Methods to Overcome Personal Crisis

A Strategic Spiritual Approach to overcome any kind of personal challenge, especially loss of a loved one.  You may follow the link below to my Dissertation submitted for award of degree in Master of Science (Value Education & Spirituality), 2011-12

Overcoming Personal Challenges through Spirituality - My Research Study for Degree in Master of Science (Value Education & Spirituality),

Vandana Ritik Mulchandani
Noida

Laws of Karma

Dada Bhagwan has explained the science behind the law of Karma which I found to be very simple and easy to understand. I am making an effort to revise the same here under.  When we use the word Science, it means it follows certain rules and regulations.  It is in our interest that we understand the rules of karma so that we are more cautious and can regulate ourselves for a better life ahead. This is how we create our destiny.  

Our ancient scriptures tell us that life becomes easy with renunciation. This renunciation is not renunciation of worldly possessions, relations or enjoyments but this renunciation is of EGO. The sense of My-ness which creates inner instability. Ego is that subtle ‘feeling’ that makes me think that ‘I’ (the physical body with a given name) is doing this. For instance, ‘I have done very well in life and am holding the top most position in my office’ or ‘I have always been cheated in life and my life is full of sorrow’. The moment we take credit or discredit for something in our life we are said to have created karma. This is because when we make these kind of statements internally we are feeling pride or low. These feelings have been majorly categorized into four – Desire, Anger, Greed, Attachment. During our worldly interactions these feelings are always behind our thoughts and statements and subsequent actions. This binds karma. Once bound, we have to pay back. Good for good, Bad for bad. Nature of law is such that both these have to be paid back separately. Its not a case of bad karmas cancelled against good karmas. Both are to be settled separately. 

If whole life you have been good than you have to come back(REBIRTH) to enjoy the fruits of these good deeds in next life time. While enjoying this fruit in form of a better life, if you do something bad, you again come back. Because as human being whatever we do, we do love to take credit for the same. It is always ‘I did this’, I did not do that, I settled their fight etc etc. The burden of this ‘I’ with the intention of taking credit is very heavy and it never leaves us life after life. And why is it so????? Because we are using ‘I’ where it doesnot belong. The trick is to use this ‘I’ and be aware simultaneously that here ‘I’ is not my name or my body but the real me i.e, the soul that is ruling my body. If this awareness is present than no karma is bound. In every lifetime, whether we want it or not, if we are not in awareness we bind karma – good as well as bad and then we come back to enjoy its fruit and while enjoying this fruit bind new karma and the cycle goes on. 

Saints have explained it very well that there is great difference between 'I' and 'My'. It is I – the soul which is the inner world whereas My means attachment with the external world including my body and sense organs and everything perceived and understood there of. For example we say, ‘my dress’ and not 'I, the dress", my pain not I the pain. Here dress and pain are different from I. Dress and pain are separate from my true self. It is the EGO, that experiences the pain or enjoys the pleasure of wearing a good dress on the body and soul is merely the witness. We have to be aware of this state of being a witness – look at the world around us from the soul’s point of view and not get entangled. Our body/Ego is the instrument (the nimit). The Planner and the Do-er is the Supreme Power(the 'I' within) - the life force that permeates each and every atom in the Universe -whether manifest or unmanifest. The moment we understand this difference, things become easy. 

Therefore always live in a state of awareness that I am a Soul with my beautiful innate qualities. However, I have taken this body garment to play out a role assigned to me by the Supreme Power(that is giving life and power to the soul) on the stage of earthly drama so that I pay off the karmas created by me in previous lives thinking of myself as Ego/body garment I was wearing in that life time. 

All the karmas are result of thoughts occurring inside our mind – those thoughts on which we lingered for longer duration and developed ‘aasakti’(attachment). Therefore it automatically follows that if I want to breakfree of this karma created cycle, I have to change internally and simply watch what is happening inside me and try changing feeling of 'attachment' to that of 'detachment'. Assimilation of knowledge in this way is the key to attaining liberation. Wise men say this is best we can do, understand this knowledge and than with its ‘light’ continuously contemplate on what we learnt. Try to observe own actions in day to day life from a position of detachment. 

