Who is running show of the world?

I get it. I recently read many books by Dada Bhagwan Foundation, a spiritual group in India (that doesnot promote any particular religion)  says that no individual God is running this world. Every worldly phase is a natural happening governed by Vyavasthit (Scientific Circumstantial Evidences) which requires many elements to come together for an event to take place.  There is no God overhead as the Do-er of it.

A human being is also one of the element. For example, it is wrong to say ‘I’ made tea. Tea could be made when all elements like water, tea leaves, milk, sugar, fire etc were present. I became an instrument to make it. Left only to me,  I cannot make tea on, say, ... a road side because all evidences are not present. He calls these evidences scientific because even if one evidence is missing event will not take place. Thats why he says when an accident takes place, it requires many many evidences to be present at that particular place and time otherwise there will be no accident. I found this quite acceptable.

Now if we combine this with Laws of Karma, it explains so many things.  Like how a particular person swapped the seat and did not go on that ill fated Malaysian Airline that was shot down recently or why the one he swapped the seat with went on that flight.  Evidences were coming together to make this thing happen in a precise manner.  That doesnot mean that this law will let the offenders of crash go scot free.  Even if they escape justice on earth in this lifetime, the scientic circumstances will bring them to justice in one of the next lifetimes.  That time they will not know the reason and would probably crib as to why this happened to innocent.  The karmic repayment is not exact like eye for an eye.  But the feelings and emotions of suffering that is caused due to accidents will be felt by them.

World often confuses Karma.  When it sees someone being slapped, killed, promoted, demoted, successful, sent to prison, it says this is karma, whereas this is not karma.  This is result of karma.  Karma was already formed earlier and this is result of that.  Karma is formed internally through our bhav(intentions),  our inner communication with ourselves.  Universe records it all and through scientific circumstantial evidences arranges for the result and sends it back to us at appropriate time.  It doesnot necessarily come from same person but the result is the same that we caused to someone else earlier, whether knowingly or unknowingly. When it is said that we are creating our reality and that we are responsible for whatever is happening in our life it means that a man is responsible for his bhaav (innert intention) behind any action of body, mind and speech. This is what human freewill is. While tasting the fruit of past karma(intentions), how a man reacts(creates new or no karma) determines his future.  You reap what you sow.

Our hand gets burned, whether we put our hand in fire knowingly or unknowingly.  A willful act involves strict and precise return whereas unintentional action brings returns too in such a manner that person calls it exceptional.  When we hold anger, greed, resentment, pride, hatred, attachment inside for some person, place or a thing, it definitely attracts returns.  Intense feelings create ‘sticky karma’ for which there is no escape in form of close negative lifetime relationships etc.  When we get such returns in next lifetime we are left wondering why things are happening that way since we did not do anything wrong.  None remembers the deeds of the past.

When we hold strong resentment for someone, it follows us into lifetimes till we learn to love that person.  Act of forgiveness is a sure ticket to freedom from negative bondage. This is the reason why saints and wise have advised us to stay calm in all situations, maintain equanimity and forgive all.

Vandana Ritik Mulchandani

Noida

Understanding Shirdi SaiBaba Philosophy

Where do you think God is? As a child I always thought that God was sitting high, up above, beyond clouds, watching over all my actions and would reward me accordingly. Next thought would be, does God have so much time for me? Am I so significant to HIM in HIS huge universe? I thought God was in places of worship. So I visited temples, offered flowers, sweets, donation and recited hymns and prayers that I had read in religious books to please HIM. I often wondered, God is creator of All that is, does HE need all these things which he created Himself? I never saw God taking anything that I offered. My senses were enjoying fragrance of incense sticks, my tongue was tasting the sweet, my ears were listening to religious hymns. It was ‘I’ doing and enjoying everything and feeling satisfied while worshipping the God. But where was the God I was worshipping?

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha has explained the logic behind idol worship so well.  According to him, the man believes that the idol/image placed in the centre of shrine is God so he bows before it in reverence and worships it. Does that mean all things other than idol/image/symbol is non-God. Is God so limited? Most of us have made God separate and so very distant from us. Obviously we have not properly introspected about the concept of God and what God stands for. ‘Darshan’(vision of idol/image) brings peace and joy to us. However, we should understand that it is not that image which gave peace and joy but it was our own mind which could generate and produce these qualities from within by looking at the idol. Thus the image/idol of God is a reminder, reflection of our own divinity. This can be explained in this manner. A man cannot see himself. So man made a mirror. When we look into the mirror we see our own reflection. When we comb our hair in front of a mirror, nothing is happening to the image inside the mirror. It is merely showing us our own action.

