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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

GANDHI: SPRITUAL MIND TOWARDS TRUTH AND GOD!!!

From: M. Nandakumar
To: Keralites
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 6:27:39 PM
Subject: [www.keralites.net] THE FOURTH GREAT 'G' OF INDIA


THE FOURTH GREAT ‘G’ OF INDIA
Gita (the great Bhagwad Gita), Ganga (Mother Ganges, the Holy River) and Gayatri (the greatest of all mantras) had been identified as the three great ‘G’s of India by Gurus of yesteryears as per our ancient scriptures.
As we all know very well, this identification is more than justified as have been believed and practiced by Indians for centuries. Bhagwad Gita has been, is, and will be the single-most acceptable and revered script of all times in the whole spiritual world, irrespective of religion, language or race. Likewise, Mother Ganga, in spite of the filth and sins presented to Her by Her offspring throughout centuries, still retains Her unique holiness and beauty. And thirdly, Gayatri mantra can or will never be replaced by anything else, at any period of time.
Now, my readers might have started wondering about the fourth great ‘G’ of India, apart from those considered by our scriptures. Yes, for us, who live in modern India in these modern times, we have one more ‘G’ to remember and revere. In spite of all the concepts and misconcepts, silence and arguments, agreements and differences, good and bad, light and darkness surrounding our country and its people, Gandhiji, the father of our nation will be considered by one and all as one of the greatest saints of the recent past. He is the fourth great ‘G’ of India for us and our children to hold and revere.
While this writer lived and worked outside India, it was a matter of grief to know that the outsiders have taken more interest and pains to know about Gandhiji than his ungrateful compatriots. To be precise, I should confess, it was only after traveling outside India that I could feel the inadequacy of what we know and what we have been teaching our children about Gandhiji. It is absurd, to say the least; it is insufficient, considering the gratitude we Indians owe to this great saint of our times, for what we are today and what we have; the most precious of all our belongings, the freedom; the freedom to live a decent and respectful life, the freedom to talk your heart out; the freedom to know and spread knowledge.
But alas, we have never realized the value of freedom; we have never realized the pains and sacrifices of our ancestors who led us to this state of freedom that we enjoy today. We will never, ever be able to realize it because we have not lived in slavery and we got our freedom for nothing. This is the reason why we do not use this freedom positively and do not consider it precious-enough.
In spite of what I have stated above about our inadequate gratitude to Gandhiji, countless words have been spoken and written about him during the last half-a-century in India and abroad, by Indians and others alike. I do not consider myself qualified to add anything to it or argue about any of it, but my objective here is to remember a few important messages (or warnings, to be precise), that the fourth great ‘G’ of India gave us during his life time. In the following pages, I will try to examine these warnings, which bear evidence to his prophecy, and how we have, in utter negligence and disregard to them, messed our lives up.
Looking back to the last 50 years in the history of our country, and of the whole world, following can be considered as the most important message Gandhiji left for his children:
The things that would destroy us are:

Politics without principle;
Pleasure without conscience;
Wealth without work;
Knowledge without character;
Business without morality;
Science without humanity, and
Worship without sacrifice.


POLITICS WITHOUT PRINCIPLE:

Now, having seen many so-called ‘democratic’ governments after our independence in 1947, most of my readers will probably agree with me that ‘principle’ is the last thing one can connect with ‘politics’. It is a pity that a country like India, which can boast of political and philosophical guidance to the whole world, suffers from the chronic disease of ‘negative politicization’ in every walk of life. Every relationship, every organization, every family and even every individual is politicized in modern India. It has come to the grave situation that if someone falls unconscious in a busy street, most of his compatriots will prefer to be just bystanders and will not get involved in the ‘long’ process of legal formalities that could follow the humanitarian gesture of carrying a wounded fellow countryman to hospital. If anyone is wondering what this has to do with politics, let me make it clear that it is the politicization of human mind, political interference in the process of law enforcement, and political separatism that contribute much in creating this kind of selfishness in the minds of present-day Indians. This politics-born virus has actually not only affected the society, but has got an entry into families, and also in to the minds of individuals. On the other hand, politics dominates most of the important areas affecting our day-to-day life, like education, bureaucracy and even medical treatment.
Is this the India Mahatma Gandhi and our other freedom fighters dreamed of when they sacrificed their precious lives to get us this freedom? Is this the Ramarajya Gandhiji visualized when he fought the British all his life? There is no doubt about one thing: We have not only forgotten Gandhiji, but have also utterly disregarded his visions and warnings. It is too late, but still we should find some time to know Gandhiji and the principles he upheld in life. This will make us better Indians who remember yesterdays, and this will also help in leading us and India to a better tomorrow. Let us forget about all those negative things in Gandhiji’s life we have always showed keen interest in arguing on, and look at the various experiments on Truth for which he devoted his whole life. Gandhiji never opted himself for any political or ministerial positions, and had no intention to do so; but there are many instances that show his thorough knowledge of politics and, most clearly, his farsightedness. It is high time that the common man of India take Gandhiji’s teachings seriously, or very soon they will knowingly or unknowingly allow today’s unscrupulous politicians to bring back slavery; a slavery from which another Gandhi may not be there to save them. Gandhiji’s words that ‘politics without principle will destroy us’ are coming true very fast.


