Guru – given by nature upon birth

Guruvirahita aso naye (from Daasbodh) – one should not remain without Guru – advise saints. Having Guru is more a mental state than physical state. Nature already provides Guru to every human being. But to know this Guru requires great learning, blessings of elders and faith in scriptures and saints. Scriptures describe about this guru, given by nature, through three important sentences – maatrudevo bhava, pitrudevo bhava and acharya devo bhava. First guru for every person is his/her mother. With the blessings of mother one gets to know the second guru i.e. father and with the blessings of father one gets to know third guru i.e. acharya (teacher or preceptor) and through preceptor one gets on the path to the knowledge of Self – atmagyan, the ultimate knowledge that one can achieve in human birth.

Being born with human body is just a natural phenomenon. But the real birth is the birth of desire for moksha. If this birth does not take place then all the time spent on earth is a waste of time. Through mother’s body a human body is born, but with mother’s blessings a desire for moksha is born. The success of all great people can be attributed to their mother’s blessings. It was Mother Jijabai who, through story telling, instilled in her faithful son Shivaba the desire to establish a great ethical kingdom. Shivaba became known to the world as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was Mother Putlibai whose strict insistence on speaking truth instilled truthfulness in Mohandas who became known to the world as Mahatma Gandhi.

There are four goals prescribed for every human being – dharma, artha, kama and moksha. Through one’s own efforts one may be able to achieve success in first three goals i.e. dharma, artha, kama. We may find many examples who have achieved success in these goals. But it is very difficult to achieve success in the fourth goal i.e. moksha. The challenge is it is not possible to find examples of achievers of this goal or to put it in other words it is very difficult to recognize the achiever of this goal because it is about getting liberation from the cycle of birth and death. This is where the line of faith starts. One needs a great faith in understanding the importance of this goal and also faith in scriptures that prescribe this goal. In fact one may even read all scriptures that prescribe this goal, but to really appreciate and pursue this goal one needs grace of Guru.

To achieve grace or blessings of Guru it is important to remember Guru. And they say one remembers Guru only through Guru’s grace. The easiest way to attract grace or blessings of Guru is to stick to the upasana prescribed by him. It doesn’t matter if we have learned all scriptures or not, but it does matter if we are following or not following instructions of Guru. Guru instructs various upasana depending on personality of disciple. Instruction could be as short as lighting a lamp in front of God or as large as studying all scriptures. Difficulty or easiness of instruction does not matter, what matters is strict and sincere following of at least one instruction.

Guru Pournima is a day to examine ourselves and realign our efforts to perform upsasana. They say at least on this day if one does what Guru has instructed to do it helps in long way.

Wish you all Happy Guru Pournima which is occurring on this Friday July 31, 2015.

Hitakaarak karma makes life worthwhile

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.

Idol worship – the path to never ending happiness

Every human being or for that matter every being is bound by effects of karma. This binding is called bhavabandha. Every karma, i.e. action, results in effects which in turn become cause for either binding or freedom depending on motive of karma.

There are three types of karmas

dushkarma – a bad karma, karma that is performed with an intention of hurting of other being and hence results in paapa (sin). paapa becomes cause for suffering.

sukarma – a good karma, karma performed with good intention in return expecting to earn punya (merit). punya becomes cause for material happiness.

akarma – a karma that is performed without any expectation. Because such karma is performed without any expectation this results neither in paapa nor in punya. Since the only intention of this karma is to please God, fruits of this karma are determined by God himself. People who perform such actions are indeed saints and they experience happiness that is not dependent on any matter.

One of the names of Lord Krishna is swabhakta-chittaranjana – i.e. one who takes responsibility of entertaining the mind of his devotees who perform all their actions only as a service to Lord Krishna without any expectation thereof.

To be able to reach a stage to perform akarma, i.e. karma without expectations, the mind should be filled with nothing but the form of God. When mind is filled with the thoughts of God, and God alone, then every karma performed becomes an offering to God and hence becomes a cause for freedom from all bad or good effects of karma and ultimately results in vishranti i.e. peaceful rest.

And this is where idol worship helps. It is a way to get into practice of performing dutiful actions with only intention of pleasing God which in turn results in mind occupying only thoughts of God.

