Achieving Freedom

Meaning: The line of Rigved 1/97/7 instructs us that — O omnipresent Agnidev (God of fire)! Like the oarsman of the boat, save us from all the enemies in crossing the river of the world. Kindly destroy our sins.
Message: In this mantra God has been compared with a judge who, for protecting the public, will even pursue the criminals into the jungle and punish them, who sits in teh boat and protects the people at sea, and by making all arrangements for man's happiness and peace, provides real joy to them. He only is sachchidanand, (sat + Chit + Anand, Sat = truth, chit = pulsating vitality as well as the fountainhead of knowledge and anand = bliss), a combination of all these all knowing life-giving, eternally blissful and bliss-giving God Himself. Those who sincerely worship God have no fear of any kind from desires, lust, anger, greed, attachment, disease and sorrow. Such persons become 'jeetendriya' (one who has conquered his senses by controlling his desires) by not desiring anything and get benefits and fame everywhere.
There are 84,00,000 species of life on this earth. Of these only teh human body is the best creation of God. Complete with 'gyanendriya' (5 sense organs) 'Karmendriya' (5 action organs including limbs for carrying out various activities), 'pran' (life's breathe force), 'mun' (mind) buddhi (intelligence) etc; this human body has been created with the aim of protection and progress of all living beings in this world. Since God has blessed His human prince in innumerable ways, and is ever ready to protect him in every situation every time, it is also man's duty that he remains alert for the nurture and progress of all life i.e. insects, plant life, animal life etc on this earth. Let us not go on merely exploiting and consuming the available means on the earth, but also try to conserve, preserve and strengthen them. But man today, blinded by his selfishness, does not pay any attention to it at all, and sinks deeper and deeper into the mire of sins.
We have been praying to God to destroy our sins but we are not trying to prevent ourselves from sinful acts, let alone repent for them. When this is the situation, how can God save us from the innumerable difficulties and help us cross the river of life? We are getting roasted in the earth, only with the cooperation of God, but we neglect to pay attention to that. The temptations of bad customs, bad thoughts and bad habits all around keep on attracting us to them. We are not even able to use our discretion and are not able to understand the difference between as sinful act and an act of virtue. As a result we keep falling into the chasm of sin day by day. God, the Supreme Father is available everywhere to help at every moment. Whether we can recognize Him or not. He never neglects, because when a man goes on to the path of wrong conduct. His voice echoes within his heart to alert him. Should we hear it and become alert by making us stumble. We wish to be busy in sinful acts and yet expect God to open up the doors of heaven and salvation for us what can be more foolish than this?
To achieve freedom from our own faults and wicked tendencies, we ourselves only have to strive.

Eternal Truth

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 5/45/5 — those who act according to the eternal truth without malice towards anyone really deserve praise. Only those men deserve honor who destroy the wicked thoughts and enhance wisdom.
Message: Man's life contains many types of mental perversities, and its importance lies in constant efforts for liberation from them. Once the faults and other bad tendencies enter into our conduct, it is very difficult to be free from them. It is even more difficult to achieve freedom from malice. For that one must have mental cleanliness, sincerity and harmony in profound measure. It is a matter of no less spiritual endeavor if we do not harm in any way nor insult any person who becomes the reason for our financial loss and loss of honor and who puts obstacles in our path. It requires tremendous willpower. It is only the rare individuals who possess the sentiment of helping those very persons who have put thorns in their path. This is possible only when there is understanding of each other's pain and sorrow and the sentiment of friendship. In the mental and spiritual fields, only malice is the most obstructive sentiments.
To give up personal malice and to be good to a person despite his harmful dealing applies only to an individual but not for the nation or the society or an institution. If an enemy attacks our country, the proper reply is only with a crushing counter attack. Only the arrangement of severe punishment to the anti social elements and the criminals, keeps the society organized. To offer flowers to the criminals for their harmful activities will prove extremely harmful to the society and as far as institutional functioning is concerned, without punishing the person for his mistakes, the society's organization cannot function. Keeping this in view, the organizer of the institution must ruthlessly crush untoward activities and he must not have sentimental attachment for any member, because ultimately the interest, survival and progress of the society count. Only wise, knowledgeable and cultured persons can save themselves in this manner from sentimental attachment. Today innumerable institutions have wandered away from their original aims and what is happening is that all concerned are turning a blind eye to internal corruption and are rather encouraging it. Simultaneously, intoxicated with power, they lose their mental balance and never lose an opportunity to maliciously insult good workers.
'Malice towards none and good will towards all' and to forgive the malicious is related only to an individual's life and not with national, societal or institutional dealing. But mostly the opposite happens. People cultivate malice to individual levels and also constantly burn with it, whereas in dealings with the society or the nation or an intuition, they bow down to malicious and wicked people. This is an indication of their cowardice. In our individual conduct, we must constantly try to free ourselves from malice.

Inner and Outer Strength of an Individual

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 7/56/12 — everything of ours, both inner and outer, be pure. We help others by the pure wealth earned religiously. Bribe, gambling, wickedness and wealth snatched from others destroys home as well as the nation.
Message: Religion is the basis of this world. It is the art of life. The meaningfulness of this body lies only in conduct in accordance with religion. Only the religion becomes helpful to man even in the worst circumstances. The burden of the entire world is only on the shoulders of religion. If religious conduct ends, then everyone will worry day and night about saving his or her own life and crushing others. Then only looting, beating, anarchy, corruption and tyranny will prevail and happiness and peace will be destroyed. The scenario today is of the above type and only such events are happening all around. The reason for this is that for their selfish ends, people have forgotten religion. The blindfold of materialism, attachment, and greed is tied tightly on their eyes and they are not able to see that they are in reality, busy in uprooting each other and producing a hell like situation for all.
The importance and firmness of religion can be gauged by the fact that even the wicked persons spread their nets in the name of religion to snare and cheat people. Some bad elements also infiltrate wherever excellence prevails. People give tremendous importance to religion and only because of that they are ready for every type of self denial and sacrifice. In such a situation, selfishness also sneaks in and tries to strike roots. Many charlatans create a facade of being 'dharma gurus' (religious teacher) by wearing yellow or red-colored robes, apply the religious marks on their foreheads and exploit the religious sentiments of the people. Nobody knows the number of 'religious institutions' spreading like mushrooms everywhere. In their premises evil conduct is indulged in with immorality collected money. How can the normal, God fearing person afford to give up religion which even the wicked persons takes as their support for their nefarious activities. The edifice of man's life must be contracted on the firm foundation of religion only
Religious donations, rituals etc are merely the means in religion. Real religion lies only in carrying out one's duty, service to others, obliging others, truthfulness and restraint. One who gives the prime importance to this philosophy in his thinking and conduct is the real religious soul, otherwise it is mere facade. Life can be called successful only when religion has mingled in every drop of our blood. Whatever we see, think and do should be in accordance with religion only. Let our inclination not be corrupted if we see that someone is perhaps benefiting with religious conduct. The condition of the person, who takes advantage with immoral conduct, ultimately becomes like the fish which has swallowed the hook with the bait. No intelligent and farsighted man can afford to be foolish and follow the above conduct.
We have the intelligence to differentiate between religion and non-religion and decide about the same. Even people with less intelligence or uneducated persons have been graced with this ability. It should be used impartially and without fear. Real religion for man lies in implementing in one's conduct useful customs and methods after differentiating them with one's discretion.

