There was an old lady of the name of Gautami who was remarkable for her patience and tranquility of mind. One day she found her son dead in consequence of having been bitten by a serpent. A fowler, by name Arjunaka, bound the serpent with a string, brought it before Gautami and said, "This wicked serpent has been the cause of your son's death. O blessed lady, tell me quickly how this wretch is to be destroyed! Shall I throw it into the fire or shall I hack it into pieces? This infamous killer of a child does not deserve to live longer."Gautami replied, "Release this serpent, it does not deserve death at your hands. By killing it, this, my boy will not be restored to life and by letting it live, no harm will be caused to you. Who would go to the interminable regions of death by slaying this living creature? Those that make themselves light by the practice of virtue, manage to cross the sea of life, even as a ship crosses the ocean. But those that make themselves heavy with sin, sink into the bottom, even as an arrow thrown into the water."
The fowler -- "I know that you know the difference between right and wrong, that the great are afflicted at the affliction of all creatures. Those who value peace of mind assign every thing to the course of Time, but practical men alone assuage their grief with revenge. Therefore, O lady, assuage your grief by having the serpent destroyed by me."
Gautami -- "People like us are never afflicted by such misfortune. Good men are always intent on virtue, the death of the boy was predestined: therefore I am unable to approve of the destruction of this serpent. We do not harbor resentment, because resentment leads to pain. Forgive and release the serpent out of compassion."
The fowler --"Let us earn great and inexhaustible merit hereafter, by killing this creature, even as a man acquires great merit and confers it on his victims as well, by sacrifice upon the altar. Merit is acquired by killing an enemy; by killing this despicable creature, you shall acquire great and true merit hereafter."
Gautami -- "What good is there in tormenting and killing an enemy, and what good is won by not releasing an enemy in our power? Therefore, you, of benign countenance, why should we not forgive this serpent and earn merit by releasing it."
The fowler -- "A great number of creatures ought to be protected from the wickedness of this one. Virtuous men abandon the vicious to their doom. Let me therefore kill this wicked creature."
Gautami -- "By killing this serpent, my son, O fowler, will not be restored to life, nor do I see that any other end will be attained by its death; therefore, O fowler, release that living creature. It came not into life by our orders, nor does it live through our sufferance, we have no right to kill it."
The Fowler said, "Nor had it any right to kill your child, O sacred mother?"
Gautami -- "The death of my child was a predestined affair, it was the will of God and the serpent was only the instrument. And even granting that it was the real and only cause of my child's death is committing a sin will not justify our doing the same. It fell into error through ignorance and our killing it will be much more than an error: it will be a sin committed with knowledge and therefore willfully."
Although, thus repeatedly urged by the fowler for the destruction of the serpent, the big-hearted Gautami did not bend her mind to that sinful act. The serpent painfully bound with the cord, sighing a little and maintaining its composure with great difficulty, then uttered these words slowly in human voice.
"O foolish Arjunaka, what fault is there of mine? I have no will of my own and not an independent! Mrityu (the God of death) sent me on this errand! By his direction have I bitten this child and not of any anger or choice on my part, therefore, if there be any sin in this, O fowler, the sin is his."
The fowler said, "If you have not done this evil, but led by another, the sin is yours also, as you are the instrument in the act. As in the making of an earthen vessel, the potter's wheel and rod and other things are regarded as causes, so are you, O serpent, a cause in this matter."
The serpent said -- "As the potter's wheel, rod and other things are not independent causes, even so I am not an independent cause! Therefore this is not my fault, nor am I guilty of any sun! Or if you think that there is sin, it lies in the aggregate of causes."
The fowler said -- "Not deserving of life, O foolish one, why you bandy so many words, O wretch of a serpent? You deserve death at my hands."
The serpent replied -- "O fowler, as the officiating priests at a sacrifice do not acquire the merit of the act, even so should I be regarded with respect to the result in this connection."
The serpent, directed bt Mrityu, having said this, Mrityu himself appeared there and, addressing the serpent, spoke thus:
"Guided by Kala (Time), I, O serpent, sent you on this errand and neither you nor I am the cause of this child's death. Even as the clouds are tossed hither and thither by the wind, I am, O serpent, directed by Kala. All influences appertaining to Satwa or Rajas or Tamas have Kala for their soul, as they operate in all creatures. The whole universe, O serpent is imbued with this influence of Kala. Sun, moon, water, wind, fire, sky, earth, rivers and oceans and all existent and non-existent objects are created and destroyed by Kala. Knowing this, why do you, O serpent, accuse me? If any fault attach to me in this, you also would be to blame!"
The serpent replied -- "I do not, O Mrityu, blame you. I only say that I was influenced and directed by you. Whether any blame attached to Kala or not, it is not for me to say."
Then addressing the fowler, it said, "you have listened to what Mrityu has said, therefore it is not proper for you to torment me who am guiltless, by tying me this cord!"
The fowler replied -- " I have listened to you as well as to Mrityu and both of you are the cause of the child's death. Accursed be the wicked and vengeful Mrityu that causes affliction to the good! You, I shall kill, sinful and engaged in sinful acts."
Mrityu said,  -- "We both are not free agents, but are dependent on Kala and ordained to do our appointed work. You should not find fault with us, if you do consider the matter thoroughly."
Hardly had he said this, when Kala himself appeared on the scene and spoke this to the party assembled together. "Neither Mrityu, nor the serpent, nor I, am guilty of the death of any creature. We are merely the intermediate causes. The true cause is the past karma (action) of that creature. The child here, died by the result of its own karma in the past. As men make, from a lump of clay, whatever they wish to make even so do men attain to various results determined by karma. As light and shadow are to each other, so are men related to karma through their actions. Therefore none here caused the child's death, he himself was the cause."
Gautami said, -- "Neither Kala, nor Mrityu, nor the serpent is the cause in this matter. This child has met with death as the result of its own karma. I too have so acted in the past, that my son should now die. Let now Kala and Mrityu retire from this place and Arjunaka may release this serpent."
Then Kala and Mrityu and the serpent and the fowler went back to their respective places, but Gautami who knew the truth smiled and said to herself -- "What a drama this is! Karma is itself a conventional word. The truth is, not an atom moves but by the bidding of the Lord, not an atom is outside Him and where then are life and death?"

