They say human birth is greatest of all births. Humans are the leaders of the universe. They are endowed with the unique ability to think and speak so that they can guide the self and other beings to higher purpose of life.
The goal of intellect and mind is to find out the purpose of human birth and live the life for that purpose. Living for the purpose is what is hitakaarak – beneficial, which is different from pleasing. What is pleasing may not be beneficial and vice versa. It is important to maintain the balance of pleasing and beneficial activities. For example bittergourd is bitter in taste but inclusion of small amount of it in diet is beneficial for health whereas spicy food is pleasing to tongue but excess intake of it can ruin the health. In the same way living for the higher purpose may not be pleasing as it demands sacrifice of personal selfish objectives. But the slow practice of this sacrifice is greatly beneficial in progress to the next desired higher level for human being. We have received this human body after going through the cycle of 84 lakhs of species. In all creations in this universe - i.e. in all 84 lakhs species - human specie is considered as zenith of creation. It is in human birth that, with the unique abilities of thinking and speaking, one can get to know the creator of this universe and become one with Him. Another great thing happens, in this effort of knowing creator, is the escape from the cycle of birth and death through 84 lakh species.
By nature the bodily actions are driven by trigunas – satvik, rajas and tamas. Each guna has its own purpose in the ecosystem. The mixture of these gunas in varied percentage drives the quality of action and hence its outcome. Scriptures advise that to elevate our consciousness we should develop satvik tendencies. It is the dominance of satvik guna that helps to experience the closeness with the creator of universe.
Usually when it comes to becoming satvik the first thing considered is food, that is eating satvik food. That is true. It is famous saying - you become what you eat. So eating satvik food is definitely the most important activity in an effort to become satvik. However food is just one part of it. Anna in Sanskrit is not limited to food. It means whatever we intake through ten senses. So in addition to food it is important to pay attention to other activities such as thinking, listening, speaking and daily duties. All these activities also need to be transformed into satvik activities. That is thinking, listening and reading satvik content, engaging into satvik activities and also being in company of satvik people.
To do this transformation Saints advise to use our own discretion to divide 24 hours of the day in such a way that one can practice spirituality. For example on an average one could spend 6 hours for sleep, 12 hours for worldly activities, 4 hours for family and remaining 2 hours for the spiritual pursuit. They say these 2 hours for spiritual pursuit can greatly help one to become strong and get the most required focus to achieve higher purpose of life.
Scriptures are the great sources of information to find out about not only spiritual activities but even how to conduct oneself in family and society. Two of the most important and widely read scriptures of Indian culture are Bhagwad Gita and Srimad Bhagwatam. Bhagwat Gita, as we all know, is the famous dialogue between Lord Shrikrishna and Arjuna on the battlefield. This dialogue reveals many secrets of creation and also describes in detail the goal of human birth and importance of satvik guna. Srimad Bhagwatam is known as literal incarnation of Lord Shrikrishna meaning Lord Shrikrishna in the form of book. It contains the glorifying stories of Lord Shrikrishna’s pastime as well as stories of all ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
Shravan i.e. listening to these glories of God is the first step from nine steps of devotion i.e. nava vidha bhakti. By regular listening of stories of God one gets into the second step i.e. kirtan i.e. singing the glory of God and by regular listening and singing glories of God one gets into third step i.e. Vishnu smaran i.e. continuous remembrance of Lord Vishnu. And once one gets established into this step, they say that one progresses through remaining six steps without much effort. Remaining six steps are archana (worship), vandana (salutation), paadsevana (worshiping lotus feet of God), dasya (serving the God ), sakhya (friendship with God) and atmanivedana (self surrender).
Engaging in spiritual activities is not only beneficial to an individual but it is beneficial to one’s own parents, family as well as society.
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