Five Steps to attain Salvation

I had been hearing about the attainment of salvation from my very childhood. The stories from Puranas which also turned out to be our bedtime stories, pointed out the importance of Salvation/ Moksha. As a child the word appeared to be out of bounds to children and strictly for the grown-ups. Still at times the questions, what moksha is and how it could be achieved crept into the mind.Though it could not hold sway for much time; kept coming back from time to time.How could one  attain Moksha? I asked many. But the answers i got didn't satisfy me at all.

The growing up years and the world around me, pushed my doubts to the back corner of my mind, but never into oblivion. And i always knew that i will come to know about it one day.

And that one day came without any drama, when my Guru embraced me into his fold. His teachings were a great revelation and it also gave me a sense of deja-vu. Not of this life, maybe of a previous one. The blessings of the Guru might have swept away the darkness from my inner-eye. And these are what i found:


The five steps to attain Salvation / Moksha:

Knowing oneself.

Knowing the Supreme Being.

Knowing the path leading to the Supreme Being and following it in total faith.

Knowing the hurdles one has to face, while following the chosen path to the Supreme One.

Knowing the bliss, when one surpasses all hurdles and reaches the Supreme Being.                

I'll try to deliberate on the above later.

Selfie

We have come across many many definitions and descriptions on friends and friendships. How much of it is true? Is it possible to have a friend who understands us inside out.                                                             

In my experience i have got lots of good friends. We value and understand the goodness in each other. As for me, the topic of discussion with each friend is different, with one i discuss spirituality, with another i delve  on the intricacies of cooking, and yet another, we giggle throughout on trivial things and end up light hearted.

And Each of these relationships are important to me. Knowingly or unknowingly we never discussed unpleasant things, we loved and enjoyed the time spent together. I have never shared my deepest fears and insecurities with anyone. I always solved those myself.

This is how i became a true- blue selfie
As a youngster i held on to props,
My friends true- blue.
Time and tide,parted ways
with My friends true- blue.
Life carried me to new places
I tried, but could not find
New friends true- blue
Then  realized:
Overlooked the real one,
My Self
My friend true-blue.

Karma Yoga

What is Karma Yoga? Let us start with the meaning of the phrase. Karma means action and yoga* means union and the whole phrase literally means union of action. In short, Karma Yoga is the process of achieving perfection in action. It is the path of selfless service.

There are different levels of actions: Physical, emotional ( senses), mental, intellectual. A human being is usually pulled apart by these different levels of action, which in turn takes him away from his life plan - purification of the soul and finally salvation.

To attain Karma Yoga the body, the mind, the intellect and the senses must function in unison. For this to happen one should allow the life-plan to takeover - leave the rest to the Supreme Being and become just a witness to the magic that unfolds before one. 

*Yoga is the union of the mind, body and spirit. Yoga is the realization of the oneness of the individual consciousness to the cosmic consciousness. 

Master oneself

When one is born to a certain dimension, the nature of the dimension deploys its effects on the being. Genuine intention, honesty, constant aim and effort are needed to overcome these effects and find one’s true path to Salvation.

To live on this planet one needs a body which is composed of the PANCHABHOOTHA ( 5 elements ) – air, water, fire, ether, and  earth. The Panchabhootha  needs the PANCHENDRIYA ( 5 senses ) – smell, sight, sound, touch and taste, to experience life on Earth. The senses evoke desire in  human beings and in the long run enslaves the majority of them. The humans ignorant of the repercussions of being enslaved to their own senses, become trapped in the unending cycles of birth and death. Succumbing to ones senses increases ones karmic obligations, the result of which is more and more lifetimes.

What is the point of having more and more similar lifetimes?  Just a waste of precious time. One can overcome this by mastering one’s senses. When one masters one’s senses, the real world presents itself before him, where he is one with all. This develops detachment. Detachment is the first step towards salvation.

The Purpose of Life

"Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is reached." 

          - Swamy Vivekananda.


Each and every living being has a purpose in life. What is it? .......... It is to seek the Para Brahman, The Supreme being. Is it so easy??? ..........not at all. But each life is a step towards the goal.  

But there is no compulsion, no time frame. One can take one's own time to start one's pursuit of the Truth. One can start now or a few lifetimes later.

Once the decision is made, one should be like Tennyson's Ulysses and his men: 'To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.' Here is where Meditation comes to one's aid. It expands one's consciousness.  Every seeker must spend some time to meditate.

Sharanagathi

Everyday before meditation i do Sharanagathi......er.... What is Sharanagathi??? Well, Sharanagathi is the total surrender before the Supreme Being.

What does a human being achieve through Sharanagathi? I too didn't know about it,  until i happened to read an article in a Faith column:

When one surrenders oneself to the Supreme Lord, all the Sanchitha Karma (past life karma) and  Aagaami Karma (future life karma) are nullified.

But one cannot avoid the Prarabdha Karma (present life karma). One has to work ones way out of it.

When one surrenders completely, ones Kriyamana Karma ( Instant Karma ) becomes good. Thus the burden of Agaami Karma will not increase. 

But all the good Karmas are of no use  if you don't do Nishkaama Karma (Service).

The Taurus Full Moon had been a great eye-opener.

Akashic Record

Many among us write about our day to day activities in our diaries, most of us don’t. But the truth is each and everyone of us write our diary and that too with objectivity – even the fleeting thoughts are recorded. Every thought, every activity, every word are recorded by us and ChitraGupta is just a keeper of those records. This happens in ‘higher levels.’

Not only this, we are born with a plan - we have a purpose to fulfill in each life. But after birth we gradually forget and later 'pretend sleep' about the purpose, at least most of us, because that is the easiest thing to do.

And I think, a compilation of our life purpose and what we do on earth is known as Akashic Record in the esoteric circles. This record is not about a single life.

In the physical realm we put up a show. We foolishly think that no one is aware of what is going on within us, however malicious that might be. 

But the instance we take our eyes off the physical realm, we ourselves record everything very very  honestly.So in a way we keep a tab on ourselves. We spread our lifelong fare before the Supreme Being to be seen or 'judged.'

Love Oneself

 "You have to love yourself because no amount of love from others is sufficient to fill the yearning that your soul requires from you."             
- Dodinsky.  

Everywhere we can see posters, slogans, festivities etc. etc. waxing eloquently about love. But if you ask people about it we'll get a myriad of reactions and replies, which is very far from what it really is.

Actually what is love? .......................... Well, God is love. Most of us agree to this. So we,  being the creation of God, are love too. How many of us have truly realized this. True love starts with us or more correctly within us. If we don't accept the love that we are, how can we love another. Only a person who loves himself can truly love another. We cannot give away what we don't have.

The reason why i had to write what i wrote may appear silly to many. Most of the days i update status on my Facebook account and a few people take out their valuable time to read and like it. But whenever i share a status update on loving oneself, all of them shy away. Pretend they didn't see it. This is what happens in our day to day life. We just pretend - we close our eyes on the truth.

We are the World

God wants us to know that life is a series of beginnings, not endings. Just as graduations are not terminations, but commencements. Creation is an ongoing process, and when we create a perfect world where love and compassion are shared by all, suffering will cease. - --   -Bernie Siegel

'Sarvam Maya' - Everything is maya. Maya is the sanskrit word for illusion. Here illusion points towards the transient nature of human life.

Our life on earth is an illusion. What we think is real, is actually maya - a world created by our mental, emotional and physical states. We are, in fact, controlled by these illusory and mortal states which keep us tethered to a world of confusion. Confusion can only produce discord and desperation and finally delusion. All the misery we see around us is a manifestation of our delusions.

As humans we completely forget about our real and immortal self - the soul. We are born here to learn a lesson that could raise us to higher levels of spirituality. But as humans,  we conveniently forget about our duality and cling to the part that is not real. We forget about our immortal self and cling to our mortal state.

If we consider the journey of our soul as a book, each life can be equated to a word or sentence, but unfortunately most of us are not even able to complete an alphabet.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

GURU, How i met my Guru

'When the student is ready, the teacher will come,' this is applicable to every spiritual aspirant. But many a time we think we are ready and no teacher is out there for us. And we grow impatient. I had gone through this phase. Now i realise - when i thought i was ready, i wasn't really ready. I had to go through many many learning experiences that seasoned and matured me to intuitively accept my teacher, when he presented himself before me, posthumously though. Yes, i 'met' my teacher after he left his life on earth.

When i landed in Hyderabad, ten years ago, i had totally forgotten all about my search for a teacher. I was so embroiled in the mundane, and nothing beyond it attracted me. Six years passed. One day one of my acquaintances here called me up and asked me to attend a workshop on Pranic Healing. That was the first time i heard about it - Pranic Healing. I was not very keen about it, even though i promised attendance. And forgot about it totally. One evening the same person called me and asked why i was not there at the venue. That was when i remembered my promise. That person was so insistent that i attend the workshop and reminded me that the venue was just 150 metres from my house.So very reluctantly i attended the workshop..................... and that was the end of my search for a teacher.That was where i heard the name of my teacher for the first time - Grand Master Choa Kok Sui.

Guru's grace is a must to fulfill one's life-plan    - Sadhguru


Note: Afterwards, the acquaintance ended all contacts with me. Maybe that person's duty was only that - to connect me to my teacher. I am grateful to that person.

Reincarnation

Why do we reincarnate? This one question has puzzled many, and continues to. Once i too spent a lot of time over this. Read many books. Listened to many experienced people. And this is what i arrived at: A lifetime is to learn a lesson, a lesson which will bring one a  step closer to the Supreme Being. The whole life is planned before one is born, for that purpose.

We choose our parents, a few of our soul group are reincarnated along with us as our friends and relatives who are special to us. And enemies too. Hatred is as strong as love. Our worst enemies are reincarnated as our off-springs.Thus our hate is turned into love and we are made to serve them as responsible parents. What an idea, Sirji!

Though everything is pre-planned, we humans are not born as programmed robots. We forget everything after birth. Why? B'coz the Supreme Being has given us freewill. We are given the freedom to live our life on earth.

Now what do we humans do? Many a time we wander away from our truth, our life purpose. We just indulge ourselves in worldly pleasures. No! i am not saying that we must not enjoy the earthly joys. We can - in moderation. When we indulge in something we forget ourselves. When we forget ourselves, we get lost. We may get carried away like a log in the flood. We are not in control, some external force is carrying us, the end of which the carrier and the carried are unaware of. Both have no goals, then where is the Salvation? Forget Salvation, what about our life- purpose, of that particular lifetime? So the most important thing is awareness, Self-awareness.

When we become aware we start realizing that there is a purpose for life. This leads to self- discipline. And the practice of  Self- Awareness and Self -Discipline eventually leads to your Life-Purpose and a step closer to Salvation. So each purposeful life is a step towards Salvation or Moksha.

What happens if we have an epicurean mentality? The Supreme Being won't punish you. God is the epitome of infinite patience and mercy. God will wait patiently and lovingly for us, to come to our senses and get back on track Until we learn that particular lesson, we will be reborn into similar situations or similar lifetimes again and again and again................. How many of you would like to be in the same grade for ever?

Note: Life is a gift from God, for our redemption.

A Friend

A Friend

I’m my best friend,

Consciously and unconsciously.

I am in company, always.

And never alone.

My other friends are

My reflections,

My extensions,

Myself,

I see me in them

I am a part of each one of them

And they are a part of me

And we are a part of a Whole.

A friend to me is

Not a face

Not a body

A friend has no gender

I look at a friend

And see only a friend.

A friend to me has

The same color

The same faith

And the same status.

There might be segregations galore, but

I look at a friend

And see only a friend.

We are there in each other

When will we realize this?

We are here to grow together

When will we understand this?

We are here for a purpose 
When will we realize this?

We are here to evolve

When will we discern this?

I look at a friend

And see only a friend,
Myself.

Self-Healing

 Healing at your finger tips 

It started as a dull pain in my lower back. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It started building up. First I thought it was my bad posture that caused it. Then I started correcting my posture. Still the pain persisted. Now what? What about yoga…  I started doing some yoga postures, which gave good results in the past. But this time, NO. Days turned to weeks. Another doubt crept into my mind – am I suffering from UTI ?? I watched out for the other symptoms associated with UTI.  Nothing at all. You must be wondering why I am not visiting a medical practitioner, to get diagnosed. The reason is simple. I don’t like to.

I was still  pondering and analyzing about the cause. Meanwhile, the pain grew impatient, it was waiting to be suppressed, but nothing like that happened. Being left unguarded it shifted to my hips.  My analysis followed the pain. The pain seemed to love the freedom. It started moving down my right leg. Maybe the pain thought it was doing the right thing. Days passed.

Since I was cold shouldering the pain from day one, it too thought of turning cold. Tit for tat! My whole right leg became numb. I could still walk around. But any activity that involved raising my feet, for example climbing staircase, was faced with some resistance. I could raise my feet but not enough to clear a step.

Now, I don’t remember how many days I walked around in that condition. Then one night, suddenly I had this urge to visit the Pranic Healing Foundation. Next morning I took a cab to the Foundation. It was one of those days in the Foundation, when Arhatic yogis gathered to do intensive meditation. Being an Arhatic yogi myself, I joined them. The whole day was spent in meditations. In the evening when it was over and everyone was leaving, I stopped by the person who was guiding us throughout the day. She was a senior disciple of Grand Master Choa KoK Sui (the founder of Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga and my Guru). I always felt very close to her, not only me, all the others who have visited the Foundation and interacted with her felt the same. I told her about the problem I was facing. After hearing me she asked me to visit a doctor. I didn’t move a muscle, just waited for her to speak up. She must have sensed what was going through my mind. So she did the Pranic healing protocol of Scanning. Then she explained to me the protocol I should follow in self- healing. I was a Pranic Healer, who had been reluctant to heal self.  But this time I made up my mind.

Next day I sat down to heal myself. My right leg was still numb. I started healing. I used the Advanced Pranic Healing method. I completed the healing protocol and stood up. You won’t believe, my right leg was alright. The leg was normal.

Its more than an year now. It is nothing less than a miracle. The miracle of Pranic Healing. Thank you Master Choa Kok Sui. Thank you in full faith.

Note: No oral medications or external applications were used in the process.