- Doing is very good, but that comes from thinking. Little manifestations of energy through the muscles are called work. But where there is no thought, there will be no work. Fill the brain, therefore, with high thoughts, highest ideals, place them day and night before you, and out of that will come great work.
- Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life -- think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.
- If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.
- It is thought which is the propelling force in us. Fill the mind with the highest thoughts, hear them day after day, and think them month after month. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it were not for struggles.
- The only remedy for bad habits is counter habits; all the bad habits that have left their impressions are to be controlled by good habits. Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously; that is the only way to suppress base impressions.
- Always remember that each word, thought, and deed, lays up a store for you and that as the bad thoughts and bad works are ready to spring upon you like tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of a hundred thousand angels to defend you always and for ever.
- Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter into their (children's) brains from very childhood.
- Evil thoughts, looked at materially, are the disease bacilli.
- The body is made by the thought that lies behind it. The body politic is thus the expression of national thought.
- If we make ourselves pure and the instruments of good thoughts, these will enter us. The good soul will not be receptive to evil thoughts. Evil thoughts find the best field in evil people; they are like microbes which germinate and increase only when they find a suitable soil.
- Those who are always down-hearted and dispirited in this life can do no work.
Friday, September 19, 2014
WAY TO SUCCESS.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
CONSOLATIONS
You want me to advise you how to get rid of the entanglements of this world. Let me remind you that what has been brought about by myriads of births cannot be done away within a day. Yes. You are right. We should escape the snare of samsara even from this moment. For, who knows when death will snatch us away from the loving embrace of our family. But that does not mean we should make a sudden revolution in the course of our lives. The best way to success is to remain pleased in whatever state God has been pleased to place you, keeping your mind always turned towards Him, as a child always turns towards his parents for help.
Stay peacefully where God is pleased to keep you. Read and ponder upon the sayings of Sri Ramakrishna. 'A plant', says he, 'should be kept under special guard by fencing around, lest goats make a feast over it. But, when it becomes a tree, hundreds of goats may take shelter under its spreading boughs'. So, when a little faith and a spirit of renunciation shoot forth in one's mind fortunately, one should preserve and nurture them with special care, by keeping aloof from all worldly men; but when they are once firmly rooted within, none can shake them at all.
The difference between a man and a brute mainly lies in this: a brute never wants to have his place changed as long as he gets food and shelter, while a man, a true man, is always attempting to get higher and higher. Incessant yearning for higher ideals is the characteristic of a true man.
Every one of us is trying hard to go to God, but the path of every one of us is different. Each must make one's own way and undertake one's journey with the help of those conveyances which God has allowed him to have.
We should all 'strike off our fetters'; but have you ever seen a fetter stricken off with a single and sudden blow? If you want to break through your fetters, you must be patient enough to apply a series of successive blows. Nothing sudden has brought about good.
You say that samsara is a place of great temptation...that is indeed true! But, do you know that strong adverse winds serve but to confirm the roots of a weak tree? The moral principles which are now not so strong in you are sure to get firmly rooted by incessant struggle with temptations. Constant exercise and struggle improve one's physical health. And our mental health, too, is not above this law.
You should always look forward and march on boldly, falling and rising but never succumbing, till he is sure of having reached a place where the ground is clear of dirt and where he meets the one thing of his desire--the Divine One for whom he has been labouring so long.
Do not care if you slip occasionally. To err is human. Do not lose heart. Walk firmly onward. No man can hope to get through the slimy path of the world, unscathed. And it is rank foolishness to sit down in the midst of the mire for fear of falling in the attempt to get across. Do not forget the golden precept, 'Try, try, try again'. Remember Bruce of Scotland. He was defeated six times; but conquered at last, the seventh time.
Be contented with whatever comes to you, knowing that all things proceed from God directly. Do not forget to pray to Him incessantly. His grace can give you whatever can really do you good. Always confide yourselves to His care. Be calm and quiet. Restlessness is a disease in itself. Know that religion means charity and satisfaction in self-surrender to the will of God.
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within and God overhead.
Pleasure and pain are the inevitable companions of every human being. When one comes, the other departs, but neither can remain long. Knowing this we must not be sent out of our wits under their influence.
