The fruits of discipleship blossom not in the silver vases, but in the blood-red grounds of sacrifices and offerings.
If nothing went wrong in your life. you would never have a chance to grow stronger.
Big lessons of life are learned from little mistakes.
We can choose to hate the rain or dance in it. -Joan Marques
People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. -John C. Maxwell
There is a famous incident from the life of the great scientist Alfred Nobel. While he was living, a false rumor spread across the world of his death. Alfred Noble had invented dynamite and a French newspaper printed an obituary for him with the title ‘Merchant of Death is dead’. When Alfred saw this he was deeply hurt. He decided to dedicate all his remaining life and his wealth towards service to the society, so that people after his death remember him for his great deeds. And indeed, people remember him today for the Noble Prize he instituted and not just for inventing dynamite.
Similarly, famous industrialist Andrew Carnegie donated his entire wealth before his death to establish in every city of America. Carnegie was the richest person in the world by drilling oil wells, but he is remembered today only for his donations to enhance the availability of books and knowledge in the world. There are many other great examples like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Bhamashah etc. who have donated their wealth towards philanthropy and are still gratefully remembered for their largesse.
True glory of human life lies, in devoting time, energy, capability and wealth to the extent possible in service to the society, in benefiting others and for promoting high ideals. This way not only can one walk firmly on the path of a glorious life, but also become a source of inspiration to others.
You were given (by the Creator) the freedom of choice; there were many things, many paths, and many objectives for selection. But you misused this freedom. You made wrong choices. You have chosen the unworthy. You have opted to be in the category of pleasure-seeking consumers, possessors, power-hungry and greed people. It’s high time you awaken and walkout to join the class of thoughtful, farsighted, truly wise people. You are a human being. This life has been gifted to you to endeavor to gradually ascend to the divine levels. Instead you have fallen down to live like beasts and demons? What kind of intelligence is this? What kind of matured person you are?
You have to decide whether you want to become a boastful big someone or a graceful great person? Both the options are open. The choice is yours! Two candidates are in front of you, asking for your vote. One assures you of colossal wealth. But it might require you to leave aside your moral ideals and be ready to pursue dishonesty, unfair means, as and when required, even at the cost of cheating, oppressing, exploiting others. With this you will have to lose your peace of mind, embrace hidden stress and consequent health hazards; will also have to put yourself to the risk of being caught anytime, face the scandalous attacks of competitors and envy of those around you. If you don’t adopt the moral paths, you will have to work hard round the clock to generate income. You will also have to sacrifice your other priorities and commitments; even put your health at stake. In spite of all this you may somehow earn (for the time being) somewhere close to what you aspired to boast in your social circle.
Either way, the accumulation of wealth is going to be at the cost of losing health, peace of mind and true friendship. It would silently intoxicate you by false self-pride and several other vices. It would distance you from sincere friends and well-wishers and surround you by opportunist sycophants.
Your other option is to choose simplicity – greatness. Those who give priority to integrity and hard work in pursuit of higher goals in life willingly embrace it. They are the real achievers. Don’t you know what greatness is? Haven’t you heard of Mahatma Gandhi, Vivekananda, or Buddha? Their lives are glorious examples of dignified success in human-life. They chose the prudent path that leads to greatness. This is the path of simplicity, integrity and virtuous deeds.
Don’t become like Ravan. Try to follow Vibhishan’s example. (As you all might have read in the Ramayana,) Ravan was an all-conquering mighty king of his time and possessed immense wealth. But his arrogance and un-satiating thirst for unlimited power and possession snatched peace and happiness from his life. In spite of having enormous resources of pleasure he remained deprived of joy. His self-pride and obsession drove him to the slippery path of immorality. His sinful actions invited the wrath of the rishis and the Almighty, ruined his glittering affluence and eventually destroyed his very existence. On the contrary, his younger brother Vibhishan remained devoted to justice and morality despite being insulted and threatened by Ravan. He faced hardship but remained on the side of God, the ultimate good. What did he lose? Nothing, nothing could perturb the peace of his mind and joy of his heart. His simplicity and devotion to virtues brought him divine live and blessings in return. He also got the throne and entire empire of Ravan.
Sugriva had lost everything – his throne, his state, his treasure, his army, even his wife and son. But he got back everything after he dedicated himself to the service of god Ram. You might have also lost many things in (worldly) life or may not have had anything. But then why don’t you follow the example of Sugriva. Why don’t you also dedicate yourself to God? Devotion to God means devotion to divine ideals; doing His service or dedication to do His work means adopting moral principle and sincerely transacting our duties to beautify His world, to dedicate your efforts, your potentials for social welfare. Do you think Sugriva would have been able to get back his family, his empire on his own? Would he have received God’s grace simply by crying for His help? No! He earned god’s grace because he fulfilled his promise to God and joined His army (in God’s human incarnation as Ram) in fighting against the demonic Ravan.
