Happiness Blog for The Seekers of Inner Happiness

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

2012-01-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

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.

God gifted us all with a world full of wonders and a pristine body with trillions of cells as pristine as a dew-drop at the time of birth. But, it is the mind which doesn't count the blessings, but engage in the an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit of wealth, power and happiness, and in turn creates sorrow. Human afflictions are either physical (bodily) or mental. The wise ones realize that mankind is suffering from mental afflictions, more than the physical. In fact they realize that most of the health related issues are also results of mental restlessness and anxiety.

The sages of India did a lot of contemplation on sorrow. Patanjali Maharaj proposed that most of the sorrows of the world are associated with the pleasures of the world and can be broadly categorized into three categories – Taap dukh, Sanskaar dukh and Parinaam dukh. When you crave for the worldly pleasures, you suffer from Taap dukh. For example, when you crave for a bigger house, a bigger car, a powerful position or any kind of luxuries of the world, your heart burns in that craving and the sorrow associated with such cravings is called as Taap dukh.

When you enjoy the pleasures of the world, your mind gets used to it. The expressions, which are engraved in your mind while consuming the worldly pleasures, result into the habitual tendency and the associated sorrow. For example, the habit of drinking, smoking, partying etc becomes your sanskaar (habit) and the associated sorrow falls into this category of Sanskaar dukh.

When you enjoy the pleasures of the world in excess, without controlling yourself, then the results also bring forth sorrow and such sorrow falls into the category of Parinaam dukh. For example, if you love eating without restraining your cravings, you gain weight which results into many health issues.

Expand your vision and look at the beautiful life

2012-01-14T07:15:00.000-08:00

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.

From ground level, the earth appears to be flat and mundane. As you rise up, your vision changes and same earth appears to be a beautiful artifact of blue rivers, greenery and colorful land. Once you reach to the level of space, you get the true and beautiful glimpse of spherical shape of earth.

A mystic wrote :

“nazar badli to nazare badle, khisti ne badla rukh to kinare badle”

Meaning: “With the change in vision, the view also got changed; when the boat changed the direction, even the destination also changed.”

Even in the physical world, those who have bigger vision, those who look at challenges of life from hundred feet often succeed. The president of the country certainly have bigger vision than an ordinary citizen. A CEO of the company certainly have bigger vision than an employee of certain department. As long as you continue to expand your vision, you continue to make progress in life.

Same is the case in the spiritual world : as long as you continue to expand your vision, you continue to make progress towards attainment of inner peace and true happiness. Once you begin to bind your vision within the scope of a religion or a doctrine, you limit yourself. Only those with an expanded vision come closer to getting the glimpse of Truth and the supreme blissfulness.

A sincere new year wish

2011-12-31T06:39:00.000-08:00

New-year time – the time of joy andfreshness; the time to celebrate andwelcome the new year with a lots of hope, optimism and enthusiasm; time to be with friends and family; time to makenew 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 alsoremembers that along with the festivities and celebrations, it’s the time forsome calibration – the time to review and grade ourselves against the true goalsof human life – the goal of realizing the Truth; the goal of Self realization; the goal of achieving inner peace and true happiness.

Just like the businessmen perform auditof their incomes and expenses at the end of the year, the true seeker performsaudit of his heart – am I still seeking outer pleasures or inner peace? Am Idoing anything in my life that could bring a smile on someone’s face? Am Istill getting worried at times or trying to remain equanimous at all the times?Am I making progress in gaining the understanding of this world, life, the Selfand the God? Am I always seeking more in life or sparing a few moments to paymy gratitude for all the blessings in my life? Is the goal of my life to becomerich with worldly belongings or rich with contentment and inner happiness?

I sincerely wish all of the readers ofthis blog a very happy, healthy and peaceful new year!

May God make your new year a truly happyone!

Not only by granting you unbrokensunshine,

But also by keeping your face bright, even inthe shadows;

Not only by making your path easy,

But also by making you sturdy toexcel all hurdles;

Not only by providing you with worldlycomforts,

But also by revealing to you theinner peace and joy;

Not only by making you wiser in theoutside world,

But also by showering upon you thewisdom of the Self;

May God help you to rejoice within, inspiritual peace and happiness!

If God created the world, then who created God?

2011-12-17T06:26:00.000-08:00

This question has equally baffled the young and the old; the wise and not so wise; the scientists and the spiritual beings, and even some of my friends. If you are also curious to take a deep dive for exploring the answer, then we have to analyze the question itself.

The word "God" is perhaps the most widely perceived word in the language. It has varied meaning depending on the the upbringing, religion, culture and the mindset of the person, who is asking the question. Most of the religious people or I would say the beginners believe in a God with some form of personality (Vishnu, Shiva, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Guru Nanak or others of that kind). For such believers, the question makes some sense - “If God created everything, then who created God?”

However, when you go further deep into spirituality or the spiritual aspect of most of the religions, then the true God is mostly described as a omnipresent, eternal (which ever present, never born, never dies), conscious and blissful formless supreme Energy which is beyond the experience of five senses. I am referring to the “Par-Brahm-Parmatma” or “SatChitAnanda” of Hindus, “Sat Shri Akaal” of Sikhs, “Allah” of Muslims or “The God” (in the trinity – the God, the Son and the Holy Spirit) of Christians. Such a God is described by Saints as “Akaal Purush”, the one that is beyond time. When the true seeker begins to understand the meaning of such a Sat-Chit-Anand (Eternal-Conscious-Blissful) God, which always exists, which never born or die, then the question itself begin to evaporate.

How? It is a universal law that whatever gets created, gets destroyed also with time. The true God, the formless ever-present eternal conscious blissful Energy, never gets created, nor destroyed. All the forms of living and non-living things originates from that Supreme Consciousness and finally merge into it. Just like, at the surface of the ocean, water appears to be present in so many forms – the drops, the waves, the foam, the bubbles etc, but deep down it's all One – just the Water. Similarly at the physical level of five senses, you see so many forms in this beautiful world, but deep down – its all One Conscious Energy – the God.

Someone asked a Self realized Saint, “Sir, when we look at a beautiful painting, it reminds us of the painter as well. Similarly, when we look at this beautiful creation, then we should also be sure that the creator of the world exist- the God. Do you agree?”

After a moment of silence, the Saint replied, “Son, your argument makes sense. But I would like to add that in case of painter-painting analogy, the painter remains separate from the painting. The painting might continue to exist even when the painter die. So more appropriate analogy is that of a dancer and the dance. This world is like a beautiful dance of the Supreme Dancer. When the Dancer stops dancing, only the Dancer remains. Even while dancing, the beautiful dance is just an illusion, the Truth remains the same – The Dancer only.”

While describing such an eternal God, here are some verses from Vedanta:

From Shrimad Bhagwad Gita:

"jyotisam api taj jyotis, tamasah param ucyate

jnanam jneyam jnana-gamyam, hridi sarvasya visthitam" ||Shrimad Bhagwad Gita 13-18||

Meaning: "He is the source of light in all luminous objects. He is beyond the darkness of matter and is un-manifested. He is knowledge, He is the object of knowledge, and He is the goal of knowledge. He is situated in everyone’s heart."

From Shri Mundaka Upanisad:

"tat etat satyam yatha su-diptat pavakad; visphulingah sahasrasah prabhavante

sa-rupah tathaksharad vividhah saumya; bhavah prajayante tatra caivapi yanti"

Meaning:The Supreme God is real and eternal. As many thousands of sparks come from a blazing fire, so many different living entities are manifested from the imperishable Supreme God and then again go & merge into Him.

A true seeker tries to look for the best in others

2011-12-10T07:21:00.000-08:00

There is nothinggood or bad in the world; only your thinking, your mindset and your outlook makes it so. With anunderstanding of this universal law, a true seeker always try to lookat the virtues of others and shortcomings in himself. While countingthe merits in others, his own life begin to fill with merits. Whilenoticing the pleasing behavior of others, his own behavior becomespleasing. In the beginning if its difficult for you to find virtuesin others, then sing, hear, read or remember the virtues of God inthe company of devotees. The devotees sing praises of God,contemplate at the divine virtues of God and eventually those divinevirtues make home in their own heart.

The VedanticSaints believe and come to realize the philosophy of “Vasudevasarvam iti” meaning “God (the Supreme Consciousness) is presenteverywhere and in every being”. They always look at the divinevirtues in every being. Their sight is fixed on the inherent divinityin every being. Just like sun don't differentiate between ameat-eater lion and a bovine goat; the sun provides same sunshine toall; the river provides same water to everyone irrespective of theirnature; similarly, the saint gives same love to everyone. The trueseeker who come in contact of such Saints also attempt to practicethe same. In this manner the divine qualities of peace, equanimityand blissfulness begins to evolve in his own heart.

On the other hand,a worldly being tends to waste time in gossip, look for theimperfections in others and eventually becomes bundle of objectionsand complaints. In this manner such a being remain restless andagitated. What you seek, is what you get.

In Mahabharata,Guru Dronacharya once asked his disciple, “Duryodhana, please go inthe adjacent village and count how many meritorious people are therein the village.” Duryodhana spent the whole day and returned in theevening with an answer, “Dear Master, I spent the whole day in thevillage while looking for a meritorious being, but unfortunately Icouldn't find even single one.”

Next day, GuruDronacharya called his other disciple, Yudhistra and said,“Yudhistra, please go in the adjacent village and count how manyimperfect or immoral people live there.” Yudhistra returned in theevening with an answer, “Dear Master, I couldn't find any. Everyoneseems to be meritorious and full of virtues to me.”

Nothing is good orbad in the world; only thinking makes it so. Never try to judgeothers and always look for the divine virtues in others whileremembering the divinity that resides in their heart.

Relation between Soul and the God

2011-11-27T07:40:00.000-08:00

A disciple askedthe Self realized master, “Dear Sir, what is the relation betweenSoul and God?”

The master closedhis eyes for a moment and then said in his deep and calm voice, “Son,the relation between soul and the Supreme Soul, the God, is similar tothe relation between the water drop and ocean; relation between thegold ornaments and gold; relation between the body and the nature.”

“Respectedmaster, can you please explain it in a little more detail.”

“The goldornaments exists in a variety of shape and form; but these ornamentsoriginates from gold and then finally, after years of use, leavetheir form to become one with gold again. During this whole time, inall the forms, the true nature remains that of gold only. Similarly,the water drops take different forms of bubbles and huge waves in theocean, but remain part of the ocean. Water drops even leave the oceanto take form of vapors, become cloud, snow, rain, river water andthen finally become one with the ocean again. During this whole time,in all the forms, the true nature of all the forms remains that ofwater only.”

After a briefpause, the master continued, “If you analyze carefully, it is veryinteresting that human body, which is made up five elements (earth,water, air, fire and space), arises from the nature; maintains thebalance between those five elements throughout the life; and thenfinally, let go of the five elements to become one with the nature.”

'So, you aretelling that the Soul is part and parcel of God, and then finallybecome one with the God?”

With a smile onhis face the master replied, “Even Shri Krishna told in SrimadBhagwad Gita:”

mamaivamso jiva-loke jiva-bhutahsanatanah

manah sasthanindriyani prakrti sthani karsati||Bhagwad-Gita 15-7||

Meaning:

Theembodied living entity is God's infinitesimal potency andeternal; in the world of embodied living entities the influence ofthe material energy is carried by the mind and the six perceptualsenses.

With some signs ofconfusion on his face, the disciple gathered some courage and asked,“But Sir, its very difficult to believe that we are part and parcelof God. God made the world, it's objects and the beautiful living andnon-living beings. But, we can't even create a sparrow?”

The smile on themaster's face became wider and he said, “Alright son, thisdiscussion is becoming too long and I am thirsty. Please go and fetchsome water from river Ganges for me.”

The disciple wentto the river and returned with a pot full of water from the river.

While looking atthe water, the master commented, “Son, are you sure this is waterfrom the grand river? The river water hold millions of fishes,sand, plants, and many other forms of living beings. But this water in thepot has none of those.”

“Sir, I swear toGod that this is the water from river Ganges.”

“Son, I alsoswear to the same God that your true Self, your Soul is the part andparcel of God.”

They both startedlaughing.

Being IN-dependent for true inner happiness

2011-11-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

From dawn till dusk, from childhood till death, all the living beings strive for happiness, true long lasting peaceful happiness, but remain unfulfilled. During childhood, the child thinks that he will be happy when he grows up; during school days, the student thinks that he will be happy when he goes to college; During college, the student thinks that he will be happy after getting job; After getting job the young man or woman thinks that he or she will be happy after getting a companion; After getting companion, the couple thinks that they will be happy after building the family and settling down with a lot of wealth.

And then the mid-life crisis begins, when the same being begins to look at the past and thinks that they were happier during the childhood or youth. Now, the fear of mediocre, mundane life and old age grips the mid aged being. Slowly the senility begins to show the signs. And then one day, the poor being end up in unfulfilled state of mind.

Throughout life, people continue to make their happiness dependent either on the future or on the past; on other people around them; on objects and wealth of the world; on the social status; and on million other things around them. But they never search where it is lost.

The contemporary man keeps on running here and there in search of happiness just like the musk deer which continue to chase for the pleasing scent throughout the life in the forest. But the poor deer doesn't know that the source of the charming scent lies within the center of its own stomach.

Those who found the supreme peace and inner happiness, found it within. Those Self realized saints suggests that instead of being dependent for your inner happiness, one should be independent – IN dependent. Meaning - dependent on the one who is within – your own eternal blissful Consciousness – your own true Self – your own pure Soul. The art of exploring within and becoming IN-dependent is what true spirituality is all about – to look within for ever lasting Supreme peace and highest form of happiness.

Recognize your own true Self

2011-10-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

Your true nature is Sat-Chit-Ananda (eternal-conscious-blissful). You are pure consciousness, part and parcel of the Supreme Consciousness, the God. You are pure, peaceful, complete Soul, part and parcel of the Supreme Soul, the Paramatma. You are the King of Kings, you are the supreme power. To realize this Truth is the highest goal of human life. Even after taking human birth, if one remains perturbed, confused and unfulfilled, then human birth is a waste. Unless and until the true seeker realizes his own True nature, he won't be able to get rid of all forms of miseries, he won't be able to gain the supreme peace or the highest form of inner happiness. How difficult is it to realize one own's Self?

Let me tell you a short story in this regard. Once upon a time, there was a King named Hari Singh in the western part of India. On one of the Holi festival, he went out of his palace in common attire to enjoy the festivities with the masses. He saw a group of people were consuming an intoxicating beverage called bhang in the corner of a street. He also joined them and started drinking bhang.

He began to enjoy the drink. Under the spell of that drink, he lost his senses and forgot his true self. He got addicted to bhang in such a manner that he spent many days on the street with other street beggars. He forgot about his own status and started considering himself also as ones of the beggars.

One day, the beggars were praising the King and talking about how the King generously gives charity every morning. He decided to go to the the palace next morning for seeking some of the charities from the King.

Next morning, when he went to the palace, the doorman thought - 'This beggar looks like our King, but how come is he in the form of a beggar. He confused doorman informed the minister about the beggar.

The minister, who was already looking for the King for past few days came in a rush and recognized the King. He asked the beggar about his demand.

The beggar said, “I want to meet the King for seeking some charities.”

The intelligent minister figured out that the King is under the spell of bhang. The minister brought a mixture of curd and lemon. He said, “Sure, I can help you meet the King. But you have to drink this mixture before that.”

When the King drank the mixture, he threw up and regained his senses after a few minutes. The minister said, “Now tell me, do you really want to meet the King.”

The King started smiling and said, “Look my friend. Don't tell about this episode to anyone.”

Before laughing on the state of that King, we should also understand that similar to that King under the spell of drunkenness, we are also under the spell of the maya (illusion). We have also forgotten our own true Self - our own royal, eternal, peaceful and blissful nature. Unless and until we recognize our own true nature, we won't be able to claim the kingdom of supreme peace and inner happiness.

Three ways of God realization

2011-10-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

To realize the Supreme Truth, the Supreme Consciousness or the God is the highest goal of human life. Those, who yearn for such a blissful realization are the true seekers (irrespective of their religion or background). Such pure hearted beings pursue their seeking in many different ways based on their personality, their experiences, the conditioning of their mind and based on the path followed by their ideals or masters. Broadly, all the different ways of such divine pursuit falls into three different categories.

The first type of seekers give more emphasis to this world and their bodies. Their pursuit consists of performing religious rituals, visiting holy places (chaar dham or Mecca or Jerusalem), taking dip in holy rivers, performing charities or performing other forms of austerities and penances. Many Yogis who emphasis only on the Yogic exercises or Pranayaam ( breathing exercises) for realization of divine inner Truth also falls into this category. Such pious seekers are kind at heart, always willing to help others and seek happiness in happiness of others. This path is also called as Karma-yoga.

The second type of seekers are softer at heart and mostly emotional. Their whole emphasis is on prayers. Their pursuit consists of glorifying God, hearing the holy stories of different avatars of God, singing bhajans (holy songs), doing kirtan in remembrance of God and praying. They experience the divine peace and inner happiness in the divine remembrance of God. This path is also called the Bhakti-Yoga.

