Working for the pleasure of God

Hobbies are things we do passionately in our free time for fun. People of all ages have their favorite hobbies that they like to invest their time in because it gives them happiness, relaxation and an opportunity to learn. Considering how much we enjoy engaging in our hobbies, is there a way we can make them a part of our spiritual growth?

Shree Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita said:

          यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |

             यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् || 27||

 "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as oblation to the sacred fire, whatever you bestow as a gift, and whatever austerities you perform, O son of Kunti, do them as an offering to me." (Bhagavad Gita 9.27)

Read full commentary by Swami Mukundananda

This implies that whatever activity we perform, we should mentally offer it to God. Now, whenever we perform any activity there are 2 aspects to it:

 1) The external activity we do.

 2) Our internal attitude towards it. 

We could perform the same mundane activity with different consciousness and that makes all the difference. If an activity is performed by a worldly-minded person to increase his own comfort, wealth or fame, he gets bound by both good and bad karmic reactions. His karmic reactions result in his continuity in the cycle of life and death. Whereas, if a spiritually minded person performs the same activity for the pleasure of his beloved Lord, he renounces selfishness. Thus he is freed from the fretters of good and bad results.

A person who dedicates all his actions in the service to God becomes united in consciousness with God. Such a yogi becomes liberated in consciousness even in this body. And, upon leaving his mortal frame, receives a divine body and eternal service in the divine abode of God.

Thus by simply changing our internal attitude toward everything we do, we can reap great spiritual benefits. By transforming our internal attitude, we can transform even the mundane activities of material life into divine service of God. Therefore, let's take a step towards this transformation by dedicating all our hobbies to God. Earlier we engaged in our hobbies because it made us happy; now let us do them so that we can make the Lord happy.

It's time you take charge of your Destiny!

It is true that we are born with a destiny but is it correct to say that everything that happens in our life is governed by destiny? If we think that destiny cannot be changed that is the doctrine of fatalism. It leads to an attitude of resignation and passivity that results from the belief that people are helpless against fate.

Let us assume that everything is predestined. Then it must mean that in our past countless lives we did not perform actions by our free will as everything was predestined. But then what determined our destiny in the present life? Logically we must have performed actions with our free will in some past life. If we did so in a past life, we can do them now as well.

We humans are bound by the law of karma, but understand the principle of free will through the example of the bow and arrow in archery. The accumulated stock of arrows in the archer's case slung over his shoulder is the sañchit karma. Similar to this is our stock of karmas from past endless lifetimes. A part of the sañchit karma, is the prārabdh karma that we have to bear in this life. Therefore the arrow that has just left the archer's bow is the prārabdh karma and the arrow in the hand at the moment is kriyamāṇ karma, this is the karma we are free to perform in this life. The archer can decide not to use this arrow, or he can choose to use it either to protect the weak or to harass them. Thus while prārabdh karma is something which cannot be undone and we have to enjoy or suffer its fruits in this life, we have free will available in the form of kriyamāṇ karma. 

Right here in the present moment you possess the free will to perform actions that elevate your consciousness to sublime heights or perform actions that degrade you to demonic existence. The choices that you make in the face of adversity or favorable situations are your own. For this reason, the scriptures say that it is lazy people who blame destiny for their substandard achievements:

Ramayana says - ''While working, don't bring destiny into your mind, or it will make you lazy." If you do, you will start running to astrologers to know what your destiny is, rather than focusing on performing your work properly.

It is a fact that there is an element of destiny. But that should not bother you because God has also bestowed the power of free will to you. You possess the freedom to act as you wish. If you were destined to win a jackpot of a million dollars, you will win it. But beyond that, it is your self-effort. If you work hard, you could multiply it into ten million dollars, and if you develop profligate habits, you could squander it away in drinking and gambling. That would not be decided by destiny; that would be your own puruśhārth or self-effort.

Always remember these words of an Urdu poet,

खुदी को कर बुलंद इतना कि हर तक़दीर से पहले,

खुदा खुद बन्दे से पूछे बता तेरी रज़ा क्या हैं। 

"Make your efforts so strong, that before giving you the results of your destiny, God himself asks you what you want."