PLEASURE WITHOUT CONSCIENCE:

What is the first and foremost aim of human life? Many of us do not take time to think about this important question. Even if some do at some point of time, they do not take it really serious. Even for the few who give it a serious thought, more often than not, it is a puzzle as the endless answers to the question get entangled and make them more confused. Some of us satisfy ourselves with the answer that life is for all these things that we usually do. Some others try to be content with the concept that the secrets of life are beyond the reach of man. Some even deny themselves a chance to think about it, as they believe that God created man with a pre-defined plan of action for each individual during this short span of life. The truth of the matter is that we can not write off any of these opinions. All of them are justified, in their own circumstances, to believe in what they do; their opinions are derived from their own experiences in life and the ways in which they are brought up. Nevertheless, a generally acceptable and justifiable answer to the above question becomes inevitable, since it will help all the people for all the times. Our ancestors had given much thought on it and came up with a truly beautiful and commonly acceptable answer: Life is to be happy and make others happy. I can understand the doubtful look on many faces. Is it possible for man to be always happy? May be, No. But if that is the case, we should also not doubt the conclusion of our ancestors; on the contrary, we should try and find the reason for our being unhappy.
First of all, what is happiness? Is it the same happiness that we feel when we achieved something in life? Is it the same happiness that we experience when we find an oasis after a long trek in the desert? Is it something like the feeling we get when we get some bite and water after going on a fast for days? Is it the happiness some of us boast of achieving by getting intoxicated? The answer is NO, because all these bits and pieces of happiness or the feeling we call happiness, are just conditional feelings or sensory perceptions of happiness, or only a state of mind for a short period of time. The difference between the real happiness, or bliss, and these tiny bits and pieces is that the former is an eternal, endless and full feeling of goodness and peace, whereas the latter are momentary and prone to change with changing conditions. We can now understand the mistake we have been committing. We were taking the conditional happiness as real happiness, and have been running after the momentary pleasures in life. This is exactly what Gandhiji means when he warns us that pleasure without conscience will destroy us. It is in this spiritual context that we should try to understand the meaning of his words. We, knowingly or unknowingly, destroy our own lives for these conditional, momentary pleasures which we conveniently prefer to call happiness. This not only stops us from leading a really happy and peaceful life, but also keeps us in dark as to the eternal bliss and peace, which are our legitimate human rights. Beloved Papa Swami Ramdas prompts us thus:
“The object of your life is to be happy yourself and give happiness to others. In fact, real delight consists in so adjusting your life as to make it yield joy to others. If you have faith in God, use this faith in cultivating patience and equanimity. Faith always goes with cheerfulness, resignation and peace. Be childlike--not childish--be blissful and a free child of God. Reveal your innate divine nature, and diffuse around you always love and joy.”
This is the real pleasure we should hunt for. This is the pleasure with conscience; all other pleasures are conditional, and so, momentary and those are the pleasures Gandhiji mentioned as “pleasure without conscience”. Conscience is, in short, “the awareness of totality” and not the fragments of awareness we usually tend to call “conscience”. If we get ‘stuck up’ with these fragments of awareness, or the delights and pleasures attached to them, we can never be aware of the ‘totality’ or ‘poornam’. And without knowing life in its totality, no man has ever achieved the eternal bliss and peace. So, do not destroy ourselves, do not destroy this precious human life; find the internal happiness inherent in all of us and lead a life of tranquility and peace. This is the timeless message from our great Gandhiji.



