my life in hoarding these red, brown, blue, yellow, white colored precious stones. I have wasted my whole life plundering, causing bloodshed and hankering after wealth.”

He died a miserable death, wailing and repenting on his deathbed.

In the year 1398, Timur the Lame plundered his way to Delhi with 92,000 horsemen. In Delhi, he beheaded one lakh Hindus before reading Namaz on the festival of Id. He was moving about on the streets of Delhi with his soldiers when he came across a blind old woman. Timur asked the woman her name. Realizing that it was none other than the tyrannical and heartless Timur who was asking her name, the woman replied harshly that her name was wealth. On hearing that, Timur laughed and said, “Is even wealth blind?” the woman replied, “Yes! Wealth too is blind. That is how she reaches a handicapped fellow via plundering and bloodshed.”

Timur was ashamed as he heard the heart-rending words of the old woman. His face bore an expression of sadness. He moved ahead. He felt that he was not only lame but also blind after wealth which itself is blind.

Be it Alexander or Gaznavi, Aurangzeb or Tughlaq, Sikander Lodi, Chengiz, Mussolini, Napoleon, Hitler or the American rulers who killed innocent people and destroyed wealth by dropping atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; be it Saddam Hussein or any person of authority, who has violated human rights and deprived mankind of happiness and comfort, history is replete with the gory deeds of numerous such tyrants, who tried to satisfy their lust for power and pelf through blood shed. However, the end of all these wars and battles has proved to be immensely sorrowful. Finally, the ones who are avaricious for wealth and power fall into the hell of destruction leaving all their wealth behinds. Even then man doesn’t become alert!

The Customs followed by In- Laws

After marriage, a girl went to live with her in- laws. In her in-laws’ family, along with her mother-in law, was her grand mother-in-law was being insulted a great deal. The younger mother-in-law would hurt and abuse her. Looking at this the girl felt bad about it and also felt compassionate for her. She reflected, ‘If I tell my mother-in-law not to insult her mother-in-law, she will retort that the girl who has just come into the house yesterday is imparting wisdom to me and is behaving like my Guru.’ Hence, she did not say anything to her mother-in-law. She thought of a plan.

Everyday she would finish her work and go and sit with her grand mother-in-law and massage her legs. When she started spending more time with her, her mother-in-law did not approve of this. One day her mother-in-law asked her, “Daughter-in-law! Why do you go and sit with her?”

The girl replied, “My parents had said –‘don’t ever sit with young men; also don’t sit with young women; go and sit near the elders in the family; learn from them.’ In this house grand mother-in-law is the eldest. That is why I only sit with her. in addition, my father also said, ‘In your in-laws’ house, our traditions will not work; your in-laws’ customs will work. Learn the customs from the elders in that house and maintain your relationships accordingly.’ Mother-in-law! I have to learn the traditions of this house. Grand mother-in-law is the eldest. So I ask her how my mother-in-law serves her, so that I can do the same.

Her mother-in-law asked her, “What does the old woman say?”

“Grandmother says, ‘I will consider it a service if she just doesn’t hurt or abuse me.’”

Her mother-in-law responded, “What! Will you also behave like that?”

“Mother In-law became silent and inwardly feared that she will be treated in the same manner as she treated her mother in-law.

In a corner there were some broken pieces of ceramic plates. Her mother-in-law enquired, “Daughter-in-law! Why have you collected these ceramic pieces?”

The girl replied, “You daily give grandmother food in ceramic pieces. In order to abide by this custom, I have collected them in advance. I’ve done the right thing, haven’t I?”

“Oh! This is a mistake. This is surely not a custom!”

“Then why do you give grandmother food in ceramic pieces?”

“Who will scrub and wash her plate?” “I will do it.”

“Okay. Then you can serve her food in a plate. Throw away the ceramic pieces.”

Now the old grandmother started getting food in a plate. After serving everyone food, the leftovers were given to the old grandmother. Or sometimes the burnt leftover of khichdi or dal with stones in it was served to her. The girl examined her food in her hand. Her mother-in-law asked, “Daughter-in-law! What are you looking at?”

“Mother, I am looking at the kind of food that elders are served in this house.”

“This is surely not the custom of giving food!”

“Then why do you give such food?”
“Who will first serve the food?”
“With your permission, I will do it.”
“Okay, so you first serve the food.”

Now the old woman started getting good food. As soon as the food was ready, the daughter-in-law would serve the old mother fresh khichdi, fresh rotis, dal and khichdi, fresh rotis, dal and vegetables. The grand-mother-in-law started blessing the girl in her heart of hearts.

All day, the old grandmother-in-law would sit in a broken bedstead with its rope hanging loose. The girl was looking at the bedstead. Her mother-in-law asked, “Daughter-in-law! What are you looking at?”

“I am observing the kind of bedstead that is given to elders.”

“Such a bedstead is not given here. Since it is broken, it has become like this.”

“Why don’t you get another one?”
“You can get another one.”

Now a new bedstead woven with thick wide tapes was brought for the old grandmother. Her clothes had become all tattered. One day while washing clothes the girl started staring at her grandmother-in-law’s clothes. Her mother-in-law enquired, “What are you looking at?”

“I am observing the kind of clothes that are given to elders.”

“You are repeating the same topic! Such clothes are not given here. They have become like this because they are old.”

“Should I let her continue to wear these clothes?”
Now the young daughter-in-law changed the old mother’s clothes bedding and everything. Her cleverness spread happiness even in the old mother’s life. If the girl had preached to her mother-in-law in a plain and direct way, would she have listened to her? No, words don’t have effect, behavior has its effect. Therefore, daughters-in-law should serve in their in-laws’ house with such intelligence, thereby keeping all satisfied. With this, peace and happiness will be maintained in the house. Infighting in a house destroys peace. Peace and happiness are established by following this principle. Walk together with one another, stay together and help each other in every way. In this lies the good of the home, family, society and the country. Every human being should try and follow this, and bring into their life these divine, high ideals of Indian culture, so that every individual rises above his or her current condition and works in favour of the society and country thereby helping to establish peace and happiness, let all awaken the self-bliss hidden within them. May they awaken their Truth Consciousness and Bliss absolute nature. Let us stay clear of attachment, hatred, jealousy and slander and also save others who come into contact with us from these vices.

The Glory of the Month of Vasishakha

The month of Vaishakha is the bestower of great merits and happiness. It destroys sins as fire would burn firewood. It fulfils all the four aspirations of human life dharma, artha, kama and Moksha.

The celestial sage Narada says to King Ambarish: “Lord Vishnu is always pleased with one who contemplates on God while taking a holy bath before sunrise in the month of Vaishakha. Sins frighten only so long as the jiva does not take this meritorious bath in Vaishakha. All the deities of the pilgrim centers, O King, are always present in the others sources of water (i.e, in rivers, lakes or places other than pilgrim centers) in the month of Vaishakha at the behest of Vishnu and with a desire for the welfare of men they stay there for six ghatikas(144 minutes) from sunrise. By offering water in the month of Vaishakha one attains that merit which is obtained by making all types of charitable gifts and visiting all pilgrim centers. The offering of water is more conductive to welfare than all charitable gifts.”

The third lunar day in the bright fortnight of Vaishakha IS KNOWN AS Akshay Tritiya (27th April). This is a bestower of imperishable merits. Charity, early morning bath, jap, penance, havan and other such acts carried out on this day bestow auspicious and infinite merits. According to the ‘Bhavishya Purana’ and ‘Matsya Purna’, all acts performed and fats observed on this day endow one with imperishable (Akshay) merits, hence the name ‘Akshay Tritiya’. The ‘Treta Yuga’ had begun on this day. Hence it is a destroyer of all sins and a bestower of all good fortunes.

Donations of water-pitchers, fans, sugar balls, sandals, footwear, umbrellas, cow, land, golden utensils, clothes, etc. are considered meritorious while taking a bath in the holy ganga is considered to be highly meritorious on this day. This day is auspicious for commencing the work of agriculture and ensures prosperity. This is the day of advent of three incarnations, Rishi Nara-Narayana, Lord Parashurama and Lord Hayagriva. This day is extremely pious and a bestower of happiness and good fortune. While this is the day of observing prosperity and success; tools, weapons, clothes, ornaments, etc. too are manufactured, purchased and worn on this day. Purchasing new land, entering a new house, institution etc. on this day is considered auspicious and meritorious. Shrutdevji says to King Janak: “O King! The last three days in the bright fortnight of Vaishakha i.e. the thirteenth and fourteenth lunar days and full moon day (7 to 9th may) are highly pious and auspicious. They are called ‘Pushkarini’ and they eradicate all sins. The churning of ocean had produced nectar on the eleventh lunar day in the bright fortnight of vaishakha. Lord Vishnu had protected it on the twelfth lunar day. On the thirteenth lunar day Lord Hari served the nectar to the gods. On the fourteenth lunar day the demons who were enemies of gods were killed by Lord Hari and on the full moon day all the gods regained their sovereignty. Pleased by this, the gods bestowed boons upon these three days: ‘May these three auspicious days of Vaishakha eradicate the sins of men and bless them with children, grandchildren, etc. one who could not take early morning meritorious baths throughout the month of Vaishakha, does attain the full merits anyway by taking bath early in the morning on these days. By curbing worldly desires in Vaishakha, man certainly attains sayujya (proximity) with Lord Vishnu.’


‘He who rescites the Bhagavadgita on the last three days of Vaishakha, attains the fruits of performing an ashwamedha yagna every day. And who on earth or in the heavens can describe the merits of one who recites the ‘Srivishnusahasranama’ on these days?

“One who baths Lord Madhusudhana with milk while reciting the thousand names of the Lrod on the full moon day, he, having become sinless, goes to Vaishakha, the abode of Vishnu. One who recites a half or one fourth of a verse of the ‘Bhagawata Purana’ everyday during the month of Vaishakha, attins Brahmic Consciousness. He who listens to the readings of ‘Bhagawata Purna’ on the last three days of Vaishakha, remains untained by sins just as the lotus leaf remains unsullied by water through the observance of the above mentioned three days, there have been many men who have attained to goldhood, many others, who have become siddhas and many others still who have attained to Brahmic Consciousness. Therefore, taking a holy bath, charity, worshipping God and other such acts should certainly be performed on the last three days of Vaishakha.”

