HAIL HARMONY
Harmony is reminiscent of rhythm and melody. In relation to human personality, harmony symbolizes inner impulses of peace, poise and placidity in thought, talk and action. A harmonized personality radiates serenity, calmness and composure in all weathers and walks of life. The diversities of persons and fortunes, favourable or hostile, that he has to encounter in life, do not perturb him, at all. He stays stoically steady with regal unconcern. Harmony is splendid state of serenity within and without. If you know how to preserve peace and harmony within (your mind and soul), you would certainly be at peace with the world without. And, in return, the world would, by and large, be at peace with you.
The alpha and omega of human life is unity or oneness. This is the subtle mystical truth underlying the illusion of bewildering plurality. All of us emanated from the One; we are all sustained by the One and, ultimately, we will all merge into the One. Yet, during lifetime, we fail to see each other as one. That is why we do not evolve into one. Hence, we do not know any peace. For fragmenting and fracturing ourselves and our vision into so many splinters, we have to thank ourselves. Tensions, turmoils, sins, sorrows and sufferings are the natural outcome of ignoring the One. Harmony and happiness are the boons of the One. The highest rung of religion and spirituality is the unite state of consciousness. It, ultimately, culminates in the immersion of the individual self in the universal self, i.e. Absolute One. This, indeed, is redemption. In this unitary state of transcendent consciousness, man sees and knows the ultimate One (Reality) beneath all the apparent diversity. It is that ineffable state wherein the love, the love and the beloved are one; the seer, the sight and the scene are one; the seeker, the search and the sought are one; the entire creation and the creator are one. Love is the sine qua non of this unites state. The ultimate stage of merger in the One is preceded by unite contemplation of the One - the stage of Enlightenment. The objective of all mystical techniques is to terminate the multiplicity of thought and focus it at one point. In his famous work, Verities of Religious Experiences, says William James, "In the divine majesty, the ‘me’, the ‘thou’ and the ‘we’ are not found, for in the One there can be no distinction." This indeed is the life of the one spirit, advocated by the seers and prophets. In fact, all true morality lies in harmony with the One.
SELFLESS SERVICE:
The sight of a boy, carrying an invalid child up a steep hill, made a passer-by remark, "That must be a heavy burden, Lad." The boy smiled and said, "Burden, by no means, Sir. The child is my own younger brother." Would that such a sweet spirit of universal brotherhood permeated every human heart, while sharing the burden of his fellow men. Selfless service truly signifies spontaneous service of humanity, after subtracting from the circle of its beneficiaries, one’s won dear ones. The dawn of such a spirit would solve all the uphill tasks and turmoil faced in the workaday life by an individual in no time. Selfless service is love in essence and action - the core of Christian gospel. It also enshrines the magnificent message of Christ: "Take up the cross and follow me." In lieu of his selfless service of enlightening mankind, Christ was, however, nailed to the cross. Is "cross" then the fruit of selfless service? The answer is both "Yes" and "No". The cross was, in fact, the instrument of suffering and self-abnegation, chosen by Christ to win the world back to God, through love and selfless service. That is why the sufferings undergone by the Christians in life are affectionately called by them as "crosses" - tiny splinters of the cross of Jesus. The "cross", actually, symbolizes selfless service for a noble cause and high values. It is both an agony and an ecstasy. Life is all through littered with "crosses". Those who, shoulder them serenely, are surely redeemed. Self-sacrifice knows no limit. Love, the bulwark of the devotees of self-sacrifice - illumined souls - drivers them to do anything and everything and everything for humanity - their beloved. All heroes, seers, martyrs and great men fall in this category. They always carry the "cross" calmly on their shoulders. Such people, mindless of their own risk, throw themselves in selfless service. Like Abu Ben Adam, they are the darlings of God - universal men.
Selfless service activates and sublimates our own slumbering souls. Subtraction of one’s own gross self, ultimately, leads to desirelessness - the key to redemption. It purges us of all turbid impulses of self, i.e. egoism, attachment, avarice, aversion and anger. Selfless service teaches us to accept the kicks and kisses of life evenly. It is an instrument of our evolution and efflorescence. This discipline with its cosmic vision, takes us top fullness and fulfillment. True selfless service takes our neighbour and us to the tower of God and His righteousness. It transfigures and transmutes our life to reach the top. The essence of selfless service is crucification. Let us learn to crucify our baser passions and achieve regeneration.
