Importance of Pain

A soul takes birth to learn different lessons in each lifetime till it grasps the complete knowledge of its own origin, its being, the whole universe. Once the soul gets enlightened in this manner, it need not take birth again. If it so desires, it can stay in that other dimension (which we know as 4th Dimension) and from there try and help other souls on earth (3rd Dimension) to get out of this cycle after learning their lessons fast.

Undergoing pain is an important part of this whole learning process. Pain is said to be a real ‘eye opener’. It awakens us to inner/ hidden realities of human existence. Whether it is a physical, emotional or mental pain, all types of pain teach us very big lessons in any lifetime. Pain reminds us of our true purpose of taking human form i.e, to realize that we are soul and that we have strayed away from that Supreme Divine form thinking that HE is separate from us. A soul has to ultimately learn that ALL PLURALITY IS PART OF THAT SUPREME SINGULARITY. God is experiencing his creation through us. What our five senses perceive as separate entities is sheer illusion.

We do not realize this till we are enjoying life and are happy in our day to day life. We simply feel that being happy and sad is part and parcel of life. But there is a hidden learning behind every happening in our life which we do not realize or maybe we do not want to realize because we consider ourselves so learned that we feel that we know everything that is there to know about this world. Had that been the case, than all academically brilliant minds would have got enlightened and found our creator. It is said that to learn about Supreme we first have to de-learn our earthly knowledge because it is so very limited. But we are so very content with our existence and life that we do not care till something drastic happens in our life which is beyond our logical understanding.

When pain enters our life and we are unable to get over it despite our best efforts. We become helpless. Ultimately, we give up our EGO. This is the Starting Point. We pray for intervention of God. During that painful time, we start our search for that Supreme force firmly believing that someone, somewhere will take mercy on us and help us get over our pain. When the pain reaches its pinnacle and we start to pray seeking relief from our pain with utmost intensity, it reaches Universal power and and we start to feel the response in some way. Thus, we gain an understanding that there exists some ‘divine’ power which can be felt but cannot be seen or touched. We start our journey in search of that power which can cure us of our terrible pain. This quest for God is our first step towards achieving our life purpose - Self realization and God realization.

Unless we desire something, we will not strive to achieve it and God (Universal Divine Force) will not be able to help us if we do not seek HIM with firm belief in its existence. We realize that our persistent prayers of help have resulted in getting response from the GOD. Our life becomes livable. The pain either disappears or we stop feeling the effect of that pain anymore. We come to terms with our pain.

As we progress in our journey, we want to know more about God and crave to peep into HEAVEN to get HIS glimpse, to see HIS world. But where is God? Did God help you in easing your pain. Think. Wasn’t it your own feeling of helplessness, giving up of ego, belief in existence of universal power which cured your pain? Then where is God. God is not separate from you. God does not have a limited human form. The God – that UNIVERSAL DIVINE POWER – is within us.

It existed in form of energy in our soul before we took birth on this earth. IT will stay with us till we are alive. When all our lessons for this lifetime are learnt, it will be our time to leave. At that time our soul will discard the body and go back to that 4th Dimension till it decides to come back on earth to enjoy life again and to learn new lessons if we are yet to achieve the purpose of human birth. The PAIN makes us learn many of our lessons faster and hastens in achieving purpose of our human birth. That is why we say that when we lose, we gain.

But then why do we need to wait for Pain to make an appearance in our life for attaining the purpose of our life. Can’t we start this important journey when we are in a state of JOY.

The choice is entirely ours. We have to take that the first step. The rest will follow automatically because the entire source of divine knowledge is confined within us. When will we start to TAP on it?

Vandana Ritik
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

Karma with Dharma

Any idea, intention, thought or deed is Karma i.e., the Act. If you look at it closely you will realize that majority of our karma is creation of our thoughts and ideas that keep invading our mind again and again. Every such karma(cause) embraces within, its hidden fruit(effect). This means karma and its fruit cannot be separated for any individual. Breathing, eating, sleeping, walking, talking etc all are karma. Thinking is the biggest karma. When we get a thought in our mind the universe starts to receive and starts working towards it. If that thought persists in our mind it becomes reality but if we start having doubts about result of that thought, it fails.

Karma can be classified into Sanchit (past accumulated Karma), Prarabdh(karma being experienced in present lifetime) and Kriyaman(karma which will bear fruit later). Thus karma consists of all our actions or thoughts not only in this birth but also all previous births put together. Karma cannot be erased. Karma cannot be avoided or changed. It can be exhausted only by experiencing it. You pay your past debts and be free.

No karma can produce absolutely good result and no karma can produce absolutely bad results. An action can be good for one person and at the same time it may be having a bad impact somewhere else in this universe. We should try and perform that type of karma which produces maximum good result and minimum bad result. It is here Dharma comes into picture. Karma performed with Dharma will do the trick.

Dharma is said to be the righteousness which results in maximum benefit for the person concerned as well as the society. Human beings have to live collectively and perform day to day karma. Therefore, Dharma-Karma would be that action, thought, idea which gives benefit to the subject as well as to the society in general. This means that we will have to keep a watch over all our thoughts.

Controlling of mind - If the thought is not positive, we have to discard it immediately otherwise it will start to manifest itself. Mind cannot remain idle. It has to think and think which is its very natural function. Wise men have said that we should focus our thoughts on God. Chanting God's name is well known in our scriptures but we always feel that in modern society having beads in our hands and chanting god's name does not go with our social image. Also we feel that this kind of activity should be done in old age, after retirement. But NO! NO! NO! What will be left of our life at that age.

