A sincere new year wish

New-year time – the time of joy and freshness; the time to celebrate and welcome the new year with a lots of hope, optimism and enthusiasm; time to be with friends and family; time to make new resolutions; time to thank God for all the blessings and pray for more. Yes, once again it’s that time of the year which brightens us all.

A true seeker of inner happiness also remembers that along with the festivities and celebrations, it’s the time for some calibration – the time to review and grade ourselves against the true goals of human life – the goal of realizing the Truth; the goal of Self realization; the goal of achieving inner peace and true happiness.

Shri Yoga Vashistha Maharamayan

One of the jewels in the ocean of holy scriptures of true spiritual wisdom and Vedanta is Shri Yoga Vashistha MahaRamayana. This is one of the longest texts in Sanskrit, after the Mahabharata. It consists of about 32,000 shlokas, including numerous short stories and anecdotes used to help illustrate its content. The content of this holy scripture summarizes Sage Vasistha's teaching to Rama on the subject of Advaita Vedanta, the illusory nature of the manifest world and the principle of non-duality.

The scene setting of Shri Yoga Vashistha MahaRamayana  is like this. At the young age of sixteen, Prince Rama returns from touring the country, and becomes utterly disillusioned after experiencing the apparent reality of the world. A serious dispassion arose in his heart and he became totally uninterested in the worldly affairs up to an extent that he even left eating. This worries his father, King Dasaratha, who expresses his concern to Sage Vashistha. Sage Vashistha consoles the king by telling him that Rama's dis-passion (vairagya) is a sign that the prince is now ready for spiritual enlightenment.

The origin of this world

There are many questions related to the origin of this world that bother the seekers of Truth. How did this world come into being? Who created this world? What is this world made of? Is this world real or just an illusion? Who am I?

The fact is that no one has seen the origin of this world. All the theories and philosophies are based on research and analysis only. If you are interested to know about the origin of the world for the sake of worldly knowledge, then there are many scientific theories about the same. But for a spiritual seeker, the understanding of the origin of the world is meaningful only when it brings the seeker closer to the creator of the world; only when such understanding brings forth inner peace by settling the doubts.   

In order to gain understanding of the creation of this world and its creator, Vedas describe a very logical philosophy at length. Over the periods of thousands of years many Self realized Vedantic Saints had propounded this theory in simple words to the seekers. One of such Saint, scientist, astrologer and numerologist was Varahamihira. He was one of the nine jewels of the court of legendary King Vikramaditya in India during 6^th century. There are a couple of interesting accounts when he described the evolution of the world in simple and logical manner.

Art of living in the moment is happiness

It was a nice gathering of devotees in the temple of a village where a Self-realized Saint was visiting. A devotee approached the Saint and requested, “Dear Sir, I have a request for you. Please eradicate the sorrow from our lives.”

“Son, I become a monk only for the purpose of helping others and eradicating the sorrow from the lives of people. But it seems people are not much interested. Tell me, from whose life do you want to eradicate sorrow?”

“Hmm… Sir, please eradicate the sorrow from the lives of all the people here.”

The Saint started smiling. After a moment of silence, he said, “Alright son, if you insist then let’s talk about eradicating sorrow from the lives of all these people. To begin with, let’s categorize all the sorrows into 3 categories: sorrows of the past, sorrows of the future and the sorrows of the present time. Do you agree with me?”

Why are we happy some times and sad the other times?

During the days of his earnest seeking, Swami Akandananda used to go and meet many Saints while touring all over northern India. Once he came to know about a Saint who simply lived under a tree in a remote village. Upon meeting a Saint, usually Swamiji used to initiate a conversation mostly by asking a question.

When he went to see the Saint, he asked, “Dear Sir, why do I vacillate between happiness and sadness most of the times? I am happy sometimes and sad the other times.”

The Saint began to smile and said, “Son, if you sit in a trash bin and wonder why you are surrounded by trash, then it’s your mistake. While sitting in the trash can, one should not complain about the trash. Similarly, you are still sitting in your mind and then it is but natural that the trash of the world in the form of happiness and sadness will continue to pour on you. Rise above your mind. Take a deep dive in the inner realms of peace, equanimity and true happiness. Establish yourself in your true Sat-Chit-Ananda (Eternal-Conscious-Blissful) nature and then you can rise above the worldly happiness and sadness.”

How to wake up the pious spiritual hunger?

A seeker went to the Saint and asked, “Dear Sir, when we are here with you, when we listen to your talks, we are at peace with ourselves and we realize the importance of spirituality. But, when we go back to the world, once again we get dissolved into the world. We know that you talk about the importance of spiritual hunger, but how can we worldly people invoke that pious hunger?”

The Saint closed his eyes, and then after a moment of silence, he said, “Dear son, a patient was suffering from a taste disorder wherein he lost sweet taste buds because of which he couldn’t taste anything sweet. When he approached a wise Ayurvedic doctor, the doctor advised him to keep sugar candy (mishri) in the mouth and continue to lick it. He took the advice and did as recommended. Initially, he didn’t get any taste from licking the sugar candy. But finally one day the patient regained the taste buds and began to enjoy the sweetness once again.  Similarly, the Saints also advice to keep listening to the discourses, keep chanting the holy name, keep doing meditation and continue the company of pious seekers even though you don’t enjoy it; even though you don’t have that hunger for knowing the Truth. A day will come soon when you will begin to enjoy the sweetness associated with the seeking of the divine Truth.”

Spiritual hunger for knowing the TRUTH

Along with the birth of this body, hunger and thirst are also born. During first few years, this hunger is limited to physical in nature – hunger for food, thirst for water. But as we grow older, this hunger begins to expand and start running in different directions – hunger for wealth, hunger for power, hunger for fame and a lot more. Eventually, it is this hunger and the desire for more, that becomes the root cause of all the sorrow, stress and restlessness in human life. 

The hunger described so far is natural and arises without any effort. However, the spiritual hunger for knowing the Truth or realizing the Self or the God arises only to the fortunate ones with pious discrimination (Viveka). It only arises in a pure heart having love for God. Everyone around us has hunger for the worldly objects, but blessed is the one with the divine hunger for knowing the Truth – The Truth about the Aatma (Self) and about the omnipresent Paramatma (God).

Relation between Devotion, Knowledge and Dispassion

The aspirants of God realization often hear different viewpoints from the Saints and the scriptures about the different paths of attaining the God or Salvation or Self realization. Some claim the path of devotion (Bhakti-Yoga) to be the superior one, while others claim path of knowledge (Gyana-Yoga) and dispassion (Vairagya) to be the superior one. A few others also praises about the path of selfless service (Karma-Yoga).

This debate about the superior path is not new. In fact it is as ancient as the spirituality itself. There is a beautiful story described in the Mahatmaya of Bhagavata Purana (verse 48 of first chapter), which can help you to dissolve some of these doubts.

At the beginning of the present age (Kali Yuga), Sage Narada traveled all over the holy places on earth, but he couldn’t find peace, truth, purity, charity or happiness anywhere because humanity has turned to bad actions. On his journeys, he had witnessed selfish people, ascetics who pursue sensual enjoyment, families who quarrel and scenes of pervading sorrow everywhere. When he reached Vrndavana, on the banks of river Yamuna, he saw a puzzling sight. A dejected young woman, being attended by heavenly angles, was crying over two old men who were lying unconscious beside her. At the arrival of Sage Narada, she controlled her cry and approached the sage for assistance.

God’s grace is hidden in all the struggles and hardships

A young boy learned about the caterpillar metamorphosis at school. Inquisitively, he went out in the garden in search of a cacoon and ah, he found one too. He was so excited to bring home the cacoon, put it in a glass jar and started observing it with a childlike curiosity. To his surprise after a few hours, the shell of the cacoon started breaking and the caterpillar began to struggle to come out of the cacoon. His struggled continued for hours. Slowly he saw the wings like things started coming out, but the caterpillar was struggling hard. He observed patiently, but his heart was filled with pity for the poor caterpillar who was struggling for a long time to come out of the cacoon.

Finally, he couldn’t hold himself and he cut the string of the cacoon with a blade to relieve the caterpillar. But, to his dismay, the caterpillar fell flat on his back and the juice from the shell swelled into his body. He couldn’t see all this and he left the room to play with his friends. After a few hours when he returned, the caterpillar was dead.

The very next day he narrated the whole episode to his teacher and asked, “Sir, I tried to help the caterpillar very carefully, but how come he died?”

Knowing the Supreme TRUTH is the goal of a true seeker

Caution: This topic is for advanced seekers. In my humble opinion, new seekers might take a long time to comprehend this one.

It  took  me  a  long   time  to  understand   the meaning  of the word “TRUTH”, when it comes to   spirituality. I  mean  the  word  “TRUTH” in  reference  to the spiritual quotes like: 

• Know the Truth and you will be blessed.
• You can recite and discuss scripture, all you want, but until you drop everything, you will never know Truth. – Astavakra Gita
• The Truth of oneself alone is worthy to be scrutinised and known. – Ramana Maharshi
• The knower of Truth is never miserable in the world,for the whole universe is filled with Himself alone. – Astavakra Gita

In the initial years of my seeking, I couldn't relate to the phrase, “Knowing the Truth”. I could only understand telling the truth. In the worldly conduct, it is generally taught to the young ones that one should always tell the truth, never lie. It took me long time to understand that the truth (which is opposite of a lie) is different than the spiritual Truth. In reference to the worldly affairs, telling a truth means telling as it is, as per your understanding, as your senses have perceived. But at the same time, they say, whatever your eyes see is not always the truth. In other words, the truth can change from person to person, based on their situation, their perceptions and their pre-conceived notions.

Go a little deeper and you will be blessed

This is a story of the olden days. A wood merchant used to go to the forest early morning, gather some woods and sell it tirelessly the whole day in the adjacent town. He used to barely make his both ends meet after working hard all day long. Tired of his daily routine, he was looking for a way out of his routine miserable life. One day, he took a different route into the forest and found a beautiful hut on the banks of a small river. When he went closer, he saw a Sadhu Baba (monk), who was absorbed in mediation.

He paid his adorations to the Saint, and then revealed to him his tiresome situation of life. The Saint looked at his face with bright eyes filled with affection and said, “Son, go a little deeper and you will be blessed.” After saying these words, the Saint closed his eyes and went back to meditation.

Significance of Guru-Purnima

Saints are like cloud, who grasp the wisdom from the ocean of Vedanta and holy scriptures; and shower the same wisdom upon the seekers with love and affection by giving examples from day to day life. Such Saints are the clouds that shower the Truth, the love and the bliss in the heart of the seekers. Such Saints pull us out of the darkness (of me and mine, worldly desires, ignorance and the agonies) and introduce us to the ever glowing light of pure wisdom, supreme peace and blissfulness within. The word Guru is derived from two words, 'Gu' and 'Ru' . The Sanskrit root "Gu" means darkness or ignorance. "Ru" denotes the remover of that darkness. Therefore one who removes darkness of our ignorance is a Guru.

In ancient times, the true seekers realized that we have so many festivals throughout the year. However, we still don’t have a day that is devoted to the true Saints and Gurus. Such true seekers, whose life got filled with the wisdom of the Self, divine peace and inner joy after coming in touch with the God loving and Self realized Saints, decided to pay homage to their beloved masters. The seekers decided with unanimity that the most appropriate day to pay homage to their beloved masters cannot be the day better than the birthday of Rishi Ved Vyasa. The 1^st full moon day that falls in the month of Ashadh (June–July) is celebrated as Gurupurnima by the Guru loving seekers around the world.

Spiritual human anatomy – the Pancha Kosha

Modern Science only explains the human anatomy based on the information gained with the help of five senses and medical gadgets. When it comes to mind and beyond, the contemporary Science couldn't contain all the answers. The Rishis and Saints of India performed deep analysis during meditation about the subject, thousands of years ago and came out with a wonderful explanation of human anatomy. For a true seeker, it is very important to gain complete understanding of our own composition while performing deeper Self analysis.

According to the ancient philosophy of Vedanta, the wonderful manifestation of Consciousness or Soul occurs in the physical world with the help of five Kosha (layers or sheaths). These Kosha refers to different aspects as layers of subjective experience ranging from physical experiences to the subtle levels of breath, emotions, mind, spirit and beyond. Together, with these five layers, the living being acts as one holistic system.

Chup Sadhana by Swami Ramsukhdasji

Swami RamSukhdasji was one of the most revered, totally renunciate, profoundly wise and ever blissful Saint, who left the human body a few years ago (in year 2004) at the age of one hundred and two. He was a unique Sadhu, who lived his life on “Bhiksha” for more than 85 years, never touched money during all those years, never stayed in one place till his body allowed, never formed any Ashram, never made any disciples, never got associated with any religious organization and never allowed anyone to take even his single picture.

During his lifetime, Swamiji has written many books including a detailed commentary on Srimad Bhagawad Geeta, which is famously known as “Sadhak Sanjivini”. At the same time, he continued to deliver spiritual discourses with deep wisdom of Vedanta for more than eighty years till his last days. His earnest desire was to help other fellow seekers in such a way that they could realize the Truth in shortest possible time with minimum efforts.

Leave all to God, don't worry and be happy!

