How to shake off Suffering ?

Whenever something happens which is not as per our liking, it hurts us. Why? This happens because we feel out of control. As a human we always want to be in control and in-charge of our life. We want life to follow a certain pattern of our choice. We work out our day to day life accordingly. We like to work in a routine manner. And for sometime this works fine till one day……something unexpected happens all of a sudden. There is a change – a big change in our routine. It could be anything – being deceived by a trusted friend, robbery, dreaded disease, accident, loss of a loved one, loss of job, non promotion, false charges, scandal, arrest, rejection by parents etc.

First thing we do in such circumstances is to start reasoning it out – What, Why, When, Where, How? We somehow are convinced that some lack of action on our part has resulted in this situation and it could have been avoided had we been alert. Thus we lose our peace of mind because internally we hold ourselves responsible why because over the years we have been aware of operation of that spiritual law – As you Sow, So shall you Reap.

As long as it was happening as per our liking we were Ok with it. But it is not always as per our liking.New age thinking also agrees that We Create Our Own Reality i.e., whatever is happening in our life is result of our own thoughts, actions and words. To an extent it is true also because God has made human being intelligent enough to be able to discriminate black from white and then make right choice. But sometimes this carefully made ‘right choice’ back fires completely and leaves us in state of shock. It is at this point that we start to understand our own helplessness and ultimately understand the presence of a bigger divine force operating this entire Universe. Meaning of word ‘destiny’ now becomes clear. Certain parts of our life are preordained and do take place despite all our efforts to prevent it

As human being our understanding and intelligence is limited to knowledge of this world that we have learnt about in educational institutions from childhood. We know about subjects like geography, history, maths etc but we have no awareness of spiritual knowledge – the unseen world beyond earthly dimensions. This is where FAITH comes in. Faith means believing in the power of the unseen which is beyond logical perception of an ordinary human being. I believe what my heart says even though my logical mind doesnot agree with it.

We have to understand that there could be many reasons behind our suffering about which we have no clue. To get out of our suffering if there is a way out, we should work on it and try to sort out. However, if nothing is going to change the situation than we have two options (a) to remain in depression and negativity rest of the life (b) Use our intellect to choose and concentrate on the most positive fall out of the event and move on with life holding head high once again. Do not feel complexed just because others have not suffered they way you have. Face the situation as listed below:

1. Staying connected with God is most important. Do not make yourself miserable thinking that you are all alone in your suffering;

2. During time of pain and inner conflict, we can connect with God more easily. What human beings cannot explain, this connection with the Power will reveal to you on its own;

3. While carrying on with day to day life talk mentally to God often. Honestly confess to God exactly how you are feeling. Prayers can be mostly non-repetitive, different and unique each time. This is because our life is ever changing, never constant Don’t wait to enter sanctity of a worship place to say your prayers. Say it wherever you are with firm belief that God is with you always;

4. Do not burden yourself thinking you are bothering God a lot by calling HIM all the time. Find out what lesson we have learnt up from the event;

5. Try to go through the situation quietly without trying to gossip about it. Do not criticize and publicly scandalize about person(s) involved in the situation. Talk to that person alone;

6. This is the time to get to know and get connected with God. Prayer helps a lot in healing our physical and mental self;

7. Try to look at ‘have nots’ those who have suffered more than you. If you try to compare yourself with people doing well it will make you more miserable;

8. Sometimes some bad event cuts us off from ‘our’ world. Do not feel bad about it. God wants you to learn something on your own during this period;

9. Do not say you are feeling lonely, say that you are in solitude working on your inner self;

10. Utilise this free time to introspect, listen to inner self, doing something you have always wanted to do but could not do earlier due to your busy-ness in ‘your’ world. Take rest during this 'break' and try to relax and be with yourself for sometime;

11. During your tough time it is very easy to find who are your true and genuine friends and relatives;

12. What you do in your free time during trial times indicates what sort of character you have. Try to do something constructive and keep yourself busy – read, write down your feelings in a letter to God everyday, paint, meditate, pray, attend some short term course etc;

13. Stay in touch with only those positive people who understand you and encourage you. Keep away from people who simply want to know more details about your situation or those whose presence depresses you further;

14. Sometimes we are not supposed to face the situation boldly and take any severe action. There are times when we have to simply bear the situation and pass through it. This happens in those serious situations e.g. loss of loved one, suffering from terminal disease etc. Comfort yourself that by passing through it your karmic debts are being settled. Realise that Divine Supreme power is in control. Que Sera Sera;

15. Know and believe that not all suffering/ setback/ accidents/ sickness etc in your life is coming as a punishment to you. Stop questioning ‘Why me?’ Most of time you will not get answer to this question. So do not torture yourself. God doesnot want you to know it right now. So wait with hope. Sometimes, finding answers to such questions is the purpose of taking birth in this life time;

16. Do not judge yourself harshly. Understand that to err is human. We all make mistakes. So its OK if I make it or someone else makes it;

17. Do not forget that biggest test of human character and wisdom comes from how he faces difficult times. People develop lot of respect for people who have learnt to face the touch times of life with calm and ease. Such people can help transmute their pain by helping others in similar pain by counseling them;

18. Ancient scriptures have advised us to remain calm in both the situations –when we are at the peak or when we are at the rock bottom. Therefore, showoff during good times as well as bad times should be strictly avoided. Actually good or bad is all in our mind. God wants us to treat every event in our life in a normal manner. Do not get excited at success and do not get depressed during suffering. Embrace the pain for a while but do not hold on to it. Feel it, experience it and let it go;

19. Know that everything happens for learning, betterment and spiritual growth of our soul. It is time to understand that we are not body but soul - which is so pure, divine and eternal;

20. When you are totally clue less about your situation feed yourself with positive thoughts as inscribed in holy scriptures by great Saints - whatever is happening in your life is pre-ordained and for this reason it has to be for your own good which you cannot see right now;

21. Like academic examinations, Life also takes test(s) of our wisdom and inner spiritual growth. The results of these tests in our life are totally unpredictable and sometimes unknown to our limited human psychic;

22. Sometimes these learnings are actually God’s way of preparing us for doing bigger work for ourselves and ultimately HIM;

23. Life is a continuous process. This thought gives a heart in pain lot of comfort. From one life to another we carry alongwith us our respective karmic accounts with us which are checked in between two lives by the Divine. You may have missed some rewards you thought you deserved on earth but the Lord does not miss even the smallest act of kindness you ever thought or did on earth. Know that everything has been accounted for. You are precious child of God and you will be rewarded for your work done on earth in the heaven in a manner which you cannot even imagine;

24. Envision the solution to the problem, believe in it, see it, focus on it. Stop talking about the problem Talk to the problem itself. Sometimes, there are no solutions e.g. in case of death or terminal disease. We are simply supposed to walk through a problem and when we reach the end of it, we have learnt a lesson, grown spiritually, become stronger, more wiser;

25. It really helps if before start of daily routine, we spend some time all alone with ourselves in silence, feel the presence of God, read his word from some holy scripture etc. This way we are better prepared to face our day with least possible stress. Outside noise and activity creates lot of stress in us during the day;

26. Sometimes we find that as we pass through our suffering we are left all alone. Most of our so called relatives and friends have gone out of touch. Never mind you will learn the lesson of telling true from fake after this. You cannot blame them because they just cannot understand what you are going through and they do not know what to say to you. So forgive them;

27. During tough times, pray to God to help us, work out solution. But avoid discussing your problem in a negative manner. We often pray for solution and then go and talk out with our friends how bad the situation is and nothing is going to work out. Talk to ease your pain, for upliftment, for getting positive vibes but don’t gossip about your problem just for the sake of talking;

28. Sometimes while undergoing a trial time, we do not feel like smiling. Don't smile. But atleast stop yourself from presenting a sad, pathetic and suffering outlook. People do not want to interact with people who continue to stay in suffering and cling on to their pain. Fake a smile if you can. But do not brood for long because then not only your friends will avoid you but even your relatives also would like to keep away;

29. Try to be in company to those who are encouraging you to come out of your pain gently and intelligently. Some people use this time to drag you down the spiral and take you to the path of harmful addictions. Save yourself. This is time to be strong mentally, physically and emotionally. You have to put in extra effort and drag yourself out of your pain (with or without any help from others);

30. Do not look down upon yourself in any manner. Some people love to stay in guilt and make rest of their lives miserable. Be kind, gentle and loving to yourself. Have faith in yourself. Always remember that it is the EGO which loves to clings to pain. Ego loves to reconstruct that hurtful event or situation again and again in mind. Therefore, consciously, on purpose, try to shake off your pain. Think highly about yourself simply because people who have not suffered in life do not understand what you are going through. Have compassion for such people. Sooner or later, they will also have to understand what pain is all about. Forgive them and Forgive yourself.

To spend rest of our life we have better think of positive aspect of our problem with FAITH and then be PATIENT to let GOD step in and HELP. We do not know what karmic debts we cleared off by suffering this particular loss. We have to be thankful to our ‘enemies’ (be it event, people or circumstances) for making us stronger. We have to remember that this life is a journey towards eternity and we are supposed to enjoy the journey with all its plus and minus till we reach our destination - WHEN NOTHING MATTERS.

