Are you capable of creation? You may be able to kill. But can you bring a dead man back to life? Every single thing is by the will of God. Men are unable to trust that will. Without faith man can never lead a peaceful life.
Develop faith in God. God has neither wrath nor mercy. He plays by your ideas. Iron is inert but a magnet can make it move around by its power. So, it is important to understand the dual principles in human nature. Besides drawing goodness from Divinity, man is attracting punishments upon himself from the same Divinity! Let me tell you how:
The axe cuts down the sandalwood tree but the tree leaves its fragrance on the blade of the axe in return. The tree did not hate the axe and abuse it. The tree resigned to fate thinking that let the axe face the results of its bad nature. Now, what is the bitter experience that the axe would face? It is an ordeal through the fire and heavy hammer strokes. Do you see that! Though the axe enjoys the sandalwood fragrance initially, it gets blunt and is sharpened by getting burnt in the furnace and getting hit with the hammer. Is this a punishment given by the sandalwood tree? No, it is a consequence of the axe’s bad nature. So, even though God reciprocates the bad with goodness, the bad beget bad finally. So, God need not cause bad things to happen to you. God need not punish you. You get punished yourself. Gold is very valuable. The goldsmith melts it by burning. But the precious gold, despite of the suffering feels happy for, it would soon get purified and become 24-carat gold. Its worth will enhance, so it is happy. It even says this to the goldsmith, “O goldsmith! Do realise your own suffering. Whatever you are putting me through only helps me grow in my purity and value. But in the process, the smoke from the furnace makes your eyes burn. The ash and the sparks form the fire spoil your clothes. Thus your clothes and eyes are ruined. This loss is yours and not mine.” Therefore, we should never ascribe any good or bad to God. He is just a witness.
When you turn on the switch, the fan rotates spreading cool breeze or the lights go on spreading brightness. If you turn the switch off, you remain in suffocation and darkness. The lights lose nothing if you do not switch them on. The fan will not complain if you don’t use it. The loss or gain is all yours. So, it is required that you should learn to make the best use of this principle. Divinity is the basis of everything. Instead of relying on this basis we depend upon this body, which is itself based on Divinity and depends on it. This way, we are subjected to Moha (delusion). This leads us to anxiety. All our powers are drained out by anxiety. Man is mistaken to think that he is happy and comfortable because of luxuries and wealth. Greatly mistaken indeed, you don’t enjoy luxuries but the luxuries enjoy you! Consequently, your faculties weaken. If you enjoyed the luxuries why wouldn’t you become fresher and stronger? It is because the luxuries feed upon you, you become debilitated, old and fiddled with disease. So, it is said, “Janma Dukham Jara Dukham, Jaya Dukham Punah Punah. Antah Kaale Maha Dukham, Tasmat Jagrata Jagrata” (Birth is misery, old age is misery, disease is misery; the last moments of life are the most miserable, so be careful always.).
Namasmarana: The Instrument To Realise God
Students! Worldly wealth and luxuries are not lasting; they are not real. We may seek them out and enjoy them on the way. But, our aim should remain fixed on Divinity. Hence, it is better to lead the worldly life with a spiritual view as the ultimate objective. When you live in this way, you will be successful in the worldly learning and attain the joys of the life here and hereafter. If we narrate and share with students, some good words and exemplary experiences each day, we would be doing a lot of good to them. This inspires them to read some good books. It is required that every day, two of the students share with the other students their thoughts on any spiritual topic or something they have experienced or perceived. It is to provide the necessary inspiration and encouragement to you and to introduce spirituality into your hearts that I have started this programme today. We should not waste our life in worldly matters. You are preoccupied with your studies and your chores all the time. But you must take to heart an hour at least some of the spiritual matters. Tomorrow onwards these meetings will take place between five and six in the evening. Sanctify your lives in this Satsang.
As the first speaker said, we should try to find the sanctity of Namasmarana and the fruits of chanting God’s name. Tukaram said, ‘Nam Niroopana Mala Ratan Te’ (Only those who have discovered it will know the preciousness of the gems, which God’s name is). To those who are unaware, the name just seems to be normal words. Students! This age of yours is very sacred. Chanting of God’s name is an urgent need. You are taking it lightly and committing a blunder. There is nothing in this world that you cannot achieve through the name. The name can get you the One so named. That means, the form behind the name is revealed. If we want to buy something, what should we have in hand? With money in hand we can buy whatever article we want. Now, which, among the articles and money, is greater? Money of course, when we have the money we can own the article. Similarly, if we want to acquire the articles of this world like comfort, pleasure, happiness, profit and success, we should have the money of God’s name. We should accumulate that kind of money. With that kind of money we can sustain our character. Character is very important to man. You should develop the wealth of character at this age.
Here is a small example! Our life is a tree. All our relations and friends are the branches. Our thoughts are like the flowers. The fruit of Ananda that grows on this tree has the sweetness of character. But what is the basis of the tree? The roots of course! Thus, we have the roots at the bottom and the fruits at the top. Without these it is just firewood, not a tree. However, sometimes the birds of desire, anger, greed, infatuation etc., perch atop the tree. What happens then? They create a lot of nuisance. They dirty the tree shade with droppings. How, then, do we drive them away? We stand under the tree and scare them away by shooting and clapping and they fly away. So under the tree of the body and positioned in the heart, when you deliberately shout ‘Rama, Krishna, Govinda’, all those birds will flee. After this, the three components of mind, speech and body get purified automatically. In Vedanta this is called ‘Trikarana Shuddhi’. The names Rama and Krishna should emanate from the mind and come out through speech. The hands should keep beat to what is voiced. The Raga of speech, the Shruti of mind and the Taala of hands – when all the three join up, ‘Trikarana Shuddhi’ is achieved. Some say that they sing mentally. Why should I sing aloud? That is total ignorance. Food cooked is ready in kitchen. Is it enough to mentally think about it? It should get served in the plate. What is in the plate should reach your stomach. Otherwise your hunger is not satiated. So it is of no use to have feelings only in the mind. What is on the mind should come out in words. What comes out in words is taken in through the ears. You should have this kind of a meal.
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