Date Sent: June 08, 2013
You may have billions of dollars (or Crores of rupees) in the bank, you may have a hundred cars and a dozen bungalows; but, peace of mind you cannot have from these! Even though you run after the beautiful objects, thinking they will give you unalloyed happiness. You are immersed in sorrow. You are sorely disappointed. You have misunderstood the nature of the world. This is a world of pain, sorrow and death. You cannot get real peace, happiness or bliss from the sense-objects in this world. (The Lost World!)
Steve Jobs traveled to India in 1974 in search of spiritual Enlightenment (state of cosmic consciousness). Returned to America without that enlightenment, went on building an empire called Apple. He still could not attain what he was seeking his entire life - the eternal peace. Jobs died of cancer in 2011
Michael Jackson was wealthy almost beyond imagination. Over his life, Michael made a BILLION dollars. No rock star has equaled the amount of money Jackson made in his career. He had access to every possible sensual object that one can have in this world – which is supposed to deliver Joy human seeks. And he died only at 50 years of age. In the months before his death Michael could not even have a simple pleasure of 8 hours of sound sleep. Last week, his 15-year-old daughter Paris Jackson was rushed to a hospital after cutting one of her wrists in a suicide attempt.
Bill Gates owns an empire in this world. He still has worries, anxiety and fear in his mind, almost the same amount that everyone else carries in their mind. Ask Bill, if he has achieved that Eternal peace of mind or the real Joy? His answer would be “NO”. He is still seeking that hidden Gem that no one ever finds - except the one "Jivanmukta" (realized soul) in millions around us….
Read this interesting story about a billionaire and Shri Ramana Maharshi (Jivanmukta) What does it tell you?
Just as a silk-worm is caught in its own cocoon, so also man is caught in this vast net of samsara (worldly life) by his own sankalpas (thoughts and notions) and vasanas (subtle desires).
God is all about application to daily life, not about gathering knowledge of God. There are millions who have some knowledge about God (with their own imagination) but there is only one in millions who is "Jeevanmukta" (a realized soul) who has crossed the river of Samsara (worldly life). He is the only one who has overcome the Maya (grand illusion of mind) and the cycle of life and death. Everyone else is either a sufferer (7 Billion people of this world and billions of creatures of this universe) or a traveler (one who has chosen to walk path of the God) ....
Realize the true nature of this world - Maya (grand illusion)...Behind this illusion there is something called Eternal Bliss - for those who are seeking permanent Joy, permanent Peace and permanent Happiness!
Always remember...Most of the initial travel is in the dark engulfed with doubts about the existence of the God. Soldier fights few days in a life. Spiritual aspirant's battle goes on day and night, for entire life and beyond! After efforts of several decades or lives one starts seeing the dawn...
Choose not to live life of a Worm - Be a Divine Deer!
------------------------------ Satsang - Summary from lectures of Swami Sivananda
“This world appears to be very beautiful, charming and attractive. Delicious drinks, luscious fruits, fragrant flowers, sweets and toffees, tea and coffee, beautiful women and magnificent gardens—and the mind is attracted to them. The man who has no discrimination and dispassion is attracted; he lives in maya, thinks always of maya, dwells constantly upon sensual objects, and is filled with asubha vasanas. He leads an asuric life in this world.
But, reflect for a moment on the true nature of this world. With all these beautiful things, there is a constant under-current of janma mrityu, jara and vyadhi, birth, death, old age and disease. Loss of property, death of new relatives and dear friends, dishonour and defeat, these are the things that you experience daily, even though you run after the beautiful objects, thinking they will give you unalloyed happiness. You are immersed in sorrow. You are sorely disappointed. You have misunderstood the nature of the world. This is a world of pain, sorrow and death. You cannot get real peace, happiness or bliss in this world, from these sense-objects. Where can you get them?
Behind these names and forms, behind these fleeting sense objects, behind these perishable phenomena, there is the satchidananda Parabrahman, full of bliss, full of eternal peace and wisdom, illumination and enlightenment. Attain this Atma, through study of sacred scriptures, meditation, japa, kirtan and satsang. You will be freed from the trammels of the flesh, from slavery to the mind, from the shackles of transmigration.
Avidya, kama and karma bind you to this wheel of birth and death. You have forgotten your real essential nature. You are ignorant of your satchidananda swaroopa. Therefore, you feel that happiness lies in the external objects of the senses. And, desire arises in you for them. Then you exert to obtain them, and karma results. Karma brings about birth and death.
Therefore, if you want to free yourself from birth and death, free yourself from desires, from attachment, from asubha vasanas, and ultimately from this primordial ignorance, develop discrimination, dispassion, serenity of mind. Practise the ashtanga yoga of Patanjali Maharishi, bhakti yoga of Devarishi Narada, jnana yoga of Shakaracharya, karma yoga of Bhagavan Krishna or the yoga of synthesis which is most suitable to this modern age. You will be freed from birth and death. You will enjoy eternal bliss. This is the goal. This is your dharma. You have taken birth here as a human being in order to reach this goal here and now, in this very birth. If you do not strive to reach this goal, you are wasting your life, and neglecting this precious gift of human birth…..” |