The Enlightened – Muktabai

Divinity has manifested itself many times over time in order to teach  mankind about right living, higher thinking, principles, values, bhakti and path to moksha. Many saints have been born in India and  the world as messengers of God. Their life has been a message to all those around them and even to us today. They lived a normal life like us  -- eating, sleeping and working but were always connected to the Divine Light and Divine Consciousness. Simple living, higher thinking, bhakti and surrender were their way of life. Among the shining lights in the galaxy of saints of India are Nivritti, Jnana, Sopan and Muktabai. It is said that they were minor avatars of Lord Shankar, Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma and Mother Saraswati. Muktabai manifested the wisdom and knowledge of Mother Saraswati and held together her little family.

The little family was orphaned as their parents had taken Jal Samadhi or walked into the river and given up  their lives. They were also cast out from the village as their father had taken sanyas and then at order of the Guru come back to his wife and had children with her. The children lived in poverty and lacked  the basic amenities of life. Muktabai needed a pan to make rotis – the staple Indian bread. Jnana went to borrow a pan. When he went around asking, he was repeatedly refused and insulted: O son of sanyasi, you want to eat rotis? How can you continue to live even after your parents gave up their lives? Jnana was only 12 years old and felt very angry and affronted. He ran back home and shut himself up inside a  room. 

Muktabai noticed that her elder brother was upset. She repeatedly asked him to open the door but he did not. Muktabai who was the Shakti or Power of Wisdom sang a song about the true nature of a Yogi: The yogi’s mind has attained purity. How can his mind be angry with others? There is so much of hate and anger burning in this world, and it is duty of a saint to act like water. We may not like what others say about us, but can you look at their perspective too? Connect this world by weaving the  fabrics of Essence. What is this Essence? It is peace, love, understanding and letting go. Open the door, dear brother!

Her song continued: The Yogi is always in a state of joy. Does it matter others look down upon you? You are the maker of your destiny. The way you look upon yourself, the nature of conversation that you have in your mind will determine who you are. This is just a game, a play and it will go on. It is all empty and meaningless – chidakasha. It is all Maya and we give it various meanings such as love, insult, hate, joy, sorrow etc. The Essence is one and it is unchangeable and yet it assumes various forms. You are a yogi and you should know all this. Know this, the space of chidakasha is empty and be in a state of awareness. Do not bother about the rich, successful and powerful for they rise and fall like waves in a sea. It does not matter. Knowing this, be at peace.

There is a practice taught in Yoga for self purification. It is to take the abuse given by others without protest. By doing so, he passes on his impurities to them and receives their merit born out of good deeds. So the yogi gains doubly – he is purged of his negatives and he acquires the merit of others who abuse him. Jnana received abuses and insults at the village. Muktabai counselled him to see this as divine grace and use it as means to his salvation.

Hearing the advice of his younger sister, Jnana realised his Parabrahma Swarop or Divine Form. Jnana became Jnaneshwar. He came out of the room and asked his sister to prepare the dough. He knelt down and invoked the yoga shakti in his body to manifest. His back became very hot and Muktabai baked the rotis on his back! In this way Muktabai awakened the latent Divinity in her brother and helped him manifest it in full form and Jnana became a realised being or Sant Jnaneshwar.

Muktabai was a great Siddha and her abhangas or bhajans had great meaning. She speaks of the secrets of Maha Yoga and how to live successfully in this world and rise above it to reach out to God. Let us meditate on SitaRam and also unravel the mysteries of the Universe and receive Grace.

Ego hath a fall!

Ego or sense of self importance gives us a swollen head. We feel that we are better than others and think, speak and behave as if others are lesser than us.  We are born without ego but as we grow older, we develop the sense of self importance and this grows stronger with age. There is far too much competition in the world today and in order to survive and be successful we become hard and unyielding. We become egoistic. Ego prevents us from hearing out what others have to tell us. We are not even ready to listen to them or try to understand their point of view. Only what we think or say or believe matters. We are the best. When we behave in this way, we live in a state of self imposed mental restriction and constrict our intelligence and logic. 

Where ego is given freedom and it gains strength, it overrides common sense. Then common sense has no voice or say even when there is danger or violation of ethics and principles. Where ego resides in full strength, common sense moves out to make place for ego. We become a danger to ourselves as we have no common sense to guide us. This story of the Guru and Head of the monastery demonstrates this truth:

There was a realised Guru who taught simple living and love of God through naama japa (chanting the name of God) and meditation. He stressed more on bhakti and surrender to God and rarely went into philosophical discussions. He spoke to people from his direct inner experiences and his words had a deep and lasting impact on the listeners and disciples. The power of his experiences and realisation vibrated through his presence and life and influenced all those who came in contact with him. Rich and poor, man and woman, child and old  people, owners and workers – all came to the talks given by the Guru and followed his teachings. The love of God within him connected and vibrated with the presence of Divinity within those who came in contact with him.

His growing popularity and influence over people irritated the Head of a nearby monastery. He resented the power wielded by the Guru with such simple talks. The Guru was really illiterate- for he rarely quoted any ancient or sacred texts. The Head was determined to confront the Guru and expose him to the world for the fraud that he was. 

One day, when the Guru was addressing a large crowd, the Head came there to debate with him and defeat him. He stood in the back of the crowd and shouted across in a loud voice: O great Guru, you have many here who respect you and obey you. I do not respect you. Can you make a man like me obey you?

The Guru replied: Come up here to the platform beside me and I will show you.

The Head marched past the crowd very haughtily to the Guru. The Guru said: Now come to my right side. The Head went to the right side of the Guru.

The Guru then said: We will be able to talk better if you are seated to my left side. So please step over to the other side. The Head proudly obeyed him.

Then the Guru gave a sweet smile and addressed the Head: You see, you are obeying me. I think you are a very good and gentle person. Now sit down and listen to the teachings.

Ego creates fiction that we are separate and different from others. We need to understand that we are gifted in different ways but are essentially the same spark of the Divine Light. When this knowledge comes to us, there is no more ego. Regular japa of SitaRam Mantra, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru help us to understand the unity of life and overcome ego.

Ego entraps All!

Ego is the association of the self with the body.  We think of ourselves as the body but not as the immortal soul. We identify ourselves with our beliefs and opinion. When our opinions and beliefs are accepted, our ego puffs up and we feel great. Ego thrives on acceptance, flattery and compliments.  Ego need to be patted and recognized at all times, while it cannot accept criticism or sustain when slandered. 

The modern world encourages ego  but does not encourage self esteem. The gigantic industries churn out goods and products in great quantities.  Worldwide advertisement and publicity are given in order to sell the goods and products to make good profits. These advertisements are aimed at fulfilling certain needs and promise us that when we use the products, we become different, special and exclusive. Our need to be different is pampered by the promises of the advertisements. Every single item of goods that we use in our daily lives – be it food, clothes, household articles, electronics or other items – are all sold by hooking our ego and making us feel special. We are bombarded by such messages from our birth till our death, twenty-four by seven every day of the year.

It is difficult for us to stop feeling offended when our ways and thoughts are not acknowledged. We cannot accept rejection. Our ego cringes and screams when someone does not feel the same as us. We create conflict within ourselves and this will ultimately break us down. Too much of ego and inability to accept the ups and downs of life and balance ourselves are the causes of stress and depression.

There is intense competition in the world today. The competition starts right from birth of the child till  it grows old and eventually dies. It is competition at school, for the projects, exams, higher competitive exams, sports, for getting the right girl or boy as life partner, for wearing the right clothes, having the latest car, living in the right neighbourhood, having a better pay packet, going on exotic holidays, wearing the latest designer outfits etc. The list is endless. No one works at their pace. The pace of work, progress and results are enforced by competition and if we do not toe the line we lose heavily. Competition is for winning. But the flip side is losing. When we lose, our ego takes a beating and we are shattered. We push ourselves to any limits in order to achieve and be the best in order to maintain our ego and image in society.

The ego is never satisfied nor content. It always wants more. It rarely sees what is given and the blessings that are poured on us by Divinity. It focuses only on that which we do not have or do not possess. We may be the best in the school but we yearn to be the best in the university, then in the state, after that in the country and finally in the world. The need for some more is endless. It is a rare person who does not fall in this trap of ego.

