Importance of reading holy scriptures in life

An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning, Grandpa was up early, sitting in his garden reading his Bhagavat Geeta. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. 

One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagawat Geeta just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand, I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagawat Geeta do?”

The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.
This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before here turned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead.

Know the goal of life instead of making one

New Year time is the time of year when we make new resolutions and new goals of life. But the wise ones advise to know the true goal of life instead of making one. Whatever new resolution, new goal you will make will be related to your material body and this seemingly real world. But, the true seeker needs to perform Self-analysis to gain understanding of the true goal of life. Under the influence of materialism, very often we muddle up our worldly desires to be our goal in life.

First of all, one needs a clear understanding of the true goal of life – is it just to fulfill material aspirations or desires? Or is there some higher purpose for human life? One should devote some time to investigate the subtle difference between the goal or objective or purpose of life and the aspirations or desires or wishes of life. Unless one realizes the subtle difference between the pious goal and the worldly desires, all the accumulations, accomplishments and knowledge remain fruitless. Unless your worldly accumulations bring you long lasting happiness, unless your knowledge takes you towards eternal blissfulness, unless your friends take you towards eternal peace, it is all useless.

Stories of a Yogi – Shri Malladahali Swami

From time to time, many Yogis and great souls have incarnated in India who led an exemplary life and who are source of inspiration for million of seekers around the world. One such great soul was Sri Raghavendra Swamiji ofMalladihalli popularly known as “Malladihalli Swamiji”. During his lifetime, he taught Yoga to more than 4.5 million people all over the world. He recently passed away in the year 1996. He used to call himself “Thiruka” (a beggar) and urged the people to donate freely to his projects to help the poor, downtrodden and orphans. Here are a few inspiring glimpse from his extra ordinary life.

Early life

Right from his infancy, he had been a chronic asthmatic. He was just wheezing day and night. His parents tried a lot of medicines and did whatever they could, but the boy was just wasting away. When he was about 11 or 12 years of age, a Yogi came by and the parents asked him to heal the boy. The Yogi said, “Anyway this boy is not going to be of any use to you. If you keep him with you, he will die. Give him to me; I will take him with me.” This yogi was Palani Swamy. He usually used to walk alone and generally didn’t recruit any disciple. But he took compassion upon this boy, took him along and trained him in the ways of Yoga. The boy not only grew out of his ailment, he grew into a physically strong wrestler who lived a happy life till the age of 106.

Rise above the ego and the attachments

In a green forest deep in the Himalayan valley, where the soft breeze sweeps across the green trees with a message of joy, there lived a mighty bull. During the morning hours, as he diverted himself among the green grass, he discovered an amiable friend in a cat. The cat amused him with his playful hide and seek; he told him stories of the jungle – the terror of the lions, the gossiping of foxes, the deceitful demeanor of the wolves and the jovial dances of rats.

During the siesta hours of the afternoon, as the bull rested serenely in the mountain cave, he discovered a tiny little rat playing in the vicinity. Slowly, he persuaded the rat to shun off all the fears of him and continue with his frolics and dances. The Bull was sensitive to life and an aspirant of universal love. Slowly the rat became friendly and brought even his tiny rattish children to amuse the grand personality of the Bull.

Does our Karma decide our Destiny?

This is an age old topic of discussion among the wise ones: Does our destiny decide our Karma or our Karma makes our destiny? Recently I came across a beautiful story from the Puranas about this topic that I would like to share.

In Sata-Yuga, it was a tradition to have Gyan Yoga discussion during festivals and all the auspicious occasions like marriages. When all the Deities assembled to participate in the marriage ceremony of Sri Ganesha, one of the Deities remarked, “it is the result of our past pious Karmas that we got an opportunity to participate in Sri Ganesha’s marriage ceremony. Then Prajapatiji said, “It might be that we were destined to perform those pious Karma as a result of which we are here today. It might be the result of our destiny.”

Hearing this Sri Ganesha said, “We got the topic of discussion for our spiritual discussion on the auspicious occasion of this marriage and it is: Does our destiny decide our Karma or our Karma makes our destiny? When we look at our past, this question arises in our mind- what is the root cause of the situations that we are in today? Is it our destiny or is it our past Karmas?”