DIVINITY IN THE DOCK
Overwhelmed by dark and dismal moments of dire misery, most of us are prone to put even God in the dock. Such moments of unmerited misfortunes are encountered quite often. A few illustrations. A bus carrying passengers is suddenly waylaid and the passengers gunned down in cold blood. An innocent virgin on her way to the college, is suddenly abducted, humiliated and disgraced by miscreants. A number of devotees engaged in prayers in a temple or mosque are killed by the collapse of a roof. A Mahatma Gandhi is shot to death, while praying in a congregation. Then there are terrific turmoil of wars, famines, floods, epidemics and earthquakes that entail deaths of thousands and lakhs of humans, without any apparent fault. How to explain these mysterious misfortunes!
Oh
God
"Why all this, Oh God" is the anguished outcry of victims. "Nearly all religious say that all that happens is Your will. Where then in Your much lauded goodness, grace and compassion? Have You become incapable of managing the affairs of the world properly? Why is Satan still at large, playing so much havoc?" When nailed to the cross for disseminating his divine gospel, even Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Bible, Matthew 27:46)? After hearing our S.O.S. when the Almighty fails to avert impending and unwarranted calamities, our faith falters. Our entire moral and ethical edifice crashes. Voltaire, no doubt, said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invert Him." After witnessing all the unjustified suffering, the cynic, however, justifiably says, "Is it not advisable to abolish God even if one exists?" Wasn’t Thomas Hardy right, after all? "Human affairs are generally governed by ruthless chance or relentless destiny. Not by a benign God." Blasphemous sentiments!
Against the long list of serious allegations against the Almighty must be set the manifold bounties so profusely bestowed by Him. From where emanates the inexhaustible wealth of food grains, fruits, animals and birds for nourishing and sustaining billions of humans? Who provides endless stocks of air, water, heat and light sine quanons for our existence? Who infuses in our inert frame of flesh, blood and bones, the ineffable flame of intellect and the spirit or soul? Surely, God, the infinite primal power. Has ungrateful man ever paused to ponder over the enormous price or value of various components of his fine frame, i.e. head, heart, eyes, ears, nose, hands and legs. Even the most skilful surgeon is incapable to procuring and piecing together these components into dynamic life. Though created in God's own image, the image is after all a finite thing. It suffers from fractional and fractured vision. It cannot envision the cosmic consciousness of the omnipotent original. That is why, man is quick to blame God for every wrong inflicted on him.
Man, the master of his destiny
The problem may, however, be viewed from another angle. The popular premise that not a leaf or branch can stir without divine decree and that God is the real background Actor of all human actions - adventures and misadventures - is a mere fallacy. It cannot be accepted at its face value. If cannot be accepted at its face value. If God created man in His own image, it was logically fair for Him to empower His image (the crown of creation) with a measure of His own omnipotence. And man has, actually, been so endowed with that power potential in the form of his free will or choice. Is not man then the architect of his own bloom or doom? This postulate is confirmed by the overriding Law of Karma (Action and Reaction) in the metaphysical realm. The impact of this law may range to several incarnations for its full manifestation. Every idea, word and action of ours, emanates from our own free- will and independent personality. It, ultimately, culminates in our destiny - all that happens to us. Why then put Divinity into the dock?
God, a Constitutional Head
We would also do well to realize that God is not an arbitrary or autocratic ruler. He functions only as a constitutional head. He does not rule. He simply reigns. He simple supervises the proper functioning of the fundamentals framed by Himself. All His so-called doings are, in fact, regulated by certain rational rules and regulations - physical and metaphysical. Outer or physical forces of motion, gravitation, liquids, gases, sound, magnetism, electricity and even atomic energy do not operate chaotically or at random. All physical, biological and chemical activities are governed by certain specific laws. These laws, originally, formulated by God or Nature were later on discovered by scientists through long researches. But there are still vast twilight areas of other laws, psychological, ethical and metaphysical, that are almost a sealed book for scientists. Certain glaring anomalies of life are so agonizing. The sinners, generally, flourish in life. The saints and the virtuous, however, suffer. Such question marks throw a challenge to our psychologists, social scientist and mystics. Mammoth intensive research projects are needed in these spheres as also in the realm of mind and Karmic Law (Cause and Effect). Then some rational nexus will be traced between our 'unmerited' sufferings and our own doings. The myopic man, a microcosm, may then be able to probe into the vast magnitude of macrocosm.
Paradise regained
Man is said to have lost his perennial paradise by his disobedience of a divine decree. The paradise is not, however, lost for good. By identifying and illuminating his individual gross self with the glow of infinite and absolute self, man can, certainly, regain the lost paradise - kingdom of bliss and beatitude. Let him learn to break the barriers of flesh and finitude. Let man set himself (his spirit) in tune with the infinite and the universal self. And lo, he will at once be transmuted into the Infinite and the Universal, even in this life!
TOLERANCE, A TOWERING TRAIT
In the event of global contest in Tolerance, the Almighty God would easily secure a sweeping success. The reason in crystal clear. He is gracious enough to tolerate and treat even agnostics and atheists, as nicely as his devotees. What is true of the Creator, does not, however, hold good of His animate creation. Lions, leopards, tigers, wolves, hawks and eagles do not tolerate the existence of weak and innocent creatures. They tear the letter to pieces. The gracious Almighty God surprisingly watches this ghastly game unconcerned. This, indeed, is beyond the range of human reason and logic.
Inanimate objects, e.g. plants, planets and food grains, however, observe the golden rule of tolerance. They act on the principle of "Live and let live", which sums up the significance of toleration.
Format
Laughing
Barbaric role of
man
Man, the crown creation, created in God's own image, is doubtless the worst offender in tearing tolerance to pieces. His performance, in butchering and maiming his fellow men in religious and communal clashes, and orgies of war and violence leaves the beasts miles behind. The gospels of goodwill, love, compassion and self-sacrifice for our brethren, projected by prophets, saints and seers, from time to time, have made very little impact on our violent and aggressive nature. Iraq, Ceylon, Assam, Kashmir and Punjab are typical illustrations of our brutal bouts. Nuclear weapons now pose a terrific challenge to the ideal of tolerance, and even to the survival of mankind.
Dire need
It is in the domain of religion and faith that tolerance or its lack plays the most paramount role. The rigid stand in faith and religion culminate in communal bloods-baths and makes brute of men. Devotees of tolerance in these fields like Emperors Ashoka and Akbar are fondly remembered and revered even today. Tolerance, actually, means the capacity to endure a different culture, outlook or ideology. In Gita (7:7), Lord Krishna expounded that all this (creation) is strung on him like clusters of gems on a necklace. This message of peaceful co-existence is, in fact, the essence of tolerance. Different flowers emitting their peculiar fragrance in a garden, too, project the gospel of tolerance. Different religions are just like variety of fragrant flowers.
Implications
Tolerance teaches us to impose a conscious control on our wild and wayward impulses. It symbolizes spiritual disciplines of Daman (suppression of vicious passions), Sanyam (self-control) and Pratyahara (restraint of senses from external objects), which are stepping-stones to higher consciousness and illumination. The spirit of tolerance also induces us to let the other man follow his own pattern of life and philosophy, and rightly restrains us from interfering in his affairs. Such an attitude of tolerance mitigates frictions and fissures in human relations and enhances our joy and pleasure. Tolerance saves us from the onslaughts of anger, and enables us to see the entire mankind as our own kith and kin like a Braham Gyani (realised soul). It would not be wrong to say that tolerance is the first step towards enlightenment and bliss.
Practical Tolerance
MESSAGE OF SCRIPTURES
Like ever-changing styles of hair and dress, certain religious concepts, too, vary with time. For centuries, scriptures have been held in great reverence for projecting priceless message of love and light for mankind. However, a good many persons are growing allergic towards the scriptures and their quotation. A tendency to treat them as archaeological antiques is manifest. This is certainly an ominous development.
Scriptures are believed to be Word of God Himself, compiled under divine direction. Or, they are known to have been written by prophets, god men, saints and seers under divine inspiration. The scriptural quotations have, by and large, been recorded in majestic and melodious poetic language that transport the devotees into divine ecstasy and trance. The sweet and soothing impact and thrill of listening to hymns of scriptures on frayed nerves and turbulent minds is unquestionable. Believers even find solutions to their perplexing problems in hymns of their particular scriptures opened at random. Though couched in different languages and styles, the keynote and highest common factor of various scriptures is essentially the same. They chant the glory and supremacy of God. They also inspire man to lead a godly and righteous life of love and selfless service.
