Spiritual Need

Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a time. It is only with the knowledge of the spirit that the faculty of want is annihilated for ever; so helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given to him.

GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU

GOD'S PLAN FOR YOU

We need never be anxious about our mission. We need never perplex ourselves in the least in trying to know what God wants us to do, what place He wants us to fill. Our own duty is to do well the work of the present hour. There are some people who waste entire years wondering what God would have them do and expecting to have their life work pointed out to them. But this is not the Divine way. If you want to know God's plan for you, do God's Will each day; that is God's plan for you today. If He has a wider sphere, a larger place for you, He'll bring you to it at the right time, and that will be God's plan for you and your mission.

    —J.R. miller, in green pastures

Sadhu Sant Singh was once travelling through the Himalayas when he saw a great forest fire. Almost everyone present was frantically trying to fight the fire, but he noticed a group of men standing and looking at a tree that was about to go up in flames. When he asked them what they were looking at, they pointed to a nest full of young birds. Above it, the mother bird was circling wildly in the air and calling out warnings to her young ones. There was nothing either she or the men could do to save the nest. Soon the flames started engulfing the branches, just as the nest was about to catch fire, the men were amazed to see the mother bird's reaction. Instead of flying away from the flames, she darted down and settled on the nest, covering her little ones with her wings. The next moment, she and her nestlings were burnt to ashes. None of them could believe their eyes.

Sadhu Sant Singh turned to those standing by and said: 'We have witnessed a truly marvellous thing. God created that bird with such love and devotion that she gave her life trying to protect her young. If her small heart was so full of love, how unfathomable must be the love of her Creator. That is the love that brought him down from heaven to become man. That is the love which made air, water, greeneries for our living. That is the love He has given in our parents heart for our protection and upbringing. That is the love always guide us unseen to our purpose. That is the love which whisper in our heart that God is!

God has a plan and purpose for each one of us. The purpose may not be something grand, though we could well be led to something much bigger than what we may have imagined.

Purpose of Life

There is a soul in all of us searching happiness in this world which continues throughout our lives. This search is defined by ‘purpose of our life’. Lacking purpose in life, despairing millions seek refuge in drugs and alcohol, in crime and other antisocial behavior. They are the walking wound of our society. Those with money may lose themselves in unbridled consumerism or sex, - ‘the good life’ – but deep within, the nagging feeling remains. Man wants to know his place in this bewildering world, a place where he can anchor his spirit, find a direction, and pursue a purpose beyond his own advancement.

But career is not a purpose. A noble purpose is that is deeply satisfying not only to our own self but also beneficial o others. Lucky are those whose career and purposes match. The rest of us are to find a purpose beyond our career or with them.

MOTHER' LOVE

BIRBAL’S WISDOM

MOTHER’S LOVE

The Emperor once saw a woman hugging and kissing a child that did not look particularly appealing. The Emperor expressed surprise that a woman could lavish so much love on such an unattractive child.

“That’s because it’s her own child,” explained Birbal. “To a mother her child is always beautiful.”

But the Emperor was not satisfied by the explanation.

The next day, Birbal called a guard and in the Emperor’s presence ordered him to bring the most beautiful child to the palace.

The following day the guard came to the palace with a small boy with buck teeth and hair that stood up like porcupine quills and hesitantly pushed him in front of the Emperor.

“T-The most beautiful child, Your Majesty,” he stammered.

“How do you know he’s beautiful?” asked the Emperor.

“My wife, his mother, says so,” replied the soldier.

Management Moral: There is no arguing with a mother’s love. It is consistent and unshakable; nothing can suppress it –neither the child’s look nor others’ opinion about the child. There is much to learn from this exemplary love –if we could be half as consistence in our relationships, our dealings with our dear-ones, colleagues and friends would be much steadier and save everyone a lot of heartache. This story teaches us that everybody is special in some way or other, though we may not always be able to perceive what it is that makes each person special and lovable. (116)

DUTIES OF A HOUSEHOLDER

DUTIES OF A HOUSEHOLDER

(As per ‘Maha-Nirvana-Tantra’ and taught by Swami Vivekananda)

Extracted from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol.1

The life of every individual, according to the Hindu scriptures, has its peculiar duties apart from what belongs in common to universal humanity.

