Amrit Chintan : Pujya Gurudev

                            Follow the Middle Path

                       =Pt.ShriRam Sharma Acharya

People undertaking the Sadhana of self-refinement normally make it a regimen of self-torture. This makes their life miserable. The seeking of God takes the form of denial of the world; and as a result, ruthless mortification of the body is mistakenly considered as spiritual Sadhana. This negativity is the result of misinterpreting God-realization as the denial of worldly life. 

The truth is that the torturer of the flesh gets more attached to the body. People literally negating the physical world are tied up with it subtly somewhere or the other. The experience shows that negation of the world binds a person more than the materialistic attitude.
Sadhana is not the opposition of the world or the body. It is neither unbridled indulgences in sensual pleasures nor their forcible suppression. Sadhana is conscious self-control and self-refinement. It is finding the middle path between the two extremes. 

Going to the extremes leads to ruining of the self. The middle path is life. Excess is ignorance; it is darkness; it is destruction. One who knows this truth abandons both the extremes. By doing so he is relieved of all the tension. This in turn leads to a natural and simple life of nobility.  As soon as the self-control is achieved, life becomes peaceful and burdenless. One who follows this middle path leads a happy, healthy and fulfilling life. 

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              Forget the past, be vigilant of the present, and await the bright future.

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma

The Blind Chase of Modern Science

Pujya Gurudev Pt.ShriRam Sharma’s Kripa

The Blind Chase of Modern Science

 has Given Rise to Plethora of Problems We Face Today

(Akhand Jyoti,Nov.Dec.2010)

Scientific search and its progress

We have completed the first decade of 21st century. We are gradually moving towards the final stage of scientific progress. Many inventions that were assumed to be either impossible or mere day-dreams have become reality today. Science is not only unraveling many biological secrets, but also about the dark corners of the gigantic universe which were hitherto unknown and have kept us wonderstruck. Our mind wants to know what black holes are. How was this universe created and who created it? Is there life in those planets and stars that are far beyond our own planet? Are the beings of those planets also be interested in knowing about us? Are riddhis and siddhis hidden behind the unknown layers of creative consciousness? Many such questions keep cropping up in our ever curious mind. Science is in a position to answer many of these questions. It appears as though by 2030, science will reach the peak of its development and its benefits will be available to the mass of humanity.

Science in our daily life

Science and its progress have influenced our daily life in a big way. We can see how science has affected our way of living, eating, life style etc. Now we use less of our brain and more of science and its gadgets in our day-to-day activities. Even a small mathematical calculation, which our brain can easily do, is being done using a calculator by the shop-keeper. A person at the mall or multiplex will solve this same thing using a computer. This can be observed today in any town or city. A person in the village will do the same calculation using pen and paper. This is a small example of how fast science is entering our daily life. To move from one place to another even over short distances, we use scooters, motorbikes and cars whereas developed countries like Japan and Germany have started using bicycles to minimize air pollution. Each and every person wants to own an automotive vehicle whether he needs it or not or whether he can afford it or not. 

Science is the ‘Lamp of Alladdin’

“Smart Home” is not a dream or utopia any more. Today, people can turn on their electronic appliances through remote control even before they enter their house. If you want your house to be warm, you can program it like that; and if you want it to be cool, you can do so too. You can make your kitchen function the way you want it to when you get back home.

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma

Thought : Pujya Gurudev

Thought – An Immense Source of Power

=Pt. Shriram Sharma Acharya

If a person remains absorbed in bad/evil thought(s), naturally his mind will motivate him to make plans related to that vice(s) and gradually his mind will be trained in that direction. 

The power of thoughts should be considered akin to the power of electricity or that of atomic origin. Therefore, a person should always remain vigilant about the proper use of thought–power. If someone possesses wealth, it does not mean that he should squander it away in worthless pursuits. The same rule is applicable to the wealth of thoughts. Whatever thoughts are adopted, they prompt a person to go in that direction and take up the related activity. Giving place to unwanted thoughts and allowing their roots to grow in the mind means that, in future, one is planning to live life accordingly. It may be happening involuntarily or unknowingly, but its consequences are certain. 

Therefore, it will be better that one allows only beneficial and creative thoughts to enter one’s mind. If a person makes it a habit to invoke benign and creative thoughts, it should be considered that he has built the road to success in his chosen area of pursuit. 

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma

     
                                                                                

Existence

Pujya Gurudev Pt. ShriRam Sharma’s Kripa

Timeless Existence

(Akhand Jyoti,Sept.oct.2006)

The volume of air inflated in balloon remains confined to a fixed size. The moment this sheath is removed, it spreads freely and unifies with its gigantic expansion in the open space (in earth’s atmosphere). The same is true of the human self. Till it lives in the gross body and is attached to the experiences of the latter, its identity is bound by that of the body and remains limited to that of a living toy of flesh and bones. However, as this bondage of attachments is freed, its existence evolves in the subliminal realms and eventually transmutes it into its infinite origin. Nothing would then be unknown or beyond its realization. The state of sublime realizations is referred as that of timeless existence. In the normal case, we experience our selves and the existence of the world in the present tense. The past and the future are beyond our reach. 