While expounding this excellent narration to the king sage Ambarish, the celestial sage Narada had said that this month eradicates all sins and bestows all kinds of wealth. By this man attains devotion, liberation, knowledge and salvation. One, who listens to or reads this sin-destroying and meritorious narration, attains to an elevated state.

OM OM OM…. Repose in the meritorious Antaryamin Lord…

Suicide: The Height of Cowardice

Death is a gift of God, but if any one kills himself or herself by committing suicide, it is a grave sin. God has given us this precious garment of a human body. So it is our duty to keep it clean and healthy. That death is inevitable doesn’t mean that one should commit suicide or invite death by taking poison. Clothes do get dirty, torn and worn out, but to tear them deliberately, is foolishness. Similarly, the body becomes old and sick and dies. This is the plan of Nature. It is not right to deliberately push the body into the jaws of death .

Some weak-minded students and businessmen who fail in exams and suffer losses in business commit suicide out of fear or stress and anxiety. Such people should never nurture negative thinking or base thoughts of escapism. Even in case of failure, they should not think of running away or committing suicide if they try again they will certainly be successful.

Nature has endowed man with such a flexible life that he can elevate himself as much as he wants. He can overcome the most difficult circumstance and trample all troubles and obstacles to reach the Supreme State. He only needs to realize and have confidence in his abilities.

The omnipotent Supreme Brahman, who can bring about the dissolution of the universe merely by raising His eyebrows, abides in you as your Beloved friend and well-wisher. And a slump or some problems in farming is enough for you to hang yourself to death! What a cheap mentality? Fie on those who commit suicide. Eunuchs will feel insulted if we compare them with such people. They will say, “Babal! We never commit suicide. We even contest elections and enjoy political rule as well. Why do you compare us with such people?” if we term such people as ‘donkey’, even donkeys will get displeased. They will say, “Baba! We never committed suicide. We suffer beatings and bear the cold and face so many troubles in life. Though at times we don’t get anything to eat, we carry burdens the next day without complaining; but we never commit suicide.” If such people are called ‘dogs’, the dogs would say, “We bear hunger and thirst. And if anybody beats us or pelts stones, we groan and then become quiet but don’t commit suicide. We have to lower our tails at times and wag at others, but we are living anyway.” So, if we call suicides dogs, it would disgrace dogs. Donkeys, dogs and eunuchs – all will feel insulted if we compare them with people who kill themselves.

Man has not come into this world to die leading a devilish life indulging in sense pleasures, drinking, meat-eating and disco-dancing. To commit suicide is the sign of a coward mind, a hedonistic mind. Carrying out noble acts, availing oneself of the company of the Satguru to attain Self-realization and liberation are marks of the mind of a sadhaka, a devotee and a yogi.

What do the ignorant do? A little trouble comes their way and they blame the troublemaker and the circumstances or curse themselves considering themselves sinners. Some cowards even go to the extent of contemplating suicide. The pious souls will go to some saint to relieve their sorrows.

Those who go to a Guru gain some keys easily to get over obstacles. Hence they benefit from both sides. On the one hand, they experience peace of mind and find solutions to their problems, while on the other hand they experience a turning point in their life as well.

One should not contemplate suicide under any circumstances and should save his or her mind from sorrow. All sorrows in the world are results of ignorance and lack of understanding. Sorrow cannot exist without lack of understanding. To attribute the sickness of the body to oneself is foolishness. We attribute transient successes and failures to ourselves. We identify ourselves with the body and consider the things, which will desert us as ‘ours’. Isn’t this ignorance? We don’t know ‘that’ which survives even after death, but identify ourselves with that which is bound to perish. Is this not foolishness?

Not just common people, even scholars like Goethe contemplate suicide but hesitate to commit it out of fear. Many learned people too commit suicide only because they lack the wisdom of Veda Vyasa. Otherwise, even a lame and tailless dog with would on its body yelps and tries to save its life if anyone hits it and today’s man commits suicide. How foolish! The moths of the rainy season fly towards a flame and burn their bodies and flutter, but if you try to kill them they will fly away to save their lives.

When the life-giver has given us life, we should make all efforts to protect it. Those who commit suicide wander for many lives as ghosts for they do not get a new body. Even he who takes part in carrying the dead body of a suicide to the cremation ground, has to suffer and face problems. The Prashar smriti and Kautilya Arthashastra go to the extent of saying that one who commits suicide disregards nature’s gift, the body, a boon given by God. And hence, one should not carry the dead body of such a wretched person to the cremation ground. A sweeper should be told to tie the body with a rope and drag it along the street so that others seeing it do not repeat the foolishness.

Seek refuge in the truth, in God and do not be influenced by circumstance. Those who take circumstances for real, at times, contemplate and commit suicide out of fear. This is a big crime.

In one of my satsangs held in Surat in December 2008, I gave a message to the jewelers, who were victims of the slump in diamonds at that time. Those who contemplate suicide in the face of troubles should, having realized their helplessness, remember the power of God. On our part, leave no stone unturned in tackling the situation, but when you have come to the point of contemplating suicide, dissolve your ego. You will find a solution to your problem on the same day or in a day or two.

‘When you are in the dead of the night,
With dark clouds hovering above;
Your goal still seems to be far away,
And you are totally helpless.’
What will you do then?
Achyutanant govind
Namoccaran bhes jat
Nasyanti sakala rogah
Satyam satyam vadamyaham

‘O Achyuta! O Ananta! O Govinda! The truth do I day, and the truth indeed is that all chanting the Lord’s name like this.’

Suicide is a mental disease. Man becomes cowardly enough to contemplate suicide only when his mind has reached the height of cowardice. What one should do at that time is cry out to God.

In the Skanda Purana (Kashi Khanda, PUrvardha - 12-1,13) it is said: ‘Those people who kill themselves will enter (the world of ) blinding darkness. After experiencing the tortures in a thousand hells, they are born as village pigs. Therefore, suicide should never be committed anywhere by a wise one. Nothing auspicious will befall those who kill themselves, here in this world or in the others.’

According to the ‘Parashar smriti (4-1,2)’, ‘One who kills himself lives in a hell called Andhatamisra for 60,000 years.’

The media would be doing a great service to society by publishing such strong lines under the pictures of those who kill themselves, so that the readers will never think of committing suicide. This satsang should be propagated at places where there is prevalence of suicide.

The Secret of Success

If the fragrance of he flowers is supplied by the plant, aren’t the thorns also nourished by the same plant? The same sap is providing fragrance to the rose as well as sustaining the thorns. And thorns alone provide protection to the roses. This is the pristine Intelligence of the Creator at play. Don’t ruin your life by complaining at every high and small thing, thereby destroying your religious merit. Whenever there is pain in your life, be sure that your mind is giving some judgment that is at odds with the Divine Law. This alone leads to pains, troubles and escapism.

Let all your edeavours be for the sake of the Lord’s pleasure. If you dress up in order to lure someone to something, you are bound to get pain from that person, for you are in effect, doing that to the indwelling Lord in the form of that person. When God is Omnipresent and is abiding in every being, wherever and whatever and whatever you are doing, you are doing it to the Lord Himself. Until and unless this view of life is perfected, one continues to be kicked around. If you make friends with someone having great wealth, power of riches hoping that he would help you in a time of need, you are bound to come to grief in the end. The greatness of the great owes itself to the supreme Great. If you conduct yourself towards the great man knowing him to be a spark of the Supreme Great, all his wealth, power, riches and if you disregard the Lord dwelling in him and try to win his favour through flattery, he will ditch you.

You can’t possibly catch the drumbeat, whatever you may do; but if you catch hold of drummer, you automatically exercise control over the drumbeat as well. Similarly, one who catches hold of the Origin will gain control over both the Cause and its Effect. The Supreme Lord is the Origin of all. If your mind gets established in the Lord, all causes and their effects will automatically turn favourable to you. Whether one is a theist or an atheist, this divine rule is equally applicable to all. Regardless of one believing in God. Or not, event if unknowingly one happens to turn inward and attain unity with the indwelling Lord, or conducts oneself in tune with Vedantic principlesw driven by perception of divine Omnipresence, or a penchant for social service, or respect for Truth and righteousness, or one’s intrinsic nature, one attains success in life. One may swear by dharma; but if his conduct is not in tune with Vedantic principles, he will continue to be miserable. Howsoever religious one may profess to be, if he doesn’t bring Vedanta into practice, freedom will elude him. One the other hand, one may look to be irreligious; nevertheless if he follows the tenets of Vedanta, he will be successful, he will rule over one and all. One may not believe in any deity, god, religion or sect; but if one is true to oneself; nurtures no ill will towards anyone; keeps the senses under control; possesses a serene mind and remains ever cheerful, he is a true devotee of the Lord. Devotion as such, is not necessarily reflected in one going to a temple or mosque and importuning the deities. The closer and truer is your relationship with the Indwelling Lord, one more pious and virtuous your life and the greater is your devotion to the Lord. If you distance yourself from the Lord within breaking your bonds with Him, if there is duplicity in your dealings, the rules of ‘Cause and Effect’ will work against you. –Translated excerpts from ‘Jivan Vikas’- a book published by the ashram.

Sage Narada, the Possessor of Devine Virtues

Once Lord Krishna worshipped sage Narad in Mahi-sagara-sangam. There king Ugrasena asked Him: “O Lord of the world, Sri Krishna! Why is Sage Narada exceedingly fond of you?”

Lord Krishna said: “O King! I always eulogize Narada of divine vision by means of the hymn pronounced by Mahendra. Listen to it, O King:

‘I bow down to that Narada who has been born from the lap of Brahma, who has no arrogance due to learning or good conduct, but whose learning and good conduct are well-known. I bow down to that Narada who has none of these defects absence of interest, anger, fickleness and fear. He is composed and free from (habitual) procrastination. I pay obeisance to that Narada who does not change his word (once uttered) either due to lust or to covetousness and who is conversant with the principles and goal of spiritual endeavour, who is forbearing, powerful and straightforward, who has conquered his sense organs and who speaks the truth.

