Why am I here?

[Guest guest]

" Manava Jeevans has come to us as God's greatest boon.

Let us not throw it away in ignorance. " - Sri Swamiji

 

If you spent even 5 minutes in deep contemplation of

your condition, you cannot help but feel grateful and

lucky. That ounce of gratitude will make your day

full of sunshine. Of all the trillions of species in

the Universe, you (forget your brother, sister, uncle,

grandmother) are a human being blessed with an

intellect capable of reason, a body capable of

locomotion, a spirit capable of soaring, and lungs

that give you your daily breath of fresh air.

Forgetting for a moment everyone else, consider your

own situation for a moment. Recognize how lucky you

are for a moment, before condemning yourself as one

who is 'unlucky' or 'unfit' or 'hopeless'. Despair

exists only when priorities are mismanaged and the

mind is mis-behaved - engaging yourself in

Namasankeerthana and Bhajana-yogam (union through

singing and God's music) will remedy your ill-behaved

mind slowly but surely. Whatever may be your

vastu/astrology/etc. you were born as a Human being

endowed with the ability to pull yourself up from the

mire of confusion, doubt, depression, and other

diseases that plague people in their lives.

 

" How does it happen that this delusion, Arjuna, which

*is discarded by the good*, which excludes from

heaven, and occasions infamy, has overtaken you in

this place of grave danger? Do not be weak, Arjuna, it

is not worthy of you. Cast off this base weakness of

heart, and arise, O terror of your foes! " - Sri

Krishna, BG

 

*Note: " Cast off this base weakness of heart, and

arise "

 

You have 100 years of life allotted to you (so they

say). What will you do with it? Do you see what an

amazing thing it is to be alive this moment? To

touch, taste, smell, see, hear, and 'know'? What if

for a moment you abstractly contemplate the opposite

condition? Do you see the value of what you have? Do

you know how you got this chance? Do you know what

you did to earn this opportunity? Do you know if you

will get another opportunity? If you have only one

opportunity, what will you do with that opportunity?

 

It is not self glorification that drives spiritual

pursuit. It is not to impress others that you should

practice religion. It is to make use of your one

guaranteed chance to obtain the one eternal outcome

that is most desirable (Why do you choose to waste

time on things that are fleeting and unsatisfying? is

the question you should be asking yourself... realy,

why?). The previous birth you have no idea what you

were, if you were, or how you were. You only know

that by some chance, you are now you, blessed with all

the unique things that make your life uniquely yours

and no one else's. If given only one chance, what

would you use that chance for? Would you waste it?

Or are you willing to put away small things that

everyone else values dearly, in order to focus on the

primary purpose for which you were born?

 

That is the true question you must ask yourself daily.

Why am I here? Who am I? Is there something in me,

or in all of this, that is permanent? What aspects of

me change? What aspects of me do not change? Many

people when told to look within, complain they see

only blackness. That is not looking within. To look

within is to see your tendencies, to observe your

reactions, to understand your emotions, to understand

the causes of your actions, your behaviors, your

oddities, your quirks, your thoughts, and to trace

these back to their source slowly but surely. If you

are truly empty, you wouldn't see even blackness. Not

having looked within, or spent any time in serious

questioning, you take 5 minutes, see something, and

then dismiss it as being a useless game. The problem

is that they are consistently missing what is right in

front of their faces.

 

These are spiritual questions. They require

seriousness. Only someone who truly appreciates their

life in every moment of their breath, can recognize

how important every moment is, and can understand how

serious and important these questions are. Only

vairagyam born of true dispassion can lead to a mental

reorganization of priorities that leads one to such

questions and the ability to remain concentrated in

one's pursuit of discover for themselves the answers.

 

The sages did not create these practices to make life

harder than it has to be; they created these so that

one could understand their own life, where it began,

where it is situated, and where it is going. The

vedic religion is not " do this, you will get that " -

it is to " look within, experiment with yourself, and

find the answers for yourself " and to assist you in

doing this, the SatGuru is there to help you through

grace, who has already done all these things, and has

attained what there is to be attained. These practices

give strength to one's natural abilities - hatha yoga

for the fitness of the body, bhakthi/karma/jnana yoga

for the fitness of the senses and mind, and laya yoga

for the emancipation of the spirit from 'bondage'.