Life is struggle itself

Meaning: According to the line of Athervaved 19/13/5 — if we wish to succeed, we should identify our strength. We face many hardships and difficulties in life. To struggle against them, one should achieve self confidence.
Message: Obstacles invariably come in every work. There is no field where one gets easily the valuable gifts of success on the path of progress, in any class of people; there are no men who are full of goodness only. It is also not possible that everything goes according to our schedule only. Every diligent man has to adopt the progress of fighting the adversities and to come out on his own path. Bad men cannot be turned into good men very easily, but they have to be tackled firmly again and again. By ignoring their bad conduct and harassment they have to be shown courageously that everything will not be carried out according to their wish, but there is a very thing will not be carried out according to their wish, but there is a very great importance of propriety and justice. For bringing evil men on to the right path, there is no way except to make them realize the uselessness of terror or harassment and the supremacy of propriety.
Men with daring are able to do as above, otherwise their insight and capacity become useless, Struggle is necessary for changing adversity into a favorable situation. Very hard work is necessary for changing poverty into prosperity. To make a weak body strong, the endeavor of exercise and diet has to be carried out. To develop an uneducated and uncultivated mind into that of a learned one, one has to study regularly with a lot of willpower and concentration. Those who do not develop the courage for such endeavor and valor will always find the doors of success and prosperity closed for them.
God helps only those who are ready to help themselves. The courageous are able to carve a path in the mountain also, Man's inner self is a source of limitless power and a storehouse of capacities. But the strength of courage is required to arouse them. Those who themselves struggle patiently against difficult situations and try to carve out a path by themselves; they also receive plenty of cooperation from others.
We are full of innumerable faults and wicked tendencies. If we allow them to remain as they are without the courage to pull them out, then our character will definitely be defacement and of a low level. A vicious circle has been formed of immoral conduct and evil social customs. If this vicious circle is not broken, then we will have to go on spending our lives in complaints and frustration only. If we do not maintain courage, do not oppose the improper, then this deep darkness will become deeper still. Without changing the old traditional concepts, it is not possible to cast into a mould of idealism and excellence one's life, in this material world. For spiritual progress, new systems and new methods and policies have to be adopted. Because of it, not only the person himself feels some complications, but family members also express criticism and opposition. How can one develop the necessary qualities without courage?
Courage and daring are spiritual qualities produced by the unlimited power of the inner self. We will have to strive after identifying that power and will have to then fight with daring.
Life is struggle itself.

The Spirit of Sacrifice

Eidal-Azha, an annual festival of Muslims, is celebrated in the last month of the Hijra calendar that is Zul Hijja. Muslims from all over the world gather at Mecca to celebrate Haj in the month of Zul Hijja.
To celebrate Eid al-Azha is like partial performance of Haj; it’s a day of solidarity.
Only a select member of Muslims would be able to perform Haj by visiting Mecca; the rest perform Eid al Azha wherever they live, spread out across the world. The entire Muslim world is involved in celebrating the special day.
Eid al Azha literally means Eid of sacrifice. Muslims sacrifice an animal on this day, a symbolic sacrifice that reminds us of the real sacrifice required throughout life. It is important to know that Haj and its practices are a symbolic re-enactment of acts performed by the family of Abraham – that is, the father Abraham, the son Ishmael and the mother, Hajira.
The story of Eid al Azha is that Prophet Abraham had a dream in which he was sacrificing his young son, Ishmael. Abraham, a great believer in God, took his dream literally and wanted to sacrifice his son, who was about 10 years old at the time. But, according to tradition, God Almighty sent his angels and asked him to sacrifice an animal instead of his son. The real Sacrifice, according to God’s planning, was that Abraham had to settle his son along with his mother, near Mecca, which at that time was nothing but a vast desert. This kind of settlement would require great sacrifice on the part of this family. However, the settlement of this small family in the desert was the beginning of a new phase. After some years had elapsed, a caravan padded by and Ishmael married a girl from that caravan. This was the beginning of a new generation called the Ishmaelite.
There is a saying that “There is a woman at the beginning of all great things”. In this case, the saying proved to be true, for a woman and her son had started not only a new generation, but a new era. This generation was trained in the midst of nature, faced with different kinds of hardships. Within one thousand years a community had been created whose members were so strong in character that it was called a nation of heroes. All practices that are performed during Haj or during Eid al Azha are a symbolic repetition of all that was a established by Abraham, his wife Hajira and son Ishmael.
Basically, two practices are performed by Muslims on the days of Eid al Azha; congregational prayer in the mosque and the sacrificing of an animal. These two practices reflect the basic spirit of the occasion, a combination of two important states of mind – spirituality and dedication. Prayer is an expression of spirituality and sacrifice is an expression of dedication.
All al Azha is not to be viewed as a one day celebration; its impact is required to last the entire year. It is like a symbolic rehearsal of high values and it is required that these values be translated into practical life all the year round.

Anger is the Source of Sin

Meaning: As stated in the line of Rigved 1/25/4 — let angry men be away from us like the birds that fly away when we shoo them. Because by remaining near an angry man, our temper becomes abnormal and we lose religiousness.
Message: Kama (any desire, also lust), krodh (anger) and lobh (greed) are three terrible enemies, nay, destroyers of the self and are gates to hell. Krodh (anger) is the most terrible among the three. It is the worst affection and is the home of all things bad, and of quarrels and fights. Krodh is like gun powder, which before destroying others destroys the place in which it is kept. The fire of anger also m before burning others, burns the place of its origin. Before harming others, first burns the person who expresses anger, and makes his face 'kurup' i.e. ugly. In anger, the eyes become blood shot and red and the face looks terrible and even ferocious. It 'burns' the body, affects the heart, causes fluctuation in blood circulation, increases mental agitation, causes harshness in speech and makes a person give up religious conduct. Krodh destroys man's patience, learning, knowledge, discretion, everything.
Anger is produced through ego, increases with foolishness and ends with repentance. It gives birth to bad thoughts and bas sentiments, and as a result malice, hatred, enmity, resistance, sorrow, pride etc. are produced. When in anger, a man insults his father, mother, religious head, relatives etc. Whether an angry man makes others unhappy or not, but he himself burns within. With this terrible disease, there is physical, mental and spiritual downfall.
If there is control by discretion over anger, it works like a magic medicine, just as in many disease, arsenic is given as the medicine for cure. Anger tempered by discretions necessary to reform our own family members, companies and those under our shelter, and if necessary, punishment also has to be meted out.
If this situation of persons becoming bad or spoilt is left to itself, then parents, teachers, officer's etcetera will not be able to do their duty. A discrete and practical expression of anger is in fact one form of love and this anger has to be very much restrained. It must be used as only a means to inspire a person for self-reform.
There are many ways of dispelling anger. By maintaining silence and reciting repeatedly the Gayatri mantra, our attention goes away from the matter which caused anger and the mind becomes quite. If anger attacks us when someone makes a mistake, we must also remember that we too can make similar mistake. With this discrete thinking, the excitement of anger will reduce and with repeated practice, finally it can be conquered. The practice of patience and forgiveness totally eradicated it.
We should deal lovingly with all by always rejecting anger for obtaining success and fame in our individual, familial and social life. Thus we can realize that Anger is the sources of sin.