‘I bow down to that Narada who is full-grown and venerable in respect of splendour, fame, intellect, prudence, humility, birth and penance, whose conduct and dress are pleasing and whose diet, behaviour, eyes and utterance are good, who is tirelessly engaged in altruism, who has no sin, who is enthusiastically engaged in bringing good to others, who always abides by the duties enjoined in the Vedas, Smritis and Puranas Puranas and who is free from (i.e is above) either pleasure or displeasure, who is uninterested in food stuffs and other things, who is learned, who is never idle, who is a Brahmana of vast learning, who has never erred before in respect of wealth, anger and love and by whom these defects has been eliminated, who is devoid of the defect of infatuation and fascination, who has unwavering devotion to God and Bhagawat dharma, whose moral policies are supreme and who is of a reserved disposition, who is never contaminated by contacts, who is eloquent and who has no prolonged doubts, who never finds faults with any scriptural text, whose life is a personification of penance, who never spends his time with recollecting God and who always keeps his mind under control.

‘I salute that Narada who puts in great efforts, who exerts his intelligence, who is never satiated with concentration and meditation and who never errs in his efforts, who does not become elated by the acquisition of wealth, who does not become dejected on account of non-acquisition, who knows the proper occasions and is conversant with all good qualities, who is efficient, pure and unafraid, who knows the proper occasions and is conversant with good policies.’

“Everyday I recite this hymn of Narada, O King. Therefore, the excellent sage has great love for me. If any other person too remains pure and repeats this prayer everyday, he will ere long attract great favour of the celestial sage.”

Through this eulogy of the celestial sage Narada, the Lord presents the ideal virtues of devotees. Such is the glory of a devotees, becomes dear to them and imbibes their virtues as well. Recollection and talking about a devotee and his virtues purifies the heart and brings good to the world.

Naradji, who has the good of all living beings in his mind, helps those who are desirous of progressing on the path of God. it is impossible to assess how many and in what manner beings have been transported by him to the Lord’s pious feet. He is ever engaged in guiding the devotees and inquisitive seekers and in the good of saintly souls who desire to attain liberation in life. Our crores of obeisances at His feet!

Do not be Enmeshed, Become Free

One life is an animalistic life… for example the moth sees a light, gets attracted and flies towards it without thinking of the consequence and dies in the flame, or gets crushed in the traffic while chasing the headlights. This is the wretched life of worms and insects. Similarly, an animal sees some green grass and lunges forward to eat it without thinking that there may be thrashing in store for it. One sees a handsome man or a beautiful woman and runs behind him or her. The eyes are attracted by attractive sight, the nose by good smell, the tongue gets attracted towards the sweet vendor’s shop or some mouth-watering dish. So, to fall for sensual attractions is called animalistic life, a wretched life.

Another is the human life, which is somewhat higher than the former. ‘She is my wife but we will have sex only after a certain number of days following the menstruation period and also avoid it on full-moon days, new-moon days, festivals, etc.’ this is human life. However, if one remains confined to this, he will either go to higher abodes by virtue of his merits and then fall down again, or go to hell on account of his sins and then take birth again as worms or insects. Human life is better than an animalistic life, no doubt, but it is a life spent without unfolding the human potentials. This is called a helpless life, a life of dependence.

‘For a dependent one there is no happiness even in a dream.’

Third is the sattvik life. In this, one has love for and interest in God, in one’s presiding deity and avails oneself of the benefits of religious occasions. One pleases Lord Narayana and earns merits through charity, Yajna, burning incense sticks, lighting lamps, worship and scred recitals. Taking a bath early in the morning in the month of Magh, Vaishakh and Kartik is still more meritorious because one becomes strong enough to bear the extremities of heat and cold and becomes more resolute and intellectually powerful.

Still higher than the sattvik life is the life of yoga and Samadhi. One can attain supernatural power, riddhis, siddhis, the powers of clairvoyance and clairaudience through Samadhi and through leading a life abiding by dharma, but this too is not the highest thing. All these are under the influence of Maya, the Cosmic Delusion. A yogi feels happy in Samadhi but gets disturbed if his Samadhi is broken. A devotee is happy as long as his devotional practices go on smoothly but becomes miserable if he slides from it. One goes to temples, mosques, places of worship, etc. but then comes back again to his same old world of sorrow, anxiety, fear, attachment and hatred.

So, a sensualist grumbles if he doesn’t get the same good thing everyday or if something adverse happens in his job, while a devotee complains that all his prayers are not answered but the great men who lead the life of perfection say that neither of these promotion, comforts and facilities, adversities, sense-enjoyments or renunciation is permanent, but our Antaryamin (Supreme Soul) which is a witness to all these is permanents.

‘I am my own self, the Lord of all circumstances.’

Such is the life of those great men who have realized the absolute self, the supreme soul! Such people who live a sattvik life free from the vices of drinking and meat- eating awaken into and get established their Real awaken into and get established in their Real self, the supreme Soul. Their eyes emit spiritual rays, their words, which emanate from the supreme Soul are delivered as satsang, their holy presence creates a unique atmosphere. It is beyond words. Beholding such a great man, the sadhaka says:

‘Do not console us O, Master! Simply remain seated

Your presence is enough to change the atmosphere, and save the falling hearts from degeneration.’

The heart, which is sliding into lust, anger, and greed, and into animals, human and divine tendencies, is elevated in the presence of such Self- realized masters. Regarding the darshan of such saints, Sant Kabir has said:

‘One attains one merit by bathing in a place of pilgrimage,
four when he attains a saint;

And infinite merits when he attains a Satguru, says Kabir after due deliberation.’

Infinite merits means imperishable fruits. The state from where there is no question of downfall is that of the Atman. Satsang does the work of training the mind so that it can attain that. The Ishavasya Upanishad forbids you from sitting idle in yoga or Samadhi:

‘To pitch darkness they go who worship the Unmanifested (Prakriti);

to greater darkness than this go those who are devoted to the Manifested (Hirayagarbhi).’

They too, who remain engaged in worshiping the Karana Brahman, the Brahman as the cause, enter into dense darkness and fall into the dark well of Prakriti. The Upanishad says that one who remains engaged in worshipping the Karya Brahman, the Brahman as the effect i.e. the body and samsara, who remains mired in sense pleasures, falls into blind darkness, no doubt, but even he who remains engrossed only in yoga and Samadhi, worshiping the formless Karan Brahman without aiming for Self-realization falls into greater darkness. The reason is that the practice of yoga will at the most help the practitioner attain to heaven or Brahmaloka, but indulging in the pleasures over there, he will continue to remain entangled in the cycle of birth and death.

One is fallen in the well of sense pleasures, another is confined to the well of yoga and the third is carried away but the swift current of animal tendencies. The self-realized one however, is distinct form all these. He says, ‘DO not be washed away in the drain of quagmire of sense-pleasures, nor limit yourself if to a particular aspect of yoga. Practice yoga when it is time to do so, enjoy pleasures when the need arises, and conduct yourself in the world whenever you have to. Sant Kabirji has said.

‘Standing, sitting or lying flat, I am always thinking of Him.’

That which remains immutable at all times is our won Self- the Lord of all circumstances. Attain such Self-knowledge. Why do you worry about your daughter? Why do you worry about your son or job and try to be a ‘jobber?’ whatever comes into being is open to destruction. That which existed before, which exists now and which will exist forever – know that Real Self of yours, believe in it. Why, surely you are not going g to lose anything by doing so.

‘Dodged by the world was I, so that I have renounced it, Eager it is to come to me.’

Repose in your Divine Self. Why do you waste your life for worldly gains by becoming a ‘jobber’ or servant? There is no prohibition to being a servant or doing a job, but repose, in your Knowledge absolute Self, which is the object of mediation, love and duty. The self is the source of all actions and it fruits are imperishable. Don’t be disappointed in the face of failure. March on, move ahead! Do not care for success or failure, march forward! The world will go on like this. Wear shoes on your feet and the whole earth will become thorn-less, sfor you. Why do you fear and torture yourself? Whatever has happened was for the best, whatever is going on is for the best and whatever will happen will be for the best. This law is immutable. Freeform your won self and board the boat of Knowledge, that’s all! Realize your Real Self and live in the light of Knowledge and Truth.

Merits and demerits of Speech

1. Harshness: We do not like abusive and bitter words. Harsh words pierce our heart like arrows. Therefore, we should avoid attacking others through harsh words. Words are more painful and lethal than even weapons. Man can be hurt by words to the point of committing suicide or homicide harsh words become the cause of conflict, hatred and altercation in a house, society or organization. Hence it is very necessary to avoid harsh or bitter words in our speech.

Let us bring softness in our speech the tongue exists right from birth but teeth grow later. Eruption of teeth causes much pain due to their hardness. They are painful even when they fall one by one during old age, but the tongue remains soft till death. Therefore softness is more enduring and pleasant while hardness is painful. Just as the tongue is soft, we should use soft, we should use soft words and avoid harshness in speech.

2. Slander: To speak about others’ vices is slander. Satguru Kabir has said:
‘In my search for wickedness outside, I could not find any.
As I peeped into my heart,
There was none so wicked as me. Says Kabir, I am the most wicked of all,
All are better than me.
One who thinks so,
Know him my friend to be.’

Man cannot behold a mote in his own eye, nor a mole on his back but he beholds the various things of this vast world with the same eyes. Similarly, it is easy to find faults with others but very difficult to see one’s own defects. One’s defects can be perceived only through the eyes of discrimination. We can reform ourselves only by quitting the habit of slandering others. If all the people set out to eradicate their own vices, then the reformation and well-being of the whole society, nation and world is certain. Therefore, imbibe and talk about others’ virtues, not their vices.

3. Falsehood: To present anything not as it is but in a distorted form is falsehood or a lie. One may hide his vices for a short while by resorting to falsehood, but the truth does surface one day or the other. No matter how much a wound is covered by a golden cloth, its horrible face will surely get unveiled. When you don’t want others to practice deceit, fraud or dishonesty resorting to falsehood with you, then you too shouldn’t deceive others telling a lie. A liar is not worthy of trust or respect. He gets deceived and becomes miserable and at times loses his life as well.

