Happy Diwali!

Let's celebrate a spiritual Diwali today and every day of life.

The bodies and mind may look different as different Diyas but the soul in form of flame is same in all the Diyas!

Let's not discriminate on basis of external attributes like cast , colour, race , region , sex , wealth etc but recognise  , respect and love each other as ever lit soul dispelling the darkness of sorrow and ignorance and bringing happiness , knowledge, compassion  and joy all the time in our lives!

Happy Diwali today and every day of life!

Life as a game......

Many people have described Life as many things. And one thought is that Life is a game which we play from birth to death.

This game has so many players who come in our lives as family members, friends , colleagues at work place and many more who touch our lives in numerous activities during the course of our lives. Not only human beings but the whole nature in which we live and consciously or unconsciously get affected are also playing an important role in the game called Life.

All these players are continuously presenting before us situations needing our attention. We perceive and react to these different situations differently. In fact same situation can be perceived differently by different people.
Isn't the same thing happening in any game we play. The player who tackles the situation aptly is likely to win and other wise he is bound to lose.

Same way in Life we come across people and happenings which we consider either favourable or unfavourable. The favourable ones make us happy and unfavorable ones unhappy. If we are following this pattern of reaction then we are falling prey to the situations and on our way to lose the game of Life.

The secret to winning the game of Life is to first understand it as a game and not to take it as seriously as we generally take it.
If we are able to maintain our equanimity in all situations , we will win the game. We should not be lost deeply in pride in happy situations and also should not get lost in sorrow in unhappy situations. In case we fall prey to these emotions, we will not be able to perform our duties as required by the circumstances.

The same happened when Arjuna stood in front of his kins in the war of Mahabharata. Falling prey to his emotions, he was ready to leave battle field. It was only after listening to preaching of Gita, he said that now his  "moha " or attachment is destroyed and he will follow the preaching of Lord Krishna. And we all know that he fought bravely and won the Dharmayudddha!

The secret of winning the game called Life is to come within your inner consciousness in any situation and tackle it without getting too happy,  sad or attached with it. In such a state, our mind is able to make right decision and whatever the outcome we are satisfied and content that we have taken the right action.

Hence if we have taken the inward course of going to our heart or soul , we have won the game and lost if not. The life is continuously presenting before us this game and we like Arjuna have to take a call and play as per God's guidance to be a winner.

I am nothing but Consciousness which is Everything

Who am I?
Whatever answer I give to this question will not be true till I say I am pure Consciousness and nothing else.

Consciousness is also termed as "Sachhidananda" which is combination of 'Sať   or truth , 'Chit' or knowledge and 'Ananda' or pure bliss.

If I say I am "my name", it is the name given to my body by my parents and it could have been anything and thus changeable. If I identify myself with my profession like doctor, engineer, manager etc then I am saying the work my body does and not what or who I am.

We were child some day and then we grew up to be adolescent,  then adult and so on. Throughout all these changes did "I" change? No the "I" or the seer of all these changes remained the same. This "I" is the only truth or 'sat' because it never changed.

This "I" is  also 'chit' or the knower of day and night , dream and awakening,  happiness and sorrow, life and death and everything else which can be seen or perceived by senses or imagined by our minds and the various states of mind itself. This 'I' can't be known because whatever is known is separate from the knower and 'I' is the knower.

When we establish ourselves in our true identity and see everything else as separate from us and transient, we experience 'Ananda' or pure bliss which is our true nature.

How to handle adverse situations!

In our life we have to face adverse situations many a time and we become disturbed by them to varying extent. But do we get benefited in any way by loosing our cool? None. In fact we loose our ability to think right and are likely to take wrong decisions or indecision which ultimately harm us, our families and society. Instead if we maintain our cool,  we will be able to see things in right perspective and take right decision and action using all our resources.

