To My Dearest Soul Seekers,
We get transformed and spiritually elevated by Bhaishree’s insightful teachings. Today at Minalben’s house, Shantiniketan Mumbai, a swadhyay was held especially for young mumukshus. In his simple impeccable style Bhaishree threw light on so many important aspects that would become pedestals of our progress. For better focus and deep contemplation I have thought of sharing two points daily till I cover the whole subject.
Awakening Life
1 Awake and Arise.
To quench its thirst a bird flew down to a shallow pit containing water. The unpleasant odor of the water did not allow the bird to perch and it had to fly back on the bark of the near by tree. On asking the reason for the stink, the water replied to the bird that it was ineptly stagnant and could do nothing of the situation that it was in. Just describing this small incident, awakened Bhaishree conveyed that happiness consists in activity. It is the running stream not the stagnant pool that progresses. Stagnant water can be a major environmental hazard. A personality is reduced and deformed with depleted thoughts and stagnant mind. Following with the flow of Life we need to expand and live in vastness. Bhaishree also urged us to be inwardly anchored as from a silent poise we are more conscious of the subtle needs of our surroundings. This enables us to turn in right direction, make right decisions and engage ourselves to perfect harmonious momentum. From that poise of silent mindfulness, we ourselves contribute to and augment the flow of Life.
વિશ્વવ્યાપક ચેતનાની શક્તિ સાથે જોડાઈ, આસપાસ જડતા નો વાળો ન બાંધવો, આમ જીવ પોતાનું લક્ષ સાધ્ય કરી શકશે.
This was the first lesson: Come out of the Gloomy slumber of the Stagnant Soul. Awake, arise and gain consciousness. Start working for your self. Be in tune with the rhythmic spiritual flow of life.
2 Unlock Your Potential
On a rainy day there were barely few visitors to the local zoo that inhabited species of clever minds, intelligent animals. A Monkey and its female better half use to be more excited and amused seeing the visitors than the visitors seeing them. After a long wait on that rainy day they saw a couple coming with their small child towards them. Enthralled the monkey calls his counterpart to come nearer and have a closer look at the humans.
Bhaishree said to carefully observe our own self in great detail. We humans are God’s best living creation. We are ignorant of our own potentiality. There are hidden strength and latent talent lying unexploited within us. We underestimate our capacity to change. Rather than intelligence or strength it is our continuous efforts that will help in unlocking our potentiality. “Focus on your potential instead of your limitations.” Power of your will shall lead you to the passage of actuality and end the ambiguity of your potentiality.
Bhaishree also cautioned that we should not waste our energies only in accumulation of wealth. He further disapproved the display of wealth and handsome possessions in holding ones ascribed status and prestige. He alerted that in our short sightedness we forget to look for pure permanent happiness that lies buried within us. Instead of remaining captivated by materialistic happiness let us stay happy by garnering the simple goodness of life.
This was the second lesson: As humans we are divinely empowered. Channelizing our energies in spiritual progression let us reach the pinnacle of spirituality.
3 Sculpt your divine character.
Henry Moore the famous English sculptor once gave two stone blocks to two different sculptors. He instructed them to pour out their imagination and give their very best while sculpting them. 15 days later on his return he found scruffy work done by the senior one amongst the two, Mr Henry expressed his annoyance and said “you have wasted your time.” On this the sculptor defending himself advocated, “You did not mention of what in particular I needed to sculpt and neither did you guide me when I was at work.” “Giving you a free hand I had asked you to be the best you can and I did not guide your friend too” replied Henry.
Looking at the mumukshus, with an enlightened skillful gaze, Bhaishree then remarked “in this journey of life, have we wasted our time”, we have to chisel out all that is awfully bad in us. Make your personality, your life, your greatest art work.
Bhaishree is our mentor our divine sculptor. As his chisel works inward in us, it uncovers some crack or dark stains. Preferring the flawless block of snowy marble Bhaishree will never pass us away. He is that compassionate, forgiving sculptor who will work on us and help us to remove the stains of sins from our soul. But the question is are we ready to completely surrender and let his eager hands start carving us? He is the integral part of our spiritual life. His are the footprints that we follow in our search of truth. For us he is the greatest sculptor the potter the gardener. We need to lay bare the deepest core of our self to him. His words activate us, and if we follow his commands the ever present true nature, the real, the luminous will be surely realised.
