(Contd.........Part 3)
What things of the
past should one remember?
Man should utilise this habit of remembering the past in another manner, and that is repeating to himself the true history of the five yugas of the World Cycle. This means that one should think thus, “I was first of all in Paramdham, from where I came here to be born in the Elysian – world of deities, i.e. in the paradise, and there I enjoyed for the period of 21 lives in the deity-sovereignty in Satyuga and Tretayuga characterised by purity, peace and prosperity. Later, as a result of having become body-conscious at the advent of Dwapuryuga, vices, pain and unrest entered into my life. As vices gathered force in the form of sex-lust, anger etc., peacelessness and sufferings in my life increased too. In order to get rid of them, I performed sacrifices, austerities and engaged in acts of idol-worship, but I could not free myself from their grip.
At present, there are, in this world, extreme degradation and pain and unrest. The world, of which I am inhabitant, is Iron aged and vicious. Having passed 21 lives in Satyuga and Tretayuga completely happily, and 63 lives in Dwapuryuga and Kaliyuga in sorrow and misery, I am at present passing through the 84the life. This is my last life in this cycle, because Kaliyuga is going to end, with atomic world war and civil strife at its heels. All souls have to return to Paramdham, and we have to become pure here by means of Gyan, Yoga and by the acquirement of divine virtues. Otherwise, we shall have to endure punishments for our misdeeds in the court of Dharamaraj – the Supreme Adjudicator.
Therefore, I shall try to become, once again, righteous and holy by means mentioned above, and quality myself thereby for heavenly deity-status…” He, who endeavours to remember his past and his present in the manner, explained above, in accordance with the principles of divine knowledge, can achieve true happiness, both here and hereafter.
Here, in this world of vice and misery, everyone suffers from diseases at one time or another. During illness, he is more or less in pain and remains grossly body-conscious. He then does not derive joy from the remembrance of God, the Supreme Father, because, ordinarily be cannot. The question, therefore arise, how can man, when taken ill, manage to be in intellectual communication with Him? Below are mentioned a few useful hints to throw light on the answer to this question :-
The way to remain
in yoga when one is diseased
On the basis of the experience of a large number of persons who keep company of religious people, it may be said that if man in illness depends on Gyan, he can transform disease into yoga, which means companionship with God. With the help of divine knowledge, he can find rest in the spiritual state and gain physical health. A wise man should, therefore, take to yoga rather than think of his disease. Instead of a groan (indicated by the exclamation – Hoon, which also means – I am) there should be the utterance, Atma Hoon, meaning – I am a soul. No ejaculations of pain, but invocations to God with the firm faith – I am a soul. Similarly, ‘Oh’ or ‘Ooh’, could by dint of divine knowledge, be replaced by ‘Om’ or ‘Om Shanti’.
He may not say, ‘O’ or ‘alas, while he might very well say, ‘O Shiva, my Father, my Creator!’ In other words, ‘Hai!’ may become ‘Hey God’! With a little effort of this kind, his mind would move from pain to the pain-killer (God), and he would get used to be transported, as it were, from his body, which is made of mere matter, to the Supreme Lord and he would, thereby, experience happiness. The ill man’s mind should not rest in thinking of the body, (**) but be fully concentrated (**) on Him.
He should not make entreaties to him, but remember Him lovefully. He should not tear his hair or beat his breast; but think of Him who is always benign. This thought of His beneficence will effect a wholesale transformation in him and he will find that an otherwise very painful and serious disease is felt as only slightly painful and as insignificant as little prick of a thorn.
Remember Him, who is Rama1 or Ramachandra (of Tretayuga) also and is known as Rameshwara or Shiva ad bestows on man inner repose (restfulness, indicated by the Hindi word, Aram - **). So, if man cannot go to sleep and experience restfulness, he should not complain, as he is in the habit of frequently complaining that he didn’t have rest. On the other hand, he should tray to have in himself the feeling for Rama, saying Aa-Rama (**) meaning to invoke Rama.
Thus, instead of crying for an being anxious about getting rest, he should practically find rest in thinking of Rama. So, the method is simple. He should take care of his body and put himself under proper treatment for any illness that comes, but, all along and quite independently of what the condition of the body is, he should make his thoughts flow in the channel shown by the Divine Knowledge. Thus way is always towards or about God. For instance, if a man has pain in his legs, he should get it treated and, at the same time, be happy in the thought that God has granted him yoga and Divine Knowledge and, on the basis of these, he can now stand on his own legs, i.e. can depend upon himself and make his future bright. He can achieve peace and happiness to last him for ever.
If he has a disease of the hart, he should easily think that he has found God – Sweet-heart, whom he loves whole-heartedly. If he has sore eyes, he is reminded of God who is benign and has granted him the eye of knowledge, also called the Third eye. If the ear is involved, he might tell himself that God has given him ears to listen to His divine and valuable instruction. So with his arms. Isn’t he now proceeding to, where he is equipped not with two but with four arms, has double the strength of human beings, and is, therefore, fit to hold the conch, the wheel, the mace and the lotus like Shri Narayana among the deities.