The Hindu begins life as a student; then he marries and becomes a householder; in old age he retires; and lastly he gives up the world and becomes a Sannyasin. To each of these stages of life certain duties are attached. No one of these stages is intrinsically superior to another. The life of the married man is quite as great as that of the celibate who has devoted himself to religious work….

….The four stages of life in India have in later times been reduced to two -- that of the householder and of the monk. The householder marries and carries on his duties as a citizen, and the duty of the other is to devote his energies wholly to religion, to preach and to worship God.

I shall read to you a few passages from the Maha-Nirvana-Tantra, which treats of this subject, and you will see that it is a very difficult task for a man to be a householder, and perform all his duties perfectly:

             The householder should be devoted to God; the knowledge of God should be his goal of life. Yet he must work constantly, perform all his duties; he must give up the fruits of his actions to God…..

…The great duty of the householder is to earn a living, but he must take care that he does not do it by telling lies, or by cheating, or by robbing others; and he must remember that his life is for the service of God, and the poor.

             Knowing that mother and father are the visible representatives of God, the householder, always and by all means, must please them. If the mother is pleased, and the father, God is pleased with the man. That child is really a good child who never speaks harsh words to his parents.

             Before parents one must not utter jokes, must not show restlessness, must not show anger or temper. Before mother or father, a child must bow down low, and stand up in their presence, and must not take a seat until they order him to sit.

             If the householder has food and drink and clothes without first seeing that his mother and his father, his children, his wife, and the poor, are supplied, he is committing a sin. The mother and the father are the causes of this body; so a man must undergo a thousand troubles in order to do good to them.

             Even so is his duty to his wife. No man should scold his wife, and he must always maintain her as if she were his own mother. And even when he is in the greatest difficulties and troubles, he must not show anger to his wife.

             He who thinks of another woman besides his wife, if he touches her even with his mind -- that man goes to dark hell.

Before women he must not talk improper language, and never brag of his powers. He must not say, "I have done this, and I have done that."

             The householder must always please his wife with money, clothes, love, faith, and words like nectar, and never do anything to disturb her. That man who has succeeded in getting the love of a chaste wife has succeeded in his religion and has all the virtues.

             The following are duties towards children:A son should be lovingly reared up to his fourth year; he should be educated till he is sixteen. When he is twenty years of age he should be employed in some work; he should then be treated affectionately by his father as his equal. Exactly in the same manner the daughter should be brought up, and should be educated with the greatest care. And when she marries, the father ought to give her jewels and wealth.

             Then the duty of the man is towards his brothers and sisters, and towards the children of his brothers and sisters, if they are poor, and towards his other relatives, his friends and his servants. Then his duties are towards the people of the same village, and the poor, and any one that comes to him for help. Having sufficient means, if the householder does not take care to give to his relatives and to the poor, know him to be only a brute; his is not a human being.

             Excessive attachment to food, clothes, and the tending of the body, and dressing of the hair should be avoided. The householder must be pure in heart and clean in body, always active and always ready for work.

             To his enemies the householder must be a hero. Them he must resist. That is the duty of the householder. He must not sit down in a corner and weep, and talk nonsense about non - resistance. If he does not show himself a hero to his enemies he has not done his duty. And to his friends and relatives he must be as gentle as a lamb.

It is the duty of the householder not to pay reverence to the wicked; because, if he reverences the wicked people of the world, he patronises wickedness; and it will be a great mistake if he disregards those who are worthy of respect, the good people. He must not be gushing in his friendship; he must not go out of the way making friends everywhere; he must watch the actions of the men he wants to make friends with, and their dealings with other men, reason upon them, and then make friends.

             These three things he must not talk of. He must not talk in public of his own fame; he must not preach his own name or his own powers; he must not talk of his wealth, or of anything that has been told to him privately.

             A man must not say he is poor, or that he is wealthy -- he must not brag of his wealth. Let him keep his own counsel; this is his religious duty. This is not mere worldly wisdom; if a man does not do so, he may be held to be immoral.