The third lesson: Re focus and get your acts together. You can’t just dream yourself into a character, you must hammer and forge yourself one. Our soul is tinted by the colour of our thoughts. Let us reinvent and shape ourselves by good thoughts good words and good deeds.
4 Be Simple, Remove the complexities of Life.
Indubhai and Bindubhai are two friends, the first one earning 500 and the latter one 2000. Seeing Bindubhai so stressed and over worked Indubhai on one leisure trip remarked “I pity for you have yourself sabotaged your own life.”
Examining us, Bhaishree’s compassionate eyes enquired “have we too?” In regards to wealth accumulation, Bhaishree urged all of us to introspect on our decisions and our behavior. His words implied that without uprooting the causes of making the wrong decisions at the right moments, people are going to continue making them forever. Reflecting thoroughly on Bhaishree’s words, some powerful processing will happen within us. Bhaishree’s perspective towards life will sink in us and we shall be proficient to isolate those causes and “unhook them.” Once we are able to do this, accumulating wealth will seem to be as childish as foolish as accumulating dust. Fears of insecurity shall fade away and then with conviction we shall march ahead in life like the true Kings the Fakirs.
The fourth Lesson: The roots of some of these paradox lie within the understanding of how we “experience work,” how we have built the beliefs about our life and our work and how deeply our programming about change has been ingrained into the depths of our mind. Let’s follow “Simple living high Thinking” “Live by needs of life and not wants of Life”
5 Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.
A well-known modern writer Shri Jainendraji has written “Incidences of life part many such experiences that we may have never thought of. How shall we utilize them?”
With a thoughtful pause Bhaishree continued, in these endless, self defeated, pointless pursuits do we have time to examine and scrutinize the consequences that we go through? Does the mad race, fierce competition of life allow us to stop and think? Even after accumulating so much we have named it as struggle of survival.
Life is a journey and each day is a different expedition. All that we experience is the result of our thoughts and our actions. From our pattern of behavior we can discover many designs of success and failures. Programming our consciousness with positive manifestation we can in detail analyze every experience that we pass through and learn many lessons.
“Learn how to turn frustration into fascination. You will learn more being fascinated by life than you will by being frustrated by it.” Jim Rohn
The Fith Lesson: Be observant constantly. Stay open minded. Be eager to learn and improve.
6 Sublime Love, sincerity and determination are tools of success.
On reading Sir Harvard’s many books one of his fan came to seek his blessings and guidance. To which Sir Harvard answered that surely “my good wishes are always with you but first you need to develop a noble heart filled with sublime love that wishes highest welfare of all beings.” “Yes that shall be my endeavor but tell me something that would certainly help me to be successful” replied his admirer. To this in simple words Harvard uttered, “I am not sure of you being successful in whatever you attempt, may be at times you might fail but your sincerity and determination will bail you out from most of the difficult situations.”
With radiance of enlightened heart and loving look Bhaishree expressed; “with sublime love we can transform our delusion, greed, self-centeredness and negativity. In struggle of our existence it shall remove all tensions, make peace in social conflicts and heal all wounds. With sincere practice, this love shall extend immeasurably to all living beings throughout all realms of existence.”
Soaked in that same sublime love each word that Bhaishree spoke had such a deep and divine magical spell on those ardent followers who were listening to him with utmost concentration and adoration.
The road ahead may be tough but spirit and the zeal will overcome all challenges.There is no destiny or fate that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul. The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand. Bhaishree with his powerful words injected in us the required courage and resolve to progress on the divine path that he led us on.
The sixth lesson. “Do or Die” — old concept, “Do before you die” —– still unacceptable in modern times, “Don’t die until you do” is the right attitude empowered by sublime love.
My fellow soul mates,
I believe restructuring life is the most important lesson of all and this would demand our total attention, thus in this 4th part of Awakening Life we shall have a single point focus. Let’s plan for a total reformation of our invaluable life.
7 Restructuring Life
Few days back I had been to my friend’s house warming party. “Very impressive, you must have spent a bomb” I commented. No not really, the furniture is mostly made out of the old we had, but yes we have re built the house and everything is newly painted” replied my friend.