The forehead would take him instantly to the idea of precious gift of divine judgement the Supreme Soul has granted him. If his life-breath or any of the vital airs (Prana) is involved in disease, then he should think and feel that he is now dedicated to God who is the Lord of Life (Pran-nath), and that his faith will lead him to supreme well-being. Thus, he will surely obtain peace from Him who is the fountain-head of all Peace. His concern for his body will be transformed into divine contemplation, and will become a source of spiritual or transcendental joy. A person of caliber will acquire bliss by taking disease – roga (*) to be means of getting time for yoga, i.e. remembrance of God.
Incorporeal God who is himself ever-peaceful and who bestowed lasting happiness on Rama also.
The disease is of the body. Why should the mind get involved at all? The mind is meant to do the job of contemplation, specially that of divine knowledge. Thus, working on these lines, he should dissociate the mind from the body, which may be likened to a cottage where he, a hermit, should engage is yoga-tapasya. Any trouble with the eyes should lead him to think of view of God Shiva who has three eyes.
The head, if involved in disease, should remind him of the double crown of sovereignty on or round the head of the deities, i.e. of the line led by Shri Narayana and Shri Lakshmi. A bad throat need not, in fact, stand in the way of is mind going over to thoughts of Saraswati, Amba, the goddess of divine speech. If is arms are in pain, he should forget them and concentrate on the idea of his own endeavour in the field of Gyan, because arms are a symbol of activity and strength. Weary or broken legs should make him hale enough to think that the path of Godly Remembrance is trodden by means of the mind and intellect, i.e. without the use of these two legs.
If the whole of his body is in pain, how very soothing it would be to be luckily reminded of the colossal body known as Viratrupa (*), which is used as a symbol of this vast world in the form of a vastly big body, and to be then led to search for divine knowledge. Thus, he will forget all about his illness. His mind will be stabilised in the self, sucking peacefulness from it without let or hindrance. If, in spite of individual treatment, health is not restored, he will at least have succeeded in becoming stable intellectually and spiritually.
Attachment is
generally the cause of Disease
Only deep reflection should reveal that disease (Roga) has its origin in attachment (Raga). One man has weakness for a certain kind of dish while another has such deep longing for witnessing cinema-shows and visiting clubs that it wakes him up now and then at night. A third man loves the physical charms of another person, and is deeply attached to him. There is he that loves to take tea several times every day, smokes many cigarettes, wears good dressed, drinks Coca-Cola a number of times and eats sweets of various kinds without any restraint on self.
There is he who has a liking, usually a foolish liking, for a special kind of dish or fruit of a particular variety, someone may be loving a certain person, be it man or woman, for the name and the form he or she has, and thus destroying his or her own spiritual might. So, this kind of attachment, which manifests itself in different forms, bring about mental and physical enervation and creates diseases of various kinds.
Similarly, the feeling of enmity opens a door to defects, i.e. defects in blood. Bad blood means ill in all. Ill-feeling is not alone in the case; it causes illness giving rise to Flatulence, gastric troubles, nervous diseases, etc.
Animosity gives rise to several different diseases. Therefore, he who is taken ill, should learn to know which are the attachments and ill-feelings which he is involved in at present. Identifying these feelings to be the cause of illness, he should try to remove them. Effort in this direction will abate his illness, more or less, and sure enough make him tranquil. Thus will disease also become the means of spiritual health and of improvement of the soul. His attention will thereby turn to his own mind and nature than to his body. In order to effect a transformation, he will turn over to the sweet remembrance of the Supreme soul and experience peace.
One should not fear death but remember God, the Deathless
Besides this, he should understand that under the pressure of the feelings of attachment and enmity, different ramifications with people, based on contracts, are formed, and that his register of actions has been born and has grown, and that, therefore, this illness of his has become a means of squaring accounts till the register is closed. He should consider that it is a matter for joy to find that the record of his activities in respect of his friends and relatives, of the doctor and several others, bound to him by the ties of action, is getting cleared.
In fact, all that is still on record is being settled and thus wiped off by means of his physical suffering in accordance with the pre-determined course of World Drama. Does not one, who pays off all his debts, have a feeling of achievement? So, looking at one’s illness from this stand point, he will not feel depressed, but be duly strengthened for his tasks. He should feel happy.
Even during illness, man should not lose tranquillity out of fear of death, because the soul was originally without a body; it look on a body later on and, sooner or latter, it has to get rid of the body. Besides, even if the body is to die, it is a joyful event in as much as when one is freed from the bonds of a diseased and worn-out body, one shall get a fresh body to live in.
Hence, he should not lend himself to morbid thinking but should consider himself dedicated to God. Ignoring Death, he should remember Shiva, the Supreme Sol, who has overcome Death. Man achieves a very high state by shaking off his mortal coil in remembrance of Him. And, as for as his future well-being goes, the Supreme Father will Himself endow him with good opportunities of improving himself spiritually.