Vandana Ritik

New Delhi

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 happiness leaves us?

We are living in a state of comfort and contentment facing various ups and downs of our life with ease and yet are unable to remain in a state of peace and joy permanently.

Our problem is that moment someone comes into our life – person or event – which is not to our liking, we start questioning with a view to find reason behind – those upsetting words or event. We should actually be focusing on how to handle it to stop any further damage to us, our family or our environment. But we lose our focus and get entangled in finding faults in person or event which caused us distress. This cannot be undone because it is past.

Our major questioning is related to finding answers to five Ws – Why, What, When, Where, Who/Which. We do this questioning because we start to feel out of control at the fact that someone/ something has had audacity to disturb our calm world. Thus we spoil our present.

As we start to analyse our mind loses its peace, we go completely out of control. We start feeling depleted and even show our disgust to our loved ones. This inner turmoil surely affects our outer world and our family life. And our Happiness starts to walk away from us. Thus we spoil our future as well.

Who caused this? We are responsible for whatever is happening in our life. Similarly, if something is not working out fine in others’ lives, it is their responsibility. I cannot feel guilty if something went wrong in someone’s life. How I react to it is in my hands. If I can help and the other person permits me to help, then its fine and I can go ahead otherwise I have to move away without feeling guilty. I can pray to God to deal with that person or situation as HE deems fit and bring justice to all involved.

It is our attitude, our response to any bad situation in life which will determine our peace of mind. Instead of wasting my time and energy on 5 Ws, I could spend my time in finding way out of my problem, it would help me retain my peace and happiness with me.

We fail when we try to control the world. We have to remember that God is in control. HE is the wire-puller. We just cannot accept that we have been ineffective. May be that’s the way God wanted it to happen. We have to cultivate faith that whatever is happening in my life – good or bad – is for my ultimate benefit. The believers in God are trained to put their trust in the power of unseen and wait for the the rewards in the afterlife.

This life is just a tip of an iceberg that we see. What we cannot see is that beneath this tip lies huge, hidden secrets of universe which we just cannot fathom with our limited worldly knowledge. There is something vast beyond our imagination. We are part of big play of God. This is true for each and every person around us and also for each natural element. There is a reason for every happening. We just get to see and experience the tip and feel pain. There is a big reason which we are not allowed (by God) to see and we feel miserable.

I have to learn that I cannot change others. I can change my attitude and look at the problem with a view to find something positive in it because negative thought will always pull me down. Every issue has two sides to it. Howsoever hard it may be, I have to find the positive aspect and focus on it to remain happy. Fox was clever. She called unreachable grapes sour and walked off retaining her pride.

Human Being has to be smarter and look for spiritual lessons and leanings from all bad happenings of life. It is up to me whether I want to keep those hurtful words / painful situations in my memory or learn from them and move on with life. I cannot spend rest of my life in remorse or pain. Shake it off and press through this journey of life.

Enjoy your life experiences and company of diverse people you meet in the route. Remember, once we reach the destination, all will be over and done with. Performance of each and every one of us will be assessed. Not even a ‘tiny thought’ will be ignored. God is the ultimate JUDGE. Do not try to play HIS role.

God has given the ‘remote control’ of my life in my hands. I cannot give its control in someone else’s hands and go out of control myself. I have to learn to control my thoughts, emotions and feelings wisely as per my own inner divine guidance that God has filled me up with. I cannot let others influence it. I have to let me be myself and express my inner goodness wherever needed and above all permitted (by the receiver). Sometimes people won’t let you do anything for them just because they have this huge ego about them. Leave them alone. They may accuse you of not helping them. Know that God has earmarked someone else to take care of them and relax.

Do not let any situation, person or relationship become so powerful in your life so as to make you lose your peace of mind. Take charge of your happiness in your hands. If you want to be happy no matter what the circumstances than none can snatch it from you. Just try to feel and behave like God in any given situation. Let the positive forces of Universe surround you always.

Vandana Ritik
New Delhi

Life is a Note Book

Life is like a blank Note Book that we bring along at the time of our birth on earth. In this Note Book we write down our earthly experiences and life stories. We write down a record of our actions, reactions, influences and lessons etc that we learnt in each life time. Our actions and reactions on earth affect many individuals around us and they become part of our soul group because we will have to come back to settle our interpersonal karmic scores with them if they are not finished in our present life time. Our actions may also affect our environment and society too which will have to be settled in future births.