God first examines your conduct, your devotion to morality, your virtuous aims, and showers His grace accordingly.
If you really want to progress and accomplish something praiseworthy, you will have to mold the inclinations of your mind, alter its interests and aspirations accordingly. So far you have been quite ambitious or aspiring for something or the other. I am not telling you not to have any ambitions or aspirations in life. I am simply guiding you to vigilantly analyze the nature of your aims and expectations. You will find that most often your ambitions, your aspiration (and hence your thoughts and actions) have been revolving around name, fame, worldly possessions and attachments in one form or the other. Why can’t you raise the level of your ambitions? Why can’t you link your aspirations with something better, something wiser, something noble, virtuous? Why do you want to please some people you regard as important? Why do you want to impress people around you? Why do you want to boast and dazzle people by your ‘grand’ status or achievements? Why have such petty ambitions? Have truly great ambitions –e.g. to win the hearts of people by your unconditional help and compassion, to please your soul, or to be the favorite child of the Almighty!
Why you want to limit your aspirations only to adorn and comfort your body, please your sentient instincts and satisfy your ego? Why don’t you expand the domain of your desires? Why don’t you rise above the prevailing trends and look at your horizons of life in new light, with wiser perspectives? If you search, you will find that virtues and refined qualities of your nature, character, and deeds are far more precious than the most valuable materialistic possession or talent you have ever known. That is why the glory of virtues is eternally revered. Whereas, the value or worth of worldly possession is short-lived and dispensable as per the ‘demand’ and ‘utility’ in given circumstances. Those possessing the ‘riches’ of good character, kind and cooperating nature, and decent and duty-bound conduct receive respect, goodwill cooperation more and more people through their altruistic service everywhere. They enjoy self-respect, inner peace and lasting happiness and above all they experience soul-satisfaction. Divine grace is bestowed upon such great personalities. Interestingly, eventually prosperity also begins to follow them; there is abundance of wealth and support for their initiatives and activities.
Now think of yourself! How much do you really need? Suppose God blesses you with much more than what you require. What will you do? Will you ever be able to eat more than what your stomach can bear and digest? How long can you have lavish dishes? Nature itself will restrain (in the form of varieties of disorders and diseases) you from having more than the limited share you deserve in its system. If you generously distribute the food to the needy, then? Then there will be no such constraint; divine grace will shower upon your consistent compassionate efforts to lend you greater support and expansion. Look at your clothing. How much you cloth can you wear at a time? Could it measure longer than the size of your body? How many dresses would you wear at a time? Then why accumulate so many? What size of bed is adequate for your sleep? Six feet? Do you think a twenty-foot long and wide cot would give you better sleep? Or, how about having it eighty feet long and constructing even bigger bedroom for it? So where is the end to your absurdity of having more luxuries, more comforts, more glittering house, and ‘bigger’ status?
If you really want to possess more than others, then why not aim for that which even Nature won’t be able to limit. Why not aspire for benevolent, or progress, virtuous growth, spiritual enlightenment, or soul-satisfaction? These will bestow on you unalloyed joy, limitless peace and immortal glory.
The demon of your ambition to become ‘big’ has influenced and blinded you so far. Don’t follow it any more. You must know that you are not an evolved animal; in fact you are a strayed divine being. Indeed, your real self – your soul is divine in its origin. Know that you belong to the class of devatas (divine being); your role model should be a devata. As you might know, the meaning of the word devata is – one who gives (for the ascent and welfare of others). This will give you unalloyed joy, limitless peace and immortal glory. So, along with you sadhana of self-refinement and enlightenment, you should also start giving whatever you have to help in the betterment of somebody’s lot. Don’t worry if you don’t have money or worldly resources to donate for social service. Most important is to give (distribute) your love, your compassion, and your encouragement. You can also give good thoughts, inspirations, and positive direction to those who are depressed, confused, or strayed. Adopt the principle of simple living and high thinking, then, all your worldly scarcities will also disappear. Your present resources alone would then be adequate for your living and also for helping some other. You leave your worries, your apprehensions, your negativities, your vicious and declining tendencies, come out of your (self-created) hell and start walking towards the heaven, start ascending. Walking toward heaven, rising towards God, means moving along the path of righteous principles, high ideals, goodwill and wisdom, marching towards the treasure of enlightenment and beatifying joy. Rest assured you can do this simply by transforming your thinking, your outlook. You must do this. This sadhana should be the beginning of your awakening. I wish you all the best in this endeavor.
By Yug Rishi Shri “Ram Acharya”
