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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