Every Breath Can Rejuvenate

Breath is life; hence the better we breathe the better we live. To breathe slowly is to prolong youthfulness and life. So say yogic texts that caution us to breathe as if, at birth, only a fixed and immutable number of breaths had been allotted to us. If so then each slow breath we take preserves our precious respiratory credit balance and prolongs our existence. It can even be considered as an obligation, because if we are preprogrammed in this way, it is because we have a task to accomplish a destiny to fulfill, in that limited span of time.
The yogi obtains a greater quantity of oxygen and expels more gaseous toxins, especially carbon dioxide, than the sedentary person who breathes superficially 18 times a minute. This is because it is not the volume of air that matters, but the quantity of oxygen which is actually absorbed and assimilated in the body. Air is nourishment and requires time to be digested, just like any liquid or solid food in the digestive tract.
Whenever we remember to think about it, we can breathe slowly, deeply and with awareness, utilizing the technique of yogic breathing. One or two minutes of this practice can be more beneficial than 59 minutes of shallow breathing.
We should schedule frequent sessions of yogic breathing throughout the day, especially when we are outdoors, even if we are only going to fetch the car. Each minute of practice increases our vitality and health. Each slow and deep breath rejuvenates us, in the sense that it revitalizes our tissues. This is not merely affection, but a personal and even a civic duty.
The yoga session offers a good opportunity to practice slow breathing. A session of asanas includes not only conscious breathing, but also the practice of continuous controlled breathing, therefore deeper and slower, with asanas included. Just as a handful of pearls do not make a necklace, a succession of asanas becomes a series only if breath links them together. Of course, the breath must be accompanied by mental awareness.
It is true that it is quite impossible to stay conscious of the breath all day long and during our daily work. Therefore, whether we are yoga parishioners or not for most of our life our breathing is unconscious. So the practice of yogic breathing can only be a small part of our active, waking life, let alone of our sleeping time, during which it is seemingly impossible to control the breath. But there is another aspect to remember.
If we can manage to practice slow and deep breathing several times a day, we will eventually influence our unconscious breath. After practicing for only one or two minutes, even if we forget about it immediately, our body continues with a deeper and slower breathing rate than usual for a variable time. The usual rhythm of respiration, shallow and quick, does not supervene immediately.
The more we prolong and repeat our practices, the more the unconscious respiration will slow down and deepen permanently, even during sleep. It is worthwhile to perseveres. Therefore, let us breathe slowly and deeply, each time we think of it. And let’s hope that it is often.

Keeping Society Free form Fear

Meaning: The line of Athervaved 1/16/4 instruct us that — He who destroys our animal-wealth like cows etc is punishable. On other words they must be bravely opposed who ignore the interests of mankind.
Message: In Nepal, the cow is considered the best wealth. God has concentrated milk and many useful materials within the cow. From the cow we not only get the tasty foods like milk, curd, and ghee, but her dung and urine provide such power to the soil that we are able to get nourishing vegetables and healing medicines. Thus through cow we get strength, nourishment, peace, wealth and long life. There is maximum importance of the cow in our physical mental spiritual and intellectual development.
Cows, horses and such animal wealth is the backbone of our trade and agriculture. That wicked person who harms our animal wealth or produces obstacles in the path of success of human life is the biggest enemy of the society. The immoral deeds of such wicked men must be opposed with a lot of courage.
Immorality spreads only because no one cares to prevent it. Anything which gets easy passage for its movement will go on progressing. Good or bad, they all follow the same way. Obstacles halt them and if they receive clean, obstacle free path, they go on and on. It is extremely necessary to take precaution against immorality, to prevent injustice and to pay careful attention to personal protection. Otherwise everything will crumble into dust. Those who do not defend and are not ready to resist are dead even before death overtakes them.
There is a lot of virtue and cooperation in this world. If these did not exist, then leading one's life would also have become impossible. But simultaneously, injustice is also no less. All this has been created to make us alert and ready to struggle. Both qualities are very necessary for man's progress. One, who is not alert, not cautious and careless, will always be a victim of some assault and will be in loss. Those who are not capable of paying attention to personal safety and protection, will invariably become victims of the attack of wickedness. Far-sighted persons do not maintain such indifference.
It is the law of Nature that every man should be wide-awake and alert. God has given us unlimited power. Of course, we do not have to be immoral with others, nor should we be victims of others immorality. Actually our lack of caution tempts others to take undue advantage. Only our weakness encourages the wicked to indulge in their evil game. There is a lot of goodness in this world, but wickedness is no less. The scale of demoniac tendencies seems to be heavier than the one of divinity, and in the present times wickedness has reached its zenith.
It is but proper to protect ourselves from calamities, but when they come face to face with us, and then we must have at least the courage so that we do not find it difficult to fight and remove them like a brave warrior with patience, courage, discretion and endeavor. We should not give any opportunity to wicked and addicted men and should dishearten them by condemning them in every way and not cooperating with them. There should be no delay at all in opposing and resisting them.
This is the only way of keeping the society free from fear.

Linking Up Above

A magazine I picked up recently had the following title on its cover page. "Towards Spirituality rooted in Religion". I said to myself: "Shouldn't it be the other way round?" The word 'religion' itself derives from the Latin religare meaning "to bind" or to link. It signifies the outward manifestation of an inner attitude, the expression of our being "linked" to the divine which we have experienced deep at the centre of our being.
Rituals, it would seem are an indispensable part of religion and are often identified with it. They serve a useful purpose as a pedagogical tool, and are meant precisely to keep alive the initial experience from which they emerged. Experience precedes the ritual. Ritual however has no meaning once it is separated from experience.
Our spiritual experiences grow deeper in proportion to our experiences of being loved and being able to love in return. The progressive nd in the end complete loss of self in the act of self giving enables us to connect with the divine for whom the whole of creation is just the outpouring of the Divine Self. Truly, in God "we live, move and have our being". In love there is no room for fear. One of the characteristics of genuine spiritual experience is therefore the absence of fear.
The experience of fear is so necessary for 'self preservation'. At the physical level it enables us to ward off dangers and minimize threats to life. Yet, we often continue to experience fear long after the threat has disappeared and sometimes even when there is no threat at all. When this happens there has been a subtle shift in the origin of our fear. It is the ego that is struggling to preserve itself. At the physiological level it manifests itself in stress. It is not surprising, therefore, that meditation techniques are prescribed as the antidote to stress. Stress abhors unpredictability and it is so easy for one to use the 'predictable' ritual to soothe the pain of the wounded ego. But the ego is not easily deceived. At this point religion parts ways with spirituality. Religion degenerates into magic. A spirituality based on such a religion is nothing more than a caricature. Meditation on the other hand as the art of learning to 'pay attention', becomes the link between the ritual and the spi-ritual.
In a New Testament scripture text that is familiar to most Christians, St Paul describes love, among other things, as 'never quick to take offence' and 'keeping no score of wrongs'. Love gives one the freedom not to see another's transgression as a personal offence. That knocks the stuffing out of the other's aggression - real or imagined. There is no room for fear because no threat has been perceived. One can then love in freedom. It is the practice of meditation that enables us to slowly begin progressively functioning not from our 'ego' but from our true self. The true self is God and God is love.
When religion is based on true spirituality, we are able to understand that differences need not cause divisions. Returning to our contemplative traditions and meditative practices is the surest way to eschew violence in the name of religion. It allows us to restore the original purpose of the ritual which is to enable us connect to the experience of God within. We need no security other than the awareness that we are in God and God is in us. Perfect love casts out all fear.

TO DESTROY OF OUR INNER AND OUTER FAULTS

Meaning: According to the Athervaved 5/23/13 — Let us destroy our inner and outer faults in the same way that we destroy something by burning it in fire or crushing it under a stone.
Message: By hints, suggestions, discretion, logical or proper explanation, tender and simple persons can be brought on the right moral path. But for cruel hard-hearted and evil persons one has to adopt only tough measures for changing them, just s the blacksmith heats the iron repeatedly and hammers it on the anvil to mould it. When Lord Shri Krishna could not persuade the evil Duryodhan in negotiations, then He had to resort to pitting Arjun with his arrows against him for a lasting solution. Ferocious animals do not understand the language of humbleness and propriety and only weapons can control them. Thus God has had to repeatedly appear on the earth as incarnation for re-establishing religion and removing the evil or demoniac tendencies.
In personal life also manifestation of divine qualities is doubtless a creative work. For that one has to strive constantly for increase in good qualities and simultaneously one has to battle against the faults and wickedness within the heart. If these bad tendencies are not eliminated, then good qualities cannot develop and all the strength will be destroyed in mental distortions only. Laziness, negligence, excitement, lack of restraints will have to be fought ruthlessly and one has to be ready to fight them at every step. The mysticism of Gita tells the atma (the soul) to fight these enemies within the heart and fight a decisive battle against them. He is the true victor who has won a victory by fighting with his own self (i.e. the enemies within his heart).
These days the power of under serving elements has increased so much in the moral intellectual and social spheres that there is nothing but trouble and hardship as far as peace and organizations are concerned. Deceit, untruthfulness and breach of trust have become so commonplace, that it has become dangerous to put even a little trust in someone. From the point of thinking, man is becoming very narrow-minded, selfish, low-level and heartless. Evil social customs have taken us very strongly in their grip. Idealism and excellence are now only for telling and hearing. When man's thinking has become so polluted, to expert excellence in his conduct is like the wise to squeeze out oil from sand. When the mind is filled with wickedness and bad thoughts, then how can it be expected to think of God?
For fighting personal and societal wickedness and for making life clean and pure, if one has to fight bad habits and bad thinking, then one must fight. In place of dynastic traditions for keeping only certain persons in high places and some persons always as servants, a new system of organization will have to be established in which all get their just rights, benefits and the opportunity for work and cooperation. We will have to become ready to fight the demon of immorality. The resistance against under serving and undesirable persons will have to be so active that they cannot raise their heads at all and they should be crushed at the beginning itself.

Baseless Thoughts Disappear from the Heart

Meaning: The line of Samved 653 says that — Hardships, difficulties, unbearable situations and moments of trouble keep on coming in a man's life. Happiness and sorrow are the two wheels of the chariot of life. One should never be afraid of facing this fact. Troubles give a man the strength to struggle and become helpful in this progress and spiritual development.
Message: Innumerable are God's blessings on man. He has provided him with every type of facility. But everywhere around us there are so many men who are wretched, sorrowful, diseased and fallen. We should use our insight and capacity in helping them. Only hardships are the test of love. The real measure of our character is the type of our conduct towards our brothers and neighbors in their times of trouble. When there is a fire in the neighborhood, shall we sit peacefully in our homes? When people are suffering form hunger, should we enjoy feasts? When there is enthusiasm for serving the people with love and honor, with humility in the heart, then only we should understand that ours is true love.
There are people with different streams of thoughts in the world around us. They all have their own selfish interests and the levels of their talents, capacities and intelligence are also different, and therefore, conflicts within them are possible. It is not possible for all to agree with our thoughts that are why they keep creating troubles for us. This is the reality of life. Those who have the capacity to fight against adverse situations and bring them to normalcy, they only achieve victory in the struggle of life. They only do well to themselves and are also capable of doing simultaneous good to others. In doing well to others, in serving others and helping others, one has also to face many difficulties. One's own family members' protest there is also the fear of "What will people say", one has to spend time and money, and no personal benefit is visible. But in reality, there are many benefits in this work of helping others. Not only does one get peace of mind and satisfaction but one is graced by God's blessings also. That person receives God's grace who surrenders self-interest for helping others and the deities honor such a person. The saying is 'deva sadaa balim prayachhati' i.e. God always helps the persons who make personal sacrifices. Droupadi the Pandev queen had torn out half her sari to help cover a monk without any clothes, and it is well-known that in the time of her distress, when Duryodhan tried to shame her by trying to pull out her sari, it went on increasing and Duryodhan had to give up in the end.
The grace and grandeur of life increases by helping others. The real helpers are always cheerful. They experience joy when doing others' work and experience divine light within themselves. They receive fame and honor. A lowly person desires wealth, a middle class man wishes to become wealthy, but a man of excellence desires only honor. Those who are higher than even the excellent level, they do not even desire honor and remain busy in works of welfare without any self interest.
Baseless thoughts dis-appear form the heart with the sentiment for helping others.

Gita and Renunciation

A devotee of Ramakrishna Paramhansa asked him “what is the central teaching of the Bhagavada Gita?” The sage replied, “If you utter the words ‘Gita’ a few times in rapid succession you begin to say ‘taagi, taagi’ and that is the essence of Gita”. Taagi means one who has renounced the word.
Indeed, renunciation is at the core of spiritual life. The literal meaning of renunciation is ‘desertion’, abandonment, rejection and denunciation. However, this is not the sense in which it is used in the Gita, Renunciation, in the Gita does not mean abandoning the duties of our everyday lived life and becoming a recluse to lead a monastic life. Nor does it mean other worldliness. It does not even mean indifference (vairagya) to the world and its affairs.
Bal Gangadhar Tilak in his Gita rahashya goes a step further and says that Gita, instead of teaching renunciation of any kind, preaches
Energism’ (karma yoga). Law of karma according to him is an energetic principle because “unless some karma or action has been performed it is not possible for the imperceptible to become perceptible or quality-less to become quality-full.”
He goes on to say, “No man is free from action, and that action should never be given up.” Rather one has to be busy performing actions that are aimed at sarvabhutahite ritah-promotion of welfare of all.
Tilak argues: “The Gita was not presented either as a pastime for persons tired out after living a worldly life in pursuit of selfish motives, not as a preparatory lesson for living such worldly life. “Its main purpose is to reveal, “How one should live his worldly life” and to point out our “true duty in worldly life”. That is why the Gita discourages monastic or ascetic life if the spirit of detachment is absent.
Renunciation in the Gita does not refer to renunciation of action but connotes renunciation in action. It means performing one’s duties but with a detached mind and without thought of worldly gain- devoting all action to God only. This dedication is the most important component of renunciation.
Renunciation according to Tilak means “whatever a man does must be taken to have been done by him for the purpose of sacrifice”. No action is under taken for personal gain. It is performed for the collective gain of all.
The true ideal of Gita is not sacrifice for its own sake and done not for any personal gains, glory or triumph. One is able to serve humanity if and only if he performs his actions efficiently, skillfully and without concern for the outcome or result.
Action must not be renounced because “numerous difficulties arise in the consideration of what should be done and what should not be done” or because there are problems in executing the action. Once we know what is good for loksamgraha or public welfare, we must with all sincerity and without concern for success or failure, engage ourselves wholeheartedly with conviction in performing the purported action.
Not being attached to the consequences of an action helps one psychologically to perform it most efficiently and “attain the highest” results (Gita 3.19). Non attachment to according to Shankaracharya, by the knowledge that we are mere agents, for God is the real doer and according to Ramanujacharya, by surrendering all action to God.

