Nitivaakyam - Day 18

                                                              Day 18

When happiness comes into our life, our mind does not think that it will remain forever. But when sorrow strikes, we feel that it will be for lifetime. This makes us think negatively and is a reason for most suicides.

There are two things that can reduce sorrow in our life:
1. Patience
2. Time

After every sunrise there will be sunset, after every autumn there is winter, after a full moon there will be no moon and every happiness there will be sorrow as well. Our mentality has become such that we do not want happiness to go away and do not want sorrow to stay in our lives. What is our strength to wait during times of sorrow? The tide that comes in the sea stays for a certain period of time. We must never judge anything based on this time. If we take decisions during times of sorrow, we might go wrong and our life will be spoil't. We must have patience and allow time to pass by.

"Time can heal a lot of things"

 How many times have we regretted after going on the spiritual path and how many times have we regretted after committing sins? In life whenever there is temptation, we have to wait and not go any further. If we don't have the strength to wait, then temptation will become a reason for fall. It is important to wait during temptation and have patience during pain. Negativity does come during times of sorrow. Love has a positive approach.
These days will also pass by and hence we should have patience. We lose from our hearts itself. We must never take any decision during times of sorrow. Life will bring sorrow along with happiness.

Is there any one happiness in life where our opinion does not change? We keep adjusting in life as we are never happy with one thing. The times of happiness will be less and sorrowful times will be more in life. Why are we not ready to accept the sorrow that we will somehow accept after 2 years? What is the trouble in accepting it now? We are always attracted to what is not there in our lives and our interest ends when we get it. We don't feel sorry after going on the spiritual path but we feel sorry when we miss the opportunity of religion. We will feel happy if we have left the opportunity of committing sins.

More than sorrow, having faults is bad. The ocean has the collection of all the water in the world and there is nothing parallel to it. But a thirsty person will still go in search of a small lake or a bucket of water to quench his thirst. Even we will be in the position of an ocean if people who come to us do not experience peace. A person wanting to go on the spiritual path will hardly have anyone to support or come along. Only if we reduce our requirements can be reach the mountain top. When disease attacks the body, we should never give it the support of our heart and mind, otherwise it will disturb us completely. If there is fault or imperfection in our mind, we should never give it the support of our body.

In life time is a very big capital or stock we can possess. When there is sorrow in life, let time pass but and it will heal everything. 

If our efforts to change a situation goes in vain, we have change our mind.

Nitivaakyam - Day 16

                                                       Day 16

"A bowl of nectar becomes useless if it is mixed with even a drop of poison"      

Nectar

Poison

A bowl of nectar becomes useless with poison. Similarly religion is the nectar that can become worthless if combined with sins. Our sins will end the strength of our religion. Why do we want to become friends with poison while we have nectar with us. God says that if our sins are committed in compulsion and helplessness, it is worth forgiving but we commit sins because we want to. Days have come when we follow our religion in compulsion and commit sins happily, whereas it has to be vice versa.

While going to the temple, we are not able to concentrate on God's idol even for 5 minutes and we can keep staring at a beautiful girl on the street for hours! If we cannot leave our sins, we must at least not commit them in happiness. We have to try and follow our religion and remember God with our whole heart even if it is for some time.

 A good vessel will definitely be spoil't if it is going to carry acid in it. 

Any work that is done with content will go in excess - whether it is good or bad. When we do something in compulsion, we always will look forward to end it and minus it from our life. We safe guard our money in the banks thinking it is safe but have we safe guarded our good deeds in our religion? The person who can leave his rights is Ram and the person who picks up something that is not his rights is Raavan. We are not even ready to check where our good deeds would be safe.

An enemy of darkness will protect a candle. An enemy of sorrow will protect his religion.

In this world, there sorrow will definitely strike, but the one who goes on the spiritual path and protects his religion will be safe. If we want to safe guard our good deeds and be away from sorrow, we have to invest in religion. What is our mentality?

"The person who makes his mind a slave is an abdicator and the person who becomes slaves to his mind is a hedonist"

We keep gathering and storing items that we feel have strength. Let us store good things as people will only remember what we left behind us, rather than what we have stored. Only a person who does good deeds will be remembered after his death. A person who has invested his good deeds in religion will be safe in the future but a person who has invested his good deeds in sins will have to live worse than a beggar in the future.

"A disease is not contagious but an imperfection or a flaw is contagious"

Nitivaakyam - Day 15

                                                                Day 15

"Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur"

It is necessary to be alert always in the case of religion. A person who is not alert all the time is in for trouble.  Have we wondered the reason of our life? Have we wondered the reason we have got religion, eyes, mind, heart, money etc?

There are three types of situation in our life:

1. Saying "Yes": 

When we are in our childhood, we say Yes for everything - playing, eating and having fun.

2. Asking "Why?":

When we become a little mature we start asking questions and want a reason for everything. A spiritual person asks why are we wasting so much of time doing worldly chores. A worldly person asks why to spend so much time on religion? What is our preparation for our next birth? Leave alone the preparations, we do not want to even think about it. Unless the "Why" question does not arise, our spirits will not rise.

3. Asking "Why Not?":

There is no question or answer in saying Yes. But for a question containing "why" we can answer by saying "why not?" When the question comes from within, we will be able to answer "why not". We might say this is  not the time to focus on religion, but a spiritual person would say - why not?. It is important to make the heart and mind independent. We want to have our own house, clothes, car etc but don't we want to become the masters of our mind?

There are again three sins that disturb the mind and if we come out of these sins we will gain independence of our mind.

