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GENERAL-BASIC

 

– Let us know an amazing thing. On a topic concerned with physics, everyone will like to hear the view of a physicist, similarly, on a topic concerned with astronomy, everyone will like to hear the view of an astronomer and give weight-age to those views and likewise. But, if the subject is God everyone feels himself the master of that subject and wants others to give weight-age to his views. But, on this subject, the views of only those persons carry weight-age who have gone on that path themselves.

-Today, we happen to follow certain persons regarding doing a particular activity without having any knowledge about that act. Such persons may be our religious teachers, our relatives or our parents. We follow them blindly, without using the measures of LOGIC and RATIONALITY. We follow the commands of certain persons simply for the reason of impression of their personalities.

– Verbal testimonies, which are called shabad pramaan in Hindi are very beneficial to us in knowing God, soul and nature. Verbal testimonies refer to words of God, that is, vedaas and words of the great teachers, which are in agreement with Vedaas. Today, there are a very few scholars of Vedaas. Because of this, we get practical difficulty in knowing, whether the words of so called great men of today are in consonance with Vedaas or not. As such, inspite of great benefits of verbal testimony, for some time we may suspend these and rely only on LOGIC AND RATIONALITY.

– There may be certain things which cannot be answered by the present level of our intellect. For that, we must raise the level of our intellect. Till then, those unanswerable things should be kept under suspension. Let’s look at an example for bringing the belief over what has been mentioned above. When a magician is performing, we completely believe all his tricks to be true, but, in our hearts we are of the strong belief or notion that whatever has been performed by the magician is unreal,  though we cannot explain the tricks performed by him. What is the basis of such a belief? We know the principles beyond doubt that nothing can be produced out of nothing, growing of human beings or animals take time, life cannot be infused into dead et cetera. Likewise, if we know the spiritual principles like what is yog?, what is karam principle?, what is prayer? et cetera, and have faith in them, then, we can easily know what is right and what is wrong.

– A simple method is there to know what is right and what is wrong. Majority of the people living in this country have a great respect for the character named ‘Ram’, who happened to live in this country approximately, ten lakh years earlier. Know his thoughts and deeds and try to see everything from the viewpoint of श्री राम. This will serve a dependable yardstick for us for judging anything and everything we see or feel around us. But, character of श्री राम should be known through the epic of रामायण written by MAHARISHI बाल्मिकि ONLY. Only the works of Rishis or Maharishis are dependable.

– Walking is possible only if, we raise our back foot and place it firmly in front of us. Likewise, we can progress, only if, we get rid of our false beliefs and accept the truth firmly. For deciding about the truth we must make the best use of our vivek. And we should constantly strive for raising the level of our vivek through daily studying a few pages of the works of the Great Rishis, who happened to be scholars of the Vedaas.

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– What is the benefit of going on the right path, if the other persons around us will harm us, if we don’t go their way? This is a common question, which needs be answered. Our life does not comprise 90-100 years only but, is unending like a circle. We must remember that our actions, that is, our having gone on the right or wrong path form the basis of obtaining type of body and mind in our next life.

– A justification commonly given for earning the money by deceitful means  is— if we do not adopt the wrong methods to earn the money, then, the system is such that the work will not suffer and some other person will come forward and adopt the deceitful means for the same purpose. If, we cannot stop the wrong methods to earn money, then, why shouldn’t we accept the truth of the system and adopt the wrong methods to earn the money. Here, two spiritual laws can be mentioned. First, one has to bear the fruit of his bad deeds. Second, money accumulated for keeping this body alive should be earned by rightful means, otherwise, we fail to use this body for attaining our purpose of life. As such, we must be careful enough to obtain the money from rightful means only and not to fall a prey to the justifications of the means given by our mind. For this also, our vivek should be at a very high level.

– A large number of people of our society are following the so called spiritual pursuits under the name of one sect or another founded by certain personalities. But, despite this, happiness level of the persons living in our country is diminishing day by day. The major reason behind this is a common belief that spirituality has nothing to do with our behaviour with other people, which includes members of our family, our friends, our colleagues, our neighbours et cetera. Such people must realize that their so called spiritual pursuits will bear no fruit until and unless they spread the fragrance of their good behaviour amongst the society approachable to them and for spreading such fragrance they have to do two things:

(i) Encouraging and supporting the good people

(ii) Blocking others from doing the wrongs and making their own behavioural conditions for dealing with such people. Further, on none of the spiritual laws, there is unanimity amongst followers of different religious sects for the simple reason that their unanimity on a particular topic may threaten the very existence of the sect, founded by a personality for whom they have great regard.

– Sun does not shirk its work. So, shouldn’t we. Getting inspiration from the sun, we should do all our work incessantly. And remove all the darkness of ignorance. For thinking of removing the darkness of ignorance, we ourselves must first become the light-houses of knowledge.

– The word ‘Yaj’ does not mean ‘Havan’ only, but, it refers to all actions done with the complete knowledge for the welfare of others. ‘Havan’ connotes ‘Yaj’, only symbolically. One of the good things, we learn from ‘Havan’ is GIVING, what we have for the welfare of others, with pleasure. Actually, if, a doctor is helping his patients for their welfare only, to the best of his knowledge, he is performing ‘Yaj’. Similarly, if a teacher is giving knowledge to his pupils for their welfare, to the best of his ability, he is doing ‘Yaj’ and likewise. Here, for the purpose of converting our actions into yaj, we need to know the meaning of the phrase- ‘welfare of others’. If, all the people succeed in bringing their actions in the category of Yaj, then, there can not remain any scope for misery.

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– What is the root cause of all our miseries? ‘Not knowing the real स्वरूप and qualities of God’ lie at the root of all our miseries. How knowledge of God removes our miseries? One, who has the knowledge of God, is able to move through the misery without being affected by grief. Because of having the knowledge of God or His eternal principles, great freedom-fighters were able to embrace the misery of death without any grief. The more a person will have knowledge of God, the more he will be able to accept the miseries of his life smilingly.

– There is a notion that if, a person does not do bad of any body either mentally or physically, he has earned virtue. This notion is totally wrong. Now, let us try to understand how this notion is wrong? Virtue is earned only if, we stop from doing a bad act and immediately do a good act. Only ‘not doing bad act’ does not automatically mean having done a good act. Take a few examples:

1 If, we want to go to Delhi, our not boarding a bus going to Shimla does not automatically mean that our effort to go to Delhi is sufficient. For going to Delhi, while, one should not board a bus going to Shimla, but, one should, also, board a bus going to Delhi.

2 If, a student does not go to play thinking that he has to do his home-work, it does not automatically mean that he has done sufficiently enough to do his home-work. If, he has refrained from going to play, he should, also, do his home-work.

I hope that these examples have made it clear that ‘virtue is earned, only if, we stop from doing a bad act and immediately do a good act’. Now, let us expand this principle to reach at another conclusion. If a person does not do any thing to know about God, soul and nature around him, this act of his can not be called virtue, even if, he saves himself from doing a bad act.

-Believing in God means doing what God has instructed to do and not doing what God has forbidden to do. God has instructed human beings to love other beings, to speak the truth, to do justice et cetera and has forbidden to hate, to make fool of others, to do injustice, to do anything which is harmful for the mankind et cetera.

-If a thing is a combination of good and bad elements and we cannot segregate its good elements from the bad ones, then, we should discard whole of that thing. For example, if poison is mixed in a very nutritious food, then, we discard whole of the food without thinking of its nutrients.

-Since, in today’s society, most of the people have beliefs opposite to truth, if a person comes up with a right approach, he is bound to get isolated. But, because one needs help of the society in his day to day work, it becomes very difficult for a person to advocate the truths in the society. As such, till the time, he accumulates the inner strength to move with the truth without caring of the indifference of the society, he can move-only physically not mentally with the beliefs of the society. On all possible occasions, he should move in accordance with his mind releasing pressures of the society as per his capacity. He should gradually increase his capacity to go against the beliefs of the society.

-If, one wants to learn a language, then, he does not remember all the sentences of that language. Rather, he understands the system by which sentences are formed in that language. Likewise, if one intends to realize God, he need not remember all the good acts and all the bad acts but he needs to understand the system by which an act is categorized as good or bad. Only then, he can be said to be moving in the direction of realization of God. Knowledge of the system by which an act is categorized as good or bad is not acquired automatically, but it has to be earned. One, who talks of God realization and invests whole of his energy in learning the good acts and the bad acts without trying to understand the system by which an act is categorized as good or bad is not at all an intelligent person and should be treated by others, accordingly.