With hopes sparkling in his peaceful eyes Bhaishree said, restructuring our life we need to reinvent our self. Instead of only reflecting on the past, it is better we move forward with new challenges and opportunities. Restructuring our thinking and attitude is an on going process.
We distract ourselves with the noise of media and other people’s opinions. Unable to forgive, we hold on to the pain and we blame people, things, and circumstances for our unhappiness. We surround ourselves with anxiety, stress and depression. Observing how we do, what we do, the struggles we put ourselves through, the drama, the pain and the suffering, always chasing, for what?
We give up our dreams our art, our purpose, and trade our lives in exchange for money. While making money to sustain our needs is inevitable, in the making of a living we sometimes forget our unique gifts. In a race to survive, we become mentally paralyzed. We temporarily loose touch with the enormity of our inner being. It’s all so exhausting but believe me things can change rapidly and become overwhelming.
Making mistakes may be unfortunate but the opportunity to live a refined life is always open to us. We need to be patient and easy on our self as we go about refining and retuning the continuous dialogue in our mind. We might have to do a reality check of our expectations and goals and question how reasonable they are. Matching the given situation we might have to reorient them. It’s time to restructure how we live, how we prioritize, how we contribute, and how we can live more fully in the precious moments we are blessed with.
In our efforts of total reformation, apart from our conviction, Bhaishree is the biggest support that we can rest on.
The seventh lesson: Perhaps, the only thing that matters is love. Perhaps, all the chasing we do is just misdirected energy. Perhaps, all the stress is unnecessary. Perhaps, we are making life a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Perhaps, it’s possible and necessary to forgive and to let go of our painful past.
8 Identifying the inner self / Realization of our inner being.
Mataji out of her self realization and divine experience proclaims, “You are that life, immortal soul, within the body; till You are there the body shall not decay and will remain active. As we start focusing to this inherent power wrapped in our body, a new beginning, a new awareness, amazing truth, realm of existence shall dawn.” There is no external force that can stop us from concentrating on this power. Surely then the barriers are within us not allowing us to reach to our true self. The ego, the wandering mind, greed of sensual pleasures and material comforts, self righteousness, are to name the few.
Drawing our attention further to this basic truth Bhaishree spoke from his self awareness, “Innately within this body resides the soul which is waiting to be enlightened and wanting us to experience the peace the bliss and the joy of our being.”
Further giving us democratic free will, Bhaishree softly and sweetly puts his words across “It is everyone’s right to achieve this state of one’s evolution since everything necessary is already inbuilt. But as I respect your freedom, you must have the desire to achieve this state; it cannot be forced upon you.”
Thereafter inviting and welcoming us he said “This is the beginning of a fantastic journey into your own spiritual existence. It is a door opened to a new dimension of your awareness, which you can open and explore. Self realization is the first encounter with reality; thereafter we can experience the depths of spirituality while fulfilling our worldly responsibilities.”
When the electricity runs through the wires, the bulbs illuminate and the machines the equipment starts working. Similarly the soul blends and infuses its magnificent energy into the body and thus the senses the mind the vital organs like brain, heart, lungs and kidney all start functioning. The power of soul is understood even better as we ourselves are that power that runs the body.
The outside world is the screen on which the inner mind projects its innumerable thoughts and desires. All we have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind. If the mind is tamed the senses shall become inactive. Moods are in the mind and they do not matter. In meditation, we shall go within, go beyond. When the mind is quiet the truth, the self is unveiled. In the ray of concentration, the focus attention, we realise the “Upyog” the “Atman.”
Let us not go against destiny. Let us not prevent it but permit it to fulfill itself. Seated on the seat of consciousness we shall be the witness of our own life as it naturally unfolds.
Fire cannot burn us, the water cannot drown us and the weapons cannot harm us. We are that indestructible power, that eternal consciousness. An incessant flow, that keeps on knowing in its being. Only when the ego and the desires depart, in self realization we shall dwell within the home of our inner being. Amidst the illusionary and delusionary ephemeral world we are the only constant truth. Know thyself and you are your God.
