Post Box No. 167, Babesa, Thimphu, Bhutan. Tel. +975-2 ......• Asato Ma Sat Gamaya. Tamaso Ma...

Post Box No. 167, Babesa, Thimphu, Bhutan. Tel. +975-2-329245 Fax +975-2-326267; E-mail: [email protected] Prepared by Vivekananda Saraswati 1

BAALBIKAAS COURSES FIRST CLASES FIRS STEP - Prayer Mantras

• Asato Ma Sat Gamaya. Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya. Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya.

• Om Shaantih, Shaantih, Shaanti

• Lead me on from unreal to Real, from darkness to Light, from mortality to Immortality.

• This is the best prayer; the prayer for the Light, for the Truth, for Immortality.

• Om Saha Naa-Avatu | Saha Nau Bhunaktu | Saha Viiryam Karavaavahai |

• Tejasvi Naav[au]-Adhiitam-Astu Maa Vidvissaavahai |

• Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih || Meaning: 1: Om, Together may we two Move (in our Studies, the Teacher and the Student), 2: Together may we two Relish (our Studies, the Teacher and the Student), 3: Together may we perform (our Studies) with Vigour (with deep Concentration), 4: May what has been Studied by us be filled with the Brilliance (of Understanding, leading to Knowledge); May it Not give rise to Hostility (due to lack of Understanding), 5: Om Peace, Peace, Peace. (May that Knowledge give rise to Peace in the three levels - Bhautik, Pranik and Aatmik)

Prepared by Vivekananda Saraswati 2

Chapter-14


Never Argue

• Never argue. Never enter into an argument. Why do you want to win an argument? It offers you no tangible benefit. It will only inflate your ego, wound the other man and lead to friction between friends.

• Let the other man hold his opinion. There are incorrigible idiots in this world who can never be converted, who can never be made to see sense.

• Do not waste your time and breath on them. You will only suffer exhaustion and earn enmity.


Have No Expectation

• Have no expectation. Because expectation leads to anxiety and often to disappointment. You wait for the postman day after day. And ultimately he does not bring that important letter which you are expecting from your friend. Your frustration knows no limits. Why all this mental torture? No expectation, no disappointment. Whatever you are destined to enjoy or suffer, you will enjoy or suffer. Neither you nor anyone else can add to, or take away from, your quota of enjoyment or suffering. Knowing this, why should you waste your energy and time in anxiety? Forget the past. Have no thought for the future. Live in the present. To the best of your ability, discharge your responsibilities as they present themselves before you. There is a God to take care of the results.


• Some people say, "I do not care what happens to me. But I am worried about others." This is another kind of ignorance. Those who say like this are deceiving themselves. Do not worry about your son's madness or your daughter's running away with someone. By all means, do all you can to minimise life's tragedies, but do not worry an iota. Each individual is governed by his past Karma (despite all the 'rationalists' in the world) and no one has the power to alter anyone else's fate by so much as a hair-breadth. Even when A seems to be helping or harming B, it is God (nay, it is B's previous Karma) which is working through A and not A himself. Once you have understood this, you will not worry about others or about yourself. Worry saps energy and wastes time. It is effeminacy. The man who worries betrays ignorance of spiritual laws.

Have No Expectation


Gain God's Friendship

• No one is interested in you. Remember this point well.

• Don't expect the world to rush to your rescue in every bad situation. It will just not happen. Be up and doing, with faith in God. If God supports you and all the world opposes you, you will still succeed. But if you lose God and gain all the world's support, you will yet fail. Gain God's friendship. It is the greatest wealth. Once you have that, peace of mind is yours. You now have everything. Fear has fled. Anxiety has disappeared.


• See God in all. Feel unified in spirit with everyone and everything. You are not separate from the rest of creation. God is just another name for that mysterious life principle in you. Call it Life, call it Consciousness, call it Existence. This mysterious principle is all-pervading, eternal, one without cause and effect. Feel happy. Think, talk and walk in a manner befitting the grandeur of thy inner Being, the God within you. Shed all meanness, crookedness, cunningness, selfishness which are the hall-marks of a degraded man. Feel one with all in spirit. Your life will begin to move along right lines. Your spiritual evolution will be rapid. You will have all the peace of mind you want.

Gain God's Friendship


Pray to God

• Each day when you get up in the morning, pray to God for just two minutes. Surely you can afford that much time for your Creator every day. "O Lord! Use me today for working out Your Will in whatever way You deem fit. I make myself hollow and lay myself at Your disposal." "Aaj Meri Gati Tumhari Arati Ban Jaye! (May the course of my life today become an offering unto Thee, my Lord!)" If you say that, and remember your prayer to the Lord throughout the day, you will think twice before indulging in wrong act or taking a false step. Rather you will like to fill the day with as many good deeds as possible so that there may be more flowers in the garland that you offer to the Lord at day's end.


