| You have by now seen the 10 maxims or commandments of Sri Ramchandra. The crux of the issue is we know what is good, we do not do what is good. When we try to give our mind or intellect or reasoning, use any word you like, more importance than to other faculties that God has given namely feeling, love, attachment, empathy, this problem generally comes. There are historical facts that over about 5 to 6 thousand years or more, we have been somehow giving too much importance to the intellectual or the mental sphere and slowly we are getting away from our basis i.e, Nature. Instead of being one with the Mother Nature we have somehow chosen sometime in history a concept of conquering Nature. Instead of being in tune with Nature we wanted to conquer it and there arose all our problems. This problem was not there earlier, because behind every force that was there, the early man was able to see, the vedic seers were able to see, something which is definitely good and which is in order. Even when he praised or adored Natural forces he was not adoring the Natural forces as such but was trying to see what is the good they were doing to him. When we worship Sun they knew very well what Sun is, but then they also knew without him they will not be in a position to live and therefore they granted him the status of God. Similar is the position with the trees, which they knew is very important for their existence, for natural living, similarly about the rivers, similarly about the mountains so on and so forth. Somebody from the west who was not able to think all this well early and all of a sudden sometime in the middle of the last millennia or the present millennia, the fag end of which we have come already, started their theory of exploitation of the natural resources and consequently exploitation of other human beings also and they taught us the philosophy that perhaps you are very very pre-mature set of fellows worshiping this or worshiping that. They could not go to the basis, understandably, because their thinking pattern is such. It is our misfortune that we have started accepting it as correct and for about 250 years of slavery or perhaps a bit more, I think, we have finally come to a stage when we have got to adjust. We know in our minds that this is right, we are not able to accept it because the language of feeling is almost totally forgotten. Everybody knows some English, some French, some German, some Sanskrit, some Telugu, some Hindi, some language or the other we seem to be knowing. They are all ways of expression; ways of experience or the imperience somehow is lost. The natural love between the father and the son, the mother and the son, father and the daughter, the natural love that is there between you and me somehow got eroded for considerations of what we considered or what we have been taught to consider as good namely opulence, comfort, not bothering about another person, living for oneself, stand on your legs - these type of logics have come and we tended to accept it. The whole system of Sri Ramchandra tries to restore us back to that fundamentals of trying to live with Nature, trying to be in tune with Nature. We are expressions of the Divine is a word that we have accepted at the mental level. Thanks to the renaissance period of the last century when the great Vivekananda came forward and made this statement, yes, most of us have started remembering our original moors our original traditions most of us have. Many other systems have explained it also, each one in their own way contributed to our understanding of it but behind it is the call that again is generally getting forgotten because we get into vedanta or philosophy rather than the practice. An intellectual thing can take you anywhere, anywhere in your imagination it can lead you to any place but feeling is lost there. Information doesn't become knowledge that easily first, as we have got lot of information in the library, to read and understand it takes some time and knowledge to become understanding it takes an enormous input. There is lot of effort we have to put in between these two. Simply because we know something I don't think we understand that. The most difficult thing to understand in life is the word sacrifice and I am proud of being an Indian knowing the value of sacrifice, but sacrifice is a word which will not go along with individuality. If you talk independence don't talk about sacrifice, they are mutually contradictory, they will not go together. A society based on the value of independence is bound to fail and that is what our asuras were supposed to have had. What type of stories we have got, I don't have to repeat all of them, most of you know all that. In sacrifice lies the value of Divinity, the Sun burns himself from morning to night so that we continue to live. Sacrifice is the basis of Divinity - when anybody says that you are a Mahatma or you are a Divine personality, he is only trying to tell you that you are capable of thinking beyond your selfishness and trying to do good for others. Only when we talk in terms of selfless service we talk in terms of attributing Divinity to him. Gandhiji is a mahatma for the only reason he was able to sacrifice so much of his personal life for the sake of the nation otherwise he will not be. There are so many, it's only an incident, one example I gave, there are so many people whom you can quote. There are perhaps many more whom we don't know at all, it is not necessary that all Gods should be known also. That is why the number has been put at some staggering 360 crores so that you do not have to count. One or two you will definitely start counting. Who are they? When you put the number at 360 crores you will not bother to count. The simple reason behind it is, there are so many. Every one of us have got the capacity to become the Divine and how to become Divine is this system. The system of Sri Ramchandra's Raja yoga is not meant just for being getting some satisfaction, some peace of mind. No. How to live up to our potential of being divine? That is our potential, human is not the potential, many people talked in terms of human resource development. I am ashamed to use that word in this country for the only reason I have been told from the beginning that there is a divine resource that has to be developed. So let us develop the divine resource, human resource will come along the way, it is just like one more qualification that we get, let us become human at least I agree, temporary goal, but our goal is not that. Our goal is to become divine, the divine resource has to come out and we are capable of doing such sacrifices, we are capable of doing something very very good to others, atleast we can think good of others. At present we think good of ourselves, from this level let us come out of and think good for others. How much you can do? Later on that starts, first of all let us start thinking something outside ourselves. It is time to think in those lines, because I will tell you two small examples, they are actually incidents that have happened, I was reminded about them yesterday. One of my distant relatives, happened to be a cousin actually, became a CEO by 34th or 35th year. Right on the top he was, he gave a ring to me about two years back, 'uncle I have reached the position my father and mother have been pestering me for this type of position I have got it now, what next? can you tell me what next?' the question was something over the phone, I couldn't answer in detail so I said, when I meet you next time we will have more occasion, time to talk about it, don't worry carry on. After about 8 days, I received the message that he committed suicide and his only reason is, he has not found a purpose for his life. He had no purpose because he has reached the pinnacle, he got the maximum position that anybody can think of. He committed suicide. There was another incident yesterday, one of my friends, old friend met me after 25 years, he came he was talking to me about his relatives, his cousin actually, this boy belongs to the brahmin community, he married a kamma woman, so far there is no problem. The problem started; it seems one of the conditions for the marriage is that they should not have any children. This fact came to the knowledge of the parents much later and it seems they see once in about 8 to 9 months, they work in two different places in USA far far away perhaps Kanyakumari and Kashmir. So he was telling 'what is this Narayan what am I to do, this is what is the position' I said it is their life they have chosen that independent life, you and I are talking about interdependence, they are talking about independe  |
