My Invocation
I have always regarded dharma as an occupation that is able to sustain my existence. Consequently, I had been reasonably successful and more than able to sustain my existence by coordinating all my activities with the blessing and help of the Supreme Lord.
There always were two types of occupation for me. The first one, although inferior in nature, had been the path of enjoyment where I created my material existence that was temporary, illusionary and gave me many miseries.
The second one was the superior path of renunciation or sacrifice that I was able to perform for my internal joy, satisfaction and cause.
However, to help me get out of my miseries and confusions I tired and managed to follow my existence as spiritually as I possible could to make my life somewhat eternal, blissful and reasonably knowledgeable. I accepted my miseries as normal materialistic existence. I enjoyed happiness, made good progress in life and there was ample prosperity.
God Almighty granted me whatever He thought was adequate for me because I managed to accept some aspects of the superior existence by conducting good humane actions, my karma. I firmly believed that God Almighty extracted part of His Being (soul) to create me as a sentient human being therefore I regarded all creations of God as equal.
For me there never has been any superior or inferior human being and so I have been promoting equality among humanity where there was no room for any caste, creed or colour.
As for the definition of my religion, I have been a human creation of God Almighty and I have tried to put my best practice that enabled me to become a devotee of the Lord. In my humanistic devotion I see the spiritual element of my God (soul) in every human being that I interact with hence, I love, respect, like and honour everyone equally as far as they carry the qualities of humanity.
By giving and sharing some of my humanistic qualities, I have endeavoured to please my Lord who has bestowed many divine qualities into me in return with his richest blessings. I could not give Him anything else because of His omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient position. Thus, my entire existence and occupations have been flourishing. When the time comes, I shall return to live in the Realm of God.
Hindu scriptures reveal that the personality of the God Almighty is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the complete whole is also complete in itself because He is the complete whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance. This is my faith and I whole-heartedly believe in the supreme power of the Almighty God.
Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong.
One may aspire to live hundreds of years if he continuously goes on working in that way, for that sort of work will not bind him to the law of karma. There is no alternative to this way for human beings. God knows what to do with those that follow adverse living.
Everyone is engaged in action. The law of karma means that there are reactions to every action and that a person must endure the reactions to his actions.
According to yoga, every action, good or bad, produces some karmic reaction.
Actions that are “bad” create bad karmic reactions. A person who engages in heinous criminal actions or who lives simply like an animal, exploiting others, will have to eat the bitter fruit of such actions in the future.
The taker of the soul, whoever he may be, must enter into the planets known as the worlds of the faithless full of darkness and ignorance.
Although fixed in His abode, the Personality of Godhead is swifter than the mind and can overcome all other running. The powerful demigods cannot approach Him. Although in one place, He controls those who supply the air and rain. He surpasses all in excellence.
The Supreme Lord walks and does not walk. He is far away, but He is very near as well. He is within everything, and yet He is outside of everything.
The one who sees everything in relation to the Supreme Lord, who sees all entities as His parts and parcels, and who sees the Supreme Lord within everything, he should never hate anything nor any being.
Such a person must factually know the greatest of all, who is unembodied, omniscient, beyond reproach, without veins, pure and uncontaminated, the self-sufficient philosopher, who has been fulfilling everyone's desires since time immemorial.
One who always sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Lord, becomes a true knower of things. What then can be illusion or anxiety for such people?
Those who engage in the culture of absence of knowledge or awareness or ignorance and agnostic activities shall enter into the darkness region of ignorance. Worse still they are those who are engaged in the culture of so-called knowledge but not wisdom.
Unfortunately, most of humanity spends the majority of its time in the culture of ignorance. We cultivate ignorance by serving our tongue, belly, genitals, and other senses like obedient slaves. The vast majority of our energy goes into this mad pursuit of sense pleasure.
Left with frazzled nerves, frustration, anger, jealousy, envy, greed, hate, loneliness, and confusion; we seek an escape in alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and a myriad of other legal and illegal consciousness dimmers. This is the cultivation of ignorance.
There is no possibility of one's becoming a yogi, O Arjuna, if one eats too much, or eats too little, sleeps too much or does not sleep enough. ~Bhagavad-Gita 6:16
Nor is sense gratification considered “bad.” Sense gratification comes and goes as a natural occurrence of the senses. For example, one cannot eat without tasting.
The point is that a life that is cantered on sense enjoyment, that makes sense enjoyment the goal, is a wasted life. Economic development is necessary for the maintenance of the body; so therefore it cannot be neglected. However, to seek economic development simply for the sake of endlessly increasing sensual pleasure is foolish.
