Start and end the day with God

God has a master plan and we have our role to play. Bondage and freedom, pleasure and pain, birth and death, gain and loss are mental creations. When we transcend these pairs of opposites, we will not be reborn. It is the physical body that persists and returns. We should carry out of all our actions in a detached way in a spirit of dedication to the divine. Then these actions will not bind us, says Swami Sivananda. He asks men to spiritualize all their activities and to feed the mind with thoughts of God, their hearts with purity.

One has to remember how in a second, thousands of human beings are born in this world. Who decides their destiny? Why and how do they appear in various strata? Scriptures say that the last thoughts of dying person govern his future and determine his birth.  A licentious man will have his last thoughts on the worldly pleasures he was enjoyed, of a liquor-addict about his joys, a soldier of his enemy, and a mother deeply attached to her only son about him and a man steeped in a religious activities, about God. In the Bhagavatam, this theme is elaborated in the story of Jadabharata who out of mercy took care of a fawn, got attached to it and ultimately was born as a deer.

To the person who has disciplined his mind, all thoughts throughout the life will be pinned on God. This habit of retaining God's vision amid routine work cannot be cultivated during one day. It requires struggle, will power and determination. That is why man is asked to be spiritually inclined throughout, as that alone will make him remember God. For this, simple methods have been prescribed, such as reciting God's names, listening to expositions of holy books and closely associating with people of virtue and integrity so that at the time of death, one will think of God. He may not be re-born at all or he may be caused to appear as a Godly person. Swami Sivananda's plan to train the God's realization is “Start the day with God. End the day with God, fill the day with God and that is the way to God (Heaven).”

In a lecture, Swami Vimalananda said that apart from the time of rising from or retiring to bed, a person can meditate on God's forms of chant His names whenever possible thereby ensuring that base thoughts do not creep in to mind. Then the last thoughts, because of his constant remembrance, will also be on the Almighty's lotus feet. When a person meditates and when he develops virtues, a spiritual road gets laid inn his mind, and anxieties vanish.
                                                                                July 16, 1993

There is a moral in every move of God

Some of the episodes in our religious literature seem to project, t times even highlight, baffling situations. Thinkers of modern era are not able to understand their significance and so decry them. For instance, while the Almighty visited the world ona number of occasions, to render justice to the pious from the tortures unleashed on them by wicked elements, how could He defy the tradition of residing with one spouse but sport with many women. Valid explanations had been given for such events.

At the time when this great sport took place, the lord in human form, was a child. There was no amorous motive, as a few ridicule. The women who rushed to listen to Krishna's music which flowed through the flute and their behaviour, at the time displayed their absolute dependence on Him. The same men who try to distort facts, will have no answer about the incident in which the same Divine child destroyed many evil forces as for instance, the serpent which was causing havoc to the people who resided in nearby area (by emitting poisonous fumes).

The lord takes incarnations at the request of devotees and during that period shows how men should conduct themselves. There is a moral in every move of Almighty's and his concern to make people adhere to discipline. By listening to the exposition of he sacred texts, people's mind will be flushed out of he impurities.

No doubt, no man can escape sorrow and problems or be spared from grief but when anyone unhesitatingly offers himself to God declaring his helplessness. He will surely protect him. There are steps to approach Him. Even if elaborate procedures are beyond his means, he can show his sincere devotion as did the unlettered cowherd population display by seeking His feet unconcerned about happenings around them. Sins will be obliterated and bliss can be experienced by hearing the Lord's traits.

What God expects of those who seek his protection is their sincerity and intensity of devotion. Pleas in nature of mere business proposition like one saying that he would do worship should he be immediately repaid duly will not be proper, said Sri N. Babu Dikshitar in a discourse explaining how the unseen hands of God grant the wishes of His ardent devotees.
                                                                                August 21, 1993

Nine flight of steps to altar of God

While elaborating the innumerable auspicious attributes of the supreme Lord, scholars have explained that if a person displays his Lord, scholars have explained that is a person displays his intense devotion and takes just a few steps forward towards the royal road to heaven, he will show his mercy and rush down from his throne and meet, greet and welcome him. In this connection, commentators also describe God's abode in detail and that a devotee can reach that place if he adopts certain methods. One of the religious works refers to the nine flights of steps to the altar of God. How he can ascend them and be at the celestial region beyond the Cosmos has been mentioned in 21 Tamil verses by Vedanta Desika in his Paramapada Sopanam.

In the first stage, the tormented soul acquires correct spiritual knowledge about his real nature and how to conduct himself so long as he remains in the world, adhering to the various injunctions. In the second step, he will understand about his present plight in this ephemeral existence and experiences a sense of frustration and contrition. This in turn will result in his cultivating a dislike for material and earthly ends, calculated to satisfy the cravings of the body. Then a great fear creeps into his soul. At this period, the person attempts not to lose his moorings but hopes to get rid of the bondage. Next, he will seek the guidance of a spiritual master and get help to learn about the nature of the real, the goal, and how to reach there.

The way to obtain release is to offer one's total surrender and thereby obtain the grace the lord by which the worldly ties will get snapped. At the end of the life's journey, the soul travels through a definite route. After the final flight, the soul lands in the paradise and ultimately obtains eternal enjoyment. The lord is then ready to lend him His hand and take him to His adobe, said Sri B.T.Srinivasaraghava charier in a discourse.
                                                                          September 7, 1993

Perfection of man, aim of religions

The main aim of all religions is to make perfect to the extent possible and to ensure that he leads a disciplined life conforming his worldly activities to the Moral Law. Obedience to holy men, uttering truth and acquiring spiritual knowledge knowing the purpose of the birth, are common to one and all. There are differences only in the procedures for achieving the goal. But all of them warn of the evil forces which lurk within, ready to ruin him.

There are broadly four types of men – those who may not externally look pious but who never swerve from the path of righteousness, some put on the robes of sobriety and humility but their conduct may be questionable; some forsake both, while a few renounce neither. Among the categories of children, some may turn out to be more virtuous than their parents, some evenly matched, some worthless, while a few may bring only disgrace of their families.

Likewise, meetings are of four kinds. With some, an encounter may be pleasant but their company may not be good, with some, the meeting may not be good, with some, the meeting may not be so palatable but their association may be rewarding while in the last category are those whose very friendship and presence may be harmful.

Deception, fraud, falsehood and malpractices in trade are the four animal instincts which drag the soul to subhuman existence. Simplicity, humility, compassion and serenity are the four virtues which enables the soul to acquire human birth.

In his lecture ona selection of inspiring aphorisms from Jaina scriptures, Sri Dulichand Jain said, like the above mentioned sutras yet another one refers to four types of people who are not worthy of equipping themselves with spiritual knowledge – the vain, the greedy, the quarrelsome and the deceitful. Philanthropists are also of four types, some denote liberally but may not utter a word about it, some contribute as well as indulge in self-praise, while some others neither speak nor part with anything.

Like a cart man who intentionally leaves the highway preferring a rugged road repents when the axle breaks, so also, the ignorant person who transgresses the path of righteousness, will regret his defaults at time of death. A snake is unable to give up its poisonous nature; so too, a person without good character though he may study innumerable scriptures, remains unable to shed his wicked nature. Right conduct is the essence of scriptures and is the Jina Dharma.
                                                                                December 6, 1997