Thus whatever we do to our own self is reflected in the mirror. On its own, mirror is not doing anything. Same is the case with image/idols/symbols used to represent God. These are objects, which the Subject uses to connect to itself. This is initial stage of devotion. After sometime, even these images are not required to connect to the God. One can think of God and invoke the ‘bhav’(intention/ feeling/attitude) of deep fondness, love and reverence towards the all knowing Self. The mind which was confined to only I and my family learns to expand and look beyond.

Thus Mind expands and sees God in all. Everyone is extension of self. When we feel limited we do not feel God. When we connect to the God within, everything turns God. Its all the play of our own mind. Lord Krishna asked us to use our intellect and train our mind to expand beyond our limited physical body. Lord Buddha said I am not in the body, the body is in me.

It is said that we are spiritual beings having human experience. Human birth is given so much importance in our scriptures because only human can use and sharpen his intellect to understand this reality and experience it finally. Walking down the Sai path(method), I have started to understand things in bits and pieces.

In Sai Satcharita, Shirdi Saibaba has explained this in such a simple manner. 

Saibaba said that barring our name and body, something is left. That is the feeling of being alive…..consciousness. This is Self. This is God. We should meditate on this Self that is all knowing. This explains that God is within us. 

Saibaba told his devotees to destroy this wall of ‘teli’ (difference/EGO) and come face to face with God, i.e., SELF, the ‘aatma’/ antaratma(soul). The difference is our wrongful perception of SELF as mere body and its name due to different shapes and sizes of all human bodies. This perception needs to be corrected to know God and realize our own inner spiritual splendour. Anything spiritual cannot be felt and experienced by our five senses. Spirit is transcendental and hence within us because we experience everything within. Like each grain has a seed, similarly each of us has divinity embedded in us. In right kind of conditions, the seed sprouts and reproduces a duplicate of itself. Each one of us has spark of Supreme Divinity in us. Places of worship have been made to provide conditions to ‘water and sprout the seed’ of devotion within us which brings us face to face with our source, the knowledge of God.

Thus idol/image is a trigger point to increase immense love, devotion and fondness towards our own divinity. Even the devotee knows that the idol/image is made up of marble/paper and ink etc. But when a devotee sees an image, all the positive emotions surge within and he finds himself full of love. All the paraphernalia of worship is not meant to please some external object but the subject within. The SELF in us that we represent as ‘I’ is the Subject experiencing this world. This ‘I’ is God. e.g., it is not alarm that wakes us up in the morning, it is something within us that awakens at the sound of alarm. Introspect what is that ‘something that is awakened or was sleeping before the alarm’. God is present everywhere in as well as all around us – visible as well as invisible. In certain things we feel that natural life force energy while in some we do not. This doesnot mean that it is non-God. We should often introspect and try to feel, understand and experience this ‘I’.

We all have God within us but we search for God in outside world. When we focus on our own God-li-ness, we experience oneness with our source and then things start to happen just the way we want. 

This is one reason that Shirdi Saibaba advised his devotees to meditate on SELF. Feel like God and experience the bliss. Deities are meant to invoke this connection within us. But man thinks God is far away and hence feels himself as separate from God without realizing that ‘Jiva’(living presence) within his body temple is presence of God. We need to tune into this presence. 

Hinduism never promised showing God. Hinduism focuses on experience God within, right here, right now. If we study Vishnu Sahastranama(1000 names of Hindu God Vishnu), and understand its meaning, the focus is on attributes of God, ourselves, the Self, the ‘I’ within, the all knowing part of us. This could be the reason as to why Shirdi Saibaba gave importance to these names. We have given many names to God because of many ideas we have about God. These names are holy, they take away poverty of mind. It is our ego that makes us feel that we are separate from God. Otherwise everything is different faces of God. Clay makes all shapes and kinds of potteries. Basic material of all of us is same.

The outside world is reflection of the inside world. All is made up of five elements. When Scientists searched for the smallest particle, it turned out to be space in which electron, protons etc were vibrating. When scientists went far away in space, they again reached the same place – the empty space of vibration. Both the ends look same. Everything around us is vibrating and has consciousness. Thus God is all pervading and interpermeating this entire universe. When we discover the real God that permeates each cell of our being, a sense of deep companionship arises within and the deep lonliness dissolves. One starts to see Self in others and others in SELF. Everywhere is extension of our own self because all objects are reflection of our own personal experience. Everything is God’s representation. ‘Sabka Malik Ek’, ultimately all is one. If we start thinking of second factor it becomes cause of fear. Idea of many brings fear since it suggests separateness. Hence single pointed devotion makes us fearless.

We finally understand that God never ever punished us. It is our EGO that is cause of our suffering. If there is no EGO, we are GOD. So where is God? God is imperceptible to senses, therefore, He has to be within our body. Instead of searching outside, lets take easy route and reflect inside. Never say that worship of Lord is difficult. The Lord is seated within our heart, in us, surrounding us, interpermeating everything around. The Supreme Source that created us is present all around us and within us.  God is attainable and we cannot exist without HIM. HE is near us, constantly present within us, seated in our own heart. God is none other than our own ‘Aatma’(soul – compare it to water), part of Paramatma (Spirit – compare it to ocean). When we understand water, we understand ocean too. Inquire who is this ‘I’. Introspect regularly, think about it often. Lets not be an animal, who takes body only to eat, sleep, enjoy and procreate.

The chief Aim of human birth is to know our own self, our own nature and experience our own reality. This ‘I’ is that part of us which is transcendent and beyond the access of our five senses and all the three ‘gunas’(states of nature). The Supreme Lord is seated in our own feelings, attitudes and emotions which emerge from our mind and mind is supra material. Lets not wait for any special occasion to worship God. Anything that we are doing, lets offer all that as most tender flower to the Supreme. God only wants Love. Let us Love ourself, our own being. Do not see God in limited form. Let heart host an infinite God and expansion take place in our own inner personality. FEEL LIKE GOD to KNOW GOD.

VANDANA RITIK
NOIDA

Whom to worship - Man or God?

God created Man in his own image. If we take Man and God separately it would mean denying oneness of the universe. Ik Onkar, Sabka Malik Ek, All is One, God, Father & Son are one would lose its meaning. There is no separation or boundary between a Man and God. In our ignorance, we feel we are separate and God is sitting somewhere far away beyond the clouds and sky, somewhere deep in Universe which is not true.

Ancient Hindu scriptures have been telling us that the only way to reach God is by going inwards. God cannot be found outside. It can be felt inside us. This is the reason why human birth is considered so sacred. Because it is Man who can actually learn, feel and ultimately experience God – nowhere outside but inside his body temple – in the state of complete thoughtlessness.

Scientists have proved that the tiniest part of this creation is 'vibration' which they have not been able to break down further. This vibration forms electron, proton and neutron, which in turn form atom, which form molecules… and so on. This vibration is nothing but energy - an intelligent form of energy, which has a life and existence of its own. We call it as pure consciousness because it is not visible but this ‘space’ is there which is always vibrating at a very high speed and produces celestial sound. When this consciousness condenses it becomes matter and thus become visible. Denser the condensation, solid is the matter. Man is one such visible form of matter, who has got five senses to see, smell, taste, touch and hears everything related to matter around him. He forgets to go inwards where God would be revealed to him. God /Universe/ Brahman is that pure consciousness which cannot be seen but has to be felt and experienced. It is that Divine Universal Life Force Energy which runs the show of the world. It is like that tiny dry seed which contains a huge big tree hidden in it. The seed turns into tree only when certain conditions are satisfied – it gets support of five elements – water, air, earth, ether and fire(sun). We cannot say that tree is separate from the seed. They are one and the same.

Behind every act, there is an intention. When we worship we have to be sure why we are worshipping. Is it mere ritual that we are doing? Is it being done with the desire to please and get some reward in return? Highest form of worship is that which is done to find answer to our own identity? Who am I? When a man starts questioning himself about his own origin, God starts to reveal himself to man. God symbolizes knowledge. When a man gets into self inquiry mode, he first understands that he is not body but soul.

Soul is nothing but energy (the pure consciousness / feeling of being alive) which runs this human body, which makes this body think, analyse, act and thus leave deep impressions in his astral Body for further action. When a soul leaves body, the physical body becomes useless and is therefore discarded even by the relatives of that man concerned. The impressions that human accumulated in the lifetime get carried forward to next lifetime to learn new lessons. Lessons once learnt need not be learnt again.

We should worship God to know HIM - to know our own origin. To know him means to remove layers of ignorance of our intellect. As layers are removed, knowledge shines bright, God starts becoming visible, the mysteries are solved. Suddenly everything becomes crystal clear that there is no difference between Man and God. At the deepest level all is vibration. Hinduism philosophy is all about experiencing this ultimate truth. An ordinary human knows all this in theory. We are supposed to think about it, meditate, contemplate, and assimilate upon this theory continuously

When there is duality because of ignorance, one sees all things as distinct from the Self. Sankara the great monist has written that when everything is known as the Self not even an atom is seen as other than the Self. As soon as knowledge of the Reality has sprung up, there can be no fruits of past actions to be experienced, owning to the unreality of the body, just as there can be no dream after waking i.e, Ekam Sat (only one exists). Maya is nothing but dualistic cosmic delusion, which makes us think that Man is separate and God is separate.

Sadguru(the Ascendant/Perfect Master) guides us gently, uplifts us internally, removes the layers of Maya from our vision and brings us face to face with both – form and formless - aspect of God. Each soul has to experience this truth and realize God in Self. So either way we go, whomsoever we worship first – God or Man, if our intentions are to satisfy the thirst of our soul to know its actual source, we will reach the same destination. Man is creation of God. When we worship man, we worship God because in this way we are acknowledging our love and respect for the creator with an attitude of gratitude.

SaiBaba is one such Sadguru for Hindus (like Lord Jesus) who took human birth to reveal these mysteries of Universe/ Brahman/ God to those earnest devotees who really wanted to know thy Self. The man is visible aspect of God, who is invisible to human eye. SaiBaba has advised us to try both the ways (worship of Form or Formless) whichever is suitable to us as under:

"To get the knowledge(realization) of the self, dhyan(meditation) is necessary. If you practice it continuously, the vrittis(subtle thoughts) will be pacified. Being quite desireless, you should meditate on God, who is in all the creatures and when the mind is concentrated, the goal will be achieved. Meditate always on My formless Nature, which is knowledge incarnate, consciousness and bliss. If you cannot do this, meditate on My Form from top to toe, as you see there night and day. As you go on doing this, your vrittis will be single pointed, and the distinction between the Dhyata(meditator), Dhyana(act of meditation), Dhyeya(thing meditated upon) will be lost, and the meditator will be one with the consciousness and be merged in the Brahma(Universe/God)…..This way always remember and meditate on the Lord, Who will manifest Himself to you”. Saibaba has also told his devotees to “Demolish the wall of difference that separate you from Me, and then the road for our meeting will be clear and open. The sense of differentiation as I and thou, is the barrier that keeps away the disciple from his Master and unless that is destroyed the state of union or atonement is not possible i.e, God is the sole Proprietor”. Here ‘Me’ doesnot mean physical body of Saibaba but the pure consciousness –the formless Self in the body that Saibaba is advising devotees to meditate(think) upon.

Thus, disregard of His creation would be disregard of God. Therefore, when all is One, we can start our worship from any direction, either Man(form) or God(formless), we will ultimately reach the same destination of Self realization, that is, – Sabka Malik Ek - All is One – the state where a Man sees all beings in the Self and sees the self as existing in all being, for whom all beings and everything that exists have become the Self.

Vandana Ritik
New Delhi

as published in Heritage of Shirdi Sai

Gurupurnima Issue 2010

Only God is Truth

Truth or ‘Satya’ means ‘being’ i.e, anything that exists in its actual form is truth. Only God exists and will continue to exist. Rest is all perishable and illusion. God has been, is present and will continue to be present till eternity. Existence of God is beyond comprehension of Human mind. Ultimately God will remain. That is why we say Truth represents God or Truth is God.

Mostly people think of truth as ‘merely speaking truth’ whereas it is a wider term. We have to be truthful in thought, action and belief. There has to be no cover up of I-ness or My-ness. Pursuit of truth is pursuit of God.

Whatever we do for God is true and will bear the fruit. Whatever we do for ourselves and our family will be fruitless. Because ‘We’ are nothing. It is only God. ‘We’ become the truth only when we merge with God. This state is called 'I AM' or 'I AM THAT'.

The crux of The Bhagvad Gita appears to be that a human should offer all his actions, thoughts, feelings and speech to God i.e, even if we are doing some work for our family, we should think we are doing it for God – for the truth.

SaiBaba would often say that cause of suffering is feeling of Doership. When we think of ourselves as ‘karta’ (Doer) we are going away from truth and are thus in misery. To experience the joy surrender all that you are at the feet of Lord. Nothing belongs to you. By not keeping any possession(s) during his lifetime, Saibaba himself has demonstrated this fact.

SaiBaba (also all messengers of God) consider whole universe as one form of that ultimate truth. He did not differentiate between his devotees and non devotees. He always said ‘Sabka Malik Ek’ (God is ONE) because ultimately there is only one truth. Saibaba has advocated single minded devotion towards one’s chosen deity with faith and patience because Devotion is a method of pursuing truth, finding and reaching the truth – the State of Peace and Joy.

Where there is truth, there is God.
Where there is God, there is Knowledge
Where there is knowledge, there is Bliss

This ultimate truth is called Sat-Chit-Anand (Knowledge Existence Bliss). We have taken this human body to experience and embrace this truth because ultimately, this human body made of five elements will perish, only Truth will prevail.

Vandana Ritik

Heritage of Shirdi Sai
New Delhi

How to feel God ?

