Mission

[JUSTIFY]Every being that is born in this world is in pursuit of infinite happiness. All of us are looking to lead a very happy life and are ready to do anything to make our lives exciting and interesting. Can we find happiness in pursuit of objects outside of us or by pursuing the divine source inside of us? Our mind is an important tool for us to pursue happiness that last for life. How do we make our mind to pursue something that will grant the infinite and permanent happiness called “Bliss”? When we look at the teachings of the learned people, they all say that the only way we can achieve it is by realizing the divinity inside of us.

“Easwara sarva bhutanam” (Creator is the indweller of all beings), “Isavasayam idam sarvam” (the entire universe is permeated by the Creator) are the teachings. “We must realize that we are born to experience our innate divinity and not merely to enjoy the worldly pleasures. We have to take to the path of spirituality to experience our innate divinity. If we lack in spiritual outlook, we do not deserve to be called human beings. In fact, it amount to betrayal of the Creator. He does not expect us to worship Him. He expects us to lead an ideal and purposeful life” says the teaching.

How do we achieve the objective of realizing our innate divinity? There are three levels of bodies namely a) Gross, b) Subtle and c) Causal. At the gross level, we need to begin to work towards senses/mind control, practice spiritual disciplines like i) silent sitting, ii) read literature that teaches right living, iii) participate in Satsang, iv) teach morality to the children, v) serve the children, elders and poor, etc. and focus on austerity and worshiping the innate divinity. At the subtle body level, we have to be able discriminate between Maya and the reality, gain knowledge about the innate divinity and work towards Self-realization by practicing the knowledge gained. At the Causal level, we need to clearly become independent and reduce our reliance on the world, delve deep into self-inquiry, understand the birth and death cycle and prolong the awareness of our being, moving away from duality. The purpose of our life is to liberate our innate divinity from the birth and death cycle.

In simple terms, Vedanta interprets the life as a) Self is the supreme power within (Spirit), b) body, mind and intellect are the tools (matter), c) Jiva (Microcosm or composition of matter and the spirit together) is the subject, d) the world (Macrocosm) is the object, e) Subject meets the object and gain experiences and f) flow of such experiences is life. "Janthunam narajanmam dhurlabam meaning it is a unique privilege to become a human being. We have clambered through all the steps in the ladder of evolution in order to inherit this high destiny. If all the years between birth and death are frittered away in seeking food and shelter, comfort and pleasure as animals do, human beings are condemning themselves to a further life-sentence." says the teaching.

There are some principles of right living. We need to understand that the attitude of giving to the world creates more happiness than taking from the world. In fact, what we retain is what we give. We have to constantly engage our body in good actions. The next step is to understand the oneness of our Self with the whole and demonstrate unconditional love for the fellow beings. This will help fill our heart with love and compassion while our body engages in action. Then, we need to seek true knowledge using our intellect with a conviction to practice what we gain from such knowledge. This will engage our intellect to engage, while our body acts and our mind loves.

My Guru taught me, “Love in thoughts is Sathya (Truth), Love in feelings is Shanthi (Peace), Love in actions is Dharma (Righteousness) and Love in understanding is Ahimsa (Non-violence). Love is the common denominator for four other human values. It is the form of divinity and divinity is love.” If we make effort to manifest our inherent nature of love, all other values will manifest and we can achieve Bliss.
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Dear Bhavna,

Thank you for your kind words. You are right. The body ("Padartha") can't do action without the presence of the Soul ("Parartha") at the same time the Soul needs the body to do action. Experiences gained from our actions in the material world should become spiritual lesson for us. When we make mistake, we should learn out of it and never repeat it again but at the same time we should forgive ourselves and move on without delving on that mistake forever. When we do good actions, we should learn lessons out of that to do it even better next time, remain humble and not feel elated for our actions. We have to do actions all the time skillfully, selflessly and lovingly without any expectations of results. We have to have firm belief in Self and remain confident. Total Surrender (Atma Nivedhanam) is becoming part of the mission of the Lord is the ninth form of devotion.

I always enjoy reading your responses and keep them coming. Thank you for reading this post.

Viswa

 

Dear VJ,

You are absolutely right. Many times, we notice that people thing that we need to give away what we don't use. Actually, I am a big believer that the quality of what we give should be what we use day to day in our lives. If we provide food to the needy, we should give hot food of great quality. If we give away school supplies to children, we should buy a new set of supplies and give it to the needy children. If we serve the elders, we should take care of them the same way we would take care of our own parents.

Whatever we give is what remains with us after our death. Everything else are transient and are inherited by our kith and kin but the blessings we get by giving remains with us and comes to us in our next life.

Viswa