Krishna: Love Unparalleled

Krishna's wisdom, humility and love are unparallel. You see from any angle, there is totally, uniqueness, in Krishna's personality. This indicates that your innermost has these qualities just like a ray of sun which has all colors.
Once Queen Kunti, mother of the Pandavas, told Krishna, "I wish I had more troubles. You were always with me when I had troubles. Nothing can equal the joy of your company. I can trade all the pleasures of the world for a moment of your presence."
Krishna gave her more knowledge of the being. "I am in you as you. There is not a place in this world where I am not. People think of me as a physical body and they do not really know my nature. Body is made up of these eight aspects: earth, water, fire, air, mind, intellect and ego. I am the ninth beyond all this. I am all pervading. Though I am in the body, I am not the body. Though I am working through the mind, I am not the mind. I am much more than what you perceive. I am present in your heart as you and anytime you need me. I am there. You can always count on me"
Saints fell in love with Krishna. The dispassionate would be drawn to him Krishna means that which is attractive. The very core of your Being is such, the bliss and joy of the self is like that. It just draws everything. The symbolism in Krishna's birth is beautiful. Devaki as the body and Vasudev ass prana or breath came together to being forth Krishna.
Krishna is always depicted as the Blue God. It means that the body is so transparent, almost as if it was not there. Whatever is infinity is represented by blue. The sky is blue, and so is the ocean. Krishna says in the Gita: "People do not know my true nature. Nobody knows." In all his life only three people knew his true form - Yasoda, Arjuna and his childhood friend Uddhava. Krishna says. "People think of me as a physical embodiment, as a body. I am not the body, I am the consciousness which is present in everything, everywhere... I am the sweetness in sugar, the light in the moon, the beat in the sun." He expressed himself as 'all-permeating'.
Krishna always stands with one foot firmly on the ground, the other foot crossed over, as though it is touching, but not really touching. It is elsewhere. That is called the 'tribhangy' pose, implying perfect balance.
Krishna was makhan chor, stealer of butter. Butter is from milk. Milk is fermented to get curd and the curd is churned to get butter. Life is a process of churning. Your mind is being churned by so many things, events, happenings, and instances.
Finally, what comes up is butter which is the saintliness in you. And Krishna steals the butter, the saintliness. It means he loves this mind which is like butter, which is not hard. This means infinity is coming towards you, loves you so much that it steals you at any cost. He seeks you out, wherever you are.
Janmashtami is the day when you enliven the virat swaroop - the cosmic vision - of Krishna in your own consciousness, once again. Letting your true nature manifest in your day to day life is the real secret of Krishna's birth.

Meaningfulness of Life

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 10/151/2 — in this world, the labor of only those men succeeds who faithfully donate for public charity and endeavor for public welfare.
Message: Why has God made this creation? For man, for his labor, endeavor and deeds so that walking on the (moral) highway he may perform austerities. The dictum is 'shramena tapasa shrushtam' which means that the meaningfulness of life lies only in labor and austerity, which are two sides of the same coin. Whatever work we do, whatever efforts we make without worrying about difficulties for the body and remain busy in that work, are austerity only. Austerity does not mean unnecessarily fasting and reducing the body or going into the jungle for prayers in seclusion.
The meaning of 'tapa' or austerity is 'to get heated' or 'to become not'. Gold develops the luster only after heating and melting in a furnace and then we are able to cast it in the desired shape. Similarly, the capacity to give a special mould to our life is obtained only through austerity, labor and endeavor. This 'tapa is also of 3 types viz, saatvik, rajasik and taamasik.
The austerity of a man is saatvik when without the least worry of the body's comforts; a man immerses himself in spiritual endeavor. By acknowledging the presence of God in all living beings one who offers or surrenders him entire lire for public-service, his life's entire passage is 'saatvik tapa' only. One who gives up physical comforts for obtaining knowledge and wisdom, who spreads fragrance like sandal-wood by sacrificing every moment for others, his life is saatvik itself. One whose deeds and endeavor reflect an attitude of selflessness, dedication and wanting to be always useful for others his austerity is saatvik.
That endeavor which is made for creating a kingdom, or for money, fame, popularity, reputation, exercising one's rights is called 'raajasik' austerity. That scientist, who forgetting his thirst and hunger, giving up all physical comforts, closeted in his laboratory discovers unknown powers of the universe and achieves fame and reputation by revealing them is also doing raajasik tapa. Practicing long hours every day to achieve expertise in singing or playing music or to work determinedly for the propagation of one's thoughts, is also raajasik tapa.
The exercise undertaken with jealousy and malice with the aim of destroying others is 'taamasik tapa'. The labor and endeavor for selfish ends, for satisfying the desires of the senses by becoming their slaves and for satisfying petty temptations is taamasik tapa. The demon-king Ravan and Hiranyakashyap also had performed great austerities for taamasik achievements. Thief's dacoits and corrupt persons also undertake hardships for their wicked acts. All these are 'taamasik tapa'.
For undertaking 'tapashcharya (i.e. the conduct of tapa or tapas i.e. austerity) man must have some great aim, especially for making life yagyamaya. A life with a noble aim is like the flame of the yagya, whereas an aimless life is like a heap of ash. God expects us to employ our deeds, labor and endeavor faithfully, always with the lofty aim of working for public benefit.
The meaningfulness of life lies only in the loftiness of the aim.

Trust is Your Third Eye

Trust is an inner eye. Just as the two outer eyes are for seeing the universe, there is as third eye inside of you whose name is trust. With this eye of trust the divine is seen. The eye of trust means the eye of love. There are some things which only love can know. There is no other way to know them.
If you love someone you will see certain things in the person that no one else will see. You will see in that person a sweetness that no one else can see. That sweetness is delicate and the touch of love is needed for it, only then is it revealed. You will hear the echo of a song in that person that no one else will hear. To hear it one has to come closer than any one else has come. Only you are that close.
This is why beauty begins to manifest in the person whom you love. People think that you fall in love with someone who seems beautiful to you. They are wrong.
The one you fall in love with begins to be beautiful - all of life's grandeur, all of its dignity is revealed in the person. And it is not that you are imagining it.
As soon as the eye of love opens the invisible begins to be visible to you, the unperceivable begins to be perceivable. The presence of what are hidden beings to be experienced. Without any door opening, someone enters into you. "Finding upon walking the doors yet bolted, who knows by which door he enters and leaves".
This is a very lovely couplet from Bihari. The beloved is sleeping with all the doors and windows of the room bolted, yet in her dreams her lover visits her. Later she wakes up and sees that the doors are still closed with the bolts in place, just as they were. Who knows how he enters and by which route he leaves?
"Which way do you enter, which way do you depart? From which window do you peep?" This window is called trust.
Someone living in logic will never know anything deeper than the material: His life will be meaningless. He may well collect money, but all his wealth will be left lying there when he dies and he will have missed meditation. And it is only meditation that will accompany you in death. Such a person will not attain the ultimate wealth. Only the one who has the eye of trust within attains the ultimate wealth.
Trust is the culmination of love. Trust is the faith that what has not already happened so far will happen. Trust also arises from what has already happened; there is such beauty in this universe, there is such light, such music... the throat of each bird is filled with song... There is beauty in each leaf, light in each star; this universe is so full of magnificence, there must be some energy or other behind it.
Trust means trusting that there must be some energy creating all this color. Trust means trusting that where so much beauty is being showered, the source of such beauty must also exist.
Trust means accepting the existence of the source from which you receive these subtle, delicate indications.

Desirous of Fame

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 8/67/13 — O men desirous of fame! Never keep malice towards anyone, maintain truthful conduct and carry our good deeds. As a result your fear will vanish and you will be termed as excellent among men.
Message: Our learned sages and philosophers had made an excellent arrangement for the all round progress of life. They had wished that the administration of national, societal and institutional activities should also be in the hands of famous men with quality. They had made it a rule that the head of the nation, the member of the ruling council, officer, the organizer etc should be such who possess excellent qualities, who don not become jealous at others' talent, ,,progress and well being, who gain fame through their personal bravery, good qualities, learning etc and do not harm anyone. Only such men are able to observe divine and societal rules and can also enforce them on common man.
But today, exactly the opposite is happening. Whomsoever you see is engaged in pulling others' legs and trying to prove them inferior. The sentiments of jealousy and malice are at their highest level. The man engaged in the struggle for gaining power does not pay any attention at all to what is proper or improper and tries to establish supremacy by hook or crook. Criminal and undesirable elements by their condemnable acts are spreading anarchy in the society. The authorities in power, in their greed for selfish fulfillment, are not even able to stop them. The cooperation of only such elements has become the best tool of gaining power. Whether it is power at the national or regional level, or societal level or of a religious institution, at most centers, only base and mean-minded people have in filtered and gained power there. They keep so much malice and enmity towards anyone who tries to raise a voice in protest, that they do not hesitate at all to get them murdered even.
Lord Ram had no malice for his step-mother called Kaikeyi, although because of her he had to give up the throne and undergo many hardships in the jungle for 14 years. He did not punish the demon king Ravan only for abducting his wife Sita. The war on Ravan was to free his harassed subjects from his demoniac terror. Abduction of Sita was merely an excuse. Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati also preached loving, religious and proper dealing with all from the societal and national view-point. First of all, there should be love for every one. All human beings are the children of God, the Supreme Father and are like our brother and sisters. Therefore, there should be no malice or enmity towards them but only love and proper religious dealing. If their conduct is irreligious or unjust, then they should be reprimanded or even punished. There should be no partiality, no nepotism, and there should be fair dealings with everyone. That only should be our ideal.
Only by giving up malice can we achieve success in the deeds for people's welfare and only with that, an atmosphere of peace and happiness in society is possible.

Hardship and Difficulties comes in the Life

Meaning: According to the line of Athervaved 6/26/1 many hardships and difficulties come in life. Only those persons, who do not get upset and remove them by deliberate efforts, get joy.
Message: The start of the mighty Ganga River is but as a small dribble of water at the place called Gomukh. Yet it covers thousands of miles as a mighty river, used as a waterway and with her nourishing water, nurtures innumerable fields to yield hundreds of thousands of tons of crop. During her passage meandering over thousands of miles, she has carved out her passage through mighty rocks and other obstacles.
Similarly, the passage of a man's life is also thorny and full of fearful obstacles. These obstacles are; the material world, attachment, greed, intoxicated arrogance, negligence, laziness etc. At every step they create obstacles in our path by giving birth to demoniac tendencies, bad thinking and bad habits. There is attraction, glamour and temptation in bad things. Their attack is also very intense and firm. Man must continuously fight against them and with a firm vow, save himself from being trapped in their vicious circle. Our capacity for struggle gets developed only with troubles and hardships that we face, the only condition that our will power must be strong. Once the confidence becomes firm in our minds that God is present everywhere and his cooperation is our endeavor is invaluable, our will power increases, troubles vanish instantly and poverty does not dare to come near us. A diligent person like a good navigator guides others through the river of life and himself enjoy bliss.
Today most men while away their time in day dreams like Sheikh Chilli. They wish to have many things but do not wish to do anything personally. They find avoidance of work and eating at others' expense very suitable. Instead of attacking their difficulties, they enjoy accusing others. Not only such people are unsuccessful, but they also make the lives of those in their contact troublesome. They develop a habit of blaming their luck and weeping over their troubles. They forget the truth that man himself is the creator of his destiny and that itself becomes the root cause of all his troubles. A man's path in life becomes clear and wide open when he develops a strong confidence that he has the capacity to defeats all troubles in his way. After that he becomes busy with full enthusiasm to combat immorality and completely destroys it. He also starts indulging in new creative efforts.
Only those who are brave and courageous, dare to fight with evil thoughts, evil culture, evil conduct and evil customs. They alone are praised every where.
This itself is the path to a successful life. A person of sincere endeavor must cheerfully engage himself in works of public welfare after first cleaning and purifying his mind and heart from all faults and wickedness. This itself is the order of God, the Supreme Father.

Lazy Man Always Waste their Time

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 5/34/5 Lazy men waste away their time of endeavor and hence they do not succeed anywhere. They get disappointment everywhere.
Message: God has created man for doing labor, for endeavor and deeds, by which, he can perform austerity on the path of duty. Both labor and austerity are required for whatever work that is done by man. Involvement dedication and engrossment are by themselves austerities only. Any work is successful due to them only. Whether we do good or bad deeds, without labor, austerity and endeavor, nothing can be done.
There are 24 hours in the day. Gayatri mantra contains 24 letters. The deity of Gayatri mantra is Savita (or the sun) which tells us to be bright like the sun, to go on and on without swaying on the path of deeds, and never to stop despite whatever types of situations and obstacles.
But today laziness has taken a severe hold over man. He wants to obtain everything without doing anything. His thinking is becoming distorted. He thinks that whatever is the wish of God, will happen. Therefore instead of the labor of one's duty, it is better to sit quietly and ask for favor from the deities and the angels. Man forgets that he himself has given birth to his present situations, and he only is the creator of his own destiny. To save himself from doing any labor, he has invented many excuses and he wants to get satisfaction by blaming his failures on luck. Hence he gets disappointments only. On fact, when a man strives hard, then adverse situations also become favorable. God also helps and failure is changed to success.
Laziness is a great enemy of endeavor. It is a big obstacle in man's progress and causes maximum harm to life's values. A lazy person goes on avoiding work and this habit makes him gradually incapable and helpless. Because of disappointment and frustration gradually man's ability of discretion is also destroyed and he loses his daring to struggle against difficulties. Whatever capacity he had earlier also diminishes and is finally destroyed. He wishes to do something, but due to laziness, is not able to do anything. He does not develop the enthusiasm to translate his thoughts into action.
Success is achieved by those who cast away their laziness, are ready, full of energy, make good use of their time and do not waste their time in absurd talks. Those who wish their own benefit and fame, they must pull out the evil of laziness by its roots and throw it away, and go on working diligently with faith and with the least amount of talk.
Only with that is the desired reward possible to be achieved.