In earlier traditional Hindu Schools, apart from regular curriculum, young children were taught about omnipresence of God. Children were told that God is always watching them no matter where they are or what they are doing. God is aware of all that is happening inside as well as outside us. This ensured that young minds do not indulge in wrongful acts or thoughts from early age. The thought that some universal powers is their watchdog, stopped them from doing any wrong to others. Thus God was operating through their physical bodies correcting them at every wrong step. All actions and thoughts carried out by the human body in this kind of state is actually the WILL of God, i.e., God is the DOER. The person is a mere puppet/ instrument in the hands of God.
In the present modern world, things have changed dramatically. A persons takes out some time to think of God only after he is free and has some time spare from the worldly chores. The person selects a time of the day e.g. morning or evening, or a day e.g. Sunday, Monday etc. During this selected time, the man prays to God, lights few candles or incense sticks, listens to or reads some holy discourse etc and is satisfied. Some even do meditation. Then back to worldly duties.

This change in the attitude of the modern human today sets him apart from the earlier human in the sense that today the man thinks that he is the DOER. Thus he thinks that he is separate from God. In his quest to make his own destiny, the man has gone so far that he has stopped listening to his own inner voice i.e., God’s voice.

This has happened because the new age academic and technical education has completely over shadowed our traditional learning which formed a very strong foundation to our overall persona in childhood itself. Spiritual education is no longer on the curriculum of modern day schools. Today schools are busy generating technocrats and intellectuals who know more about outside world than inner self. The minds is very analytical and always in a state of reasoning. The emphasis today is to develop our skills so that we can earn our livelihood comfortably. But what about our inner thirst.

Our inner core understands all our troubles and obstacles. As our inner core is connected to the Supreme divine, it is always guiding us to take right action in any given situation for the benefit of all and ultimately the SELF. The inner voice cannot be heard, understood or trusted if the physical mind is always in state of reasoning and applying logic. If only we could listen to that perfect inner guidance.
The best way to listen to our Inner voice/ God’s voice is to always feel the presence of God around us. While eating, walking, reading, going to work, watching TV etc we should always feel that God is beside us, just like our shadow. Always be in mental conversation with God. Constant remembrance of God will do wonders to our personality. This will give us enough discrimination to differentiate right from wrong. We will soon understand the futility of meaningless gossip and passing unnecessary judgement on the character of others and thus will be speaking less and criticizing less.

This happens because God starts to work through us and brings about internal change is us. Conserving our energy in positive manner gives us clarity of thoughts and frees our mind from worldly clutter. Having attained peace of mind in this manner, the mind can now easily discard worldly logic and be fine tuned to listen to the inner guidance and act as per its directions. When we are acting as per directions of God we can never go wrong.
Vandana Ritik

Love All Love God

When we say that we love God, it automatically follows that our love now extends to entire humanity. Humanity is creation of THAT creator. Not loving HIS creation would mean disregarding and disrespecting HIS existence thereby implying that our love for HIM is superficial.

Often we hear learned people saying that they love God and love everyone. However, it is easier said than done. The very same people will be seen judging others, telling others what is wrong in their behavior and how to behave rightly etc without realizing that each and everyone behaves in a particular manner due to various reasons (karmic, Prarabdh etc) which one cannot comprehend with his limited knowledge. We do not know why a person behaves in a particular manner because we know only about his present lifetime and not his past births.

Loving God means accepting each and everyone just the way they are and not passing any judgments. Everything that God has created is in perfection. All that we see around us and also what we cannot see or feel through our five senses is result of that Divine Will. Therefore, it has to be PERFECT. What is perfect need not be judged.

Our Shastras are full of stories where one person’s bad behaviour (like Kekayi in Ramayana) has resulted in destruction of demons. With our limited capabilities we cannot judge what the cause of someone’s action is and what will be the ultimate result of that action. Keeping this in mind, if we stop judging others, and love everyone equally we will be reflecting back what we have got - God’s Love back to HIS creation.

True divine love is impartial. It knows no difference. The Sun, the Moon, the Trees - The Nature offers its love, services, comfort & grace to all equally without any discrimination. We are also part of this creation and most intelligent of all then why do we distinguish when it comes to giving out love. It could be because we consider ourselves and others separate from each other. This is mine, that is theirs etc.