We are praised and criticized in turns in life. It is possible to learn to accept criticism and rectify ourselves and be balanced. We can learn to overcome criticism and sharp words and be peaceful. But it is very difficult to be balanced when we are praised. Adulation boosts the ego and we imagine that we are worthy of all the praises showered on us. We lose our balance and sense of discrimination. 

The greatest distance between man and his Maker is the size of his ego. Ego is the greatest hurdle that we face in reaching God. The scriptures and our holy texts are full of examples of great saints and devotees who  have fallen prey to ego.  When we are praised or given a well deserved compliment, it is better to offer it to God and Guru and not get carried away by the tide of self defeating pleasure. We must learn not to let flattery swell our ego.  The best way of overcoming ego is offering all that happens to us in life – the good, the bad and the ugly unto God and accept Him as the reason and cause of all happenings in our lives.

A Guru always takes particular care to ensure that his disciple does not fall prey to the disease of ego. Where there is intense bhakti, grace manifests and washes away the ego. Let us intensify our bhakti to God and Guru through the SitaRam japa and meditation and safeguard ourselves.

Self transformation - the monkey who fasted and meditated

We always hope and plan to improve ourselves and our lives. We are perfectly aware of our shortcomings and also how to overcome them. Our inner self says we need to give up sweets and at least walk daily to stay in good health; to give up smoking and do pranayam; to wake up at a reasonable hour in order to make time for prayers and meditation in morning; overcome our quick irritation and anger with all around us; learn to be more compassionate, peaceful and balanced; listen properly before we react; think and act; be selfless and giving in love and friendship etc. The list is endless. We make resolutions every now and then. We even try to implement them. We invariably fail as we have not prepared ourselves for the change within us.  The story of the monkey who resolved to overcome his anger and decided to fast and meditate is the story of our lives:

A monkey  was tired of his own restless nature. He decided to turn over a new leaf. He resolved to fast and meditate for a day and uplift himself spiritually. He had watched yogis in an ashram at the edge of the forest fasting and meditating. He was sure it would work. Also fasting would reduce his energy and make him calmer and fitter for meditation. He fixed his fasting for Tuesday – the day of Hanuman – the Monkey God. Having made his plan, he was very excited and leaped about the trees, chattering away.

On Tuesday morning, the monkey sat at the foot of the tree in lotus posture. He was now ready for a day of fasting and meditation. He closed his eyes and fell asleep. He was lost in dreams of fasting and becoming enlightened. After some time he was awakened by pangs of hunger. He realized that fasting a whole day was going to be tougher than he thought. The delicious mangoes hanging from the tree tempted him to climb the tree and eat his fill. He controlled himself for some time. Suddenly the thought struck him – what if he became too weak by end of the day to climb the tree? It was better to climb the tree and then meditate. 

The monkey swiftly climbed the tree and sat in one corner. The fragrance of the ripe mangoes was strong and his mouth watered. He turned his face away and shut his eyes. But in his mind, he was feasting on the mangoes. The other monkeys gazed at him admiringly for some time and then went about plucking the mangoes. The meditating monkey peeped at them through half closed eyes to see if they plucked off all the fruits of the tree. As soon as they left, he quickly plucked some mangoes and kept them near him so that he would have something to eat after he broke his fast. After all there was no rule that food should not be kept nearby.

Now the monkey was satisfied that he had a good dinner ready. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before starting his meditation. The fragrance of the freshly plucked mangoes filled his senses and his stomach protested in hunger. He opened his eyes and looked longing at the delicious golden fruit. What if by evening, he became too weak to even peel the mangoes? It was better to peel the mangoes and keep them in his mouth. He would not swallow as he was fasting. That way, he could insure his health and life. 

The monkey peeled a couple of mangoes and popped the flesh into his mouth. Saliva welled up and he swallowed the saliva having the taste of the mango. Within minutes, he chewed the sweet flesh of the fruit and swallowed it. Without realising what he was doing, he picked up more fruits and gulped them down. After he had his fill he said: What is the difference if the mango is on the tree, or inside the mouth or inside the stomach?

We are like this monkey. We think that a single day of fasting and meditation will transform us and give us enlightenment. We are told to do an hour of mantra japa. We tell ourselves that the Rama Nama is so powerful that it is enough to say the name just once and then we spend the day watching movies, reading books or doing other work. We deceive ourselves with random quotes from sacred scriptures and wise men floating in the market and on net. Life flows quickly and the end comes fast. We find that we have done nothing and achieved nothing for our soul. Let us stop this self deception. With sincere prayers to God and Guru, let us do our daily sadhana of SitaRam mantra, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru. This will definitely bring about the transformation we seek in our lives.

Desire makes us lose reason

When we have an intense desire for something or someone, we lose our reasoning power and common sense. We attach features and qualities which do not exist to the object of our desire. We are so infatuated with imaginary features of the object of our desire that we make a laughing stock of ourselves. We can see this commonly when we are attracted to a member of the opposite sex and are infatuated with the person. Our friend and family wonder as to what we see in that person whom we consider as the ultimate. This holds true for any object of desire, which may  be a car, a dog, a pen, the latest model of the cell phone, a particular dress or jewel. We wonder why others do not appreciate our choice or our desire for it. We fail to see that desire has put blinkers on us and we are not able to see reality. This lesson is taught well by Tenali Raman in the story below:

Raja Krishnadeva Raya ruled over Vijaynagar Kingdom. He was a good king and worked for the welfare of his subjects. But nevertheless, he was the King and could not tolerate being crossed out nor corrected by anyone. Once, the King dreamt of a palace. It was beautiful and artistically designed and floated in the air. It moved from place to place as per the wishes of the owner.

Suddenly the King woke up with a start and the dream shattered. But the dream palace haunted him.  So he summoned his ministers and courtiers and told them about it. No one dared to laugh at the King. All of them made the right noises and comments and praised the King and the magnificent floating palace. Then the King made a public announcement: Anyone who makes such a palace for me will be given a fee of a hundred thousand gold coins!

The ‘yes’men at the court woke up when they heard the announcement. Had the King become mad? How was it possible to build a floating palace? But they did not dare to tell the King that his desire was absurd and that he had become insane.  After a few days, some senior minsters and well wishers met the King privately and informed him that it was not possible to build such a palace and it existed only in dreams. But the King had lost his reasoning power. The intensity of desire for the palace made him insist that it was possible to build it and that it would be built at any cost. He threatened the ministers and well wishes with dire consequences if they did not produce an architect who could design his dream palace.

All the ministers were worried and they approached Tenali Raman for help in convincing the King about the futility of his desire. Tenali Raman was a favourite of the King and also a minister at the court. He was a great scholar, philosopher and a man of wit and wisdom. He was of common sense and practicality.  He agreed to help them out.

A few days later, an old man came to the King’s court seeking justice. Because of his advanced years, he could barely walk. The King asked him what his problem was and promised him justice. The old man cried bitterly. All of his savings had been looted. He had nothing left. The King was very angry. He asked the old man to name the culprit and promised to hang him unto death. The old man hesitated and then said he would name the person provided the King assured him that he would not punish him. After the King gave his assurance, the old man said: Your Majesty, you were the thief!

The King turned red with rage but recalled his promise. The old man spoke out: Sire, last night, I dreamt that you came with your court of ministers and looted me of five thousand gold coins. I have lost all my life savings!

The King could not contain his anger. He roared at the old man in anger: You old fool! How can you pretend that what you saw in a dream is real? Dreams are not true. They come and go in sleep.

The old man replied: Sire, dreams are true. If your dream of a palace hanging in air can come true, why can’t my dream come true? The old man stripped off his wig and beard and showed his true self. It was the King’s favourite minister – Tenali Raman. He bowed before the King and said: O Nobel Sire, forgive me. But I could not see any other way of convincing you. The King burst out laughing and remarked that Tenali was very shrewd and wise.

The only way to live a life of commonsense, peace and balance is through mantra japa of SitaRam and meditation. Following the teachings of the Guru shows us the way to overcome intense desires for material things and balance our lives with divine love and bliss.

Ego blinds commonsense

Ego is the sense of our self as the body and the superiority of our set of beliefs, thoughts and actions over all others. Ego makes us proud and arrogant. We find it difficult to overcome such behavior and have conscious control over it. In the modern world which is so competitive, ego protects us from attacks of others and helps us to defend our behavior and justify ourselves.

 Ego is how we feel inside. It is influenced by the things that happen in our lives. It is also a collection of our beliefs on any subject. We have certain ways of thinking about a particular thing and we have our own beliefs on all topics under the sun. When we believe that others have a right to their beliefs, we are able to accept various points of view and get the grander view of the picture. Where our ego is strong, it refuses to accept any other belief but its own and creates problems for itself. Belief due to experience of truth within is different from belief of various topics due to ego. Where ego predominates, we insist on our way and opinion without any regard to reality and truth. Common sense goes out for a toss where ego dominates. This can easily bring our downfall as we refuse to see anything beyond our personal beliefs and sense of self. We can see how ego blinds commonsense and brings our downfall in the story of the lion and the rabbit:

Once upon a time there lived a ferocious lion in the forest. It was powerful and greedy. Its sense of superiority was very powerful and it started killing the animals in the forest indiscriminately. No animal could face the unleashed wrath and power of the lion. As the days passed the lion became more and more egocentric and thought that it could get away with anything. The animals of the forest had a meeting. They discussed about the senseless killing of the lion and how to prevent it. Then they decided that each day, one animal should volunteer itself to be eaten by lion. By doing so, the pointless deaths of the animals could be prevented. So each day one animal of different species offered itself to the lion. One day it was the turn of the rabbits. The rabbits chose an old rabbit to be sent as the lion’s meal.

The rabbit was wise and old. It understood the self centred ego of the lion and knew that it was by the ego alone, it could defeat and kill the lion. The lion was indeed powerful and the rabbit was old, but where the ego is too strong, there is no common sense. As per its plan, the old rabbit walked slowly and took its own time to reach the lion. The lion was waiting impatiently for its meal. When no animal turned up by afternoon, it swore to kill all the animals the next day.

The old rabbit reached the lion’s den by sunset. The lion was fuming and fretting. The wise rabbit was calm and quietly told the lion that it was not his fault that he was delayed in reaching the lion. He said that a group of rabbits were coming for him in the morning but on the way they were attacked by another lion that killed and ate all of them. Somehow the old rabbit managed to escape and reach this lion safely. The old rabbit said that the other lion was very strong and was challenging the supremacy of this lion. The lion was very furious and asked to be taken to the location of the other lion.

The wise rabbit agreed and let the lion towards a deep well filled with water. He showed the lion his reflection in the water of the well. On seeing his reflection, the lion was furious to see another lion and started growling. Naturally the reflection in the water growled back ferociously. The lion was extremely angry and he jumped into the water to kill the other lion and lost his life. By attacking the ego of the lion with the supremacy and power of illusion of another lion, the wise rabbit was able to save himself and the other animals.

When we look back, we see how often we behave foolishly due to our ego. We refuse to acknowledge our faults or the truth though we are aware of them. We take a wrong stand due to our ego and suffer as ego blinds commonsense. Regular japa of SitaRam mantra and meditation help in overcoming the ego and living a peaceful life.

Ego - the downfall of Sage Narad

The ego is a subtle poison which fills our system without our knowledge. Only extreme devotion and the resulting grace ensure the dissolution of ego. Unless the ego is dissolved fully, it is not possible for the light of God within us to shine in its fully majesty and power. A devotee must guard himself against flattery as he can be misguided and allow his ego to grow to gigantic proportions which distances him from God. God is kind and allows us to experience this situation on a regular basis so that someday we learn how to recognize the trap of ego and overcome it once and for all.

The delusive power of God – maya- is responsible for ignorance in man. Ignorance of the reality or truth is ego. Maya can be overcome only through grace.  When we work hard through our spiritual practices and extreme devotion and make ourselves receptive to the Divine Grace, we can overcome maya and the ego dissolves. The Ramacharitmanasa of Saint Tulsidas gives an incident in the life of the divine Sage Narad to show that even a great devotee like him can slip and be caught in illusion and ego and how Lord Vishnu redeemed him from this situation:

Once Sage Narad meditated on the divine form of Lord Vishnu and his tapas was very long and severe.  Lord Indra, the King of Gods feared that Sage Narad would take over his seat with the accumulated merit of his tapas.  So he sent Kamadev – the God of Love and Lust to disturb Sage Narad. But Sage Narad sat undisturbed in tapas as his mind was wholly focussed on the radiant form of Lord Vishnu. Lord Indra and Kamadev sought forgiveness for the disturbance and praised Sage Narad as having overcome lust. Lust is a very difficult vice to overcome as it in an inherent part of our physical body. Sage Narad became bloated with pride and his ego swelled. He felt that he was equal to Lord Shiva who had burnt Kamadev with the flames of His Third Eye. Sage Narad went to Lord Shiva and boasted about his victory. Lord Shiva smiled and advised him against boasting. That did not stop Sage Narad from going to Lord Brahma and boasting. Lord Brahma heard him out and advised him not to brag about it to Lord Vishnu . So Sage Narad went to Lord Vishnu and sang his own praises. The Lord saw that his devotee’s ego and pride were inflated and he needed to be corrected and brought back to devotion again. So the Lord made a master plan for it.

As Narad left Vaikunta and was heading for his home, he came across a kingdom where the king was planning the  swayamwar or the marriage of his daughter. The princess was so beautiful that Narad  instantly fell in love with her. Narad rushed back to Lord Vishnu and asked him to make him beautiful and very charming so that the princess would chose him as her husband. The Lord named many forms which were charming and Narad asked him to select any form which was pleasing to the Lord. The Lord thought of Hanuman who was a dear devotee and gave Narad a monkey face. Narad entered the hall of marriage with supreme confidence  in his beauty. As he walked past, everyone laughed and sniggered at him. He thought that all were jealous of him. The princess came in and walked past  Narad and went ahead to garland Lord Vishnu who had also come for the swayamwar.  As Narad got up and walked to the Lord, he saw his face reflected as a monkey in the mirror! Narad was furious with the Lord and cursed the Lord that he too would suffer the pangs of pain of separation from the love of his life and in the future, he would be helped only by monkeys.

Lord Vishnu removed the illusion and Narad was shocked to see that he had actually cursed the Lord and the princess was Goddess Laxmi Herself. Narad realised that it was a master plan of the Lord to kill his ego and teach him that he was not supreme. He  understood that he should not be egoistic about his achievement as all success comes from God’s Grace.  He had not listened to the advice of Lord Shiva and Lord Brahma and boasted about himself. Only a person who is concerned about the welfare of another will take the trouble of giving advice. The advice may or may not be palatable but it takes a person of wisdom to pay heed to the advice and profit by it. The Lord teaches us a very important lesson – know that all achievements come from grace and we need to work hard to receive grace. Grace also blesses and protects us from ego. Let us be regular in the SitaRam Mantra japa and meditation and following the teachings of the Guru and overcome ego.

Compassion of a Sage

Compassion is feeling the pain of another and taking action to alleviate the pain in some way or the other. Compassion is a divine quality. It is an overwhelming feeling where we empathize with the pain and sadness of another and wish to reduce it. Compassion flows when we have internal experience that we are all one, we are interdependent and the sorrow of one being affects all others.  It is a sign of emotional maturity. It is only through compassion that we can reach within ourselves in our quest for self realization and achieve the highest goal of human existence.

Compassion or feeling the pain of others is not being sentimental. It is an experience and awareness that all creation is one. It is doing justice to all. It is showing mercy towards all. It is an out-flowing of the highest human energies and divine love from within self towards others. 

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – this commandment is found in all religions and all teachings. Compassion is the natural outflow of following this commandment. Compassion teaches us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. The compassion of sages and gurus take on new levels and teach us higher lessons of life as  given in the story below:

A sage lived in a hut at the foothills of a mountain. He was an enlightened being who spent his time in meditation and  praying for the well being of mankind. He lived a simple life. He ate the fruits and berries which grew in that area. There was plenty of water to drink from a sparkling stream which gushed down from the mountain. He had very few visitors. An occasional devotee would come and offer him some coins or food. He had very few possessions. He wore a long robe and had just one blanket to cover him for protection against the cold at night. He was very content and always in bliss. He wanted nothing;  needed nothing and he was one happy sage.

Once, a thief entered his hut. The sage was sad and disturbed as he did not have anything of value for the thief to rob. After all that poor man had walked many miles to reach this hut in search of something to rob. Now he would have to go empty handed. So he offered his blanket to the thief and said: Please accept this blanket. I have nothing else to give you. You came here with some expectations and I do not wish to see you pained as there is nothing here. 