Adverse situations are for our good!
Let's understand that this world is not created by our enemy. God, the creator of world is our greatest well wisher and as such he can never design or do anything with a purpose to harm us. Hence let us believeb thoroughly that any adverse situation is for our good and never for our harm. This belief itself will prevent us from losing our cool and allow us to think right for finding the right solution or best course of action.  Adverse situations in fact make us think and act for finding the right solutions. They work wonders for our creativity and bring out the best in us. In any method of learning the learner is given more and more difficult problems to solve in order to increase his abilities till he becomes perfect. In the same way life provides us with difficult situations to bring out the best in us. Also it is mostly because of adverse things that there have been so many good inventions which have made our lives so easy and enjoyable.

No one else but we ourselves are responsible for the adverse events happening with us!
The law of Karma says that as you sow , so you reap. In our past we must have done some good or bad which manifest themselves as good or bad situation in our life. Hence instead of getting sad we should be happy in bad situation thinking that we are getting free of our past bad karma.

Never blame others for your misfortune!
It is very common that in any adverse situation we immediately start blaming someone else for that. But it follows from above that others only become a medium for our learning or for absolving us of our bad karma. Hence instead of hating others,  we must be extremely thankful to them for becoming a medium for our good. This has another great benefit. When we have no ill feeling about others, they also have good feeling about us and soon start thinking and doing good for us.

Whatever is happening will pass away!
Another great fact to remember is that good or bad whatever is happening is very temporary and very soon will pass away. There is nothing in this world which is permanent. The only permanent thing is we ourselves as pure consciousness who remain unchanged witness of every thing else which is changing. So why be affected by these changing things. Instead we should enjoy watching them as we watch movies and do not consider them real.

Practice with patience and faith is the key to success!
Mere reading the above will never make us perfect. We need to practice the above thoughts in real life situations without falling prey to our spontaneous reactions which are so deep rooted in our minds that it is almost impossible to get rid of them. But to be successful we have to practice the above thoughts very consciously and very slowly we will start making progress and once we master this, no adverse situation will be able to disturb our mental peace and strength. 

This is no mean achievement!
Achieving this  ability is the greatest achievement of one's life. Every one wants to remain always happy in life. But life is such that bad situations will keep coming. If you have mastered the art of remaining happy in such situations then you can be always happy be it good time or bad time. The person who can maintain equanimity is the greatest yogi and perfect devotee of God. Let's all aim and strive to achieve this. Let's strive and find guru like Saint Asaram ji Bapu, whose main teaching  is to achieve this equanimity. Also this is no different from the teaching of Gita where Krishna teaches Arjun how not to be affected by adversity and perform his duty with calm.

GURU- WHO LEADS US TO REAL HAPPINESS

It is continuous effort of all beings to be happy and whatever one is doing, his purpose is to be happy. Also one is not satisfied with short lived happiness. Thus it is our requirement to be happy always.

Hence it is very important to ponder upon the question “Where is the real happiness?”

Generally we think that wealth is real source of happiness and most of our efforts like education, service or business is aimed at earning more and more money because it is money with which we can buy and fulfill our various needs. But many wealthy people are also found unhappy for various reasons, may be because of ill health, or may be because of family members who do not behave as they wish or may be because of fear that their wealth should not get lost or stolen. Also wealth reduces when you spend it hence wealth generated happiness is ever reducing. In case one does not spend any money, still his life is reducing every second and so also is reducing his happiness.

We also note that same object, event or act may make one happy but another unhappy at the same time. Someone may be unhappy for want of son but someone may be unhappy because of his son. Someone like a farmer will be happy with rain but a potter will be unhappy as rain may spoil his pots. The shopkeeper becomes happy when he gets rid of his merchandise by selling it whereas the buyer becomes happy by acquiring it. Same is true about money, someone is happy in saving it for future whereas someone may be happy in spending it.

Satiating the various needs of our sense organs like having tasty food, listening to music, smelling good scents, watching nature’s beauty, sleeping or sex also gives us happiness. But all this happiness is short lived and makes us happy only till we actually need it. If your stomach is full, eating will make you unhappy and same is true with all other sense organ generated happiness.