The third types of seekers give importance to their viveka (wisdom and the power of discrimination). Such seeker are more inquisitive in nature and usually go into the depth of the subject. Their seeking consists of listening to the talks of the Self realized ones, reading holy scriptures, reflecting on the the divine wisdom in solitude, performing Self analysis and doing meditation. This path is also called the Gyaan-Yoga.

Now if you ask which if this path is the superior one, then you should read my earlier blog - The superior most path of Self realization.

I also want to tell about one more interesting aspect about this topic. One of the seeker went to Shri Yoga Vedanta Ashram in Ahmedavad, India. There he met a saintly person whom everyone call as Doctor Swami. When the same seeker asked him about his opinion about the superior most path of God realization, he answered beautifully. He said, “Look brother, God has gifted us with this beautiful body, so use it for the selfless service of others(Karma-Yoga); God has given us emotions and a heart, so fill it with the love for God (Bhakti-Yoga); At the same time, God has also given us viveka (wisdom and the power of discrimination), so use it for controlling the mind and Self analysis (Gyan-Yoga).

It is my experience also that one cannot separate these paths. One who tread forward on the path of Gyaan Yoga, will have his heart filled with love for God on its own and he won't be able to live without the selfless service to others. Similarly, one who fills his heart with true love of God, the true wisdom of Self will evolve on its own. Only thing that is important is, is to take the first step and begin the wonderful journey of inner peace and happiness.

Excerpts from Shri Uddhava Gita

2011-09-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Like the beegathering honey

From manyblossoms,

Those who aspireto be sages

Must takesomething of wisdom

From all thescriptures -

Both the great andthe small. ||Shri Uddhava Gita- 5:10||

It is vital forthe true seeker to keep the company of holy men, be it in the form ofdirect association, listening to their recorded talks or reading theholy scriptures written by the Sages. It is the beauty of Upanisads that most of them were written in the form of logical questionanswer discourse. The most famous of the Upanisads is Shrimad BhagwatGita, which is the dialogue between Shri Krishna and his companion, ayoung warrior Arjuna. Another important text, which comes from a muchlarger text called the Bhagavatha Purana, is Uddava Gita. In theUddhava Gita, it is an old friend and humble counselor of ShriKrishna who asks spiritual advice on the eves of Shri Krishna'sdeparture from earth. To fully understand the message of ShriKrishna, we need both the urgent questioning of Arjuna, the youngwarrior faced with overwhelming odds, and the gentle probing of thewise, older man, Uddava.

A beautifultranslation of this wonderful text is written by Swami AmbikanandaSaraswati called “The Uddhava Gita – The final teaching ofKrishna”. I encourage all the seekers to read this beautifully translatedtext. Here are a few excerpts from this text:

The devoteeUddhava asked:

O Radiant One,Krishna,

Enemy of theenemies of the Self,

What constitutesself-control,

And how will Iknow

When I haveachieved balance?

What is tolerance

And what issteadiness?

Tell me please,Beloved. || 14-28||

What is charity?

What is austerity?

What is courage?

What is honesty?

What isrenunciation?

What is wealthworth coveting?

What is religiousscrifice,

And what is heproper renumeration

To the teacher orthe priest?||14-29||

Most Beloved, tellme,

What is the realstrength of a person?

What is realprofit and gain?

What is realknowledge

And what is realhumility?

And what is beauty

And what are joyand sorrow?||14-30||

Who is the truesage

And who is thefool?

Which is thecorrect path

And which is thefalse one?

What is heaven

And what is hell?

Who is truly afriend

And what may becalled home?||14-31||

Who is rich

And who is poor?

Who is taker

And who is thegiver?

O Ruler of theVirtuous,

Please answerthese questions. ||14-32||

The Radiant One,Krishna, replied:

The mind becomescalm

Only when fixed onthe Self,

The most perfectself control

Is control of thesenses.

Tolerance is thebearing of sorrow,

And steadiness iscontrol of senses,

The tongue and thesexual impulse. ||14-36||

The greatestcharity

Is to relinquishany thought

Of violencetowards others.

Austerity is therenunciation

Of all hopes anddesires,

Courage isovercoming

One's owntendencies.

Honesty is looking upon all

With impartial vision. ||14-37||

Truthfulness is isspeech that is kind

And which even thesages may praise.

Purity isnon-attachment

To the results ofone's actions,

While renunciationis the acceptance

Of the sannyasastage of life. ||14-38||

A spiritual lifeis the wealth

That should becoveted.

I, the supremeSelf,

Am the religioussacrifice.

The teaching ofknowledge

Is the ultimatereligious renumeration,

And control of thevitality

Is true strength.||14-39||

True fortune andsplendor

Are my own divineSelf.

Profit and gain

Are devotion tome.

Real knowledge

Is the knowledgewhich ends

Allmultiplicities.

Real humility

Is avoidingwrongful actions. ||14-40||

True beauty isdesirelessness,

Happiness isequanimity

In both joy andsorrow.

Sorrow is theceaseless longing

For gratificationof the senses.

A true sage

Is one who candistinguish

Between bondageand liberation. ||14-41||

A fool is one whohas identified

With only the bodyand personality.

The right path isthat

Which leads to me.

The wrong path isthe one

That causesconfusion.

Heaven is thesattvic mind. ||14-42||

Hell is thetamastic mind.

The teacher inwhom I abide

Is the only truefriend.

O Uddhava, thehuman body

May be calledhome.

One who isvirtuous

May be calledwealthy. ||14-43||

A poor person

Is one who isnever satisfied.

A wretched person

Is one who hasnever conquered the senses.

Only those who aredetached from

The objects of thesenses

Are masters ofthemselves. ||14-44||

Now I haveanswered your questions, Uddhava.

And there isnothing to be gained

From continuingthe discussion in this direction.

What are thedefinitions of good and evil?

Judging another tobe good or bad or evil.

To cease makingjudgments between good and bad,

That is truegoodness. ||14-45||

Glimpse of God

2011-09-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

A young seeker used to to go temple religiously. One day he gathered courage and asked the priest, “Sir, please tell me the truth. Have you ever had the glimpse of God?”

The old priest kept silence for a while and then with the tears in his eyes, he said, “Son, I am close to eighty years old and have been performing these rituals in the temple for more than sixty years. But it seems I am not fortunate enough to get the glimpse of God.”

Astonishingly the young seeker asked, “But Sir, you have been giving bhog (offerings) to the God before every meal throughout your life. Still you think that God is not real to whom you give offerings and to whom you perform prayers day and night.”

The old priest couldn't say a word. But the young seeker couldn't rest peacefully. He went to the saint who used to live in the adjacent town and asked him about his doubt the very next morning.

The saint replied him patiently, “Son, one is assumed God and another is the true all pervading formless Sat-Chit-Ananda (eternal-conscious-blissful) personified God. Which God are you talking about?”

Now the young seeker was even more confused. Looking at the expressions on his face, the saint smiled and continued, “The assumed God is different for different people. Based on the religion of your parents and your upbringing, you make a notion about the God – be it in the form of Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh, Devi Maa, Jesus, Nanak, Buddha or any other God with some form and personality. However, the God of all Gods, on whom all the prophets meditated upon, who resides inside every heart, who is omnipresent, who is Satyam-Gyanam-Anantam Brahm (Truth-Knowledge-Infinite Supreme Consciousness) is beyond the reach of five senses. So, your question about the glimpse of God, with the help of your eyes, itself became irrelevant.”

There was a silence for a few moments and then the saint continued, “The old priest has been doing prayers and performing rituals for the God for more than sixty years. But deep within, in his subconscious mind, he knew that – that is not the real God and it is only the sculpture representation of God. He lacked understanding of True God and realization of Truth. His mind was deluded due to lack of true wisdom and realization of supreme Truth. Unlike that priest, you should strive for the realization of True God. Unless and until that True God is realized, human mind continue to be illusioned by the deceptive powers of Maya and it cannot get rid of all the sorrows or attain a state of supreme peace and blissfulness. Only the fortunate ones with pious mind and deep desire to realize the Truth can gain that blissful state of Self realization which is coveted even by those who resides in heaven.”

Search only where it is lost

2011-08-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Saints have an unusual way of putting across their message. They don't want to prove you wrong or hurt your ego and at the same time they don't want you to remain ignorant. This is a short story about a Sufi saint named Rabia.

Rabia and Hasan used to exchange their spiritual thoughts after dinner. Rabia, the Sufi saint, was in the state of deep love with the Supreme whereas Hasan was still a religious follower. Hasan used to convey to Rabia about his deep desire to go for Hajj to Mecca.

One evening when Hasan went to meet Rabia after dark, he was a little surprise to see Rabia who was searching for something on the street under the street light (coming from flame in the olden days). Curiously, he asked, “Rabia, what are you looking for here?”

“I lost my needle and I am looking for that in the light here.”

“Where did you lose it?”

“I lost it inside my house. But it is dark inside my house. So, I thought I would go and find it in the light.”

While holding his laugh, Hasan said, “You are really strange. If you lost your needle inside the house, how would you expect it to find it here.”

“Hasan, that is what I am trying to convey to you. You won't be able to find God in Mecca or anywhere else in the outer world. God is not lost in the outer world as it is present in each and every magnificence of nature. The true God is lost somewhere inside you, in the darkness of ignorance, under the coverings of your mind. Only you can get rid of the darkness within with the help of spiritual self analysis, meditation, chanting, company of saints and other holy means. Beneath that darkness of ignorance, deep inside you, lies the treasure of eternal peace and supreme happiness.”

Humbled by the words of wisdom from Rabia, Hasan left the place quietly in deep thoughts.

Establish yourself in your original blissful nature

2011-08-15T06:41:00.000-07:00

In continuation of our discussion about the mental tendencies or sanskaars in the previous blog, lets discuss how can you utilize this wisdom to step over the impact of all previous sanskaars and establish yourself in your original blissful nature. Water falls downward on its own (because of gravity, a natural phenomenon), but you have to put in efforts to uplift the water. Similarly, it is natural for human mind to be impacted by the first four kinds of sanskaars (Sanskaars associated with previous birth or genetic inheritance , the parents and family , the environment and with your present life decisions ). However, you have to put in extra effort, you have to work consciously to regain the original sanskaars of your pure consciousness. It won't happen on its own.

The natural tendency of the mind is to pull you towards the outer world. The first four kind of sanskaars pulls you towards the outer world, while the sanskaars associated with your true nature helps you to establish in the inner peace and inner happiness.
The first four types are sanskaars are responsible for all the restlessness, fear, greed, attachment, anxiety and miseries of human life, while the fifth type of sanskaars helps you to regain your original fearless, peaceful and blissful nature. Deep down the core of all living beings, the original sanskaars of peace, eternity, love, wisdom and blissfulness remain alive. A true seeker continue to strengthen the pure sanskaars of true Self by spending time in the company of holy men, by listening to their talks, by reflecting on the wisdom of Self in solitude, by chanting the name of God, by doing meditation and all such means which brings his attention towards the original nature of consciousness. In this manner, the true seeker is able to negate the affect of first four types of sanskaars and wake up in the realization of the original sanskaar of Sat-Chit-Anand (Eternal-Conscious-Blissful) Self. A lotus flower remains untouched by water. Similarly after establishing in the original nature of Self, the true seeker continue to conduct in the outer world under the impact of first four types of sanskaars, but remain untouched from within.

In this regard, I would like to tell you about two short stories that would further clarify your understanding of the original nature of all conscious beings. Sant Lilashaji called his disciple Asaram once and said, “Dear son, this is a rose flower in my hand, just smell it. What do you think?”

“Sir, the beautiful fragrance of this flower touch my heart. I love it.”

“Now, put this flower on top of sugar and sweet on that corner and smell it again.”

Asaram did the same and said while smelling it, “Sir, it is still the same.”

“Now, put it on the bag of rice and smell it again.”

“Dear Master, it smells still the same.”

“Now put it on your shoes and on the grass over there. Smell it again.”

“Sir, it still smells the same.”

“Now, live in this world like this rose without getting impacted by the surroundings and spread your fragrance in the world.”

The same disciple eventually established himself in his true blissful Self and is spreading his fragrance in this world among millions of true seekers as Sant Shri Asaramji Bapu.

Another short story: A holy man and a scorpion

A holy man, who was established in the original nature of consciousness, was taking a dip in the holy water of river Ganges. He saw a scorpion that was struggling in the water to float. The holy man tried to save the scorpion by trying to put him on a leaf. He got bitten by the scorpion twice, but he didn’t stop. He continued his efforts to save the scorpion.

A passer-by was watching all this while sitting on the banks of the river. He asked the holy man, “Sir, it is the nature of this cruel scorpion to bite and spread his poison. Why are you trying to save it?”

“Son, let him act as per his nature and I will continue to act as per my nature. I know that it's his nature to bite. But, I can't help it as its my nature to save.”

Irrespective of the circumstances and surroundings, the true seeker always remain established in his original nature of pure consciousness and continue to spread his fragrance in the world.

Sanskaars and its kinds

2011-07-30T05:58:00.000-07:00

You might have seen that siblings raised in the same family behave differently. Even twins don't have similar disposition. Different people have different temperament and different way of thinking from the childhood. Some are emotional, while others are sort of impassive; some are of serious kind while others are 'take it easy' attitude; some are radical while others are gullible; some are hard worker while others are lazy. This is because of their sanskaars, their way of thinking or mental tendencies. The sages of the east did analysis on the nature of these mental tendencies and broadly classified them into five kinds:

1. Sanskaars associated with previous birth or genetic inheritance: Spiritual people may assume it to be the impact of previous births and the radical class of people may assume it to be the genetic inheritance, but most of the people believe that a new born baby brings with him, his own temperament, his own nature. The impact on the thought process associated with the past lives falls into this category of sanskaars.

2. Sanskaars associated with the parents and family: The personality of a child is developed during the initial years of upbringing during which parents and family plays an important role. The belief system of the family, the culture, the religion, the atmosphere and the love provided by the family has a deep impact on the thought process of the growing child.

3. Sanskaars associated with the environment: The school, the relatives and the friends also impact the way of thinking and the personality of the being. The good habits, manners and wisdom gained from good association goes a long way in shaping the future of a growing child. At the same time, a bad or spoiled company may ruin the future.

4. Sanskaars associated with your present life decisions and wisdom: There is a saying that ‘As are your thoughts, so are your actions; as are your actions so are your habits; as are your habits so is your destiny.’ Your thought process, your decisions and your day to day experiences leave a long lasting impression on your mind, which eventually affect your way of thinking.

5. Your original sanskaars of consciousness: Each of the conscious living being have certain extent of originality that is deep rooted. This set of mental tendencies is associated with the original nature of our consciousness. Each one of us wants to live forever (eternal nature), seek knowledge (conscious nature) and wants to be happy (blissful nature). Deep inside, our core is eternal (never born, never dies), conscious, peaceful and blissful. No matter how dare the circumstances are, with time all our wounds are healed; we become peaceful again and our smile returns.

With the help of the wisdom of the Self, will power, company of the holy ones and meditation, the true seeker continue to work on strengthening and restoring the original sanskaars of the consciousness in his own life – namely, the sanskaars of peace, eternity, love, wisdom and blissfulness. In this manner, the true seeker is able to negate the affect of first three types of sanskaars and wake up in the realization of the original sanskaar of Sat-Chit-Anand (Eternal-Conscious-Blissful) Self. This is what seeking (saadhna) is all about.

Shatter the wall of beliefs around you

2011-07-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Those who believe others easily or hold firm beliefs have difficult times not only in the outer world, but also in the spiritual world. Others take undue advantage of such sweet people, who easily trust others – be it financially, socially or otherwise. Even in the world of spirituality, many religions have survived and flourished only because of the millions of kind hearted followers who are agreeable in nature and believe easily. Those are rare who dare to question or inquire when it comes to faith and belief.

Beliefs and faith is good to have, but at the same time one should not form a concrete wall of beliefs in such a manner that nothing else can penetrate. Beliefs and faith suppresses curiosity and thereby hinders progress. Think about it. For thousands of years people believed that earth is flat until the time when curious minded Philosopher Pythagoras and Aristotle came up with the theory about earth being spherical. There are a lot many such instances. Only those curious inquisitive minds achieve success in the field of Science and Technology who think beyond their beliefs. Newton, Einstein, Darwin and all others challenged the belief system and changed the whole paradigm.

A child is full of inquiries and inquisitive by nature. Slowly as the child grows, his curiosity is buried under the load of beliefs and answers provided by others around him. For example, before the child asks, “Who am I?”, he is told that his name is John or Tim. He begins to believe that he is just that name. Before he asks about the Truth or God, the belief system based on the religion of the parents suppresses his spiritual inquiries. He receives a lot of information from his surrounding, continue to assimilate it without questioning. The path of inner happiness is only for those who keep their curiosity alive and doesn’t let it get buried under the load of beliefs.