#doctrineofkarma #mahabharata #mother #spirituality #vedantictale

नादत्ते कश्यचित् पापं न चैव सूकृतं विमुः-- God never rewards the virtuous nor punishes the wicked. -- Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 5, 15.

The law of causation, or law of Karma includes the law that the like produces the like, or that every action must be followed by a reaction of similar nature. If I strike a blow on the table, the table will react upon me with similar force. If I strike harder, I shall receive harder blow in return.

In the chain of cause and effect, it can be shown that each effect is latent in the cause and each cause is latent in the effect.

We do not have to blame our parents for our misery and sufferings. It is our own Karma that produces its results in the form of joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain, happiness or unhappiness. It is compensation.

Everything that we possess in this life is the effect of our previous Karma or action, both mental and physical. Our present character is the resultant of our past and our future will be determined by our present acts. Neither God nor Satan is responsible for our pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Thus, all the inequalities and diversities of characters can be scientifically explained by this law of Karma. In the face of this universal law of Karma, there is no room for the hypothesis of predestination and grace which is accepted by the majority of orthodox Christians. The hypothesis of predestination and grace teaches that God, the Creator of all, settles the destiny of man before his birth. He pre­ordains before the birth of each man and woman what he or she will be in future. The whim of the Creator makes one sinful or virtuous, before the time of one's birth. But this hypothesis destroys our moral responsibility and personal freedom.

He who obeys the law of Karma is more moral and more virtuous than one who blindly obeys the Ten Commandments. He stands on a more rational ground than one who fears the punishment of God. He shrinks from doing anything wrong, not because it is written in a book or scripture, but because he knows that every wrong action will sooner or later react upon himself and will make him unhappy and miserable. He performs good deeds for the reason that they will bring good reaction in the form of happiness, peace, tranquillity and higher enlightenment.

(..To be continued, 2nd of a seven part series).

