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Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.
I was thinking about how to give a clue or a message for cultivating or inculcating something like an all fold devotion and full devotional sublimity. I sometimes wonder why people are getting into trouble with this idea. In any way we are living in this world and we have to do multiple activities in connection with our life. In any way this is going on and it has been going on from time immemorial. It may continue also for endless length of time. So, there is nothing very special or unique about one’s life and the different activities and interactions it involves. Once you accept this fact, what prevents you from making your activities, all of them together equally sublime, spiritual and divine?
One idea that comes to my mind is this. If the entire world is a creation of God, both materially and efficiently, I wonder whether you know the meaning of these two words. The world as a substance is actually Godly and the manner in which it has been designed and made, it requires an efficient cause. God Himself is the efficient cause and also the material cause of the universe. So, the world is godly. You are also part of the world. If world is godly, you are also godly. Accepting this fact without any sense of differentiation, can you not cultivate the feeling, idea that “Whatever I do is equally sublime and divine.”?
Think of infinity as a number, the last, biggest. Whatever be the figure that you quote, maybe five thousand million crores, will not all numbers equally come under infinity? Whether you deal with 1, 10, 1000, 100,000, a million, a billion or a trillion or a quadrillion, all of them will equally come under infinity. Once you understand what is infinity and what are the other numbers, the knowledge that all quantities come within infinity, is it something to be missed at any point of time?
All rivers have emerged from the sea, no matter whether they arise from in the land, in which country, from which mountain and in what all terrains they pass through and all that, the fact that all rivers are equally produced by the same sea and they all flow, if at all to reach the same sea. So, are not the rivers, the sea itself?
You think of your mother land, say let us take India. India has got specific boundaries. Any state, any village, any district, any town, any corporation, any capital coming within the boundary of India, is it not India? In the same manner, can we not think of everything as Godly, divine and spiritual? Because there is nothing besides God. When I say this, why is it that you are either resisting or finding it to be a struggle? I wanted to make it easy and comfortable for you.
Any event, once it takes place, is it not something to be accepted and assimilated? However much I may argue about an event that has already been, is there any question of avoiding it? Going back in time and avoid the event and then continue to live? It is not possible. So, whatever has transpired, has to be recognized and accepted for what it was. Then, what is left aside? Only accepting it, whether you accept it willingly or not, the event has become part of your life. Even when you say “I cannot accept it.” you have to forbear it and you are forbearing. In any way, that which you already forbear, can we not make the process easier and comfortable?
“By mentally contributing the idea that it has taken place, whatever may be the cause or otherwise, we may be able to avoid a similar event in future, very good, but whatever has taken place, it has already transpired. Therefore, the only option before me is to recognize the fact and reconcile with it.” Is there any other option? You are already bearing it. Why don’t you bear it in an enlightened manner and in a comfortable, easy and light-hearted manner? You will thus find that the entire spirituality is making your life healthier, wealthier both externally and inwardly.
If Ratnākara, who became Valmiki had continued to be a forest dacoit, do you think anybody would have remembered him? Fortunately, he happened to meet seven Maharshis whom he wanted to rob, asked them “Halt.” They wondered “Nobody has asked us to halt at any point of time. We are free travelers anywhere in the world. Who is this man? Very strange, obviously he is ignorant.” So, they turned back very affectionately with their own spiritual sublimity. That one glance transformed Ratnākara, the dacoit.
A conversation happened in which he was sent to his house to find out whether the wife and the children will share the sinfulness of what he was doing. They said, “No we will not. It is for you to look after us. We will not participate in any of the sinfulness that you incur in making your earnings.” That was another shock to him. So he came back, “What shall I do to get myself absolved from my sinfulness and to become virtuous? They said, “Chant Rama nāma.” He went on ‘Rama, Rama, Rama…’. He did not know anything. So he chanted loudly with fervor. The voice became lesser, came down, came down, came down, and he was muttering, that also stopped. The mind started repeating, there also it became slower and finally stopped. When it stopped, he did not what was happening.
By the time he got up, he found that he was covered by an ant hill. He became so motionless that the ants started crawling on his body. It transformed him completely. Then he wanted to pass a message to the people of the plains. He had luckily, the contact of the seven rishis. The people of the plains have no chance for it. So, he wanted to give them something, some character, some life, some biography, by reading which they will get transformed, they will have the benefit of satsang as he had. And that one book he wrote in Treta-yuga, consisting of 24000 Sanskrit verses, even now it is available before us. If he continued to be a dacoit, what would have happened? So, this devotional and spiritual life is such that it gives us everything that we need in life and it immortalizes us. So, in what way is it detestable, not acceptable? Provided you understand its simplicity and wholesomeness, the all-fold divinity it will install in you, I think there will be nobody in this world who will abhor or will want to distance himself from it.
So, all numbers come within infinity. All the land within the boundary of our country is equally Indian, equally Indian. In the same manner, all come within God. I don’t think you have to repeat this idea repeatedly but you have to think deliberately and understand it, just like anything you understand in mathematics, you should understand it. After understanding, you will find our life gets transformed, transformed.
When there is a mistake or a slip or a fall, it should be corrected and something will happen as it happened in the case of Shankaracharya in Banaras when he asked a person to get away, “You are an untouchable.” The person turned back and asked him “Whom are you asking to go away? If it is the body, my body and your body are equally made up of panchabhutas. If it is the soul, there is only one soul, yours and mine are the same. So, I don’t know what should get away from you and what can.” Shankara instantly acknowledges his mistake and he composed a set of five poems honouring the man in front, calling him a Guru. Such mistakes and slips may occur but they will get corrected. Otherwise it is a very safe knowledge which you can gain and keep, just like your heart and lungs. Try.
Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.