The eighth Lesson: Experience yourself, you are the immortal reality in this moment of now the moment of truth. Do not get lost; behold your pure divine self. We shall no longer live under the threat of extinction because it’s the body that dies we live forever.
9 What have we earned in Life?
Unexpectedly a friend of mine strangely asked? “How much, would Swami Vivekanand be earning?” Seems you want to collect tax from him was my initial jovial reply. Thereafter on a serious note I answered “Thinking superficially he had no income as in his life he never went to earn but looking at his achievements we can never measure his wealth, his inner prosperity.”
Bhaishree’s enquiring and assessing eyes then were focused towards us as he spoke “the question is simple but very important. Have we ever thought of what we have earned, what we have accomplished in our life? We are always worried about others, our neighbours our friends. Out of envies we critically examine their failures and feel wise. Doing this we never get time to focus on our life our failures and our success. In our self righteousness we have always blamed others for our failures. Escaping from being responsible and taking onus we are deceiving no one else but our self.”
The word gain, benefits, income or earnings sound more like business terminologies. But the fact of life is, that every thought every action of ours has been intentionally focused toward gaining, benefiting or earning. Wealth, power, fame, family, comforts, health and good looks have remained the commonest objectives or motivators behind our thoughts, actions and words. These are the ones that are most sought after by nearly every one of us as we firmly believe them to be the mansions of happiness.
At each moment, a new thing is being created, sustained, changed, transformed and then destroyed. In this ephemeral fleeting conditions how would we appraise ourselves if we keep on chasing wealth, power, fame, comforts and many more materialistic goals and that too constantly, each day every hour of our petite life?
How naive how unwise can we be for not understanding the difference between pleasures and happiness. Pleasures are more dependent on the five senses while happiness is independent of them. Pleasure has to do with momentary enjoyment and is dependent on circumstances, objects and people. Being inherent in our soul, happiness is permanent. It is not something to be gained anew. All that is necessary to do is to uncover it. Happiness is not something far away and unattainable and neither does it depend on circumstances, objects or events. It is an inseparable part of our consciousness, but hidden and covered from sight, by our thoughts, desires and worries.
The ninth lesson: Each one of us is free to choose the way we want to live our life. Have I reflected on the different important ways that my destiny has offered? Is my approach judicious? Does my life lead me towards my goal? Are the priorities set right? Have I been perfect in my time management? Having positive attitude, do I feel peacefully happy in every situation of my life? Playing within the limits of spiritual logics and rules have I been rational in my conduct? Do I feel my life to be complete and fulfilling? Pondering on these set of questions we shall be able to answer Bhaishree.
10 We are the living consciousness.
To The Gopalas and Gopangnas of Shri Krushna Bhaishree,
In Bhagwad Gita Bhagwan Srikrishna has given a long list in which he himself manifests. Addressing his most ardent yet humble follower he declares “Oh! Arjun, God exists in every living creature.”
Taking it further our Krushna Bhagwan, our very own Param Pujya Bhaishree pours out the holy truth from his enlightened wisdom. We see God everyday everywhere but we do not recognize him.
Many different living species like humans, animals, birds, aquatic creatures, insects and plants are seen in this world. From an imperceptible unicellular organism to a big mighty elephant or a whale each one is different in many ways and therefore empowered differently. Their evolution, life span, intellect, senses, physical appearance all drastically differ. It’s a science that would amaze us in many ways but, the most astonishing fact is that they are all innately identical. Intrinsically, each of them is a soul having the same characteristics. ”Fools count seeds in one apple while the enlightened one identifies all apples in one seed.”
In Bible, humans have been said to be replicas of God. The mindfulness, the power of contemplation and discrimination, self control all make humans to be the most developed of them all. Looking at us then Bhaishree with his powerful gaze said “Can you understand how important are we and how responsible should we behave. We shall be accountable of our every thought our every word and our every deed.”
