Make an effort, I am there (with you)

In this material world, people involved with sensuous pleasures and worldly attractions feel a sense of pride in constructing walls of ego-centric desires and self-centred-ness around them.  Like in the case of cobwebs, they continue to get trapped in the web of  problems which they have created themselves.  Then, within those walls, they develop the habit of living like frogs in the well.  Amazingly, more and more persons are taking to this tendency, which restricts their vision, their thought process, development and progress.  In such a situation, emotional attachment, desire to possess, jealousy, animosity and the resultant tension and agony are quite natural.  We forget wherefrom we have come and in which direction we have to go.  This is quite contrary  to  the wisdom of  our  ancient sages and seers of this great land ‘Bharat’, who had envisioned creating ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ and contemplated the maintenance of internal as well as external  peace.

An important and logical question arises:  for how long would you keep wandering in solitude, desperate and discontented, in a crowd full of greed, selfishness, ego, and  jealousy?     For   how   long   would   you   keep   throwing yourself in the tortuous fire of physical and mental problems?  For how long would you give opportunities to selfish persons, who claim to be your own but, in the event of their interest not being served, would  not hesitate, repeatedly, to hurt your feelings?  For how long would you allow your self-respect to be humbled?  For how long?    And for how long would you make an exhibition of your bleeding wounds?  More often than not, listening to your heart-rending story, people may laugh at you.  Somebody may sympathize with you for a while and then move on.  Very rarely will someone make an effort to heal your wounds.

Therefore, for how long would you carry the load of your ‘karmas’, birth after birth, and keep travelling in the darkness of ignorance?  After all, for how long would you keep going astray with the dirt of your ‘karmas’ (performed under the influence of passion, anger, greed, emotional attachment, and ego) wrapped around your corporeal frame?  In this destructible and unstable dreamland, nobody belongs to you, nor can any material object   be   yours   forever.   You   have  no  choice  but  to abandon  everything here.  The moment your  ‘Antaratma’ leaves this   corporal    frame    made    of   five  ingredients,   your  so-called  close  relatives  will  say,  “Take this  body  away before it starts emitting foul smell, and perform the last rites at the earliest.  What remains now in this heap of debris.” Then, at the earliest, chanting ‘Ram Naam Satya hai”,  your body will be  consigned  to the flames.  A day or two later,  your ashes and bones  will be collected and immersed in the waters of holy Ganges.  At the time your bones are being picked up, your soul may cry out, “where my body has been burnt, my heart must also have burnt  there.  What is the object of raking up my ashes now?”

Alas! you had realized the truth of ‘Ram Naam Satya hai” while in the corporal frame.  Learn to live with restraint.  Make an effort to live this life from a spectator’s point of view.  Your inner peace is your personal property which cannot be purchased even by spending millions.  Keep it safe.  Do not allow others to loot it.  While discharging your responsibilities and obligations towards others, remain within limits, live gracefully maintaining decorum.  Take care of worldly relations with respect, love and affection, but do not get attached to them.  Lord Buddha had said,  “Exercising restraint on your desires is, in reality, their fulfillment.  Desires are like a mirage.  The more you try to satisfy them, the greater is the desire and they keep multiplying.  Howsoever you try, you will not be able to fulfill all your desires.”

You have strayed far enough, experienced enough  helplessness and destitution.  Now make an effort to divert your  attention  from  the sensuous  and ego-centric  desires
and enter the realm of your inner-self.   For how long would you keep running away from your Father (Almighty God)?  Right from the beginning,  your relationship with Him only is true and  permanent, while  all other relationships are false and temporary. You kept embracing the illusory and  ran  away  from  the  truth.   God  Almighty  has  bestowed upon you the status of His highest creation and gave you the exalted human body which is like a mobile temple worthy of worship.  In this mobile temple, He established Himself in the form of Aatman.  But instead of making good use of this unique creation, you misused it, abused it and oppressed it with  the heavy load of your bad ‘karmas’ that distanced you from your Father.  He might have left you to your ‘karmas’, but He has been anxiously waiting with open arms, to receive you.  But you preferred embracing those whose separation was certain and predestined, and continued moving away from your Father.  He keeps yearning for you, thinking that one day His tired and exhausted child would come home and lovingly announce, “Father, I have come”. How can  you disappoint your Father Supreme and deprive Him of your nearness? 

In this material world, to take birth in a particular species or in a particular family, (depending upon your ‘karmas’ and ‘sanskaars’)  is a mile-stone  of your  journey and not the destination.  Nothing is permanent or stable here.  Everything is subject to change - Relationships, friendships,  acquaitances, associations, items, objects, materials,  desires,  actions,  circumstances,  situations.   In fact, your own body is  temporary  and subject to change.   What was available yesterday, is not available today; what is available today, will not be so tomorrow and the never ending wheel of  time will continue  to  revolve.  Our close relatives, our loved ones  who  were  so very dear  to  us,  our  friends  on whom we relied implicitly, left us.  So much so,  we did not even realize when our childhood, our youth left us quietly.  But one existence, i.e. jeevatma,  that kept watching these changes as a spectator, is the only real, stable and permanent entity.  It is a law of nature that the one who takes birth, grows, changes, decays and over a period of time will be  destroyed.  In such a situation, any attempt made to establish a permanent relationship in this temporary world is a mirage.

How many tears would you have shed on separation from a loved one or on breaking of any worldly relationship that you treasured?  How much would you have mourned the agony of separation? How many songs of separation would you have sung, in the saddest tunes, touching the depth of heart?  Worldly relationships are destined to be broken or lead to separation.  Only one  relationship  is capable of giving you permanent happiness and  that  is with the Supreme Lord.  If you have the intense desire to meet Him, why don’t you learn the art of diving deep into the ocean of His existence?  Be sensitive to  the agony of separation.  If you have the burning desire to be with your Lord, then let the tears of separation flow freely from your eyes and wash the dirt of your ‘karmas’.  Dive deeper for a while into the Ganga or Yamuna  of   ‘Satoguni’  thoughts  and  let  the  dirt  of ‘Rajoguni’ and ‘Tamoguni  karmas’  be  washed  off.   Hold  the  reins  and bring under your control the five wild horses – ‘kama’ (passion), ‘krodha’ (anger), ‘lobha’ (greed), ‘moha’ (emotional attachment),  and  ‘ahankara’ (ego) – enough of the indicipline these five senses have exhibited so far like spoilt children – and take the chariot of your innerself (your ‘antaratma’) in the right direction of your Lord.

Light the flame of His pious name in the temple of your heart.  Let the bells toll and the harmonious sound of His ‘Japa’ reverberate in your heart. Get completely absorbed and meditate on the ‘Jyotirlinga’ of your innerself.  Then look at your enlightened self and recognize  your original, pure and pious reflection. In the cosmic whispers of music (anhad naad), your ‘Antaratma’ will hear a  resounding sound -  ‘Hari Aum Tat Sat, Hari Aum Tat Sat,  Aham Brahmasmi’.  Then you may not even feel your outer existence.  You will experience enlightenment, happiness,   and tranquility around you.

     Where are you lost, my child, in the false and temporary attractions of this material world.  Recognize your realself.   You are the TRUTH, PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, and BLISS.  Just as waves rise from the ocean and  merge into it, because they are a part of the ocean, similarly you are a part of ‘Paramatma’ and it is only right and natural for the ‘Atmatatva’ to merge into its original source, the ‘Paramatma’   As  simple as  it was  for you   to accept  the existence of  this material world (which is false), it is far  simpler to accept the ‘Paramtatva’ – The Supreme Lord – because, in reality, you are truly a part of Him.