             The householder is the basis, the prop, of the whole society. He is the principal earner. The poor, the weak, the children and the women who do not work -- all live upon the householder; so there must be certain duties that he has to perform, and these duties must make him feel strong to perform them, and not make him think that he is doing things beneath his ideal. Therefore, if he has done something weak, or has made some mistake, he must not say so in public; and if he is engaged in some enterprise and knows he is sure to fail in it, he must not speak of it. Such self - exposure is not only uncalled for, but also unnerves the man and makes him unfit for the performance of his legitimate duties in life. At the same time, he must struggle hard to acquire these things -- firstly, knowledge, and secondly, wealth. It is his duty, and if he does not do his duty, he is nobody. A householder who does not struggle to get wealth is immoral. If he is lazy and content to lead an idle life, he is immoral, because upon him depend hundreds. If he gets riches, hundreds of others will be thereby supported.

             If there were not in this city hundreds who had striven to become rich, and who had acquired wealth, where would all this civilisation, and these almshouses and great houses be?

             Going after wealth in such a case is not bad, because that wealth is for distribution. The householder is the centre of life and society. It is a worship for him to acquire and spend wealth nobly, for the householder who struggles to become rich by good means and for good purposes is doing practically the same thing for the attainment of salvation as the anchorite does in his cell when he is praying; for in them we see only the different aspects of the same virtue of self - surrender and self - sacrifice prompted by the feeling of devotion to God and to all that is His.

             He must struggle to acquire a good name by all means. He must not gamble, he must not move in the company of the wicked, he must not tell lies, and must not be the cause of trouble to others.

             Often people enter into things they have not the means to accomplish, with the result that they cheat others to attain their own ends. Then there is in all things the time factor to be taken into consideration; what at one time might be a failure, would perhaps at another time be a very great success.

             The householder must speak the truth, and speak gently, using words which people like, which will do good to others; nor should he talk of the business of other men.

             The householder by digging tanks, by planting trees on the roadsides, by establishing rest - houses for men and animals, by making roads and building bridges, goes towards the same goal as the greatest Yogi.

             This is one part of the doctrine of Karma-Yoga -- activity, the duty of the householder. There is a passage later on, where it says that "if the householder dies in battle, fighting for his country or his religion, he comes to the same goal as the Yogi by meditation," showing thereby that what is duty for one is not duty for another. At the same time, it does not say that this duty is lowering and the other elevating. Each duty has its own place, and according to the circumstances in which we are placed, must we perform our duties.

VEMANA MENDS HIS WAYS

Subjugation of the Senses

The more one yields to desire, the more insatiable it will become.

-THE MAHABHARATA

Vemana (seventeenth to eighteenth century a.d. was born in Andhra Pradesh in South India. A prolific poet who traveled widely, Vemana wrote over 3,000 simple quatrains with deep wisdom, which are still taught to school children today.

VEMANA MENDS HIS WAYS

"Vemana, though I am your sister-in-law, you know that I have loved you as a mother. That is why I must say the truth even if it is hurtful. You have become addicted to gold, wine, and women." Subbamma's honesty was fired by several years of praying for her prodigal brother-in-law to reform.

"It is not true that I love only gold, wine, and women. I care equally for all pleasures," Vemana chuckled. Seeing Subbamma wince, he quickly added, "You are the most precious thing in the world to me. So you see, I do love something more than my vices."

"Then for the sake of whatever feelings you have for me, please mend your ways before you become so depraved that you no longer recognize yourself."

"I wish I could heed your advice, but I am who I am.

This is my nature, and it is fruitless to fight it. Would you ask the sun to stop shining or the wind to stop blowing?" Vemana was pleased with his irrefutable logic. "And now, my beloved sister-in-law, I must go, for I have an important engagement."

Subbamma's heart darkened, for she knew what kind of pressing appointments Vemana had. His days were spent on the outskirts of town in caves with alchemists trying to turn lead into gold, while his evenings were passed in a drunken daze in houses of ill repute. Though Subbamma tried to look beyond Vemana's indiscretions to see the sensitive boy who had been orphaned as a child, her sympathy of late was in short supply. If her husband, Anuvemareddi, a minister who served in the king's court, were to learn that his younger brother had stolen money from the royal treasury to finance his escapades, the family would be ruined.