#doctrineofkarma #spirituality #swamiabhedananda

MOTHER! Far away, one whom I love is very sad to-day. His heart calls to mine for help, but though I tell him how I love him, I leave him still uncheered. How is it? I know he thinks towards me, I know I talk with him. Yet I long to see him, and hear him, and comfort him face to face!

My child, if this were not so, the sense-life would not be yours, or would not hold you. When you have reached that place where the communion of souls is enough, you will find that it is more than the knowledge of the senses, faith will already be swallowed up in sight.

But, oh Mother, what can I now do to ease this craving pain? I prayed for the vision of Râghunath and did not know that it meant torture multiplied a thousand fold. When one is in trouble oneself, one's own little world lies in gloom; outside, the busy feet pass up and down beneath the windows, the birds build nests, and the children play in the sunshine, as before: but the universe becomes all black when the beloved suffers.

Cease, My child, from inordinate affection. Give Me your heart, and let Me govern it alone. Be the witness of earth's joys and sorrows, sharing them not. Thus only can you keep yourself from entanglement, and attain to peace.

But peace for myself, dear Mother, why should I seek? How can I turn a deaf ear to his voice that calls me, adding another pang to the heartache of a life, and go away myself, and be at peace? Give him that inner peace! Let me win it for him, if Thou wilt be kind! But I cannot will to fail him in his need and loneliness, even to gain Thy blessing!

Ah foolish one! Every thought of love that you send out to answer his, becomes a fetter of iron to hold him in life's anguish. Hide you yourself in My heart, My child, and he, too, will come home to Me. For your love's sake, let your voice cease to be one with the voices of the world. Let it come to him only in Mine, when that is borne on the south wind at the time of sunset, calling him gently to worship at My feet. Let it be one with transcendent love, with infinite freedom. Only thus can you satisfy him. Only by withdrawing yourself can you bring him peace.

Mother! I yield. Take me, I pray Thee, into Thine own heart. Let me not look back. If Thou wilt call me I shall find my way there, surely, though my eyes now are blind with tears.

And for those I love, shall I trust Thy mercy less than I trust mine own?

Yet if at the last they seem to stumble, if the foot slip, or Thy voice fail them by the way, promise, dear Mother, once more to wake me from the dream of bliss. Cast me out from Thy heart, I beg of Thee, and let those who so need Thee, go in before to peace!

Silly, silly child! Like a helpless bird you beat your wings of littleness against My grace! Look up and laugh! For already the cloud that seemed so black is passing. Already the clasp of hands about the heart is loosened. Two souls draw the long breath of strength and relief. The feet of two who come to Me are shod with gladness. The hearts of two beat high, for the conquest born of renunciation.

We know that we don’t have permanent relationship with this world. We all acknowledge this truth and yet do not remember it. If we do not get attached we can experience an unspeakable joy this very moment.

We can remain without attachment in this world but not without detachment. When we are in deep sleep we are oblivious to our relationships in the waking world. The equanimity that prevails then is more that what we get by our associations in our waking state.

It is in our nature to sleep. In deep sleep we forget the waking world. We are strained if we spend even 24h continuously attached to worldly ties (attachment has been used purposefully). The replenishment that we get from worldly ties is not greater that what we get by sound sleep.

We are used to taking regular sleep from birth but we cultivate attachment while growing up. Attachment to toys, games, later money… in all these stages sleep remains dear. After marriage we develop attachment towards family. Some become monk. All enjoy sleep equally and renounce all worldly tags in that state be it monk-ship or a family. We make elaborate preparation for getting comfortable sleep. Mattress, pillow, fan, noiseless environment! We relish in a lot of worldly activity but when we get sleepy we want to put all of them aside.

There is a saint’s poem -- “बैरिन हो गई निन्दरिया” – sleep has become an enemy! Because her desire is to stay in a trance remembering the lord. We are willing to give up, nay, call sleep an unwelcome guest, when we find the one true, constant, eternal relation! The fabricated attachments in this world is transient and it is destined to be severed.