A person, who is seriously ill, or so to say, is at death’s door, should reflect in the following manner, “This time I am being put to the test. At this point, I should not be swayed by attachment to my friends or relatives or even to my body. On the other hand, my mind should be linked exclusively to Him, the Supreme Soul, who bestows bliss on us. In other words, there should be no vestige left in me of attachment; it should be filled with the memory of what I am. Amidst the pangs of death, I should be attuned to hearing so that finding myself in His lap, I breathe my last.
O joy! that in these my last moments, I have undisturbed and clear memory of Him, the Supreme Soul, who is the soul giver of bliss. In this consists my good fortune”. Possessing thus the virtue of toleration, man should, before he dies, become dead to the merely physical, i.e. he should detach his mind from anything that has relation to his body and the organs of actions, and draw singular joy from Godly remembrance like one in the lap of God Himself.
It is this Godly remembrance that carries deities far and speedily, and takes all beings at last to Paradise. An ill man is called a patient, and he also is regarded as patient who endures with patient, who endures with patience, i.e. who has the virtues of toleration and courage. Hence, the ill man’s prime duty is to be tolerant and to be so, he should be stable in remembering the Supreme Soul. In this way, he will surely obtain Peace.
God Father Shiva
says
Dear children, the establishment of peace in the world is my responsibility but to co-operate in this task is your responsibility. And, I ask you for no other co-operation but that you become holy and righteous by thought, word and deed, for peace and spiritual solace come only through Purity, Come Children, you give Me your vices and your evils and, in their place, I will bliss you with the valuable gift of real wisdom and virtues which will bring you constant peace. Children, I don’t ask you to give Me anything which is useful to you but I ask only for your bad proclivities and your evils which have led you to peacelessness, and of which you are tired and sick. Children, I ask you for no trouble – some effort on your part but only to receive and hold carefully, lovefully and firmly the golden gifts of purity and virtues which I give you but which, I find, your more quickly and easily give up than you receive!”
How to maintain
peace in face of poverty?
Poverty becomes at times a powerful cause of misery and unrest. The poor man says to himself, “Unlucky and helpless as I am, I cannot command respect not to speak of being glorious. It is my poverty that stands in the way of fulfillment of so many needs and wishes of mine. The poor man’s life is no life!” Giving a long rope to thoughts like these, he passes his life in sighs and, owing to ignorance of his high relationship with God, regards himself as poor and unworthy and becomes unhappy.
Limited means should not make man lose peace of mind. He should work honestly to earn money and, at the same time, think that wealth is of many kinds. Time, to quote an instance, is also money. Good conduct, holiness, culture – these also are highly prized wealth which only the very few fortunate possess. Wealth, in the form of knowledge, is imperishable and is, therefore, considered the best kind of wealth.
So, even though he has not enough of money, he possess wealth of the highest kind. He is, therefore, wrong in considering himself unlucky, penurious or helpless. Even if he possesses no wealth of any kind whatsoever, he raises his grateful thanks to God. He is the child of the Supreme Giver, the Overlord of the Three Worlds, the all powerful Supreme Soul.
His Supreme Father lacks nothing. And, if he is, at this time, down and out, it is due to having severed his links with God and getting degraded by the vices, which hold him in their grip. But, this state of affairs is going soon to change. For, he is now bent on linking himself to God with true love and set on earning all kinds of wealth by personal efforts.
Thus, even in poverty or penury, man should acquire wealth on the form of divine knowledge, by means of which he will have purity as another source of wealth and will become qualified to offer thanks to God. By means of efforts, both material and spiritual, be should have in him the means to acquire true wealth.
One should not think low of himself but should think of God
No one should look down upon himself. He should, on the other hand, reflect in this manner, “Now-a-days, no one is so rich as Shri Narayana and Shri Lakshmi were. In comparison with them, all of us are beggars and insolvent. Bharat, that was once the crown of all countries, has poor and impecunious Government that asks for aid from other countries! Even America, today the most highly advanced and the most wealthy country, has not the wealth that lies in happiness.
Thus, people there also are in dire need of peace. Among individuals, there are those who, though rich, do not have the wealth of leisure or that of character. And, very few people possess the purity of thought, conduct and food which is recognised as the best kind of wealth. So, I should remove from myself any feeling that I am indigent and dependent upon others and, having done so, I should then earn abundant wealth in the form of divine knowledge, purity and peace by the right use of time and opportunities which also are a kind of wealth. Divine knowledge is not only wealth, but also the means to uncountable wealth in the future.
It has been appropriately said thus about this kind of wealth, i.e. about divine knowledge, “O my dear friends, I have here in my possession the wealth that share is in the name of Rama. Everyday, it increases quickly; it multiplies many times over. Dear heart, how happy I am! I have what is the only thing worth having”.
So, it does not matter if I have not what is commonly called wealth form the material point of view. I should never be tired of being deeply grateful to the Supreme Father who has bestowed on me divine knowledge and noble character which are the best form of wealth imaginable. Thus, He is rendering me eligible for heavenly sovereignty by granting me, in addition to the gift marked above, the means of yoga.
Contd....Part 5
Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya
