HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS - 8

[Guest guest]

HOW TO OVERCOME TEMPTATIONS - 8

The willingness to humble oneself before God, the resolve to live a new life,

the determination not to touch temptations even with a pair of tong, this is

the first and most important thing. It leads us to practical suggestion number

two.

"God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" is a very noble aspiration: but it must not

be overdone. We must not indulge in a lot of retrospection. With a heart

contrite and lowly, let us confess our sins, and then think of God’s mercy

which can wash the darkest spots on our hearts. Let us not then think of our

sins, for whatever we think of, repeatedly, to that we are drawn. If we

constantly think of our sins, we shall be drawn to them, more and more. Let us

not think of our sins, but keep our eyes fixed on God and His mercy, on God and

eternal things, His goodness, His beauty, His purity and His truth. And we shall

grow Godlike.

Let us honestly confess our sins, pray for strength to live a new life, and then

forget our sins. Let us forget what God has already forgotten. To my revered

Master, Beloved Dada there came a girl who had gone ashtray. She shed tears of

repentance, and asked for forgiveness. Beloved Dada looked at her penitent eyes

and said: "My child, forget what God hath forgotten. Go and live a new life!"

And what is practical suggestion number three? The more man turns to God, the

more he realizes that he is a child of God. God is the king of Universe, the

King of all kings. This makes everyone of us a prince, princess, a son or

daughter of the King. If only I remember this one thing that I am the King’s

son, I will refrain from doing wrong things. I will never stoop low. I will

stand up to my royal dignity. I will never compromise with ideals.

I recall what Beloved Dada’s brother, Shri Mangharam, told me more than once.

His work took him to many places: he did not have a settled life. He came face

to face with many temptations. There were occasions when he was about to

succumb to temptation when, he said, the thought would occur to him: "I am a

brother of Sadhu Vaswani. How can I do such an ignoble thing?" The thought was

enough to give him enough strength to overcome temptations.

In the annals of France is the story of the son of Louis XVI. As a young prince,

he was handed over to wicked and vicious men with the express command that they

should defile him and ruin his character. The vilest influences were to be let

loose, so that this child of royalty might become the mockery of the enemies of

the King of France. No boy, prince or peasant, had ever been brought face to

face, with such shamefulness as that to which the young prince was exposed.

Unmentionable were the temptations placed in his path, indescribable the

company into which he was thrown. But to it all the young prince had only one

answer to make: "I can not do that. For I am the son of a king!"

Young men and women! Remember, youth is too good to squander after some things,

too good to lie, to cheat, to steal, to take to drugs, to indulge in impurity,

to poison the body, to drown the soul. "I cannot do that, for I am a child of a

king!" is a good slogan for youth. Everyone of you is a child of a king, the

king of kings. Everyone of you is a child of God. And there are things which a

child of God must never do!

(To be continued; Author: Sri. J.P. Vaswani)

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya....

Ganesha’s human body represents ‘tvam’, His elephantine countenance represents

‘tat’ and their joining together signifies the nondifference of ‘tvam’ (You)

and tat (Brahman). Thus, the body of Ganesha is the visible representation of

the highest reality, Brahman, realised from ‘tat tvam asi.’

Another explanation has it that Ganesha’s head signifies ‘Atman’, the Highest

Reality, while the body below the neck represents Maya, the principle of

phenomenal existence. The Atman’s involvement with the world is characterised

by the assumption of mind and speech.

Ganesha’s ears, which appear like large winnowing baskets, have a philosophical

significance too. Just as one uses a winnowing basket to separate grains from

chaff, one must use discrimination (viveka) to separate the real (Brahman) from

the unreal (Maya) in life. Here the grains stand Brahman and the dirt signifies

Maya. Or, Ganesha’s ears indicate that such discrimination between Brahman and

Maya is to be gained by taking recourse to Sravana or hearing. Listening to the

scripture from a Guru will lead to proper discrimination and Brahman

realisation.

-As explained in Mudgala Purana.

 

 

 

 

 

Mail – CNET Editors' Choice 2004. Tell them what you think.