And so Subbamma began to weep because she had failed to be the mother that the boy had needed. Vemana, meanwhile, had already forgotten the conversation, for he was consumed with the newest object of his affection: the prostitute Kamakshi.

"Was there ever a woman like Kamakshi?" Vemana sa­vored this thought with a smile as he made his way to the brothel. It gave him unending delight to fantasize about her bewitching banter, the shapely lines of her legs, and her hen­naed hands feeding him betel leaves. She was all grace and el­egance, he liked to imagine, though in truth he knew she was a coarse woman.

"I have a special favor to ask of you, my darling," Kamakshi rooed after they had been together. She frequently asked Vemana for money and presents knowing that he came from an affluent family, and he always obliged.

"Anything for you. Ask the world and it shall be yours!" Vemana heroically exclaimed.

"Your sister-in-law, Subbamma, has the most exquisite jewels. I would like to wear them for a day." Before Vemana could object, she continued. "Just think how beautiful I will look wearing them. I will be your pleasure princess! I know that a powerful man like you can do anything."

"I cannot ask Subbamma for her jewelry! They were her wedding presents!" Vemana loved to ply Kamakshi with gifts, but this request was too outrageous for him to even consider.

"Then I cannot see you again."

After several minutes of threats from her side and supplica­tions from his, Vemana conceded. Once they had professed their mutual, undying love, he left on his errand, utterly at a loss as to how he could convince Subbamma to loan him her jewelry.

As he neared his home, he remembered all the times his sister-in-law had indulged him, and he calculated that Subbamma's generous nature would not allow her to refuse his request. "I will tell Subbamma the truth," he thought. "I am in love with Kamakshi, and she desires to wear your bangles am) rings for one day." As soon as Vemana began to talk, though, his rehearsed speech sounded hollow, and shame nearly stran- Ij gled his tongue. Subbamma listened incredulously, for such request could only mean that he had become Kamakshi's pup­pet and that she was using him to snatch the family fortune.

"If I lend them to you for one day, will you promise that you will never speak to me again about your mistresses' fan­cies?" Subbamma hoped that if Vemana could no longer provide Kamakshi with gifts, she would quickly lose interest in him.

"Yes, yes, whatever you want! I promise."

"Don't speak so lightly! Lending my jewelry to a prostitute is unspeakable, but I will still do it. Here! Take them! Remem­ber, this is the last time I will help you."

Puffed like a peacock, Vemana brought his loot to Kamakshi and triumphantly presented it to her. She greedily grabbed the glittering ornaments from his hands, put them on, and preened in front of a mirror. At the end of the day, with a histrionic show of tears and tearing of pillows, she grudgingly let him take them back to Subbamma.

Hardly a week passed before Kamakshi made an even holder demand: that Vemana fetch Subbamma's wedding necklace. Once again the drama of threats, concessions, and reconciliation was played out. Kamakshi shouted. Vemana equivocated and, finally, yielded. .

"My beloved sister-in-law, I have come to you for another favor," Vemana said. Since he had flippantly promised not to ask her for more gifts, he assumed that Subbamma would know this and oblige him one last time. After all, had she not been tolerant of his foibles thus far?

"You ask for my wedding necklace?" Subbamma gasped in horror after Vemana had finished speaking. "Do you not reailize that it is the symbol of my marriage to your brother? Without it, I will be considered a widow or, worse, a fallen woman."

"Kamakshi demands that I bring it to her if I am to ever see her again," Vemana said, deaf to his sister-in-law's distress.

"I cannot agree to this. You are breaking my heart."

When Vemana arrived at the brothel, he showered Kamakshi with caresses and flattered her with unctuous words. Scarcely concealing a weary impatience, she tolerated his af­fections for a little while and then pushed him away to ask if he had brought the necklace.

"My sister-in-law refuses to part with it," Vemana com­plained.

"You have come to me without Subbamma's necklace?" she roared and slapped him. "You say that you love me, but you fail to fulfill my slightest wishes. What kind of a love is that?"

