Reciting Hymns purify Minds

Some of the characters in the epics and other holy texts have been presented as having violated the codes of conduct. Yet remembering them during our prayers is said to fetch us mental peace. Some of the sages are also portrayed as having acted quite contrary to the rules of virtue. But they are praised for their erudition and their statements concerning the proper way to live. Succeeding men have explained these apparent contradictions on merit. By virtue of their austerities sages had acquired extraordinary spiritual powers, which they used only for beneficial purposes. Had they so decided, they could have done harm to others.

The mind makes or mars a man.

Filled with lofty thoughts, it lifts him to a very high position. Stuffed with wrapped ideas, it pulls him down. Hence his qualities and blemishes character assesses a man’s merit. If the individual charges his attitude, he can bring about a charge in the complexion of the world. To develop this piety, he should first shed his ego and realize that he is but an instrument of God and that he should submit to the will of the Almighty. Service to humanity will bring about a transformation in him, making him realize that the purpose of life is not mere enjoyment but something to be valued. It is not how long but how best one should live, that must be the idea.

Man should remember that friends and relatives, who flock to him, would never accompany him after he dies. His only companion is God, who will admire him for the virtuous deeds he had undertaken, for his charitable disposition and his service. Therefore what the universal scripture asks us to do is “to build a temple in our heart and enshrine the Lord in its sanctum.” Reminding us to do only such deeds, which will gladden Him? Our thought word and actions should be identical. Otherwise we will only he hypocrites, our conduct should be exemplary. Our thoughts should always be ennobling for which the prime requirement is to shed the ego in us. Humility takes us to God whereas Humanity gives us a taste of God. Man’s enemy is within and hence we should never even think of injuring the feeling of others.

Self interest will wrap the Mind.

The question that should be posed to those who deny the existence of God and who presume that they can achieve anything through personal efforts, are why then should there be success and failures or sorrow and happiness? No one will like to undergo privations, much less those who boast of their independent powers. But it can be seen that even such can foremasts cannot avoid misfortunes and calamities in their own families. Hence the presence of an unseen superior force has to be reckoned with.

All of us are His servants, committed to obey His commands. The joy or misery faced by us in the result of our past conduct. From this flows the usual doubt, why then should we cringe before God, if the law of past conduct (Karma) governs our acts? God makes us go through vicissitude condition our mind to be steadily both in the midst of happiness or ruffled by sorrows and ensures maintenance of a balance approach in our activities.

Worship enables us to bear difficulties without getting demoralized because success and failure are bound to alternate. God takes the role of a director of a puppet show manipulating the strings of the dolls from behind the screen. The Mahabharata illustrates even the aster Bhishma, bestowed with a boon to die only when he so desired, faltering and getting into a trap, resulting in antagonizing a person, who ultimately caused his death.

The havoc brought by a woman when she was badly let down by Bhishma. A woman when may be compared to water in a reservoir. Just as it gushes out when the bank breaks, she feels secure so long as her husband protect her out when she is denied this protection, she feels deeply heart.

Enounce of the Gita is reflected in the life of Gandhari, that self interest and attachment warps the mind. A woman of rare distinction, she chooses to keep her eyes closed with a bandage because her husband was blind. But she underwent total transformation as days passed because of her affection towards her children.

Human mind is like the turbulent sea

Human mind is like the turbulent sea fretting and fuming all the while restless and impatient for the peace seldom in sight. But the master says that with God by your side, you can tide over the worst of crisis. He used to illustrate this truth with a smile. The sticky mild fluid excluded by the jack fruit when it is cut open does not stick one’s palms, with your mind lubricated with oil of the divine wisdom you can banish from your life all the misery and anxiety that plaque you in the pursuit of your life’s vocations.

Till everyone realizes that he is a mere speak of the great cosmic reality, he or she has to suffer, groping in the dark for the keys to the unfathomable bliss which is within him or herself. What is borne is to die in other words, death is inherent in birth. That is the inexorable law of nature that none can wash away. Childhood has to give way to youth, the romance and buoyancy of youth would peel off in the painful struggle, and manhood, and then comes the crabbed old age, with everyone turning the dilapidated ruins of the ruddiness and gay abandon that were one’s childhood and wild youth into the spirit you return the spark that shone through the human form.

Parents and teacher should impress on children the vital need for a clean life. If there are more people of character and contentment society can be reformed. It is said that the mind is like a blotting paper absorbing the bad ideas easily and never throwing them out again. Thoughts of hatred passion and greed should be resisted and driven out. At the impressionable age, the significance of scriptural themes should be taught.

Soul is to be borne as a human being is the result of pious deeds carried out over a number of years. Unfortunately once he is conferred with this privilege, man usually runs after worldly affairs, money, getting fame, raising a fine family and enjoying other benefits. But in this process he fails to understand the very purpose for which God has given him this body.

Way to control erratic Mind

How to control the turbulent and erratic mind, which makes it impossible for even the most dedicated person to pursue the path of virtue. It is quite usual to find a man with a very pleasing exterior but his mind may be corrupted and he may be found always scheming.

How to make mind obey our command and how to tame it?

How are we to live in this world?

Can God be seen?

These were the main doubts raised by a teacher who was dejected with the family chores and preferred to commit suicide, to Ramakrishna Paramhansa, the unrivalled guide to humanity in recent time.

Swamy Ramakrishna compared the funny behavior of mind to a monkey, already known for its antics, that has consumed liquor making it tipsy, that was stung by a scorpion inflicting it with unbearable pain and lastly ‘seized’ by a vampire. The only way to curb its unbridled conduct is for a person to closely associate himself with godly and noble souls whose only concern is to serve God, here and thereafter. Their company provides moral strength. The frustrated man should join these pious persons even uninvited.

About living, Swamy Ramakrishna asked him to study the attitude of a maidservant in a wealthy man’s bungalow. Even while engaged in her duties, her thoughts will be even fixed on her own house and her children. One may discharge the obligations but his attention should be on God whether when enjoying prosperity of facing adversity.

Swamy Ramkrishna’s reply about securing the visions of God. The care that a miser takes of his wealth, the affection of a mother to her child and the attachment of a wife to her spouse, the devotion that arises out if all the three combined will lead a man to God. It required determination constant meditation and unceasing chanting of divine names. One should pray ‘Give me the strength to rise above trifles.’

Swamy Ramkrishna detected wealth and sex. The craving for carnal pleasure forces men to lose their mental balance. His disciple once hid a gold coin under the bed but Swamy Ramakrishna who felt uneasy said that a scorpion had crept inside it. He treated every woman as a mother.

In the case of an average human being, his thoughts, words and actions are motivated by self-interest. His self-centeredness or selfishness leads to aggressiveness, violence and exploitation. It is an evil trait and finds expression through the five main vices of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride. Lust means the satisfaction of one’s own passion. Anger is the outcome of one’s own superiority and disregard for the feelings of others. Greed implies grabbing of goods and services for one’s exclusive use at the cost of the others. Worldly attachments imply the excessive love for one’s family, relations and friends, which may end up in nepotism, partiality and injustice. Ego is the excessive love of one’s position and lust for power.

In Gurbani, the word Haumai recurs frequently. Literally, it means ‘I am’, thereby implying egoism, regarded as a spiritual and moral disease. The Sankrit expression Aham or Ahankar gives the same meaning. The egoist lives in a world of his own. Guru Nanak says, “In ego, man is absorbed in Maya (illusion); in ego he is overwhelmed by delusion.” The egoist thinks only of himself, he doesn’t care for others. He creates a wall between himself and others. Like a spider, he weaves a web out of his own self and tries to catch others in his net.

Haumai is a denial of God, his will, creation and love, Guru Amar Das said that Haumai and remembrance of God’s name are at variance with each other. Gurbani prescribes the remedy for the disease of the ego. Self-centeredness is to be substituted by God centeredness. It emphasises that Manmukh must become a Gurmukh. Love of God implies the love of his creation, of all human beings. The service of God means the service of man. An altruistic and virtuous life promotes divine consciousness. The Gurbani says, “Love, contentment, truth, humility and other virtues enable the seed of the name to grow.” Haumai is thus a spiritual disease, a condition that blinds the mind of a person. From it flow all ignorance, selfishness and depravity. To overcome Haumai’s fatal effects, one has to destroy it. Guru Amar Das says: “Nanak, the bravest brave in one/who drives out the wretched egoism within,/the sage glorify almighty munity for posterity according to Guru Nanak, if man followed the master’s word and lived with divine grace, this  malady could be cured forever.

An unhealthy mind remembers a pain, the healthy mind remembers pleasure,

An unhealthy mind remembers a pain, the healthy mind remembers pleasure, and everybody has had a lot of pleasant experience in life. “Well, now let us see all the painful experiences we had. “ It’s dreadful world, It’s a terrible world; people do awful things to me”, If I keep thinking that thought, I will become a horrible person and people will do more horrible things to me, they will threw stones at me, they will let out their dogs on me. The choice is mine.

There have been painful things in life but there have also been pleasant ones. Can we remember the pleasant things that people have done to us and to you? Can we cultivate those memories and on the basis of those pleasant memories say “YES”, this life is good, yes people are nice, yes, and the world after all is not such a bad place in spite of a few people going around with unlicensed guns? If we take the average goodness and evil in the world, the goodness goes unnoticed. The day nobody is shot, there is no headline in the newspaper “No one was shot to-day.”

We take that goodness for granted but the evil rubs against our brain, so we notice it. The newspapers and Television teams try hard to find bad things, evil things that they can report, so people take notice and their rating go up. Nobody is being paid to dig out good and happy news and all the pleasant things, people are doing to each other, for each other or how many husbands in New Delhi, or Mumbai, today bought flower for their spouses. So we need to cultivate pleasant – mindedness by cheating those situations that cause pleasantness of the mind.

Mind must not be allowed to stray

Discrimination and dispassion for worldly objects are the two “Purifying” agents which can ensure steadiness of the mind. Religious prescriptions might prove purposeless so long as one is immersed in ordinary activities. Spiritual progress can be achieved only with scriptural knowledge and detachment. It may prove an exercise in futility to read holy text if one’s mind is not endowed with these factors. Hence if we cultivate them by practice, we will get released from desires.

The hearts of those, whose detachment is strong and acute, will always long for God. They never seen anything but the almighty Himself. For them, the world will appear as a veritable well wherein that they may get drowned at any moment.

Knowledge can be gained by tasting all possible conditions of life-from the humblest to the highest positions, through observation and thereby get convinced of the trivial nature of the worldly enjoyments. The mind should be taken out of the dark cell of the world and exposed to the full blaze of the self-effulgent Divinity.

In a forest full of thorns and briars, it is impossible to walk barefooted. We can do so provided the entire area is covered with leather or by wearing shoes. The former is distinct impossibility likewise; the mind is troubled with immeasurable wants. There are two ways to escape from their influence. Either all the desires should be satisfied or all of them given up. The former course cannot even be dreamt of, because new wants will grew overtime.