While interpreting a verse of The Bhagvad Gita, Shirdi SaiBaba has very kindly explained that “the disciple also is in fact of the same swarupa(form). But, it is overlaid by the effect of the samaskaras(impressions) of innumerable births in the shape of ignorance, which hides from his view that he is Shuddha Chaitanya (pure divinity)(see B.G. Ch. V-15). As stated therein, he gets the impressions - "I am Jiva(a creature) humble and poor." The Guru(spiritual guide) has to root out these offshoots of ignorance and has to give upadesh or instruction. To the disciple, held spell-bound for endless generations by the ideas of his being a creature, humble and poor, the Guru imparts in hundreds of births the teaching - "You are God, you are mighty and opulent." Then, he realizes a bit that he is God really”. In a state of ignorance, the human believes that I am a Jiva (creature), Body is the soul (I am the body), God, world and Jiva are different, I am not God, Not knowing that body is not the soul and Not knowing that God/ world /Jiva are one. Unless these errors are exposed to his view, the disciple cannot learn what is God, jiva, world, body; how they are inter-related and whether they are different from each other, or are one and the same.

Our body is vehicle of our soul and our soul is part of Divine Spirit. We have what God has but in our ignorance we fail to understand this and feel that we are different, separate and better than others. When in ignorance we compare ourselves with others we are admitting that we are separate from each other which is not true.

Now that we realize we are God really, it means the whole humanity is God indeed. If that be so we are all One with the creation and creator. If there is no separation, there can be no comparison and difference. All deserve love without any discrimination.

It is a fact that divinity is embedded in our inner being (we being his creation). Thus, we have vast ocean of divine love flowing gently within us. We all are full of Love and we are not even aware of this. All we have to do is to accept this fact, realize it, tap it and shower our inner divine Love outwards - towards whole humanity. What we give out we get back. Therefore, this greatest gift of God that we have- LOVE, is meant to be shared impartially with everyone so that it easily comes back to us too. SOW love REAP love.

Vandana Ritik

Heritage of Shirdi Sai
New Delhi

WHO is God?

When I was young, I thought that God was some kind of a judge who was sitting somewhere beyond the moon and the stars, who was looking at me and whatever I was doing. Sometimes I would think, may be God is too busy to observe my tiny day to day actions. Why will God bother himself with my daily routine? When I am doing something for myself and not harming others, God will not bother about me. God always observes us when we do something significant and different from our daily routine etc. etc. I had heard that when we die, we stand before someone on the gates of that God’s land who measures our good and bad deeds on some sort of balancing machine and we are allowed to enter Gates of heaven when our good deeds out weigh our bad deeds and Gates of Hell when bad deeds out number our good deeds. Heaven is a beautiful and good place and Hell is very dreadful. As I did not wish to end up in Hell and being punished there, I would read holy scriptures to find what are Good deeds and what are bad deeds and it was so very difficult to understand them. Sometimes being good to others hurts ourselves and our near dear ones and sometimes being bad to others was good for someone else. It was so very confusing. I always ended up thinking that when I died, I will be punished because I was finding it so very difficult to keep everyone happy and above all keep myself happy.

Later, I thought, there were number of Gods depending upon which religion one follows and supposing one converts oneself into another religion, the new God will take over. Being Hindu, I had heard there are 84 lakhs Gods and Goddesses and I would wonder whom I should pray to because each God represented one dominant trait. It was all so confusing again. I would bow down before all Gods of different religions and pray to them for giving me true knowledge on the subject.

My elder son was 4-5 year old when he asked me innocently, ‘Mom, why are we born?’ and I was answer less so I directed him to his grandfather to find the answer who replied, ‘Good question, when you grow up you will come to know the answer’. Honestly, that day I really felt so very foolish that I could not satisfy this query of my son. What was the use of my academic qualification? We do not get answer to such question in Science, Commerce or Art books.

I started reading religious and spiritual books to find answer to above question. I understand that our first aim in this life is Self realization - realize that we are ‘pure soul’ and not body and our ultimate aim is God realization - strive to merge our soul with the Divine Spirit. But still I was not sure of the answer to our reason for existence or who and where is that divine spirit, we all call God?

Many years later a tragedy struck my life and I was full of questions myself on Where is God? What is the use of God in my life? What can God do for me? Does God help me when I am suffering? Do prayers work? Where do we go after we die? Where is this heaven and hell? And this time I was not scared of any punishment. I realized I had to refresh my thinking on the subject and that my knowledge about God till date was all wrong. God is not what I had been thinking for all these years or what I see in pictures. These are all symbols or symbolic of God but God was something else, much larger and beyond my so called earthly perceptions. Now my younger son asked, ‘Why do we die?’ This time also I wanted answers.

To overcome my grief, I started to meditate and as I was in so much emotional pain, I guess, some cord of me struck the God and changed my understanding of God. God was no longer a person with imaginable human form. Thinking of God in human figure is initial stage of our journey towards self realization. When we lose a loved one, only the body is left behind and the energy giving life to that body goes back into Universe. Nothing is lost. Heaven and Hell is just in our thoughts. God is not sitting in judgement over anyone simply because God is not separate from us. It is not God, it is us judging ourselves and decide how we are going to live our life

I feel that God is infinite and limitless. God pervades everything in this universe and beyond. God is sum total of all living and non living things around us. God is everything we see, feel, experience or touch. God is active and alive each and every second. God is in my existence and I am in existence of God. God is energy that pulsates and glows in all animate and inanimate creations around us. Everything we sense around us is God. In fact, God is much more because our understanding of God is limited by what we perceive through our five senses. What about that part of God which our five senses cannot recognize or register? It does not mean that IT does not exist. Thus, I feel God is EVERYTHING and God is NOTHING. What we can sense is God and what we cannot sense is also God. God is pure existence, knowledge and bliss. All the Gods and Goddesses are different pure qualities of nature which are blemish free. Nothing is separate. God is in us and we are in God. ALL IS ONE. ALL IS GOD AND GOD IS ALL. This is why it is said that though different religions believe in different concept of God but in actual GOD IS ONE. Once a human understands and internalises this concept, he experiences, what we call as BLISS.

Vandana Ritik
New Delhi

Living Angels

When we are on earth, time to time, God sends unseen as well as living Angels to help us fulfil our purpose of coming to the earth. These angels surround us during times of distress. They offer us their shoulder to take respite in times of trouble and make us mentally strong to be able to cope with our stress. Our parents are our first living angels. They stand by us unconditionally. A true and loving angelic parent will always put the needs of its child before own needs. They understand the mood and nature of their child and accept them as they are and do not complain. They thank God for sending such a beautiful child in their life and continue to lend their unconditional support to their child through out their lives without asking anything in return. God bless our parents who always understand our woes even before we could utter a word to them. They standby and support their child like a grand shield through thick and thin. I am truly lucky to have such parents in my life for whom I am the centre around which their whole life and existense revolves. Their main aim in life is see that their child - their God given responsibility - is happy and content and God bless them they do not ask me to do anything for them in return. I cannot ever imagine if this debt can ever be repayed.

Only way this debt can be repayed is that I also reciprocate their love and affection unconditionally and pass on this divine quality of unconditional love to my own children. For parents, their children are Angels - their source of joy - their purpose of enjoying life while at the same time fulfilling the mission of life i.e., self realisation and God realisation. It is said that once you have good solid support on your home ground half the battle is won. Then you can take on the whole world because your foundation being sound and secure.

However, when I look around I find many such children and parents between whom this unconditional love doesnot flow freely. How hard and tough life!!! How insecure both the parties are. It would be great if these people developed the angelic qualities in themselves and spread love and security around atleast for family members. Afterall, we get those very souls as our relatives in this lifetime with whom we have some balance karma to settle from the previous births.

Apart from parents, siblings and relatives we find more living angels in friends we make during our lifetime. Here also a true angel would be that friend who loves you unconditionally and doesnot even question you if you have let him down because he doesnot expect anything from you in return of his support and help. Purpose of unconditional love is to multiply its magnitude and spread this love as wide as possible. I am really thankful to God for giving me some real good friends as Angels. One of them has stood by me for the last 20 years and during my recent crisis while most of my friends turned out to be'mere acquaintances' and started avoiding me lest their lives doesnot get 'infected' by my tragedy, this friend kept in touch and not even once complained that I was not calling her. She understood my state and tolerated my indifference and is patiently waiting for me to come to terms with my loss in my own time. This is an unconditional support from a living angel when even so many relatives backed off. Apart from this I have three other known Angels at my work place who help me in understanding the spiritual lesson arising out of my tragedy. I do hope and wish that I am also an Angelic friend to someone.

So many times, in our day to day lives, we come across strangers who act as living angels. These are people who help us in so may different and wide ranging ways because they love humanity as whole and do not want anything untoward happening to anybody around them. For example, these angels could help us in finding way if we are lost, render their valuable advice without any fees, alert us of any danger lurking in dark, take an accident victim to nearby hospital, let go off their taxi for you so that you can reach airport in time, warn us of consequences of our action because they have experienced it themselves and now do not want others to suffer, return you your lost mobile, wallet, books, credit cards etc. etc. The aim of these angels is to feel good and spread goodness around.

We come across such angels not just by accident. It is God, who brings them around us. These are actually God sent angels to help and support us. Let us try and become such living angels ourselves. Lets make it a habit to help atleast one person a day with an act of kindness. When we respond to someone with kind words, when we listen to someone patiently, when we offer our services without any selfish reasons - these all actions amount to angelic acts of God through us. I pray to God to make me his instrument and through me help as many people as possible while living out my life on this earth. May God make me worthwhile for the whole mankind.