 

Such things shouldn't start when you are 90 years old.

You should start as a child. Most children do start

young - adults squash such curiosity because they

themselves have no answers. " Why is the sky blue? " A

lucky few do not lose their thirst to find out for

themselves.

 

Many people ask God for many things, yet they don't

take a moment to take inventory of what God has

actually given them already. God is perfect (purna)

and so His creation must be perfect. Therefore, He

must have planned your needs well before you asked for

them, and you must therefore already have what it is

you are seeking for. So, a proper prayer is not to

ask for more things - but to realize what it is you

already have within you to solve the problem that is

at hand. An intellect that is capable of discovering

the answers to the most subtle questions in any field

of activity imaginable is not a trivial gift. It is

not a unique gift either - every one has it in exactly

the same degree as any other - the problem is that you

were given a space shuttle and you have not bothered

to learn how to fly it. People choose to throw away

the food on their plate, and ask for what their

neighbor has, in some deluded notion that it is more

tasty or more worth eating. You can learn a lot about

people by observing how they eat their food.

 

" If worldly thoughts enter your mind , God cannot

enter. Only when the mind detaches itself from those

thoughts can God enter. The moment God enters, the

mind gets illuminated and in that light, the mind

cannot think of anything else except Godliness. Then

your tongue will naturally speak of Godliness. This is

the true state of yoga. " - Sri Swamiji

 

Many people complain of lacking peace of mind to do

puja. What they don't understand is that doing puja

strengthens the mental faculties of concentration,

focus, imagination, and will power. So Swamiji has

called it a penance to sit for puja. People today

have no time for pujas, for bhajans, for japam, for

dhyana, because " life " is more important. You fail to

recgonize the great lessons and teachings embedded

within such games.

 

" Manava Jeevans has come to us as God's greatest boon.

Let us not throw it away in ignorance. " - Sri Swamiji

 

You don't realize, you are missing life altogether.

These are not empty words.

 

" When youth vanishes you cannot control the mind. When

body is worn out you cannot do sadhana. Strive now

earnestly to attain spirituality and the highest

perfection. " - Swamiji

 

Practice anything you like with seriousness and you

will see the results - these are not fantasies or

snake oil remedies. They are results. They are

tangible things that require some astuteness to see

clearly.

 

" Listen to Guru's teachings and follow them in

practice. It is by the triple process of Sravana,

manana and Nidhi-dyasana that knowledge is attained. "

- Sri Swamiji

 

If the result is not obtained, then you must not

question the SatGuru, but rather you should question

your own practice. First see if the practice is

deficient, before you switch to a new methodology, or

you will live a life of switching from one method to

another to another to another - choose one and stick

with it doing what is to be done and have faith in the

teacher.

 

" In the process of material progress one should not

lose oneself in the trifles. Man should not forget the

real purpose for which he is created on earth. " - Sri

Swamiji

 

 

 

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Gurorangripadme ManaScenna Lagnam tata: kim! tata: kim! tata: kim! tata: kim!?

Sarva Kartha, Sarva Dhartha, Sarva Hartha, Mangalam!

Satchidananda, Satchidananda, Satchidananda Mangalam!

Tasmai Sri Guru-murthaye Nama Idam Sri Dakshinamurtaye!

 

Ata Nityo Narayanaha, Brahma Narayanaha, Sivascha Narayanaha, Kalascha

Narayanaha. Disascha Narayanaha, Vidisascha Narayanaha, Urdwamscha Narayanaha,

Adhascha Narayanaha, Antar-bahischa-Narayana.Narayana Eh Vedam Sarvam, Yat

BhootamYacchha Bhavyam.Nish-kalango Niranjano Nirvikalpo Nirakyadhas,suddhho

Deva Eko Narayanaha, Na dwiteeyosthi kaschit,ya evam Vedas Vishnu reva Bhavati,

Sa Vishnureva Bhavathi, Etat yajur veda sirodeeyathe.

 

~*Om * Ayim * Hreem * Sreem * Siva * Rama * Anagha * Dattaya * Namaha*~