What if a modern religion is made today?

If a modern religion is to evolve today, how would it be? In my opinion, if a modern religion is to evolve today, it would be treated like modern Science, with universality in nature. It would apply to all, irrespective of your culture, beliefs, creed, geographical location or limited set of holy scriptures. It would be one for all. Such a religion would be based on logic, practicality in life and experimentation – not just on beliefs and faith. Such a religion would be more of a way of life that could enhance peace, harmony and happiness in the society rather than creating friction.  

Such a religion would encourage openness and would try to embrace all the philosophies and dogmas related to the spiritual Truth about the Self and the God. Such a religion would allow free flow of thoughts without the boundaries of beliefs and faith.  Such a religion would encourage evolution of new philosophies. Such a religion would encourage discussion and questioning as opposed to just believing. Such a religion would encourage and respect living Saints or the Scientists of inner world who attempt to explore the inner world in search of supreme peace and inner happiness.

Complex knot of conscious and unconscious substance

The Sages of India, thousands of years ago, beautifully described human consciousness as a complex knot (or combination) of conscious (Chetan) and unconscious (jad) substance – Chit-Jad-Granthi. We are all spiritual and conscious beings having worldly human experiences. On the same thought, there is a famous quote by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin – “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience."

The conscious component of our Being pulls us towards the Divine and inspires us to engage ourselves in helping others, paying reverence to Saints, listening to Self-realized ones, read holy scriptures, remember God, be peaceful and blissful while conducting in the worldly affairs. Whereas the unconscious, earthy component of our psyche drag us towards enjoying worldly momentary sensual pleasures, being selfish, over sleeping, over eating, being restless, being angry, hurting others and all other sorts of negative emotions.

Divine laws of inner happiness

In order to lead a serene, healthy and happy life it is important that we are aware of the laws that we are all governed by at different planes of existence. Ignorance of laws is no excuse. If we break a law, we have to bear the consequences. At social level, we are all bounded by the laws of the society, state or nation. At the broader level, our body being part of nature, we are also bounded by the laws of nature. And at even broader and subtler level, we are all bounded by the divine spiritual laws of existence, because after all, we are all spiritual beings.

In order to lead a serene life in the society, we should be aware of the social laws of the society in which we live. For example, if we are travelling, we should be aware of the traffic laws of the country that we are visiting or else, we will be in trouble.

Why does meditation seems so difficult?

Holy Master was glorifying meditation to a small group of disciples. While telling about the importance of meditation he said, “When during the night time you go to sleep, you take rest in the Antaryami Parmatma (Supreme God dwelling in your heart), your physical energy gets revived and you feel fresh in the morning. This is everyone’s experience. Then you should also believe me when I tell you that if you learn to take rest in the same Antaryami Parmatma (Supreme God dwelling in your heart) while you are awake, by means of meditation, not only your physical energy will be rejuvenated, but also your mental and spiritual energies gets rejuvenated. With such revived inner consciousness you will find inner peace and wholesome blissfulness within.”

One of the disciples asked candidly, “Dear Sir, it is not that we don’t believe you. We try to learn and do mediation. But, it seems very difficult for us to sit and do meditation. Why is it so?”

Time to begin our own journey to inner Truth

Gautam, the Buddha once visited a small village on the outskirts of river Ganges. A lot of people from all around gathered to have a glimpse of the Self realized one and listen to his talks. Just being around the completely peaceful one and listening to his talks gave glimpse of inner peace and inner happiness to the people. Soon his fame spread all over and a lot of people started to gather for listening to Buddha’s discourses.

Whenever anyone used to ask Buddha about the existence of God, he used to enter into a long silence without saying much. His disciples were all confused about the existence of God as most of the Buddha’s talks were around explicating the Dharmas constituting reality.  During his discourses, Buddha hardly spoke anything on the subjects of metaphysics, reincarnation, life after death and God.  

Two wise aspects of looking at this world

“Dear Master, we have heard during your discourses that the true goal of spiritual practices is to realize the true Self and the God. However, we live in this world wherein we have to conduct from the time we wake up from bed in the morning till the time we go to the bed at night. How should we view and conduct in this external world?”