Depend upon God entirely and do your duty. Always abide by the will of Him and take everything in the best light. You should not be anxious of the future. Whatever takes place here, on this earth, is for our good, for all things are disposed by God. In the meantime, it should be our duty to be dutiful.
Try to be dutiful to yourself. Be dutiful towards your wife and children, if you have any. Be dutiful to your relatives, your friends and your neighbours. Be charitable, honest, plain and truthful. Above all have an intense devotion and love for God, the Author of your being.
Lead this life, until it becomes one with your nature. For, you should know it for a fact, that unless a man is physically and mentally pure, he has no right to enter the holy shrine of yoga.
You need not be reminded of the absolute hollowness of the so-called wisdom of the modern age. One does not become really wise by reading books written by people whose earthbound minds have not the power to soar in the infinite firmament of Truth; whose speculations end in agnosticism, scepticism or atheism; whose moral principle wanting the basis of Eternity, are little better than jargon; and whose ignorance keeps them confined in the limited span of a precarious life, bounded on both sides by birth and death.
Never remain idle. Idleness is the pro-genitor of all evil thoughts.Be always vigilant in carrying out your duties. Shake off all dullness from you. Laziness is the worst of all sins. There is no royal road to perfection.
Sentimentalism is of no avail. You are, indeed, a very bad lover of God if you cannot bear some worldly troubles for His sake! Those affairs which are displeasing to you now will all prove your great friends hereafter. God is more intelligent than any of us. He knows what is necessary for you and where to keep you. If you resent His dispensation, you really resent His infinite love and grace. Obedience is divine, disobedience is satanic.
It is through sheer ignorance that we bring on ourselves all sorts of groundless anxieties.
Do not try to have everything done all at once. There is no power in heaven and earth that can withstand the strong current of spirituality.
Depend entirely upon yourself. Heaven helps those who help themselves. At the same time, cooperate with others. If help comes from outside, that is good; if not, that is also good.
Nothing can bar the progress of what God intends to make successful. Unless one passes through the school of adversity, one cannot properly be called a human. We learn much from our troubles.
When you have altogether resigned yourselves at the feet of God, you have known the secret of a peaceful blissful life.
Contentment is the only watchword that can ensure us a safe passage through adverse circumstances. God is good. God does all. Therefore, He can do nothing but good. This is what all religions teach, abide by it and peace of mind will naturally follow.
All are not intended to become monks or nuns. Every one has a particular mission and so is sent here by God. Work in harmony with all. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Youth is the time when the senses naturally get the upper hand. You must try to be strong yourself so that they may not rule over you. Lustfulness is the chief enemy of youngsters.
Devote yourself to work, both physical and mental, and keep your mind always fixed upon God. It is wise to fix the mind upon a certain object, if it cannot always be fixed upon God. The mind thus trained will not find much difficulty in fixing itself upon the holy feet of Him.
Know that you are a God and consequently the Lord of the senses. Why should you allow the senses to Lord over you? A weak man is the prey of wicked people as well as wicked propensities. Mental weakness is as bad as physical.
Let me remind you of certain passages from the Gita which console, invigorate and drive away despair from the minds of even the most dejected--
Sri Krishna told Arjuna,
"Oh! dear friend, the man who does even the least of good deeds never becomes wretched in his after-life. He takes birth in the home of the holy and pious and begins a life of godliness".
Hence, if even for a second you do feel or think a good thought, it is sure to be of great gain to you. Never give way to despair, for it is God Himself that consoles everyone promising.
"Oh! Arjuna! declare it before all men that My devotee never meets with misfortune or destruction".
Make Gita your constant companion. Be always of good cheer. Never allow sorrow or dejection to take possession of your soul which is ever free and blissful.
You need not complain that you are not successful in your attempts. So it is with almost all men. Only those who are already perfect, only a few mahatmas, can assert that they are thoroughly pure in body, mind and action.
To err is human. The only thing we should look after is never to forget loving Him, the Master of the universe. Therefore take heart, and though you fall every now and then, try to rise up. Every child, before it learns to walk, falls down a hundred thousand times. I can assure you, God helps those who help themselves.