WEALTH WITHOUT WORK:

This is another powerful enemy who will destroy mankind. Rather I should not put it in the future tense; this is the enemy who has been destroying us and is still doing so. But unfortunately, most of us have not realized the gravity of disasters, the amount of destruction that this enemy can bring to human life. Like Swami Vivekananda once pointed out “it is the gun in the policeman’s hand that retains us as what we are”. If it was not for the laws of the land, most of us would be thieves and criminals. The discipline, which has to come from within, which has to come from “dharmabodham” is nowhere to be seen. Given a chance, most of ‘kaliyugamanava’ will prefer to just lay back and relax, at the expense and hard work of others. We have been seeing this and we still do. This is because of our lust, our anxiety to accumulate wealth, not through our own hard work, but at the cost of our fellowmen’s sweat.
God has created the universe in such a way that it has everything for every living being, be it man, animal or plants. No living being has to starve, none has to undergo such sufferings as we see today, if only man had understood the meaning of Gandhiji’s words. Every living being works for its survival – for the food, shelter and other amenities. That is the way world should be. But because of a few lustful among humans, there happened to be imbalance; the have’s and have-not’s; the more enterprising lot then derived their own philosophies and ‘ism’s as they are now popularly known, based on the have’s and havenot’s and themselves became millionaires. There again, we conveniently left out one category. Not the haves, nor the have-not’s, the ones “who did not want”; the ones who denounced the worldly pleasures, who denounced all the wealth that others strived for. They are the ones who really found the actual wealth and actual worth. They were the ones who left a treasure of knowledge for mankind, through their tireless experiments and experiences with Truth. Gandhiji was one of them.
Coming back to our subject, there is one simple example of destruction brought by “wealth without work”. An example that all of us can easily understand; an example that all of us should be aware of. This example is more relevant to people in the family way of life, the grihasthhashramis. They have a family, they have their commitments, their children. One of the foremost needs in their life is, and should be, to give proper education to their children. All these are very well understood. With the amount of money involved in giving education these days, it is, of-course, a Herculean task. However, my mind is now set on those who have only one aim in their life – to accumulate worldly wealth. The wealth which they do not use during their own life time. These accumulation then passes on to the next generation. The only education the next generation gets is to accumulate wealth and they pass on the same to their children. These are the children who mostly tend to become anti-socials. I can not forget the few who use their wealth for purposes that involve society; for good purposes and deeds. But they are only the exceptional ones. The majority, who do not get a chance to know the difficulty in acquiring the wealth, misuse it and become a nuisance to society as a whole.
The one thing that grihasthhashramis should always keep in mind is that the best wealth they can give to their children is education and ethics. The more and more worldly wealth they leave for their children, more is the danger of their becoming anti-socials. In order for this, children should be educated in such a way that they do their own work to achieve their own needs. First of all, it is not the worldly wealth that counts to be a human, it is the humanity itself; it is the way one lives his life. Being rich or being poor does not make much or any difference in one’s understanding of life. And this understanding of life in its totality, and living in eternal happiness and peace is what man should strive for. Not worldly wealth, not wealth without work.


KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT CHARACTER:

Knowledge in this context is not the real knowledge or Jnana in its spiritual point of view, but vidya. The knowledge Gandhiji mentions is again the worldly knowledge or the knowledge one achieve through practice and experience in the worldly sciences. It is clearly understood in Kaliyuga because we have many a ‘knowledgeable’ person in many of our branches of science, but to find one with character is seldom. How does it become an enemy to humanity is also easy to understand. We know many good artists, who, owing to their lack of character, use their knowledge for anti-social purposes. We know people who make fake currency notes; we know people who create varieties of bombs and other destructive weapons; we know scientists who spend their lives researching and developing mass destruction weapons; we also know knowledgeable people who can use this knowledge to cheat us. So, having knowledge is one thing and using it properly is another. In order to make use of the knowledge for one’s own benefit and for the benefit of others, one ought to have good character. This is something which can be developed only through the influence of parents. Character-building has to begin at home, not at school or in the outside world. The character built at home undergoes continued development at school and in the outside world, but the seed must be sown at home, by parents and elders. In order for the child to inherit this wealth of character from its parents, first of all, the parents should have it. This is where we have a big hitch in today’s society. Our way of life today does not include character-building for ourselves or for our children. Our educational system, which is again controlled by the people of today’s characterless way of life, does not allow development of the students’ character. The outside world, of-course, is out of question because it is full of things that will help ruin whatever character one has.
Just imagine the heap of murders, rapes and other crimes we read about in newspapers; imagine those murderers, rapists and other criminals as just human beings. They are as much human beings as we all are, but there is a difference. The difference is character. All these criminals definitely have or had their parents – a father and a mother each. That is for sure because no human being comes to this earth spontaneously; (I am aware of the fast development of genetic sciences and the scientists’ ability to produce human forms through various other means. But here, we are not talking about exceptions, we are just considering the society as we know it). So, we can not but blame those parents for what their children are today. I agree that it is not only the parents, but the parents do have a great deal to do in character building of their offspring. While on this subject, we can not also miss the point that the change of our joint family system has had its bad effects. For whatever reasons we may have settled down to nuclear families, it is a bitter truth that it has a lot to tell upon the character of our children. Another important point I should not leave untouched is the system of marriage. We have adopted to such a system that does not attach any importance to a man’s or woman’s character. I should be pardoned if I say that we have more or less become similar to cats and dogs, who, on attaining physical maturity, produce children and leave them to their own societies. Is human nature that of cats and dogs? No way. We are not like them. We are intelligent and should show this intelligence and knowledge to lead a better life of tranquility and peace. Just attaining physical maturity should not be considered as enough qualification for humans to get married and produce children. In such a case, it is only the carnal desires that prevail in a relationship. Both men and women, while tying the knot, should be aware that their children will be part of tomorrow’s society and should be brought up in such a way that they will benefit themselves, their family and the society as a whole. So, marriage should not be just for the individuals, but also for society. Without this awareness, we can not build or develop character in ourselves or in our children.
There is a famous saying in English:
If wealth is lost, nothing is lost;
If health is lost, something is lost;
If CHARACTER is lost, EVERYTHING is lost.
Let us not lose everything by losing our characters. That is the real wealth. And that is the real worth. We can send our children to the best available school and get them the best possible education. But remember, knowledge without character will only destroy them, us, and the society. We must attach due importance to character, by changing our own lives, if necessary, and showing the right way to our children.


BUSINESS WITHOUT MORALITY:

Here again, we should not misinterpret that business means only those activities men do to trade in goods or services, with an aim to make profits. Though this is what comes to a common man’s mind when he hears the word ‘business’, the business which we talk about here includes all activities of a man in his lifetime, commercial business activities also included. In today’s circumstances, we have to re-write the above sentence as “ACTIVITIES WITHOUT MORALITY”.
An activity without morality is commonly termed as “immoral activity”. When we consider “immoral activities”, our knowledge is so limited that the society (the immoral society) has taught us over the years to limit our view to a few activities which are considered “immoral” by this immoral society. We even have law enforced to punish a person involved in an immoral activity, but most absurdly, the immoral activities list attached to it do not include most of such activities prevailing in society. Here is a very simple example from our daily lives. A teacher who does not teach his students well is actually doing an immoral activity. We have a lot of them around, and they are more interested in their salary packet at the end of the month, or their political activities outside the school. This political involvement and connections actually help them keep their job as teachers, and for them, teaching is only a means for making money, it ceases to be a profession. This is a very good and common example in society now under this context where the criminal escapes punishment. These so-called teachers should help the students and the world by resigning their jobs and finding a livelihood from the field in which they involve themselves, like politics. A businessman who does not stick to the generally accepted business ethics is also involved in an immoral activity. Any act, let it be aimed at making money, name or fame, or is just for the fun of it, without morality, will destroy us. Morality is the one word that goes with every human being irrespective of his religion, caste, creed, education, occupation or social status.
Where do we get this morality from? To a great extent, again, from our home and from the schools. Religion also has a direct link in creating the feeling of morality in man. Our own religion has attached due importance to morality and has endless number of books and scripts on it. Children were taught morality through stories in ancient times. In the recent past, a major portion of this task was passed on to the ‘Grandpa’s and ‘Grandma’s who, with their treasure of moral and historical stories, used to do this job very well. Most of us are living examples for this, but I am not sure about today’s children. Majority of them do not enjoy this facility and the minority who still have it, can be considered the fortunate few. The newspapers, periodicals, television, and other media (as they are popularly called) have a great lot to do in developing morality in children as well as adults. The situation today is that if we want to retain whatever morality our minds hold, it is better not to turn our faces to any of these so-called media. If you open the television, or the news papers or periodicals, there is hardly anything that will elevate your mind to a higher platform of happiness or solace. They are filled with crimes, blood and horror. I agree that it is next to impossible to keep these away from the children, but parents should be more vigilant to induce some sort of a screening as to what their children watch or read.
Society is another front where we usually get our lessons in morality; or it used to be so. Now again, this has become a negative forum as we have more chances of loosing our morality in society, rather than gaining any. We must have more individuals in society who hold morality in high esteem and show the way to others. We can not change our society, but we can change ourselves and if more of us change ourselves, that will change the society – because society is non-existent. It is only a nomenclature, you can not see society, you can not hear it or touch it. It is only a name. It is the individual that counts, like you and I. So, let us go for it; let us strive to know more about our culture and our ancestors and how they could live a life of morality. Morality to a healthy society is as important as air for a living being. Any activity without morality will kill us, if not today, in the near future.
We can not change the world, but we must try and change ourselves and our views towards the world, and towards our life. We must think of these words of Beloved Papa: "Certainly, we have to take the world as it is, because it is not in our power to change it as we like, but it is ours to live in it by effecting a change in our vision and in our attitude towards it."


SCIENCE WITHOUT HUMANITY:

In the Indian philosophy, there is nothing without humanity. The general rule is that anything without humanity will not only destroy the individual but also society and humanity. Our specialty, the specialty that gives me the ability to write this and gives you the ability to read and interpret this, is that we are humans. So, humans minus humanity is animals. When Gandhiji says ‘science without humanity’ will destroy us, we have to interpret it as ‘all sciences, or all that is considered sciences, whether physical, spiritual or divine’ are aimed at the refinement, development or betterment of humanity and those sciences without humanity, therefore, will not serve any purpose at all, or they will only have adverse effects on humanity.
Science, in its physical meaning, denotes knowledge or experience. This so-called knowledge or experience we enjoy today, is the combined result of knowledge acquired and experience gathered by individuals in different parts of the globe, who devoted their lives in researching in a particular subject. When our ancestors did such researches and recorded their findings, their one and only aim was ‘humanitarian’ and that is the primary reason why they left these results for us. We continued from where they left and found more and more through generations; some of the earlier findings were questioned, some were made clearer, and a few remained unaltered. Nevertheless, the phenomenon continued, continues and will continue for ever. Where we utterly failed was in retaining the ultimate aim of our ancestors. They started their search for truth or science, with a very clear aim, a totally humanitarian aim; we have, on the contrary, used most of its results for inhuman purposes. We still do so. Remember: all the mass destruction weapons and pleasure-machines we trade in, are the results of such continued research. The order of the day is that almost all the researches we do are aimed at only one thing: profit – profit at the cost of humanity, profit at the cost of human lives, and profit at the cost of our mother Earth itself. We apparently do not understand that the temporary profit which we make out of these will lead to a permanent loss in the long run - the loss of this very earth on which we exist, and our future generations have to exist. Thus, science without humanity is going to destroy not only us humans, but also the whole earth with its other inhabitants.
Scientific ‘weapons’ are not used merely in wars now-a-days, we use them even in our daily lives. We have to just examine the field of agriculture to understand the gravity of our inhuman approach with an eye to gain temporary profits. The extensive usage of powerful insecticides and chemical fertilizers, in addition to creating an ecological imbalance by killing numerous varieties of smaller living beings, has also led to serious and even fatal health problems to humans.If we allow this situation to continue, we will be answerable to our future generations for leading such an unscientific life and denying them a chance to live happily and peacefully on this earth. This is yet another of Gandhiji’s warnings which is coming true very fast. Whether we believe in Gandhiji or not, all of us who believe in Truth has to take his words seriously and try to live like humans for humanity.


WORSHIP WITHOUT SACRIFICE:

Worship and sacrifice are two very closely related words. Throughout the world, people resort to various forms of worship, based on their varied religious and Theosophical beliefs. Irrespective of the ways of worship and the difference in beliefs and concepts, the objective of all worships remains the same and this objective is not different from that of human life. Every living being in this universe aim at a happy and peaceful life. Man is not an exception to this, and using his intellectual abilities, he strives for it too. Our scriptures very clearly speak about worships time and again; here is an example about man’s evolvement through worship:
Adhamaa prathimaa pooja
Japa sthothraadi madhyamaa
Uthama manaseepooja
Swoham poojothamothama
[Idol worship is the primitive form of worship; chanting, sthothra etc. are the secondary form; worshipping the mind (manas) is a step higher than that, and worshipping the soul (athman or the one continuously prompting ‘swoham’ to us from inside) is uthamothama, or the best of all. ]
The above sloka also reveals the ultimate aim of all worships, that is to realize the God inside every being. In Bhagawad Gita, Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: Eashwarassarva bhoothanaam hriddeshe Arjuna thishthhathi (God resides inside every being). To realize this God, to be one with Him, is the purpose of all worships.
Why are we away, or separate, from the God who is inside our own selves? Why do we have to sacrifice something to reach him? The answer is clear from the first manthra of Eashavaasya Upanishad:
Eashaavaasyamidam sarvam,
Yat kincha jagathyam jagath,
Thena thyaktena bhunjeethha:
Maa gridha kasya swidhhanam
[In this momentary universe, cover all those things which change, with God. Exist through this sacrifice. Never desire the wealth of others]. It is a very straight forward, yet meaningful statement. This manthra asks us to see the never-changing God in this ever-changing world. It is not the renouncement of the world, but renouncement of all that the mind has perceived as ‘mine’, and the ‘Aham’ or I itself, which will help us to reach God. It is the real sacrifice, the sacrifice of ‘mama’ and ‘aham’. We are not being asked to renounce the world or sensory pleasures, but are being prompted to see God in them and to enjoy the world through this sacrifice.
Elsewhere in this article, we discussed about ‘wealth without work’. The above manthra clearly asks us not to desire for others’ wealth. So, what is my wealth and what is other’s wealth? The wealth that is acquired through one’s own hard work is considered as one’s wealth and one is supposed to survive on that. It is a very clear statement, but most of us are not in a position to adhere to it. The real sacrifice is the sacrifice of the desire for wealth, specially wealth of others, wealth that doesn’t belong to us. How many of us can do such a sacrifice is yet another question.If we can understand the meaning of these words from Beloved Papa, we will be in a better position to understand the so-called poverty and sufferings:
"It is He who gives us every situation and every change. He knows what is good for us. His main object is to draw us towards Himself. He brings about all incidents in our life to fulfill this purpose of His."
In fact it is just a matter of proper understanding and interpretation, rather than sacrifice. We have nothing to sacrifice, everything belongs to Him. We have to only accept what He has decided to bestow on us. All the others are not ours. So, if we can realize this Truth, there is no question of sacrifice; there is only a question of changing the view, or the concept.
Every religion in the world, every prophet and every Guru shows us a way to reach God, to realize the very God who resides inside us. All these ways call for some sacrifice or the other; in other words, we have to take up the journey to God through our worships and sacrifices. However, in the modern times, people of all religions, throughout the world prefer to stand still where they are; they do not want to change themselves; they can not accept changes; they can not even think of it. Instead of their taking up an adventurous journey towards God realization, they want God to come to them! How can one reach somewhere without evening putting the first step forward? We read certain things about religion and God, we learn some other things from scholars, we thing about them sometimes; but it is seldom that someone seriously practices religion; it is seldom that someone sacrifices something to reach God. And from history we know that anyone who has seriously taken up a journey towards Truth has never fallen back to the starting point. Many times, it is possible that he has not achieved his goal as early as he had thought, but never has someone ever wasted a single step he has taken towards God. In Bhagawad Gita, the Lord reveals to Arjuna that “in hundreds of thousands of people, only one thinks of self-realization. Out of thousands of such people, only one seriously strives for it. Out of the thousands who do so, one gets there”. So, this is nothing new. Moreover, we have one promise from the same Lord: “Nahi kallyanakrit kaschit, durgathim thaatha gachhathi” [Calamities will never approach the one who does good deeds]. What else do we need? Stick on to our good deeds, and forget about everything else. Just concentrate on our ultimate aim, and think, speak and do only those things which will suit our purpose. All other things are meaningless to us, all other things are momentary and they go on changing. We must be able to adjust ourselves to situations, and continue in our spiritual journey. That is the real sacrifice, and anything including worship without this sacrifice, will only destroy us.
Spirituality is a way of life. By accepting and practicing this way of life, one can elevate to a level where he forgets about all differences and all ups and downs. We have to look at the world through this spiritual eye in order to have the real vision of God who is omni-present and omni-potent. “We know that there is water everywhere under the earth. But we will not be able to get a drop of it, unless we dig wells, tanks and ponds”. (Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa). Knowing that God is omni-present and omni-potent will not help us, we have to reach Him, we have to experience Him, we have to befriend Him. That is our aim and that is the only aim of this human life.
If we can look at Gandhiji’s life though this spiritual eye, if we can listen to his words through our spiritual ears and if we can think about him in our spiritual mind, we will be able to see Truth. We will be able to see only good. And seeing good is seeing God. We have to make this small sacrifice in order to see things in their proper perspective. This real sacrifice will, in the long run, lead us to Truth, and God

Article by RK



www.keralites.net

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