Multidimensional Life

Anekantvad is Jain philosophy that perceives life as being multidimensional. What we think we see is only part of life, rarely the whole.
Though most of us operate from our periphery, often saying and doing things spontaneously, without thinking or planning, we are all eventually guided by our centre. What is our center? It is usually that core collection of feelings, beliefs, conditionings, thoughts, biases, prejudices, ideas, perceptions, points of view and opinions –basically whatever we think we are. This centre is often mind based, not being or soul-based, for those things always operate out of silence and love. The soul or being is our real centre, as opposed to the mind or ego-based ‘pseudo-centre’ from where we frequently and unknowingly operate.
The Jain concept of Anekantvad is beautiful. It says that any truth is relative to the perspective from which it is known. Reality is comprised of innumerable substances, both material and spiritual, and these too are constantly changing and in a state of flux. Raw materials that make up material and spiritual things too, are impermanent. And hence, it is near impossible for ordinary individuals to see the whole truth, the complete truth, of reality. What we often see, due to our limited vision, perspective, point of views our senses and sensibilities, or beliefs, our social upbringings, our limitations is a thin slice of life, or reality. What we see is not the untruth, but it cannot be the entire truth, which is too vast for mere mortals to comprehend, and is also constantly undergoing modification and evolution. It needs a highly evolved or enlightened soul, of the caliber of a Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus or Nanak – or the 24 Thirthankars, who form the foundation of the Jain religion – to be able to see and understand that whole truth.
The most common story cited to illustrate Anekantvad is that of king who called six blind men to touch and describe an elephant. All of them came up with different answers, calling the elephant a rope, fan, snake or wall. While they were partly right they were nowhere near the whole truth. All of us see the world and life from our limited perspective. If we knew this, then we would not be in conflict with others. But we assume that what we know is the whole truth and that the other is wrong. And hence there are conflicts all over the world, basically because my truth does not agree with yours, although both of us didn’t know that we are both only partially correct, and are both likely to be wrong. We strongly hold on to our partial or wrong concepts, and fight over it, tooth and nail. When the final picture emerges, or with the passage of time, when we look back at the past, we will often see how our words and actions were often wrong.
Anekantvad, once understood, will make us realize that our knowledge is partial and incompletes. We form our central core from this partial truth, and hence are prone to get into conflicts with others. If we recognize that we don’t know the whole picture, we are likely to become less aggressive and more humble, which will pave the way for more peace and joy on earth.

Yours Faithfully, With Grace

When we do not face reality, especially when we consider it ‘unpleasant’, we may tend to push our own suffering by unconscious but active denial on to other people and out into the word, seeing them as ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’. Parents who cannot tolerate their own imperfections, will criticize and alienate their children for their imperfections; one partner, blind to his own faults will notice, criticize and condemn the very same imperfections in the other.
On a larger scale, some cultures attempt to push away their own suffering by making their members all good and other people all bad. This happened in Nazi Germany, in Bosnia, and in Rwanda, and closer home the monster rears its ugly head whenever we consider any group or community as the wrong or evil ‘Other’.
Roman Catholic saint Francis de sales speak of our ‘abjections’. To love our abjections, he tells us, is to love ourselves as we are loved, in our wholeness. It is also to have compassion for ourselves, teaching us that the true place of transformation is not in our gifts but in our weaknesses. “To love our abjections is to shatter the images of self-perfection we would like to project. It is thus to enter into the mystery of loving all that is human, and from there to begin to love all humans truly.”
Maybe we are perfectly imperfect, as someone once suggested. That awareness is a grace that brings a compassionate understanding and support to work on our deficiencies. And once we understand that, then we become capable of extending more grace towards others.
Stories of the Desert Fathers and Mothers provide us with deep and transformative lessons, one of them being that awareness of imperfection allows us to be less judgmental of others.
Once, a story goes, a brother in the community committed a fault. A council was called to decide on what punishment was be given to him, to which the old and respected Abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go. Then the elders sent someone to him, saying, “Come join us, for everyone is waiting for you.”
So he got up to join them, but carried with him on his shoulder a leaking jug filled with water. The others came out to meet out behind him from the jug said, “What is this father?” The old man said to them, “My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of another.” When they heard that, they said no more to the brother, but forgive him.
If you acknowledge your imperfections and the imperfections of this world, work hard, and rise to the challenge to be a ware of them and change and evolve accordingly, “then you are a vehicle for the expression of God’s dynamic perfection”, writes David Aaron in his spiritual work based on his understanding of the Kabbalah, The secret life of God.
This is not about being satisfied with the mediocre or about condoning ‘evil’ or inhumanity; it is about facing reality and working with it rather than against it.
Working with ‘what is’ means to seek meaning within the absurd, peace within chaos, light within darkness, joy within suffering – without the need to deny the reality of absurdity, chaos, darkness and suffering.

Destroy of Evil and Violent Animals

Meaning: As explained in the Athervaved 4/3/4 — It is our duty to destroy evil and violent animals, and thieves and wicked men. We must always find solutions to disease and bad tendencies.
Message: In the human body, along with 'jeevatem' (i.e. the soul) Parmatma (i.e. God, the Supreme Soul) too resides Jeevatma performs the deeds and gets the Karmaphal (i.e. the fruits of his deeds) as either reward or punishment. God, as witness, goes on observing all the deeds of man. By doing good deeds man achieves inner peace and joy by doing bad deeds man feels hatred and dejection within himself.
Man gets trapped into sinful acts because of many reasons. He also engages in sinful acts as aw result of punishment for bad deeds in previous births. Drinking liquor is the root cause of ad tendencies and sins. An intoxicated man does not think of what is proper and what is improper and will carry out any meant act. Due to anger also, man's intelligence gets distorted and then man will do anything because of the absence of kartavyagyan (i.e. the knowledge of what should be done). Knowingly or unknowingly man goes on committing many sinful acts trapped in innumerable bad deeds and bad conduct.
Sinful life starts with the company of bad people. In the company of bad persons a man's intelligence gets corrupted. He starts considering his well wishers as enemies and people on the wrong, immoral path as his friends. As a result he becomes distanced from good, learned, religious and truthful men. His relationship with divine qualities starts getting served. Getting much more trapped in bad company, he becomes helpless and forced to lead a life of inferior quality. The bad thinking, bad habits or bad culture makes hollow the roots of humanness. He feels helpless form this sinful path. Nobody is able to save th4e sinners trapped in the chasm of darkness. Man himself gets trapped in bad tendencies, he finds sweet the indulgence of desires and, trapped in this mire, he invites his own destruction.
As witness, God the Supreme keeps an account of man's good and bad deeds, and then on the basis of justice according to the deed he gives either the good reward or the bad punishment. One does get teh good or bad results of one's deeds and nobody can save himself from them. 'Avashyameva bhoktavya, krutum karma shubhashubham' — i.e. one has to receive the fruit of one's actions, whether good or bad. These fruits in the form of reward or punishment may be given in this birth or in the next birth, today or tomorrow. According to divine justice, there may be delay in that but without doubt there is justice in it, and hence there is no partiality. On the one hand, God is the giver of life, he is the paalak i.e. the protector and poshuk (one who nurtures), simultaneously, He is the destroyer of sinners and men of evil conduct. He always uplifts good men, men who do good deeds and truthful men. He shows the appropriate (good) path to the faithful devoted and believers and fulfills their wishes and helps them teach the ultimate objective.
By going against this just and divine tenet of God and helping and cooperating with men of wicked, evil conduct is in itself a grave sin. We must indeed make an effort to bring them on the path of moral goodness, but simultaneously scold and censure them also. Just as it is our duty to protect the society from the violent and ferocious animals like lions, snakes, wolves etc, similarly it is also our responsibility to establish peace and happiness in the society by destroying wicked and evil men.
It is our duty to destroy these enemies of the society.