Feel like God and watch what your ego( wrongly placed I-ness) is making you do. So are the actions of others we meet everyday. All are working at the wrong level of I-ness. Therefore, all are innocent because none knows what account they are creating. When an actor performs his part on the stage, he is supposed to play his role well and yet retain his original identity. He is not supposed to get emotionally involved with the role of the character he is playing. He won’t be able to have a normal personal life otherwise. Same with us, we cannot get attached to the other characters in the play. If we do, then our act is spoiled and we come back once again to perfect our act – with same souls who also made the similar mistake and need to pay back or with different souls who have similar karmas to settle. 

Souls of my scene have almost same vibrations as me and in my day to day life I meet so many such souls. With some I am given such a relation that I cannot get rid of it till I pay back my previous debt. Once that is done, either of us is removed from that scene by play of situations. We do have such ‘sticky’ relations in life with whom we do have large karma to settle. Some of these bring pleasure and some pain. All high level souls have given importance to act of forgiveness for this reason. And this makes perfect sense because if we remain attached to negative people around us, they will continue to appear in our subsequent lives. So forgive your offenders as an act of favour to your own self. Needless to say that forgiving SELF too is important.  

We all are various nimits (instruments) in grand scheme of the Universe - like different shaped and sized petals that make a flower complete and beautiful.

Vandana Ritik

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

How do I see God in Rapists, murderer etc.

Giving below the response I received from Revered Self Realised Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha for benefit of all Seekers.
Question:

Thousand prostrations to Revered Swamiji.

Today watching morning TV on Disha, I fully understood God is source and pervades everything around us. Makes perfect sense to me. But one question always crops up. Is He not present in a rapist, murderer etc also? How can I see God in these kind of people who torture innocent children, brutally murder and find joy in killing others. My intellect is not able to find logic of presence of God here. I am definitely  missing something here. I am unable to link karmic laws of nature with seeing God in everyone. I have obviously not understood  something. What am I missing here because I do believe that God is everywhere in visible and invisible form. God is everything around. Only this point is not clear. What am I missing here Respected Guruji?
 Koti Koti pranams at your holy feet.
 Vandana Ritik

Dear and Blessed Vandana Ritik:




Harih Om Tat Sat. Your email of 22nd Oct. 2012 is before me, and I am reading it again.

Dear Vandana, the moment you begin to think that God is omnipresent, omnipresent, omnipresent … your mind has to grow and expand correspondingly. The usual constrictions, preferences and prejudices, would start falling, as you reflect upon the quality of omnipresence. Will you accept a God, who is not omnipresent? Equally, can you accept anything besides or in addition to God?  If God is omnipresent, He alone is, can be, and nothing else. In such a background, discuss this question deeply, reflectively.

 Omnipotence of God makes Him produce a world of infinite dimensions, distances and variety. Infinity or infinitude in any field will mean containing everything and all. And that will mean good as well bad, the best as well as the worst, and everything coming in the midst.


In the case of human beings, in whom are all the other traits confluence, the behaviour will have to range from the best and the worst, in order to become full, ample. Thus, the thief, dacoit, wicked and the rapist, all have a place in the world.

 In all these, who is present is actually God. He is certainly present in the circumferential plane, the segments in between, and in all the variety these comprehend. That is why virtuous and wicked people are alike present here.  Unless this variety persists, comparison and contrast resulting in the evolution of knowledge will not be possible at all.

 So when we say God is present in the rapist also, it does not mean He is not present in the others. He is present in them also, in all. By triggering such a wicked trait, God displays how wretched and inexcusable it is, and what extent of derision and denouncement it will warrant, so that the rational mind can discriminate, withstand and outlive such tendencies.

Suppose God is not present in the rapist, then you will have to say somebody else is present in him. Is that acceptable? What will happen to the omnipresence of God then? God is the impersonal, impartial soul, beyond even the ego. In that spatial transparence, no activity emerges and no effect befalls. Unless, you can comprehend such a zero position within oneself as well as all, you cannot have peace, harmony and unfailing wellbeing.