The thief was confused but he over took the blanket and went off. He was fascinated by the sage who had nothing and still gave off his single possession to him. So he went to him another night. When the sage saw him, he asked him why he had come. The thief said he had come to steal again. The sage replied that just the previous day, he had  a visitor who offered him a few coins. He had kept them in the corner of the single shelf of the hut. The thief could have them as he did not wish to disappoint  him in any way. The thief was once again taken aback at the love, compassion and generosity of the sage. As he was about the leave, the sage said: Please offer thanks for what I just gave you. The thief blinked in amazement and offered his thanks and disappeared in the dark. He wondered why the sage asked him to offer thanks!

The thief was caught the next day and it was discovered that he had been to the hut of the sage. The sage was summoned to the court. The sage said: I know this man well. He did not steal anything from me. I gave him some coins yesterday and he thanked me and left. He is not a thief! The thief fell at the feet of the sage. He was a transformed man and later on lived a life of love and compassion like his Guru.

Compassion flows when we see the light of God within us and in all. This is possible only when we do our SitaRam Mantra japa, meditation and follow the teachings of the Guru regularly.

What is Dharma

Hinduism speaks of the four goals of life – dharma, artha, kama and moksha – virtuous  life, earning of wealth, fulfillment of desires and salvation. Dharma is an important theme of life in Hinduism as in any religion. Dharma is often translated as religion, duty, virtue or righteousness. Dharma is all these and much more and encompasses a huge meaning which includes personal spiritual growth.

Dharma comes from the Sanskrit root ‘dhri’ which means to uphold or sustain. Dharma upholds or sustains the positive order of things in the world and Universe. All of us who are members of society have a dharma to perform certain acts by which we uphold the natural order of things in society and nation. Man, woman, child, father, mother, worker, member of society, teacher, labourer, farmer, police, head of state etc – we all have duties and obligations. When we fulfil them in the right manner, the society and nation function correctly and are upheld by morals and ethics. Under such conditions, culture flourishes and there is progress in all areas of life. 

A child has a dharma to obey its parents, and the parents have a dharma to protect their children, feed, educate and nurture them and set them on the right path in life. The teacher has a dharma to impart the right knowledge and wisdom which teaches the child ethics and values and also helps it to earn a good livelihood. The farmer has a dharma to grow sufficient crops and different varieties of food stuff to nourish and sustain the society. The police have a dharma to maintain law and order. Seeing from the higher perspective, dharma is conducting our duties with compassion towards all beings. It is doing duty consciously with love and reverence.  It is absence of jealousy, greed and cruelty whilst doing our duties. Performing our dharma in this manner bestows on us purity, goodness and tranquillity.

Dharma is the first word in the Bhagwad Gita. The Bhagwad Gita teaches us that it is better to do our own dharma rather than succeed in doing another’s dharma. We may not be perfect in doing our own dharma but we must persevere till we are successful. When we perform our own dharma successfully, the society and nation prosper. Where there is break down of dharma, there is riot and chaos in society and the fabric of peaceful coexistence in society tears down. We must do our dharma to best of our ability and when dharma is established in society, there is peace and prosperity all around. ‘Protect dharma and it protects you’.

Our dharma changes as we progress in life. The dharma of a child is different from that of a student. The dharma of a young adult is different and later on when he marries, his dharma changes. The dharma of a student is studies and obeying and serving the Guru. The dharma of a married man is much more – it is earning and taking care of the wife and children, the other helpless members and elders of the family, contributing to social welfare and projects for welfare of needy, taking care of sadhus, sants and religious organisations, payment of taxes and contributing to welfare of the state and working gradually towards spiritual welfare of self. A policeman who performs the dharma of a student and a child who performs the dharma of a policeman are doing adharma or doing wrong. By doing so, they break down the peace and safety of society.

Dharma or ‘dhri’ also connotes the nature of matter. It is dharma of water to be liquid and wet. It is dharma of fire to give light and burn. It is dharma of wind to blow. It is the dharma of the tiger to kill and eat when hungry. Whatever is the speciality of an object which defines its nature – is its dharma. God is dharma personified and the entire cosmos is balanced on the dharma or righteousness of God. We must always follow our dharma. We must perform our duties in the right manner. We have a duty to our soul and God and we must perform that dharma by doing the japa of SitaRam, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru.

We are responsible for our deeds

One of the ugliest qualities we have is to blame others for our mistakes and intentional errors. We find it very easy to shift blame on others. We blame anyone who is near us. It could be father, mother, brother, sister, friend, the laundry man, his niece , her boyfriend, the dog or the singing canary in the neighbour’s house. We claim that whatever we are doing is right and everyone else is wrong. No one understands the truth of what we are saying or undergoing. And when we do not find any person to blame, we blame the one who is the easiest to blame – God!

God is blamed by all persons under sun for every misdeed that takes place, for every wish not fulfilled, for all wrongs,  major problems and accidents. After all, everything is in the Hands of God! Who are we to say or do anything? God willed it and hence it happened. But when we achieve success, name, fame and wealth, we always claim it to be ours and do not offer thanks or gratitude to Divinity. We fall or rise by our own actions and when we blame God without making efforts or doing our best, we fall from grace. This is the lesson we learn from the story of the garden owner:

There was a man who had a big garden. He had many types of fruit trees and tended to them with love and care. The trees were now laden with delicious ripe fruits, ready for sale and eating at home. The man decided to pick the fruits for selling and with the money he got from the sale, buy things that were needed for his home. He chose one fine morning for picking the fruits. He went to the garden with his son, carrying several large baskets. To his surprise, he saw a stranger sitting on the branch of a tree picking fruits. The owner was angry and shouted at the stranger for picking up the fruits.

The stranger on the branch looked at the owner and did not reply. He continued picking the fruits. The owner was very angry and shouted again: For several years I have taken care of these trees, watered and protected them and waited for this day to pick fruits. Are you not ashamed of stealing my hard work and fruits without seeking permission? Come down at once!

The stranger on the tree answered: This garden and trees belong to God and I am His servant. So I have the right to pick these fruits and you should not interfere with any work of God. I will not come down but continue with my service to God. 

The owner was surprised at the answer of the stranger. He wanted to teach him a lesson and thought of a plan. He asked his son to fetch a rope. Together they pushed the stranger down using  a stick and then tied him to the tree. The owner started hitting the stranger with a stick. The man began to scream: Why are you hitting me? You have no right to hit me!

The owner paid no attention and continued beating the stranger. The stranger screamed: Fear God. You are beating an innocent man. I am a servant of God! 

The owner replied: There is nothing to fear. This stick in my hand belongs to God. I am also a servant of God.  You should not interfere in God’s work and stop me!

The stranger screamed: Stop beating me. I am sorry for taking the fruits without permission. Please forgive me. The owner smiled and said: I forgive you since you have realised your mistake. But remember that God has given all His servants brains, understanding, free will and capacity to do hard work. Every person is responsible for his own deeds. We cannot blame God for everything.

Indeed, let us accept responsibility for our own actions. We can shift the entire blame and blessings to God only when we surrender unto Him in full. Surrender is possible only by grace. Let us earn Grace of God through SitaRam mantra, meditation and practising the teachings of the Guru.

Think and act

Our ego generally gets the better of us in life and we suffer when we let our ego rule us. Divinity has provided us with a speed breaker within us – the voice of conscience. This voice is clear within all of us. It warns us when we tread the wrong path.  But we rarely pay heed to this voice. The clamor of our desires and our puffed up ego which says we know it all – stop us from hearing the voice. We do exactly as we please and then we suffer. Our well wishers also warn us and caution us. But we are caught in the sense of self importance and do not pay heed to right advice. When we pause and reflect on what we are about to do, we can save ourselves a lot of misery in life.  We must act out of self preservation and dharma and not out of ego. Trying to prove that we are the best in everything is height of foolishness. Yet all of us indulge in such idiotic acts. This story from the Panchatantra illustrates this truth well:

Once upon a time, there lived a poor washerman in a village. He had very few possessions in life. One of them was a thin donkey. The donkey served him faithfully day and night by carrying the clothes to and fro. His master barely managed to eke out a living. So the donkey was not fed to his satisfaction and always remained thin and hungry. In order to save his life, the donkey began to wander in the fields nearby at nights and eat the crops stealthily.  During one such visit, the donkey met a jackal and made friends with him. Daily both of them met at night and went out in search of food. Once they found a field full of cucumbers. They ate well of the fresh and cool cucumbers. They were both happy to have found such a treasure trove of ready food. 

The donkey and jackal visited this field regularly and ate their fill. Soon the donkey began to look healthy and fat. Once after having eaten a tasty meal of fresh cucumbers, the donkey was very happy. He wanted to show the world his happiness by singing a song. He expressed his desire to sing to the jackal. The jackal warned him: Do not be foolish. If you sing, your braying will awaken the guards sleeping here as your voice is not sweet and soothing. The guards will surely use their sticks well on us and beat us black and blue. The donkey thought his friend was jealous of him. He felt that he had the right to express his happiness through a melodious song.

The donkey opened his mouth to bray. The jackal saw that the donkey was getting ready to sing his heart out. So he asked him to wait for a few minutes. He jumped over the fence and waited outside the field of cucumbers. On hearing the donkey bray in the field, the guard and the owner woke up from their sleep and rushed to the braying donkey. Seeing the fat donkey which had eaten up their crop, they were in a rage.  They beat up the donkey black and blue with their heavy sticks

The donkey was physically unable to move or walk for some time. He dragged himself somehow out of the field to where the jackal was waiting. The jackal felt very sorry looking at the pathetic condition of his friend. He spoke to him lovingly and requested him to pay heed to his warnings the next time and not suffer in this way. The donkey realised that his own ego and self importance prevented him from hearing the advice of his well wisher and that he deserved the pain and suffering inflicted upon him. He decided to pay attention to the friend’s warnings.

Anytime we puff up and decide to show off our achievements or possessions, somewhere and somehow we get hit. Many around us cannot tolerate our happiness. We are mainly responsible for the pain and damage we cause ourselves as we do not pay heed to our inner wisdom and also to the warnings of family and friends. Regular japa of SitaRam Mantra and meditation helps us to calm our minds down and we are able to think and act in a rational manner.

Knowledge without common sense is dangerous

There is a huge amount of information and knowledge available today. We can easily access data on any subject under the sun without much effort.  Simple information, facts and figures is data.  Data is collected and organised according to subject.  It is very useful referencing tool.  When the collected information is collected and digested, it becomes knowledge. Right application of knowledge is wisdom and common sense. When knowledge is put to practical use, it should be done taking into account the laws of society, goodness of mankind and universal laws. Knowledge should not be applied to practical use without an eye at the consequence. If we do so, we will suffer from the misuse of knowledge.

Knowledge about fire and finance is available easily and can be understood. When this knowledge is used with commonsense and wisdom, fire helps to cook, warm a person and give light and heat and finances multiply and grow and provide income and wealth for personal and social expansion. When fire is used without proper knowledge or without regard to consequence, it burns down everything in sight and wipes out the area. What remains is a handful of ash. When we play with finances without regards to consequence, we can create evil or great loss and pain for ourselves and others. When we acquire knowledge, we should also go within ourselves and contemplate the right use of knowledge and its consequences. Wise use of knowledge will benefit us and mankind. Without wisdom of proper use of knowledge, we lose perspective and can lose our grounding. The story below illustrates this truth:

Four friends lived in a village. Three of these four friends were well versed in esoteric  sciences  and tantra but had no common sense. The fourth friend was not learned in scriptures or tantra but had a great deal of common sense. He had knowledge of what was good or bad for him and was practical in his approach towards  life.  One day, the three learned men decided to travel and make use of their knowledge to earn money. They let the fourth fellow travel with them even though he was not learned because he was a childhood friend.

The friends travelled and went from town to town displaying their skills in order to earn money. Once they had to cross a dense forest. While resting at noon, they saw a heap of bones lying under a tree. Looking at the bones, one of the learned friends said: Let us use this opportunity to test our skills. These are the bones of a certain animal. Let us use our knowledge and bring this animal back to life. 

The first friend used his skills to assemble the scattered bones into a skeleton. He chanted a mantra and ordered all the bones to come together and form a skeleton. When the skeleton was ready, the second friend used his skills and with chants of some mantra commanded flesh and blood to fill the skeleton and skin to cover it up. Now the animal looked like a lifeless lion.

As the third friend was about to chant a mantra and breathe life into the lifeless body of the animal, the fourth friend shouted: Stop! This looks like the body of a lion. If you give him life, he will attack us and kill all of us. The other friends were angry and shouted at him: You fool! Shut up! This is a rare opportunity to test our skills and knowledge. Do not make us lose it. 

When the third man began to chant mantra to give life to the lifeless lion, the fourth man leaped up and climbed a tree as fast as he could. The others laughed at him. The chant of the third friend worked and the lion came to life. He sprang up and killed all the three learned men. The fourth man waited for a while and when it was safe, climbed down and went back to his village.

Knowledge for sake of knowledge has no value. Knowledge should have practical value which makes our life easier and more efficient. Mere book knowledge of scriptures is not enough. Practical practices like SitaRam Mantra and Meditation that bring about noticeable positive changes in our life are necessary. 

Extreme Bhakti – Sant Eknath- Guru was his God!

The search for Guru is an eternal search and the one who finds a ParamGuru during his lifetime should hold on to his Guru and serve him well, in order to earn grace of the Guru Shakti and God. To reach God, we need a Guru. All the Avatars and saints had Gurus. The Gurubhakti of some of these saints is extreme. Sant Eknath was one such saint. He belongs to Maharashtra and is one of the shining stars in the galaxy of saints such as Tukaram, Namdev, Jnaneshwar, Jana Bai, Saku Bai and others.

Sant Eknath was a well known saint, scholar and poet of Maharashtra. He belonged to a well to do Brahmin family of Paithan which was a religious centre of those days. He was extremely intelligent and gifted with clarity of thinking. At a young age, he had a formidable knowledge of the Vedas and Shastras but was not content. He knew that the bliss that the sacred scriptures spoke of could not be attained by mere book knowledge. One needed to have internal experience of the truth to be one with the divine peace and bliss. Knowledge of sacred scriptures gave no peace. All Shastras taught that Guru was God and by serving Guru, one could attain God. His internal yearning for a Guru was intense and Lord Panduranga directed him in a dream to Guru Janardhanaswami. 

Janardhanaswami was a reputed scholar and a great devotee of Lord Dattatreya.  Eknath served him with great devotion for twelve years. He  cleaned his Guru’s home, kept the pooja articles ready, bought household items and maintained accounts, cooked, washed the Guru’s clothes etc. He attended to his Guru day and night. He also took care of the needs of the sadhus who visited his Guru. His Guru taught a variety of methods and approaches to God as per the need of his students – some were taught Raja Yoga, some Brahma Vidya and some Shastras. Eknath did not seek to learn anything from the Guru. He did not ask for knowledge, wisdom or mantra. Eknath’s sole purpose of seva was his Guru’s happiness and well being.

Janardhanaswami was very pleased at the seva done by Eknath. He was wonderstruck that the young man did not seek any rewards for his selfless seva. So he decided to reward him by bestowing on him the darshan of his favourite form of God – Lord Dattatreya. He asked Lord Dattatreya to give darshan to Eknath the next day morning when Eknath was returning from the river after his morning bath. The next morning, when Eknath was coming back after his bath, he saw the radiant form of Lord Dattatreya standing near a tree. As sign of respect, he prostrated to the Lord and the Lord placed His feet on Eknath’s head as a blessing. Eknath came back and continued his work at home for his Guru as usual.

Janardhanaswami was very restless. He was waiting for his disciple to come home and tell him about the darshan of the great Lord Dattatreya. He imagined the stunned look on Eknath’s face as he described the effulgence of Lord Dattatreya. Eknath would be overflowing with bliss and wondering if it was real or a dream and the Guru would reassure him that it was definitely real. Janardhanaswami made himself calm  down in order to calm the excited Eknath as he recounted his meeting with the Great Dattatreya. To his surprise, Eknath came home and continued with his work peacefully. The astounded Guru called Eknath and asked how he could be so calm after having had the darshan of Lord Dattatreya. Eknath replied: O Gurudeva, I never desired this. I see you as God and I have your darshan daily. If I had not considered you as God, maybe the darshan would have been exciting. I seek only your grace and darshan! 

His love for his Guru was so great that Eknath signed all writings as Eka- Janardhan. Due to his great guru bhakti, in his later years, Lord Panduranga Himself served Eknath as his servant in his home. When we have a genuine Guru and the Siddha Mantra of SitaRam in our lives, let us practice the mantra japa and serve the Guru without expectations to receive his grace to the fullest. Guru is indeed God and he blesses his disciple  

Greed brings grief!

The greed for more is always there in us. We get enough, we have enough, we store enough but still we want more. This need for  more is called greed. In many of us, there is a rapacious desire to acquire wealth and possessions. Where greed exists, morality and ethics vanish. We think wrong, speak wrong and act wrong in order to acquire more wealth. Jealousy, anger, bitterness and lies become our companions and best friends. In such company, we can rarely be at peace and we live a stressful life. We get momentary joy in gloating over our acquisitions but the minute we recall that someone else has more, our joy vanishes and we are full of jealousy. All our energy and attention are focusing on how to outwit and cheat the other person and take over his wealth and possessions.  We may be successful sometimes in doing so, but ultimately greed only brings grief in its wake. This truth is shown in the story of Raj and Tej:

Raj was a very greedy and selfish man. He disliked sharing anything with anyone. He never gave anything to the poor or in charity. He had intense desire to increase his wealth and sometimes took the wrong short cut of seizing the wealth of others by unfair means and getting richer.

One day, as Raj was walking through the bazaar, he lost a purse with thirty gold coins. He was shattered and could hardly think straight. He went to his friend Tej’s house and lamented the loss of the gold coins. Tej was a kind man and knew how much the coins meant to Raj though his friend was extremely wealthy and could easily overlook the loss. So he heard him out and consoled him and sent him home.

Meena, the daughter of Tej came home running carrying a purse with thirty gold coins. She had gone to the bazaar and found it fallen on the way side. Tej told his daughter that the purse belonged to Raj and that she should return the purse to him at once as the poor man was deeply grieved at the loss of the gold coins. So he  sent for Raj. Raj was overjoyed that his purse had been found and he rushed to take it back. As he reached there, greed overtook him and he plotted against his good friend who was returning the lost purse. He received the purse with a falsely sweet smile and counted the coins carefully. Then he showed confusion and then rage that ten gold coins were missing. He had kept forty coins in the purse and now only thirty were there. He told Tej that Tej had to pay him the missing ten coins or else he would go to the court for their recovery. Tej flatly refused to do so as he was definite that Meena was honest and that Raj was greedy and dishonest.

Raj went to the judge and filed his complaint against Meena and Tej. The judge sent for Meena and Tej. The judge asked Meena to describe what had happened. Meena told the judge that she had found a purse with thirty gold coins in the bazaar and when she came home she informed her father who asked her to return the purse to Raj. The judge asked Raj how many gold coins he lost. He said forty.  The judge gave his ruling: This purse does not belong to you Raj as your purse had forty coins. Since Meena had found the purse and none have claimed it, the coins belonged to her now.  If and when someone came with a purse of forty gold coins, the judge would send for Raj and return the purse to him. Raj was asked to hand over the purse to Meena in front of the judge. Raj was shaken that his plan had backfired on him and that he was losing all his money. He confessed that he had lied and that the purse should be returned to him. But the judge would not listen and so Raj lost his money due to his greed.

In the house of God, justice may be slow but it is surely meted out. We always pay  heavily when we do wrong to others. Let us overcome greed and other vices so that we can live in peace. Doing the SitaRam Mantra, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru help us in overcoming all the negatives within us. Then grace and bliss fill us and our lives are full of light and love.

So you close the door - Ego and stupidity

Ego, the feeling of I am great and none other is equal to me can make us act and speak in the most irrational manner. Ego destroys rationality and logic. It destroys our balance in thoughts and action. We have the compulsive need to prove that we are different and better than all others around us. We issue challenges by which we go out of our way to prove our statements. When we are victorious, our ego is fortified and this makes us feel better. We also enjoy annihilating the ego of others as it makes us feel better and taller than others. Ego is the cause of pain and break in relationships. It is the cause of downfall of homes and society. It is the root of upheavals in nations. It is the cause of battles and wars. When we look back with a clear head and check our past thoughts and actions, we wince at our own ego and stupidity. But our stupidity is rarely seen or acknowledged by us, as ego will not permit us to see the reality of our ignorance. Nor can we see how much damage we cause to ourselves and our loved ones. We are only interested in seeing that our will is established and the ego is the winner!

The tale below is a story of a farmer and his wife who played the game of ego wrestling. It would be a familiar scenario to all of us as we play and replay this wresting match many times in our lives. A farmer and his wife had finished the day’s work and were resting at home after their dinner. As darkness fell, the wind rose and the front door of their home was flung open. Both the husband and wife were too tired to get up and close the door. The husband ordered the wife and the wife demanded that the husband do it instead of ordering her around. Words were exchanged. Tempers rose. Ego became inflated as each demanded the other get up and close the door. Finally they decided to settle the matter through a wager.  The one who talks first should close the door. Then they both went to sleep leaving the front door open.

As the hours passed and midnight came, a wild dog entered the house. He went into the kitchen and upturned all the vessels and licked the vegetable and food kept there. The dog created a racket which both the husband wife heard. But none spoke a word or got up from the bed. Their ego would not permit them to speak first. 

In the morning, the kitchen was in a mess and there was no food which was clean and untouched by the wild dog. So the wife went out without speaking to a nearby mill to get some flour to make breakfast.  In the meantime, the barber of the village came on his rounds. He entered the farmer’s home as the door was open. He offered to cut his hair. The farmer did not reply. So the barber proceeded to cut his hair. He asked the farmer if he liked the hair cut. There was no response. This irritated the barber. So he shaved off all the hair and made the farmer bald. Still there was no response from the farmer. The barber cut off the left side of his moustache. No words still from the farmer. Then he shaved off the right side of his beard. Still there was silence from the farmer. The barber picked up some soot and rubbed it over the farmer’s face.  Still the farmer kept his mouth shut. The barber left the house saying that the farmer had become mad.

The farmer’s wife entered the house then. She was horrified to see the strange and ugly appearance of the farmer. She cried out:  O husband, what happened to you? The farmer opened his mouth and said: You spoke first. Go now and close the door!

Like the farmer and his wife, we permit endless loss to happen to us in relationships, goodwill, property etc but we do not give up our ego. If we do not give up our ego, it is not possible to experience the vast and sweet love of God and merge with the Light. Regular practice of SitaRam mantra, meditation and the teachings of the Guru help us to overcome our ego. Let us follow our practices sincerely and overcome our ego.  Let us speak out first and go and close the door!

Cut Her with the Sword!

Extreme Bhakti – Sri Ramakrishna

Today is the Punyathithi (death anniversary) of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Bhakti  or love for God is the easiest path to God. God is very easy to love. He has given us this life and means for living, this wonderful earth and waters, skies, stars, sun, moon, wind, fire and space.  His love for us is visible at all times. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa saw his Mother Kali in every atom of the Universe. Nothing existed apart from Her. She was All. All was She. Sri Ramakrishna’s bhakti had peaked to great heights and there was a yearning in him to merge with Her. He did not want himself to be apart from Her when he saw Her. He wanted to be one with Her. In other words, he did not want duality but oneness with Divinity. This is his experience of how he overcame  duality and merged with Her  and became One with Her:

Sri Ramakrishna worshipped Mother Kali all his life. Her smile embraced him wherever he looked. All was Her Form and Her Existence.  There was nothing apart from Her. There was a great need in him to experience Oneness with Divinity. He earnestly looked for a teacher who could help him. When the student is  ready, the Guru appears!  A  Paramhamsa named Totapuri appeared in his life. Sri Ramakrishna appealed to him for help.

Totapuri  assured him that it was not at all difficult to achieve. Sri Ramakrishna believed that there were two. All he had to do was drop this belief and they would be one. Sri Ramakrishna tried many times but he was not able to merge with Her. When he closed his eyes in meditation, She appeared and then there were the two of them. Totapuri advised him that when he saw the image of Mother Kali in front of him, he should pick up a sword and cut Her into two. The sword would be found in the same source from where the image of Goddess Kali appeared.