The master appreciated the sincere depth of the question silently and then said with a voice filled with compassion, “Son, you have asked a very relevant question. One good question benefits a lot of seekers. That is the reason most of our Upnishads are in the form of question answer session between a Self-realized Saint and a true seeker.”

After a brief silence, the master continued, “Yogis and Self-realized Saints look at this world in two manners based on the stage of their progress in their spiritual pursuit– “This apparent world is not real; it is made up of the same stuff as a dream; it is only an illusion.” Or  “This world is all divine; There is presence of God in every atom of this world; Every emotion, every thought, every moment is divine.”

Is Hinduism polytheist or monotheist?

People often ask- there are so many Gods in Hinduism (360 million as per scriptures), then how do Hindus say that they believe in One God. The answer to this question depends on how you define God.

The truth of the matter is the moment you try to define God, it becomes something limited. Even though one should not try to limit God with one definition or one name, but one can always try to describe God with its attributes. Self-realized Saints, Rishis, Munis and sages of India have tried to ascribe many different attributes of God like omnipresence (present everywhere), eternal (never born and never dies), omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), Supreme Consciousness, complete and blissful.

Poetry: I am conscious and blissful, the auspicious one.

The sublime message of inner world that cannot be communicated with the help of pros, can beautifully be presented in the form on poetry. In one of such a glorious verse in Sanskrit, the proponent of Advaita Philosophy, Adi Shankara recited about his authentic and blissful nature. In these wonderful verses, the 8th century Saint attempted to negate his false Self and point at his own eternal conscious blissful Self. The mystics tell us that whatever you can see or witness with the help of your senses, cannot be you or your authentic Self. For example, you see your ears, your nose, your body, so you are not this body. In this manner, the Saint depicted the glory of the eternal conscious blissful Self.

[Mano budhyahankara chithaa ninaham, Na cha vyoma bhoomir na thejo na vayu,
Chidananada Roopa Shivoham, Shivoham.]

If there is one God, then why are there so many religions?

The younger generation, who thinks by logic, often ask a question that if there is one God, then why are there so many religions? This question often comes with a valid supporting argument that Science is universal, scientific facts are universal – for example, gravity acts in same way on everything, properties of matter are universal, then why can’t the religions agree on one universal God ?

Let me begin by telling a parable.  Six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body. The blind man who felt a leg said the elephant is like a pillar; the one who felt the tail said the elephant is like a rope; the one who felt the trunk said the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who felt the ear said the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who felt the belly said the elephant is like a wall; and the one who felt the tusk said the elephant is like a solid pipe.  There was a conflict among them. But finally a wise man resolved the conflict by telling them, “All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all the features you mentioned.”

Spirituality in daily life

Contemporary man only relies on the outer eyes – believes whatever eyes can see or other senses can perceive. While leading the mundane life, modern man forgets the art of wondering, the art of appreciating the beauty of nature or being thankful for all the blessings in our lives. It is because of the habit of relying on all the scientific gadgets (TVs, iphones and what not) that modern man has lost its ability to wonder, to awe or to admire in daily life. In fact, Science itself has that limitation- Science can only analyze the facts that can be perceived by five senses. Science cannot measure the beauty of a flower, the purity in the eyes of a child, the love in the heart or the happiness in the mind.

Science can analyze a drop of water and can tell you that it constitutes of hydrogen and oxygen. However, it cannot tell that how much nectar is hiding in that drop of water. How much satisfaction a drop of water can give to a thirsty mouth. Scientific gadgets can provide you with bodily comforts, but the peace, the satisfaction and happiness of mind can only be achieved when you begin to realize the importance of spirituality in life.

The wholesome approach for God realization

A disciple asked the master, “Dear Sir, in the past, I have heard from many Saints that praying to God, singing the songs of his glory and Naam japa (Bhakti Marg) is the  superior most path of realizing the God. But, you always stress upon the wisdom of the Self (Gyan Marg) in your discourses. I am a little confused – Can God be realized just with the help of sharp intellect?”

