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Swamiji says …

“Your eyes and ears open the doors and windows of your vision and mind, and introduce you to the sights and sounds of the world in which you are born. Your eyes see your loving parents who have given birth to you and all the other people who love you and take care of you. They see the beauty of all that bounteous nature has to offer you and see everything else that makes life so wonderful. Your ears were acquainted to what is sound, when they had heard your mother’s voice cooing endearing words into your ears. The same ears had also listened to the sounds of nature – a gushing stream – the chirping of the birds and the sound of tinkling, gurgling laughter of people around you, and life is beautiful when we use two of our main sense organs for such a delightful purpose.”

” Now, these very sense organs can behave in a very unreliable, slippery manner, play tricks on us and at times create havoc in our lives by enacting the role of the devil by willing themselves to believe that ‘something’ was most certainly wrong in that, what had either been seen, or heard by them. They are so taken in by all that has been captured by the camera of their eye-lens that they refuse to erase that picture from their mind, irrespective of the mental agony that it could cost them – even to the extent of becoming suspicious and doubtful of people very close to them. Unwanted suspicion can make you miserable and suffer unnecessarily, but you are so besotted with the images of what had been seen by you, that they corrupt your mind totally, and you are willing to misconstrue and misread a situation witnessed by you. ‘Pavitra’ – pure relationships that had blossomed after years of understanding and care are destroyed overnight, within a fraction of seconds. Families are broken within no time at all. Rather than being judgmental, be sensible and rational. Revisit mentally, and replay the incident that had been seen by you. Try getting down to the root cause of the problem that is troubling you. Are you reading too much into what was seen by you? Are the persons truly guilty or is there a possibility of their being innocent? Was it the truth or something that you willed to see and believe? Speak to the people concerned – be it your spouse, sibling, or child; before you make them guilty, controversial victims in the eyes of other people. Don’t trust your eyes blindly, as doubt and suspicion could blur your vision…’aur tumhara, aur doosron ka sukh chain cheen le’. Your eyes will always believe what they see. After all seeing is believing and it is here that you have to be very clear about what you want to draw out from what you see. Train your eyes to see good in others. “

“Similar is the case with your ears! They enjoy hearing and listening to the sounds of the hustle and bustle of life; but, they also derive great pleasure in listening to ‘gossip’ and happily listen to people talking about one another behind their back. Ears are very easy to win over with words – good or bad; meaningful or meaningless, and the minute a smart Alec realizes that you are easy on your ears, he will fill them with garbage. What the other person thinks of you and what he says about you. He will feed your ears with vitriolic words that he claims were said by someone, known or unknown to you. These words poison your mind against the person who has said those words …and from that very moment you start bearing a grudge against that person. It appears that the anger that rages within you on hearing such words, engulfs you to such an extent, that you promise yourself that you will never see his face, never talk to him, and will have nothing to do with him ever again. You even decide that if need be, you’ll destroy him, even if he is a loved one – a family member or a dear friend. You are willing to burn the very fabric on which the threads of your relationship were woven. When the seeds of mistrust are watered regularly with hatred, they can easily gnaw and break the foundation of your home. Happiness, joy and laughter of hundreds of thriving families is transformed into unhappiness, tears and screams simply because of the insane, diabolical behavior of a few crazy people. How can you be so naive and weak to believe this person without giving the other person a fair chance to say something in his defense. Don’t you think that the person supposedly vilifying your name needs to be given a fair trial?The possibility of this person trying to completely ruin the other person cannot be ruled out! Have you lost your sense of reasoning?”

“Did the sacred words said to you by your Guru or your ‘guru mantra’ have an effect as potent on you as the words whispered in your ear by this scheming person? You were taught to remain calm, composed and to rise above your ego, but you forgot all those teachings and rather allowed suspicion, doubt, blind faith and belief in a loose talker’s words to gain complete control over your mind. Will you be able to walk the spiritual path with a mindset and attitude as negative and useless as this? It is ‘gyaan’ … true knowledge and pure thoughts alone that can save you from falling into a trap as nefarious as this. You will only vitiate the environment around you with such impure and wasteful thoughts otherwise.”

Swamiji says …

“Time is flying by and you are on a roller-coaster called ‘life’ – fast paced, demanding, and grueling… oscillating between time and your desires; between family , friends and foes. In this lifetime of yours you try to do everything that mostly – ‘only’ gratifies your senses. Do you devote a few seconds of your frenetic day in trying to understand the significance, the purpose of your birth? Do you have an aim in life or have you made up your mind to be aimless and waste away this golden opportunity of discovering who you are? Are you so busy in dreaming of scaling ‘materialistic’ heights that you forget to bow your head while crossing a temple, a mosque, a church, a gurudwara. Is it a case of – No time for The Divine.”

“I feel sorry to say that some people are so governed and controlled by their palate, that all they can think of is food and eating. They live to eat, expel excreta from their bodies and eat again. At times, a ninety year old person’s impulse and desire to eat is so strong, that the vice like grip that it has on his palate, prevents him from thinking of anything but food, and eating all the time. As he is unable to think of anything else apart from this, the end result is that – his mind also starts functioning like that of a ten year old child. Couldn’t he have improved his habits before being enslaved by his taste-buds and his tongue that was constantly craving for tasty food? Is this why God had given him a ‘manushya yoni’ in this birth? To waste it away? Couldn’t he have been judicious enough earlier? Taken some reformatory steps early on to save himself from the sad state in which he finds himself now. Unki ‘buddhi’ ko kya ho gaya tha tab?”

“Another detrimental feature raising its ugly head amongst most of us today is ‘swaarth’ – selfishness. It appears that we are ‘so clear’ about what we want that ‘everything’ and ‘all’ that we do is done with the intent of serving our primary vested interests first. Our behavior, inter-action and attitude with different people varies. We use sugar-coated words while speaking with people who could benefit us in some way and think we can wriggle our way through any situation with our smooth talk. Our honey laced words prove to be deceitful and over a period of time – ‘humare swaarthi shabd humein hi gumraah karde tein hain’. These glib talkers otherwise have the gall to abuse a ‘nek insaan’ in everyday life situations. An attentive, docile waiter in a restaurant can be pulled up by them and made to feel like a worm for serving them food that was not palatable. A hard – working parking attendant can be thrashed verbally for not attending to them and allotting them a parking space immediately. The society in which we live is willing to bury a good person, even a ‘sachcha sant’ under the earth by fabricating ‘wise’ reasons known only to it. If this world in which we live not dirty, then what is it?”

“Young couples married for a long period of time…six to ten years, refuse to have children as they are busy indulging themselves and only themselves constantly – their ambitions, their professional and personal goals; and are in a way acting against the very spirit of Mother Nature. Man was born to procreate. What is making us so selfish now? Would these very individuals have seen the light of day on Mother Earth, if their parents had adopted the same mentality, and given preference to their own priorities instead of giving birth to them and sacrificing selflessly for them? It is very disturbing to see such dark, negative trends developing in society; but, who is to be blamed? Are the parents to be blamed for their inability to comprehend what is that they wanted from life, and define how much is too much? Perhaps they ran helter-skelter in all directions … running for that ‘something’ about which they were clueless and now the children too are following suit.”

” It is time for us to retrace our steps from the wrong direction in which we have wandered, maybe unknowingly, and begin a confident walk on the path of selflessness and self-control.”

Swamiji says…

“Neglect, Humiliate, Insult, Mock, Avoid…Ridicule!
Just imagine how traumatized and saddened you’d feel if you were made to literally experience any of these negative terms, in your home, by your loved ones. This is exactly what is happening in most of our homes today, where old parents – whose longevity has increased with better medical facilities and services – are forced to suffer day in and day out due to the indifferent, callous attitude of the younger generations with whom they live. The souls of ageing parents are literally being trampled on and crushed by the erratic and heart-breaking attitude of ungrateful, selfish children. The deafening silence with which their children ignore their requests and needs is worse than any other lethal weapon. Their children’s silence speaks louder than words as it resounds with their anger and impatience at their elders repeated, but, unheeded appeals. Such children are slowly but surely killing the very spirit of those very souls who had brought them into this world and devoted their entire lifetime in raising and worrying about them. Do they deserve to be punished in such an ungainly manner for being dependent on their children in the sunset phase of their life?”

“It breaks my heart to see the ‘I don’t have the time’ attitude that the present generation has adopted for their own flesh and blood. They don’t have time, neither for their parents, nor for their parent’s opinions. At times, a word or something, said by a parent years ago, has hurt them to such an extent, that they refuse to release that memory from the prison of their mind, hold them guilty of it forever, and seek redemption from them by misbehaving and getting back at them at every given opportunity. What has happened to us? Where has the love and respect that our fore fathers had for their elders disappeared? To make matters worse, if grand-parents say anything to their grandchildren that is not liked by them, then, their own children side with their offspring, isolate the helpless elders and make them feel guilty of a great wrong – doing. How can you berate them and make them feel so small and worthless?”

“At times, the minute an old, ageing parent or grandparent, today, is able to muster up some courage and give his opinion on some issue in the house, his advice is rejected out-right and it is made very clear to him that his advice was not asked for in the first place. In their hurry to prove to the old individuals that their advice is meaningless to them, they completely forget that the words of wisdom coming their way from their seniors is only a fraction of the wealth of experience that they have with them. Children, irrespective of their age, are willing to get into an argument with the elders in the family, to prove as to how archaic and old-fashioned they and their ideas can be, and in comparison, show them how falsely modern and forward thinking the next generations are. Do your elders really need to learn about this from you out of all the people they know? What kind of modernity is this?”

“Consider yourself fortunate to have elderly family members living with you, as they are a bank of knowledge of age-old values, of culture and religion, and can with their clear vision, lovingly wipe the drops of disrespect , impatience and intolerance that have impaired your vision. It is possible that they might have offended you in some way earlier, but, let it be a thing of the past now, accept their scolding as ‘pitra-prasad’ and move on. When they rebuke you, check you or correct you, it is more out of love for you. You should take it as a teaching for life, and should have the grace to accept it purely in that manner. Seek their opinion and follow their advice. Spend some quality time with them. Love them selflessly and you will be rewarded tenfold with their unconditional love. Their blessings, which, are your greatest wealth will open windows of unlimited opportunities and doors to happiness and success.”

“Remember, the wheels of time are in a state of constant motion and before long you will be on the other side of the fence – weak, helpless and dependent. Would you like to be treated in the same way as you are treating your elders at the present moment? You only get what you give.”

“The society in which we live, unfortunately, measures us on a scale of materialism today, and discusses in hushed tones an individual’s status, his financial worth, market value; whether he is affluent or not ? Can he be bought? Can his ‘conscience’ be sold? We are looked upon as objects now as we have changed ourselves drastically. Mean, emotionless and materialistc. ”

“Sadly, there are hundreds and thousands of educated ‘conscience holders’ like us; who, rather than not indulging in any activity that could cast a shadow and scar their conscience forever … readily ‘sell’ their ‘conscience’ to the highest bidder without any resistance. And gullible and foolish that we are, we fall prey to this ‘social syndrome’, in our urgency and desperation to prove to the world that we are no less than the other richie rich. We show our willingness to touch the lowest and darkest depths of corrupt practices and crime, in order to make quick money. We adopt any short- cut to rub shoulders with the rich and powerful at any cost, as we convince ourselves that the manner in which we make money is immaterial, we simply have to make money – ‘aur is tarah humaari niyat mein khot aa jaata hai’.”

” In order to climb the rungs of the social ladder, in order to meet our unlimited expenditure, to maintain our pretentious, ostentatious lifestyle, to accumulate and amass wealth, we become unscrupulous and, without batting an eyelid, resort to looting, fooling , both, people and the organizations that we work in. Believe me, once we feel that we have been successful in fooling a simple, hapless person… and fleecing his home from him or his entire lifetime’s earnings or savings, we gain a sense of false confidence in our ability to take away everything from individuals who had blindly trusted us with everything that they had rightfully believed to be their own. In addition, we gradually become masters of this crafty art and start hunting for our next prey without as much as turning around to see the anguish and pain that we have caused the individuals who we have fooled. The victims, unable to endure the emotional trauma of seeing us destroy the faith that they had in us, and the tension of whether they would receive a part payment of the land/house deal or not, the unending tragic events that follow such hardships, compel them to end their lives by committing suicide.”