4. Vulgarity: Vulgar words leave a bad influence on our whole life as well as on others. No civilized, virtuous or noble man would like to sit near or talk to a person who uses vulgar language, sings vulgar songs or behaves indecently. Children tend to imitate their elders, parents, teachers or guardians and responsible persons. If you want your followers to become disciplined and civilized citizens, never speak vulgar words or listen to vulgar talks.

5. Garrulousness: It is man’s duty that he should not utter such words that are pointless and without meaning. Futile talks only lead to the misuse of one’s and others’ time and energy. One who is restrained in speech, who always speaks the truth, who utters pleasant words with others’ good in mind, never talks garrulously.

6. Vanity: One who speaks egotistically has to face troubles at every step. Those who are proud of their body, colour, beauty, strength and learning, have to face the consequences of what they say in due course of time, but unable to overcome their habit they fail to realize that their egotism will lead them to ruin. Napoleon, who was proud of his strength, had once said, “If the sky were to fall on us we will hold it on the tips of our spears.”

Later when he was exiled, he had said, ‘Nothing can be organized through brute force. There are only two powers in the world – the power of the spirit and that of the sword. In the end, the spirit always triumphs over the sword.”

Therefore, one should get rid of the demerits of speech cultivate the merits thereof. In this lies the beauty of speech.

Whose who experience faint heartedness and down-troddenness are sinners. Say unto death, ‘O death! You can kill my body but you cannot touch me. Who are you to frighten me? O worldly pleasures and temptations! Who are you to entrap me? I have known your illusory nature. O worldly glitters and temptations, customs and manners, pains and pleasures, you cannot anymore make me dance to your tunes. I have realized the intrinsic hollowness of your existence. I will remain calm in thousands of failures and successes with the power of Know

The Greatness of Adi Shankaracharya

Lord Adi Shankaracharaya was imparting the esoteric secrets of Upanishads to his disciples, when suddenly he felt the taste of his mother’s milk in his mouth reminding him of his days as an infant when he suckled his mother’s breast. The wise shankaracharyaji thought: ‘What is this? Why am I reminded of the taste of my mother’s milk? This sure must be an indication to something.’ He went into his cottage, and immersing himself in meditation, saw a clear picture of his sick mother remembering him. Being a master of yogic powers, Acharya Shankaraji traveled across the sky over the shringeri Monastery to reach Kalri (Kerala). His mother Aryamba was lying unconscious and her sick body had become extremely debilitated. The people who had inherited his father’s wealth had now turned their backs on them and usurped their property as well. Their eyes were now on the remaining immovable assets. A kind, noble lady in the neighborhood, Janki Amma (Shubhra) was serving his mother, while the rest of the people were waiting for his mother to depart so that they could claim her vast gardens and other properties. Apart from the immovable properties they were also waiting for the movable ones in the house as well. In the whole of Kalri Village, only Janki Amma was serving Aryamba selflessly.

Shankaracharyaji was all tears as he saw his mother’s condition. He called out to mother Aryamba in a choked voice: “Mother! Mother!!! Your son Shankar Mother! I am here.”

His mother opened her eyes. A wave of consciousness gushed forth across the conscious, debilitated mother and she held her son close to her showering her affection on him. When and on whom that Love personified Lord will bestow his desired fruit, He alone knows.

Shankarcharyaji couldn’t stop his tears seeing the pitiable state of his mother. His mother said: “Your father has already left me. Now you too have become a sannyasi. Don’t you fell any pity for me?”

“Mother! I have come now, forgive me. Mother! I will not desert you again.”

Mothers’ joy knew no bounds. Inadvertently, she got engrossed in contemplation the love- personified supreme Soul. She was a devotee of Sri Krishna.

Sri Krishna Govinda Gare Murare! Hey Nath! Naryana Vasudeva!! Krishna, Krishna, Krishna…

The Brahmins of the village saw that property and donate all the wealth to monasteries and temples. The minds of those Brahmin youths had become depraved as the foreign missionaries had turned them against sadhus and Sharma by making them drink liquor and eat meat. The intellect becomes demonic through drinking liquor.

The youths stood guard at various places throughout the village wielding sticks in their hands, and collected all the dry wood from the forest to ensure that shankaracharyaji would not get any wood for cremating his mother’s body. No Brahmin would see him, and if anyone wanted to go to him for his darshan, he would be driven away with sticks and stones. Intoxicated with greed and hatred, the youths were hurling abuses while wielding sticks in their hands. Anti-religious elements had filled their minds with such cruelty that they had become blind to the greatness of Acharya Shankara.

Here Shankaracharyaji was alone with his Mother Aryamba and the lady who was serving her. Shankaracharyaji served and looked after his mother but her body had become so weak that there was no hope of her remaining alive.

The mother said: “Son! Teach me something so that I may fulfill my human birth. May I not wonder or be born anywhere else after leaving this body. Son! You are a sannyasi, a saint, let me listen to your satsang.”

Shankaracharyaji preached the Cosmic, all-pervading, non-dual Brahman, the Atman, by chanting the verse, ‘I am not the mind nor the intellect; nor the ego or mind- stuff am I…’ etc.

The mother said: “Son! An illiterate, village woman that I am, I cannot understand this philosophy and Vedanta. Throughout my life I have followed the dual aspect of devotion. Tell me something about devotion to Sri Krishna so that I may experience divine love and go to the abode of God.” Shankaracharyaji explained Sri Krishna’s teachings in the Mahabharatha from the philosophical point of view and then gradually he described the Cosmic form of God, “Mother! Lord Sri Krishna, that Banke Bihari, the son of Nanda and Yashoda is the Supreme Brahman, the Supreme Soul. He enchants, attracts and enraptures all. He is Bliss personified!”

Mother’s mind was gradually experiencing communion with God.

“Mother! Just as man and his power are inseparable, so is it with Lord Krishna and His own shakti ‘Radha’, the two syllables of which when interchanged become ‘Dhara’. Dhara means the modifications of the mind. That is Radha and Krishna.”

“Yes-Yes Son! Radha-Krishna, Radha-Krishna”

Adi Shankarachary realized that his mother wouldn’t reach perfection if she didn’t progress beyond beholding the physical form of Radha-Krishna.

“Mother! Radha-Krishna… is just like man and his shakti. Initially, Lord Krishna alone existed but ‘He wasn’t happy being alone.’ He resolved to become many and created Radha by His own power. Krishan to be the supreme soul who permeates the universe. This sensory world is the manifestation of God.”

In this way through a synthesis of Vedanta and devotional love Srankaracharyaji explained to his mother how God existed in the form of the universe and as luster and wisdom, and infused her heart with the knowledge of the Consciousness Absolute. He established his mother’s devotion to the Lord with form, in the bliss and knowledge of the formless Lord and in her formless absolute Self.

Gradually, Mother Aryamba’s Consciousness attained repose in God. Her countenance reflected Self Bliss and Divine repose and gradually in few moments her body become lifeless.

The villagers came to know that the mother had left her body. Then the people who belonged to our dharma, but who were instigated by anti-religious elements, started thinking, ‘Now let us get hold of him and trap him so that we can lay our hands on the property.’ All the arrogant rebels of the village came together and blocked the road from all sides in groups to prevent anyone from going to him.

Wielding sticks in their hands, the rebels surrounded the village from all sides and talked all kinds of nonsense against Shankaracharyaji. They ensured that he did not get any wood and that nobody went to him so that he would not be able to perform the last rites of his mother. When the elders and veterans tried to make them see reason, they would rebuke and disobey even the elders. Shankarayacharyaji was thinking how he could arrange for the necessary materials for his mother’s cremation when there. Then that lady who was serving his mother, said: “Mother was aware of the intentions of these diabolic elements, so she hand kept the materials for her cremation ready beforehand. She had also kept some coconuts, incense sticks and wicks. Everything has been prepared by her, but we will have to arrange for wood and fire.”
Pondering over the matter, Shankaracharyaji became engrossed in the Supreme Truth.

Measures to Control the Mind

Mind the cause of bondage as well as liberation of man.

Lord Krishna says in the Srimad Bhagwad Gita, ‘I think that Yoga is hard to be attained by one of uncontrolled self.’

There are many steps that can be taken to control or stabilize the mind, for example;
1. Kritan (singing devotional songs and praises of the Lord) of Lord’s name with faith and love. Chant, ‘Hare Hare; Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare.’ And mentally repeat ‘OM’. It will make your mind concentrated, joyful and free form desires.

Do Kritan of God’s name mentally. It should not be vocal or whispering but only mental chanting. It will also calm the mind.

2. Japa coupled with counting of breaths: Touch the tip of your tongue to the palate and count the breaths. Alternativelys, you can keep the lips shut, and the tongue suspended in the middle of the oral cavity, neither touching the roof of the mouth nor the bottom. Mentally say ‘OM’ with inhalation and count two with exhalation and so on. Doing this will quickly make the mind concentrated and you will get inner joy. The mind will slowly get purged of deceit, cunning, treachery, peacelessness and caviling. Desires will start waning. If one assimilates the grace of and knowledge imparted by a perfected Guru, on will attain to the supreme State which is indicated by the verse, ‘It is Diwali all the time for the saint; he is engrossed in bliss all hours of the day. He has attained such Knowledge that Indra appears a pauper to him.’

3. Equanimity of the mind: The body will die; it will have to be left behind like everything else. All the comforts, facilities and adversities will become dream-like. In childhood, we took joy in some circumstances. And cried in others but they have all disappeared like a dream. The same is true for the pleasures and pains of youth, even of yesterday. So we should not be fascinated by pleasures nor be unnerved by pains. We should be even minded in both. This too will make the mind calm and strong. This is the way to awakening in the divine consciousness.

‘He who, through the likeness of e Self, O Arjuna, sees equality everywhere,

Be it pleasure or pain, he is regarded as the highest Yogi!’