Next Blog Article:- Carelessness leads to Downfall of a Devotee!

What determines the Destiny!

 The sheer mystery of how future events unfold intrigues everyone. It is this anxiousness to determine the pattern of future events that drives us to face readers, tarot card readers and palmists. These astrologers reveal the glimpses of our destiny, the things that we will experience in the future.

Now let's say someone hit a jackpot and become an overnight millionaire while someone else lost all his fortune in a stock market crash. In ordinary life, we will attribute both these differing events to destiny. But then the primary question arises if people are destined to experience such events in life, who decides the course of our destiny?

People are of different opinions, some believe that destiny is thrust upon us by an inscrutable power; others believe destiny is a result of our past karmas, while many others believe that destiny is a fallacy of the human mind. Let us understand the concept of destiny through the help of Scriptures. The Hitopdesh states in this context:

"The actions we performed in our past lives become our destiny in this life."

This clearly means that destiny is not something that has come down from the heavens or a horoscope chart that is revealed to us by the astrologers. We have created our destiny ourselves by actions in past births. It is the 'Law of Karma' that determines our destiny in the present life. The law of Karma however is quite complex.

To start with there are three kinds of karmas: sañchit, prārabdh and kriyamāṇ. God has an account of all our karmas in endless lives. This is called sañchit karmas. At the time of birth, we are given a portion of our sañchit karmas, to enjoy or suffer in this life. This is called prārabdh karmas. The prārabdh is fixed, but within this life, we have a freedom to act, and the actions we perform are called kriyamāṇ karma. The kriyamāṇ is not pre-determined; it is in our hands and can be changed as we wish.

Now the results we get in life are dependent on a number of factors, including: 

1. Our prārabdh karmas.

2. Our kriyamāṇ karmas. 

3. The Will of God. 

4. The karma of other people present in that situation. 

5. Chance events in which we happen to be present by accident.

Since we humans are not all-knowing, we cannot fully correlate the results we get with the exact causes behind them. We ignorantly take a myopic view of the results of our present karma and feel bogged down. For example, we notice sometimes that a good person fails and an unscrupulous person prospers. It seems that the law of karma or destiny is not fair and just to humans. But the fact is that the law of karma keeps an account of our past endless lifetimes. Therefore, the good person was not always good; the bad person was not always bad.

"Life is like playing a game of cards. The hand that is dealt to you gets fixed, that is your destiny. But how you play with the cards is not fixed, that's your self-effort."

Next Blog Article:- ''Now it's time you take charge of your own Destiny!''

Importance and Specialty of the Kirtans written by Shree Maharajji.

Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj

  Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj has written thousands of inspiring verses revealing the Divine pastimes of Radha Krishna. His style of writing is unique in the entire history of saints. First, he begins the chanting of a pada or kīrtan, and as the kīrtan progresses, he keeps adding lines to it, finally bringing it to a consummate close. In glorification of Shree Radha Krishna devotion, he has named one of his principal creations as "Prem Ras Madirā," or "Divine Love Intoxicant." One is lost for words to describe the intensity and greatness of the padas and kīrtans written by Shree Maharajji. It is only by singing the divinely intoxicating kīrtans that we can get a glimpse of the unfathomable Divine love that pours out from the heart of a true devotee of Shree Radha Krishna. 

  The kīrtans conducted by Shree Maharajji are famous for the fervent intensity of devotion that they create in the minds and hearts of the sincere follower, forever binding him or her to the path of God-realization. Whenever Shree Maharajji graces the prayer and Sādhanā hall, the kīrtans reach a feverish pitch as the Lord's names and pastimes are sung in unison by ecstatic voices across the floor. These highly charged kīrtans mesmerize even the most phlegmatic of people, drawing them ever closer to Shree Radha Krishna.

Let us remember what our Guru has taught us?

Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj

He himself had taught us to practice the presence of God and Guru with us at all times. In concurrence with his teachings, let us remain steadfast in the conviction that, although we cannot see him with our material eyes, he continues to stay in our midst, noting our every thought and action, and showering his grace as we strive to walk the path he revealed to us. 