“Humaari niyat … Our intention, our motive from the very beginning was layered with greed and caprice. We hungered to take away everything that belonged to the other person…his property, his money, any other profitable asset either by force, forgery or any other fraudulent tactic. We play with the emotions of others in a cold emotionless manner. And we call ourselves human beings.”

‘Niyat mein barkat honi chahiye…!’ When you help another person or do something for him, you should do it with the sole intention of helping him without expecting anything in return. Such selfless acts are always rewarded by Him.”

“We are living in a state of blind ignorance if we think even for a minute that money made by us in this manner will benefit us in any way at all. This money will be the cause of our downfall one day, but by then it will be too late for us to make amends. Rather, we should be prepared to face hardships and calamities that we solely have created for ourselves by our whimsical, mindless acts of greed.”

” It is possible for only a true saint … a ‘sachcha sant’ to bear the consequences of such fraud and fraudsters as He is only interested in matters related to His soul…and He alone has the ability to forgive and not bear a grudge against all those who had hood-winked and deceived Him.He takes the loss in his stride without complaining. Ordinary people find it very difficult to rise from the debris of the destruction of their dreams.”

Swamiji says…

“All of us have undergone that delightful, memorable phase in our childhood, when we were introduced to our Creator – God, by our elders. They showed us fascinating and awe – inspiring pictures and idols of various Gods and Goddesses …and taught us to fold our hands in respect and say ‘Jai’ to Him. The first seeds of awareness of a ‘form’, a power Supreme, mysterious and Divine, were laid within us in this manner. And, as we grew up, we learnt the importance of bathing Him, worshipping Him, offering fruits and ‘bhog’ to Him, adorning His idol with flowers, lighting ‘diyas’ and incense – sticks, and singing ‘aartis’ in His glory. It did not matter whose name we took – Ganeshji, Mahadev, Vishnuji, Brahmaji, Kaali Ma. The aim was to take His name and make an attempt to cleanse ourselves from our past sins. These rituals, performed by us, matured the erstwhile seeds into young saplings that were rapidly developing strong roots of love, faith, devotion and ‘bhakti’ within us…bonding us with Him.”

“Most of us follow this routine of worshipping and praying to God – religiously and regularly. It is here that we must pause and think – ‘Are we completely absorbed and totally involved in Him while paying obeisance to Him? Or are we still engrossed with the ‘worldly’ world while doing so? Do our senses awaken to experience and detect the divine beauty of those few minutes that we devote to God, in which we whisper words to Him that we are certain He hears or is it a drill that we perform, mechanically, day after day? We pray to Him fervently to fulfil our wishes, to give us the strength needed to live each day as it unfolds itself before us. Do we say these words with complete and absolute faith in Him? Or is our appeal to Him half-hearted! Do we actually feel stronger, secure and safer after sharing our worries and woes with Him or do we do this purely because we’ve been always told that God takes care of us in good and bad times?”

“It is at this juncture that we need to remember that we will most certainly, experience His presence during every moment of difficulty or otherwise, if … we have reposed complete faith in Him. And, it is when our faith in Him makes us surrender to Him that life becomes truly blissful and meaningful. A new lease of life surges through us when His invisible, but, palpable strength makes us feel rejuvenated and strong…to take on, and, accept any challenge that comes our way. The thought that an unseen power, God …or the silent presence of a ‘sachcha sant’ … a guru…is constantly by our side, guarding and guiding us gives us immense strength to carry out our duties in this lifetime without complaining…and by accepting that our past ‘karma’ is playing out in this lifetime.”

“We cry for our loved ones … but, do we cry for Him? If we call out to Him with un-abiding faith, with a sincere, pure heart … a heart soaked with devotion and ‘bhakti’ in Him… before we know it, He will respond to our call and be by our side to usher us on the ‘maarg’ destined for us in this birth.”

“We love our family members. But do we love God with the same intensity? Try doing so.Our faith in Him will not let our love go unrewarded and His love and concern for us will allow us to ‘discover’ Him…discover the ‘spiritual’ path and…’find’ Him. We will also get a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to discover ‘ourselves’ and give us the much needed strength to burn ourselves out in order to do so. The fruitful hours that we thus spend in meditating…in realizing Him…in knowing the Real me…might enable us to enter the ‘spiritual’ sky one day and merge with Him.”