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-There is a general notion among the people that one should not criticize others, rather, he should spread his thoughts without criticizing others. But, at times criticism is necessary to spread one’s positive thoughts but the condition is- the criticism should be for the welfare of others. Let me explain this with the help of an example. Suppose, a child is learning the table—two multiplied by four is equal to ten. Then every one, who is a witness to such learning is duty-bound to tell the child that two multiplied by four is not equal to ten (this can be said to be criticism of child’s way), but, two multiplied by four is equal to eight. The truth of the table cannot be instilled in the child without telling him that two multiplied by four is not equal to ten. If, the child is not told the truth in the beginning, then, he can not be saved from doing silly mistakes in the theory and practice of mathematics later in his life. As such, telling a person where he is wrong is not criticism. If, today, WRONGS have spread so much in our society, then, the reason is-they were not criticized in the beginning and the truth was not advocated. One, who knows the truth cannot in any way be lenient on any aspect of it. In the ibid example, one who knows that two multiplied by four is equal to eight cannot, in any circumstance, agree that two multiplied by four is equal to 7.9, 8.1 et cetera. Spirituality is also a perfect science as is mathematics. As such, one can not be flexible regarding outcomes of spiritual laws. Such persons are called adamant by the present society.

-‘अभिमान’ is dangerous as it kills all possessions of a person. But, what is the difference between ‘अभिमान’ and ‘स्वाभिमान’. While, ‘अभिमान’ is considered bad or unwanted, ‘स्वाभिमान’ is considered good and essential. To talk of a thing, which one actually knows or possesses is said to be out of the feeling of ‘स्वाभिमान’ and to talk of a thing which one does not know or possess is said to be out of the feeling of ‘अभिमान’. The purpose of talking of one’s knowledge or possession is also an important factor in determining ‘अभिमान’ or ‘स्वाभिमान’. For example, acceptance by one of knowing the table of two with the purpose of helping another cannot be termed as ‘अभिमान’.

-Creator is said to be great only if his creation is great. Likewise, if we want to call God great, we must feel greatness of His creation. But, how can we feel greatness of His creation? Watch players of certain games like Kabaddi, Running, Football, Gymnastics et cetera. Let it be ‘soccer’. By watching the players playing soccer, you can feel the great co-ordination between their eyes-looking and simultaneously judging the speed of the other players and the ball coming towards them, legs-when to move fast, when to go slow, when to jump so as to be able to hit the ball with the head et cetera, planning to attack the opponents and to defend et cetera. By feeling this amazing co-ordination and synchronization between different parts of the body, we can easily say that His creation is really great. What to say of the greatness of the entity which created such a great creation.

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-In short, verbal testimonies refer to the sayings of God and that of great men, whose lives are in perfect consonance with the instructions of God delivered through Vedaas. But, today, our loyalty has shifted from Vedaas. In the absence of regular study of Vedaas, we do not have a yard-stick to measure the greatness of a person. This has resulted in our erroneous declaring certain persons to be great. As such, sayings of such persons are being treated by us wrongly as शब्द -प्रमाण. For this reason, let us first, suspend our belief over शब्द-प्रमाण for the time being, until we understand what शब्द-प्रमाण actually are and secondly, start using our vivek in, whatever, we do particularly in the name of ‘धर्म’. Only after we start using our vivek in all our actions, we WILL BE ELIGIBLE to know the real शब्द-प्रमाण and draw benefit from these.

-One should not be loyal to a person or a body of persons rather he should be loyal to the principles only, even if, sticking to the principles brings harm to a person or body of persons. Now, the question arises as to what sort of principles one should be loyal to? One need to be loyal to the principles, accepted by his self as true.

-There are three aspects of life. These are:

• Physical aspect
• Social aspect
• Spiritual aspect

Today, most of our efforts surround our ‘Social’ aspect of life. Second priority is given by the people to ‘Physical’ aspect of life. Last priority is given by the people to ‘Spiritual’ aspect of life. Efforts towards grooming ‘Spiritual’ aspect of life are almost negligible. Now, what is the reason that ‘Physical aspect’ and ‘Social aspect’ lag behind ‘Spiritual aspect’ of life, in importance, when most of efforts, today, are devoted by people to ‘Physical aspect’ and ‘Social aspect’? To clarify about ‘importance quotient’ of these three aspects of life, let us go through an example-There are two entities-one is body and the other is soul and there is no confusion as to which of these is more important. Although, soul is said to be more important than the body, but, in common parlance soul without body is meaningless. It cannot be said that body is not important, but, out of the two, soul is more important. Similarly, ‘Physical aspect’ and ‘Social aspect’ of life are important, but, ‘Spiritual’ aspect of life is of utmost importance. How? Take another example- a train with a speed of even 1000 kilometres per hour is of no use, if, it has no destination. ‘Spiritual aspect’ provides destination to the train of life.