In Gita -- “कर्मणयेवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन” – We have the rights to perform our duty not on the fruits thereof. And mind should not be inclined towards non-working either. With full attention, dexterity, we should do our duty. Why? Because the primary purpose of this human body is to be utilized in service not for sense indulgence. Human form is not merely its physical manifestation – it is the discrimination, Vivek! This supernatural power is bestowed on us to develop rightful detachment. By doing duty with discrimination we practice karma yoga and use it to our favor in developing detachment.

We must serve our family, our parents, this world, everyone – and yet stand aside! The peace that is there in identifying as the doer of such duty is less than the satisfaction and peace obtained by exercising discrimination to stay detached from such identification!

Reference: Hindi Magazine क्लयाण Year 87, volume 10. Article by Ramsukhdas ji titled “साधकों के प्रति” on page 15-18. The above article is a selectively edited much shorter translation of that article in English.

#kalyan #ramsukhdas #spiritual

I had a nice dream today. I am writing about it. Unlike normally I remember my dreams and am mostly conscious that I am dreaming. I can choose to wake myself up from that dream. I hear the sounds around me even in my sleep and am aware that certain sounds are not the creation of my dream. Most of us would not have noticed that dreams that occur in a peaceful place with no sounds around us! Characters in such dreams do not speak. My dreams are mostly mute. Characters happen to communicate through thoughts but that is occasional, often they are not in sync. Today I saw divine Mother Sarda in my dream. And the first thought was that I want to serve her in some way, to please her in some way, and I sat near her feet. It was this thought that made me peaceful. I did not desire anything. I was happy to wait there. A sense of completeness and being at peace, accepting all.. was there. And I was aware that it is a dream. The emotions were very strong, I had to wake up.  Now I was thinking how I may continue to stay in that peaceful state? Answers were coming to me.

First visual was about serving my parents. Next I saw some friends. I thought about an orphanage we had visited sometime back. I tried going back to sleep and fall into that state again. I could not. It was about four o’clock and my sleep was over. I still tried - it was greed in my mind. As I tried falling asleep some random thought would start a new dream but I would wake up myself every ten minutes and try to fall asleep thinking about the joyful dream. I did not have success and finally I woke up at five o’clock.

There is something related to this topic that I may write here. I have the demerit of getting jealous. I still find difficulty in controlling this emotion. I had devised a remedy for it. When I felt jealous of a person I would deliberately force myself to do a good act to the person. It did not change things completely but it did prevent me from brooding over that person. Another observation I made is that i would get jealous of someone when I resent some action of theirs. Presently I have a different perspective. I understand that the permanent solution for me is to accept people around me as they are. All paths lead to the the same goal. Everyone wants to be happy and to give happiness to others. It is foolish to judge people. We cannot help anyone. We may only serve and in doing so we are helping only ourselves. We all have demerits but teachers say we are all essentially divine. Sometimes due to ignorance and limited knowledge we overlook this beautiful understanding. We can always choose to help each other progress on our individual journey.

Thank you for reading this, if you have a comment you are welcome to write it. Your views are most welcome.

#dreams #emotion #emotions #friends #ignorance #knowledge #mother #paths #peace #perspective #sarda #spiritual #teachers

I was listening to ”Meditation: Falling Awake” on ABC Radio National’s The Spirit of Things. I found it informative. I found it voicing the same opinion what i hear on the Guided Meditation recording by Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore each morning. It is this- Meditation is not necessarily bliss. And this has been said by some other spiritual teachers too. I remember when I was a kid it was much easier and blissful to meditate. I would lose body consciousness in ten minutes. I did not persevere in my practice. I went on and off. Now I am working and live far away from home. I have taken it up again. It takes about one hour to get to that same state it used to take me only ten minutes. And it takes an effort to stay sitting now. The rule I broke was perseverance. I was not sincere. But no spiritual effort is ever wasted. The experience of peace, state of being without desires and love for all draws me back to it. It is very essential to be sincere and persevering in all our endeavours. It is noted that after the initial blissful experience we get in meditation- it decreases. But we must not lose heart. If we do not get discouraged and do not stop the practice we will gain deeper understanding of ourselves. I wish that you may never lose heart and practise sincerely.

Thank you for reading this, if you have a comment you are welcome to write it. I would be happy to read your comment.

#bliss #effort #endeavours #meditation #peace #perseverance #practice #spiritual