 So, try to enrich and sublimate your emotions, think more feelingly, in a subtle, deep and comprehensive manner.

 Unless good and bad are equally there before you, how will you have knowledge at all, for which distinctions are necessary? How will you know whether it is bad or good, which has the intrinsic power to survive sovereignly? So, the world is bound to contain the infinite variety that it should.  And this variety should incorporate everything, ranging from the best to the worst.

Love and ashirvaad. Ma Gurupriya and Swami Nirviseshananda Tirtha also send their loving best wishes.

Antaraatma,

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha


Narayanashrama Tapovanam

Venginissery, P.O. Ammadam, Thrissur Dist., Kerala – 680 563, India. Tel: 0487-2278302 / 2278363




 

Laws of Karma

All the visible actions that take place through our body and five sensory organs i.e., eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, in spiritual terms, is actually karmaphala – effect of a cause (and also effect of past life karma) set in motion by us. Real karma is not visible but subtle. The intention (bhava) that we create in us while partaking this effect creates karma which will bring its effect in the next life time. In this lifetime we are repaying and receiving the effect of all our bhavas we created – knowingly or unknowingly – in past lifetimes. We are reaping rewards of all our subtle thought processes. Natural forces arrange themselves in such a manner that ultimately we get whatever we had really intended for. However, due to ignorance of this law we are left wondering as to why things did not happen the ways we had planned to do.

Karmic law is a naturally occurring scientific spiritual law. It works as per certain specified rules. It is metaphysical in nature and cannot be proved in a laboratory. After understanding laws of gravitation, electricity, etc., human being used it to their own advantage. Similarly once we understand laws of karma, we can use it to improve our future and create our own destiny. Otherwise, we are like puppets in the hands of nature and flow with the current and go in whatever direction life takes us.

Only a foolish would close his eyes and cross a busy traffic road saying “I will be saved if it is in my destiny.” As an intelligent human being, we are supposed to do our best, as per our own standards, and also make efforts to improvise. If despite all best possible efforts things do not work out, then take it as destiny; wait for some time and try once again because only human being has 'Will Power' and 'Consciousness' which can be invoked to create or change one’s own destiny.

Why not take the remote of our life in our own hands? Make efforts to be the Master Karma Creator.

Vandana Ritik

Noida

Connecting to SELF in the Garden

Majority of us are using the Parks for walking, jogging, doing yoga, breathing exercises and even clapping loudly.  This keeps our physical body active and healthy.  What about our inside - our mind?  Is keeping body fit the only way to get rid of stress of daily chores and mental clutter?

Connecting to nature is one of the excellent ways to connect to our own self.  This is a real stress buster.  In morning our mind is less distracted and open to fill itself up with right input for facing the rest of the day through meditation.  To meditate is 'to think' - and think positively. 

If you do not have patience to sit and meditate, then walk and meditate.  Each thought, draws out a picture of the same in our mind's eye.   Nature gazing is one of the easiest methods of thinking positive.  You look at the visual first and think later.  Be silent and observe the surroundings.  Notice the changes in flora and fauna in the garden since your last visit.  Take note of these changes and understand how nature works quietly and perfectly.  With change in season, there are new blooms.  Count the variety of flowers and their their colors all around.  Look above at the expanse of sky.  It is infinite and so is our mind. The sky changes it colors and tones with the rising and setting of the sun.  Feel the change in temperature.  Notice how it is affecting different parts of the garden.  Sights of various birds and their chirping makes heart so cheerful. 

Same meditation can be done while sitting by feeling the presence of vibrant, alive and kicking Nature all around.  We too are part of this ever changing Nature.  Feel the Oneness between You & the Nature.  WE all have the same life force energy that keeps us alive, grow and ultimately wither away. This meditation directly  works on maintaining a good inner health.      

The fruit of all our actions are bestowed upon us at the 'right time' by the Nature.  If we are in tune with the Nature, we tend to reduce the affect of our negative karma because we are away from our fears and inner negativity. In the garden, we are positive and by admiring & connecting with nature, we are attracting positivity and goodness in our lives.  We are Spiritual Beings having Human experience.  When we spend time in nature and tune into it, we connect with our own Spirit/SELF through it.  We realise our own goodness, value and worth in the Park.  WE expand our Mind - from ME to WE.  Thus, park can not only be used to keep our body fit but also to keep our spirit fit - maintain a perfect balance between our inner & outer world.

