Happy Datta Jayanti

They say that God is formless – nirguna and nirakar i.e. one with no characteristics and no form. He is One. However, he wished to become many and so, he created this universe. He created 84 lakh species. And then the creation stopped. The final creation was human being. After creation of human being, nothing remained to be created.

During soul’s journey, they say, it progresses from mineral (khanija), to tree (vruksha), to animal and finally as human being. When soul reaches human birth, it gets an opportunity to merge back into the One, a stage called as parameshwar prapti. That is why they say that human birth is very precious and should not be wasted in pursuit of desires other than the desire for parameshwar prapti. Parameshwar prapti is the primary goal of human birth.

Humans are the leaders of this universe. In their pursuit of achieving the goal of parameshwar prapti, not only they benefit but even the animals and other species benefit. That’s why during sankalpa of any puja when we list the participants of the puja we also include animals in the house, if there are any, because they also get benefited by earning punya from that ritual.

If the goal of parameshwar prapti is not achieved or not pursued in the human birth then one is at great loss. However, the journey of achieving goal of parameshwar prapti is not easy. For those who try on their own, this journey is like the game of snake and ladder. One never knows when one can go back to the level zero and start all over again. However, for those who surrender to the Guru the success is certain. The surrender has to be whole-hearted, though.

That is why Lord Dattatreya, Guru of all Gurus, incarnates time to time, for two reasons. One – to remind the people who have deviated from their goal, and second to give darshan to the people who are pursuing the goal of parameshwar prapti. He is called Datta because his primary characteristic is to give. He is called bhukti mukti dataa, as he gives all essential things to his devotees so that they can fulfill their duties, as well as blesses them in their goal of achieving parameshwar prapti.

Lord Dattatreya first took birth to Sage Atri and Mother Anasuya. They say that He never ended his avatara. However he changes his form as suitable to the time. First he took form as Lord Dattatreya, then as Shripad Shrivallabha in Pithikapur, then as Swami Samarth in Akkalkot and then as Saibaba in Shirdi.

Today is Datta Jayanti. We are celebrating it by performing Datta puja in our temple in Dapoli. May this puja bring you all most auspicious gains and help us all in our goal of achieving parameshwar prapti.

Why do we do, what we do?

 

Why do we do, what we do? To become happy - sukhi. Is it not? That’s the prime most goal of every living being. There is no living being on earth that does not strive to achieve happiness.

 

In general if we attempt to define happiness it could mean combination of many things. Happiness could mean – to be able to safeguard self-esteem for self and family by becoming self-sufficient; to be able to make parents happy; to be able find good life partner; to be able to raise, feed and maintain family; to be able to get a good food on the table for self and all dependents; and above all, to be able to earn good name for family and lineage. In fact earning good name is the tip of happiness as the good name is what we leave behind at the end of life.

 

After doing all hard work if one is not able to achieve these goals, then something is missing. And that is punya. All material earnings including the ability to earn material wealth are the result of punya, merit. Wise say that to achieve all above goals one should focus on earning punya.

 

To achieve punya, wise recommend to have just one goal. This one goal can help to earn punya which in turn helps to achieve all of the above goals. And that goal is, to make God happy by serving Him.

Service is very important in life. Without service we cannot earn anything in life. That’s the most common known true fact of life. One has to dedicate body and mind, without any complaint, to an organization who gives food or essentially salary to purchase food.

If this is the case with organization that gives remuneration to keep up the body and bodily relations, what about persons who gave birth to this body itself or the higher power who has provided us all necessary things for living such as air, water, vegetables, material for shelter, rain, breeze, light? How can we forget to serve that higher power which is introduced to us through our parents.

The beautiful fact is that to serve that higher power, called God, one does not have to do any extra effort. Just remembrance, while performing all mundane tasks, is enough to make him happy. What an easy task?

Saints have given a very simple solution to remember God. Choose any one from his thousands of holy names, be it Shrirama, be it Shrikrishna, be it Sai and go on chanting it incessantly while performing all tasks.

 

Name of God is a very powerful resource available to mankind. It helps to remove all faults in one’s own personality, it helps to get a speed in progress and above all it helps to earn the base of all happiness, i.e. punya – merit.

The best recreational activity

Mind, when it gets tired by engaging in day to day routine activities, needs recreation. Do we not long for weekend to come? Weekend is a time when we engage into recreational activities that help refresh the mind and make ourselves ready again for the routine essential duties. Routine duties, though essential, may not always be pleasing. One has to interact with so many people of different personalities. All this interaction puts a heavy stress on mind.

That is why recreation of mind is necessary. It is necessary for every family to spend time together in some recreational activity along with family friends. Without it the life will be boring. Festivals, occasions are meant for recreation and strengthening family and societal ties in happy mood.

To ever keep the mind refreshed and happy, wise and experienced people recommend an additional recreational activity that can serve multiple purposes. It can give equal joy to all, irrespective of their age, and so, all family members can perform this activity, together. They recommend to take some time from your routine duties - होऊनी क्षणैक संसारावेगळे – and spend it in reading and listening to beautiful stories of saints. This recreational activity is so simple that it does not require any costly paraphernalia. What is needed is just a strong desire for uninterrupted happiness for self and others. That desire alone can give one inspiration not only to read these stories but to inspire others as well.

Mere reading and listening, attentively, to the stories of saints, purifies the mind of all involved in reading and listening, and they receive most auspicious gains that are usually received by visiting holy places or by observing vows of fasts.