The master started laughing and said, “Son, if God realization could be achieved with the help of sharp intellect, then Attorneys and Professors would be carrying the secret in their pockets. The Self realized Saints of Sanatan Dharma praises all the paths that lead to inner peace and to God – be it Gyan Yoga (path of knowledge), Karma Yoga(Path of selfless service), Dhyan Yoga (Path of Meditation) or Bhakti Yoga(Path of Devotional love). However, the spiritual wisdom has it’s own importance in all the paths. Even in daily worldly life, there is an importance of wisdom. Come with me and let me show you, how.”

Nature of a true seeker

Kabirji, , highly revered mystic of India who lived in 15^th century, to me represents the epitome of spiritual wisdom, devotion and the wisdom of life. The longer the Saint lives, the more benefit humankind can gain. Saint Kabirji lived for about 120 years and hence the fragrance of his wisdom in the form of his deeply meaningful poetic versus is alive even today and will remain alive for a long time. He is probably the most quoted poet in India. 

Once Kabirji was giving discourse to a usual gathering of seekers about the nature of a true seeker – how the seeker should be? It is very interesting to see how beautifully he recited these lines full of mysticism. He started with comparing the ego-less nature of a seeker to a pebble, then compared him to soil on earth, water and then finally he said the nature of a true seeker should be same as the nature of the one  that he is seeking - the omnipresent God.   

True meaning of success in human life

It is unfortunate that modern day society measure success of human life only in terms of money and wealth. It is ironical that even though we see all around us and experience that ample wealth doesn't bring forth inner peace and long lasting happiness, still we continue our never ending pursuit for more and more material gain.

Just like children give importance to toys and goodies, and are always hungry for more toys and chocolates. Similarly some people never grow up beyond the want and hunger for more wealth.  Only a few grow up to realize that once you have certain amount of stability and financial comfort in your life, wealth doesn’t matter any more. After certain point in life, what matters is the amount of your inner silence, love, wisdom, equanimity, satisfaction, inner peace and inner happiness.  

What is the root cause of sorrow?

A young man says that life is full of happiness, but a wise man, who is aware of the reality of life, says that life is full of sorrow. Where does this sorrow results from? Various philosophies around the world preach about “sins of the past” as the root cause of all the sorrow and hardships of life. Most of these philosophies become quiet when you ask about the root cause of sins? How to get out of the vicious cycle of experiencing the result of sins of the past and the occurrence of more sins in present? How to free ourselves of all the past Karma and establish ourselves in eternal peace and blissfulness?

The Saints of Sanatan Dharma have very logical answers. These Self realized ones advocate ignorance being the root cause of all the sorrows, of all the sins and of all the vicious cycle of Karma. Ignorance, meaning ignorance of our own true Self, ignorance of the right path as per Dharma and ignorance of the Truth. Even in our day to day life, while conducting in the outer world, ignorance causes all the hardships of life. A child attempts to touch the fire because of ignorance. Similarly, because of the spiritual ignorance of life, one goes on performing the sins under the influence of enjoyment-seeking mind.

Benefit of others is the foremost Dharma

An ascetic (Sadhu) was performing maun sadhana (silent penance) and while adhering to his vow, he didn’t speak for months. He used to live in a secluded hut just outside the village while remaining busy in the seeking of higher goal. He was highly admired by everyone in the adjacent villages. 

One day, a cow managed to escape the butcher and started running towards the outskirts of the village. The same ascetic was sitting under the tree outside his hut. The cow rushed across him towards the forest. After a while the butcher landed there and asked, “Dear Sir, I know you always tell the truth. Can you please tell me in which direction the cow went?”

In a very confused state of mind, the ascetic pointed in the right direction. But, he was filled with feelings of remorse from within as soon as he realized that the butcher is going to find the cow and kill her. He heard the inner voice saying, “You have committed a sin by telling the truth in this case. If a minor lie could have saved the life of the holy cow, then that course of action would have been righteous action as per the Dharma.   

A sincere new year wish

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

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

Shri Yoga Vashistha Maharamayan

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

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

The origin of this world

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

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

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

Art of living in the moment is happiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to wake up the pious spiritual hunger?

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

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

Spiritual hunger for knowing the TRUTH

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

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

Relation between Devotion, Knowledge and Dispassion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Knowing the Supreme TRUTH is the goal of a true seeker

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

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

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

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