1. Temptation (लालच या प्रलोबन): 
Greed or temptation will convert our mind into slaves.  We become aroused and inflamed because of greed. A simple Rs 50/- poster arouses us and creates excitement in us. Can a poster disturb our mentality so much? A saint has the strength of saying "No". We have to learn to say No to greed and it is definitely as big challenge. Greed or temptation disturbs mind and the only solution to it is to be away from it, avoid it and say No. A virtuous man can also become prey to temptation.

2.  Greed or Cupidity (लोभ):
Temptation comes in front of us but greed is when we think of the future and start planning from now what we would buy etc. Which disturbs us more - Temptation or Greed? In greed, mind will act in favor of the body and not soul.

3. Totally Helpless (लाचारी):
Helplessness disturbs our mind even when we don't want it. This is not in our hands but we can at least control temptation and greed.

We have the strength to do everything, then why not? Try to make the mind independent and don't become slaves to it. It is alright if a train driver is not alert but a truck driver has to be alert at all costs else it will result in an accident. A spiritual person and a worldly person, both ask Why Not? A sinner would ask "why not"  in terms of doing sin and a religious person would ask "why not" in terms of doing religious work. Mind is neutral and it depends on us what we want to convert it into.

" It is better to be lazy than to be busy in doing wrong"

Nitivaakyam - Day 14

                                                               LUCK OF LIFE

We all want to know the secret to have Luck in our Life. Whatever we possess in life is due to the grace of God and religion. The fruits of religion is what we have in our life today. Then why don't we have any attraction towards religion. Why don't we have the heart to donate and give to others? Whatever we have got due to the grace of our religion, are we investing it in doing good or bad? Why don't we have the heart to do good for others as well?

In order to have LUCK in LIFE there are four things we have to check:

1. Lifestyle:

Have we checked our lifestyle? There is fulfillment at the end of requirement but there will be no satisfaction at the end of desire. When one mobile, TV, car, phone etc is sufficient, why more? Though we have a lot of wealth, how much have we controlled our desires? Why is our lifestyle so expensive? We run when we don't have money and we run when we have enough money as well.

“Your lifestyle - how you live, eat, emote, and think - determines your health. To prevent disease, you may have to change how you live.”

 Advertisements today are targeted towards women and kids as they are insistent on having what they want. If we want to be happy, we will have to change our lifestyle. What is our mentality about this? Our lifestyle will end our wealth.

2. Unwanted Habits:

"Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.”

We should know how to neglect unwanted habits for the betterment of our life. We have to say NO to unwanted habits in eating, drinking, sitting, walking and talking. Why have we given such a big position to unwanted habits in our life? These will end our inner strength so we have to control them. If we want to see someone's happiness in this world we have to see that of a poised person and look at the pain of a devotee. The pain of a devotee brings him closer to God. We have become slaves to advanced technology. This will never bring luck in our life.

"Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters”

3. Character:

Character is when we have tears of shame left in our eyes. The shame for family, society and Guru has all come to an end. In India, the dress code of school girls has become very vulgar. Are short dresses a necessity? Girls are openly smoking and drinking. We worship Ram and do friendship with Ravan. Everything has ended in the name of character. Luck never comes from the sky, we have to create luck. Today's youth has forgotten all shame. Every day new advanced technology is being invented that is putting an end to our shame. We must never neglect shame in our life. We have to save our character.

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become action. Watch your action, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character!"

4. Killing Time:

Time is precious. We have to know how to invest and use time properly. We waste time on social networking websites which is of no use.

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't

own it, but you can use it. You can't keep

it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it

you can never get it back"

So have Luck in life, we have to change our lifestyle, remove unwanted habits, check our character and use time efficiently.

Nitivaakyam - Day 13

                                                                      Day 13

"We have both day and night with us. It is important to distribute time evenly for each work"

We have to know what work has to be done during the day and what work has to be done during darkness. If we do not distribute or segment our work then three things will be disturbed:

1. Relations:

We are running behind money day and night that we do not have time left for our family. We are running away from our responsibilities towards our family.

"Anything in excess is poison"

We have to know how much time to give to each work. If we have differentiated and segmented food into breakfast, lunch and dinner, we have to know to segment our work as well. Have we set time for each kind of work? Have we set aside time to maintain our relations. Even birds and animals go out hunting food during the day and rest during the night. We have to learn to give time to our relations. What do we want to do - Leave relations for wealth or leave wealth for relations? Which is our top priority.

2. Health:

Our health will be affected if we do not distribute our work. They say health is wealth. But how much time are we dedicating towards health? Good health is necessary for the coming days. What is the goal of our life? What is the use of a life without any goals? What would we like to have, be or do? We should avoid any area of life that will disturb our peace of mind.

Three things that are not good for us is
a. A goal-less life - Having no goals in life.
b. A weak heart - A heart that is not strong enough to take decisions. We keep thinking that we will do if we can. But we must have a firm mind and say that we will definitely do it. We get disturbed by the smallest obstacle. We must learn to set goals at least for each day.
c. A weak body - A body that has no strength and is weak is of no use.

In life it is very important to have goals, a strong heart and body. There will never be a day when our work will never be pending, Even during our last breath we will many things pending. We have to learn to take our time for religion if not the world will never give us time for religion until our last moment. We will not get time for religion but we have to take out time for it. What is the position of religion in our life - that of a steering wheel or a spare wheel? Let us think about it.

Nitivaakyam - Day 12

                                                                      Day - 12

" There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills."

The person who doubts in every area can never be successful and he will never succeed in his work. What we possess will construct our personality but what we are will construct our character. Doubt ends both our personality and character. Education today does not focus on character and is more focused on personality development. What do we want our family to progress in - personality or character? What is our mentality? 