I am not totally against the system of beliefs. Initially a student is asked to believe the theory ( be it about the shape of earth or any other scientific fact) and then it is later proved to him experimentally. Even in mathematics, we assume the variables and then deduce the theorum. Similarly in spirituality, the true seeker should seek the teachings of Self realized blissful saints, begin to believe them and then perform self analysis about the Truth in solitude during thoughtful meditation. The Self realized saints say that – Any spiritual belief can’t be called as yours unless you experiment with it or apply it in your own life, unless you make it your own experience. Have faith in teachings of those saints, those holy men who are willing to help you to attain the supreme state of happiness, while living, in present (not the promises of heaven after death).

Don’t live a life based on borrowed beliefs. Wake up, inquire, shatter all the belief systems, perform Self analysis (Swadyay) and attain complete freedom. This is the only way to attain your original state of Sat-chit-Shant-Ananda being (Eternal-Conscious-Peaceful-Blissful being).

What a paradox!

2011-07-10T06:11:00.000-07:00

It is ironical that people spend most of the life in dealing with the illusionary creations of mind. Most of our attention is drawn by things that doesn’t exist in reality and are mere creations of human mind. For example, country, cast, religion, status and all other forms of divisions are just the creation of human mind. People read stories, watch television, watch movies and eventually, entertain so many useless thoughts. Human mind worries about the future problems that never occur. While entertaining the useless thoughts of this illusionary world, the mind becomes so busy that it never gets a chance to delve into the inner world and explore the Truth – Truth about the Self, about this world and about the Supreme consciousness (Paramatma).

While conducting in the world, chasing your desires or dealing with people around you, your mind continue to get impressions of the world. When you talk or think about something or someone, either you like it or you dislike it. So, the impressions of liking and disliking gets engraved in your mind. Similarly love, attachment, jealousy, hatred, anxiousness or all sorts of feelings continue to leave their mark on your mind. When you begin to compare yourself with others, either your ego is nourished or you feel belittled and thwarted. Your opinion about yourself forms a layer of false ego in your mind. In short, I want to clarify that while conducting in the outer world, it is not possible to purify the mind and gain eternal peace or happiness. Isn't it paradoxical that most of us still try to search for peace and happiness in the outer world?

Mind is meant to perceive the external world by obtaining information from the five senses (senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling). So it is natural for the mind to gain information, analyze it based on past experiences and conduct in the external world. In this process, the mind continue to get false layers of impressions that makes it baffled, lost and restless. This is a natural process. To reverse this process – is what true seeking is all about. This is the only way to resolve the paradox. It won't happen on its own. It needs faith, eagerness and determination.

The sages of the east did this analysis on the nature of the mind and the real problem of human kind. That is why they came up with the concept of God with a form (Vishnu, Brahma, Shivji, Surya, Devi Maa and others). This concept of personal God was certainly easier for human mind to perceive than the concept of formless omnipresent God. Then they wrote Vedas, Puranas and Upnishads which are filled with the stories of personal God and their teachings about the true wisdom of the Self. The disciple and the true seeker of Truth is then advised by these Self realized saints to spend their time in the company of holy ones, listen to their talks, read the holy literature, be silent, delve into their teachings and meditate. This is how the seeker slowly begins to purify the mind of all the false impressions and thereby, attain inner peace and eternal happiness.

Who is the most powerful one?

2011-06-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

A disciple and a master were going on a pilgrimage in northern India. Tired, they sat on a big rock under a tree. After a while disciple asked the master, “Dear Sir, this rock is so hard and strong. What could be stronger than this rock?”

“Iron, my son. Iron can cut the rocks and hence is stronger than the rock.”

“Hmm.... what could be stronger than iron, Sir?”

“Well, fire can melt the iron. So, you can consider fire to be more potent than the iron.”

“You are right. Is there anything more potent than the fire.”

“You can say that water can pacify the fire, so water can be considered as more powerful than the fire.”

The disciple thought for a moment and then said, “In that case, wind can even lift the water to the clouds. So air should be considered as more powerful than the water.”

“Exactly. You see son, the one which is having more potential is also more profound and subtle in nature. It is more easily available in nature. Do you agree?”

“Yes dear master, I agree with you. So, please tell me what is the strongest?”

“The thoughts, resolutions and will of a living being is the most powerful one. A small insect can dig a hole in the earth. The will of a human being can do wonders – can control the flow of water with dams, can control the fire and utilize it properly, can tap the energy of wind to generate electric power. There is nothing impossible for a strong willed being. He can climb to the highest mountain peak, can live in Antarctica, can go to the moon and what not. The human mind is the most powerful one.”

After a brief pause, the master continued, “ Even subtler and more profound than the mind is the consciousness – the Supreme Consciousness which supports and sustain the mind- the omnipresent non-dual Truth, in which thousands of thoughts arise and dies down. But it remains the same – Sat-Chit-Shant-Ananda (Eternal-Conscious-Peaceful-Blissful). Try to know and realize that supreme Truth. After such a wonderful realization all your doubts will evaporate and you will attain a state of oneness with that bliss.”

God is much more than a concept

2011-06-11T05:33:00.000-07:00

All the religions of the world contributed a lot to the social, spiritual and wholesome upliftment of humankind. Religions taught us the importance of leading a pious life. Religions taught us the importance of speaking the truth, being honest, being kind, being helpful, respecting each other and many other such virtues. Religions taught us to believe in a power much higher than us, the God. Religions gave a platform to the human race to come together in remembrance of God, pray and express our gratitude to the Supreme Being. Religions brought the people of same faith together.

However, at the same time religions failed to introduce us with our own true nature. Religions failed to reveal the Truth – the Truth about our own real Self and the Truth about the Supreme Being. Religions glorified God up to such an extent that we began to degrade our self to be nothing more than a common being- a poor, sinful and impure being. Religions created a concept of God that is a supremely powerful Being, who lives somewhere in the seventh heaven- way high up there, somewhere. In other words, religions have created a chaos and confusion when it comes to the knowledge of God or experiencing God while living. Religions gave us a faith system or a belief system which imparted upon us nothing more than a blurred idea or concept of God.

Just the concept of God cannot help us to gain inner peace, love and happiness. Just the belief or faith cannot help us to know the God, to recognize God or to build a relationship of love with God. We cannot build the relationship of love with merely a vague concept of God. Belief is important, but there is a huge gap between belief and knowing or experiencing God.

This is where spirituality and meditation comes to the rescue of a true seeker. Meditation bridges the gap between the belief and knowing or realization. First of all, spirituality helps to restore our own self image by introducing us to our own true Self. We are made of the same stuff that God is made up of – Pure Sat-Chit-Ananda (Eternal-Conscious-Blissful) Consciousness. The holy scriptures, the talks of the Self realized saints and the company of true seekers purify our inner senses – mind, intellect and ego.

With the help of all the means of spirituality, the seeker not only begin to slowly realize the true Self, but also begins to understand the relation between the being and the Supreme Being, soul and the Supreme Soul, consciousness and the Supreme Consciousness. Such an understanding not only evaporates the false ego of the seeker, but also helps to build a beautiful loving relation with the omnipresent God. Slowly, the seeker begins to taste the inner peace, love and blissfulness, after experiencing which all the worldly happiness seems futile.

So, God is much more than a mere concept or idea. Try to know Him, try to experience Him, try to realize him and try to be one with Him while living, not after death. Then only you can experience the deep peace and true love in your heart.

Five flavors of happiness

2011-05-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

We all experience the happy moments and the sad moments in life. And we continually strive for happiness - ever lasting happiness because that is the true nature of our consciousness – Sat-Chit-Anand (Eternal-Conscious-Blissfull). The sages of the east did a lot of self analysis and broadly categorized five flavors of happiness.

Every living being live, enjoys and chase the happiness associated with sensual pleasures. The wise men also called such happiness as the “Vishay-Sukh” or the material happiness. Such happiness is related with the five senses and their associated subjects: tongue experiences the delicious taste; eyes observe the beauty; ears hear the melodious sound; nose smells the fragrance; and the sensual pleasures of the touch of body with the opposite sex. I don't have to describe these pleasures in detail. Even animals experience such kind of natural happiness. We all experiences these pleasure in daily life and crave for these pleasures throughout our lives. But at the same time, we never get satisfied with it.

Second one and the higher form of happiness is the happiness associated with the knowledge, the “Gyan-Sukh”. In worldly life, when your doubts are vanished after knowing the reality about something, you feel contended. When you happen to meet one of your friends, in that knowing you feel happiness. Similarly when a true seeker explores the inner world and slowly come to know the Truth about his own true Self – the Eternal-Conscious-Blissfull nature, he or she feels delighted and contented. This flavor of happiness is subtler and longer lasting than the happiness associated with the sensual pleasure.

Third is the happiness associated with peace. You get tired doing daily chores, and then you crave for sleep and the peace associated with it. Peaceful sleep and quiet moments of the morning restore your strength and energizes you. After a loud and wild party, you get tired, and then crave for a few moments of silence and peace. Peace is your true nature and there is a delightful feeling of happiness associated with it.

Fourth flavor of happiness is associated with love – both at the worldly level, as well as at the spiritual level. When you are in love with someone, you feel delighted even at the very thought of your object of love. A mother feels subtle happiness at emotional level when the baby is playing in her lap. When a father hugs the baby, he feels delighted. In the spiritual world, a devotee feel happiness in the remembrance of the God. Love is a strong emotion and certainly there is happiness associated with it. The more purified, spiritual and deep the love is, the stronger is the feeling of happiness associated with it. The happiness associated with love varies according to its depth and purity. A seeker begins to differentiate the bodily love, the relational love, the emotional love (between mother and child, between the friends) and the devotional love (the love between a devotee and God).

After Self realization, the seeker begins to experience the most profound form of love- the love associated with the Self. The seeker become one with the omnipresent, formless God and begins to experience God everywhere and at every moment. The sages describe the bliss experienced in such a realization as the highest form of happiness. After achieving such a state, there is nothing left to be attained.

It is unfortunate that most of us spend all of our life in the seeking of first form of worldly happiness. A few of us begins to understand and give importance to the happiness associated with peace and knowledge. Only the fortunate ones becomes the seekers of the higher forms of happiness - the happiness associated with true love and Self realization.

Make a daily appointment with inner peace

2011-05-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

Just like when you enter into a library, the captivating silence in the library helps you to focus and assimilate worldly wisdom. Similarly, there is a treasure of immense peace, wisdom and happiness within you. All you need is to take out time to quieten your mind and explore within. You can call such an appointment with your inner silence as meditation.

Meditation is taking time out for your true Self; mediation is the time you spend in exploring inner world and managing it; mediation is the time when you attempt to master your mind instead of conducting in the external world as its slave; mediation is the time that you spend in knowing the Truth, instead of being lost in this illusionary external world; mediation is the time when you explore peace and happiness within.

Your “seeking” begins when you understand the importance of achieving the higher state of inner peace and blissfulness while living, not after death. Your seeking begins when you make an appointment with yourself for at least fifteen minutes, preferably during early hours, before sunrise. Just like your business appointments, you should commit yourself for those fifteen minutes to remain focused on your inner being. During those precious moments, try honestly in such a manner that the worries, tensions, judgments, memories and thoughts of the external world don’t disturb you.

This might sound difficult in the beginning, but with practice it will become easy for you, just like anything else in life. Before you begin meditation, it is important to gain proper understanding of the inner world -the world of your mind, intellect and your true Self; it is important to keep your mind and inner senses pristine; it is important to know the importance of the wisdom of the Self.

Once a seeker went to a holy man and asked, “Dear master, whenever I sit for meditation, my mind becomes more restless. My mind begins to wander in old memories – memories of my old friends, memory of my unpaid bills and all sorts of non-sense. How do I overcome it?”

The holy man answered smilingly, “Meditation is like cleaning your cupboard (of mind). When you begin to clean the stuff in the front, a lot of stuff that has piled up for many many years, will begin to fall in the front. But don't worry, in this process your cupboard is getting cleaned anyway. Slowly, as it begins to become empty, you will begin to feel good.”

Once you begin to taste the peace and tranquality within; once you experience inner happiness, then you won’t have to do mediation. Mediation will happen on its own. You will begin to be in the blissful state of mind irrespective on external circumstances. But, like everything else in life, it needs certain commitment and practice. Slowly and steadily, you will progress on the path of inner happiness, provided you take out time for your own self. Making a daily appointment for exploring inner world is the first step on this path.

Treat this world as nothing more than a long dream

2011-04-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

A devout once went to meet a saint and started complaining, “Dear Sir, this world is very cruel. Even though I have done so many goods to others in my life and I always try to help others, but in return, people have always taken my advantage. My one time friends turned into enemies and even my own relatives tried to hurt me. I have incurred many losses due to my own people. How can one remain happy while living in such a selfish and evil world.”

The saint listened quietly for a while and then replied in his deep voice, “Son, let me tell you a secret of being happy even while conducting in the outer world.” After a brief pause, the saint continued, “Son, just try to forget all the good that you did to others and also, all the sufferings that you think have been caused by others. Don't expect anything in return of your good deeds. Neki kar dariya mai daal. (Translation: Do good to others and throw it into the ocean) And also, save yourself, but don't try to give anything in return when others try to harm you, not even curse. At all cost, try to keep you inner peace in such a manner that outer happenings of the world can't touch you from inside.”

“Dear master, this seems easier said, than done. How can we do that practically?”

The saint continued, with a smile on his face, “Son, it may seems difficult only to those who consider this world to be real. Treat this world just like a long dream. Just like dream, this world is nothing more than successions of images, ideas, emotions and sensations. This world only appears to be true because of your five senses and the impressions on your mind. If you ask a old man about his life, he or she might reply you that the whole life has passed just in the flick of moment, and now it appears to be nothing more than a dream. It might even be your experience too. Your childhood, now, is nothing more than a dream. And even your present in slowly slipping into your past, which is nothing more than a pile of memories, just like dream.”

“Son, only those suffer in this world who consider it as real. The wise men gain understanding about the dream like unreal nature of this world and continue to treat it that way from early on. When they treat the world nothing more than a dream, their desires begin to mitigate on its own, their attachments to the people around them slowly starts evaporating and at the same time it becomes easier for them to forgive others. Slowly they become free of desires, attachments and despise, which are the root cause of all the miseries of this world. Just like dream, the happenings of this world doesn't affect them deeply any more. In this manner they gain inner peace and spiritual happiness.”

“Sukh sapna dukh bulbula, dono hai mehmann,

Dono bitan dijiye, soham ko pehchaan”

Translation: “Happiness is a dream and suffering is a bubble, both are just visitors,

Let them both pass by, you just realize your true Self.”

The devout humbly paid his respect to the saint, and left quietly while pondering on the words of deep wisdom.

Quest of inner happiness is all about changing your thought process

2011-04-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

The inner state of a being is the end result of the thought process. As are your thoughts, so are your actions; as are your actions, so are your habits; and as are your habits, so is your behavior. In other words, your thought process constitutes your behavior and your personality. The seeking of inner happiness is not about changing the world around yourself. In fact, it's all about changing your thought process and eventually, your own behavior.

It is not that there is a scarcity of religious and pious people in this world. But, most of them are not willing to change their own thought process, their own behavior.

You can find people around you who continue to chant for years, who are regular to church and temples, who perform all sorts of religious rituals, who memorize holy scriptures, but still remain empty within. They even try to tell God to act as per their wish – “Oh God, please give me a son”, “Oh God, please give me success in this venture”, “Oh God, please do something to my enemy” - as if God don't know what's good for them. There is no signs of peace, inner joy or bliss on the face of such people. The reason is obvious – they all intend to impress others and change the world without willing to change their own thought process.

While conducting in the outer world most of your actions are motivated by the zeal to earn more – more wealth, more power or more popularity. Unless and until you begin to give importance to the inner world – the true wisdom of the Self, inner peace and inner happiness, your thought process won't change. No matter how many charities you perform, no matter how many austerities you undergo, you will continue to remain restless from inside. Without changing the preference in your life, without changing the goal of your life, your thought process won't change.

A Sufi poet sang:
Nazar badli to nazare badle;
Kishti ne badla rukh, to kinare badle !

Translation:
When the stance changes, scenery changes;
When the boat changed the direction, the destination also changed!

When your thought process begins to change – your stance of life would change, and hence the scenery; you would begin to look at the world with pink glasses, instead of black ones. Or I would say, you would give up all the glasses and begin to look at the world as is. This outer world will begin to appear like a dream to you without giving you the illusion of reality; You would begin to agree with the will of God in all circumstances and thereby remain equanimous or balanced in the happy and painful moments of life; Instead of being motivated by sensual desires, your actions with begin to be motivated by the zeal to perform selfless service to others.

The change in your behavior won't happen overnight. It is a slow process. But the most important thing is that you should be willing to change it. It is important for the true seeker of inner happiness to listen to the talks of self realized saints, spend some time in their company, read their literature and perform self analysis. In this manner the seeker should attempt to align his own thought process with that of the self-conscious holy beings who have found the Truth.

