People do not cooperate with us
to the required extent - our family members' neighbors and near ones - if there
is opposition, malice, conflict and quarrel with them. When we expect good will
from them, even then it is not available. Instead, because they are our
opponents, they go on creating obstacles and will not miss any opponents; they
go on creating obstacles and will not miss any opportunity for conspiring to
harm us. Injuries like court-cases, theft, dacoit, killings, boycott, insult,
complaint, back-biting, slander, fault-finding are rarely accidental - most of
the time there is the deep malice of old enmity working behind it. Mostly a
dissatisfied or malicious person's hand is behind such activities.
The biggest obstacles in our
progress are that those who are capable of helping us withdraw their helping
hand. If a few persons give their backing to someone, he can achieve promising
progress with a little help from them. An important reason for the success of
all the successful people in the world is their assistants. A person may be
highly learned, extremely intelligent, clever and powerful, but in the absence
of cooperation, he cannot achieve anything important and will become
handicapped. Non-co-operation may not be as harmful as malice, but that too can
become a mountain-like obstacle for progress. Malice is a virulent disease, non
cooperation is a mild disease, both belong to the same caste, the difference is
only in degree, but the result of both is undesirable.
With the passing away of the near
and dear ones, many people become intensely unhappy and they lament the
separation day and night. The reason for this mourning is discarding of the
sentiment of nearness and getting trapped in attachment. The feeling of nemeses
is a generous and all encompassing element. In this type of feeling, our family
members are considered as God's gift and a medium for fulfillment of our
service. One who understands in this way will not feel unhappy when the soul of
a person (who is a part of God) performs the normal process of changing the
body. If God takes away one medium of service, we can always serve someone
else. The principal reason for unhappiness is that because of the shock of the
death of someone, we lose our composure and think of the dead near one as our
property and think that we have suffered a loss in our joy, self-interest, hope
etc.
Momentary happiness is very
attractive, charming and tempting. A person with a narrow view-point gets
tempted in it and suffers very much like birds tempted by grains and trapped in
a hunter's net. Gayatri warns us about the pitfalls of this temptation and
teaches, "Son, you are not the body, but the soul, salvation by becoming a
victim of greed, indulgence of desires and senses, and temptations. Look to
your permanent benefits and interests and sacrifice your temptations. Sensual
pleasures are momentary but their bad effects remain for a long time. The
happiness of being wealthy remains only for a short time, but the wickedness taught
by immorally earned wealth, and the thorns sown for the future - their bad
results live on for a long time. Such short-sighted persons get trapped into
many types of addictions.
One who has faith on Gayatri,
becomes a far-seeing person of visionary by obeying the second instruction of
the Mother in the second part of the mantra. By understanding that addictions
kill the vitality of life or life itself, he immediately becomes resolute to
discard them. He becomes an opponent of the habits of intoxicants. If he is
addicted to such a substance, he gives it up courageously and cautions others
against the same. By controlling his lust and tongue, he uses them sparingly
and with sagacity. He adopts the policy of observing strict celibacy for a long
time and eating only simple food at regular time only. By resorting to fasts,
he controls all the senses. He prepares his busy schedule by being careful that
not a single moment should be wasted and every moment fruitfully utilized. He
loves labor like his own life and feels happy by doing work personally.
The second portion of Gayatri
takes us to that position in which a person enjoys in peace the joy which is
his birthright. People are not free for self-study, do not have time for
physical exercise, do not get time for worship, cannot tear themselves away
from 'work' for public service, do not have time for music which elates the
mind, and no time for travel, swimming or meeting saints. The reason is only
one, viz, that in comparison to their principal activity, such people consider
all the above as extremely petty and do not consider them worth for any
attention. Leisure is not available for only that work which is not considered
essential or important. The work which we consider essential, we finish it
first while ignoring others. When the attraction for money is extremely
powerful, one does not get the leisure for making one's happy and lofty.
Good intelligent thinking
unravels many tangles in our life and roots out many troubles very easily. Many
people, unhappy over lack of money or progeny, when they think over the third
part of the Gayatri mantra, their eyes open up and they are able to realize
their mistakes. Then they start thinking that lack of these things or their
existing in a limited way is not a bad situation. Because of this lack, they
are able to get the required time and opportunity for progressing in other
directions. They are saved from many worries, burdens and wicked acts. A man
with just enough income indeed gains more benefits compared to the man who plunges into day-and-night activities
of earning 'by any means' for possessing a lot of wealth and comforts. When the
light of Gayatri increases in our head, then poverty, wretchedness, feeling of
inferiority and wants, start reducing.
The message of the fourth portion
of Gayatri is that we should intelligently utilize favorable and unfavorable situations;
we should expect the best future and be prepared to face the worst. If we think
of difficulties as only challenges for increasing our efforts, and do not
become afraid, then certainly no unpleasant situation can make us unhappy and
will not be an obstacle for our cheer. If we adopt the good thinking of
remaining cheerful, then we will be easily freed from the bad tendency of
becoming unhappy for petty reasons. Life is for playing with a spirit of
sportsmanship. Actors perform various roles on the stage but are personally not
influenced by the character which they portray. Life has to be carried on the
same spirit.
When God takes someone under his
shelter, which He wishes to liberate, He makes the fate of such a person
bearable so that such devotees quickly become liberated from the burdens of the
acts of the past births - thus liberated, the soul does not have to be drawn
into the vicious circle of births and deaths. On the one hand, the burden of
past-births deeds is over and on the other hand, his inner purity goes on
increasing. Because of these benefits on both sides, he progresses with great
speed towards the ultimate goal.
Ordinarily, God makes one undergo
many bitter experiences for the development of many good qualities. Because of
the death of one's own child, the element of pure love flowers forth in the
element of mourning and such a person wishes to shower more love on other
children.
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