Doubt can attack and disturb us in five areas of our life:

1. Doubt attacks and disturbs relations:

If doubt comes in between a Guru and his disciple, a husband and his wife, between a father and his son, it can end all these relations. 

"Doubt is like a poison in the milk of relations"

In order to save relations, we will have to end doubt. What is our mentality in this? With doubt comes, tension and reaction. Can our life move smoothly with doubt? There will be no balance in life if we doubt the smallest thing in life. Faith and devotion is very important in any relation. So does our relations contain more of doubt or more of faith?

2. Doubt attacks and disturbs our health and balance of mind:

We dress up so well so that people can look at us, but if someone stares at us continuously for ten minutes we start doubting the person. Doubt will definitely disturb our health and there will be no more mental peace left in our life.

3. Doubt attacks and disturbs success:

We should never leave and change the horse in the middle of our journey in case we start doubting it ability as we will never be able to reach the destination. We must never take a step just because we like the path, but we have to check destination as well. If the destination is right, we must never think of how the path would be. We have to have the courage to take the step. Continuity is very important in doing something tough as continuity will make the tough also easy. We must not have doubt whether it is in spiritual life or worldly life as doubt and indecision both are dangerous. In worldly life, the path is easy but destination is bad and in religion, the path is tough but destination is good. We can get the top result in the tough path as well.

4. Doubt attacks and disturbs our Present:
If doubt comes in between what we are doing, then achieving our goal is next to impossible. We start doubting after fasting or giving donation to the poor. Can a farmer grow good crop if he is going to doubt and out the seeds in the field. He has faith and trust. To save our present and to save what we are doing, we have to remove doubt from our lives. There should be a lot of zest and enthusiasm in what ever we do.

5. Doubt attacks and disturbs our virtues:

We run behind wealth, status and power as we feel all these have all the strength and power in the world. But have thought that virtue also has power in it? Bending, being happy with whatever we have, generosity, kindness are all strengths and not weakness. The biggest strength of a person who is happy with what he has is the ability to say "NO". Wealth will not accompany us after death, but what will accompany us is our virtues. It does not cost money for having good virtues. The world does not go on with aggregation but with virtues.

We might be able to walk with a thorn in our legs but we will not be able to walk happily. Similarly with doubt life will never be smooth and joyful. A six month old baby does not recognize its mother but has full faith in her even without recognizing. We must never insist on recognizing the ones who have done favor on us but we have to blindly love them. We doubt if someone gives us good news and we trust someone completely if they give us bad news about someone. We will have to remove doubt from our lives to live a happy peaceful life.

"Doubt is an explosive that can break a courageous mountain"

Nitivaakyam - Day 11

                                                                Day 11

"A true gentleman and wise person is the one due to whom others are not hurt"

To know what kind of voice I have, it is important to take others opinion. A gutter has to ask others what kind of smell comes from it. A crow thinks its voice is very sweet but in others opinion it does not have a good voice. Similarly it is necessary to ask and take others opinion to know our own nature. It is not necessary to ask opinion in regards to health, wealth, status or power. It is important to know how others feel because of us. Our good nature can become a reason for others happiness and joy. Our wealth , health, power and status can become a reason for jealousy in others. What is our goal? Do we want good nature or health, wealth and power?

If our nature is bad, people will not come to us even if we have wealth. Religion is interested in only one thing  - our good nature. If others are sad because of us then our life has no meaning. To maintain a good nature it is important to keep our ego on number two position. A person who keeps his ego on number one position cannot have a good nature. A good nature is the key to a building's gate. The only barometer for progress is good nature.

We know that a cuckoo has a sweet voice and a crow does not have a good voice,  from others appreciation and opinion. Are we ready to accept that our character and nature can be wrong? To make our nature good we have to follow:

1. Voice Beauty is more important than Voice Purity:

It is important to first think of the beauty of our voice before thinking about the ways to  make it pure. We have to first bring beauty in our words. It is voice purity when we say "I am right" and it is voice beauty when our words don't hurt the other person. We have to learn to be happy with whatever we have. Even if we don't get what we want, we have to like what we have. What disturbs us in bringing beauty in our words especially for our family members? We will become popular only if we have a good nature. People will not even consider the good works of a bad natured person. People did not like Duryodhana and Raavana for the same reason.

2. There are two types of  truth:

a. Truth is what it is -  This type of truth does not do any good for us.
b. I will support the truth that is for my good.

A Saint's life is full of truth that does good to them. There is a lot of difference between fact and truth. Truth what it is can see only the truth near by and the truth for our good can see long distance truth as well. Science can break a big mountain and religion can fix the broken parts. Religion does the work of converting a soul into God. Why are we running behind money even after having enough? A true master is the one who can sacrifice and the one who owns everything is a slave to it. There is a lot of risk in the path of success and there is a lot of pain in the path of meaningfulness.

Lets make our words beautiful before purifying it and let us focus on making our nature so good that no one is hurt because of us.

Nitivaakyam - Day 10

                                                             Day 10

There are two kinds of areas in life, one is the world and the other is religion. Even after having power in religion, we don't want to go forward in it but we want to run in this world even when there is not enough power. We underestimate ourselves in the field of religion.

There are four things we need to check:

1. Check Your Holiness(पुण्य):
We keep taking risk in this world, but have we checked our goodness or our holiness? After every sunrise there will be a sunset, after light there will be darkness, after happiness there will be sorrow also. When your son is not ready to listen to you, understand that your goodness and holiness are lacking. At that point, all you have to do is do nothing at all and the situation will improve. Results will show up only when there is goodness.