A newly married young royal couple was traveling in the boat to cross the river Ganges. Suddenly storm like conditions surfaced, wind started blowing and the boat started shaking. The Queen moved closer to the King who had no trace of worries of his face. She whispered in King's ear, “My dear, aren't you scared?”

The King was fortunate to have the blessings and company of the Saints from an early age. He took his sword out of its case and put it on the Queen's neck. The Queen was startled for a moment and then started laughing. The King asked, “Aren't you scared?”

“The sword is in the hands of my master, not my enemy. Why would I be scared?”

“My dear, our life and this boat are also in the hands of our master – our God, who is our Supreme well wisher. Then, why would I be scared,” answered the King in the same tone. 

Change your thought process to change your destiny

“Dear Sir , please help me! What ever I do, I am not able to succeed. It seems the word success is missing from my destiny itself. How can I change my destiny? Is it possible to change one's destiny,” asked a young seeker to his spiritual master.

The master looked at the young boy and answered compassionately, “Dear son, sure it is possible to change your destiny. Your true consciousness, your will power can create wonders. There is nothing in the world that cannot be achieved with the help of pure will and firm resolution of a focused mind.”

Other disciples also gathered and the master continued with his discourse in his deep voice filled with affection, “Let's understand the origin of destiny in order to understand about how to change it. It all begins with your thoughts; your thoughts manifest in the form of words; your words in turn become your actions; the series of your actions eventually give shape to your habits; your habits become your character and your character decides your destiny. Or in other words, it is something like this:”

Thoughts → Words → Actions → Habits → Character → Destiny

A wonderful Kabir bhajan

Kabirji to me, represents a divine inspiration, a Saint who had reached the highest form of divinity, mirthfulness, blissfulness and merriment while living in the human body.  His poems resonate with praise for the true Master who reveals the divine through direct experience, and denounce more usual ways of attempting God realization such as pilgrimage, chanting, austerities etc. He used bold words to impress upon us that the divine Truth lies within ourselves and not outside, in temples, mosques or churches. Each word of his poetic verse reveals divine eternal truth and deeply touch your heart. He was a Saint beyond any sect or religion; he was loved by all – be it a Hindu, Sikh or a Muslim. His poetic verses were filled with boldness and at the same time, with the immense love for the Eternal Essence, the God.

I would like to present to you one of my favorite bhajan in which Kabirji, the blissful mystic of India, attempted to reveal the mirthful state of the one who has found the divine Truth within, who has realized the true Self.

Piousness and spiritual self analysis

A renowned priest of a famous north Indian temple went to meet a Self realized Saint in his ashram located on the foot of the Himalayas. After observing the blissful state of the Saint for a couple of days in the ashram, the priest gathered courage to open up his heart in front of the Saint. With tears in his eyes he entered into the Saint's room, and said, “Dear Master, I need your help.”

The Saint looked at the priest in a disarray and replied, “Son, you are such a renowned priest with thousands of followers. You have memorized all the Shlokas of the Vedas and Upanishads. You give discourses on Vedanta and Srimad Bhagawad Gita to others. How can a ordinary being like me help you?”

“Dear Sir, you are right in stating that I have thousands of followers and am fortunate to gain knowledge of Vedanta by studying the holy ancient scriptures of the Vedas and the Upanishads. By God's grace, I have gained a lot of fame and wealth. However, still something is missing.”

The easiest and the most difficult means of God realization

A disciple asked the spiritual master, “Dear Sir, what is the most difficult and the most easiest means of God realization?”

“Naam jaapa, chanting the God's name is the easiest and at the same time, the most difficult means of God realization,” answered the master.

After a brief silence, the master continued, “Chanting the God's name seems to be difficult to those who attempt it without gaining the proper understanding of the spiritual knowledge of the Self and the God. It seems challenging to those who are still indulged in the worldly pleasures from within, but try to chant the holy name in futile. It seems tough to those who have not yet experienced the peace associated with the selfless service and whose actions are only focused on the material gain. It seems difficult to those who have never met a Self realized saint, never listened to the words of inner wisdom and who are ignorant about the inner peace.”

After glancing at the nod from the disciple, the master continued, “It's like the son of a sheppard who told his school teacher, “Sir, please don't ask me to write one to hundred. I would do anything for you. I would herd a hundred sheep for you whole day. I would do all your household chores for whole day. But, please don't make me write one to hundred. Its very difficult for me.””