     We should strongly reaffirm our resolve to implement his every Instruction for purifying our hearts and for pushing forward his mission. This is the most befitting way of showing our respect to him

     What they have given to humankind during their stay in our world can never be sufficiently eulogized in words; the whole planet shall remain indebted to them for their gift of Love. We offer our respectful obeisances unto our Spiritual Master Jagadguru Shri Kripaluji Maharaj, who has opened our eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge.

Happy Guru Poornima!

Is there some way of knowing how far we have succeeded in our Spiritual Journey?

It is not easy to judge, only God and our Guru can truly know how much we have advanced. However, a simple parameter, which can give us some idea, is to see how much our mind has gotten detached from the world and the extent to which it has gotten attached to God. This is a simple rule of thumb to measure our advancement.

Do a reading of yourself. When you suffer reversals in the world, how upset do you become? If you find that earlier, you would keep brooding when someone insulted you, but now you are able to forget it in an hour's time, then you can conclude that you are progressing; your mind is becoming detached from the world, and your spiritual power is increasing; hence, you are able to remain normal in any circumstances.

Again, analyze how much does your mind yearn for a spiritual association. If earlier, whenever you had free time, you wished to spend it in seeing movies, but now you seek opportunities to sing devotional kirtans, it is a sure sign that you are progressing and that your mind is getting attached to the spiritual realm.

How to get peace of mind when someone has wronged us to no end?

This material world is like the prison house of God; souls who have turned their backs towards him have been put here.  So, we cannot expect the people of this world to behave like Saints. There will always be persons who will come to cheat us, and on some occasions, they may even succeed.  That is life; we all get cheated once in a while.  But the important thing is to learn to take it in our stride.  That is where the quality of forgiveness comes in.

If we continue to harbor resentment towards those who have wronged us, we will be unable to progress spiritually. Resentment acts like a poison on the mind, filling it with bitterness. And we keep reliving the sour experience within, pinned down to the past. Someone aptly said: "Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die."     

On the spiritual path, we must be careful not to nurture ill feelings towards anyone, realizing that they will harm us more than anyone else.  Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says:

भूलिहुँ दुर्भावना कहुँ, हो न सपनेहुँ प्यारे।  (साधना करू प्यारे )

"Even in your dreams, do not make the mistake of harboring ill-will towards anyone."   

Forgiveness is a sublime personality trait that immediately releases all bitterness from the mind. It is a favor we do, not to the other person, but to ourselves. The lives of saintly people are full of inspiring stories of how they forgave their wrongdoers, and even succeeded in winning them over by their love.  

A person made an attempt on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, while he was living in South Africa. Mahatma Gandhi refused to hate the man. He said, "I shall love him, and win his love." One year later, that same man came and apologized to before Mahatma Gandhi, and wept for forgiveness. This is the characteristic of great personalities; they refuse to allow their minds to dwell on hatred towards anyone. 

Many a times in our Life we come across so many mishappenings with us, during those conditions we actually do not realize the grace of God but after somewhere we realize that it was for the betterment of us. Then how can we realize the grace of God during those unfavourable conditions?

Well that is Positive Thinking that you see a positive aspect in everything. We want situations to be favorable to us always! and when situations are not favorable then our natural reactions are like as you said we start getting panic.

However if we bring this piece of knowledge in mind at that time that an unfavorable situation is an opportunity to rise higher.

Swami Vivekananda said "Life is a continuously unfoldment of a being under circumstances tending to press it downwards". So whenever there is an unfavorable situation if we look on it as an opportunity, as a stepping stone then we can see it as a grace of God and that is the secret of seeing situations as graces of God.

How to get relieved of stress permanently?

We experience stress because we want certain outcomes, situations and results. However, the soul is not independent, and it is not within its ability to fulfill all of the desires. By nature, the soul is a servant of God. Now, what is the duty of the servant? To fulfill the wishes of the master. If we surrender to God and think whatever He does is for our welfare, this attitude of surrender will help us get rid of stress. A surrendered soul says:

राज़ी हैं उसी मैं जिसमें तेरी रज़ा है। 

यूँ भी वाह वाह है त्यों भी वाह वाह है ।।

   "I am happy in Your happiness. Whatever situation You put me in, I will blissfully accept it." Thus, stress is a symptom of lack of our submission to the Will of God. When we experience stress, the best medicine to cure it is to increase our level of surrender. 