"By doing nothing, everything is done"

2. Check Your Manliness(पुरषार्थ):

Along with our goodness, we have to also check our manliness and the limits of our strength. Today's generation is becoming old, have slip disc problems at the age of forty. They are continuously working for money without any rest. Even if we have goodness, we cannot do anything without manliness. So we have to keep checking our manliness.

"Anything in excess is poison" 

We have to stop ourselves somewhere, no matter how big the greed! Today, going to clubs and parties late night has become a trend. Where are we heading towards? The person who does not control in times of strength will be left helpless in the time of weakness. There will be nothing left. We must not take risk where we don't have the ability. 

3. Check Your Worthiness(पात्रता या योग्यता):

We must understand our worthiness and learn to say "NO"  before accepting anything from anyone. Though we have goodness and manliness, are we worthy? Have we checked our worthiness? The world is on fire as we don't have enough worthiness and we keep expecting. Our enjoyment and happiness is only for us but our good qualities will help everyone. Our sins will disturb only us but our bad qualities will disturb everyone. Why do we want to disturb everyone? We have to check the limits of our worthiness. When it rains, the amount of water we collect depends on the size of the vessel we use to collect the water. 

After having all these qualities of Holiness, Manliness and Worthiness, we need the grace of God which backs all of these. We must not underestimate ourselves in the area of religion and start taking some risk. 

"We close the window when it smells. Similarly we have to close the window of our mind from where bad thoughts come inside".

Nitivaakyam - Day 9

                                                                    Day 9

Everything in this world has a nature to it. Religion has a nature. Fire has the nature to burn anything, where ever it goes. A snake has the nature to bite and scare people. Similarly a Rogue has a quarrelsome, aggressive nature and they create hatred wherever they go.

A rogue creates trouble wherever he goes. What category do we fall in? What opinion does the public have about us as a person. Are we gentleman or rogue's in their opinion. Do we create trouble or do we provide solutions? Duryodhana was aggressive in nature and even Sri Krishna could not change him. What is our goodwill in our family, society and country? Do people feel good after hearing our name or do they look to avoid us? What is our recognition?

"A fire is dangerous but when it comes in the company of a wind, it becomes more dangerous"

Similarly a rogue is dangerous and when he gets the support of goodness, he can cause a lot of destruction.

"In life defeat is not that dangerous than our downfall"

It is okay to lose in a battle than to fall in our nature. Which one do we want to avoid in life - Defeat or Downfall? What is our mentality? Duryodhana and Ravaan never wanted defeat in their life. We have to observe where we are. A flower spreads its fragrance no matter where it is as its nature is to give fragrance. Vibishan was the flower of Lanka.

"Great conquerors never fight over small issues"

In order to refrain from becoming a rogue and creating problems, we have to be away from three things:

1. Insistence(आग्रह):

Requiring something and being insistent about something are two different things. In insistence we express our urgency in wanting something. Its like saying, " I must have it". This nature of us will create battle. If we observe the root of our aggressiveness and quarrelsome nature, it is nothing but insistence. We must have "Let Go" Attitude. A river is able to reach the ocean because it has no insistence in its nature but just keeps flowing.

2. Attachment (लगाव):

We are so attached to every little thing in this world. Be it a pen, pencil, clothes or anything, we are more attached to them than people. This attachment also create battle and we become quarrelsome in nature.

3. Ego(अहंकार):

Ego and the feeling of self importance will also create battle and make us a rogue.

A rogue has these three qualities - insistence, attachment and ego which creates battle and hatred everywhere. We should not make our life schedule so tight that no one enter our lives. We are running for the future of our family and ruining their present by not spending time with them.

"Salt and Sugar are the enemies of body, Fault and Anger are enemies of soul"

We have to leave the insistence of being perfect and seeing perfection in everything. Perfection has killed many people. We have to protect and save our Relation and Religion. A wall creates difference between a building and a man and our words create a difference between a gentleman and a rogue. Our ego comes in between and stops us from accepting our mistakes. We always want what is not there. Only our relations will help us during our weak times. If we can't save our relations, we will not be able to save our religion. We have to be like milk in water and not like oil in water.

We can identify a rogue from his words. We have to observe what is our goodwill in our family rather than our name in the world. So lets be away from perfection, insistence, attachment and ego that can ruin our lives. Lets try our best to be in the category of a gentleman rather than a rogue.

Nitivaakyam - Day 8

                                                           Day 8



 "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you"

The only way to teach a lesson to those who curse you or hate you is to do good for them so that they can come on the right path. It is the work of our goodness and holiness to protect us and we have to protect our religion. We should never become enemies with those whom we have to protect. It is a sin to punish another person for their faults. Are we interested in forgiveness, are we interested in punishment or are we interested in love? What are we interested in?

"Love even those who hate you"

Weapons would end your enemies but love would end your enmity! The death of love is more dangerous than the death of our body. Which is more destructible? Even God is unsuccessful in saving the body but no one can be unsuccessful in saving love. There is no expiry date for Love. We have to at least try our best to save love as much as possible and whatever is in our control. We have to take an oath that we will not let our love for others end as long as we are alive. There will be no struggle if life and love become one.

"It is not important what wrong another person has done to you, but what is important is how we react to them. It is not important what a foolish person says, what is important is what a wise person has to say"

Our goodness will protect us as long as we protect our religion. It is important to do good to the one who does wrong unto you so that you can change their heart and bring them on the right path. It has never been possible for anyone in this world to stay on number one position in any field, be it the field of beauty, wealth, power or status. There has always been someone better than us. In the field of religion no one wants to come to the number one position.