-There is a wrong notion that devotees of God remain miserable. If a devotee feels miserable, he would quit ‘भक्ति’ of God. It is not mandatory for any one to do ‘भक्ति’ of God. Actually, the persons, who start feeling ‘आनन्द’, that is, bliss in ‘भक्ति’ of God considers all worldly things and pleasures obtained from worldly things lower from ‘भक्ति’ of God and for maintaining the enjoyment of bliss of God, such persons leave all worldly things. Worldly people call it miserableness of devotees of God. भक्त, that is, devotee knows that whatever worldly pleasures he does not have or whatever worldly objects he has left are hollow and true pleasure has come from भक्ति of God. It is immaterial for him whether the world calls him happy or miserable.

-There is a belief amongst certain people that ‘Work is worship’ and the persons doing their duties rightfully need not do भक्ति of God. Actually, without realizing Him we cannot do our worldly duties to the best. As such, only when direction of our ‘मन’ is towards God, we can perform our worldly acts to our best. To earn the right to do भक्ति of God, we must perform our worldly duties to the best of our abilities. While performing worldly acts, we commit a lot of wrongs, knowledge of which is had by only those, whose ‘मन’ is directed towards God and with the passage of time, an ईश्वर-भक्त earns the ability to do his worldly duties to the best.

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-No parent takes tests of his child to know whether he loves him or not. As such, it is wrong to say that God testifies His devotees. While doing भक्ति of God, a साधक earns so much potential that inspite of odds, he does not waver from doing acts for the welfare of others and society. भक्त calls such acts as his duty while worldly people call it testification by God.

-To help a known or unknown person in difficulty is अतिथि-सेवा but to constantly remain busy in fulfilling absurd requirements of visitors to your home is nothing more than wastage of your time and energy. Considering अतिथि-सेवा to be a good act, many persons make unknown persons stay with them and many a times such people steal many house-hold goods. As such, one should refine his notion about अतिथि-सेवा and remain vigilant enough in dealing with unknown persons in the present scenario.

-Suicide is not a solution to the problems. The fruits earned by a soul because of its previous actions has to be borne by the soul-if not in the current birth, then, in the future birth or births. One, who commits suicide because of problems of loans takes his next birth as a servant and has to face the same pain. One, who commits suicide to save himself from bodily pain, gets a deformed or deceased body in his next birth. To commit suicide is one of the biggest sins and one should never think of that. Like, police punishes a prisoner after catching him, who runs away from the prison. In the same manner God punishes the soul, who leaves the body on its own.

-There is a belief in the society that one should hate the sin and not the sinner. The real meaning of this belief is that the sinner, too, has a right to change himself. He has potential to do that. If we start hating the sinner, then, the sinner loses his chance to use his potential. Such sort of notion rests at a very high altitude. To reach at that stage, one has to hate both-the sinner and the sin, in the beginning. Accordingly, in the beginning one should avoid both the sinner and the sin. In practical situations, a criminal can escape, but, a person who gives shelter to the criminal is caught by the police.

-On plea of अर्जुन that in war, many men of army of कौरव will die, lord कृष्ण said that to kill the wrong-doer in the battle field is ‘धर्म’ and to save such people is a great sin because wrong-doer’s courage increases on not getting penalized and then he starts committing greater sins.

-Some people believe that one, who practices non-violence, is also treated by the world, accordingly. This is totally a wrong notion. Carnivorous animals have nothing to do with the thoughts of non-violence of a person. Many Yogis were eaten by animals. Propounder of grammar of Sanskrit language, Maharishi पाणिनी was eaten by a lion, while he was in ‘तपस्या’. Maharishi जैमिनि was killed by an elephant. Maharishi पिंगल was eaten by a crocodile. As such, Yogis should be beware of bad men and animals.

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– It is believed that without ‘श्रद्धा’, one cannot realize God. Only, on developing ‘श्रद्धा’ towards a particular work, one feels ‘आनन्द’ in performing that work or activity. ‘श्रद्धा’ is not in conflict with logic. Actually, the belief developed over a thing, after it passes the test of logic is called ‘श्रद्धा’. Without using one’s vivek, to have faith over a thing, told by any scripture or teacher is not ‘श्रद्धा’ but blind-faith. Common belief-“As we feel the true-ness of our path, similarly, the others, too, have the same sort of feeling towards their paths. Everyone is free to choose his path. As such, it is not appropriate to hurt others’s ‘श्रद्धा’”. But, if a person is having a belief over untruthfulness because of ignorance, then, to make him understand the truth is not inappropriate. If the path of a person is untrue, then, even if, he follows that path for lakhs of years with whole-hearted devotion or ‘श्रद्धा’, he cannot find the truth or realize God.

-If we get chance to help someone, then, we must feel ourselves lucky and honoured. After helping someone, to expect honour from the society, in return or expect that the other person should remain indebted to us is nothing else than selfishness.