Know this for certain--however bad a man may be, even if the whole world forsakes him God's love towards him is as fervent as His love towards the most pious one. The child may grow into a murderer but the mother's love remains undiminished. God is more loving and kind than all mothers taken together. Never lose faith in His loving kindness. He is always keeping watch upon the worst of sinners. Knowing this, be happy.
Be not displeased with yourself. You are the child of God and by being displeased with yourself, you are displeased with God's child. Is it not bad? Honour yourself then, for you are the child of God. By creating you He has not committed any mistake--for He is above all mistakes. As such, He is sure to do something through you, something for which He has brought you down here, in this world.
The more your love towards God is increased, the less will your lustfulness be. Always try to walk along the proper path. Be truthful and good and have no sensual desires. Let this be your end and aim.
Struggle hard and if in the course of that struggle your foot slips, and you have to fall several times, what does that matter?
Rise up again and go on; struggle. Rest assured, you will conquer in the end. Never give up the struggle as long as you are not perfect, that is, as long as you are not what you wish yourself to be. May God save from all dangers and keep you safe and sound.
Yes. You are right in your conclusion. We have to pull through our lives here, somehow or other, as a beggar or as a king. But this should be our end and aim--that we never forget God wherever we may be placed, He never forsakes us. It is He that moves us from one station in life to another. Knowing this be happy.
Every day I remember you and pray for you to my Sri Guru Maharaj. Since you have the photograph of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, I cannot but advise you to look upon Him as God Incarnate. Pray before His photograph and you are sure to get your desires fulfilled. There is none kinder than He. Oh! whenever I remember His glory and greatness I become at once transported. Do not think Him to be not with you. He is always beside those who are good, and as you are one of the very good children, I can say He is always with you, to save you from temptations.
His photograph is His living Self. Do not think it to be a mere photograph. It is His own living Self. Offer flowers and incense to Him, if they are available; if not offer the flowers and incense of love and a contrite heart. He loves a contrite heart more than the whole heap of flowers and incense the world can produce. Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna will surely help you, if you only sincerely ask Him for help. He is the incarnation of love and mercy.
Do not infer from my irregular correspondence that I do not love my friends. Love is more mental than physical. I always ask the blessings of Sri Guru Maharaj to be showered on you and yours.
Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna says, "As water has no definite form, and assumes the form of the vessel in which it is kept, so God has no definite form". But God is the God of all living beings and therefore you should not confine Him to human form only. If your father dresses himself as a foreigner he does not lose your esteem and reverence on that account. Hence whatever be the form of God, because He is your God, you should love Him always.
Of course some particular form may be liked by some one as his chosen deity. A Vaishnava loves the Krishna form, a Sakta love the Sakti form and so on. Please worship Him in whatever form you like most. Just as a daughter-in-law in a Hindu family reveres all members of the family but shares her bed only with her husband, you should have reverence for all the various manifestations of God but your chosen deity should be the only lord of your life.
It is very good that you have great reverence and love for Sri Ramakrishna. By worshipping Him, you do not cease to be a devotee of the Mother, for, Sri Ramakrishna is the manifested form of Sakti who is Infinite, and hence inaccessible, in order to be accessible to all has assumed the benign form of Sri Ramakrishna in this age.
You cannot worship God directly, for you can have no conception of Him except through such man-Gods. If man-Gods like Sri Ramakrishna did not take birth here, who could know anything about God? They are Columbuses in the land of spirituality.
There is no tree without roots; no external without the internal. You should worship both outside yourself and inside yourself, as He is everywhere. He is as much in the Image as inside yourself. So worship Him everywhere, always regarding yourself as His child or servant.
You are right...'He comes when the lower self is crushed'. The sacrifice of the lower self that imagines itself weak and sinful, of the animal in one's self, goes by the name of human sacrifice. This can be done only by a real hero, for 'By whom is the world conquered? By him who has conquered his mind'.
A religion which is based upon weakness is absolutely false and harmful. God can never be realised by the weak, says the Scriptures. If I am God's child, I am of His cast and if He is perfectly pure, I am also perfectly pure. So, if you want to love God really, you must have to be a God.