God is love

2011-04-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

Love is the inherent nature of a being. Not only human beings, but even animals and birds cannot live without loving. Love is the essential nature of the spirit or the soul or the consciousness. Hate or abhorrence is the temporary creation of mind whereas love is ever present. Saints of the world describe God as love. But what form of love are they referring to? They are talking about the pure love- the true love for your own true Self; the divine love of God; the genuine love for the Supreme Consciousness; the divine feeling of affection towards every living being; the unconditional love; the innocent love of a child towards everyone around him.

In the modern world, the word ‘love’ is being misused very often in the common language- ‘I love ice cream’, ‘I love watching horror movies’ or ‘I love you when you listen to me’. In common context, the word ‘like’ is more appropriate than ‘love’. This is the reason most of us remain confused about the word ‘love’. It is important for the true seeker of inner happiness, to gain proper understanding of love.

The feelings of love and affection takes different forms because of the ignorance of the being, causing all sorts of miseries in life. When you love money or material gain, the same love takes the form of ‘greed’. Love for new car, bigger house and worldly possessions becomes your ‘desires’. When you begin to love your kiths and kin, love becomes ‘attachment’. When a man begins to love a woman or vice-versa, the love gets contaminated by ‘lust’. Contemporary man spends all the life in such tainted form of love in the outer world while remaining ignorant about the divine form of love. All these forms of outer love keep a seeker away from inner peace and inner happiness.

When the saints talk about ‘love’, they are referring to the pure love for something that is truly yours. Now let’s try to analyze what is truly yours. You love your car or you love your house. But all these material possessions are not truly yours. Those all belong to the ever changing world - today those possessions are yours and tomorrow those can belong to someone else. You say that he is my son or my daughter. But the truth of the fact is the sons remain temporarily with you till he brings your daughter-in-law and daughters seems to be yours till she gets settled with her husband. Similarly all the relations of the world are temporary in nature. Even this body doesn’t belong to you. You have to leave your body one day as your body also belongs to the nature. The five elements of the body, namely earth, water, fire, ether and space will become one with the five elements of the nature one day. So, neither your body, nor its worldly possessions truly belongs to you.

The divine intelligence works in your life in such a manner that it continues to remind you that these all worldly possessions and worldly relations are not truly yours. How? If you have immense love for wealth, then you are sure to incur losses. If you love a friend beyond certain limits, then the same friend very often turns into an enemy. It is a fact of life that enemies are born from friends only – strangers don’t become enemies. If you are very possessive about your spouse, then you are inviting a divorce. No matter how much you love your body, it is bound to get old and clumsy.

After realization of such bitter truths of life, the seeker begins to seek something that truly belongs to him. But what is it that truly belongs to you? Your own true Self, your own Soul, your own Spirit, your own Consciousness or no matter how you call it. The Supreme God, the omnipresent Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme intelligence is truly yours. So, the sages of the world tell us to love the same God that is our supreme well wisher. When a seeker is introduced to such a pure form of love towards God, a divine form of affection arises in his heart for all the beings. Such a divine love is the end result of all the austerities, all the wisdom, all the seeking and all the efforts of a true seeker. Such a divine love gives rise to the supreme peace and bliss in his heart.

Japan, one of the inspirations to the world

2011-03-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

A massive earthquake, followed by T-sunami hit Japan on March 11th- a natural calamity, which is beyond human control. But, what is in human control is -how to react to such a difficult time. The Japanese society, as a whole, has set an inspirational example for whole of the world. Otherwise also, Japanese are well prepared to deal with natural disaster mostly as a result of frequently experiencing them. One of my friends noted a few points that can be inspirational for the rest of the world.

The left picture below shows the shattered section of Great Kanto Highway in Naka, demonstrating the power of the March 11th earthquake. However, the astonishing speed of reconstruction highlights Japan’s ability to get back on its feet. Work began on this road on March 17 and six days later, the cratered section of the Great Kanto Highway in Naka was as good as new ( picture on right) and ready to re- open to traffic.

Ten things to learn from Japan

1. THE CALM : Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. It was only show of controlled emotions. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY : Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY : The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE : People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER : No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE : More than eighty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the Nuclear-reactors and risked their own lives to save the nuclear disaster. What an exemplary show of duty?

7. THE TENDERNESS : Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak .

8. THE TRAINING : The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA : They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE : When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly.

May God bless Japan and the Japanese people.

What do I gain by chanting?

2011-03-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

A devoteeonce asked Sri UdiyaBaba, “Dear Sir, you keep on insisting that we should chant God’s name.What do I gain by chanting?”

“You must be abusinessman”, replied Baba smilingly.

“Yes dear master, you knowit all”, replied the devotee.

The saint continued in hisdeep voice. “You are so much used to thinking in terms of material gain, thatyou weigh everything in terms of material gain. My dear son, what you gain bychanting God’s name is so precious that you won’t be able to buy it with moneyor snatch it by using your power. You would gain balance of spiritual energies,inner peace, contentment and long lasting happiness.”

ChantingGod’s name purifies your heart and slowly evaporates the coverings of ignorancefrom your mind. As your inner senses becomes purified, you begin to appreciate the preciousgifts of life that you already possess. At the same time, you slowly begin togive up the tendency to gain more and more in the outer world. On the path ofinner peace and spiritual happiness, it is more important to appreciate andfeel gratitude towards the Supreme Giver for all the blessings in your life.

As youchant God’s name, your affinity towards God and inner happiness increases, andslowly your viewpoint of the world begins to change. You begin to give lessimportance to the outer world and begin to appreciate the importance of innerpeace. As you continue to chant God’s name, your eagerness to gain the wisdomof the Self increases. As your inner senses shines and as you gain wisdom of the Self,you begin to enjoy chanting and gain inner peace. This relation is that of aboat and the boatman. Batman row the boat to move forward and the boat move theboatman forward.

In Upnishads, the progress of chanting is beautifully illustrated in terms of four stages –Vaikhri, Madhyama, Pashyanti and Para. The initial stage of chanting by theseeker is known as Vaikhari,which is the grossest level of speech and sound comes out through the mouth. Inthe second stage of Madhyama, the seeker begins to chant mentally, withoutexternal audible sound. Madhyama is the intermediate unexpressed state ofsound, whose seat is in the heart. Slowly, the seeker possesses inner visionand progresses into the third stage of chanting called as Pashyanti, in whichthere is near oneness between the word and the experience. Pashyanti is thefinest impulse of speech. And then the stage comes, when the seeker attainhighest form of Self consciousness. In this stage, the chanting reaches thefourth stage of Para. Para is the transcendent sound. Para means the subtlemost, and in this connection it indicates that sound which is beyond theperception of the senses.

While describing the highest form ofchanting, Kabirji recited in hindi:
     Haath se japu, na mukh se japu, na ur se japu mai Ram;
   Ram sada mujh ko jape, mai pau vishram.

Translation: Neither by hands, nor my mouth,nor by mind, I chant the name of God;
God continuously chants me, and I rejoice inpeace.

Keep your mind and inner senses pristine

2011-02-22T05:23:00.000-08:00

It is ironical that we spend a lot of time and effort to keep our surroundings clean, our kitchen clean, even our bathroom clean; however, we give no importance to keep our mind and inner senses pristine. We don’t spend any time or effort to save our mind from getting tarnished by the feelings of jealousy, hate, fear, animosity, worries or burning desires of material possessions. For the sake of material gain and enjoying sensual pleasures, we go up to any extent. We continue to participate in the rat race without realizing that life is not only meant to be a race.

When we indulge ourselves in material sensual pleasures; when our actions are motivated only by selfish cause; when we keep our mind busy all the times by surfing internet, talking on cell phones or watching TV; when we give undue importance only to material gain and material world, we end up staining our inner senses; we loose peace of mind and become discontented, restless, worried and agitated. And how can such a restless mind achieve a state of inner happiness?

Shrimad Rajchandra, whom Mahatma Gandhi used to admire as a saintly being, went to meet college students once. Students insisted the saint to preach them a few words of wisdom. He asked the college students, “Let’s say that you are carrying pure clarified butter(ghee) in one hand and butter milk in the other. While walking with busy hands, if you happen to stumble and you have to let go of the one, which one would you let go?” The college students unanimously answered, “The butter milk”. “Why is that?” One of the students answered, “Because clarified butter is more valuable than the butter milk.” The saint concluded by saying, “Similarly, my dear boys, you should be willing to let go of the material gains, your sensual desires and cravings of this world in order to protect the sanity of your mind. Even at the cost of incurring material loss, always try to save the peace of your mind because peace of mind is more precious than the belongings of this world.”

How do we keep our mind and inner senses (mind, intellect, mood and ego) pristine? By purifying our intellect with the knowledge of the Self; by giving importance to our own discrimination rather than blind faith; By analyzing about the true goal of human life; By inquiring about “Who am I?”, “What is God?”, “What is the relation between soul and supreme soul?”; By listening to the talks of the Self realized ones; By reading holy literature and stories of saints; By giving due importance to the wisdom of the Self in order to gain the understanding of inner faculties; By being spiritual and by giving importance to the inner world.

A true seeker of inner happiness always give priority to keeping the inner world pristine so that the supreme form of divine peace and divine happiness can reside within. Such a seeker put in all the efforts to keep the temple of his heart pure and pristine, to feel the divine presence within.

Appreciation of every aspect of life brings you true happiness

2011-02-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

God, the creator of this world, is a great divine artist. He has used his favorite colors and contrasts while creating and maintaining this magnificent masterpiece – the universe. We just need the proper understanding, wisdom and modesty to appreciate the beauty in every aspect of life.

Look all around yourself and appreciate the contrasts in every aspect of life. God created day, as well as the night; summer as well as the winter; spring as well as the fall; roses as well as the thorns; birth as well as the death; Each one of such contrasting aspects have beauty of its own. However, if you get attached to a particular aspect or if you bring your ‘likes and dislikes’ into picture, then you are bound to suffer. If you begin to like summer, then you won’t be able to appreciate the beauty associated with winter.

Similarly, life is made up of success and failure; happiness and sorrow; love and hate; friends and foe. Begin to appreciate both the aspects of life, without getting attached to the one. Success brings you encouragement and happiness. At the same time failure makes you stronger and tries to elevate you to next level. You just have to make proper use of every moment of life. Happy moments can be utilized by showing your gratitude and praise of the Lord; whereas difficult moments can be properly utilized by reminding yourself about the futility of this illusionary world and seeking inner happiness instead of the worldly pleasures. It is human nature to resort to spirituality in difficult moments only.

In Vedanta philosophy, there is a doctrine of Drishti-Shrishti vaad, wherein it is propounded that as is your drishti (outlook), so is the shrishti (world) around you. Each one of us have world of our own based on our insight, our likes and dislikes, our experiences and our outlook. The same rat would look different to you, than it would look to a cat because of the difference in the outlook. You would look at a rat as a pest whereas a cat would look at the same rat as a delicious food. Similarly, whole of the world around is based on your outlook.

In God’s eyes, there is nothing good or bad, nothing appreciable or depreciable; it’s all the same. With such an understanding, a true seeker practices to remain in the witness state of detachment. A true seeker works on becoming free of likes and dislikes, improving his outlook and appreciating every aspect of life. In this manner, the true seeker slowly progresses on the path of inner peace and true happiness.

The one who has performed all his duties

2011-01-28T06:14:00.000-08:00

This is the story of those days when Kings used to rule small kingdoms in India. In those days, Kings also used to resolve the disputes and ensure justice to all. While resolving one of such dispute, the culprit said to King Jaswant Singh, “Sir, it is true that I am not able to perform all my duties. However, can you please show me anyone in this world who has performed all of his duties?” The King ignored his arguments and gave his final judgment.

That night those words echoed in his ears, “Can you please show me anyone in this world who has performed all of his duties”. He thought that it is true that no one in this world is able to perform all his duties. All of us try to perform our duties towards our parents, our children, our family, our society, our country and towards God. And then finally one day, we leave the world in the unfulfilled state of being. Is this life only meant for stressing out ourselves throughout the life in this manner? Can there be any one who is done with performing all of his duties?

Next day, in his palace he described his predicament to his ministers and asked, “Can you find someone who has performed all of his duties in my kingdom?” Ministers began to look at each other faces. King gave them one month time and asked them to search all over the kingdom, for the one who has performed all of his duties.

Rajveer Singh, who was the prime minister, directed all of the ministers to go in different directions to obey King’s command. He also set his course on his horse towards the south of the kingdom in search of such a being that has performed all of his duties.

Not far from his palace, he saw an old man sitting on a chair outside his house, enjoying the sunshine. He stopped there, conveyed his greetings and introduces himself. Then he asked if he is done with all of his duties. The old man replied, “My son is so irresponsible that I have to take care of my grandchildren. My wife also remains sick and I have to take care of her as well.” In this manner he started with his long list of responsibilities and the problems of his life. Without wasting any time, the minister set back on his course.

Similarly he met people from all walks of life. A social servant replied that he is working hard to discharge his duties for the society. Children replied that they are busy in discharging their duties for their parents and teachers. Parents and teachers replied the same. A monk replied that he feels he won’t be able to discharge his duties towards God who has blessed us all with so many blessings. A soldier replied that he feel obliged to serve his country and is willing to even lay his life for the sake of his duty.

After a few days, the minister himself felt stressed out while performing his duties for the King. Disheartened, he sat under a tree for taking some rest. He saw a villager already taking rest under the tree. After some time, when they started talking, the minister told him about his dilemma. The villager told him about a saint that lives on the banks of the river. He advised the minister to meet the saint to solve his predicament.

On reaching the banks of the river, the minister saw the saint sitting in the meditative pose under a tree. His face was gleaming with a love and inner happiness. The minister paid his obeisance and introduced himself. When the minister described the whole story to the saint, the saint replied, “Son, you have found the one who has discharged all his duties.” When the minister requested the saint to come with him, the saint replied, “Son, once I realized the Truth, I felt liberated and gave up all of my travelling. If your King wants to meet me, he has to come here.”

The very next day, the minister returned with the King. King also paid his obeisance to the saint and asked, “Dear Sir, have you performed all of your duties?”

The saint replied, with a pleasant smile on his face, “Son, the root cause of all the predicaments of life is the ignorance of the true Self. You associate yourself with this body initially and then get burdened with all the responsibilities. You assume yourself a parent and get burdened with all sort of parental responsibilities. Under the influence of others, you assume yourself as a King and then get all the royal duties in return. Even the religious priests try to impose upon you the duties of a sinful being towards God. With all such assumptions, the poor being leave this body one day in unfulfilled state of mind. What you really are, try to find that Sat-Chit-Ananda Self. All your assumptions will vanish with the realization of the Truth and you will attain true liberation from all the duties. “

After a brief pause, he continued, “The only duty of human being is to realize the Truth- the Truth about the Self and about the omnipresent God. The one, who has discharged this supreme duty, attains supreme peace and supreme happiness. After such a realization, his every act becomes beneficial for the others on its own, naturally, without any burden of responsibility. I can tell you confidently that all my assumptions have evaporated and I have performed all my duties. All my acts are happening on its own without any sense of associated doer-ship.”

With the tears of happiness in his eyes, the King bent on his knees and said, “Dear Sir, I am fortunate to meet a spiritual master. Please accept me as your disciple and shower upon me the true wisdom of the Self.”

Never hurt anyone, even in your dreams

2011-01-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

A mystic sang in hindi:“Darte raho yeh jindagi bekaar na ho jai; Swapn mai bhi kisi jiv ka apkaar naho jai”. Translation: “Be fearful that this life is not wasted, even in thedreams someone is not hurt.”

There are two aspects of serving others:one is to avoid hurting others by means of words, actions or thoughts; andother is to do good to others by all means. If you try to stay away fromhurting anyone, the other part of ‘doing good to others’ happens on its own becausethat is your true nature. Try to refrain from negative thoughts even againstyour enemies. In Shiva Purana,Lord Shiva told his wife: “Uma sant ki yahi badaii , mand kare so kare bhalayi”

Translation: “Uma, the only praise of a Saint is that would do good even if someonetried to hurt him.”

A true seeker alwaysremains watchful of his words, action and thoughts, so as not to hurt anyone. Beingvigilant in such a manner is an important aspect of seeking inner happiness. A selfish being, who is greedy, jealous and self centered, cannot do any good even to his own life.

Another mystic recited: “Par hit samnahi dharma hai bhai, par pidan sam nahi adhmahi.”

Translation: “There is no religion like serving others; there is no foolishnesslike hurting others.”

Some of us might argue that we don’tharm anyone. It might be true that you don’t harm anyone physically however youmight have hurt someone with your words or your thoughts. It is not the action,but the intention behind the actions that matters. A wrong intention adds tothe layers of ignorance that prevents the revelation of inner happiness; whereasa good intention brings you closer to your own true Self.