   Now, what is the problem in increasing the level of surrender? Worldly attachments! We keep on pondering, "This should happen this way; that should happen that way." That is the main hurdle to complete surrender. For achieving that goal, we need to increase our detachment from the world.

    

   Before God-realization, there will always be some amount of tension within everyone, because the extent of surrender will not be one-hundred percent. However, by giving us tension, God signals to us that something is wrong and we need to correct it by surrendering further to Him. This is just as when we put our hand in the fire, we feel pain. What would happen if we did not feel the pain? Our hand would burn without our knowing it. The feeling of pain is, in fact a form of Grace. It is a signal that something is wrong, and that must take the hand out. Similarly, stress is a signal that we need to increase our surrender and devotion to God.

     A spiritual doctor will prescribe you the medicine of submitting to God for getting rid of stress, whereas a material doctor will give you all kinds of medicinal drugs. However, such drugs will not help eradicate the root cause of stress. By increasing the level of surrender, the source of stress will itself be eradicated. Shree Krishna states in the famous verse:

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ।।

                                                                                 (Bhagavad Gita 2.47)

Read full commentary by Swami Mukundananda

     "Work with full dedication. Do not be careless while performing your tasks. But do not get attached to the fruits of those works."

Shree Krishna again says:

योगिनः कर्म कुर्वन्ति संगं त्यक्त्वात्मशुद्धये ।।

                                                         (Bhagavad Gita 5.11)

Read full commentary by Swami Mukundananda

     "A yogi is one who can work without any attachment to the results." If we follow this formula, stress will be abolished from its roots.

Importance of Human Life!

This human form is like a full moon night which will soon be over, and again the dark night will come. You are sleeping in ignorance, unaware of the fact that the passage of time is continuously shortening your life. You are not willing to leave your sleep, even though you are perpetually being beaten by the objects of your desires.
  
Once the opportunity to redeem yourself in this human form is missed, you will have to rotate in the cycle of life and death in 8.4 million forms of life. Then you will rub your hands helplessly and regret. Kripaluji Maharaj says, ”Listen to the words of rasik saints and surrender to the lotus feet of the merciful divine couple, ’Radha Krishna’.”

How to win the battle against the mind?

At times when we sit to work on an important piece of our assignment, we realize that just when we are trying to focus our mind on a particular subject; it throws up all kinds of thoughts. Retaining our focus on an important subject turns into a battle with the mind. The untamed mind can cost us dearly in terms of lack of creativity, increased stress, loss of memory and a feeling of discontentment.

 To win our battle against the restless mind requires us to firstly understand our mind. The mind is a subtle machine that constantly generates thoughts. These thoughts shape our personality and our physical appearance. We look at someone and say, "He seems to be very aggressive", or "She appears to be tensed" etc. The nature of thoughts in a person's mind reflects in the personality and physical appearance. No wonder, when we look at a Saint, we see a very calm and composed personality. At present, our mind is scattered. Just as, if the channel button of television set is spoilt, the channels keep changing sporadically. Similarly, our mind keeps flipping from topic to topic and hence we are unable to derive the maximum benefit out of its potential. If only we could channelize the thoughts in our mind and learn to concentrate it, we could increase the extent to which we are able to utilize its potential. This is where meditation has given us the power to harness the latent potential of our mind. 

Meditation techniques have been described in the ancient scriptures and passed down numerous generations. Simply put, "Meditation is the practice to persistently direct our thoughts to one focal point". Some practitioners focus on the breath, others on the eyebrow center, others on the psychic centers in the spinal cord, etc.

In order to tame the mind through meditation, it requires repeated practice, akin to physical practice. Initially, a person may find it difficult to focus the mind for even two minutes, but with repeated practice, a person can go on to practice meditation for hours at a stretch. All that one needs to do is make a firm resolve to discipline the mind. Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says,

              "मन को मानो शत्रु उसकी सुनहु जनि कछु प्यारे। "

"Declare war on your mind. Do the opposite of what it says, and soon it will stop bothering you."