Vandana Ritik

New Delhi

Thanks my Angels

Sometime ago, I read a book by Dr Doreen Virtue on Angel Numbers and was hooked to it. Suddenly, it was making sense. So very often I had seen a car pass by with licence plate no. as 4444, 7777 etc. I would look at clock suddenly and would see time 11:11. I now began to understand that this way my angels were speaking with me. By showing me these nos. they were trying to get my attention to them. Every no. had a different meaning and message from my angels. I just had to fine tune in to understand the message and the significance it had in my present life. As time passed, the puzzle became easy to solve.

As a human being, we see and believe only those things which are visible to us, about which we have learnt and read in books, scientifically proven otherwise we do not believe in them. But after losing my elder child, I understood something different. My sixth sense was communicating with me. In one of my dreams I heard a message from a voice that said 'Just because you cannot see, it doesnot mean that it doesnot exist'. Yes these Angels exist. My own conscience lets me know that I am getting communication from that unseen side. And I am sure I am not going nuts.

Everyone comes into this world and creates own reality. Each and every experience opens another level of understanding in us. Tougher the experience, higher the understanding. Loss of my son, awakened me to understanding why I was suddenly felt some sort of energy around me in the room even when it was not visible. Everything would be perfectly fine and working and suddenly the ceiling fan in the room would stop for a second (without anyone touching the switch) and would start revolving again on its own. In earlier days, I used to take it as voltage fluctuation but no more. How come my computer, TV and everything was working fine. Why did other electronic system did not react to voltage fluctuation, if it did happen. I felt that this energy around us can easily manipulate the energy of electronic items. The more I understood this and started thanking my Angels (my departed son, SaiBaba, God - the spirit), the more it started happening.

My husband would get a call from me on his mobile and when he would call back, I would be surprised that I did not even touch my mobile at that time and when he would again check up his mobile he would not find any missed call from me. But it did happen. So who did it?????

I realised that more I muttered a 'thanks' to my Angels for doing this to us, the more it happened. Noticing so many triple and master nos. and time everyday was one of them. It is just a matter of learning to first believe, then understand and later to communicate with our unseen angels. I believe they respond only when asked or requested for otherwise they leave us alone and come up to communicate with us only when we are in a state of shock or grief because at that time a human being is totally in awe and in surrender to this Universe. Afterall, I noticed my angels only when I was in grief. But why wait for grief if one can learn to communicate with them during times of happiness. Have you ever noticed that you were thinking of some song lyrics and when suddenly you turn on the stereo or switch on the TV, that very same song is being played or telecast and you attribute it to your intuition.

One has to experience it to believe it and for that one has to be sensitive enough to notice these paranormal things happening in our daily lives everyday - things which do not have any logical explaination. In another dream, I got another message 'Universe is full of knowledge, you just have to access it' . This gave me a validation that I was on right track. Universe was offering me so much information. I had just to tune in my conscience frequency to try, decipher and understand the hidden message.

I would stand in front of this Plumera flower tree in my backyard and request my unseen Angels to drop a flower right in front of my eyes. I waited but it did not happen. Next day I gave it five minutes of time to let the flower drop on its own. It did not happen I went inside home and had to come back later due to some work in that area. I was looking at the tree and it happened. The plumera flower fell on its own and there was no breeze at all. I thanked my angels and learnt to give them time to fulfil my wish. One year later, now everytime I stand under this tree, Plumera drops on its own. Universe has heard my silent wish and is fulfilling the same just the way I wanted it. I understood that between making a wish and manifestation of that wish there is a time gap sometimes it is very short and sometime its longer but every wish a human makes does manifest itself in totality. And I never forget to thank my Angels for taking note of my every wish.

Till date, Angels have heard so many of my prayers and fulfilled so many of my tiny, silly wishes regarding my personal, materialistic and spiritual needs that I am absolutely sure that there is an unseen power in this universe which takes note of all my actions, intentions and thoughts (yes angels communicate easily through thoughts). I am important in this Universe and I am being taken care of and being loved by those beautiful angels out there. I thank my angels for making their presence known to me.

Vandana Ritik
New Delhi

PS: Angels are all those loving souls which may or may not be visible to human eyes. They are God's we worship. As Hindu, my angels or ascended masters are SaiBaba, Hanuman, Ram, Durga, Krishna, Shiva, Parvati, Ganpathi. Our departed loved ones also become our Angels and look after us from that side. As we are not spiritually grown enough, angels communicate mostly through symbols, signs, numbers, manipulating or co-inhabiting with nature, animals(pets), electronic items and above all through 'thoughts'. All Angels understand us what we are actually. They know our past, present and future and work in unison with Universe for our own Good.