The person who befriends fault and imperfection is on the path of destruction. We have compromised with greed, selfishness, lying and desire.
The person who become enemies with fault and imperfection, will be defeated by it.

So we cannot make weakness, faults and imperfection our friend or foe. What we have to do is bring something greater than our weakness, that is, our qualities and strength and weakness will automatically go away.  This is the mathematics of spiritual life. In this world, a person is not great when he does what he has to do, but a person is great when he does not do what he should not be doing! This is the biggest challenge.
Mistakes are committed by humans, the one who repents over his mistakes is a saint, the one who supports his mistakes and thinks what he has done is right comes in the category of a devil.

"Darkness cannot end darkness,  only light can do that"

So lets bring light into this world and love each other, even the ones who hate you.

Nitivaakyam - Day 3

                                                    Day 3

Listening is a very important skill. What is our mentality in listening? If we listen happily to others about our own mistakes and if we keep a good attitude towards the one showing  us our mistakes, progress and change is definite. We should have the mentality to listen to even a small child when he/she points out our mistakes. Our mind is like an adult and our conscience is like a child. A child is weak and similarly our conscience is weak, but we must never ignore it.

Worldly progress(प्रगति) is different from Spiritual progress(विकास). If we must have listening skills in order to progress in the world, so should we to progress in the spiritual life. Our goodness increases in worldly progress and our virtues increase in spiritual progress. We must have the mentality to listen and accept our mistakes. In today's world, a daughter or a son does not want to listen to their parents. If Parents can worry about us, why can't they point out at our mistakes or doubt us?

The taste of the soul is made from healthy good words rather than sweet words.

Once Akbar asked Birbal three questions -
1. What does the mind do?
2.What does the mind eat?
3. Where does the mind reside?
Birbal was asked to answer the question within three days, else he would be thrown out of the city. Birbal could not think of an answer and was worried. An 8 year old boy was passing that way and asked the reason he was worried. Birbal said that he does know the answer to the King's questions. The boy did not even ask what the question was but was confident to answer. Birbal took the boy to Akbar. On hearing that an 8 year old boy would answer his questions, Akbar became very angry and started shouting at the boy. The boy was patiently listening but did not say anything. As Akbar somehow wanted the answers, he finally agreed to let the boy proceed. Akbar asked his first question - What does the mind do?
The boy said that he would answer his question only if the King steps down and he would sit on the King's throne and answer. After a lot of thinking, Akbar agreed and came down. The boy sat on the throne. Again the Kind asked his question. The boy said, "The mind can bring a King down from his throne".
He then asked his second question. The boy said that the mind eats patience and compromise. The boy also answered to the third question that the mind resides in those who have patience and compromise.
Akbar was stunned at the boy's answers as the boy was right from every angle.

It is very important to think before saying anything. Why do we always argue and answer back before listening? Mind is never aggressive. If we learn to have patience before saying anything, we will be able to maintain good relations with our family members. Whys is there a problem in this?
A father compromises in front of his son's mistakes. It is wrong if anyone calls us weak if we compromise.

The biggest enemy of Love and God is Ego. Why friendship with Ego?
A contact without love is like oil in water and a contact with love is a relation like water in milk. Let us learn not to give so much importance to ego.

Nitivaakyam - Day 4

                                                             Day 4

What we speak and how we speak, the words we use in our language makes a lot of difference. It shows what kind of person are we.

There are five types of words we must never use:

1. Bitter and Harsh Words(कटु शब्द):
It is important to control our words no matter what kind of situation comes in front of us. Love is shown even when words and language are silent. It is not necessary that love must always speak. If we have to always use words to express our love for others, then it is not love. Love can be seen in the eyes also. We should never use harsh or bitter words that would hurt others for lifetime. We often use excuses and say that we used the words just like that but we don't mean it. If we do not have anything in our heart then why do  we speak such words?

                                       "Words once spoken can never be taken back"

Just remember not to use words that would pinch others.

2. Thorny Words(कंटक शब्द):
We use such thorny words in our language that people can never forget for lifetime. No relation and no family can be maintained with use of such words. People can understand if we are gentleman or rogue by the use and choice of our words and not by money. We make good choices while buying vegetables, diamonds, clothes etc but why such bad choice of words? God's prayer and profane language are both made of alphabets but it depends on the choice of alphabets. If we choose alphabets and place them in the right way we can make them into God's verses instead of dirty words.

3. Pride or Egoistic Words(कंदर्प शब्द):
We have to check if our words contain ego or pride in them. Egoistic words hurt others a lot. The world will go on without us, then why so much pride? We must never place ourselves in the center always. The use of words "I" always hurts.

4. Court Words(कोर्ट शब्द):
In our day to day life, we just keep arguing with others. We place every kind of proof to prove the other person wrong. Why do we always use such words that are used in the court? Listening and hearing are two different things. Listening contains love but hearing does not because we keep arguing.

"If you have a smile on your face, your problems will be miles away"

It is a challenge to maintain the balance of mind even when the other person uses harsh bitter words. We must try and avoid the above four kind of words in our daily language and we will see a huge change in our life. Even a thirsty bird also flying over the ocean does not come down to to drink it as the bird knows it would not quench its thirst. A small pond or lake, however would quench its thirst. Likewise, even if we have crores of money, people would not prefer to come to us if our choice of words is not right. 

The degree of our gentle-manliness is known by the kind of words that come out from out mouth and the degree of our roguishness is known by what we don't speak. We have to at least make up our mind not to criticize or use harsh words for those people who have not hurt us. This is a big challenge. When we don't get along well with someone, first we stop speaking with them and second we never sit with them for lunch. It is necessary to have love in your heart even when the relationship has ended and this can be done by not criticizing the other person. 