We are a living entity and a conscious being. Consciousness is a self revealing experience. When we see an ant crawling for a crystal of sugar, we infer that there is consciousness in that ant. The purposeful behavior reflects consciousness. Seeing a man sitting motionless below a tree we wonder whether he is alive or dead. He does not respond when we touch him. We feel no breath below his nostrils. With a little push he leans and we say he is dead. Consciousness in others is experienced by inference but our own consciousness is of our own accord, direct and spontaneous. The experiences of senses like sight, sound smell touch taste and the thoughts, emotions, feelings have all conglomerated collectively and wholly into this consciousness. Consciousness functions on various levels. For a spiritual soul with prolonged practice of self control and contemplation, the mind becomes pure and subtle. In this pure subtleness the conscious the soul the spirit the inherent being is experienced. In meditation this experience profoundly generates Joy, ecstasy and bliss.
Thereafter Bhaishree compassionately urged, “Being like God we are completely empowered, then why do we not evolve and become absolute like him. What stops us from being delightfully divine? Why can’t we evoke that latent Godliness lying within us? Till what time shall we remain lethargic, snoring in the slumber of disillusion?” As he put these questions sympathetically, we found Bhaishree to be caringly kind and at his best in awakening us.
If we have really understood the oneness with all co existing fellow living beings our approach, attitude and conduct all should alter immediately. Instilling enthusiasm and courage Bhaishree pulled us up by saying “waves are inspiring not because they rise and fall but because each time they fall they never fail to rise.” Ralf Waldo Emerson.
The tenth lesson: Not only “live and let live” but “live with complete awareness” “avoiding conflicts and controlling the passions live with universal divine love” “Be vast be open be friendly be Godly”
11 In Meditation
A well-known poet-seer Tukaramji Maharaj once fell ill. Caught up with high fever he barely ate. He became so weak that he could not even get up or walk. Feeling some relief on the sixth day he got up in bed and prepared himself to sit for meditation. Seeing him getting ready for meditation a devotee out of concern for his health insisted that he should first have some boiled green grams water and thereafter sit for meditation. “Papering the body I do not wish to just drag and waste my life. This water can wait for two hours. Since five days my soul is starving. First I shall meditate.” Tukoba replied firmly. Does our soul get hungry? The disciple questioned. “Yes it gets hungry, thirsty and if we do not feed then it may die too.”
In veneration Bhaishree praised “For a sublime soul like Tukoba, spiritual needs are much larger in comparison to the needs of his hungry stomach. The focal point of his life is soul and not the body. A poor hungry person desperately searches for food; similarly to quench his quest a spiritual soul seeks meditation. He craves for the company of an enlightened Guru and is eager to hear his preaching’s. He gets absorbed, while reading and deriving meanings from the holy books. A true devotee is anxiously committed in satiating his spiritual quest. The hunger to attain to realize is so fervent and deep that spirituality becomes a single focal point of his life. Nothing attracts him as he is now naturally detached.
Stating a simple rule Bhaishree on a serious note stated “Our efforts are in direct proportion of our needs our quest. If we are desperate our efforts shall be intense.” Do we feel caged in this body? Living just a mundane life do we strongly sense of throwing away this most precious human life? Do we experience the heat of our worldly association much more than the scorching, sweltering summer?
Meditation is sitting silently doing nothing and observing everything. Meditation is going beyond the body and the mind and becoming a witness, a silent spectator. Keeping constant contact within is meditation. The fire of meditation burns the cage of sin around us. It purifies our knowledge and dissolves our ego. By practicing meditation we grow in our ability to be conscious, more aware of our own thoughts and emotions. We start understanding how our mind gets attracted towards the subjects and objects of our senses. How our concentration therefore is always outwardly focused towards them. It’s by meditation that this ray of attention is inwardly focused towards the knower who dwells within. When we calm our mind and our senses, we become conscious of our inner Self. Deep meditation is like feeling the bottom of the sea. On surface we might find our self to be active, but deep below, underneath our human life, there is poise and silence. Meditating is like expanding into infinity and immortality.
The eleventh lesson: Meditation needs to be our constant companion. Concentration and contemplation are tools to tame the mind but meditation is effortless choice less awarenessw.
12 Know your mind.
Napoleon Hill, was an American author whose personality write ups have incredibly influenced many individuals.
Once he came across a remark made by his student, “Sir, Most of the time you talk about human mind but rarely you point at the soul”
“Do you expect me to let you know soul when you are still unable to fully understand various thought processes and behavioral patterns of your mind. Soul is much more on an experiential level, defining it in words is not easy” replied Napoleon in a clear tone.