You must become a God in order to worship God. What is the use of imagining yourself a sinner? You are infinite; it is sheer ignorance that makes you imagine that you are finite. Back of everyone there is Infinity. There is infinite power latent in you. So be not diffident. You are sure to succeed in any path.
Be devoted to God who is inside you. You are the most real temple of God. the temples outside are mere reminders of the real inner temple.
It is not wrong to set a watch over thoughts when you want to drive away all weakening ideas from out of you. Say, 'no', 'no', and there can be no poison in you even if bitten by a snake.
'I am not a sinner, I am God's own child'--one who believes firmly in this, knows, in course of time, that one is the child of God.
If you want to give up one bad habit you must develop the corresponding good habit, and this requires tremendous activity on your part. As Sri Krishna says in the Gita--
"Verily! This divine maya of Mine consisting of the Gunas is difficult to cross over; those who devote themselves to Me alone cross over this maya".
Maya is God's power; there is no difference between God and His power. Just as sugar cannot be imagined apart from seetness, milk apart from whiteness, so God cannot be conceived of apart from His Power.
We do not pray to a powerless man, knowing such prayers to be useless. God is all-powerful and therefore we pray to Him. So, whoever prays to God worships Sakti. Everyone in the world is a worshipper of Sakti for who is there that does not worship power?
God does not dwell somewhere beyond the clouds. He is in the heart of all living beings.
'God, Oh! Arjuna!', says Sri Krishna, 'dwells in the heart of all beings'. Ordinary living beings do not know this. God comes before us in the form of the ignorant, the needy, the diseased, the destitute, the famished--so that we may serve Him in these forms and thus edify ourselves.
Does not the child ask of the father or the mother whatever he wants, fully knowing that his prayers are sure to be answered? Just in the same manner, you should also pray to your God for everything needed for your realisation. Why do you want to be the child of God? In order to get rid of miseries of the world--is it not? So, where is the difference between devotion and knowledge?
Allow me to point out to you that peace is one's own mental property and hence you should never allow either household or social affairs to intrude into the holy precincts of your mind, where only God should reign supreme, showering peace and bliss upon you.
Of course, complete self-surrender can come only when one is free from egotism--the most invulnerable enemy of man. The idea that 'I am so-and-so' is the cause of repeated births and deaths. The more you can get rid of it, the more will you be able to realise your spiritual nature, which is obscured by 'I'.
The first personal pronoun is at the root of all our miseries. Hence our primary duty should be to get rid of it somehow or other; this can be done by the service of the great, by concentration or discrimination.
The first is the easiest and the best. If you can place yourself at the feet of a true guru, your egotism will gradually wear away by that very attitude of yours as a servant.
If I am here and if I like to be happy here, I must do that which will make me perfectly happy, free from all fears. As God, the all-powerful, and all-merciful is to take care of me, I, being His child, have no fears. God is both father and mother to you.
Thou art my mother; Thou art my father! Thou art my friend; Thou art my companion; Thou art my learning; Thou art my wealth; Thou art my all-in-all. Oh! My Lord of Lords!
And Sri Ramakrishna is all these.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-301, St. No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
Satya Classic, Tarnaka,
Secunderabad-500 017
Telangana State.
E-mail: chakku1968@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stay peacefully where God is pleased to keep you. Read and ponder upon the sayings of Sri Ramakrishna. 'A plant', says he, 'should be kept under special guard by fencing around, lest goats make a feast over it. But, when it becomes a tree, hundreds of goats may take shelter under its spreading boughs'. So, when a little faith and a spirit of renunciation shoot forth in one's mind fortunately, one should preserve and nurture them with special care, by keeping aloof from all worldly men; but when they are once firmly rooted within, none can shake them at all.
The difference between a man and a brute mainly lies in this: a brute never wants to have his place changed as long as he gets food and shelter, while a man, a true man, is always attempting to get higher and higher. Incessant yearning for higher ideals is the characteristic of a true man.
Every one of us is trying hard to go to God, but the path of every one of us is different. Each must make one's own way and undertake one's journey with the help of those conveyances which God has allowed him to have.