Although the present contains the past and the future in its continuous flow, we do not realize this because of the subliminal existence of the latter two phases of time. But, sublime does not mean false or non-existent. Whatever we utter from the mouth or whatever sound is produced near us appears to be lost the moment we have heard it. But the physicists know that sound is never lost. Whatever we can’t hear exists beyond our audible frequency range. Kindling of fire generates (thermal) energy; this energy would continue to exist even after the fire is extinguished. By the universal law of conservation of energy, this ’invisible’ energy would be never lost. The gross (physical) body dies and disintegrates into the basic elements of Nature that constitute it. But the soul, the eternal flow of life (consciousness) never dies.

The same is true of every incident or experience. Whatever we perceive or experience in the present phase of time is only a manifestation of the unexpressed (what ’was’ existing in the ’future’ until then) or the subliminal into a form that could be grasped by our conscious faculties and sense organs. The same continues to exist as it is but in a time-domain that becomes ’past’ for us. As discussed earlier, the division of time in the past, present and future is only relative with respect to the experiences or activities in the physical (gross) world perceived by our conscious mind. Scientific theories define time as a continuous, complete unit. The past, present and the future are not disjoint in reality. In linear dimension, the present is a continuous interval with the left end opening in the past and the right in the future. Mathematical physicists have analyzed the possibility of realization of the past and the future in the present under several nonlinear, multidimensional models.

Thanks GOD,Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma

Silence

Pujya Gurudev Pt. ShriRam Sharma;s Kripa

Silence

(Akhand Jyoti Nov.Dec.2004)

(An excerpt from Catherine Ingram’s Book - Passionate Presence) Published with the Author’s glad consent Catherine Ingram is a compelling force in the western spiritual arena. She is a renowned Dharma teacher. Since 1992 she has led Dharma Dialogues, which are public events of inquiry into the nature of Awakened Awareness and its benefits in life. She also leads numerous Silence Retreats each year and is the founder- president of LIVING DHARMA, and educational organization dedicated to spiritual inquiry and service. She is also the author of In the Footsteps of Gandhi: Conversations with Spiritual / Social Activists (1990). Her writing clearly flows out of her realization.- Editor.

In the deepest recesses of ourselves there is most familiar quietude. It has been through all our seeking and craving, as well as all the other events of our lives. It is a point of peace, a silent witnessing awareness that is fundamentally unperturbed no matter what happens. Stepping in this awareness, one is at ease in the present, fully welcoming what comes and fully releasing what goes, feeling alive throughout. This awareness is not something far away and in another time. It is already occurring here and right now. For instance, while watching a movie, we may swirl in a sea of emotions - fearful, romantic, humorous or tragic. If the story is especially potent, we might feel all these emotions in a single film. Yet no matter how swept away we might be by the movie or how gripped by emotions of the experience, there is within us a quiet witnessing awareness that knows perfectly well that we are sitting in a theatre all the while. If that were not so, we would surely flee the room as soon as any frightening situation occurred on the screen.

We would run for our lives upon seeing the first weapon or firestorms coming at us, were it not for some part of our awareness knowing that the visions on the screen are not our fundamental reality. In a similar way, there is a field of silent awareness containing all the events of our days. Although we may sometimes be gripped by emotion or lost in a particular story, there is throughout each of our dramas a deeper reality of silent presence. 

This is a silence of the heart rather than an imposed cessation of speech or activity. It is a silence that is, we could say, the background of all activity. We don't need to find it because it is not lost. If this is so, why is there so much searching and craving? Seeking is compelling because it produces a way for the mind to have a job. It seems that we are almost genetically programmed toward restless mental occupation with desire and avoidance, a desperate squirming out of now. Perhaps nature has demanded that we keep on the move in order to stay alive, but this is becoming detrimental to life. We have evolutionarily outgrown the usefulness of being in a prevailing state of fear and greed in order to compete and survive. We can no longer afford it. It is driving us to disaster. Nevertheless, it is strange how much we resist the inherent peace and quiet that is always possible. Perhaps this is because resting in simple presence is so foreign to a lifelong habit of mental complication, and we may have confused complication with sense of aliveness. We might assume that having no particular mental object would result in boredom. Or we may be overwhelmed by how vast and free life suddenly feels when our minds are not on the hunt. 

