One who lives in the Divine heart will want for nothing. This is not complicated, but it’s not so simple either. Yet practicing such sadhana (spiritual practice) is quite possible. So says Rama. So say all Deities.
The Rigveda describes thirty-three types of different Deities, each representing a personal manifestation of Brahman. For each Deity, there is a specific prayer, ceremony, individual offerings, specific daily puja (worship ritual), and rules for conducting it. You can choose ten Deities and worship them every day. There are countless rituals and ceremonies for each individual Deity. In Kali Yuga (the current age), it’s difficult for people to take all this into account and perform it. After all, one is supposed to know exactly which flowers and what offerings are presented during each puja or aarti (ceremonial worship). To Ganesha, for example, durva grass is offered during prayer. If you offer Him a lotus flower, Ganesha will not be pleased. Only durva grass brings Him joy.
However, nowadays, no one approaches all these rules so strictly and meticulously. Everyone has started praying as they see fit, as they prefer. Everyone has images of Deities hanging on their walls at home, with a home temple in every room. I also have my two temples (laughing, points toward the dhuni – sacred fire). My main temple is my dhuni. And it gathers everyone around itself. «Sureshanand, Jagadanand – are you hungry, don’t you want to eat? Come to my dhuni. Are you cold, feeling chilly? Come warm yourself by my fire.»
Daily reading of the Ramayana dispels the grief and sorrow brought by samsara. But achieving this takes time, requires comprehension, detachment, and application of higher mind. One must step away from worldly bustle, and only then will the Divine turn to you with love. New and better paths will begin to open for you. But if you spend life earning money, solving daily pressing problems, then the quality of life won’t change. You’ll walk in the same circle, there will be no progress.
Consider that there are people who are born in poverty, on the margins of life, living right on the street. They are people, too. They were born this way according to their karma (the law of cause and effect). And others are born in palaces. The universe is manifested in different forms and aspects. Look at what place you occupy in it. Look at who lives above you, who below, who lives better, and who worse. Before looking up with desire, turn your gaze down, to those who live worse than you. Consider what difficulties they must go through, what torments they must endure. One must know life from all sides. Without knowing the lower step, you won’t rise to the upper one.
Notice how many living beings go through suffering in this life. How many people work all day to exhaustion and still barely make ends meet! They sleep right on the street, covered with one blanket. These are people, too, but this is the karma they’ve earned; now they’re reaping the fruits.
Karma plays an important role. The Bhagavad Gita says: don’t covet beautiful and tasty fruits, don’t waste time on empty dreams and desires. Work. Do good deeds. The fruits will fall into your hands by themselves, according to the results of your labors, in accordance with the karma you’ve earned for yourself. Those who desire self-development and improvement must understand and realize this.
The Bhagavad Gita further teaches that if you were walking this path but then stumbled on life’s journey, stained yourself with sin, you will still be given another chance in the next birth. You will be born in the home of good people, they will feed you well, take care of you, give you education, and you will meet good teachers. A person will still have a chance to understand the Divine hint and get on the right path. In the next birth, you might go even further, practice sadhana, and acquire Divine siddhis (spiritual powers). However, in this birth… if everything is bad for you, it means you didn’t use your chances in previous times, didn’t realize Divine lessons. You didn’t make progress and regressed; now it will be difficult for you.
Yet living truthfully isn’t difficult. Just commit yourself to speaking only the truth. And love everyone kindly – if not in deeds, then in thoughts and in your attitude. Does it really take much effort to save the life of one ant?
When you are sweeping the floor and you see an ant crawling, take it and put it aside. But if you see it crawling and still crush it with the broom, is that kindness? When you eat, and a dog approaches you or a bird flies up, share your food with them. You won’t become poor from it. This is the kind of attitude you need to develop towards everyone.
Compassion nourishes the roots of dharma. Any virtue begins with kindness and compassion. If you go on pilgrimage to holy places, any such path begins with compassion. The meaning of any ritual and ceremony will be complete only when it is filled with love and kindness.
Just as water rises from the trunk to the branches of a tree, to the leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds, so too kindness, like water, nourishes the tree of dharma. The Ramayana says, «Until your last breath, radiate kindness.» A person needs to develop such an attitude towards everything in life, and everything around will respond in the same way.
Living in samsara, one should strive for balance, to remain equally calm in sorrow and joy, in happiness and grief, in rise and fall. Living in balance, you will find peace. Now it’s not so bad yet. The time will come, it will only get worse with each year. That’s how circumstances are developing in the world. Because much negativity has accumulated on our planet. The earth is shaking. Earthquakes are happening everywhere, both in India and in other countries. Much on Earth can change. Where there was land, it will become sea, where there was sea will become land. This has happened before.
Now it’s the twelfth kalpa (cosmic cycle) since the origin of the Universe. In one kalpa there are hundred Satya-yugas, hundred Treta-yugas, hundred Dvapara-yugas, and hundred Kali Yugas. When all four yugas occur a hundred times, the kalpa ends. After every hundred kalpas comes pralaya (cosmic dissolution). The pralaya of this Universe hasn’t come yet. Markandeya was shown pralaya, but we haven’t experienced it yet. The kalpa hasn’t ended yet. This is the twenty-eighth Kali Yuga. Twenty-eight Satya-yugas, Tretas and Dvaparas have passed, and now the twenty-eighth Kali Yuga is in progress. There’s still much time until the hundredth. How many more births will have to be experienced? After all, the Universe has no end. One cycle ends, and a new one begins. That’s why it’s called ananta – infinity.
Meanwhile, every ten years some changes occur on earth. No decade is like another. Look how many changes have occurred over the past fifty years – in everything. The way of life changes, the way of eating, ways of moving around. Where there used to be shabby huts, now high-rise buildings stand. People have started living in comfortable apartments. New technologies are coming. Once, we didn’t know what cement was. Before independence, in the mountains they hadn’t even heard of cement. But then there were their own technologies. They mixed limestone, white lentils, seeds of various plants. From this mixture, they made bricks and built temples. Over the past twenty-five years, cement has found use in the Himalayas, too.
In twenty years we observe so many changes, and how much new development will we see during the next century! But there is something that remains eternal and unchanging. It is the foundation of being. Atma doesn’t change. The body is subject to changes, the world and Universe change their form. But Atma will remain unchanged. Take air – it can change qualitatively. It heats up, cools down, moves around. It can become dirty due to poor ecology. But its essence doesn’t change. Air will remain air. Water changes its form, transitions from one state to another – liquid, gaseous, solid. But still, water remains water. Fire can be strong or weak, yet its essence is unchanging.
The five basic elements of nature – they are constant and eternal. Changes occur only when they begin their play, interacting with each other.
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