We should all 'strike off our fetters'; but have you ever seen a fetter stricken off with a single and sudden blow? If you want to break through your fetters, you must be patient enough to apply a series of successive blows. Nothing sudden has brought about good.
You say that samsara is a place of great temptation...that is indeed true! But, do you know that strong adverse winds serve but to confirm the roots of a weak tree? The moral principles which are now not so strong in you are sure to get firmly rooted by incessant struggle with temptations. Constant exercise and struggle improve one's physical health. And our mental health, too, is not above this law.
You should always look forward and march on boldly, falling and rising but never succumbing, till he is sure of having reached a place where the ground is clear of dirt and where he meets the one thing of his desire--the Divine One for whom he has been labouring so long.
Do not care if you slip occasionally. To err is human. Do not lose heart. Walk firmly onward. No man can hope to get through the slimy path of the world, unscathed. And it is rank foolishness to sit down in the midst of the mire for fear of falling in the attempt to get across. Do not forget the golden precept, 'Try, try, try again'. Remember Bruce of Scotland. He was defeated six times; but conquered at last, the seventh time.
Be contented with whatever comes to you, knowing that all things proceed from God directly. Do not forget to pray to Him incessantly. His grace can give you whatever can really do you good. Always confide yourselves to His care. Be calm and quiet. Restlessness is a disease in itself. Know that religion means charity and satisfaction in self-surrender to the will of God.
Act, act in the living present,
Heart within and God overhead.
Pleasure and pain are the inevitable companions of every human being. When one comes, the other departs, but neither can remain long. Knowing this we must not be sent out of our wits under their influence.
Depend upon God entirely and do your duty. Always abide by the will of Him and take everything in the best light. You should not be anxious of the future. Whatever takes place here, on this earth, is for our good, for all things are disposed by God. In the meantime, it should be our duty to be dutiful.
Try to be dutiful to yourself. Be dutiful towards your wife and children, if you have any. Be dutiful to your relatives, your friends and your neighbours. Be charitable, honest, plain and truthful. Above all have an intense devotion and love for God, the Author of your being.
Lead this life, until it becomes one with your nature. For, you should know it for a fact, that unless a man is physically and mentally pure, he has no right to enter the holy shrine of yoga.
You need not be reminded of the absolute hollowness of the so-called wisdom of the modern age. One does not become really wise by reading books written by people whose earthbound minds have not the power to soar in the infinite firmament of Truth; whose speculations end in agnosticism, scepticism or atheism; whose moral principle wanting the basis of Eternity, are little better than jargon; and whose ignorance keeps them confined in the limited span of a precarious life, bounded on both sides by birth and death.
Never remain idle. Idleness is the pro-genitor of all evil thoughts.Be always vigilant in carrying out your duties. Shake off all dullness from you. Laziness is the worst of all sins. There is no royal road to perfection.
Sentimentalism is of no avail. You are, indeed, a very bad lover of God if you cannot bear some worldly troubles for His sake! Those affairs which are displeasing to you now will all prove your great friends hereafter. God is more intelligent than any of us. He knows what is necessary for you and where to keep you. If you resent His dispensation, you really resent His infinite love and grace. Obedience is divine, disobedience is satanic.
It is through sheer ignorance that we bring on ourselves all sorts of groundless anxieties.
Do not try to have everything done all at once. There is no power in heaven and earth that can withstand the strong current of spirituality.
Depend entirely upon yourself. Heaven helps those who help themselves. At the same time, cooperate with others. If help comes from outside, that is good; if not, that is also good.
Nothing can bar the progress of what God intends to make successful. Unless one passes through the school of adversity, one cannot properly be called a human. We learn much from our troubles.
When you have altogether resigned yourselves at the feet of God, you have known the secret of a peaceful blissful life.
Contentment is the only watchword that can ensure us a safe passage through adverse circumstances. God is good. God does all. Therefore, He can do nothing but good. This is what all religions teach, abide by it and peace of mind will naturally follow.
All are not intended to become monks or nuns. Every one has a particular mission and so is sent here by God. Work in harmony with all. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.
Youth is the time when the senses naturally get the upper hand. You must try to be strong yourself so that they may not rule over you. Lustfulness is the chief enemy of youngsters.