No amount of sensual pleasure will ever really satisfy a person, so no amount of economic development will ever be considered “enough.” This is why people in modern Western societies are still not satisfied, even though they are so economically advanced and thus have so much facility for sense enjoyment. They always want more.
Is there enough to go round? Immediately we encounter a serious difficulty: What is “enough”? Who can tell us?
Certainly he is not the economist who pursues “economic growth” as the highest of all values and therefore has no concept of “enough.” There are poor societies, which have too little; but where is the rich society that says: “Halt! We have enough”? There is none.*
What's really needed is to recognize the need for spiritual as well as material happiness. A society that has great material prosperity but lacks spiritual purpose is really a poor society. A body without the soul is a dead body—even if it is nicely decorated with fancy ornaments.
The wise have explained that one result is derived from the culture of knowledge and that a different result is obtained from the culture of ignorance.
For one who lives a hedonistic life, a life in which ignorance is cultivated, the results are envy, anger, greed, impatience, disrespect for others, anxiety, depression, hatred, ever-increasing lust, forgetfulness, frustration, dissatisfaction, duplicity, fear of death, and so on.
On the other hand, for a person who cultivates wisdom or true knowledge, the results are inner peace, satisfaction, patience, respect for others, freedom from duplicity, compassion, joyfulness, remembrance of his spiritual identity, freedom from the fear of death, freedom from anxiety and depression, and so on.
The negative social results of a society populated primarily by hedonistic people should be obvious to anyone. A society of self-cantered, animalistic people who have no other interest than their own sense enjoyment cannot be at all peaceful or progressive—either materially or spiritually.
However, the positive results of a society populated mostly by people who are serious about cultivating wisdom and spiritual understanding should be clear. If the citizens are peaceful, satisfied, respectful of others, compassionate, selfless, and so on, then society will be progressive both materially and spiritually.
It is believed that only the one, who can learn the process of ignorance and that of transcendental knowledge side by side, can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessing of immortality to attain nirvana.
Some neophytes on the spiritual path may fall into the illusion that taking care of the body is somehow evil, or a sign of spiritual backwardness. Not only may they neglect the needs of the body, but also they may go out of their way to actually damage the body. Such people actually hate the body. They see it as a source of misery, and thus they take out their anger on it. This is certainly a mistake.
Masochism can never lead to spiritual perfection. The body is actually a most precious property of the self; it enables the self to engage in various devotional activities that can bring about a change in consciousness. A person's external activities affect his consciousness, and his consciousness affects his external activities.
Knowing this, a bhakti yogi consciously chooses to engage in particular external activities in order to bring about the desired spiritual happiness and wisdom. If we love and like our body then we would look after it well and guard it against all evil acts and intakes.
A person who tries to abstain to become a swami or a yogi is careful not to engage in those activities that are harmful to his spiritual development. For example, he refrains from taking intoxicants (including all sorts of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and so on); from having illicit sex; from gambling; and from eating meat, fish, and eggs.
If a person engages in the process of bhakti yoga and yet continues to engage in activities that are detrimental to spiritual progress, his spiritual progress will be very slow. This does not mean that a person must be completely free of all bad habits before he can even begin the process of bhakti yoga. For example, in the Philippines, one teacher saved many young people who were addicted to heroin and other drugs by teaching them the process of bhakti yoga. It took some time before they could completely give up all drugs, but eventually they did.
Sometimes a person is still addicted to cigarette smoking or meat eating but if he or she follows the process of bhakti yoga, then gradually, he or she will be able to give up such habits. It is a question of tasting a higher taste. If a person engages in the process of bhakti yoga, he or she will gradually begin to taste the higher spiritual happiness, and he will be able to give up all vices naturally. After he gives up such bad habits, then his progress will be very rapid.
Those who are engaged in the worship of demigods enter into the darkest region of ignorance, and still more so do the worshipers of the impersonal Absolute.
It is said that one result is obtained by worshiping the supreme cause of all causes and that another result is obtained by worshiping that which is not supreme. All this is heard from the undisturbed authorities who clearly explained it.
One should know perfectly as the Personality of Godhead and His transcendental name, as well as the temporary material creation with its temporary demigods, men and animals. When one knows these, he surpasses death and the ephemeral cosmic manifestation with it, and in the eternal kingdom of God, he enjoys his eternal life of bliss and knowledge. (Nirvana, salvation, or mukti)
So my prayers are simply these: O my Lord, Sustainer of all our lives, Your real face is covered by Your dazzling effulgence. Please remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.
O my Lord, O primeval philosopher, maintainer of the universe, O regulating principle, destination of the pure devotees, well-wisher of the progenitors of mankind - please remove the effulgence of Your transcendental rays so that I can see Your form of bliss. You are the eternal Supreme Personality of Godhead, like unto the sun, as am I.
Let this temporary body be burned to ashes, and let the air of life be merged with the totality of air. Now O my Lord, please remember all my sacrifices, and because You are the ultimate beneficiary, please remember all that I have done for You. Let my karma be my treasure.
O my Lord, powerful as fire, omnipotent one, now I offer You all obeisance's and fall on the ground at Your feet. O my Lord, please lead me on the right path to reach You, and since You know all that I have done in the past, please free me from the reactions to my past sins, so that there will be no hindrance to my progress and prosperity.
The above invocation can be obtained from various Hindu scriptures for maintaining ultimate peace of the mind. I am not wise, I am not foolish but I am always on the path to seek more knowledge that will help me to live a useful and contented life. If in doing so I am able to live and let others live, I am a sentient human being subject to sins, mistakes and errors that should never be repeated but become my lead to move to truth, beauty and goodness of life.
As advised in Chapter Thirteen of the Bhagavad-Gita (13.8-12), one should culture knowledge in some of the following ways:
(1) One should become a perfect person and learn to give proper respect to others.
(2) One should not pose oneself as a religionist simply for name and fame.
(3) One should not become a source of anxiety to others by the actions of his body, by the thoughts of his mind, or by his words.
(4) One should learn forbearance even in the face of provocation from others.
(5) One should learn to avoid duplicity in his dealings with others.
(6) One should search out a bona fide spiritual master who can lead him gradually to the stage of spiritual realization, and one must submit himself to such a spiritual master, render him service and ask relevant questions.
(7) In order to approach the platform of self-realization, one must follow the regulative principles enjoined in the revealed scriptures.
(8) One must be fixed in the tenets of the revealed scriptures.
(9) One should completely refrain from practices which are detrimental to the interest of self-realization.
(10) One should not accept more than he requires for the maintenance of the body.
(11) One should not falsely identify himself with the gross material body, nor should one consider those who are related to his body to be his own.
(12) One should always remember that as long as he has a material body he must face the miseries of repeated birth, old age, disease and death. There is no use in making plans to get rid of these miseries of the material body. The best course is to find out the means by which one may regain his spiritual identity.
(13) One should not be attached to more than the necessities of life required for spiritual advancement.
(14) One should not be more attached to wife, children and home than the revealed scriptures ordain.
(15) One should not be happy or distressed over desirables and undesirables, knowing that such feelings are just created by the mind.
(16) One should become an unalloyed devotee of the Personality of Godhead, Shri Krishna, and serve Him with rapt attention.
(17) One should develop a liking for residence in a secluded place with a calm and quiet atmosphere favourable for spiritual culture, and one should avoid congested places where non-devotees congregate.
(18) One should become a scientist or philosopher and conduct research into spiritual knowledge, recognizing that spiritual knowledge is permanent whereas material knowledge ends with the death of the body.
These above eighteen items combine to form a gradual process by which real knowledge can be developed. One can seek and find a lot more ways through ones own enlightenment and knowledge.
Except for these, all other methods could be considered to be in the category of ignorance. It is maintained by people of knowledge that all forms of material knowledge are merely external features of the illusory energy and that by culturing them one becomes no better than an ass.
This same principle is found here in. By advancement of material knowledge, modern person is simply being converted into an ass.
Some materialistic politicians in spiritual guise decry the present system of civilization as satanic, but unfortunately, they do not care about the culture of real knowledge as it is described in the Bhagavad-Gita. Thus, they cannot change the satanic situation.
In the modern society, even a young person thinks that he or she is self-sufficient and pays no respect to elderly people. Due to the wrong type of education being imparted in our educational institutions, the younger people all over the world are giving their elders many headaches.
Thus, the culture of ignorance is different from that of knowledge. The universities are, so to speak, centres of shallow knowledge only; consequently, scientists are busy discovering lethal weapons to wipe out the existence of other countries. University students today are not given instructions in the regulative principles of brahmacarya (celibate student life), nor do they have any faith in any scriptural injunctions. Religious principles are taught for the sake of name and fame only and not for the sake of practical action. Thus, there is animosity not only in social and political fields but in the field of religion as well.