4. Pranayama: Do ten Prānāyāma does purify the mind partially. Lord Krishan used to practice meditation, sandhyā and prānāyāma everyday in the morning. Lord Rama too used to do likewise. The mind is the master of the senses and the Prāna is the master of the mind. The rhythmic movement of Prāna checks the fickleness and evil tendencies of the mind.

After doing ten or eleven Prānāyāmas draw the breath in through both the nostrils while contracting the anus. This is known as Mula Bandha (the root-lock). The storehouse of latent desires is located in the Mulādhār Chakra. Contract the anus and hold the breath within. Mentally repeat the divine name while you do so. Your desires will get destroyed.

The Miracle of a Slap

At vajreswari in Ganeshpuri, a suburb in Mumbai, there lived a saint by the name of Nana Aulia. Clad in dirty tattered clothes, he would lie down intoxicated with self-bliss on the road near the Ashram of Swami Muktananda. He appeared very simple but was a great spiritually evolved soul.

In those days people used to travel in horse-carriages; there were very few auto rickshaws. Once a Deputy Collector was going somewhere. Nana Aulia was sitting on the road in a leisurely mood, with one leg mounted on the other.

The Deputy Collector said to the driver, “Blow the horn and tell this beggar to be off the road.”

The driver said, “Oh no! it is Nana Baba! I will not tell him to go away.”

“Why? Does the road belong to him?” He got out of the car and started admonishing Nana Aulia, “You are sitting in the middle of the road! Do you think it is ok? Are you not ashamed of what you are doing?”

Nana Baba was lean-bodied but he got such a strength that he stood up, caught the deputy Collector by the ear and gave a tight slap on his cheek. People around became aghast. They guessed Nana Baba would be severely punished for this insulting treatment to the deputy Collector. But nothing of that sort happened. It is said that ‘The darshan of a sadhu brings all success in the would.’ The slap of a saint become the destroyer of sins and awakened the deputy Collector’s discriminative insight. As the saint’s five fingers hit the deputy Collector’s cheek, the effect of his five Vikaars, (lust, anger, greed, infatuation, delusion and jealousy) waned. He came back into his car and meekly asked the driver to turn the car back. Instead of going to do the assignment he had planned, he went back to his office and handed in his resignation. He thought, ‘Now I will not be a slave of these servants; I will not die amassing worldly things, material possessions. I will awaken my Real Self, the Immortal One. I will give up my Government job right away. I will now dedicate my life to the attainment of the real treasure.’ He became a mendicant just by a slap.

The Deputy Collector was mired in sense-enjoyments but became an accomplished saint just by a slap from Nana Baba!

Anybody from among you too can take to the path of God-realization and become an accomplished saint. A slap form Nana Baba did the job for the deputy Collector. Now what should I do? If you can achieve the goal with a slap, I am prepared for that and if you can do it by listening to satsang and parables, I am prepared for that as well. Just firmly determine to achieve the goal. A slap can do the job; an exhortation too can do it.

Do not entertain thoughts of fear, restlessness, anxiety or dejection. Always try to be peaceful, strong and joyful. Just wake up to your pristine glory. Do not brood over your weaknesses.

The Supreme Vow

‘All vratas are accomplished by eliminating desire and one attains the merits of bathing in all the places of pilgrimage by removing anger.’

No living being (jiva) wants to suffer or be caught in the cycle of birth and death. No one wants to continue entering into the wombs of mothers. Yet, why does man suffer unwillingly as if he were constrained by force? Nobody wants to live under the influence of lust and anger. Nobody wants to thicken the web of karma around himself. Then why does he fall prey to them? Arjuna once put this questions to Lord Sri Krishna. The Lord replied.

‘It is desire, it is anger born of the quality of Rajas, all-sinful and all-devouring; know this as the foe here (in this world).’

Desire is born of rajoguna and it destroys man’s God-given discriminative insight. What is God-given discriminative insight? Man has the natural faculty to discriminate between truth and untruth, eternal and transient, immutable and mutable… In short, man has the discriminative insight to know what is supremely auspicious for him and also what leads to misery. But this discriminative insight is veiled by the influence of rajoguna and man starts desiring, ‘I should get this I should do that…. I will be happy if I acquire this much….’

‘I shall go there.. I shall eat this and that….’ By creating such circumstances, the jiva wishes to become happy. This is because the knowledge of their bliss personified Self is veiled. ‘Sattvaguna gives rise to the illumination of Knowledge’. The more one is under the influence of rajoguna, the more one’s personal anxiety increases. Nothing is achieved in the end.

Desires are very base. We are Atman, the abode of eternal peace, the very personifications of the Supreme Brahman, but desires have driven us to a low state. The more the desires and the more intense the desires, the more sullied our intellect becomes.

We want to enjoy pleasures and hold on to worldly possessions forever. We have the desire to earn and amass wealth, but when it is finally earned, what happens? If we diminish. With a reduction in desires we shall live comfortably with whatever fate hands us. However, by continuously being in a state of want, if we get what we want, we become attached to it and are scared of losing it. In addition, if our desires are not fulfilled we become angry. In this manner, one turns away from inner peace, from one’s true nature. Man becomes depraved.

Fulfillment of a desire requires exertion and as soon as the desire is fulfilled, another will raise its head. But no exertion is required in renouncing desire; it requires only discriminative insight.

‘What I myself plan rarely happens. What God plans, happens. Whatever God plans, He executes. I remain free from all worries.’

Practice and perfects this for just 72 hours. You have staked your whole life but you gained nothing. On the contrary, you’ve had to toil hard and what was the result? You received an education; you educated your children and made efforts in diverse directions. Ultimately, what did you gain from all this? Nothing…. If you make a deeper assessment, you have achieved nothing worthwhile. My dear! For the next three days be desire that crops up in my heart. If he (God) gives rain, thank Him; if the Sun shines instead, Think Him. I will renounce all my desires for there days and merge them with God’s Will.”

Do it for just three days and that is enough. Be a puppet in the Lord’s hands for three days. You will reach the threshold of divinity. You will become a great soul.

Even if you don’t want it, what is destined will happens. But things that happen against your desire only entail undue exertion on your part. A rich man had a few cows. The cowherd went away because of some personal reason and asked his son to work in his absence. One day the son was trying to lead a calf into the cowshed but the calf would not budge. The body dragged it by the rope, pushed it from behind, beat it with a stick, but the calf stubbornly refused to move.

Now, the calf has to go into the shed anyway. However, it resists and is being beaten and dragged, it resists and is being beaten and dragged. The cowherd returned in the meanwhile and said to his son, “You have no sense. You are an M.A but nevertheless a fool. Is this the way to lead the calf into the shed?”

The boy said, “It won’t come into the shed. What can I do?”

The cowherd set the calf free. He went into the shed and dangled some green grass so that the calf could see it. The calf came running into the shed.
Similarly, let your mind taste a bit of divine nectar and it will willingly turn inward. It will come home spontaneously. Without coming inwards, without the inward journey, the mind cannot get peace. There can be no happiness without peace, nor is there any possibility of leading a fulfilling life without true happiness. True happiness and a fulfilling life are not different from each other. In fact, we have committed a great blunder. We consider circumstance to be life. Circumstances are not life. What is nectar? If we put poison into nectar, it will also become nectar. That is the test of nectar. Similarly, the test of real life is that in the event of death coming in contact with it, it should get transformed into life as well. Life is always changeless; only circumstances change. The good and bad deeds carried out by the gross body, good and evil thoughts contemplated by the subtle body, i.e. the inner being, and the state of peace experienced by the causal body are characteristics of the body and maya, (the Cosmic delusion). We think they are in us and don’t exert ourselves to search for our real Self. The result is that we keep toiling throughout life and finally meet a miserable death, only strengthening our miserable death, only strengthening our karmic bondage instead of reducing it.

Divine Insight

Lord Sri Ramachandraji was resting in the forest while his brother Lakshman stood guard with his bow and arrow. Seeing Lord Raman in this pitiable state, King Nishad started cursing Kaikeyi, “O Kaikeyi! It did not even occur to her! These were the golden days for our Lord, whereas now He is sleeping on the ground! The King of kings, Maharaj Dasharathnandan (the son of King Dasharath), would have been seated on the throne in the royal court. The man of perfect youth, perfect beauty, perfect knowledge, perfect love, perfect light and the perfect life, Sri Rama has been banished to this forest. How evil minded has Kaikeyi become!”

Nishd cursed Kaikeyi in this manner in front of Lakshman. He thought that lakshman would sympathize with him and he too would curse Kaikeyi. But lakshman was elevated far above the instance-driven animal life. He was also slightly above human life fraught with joys and sorrows. He said to Nishadraj: “Why do you curse mother Kaikeyi?

No man is a cause of another’s joy or sorrow.”

Those who attribute the cause of their sorrows to others are ignorant. They have lost their good sense. Some people spent crores of rupees on carrying out malicious propaganda against Bapu. If I had said, ‘These people had distressed me through their malicious propaganda. Oh! They made me sad’ then I would have really become a ‘Sorrow Maker’. Those slanderers continued with their malicious acts, whereas I continued to remain cheerful. As a result, the number of people attending my satsangs actually increased. Maybe that was my fate.

King Nishad says, “What happened is not good”. Lakshman replies, ‘No man is the cause of another’s happiness or sorrow. Everyone has to bear his own destiny; everyone has their own way of thinking. It is our thoughts that make us happy or sad. Do not curse mother Kaikeyi,”

Nishad then asks, ‘Is Sri Ramchandra suffering because of His destiny or because of the fruit of any sinful act? What do you think?”

Lakshman replies, “Sri Rama is not sorrowful. You are sorrowful. Sri Ram knows that this is destined; this is a leela (divine play). Events of joy and sorrow, profit and loss, life and death – these are nothing but mere drama, whereas I am the Eternal Essence, pervading every atom of the endless universes. It is only to enact My leela that I incarnate in human form, as Sri Rama. Sri Rama is not bearing any fruits of destiny. Sri Rama transcends the gunas (qualities), space, time and destiny. The mahapurushas (great men) do not bear the fruits of their destiny, their destiny is nullified. Moreover, destiny relates only to the body. It does not touch the Self. Fame and defamation are of the body, disease and health also affect only the body, how can these affect Me? The Self within is the knower and master of all circumstances. This is what all jnanis (Knowers of the Truth) know. Sri Rama is the crest jewel of all jnanis. Where does he experience sorrow? On the contrary, king Nishad, you seem to be creating sorrow for yourself.”