Idol worship starts with inviting God and then performing sixteen or five rituals of hospitality as listed below.

aavahan (inviting God), aasan (offering seat to God), padyam (washing God’s feet), arghyam (offering water to God and washing hands of God) , achaman (offering God water for drinking), snaan (offering bath to God), vastra (offering clothes to God), upavita (offering sacred thread to God), gandha (applying sandalwood paste to God’s forehead), pushpa (offering flower to God), dhup (waving an incense stick in front of God), deep (waving light in front of God), anna or naivedya (offering food to God), pradakshina (circumventing God), namaskar (offering salute) and visarjan (offering bon voyage to God)

Methods of performing idol worship

One of the very important concepts of Indian culture is idol worship. It is one of the nine steps of devotion nava vidha bhakti. Idol worship is the way to establish loving relationship with God. It is all about establishing mental relationship with God. All great sages, devotees achieved success in their spiritual journey – a journey of spirit towards God – through idol worship. For spiritual development it is important to condition body, mind and speech. Idol worship greatly helps in this process. When performed with devotion it can bring positive transformation in individual and society.

There are two methods of performing idol worship. The main method is shodashopchar (shodash means sixteen and upachar means ritual) puja which is a detailed idol worship where sixteen rituals are performed and the other is panchopachar (pancha means five) puja where five rituals are performed.

Shodashopachar puja - This is a detailed puja in which following sixteen rituals are performed for God.

aavahan (inviting God), aasan (offering seat to God), padyam (washing God’s feet), arghyam (offering water to God and washing hands of God) , achaman (offering God water for drinking), snaan (offering bath to God), vastra (offering clothes to God), upavita (offering sacred thread to God), gandha (applying sandalwood paste to God’s forehead), pushpa (offering flower to God), dhup (waving an incense stick in front of God), deep (waving light in front of God), anna or naivedya (offering food to God), pradakshina (circumventing God), namaskar (offering salute) and visarjan (offering bon voyage to God)

Panchopachar puja – This is a puja in which following five rituals are performed for God. In fact one can quickly perform panchopachar puja by chanting following shloka and offering five rituals.

gandha (applying sandalwood paste to God’s forehead), pushpa (offering flower to God), dhup (waving an incense stick in front of God), deep (waving light in front of God), naivedya (offering food to God)

One can choose to perform a type of puja as per time available. Panchopachar puja takes hardly five minute, however these five minutes can bring gradual positive transformation in the performer of puja.

Rituals - the beneficial activities

All the rituals in Indian culture start with sankalpa that describes when, where, why and what of that ritual. For example we say manmatha naam samvatsare meaning we are performing this ritual in the year with name manmatha. (More information about what is samvatsara can be found here). Then we say bharatakhande meaning we are performing this ritual in the region of bharata, then we say shri parameshwara prityartham meaning we are performing this ritual to please parameshwara and finally we mention actual ritual name for example shri satyanarayana pujanam karishye meaning we are performing satyanarayana puja. The key here is shri parameshwara prityartham which is the main objective of all these rituals – that is to please parameshwara. If parameshwara is pleased then the life becomes livable as it brings all the good things such as health, wealth, stability, knowledge, relations and most important fulfillment of life. All these things are very important for leading happy life. So, one can see that these rituals bring lot of benefits not only for individual but for whole family. If performed in the right spirit, these rituals can bring long lasting benefits not only to the family but to the society as well. One may wonder how society can benefit from the ritual performed by an individual. There is a famous proverb – “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. The basis of all good things in life is earnings of punya (merit). It is because of punya that one is born healthy or one is born in good family or one is born with good intellect. Not only that, it is because of punya that there can be balance of all these things in life. By performing ritual one earns punya and becomes successful in life, and then when others look at the success of an individual and reason for that success, they are also inspired to perform such punya earning ritual and by doing that they also earn punya and eventually success. That is how individual and society are both benefited.

One of the most important point of these rituals is that these rituals cannot offer their desired benefits unless they reach their true completion. And the ritual cannot reach its true completion unless grihalakshmi i.e. wife of a family person, who is performing ritual, touches her right hand to her husband’s right hand at the end of ritual. Or for that matter every offering that a person makes to god during ritual can be said to be complete only when his wife touches his hand. That indicates what great role women play in the family. It shows that women have to be respected at all the times as without their support family and society cannot prosper.