Devote yourself to work, both physical and mental, and keep your mind always fixed upon God. It is wise to fix the mind upon a certain object, if it cannot always be fixed upon God. The mind thus trained will not find much difficulty in fixing itself upon the holy feet of Him.
Know that you are a God and consequently the Lord of the senses. Why should you allow the senses to Lord over you? A weak man is the prey of wicked people as well as wicked propensities. Mental weakness is as bad as physical.
Let me remind you of certain passages from the Gita which console, invigorate and drive away despair from the minds of even the most dejected--
Sri Krishna told Arjuna,
"Oh! dear friend, the man who does even the least of good deeds never becomes wretched in his after-life. He takes birth in the home of the holy and pious and begins a life of godliness".
Hence, if even for a second you do feel or think a good thought, it is sure to be of great gain to you. Never give way to despair, for it is God Himself that consoles everyone promising.
"Oh! Arjuna! declare it before all men that My devotee never meets with misfortune or destruction".
Make Gita your constant companion. Be always of good cheer. Never allow sorrow or dejection to take possession of your soul which is ever free and blissful.
You need not complain that you are not successful in your attempts. So it is with almost all men. Only those who are already perfect, only a few mahatmas, can assert that they are thoroughly pure in body, mind and action.
To err is human. The only thing we should look after is never to forget loving Him, the Master of the universe. Therefore take heart, and though you fall every now and then, try to rise up. Every child, before it learns to walk, falls down a hundred thousand times. I can assure you, God helps those who help themselves.
Know this for certain--however bad a man may be, even if the whole world forsakes him God's love towards him is as fervent as His love towards the most pious one. The child may grow into a murderer but the mother's love remains undiminished. God is more loving and kind than all mothers taken together. Never lose faith in His loving kindness. He is always keeping watch upon the worst of sinners. Knowing this, be happy.
Be not displeased with yourself. You are the child of God and by being displeased with yourself, you are displeased with God's child. Is it not bad? Honour yourself then, for you are the child of God. By creating you He has not committed any mistake--for He is above all mistakes. As such, He is sure to do something through you, something for which He has brought you down here, in this world.
The more your love towards God is increased, the less will your lustfulness be. Always try to walk along the proper path. Be truthful and good and have no sensual desires. Let this be your end and aim.
Struggle hard and if in the course of that struggle your foot slips, and you have to fall several times, what does that matter?
Rise up again and go on; struggle. Rest assured, you will conquer in the end. Never give up the struggle as long as you are not perfect, that is, as long as you are not what you wish yourself to be. May God save from all dangers and keep you safe and sound.
Yes. You are right in your conclusion. We have to pull through our lives here, somehow or other, as a beggar or as a king. But this should be our end and aim--that we never forget God wherever we may be placed, He never forsakes us. It is He that moves us from one station in life to another. Knowing this be happy.
Every day I remember you and pray for you to my Sri Guru Maharaj. Since you have the photograph of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, I cannot but advise you to look upon Him as God Incarnate. Pray before His photograph and you are sure to get your desires fulfilled. There is none kinder than He. Oh! whenever I remember His glory and greatness I become at once transported. Do not think Him to be not with you. He is always beside those who are good, and as you are one of the very good children, I can say He is always with you, to save you from temptations.
His photograph is His living Self. Do not think it to be a mere photograph. It is His own living Self. Offer flowers and incense to Him, if they are available; if not offer the flowers and incense of love and a contrite heart. He loves a contrite heart more than the whole heap of flowers and incense the world can produce. Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna will surely help you, if you only sincerely ask Him for help. He is the incarnation of love and mercy.
Do not infer from my irregular correspondence that I do not love my friends. Love is more mental than physical. I always ask the blessings of Sri Guru Maharaj to be showered on you and yours.
Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna says, "As water has no definite form, and assumes the form of the vessel in which it is kept, so God has no definite form". But God is the God of all living beings and therefore you should not confine Him to human form only. If your father dresses himself as a foreigner he does not lose your esteem and reverence on that account. Hence whatever be the form of God, because He is your God, you should love Him always.
Of course some particular form may be liked by some one as his chosen deity. A Vaishnava loves the Krishna form, a Sakta love the Sakti form and so on. Please worship Him in whatever form you like most. Just as a daughter-in-law in a Hindu family reveres all members of the family but shares her bed only with her husband, you should have reverence for all the various manifestations of God but your chosen deity should be the only lord of your life.
It is very good that you have great reverence and love for Sri Ramakrishna. By worshipping Him, you do not cease to be a devotee of the Mother, for, Sri Ramakrishna is the manifested form of Sakti who is Infinite, and hence inaccessible, in order to be accessible to all has assumed the benign form of Sri Ramakrishna in this age.
You cannot worship God directly, for you can have no conception of Him except through such man-Gods. If man-Gods like Sri Ramakrishna did not take birth here, who could know anything about God? They are Columbuses in the land of spirituality.
There is no tree without roots; no external without the internal. You should worship both outside yourself and inside yourself, as He is everywhere. He is as much in the Image as inside yourself. So worship Him everywhere, always regarding yourself as His child or servant.
You are right...'He comes when the lower self is crushed'. The sacrifice of the lower self that imagines itself weak and sinful, of the animal in one's self, goes by the name of human sacrifice. This can be done only by a real hero, for 'By whom is the world conquered? By him who has conquered his mind'.
A religion which is based upon weakness is absolutely false and harmful. God can never be realised by the weak, says the Scriptures. If I am God's child, I am of His cast and if He is perfectly pure, I am also perfectly pure. So, if you want to love God really, you must have to be a God.
You must become a God in order to worship God. What is the use of imagining yourself a sinner? You are infinite; it is sheer ignorance that makes you imagine that you are finite. Back of everyone there is Infinity. There is infinite power latent in you. So be not diffident. You are sure to succeed in any path.
Be devoted to God who is inside you. You are the most real temple of God. the temples outside are mere reminders of the real inner temple.
It is not wrong to set a watch over thoughts when you want to drive away all weakening ideas from out of you. Say, 'no', 'no', and there can be no poison in you even if bitten by a snake.
'I am not a sinner, I am God's own child'--one who believes firmly in this, knows, in course of time, that one is the child of God.
If you want to give up one bad habit you must develop the corresponding good habit, and this requires tremendous activity on your part. As Sri Krishna says in the Gita--
"Verily! This divine maya of Mine consisting of the Gunas is difficult to cross over; those who devote themselves to Me alone cross over this maya".
Maya is God's power; there is no difference between God and His power. Just as sugar cannot be imagined apart from seetness, milk apart from whiteness, so God cannot be conceived of apart from His Power.
We do not pray to a powerless man, knowing such prayers to be useless. God is all-powerful and therefore we pray to Him. So, whoever prays to God worships Sakti. Everyone in the world is a worshipper of Sakti for who is there that does not worship power?
God does not dwell somewhere beyond the clouds. He is in the heart of all living beings.
'God, Oh! Arjuna!', says Sri Krishna, 'dwells in the heart of all beings'. Ordinary living beings do not know this. God comes before us in the form of the ignorant, the needy, the diseased, the destitute, the famished--so that we may serve Him in these forms and thus edify ourselves.
Does not the child ask of the father or the mother whatever he wants, fully knowing that his prayers are sure to be answered? Just in the same manner, you should also pray to your God for everything needed for your realisation. Why do you want to be the child of God? In order to get rid of miseries of the world--is it not? So, where is the difference between devotion and knowledge?
Allow me to point out to you that peace is one's own mental property and hence you should never allow either household or social affairs to intrude into the holy precincts of your mind, where only God should reign supreme, showering peace and bliss upon you.
Of course, complete self-surrender can come only when one is free from egotism--the most invulnerable enemy of man. The idea that 'I am so-and-so' is the cause of repeated births and deaths. The more you can get rid of it, the more will you be able to realise your spiritual nature, which is obscured by 'I'.
The first personal pronoun is at the root of all our miseries. Hence our primary duty should be to get rid of it somehow or other; this can be done by the service of the great, by concentration or discrimination.