"I will buy you a more expensive one," Vemana offered, hoping to placate her.

"I don't want a nicer one. I want hers!" Kamakshi's face became mottled "with rage. "Are you too dumb to under­stand? I need her necklace if I am to walk among decent peo­ple without them snickering at me. Get out of my presence, and don't return until you have fetched it for me!"

"But ... but ... Kamakshi!"

"Get out! Get out!"

Mad with despair, Vemana stumbled out, his mind in­flamed with anger, self-loathing, and a thousand other blis­tering emotions. He broke into a run, not knowing where he was headed, and he stopped only "when he found himself in a gloomy forest far from town.

"Those lips, those eyes! Never mine again. How can she be so unreasonable! All this fighting over a stupid piece of jewelry! And Kamakshi says she loves me? Why can't Sub-bamma part with it? Her and her self-righteous lectures. Yet, she has always helped me and would give it to me if she could. Oh, I wish I could die and be through with all this!" His chaotic thoughts tumbled in such quick succession that they left him panting.

Morning found Vemana in a crying heap at Subbamma's feet. She saw in him a man on the verge of insanity. His clothes were soiled with sweat and dirt, his face tight and grim, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

"I know what your necklace means to you, but I cannot" live without Kamakshi!" Vemana sobbed after he relayed to her the events of the evening.

After a moment of thoughtful quiet, Subbamma said, "Oh, Vemana, you must be tortured to ask me for such a thing! So I will give my necklace—not so that you may win the affections of this horrible woman but because I fear that if I don't, you will resort to some madness."

A pathetic smile lit Vemana's tear-stained face.

"Meet me in three days at the ruins of the old Siva temple near the cremation grounds on the outskirts of the city. There you can take it from me."

The intervening hours -were sweet for Vemana. Kamakshi slavishly attended to his every whim and fancy, and his agony in the forest quickly seemed nothing more than a disturbing dream. On the third day at dusk, he bid Kamakshi farewell, promising to return in a few hours with the necklace.

Humming a tune, Vemana made his way to the ruined Siva temple. When he saw its crumbling pillars, the overgrown weeds feeding on its walls, and the vandalized stone statues, the song died on his lips. Walking in the gathering gloom on sacred grounds where the dead were once honored was so disturbing that he was jerked out of his intoxicated stupor. The smell of Kamakshi's perfume lingering on his silk shirt caused him to shudder and remember Subbamma's warning that depravity would pervert him beyond recognition.

"Subbamma, Subbamma, where are you?" Vemana called nervously, the sinister meeting place filling him with dread.

Following her instructions, he entered the temple. He spied candlelight at the end of a corridor and quickened his pace. In the flickering light, he saw a figure swathed in a long robe. It was Subbamma, as pure as ever, but her coun­tenance was ghastly.

"Vemana, my son, I am here as promised," Subbamma's voice was distant. "You have asked for my necklace. You know what it means to me. If you still want it, you will have to take it yourself." As she finished speaking, she cast off the robe she was wearing and stood naked before him.

"Oh, my God! Subbamma, what are you doing?" Vemana shielded his eyes with his hands as his knees crumpled under him.

"Take my necklace and you will have stripped me of everything. But take it if you must!" Her words were as a knife twisting into his heart.

"What a sewer of iniquity I have fallen into!" He had be­lieved he could keep company with the degenerate and re­main untouched. Now he knew that he was one of them. "For lust of a prostitute, I have defiled the sanctity of your marriage. I have betrayed my brother and humiliated you. I am an ungrateful wretch who has returned your motherly love with deception and selfishness. There can be no re­demption for a sinner like me!"

Subbamma moved to console him.

"Mother, my lust has turned me into a beast! Please do not come near me, for I am all corruption and am afraid to con­taminate your purity. I must kill my desires before they will kill me."

Vemana rose up abruptly and fled. Finding a small cave, he sequestered himself in it and mercilessly bore into his soul until the cause of all desire stood revealed. When he returned to Subbamma many years later to ask for forgiveness, she looked at him and began to cry tears of joy, for she could see that there was a new light in his eyes and that temptation had a hold on him no longer.