"It is better to lose in words than to break hearts!"

Nitivaakyam - Day 1

                                                                     Day 1

Everything in this world has its own nature. Gravitation has its own nature. A stone's nature is to fall down. Likewise, the meaning of religion is nature. Our soul also has a nature.

In life three things are almost extinct or rare:

1. The nature to bow down:
It is easy to gain power, status, wealth etc. We want everyone to bow in front of us and we don't want to bow or bend in front of anyone. What is our mentality? King Kumarapal on his way to pilgrimage has bowed  down to every tree as it gives shade to everyone. Anyone can salute but the nature to bow in front of anyone comes from the heart.

2. The nature to bow down in front of a skillful or accomplished person:
We bow down in front of a person with power, status and wealth but we hardly bow down in front of a skillful person. A poor man living in a hut might be poor but he might be a skillful and accomplished person. It is easy to bend in front of a virtuous person with religious merit but difficult to do so in front of a skillful person.

3. The nature to bow down in front of a skillful or accomplished person to obtain the same skills:
This is a very big challenge in itself. It is hard to bend in front of such a person to obtain similar skills in us. Are we ready to learn from such a person who is ahead of us in knowledge and skills? Do we bow down to such people so that we can also obtain the same knowledge? Why are we not interested or attracted to skills? We definitely need generosity, humbleness and purity. Why are we not attracted to these? We have to ask God for what he has and give place to God in our heart. Our heart has to be well furnished for God to reside in our heart.

The benefits of bowing down in front if a skillful person are as follows:

1. Our saintliness is confirmed:
May be our son is not listening to us today, tomorrow the world may not listen to us. When we sacrifice our saintliness keeps increasing. When we donate money, does our money become less or does our saintliness increase? The thought of ending life comes due to lack of saintliness. In times of happiness whom do we go to? Why do we remember God only during times of sorrow? Do we have interest in saintliness?

2. Our qualities will enhance:
It is very important to enhance our skills and qualities because they are the roots to saintliness. God is interested in our qualities and not in our saintliness.

3. Our soul will purify:
When the soul purifies, we will not be shaken by any kind of temptation or greed. It is firstly important to purify the soul, next comes enhancing our qualities and skills and the third, saintliness will follow.

If we invite a King, his army will follow and if we invite God, all our work will be done by itself.

Strings Of Our Life - Day 6

                                                             Day 6

Once a man wanted some of his wishes to come true. He was asked to chant the name of God continuously. God was happy with his devotion and one day came in front of him and gave him the boon. After giving him the boon, God said," All your wishes will come true but there is one clause. Whatever you wish for, your neighbor will get double that". The man instead of being happy of his boon was sad that the neighbor would now get more than him. He started regretting for asking his boon. If he would wish for one car, his neighbor would two and so on. One day his friend found him so depressed and gave him an idea. He said," Why don't you ask for a wish to burst one of your eyes and the neighbor will loose both his eyes". The man agreed and did the same. He lost one eye and saw that his neighbor had lost both his eyes. He was extremely happy. One day as he was sitting in his house, a stone came from somewhere and hurt his other eyes and he lost both his eyes. His friend this time said, "Don't worry, ask for a wish to get back one eye that had burst because of your wish". This time he did not agree to his friend as he thought that if he gets back one eye, his neighbor would get back both his eyes!

What is the goal of our life? What do we think of from morning to evening about achieving our goal? The goals of our life are as follows:

1. Happiness (आनंद):

God gives us pure water, we make it dirty. God gives us everything in life but we are still not happy in life. We just want ourselves to be happy and become sad if someone else is happy. Why do we feel that happiness should only be ours? We become happy in others grief and we act as if we are very concerned when they are sad. But truly speaking we are happy in others sorrow. We have become so selfish.
Don't give others what you don't want and give others what you want!

2. Blessedness: (परमानन्द):

The second goal of our life is blessedness. Waiting for an opportunity to do good is blessedness and in it lies true happiness. Power, wealth, status etc are all just happiness. Which one do we want? Happiness or blessedness? It is not necessary whether we have the money or not to do good for others. It is the question of whether we have the heart to do good when we will be capable enough. What is our mentality? What is the goal of our life? Doing good and going is blessedness and receiving good and going is happiness. A man during his last moments is sad as he will have to leave everything and go. No one remembers the one who got happiness but everyone remembers the one who does good. Happiness brings wealth, power, status to us but does not give us the feeling of gratification. For blessedness, we need time. How much time do we have to do good in our life?

A coconut tree grows to a height where no one can stand under it for shade. It is not considered benevolent. But a wood apple tree grows to a shorter height but is known for its benevolence as people can take its shade. A man who does good sleeps well in the night. Bringing blessedness along with happiness must be the true motto of our life.

3. Brahmanand (ब्रह्मानंद):

Brahmanand is having virtues in our life. These virtues will help us do good deeds in our life at all times. It encourages us to do good all the time. The true goal is not getting happiness or doing good but having good virtues that will help us do good at all times!

Strings Of Our Life

                                                               Day 6

Once a Saint was travelling in the night. It was very cold. The Saint thought that he has to stay somewhere. He found a house nearby. A man stayed there and said that he was a thief. The Saint still agreed to stay at his house. Days went by and the Saint almost stayed there for a month. While leaving the Saint had a smile on his face and said," I have learned a lot from you in this one month. You used to go out every night to rob someone and when you used to come unsuccessful, you used to say that if not today, tomorrow I will definitely get something. You had a ray of hope. I have also learnt from you to continue to follow on my path so that even I will get God someday!"