Development of the sixth sense

One of the biggest challenge in front of the seekers is that they want to experience or realize God in the same manner as they experience or realize the world – with the help of their five senses. Those who realized the God propound that God is beyond the reach of five senses and can only be realized with the help of sixth sense - the sense with the help of which one can explore the inner world for ever lasting divine peace and true happiness.

One of the humble disciple revealed his heart in front of a Self realized Saint, “Dear Sir, please excuse my folly. If you allow then I would dare to tell you the truth. I don't feel anything in meditation. In fact I get bored or often feel sleepy. But I have heard from you and from other saints that the highest form of peace and blissfulness can be experienced by quietening the mind in meditation. Please shower your grace on me and tell me where am I going wrong.”

The master instructed him to blind fold his eyes and accompany him for a walk. After reaching a scenic spot on the bank of river Ganges, the master started praising the scenic beauty, the beauty of the fauna and flora, the beauty of the flowing water, the colorful birds, the animals and the wonders of nature around him.

Valuable treasure of consciousness

Man is able to achieve what he is not even able to imagine. A few hundred years ago nobody would have imagined about the scientific progress that the contemporary man has achieved in the recent times. Have you ever wondered about the origin of such imagination and creativity? The valuable treasure of all the imagination, creativity, skills, abilities, strength, knowledge, peace, happiness and love resides within, in your consciousness. Even then the contemporary man remains restless, fearful, depressed and unsatisfied. How unfortunate and how paradoxical is that?

There was a beggar in Mumbai, who lived, slept and begged at the same spot throughout his life. One morning, he didn't wake up. People gathered all around and started talking about the dead beggar. Someone suggested that since he didn't left that spot for many decades, he must have hidden his savings around the same spot. They started digging the place, and found a few small packets of change, here and there , while digging. Someone else suggested to dig deeper. As they continued to dig deeper, they found a antique treasure with a lot of jewels and valuables from the same spot. Someone commented, “How unfortunate the beggar was? Throughout his life he continued to seek pennies without knowing that he is sitting on top of such a valuable treasure.”

What is the most important subject in life?

My nine year old daughter asked, “Dad, we have so many subjects now, literacy, maths, science, social studies, music etc. What do you think is the most important subject in life?”

After a moment of pondering, I said, “My dear, the most important subject in life is the life itself – the subject of Self knowledge. But it is ironical that it is not taught in the schools or colleges.”

“Not one more subject, Dad!”, my daughter laughed away the discussion. However, it gave a point to ponder and the subject of my next blog.

There are two aspects of life – one is the outer world, which can be perceived with the help of five senses. We all live and conduct in the outer world. However, while conducting in the world, the state of our mind, the state of our inner peace, the state of our happiness, our mood, our emotions depend on the inner world – the world, which is beyond sensory perceptions. Similarly, the knowledge or the wisdom also has two aspects – the outer wisdom of the world and the spiritual wisdom of the Self- the wisdom of the inner world.

If God is our supreme well wisher, then why did He create sorrow?

God created the beautiful life and is the supreme well wisher of each and every being. Then how can the same God create sorrow? God didn't create sorrow, but the man did. It is not the God, but it is the untamed mind that creates sorrow; it is the ignorant mind, that considers this illusionary world as truth and runs after cravings of the momentary pleasures and in turn, creates sorrow; it is the restless mind that hankers for worldly happiness and creates sorrow; it is the unenlightened mind that is full of doubts about the Self and the inner world that creates the sorrow.

If someone blames God for the sorrows in life then that reminds me of a short story. One of the wealthy man of the village built a water well for the benefit of whole village. Once a little child fell into the well while playing. The mother rushed immediately to the scene and started cursing the wealthy man. Well was built for the benefits of the villagers, but if the well is misused, then it isn't the fault of the builder.

Expand your vision and look at the beautiful life

A critique once wrote a long letter pointing about all the shortcomings in a Saint and his followers. In the reply, the Saint wrote a short story, “A painter once drew a beautiful painting on a wall. Everyone who looked at the painting from a distance, got delighted and showered a few words of appreciation. At the same time, there were certain ants creeping on the wall trying to look for the holes. Unless the ant gets an expanded vision to look at the whole wall and appreciate the painting, it will continue to look for the holes.”

Beauty or ugliness, Good or bad -it's all in your outlook. You should continue to expand your vision unless everything and everyone in this world appears to you a unique and beautiful creation of the Supreme. You should continue to broaden your vision until you get the glimpse of Truth. Such a magnificent outlook, such a broad vision can only be attained when you begin to explore the inner world, the spiritual world in the company of those who have already attained it.