The three main gods of Indian culture are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh and their respective consorts namely Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati. Establishing loving relationship with these gods can be greatly beneficial. However, ritual that is performed to please each of these gods is different. Brahma is to be pleased by performing rishi yadnya i.e. by studying religious scriptures. Vishnu is to be pleased by offering him tulasi patras (basil leaves) while chanting his thousand names (Vishnu sahasranaam) during Satyanarayana puja and Shiva is to be pleased by performing abhishek on shivalinga while chanting rudra (rudra namakam and rudra chamakam).

Importance of rituals is diminishing because their benefits are not well understood. It will be greatly beneficial to the society if everybody gets into practice of performing these rituals with devotion. Temples are the places that can play a great role of an educational institution to educate people about these rituals. It is the temple where people can see and learn the rituals and then perform them in their own home. Now one may wonder if temple is already performing rituals, why one again has to perform them in their homes. All these rituals contain steps to chant the suktas from vedas for example purusha sukta, shree sukta, rudra and divine stotras such as vishnusahasranaama, lalitasahasranaama etc. The sound waves that emanate while chanting these suktas and stotras help create positive environment that bring peace and that is why it is important to perform these rituals in individual homes as well. Shrine in home brings peace in home and shrine in temple brings peace in society.

Purer the seed purer the fruit

They say that every action sows the seed which grows into another action which sows the seed that grows in another action and so on. This happens almost every moment. The experience we get at the present moment is the fruit of past action and experience that we will get in the future is the fruit of present action. This period of experience can range from next moment to anytime in the future, or even past current birth. The results of present action remain in the form of seeds and when the appropriate environment is ready for those seeds to ripe, the results manifest in the form of action and experience. Experience can be sour or sweet depending on the purity of action. If the seed is pure the fruit is pure.

One cannot control the experience in the past but definitely the future, by being careful about present action. The senses tend to drag one into impulsive or unthoughtful actions which become cause for sour experiences. These are the tendencies carried over from past births. One may not be able to stop these tendencies abruptly but definitely can direct them so that the seeds sown by actions are pure.

Saints advise to direct senses to their correct purpose. Let eyes see the beautiful form of God. Let head always bend before the feet of Lord. Let the tongue be always engaged in chanting the name of god or narrating the stories of god. Let hands be engaged in worship of Lord. It can take long time to establish such practice, but saints assure that such practice will lead to sweet experiences. And not only that those who follow such practice will leave behind a great legacy that will help next generations.

The day of result

The most important day in the life of university is the day of result. It is this day that determines the future. It is to experience joy of success on this day that we study hard throughout the life of university. Those who make good use of time in university and pass examination with merit, find it easier to succeed in professional life, whereas those who do not pay attention to studies, struggle to survive in professional life.

Human life is like a university. To get into good university one needs good merit. So also it is because of good merit that one gets human birth. After coming to university it is up to individual to make good use of it to progress further. Progress is usually thought of as material progress – that is to earn more and more. Certainly material progress is indeed necessary to succeed in life. But the real progress is much broader than that. Getting into good university is considered as golden opportunity to prepare oneself to fulfill all goals of life. So also human birth is considered as golden opportunity to fulfill the real goal of life and that is moksha. Progressing to achieve moksha is considered as real progress.

Saints caution that it is only in human birth that one gets chance to achieve this goal. It is not in human capacity to understand when and how one gets human birth. So it may be risky to assume that one may again get human birth to pursue this goal. That is why saints advise us to be alert and be focused on the goal of achieving moksha.

One gets this golden opportunity of human life by being born to mother and father. Mother goes through a lot of pain when giving birth to child. Both mother and father sacrifice their interests to provide all necessities for the child. One can repay for these sacrifices only by fulfilling the goal of human birth. Saints advise that it is possible to fulfill this goal by performing bhajan i.e. devotional service to god. 

How to get into devotional service? By establishing discipline of reading or listening to the glories of god or simply offering at least a fruit, a leaf, a flower or even just water to god. It takes hardly few minutes to perform bhajan, but the benefits that one gets by performing it are immense.

All this effort of devotional service is for ensuring that the last day on earth goes sweet.