My Thoughts : No fear!

These thoughts have been running in my mind for quite sometime and now, am posting it. We believe that not a single atom can move against God’s intention, but still we all live in fear of something. Fear of losing our jobs, fear of death, fear of losing loved ones, fear of future, fear of career and so on. But we forget that this world is materialistic and nothing in this world can give eternal happiness. If we are poor, we are worried about not having money; if we are rich, we are worried about protecting it; if we are not married, we are worried about not having a family; if we have a family we are worried about running it; the circle goes on. We also forget that this lifetime is a small phase in the timeless journey of our Atma, and that the difficult times that we endure are just minuscule parts of this already minuscule life. And even the difficulties we endure here are for some good only. Eternal happiness is possible only when we understand what real happiness is, and real happiness is possible only in Sri Vaikuntam with Sriman Narayana.

Many a times we are sad because our loved ones are sad. But the fact remains that every relationship expects something from us. The only One who doesn’t expect anything from us is the Supreme God, Sriman Narayana. All He expects from us is to Believe in Him & Surrender to Him. Once we believe and surrender in Him, we can live happily with no fear, as the Omnipotent with limitless energy is protecting us. But unless we totally believe that we will be protected & we are protected, we will continue to live in fear. Even if we are to die, we are going to a much better place with eternal bliss & happiness and we no longer are under the vicious cycle of birth & death. We are just going back to where we came from, Sriman Narayana.

And many of us have got the intention to relate the magnitude of happiness and sufferings we face to the magnitude of our spiritualism. But again we forget that [as said earlier] this lifetime is a small phase in the timeless journey of our Atma, and that the difficult times that we endure are just minuscule parts of this already minuscule life. And even these difficulties are for some good that cannot been seen by us the very moment.

All we need to do is Surrender [Saranagathi] to Him and keep doing our duies [Karma Yoga] and live happily. He will take care of the rest.

Kali Yuga – It’s Good!

Seeing the way the world is going, we tend to say that it’s because of the Kali Yuga; and its true. But Kali Yuga isn’t too bad either. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Sri Velukkudi Swami’s Upanyasam. In the upanyasam, Swami said an interesting story. Once 3 rishis had some doubts and so met the great Vashista Brahmarishi to clear the doubts. At that time the Brahmarishi was bathing in a river and took a dip. As he got he said “Women are superior to men“. The next time he took a dip and said “Sudras are the superior caste” and after the final dip “Kali Yuga is the best“. Then he went towards the Rishis who were waiting for him. Once the Brahmarishi reached them, the other rishis said, “Our doubts have been cleared Brahmarishi” and left. In such a small incident all common beliefs are destroyed. Velukkudi Swami later explained the reasons behind all the 3. Here I just tell the reason behind why Kali Yuga is the best.

In the Krita Yuga people’s average life span was in tens of thousand years. Seeing the ills of today, this might seem to be very good news. But take this – what you do in a year in Krita yuga can be done in a day in Kali yuga. This applies even to salvation / mukthi. In Krita Yuga, the way to Mukthi was through constant meditation of Sriman Narayana. People meditated for thousands of years to attain mukthi. Just imagine meditating today for one hour! In Kali Yuga the way to mukthi is through meditation of the Divine name of the Lord. How Simple!

And one more interesting thing is that the Hindu Philosophy already knew about the Kali Yuga, thats why it said what is done in a year in Krita Yuga can be done in a day in Kali Yuga. To put simply, the Technological advancement. For instance, in Krita yuga if you wanted to know about something, you would have probably spend a year walking thousands of miles to find the person with that knowledge. In Kali yuga its just a matter of searching the Internet. But don’t forget that in Kali Yuga, to do something bad too you don’t need to spend much time! Again its a matter of how you use technology.

Hindu Philosophy – Just stunning!

To read more about the 4 yugas – http://www.harekrishnatemple.com/bhakta/chapter19.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga

My thoughts : 100 Rupees for a coffee & 100 lakhs for a car.

I read a book and some ideas in it have made me think quite a deal. The book said this – Wealth is known as Goddess Lakshmi, the divine consort of Lord Sriman Narayana. God expects us to use this wealth to please him and for good reasons. This obviously means that using this wealth (i.e. Goddess Lakshmi) for materialistic and worldy pleasures is a sin and using it for worldly benefits, only brings in more misery.

Now we are in a time when there are a zillion ways to spend money for worldly benefits. Right from 100 rupees for a coffee to 100 lakhs for a car, we can spend money, in wasteful ways. Sriman Narayan will be happy when the wealth he has given us is used in righteous ways. Otherwise it brings in only misery, which we are seeing daily. A rich man might have a many cars, but the doctor might have instructed him to walk daily because he is obese. Another person might have a sweet shop, but wouldn’t be able to have any because he is diabetic. Now, the money has brought in only misery. Apart from spiritual reasons, it is also morally wrong to spend so much money when millions struggle for single meal a day.

So should we stop having our favourite cup of cappuccino? YES! But we need not stop it right away forcefully. We can start by reducing the frequency of having our 100 rupees coffee and slowly give it up. And there is one more thing we can start doing right away. Whenever we spend 100 rupees for a coffee we can spend some more money (or atleast the same amount) for pleasing the God. This doesn’t necessarily mean giving the money to a temple (which is always good); The money can be used to feed poor people, given to orphanages and there are more ways money can be put to good use.

When we use money to please God and for righteous reasons, God is happy with us and he keeps us happy. We also feel morally right when our money is put to good use.

The book I read was Elevation to Krishna Consciousness, about which I have said in one of my older posts.