“Sir, you may at least share some initial basics.” In persuasion the student continued.
“If you at all want to probe then comprehend how your mind functions; analyze various circumstances of your life and how the mind encounters them. Examine and evaluate your responses.” Stressing his point Mr.Hill spoke in a deliberate voice.
“What’s the purpose in understanding the circumstances when we are unable to alter our destiny” doubtingly argued the student.
Unfettered and undeterred Napoleon replied “Situations come and go, it is we who are at the center who can make the difference, but instead of empowering it we miserably perceive ourselves to be victims of consequences and passively live giving them more significance. Blaming the situation we allow it to take over the charge and keep on dying, end number of deaths. It’s not that things are difficult and we dare not venture but because we dare not venture that they get difficult. Rather than living under the burden or the impact we need to audaciously fight back. Gathering our valor, heroically we need to take all required steps in negating its effect. An ordinary common man is surrounded by adversities of life. In such conditions he is unable to think of soul, go deep within the recesses of his mind or heart or even ponder on principles and ideals.”
As Bhaishree read, his pause his intent look, everything of his was so divinely infusing. He described the various facets of our mind. His gentle way of communicating, so profoundly highlighted those important key elements that we need to investigate within our self. He showed moods and glimpses of our wavering fragile mind. How our mind gets influenced by many issues surrounding us. The way it perceives and behaves in interpersonal relationships. How ego, fear, weariness all grip and enslave it. How it gets attached and how it averts. How it makes our heart throb between imaginations and fantasies or how it leads to depression. How at times our mind can be so sensitive and caring and at times so harsh and indifferent. How it excavates from the backyard of life those past incidences and behaves with prejudice and distrust or how it would blindly trust a stranger. How our mind reiterates to itself when people praise us and how it gets wild defending criticisms. How it misses the love of its life being faraway and how when together for small matters it drifts apart. How at times it is pure, holy and divine and at times it is so closely caught in lusty passionate cravings. How it is our foremost enemy and our only savior too.
The twelfth lesson: The eye sees only what mind is ready to comprehend, therefore we first need to work on it and make it unwavering, pure and divine. Mind builds the connectivity between the body and the soul. Thoughts are like waves that lashes the inner shores of our being. Like chisel carves an idol out of a stone, thoughts of our mind shapes our character.
13 Learning while Living.
Ralf Waldo Emerson on one occasion asked his friend, what did he learn that day?
His friend emphatically replied “What will I learn each day? Today was as ordinary as yesterday.”
To this, Emerson with quest for learning said “Life itself is an institute of learning. While embracing challenges and opportunities I learn at every point in my journey of life. Stumbling blocks can be stepping stones. Life will teach us all that we need to know between joy and sorrows. Let the fear of uncertainties not stop us from learning.”
With firm resolve in his eyes Bhaishree confidently took the subject forward and said “Our life itself is an adventure. For a spiritual soul it is truly exciting to cautiously wait for the unknown destiny to unfold. In this voyage of unpredictable life there are many twists and turns that might quake us mentally or shake us physically. To remain unperturbed we need to build up self awareness which would absorb all types of shocks and tremors. Amidst the turbulence, our purpose of life is to grow, to evolve spiritually by purifying the mind, controlling our passions and shedding our past karmas and ultimately experiencing our true self.
Bhaishree the artisan who has perfectly mastered the art of fine tuning himself with every situation of his life thereafter said, the nature of life is to change. In these ever changing realities of the ephemeral world, remaining constant from within and not giving up to the external forces is the biggest challenge. With growing age and modernization everything alters. Our thought process, our attitude and approach, our style of functioning, what we eat, way we perceive, our ways of commuting and communication, every aspect of life keeps on varying. Change and shift is inevitable, we have to compromise, adjust and regulate ourselves accepting and adopting whatever comes our way. Change actually is the spice of life. In these competing times the demand is to be skillfully swift and to remain ahead of our competitors. Even with all this contesting and confronting, the test of life is to remain forever bonded to our core values, virtues and perception.