 

Vandana Ritik

Noida

Why do we have EVIL in the world

The EVIL believes that the image in the mirror is his true self where as it is just an impression of his body, an illusion.  He is not what his eyes SEE and what his mind BELIEVES.

Broadly speaking, in nature, all manifested things have two sides - everything exists in pair of opposites.  This is called the Principle of Polarity*.  It is one of the seven Hermetic Principles.  There is One Truth and it has two ends i.e, two extremes.  Actually both are same but on different degrees.  For example 'cold' and 'hot' are both temperatures but their degrees are different.

In actual there is no such thing as EVIL.  In nature only truth exists.  Truth means 'being'.  anything in its actual form is truth.  Anything different from actual is untruth.  God is said to be the ultimate Truth and anything that we 'percieve' as separate or different from God is untruth.  All matter around us is made up of energy, we know as 'consciousness'.  It exists in varying degrees, the denser is the hardest one.

There are no absolutes at all.  If there is 'this' then there is 'that'.  If there is 'Light' then there is 'darkness'.   When we try to understand it deeply there is no such thing as darkness.   'Darkness' actually means 'absence of light'.  For example, when moon comes between earth and sun we experience night even though sun is always shining bright in the sky.  Any 'obstruction' coming in the path of light reflects darkness on the opposite side of that obstruction.  We have 'day' followed by 'night'. 

Due to the factor called 'time' everything manifest in this world is undergoing change all the time.  If there is construction, then there is wear & tear and  after sometime there is destruction due to time factor.  In fact, 'change' is the only thing on earth that is constant. 

Look at our own self.  How we changed from 'baby to adult' and are still changing.  Who is that 'I' within us that never changes.  That is our SOURCE.  That is God.  That is the Divine Life Force Energy that permeates this whole universe.  Many amongst us are 'aware' of something in us that makes us feel alive.  That is also called our consciousness.  When we are 'aware' of this 'presence' within us, we are said to be connected to our source within.  This is called the state of soul/ spirit consciousness.  We understand that we are not separate from our Creator.  Pots may look different but they are made up of the same clay.  When we are connected to our inner self, we tend to make less mistakes and act rationally.  During acts of meditation, we try to connect to ourselves, feel that Oneness with the Creator, our Source.

Evil are those who are totally disconnected from their divinity within.  Their ego called as body consciousness blinds their intellect and mind.  They think they are separate from the others and vice versa.  Thus they tend to move towards irrational and wrong actions.  When we put many blankets over a source of light, say a bulb, it becomes pitch dark and risky.  Now if we were to compare that bulb to our own inner divinity.  The good people are those who are connected to their inherent divinity...goodness.  The higher the connectedness, the higher the vibrations of goodness.  The opposite side is disconnectedness, lower vibration and badness.

When we constrict our mind and think only about our own self --my family, my job, my country etc, we are limiting ourselves.  For an evil person, there is nothing beyond themselves. We need to expand our mind.  The same mind can expand and using its power of imagination and can imagine the infinity of the sky and depth of the ocean.  Obviously such a thinker is bigger than the sky or ocean.  Container is always 'bigger' than the amount of water it can hold. 

Raising our vibration by lifting our heart, mind and passion higher than our sense of limitation will change our viewpoint.  When we view our life from a horizontal viewpoint it is far more limiting than if we looked at that same life from a vertical viewpoint. Imagine looking at the road standing under a tree or from the tree top. From ground level/ lower level, we see one thing at a time whereas from higher level we can even see and understand the sequence of events.  Connecting to our SELF takes us to lofty heights and makes our thinking crystal clear.  It makes us better human beings.  Light of 'knowledge'(I am Soul) removes the darkness of 'ignorance'(I am body) from our hearts and washes away the wickedness within.  Question is 'Do we want to do the necessary work'?

 * The Principle of Polarity states Everything is Dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”

Vandana Ritik Mulchandani

Noida