Requiring oxygen for life is a universal truth. We all have to take oxygen. Lord Mahavira was successful on spiritual path because he had composed well (सर्जन किया), stored well (संग्रह किया) and Given to the society (प्रदान किया).
The Sun, River, Trees always have the nature to give. A snake does not come under this category as it bites gives poison. What is our mentality in the field of giving? What have we contributed or given to our family, society, country and the world? If you have given only good then you are on the right path.
The society does not give love to the one who does not contribute.
The guilty feeling for the past sins will spoil the future. It will disturb our mentality. Thinking and worrying about the future will also do the same. But how thankful are we for our present? We have to leave the past and the future and concentrate only on the present. Are we sad for the things that we have not got or are we happy for the things we got when we least expected them?
Do not just compose and store the good but have the nature to share and give it to others. Is a narrow gauge line better or a broad gauge line better? When we prefer broad gauge lines, why is our mentality and mind not broad? How much is our interest in sharing and giving?
Giving does not mean just money, it can mean anything that we can give to the society. Happiness lies more in giving than in receiving!

There are four steps to go on the spiritual path:

1. Garb Khand(गर्ब खंड):
Garb Khand means stopping our eyes, ears, nose, tongue from seeing, hearing or doing anything wrong. What is our mentality to leave the bad? Are we ready to stop criticizing or speaking bad? Are we ready to stop seeing anything bad? What are our efforts in this field? It is a big challenge and struggle to leave the bad. Lord Mahavira always followed this path and left all the worldly pleasure.

2, Karma Khand(कर्म खंड):
Karm Khand means to change and become good. It is to stop doing bad and start doing good. Until there is bad filled in our minds we will not be able to do anything good. 

3. Varg Khand(वर्ग खंड):
The effort to keep training the mind and the heart to see and do only good is Varg Khand. There will be no more struggle as the mind is already trained well. Is our mind open or have we trained it? We don't step into gutter water, they why do thoughts equivalent to gutter come to our minds? A snake remains snake and cannot become a swan. A swan will remain a swan and can never become a snake. Our mind can become both a snake or a swan depending on us. In the spiritual path, we cannot even think of doing wrong.

4. Dharma Khand(धर्म खंड):
This is when we have achieved our true nature that no one has the strength to move you. No one can move you even in times of pain or temptation.

Strings of Our Life

                                                                      Day 4

To take our life on the right path there are five things to remember:

1. We Need Light (प्रकाश):
In our day to day life, we always step out during the day and not in the dark. Why don't we step out in the dark? The answer is because we might fall down as we cannot see in the dark. Similarly in the spiritual path we need the light of wisdom. This Light of wisdom is necessary to leave the bad and take only what is good. What do we want from a Guru? Light! Leaving the world is tension but having no more love for worldly things is a way to happiness. How many occasions have occurred where we are happy leaving the sins? Sacrifice is that which is the reason for happiness and not for stress.

2. We need Positive Attitude (प्रेरणा मिले):
We need positive attitude in our life and also in the spiritual path. The definition of beginning and end in the spiritual path is as follows:
"I love God - is the Beginning and God loves me - is the End!"
A poor man has to first love a great man to become like that. What is our angle to have a positive attitude always.To have a positive attitude, we must first stop complaining and criticizing. There should be no negativity at all. In the world full of sorrows, we must be thankful that we have only this many sorrows and not more!

3, No more ANY HOW(प्रमाणिकता मिले):
It is very important to remove the word ANY HOW from our life. It means going on the right path always and not cheating people to achieve your goal. We think that the sins that no one has seen or knows is not sin at all. What does our conscience say? What is our mentality? Do we have the strength to reject the word ANY HOW? We must never make use of any one who is helpless.

4. Progress ( प्रगति मिलती):
Progress means we have not yet reached our goal but we know that we are about to reach our destination or our goal. If we want to know what is good in us, we have to ask our enemies as our enemies will know this better. If we want to know our weakness, we have to ask the ones near us and our close ones. They are like mirrors to us. Keep your criticizer always next to you as this will help in your growth.

5. Result (परिणाम चाहिए):
Result is when you have reached your destination or goal. If we follow the above four steps, result will follow by itself.

Strings Of Our Life

                                                                Day 3

There are four types of situation we might be in:

1. ADHMADHAM (Very Miserbale):

If an empty plot has not boundary it would be attacked by animals, thief and also by dust. Similarly, an empty mind that has not restriction will be filled with filthy thoughts. If a boundary is necessary for a plot, a boundary is necessary for the mind also. How much is our effort to improve our mind? All filthy thoughts come to our mind. Even where is no cause around, when the mind thinks wrong or filthy we say it is a situation in which we are very miserable. When we are free, what are the kinds of thoughts that come to our mind? Why don't good thoughts come to our mind? Bad thoughts don't come, we invite them.
Bad thoughts are like the dacoit that enter your house without any invitation and good thoughts are like guests who don't come to your house without invitation. We can control our bad thoughts if we want to.

2. ADHAM (Miserable):
A person who goes in search of a wrong cause comes in this category. Watching TV, Going out when free, reading supplementary vulgar magazines or newspaper are all ways of searching for a wrong cause to invite bad thoughts. We are mostly interesting in hearing some bad news or some vulgar news from others rather than hearing good news. We must create the interest to grab the good news from all over the world and also have such friends who give only good news. Even if the other person brings some vulgar news, why do we give our ears to hear it? We must make use of the advanced technology that can bring good news to us. Good news is like no news to us as we are interested only in bad news.