Most human lives are wasted chasing and accumulating wealth. Hoarding of wealth is the biggest impediment in our spiritual social and economic growth. The challenge of life is to overcome this roadblock. The fulfillment of wealth is not found by merely filling up the coffers or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application. When shall we understand that we are rich by what we are rather than what we have? Being innovative yet simple is the key. As seasons and fashion come and go, taking his [Bhaishree’s ] protective shelter, we shall remain divinely beautiful.
With genuine concern Bhaishree then guided us; the essence of life is to care. Our actions need to be soft and humble and our confidence to be hard as a rock. In life each of us play many roles at one time and the care and the concern of our hearts shall make us do everything judiciously perfect. The opportunity of life is to serve. The joy of giving is the greatest of all. In making others happy we experience true happiness. We sow not to reap but to sacrifice. This will equate and create a balance, steadily bringing us out from the vicious cycle of reincarnation. Every moment of this human life is a big opportunity. God has gifted us invaluable tools to make maximum out of this opportunity. Five senses, intellectual mind, kind heart, will power, hands and legs, we have so much with us to be of help to serve others. Sadly we utilize them for our selfish motives and they become good for nothing. We still have time to use all of these for our own personal benefit and for the world we live in. Like Arjun found Krushna we have found Bhaishree, let’s give the reigns of our chariot named life in his hands and we are rest assured of the smooth and safe journey. With him happiness is a voyage not a destination.
The thirteenth lesson: We shall learn while we live, if we are alert and observant on every step we take. Adapting to the times, let us be firm in our direction and focused to our goals. Being focused to Bhaishree we shall learn our greatest lessons of Life.
14 Meaningful Life
There was an old lady in a village named “Ratan Doshi”. Critically ill she was lying on her death bed. While taking her last breath she was repenting for living an atrocious life. In grief and remorse of her shameful life she cried and prayed inconsolably asking God to forgive her. Though seriously ailing her attention was not towards her body, as the faults and errors of her past misdeeds were looming in front of her eyes. Leave alone coming near her, all her life people hated her shadow too.
Her true prayers were blessed and she miraculously survived. God gave her one more opportunity to live, which she utilized fully by washing away all that was bad in her past. She worked hard for the betterment of the village. Soft spoken and loving she became a help to everyone who needed her. With her dynamism she brought the whole village together and with united efforts they started several welfare activities. Health and hygiene, education, respecting inter faith, women empowerment, environmental protection were the basic areas for which she toiled. With her transformation the entire village too was transformed. Now she was the most respected person. After a few years when she died, every soul living in the village mourned her death. Her memories kept on living inspiring many hearts to live a worthy life.
After a brief narration of her life, evaluating us Bhaishree asked, Shall we be haunted like her when we breathe our last? Have we lived outside our self helping others or with manipulative skills have influenced and controlled others to work for our benefit? It’s the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up our existence and we call it our Life.
Thereafter with certainty Bhaishree pronounced, only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. We have to make our life meaningful.
Guiding us how we need to live Bhaishree said, we should live each day as if it was our last.
Pointing out at the nature environment that encompasses all living he said, nothing in the nature lives for itself. Rivers don’t drink their own water. Trees don’t eat their own fruit. Flowers don’t spread fragrance for themselves. Sun doesn’t give heat for itself. Living for others is the rule of nature. Can we adopt this rule in our life? In expectation Bhaishree asked. We need to work for a cause and not for praises. We want our presence to be noticed, but in fact our absence should be felt.
Our talent our ability should add value to this world. We must also remember that for a society more than our ability it is our virtues that are more of a consequence. For not repeating mistakes life must be understood backwards but it has to be continuously lived forward.
The purpose of life for each of us depends on our beliefs and values. Human life is full of consciousness. In this life we must seek answers to who am I, where have I come from and so on. Without complaining we need to accept those things that we cannot change and gather courage to change the things that we can. It’s only in this human life that we know the difference of what cannot and what needs to be changed.
The fourteenth Lesson: A person, who cannot find contentment, cannot find peace. Who cannot find peace, cannot find fulfillment. Prosperity, Power and Popularity are not the solutions to human suffering, because we may have them all and still feel incomplete. Therefore finding our purpose we must be determined in pursuing it and appreciate every moment by making the most positive use of it. Living for others is living for ourselves.
In Your Service,
Vikram Na Vandan.
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