Sri Ramakrishna followed his teacher’s instructions and raised his sword. But he was unable to strike his Beloved Mother. He had spent far too many years worshipping and adoring Her. A devotee cannot raise his sword and strike his God. Sri Ramakrishna was unable to gather courage to cleave Her into two. Her entrancing smile made him ecstatic and he would weep tears of joy.

This went on for a few days and Totapuri became impatient. He told his student that it was his last chance and if he did not cut the image into two and achieve the goal, he would go away. Sri Ramakrishna tried again. This time just as he was about to bliss out, Totapuri slashed a long cut on the third eye of  Sri Ramakrishna with a piece of glass. When pain hit Sri Ramakrishna and blood gushed out, he was able to hold his focus. He raised his sword and cut Mother Kali into two. When Mother Kali fell apart, he became non dual – the sugar dissolves in the water,  the wave dissolves in the sea and the salt doll dissolves in the ocean.

Sri Ramakrishna remained in this state of Oneness for six days in total silence. He was not hungry or thirsty. There was no external awareness of the outside or  the world.  He sat in the bliss of Oneness with Universe. This was that and that was this. When he opened his eyes after six days, the first thing he said was: the last barrier has fallen.

Bhakti leads to Jnana or wisdom and Jnana leads to Bhakti. Those who do the japa of the SitaRam Mantra, meditation and follow the teachings of the Guru will attain both bhakti  and jnana. They will achieve the duality and  then leap to Oneness with Divinity.

Ego clouds truth

Ego is our identification with the body and not the soul. It is forgetting our real identity – that we are divine beings here on a temporary stay. Our permanent home is being one with the Eternal Bliss. Ego is strong in most of us. It comes from nurturing a separate identity from a very young age.  Our identification with the body and the feeling that we are special and separate from all others comes from clinging to our peculiar thoughts, faiths and beliefs.  We consider what we believe and think to be the only  view of world and life that is correct, while all other views as  wrong. By doing so, we move miles away from right perception and seeing the truth of life.

The soul is the light that shines within us. This light is usually not seen as it is clouded by our karma, thoughts and beliefs. We have layers and layers of set thinking, habits and actions which act like concrete walls and prevent the light of soul from shining through our presence and existence. There are certain teachings which are essential to peaceful life and coexistence and nurture and help to blossom the divinity within us. Teachings which stress on essentials like truth, patience, compassion, morality, wisdom guide us and help us live to a successful material life and receive grace to realise the inner truth. 

Certain other beliefs like money is most important factor in life, man’s worth is measured by the level of success he achieves in accumulation of property, people and power in his life cloud the inner reality and take us far away from the truth. Such beliefs strengthen the ego and distance us from God. These truths are well illustrated in the story given below:

Two friends – Upatissa and Kolita lived in a small village. Once there was a religious show in the village and while watching it both realised that this world and life were not real.  They developed an intense desire to search for the path to liberation. A wandering ascetic came to their village. They approached him to learn the truth. But there were not satisfied with his teachings. They decided to go in different directions in search of a teacher who could show them the way to truth. They decided that the first one who found the Inner truth should inform the other friend. They wandering around searching for a very long time but did not find the right teacher nor the truth. So they returned back to their village.

One day, Upatissa came across a venerable teacher and heard from him the gist of Dharma. When the teacher uttered a particular verse, Upatissa  was freed of the fetters of the mind and entered into the flow leading to enlightenment i.e. he became Sotapanna. As per their previous agreement, he went to his friend Kolita and explained his meeting with the new teacher and the verse through which he became Sotapanna. When he repeated the verse, his friend also became Sotapanna. They remembered their former teacher and went to him and said: We have found the path and the way, the verse by which we overcame the fetters of the mind. Buddha has come and he has formed the Sangha and  has shown all mankind the path to deathlessness. Let us go to him.

The teacher refused to go. He said that he had been a teacher to so many pupils and it was not possible for him to become a pupil now and become disciple of Buddha. It would be like turning a jar into a drinking cup. The majority of the people were ignorant and needed teachers like him. The few wise could go to Buddha.

So both the friends and many of their followers went to Buddha. They were admitted as monks. Within a fortnight both of them achieved enlightenment. They became the chief disciples of Buddha. Once day they met Buddha and told him about their former teacher. Buddha said that the teacher’s false pride had prevented him from seeing the truth as truth. He was mistaking that which is not truth  as truth and he would never realise the truth. The essence of Divinity cannot be achieved by clinging to false beliefs. Let us do SitaRam mantra japa, mediate and go within ourselves to see the real from that which is not real and achieve the Light.

Ego and flattery

All of us have ego and some of us are extremely egoistic. We have very high opinion about ourselves and we like to hear similar words of our supposed greatness and praises from others. False compliments are flattery. Flattery is very pleasing to the ego. Our ego craves for attention. When someone flatters us,  our ego is getting that attention and praises that  it craves for. When we let go of common sense and indulge in being ego-centric, we enjoy the company of those who flatter us. Their presence and words inflate our ego further and make us feel very good. 

A person of normal intelligence has awareness when someone pays him a sincere compliment and also knows when someone is flattering him/her. Flattery is false praise and always sounds insincere. But when our ego is inflated we are unable to distinguish between praise and flattery and accept insincere words as being right and true. Our vanity makes the false praises acceptable and welcome. Padding our ego with insincere  words that are not true leads to our downfall. A person who likes flattery is vulnerable from all sides and can be hit and attacked at anytime. We should beware of those who flatter us – they are like vicious wolves who parade as friendly dogs. The story below illustrates this truth:

There lived a mighty elephant in a forest. He was huge and very powerful. He was brutal, haughty and egoistic by nature. He used to roam the forest without restraint and pull down trees and rip  branches off the trees, without any purpose. He crushed innumerable nests with eggs and destroyed nestlings under his massive feet. All the animals in the forest were afraid of him. Even the tigers and the lions kept their distance from this elephant. No one was able to say anything to him, hurt him or kill him because of his gigantic size and ego.

Once, this elephant destroyed the burrows of jackals mercilessly during one of his strolls. The jackals were full of rage and called for a meeting. They were prepared to go to any extent to save their group. But killing the mighty elephant was not a small task. They discussed the strength and fierceness of the rogue animal and his weaknesses. Suddenly an old jackal volunteered to bring about the death of the mighty animal. His plan was based on cunningness and appeasing the ego of the elephant. There was no way the old jackal could match the huge animal in strength or ferocity.

The next day, the old jackal went to the elephant and bowed to him respectfully. He said: O Great One who possesses immeasurable strength, I bow to you. You are a great being. You are kind hearted, gentle and possess qualities of a leader. I come on behalf of all the animals of the forest to beg you to be our ruler. Your special qualities as leader make us choose you as our king. So kindly accept and rule us with your wisdom and compassion. I am here to take you to a gathering in the middle of the forest where all animals await your coronation. The astrologers have calculated the auspicious time and we must hurry. Please come with me. Hurry!

The elephant puffed with pride and self importance. He always wanted to be the King of the Jungle. So he accompanied the jackal to the place where the coronation was to be held. On the way, they walked through a swampy area. The old jackal walked easily over the swamp due to his lesser weight and light-footedness.  The elephant stepped on the swamp and started sinking. His huge weight pulled him down. He was frightened and asked the jackal to bring the other animals to help him out. The jackal replied: You are cruel and ruthless and have killed many in the jungle without a second thought. You deserve to die in this manner. The jackal walked off and the elephant was sucked in by the bog.

Our ego prompts us to believe in lies and we cause our own downfall. Let us learn to overcome ego and give up lies and flattery. The mind and ego can be overcome by the SitaRam Mantra, meditation and teachings of the Guru.

Ego – cause of all miseries

We are born in this world with a physical body and mental habits and impressions of past. We consider ourselves unique- physically, mentally and emotionally. We identify ourselves with our body and hence limit ourselves to our five senses, mind and intellect. We have knowledge that we possess a soul and that soul is a part of God and that principle of God exists in all creation around us. It is rare that we live with this consciousness. We are encouraged from beginning to have a separate identity and be distinct from others.  So we live our lives in a state of separation and without the perspective of unity of all creation

A baby has no sense of self. It responds to needs of body and actions of those near it. When we are very young, we  have a level of unity with all that is around us. As we grow older, we become conscious of physical and mental differences. We learn by looking at our elders and we emulate their behaviour and pride in the self. We learn to think with pride of my body, my mind, my intellect, my education, my accomplishments, my family, my status, my position, my power and I earn it all. Such thoughts give rise to ego- which is sense of separate self and pride in self. As long as we are covered with the darkness of ego, the bright light of the soul is not visible in us. We will always be alone and unable to tap into the divine love, wisdom, peace, bliss and balance which are the characteristics of the soul. Living life in such darkness leads to the pain and misery that we experience and see around us in this world.