Now pay attention. What is your opinion in interpreting this anecdote? Kaikeyi was deceitful, selfish, and selfish, and elicited a promise from King dasharatha in her son’s favour. What she did was improper. Taking it is in this sense, if you desist from doing anything inappropriate protecting your inner being from mistakes or deceit, then it is good. Another way of looking at it could be to consider that Kaikeyi had affection for Sri Rama. Through her acts she portrayed renunciation and sacrifice (of her prestige) and thus contributed in the divine mission of Sri Rama. Despite the contempt she received, despite knowing that the people will malign her, Kaikeyi acted in this manner. Remembering Kaikeyi acted in this manner. Remembering Kaikeyi’s renunciation and affection, this way you can arouse goodwill towards her in your heart. Do not make your heart impure by cursing Kaikeyi. Also, do not make your heart deceitful thinking, ‘Kaikeyi caused Sri Rama to be exiled. She did the right thing and we should also act in the same way’. Adopt the correct perspective from this story. Adopt the one that helps you fill your heart with love for the Beloved, His wisdom, His equanimity and His supreme sweetness. Such a perspective will be good and right for you.

If someone among your relatives, a sister-in-law, mother-in-law or daughter-in-law does something improper and you desist from doing that wrong in your life, you have taken the right approach. However, if you spoil your heart by blaming her thus, “She has done wrong, this niguri (a person who has not taken Diksha from a satguru) is like this….”, then you are destroying your inner peace and your behavior will become like an animal’s. if your sister-in-law or mother-in-law has a virtue of forbearance, practice it in your life and be even minded.

In you find any virutue in any person, practice it in your life and if there is any vice in any body, then protect yourself from that. By doing so, you can develop your mind. Neither should you find vices in others, nor assuming a person to be at fault, accuse him. Do not become a slave of any bad habit of others.

If you feel hatred for someone on seeing his vices, your mind will get polluted. However, on noticing the vices, if you resolve to protect yourself from them and at the same time wish him to get rid of that vice, then you are developing your mind. This world is replete with virtues vices, good and evil. You should be glad and get inspired by the virtues of others and save yourself from the vices you notice in others. Delve into it. Realize that this warp and woof of good and evil is the driving force behind this world; in reality, God is the Essence, the Truth, Consciousness and Bliss absolute. I am seeking peace in Him.

From where the mind wanders, bring it back into the tranquility of your divine Nature, which is free from deceit, fraud and vices, and beyond the attraction for good or bad. Arouse your discrimination by asking yourself, ‘Who am I?’ and become calm.

Develop your intellect through self-effort in such a way that God as a whole appears to you as your won. A mother may have ten sons, but to each she completely appears as his own. Similarly, God should appear to us completely as our own. It is not true that God is Bapuji’s and not yours. God is as much yours as Bapuji’s. According to the Rigveda:

‘Sharpen your intellect and perform your duties’. (10.101.2) Let your actions be performed with such skill that the pride of being the doer doesn’t into you and you are not covetous of its result. Let the actions happen with the force of destiny. Aim for attaining Naishkarmya Siddhi, perfection through Karmayoga, seek repose in God and intensify your love for him. Awaken to your Brahman nature and attain the state of Brahman.

Six Points that Lead to your Highest Good

Being engaged in endeavours that reveal the wisdom of supreme Brahman, the love of Him and the repose in Him, reflecting on such thoughts, keeping such company, studying such scriptures and feeling thus this is Purushārtha (self effort) and going in the reverse direction is Pramāda (negligence). Pramāda takes us into the pit of death. How many lives you have spent repeatedly being reborn and dying, repeatedly being stuck in your mothers’ wombs! How many fathers, mothers’ friends, kinsmen you have left! In order to prevent this life from becoming a failure, remember these six things:

Your goal should be clear.
Your life should be full of zeal and enthusiasm.
You should believe in God and also believe in yourself.
Be careful about whom you trust.
Your life should follow Dharma.
Decide on how your final journey should be.
First of all, fix your goal and set your goal high. There are two types of goals actual and subsidiary. Attaining Supreme Bliss and Supreme Knowledge, attaining to the State of Absolute Freedom, attaining Wisdom of the Soul and God – this is the actual goal. To eat, to drink, to earn money and to perform actions supporting these goals are subsidiary goals. If we ask somebody the goal of his life, he may say, ‘May goal is to become a lawyer.’ Another man may have a goal to become a rich man. No, This is not the real goal of human life. The real goal of human life is to attain Eternal Bliss. All actions one does for that purpose are means to attaining that goal.

Some people fix a goal, ‘I shall become a doctor.’ Well, he becomes one, but is that a goal? It is in fact drudgery. Child, the goal to become a doctor or a lawyer is a subsidiary goal. The main goal is to attain Self-realization and to get delivered from all misery, troubles and worries. So long as the body is living, troubles and afflictions will come but they will not reach you. You will remains established in your substantive divine nature, your immortal state. Firmly determine to achieve such a goal.

The second thing, you should always be enthusiastic. This means you should be as spirited, prompt and strong in adverse circumstances as you are during times of success, elevation, profit and honour. One who is dispirited is dead. Life without enthusiasm is a waste. The Gita says:
……The doer endowed with enthusiasm is called Sattvic.’

Do whatever you do with enthusiasm and alacrity; don’t be careless. Working with enthusiasm enhances one’s abilities and cheerfulness. Work done without enthusiasm becomes a burden.

‘Works done without enthusiasm never get accomplished.

Where there is enthusiasm, there is success.’

Don’t be dispirited and don’t be careless. Have patience in life.

Third thing is to have trust in God and also in yourself. One should trust great people and the greatest of great is God. One should have firm faith in the words of those who live for the sake of God.

Fourth thing is to be careful about whom to trust and how much. Always be circumspect in choosing your work, your thoughts, your company and whom you trust. Whom should we trust? Should we trust those who are selfish, malicious, those who slander, thankless and dishonest people or should we trust those who are seekers on the path of God-Realization, who are engrossed in Self-bliss, in Self-Knowledge, who live ‘for the good of the many, as well as for the happiness of the many’? Whose company should we seek and whose company should we avoid? We should always avoid extroverted and quarrelsome people, slanderers and hedonists. We should believe in those who are engrossed in Self-bliss, Self-Knowledge and selfless love and are our companions on the path to God-Realization. Faith becomes stronger in the company of believers. The company of sādhaks enhances our sādhanā. Once becomes a drunkard in the company of drunkards, and a gambler in the company of who are evolved and enable us to achieve what we want.

In ‘Sri Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana’, Vasishthaji tells us to be in good company, in the company that purifies our mind and that we should seek the scriptures for guidance. By seeking the company of saints we should endeavour to cross the ocean of samsāara i.e. we should steer clear of demonic tendencies. We should avoid the company, enjoyments, thoughts and literature that deprave our intellect and life, waste our time and energy. We should read high quality literature, enjoy high caliber company, and reflect on lofty thoughts. We should develop a habit of remembering the Highest of the highest God repeatedly, and cultivate a habit of plunging within so that our life ends in communion with God. The fifth thing is that life should be restrained by Dharma. If we abide by Dharma, we shall refrain from wrong doings and what is right will begin to happen. Thus our time and energy will not be wasted in wrong doings. If you don’t do any thing wrong, you will not be disturbed even if people run a smear dharma and altruism in your life, if you intellect is spiritualized, you will remain unharmed howsoever hard people mounting vicious attacks on you may try. The fruit of Dharma in life is equanimity in all circumstances. An example is Yudhishthir, the incarnation of Dharma. Duryodhana did everything in his power to oppress him, but no harm came to him.

The sixth thing is to decide beforehand what should your final journey be life. Death is inevitable, but you should always remember the kind of death you want to have. Do you want to die with a bundle of worries on your head, in pain and suffering, having left work incomplete, vying for worldly possessions, in fear or floundering in the net of desires so that you are repeatedly reborn? No! You should die free of worries and completely fulfilled. No desire and no negative tendency should be achieved.

‘Blessed with the grace of the perfected Guru; and the knowledge upon Him, Asumal was transformed into Sai Asaram.’

Hence, we should constantly be engaged in such practice and travel on such a journey. This will make our life burdnless and free from tension and misery. We should live in such a way that we attain perfection in this very life.

The Central ground for Pujya Bapuji’s satsang this time was Rajasthan

The Ganga of nectar of satsang emanatin from Pujya Bapuji and flowing through different towns and small villages added a new golden page in the glorious history of Rajasthan.

Anadara (Rajasthan), 21st and 22nd October: Pujya Bapuji Himself arrived in this tribal areas in order to bless the poor people here with some joy on the occasion of Dipawali. A grand bhandara was arranged and along with it spiritual and materially useful precepts were imparted to the people in their own language and in a very simple style to elevate them in life. Wearing silver ornaments above the navel is injurious to health. It is salubrious for women to wear silver anklets. These and many other health-related concepts were explained with evidence form science and scriptures. They were also told about practices related to happiness and prosperity e.g. the dust from under cats’ paws or goat’s feet and dust swept by broom coming into the house brings misery on the economic front. The dust from under a cow’s feet, Tulsi plant, Amla tree, wood-apple tree and Mantra-Diksha from a god-Realized Guru bring one happiness, prosperity and good health. The tribal people felt blessed being led into kirtana, japa, divine laughter and knowing techniques of keeping healthy without medicines with yoga and proper food habits.

Sumerpur (Rajasthan), 23rd and 24th October: The people of Sumerpur had the good fortunate of imbibing Pujya Bapuji’s satsang on the Dipawali even and as such the Dipawali atmosphere was witnessed here from 23rd October itself.

Pujya Bapuji advised people to engage themselves in good deeds. Pujya Bapuji said, “The good deeds done by one benefit his coming generations as well. Tulsidasji says as also other scriptures that those engaged in noble deeds and doing good to others by their actions, thoughts and words and by their learning and other abilities, earn religious merit that delivers their next seven generations. Even people remembering such men are benefited.