The first is the easiest and the best. If you can place yourself at the feet of a true guru, your egotism will gradually wear away by that very attitude of yours as a servant.
If I am here and if I like to be happy here, I must do that which will make me perfectly happy, free from all fears. As God, the all-powerful, and all-merciful is to take care of me, I, being His child, have no fears. God is both father and mother to you.
Thou art my mother; Thou art my father! Thou art my friend; Thou art my companion; Thou art my learning; Thou art my wealth; Thou art my all-in-all. Oh! My Lord of Lords!
And Sri Ramakrishna is all these.
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C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-301, St. No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
Satya Classic, Tarnaka,
Secunderabad-500 017
Telangana State.
E-mail: chakku1968@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
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MEDITATION AS IMMUNO-STIMULANT.
That meditation causes neuro-biological changes in a person an empirically proven fact. There is evidence that the human mind influences both susceptibility to and resistance to disease. Mental and physical processes constantly interact and influence one another. Some major universities have recognised the value of contemplative practices, which have therapeutic effects.
Today we know it is not just the food we eat that changes our biology; the thoughts we think do that too. The assumption that diet and exercise could produce a perfect body is no longer valid; we now know stress produces cortisol and epinephrine, which are immuno-suppressants that nullify every benefit derived through every other means. Stress is the No. 1 epidemic of our times, and it causes chronic illnesses. Your interaction with the world and with yourself produces metabolites that interact with the body and change your biological parameters.
Many neuro-scientists believe the best way to fight stress is through meditation. It has now become simple and scientific, and it will soon go mainstream.
Meditation, in a nutshell, is becoming aware of your body and your breath, with no thoughts. Then, the body's homeostasis, the self-regulating and self-repairing mechanism, is activated since healing hormones fill the body. Thoughts can heal us, also kill us. A bout of depression can wreak havoc with our immune system. Falling in love can boost it. Despair and hopelessness raise the risk of a heart attack and cancer. Joy and fulfillment keep us healthy. Different states of consciousness produce different degrees of body chemistry. The line between biology and psychology cannot really be drawn. A stress which is only a wisp of thought releases the same flood of destructive hormones as the stress itself. Nothing holds more power over the body than the beliefs of the mind.
Since subjective ruminations produce objective repercussions in clear violation of the laws of thermodynamics, since reductionist philosophy and the mechanistic model of our conventional medicine cannot explain origins of many diseases, the fight between classical physics and quantum physics, especially on the medical science front, has come into the open. It will take some time for the dust to settle.
The discovery of telomere, an enzyme associated with aging, by Elizabeth Blackburn won her the nobel prize. Telomere is at the end of our chromosomes, like the end-cap of a shoe lace. Its role is to protect the chromosomes from degradation -- which means it protects genes from degradation since genes are enclosed in chromosomes. Telomere degrades with age.
Dr. Elizabeth's studies, with Dr. Dean Ornish of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, revealed that meditation increases the length of Telomere. When Telomere becomes short and falls apart, cells cannot replicate anymore -- which is what we call death. So, acceleration and deceleration of aging depends on telomere. It gets stronger during meditative practices.
Mitosis and apoptosis (cell division and cell death) processes have revealed that every week we have a new stomach, every month a new skin lining, and every three months we have a new skeleton. Except for some cartilege and pieces of bones, almost 98% of our body is recycled annually. Every 10 minutes we have a different brain structure because every thought alters it. As a result, ourr body is a process rather than a structure. It is a river and not a rock. It is a verb and not a noun.
One prominent quantum physicist said during a lecture in the U.S. that three years earlier when he went there he had carried with him the same suitcase but not the same body because the suit-case has a longer shelf-life than the body. Another quantum biologist said during a speech that no person can step into the same river twice.
Humankind has learnt so much over the past 15 years than it has learnt in all of its history. Maybe one day science will explain why we fall in love, and why we are moved by poetry. Let's wait for that day to arrive.
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C.S. Chakravarthy
H. No. 12-13-301, St.No. 9,
Lane. No. 1, Flat. No. 203,
Satya Classic, Tarnaka,
Secunderabad- 500 017
Telangana State.
E-mail: chakku1968@gmail.com
Cell: 09985732397.
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