The beauty and wisdom of God is present in every atom of creation and the Universe. When ridden by ego, we are unable to perceive the beauty of creation and life and grope in darkness. Full of ego and vanity, we live our lives without any purpose except earning more wealth and power which we leave behind ultimately. Our existence is ruled by anger, lust, envy, violence and attachment to sense of self. Perceiving ourselves as separate, we see all others as a threat to our existence and attack them. When we see someone weeping, we rejoice at his misery as we are better off at that point of time. Seeing a weak person, we hit out at him and we whimper and bend before those who are more powerful. We are miserable at the happiness of others and rejoice at the downfall of a mate. No pain moves us except our own. We are exuberant at our victories over others even if it costs us dearly. It is acceptable that we lose one eye as long as the other person loses both of his eyes. The humane aspect of our existence dies out and only a shell of man is left behind.

Man who has been created in the image of God is no longer Godlike when he is ruled by ego. There is a severe danger to human virtue, growth, progress and evolution due to ego and pride. When we are ruled by ego, we indulge in pleasure without conscience. We could hardly be bothered that others around us want for the basics in life – of food, clothes and shelter. Our focus is only on ourselves and our pomp and we live without conscience. We conduct our work and business without ethics and the growth in science and technology is without humanity. The society regresses and the government rules without principle and the strong seize wealth from the poor. The priests in the temple conduct religion as sale of salvation. Self transformation and sacrifice which are extremely essential for our journey back to Godhead are not taught or emphasised on.

It is very difficult to get rid of ego as we are taught to be egoistic from young age by our elders, the media and the society. One of the easiest ways of overcoming the ego is by walking the path of Bhakti. When we develop intense love for God and follow spiritual practices of japa and meditation, the bhakti or love that we have for God slowly dissolves our ego. We learn to attribute all the happenings in our lives – the good and bad to God and not to our self or our ego. There is an intense yearning within self to please God. So we seek out ways to do so and one of the main ways is to weed out the negativities within us and see the Grace of God around us at all times.  When we grow to be wholly dependent on God, our ego dissolves and we see Him within us and all around us. Then life becomes wondrous and worth living!

The cracked pot

God has created an amazing variety and species of life on Earth. The complexity and yet the startling simplicity of life, its varied functions, the amazing interdependence of the life for its smooth survival and growth are mind boggling. Every single species of life has its own place and unique importance in the grand plan of life. The life, work, sleep and play of every life form has its special slot and adds to the total growth and survival of all species. We know about this from observation and also from studying Sciences at school. We still do not know about the different species which could exist across the Universe and  the roles that they play in the overall structure of the Universe.

All species operate as per their nature except man. The other species do not have ego and are not hung upon their sense of self importance. Only we spend endless hours wondering if we are worthy of God, if we are worthy enough to carry out the duties assigned to us and the impact of our actions on others. We love to ponder about our roles and importance in the life and in the grand scheme of God. Some of us are born with a silver spoon in the mouth and think and behave as if we are the king of all that we survey. There are many of us who have been hurt by life in various ways and are struggling to live to the best of our ability. We are full of doubts about our service to mankind and God and whether imperfect service done with a broken heart and broken body are acceptable to God. Let us understand from the story below that we are indeed a part of God’s plans and a part of His great scheme of life:

An old woman lived at a distance from the stream. She used to carry water for her drinking needs daily by filling two mud pots which she hung by rope from the ends of an pole. She balanced the pole with the pots of water at each end and walked back home daily. One of the pots was perfect and always delivered the full portion of water while the other pot had a crack in it and arrived with only half the amount of water. Every day for two years the old woman carried the water in the pots to her home and arrived with only one and half pots. The perfect pot was very proud of itself and its work. It was accomplishing the purpose for which it had been made. The cracked pot was miserable. The old woman filled it completely with water daily but it was able to bring home only half a pot. It was ashamed of itself and its imperfection and its inability to complete its work.

Feeling frustrated and a completed failure, the cracked pot spoke to the old woman one day: There is a crack in my body. Even though you fill me fully with water, some of the water leaks and I am not able to carry the full amount of water back home. I am ashamed of myself. My flaw causes you so much loss. You are not able to get the full value for your effort. Please forgive me!

The old woman smiled and replied: Look at the flowers on the your side of  path. They are blooming. I know that there is a leak in the pot. So I sowed flowers on your side of the path. Each day when we walk back home, you water them and they are blooming. For two years, I have been able to get fresh fragrant flowers for worshipping God daily and decorating His altar. Your flaw has contributed to the beauty of the path and the beauty of my altar. We are all unique and have our own contribution to the beauty and worth of life!

We must remember that we are all cracked pots! We are all flawed in some way and are working our way towards perfection. But in the meantime before we achieve perfection, we still have important roles to play in life. We all contribute to the grandeur and beauty of life in some way or the other and our efforts are worthy of being offered to God. It is our fight to overcome our flaws that make our life more interesting and gives us more power to focus on God and His love. Despite our flaws, the love of God and His Grace flows through us.  Through our love for God and our spiritual practices of SitaRam mantra japa we can reach His Feet and in meantime complete our unique mission in life.

Diligence always pays!

Diligence is the virtue of hard work. It is steadfast and disciplined work. When we are diligent in our work, it indicates that we have the right work ethics. Work ethics is the belief that work is good in itself. It means that whatever work is assigned  to us, we should  perform it to the best of our ability with the belief that the work is good. When we are sincere and disciplined in our work, we can work with focus and concentration. Spirituality gives certain qualities like patience, understanding, wisdom, steadfastness, concentration, right values etc which help us in being diligent. No work is superior or inferior to another and all work given to us must be done with the faith that work is worship and it is a means of attaining God. The story of the young town crier teaches us the same:

At one time, a plague broke out in a city. Most of the people succumbed to the disease and died. A city banker, his wife and other members of the family also fell sick. The parents called their young son and ordered him to leave the city and remain elsewhere. He was asked to come only when the city was cleared of plague. The father informed him about some valuable treasure buried at a certain place. The son did as he was told and stayed away from the city. After a few years, he decided to return to the city.

Most of the city population had been wiped out by the sickness and the few survivors and new citizens did not recognise him.  He went to the place where his parents had buried the treasure and found it intact. He wished to remove it and use some of it for his expenses but realised that if he used the money, the people would think that a poor young man had become suddenly wealthy by wrongful means and would report to the King. Then surely his property would be confiscated. So he  left the treasure where it was and went about looking for a job to support himself. He got the job of a town crier. He used to walk around the streets early morning calling out and rousing people from their sleep and announcing the time to prepare food, feed the animals etc. He was a human alarm clock as there were no clocks in those days.

One morning, the King heard his call out as he was passing by. The King was a good judge of character by listening to voices. The King commented: This is the voice of a man of great wealth! A female attendant who overheard this remark was curious and investigated. She found out that it was the voice of an ordinary worker. The King passed the same comment again during the following days twice. The enquiry about the person also gave the same result. So the King’s attendant and her daughter disguised themselves as villagers and went to the home of the young man. They sought shelter at his house for a short time. During their stay in his home, the King announced twice that a certain ceremony had to be performed in the area where the young man lived and every household had to contribute some money. The young man had no money ready to offer the King. So he dug up the treasure and took out some gold coins. These coins were kept separately by the person who collected and handed over to the King. The King had the coins checked and found out that they were old coins not currently in use. So the young man was summoned to the court.

At the court, the young man admitted the truth and told the King of all the happenings. He also revealed to the King where the treasure was. The King was impressed by the honesty and hard work of the young man and his truthfulness. The Master who had hired the young man also declared that the young man was an excellent worker and did not feel that the job was beneath his dignity. So the King appointed him to his father’s position as a city banker and gave him one of his daughters in marriage.

Doing the SitaRam Mantra, Meditation and following the Guru’s teachings helps us to become more energetic, mindful, pure in conduct and discriminating. We become more diligent and are able to achieve our goals at work and in life.