Our sages and saints also pondered over this question and came out with conclusion that the real happiness cannot be found outside but it is inside us. In fact “Anand” or real and everlasting happiness is our true nature and we do not have to find it or acquire it but just be it. We are really happy when we get detached with outside world and come within ourselves. After a day’s hard work we have to go to sleep to find rest and energy for next day’s work. In deep sleep we are one with our soul but as our mind is asleep we do not remember after we get up. Hence our sages and saints taught us the methods of Meditation whereby we can have a wakeful awareness of our true nature. The more and more we are aware of our true nature, we give less and less importance to desire for outside objects. This help us in keeping our mind grounded to our true self which leads to real and permanent happiness.

What keeps us away from the real happiness? It is only our ignorance of above truth which keeps us away from true happiness. Who can remove this ignorance? It is only a self-realized person who has himself found his true self and is always grounded in his true self or “Ananda”, who can remove our ignorance. Hindu scriptures name such person as “Sadguru”. The word “Guru” is made by combination of “Gu” meaning darkness and “Ru” meaning light. Hence “Guru” is the one who takes us out of darkness or ignorance and establishes us in light or knowledge. “Sadguru” is the Guru who helps us attaining our “Sat” or true being which is also true knowledge and everlasting bliss. This is why our scriptures glorify Guru so much that he is considered even higher than God because even God takes shelter of Guru when he reincarnates in human form.

From time immortal there had been saints on this earth who have been imparting this knowledge but still there is so much of ignorance in this world. The reason for this is that generally we are happy with small short lived happiness and do not have a craving for the everlasting happiness. The hindu scriptures say that only human beings are capable of realizing this and the main purpose of human life is to attain this realization. If one does not attain this in present life, he will have to pass again and again through the cycle of life and death till realization of one’s true self is attained.

Scriptures and saints say that there are very few fortunate living beings who get a human body and among them there are very few who have craving for true happiness and among them there are very few who have faith in “Sadguru” and also among there are very few who continue and persevere on this path of Self-realization.

A person having no craving for real happiness will have no knowledge, need or faith in Guru. For him a Guru is just like any other person and he is unable to fathom why he is so deeply loved and respected by his disciples. It is only the true disciples who understand the kind of divine experience they have in company of their Guru and they will not leave him under any circumstances.

In all ages the Self realized saints and sages all over world have been misunderstood and troubled, tortured and even killed by non-believers. The present time also is no exception where we find that Sant Shi Asaram ji Bapu, a self-realized saint of India, who has millions of disciples all over world, is charged with false allegations and put behind bars. However such attempts are never successful as sooner or later the truth prevails. If the non-believers could succeed, today there would have been no religion in this world. The true disciple who knows his Guru is never swayed by such attempts because he has experienced the divinity of his Guru. And also it makes no difference to others as they never had any interest in seeking the benefits of Guru and are happy in their deep slumber of ignorance.

 

Please visit the website www.ashram.org to know more about Saint Shri Asaram ji Bapu, my spiritual Guru whose satsang forms the basis of my blog.

THE GREATER AND GRANDER DESIGN OF CREATOR

In my previous blog I had mentioned “there seems to exist a greater and grander design of things in which we are small players limited in our abilities to perceive, think and act”. In the present blog I would like to reflect further on this.

If there is a creation, there has to be a creator. And the creator is the best one to know all about the creation. We ourselves are a very small part of the creation which is known to us to some extent and unknown to us to a greater extent. Referring to this my Guru ji and most revered saint “Asharam ji Bapu”  comments”Sitaaron se aagey Jahaan aur bhi hain”, meaning that there exists much more than what our senses perceive. Our scientist friends are trying to find the GOD particle, which made the universe. Their next task will be to find who made the GOD particle!