‘Those, who never harm others by their actins, thoughts or words, sins of men are destroyed by having darshan of such great souls.”

Jodhpur (Rajasthan), 25th and 26th October: The thirst of the people of Jodhpur for Self-knowledge was manifested n the course of satsang held at this sun-city. A mammoth crowd of devotees swarmed at the satsang site to bathe in the pious rays of the Sun of Self-knowledge.

Recently a large number of devotees, majority of them students, died in a stampede of people assembled for Darshan of Chamunda Devi. Procedures for salvation of the dead were performed and solace was given to the bereaved families and copies of ‘Mangalmaya Jivan-Mrityu’ were distributed to them.

Bhandaras were organized in the tribal areas of Gogunda (Rajasthan) on 27th October) and Kotada (Rajasthan) on 28th October. Sweetmeats, utensils, clothes, caps, food grains, sugar and other necessities of life were also distributed and cash help too was provided.

The evening of Dipawali (28th ocotober) fell into the lap of the people of Idar (Gujarat). Attaining to the satsang and company of Pujya Bapuji without any pre-arrangement on the pious day of Dipawali and on the eve of new (Vikrami) year, the people of Eider felt immensely blessed.

On 29th October Pujyashri came ot amdavad ashram, where thousands of men and women had been waiting for PUjyashri’s Darshan and satsang with intense eagerness. In the morning of New Year, Pujya Bapuji handed down the key to greatness, “If one has spontaneity and truthfulness in the heart, faith in God, the will to make persistent efforts, company of noble men and resorts to pious literature, even the smallest of men will become great.”

Emphasizing the need for persistent endeavours according to scriptural dicta, Pujyashri said, “Desire-driven Purushartha (endeavours) bring ruin to man. The moth’s endeavours are desire-driven and they land him in fire. Similarly, those making sesire-driven Purushartha (endeavours) get burnt incessantly in the fire of disquiet. Sloth is ruinous and so is its elder brother desire-driven Purushartha. Desire-driven Purushartha ruins and scripture-inspired Purushartha is capable of endowing one with true devotion and salvation.”

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is parroting words like Purushartha but the real meaning of Purushartha is driven home by great souls like Pujya Bapuji and Maharshi Vasishthaji.

Baroda (Gujarat), 9th to 13th November: As in the last year, the devotees at Baroda had the good fortune of satsang in the five day festival from Deva-uthi Ekadashi to Tripurari Purnima. Before the satsang programme, a sankirtan Yatra was taken out on 6th November, which was grand spectacle.

In view of the exceptionally large crowds witnessed in previous years, Pujyashri had divided the Purnima Darshan programme andit was held at five places for the convenience of devotees. Yet the pandal was overcrowded by the lovers of the Lord and of Pujya Bapuji. Detractors who had been nursing desires of disturbing the programme and had been spreading numours had to cut a sorry figure. Even during the programme, some malicious people published false statements and crossed all limits not only of Journalistic norms but also of ethical conduct. They were constantly engaged in publishing absolutely false and baseless news and thereby misleading people and trying to damage their faith, but all this had no effect on the devotees. The crowd at the Navlakhi Maidan continued to swell.

Pujya Bapuji here taught many techniques for keeping the body healthy, the mind cheerful and the intellect tuned to God. Providing a key to success in life, Pujyashri said, “Aim high in life; let your intentions and motives be high and make scripture-inspired Purushartha, not desire-driven one. If you set God-Realization as your goal, worldly success will be play for you because the power of the spirit is at the root of all success.”

Pujyashri gave a couple of tips for maintaining good health in winters, “In the winter season, let sunrays fall on your back for 8 to 10 minutes and on your navel for 4-5 minutes. There is no medicine in the world that can equal the Sun’s rays in eliminating diseases. Do Tribandh Pranayam as well. This will destroy disease-causing germs.”

Kota (Rajasthan), 13th, 15th and 16th November: In the afternoon on 13th November, after Purnima Darshan at Baroda, Pujyashri arrived at Kota (Rajasthan) and the stream of satsang started flowing on the land of Rajasthan again. Thousands of Poonam Vrat Dharies had been eagerly waiting here for Bapuji’s Darshan. Along with Purnima, 15th and 16th of November too was given to the people of Kota. Pujyashri apprised the listeners of the need of faith in life, “From faith come valour, patience, sobriety and fearlessness. If one’s actions are not motivated by Sattvic faith, they create bondage for the doer. One must have faith in God, saints, scriptures and afterlife.”

The pious saint while dispensing the nectar of devotion doesn’t ignore small towns and villages. On 18th November, Pujyashri arrived at Bundi (Rajasthan). Devotees swarmed for just a single session of satsang in such large numbers that the arrangements were proved to beinadequate. People availed of the satsang even standing out of he pandal. The evening session of satsang was at a village called Khajuri. Touched by the immense faith and devotion and moved by their entreaties, Pujyashri allotted the 19th November morning session also t Khajuri. In the afternoon, satsang was at village Deoli.

Huge crowds in these small towns and villages bore testimony to the nation-wide popularity of Pujya Bapuji.

Satsang and Darshan were made available to devotees at Dungaria (Rajasthan) in the evening of 23rd November and to devotees at Kishangarh (Rajasthan) on 24th November.

People of Ladnun had the privilege of satsang on 26th and 27th November. When a giant pandal was put up at the small town. People were wondering wherefrom so many people would come. But they wondered more when they found that people had spilled over and were listening to satsang standing outside the pandal. The joy and enthusiasm of people of Ladnun, Sujangarh and nearby places was a sight to see. Grand bhandaras were also organized at both the places.

Here Pujya Bapuji dwelt on the importance of negatively charged ions in the atmosphere and apprised people of measures to increase them.

Bikaner (Rajasthan), 29th and 30th November: These tow days belonged to the people of Bikaner. A mammoth crowd had gathered in the satsang here in 2006, but this year the surging crowds far exceeded those gathered two years ago and it was an immense surprise for everybody.
Leeton
Fortunate are those, who have maintained the intensity and firmness of their faith in the face fo all the vicious character assassination campaigns.

Triphala Yoga with Multiple Benefits

Triphala Yoga with Multiple Benefits

Mix Triphala powder, black Sesame seed oil, and pure honey in equal quantities. Take ten grams with water in the morning and in the evening. It cures chronic dry cough, asthma, chronic fever, all eye ailments, weakness of dhatus, loss of appetite, gastric trouble, constipations and other abdominal disorders, piles menstruation disorders, leucorrhoea and other chronic disorders. Take moderate, easily digestible and sattvic diet when taking this mixture.

If this mixture is taken for three months, taking an exclusive diet of cow’s milk and saathi rice, it gives miraculous benefits. It purifies the body, the mind, the intellect and the senses. The doshas that cause tumours, cancer heart disease and other serious ailments are completely destroyed thus protecting one form these diseases. The Mantras OM…… should be repeated while undertaking this procedure. It is an easy measure everybody can practice.

The above procedure and the ones given hereunder should be undertaken in a proper manner to obtain the desired benefits fully.

Some Formulas for Winter

For improving memory and strength: Soak five almonds in water overnight. Peel them in the morning and grind them to a paste. Mix the paste with 250 ml. milk, add equal quantity of water, 11 seeds of pepper and sugar candy. Boil the mixture till the added water therein gets evaporated. When the mixture cools down to lukewarm, sip it repeating the mantra ‘OM’ sri sarasvatyai hamah’. It improves memory and strength.
The brain tonic: Grind the kernel of two walnuts and mix it with milk. Take it repeating the mantra ‘OM’ sri sarasvatyai hamah’. It strengthens the brain.
General tonic: Eating 5 to 7 cashew nuts fried in ghee with rock salt and pepper with japa of the mantra ‘OM vajrahastabhyam namah’ pacifies Vata.
Appetiser and digestant: Grind dates, ginger, pepper and rock salt into a chutney. Repeat the mantra OM Ram 21 times looking at the chutney. Taking this chutney, if properly made and charged with mantra, improves digestion and increases appetite. The chutney is nourishing and strength giving as well.
Pacifying the Vata: Eating 5 to 7 cashew nuts fried in ghee with rock salt and pepper with japa of the mantra ‘OM vajrahastabhyam namah’ pacifies Vata.
For increasing the height: Children with shorter height should practice pull-ups and eat 6 leaves of Aegle Marmelos and 2-3 seeds of pepper after properly masticating them and remembering the mantra, ‘OM gurubhyo namah’ while chewing. These leaves and pepper can as well be ground mixing a little water.
For diabetes: Grind 9 leaves of Aegle Marmelos and 2 seeds of pepper mixing a little water. Mix it with water without adding sugar and drink the mixture like a sherbet repeating the mantra ‘OM suryay namah’. It repeating the mantra ‘OM suryay namah’. It helps in diabetes.
For cracked lips: Put 2 to 4 drops of oil on the navel and apply a little butter mixed with salt on the lips while doing japa of the mantra ‘OM ham hanumate namahy’. It is useful in healing cracked lips.
The Theory of the Three Humours
Food and Mode of Living According to One’s Constitution:
(Continued from the previous issue)
Vata constitution:
Avoidable: Excessive labour, eavy muscular exercise and extensive studies, loquaciousness, long walls or journey, swimming, excessive fasting, vigils, fear, worry, withholding the calls of nature, (urination or defecation) and facing the western winds.

Salubrious: Massage of the whole body especially of head and feet, instillation of oil in the ears and the nose, rest, comfortable living, freedom from anxiety and sound sleep.

Pitta constitution:
Voidable: Walking in the scorching sum, being near the fire, vigils, excessive labour, excessive fasting, anger, grief and fear.
Salubrious: Smearing cool fragrant substances like sandalwood paste etc. and massage with cool oils.
Kapha constitution:
Avoidable: Sleeping in the day, inactivity, laziness and sedentary life.
Salubrious: Walking, running, swimming, muscular exercise, asanas and Pranayama.