As the prisoner who, upon being released, quickly finds a way to land himself back in jail, or the bird who resists the flight out when its cage door is opened, we are sometimes daunted by freedom and retreat into cramped but familiar closet of a busy mind. Yet in the awakened awareness the mind acclimates itself into an expansion in silence. It gets used to letting neurotic thoughts drift and fade into nothingness, and it gradually loses interest in them even as they continue to arise. 
Disinterest in neurotic thoughts limits their power. What becomes interesting is the open expanse of awareness through which all thoughts and everything else emerge and dissolve. And because this is ongoing, the perception of it can sneak up on you at any moment.(Continue)

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma

Pujya Gurudev Pt. ShriRam Sharma’s Kripa

Delight 

(Akhand Jyoti,Sept.oct.2006)

In awakened awareness, seeing beauty results from ones perception and not necessarily from the thing perceived. What we often describe as beautiful is merely a conditioned interpretation that is trained to see one thing as beautiful and another as revolting. Awakened awareness, however, overrides this conditioning and is able to see beauty in the most unlikely of places because it sees the universal essence of things. Some years ago I was in India to visit my teacher- Poonjaji, when a dramatic shift in my perception occurred. I had become, over many trips during the previous twenty years, more and more allergic to India. By that I mean I had developed such revulsion for the sights, smells, and sounds that accost ones senses every day that I went around with a slight feeling of nausea. Nevertheless, India continued to draw me because of its rich spiritual heritage and the great teachers who lived there. 

I also enjoyed being occasionally unplugged from the hectic pace of Western life. But I had long ago lost all romantic notions about much of India and instead noticed its disease, pollution, poverty, and superstition. It seemed after a while that my eye fell upon ugliness at nearly every turn. Being with Poonjaji changed all that. I began to sense the presence of the life force in myself and, soon, in everything around me. While I was showering one day, the bath tiles came alive as I imagined, could almost feel, their subatomic particles swirling within. When walking, I no longer experienced myself as a separate body but as a movement in and through an all-encompassing landscape. 

This perception in turn produced feelings of warmth and appreciation for every strange, wonderful, or ordinary thing I chanced upon. Now, wherever my eye landed, my heart was lit up by the indwelling presence it recognized there. The wart hogs eating garbage on the side of the road became beautiful to me because I could feel my own essence in them. They and I, embodying different forms, were just part of the unbounded panorama of existence. In Zen they say, "When you wake up, the whole world wakes up". Ones awakened awareness recognizes its own nature in everything, seeing its source as the source of all.

One then perceives in love and wholeness, experiencing beauty not merely in certain objects, people or places, but as awakened heart intelligence at one with the world. So often our definition and appreciation of beauty comes from limited awareness. Sure, we can see beauty in the creamy pink cheeks and shining eyes of a child, in the purple and red glow of sunrise over a snowy field, or in the languid grace of a gorgeous woman. Identifying these as beautiful requires no special intelligence. Our genes and cultural conditioning do that work for us. We easily respond to typical triggers of instinct and what we have been taught to define as beauty.

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma

Pujya Gurudev ShriRam Sharma’s Kripa

Let Creative Potentials Materialize Fully

(Akhand Jyoti,Nov.Dec.2006)

Art of Living - 5 Manase chetase dhiya akutaya uta chittaye Matyai shrutaya chakshase vidhema havisha vayam. -Atharvaveda 6/41/1 

We worship by havi (altar offerings) for the power of reflection (mental inspirations and emotions), for consciousness and contemplation, for spiritual intellect (concentration), for inner resolves (miscellaneous stimuli), for intelligence, for powers of memory, hearing (learning), and sight (manifestation). Mental consciousness is the source of all creative potentials. In the fertile soil of mind sprout forth various kinds of creative urges. With proper nurturing and nourishment they grow to maturity and make a very impressive impact in the arena of practical life. Such persons are honored by the world as geniuses. 

They not only bring laurels to themselves but the whole world benefits from their invaluable contributions. It is this secret that lies behind the extra-ordinary talent of those luminaries whose amazing stories we keep reading in the annals of human civilization. Music, painting, dance, drama, architecture, sculpture, sports, management, researches - all these are multi-dimensional expressions of human creativity. No form of these expressions is inferior to or lesser than the others; it is simply a matter of priority, skill and distinction. Talent develops any of the creative potentials to a high level. It is the source of all the glories and possessions of the world. 

Wealth, honor, power, fame, everything flows from this fountainhead of talent. Its absence begets only endless tumbles, rejections and slights. Everyone wants to cultivate proximity to the meritorious, while the meritless is shunned by all. Those who have been able to develop their latent creative potentials are like shining stars in the human firmament. Their extraordinary achievements and glory act as beacons of inspiration for others. People longingly gaze at these luminaries, quite oblivious of the fact that many such potential stars are hidden in their own interiors too. 

Only, their brightness has to be brought to the fore. Then they, too, can sparkle and shower their illumination on the world. For this only the potential lying within has to be developed and awakened. But how? "I have nothing like this in me", "I do not see any distinction in me" - One often comes across negative refrains of this type. Such persons are advised to look within once again a little more minutely and deeply, and also objectively.

Thanks GOD, Thanks Sadguru,

Shiv Sharma