Nationalism has developed in different parts of the world due to the cultivation of shallow knowledge by the general people. No one considers that this tiny earth is just a lump of matter floating in immeasurable space along with many other lumps.
In comparison to the vastness of space, these material lumps are like dust particles in the air. Because God has kindly made these lumps of matter complete in themselves, they are perfectly equipped with all necessities for floating in space. The drivers of our spaceships may be very proud of their achievements, but they do not consider the supreme driver of these greater, more gigantic spaceships called planets.
There are innumerable suns and innumerable planetary systems also. As infinitesimal parts and parcels of the Supreme Lord, we small creatures are trying to dominate these unlimited planets. Thus, we take repeated birth and death and are generally frustrated by old age and disease.
The span of human life is scheduled for about a hundred years, although it is gradually decreasing to twenty or thirty years. Thanks to the culture of ignorance, befooled men have created their own nations within these planets in order to grasp sense enjoyment more effectively for these few years.
Such foolish people draw up various plans to render national demarcations perfectly, a task that is totally impossible. Yet for this purpose each and every nation has become a source of anxiety for others.
More than fifty percent of a nation's energy is devoted to defence measures and thus spoiled. No one cares for the cultivation of real knowledge, yet people are falsely proud of being advanced in both material and spiritual knowledge.
Scriptures warn us of this faulty type of education, and the Bhagavad-Gita gives instructions as to the development of real knowledge. This mantra states that the instructions of vidyā (knowledge) must be acquired from a dhīra. A dhīra is one who is not disturbed by material illusion.
No one can be undisturbed unless he or she is perfectly spiritually realized, at which time one neither hankers nor laments for anything. A dhīra realizes that the material body and mind he or she has acquired by chance through material association are but foreign elements; therefore he or she simply makes the best use of a bad bargain.
The material body and mind are bad bargains for the spiritual living entity. The living entity has actual functions in the living, spiritual world, but this material world is dead. As long as the living spiritual sparks manipulate the dead lumps of matter, the dead world appears to be a living world.
Actually, it is the living souls, the parts and parcels of the supreme living being, which move the world. The dhīras have come to know all these facts by hearing them from superior authorities and have realized this knowledge by following the regulative principles.
To follow the regulative principles, one must take shelter of a bona fide spiritual master. The transcendental message and regulative principles come down from the spiritual master to the disciple. Such knowledge does not come in the hazardous way of ignorant beings. One can become a dhīra only by submissively hearing from a bona fide spiritual master, a Guru.
Arjuna, for example, became a dhīra by submissively hearing from Lord Krishna, the Personality of Godhead Himself. Thus, the perfect disciple must be like Arjuna, and the spiritual master must be as good as the Lord Himself. This is the process of learning vidyā (knowledge) from the dhīra (the undisturbed).
An adhīra (one who has not undergone the training of a dhīra) cannot be an instructive leader. Modern leaders, teachers and politicians who pose themselves as dhīras are actually adhīras, and we cannot expect perfect knowledge from them. They are simply busy seeing to their own remuneration in dollars and cents.
How, then, can they lead the mass of people to the right path of self-realization? Thus, one must hear submissively from a dhīra in order to attain actual education.
As a sentient human being, I feel there are a variety of unnecessary traditional religious practices in Hinduism and all these are not giving the freedom to the believers to practice the truthful, good and beautiful ideas promoted by the books of knowledge. Those who want to change to follow their individual way of life and living have complete right and privilege to do so. There is no need for any one to impose their ideas on the devotees of God.
My prayers and devotional beliefs are my private and personal matters and I should be left alone to conduct my traditional and ceremonial obligations, as I want them to be done and not to be dictated by someone who has not attained the knowledge as I have gathered.
If I am able to perform my devotional duties with ease, my own understanding and my own internal beliefs then all my prayers give me an unlimited satisfaction that no other human being could have given me. My method, language and materials have no bearing on my individual prayer. I love to conduct my prayers the way I want.
A way of life that gives the freedom to the believers would flourish in this new world and any forced and imposed religion that clings to unnecessary and outdated traditional concepts would yield to other ways of inferior living. The sooner our illiterate and pakhandi people realize this vital point the better it would be for the salvation of our religion and our humanity.
In my 75 years of living, I have never imposed my views on anyone and I would not do it now and hereafter. My own home is the best and most peaceful temple for my good and wise family members and I and all my honest and faithful friends make up my entire community that I serve. My heart is the most peaceful place to keep the blessings of God Almighty.
I live and let others live. I do whatever voluntary work I am able to do for the society. Thus, I plan my acts and act my plans. This is my way of life. I love it.