In Gita, Lord Krishna reveals to Arjuna “You and me have gone through many Lives, I know about them but you don’t.” This indicates towards the existence of a supreme power which is more knowledgeable. Isn’t it visible in our relationship between us and our young ones? The creator is not only more knowledgeable; he also loves and always takes care of His creation. In Gita Lord Krishna says “ANANYOSCHINDAYANDO MAM YE JANAA: PARYUPASATHE THESHAM NITHYABHIYUKTHANAM YOGAKSHEMAM VAHAMYAHAM” or “I take care of the wellbeing of those who are always mindful of me and worship me considering me the basis of everything”.

To get a glimpse of the supreme knowledge we need to go deep within ourselves through meditation. The saints and yogis are able to tell about the unknown through this very ability of theirs to connect with the supreme knowledge. It is said that when Jamshed ji Tata, the founder of Tata Industries asked Vivekananda where to set up steel industry, Vivekananda suggested the name of Jamshedpur only by his meditative foresight and we all know the success story of Tata Industries as Jamshedpur was found to be having big mines of Iron ore.

How we can get benefited by the above facts. Firstly, the belief that there exists a creator who is more knowledgeable, powerful and caring relieves us of our worries and tensions to a great extent. Imagine how relieved and carefree we were as young child when we had a belief that our parents are there always to take care of all our troubles. Secondly if we learn to connect to him through meditation, we get insight into our problems and are able to make ours and our near and dear ones’ life happier. We can develop the meditative insight by being in company of God realized saints through their preaching or “Satsang”. This is why all the saints and scriptures speak so much about the importance of Satsang in our life.

Please visit the website www.ashram.org to know more about most revered Saint Asharam ji Bapu, my spiritual Guru whose satsang forms the basis of my blog.

 

EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION

Most of the times, we are worried about some small or larger problems involving ourselves, our near and dear ones or our society or world at large. Many a times the solution is found by ourselves but on many occasions we have to seek advice of either our friends or experts or consultants of the particular field. Now a days, the Internet is a very convenient source of finding information and especially the younger generation is very good at using this very helpful resource. Perhaps, never earlier the collective wisdom of mankind was so easily accessible.

 Till we have found the solution to any problem our mind is working on it and we are restless to an extent depending upon the gravity of the problem or rather our perception of the gravity. Sometime people go even into deep depression trying to find answers to their problems. The problem with which an ignorant person is worried to a great extent may be trivial for a more knowledgeable or enlightened person.

Nature also teaches many lessons and provides solutions to so many problems. Our great scientists have been researching and finding out solutions from nature and have been making our life simpler and more enjoyable. The inventions of past two-three centuries have changed the lives of mankind to such an extent that it would have been beyond imagination of the people of those times.

Looking at this, there seems to exist a greater and grander design of things in which we are small players limited in our abilities to perceive, think and act. As we become more and more knowledgeable and capable, our limitations, worries and difficulties fade away thus making us more and more happy and satisfied with life. Hence the need is to first realize that there has to be a solution to the problem and next to find the source of the greater wisdom which may be in the form of a person, teacher, book, Internet or Guru.

Spiritual masters have delved into the questions relating to our very existence like who we actually are, where we were before life and where we go after death. All the great religious scriptures, saints, prophets and Gurus aim to enlighten us on these very questions. The famous Hindu scripture Gita is nothing but dialogue between the Guru Krishna and disciple Arjuna who was in a deep dilemma in the battle field. Arjuna’s dilemma was that how he can fight and kill his kith and kins in the battle field. Through Gita, Krishna provides him with all the answers and in the end Arjuna gets over his dilemma and gets ready to fight.

In today’s life also we are faced with similar situations. But we need not get troubled and instead we should try and find the right source of guidance and make ourselves free of worries with the right solutions. Thus, the most important requirement is to have a belief that solutions are available, next is to find the right source of knowledge and then to follow the guidance to get rid of our problems.

Please visit the website www.ashram.org to know more about most revered Saint Asharam ji Bapu, my spiritual Guru whose satsang forms the basis of my blog.