Eyesight Restored with Pujya Bapuji’s Grace!

A thousand salutations to Pujya Gurudev!

Our entire family has been initiated by Pujya Bapuji. I am working as a teacher in Muzaffarpur (Bihar). My daughter-in-law and I are running a Bal Sanskar Kendra with the pious inspiration from Gurudev and are also engaged in the distribution of Rishi Prasad.

A few months age, I suddenly felt that I was not able to see with my left eye. My children consulted renowned doctors but all of them unanimously pronounced that the eyesight was gone forever. I had full faith in my Gurudev’s grace. I went to Rajokari, Delhi Ashram for Bapuji’s darshan and willed to have Darshan of Pujya Bapuji with both eyes next time. From there, I went to Karol Bagh ashram and put the pious Barhdada water in my eyes. Remembering Gurudev, I circumambulated the Barhdada 108 recitations of ‘Sri Asaramayana’. On the eleventh day, I had a vision of a divine light and my eyesight came back.

I went to Amdavad ashram and had the Darshan of Pujyashri, who restored my eyesight.

I went to Amdavad Ashram and had the Darshan of Pujyashri, who restored my eyesight.

A Guru is one from whom one can learn something new that one does not know. Therefore a man can consider any person to be his Guru. From this point of view, Dattatreya had twenty-four Gurus.

Satgurus, as such, are absolutely unique from all such Gurus. They know the path to the Truth Personified Supreme self. This is why people consider and worship them as the Supreme Guru and surrender everything at their holy feet; because the priceless treasure that is acquired from them makes all worldly achievements utterly insignificant.

It is only the Satguru who brings about the union with God. He liberates the disciple from all his afflictions and is therefore greater than God in the eyes of the disciple. This is why the scriptures and Saints have profusely sung the glory of a Satguru and declared that God-realization is very difficult or impossible without surrendering to the Satguru.

Only an experienced guide like the Satguru can pilot a disciple through the difficult terrain of Maya to reach the ultimate Goal. No amount of devotion, worship or obeisances can ever repay the debt to the Satguru.

A person who is antagonistic towards such a Satguru is destined for hell. Who can be more foolish and unfortunate than he who does not surrender to such a Satguru?

Know It All to be Maya

‘Grief and infatuation, pleasure and pain, and change of condition of the body (viz. birth and death and change of body) are the work of Maya (and are not real, but are wrongly attributed to the Soul). Just as a dream is only an unreal appearance (vivarta) of the mind (or intellect s) so is samsara illusory, illusory, unreal.’

Vedanta says the phenomenal world is not real; it is illusory. Illusory is what was not there earlier and will not be there later and that which is constantly changing. This body too is illusory and your intellect too is illusory having risen from Maya. Therefore, those who attribute the lamentation, sorrow, worry affecting the intellect to their won Self become miserable. Whenever worry, sorry or happiness comes, know that these are transient; they come and go. Know that these transient things have come to (affect) the body, mind or the intellect even if all the people in the world become friendly to you, so long as you do not resort to Veedantic thought, you cannot eradicate all miseries. And even if all the people in the world turn inimical to you, if your mind is firmly established in Vedantic thought, whatever people may say or do, to be happy or unhappy is your own choice. If people praise you, it is up to you to become conceited believing yourself to be the body or to see it as a witness. And it is up to you to take the praiser’s noble virtue and to know the oneness of the praiser and the praised in their substratum, the Absolute Consciousness. It is up to you to become depressed or to remain equanimous in the face of slanderous remarks. All the people of the world with their collective efforts cannot make you miserable. People may hurl abuses at you but if by contemplating the thought of Vedanta, you come to your Real Self, the abusive worlds will reach your body and may reach your mind and intellect, but no misery or trouble of the world can reach you.

You are so pure at the moment that no trouble of the world can reach you. The bombs, millions or even billions of bombs, even all the bombs or the world put together nay even thousand times of these bombs cannot cause the slightest harm to you. Such is your real nature. But when you identify yourself with the body, even without these bombs being dropped, even without these bombs being dropped, a small bomb of negative thought will trigger explosions in your heart.

The ignorant one creates for himself such miseries which are not to be found even in hells. And the enlightened one bestows on all those who come in his contact such bliss as can not be found even in the heaven.

‘Whatever is perceived by mind, speech, eyes, ears (and other cognitive senses), know that to be a product of Maya, a mental construct, and that it is transient.’

One, who thinks this illusory world to be real, even if he achieves the highest of posts or ranks, cannot find eternal peace. And so long as one is unable to find eternal peace, one continues to be miserable.

As a brother you discharge your duty to your brother; as a father you discharge your duty towards your son; as a son, you carry out your duty towards your duty at the office; as a Seth, you are careful about duty to wards the business and to he employees all these performances of duties along with their gains will be swept away by the relentless current of time. The doer performed his duty towards so many people but at the time of death, the doer doesn’t carry with him any satisfaction or joy of performing the duties. The doer remains unfortunate and unprotected at the time of death.

All these duties have been imposed by the doer on himself. As the doer considers himself to be at a particular time, he is saddled with duties accordingly. If he thinks he is a father, he straightaway gets the duty of bringing up his children. If he considers himself to be a son –in-law, he is saddled with the duty of keeping his parents-in-law in good humour. If he considers himself to be a family head, he naturally has the duty to take care of other family members and to keep them happy. Man is burdened with endless duties depending on what he considers himself to be, but if the doer seeks his Real Self, in substance one and the same as the Supreme Brahman, he is left with no duty at all. He finds him absolute nature and his life becomes easy and spontaneous.

Lord Krishna says; “What is contemplated through mind and perceived through the senses see, heard, smelt, tasted and touched is all illusory, is Maya.”

Whatever you get through the triad of your mind, senses and their contact with objects of sense pleasures, suppresses your distress for the time being; it doesn’t destroy it. Therefore don’t go after them; rather find some time to repose in your Real Self, from where they all originate. Even if you give all things of the world to somebody, if he is bereft of solitude, contemplation on Real Self and the grace of a Self-Realized Guru, he will be orphaned in the end. And one having solitude, contemplation on Real self and the grace of a Self-Realized guru will attain Supreme Good even if he is deprived of all things of the world for nobody can seize the Supreme Self nor has anybody permanently possessed worldly things till this day. If somebody seizes from us some thing that we cannot permanently hold on to, what is the big loss? But if you find some time and know the one, who is eternally with you, you will be delivered. The same thing was said by Lord Rama to Lakshmanaji:

‘Whatever is perceived by the senses and that which lies within the reach of mind, know it al to be Maya.’

‘Go’ means senses and ‘gochar’ means their objects. The sense-objects and all that is within the range of mind acting through the senses or without them is Maya. It is Maya, much like a dream. Without mental concepts or ideas, there is no world, no friends or foes, no Sindhi, Punjabi or aggrawal, no kinsman or stranger. It is all the play of mind.

There was a renowned saint reveling in Self, in Sindh province by the name of Sant Bodhraj. He wrote a Vedantic Bhajan:

‘‘Nobody knows when the condition of ignorant Jiva will change. Nobody knows where his thoughts will lead him. But if he becomes kind to himself, the whole things can be transformed forthwith.’

A song says:
‘You meet now and part now; this world is a fair for just a couple of days.’
So this is a fair for just a couple of days. Take it as a fair and spare some time to live in seclusion and practices Self-enquiry and get repose in Self.

The Cardinal and Supremely Beneficent a Teaching

The divine sage Narada, gives various illustrations to explain the peculiarity of the world and the need for awakening discrimination, to Shukadeva. May rich men, on being afflicted by fatal diseases, spend a lot of money and get themselves treated by highly competent and renowned physicians, but their ailments are not cured. Many famous doctors, who are in possession of highly and precious nutritious medicines, themselves get afflicted by disease and old age. And many a time, they die even before old age. Another thing to be noted is that birds, animals and other creatures living in the forest, and poor and lowly people are generally not afflicted by any disease. If at all they do, there is such an arrangement in nature that they get cured automatically within a short time. In view of these idiosyncrasies of worldly life, one should keep one’s mind calm considering that the keep one’s mind calm considering that the mighty current of time throws worldly men, surrounded by all kinds of sorrows as they are into good and bad conditions. Most men are bound by their powerful nature that makes them slide into the pit of their minds cannot be eradicated even by wealth, royalty and severe austerities. Everyone in the world wants to get all his wishes fulfilled, but this is not possible. If it be ordained that all men’s desires will be fulfilled, no man would die or grow old and there would be nothing untoward in anybody’s life. All men in the world innately do whatever is within their reach to attain to as elevated a state as possible but none has ever been nor is anybody expected to be successful in such attempts. It is also seen in the world that there are kings and affluent men who are habitually inebriated or remains intoxicated by the heady wine of wealth; and there are teetotalers who are valiant warriors but are foolish at the same time and are gladly engaged in serving the former with all care and dispatch. Many people get rid of their troubles, the cause of which they are not able to find in spite of their best efforts. People are generally seen to be miserable, swinging between pleasure and pain, profit and loss, happiness and sorrow. There are all kinds of miseries in the world. Therefore, O Shukdeva! Renounce the fruits of dharma as well as dharma and steer clear of the distinctions of truth and untruth. As light and darkness are inseparably liked to each other, know that the same is true for dharma and adharma, truth and untruth; and renounce them both. O Shukdeva! O Rishi! The Knowledge I have shared with you is the most mysterious. This Knowledge can make on rise from the earth to heaven. This is a wonderful means to Supreme Beatitude. Shukadevji followed the teachings of Naradaji and finally abandoned his physical body and attained oneness with the Supreme Being. There is no doubt that the spiritual thoughts Naradji shared with Shukadevji are highly significant, peace-giving, and of utmost value for the travelers of the path to Supreme Beatitude. Nothing need be said about the nectarine discourse, imbibing which a great ascetic and world-renowned yogi like Shukadevji attained liberation. Yet it must be stated that Naradji’s spiritual knowledge is for the good of people belonging to all classes and schools of thoughts. It is also a caution to save oneself from pitfalls. The gospel is a complete guide to Supreme Beatitude for the travelers of that exalted path.