In this nuclear age of virulent violence terrorism and towering hatred, never was the message of scriptures more relevant and direly needed than today. The present-day dismal scenario is, in fact, due to loss or decline of our faith in scriptures. Such decline of faith, in truth, amounts to decline of faith in Almighty Father and His doings. A family or society which becomes a victim of this malady, i.e. loss of divine faith, is doomed to decay and disintegration. This is the grim fate that faces mankind today. With the unleashing of nuclear warfare and vanishing faith in the scriptures and the Supreme Father, there is a genuine apprehension, that ours may be the last generation of mankind.
Every scripture, if read between the lines, is a gold mine of God-knowledge (Brahma Gyan) or Enlightenment. It is a treasure trove of high vision and values, love and light. How can there be any bond of universal brotherhood between man and man, without consciousness of a common universal Father? This is, indeed, the message of scriptures that we are forgetting to our cost.
The role of scriptures in regenerating sagging human character, personality and hence human destiny is beyond belief and expression. What education and psychology failed to accomplish in years, a word from scriptures did in a moment. The pious state of human heart and soul, while participating in a congregation, is an unmistakable pointer to the transcendent impact of scriptures. All turbid and base impulses evaporate from human heart in rapport with the Father in a congregation.
Chanting from scriptures are known to have wrought miracles. Sullied sinners, assassins, dacoits and fiends were sublimated into saints and seers by the clarion call of scriptures. Some of the instances of such ascension and transformation are to be found in the persons of Balmiki, the dacoit, Kauda, the fiend, Ajamal, the robber, Sajjan, the swindler and the assassin. Ganka, the prostitute, etc. They and many other debased and depraved persons were redeemed by the spell of scriptures. Why can't you and I, particularly, when the Nirankari Baba, the contemporary True Master, is ready to bestow on the aspirants the true essence of scriptures?
HAIL CONTENTMENT
"Dissatisfaction is life, contentment death, "says the go-getter. Power, position, pelf and pleasure stay poles apart from the contented man. Contentment stands for stagnation and senility. It rules out evolution, dynamism and development. Contentment is the coveted kingdom of a lotus-eater and languor. Not for him fields fresh, and pastures new! He is even content with his miserable and lowly lot till eternity. With this lacklustre picture, would you still vote for a contented life? By all means.
The above putrid picture of contentment has to be taken with a grain of salt. Calmness, steadiness, peace and serenity of the contented person is indeed the envy of gods, and dwellers of heaven. The contented man is free from avarice and ambition - a Jivanmukta (liberated one). His is a liberated soul, free from the bonds of matter and mind. He is a citizen of the spirit, ever free and unfettered. Contentment does not mean a life of inertia and stagnation, but one of slow and study action and elevation. The contented man may lack the fire, fury, glamour and glitter of the ambitious and the enterprising folk. But he enjoys the wealth of abiding peace and happiness. Unlike common man, he is free from turmoil and turbulence - the hallmarks of hell.
A discontented person is greedy and selfish. He cannot even think of sharing the boons and bounties of life with his fellow men. Nor is he grateful to God for these dainties. On Gita (3:12), Lord Krishna has censured such a selfish/discontented man as a "thief". The contented man is fully satisfied with the share of material and mental assets allotted to him by Divinity. He, however, continues his smooth march onwards towards perfection and excellence. But to achieve all this, he banks on the grace and benevolence of God. Content and humble, he himself would not take any credit for his achievements. He does not lose his balance and cool even if his enterprise fails. That is the essence of contentment. Gita (3:20) advocates an active and earnest performance of one's duty. The contented man does not seek satisfaction in position and possessions from without. He finds it in his inner self, full of abundance of life, peace and plenty. The contented one never loses his sense of values and discrimination. Unlike the discontented person, poets, thinkers and mystics have invariably appreciated contentment as a source of bliss in this world of tempests and tensions.
Be
content with such things as you have.
-Bible
(Hebrews 13:5)
When
we have not what we like, we must like what we have.
-Bussy
Sweet
are the thoughts that savour of content. The quieter mind is richer than a crown.
-R.Green
Uneasy
lies the head that wears a crown.
-Shakespeare