Healing with forgiveness

All faiths worldwide recommend it. There’s universal agreement among religious leaders about its benefits. Every avatar of the Supreme Being and all His prophets have preached it. It’s a prayer often recited by devotees in places of worship. And non believers too are convinced of its great value. Doctors tell patients about its health benefits. Old and New Age gurus will break bread to celebrate its virtues. Prance healers and reiki masters consider if a powerful healing tool.
Forgiveness is not as sublime as love, but it’s a divine virtue, without necessarily being godly. The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness thus: “To grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offence or debt”. But forgiveness is much more than that. Cynics see the act of forgiving as being one of weakness, resorted to by the meek and the cowardly. The more enlightened say only the strong are capable of it, as did MK Gandhi. “The weak can never forgive forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
Pure happiness is achieved because when you forgive person who has done you harm, you detoxify yourself of all negative energy free your mind, and purify your soul and body. Perhaps that’s why Martin Luther said: “Forgiveness is pure happiness”
Studies at the University of Wisconsin found the more forgiving people were, the less they suffered from a wide range of illnesses. The benefits included improved functioning of their cardiovascular and nervous systems. Anger and resentment towards our so-called oppressors will bring us nothing but trouble and unhappiness.
“If you do not forgive, you will continue to think of the offender and the unpleasant event,” aid prance healing master Choa Koi Sui. “By forgiving and blessing, you achieve inner peace and freedom”. Those who follow Vadantic tradition pray to God to grant happiness even to their enemies. They pray to providence not only for their well-being, but also for the prosperity of their adversaries. Vadantic wisdom believes in a prenatal harmony, a link and celestial communion among all souls. Hence when you hate another person, you only hate yourself, as all souls are linked.
“How often do you forgive one person? Up to seven times?” Jesus Christ was asked by his disciple peter. Jesus replied: “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Jesus seven asked God to forgive those who had crucified him: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In The Lord’s prayer, Christians pray. “And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
The message is clear. Only when you forgive others will you too, be forgive. Allah is Most Forgiving. Prophet Muhammad forgives people for their ignorance and was ever ready to forgive his enemies.
By being unforgiving, we keep creating an identity around our pain, and that is what is reborn, Buddhists believe. In Jainism forgiveness is propounded as one of the main virtues to be cultivated by the faithful. Supreme forgiveness forms part of one of the 10 characteristics of dharma in Jainism.
“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them as much,” said Oscar Wilde. It’s an interesting thing to say, but taking the tongue in cheek remark seriously might dilute the impact and power of forgiveness.
Forgiveness has great power. It is a glorious and selfless act that could radically transform the lives of both the forgiver and the forgiven – for the better.

Liberate from the Feeling of Enmity

Meaning: According to the line of Rigved 2/7/3 — just ad flowing water can never remain at one place, similarly enmity also should not remain (i.e. one should not harbor enmity). One should renounce inimical feeling and create friendship.
Message: The main reason, for all our collected bad tendencies, influences and bad habits is our ignorance and lack of knowledge which becomes an obstacle in our progress. We remain neither alert towards our divine form nor do we get the knowledge of our divinity. The rise of ego and egoistic arrogance is only because of this ignorance. The arrogance of 'I an so and so' etc inspires us to consider us as separate from others. With that arise the emotions of attachment, condemnation, 'mine and yours' and like and dislike or malice and we stray away from the path of spirituality and cause the downfall of our own life.
With the constant thinking of enmity, an increase in wicked activities takes place and accordingly man's behavior, man's conduct comes to low level. There is only one constant thought of how to take revenge, how to case maximum harm, and how to insult him. Constantly this agitation is going on in the mind. By adopting the attitude of accusation, taunts, sarcasm and bitter conduct man causes the downfall of his own personal character; to add to that, others coming in his contact suffer mental tension. Such inferior men continuously think of destroying their opponents and also show their meanness by showing happiness with even a slight harm to these opponents.
How clean and pure is flowing water! Rivers brooks and streams give joy to one and all. But if the water is halted and kept stagnant in a pit, it starts rotting and smelling. The same condition prevails in our mind when we store enmity and malice there. In such people's minds instead of the emotion of love, there is hatred and there is an all round harmful atmosphere of enmity and non cooperation.

Paradox of Liberation

Liberation is believed to be the epitome of achievement of the human form. But the phenomenon of liberation is riddled with a great paradox. The paradox is that the liberated entity disintegrates, dissolves and no longer remains to appreciate the state of liberation therefore seems to be an exercise in futility when viewed from the standpoint of the individual endeavoring to seek liberation.
Liberation can never be an acquisition of the individual. Because liberation is not a person, liberation is from a person. It is often said by sages that the search of efforts to seek liberation will end only when the seeker ends.
All attempts made in this direction only further crystallize the identity and discreteness of the seeker. Desire for liberation is an oxymoron, because liberation is absence of all desires. Does it mean that all endeavors life meditation, devotion and prayer are superfluous? Sage Ashtavakra said precisely that. Liberation is merely a blink away. It need not involve any form of penance, effort or endeavor. The identity of self is totally a creation of the self and a figment of imagination. The name, the form is merely a projection. Liberation is instantaneously becoming aware of the absence of the subject-object dichotomy.
The meaning of the word Ashtavakra is "distorted at eight places". According to legend when Ashtavakra was still in his mother's womb, his father would recite from Vedic scriptures. But his chanting was defective and every time Ashtavakra discerned an error, he would squirm inside the womb. As a result he was born with eight deformities; hence the name. This story is symbolic. The squirming was perhaps at th4e futility of the chanting. Sage Ashtavakra was a realized soul and his discourse to King Janak forms the content of the treatise, Ashtavakra Gita that predates the Bhagavad Gita.
The name Ashtavakra has a far greater significance. Yoga as elucidated by Sage Patanjali is consisted of an eight fold path. Ashtanga Yoga, comprising yama, or restraint, niyama or self regulation, dhyaan or meditation, pranayama. The eightfold path leads to samadhi or liberation. But Ashtavakra said that all endeavors only fortify the identity of the seeker. He said that liberation is the state where the subject and object become one. All endeavors only serve to underline the ego and are a detriment to liberation. Ashtavakra therefore seems to underline the distortion created by any path of endeavor by the seeker. The philosophy challenge the basic premise that one has to make any effort to seek liberation - for that matter even ashtanga yoga. This is a radical departure from all established thought.
A specific form is merely the all pervading consciousness cleaving itself into a subject and object. It then goes about believing all that is observed as separate and discrete as its own self. The true nature of the self is beyond all identity and ego. It is plain consciousness by total conviction in this fleeting illusory identity. And then the game of seeking begins, like the dog chasing its own tail. Holding on to the illusion of identity, one goes about seeking. The form can never ever seek the formless consciousness of which it is a manifestation. It can only merge and this merger can happen only when the form realizes the futility of all efforts to be come the formless.