We take our Life Note Book back when our life time ends. We go back to Paradise - our real HOME - and review our life story and decide which lessons are left to be learnt and what karmic debts remain unsettled. With the help of heavenly counselors, we make a blueprint of our next lifetime on earth in such a way that it will not only help us learn many more lessons but will also settle our past karmic debts of either giving or receiving from members of our soul group. Sometimes soul(s), other than from our group, volunteer to help us in next life time to help us complete our unfinished lessons. Sometimes, some high level souls, volunteer to suffer a big pain – physical, mental, material – so as to learn many lessons in one lifetime. This is because pain is supposed to be the biggest teacher in any lifetime. Suffering a pain/trauma in one lifetime renders learning of many lessons unnecessary.

Before labeling someone as sinner, just because you see that person suffering in life, STOP and THINK again. The person could be a courageous soul who has volunteered to take challenges and learn many lessons in one single lifetime itself. Similarly, do no judge yourself and stop torturing yourself by thinking that ALL your sufferings are result of some bad karma. Some souls volunteer to take sufferings on themselves to teach their loved ones some lessons necessary for their growth.e.g, kindness, helping, understanding, giving, serving etc. Sometimes seeing suffering of one person, society learns to take big steps to prevent the same happening to others. This soul could have agreed to suffer for uplifting the consciousness of the general public. If you label such a person as sinner, you could be making a wrong judgement and thus adding on to your own karmic debts. Therefore, Avoid 'postmartem' of victims of pain, trauma, accidents, deadly diseases. Let God/Universe or their own higher self judge them.

It depends on the soul whether it wants to learn many lessons in one life time or few lessons each time spread over many life times. Wise men know this secret and therefore do not try to judge the conduct of other souls around them. Wise men have advised us to follow our own life path with a calm state of mind and observe Silence i.e., refrain from commenting on life patterns of others because we do not know what lessons they are learning. Telling others about what is wrong in their life pattern means not agreeing to the Laws of Universe thus creating further karmic debts and adding more chapters to the Life Note Book.

We take re-birth in that particular environment and family where learning all the chosen lessons for this lifetime will be possible. Needless to say that we choose our own parents and social Circle before taking on human body depending upon our soul needs. We bring back our Life Note Book and start writing a new chapter of the new life time. Our soul knows that we are starting at the point where we had finished off in previous lifetime. When we are reading a book, keep it aside for sometime and again comeback to read it, we start from where he had left it unfinished. We do not start reading it afresh. Similar with Life Note Book.

To make life easy for us, God erases the memory of past lifetimes from our physical mind. This is the Gift of God that we bring with us in new lifetime. Further, God promises that if we continue to stay in touch with him, our lessons will be learnt within stipulated time and once we have finished learning for that particular lifetime, we will be called back HOME. This explains why some die old while some die young, why some survive big crashes while others die due to a minor illness. Death is a means to stop writing chapter of that lifetime and exit. Death takes place when lessons assigned for that lifetime have been learnt. We may learn them soon and go early. That is why we say Life and Death are not in control of human beings.

Further, all lessons that we learnt in previous life times keep on adding and we bring them back with us as already inbuilt samskars (soul impressions) and therefore they need not be learnt again. Sometimes, we come back with those samskars only which are sufficient enough to learn lessons of this particular lifetime only. We can compare it to our education at school. We cannot recall what all we studied till 10th grade but still that is sufficient for admission to the next grade once we have passed the final exam. It is automatically presumed that we already know and understand the academic knowledge taught till 10th grade.

This explains how one child is sharp in a particular discipline in early childhood itself. It is not a miracle. These talents have already been learnt before, imprinted on the soul and carried forward from the previous lifetimes. This also explains the reasons for inequality in society. All souls are at different levels of learning as recorded in their Life Note Book.

This process goes on life after life and new chapters are added to our LIFE Note Book. Each individual has a separate Life Note Book containing all pastlife records. Each soul is the actor and director of its own Life Story. An actor plays different roles, lives different characters in many films without losing his own original self. With each film his performance improves and talent sharpens. Similarly, a soul takes on many bodies, lives many lifetimes, and improves its learning, adds on to its knowledge. The soul suffers because unlike the actor, it forgets its original state of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss in the process. More the delay in regaining the lost memory, longer the Life Note Book becomes.

The God – Universe helps in writing a better script provided the soul volunteers and remembers to take the help. A soul is given free-will to exercise this option of staying close to God during earth life time. This divine intervention helps to keep the script short and crisp. When the soul has experienced all the human dimensions and realized its own True Nature, the last chapter of Life Note Book completed and the Life Note Book is finished.