A few others would give an excuse thatwe would serve a saint or a good person when I come across one. My dear friend,you might not be able to find such a saint because you started judging people.Just serve everyone without any judgment. If you are not able to servephysically, a sincere good wish is enough.

A true seeker serveseveryone by means of his sincere good wishes: May the peace resides in theworld and in the heart of every being; May every being on this earth lives ahealthy and happy life. As long as you remain vigilant of your negativethoughts and refrain from hurting any living being (including birds, animalsand insects) even in your thoughts, you would surely progress in your quest ofinner peace. The inner divinity will reveal itself on its own; your true natureof Sat-Chit-Ananda will reveal itself on its own.

Inner strength is true strength

2010-12-31T06:06:00.000-08:00

Your body fall prey to the virus or bacterial attack when your immune system is weak and couldn’t fight. You may fall victim to the goons if you are physically weak and lack the ability to protect yourself. Similarly, you become victim to the worries when you lack true wisdom of life. Only those who lack inner strength are troubled by fear, boredom, sadness and depression.

Strength is life, weakness is death. Strength is joy, weakness is distress. No goon can come close to a strong man. Similarly, no feeble thoughts can come close to the true seeker of inner happiness who is on the journey of Self-consciousness. True strength is that which keeps away the goons of fear, jealousy, anger, sadness and worldly passions.

The divine supreme consciousness is lighting in your heart. Just try to realize your essential nature and become aware of your blissful consciousness. Stop falling prey to the momentary pleasures of the world. The desire of worldly pleasures will not let you gain the true wisdom of the Self. Such worldly passions will continue to shield your inner joy and prevent you from gaining inner strength.

Be strong with a strong and shining intellect that is enshrined with true wisdom. No matter how dare the situation is, the seeker of true happiness should keep a balanced and pious mind. Continue to perform your duties and leave the results to the Supreme. Don’t be scared and don’t scare others. Leave the feeble thoughts and rise up with strength, piousness and confidence.

Physical strength is meaningful when it protects you from goons and infirmity. Mental strength is meaningful when it helps you to take right decisions, remain fearless and remain balanced in all circumstances of life. Intellectual strength is useless if you only use it to pile up wealth and lead a selfish life. Intellectual strength is meaningful only when it helps you in gaining the understanding of the supreme truth about the soul (aatma) and the Supreme Self (Param-aatma).

Now the question remains, how does a seeker gain inner strength? In order to gain inner strength, seek the company of pious wise men, listen to their talks, read their books and contemplate on their words of wisdom. By doing yoga, satsang and meditation, you will gain the wholesome strength- physical, mental and intellectual. Because of the lack of inner strength, not only atheist remain unhappy, but even the religious one fails to find the long lasting inner happiness. May God bless you with the inner strength.

Expand your horizons

2010-12-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

If you limit yourself within any boundaries of faith, believe or religion, then you limit your progress on the path of realization of Truth, realization of inner happiness. Truth is eternal, omnipresent and infinite, with no limitations of time, space, faith, beliefs or religion.

To realize the presence of eternal, conscious and blissful Truth within, it becomes necessary for the seeker to expand his or her horizons beyond all the limitations of mental conditioning on the name of faith, belief or religion. How do you do that? By giving importance to your own discrimination, experiences and realization; by going further deep into spirituality beyond the boundaries of religion; by exploring the Self within rather than trying to find the God outside; by exploring the possibility of becoming totally blissful while living, not after death; by realizing the possibility of living heaven on earth; by inquiring about your inner world, as to what is mind? What is intellect? Who am I?

This is what I mean by expanding the horizons. I am not trying to demean the value of faith. But I am only trying to suggest that just give up the blind-faith part of your faith that is based on stories, without any logical explanation. The process of realization of inner happiness is more of a process of unlearning rather than learning. You have to become free of all kinds of hardened beliefs and conditioning of mind to reach to the state of constant blissfulness just like a child.

Man has made tremendous progress in the scientific world because we have not limited ourselves by one culture, region, country, belief or faith. The scientists and their theories are universal in nature, not limited by any sect or faith. Similarly, when it comes to the inner world why can’t we try to become universal in nature. Why do we limit ourselves in faith or religion. The spiritual nature of the being is as universal as the physical or biological nature. So, it becomes important for the seeker of true happiness to remove all the shackles of culture, belief, sect or religion. I would even suggest don’t limit yourself to one Saint or one Guru. Be truly universal to achieve true freedom.

Why should we praise the Lord?

2010-11-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

Last week we were passing by a church while driving and my eight year old daughter read the board in front of the church – “Praise the Lord”. She asked me, “Dad, does God gets pleased when we praise Him?”

I always feel delighted whenever the young ones show some spiritual inquisitiveness. With a smile on my face, I answered, “My dear, God is not a personality that gets pleased when you praise Him or that gets annoyed when you begin to ignore Him or curse Him – just like humans. We should praise God for our own good. The omnipresent God, that resides everywhere and in your own heart, is eternal, conscious and blissful energy - The Sat-Chit-Ananda. When we praise God, His supreme peace, supreme knowledge and supreme happiness begins to flow within our own heart.”

After a brief pause, I said, “Otherwise also, when we praise someone we feel better ourselves. And when we curse someone, we aggravate ourselves. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“That’s right Dad. So, you should always praise me”, she answered playfully.

A burst of laugh hovered in our car.

Later I thought that almost all the religions of the world praise God in the form of singing bhajans, Qawwali, kirtan or singing other form of devotional songs. We get deeply touched when we hear the praise of God in the musical form. It is one of the secret of inner happiness – to praise the one that is absolutely worthy of all the praise, during all times – God. When we look at the rising sun or the dark sky during full moon day or the beautiful flowers or the chirping birds or a happy child or any other form of natural magnificence, we shouldn’t miss the chance to remember the God, thank Him and praise Him. When we remember and praise God, the divine blessing gets showered upon us instantaneously – in the form of inner peace, inner satisfaction and inner happiness.

Learn the art of dying also

2010-11-05T06:08:00.000-07:00

Those who consider this world to be real, also consider themselves to be the mere body and remain ignorant of the Truth. Behind each and every act of such worldly beings, there is a selfish motive to gain wealth or health or fame for the body. Throughout their life they keep worrying about the future and resolving problems, one after other. And then ultimately, one day, leave the world in the same anxious state of mind. When such a worldly being encounter death, he cries and grieve over all the things and people that he is about to leave.

However, those who have realized themselves as the consciousness or the soul, remain unattached to the body and the belongings of the body. For them, this world is nothing more than an illusion or a dream. For such mystics, death is just a confirmation of their beliefs and their realization. Not only they smile and remain in the blissful state of mind while living, but they also leave the world with the same beauty and elegance. Just like we shed our clothes, or a snake leaves its skin, the Self realized ones leave their body just as a mere witness, in the blissful state of mind. They remain unperturbed and calm during the last moments of life.

One such elevated soul was Socrates, who didn’t show any signs of fear when he was forced to drink a cup of hemlock in the form of poison. He told his people that he would leave them and go to the joys of the blessed. Some of his last words were like this:- “those of you who think that death is an evil are in error . . . .Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things:--either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. . . . Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is a journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? . . . What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again. . . . Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. . . . The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways--I to die, and you to live. Which is better God only knows.”

For them death is a new beginning. They know themselves as a conscious being that is owner of the body, and not as mere body. And hence, they know that only this body, which is part of ever changing nature, will encounter death, while their conscious Self will remain unaffected.Saint Kabir was another such noble soul who expressed his joy in the form of poetry:

In Hindi: [jiss marney te jagg darrey,morey mann anand, kab mariye kab paayiey, pooran parmanand. ]
Translation:That death of which this world is scared, fills my heart with bliss;
when shall I die and become one with the perfect, supreme bliss.

There have been many saints and elevated souls, who left this body in the conscious and blissful state of mind. When such a saint leaves the body consciously, it is called Mahasamadhi. Recently, on December 5, 2009, Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati took Mahasamadhi in Bihar, India. He reportedly called Swami Satsangi at 11:30pm and said it was time for him to go. He sat in padmasana practicing japa and left his body at midnight with a smile on his face. He was Guru to thousands and the founder of the Bihar School of Yoga among other prominent and beneficial institutions.

There have been many wise men in the Indian subcontinent who gained the wisdom of life that enabled them to confront the death with vigor and blissfulness. Swami Lila Shah, who was my Guruji’s Guru, left his body in 1973. His few last words were:- “I never die. Only this body does. For me, this is just an end of a long, very long, 90 year long dream.”

The seekers of true happiness pay homage to the holy feet of such saints, who not only conquered the world with the help of their Self realization, but also conquered over death. They have taught us the true meaning of life.

Mind, intellect and your real Self

2010-10-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

The mystics of the East did a lot of analysis of the inner world to gain the understanding of the subtle faculties of the being. Inner faculties of the being are also called as ‘Antah-Karan’. The ‘Antah-Karan’ consists of the mind, the intellect, the Chita and the ego. It is very helpful for the true seeker to gain proper understanding of the inner faculties in order to progress on the path of inner happiness.

Most of the seekers try to do meditation and meditation for them is controlling the mind only. Even the Yogis define Yoga as 'Chita Vriti Nirodha' - meaning the 'Suppression of the tendencies of mind'. For a true seeker, it is important to gain the wisdom of Self after attaining which one can differentiate between mind, intellect, chita, ego and the real Self. Because of the ignorance of the inner world, all the efforts of controlling the mind prove futile. The truly blissful saints, who gained the wisdom of the Self, insist that the goal of the true seeker should be to purify the intellect rather than controlling the mind. Before going deep into the subject, let’s try to understand the inner faculties of the being.

Let’s begin with mind, which is the outermost covering of the inner world and which gets exposed to the material world by means of five senses. Mind is the faculty of consciousness that makes resolution and irresolution. It gives rise to the incessant stream of thoughts based on the conditioning of mind and the deep rooted desires. As are your thoughts, so are your actions and as your actions, so is your destiny. The thoughts of your mind control your mood and state of your being. As long as the chattering of mind continues, the being cannot gain tranquility.

Next inner level of the ‘Antah-Karan’ is the intellect. Intellect is the subtle faculty of consciousness that takes decisions based on your knowledge, realization and experiences. Intellect of the common man remains weak because of the ignorance of the wisdom of the Self. Common man only focuses on gaining knowledge of the outer world, without giving any importance to the inner world.

The other two faculties of the ‘Antah Karan’ are even subtler than mind and intellect. It’s not easy to describe them in words. However just to give you the glimpse, I can describe chita as the mood of the being or the deeper sensation of the being. Ego is the false notion of ‘I’ which is resulted due to the union of your being with the mind.

The root cause of all the sufferings and miseries of the man is the improper alignment of inner faculties - the intellect of the being, which is supposed to be the chief of the mind, became the subordinate of the mind. It is the weak intellect that dances on the tunes of the mind. Mind demands something, based on the deep rooted desires, and intellect begins to think of the ways to fulfill the demand, without even analyzing the repercussions or the purpose of the demands of mind. In this manner the impish mind doesn’t let the being to gain inner peace, even for a moment. Because of untamed mind, the being got caught in the web of this illusionary world and suffers throughout the life.

The goal of the true seeker is to enlighten the intellect- to purify and strengthen the intellect with the help of true knowledge and realization of Self. Only a purified intellect can control the impish mind and calm it down so that it can experience the deep sensation of inner happiness. Eventually the intellect becomes so pure and subtle that it attains union with the consciousness. That state of the intellect is called as ‘ritambra-pragya’. During such a state of intellect, mind experiences the highest form of blissfulness.

The goal of this blog is to invoke eagerness – eagerness to acquire Self knowledge and to have faith in the teachings of the wise men. If you have the zeal, you would seek company of Self realized ones, try to listen to their talks or read their writings for gaining the wisdom of the Self. In this manner the seeker is motivated to spend some time in solitude to perform self analysis and meditation. Eventually the intellect of such a seeker attains purity and the mind attains tranquility. The experienced holy men tells that even if the mind experiences such a blissfulness for as little as three minutes, then the mind will stop hankering for the outer pleasures of the world and the being becomes truly free, which some calls emancipation. It is to be noted that such emancipation can be achieved while living, not after death.

Life is not meant to be a race

2010-10-07T05:45:00.000-07:00

If you stop one of the rats that are running around all over in a farm-house and ask, “What are you running for?” The rat will probably give you a bizarre look and probably reply, “I don’t know. I am running because everyone around me is running.”

Similar is the story of contemporary man. Most of us are running around without any pre defined goals – in an endless, self-defeating or pointless pursuit of wealth, power and happiness. Moreover, the car in which contemporary man is riding is terrific. It runs great, but at the same time, you can only push the pedals in this car. There is no direction of wisdom and there are no brakes of self control. You can imagine where such a car would lead to?

It is the hyper active mind of the contemporary man that doesn’t allow him to be calm even for a moment. The mind of the contemporary man is continuously stimulated by thoughts and resolutions, which are triggered by deep rooted desires. The conditioning of the mind since childhood keeps it busy in the futile pursuit of happiness in the outer world.

The seeker of true inner happiness gives up the futile rat-race, stop for few moments and try to figure out the direction of their life. Such a seeker seeks the true wisdom of Self and begin to introduce the brakes of discipline and self-control. He or she begins to explore the meaning of their life and its purpose. Such a seeker begins to seek the company of such aspirants who are on their way to gain the tranquility of mind and inner bliss. Such a seeker begins to give importance to managing the inner world and when the inner world begins to get managed, outer world gets managed on its own.

In my next blog, we will discuss about the difference between mind and intellect, and how a purified intellect is required to control the mind.

A true seeker of divine Truth

2010-09-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

Most of us remain baffled about - what is true seeking of divine Truth and what does it entail? The Self realized saints describe God as the omnipresent eternal conscious blissful (Sat-Chit-Ananda) power. The art of recognizing and manifesting these divine qualities of the true omnipresent God in your own heart can be referred to as seeking of divine Truth.

By gaining such a wonderful state of mind, all the doubts are evaporated and the seeker attains supreme peace, love and bliss. Such a seeker gains true understanding of the illusionary nature of this world and the eternal nature of Soul. By gaining such a divine realization of Truth, such a seeker remains equanimous in all the circumstances of life and become completely fearless. Even the fear of death dissolves completely.

Next question that most people ask is what is the means of realizing the divine Truth? So, I would say that there is no one means of such a seeking of divine Truth. The thoughts and actions of a true seeker are directed towards realizing the inner peace, love ad happiness. Such a seeker always seeks the company of Self realized ones – be it in the form of physical presence around them, listening to their talks or reading their divine experiences. All the Vedas, Upnishads and other holy literature around the world is nothing but the words of such divine souls who have realized the eternal Truth.

A true seeker hear, read, chant and meditate upon the holy life of Sri Krishna, Sri Rama, saints and divine personalities of the world. A true seeker remains open minded to gain the eternal knowledge of divine Truth from all the sources without any bias towards any specific culture, cult or philosophy. A true seeker performs Yoga and Pranayama to keep a healthy body and pious mind.

To summarize, all the efforts of a true seeker are meant for realizing the real goal of human life – to manifest divine love, eternal peace and bliss in his heart.

Gratitude brings you peace and inner happiness

2010-09-10T06:03:00.000-07:00

Happy moments? ... Praise God.

Difficult moments? ... Seek God.

Quiet moments? ... Worship God.

Painful moments? ... Trust God.

Every moment? ... Thank God.

Most of the people resort to the Supreme power during the difficult moments of life. But how many of us praise God during happy moments? The remembrance of God at all the times and the sincere heartfelt gratitude towards God brings you long lasting peace, equanimity and inner fulfillment.

Gratitude brings abundance in all facets of our lives. Being grateful to the creator of this world is the beginning of the dawn of inner joy. Heartfelt gratitude towards the almighty opens doors of unlimited happiness in your heart. When we ignore our blessings and begin to measure ourselves in comparison to others, then only we get caught in the web of desires and eventually, worries. Each one of us has been given so much by the Supreme Being that we cannot express our gratitude in words.

When I was growing up in India and when I looked people stressed out with life all around me, I formed an opinion that may be the people in the poor nations of the world are stressed out because they have to struggle to make both end meet. But it is ironical to see that even the people in the developed countries of the world, are equally stressed out. They also find a long list of ‘not haves’, forgetting about all the ‘haves’. Most of the people are so busy in focusing on their long list of desires that they forget about all the blessings in the present.

The blessings of the Supreme Intelligence are being showered upon all of us, incessantly. We just need the loving pure eyes that are free of all conditioning, to appreciate it. That Supreme Being is working through the nature to orchestrate the beautiful symphony of this world, flawlessly. There is enormous beauty, creativity, deep science, great wonder in every event, in every moment of your life. Every small thing around us, from our complex body to the blade of grass, is a miracle of existence. We just need eyes of divine wisdom to appreciate every moment that is being gifted to us. We just need to practice how to look at things, as if we are looking at them for the first time- just like a child look at ordinary things with a wonder.