-Every individual acts for the purpose of getting happiness or peace. Spiritual people try to get happiness or peace by doing great deeds and भक्ति of God whereas bad men try to get happiness or peace by doing wrong deeds like killing, stealing, befooling, doing injustice et cetera. In the long run, it is not possible to get happiness or peace by doing sinful deeds. However, in the short run, it is possible to get happiness through getting attention or praise of the people et cetera by doing wrong deeds.

-For obtaining happiness or peace, one is required to control one’s desires. People, who earn money by honest means and fulfill their desires, accordingly and do not wish to fulfill their desires beyond their means, lead a happy life.

-Looking at today’s eating habits and other scenarios, it is very difficult to apply continence in one’s life. Lust for opposite sex is a dangerous enemy. One cannot know, when and in what circumstances, it may attack and destroy its prey. As such, generally, a साधक should get married.

-This world is very strange. Here, it is not necessary that the one, whom we think everything and in whose favour we are ready to surrender every possession of ours, keeps similar thoughts about us. Whom, we think our friends, can harm us and ones, whom we consider our enemies, may be our well-wishers. Then, whom we should consider our well-wisher in all times and in all places? Such a thing cannot be any worldly object or worldly being. Only God is our true well-wisher of all times and places.

-A story-Once there were three men doing the activity of breaking stones. On being asked by a saint, one person said, “My fate is very bad. My act of breaking stones is guided by my bad fate.” The second person said, “I am not able to get any other work and am earning my livelihood by this activity of breaking stones.” The third person said, “I am earning my livelihood through exertion. Whole day I work and in the night, I go to my bed without any tension. This way, life is passing well with आनन्द.” Although, all the three men were doing the same work. The first person is considering it as a necessary evil. The second person is doing it for having no other option and third person is doing this activity considering it as his duty. If, there is a possibility of getting a better work than the present one, then, there is no harm in trying to get that, but, when we are bound to do an activity, then, intelligence lies in doing that with pleasure.

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-Sins committed, even in ignorance become the reason of our bondage in the cycle of birth and death. In an accidental death of a person, the concerned person is charged with an offence of non-intentional murder and is punished, accordingly. Sins whether committed intentionally or unintentionally are the reason of our bondage. Logically, a person, who earns the right to freedom from this bondage, should not have any sin. But, it is not possible, not to have sins as sins are embedded in all the acts necessary for maintenance of our body. A person, who gets freedom from this bondage, actually suspends obtaining the fruit of his sins for a very long period of time.

-God gives the fruits of our good deeds and wrong deeds separately. Example-a person saves a child from drowning and gets a reward for his courageous action. If, he kills a child after a lapse of time, then, he will be punished for this act. In the court, he can not give a plea that his act of killing a child may be adjusted against his earlier act of saving another child and he may not be penalized for this act.

-Every relation of this world is based on debts-some are repaying debts and some are recovering debts. Some believe that if, anything is given with love without demand, then, there is no harm in taking that thing. Such people receive gifts from others on the occasions of birthdays, marriages, other festive occasions et cetera without any hitch. The fact is-a thing received on or without demand, with force or through befooling the giver is a debt and it has to be repaid by the receiver, without doubt. If, the giver gives a thing to another without his demand or on demand , but, without any desire of receiving anything, in return, then, his act of giving does not cause any bondage to him but the receiver has to repay it.

-Possession of money, knowledge, beauty, power, designation, reputation et cetera becomes the cause of one’s superiority complex. And a person having superiority complex dishonours the other persons having opposite conditions. What to talk of ordinary people, some saints and learned fellows, even, suffer from the disease of superiority complex. Such people waste their lives. Many people, who suffer from this disease, get misery in this life itself and the remaining sufferers get misery in their future lives. God is justice-doer. Everyone receives the fruits of his actions justly. One, who believes in this system of God, is able not to commit any sin.

-Today, there is a belief in the society that God gives the fruits of actions of souls justly even if, with delay. The fact is-God gives the fruits of actions of souls justly and without delay but the period as to when the fruit of an action will develop can be known by God, only. Actions differ with regard to the period when their fruits get developed. Some actions produce their fruits within a day, some in a month, some in a year, some after a life span and so on. It is just like the action of our drinking water quenches our thirst immediately, some ordinary diseases may go within 2-3 days, other diseases may take months or years together to go and the like. Some actions which generally produce fruits almost instantly may have been performed with such an intensity that they produce fruits early. As such, it is not possible for a human being to estimate about the period as to when an action will bear its fruit.

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