3. MADHYAM(Middle or Second Best):
When a wrong cause comes in front of our eyes and then if we are unable to control our eyes, we would fall under this category. The person in this category does not go in search of wrong but it somehow comes in front of his eyes. A person in this category wants to become good but a wrong cause stops him from doing so. Girls who wear improper clothes, hotels, theaters, college, posters are all becoming the reason for being in this category.

4.UTTAM (Excellent):
No matter how many wrong causes come in front of the eyes, a person in this category never loses his mind. He is not affected by such situations at all. This is the most challenging situation. In the past a grown up girl was also not allowed to sit alone with her father!

If we are not in the fourth category, then we must not be in the first category also. The one in the third category knows his weakness and will be able to save himself. He wants to save himself from committing sins. If a train driver sleeps off, even then there is less possibility of the train meeting with an accident as the train is running on a track but if  truck driver sleeps off, the truck will definitely meet with an accident as the truck does not run on a track!
If we are going on a path filled with dirt with weak legs and someone offers to give a stick to walk, accept it as it will save us!

Strings Of Our Life - Day 2

                                                                  Day 2

There are four important things to keep in mind and that we need in our life:

1. We need Good Deeds (पुण्य):
Towards what kind of good deeds is our heart attracted to? The good deeds that bring us closer to God is very hard to obtain or is almost impossible. We will not be sad for the thing that we are not happy to receive.  If money is lost, we are sad but we are least bothered if we do not get a glimpse of God in the temple. What is our mentality? Why is there no attraction towards good deeds that bring us closer to God? We cannot love anyone, love just happens. Meera was ready to consume poison for Sri Krishna whom she had never seen at all.

2. We need Intellect(प्रज्ञा):
We lack understanding and intellect that we need to identify God. If we give laptop or mobile in the hands of a cow herd, he does not have the intellect to operate it. What is our mentality? We have God in our lives but we don't have the intellect to understand who is God. We should never waste time as time once lost will never come back. We need the intellect to understand business or the intellect to understand God?

3. We need Ability(पात्रता या योग्यता):
We need the ability to implement God's teachings. For example, if we like a sweet and if we get it, it is due to our good deeds, we have the understanding to eat it, but if our stomach is upset, it means we do not have the ability to eat the sweet. Being able to store is one strength, being able to secure it is another strength and being able to increase what we have is our real ability. If we do not have enough ability then we have to keep waiting. The foundation of faith and devotion has to be strong. Our new generation is more interested in logic than in faith. Advanced technology is slowly ending our abilities.
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4. We need Manliness(पुरषार्थ):
If we like a sweet, our manliness is in chewing and being able to eat the sweet. Where are we lacking? Are we lacking in Good Deeds, Intellect, Ability or Manliness? If our stomach is full or we are in tension, we will say not to our favorite sweet also. Similarly if we are not able to give God a place in our heart, it means we lack manliness.

In these four, if we have to choose any one, then we have to choose Ability. The rest will follow. In spiritual path, if our ability is going down every day, then we have to understand three things:
a. We don't have the strength to listen to our weakness.
b. We don't have the strength to accept our weakness.
c. We are not ready to change.

If you have less expectations from people, you would be loved by them.

Strings Of Our Life

                                                           Pravachan 3/12/2012

Tansen was a famous singer and musician in Akbar's court. He used to perform and sing for King Akbar. Akbar was so impressed bu Tansen's music that he wanted to meet his Guru. Tansen refused to take Akbar to his Guru. On being asked why, Tansen replied that his Guru stayed in a village and would not meet anyone. Akbar insisted on meeting his Guru. Tansen then said that Akbar can meet his Guru on one condition. He said that Akbar should come along with him dressed up like a lay man and not like an Emperor. Akbar agreed. They went to the village to meet his Guru and Akbar asked Tansen's Guru to sing for him. The Guru angrily replied," Are you foolish? Why would I sing for you?" and he asked him to go out.
Akbar was surprised and asked Tansen for the reason his Guru would not sing for him. Tansen replied that they would wait outside the hut and wait for the Guru to sing. After sometime the Guru sand and Akbar was very impressed. He said that Tansen was nothing in front of his Guru. Tansen replied that he can never match his Guru because he sings for Akbar and his Guru sings for God's happiness!

In whose hands is our life? Who has rights to our life?
There are five things in our life:

1. Nature: 
Nature is such that we cannot control it. We are helpless if a Tsunami, earthquake, Heat or heavy rains comes. We are slaves to nature. Nature can end everything we have built in life. No matter how much technology has advanced, Nature can end our ego. We are in the hands of nature.

2. Family:
A father is powerless in front of his son, a husband is helpless in front of his wife. An 8 year old boy tortures his father for a video game and says if he does not get a video game he would commit suicide. The father is helpless and agrees. After few years, his father regrets as his son today brings prostitutes home. Family can change anytime, so we need to be alert.

3. Situation:
Today we have become so weak that we wan to commit suicide even if one little situation goes against our expectations. We cannot do anything in front of any such situation.

4. Good Deeds:
It is due to our good deeds that we can hear, see, talk, walk, think etc. But this is also not in our hands. It can change anytime.

5. Trust in God:
Surdas once falls in a pit. He has faith that Shree Krishna would definitely come to save him. Surdas was blind. A man came and gave his hands to help him. He immediately understood that it was Shree Krishna. He did not want to come out of the pit as Krishna would then leave him and go. But Shree Krishna some how pulled him out and started going off. Surdas just stopped him and asked one question. He said you might leave me now and go, but try to vacate my heart, then I would understand. God would never leave our hands at anytime.

As long as Nature, Family, Good Deeds and Situations are in our favor, we have to do good and remember God. When those things sometime will not be in our favor, we would be helpless!