How does a true seeker attain such a state of persistent gratitude? Only by seeking true wisdom of the Self, a seeker gain understanding of the Self, the world and the God. This way he or she falls in love with the Supreme Consciousness and begins to remember God at all the times. He begins to praise God during happy moments, trust God during painful moments, seek God during quiet moments and thank God at all the times. Such a seeker begins to experience divine peace and ever lasting inner happiness.

The importance of the wisdom of the Self

2010-08-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

During our last discussion , we talked about wisdom and its kinds. Let’s go further deep into the subject to analyze the importance of the wisdom of the Self.

There is no doubt that mankind has made tremendous progress in gaining the understanding of the outer world and thereby made human life much more easy, comfortable and pleasurable. One needs worldly knowledge to earn the living and to live day to day life. Today, even after gaining all the forms of luxuries and entertainment, man somehow still remain restless and empty from inside.

During past few centuries mankind has focused only on the worldly knowledge and ignored the wisdom of the inner world. The ignorance of the inner world and the exploitation of the outer world is the root cause of restlessness, depression, wars and calamities. Unless and until man remain ignorance of the inner world- the world of mind, intelligence, ego, the soul (aatma or spirit), the Supreme soul (Param-aatma), he or she cannot gain inner peace, fulfillment and blissfulness, which is the true goal of human life.

Focusing on the worldly knowledge is materialism and focusing on the wisdom of the Self is true spirituality. Worldly knowledge can give you comforts and momentary pleasures. The inner wisdom can introduce you to inner peace and ever lasting blissfulness. Worldly knowledge always remain incomplete and in the constant state of flux because the nature itself is ever changing. The inner wisdom can lead the seeker to a state of completeness where there is no more doubt left. The worldly knowledge tends to nourish the ego, whereas the wisdom of the Self dissolves the ego. When you give importance to the outer world, you experience greed, jealousy, fear and attachment, which lead you to restless state of mind. However, when you begin to give importance to the spiritual wisdom, you become fearless, generous, calm and peaceful.

I would not even call worldly knowledge as wisdom. It can just be called as ‘knowledge’. Knowing the outside world is ‘knowledge’ and knowing yourself is true ‘wisdom’. The goal of the wisdom of the Self is to know the impersonal God that is omnipresent and also resides within you. By knowing and realizing that Eternal–Conscious–Blissful energy within, the seeker attains peace and inner happiness.

What are the signs of true wisdom? Keeping a balanced mind in all the situations of life (equanimity) and gaining a state of persistence blissfulness are the signs of true wisdom. Let us all begin to give due importance to the wisdom of the Self and become a true seeker of the inner divinity.

Wisdom and its kinds

2010-08-20T06:53:00.000-07:00

It is the wisdom that differentiates the wise men from the ordinary. It is the wisdom that makes wise men sagacious, prudent, equanimous, peaceful and truly happy being. The sages of the east categorize wisdom into three broad categories: the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of the Yoga and the wisdom of the Self. All of these three play important role for a seeker to gain inner peace and a truly happy state of mind.

Wisdom of the world refers to the knowledge of the outer world – the world that can be perceived by your five senses. The wisdom of the world helps you to gain understanding of the outer world – the nature, its objects and the people around you. Wisdom of the world is endless and can be further classified into numerous categories - science, accounting, sociology, biology, economics, engineering, mathematics, language, art are just to name a few.

Even the medical and biological knowledge comes under the arena of ‘wisdom of the world’ because it deals with the body which is part of the nature, not your true Self. It deals with the body organs that can be perceived by senses.

The wisdom of the Yoga refers to the knowledge of the Yogic chakras in our body, the Pranayaam (the breathing exercises), the Yogic postures and its practice. The wisdom of Yoga helps you to keep a healthy body and even gain control over the nature up to certain extent (like the art of levitation, walking over water or flying in the air). [I just want to mention that the word ‘Yoga’ has very broad and deep meaning. However I just want to differentiate between the wisdom of a Yogi and the wisdom of a Self realized one. Here the word Yoga is used as it is widely understood in the western world.]

The wisdom of the Self refers to the knowledge of your spirit or your soul or your true Self or omnipresent formless God, that resides in your heart too. The wisdom of the Self deals with the inner world – that cannot be perceived with the help of your five senses (eyes, nose, tongue, ears and sensation). It refers to the exploration of ‘Who am I?’, ‘What is God?’, ‘What is the relation between a being and the Supreme being?’

A few people would ask – what about the religious knowledge? In which category would you put that? I would say that most of the religions of the world contain all the three types of the wisdom. The major portion of the religions comes under the arena of ‘wisdom of the world’ – the divine stories of different incarnations of God, the tales of origin of life on earth, the description of heaven and hell, the detailed rituals, the mantras and the sophisticated prayers. All of this knowledge that makes you nothing more than a priest at a religious place belongs to the arena of ‘wisdom of the world’. Then there is another part of religion that helps you to gain control over nature and it comes under the arena of ‘the wisdom of Yoga’. However, the spiritual core of the religion belongs to the arena of ‘the wisdom of the Self’. This is the part of the religion that helps you gain the understanding of your true Self and the true omnipresent God, that makes you pious, peaceful and a better being.

We will discuss a few more subtle differences and the importance of the wisdom of the Self in the next blog.

The superior most path of Self realization

2010-08-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

A group of pious villagers often used to gather in the evenings for divine discussions on the subject of life and God. On one of such lovely evenings, when they gathered under the huge Pipal tree, one of the villagers began the discussion by saying, “Friends, we are fortunate to have so many holy men and saints in our village during past few years. But I often wonder, they all tell us about various paths to the realization of Truth. But which path would be the most superior one?”

Another villager tried to answer, “In my opinion, with the help of the path of Yoga and meditation, many Yogis have attained the higher state of existence in the Himalayas and elsewhere. So, the path of Yoga and meditation should be followed by the true seekers.”

Another one commented, “Well, in my opinion the path of selfless service is easy and can be followed by anyone. Mahatma Gandhi and many others attained the higher state of mind and well being through selfless service. So, the path of selfless service can most easily lead the seeker to his goal.”

An old woman said, “Son, in my opinion the path of devotion and love not only lead you to God, but also can be practiced by even a child. Gopis of Vrindavan, Mira Bai, Sant Tulsidasji and numerous others attained the state of union with God with the help of faith and devotion. So in my opinion, the path of devotion should be considered as the supreme one.”

A young man said, “Well I agree with all these various approaches for the seeker. However, I feel that without the path of Gyaan and knowledge, all of the other means of Self realization remain incomplete. You have to have knowledge of God in order to show your love and devotion to him. You have to have knowledge of Yoga and meditation in order to practice it. And without true knowledge of the Self, selfless service can not be performed. Somewhere deep inside, the social workers continue to nourish their false ego. So in my opinion, the path of true knowledge is the supreme path for the true seeker of Truth.”

A wise old man in the gathering was also listening and he commented, “In my opinion, we should go to the Saint who is living on the banks of river Ganga and ask him about his opinion as well.”

Next day early morning the villagers went to the Saint and paid their respect. After that, they apprised him of their dilemma. The Saint began to smile and said, “My dear seekers, if you ask a doctor about which is the best medicine, the doctor might laugh at you. He would tell you that depending on the tendency of the patient, each medicine has its own benefits and is best in its own accord. Similarly, the path of devotion is meant for an emotional seeker, the path of selfless service is meant for the one who believes in action, the path of knowledge is meant for an intellectual one and the path of Yoga is meant for the young seekers who want to see immediate results. Each path is best in its own accord. And the beauty is that if you are practicing it right, they all go in unison. If you gain knowledge of Self and God, you cannot remain without loving Him. If you love God, then you cannot remain away from selfless service.”

After a brief pause, the Saint continued, “In fact, I would like to suggest that don’t limit your self with one school of thought or one path or one philosophy. Be universal in your approach because the supreme Truth is universal. It can be led to by millions of different ways. Moreover, if you ask -which school is the best, the answer should be that the one which helps you to graduate it, not the one which binds you for whole life. That school is the best which helps you to appreciate the importance all other schools for gaining the true wisdom. That philosophy, that path is the best which helps the seeker to become free of all the prejudices and all the doubts. In this manner, with the help of true universal wisdom, the seeker attains true freedom and a state of completeness – complete peace and complete happiness.”

Natural means of a healthy body and happy mind

2010-07-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

A seeker of true happiness treats the body as a temple of the divine spirit. A healthy body helps in keeping the mind happy and a healthy mind keeps the body healthy. Along with this, a healthy body and a happy mind, together helps the being to realize the divinity within.

God has provided us with a lot of natural means to keep the sanctity of this bodily temple. The body is made up of five basic elements – earth, ether, water, fire and space. The sages of India realized thousands of years ago that by maintaining the proper balance of these five basic elements, one can live a healthy and happy life. Let’s analyze how easily we can make use of these natural health tips for leading a happy life.

1. Ether: Ample amount of oxygen plays an important role in maintaining the health of your bodily cells. Morning walk in the fresh air not only rejuvenate you from inside-out, but also shield you from many forms of common ailments. If you inhale ample amount of fresh air during the early morning hours, not only your body gain strength, but you’re your mind becomes peaceful and your heart begins to sing.

2. Water: Water is the next important constituent of your body. Ample amount of water helps in the proper blood circulation throughout your body. One who drinks a glass full of water before sun rise are not affected by the common ailments and senility. You can drink a little amount of warm water with food, but you shouldn’t drink water when you are hungry. Ample amount of water flushes your body of the toxic remains of the food.

3. Food: The type of food that you eat not only affects your body, but also your mind and its thoughts. To gain inner peace and to maintain constant flow of pious thoughts, one should eat pure vegetarian food that is easy to digest and nutritious. One should pray to God with gratitude before the food and remain silent while eating the food. Such pious eating habit strengthens your body, improves your digestive power, brings contentment, longer your life and keeps you healthy.

4. Sun: Sun is the primary source of life, energy and immunity. Sun light not only provides you with vitamin D, but also kills harmful bacteria. One should spend at least ten minutes in the sunlight daily, preferable during early morning hours. While taking sun bath, one should make sure that the naval area is exposed to sunlight and the head is covered.

5. Fasting: Fasting is vey beneficial for your health. Fasting flushes your body of the toxic remains of food and reinvigorates your digestive system. These leftovers are called ‘aam’ in Ayurveda and are considered to be the root cause of all the bodily ailments. It makes you feel light and reinvigorates your bodily cells. When you are sick, fasting allows your conscious energy to focus on relieving the root cause of sickness, instead of wasting energy on digesting the food.

6. Exercise: Exercise helps you to get rid of the lethargy and at the same time, improves your energy, strength and ability. Exercise helps in keeping god balance of all the basic elements of your body and thereby, enhances your digestive power, improves the quality of your sleep. Along with the slow Yogic exercises, one should try to keep the balance of fast aerobic exercises and the breathing exercises ( Pranayam).

7. Thoughts: The thoughts of the mind have direct affect on your body. Your will-power and the pious thoughts go a long way for relieving your body of all kinds of ailments. Adverse thoughts not only malign the peace of your mind, but also carry negative impact on your health. Pious and happy thoughts carry powerful life energy. To remain healthy, one should try to remain peaceful, cheerful and contended.

8. Sleep: For keeping a good health, adequate amount of sleep plays an important role. By going to bed at proper time regularly, your body gets proper rest and keeps a good balance of bodily elements. One should not sleep with covered face or improper bodily posture. One should pray to God in gratitude before going to bed. With the help of good sleeping habits, one improves the digestive power, bodily strength, peace of mind and cheerfulness.

With the help of these eight natural means, the seeker of true happiness can maintain a healthy body and a pious mind. With the help of a healthy body and a cheerful mind, the seeker of true happiness continues to make progress on the path of realizing the divinity within.

Role of science and spirituality in our pursuit of happiness

2010-07-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

What do you think can contribute significantly in the pursuit of happiness- Science or Spirituality? I know that most of you would answer in favour of science. With its spectacular progress in last couple of centuries, science has definitely made human life much easier, healthier and comfortable with its innumerable inventions. Not only that, science has also provided human race with countless means of entertainment. It is no surprise that most of the younger generation is fervent enthusiast of Science.

Another factor that helped you in deciding in favour of science might be the ignorance of true meaning of spirituality and its misinterpretation as part of religion. There are wide spread myths that science is logical, while spirituality is only based on beliefs and superstitions; science can be applied usefully in human life, whereas spirituality is mere set of esoteric impractical philosophies.

If Spirituality is defined as the exploration of the inner world: your mind, intellect, ego, life energy and the true nature of your spirit, then you might reconsider your answer. Let me shed some light on the word “spirituality”, before re-phrasing my question. As per Wikipedia, Spirituality is defined as "an ultimate reality or transcendent dimension of the world; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his or her being, or the deepest values and meanings by which people live." Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life.

In the light of this clarification, let me ask you a few more questions: “Do you think peace of mind and contentment are important components of happiness?”, “Do you think Science has contributed to improve love, compassion, peace and contentment amongst people, societies and countries?”, “Do you think that because of recent scientific progress, man has become even more stressful and restless?”

Well, now you might be interested in analyzing this topic even further. One of the well accepted definition of science is “the experimentally acquired knowledge of the objective laws that govern creation.” Spirituality can also be defined as science because it constitutes of the knowledge of divine laws that governs our inner world. When the objective knowledge is applied in the external world for the material benefit of human race, it can be called as applied modern science. When the subjective knowledge that is acquired by self-analysis of inner world by the mystics and saints, is applied for the spiritual benefit of human race, it is called as spirituality.

A few distinctions between science and spirituality

Science explores the outer world and deals with the analysis of the objective world that can be sensed by our senses or instruments. Spirituality explores the inner world and deals with the analysis of the subjective world that is beyond senses i.e. the world of mind, intellect, spirit, love, compassion, peace and inner happiness. Science limits itself to the physical forms of energies that can be gauged, whereas spirituality deals with the supreme energy- the consciousness.

The goal of Science is to provide you with physical well being and physical comforts. The goal of Spirituality is to provide you with mental peace, contentment, love, compassion, peace and long lasting happiness.

Science has made human race selfish with no consideration to environment. During last century, due to scientific progress, human race has exploited and continue to exploit nature beyond viable limits. Spirituality refrain us from exploiting nature for our physical benefits and has thrived for thousands of years in true harmony with nature.

Science provides us with various means of deriving momentary sensual pleasures, whereas spirituality gives us insight to experience long lasting inner happiness by means of meditation, contemplation etc. Science tends to make us restless, whereas spirituality helps us to gain serenity of mind.

Just by exploring the outer world with the help of science, you get to know yourself as a limited body in the vast universe, whereas by exploring the inner world with the help of spirituality, you come to realize that you are part and parcel of the supreme spirit that is regulating the whole universe.

While exploring the objective world, science divides the object into parts and then analyze. In this manner it disintegrates the whole universe into different components. While exploring the subjective world, spirituality unites the whole universe as one non-dual conscious being.

Science and spirituality goes hand in hand in our pursuit of happiness

Unfortunately, we learn a lot about various streams of science and the outer world in schools and colleges. However, there is no methodical training available to educate us about the inner world and about life in general; about what is the goal of life; about how to cope up with the adversities of life; about self restraint and refraining from over indulgence in sensual pleasures; about the higher values of life. This is where spirituality can help us.

Science can definitely provide us with a lot of gadgets to make our life easier and to entertain us. However, you also need spirituality, with the help of which you can make proper use of science, without abusing it.

Einstein insisted, “Science without Religion is lame, Religion without science is blind.” However, those scientists are very who try to spiritualize the Science and it’s rare to find spiritual mystics who scientifically approach spirituality. Science, if not supported with moral values, might put on an ugly face of destruction.

Science and spirituality are integral part of human endeavours to gain fulfilment in life. Science and spirituality are inseparable in the interest of the wholesome human progress. Thousands of years ago, the mystics of India realized this and inscribed in one of the Upnishads, called Ishopanishad that “the life of bare contemplation (spirituality and meditation) and the life of bare activity (applied science) are alike, fraught with evil; but that he alone may be said to attain the goal of life who knows how to harmonise the two different paths.”

For true human progress, money and materials alone cannot deliver the goods. The power given to man by science can be used to make heavens on earth if the due importance is given to spirituality as well. Our fulfilment is dependent on our ability to live in harmony with the external world, where science can help and our ability to live in harmony with ourselves, where spirituality can help. By maintaining the equilibrium of science and spirituality in our lives, we can not only enjoy the pleasures of outer world, but also the wholesome ever-present bliss of our spirit. This is the goal of our pursuit of happiness.

Only discriminative faith can lead you to eternal happiness

2010-07-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Most of you would agree that it is the nature of human mind to develop a set of believes and faith based on the nature of upbringing and childhood experiences. The human mind cannot remain free of such beliefs and impressions. This is true in the material world, as well as in the spiritual world. Based on your early impressions, mostly from your parents, you consider yourself as a Christian or a Hindu or a Muslim or a Budhist or an atheist. Yes, even atheism is also a form of faith.