Instructions of doing Meditation:-

1. Select a quiet and clean place to meditate, which is free from distractions.
2. Sit in a comfortable meditative posture. Ensure that your back is upright.
3. Close your eyes and relax your body. Have a slight smile on your face.
4. Keep your eyes closed till the end of this meditation exercise.
5. As you listen to the meditation, create the same type of feeling in your mind.
6. Slowly and steadily breathe in and breathe out. Concentrate on your breathing rhythm.

What is the difference between worldly love and love for God?

A person who loves a worldly person always doubts, and is in constant dilemma wondering, "The one whom I love, does he love me or not? And if he does, how much does he love me?" We always get caught up in thoughts like this. This is because, in this world, no one shows real sentiments. Some pretend to show more love by writing many letters, while others hide and don't express at all. Also, we always try to show that we love the other person more than he loves us. But, all the while, internally we want the other to love us more than we love him. That is why the one who loves the world is mostly tense, and wonders whether or not the other person loves him.

In the spiritual realm, there are no such worries. If you would like to determine how much your ishta deva (the chosen form of God you worship) and your Guru loves you, just measure your love. He loves you as much as you love Him. If you love Him less, then He also loves you little. If you love Him more, then He will also love you to the same extent.

O mind! Life is a matter of a few days only.

अरे मन! चार दिना की बात......

This human form is like a full moon night which will soon be over, and again the dark night will come. You are sleeping in ignorance, unaware of the fact that the passage of time is continuously shortening your life.

You are not willing to leave your sleep, even though you are perpetually being beaten by the objects of your desires. Once the opportunity to redeem yourself in this human form is missed, you will have to rotate in the cycle of life and death in 8.4 million forms of life. Then you will rub your hands helplessly and regret. 

Kripaluji Maharaj says, Listen to the words of rasik saints and surrender to the lotus feet of the merciful divine couple, ’Radha Krishna’.

Is Worldly Prosperity a sign of God's Grace?

If you believe this, then when you experience a material loss, you may also feel you have lost God's grace and He has become unfavorable towards you. This inconsistent attitude causes you to fluctuate between being faithful and faithless.

Every soul is bound by his karmic destiny or prarabdh, which is the outcome of his past lives' good and bad actions. Whatever material prosperity we are destined to receive is pre-determined by the immutable law of karma.

A lack of worldly possessions is truly a sign of God's grace. When someone has less, he has less pride, and it is easier for him to turn towards God.

How to teach and train mind that there is no happiness in the material world?

 There are innumerable things in the world, and each thing has endless varieties. If you try to experiencing everything first before deciding that there is no happiness in it, your whole life pass in this endeavor.

 There are people who run after money all their lives, and yet do not decide that it does not have the happiness they are seeking. Again, if you finally do come to the conclusion that the world is not a place of happiness, but the mind doubts whether or not there is happiness in God, then what will you do?

 As human beings, God has bestowed us with subtle intellects that can make this decision even without experience. Broadly, the intellects of living beings can be classified into four categories:

1. The lowest is the intellect of an insect. It is attracted to the fire. On coming near the flame, it gets burnt. But it does not learn from the experience, and commits the same mistake repeatedly.

2. The intellect of a cat is subtler. If it sits on a hot place, it learns from its experience. In future, it refuses even to sit on a cold plate, in apprehension that it may get burnt.

3. The intellect of sheep is even subtler. It has never been attacked by a wolf. But the moment it sees a wolf, it perceives impending danger and runs for its life.

4. The intellect of human is even subtler. Merely by intellectual discrimination, without seeing or experiencing, they are expected to reach the conclusion that there is no happiness in the world.

 Actually, everyone has had experience of the world to a lesser or greater extent. We made the desires of the senses and strived hard to satisfy them.  What was the experience each time? For a moment the desire is quenched, but then it arose again with redoubled intensity. This is the nature of all worldly desires, whether they are teeny-weeny cravings that you have made innumerable times in your lives or the bigger desires that loom more largely on your mind. The principle is exactly same. So we should utilize our experience to date, to reach a blanket conclusion about the nature of all worldly desires. That is what God expects us to do, and that is the instruction of the scriptures.