Why not we start and do it today with little modification. Everytime we find we are bit free (that's the time mind starts to play), we should mentally start chanting God's name (any God we believe in). This way our mind will get a direction and its energy will be channelised positively and keeping with your modern image the outside world will not even know what your mind is doing. The biggest benefit is that no negative thought will cross your mind because mind is already busy in something of greater value. After some time, when you start feeling the benefits of channelising your mind like this, you will not even bother what the world thinks and your life will reap the benefits of positive thoughts.

It is true that the quality of our external life depends upon how healthy we are internally. And our internal health depends upon our basic thoughts. Thoughts are the starting point for any event, incidence and happenings in our life. We thus create our own reality.

If we follow Dharma before performing a Karma, life would be on right track. For following Dharma we have to make our thoughts as well as ideas very pure. We have to understand that every thing pervading this universe has emanted from one source and We all are children of that one same divine source or energy which we call God. In fact, that tiny spark of God is within each of us. It is very difficult to understand this if we do not have proper guidance. But if we are keen, our inner divine consiousness itself takes us in right direction, right place and at right time. Our thoughts create our reality.

Therefore, if in our thoughts we have sought guidance and help from God and repeatedly we are seeking it with full faith and are waiting patiently to receive it, the universe will set out in motion to bring the same to us when we are ready and fit enough to receive it. Why do we have to wait to get old to receive it. Why not now? Once we imbibe this in our day to day life all our Karma will be in accordance with Dharma and everything will happen just the way we( the God) willed it.

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

What is Goodness

Badness is like filthy smelly gas that spreads easily, quickly and covers a vast area space. In today's world, people are more attracted towards this smell which fills every nook and corner of their lives. All media reports cover negativity in the most elaborate possible manner. Be it gruesome murder, tragic natural disaster whatever. The focus is mostly on how things are not working or wrongly working because it is considered as a effective marketing technique and also brings 2 minute fame for the persons involved. Next day people forget the wickedness because a brand new negative incident/ accident is ready to be reported for further postmortem by viewers/ readers. One gets a feeling that world is most unsafe and horrible place to live in and if we are surviving, it is nothing short of miracle. But hang on.

Goodness is like a refreshing fragrance that spreads slowly and is able to cover only short distance. Not all can see, read, think or notice it. One has to be sensitive enough to catch this fragrance, to feel its essence because negativity is so widespread it completely blocks this delightful perfume from reaching us. The world is surviving today because of this widespread goodness. And this is a Good News.

Thankyou God and Thanks my angels. I pray that you make us sensitive enough so that we can feel and inhale this beautiful refreshing natural essence of Goodness and become a part and creator of more Goodness. Let us come together and spread more goodness through positive intentions, actions and above all POSITIVE THOUGHTS. Amen.

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.

Coping with Grief

Its been more than a year since I lost my elder son in a road accident and my life has been changed forever. I know it will never be same again as it used to be when we were all together. My loss has 'awakened' me to so many realities of life and afterlife. Death was a taboo topic for discussion. Everyone is scared to talk and discuss about death. This is a topic we all avoid lest it might touch our life. But once it touched my life in this manner, death does not bother me at all. I have come to understand in last one year that only thing that is real in life is death. Death is a time when we finish our education in this world and go back HOME - our real Home. That is why I never say my son died. No. No. he is still alive somewhere on the other side. He has just changed his form from physical to energy. He has passed from earth dimension to heaven dimension just like we go from one room to another. He is just few feet away only I cannot see him but my solace is that he can still see me and listen to me - not only my words but also my thoughts. How wonderful is that.

My loving son is in such a beautiful place while we are still here waiting for our chance to turn the leaf and fly over to meet him right under God's light - where there is no pain, fear, competition, terror, jealousy, lack, hate, punishment - A place which has nothing but pure love, abundance, bliss and joy. After death, we pass over to a place which lies hidden behind a veil in different dimension and at different level of vibration. Once a human discards his body, only energy part is left which is always alive and which never dies. We all know it by name of 'soul' or 'atman'. The soul goes to the level that matches with its vibration. By appearing alongside Shirdi SaiBaba (my chosen Guru) in my vision during meditation, my son has conveyed to me the High Level he has reached. What more can a mother ask for. I always wanted the best for him in this world and he has got the best in that world too. I am proud to be his Mom whom he fondly called Maa.

Over the year, he has made his presence felt to me and his father at so many occasions. I have come to understand that he is in a position to look at us and our day to day lives. He guides us like an Angel and helps us to arrive at various decisions we need to take all the time. Our son has become our father now. Though he lived with us physically for 18 years only yet he has left his indelible mark in our lives forever. He continues to communicate with us from the other side. These signs of communications were so subtle. It has taken me sometime to understand this method of communication. But today it is great to know that my son continues to be by our side and only grouse is that we cannot see him. I ask him and he replies. I ask for a sign of his presence and he gives it.

Prior to this I had no idea about this close link between these two sides of the Universe. This earthly life was beginning and end of everything for me. But no more. There is so much outside and away from this earth which is far more beautiful, powerful and unthinkable. It gives me great comfort to know that my son now lives in that fabulous place which is our permanent Home. With his guidance and help, I too, shall learn my lesson I came to learn on this earth, and depart to be greeted by him at the doors of heaven. God bless you my dear son. Maa loves you forever.

Vandana Ritik