Now, after growing up, there are two types of people based on how they deal with these set of beliefs or faith. The vast majority of people never question their parents or themselves about the doctrines, the holy scriptures, the historical stories of God, philosophy of after-death heaven and hell etc. They just assume everything to be true and continue to lead the religious life based on their assumptions. They just continue to follow the scriptures and the religious customs based on how they were told by their parents and others. They rarely go into the depth of spirituality by asking about the true spirit or about the true omnipresent formless God that is residing in every heart.

Then, there are other type of people, somewhat rare, who are inquisitive and use their discriminative powers even when it comes to their spiritual beliefs. They refuse to follow the herd. They don’t just follow the directions of the prophets or scriptures blindly. They begin to make use of the highest form of gift from God to humans- their discriminative power. They begin to ask that how are those historical stories of God or the philosophy of heaven and hell, going to help them in their present life. How can they become a better person, how can they find inner peace, how can they find inner happiness and how can they meet the God that resides in their heart.

Unfortunately, in the western world, most of such seekers eventually turn out to be atheist because they fail to get their answers. However, in the eastern world, such people become truly spiritual, instead of just being religious, because they find proper guidance from the Self realized Saints. Such people become true seekers of the Self, the inner peace, the inner happiness, the spirit and the true omnipresent non-dual God.

Faith, without discrimination, will lead you nowhere. You have to realize that it is not just the ignorance, that is your major obstacle in the search of Truth, but it is the illusion of knowledge or deep rooted beliefs, that stop you from becoming the true seeker of the divine presence in your heart. First step in the seeking of Truth is to acknowledge your ignorance and then with the help of proper discrimination, slowly get rid of all of your deep rooted beliefs. In this manner, by making proper use of your discrimination, you will become truly free- free like a child, free like a Self realized one – truly peaceful and truly happy.

A true seeker takes eternal happiness very seriously

2010-06-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

There are two types of spiritual seekers, one who consider themselves as the worldly being, enjoy the material world and then continue to pursue their seeking as a hobby or as a social obligation. And second, who consider themselves as the seeker of Supreme Truth and continue to lead their worldly life without giving it much of an importance. They know the fact that the purpose of their life is to seek the Supreme Truth about the Self, about the God and thereby gain eternal bliss.

In the material world, we consider ourselves student first and then pursue studies; we assume ourselves businessman first, and then try to do business; we consider ourselves a dancer first, and then begin to learn dance; we consider ourselves artist first, and then learn the art. Then, why can’t a seeker act like a seeker only while pursuing the supreme goal of life? One of the reasons is that most of us don’t want to take on the responsibility of being a true seeker of Supreme Truth. We don’t want to let go of the desires to indulge in the sensual momentary pleasures.

Even in the material pursuits, those who don’t take their goal seriously and continue their pursuit under some obligation or a hobby, rarely succeeds. Similarly, I have seen devotees who continue to perform prayers throughout the life, but there is no music in their heart. There are many seekers who continue to search for the supreme Truth throughout their lives, but remain full of doubts till the end. One of the reasons is the absence of seriousness in their spiritual pursuit.

However a true seeker lives the life of a true seeker after taking on the responsibilities of a true seeker. While conducting in the worldly affairs, in the back of the mind of such a seeker, there remains a thirst to find the Supreme Truth and a hunger for the wisdom of the Self. Such a seeker doesn’t seek the truth just by curiosity or under some obligation. For such a seeker, the search of Supreme Truth becomes the utmost purpose of life. Such a seeker appears to conduct in the material world, but deep inside remains untouched by the happenings and enjoyments of the material world. For such a seeker, spiritual pursuit becomes a divine passion like someone who is in love.

Such a sincere and passionate seeker begins to enjoy every moment of the journey to the Self consciousness. Such a seeker begins to assimilate the words of true wisdom of the Self. Such a seeker remains equanimous during the happy and sad moments of worldly life. Such a passionate seeker begins to tune to the eternal music of joy that is playing in our hearts. And with time, God, the Supreme Consciousness reveals Himself in the heart of such a sincere seeker. From that moment on, all doubts are vanished and the seeker becomes the saint after fulfilling the supreme purpose of life.

Detachment is the key to long lasting happiness

2010-06-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

In the modern day society, while leading the day to day life, a common man gets attached to the people, places and things around him or her. Not only that, you also get mentally attached to the desires, goals or so called dreams of life. The materialistic society only teaches you to attach yourself to everything in your circle of existence so as to achieve a sense of security, success and happiness.

However, the problem is when these things disappear, as they often do, it leaves you with the feelings of emptiness, restlessness and grief. The attachment to money makes you greedy; the attachment to your status makes you selfish and mean; the attachment to the people around you makes you emotionally vulnerable; the attachment to the surroundings makes you fearful; the attachment to your goals and desires makes you restless.

The sages of the east tell us that such worldly attachment arises from the ignorance of the Self and is the root cause of all the sorrow. If you have likings for the material possessions, then you will be inflicted with financial worries. If you are excessively attached to your spouse, then there will be more arguments and it may result into separation. A stranger doesn’t become an enemy. People with whom you are attached as friends only turn into enemies in the due course of life.

Another interesting viewpoint is that God, who is your supreme well wisher, continuously help you to get detached from these worldly bindings. God tries to detach you from these bindings by creating financial losses, sufferings, turning your friends into enemies and various other forms of hardships. However, you don’t give up these attachments easily and continue to suffer.

This reminds me of another analogy which will help you to understand this possessive nature of living beings. Do you know how a street juggler catches a monkey in the forest? He simply plays a trick on the wild monkeys. He fixes an empty metal pot with small orifice at a spot that monkeys can notice. Then he put some munchies into the pot while monkeys are watching and leaves. After some time when he returns, he find that monkey’s hand is stuck inside the pot. This is because the monkey doesn’t want to open the fist and let go of all the munchies. In this manner the man gets hold of the monkey by putting a chain around him and hit a stick on monkey’s elbow. Monkey opens his fist and gets the hand released.

Swami Vivekanand used to quote that –‘If I have to take rebirth, I would only practice detachment and concentration. Just the practice of these two virtues, one can lead to the Self realization.’

After understanding that the worldly attachments are the root cause of worldly miseries, a seeker doesn’t measure his or her worth with the fancy cars, luxurious homes, status or bank balance. Such a seeker listens to the words of wisdom from the truly blissful saints and then tries to renounce the attachments with everything that one is supposed to leave anyway, at the time of death. In practicing detachment after realizing the eternal, conscious and blissful nature of the innermost core, a seeker achieves balanced state of mind.

Worldly detachment can only be practiced when you have faith in the Supreme power and when you know that your consciousness is also the part and parcel of the same Supreme Consciousness. After such realization, a seeker leaves everything to God and surrender completely to the Supreme Intelligence that is orchestrating the dance of the universe so wonderfully. In such a true surrender, the seeker gets relieved and begins to experience complete freedom, peace and ever lasting happiness.

Your mind is a real wish-tree

2010-06-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

Personality is nothing, but a collection of your thoughts. As you think, so are your actions and as your actions, so is your destiny. Your mind is such a potent wish tree that whatever your mind thinks eventually materializes. Your present life is the result of your past thoughts in the form of your fears, aspirations and desires. Your thoughts help you create the reality that you experience. Whether that experience is good or bad, all of it is determined by our thoughts.

When you start worrying, the negative energy starts propagating into the Existence and the same negativity begins to manifest. Then you begin to think that the world is conspiring against you. Similarly, when you are happy, the world around you appears to be encouraging and wonderful. So, be watchful of your thoughts in such a way that you nourish the thoughts that brings you ever lasting peace and happiness.

Let me tell you a short story about a wish-tree. A villager heard about the Yogis of Girnar mountains and all their Yogic and magical powers. He was fascinated after hearing many miraculous incidents in those mountains of Girnar.

Once, he was crossing the forest in the mountain regions of Girnar to bring his wife back from the in-laws. On the way, he felt tired and he sat under a beautiful tree. He felt hungry and started thinking about the delicious variety of food. All of a sudden he saw that all the variety of food appeared in front of him in well decorated platters. He ate and then he thought that it would be nice if he can get a comfortable bed to take some rest. To his wonder, he saw that a beautiful, well laid bed appeared in front of him. Then he thought, it would be great if I can somehow get a few gold coins to live life peacefully. A bag of gold coins suddenly dropped from the tree.

Wow… he was all amazed. He laid down on the bed, but couldn’t sleep in excitement. Then all of a sudden he thought, ‘hmm… this all is too good to be true. What if this is all a devil’s play and he might appear suddenly to eat me.’ Guess what … a devil appeared and ate him. It was a true wish-tree and all the wishes were supposed to come true.

Your mind too is a powerful wish tree. So, the worrisome thoughts make you unhappy and the happy thoughts make you happy. With the help of enlightened intellect, be watchful of your thoughts. Be pious, positive, optimistic and happy at all the times. Always read good books and seek the company of wise men who can enlighten your intellect with true wisdom so that your mind can remain pious, peaceful and happy at all the times.

To always remain happy is the highest form of devotion

2010-06-01T06:07:00.000-07:00

The Self realized saint from India, Bapu Asaramji, quotes that, “To always remain cheerful and happy is the highest form of devotion to God.” The true God resides in our heart. When you are worried or distress, you remain ignorant about the divine presence in your heart. When you seek true wisdom of the Self, give importance to spiritual quest and begin to remain happy at all the times, it becomes the highest form of offering to the inner God.

When you give gift to your loved ones, you are delighted when they become happy, show their gratitude or make proper use of your gift. Similarly, life is a precious gift of God. God is also delighted when you show your gratitude, treat your life as a precious gift, consider it as a celebration, remain cheerful and make others cheerful.

Everyone remember God during distress or the tough situations of life. However, when you remember God during the happy moments of life, and pay your gratitude for all the blessings, the inner God smiles at once and bless you with the true form on inner joy. When you remain balanced even during the tough times and offer prayers to God, the inner God bless you with strength and equanimity. When you help others selflessly, the inner God smiles and you experience the higher form of inner happiness without any delay.

It is a common experience that persistent happiness cannot be achieved by dinking, eating and go merry attitude. It cannot be achieved by having endless desires and then enjoying the worldly sensual pleasures. In fact, the sages of the East found the ever lasting persistent happiness within themselves by becoming free of all the worldly passions. Persistent inner happiness can be realized when you begin to seek tranquility of mind instead of worldly pleasures, when you begins to give importance to the wisdom of Self instead of worldly knowledge, when you begin to take out time for yourself instead of remaining busy in worldly affairs, when you begin to become spiritual instead of just limiting yourself with the religious rituals, when you help others without any selfish motives, when you begin to contemplate and meditate.

A sufi fakir sang: “ Muskoora kar gam ka jhar jisko pina aa gaya; Yeh hakikat hai ki jahan mai usko jina aa gaya” meaning “Those who have learned the art of smiling during the grief, it is true that they have learned the art of living in this world.”

Be sure of the problem before trying to solve it

2010-05-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a short story. One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. As usual a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well. At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.

The driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.

This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff. By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself.

So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, "Big John doesn't pay!"

The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"

With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass."

So, my friend, be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one. This is the key to peace and happiness. Most of the time your problems are just creations of conditioned mind which thinks a lot. Your assumptions based on your past experience and conditioning of your mind, make up most of your worries. With the help of pure and strong intellect, you can keep a close watch on your mind and its thoughts. By doing so, most of your worries along with your problems will evaporate easily. So, the seeker of inner happiness should resort to strengthen the intellect with the help of prayer, contemplation, listening to the spiritual words from saints and meditation. Pure, analytical, worriless, fearless and peaceful mind can lead you to inner happiness.

Scientific evidence of the power of prayer

2010-05-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

As discussed in my last blog, the wonderful benefits of sincere prayer cannot be expressed in words. By means of various scientific studies, it has been proved that the wonderful affects of sublime thoughts associated with prayer and remembrance of God, are not only limited to the mind or spirit, but extend to the physical world as well.

In one of the recent research, Dr. Masaru Emoto took the water droplets and exposed them to various kind of thoughts associated with words, music, and environment. Then he froze them for three hours. He then examined the crystal formations under a dark field microscope and took photographs. You will be impressed to look at these photographs.

The photograph above, on the left side, is the water after the prayer was said and touched by a pious Budhist monk. You can see the beauty and wholesomeness of this water crystal. The photo below, on the right side, is the ordinary water without any prayer spoken over it. You can see that the molecular structure is in disarray in this photograph.

No wonder that it has been elucidated by another scientific research - that the truly spiritual and religious people remain healthier and happier than the rest of the masses. More details about Dr. Emoto's research is also present on Wikipedia.

Think about it. More than seventy percent of your body is water. If pious thoughts can purify the water molecules and illuminate them, then what a wonderful affect these pious thoughts might be having on your body? No wonder that the wise sages of the East suggested thousands of years ago to pray before your meals and drinking water. When you pray to God or calm your mind with the help of meditation or sing in the glory of God, the associated pious thoughts makes each and every cell of your body blossom with purity and elegance. In this manner, a sincere seeker gain physical health, mental peace and spiritual bliss.

Prayer: the supreme means of elevation

2010-05-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Sincere prayer is the supreme means of elevation on the journey of Self-consciousness. Initially a seeker starts praying to the God as per his understanding and as he progresses spiritually, the prayer are directed more and more to the inner God that resides in every heart. Just like an electronic device that gets charged when hooked to the power plug, you also get rejuvenated with prayer as you connect with the supreme source of energy.

Prayer helps in rejuvenating the health of the old and the sick. Prayer gives strength to the feeble and the exhausted. Prayers make you kind hearted, open minded, self confident, spiritual and closer to the Supreme Consciousness. Prayer brings end to all the weaknesses and purifies the heart of the true seeker.

When you genuinely surrender to the God during prayer, your ego begins to evaporate and you become humble; you become more peaceful and easily win over the day to day hurdles of life; the weaknesses begins to vanish and virtues begin to embrace you; your relation with the Self and with the Supreme Self – the God, the ‘Paramatma’ begins to blossom; your ignorance begins to fade away and you start gaining understanding of the world, the Self and the God; your mind becomes serene and the inner joy starts flowing in your heart.

When a seeker begins to pray to God whole heartedly, the desires begin to diminish. When you become free of worldly desires and passions, you become eligible for gaining Self-knowledge. With the help of prayer, the dormant powers of the consciousness are awakened. With the help of prayer, your intellect shines with the true wisdom and you gain inner happiness. In this manner, the devotees realize innumerable benefits of sincere prayer in their life.

During night, you should not just fall on the bed like a stone. You should sit for a few moments in solitude, with closed eyes and do the prayer, “Oh my dear God, I cannot thank you enough for all the wonderful gifts of life. You reside in my heart and You are well aware of my deeds throughout the day. Please save me from the ill deeds. Please help me to perform only those actions tomorrow by doing which I can gain peace of mind, serve others selflessly and gain true wisdom. My dear almighty, you are mine and I am yours. Please help me in realizing your presence in my heart.” After doing such a prayer for a few days, not only you will experience wonderful sleep, but also you will remain serene during the day. You won’t be able to express the sublime happiness gained by such a prayer in words. Such a prayer will bring you closer to your goal of gaining inner happiness.

Journey of inner happiness

2010-04-23T05:53:00.000-07:00

There is a saying that – ‘you are only as good as the company you keep’. When you enjoy the company of drunkards, you would most likely turn out to be the same. When you enjoy the company of gamblers, you would start gambling as well. Similarly, when you enjoy the company of wise men, the truly happy people, you become the same. Wise is the person who enriches life with the right company – the company of positive and joyful thoughts, the company of wise and truly happy people.

There are three stages of being in the elevating company of true happiness. First stage is when you begin your pursuit of inner happiness:

when you begin reading good scriptures, when you start seeking the company of wise men, when you start listening to the talks of Self realized ones. The more you listen, the more you read, the more eager you become to tread the path of inner happiness, your mind begins to calm and your intellect begins to shine with true wisdom.

Slowly and steadily, your thoughts begin to purify, you start seeking solitude- some time for your own self, the thoughts of what you have read and what you have heard begin to reverberate in your mind. You begin to contemplate about the purpose of life, nature of God or about – ‘who am I’. You begin to meditate. This is the second stage of the company of inner happiness.

Third and highest form of company of Self is when you attain placidity of mind, your intellect becomes purified and you attain complete understanding of your true nature and the nature of the world. You become thoughtless in those moments of peaceful bliss. After attaining such a wonderful stage of true happiness, for as short as three minutes, you become enlightened. After that you become completely fearless, totally peaceful, equanimous and a truly happy being.

This is how your progress on the journey to inner happiness.

But I don't believe in God.

2010-04-16T06:37:00.000-07:00

A fresh college graduate returned to his village after finishing his college education. Next day morning, the family gathered for the morning prayers. This young man sneaked out of the prayer room and got noticed by the father. After the prayer, father asked the son if that is what he has learned in College.

He replied, “Dad, you don’t know anything. There is no God or anything like that. It is all false beliefs that are being followed from centuries. Open up your mind and give up those age old beliefs in the light of Science and technology.”