Wise men always prefer to be in touch with God – the inner consciousness, and write their Life Note Book in as few chapters as possible. Unwise men go astray. The Life Note Book runs in pages, chapters and volumes and they remain entangled in vicious cycle of life & death and the Life Note Book remains unfinished. As a soul, we have the option to choose and decide how voluminous or brief, the script of our Life Note Book should be.

Vandana Ritik

New Delhi

Picture Courtsey: shirdisaibababhajan.blogspot.com

Why we feel Unhappy?

We do not understand the reason but we know that we are not feeling good about ourselves. We blame people around us for causing us unhappiness. We blame our relatives, friends, office colleagues, servants, driver or anyone for making us unhappy. We even blame our pets, weather, traffic, TV serials, music, stock prices so many more things in the world just because we are not feeling good about ourselves. We have that feeling of emptiness within us and we do not know the real reason behind this.

Spiritually speaking, this means feeling disconnected with the source of our creation –God. We miss being in our own home – the heaven – with our own father – the God. Our soul has the memory of our origin but when we are on earth this part of memory is removed from our conscious as well as sub-conscious mind. However, when we sit in meditation and try to use our third eye of mind, we are able to access this part of our memory from our Super conscious mind. We go deeper into meditation and we can access collective universal knowledge which is always available in Universe but is accessible to only those who are truly interested and practice meditation regularly and genuinely. At this stage, the Universe reveals all to the meditator provided he is intense and ready enough to receive and assimilate such knowledge. Like a child in fourth grade cannot be given knowledge of eighth grade for simple reason that he will not be able to understand it at all.

So universe first looks to the willingness and readiness of the receiver. Once the receiver assimilates this knowledge, he is ready to move to the revelation of the next stage of knowledge and it goes on till all the lessons are received, learnt and experienced by the concerned soul. A soul has to take many births to reach the final stage of Salvation i.e., freedom from cycle of birth and death. It is at this stage that one feels completely happy and does not desire anything because he realizes the futility of all worldly objects.

Materially speaking, we feel unhappy when we realize that we have not stepped out and helped others in need. Haven’t you noticed how happy you feel if you could help someone to resolve his problem? It gives us immense joy to know that our action has been cause of happiness to the other person. In actual, we feel happy to make ourselves happy. It gives us a sense of feeling worthwhile. However, sometimes we are not able to do anything for others either because we do not want to, or the party concerned is not interested in taking help from us or God does not wills it.

Yes, sometimes God wants people to handle their problems on their own instead of seeking help from others so that these people can grow in life. So, it is always advisable to help those who desire your help and deserve it. Sometimes, helping others, without them asking for it, ultimately ends in hurting us. Wise people say that we should definitely help those people who have asked for it. The reason being that when a person asks for our help that person is finally keeping his/ her ego aside and admitting that he/she cannot handle the situation on their own. Doing this is the most difficult task. Admitting our helplessness to others is not easy. Sometimes people will prefer suffering to asking for help. This happens because of their ego which will not let them ‘bow’ down or be humble. Most of us prefer to be in this state of feeling ‘powerful’ where we are in the position of a 'giver'. When we agree to receive without having to pay back we feel 'low' and 'insecure'. This belief is totally incorrect and needs to be looked at afresh.

God made his creation in such a way that we are all interdependent on each other. We all have to help each other. We have got relationships and friends in our life with whom we have to learn to first give unconditionally and then receive (not necessarily from them). Our relationships fail because we are giving with the intention of receiving back. 'Give' unconditionally because when you are giving, you are getting 'it' first and then 'it' flows away from you, only to come back to you again. Therefore, firstly 'give' what you want to 'get'. We all are teachers / students simultaneously as we all are teaching/ learning from each others. Give and Take, without any return, should come to us naturally.

However, if we stop ‘giving’ due to our selfishness or stop ‘accepting’ due to our pride coming in way, than we feel miserable. We are unhappy. We have stopped this flow of two way traffic. This happens because deep down inside our soul knows this is not the way God wants us to live. Have you noticed how giving hands are over and above the receiving hands. Sometimes, we have to ‘give’ the blessings and sometimes we have to ‘receive’ the blessings leaving our ego behind. Let the other person receive the blessings by helping you.

Whenever we deviate from the way God wants us to live, we feel unhappy. We anticipate some challenges on that road and to avoid that we choose the easy road instead and make excuse that we could not hear or understand the God’s word. Admitting our weaknesses is the toughest part so we start playing the blame game. It is always someone else responsible for our unhappiness. We have to understand that whatever is happening in our life is our own creation. We are solely responsible for our life situations. We have to go inwards to find out where our weakness is and rectify it. The biggest learning is that to feel happy or unhappy is my own personal choice others have got nothing to do with it.

Therefore, to feel happiness, we have to help all around us without any discrimination in every possible way. We all are unique children of God. We all have many virtues. Our Virtues will multiply and balance our karmic account if we donate them generously. Similary, when we receive services of other humbly, we are acting as instrument of God for blessing others. After all, God is using services of his creation to evolve the society.

How to Help - We can help other by giving a smile, giving a good listening, spending time, speaking words of appreciation, speaking encouraging words and mentally sending thoughts full of positive messages and hopes, removing fear, dropping to their place of work, taking them to their place of worship or even praying for them to God. Even living with good thoughts and maintaining a cheerful outlook affects our environment in a positive way. Looking after our family and meeting its needs keeps our family members secure and strong. United we stand divided we fall. So using our position and keeping the family together is a big help to the society as family is the foundation of society.

Wise people say charity begins at home. First and foremost we have to help our own self and treat ourselves with love and respect. Then we have to love and serve people in our home, neighbourhood, job. Finally we have to serve Society and the World.

Thus, there are so many possible ways to help all around us. Anything we say or do that makes other person feel happy about himself or his situation is called Service of God. But we are exercising discrimination most of the time. Sometimes we excuse ourselves from doing extra work by simply saying that God did not make me do it. Sometimes we prefer helping a beggar on the road and not our own relatives and friends only because they caused us hurt and now we want to hurt them.

When we have not been of any service to society for a long spell of time, our super consciousness sends messages which we are not able to interpret. The result is we feel miserable even when everything is going right for us in the world yet something is lacking. Therefore, it is advisable to be of service to all around us actively throughout the day; week and years for then none will be able to steal our inner peace, joy and happiness forever.

Vandana Ritik
New Delhi

The Vedantic Philosophy of Hindus

Hindu religion and its philosophy are mostly based on teachings contained in The Vedas, The Upanishads, The Brahma Sutras and The Bhagvad Gita. Sum total of all these is called - The Vedantic Philosophy. It is very vast, very deep and very sacred. The Bhagvad Gita is the last and the recent Hindu scripture which is said to have originated some thousand years ago. It contains the teachings of Lord Krishna (The Spirit/ Inner consciousness) to the warrior Arjuna (The Soul) in a battle field (of mind) giving us a detail of how to carry on our day to day life in the Kurukshetra (struggle to survive) of life. How a righteous human should destroy the army of close relatives and friends, Kauravas (evil tendencies), with a feeling of total detachment. Nothing belongs to the body. God pervades all.

2. We have to do our prescribed karma with disinterest and offer its fruit to the Lord. The moment we start to say that ‘I am doing it’, we are taking responsibility of our action and creating new karma. This karma will bear some fruit - good or bad – and we will have to take on a body to pay it off by either enjoying or suffering. So we should press on, do our prescribed duties and keep marching ahead in life maintaining a sense of calm whatever the circumstances, good or bad, thinking all to be the will of the merciful God. Whatever happens is preordained and therefore it must be for our own good. When all is predestined than none is responsible for my own hurts and resentments. All is happening as per Karmic and spiritual laws of the Universe, the Brahman. Therefore whatever is happening in our daily life good or bad, we should enjoy or bear it calmly without any show off or unnecessary brooding.

3. Vedas are not books written by any human being. Vedas are knowledge collected over the years about the laws and working of the spiritual worlds. Through Vedas we come to know about creation and its creator. Mostly such continuous flow of religious revelations were collected by number of ancient high and pristine souls of India. These Ascendant masters were both men and women referred to as MahaRishi, Muni, Acharya, Sadhus, Sants, Sages. They collected this information in a state of deep trance. This could be compared to Mediumship / Channeling of universal knowledge ages ago when surroundings were more pure and pristine. During meditation, when we go out of state of body consciousness and reach the state of universal collective consciousness, we can access all the existing information in the universe. Our ancient masters have given us vast information on various universal spiritual laws in operation which operate flawlessly and are indiscriminating. They are same for Deva (Angels) and Rakshas (Devils / Demons).

4. Vedas tell us that creation is without beginning and without end. It existed before and will continue to exist eternally simply because God is indestructible. Where was this energy, that we see around us, before it was created? The universe continues to survive. It was never absent. There never ever was a state of no-energy. We are thinking of only earth, what about other bodies in the universe? Can all be destroyed and vanish into oblivion? No, Universe can never become empty and blank. Modern Scientists have opined that sum total of all cosmic energy is same. Therefore, the world around us was never without creation. Only cyclical destructions occurred. God creates and then makes it survive for sometime and then it is again recycled to come back in fresh and new form. This way the creation undergoes changes and grows. We have been evolving over the centuries. The creator and its creation have been active throughout the Ages and both have been enjoying this process of experiencing and growing. This creation will never end. It will go on evolving for better simply because energy cannot be destroyed.

5. Vedas speak of concept of soul consciousness. It is not ‘I’ the body, it is the ‘soul which lives in the body’. I am a soul living in the body made of 5 elements. After the soul camping in body discards it and flows back to universal energy centre, the body will merge back into these 5 elements. Vedas tell us that knowledge of soul cannot be learnt through books. It has to be experienced by each and all since all have the capability to do so.

6. Vedas teaches us that we are suffering because we are living in a state of body consciousness (we forget that we are not body but soul). To us everything is related to body and its interaction with the outside world – my home, my relations, my work, my social circle, the geographic world around me. The moment we start to live in the state of soul consciousness, our perception of the world around us begins to change and our joys and sufferings make no sense anymore. We become equally calm whether we are successful or not. This happens because we learn to discriminate. We realize that whatever is happening to body and its surroundings is unreal. The real - the truth - is soul. Wise man says that we fail when we ‘think & feel’ we have failed and not when the world tells us so e.g. in some exam etc. A pure, loving, powerful and eternal soul can never fail. We may not think of God but God is always thinking of us. A Hindu considers himself as an instrument of God, a tool that God uses to enjoy his own creation.

7. Great Indian Saint Shirdi SaiBaba said that little turtles live on one side of the shore while their mother tortoise lives on the other. Her loving glance is sufficient for the survival of the young ones. The same is the effect of Lord’s merciful glance on to us.

8. 'I' am a 'Soul'- master of my body - living and experiencing earthly dimension while the Spirit lives in spiritual realm - my permanent HOME. On earth, if we carry on our worldly duties without getting attached to the results and do not forget our spiritual aspect then the God/Universal Laws takes over. The God now brings about internal changes in us in such a way that we become desire free. Now the comforts of world run after us but we are not interested because we have realized they are not real. Thus the Lord makes us reach our final destination and frees us from cycle of birth and death. Supposing there are ten steps between us and our final destination, the Lord has promised that he will take the nine steps towards our spiritual upliftment provided we take that first and vital step towards HIM.

9. A Hindu believes in reincarnation and law of cause and effect. When we see all inequality around us we have to understand that there has to be a cause behind it. There are some past actions behind our present circumstances. What is happening to us today is our own creation in the past. We invited these circumstances and situations into our life knowingly or unknowingly. It is here our intelligence and knowledge of spiritual laws contained in Vedantic Philosophy can play a big role to help us stop creating things which are not for our own good in particular and society in general.

10. Hinduism teaches us universality of God, the essence of pure love existence and bliss called Advaita i.e, God is One. The destination is same however means and ways to reach it differ depending upon level of spiritual growth each soul has reached. One has to see Self in All. None is different from Self. Self pervades all. Therefore whoever worships another divinity, thinking it is other than oneself, does not know.

11. All religions have two aspect exoteric and esoteric. On exoteric level, a Hindu worships an image/ idol as God. On esoteric level, the Hindu knows that God is omnipresent and is not present in that image/idol. He finds it easy to relate to an image/idol representing God because when he bows down before it he is actually connecting to that God who pervades all. This he does at the lower /new stage of devotion. As his devotion grows he reaches a higher stage where he saws the Supreme Almighty in all images. Hindus do not have a single God. Hindus have 84 lakhs Gods. Hindu sees God in all nature around. God manifests itself in all forms of nature.

12. So a Hindu has a Sun God, Moon God, Mother Earth, God of Wealth, God of Knowledge. Animals, Birds, Insects, Trees, Tools of a workman using which he earns his livelihood, Balancing Beams of a shop keeper etc are all considered auspicious and worshipped. River Gods, Ocean Gods, Each planet represents a God and so on. But there is no confusion because for a Hindu, each creation of that Creator represents God and it is therefore worth worshipping. This way a Hindu realizes ‘Singularity in Plurality’. It is just like a ray of light which when hits a prism produces multiple rays of colored lights but still not losing its originality.

13. To a Hindu, the God is that ‘thread’ which passes through all the pearls in a necklace making a complete Circle. Therefore, all is Divine. A Hindu believes in universal brotherhood and is tolerant to all religions because he sees God in all. All are our brothers and sisters because even though many amongst us are on different paths and taking different routes, the destination is same – to realize self and then to realize the ultimate divine truth – the Spirit. This is the reason that a Hindu respects all the religions and does not hesitate to bow his head in all places of worship viz., Temples, Church, Mosque, Gurudwara etc. Hundreds of Gods and Goddesses and different methods of worship do not confuse a real Hindu for he knows that these are only outward symbols representing God ultimately the God is One. Therefore, a Hindu will never say my God is better than your God and that you are committing a sin by not worshipping my God. This gives Hindus one of their great virtues - Power of Tolerance towards all the religions of the world. No wonder Biggest Hindu country India is a Secular country letting all its citizens follow their own religion and treating them all equally.

14. A Hindu sees divinity in all. Therefore, a Hindu believes in Ahimsa (non violence) and majority are vegetarians. They feel what we eat has an impact on our mind and ultimately on our pure soul. When an animal is killed for his flesh at that moment his adrenal and fear level is high and if we eat such a flesh it will affect our mind in similar ways and ultimately leave a poor samskar (impression) on our soul. However, despite this Hindu will never despise a fellow brethern for being a non vegetarian because he sees divine in him too. How can a person who will not kill an animal will cause injury to a fellow human. This is what tolerance has taught a Hindu. To live and let live.

15. Vedantic philosophy is engraved in each Hindu from childhood itself which says that when the mind is not yet developed enough, doing external form of worship (pratyaksh puja) is the first step in the path of God. Once the universal phenomenon of the Spirit is understood, a Hindu starts to offer mental prayers (manas puja) to the Lord. This is because he considers that thoughts are very powerful, where thoughts go, human follows. If we are constantly chanting God’s name (by controlling our constantly wavering mind) through Naam Jaap we are giving positive direction to our thoughts and in course of time we will become the Name we are chanting. Here the precondition is chanting of a single name or hymn with single minded devotion backed with firm faith and patience. Finally, the God has to be realized and experienced by the soul. Vedas have taught us about four methods of union with the ultimate - Four Yoga(not to be confused with physical exercises). Practice of either of these Yoga help us attain union with our Source and we attain the position of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.

16. To a Hindu this is the sole aim of taking human birth – first to know, learn, understand, contemplate and finally experience the Self. Ultimately, experience the Self with the Spirit. As per Vedas, this is the stage we become desire free forever. This is called the freedom from this unreal world of misery – the Moksha, the Nirvana.

17. The third largest religion of the world, for a Hindu, the entire Universe or Brahman is reflected in the sound and light of 'Aum' called as 'Amen' by the Christians, 'Amin' by the Muslims. Yes, ‘Sabka Malik Ek’ – The God is One.

Vandana Ritik

New Delhi

I am That

I am a pretty and soft Petal. I am part of the beautiful Flower but I am still a flower in my own right. I have same quality and attributes as the Whole Flower. I am beautiful. I am Unique. I am Wholesome and Complete. The flower cannot be flower without me. There are other Petals in the flower too. These petals also look like me though they are little different in color, shape and texture but their properties are also same as me. All together we form a beautiful flower. Flower is not flower without each of us. Each of us cannot survive without each other. We all need each other for our survival. We are incomplete without each other. We all are interdependent on each other. It is my false EGO which makes me say that 'I am not depending on any one else'.Similarly, I am a peaceful, loving and divine Soul in the Universe. I have my own light, knowledge and depth. There are other souls also though little different from me. All souls together form a huge incomprehensible Divine Spirit. The Soul is part of the Spirit and reflects its spark. The Soul has same properties as that of the Spirit. The Spirit shines and sparkles when Soul merges with it. None can survive without each other. The Soul takes a human body to feel and experience the bright knowledge of the cosmic Spirit. Spirit thrives in taking the Soul back into its fold for it increases its own brilliance.I cannot help but imagine how electric it would feel when after completing my 70-80 years of earth life I will go back and realise my place in the whole flower. How foolish of me to think that I am just a petal just because I cannot see the complete flower and my own important place in it. Thus, I have to learn to love each and every creation of the Spirit around me unconditionally to become the part of the Bloom.

Only the feeling of Love is Real which unites Soul with the Spirit. Till I realize and actualize this internally, I will be caught in cycle of birth and death. Once I start loving each and all as I, I would be earning the Master’s Degree from the University of the God – the Divine Spirit of Universe. Thereafter, I need not come back again to Earth School again.
I have to realize that I am that big ONE and that big One is 'I'. I have to understand and experience the Oneness of the Universe that 'I am the Spirit and the Spirit is I'. Ultimately, everything is illusion(Maya) except the only truth I AM THAT

Vandana Ritik

New Delhi