Swamiji’s Sandesh – ‘Aapa khona…’

Swamiji says …

“Strong emotions of anger, frustration, sadness and negativity rise within us at the snap of our fingers ! It takes one split second for us to erupt, get blinded by an upsurge of emotions, so despair-filled, and volatile, that one forgets to pay heed to the comforting, ticking sound of the moving needles of a clock, that desperately tries to reassure us that – ‘Time changes constantly, and so will it for you!’ But, so possessed are we by the oscillating emotions within us, that we allow that ‘something’ within us to snap, and more often than not… ‘log apna aapa kho dete hain, aur kuch bhi anarth kar baithtay hain!’

“How can man be so weak that he finds it easier to be enslaved by such hyper, mercurial emotions of despondency and alienation? But again, for a strange, peculiar reason he trusts these harbingers of tension more implicitly, than the encouraging words of family, friends, and relatives; and swims in them like a fish in water, unaware of its horrendous consequences! ‘Insaan kyun apna santulan kho deta hai aur apne dimaag se kaam nahi karta?’ When and how does he decide for himself and come to an illogical conclusion that all is lost – forever, the moment he sees his fortunes plummet and take a downward spiral at a point in time!”

“When faced with unforeseen challenges, immensely difficult circumstances and while walking a razor thin line, we can’t take the first short cut and commit an act so dastardly that – ‘Aadmi pachtaave ke laayak bhi nahi rehta hai! Aisa karna galat hai! ‘

“What we need to do immediately is to maintain our equilibrium and ensure that we do not lose our mind over issues that have been unnecessarily magnified by us – as it is the state of our mind, in such circumstances, that matters the most. Why do we take it for granted that a situation which appears to be grim at a particular moment, is irreversible, and that things can never get back to normal?”

“Destruction, disease and death, – will be witnessed by all of us at some point in our lives, but, somehow we take it for granted that ‘I’ as an individual, and ‘my’ loved ones will never be touched by any of these ‘certainties’ of life! If we think rationally for a minute, we will realise that it is impossible to evade cosmic plans that await each one of us!”

“And what about our ‘karma’? – and the fruit of our ‘karma’ that we must reap? We seem to miss out on this issue completely! ‘Karma’ – not only of our present lifetime, but also of the ‘karma’ that we have accumulated over the past births… ‘Insaan ka jeevan karmon ka khel hai!’ – but we refuse to hold any accountability for the part that had been played by us – ‘paap kartey huey…’ But we take no time at all in blaming God for every mishap and problem that is faced by us, and want to wash our hands clean from all the misdeeds and wrongdoings that have been committed by us in the past births! Doesn’t every ‘karma’ of ours play a pivotal role in deciding the pleasures and pain that we experience in the following lifetimes?”

“Every moment of our life is nothing, but a screen shot of every ‘paap’ and ‘punya’ that has been added to our karmic actions over innumerable cycles of birth and death! Are we aware of the ‘paap’ – the sins, various acts of crime that we had indulged in our preceding lifetimes. So how can we say confidently- ‘ Hum ne koi paap nahi kiya hai iss janam mein!’ and question – ‘Why has this grave misfortune befallen me?’- and rather than holding the fort like a courageous warrior- ‘apna aapa kho dete hain… Insaan ko aisa nahi karna chahiye!”

” No, we can’t give up just like that! We need to remember that our faith can move mountains, and it is this faith alone that gives us the insight to understand – that we have to learn to fight our own demons, all by ourselves, single-handedly. Unpredictable circumstances could lead us to a situation when despite the other person’s earnest attempts to help us, it might not be possible for anyone else to stand by us during an unimaginably demanding period of our life, and ‘we’ alone are left to fight the war; as it is meant to happen that way…’aur chahate huey bhi koi humari madad nahi kar sakta hai’…as our karma wills it so…’

“It is during such moments that we need to accept that it is ‘karma’ that takes over, completely; not only ours, but also the ‘karma’ of only those with whom we are yet to settle our karmic account – and we should be glad to see our combined past ‘karma’ play out in this lifetime, and rather than questioning God, we should thank Him for giving us an opportunity to work out our past ‘karma’, in the present moment- arm ourselves with resolve, fortitude and determination; fight against all odds; tackle the situation with belief and intelligence… ‘aur aapa khoney ke bajaay’- emerge strong and victorious.”