“Son, who do you think created this world and the living beings?”

“Father, according to the Scientists like Darwin and others, the earth came into existence when a piece
of burning matter, separated from sun, cooled down. Then the air got cooled down, water got formed and circumstances got created for the formation of a living cell.
With time eventually, all other forms of living beings came into existence.”

“Hmm… that sounds interesting,” replied the father while worrying about the kind of education that his son got. With his boosted ego, the son left the house to meet his friends.

Meanwhile, the father painted a beautiful picture and hanged it in his son’s room. When son came back in the evening, he asked, “Father, how did this beautiful picture land in my room?”

“Son, it just came on its own. You know, today the cool wind was blowing. Due to humidity and favorable air temperature, such circumstances got created that this beautiful picture came into existence.”

The son understood the sarcastic remarks from his father. “Father, please stop kidding me. If there is a painting, then there has to be a painter as well?”

“Son, if a simple painting cannot come into existence without a painter, then how could you believe that this beautiful world came into existence on its own, without any creator?”

The son acknowledged his mistake and started listening to the pious message of his father. His father continued, “Well, the decision to believe in the God or not is all at your discretion. No one else should be able to enforce beliefs upon you, not even your parents or your church or temple. However, you should be cautious to keep your mind open, so that you don’t become a victim of narrow mindedness. Now, please tell me – do you believe that you will die one day? Do you believe that you will stumble upon illness, grief or unhappiness during the course of life?”

“Sure. I can’t deny that,” replied the son.

“Do you intentionally digest your food, absorb vitamins, grow your hairs, grow old, grow flowers or change seasons?”

“I would have to say that I don’t,” replied the son wondering about the implication of his father’s questions.

“You see, you don’t want illness, grief, unhappiness or death; even then you can’t escape them. You don’t intentionally digest your food, circulate your blood, grow your hairs, grow old or change seasons, but even then some higher power is doing all this. So, you can’t deny the existence of a Supreme Intelligence that is operating this universe, including your body, in a perfect harmony and with magnificent precision. You will be amazed if you look at the brilliance and precision with which the galaxies, the stars, the sun, the planet and the earth are operating. At the same time, you will be awe stuck if you look at the sub atomic levels and how that magnificent energy appears to be the concrete matter. The same energy resides in your heart and encourages you when you do something good or discourages you, when you try to harm others. The same energy energizes your mind and gives rise to the thoughts of happiness and sorrow. This same omnipresent, eternal, conscious and blissful energy is what we refer to true God, the impersonal God or the Supreme Intelligence. Now, do you acknowledge God?”

With all his proud blown off, the son acknowledged the wisdom of his father and replied, “Well Dad, I do acknowledge the presence of such Supreme Intelligence, if that is what you are referring as God.”

Father expressed his satisfaction with a smile and uttered a few more words of true wisdom that left the son wondering for rest of the evening, “Son, I must now clarify that the God that I am referring to is not the painter or the creator of this world. However, He is the dancer of this magnificent dance, which has taken the form of this illusionary world.”

Is your mind driving you to right destination?

2010-04-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

The mind is the driver of your life. As your thoughts, so are your actions and as your actions, so is your destiny. It is the thoughts of your mind that controls your mood and that decides how you would react to the different situations in your life. It is your mind that makes your destiny. However, you rarely check on your driver if it is leading you to the right destination. You rarely bother to equip your driver with the skills that can lead you through the daily battles of life. The driver continues to drive you irrationally in pursuit of happiness, but mostly getting restlessness and miseries in return.

There are three important qualities of a good driver – the driver should be well aware of the destination ; the driver should know how to drive skillfully; and the driver should know when to apply the brakes.

Satsang – the company of wise men, listening to their talks, reading their writings or being in their company, is the only means that can equip your mind with the precise skills that can enable you to lead a happy and fulfilled life. Satsang can make your mind aware about your true destination- the inner serenity and blissfulness. Satsang teaches your mind about the art of living life, how to cautiously enjoy the external momentary joys, how to apply brakes on your senses and how to dwell inside to immerse the mind in inner blissfulness.

Enlighten the driver of your life so that you can simply enjoy the ride of your life, every moment.

The supreme secret of true happiness

2010-04-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me shed some light on the meaning of true happiness. I am not referring to the momentary and shallow form of day to day happiness. True happiness is the sublime state of mind that is totally peaceful, fulfilled, ever-lasting and blissful. Once you achieve authentic happiness, you are elevated to a higher state of mind where no anxiety, no worry, no sadness, no unhappiness can touch you. You are not impacted by the vagaries of external world because when you find the true ambrosia within your heart, you are not dependent on the external happiness any more.

Well…. you might think that I am sort of becoming philosophical. Such happiness is only talked about in our religious scriptures, after death, in heavens. You may ask if it is possible to realize such a blissful state of mind while living on earth.

The answer is -Yes. Such true happiness can very much be realized while living a worldly life. In fact, the mystics of the east insist that realization of such a true happiness is the supreme goal of human life. Sri Krishna revealed the secret of such true happiness in “Srimad Bhagwad Gita” and made Arjuna experience the same, in the middle of a battle-field. Then, why can’t you and me realize the same inner happiness while living a worldly life, which a few describe as a battle-field of day to day life.

If you are completely involved in the movie, then you will become happy or sad along with the sequence of the story. You tend to forget that it is just a fake tale. Then, how can you truly enjoy a movie? If you realize that you are an un-impacted observer and the movie is not real, then you will remain unaffected by the emotional sequences of the movie and can truly appreciate the movie – you can appreciate the photography, the story, the direction and all other artistic aspects of the movie. Similarly, only by separating yourself from this body and just by being the witness of the world, you can properly appreciate the beauty of the world.

How can a dreamer enjoy the dream without getting anxious? Only when the dreamer wakes up; only when the dreamer realizes that it is just a dream, he can remain unaffected witness of the dream. Similarly, you can find the inner peace and blissfulness by waking up in your true Self and by realizing that this world is nothing, but a dream, a long dream.

The truly happy saints insist that this journey to true happiness is simple, but not easy. You can become truly happy by realizing your own true nature; by exploring the truth about your own true Self; by knowing that you are not just this mortal body or a false ego; by realizing that this world is only an illusion and there is nothing real about it. You have to arouse a passion, a burning passion to realize such a true happiness and then only it will become a reality for you. This is how you can taste the magnificence of true happiness that I am talking about.

Answers from Bhagwad Gita on attaining pure Bliss

2010-03-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Srimad Bhagwad Gita is a sacred Hindu scripture, which is considered among the most important texts in the history of literature and philosophy. The content of Gita is the conversation between the Arjuna and the God-personified Sri Krishna in the midst of a battlefield. It clarifies the doubts of all the seekers of inner happiness with extraordinary ease, logic and prudence. Presented below, are a few straight forward answers related to the process of attaining inner bliss.

Question: How can one attain that wonderful state of bliss?

Answer: The state, that is free from contact of sorrow and the affinity for the world, should be known as Yoga. Such Yoga is attained with determination of an unwearied mind. (Gita

6-23)

Question: What are the other ways of attaining such Yoga?

Answer: The other means is the meditation on the Absolute (the eternal-conscious-blissful Self); by renouncing all desires arising from thoughts of the world and totally restraining the senses; by patiently practicing to attain tranquility of mind by contemplating on the all pervasive and omnipresent Supreme Soul. (Gita

6-24,25).

Question: What if thoughts continue to arise?

Answer: He should practice restraining thoughts. Whenever the restless mind goes towards sense objects, he should repeatedly bring its focus back and engage it in the Self. (Gita

6-26)

Question: What will be the result of doing so?

Answer: Such a tranquil minded Yogi, being free of sins and passion, having identified with the eternal-conscious-blissful Self, will attain pure bliss. (Gita

6-27)

After that the sinless Yogi, who constantly engage himself in the Self, will attain with ease the wonderful bliss of oneness with all pervasive Supreme Consciousness. (Gita

6-28)

Question: How does such a Yogi view the world?

Answer: The Yogi who is united in identity with the all-pervading Consciousness, who is even minded, beholds the Self existing in all beings and all beings as assumed in the Self (Gita

6-29)

Lessons of happiness from birds

2010-03-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

One day Ratilal, the richest man in the village, asked his accountant, “Can you give me an approximate idea of my savings?”

“Let me see. After calculating all your investments and interest, I can tell you that you have enough savings such that your next three generations can live happily,” answered the accountant.

With some grave impressions on his face, he grumbled, “In that case, how is my fourth generation going to survive?” He started remaining worried. One day, his close friend Harichand, a kind and spiritual soul, visited him. When he revealed the cause of his worries to his friend, Harichand started laughing and then sang of the Saint Kabir’s verse:

Hindi: [Chinta aisi dakini, liya kaleja khai;

Vaidya bichara kya kare, kahaa tak dawa khilaye]

Translation : Worry is such a thug, who consume the heart;

What can the poor physician do; for how long can he administer drugs?

Harichand continued, “My friend, I can think of only one way that can help in alleviating your plight. Without charity and donations, you cannot become free of your greed. You should get up early in the morning and give a bag of rice to the Yogi, who lives on the banks of the river, just outside the village.”

Next day, Ratilal visited the Yogi early in the morning as suggested by his friend. The Yogi was sitting in meditative pose under the tree.

“Here, I brought this bag of rice for you,” said Ratilal in somewhat harsh tone.

“Sir, I already have food for today. So, please give it to some other needy one.”

“How does that matter. You can keep it for tomorrow,” argued Ratilal.

“One, who has provided me today, will also send some holy soul like yours, tomorrow as well. Why should I try to accumulate for tomorrow? Why should I spoil my today while trying to secure my tomorrow?”

Ratilal looked at the smiling face of the Yogi that was emanating peace and hope. Ratilal said politely, “Sir, please allow me to sit here, in your presence for some time. I am feeling peace here in your company.”

When the Yogi allowed him to sit, he poured his heart out and told him about all his worries. Hearing his plight, the Yogi smiled and said, “Son, the one who has provided for your hundred of previous generations, will also provide for your next hundred generations. The only difference between you and me is that you rely on your belongings in this ever changing world and I rely on my all prevalent, never changing Supreme Consciousness.”

After a brief pause, the Yogi continued, “Look at these birds, who remain worry-less, without bothering about tomorrow. Birds never try to hoard anything for tomorrow. Learn from the birds to live in the present and to sing the songs of gratitude all the time.”

After listening to the words of wisdom, Ratilal felt somewhat relieved of his worries. He started visiting the Yogi quite often and in this way, he became truly rich after finding the treasure of inner peace and inner happiness.

Rejoice in the realization of golden Buddha

2010-03-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

It was year 1957, in Thailand. A group of monks were asked to relocate their monastery, along with a huge clay Buddha, to a new location in order to make room for the development of a highway through Bangkok. When the monks tried to move the giant idol with a help of equipment, the idol developed a crack. The head monk, who was concerned about damage to the sacred Buddha, decided to lower the statue back to the ground and cover it with a large canvas tarp to protect it from the rain.

Later in the night, the head monk wanted to check the magnitude of the crack once again. He went to check on the Buddha, entrapped in the large canvas. He shined his flashlight under the tarp on the giant Buddha idol. He got curious as he saw the little gleam shining back. When he took a closer look at this gleam of light, he wondered if there might be something underneath the clay.

He went back to the monastery to get his chisel and hammer. He started chipping away the clay slowly. As he knocked off shards of clay, the little gleam grew brighter and bigger. Monks couldn't believe their eyes, when after a few hours of labor, they were standing face to face with the extraordinary ten-feet solid-gold Buddha.

Historians believe that several hundred years before the head monk's discovery, the Burmese army was about to invade Thailand (then called Siam). The Siamese monks, realizing that their country would soon be attacked, covered their precious golden Buddha with an outer covering of clay in order to keep their treasure from being looted by the Burmese. Unfortunately, it appears that the Burmese slaughtered all the Siamese monks, and the well-kept secret of the golden Buddha remained intact until that fateful day in 1957.

The self luminous, totally contended, conscious and blissful golden Buddha is present within each one of us. We just need to chip off the apparent shell of fear, greed, desires, passion, false ego and ignorance in order to have the glimpse of our own golden Buddha. How about chisel and hammer? The company of a wise man, their words of wisdom, contemplation and meditation can be our chisel and hammer. After having the glimpse of your true essence, you will find the treasure of eternal peace and never ending joy within. The goal of true seeker of happiness is to rejoice in the realization of inherent golden Buddha.

Romancing with life is happiness

2010-03-05T05:42:00.000-08:00

Life is like all-knowing affectionate grandma. Sometimes life smiles at you and then, at other times, it makes faces. Sometimes life hugs you with love and then, at other times, it plays naughty pranks on you. Sometimes life kisses you on your cheeks and then, at other times, it pinches you softly and run away laughingly. Life just wants to play with you and wants to romance with you. It doesn’t want to spare you with any dull moments. Life wants you to teach the art of playing with it.

Don’t take life too seriously. Only when you start appreciating life, begin to love it and start playing with it, you will experience a deep and sweet connection with life. This is what I am referring as romance with life.

However, as long as you associate yourself with this body and consider this ever-changing dream like world as truth, you won’t be able to romance with life. It is only after gaining the wisdom of life and the wisdom of the Self, you would be able to romance with life. After becoming aware of your never-changing blissful conscious, you would be able to romance with life. The seeker of happiness should seek the company of those who have learned the art of romancing with life. Listen to their divine blissful talk, and then try to sink it within you with the help of contemplation and meditation. This way you will also begin to romance with life and know the real taste of happiness.

The spiritual significance of Kumbh Mela

2010-02-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

A significant spiritual event is in progress in the land of the mystics and seers – India. This congregation is happening in Haridwar after twelve years. Situate on the banks of river Ganges, Haridwar is hosting the Kumbh Mela from 14th January to 28th April, 2010. The dates are calculated based on the special astrological combination of zodiacal positions of Sun, Moon, and Jupiter. The references of Kumbh Mela are found even in the Puranas. So, we can infer that this holy event has been celebrated in India since time immemorial, even before the Puranas were written four thousand years ago.

The sages of ancient times, who used to live in seclusion in the forests or in Himalayas, envisaged the festival of Kumbh Mela thousand of years ago to bestow the worldly beings with an opportunity to mingle with the holy beings: the Sadhus, the Yogis and the Saints. In this manner, the sages of ancient times ensured that the spirituality, wisdom and the piousness doesn't remain secluded in forests and Himalayas, but also percolates to the heart of common man. Even today, this occasion of Kumbh Mela serves its purpose as you can see people from all walks of life interacting with the holy beings and getting inspired to lead a pious life.

The seers of Indian mysticism narrate another interesting story about the advent of this holy festival of Kumbh Mela.

Once the Goddess of river Ganges went to the creator, Lord Brahma and made a complaint, “Lord, my aura and purity will be desecrated if all the sinful and immoral people continue to take a dip in my holy water with an intention of sanctifying themselves.”

Lord Brahma gave it a sincere thought and then said, “My daughter, you are correct that if the sinful people keep on washing off their sins in your holy water, then your aura will be desecrated. But I give you a boon that when the saintly and Self-realized mystics will take a dip in your holy water, your novel aura will be restored.”

Ever since that time, on the holy occasion of Kumbh Mela, all the holy men, seers, monks and sadhus take a dip in the holy water of Ganges along with worldly people. This is how the sanctity of river Ganges is restored and maintained for thousands of years.

Braving the chilly weather, millions of pilgrims rise before sunrise and walk to the banks of the river Ganges to immerse themselves in the waters, which are considered sacred by Hindus. They have an unflinching trust in something sublime. They believe that bathing in the river on this occasion causes the remission of sins and facilitates the attainment of liberation from the cycle of life and death. You can imagine the magnitude of the human throng based on the record that during one of such Kumbh Mela in 2001, nearly about 60 million people gathered, making it the largest gathering anywhere in the world.

Festivals facilitate the outpouring of inner peace and joy. The devotees travel from far distances to gain the benefit of pious vibrations of the religious celebration. The chanting of mantras and spiritual songs fill the heart of devotees with sublime joy. During the festival, the devotees try to maintain pious lifestyle by eating a little and pure vegetarian food, by chanting mantras, by listening to the discourses from the Self realized holy saints and by keeping their mind occupied with the remembrance of God.

Devotees get an opportunity to be in the holy company of saints and avail themselves of their enlightening talks. They learn various forms of breathing exercises and asanas for the physical well being. They are also introduced to the spiritual wisdom of the inner world, and the associated inner peace, divine bliss, and divine grace. During this festival, their senses remain controlled, mind acquires poise and intellect is illumined with the true wisdom of the Self. This in turn makes them all cheerful and their joyfulness makes this event a truly holy pilgrimage.

After visiting one of such Kumbh Mela in the year 1895, Mark Twain wrote:
“It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is. No matter what the impulse is, the act born of it is beyond imagination, marvellous to our kind of people, the cold whites.”