Pray to God

• Accept every experience in life as it comes. Do not grumble. Do not grudge. Do not feel sad. Do not feel glad either. Rest serene. If you gloat over something, you are inviting trouble. There is always action and reaction on the relative plane. If you laugh now, you will have to weep later. On a level ground, if you want to make a mound, you can do so only by making a pit to dig out the earth to make the mound. There is no mound without a pit, no smile without a tear. So remain level always. Remain serene always. Serenity is superior to boisterous giggling and laughter and the so-called happiness which only hides sorrow for the moment.


Obey the Will of God

• Learn to accept. Accept every happening in your life as the Will of God. "O Lord! Thy Will will be done"-let this be your only reaction to every twist and turn in life. God is your real friend. He is your greatest well-wisher. He gives various experiences-good and bad-only to mould you, chisel you, shape you into an effective instrument for the working out of His Will. Allow yourself to be shaped by His divine hands. Abandon yourself to His care. Do not struggle. Do not oppose. Allow yourself to be tossed by God's Will. Become a straw in the cosmic wind.


• Have no individual ego. This you can do only if you recognise the existence of God and the Will of God imperatively, only if you learn to see the absolute supremacy of God's Will over all human initiative and endeavour. Humility is not weakness. It is strength. The more the humility, the greater the accretion of strength. Your life will flow smoothly, because you offer no resistance to God's Will. There will be no friction. There will be no failure too, because you do not attempt to achieve anything by your own choice and will. But your life will turn out to be a tremendous success, because God's wisdom and strength will enter the vacuum of your being emptied of your egoism and fill it in the same manner as air rushes into a vacuum and fills it. This is the Law.

Obey the Will of God


Believe Utterly in the Unreality of the World

• The fundamental mistake that people without peace of mind make is to imagine that the whole world is made for their enjoyment and that everything and everybody in this wide universe should subserve their individual ends and that the whole world should bend to their plans. Do not try to extract enjoyment from this world. You can as well extract nectar from cobra's fangs! You will meet with disappointment, frustration, failure, misery. Rather know the world for what it is. The world is made for your experience, for your evolution. Grow wiser and spiritually richer with every experience. Experience is education. Experience is the greatest teacher. It is only the fool who thinks that this world is made for his pleasure. Says the scripture: Anityam Asukham Lokam. Asasvatam Duhkhalayam (Impermanent and joyless, verily, is this world).


• Read your scriptures with respect. Ever remember their teachings. Live by their teachings. There is no other way to peace of mind. Lastly, believe utterly in the unreality of the world. Believe, because all the seers of yore have proclaimed in no uncertain terms that the phenomenal world is only a dream world and that phenomenal experience is only a dream experience. And remember: they said that only after personally experiencing the unreality of the world and the Reality of pure consciousness. They were not fools. Nor are you wiser. Even when confronted with bitter experience, tell yourself: "All this is unreal. I am Pure Consciousness. I am God."

Believe Utterly in the Unreality of the World


Marriage

• Marriage is entry into the second order of life. The life of the householder begins here. Now he takes up his duties as man and pays his debts by means of sacrifice, by study and by procreating children.

• The bridegroom tells the bride: "I take your hand for good fortune. I seize your hand so that we may have good progeny, that you may live with me, your husband, till you become old. The one God has given you to me for performing the duties of a householder, to give birth to heroes, and, worshipping the one God, to bring about our happiness."


Marriage

• The husband repeats sacred formulae during the wedding ceremony. When a child is conceived, it should be done so amidst the vibration of sacred formulae. Good impressions are impressed in the brain cells of the embryo.

• To a real Hindu who is endowed with pure intellect and right understanding, sexual union is not for the sake of mere enjoyment. He utilises the divine, creative, vital energy for the formation of a human body.


The Hindu Ideal of Marriage

• Marriage is a sacrament for a Hindu. The wife is his partner in life. She is his consort. He cannot perform any religious ritual without her. She stands by his left side when he performs any religious rites. The husband and wife keep Rama and Sita as their ideal.

• Of all the orders of life, the second is the most important because it supports all the others. As all creatures live supported by air, so also the other orders exist supported by that of the householder. As all streams and rivers flow to rest in the ocean, so also all the orders of life flow to rest in the householder. The householder is the very heart of Aryan life. Everything rests and depends on him.


• What the wife is to a Hindu husband is well illustrated by a verse in the Ramayana where Lord Rama, referring to Sita, says: "In counsel she is my counselor; in action she is my servant; in religious performances she is my partner; in tolerance she is like the earth; in affection she is like unto my mother; in bed she is like the celestial Rambha; and in play she is my companion. Such, indeed, O Lakshmana, is my beloved." This is the Hindu ideal of a wife.

The Hindu Ideal of Marriage


The Four Stages of Life

• In our grand vedic culture they conceived of life in four stages: the preliminary stage, the development stage, the flowering or blossoming stage and the culminating fruitful stage.

• The satisfactory growth of the latter three stages truly depends upon the management of the first stage.


The Four Stages of Life -The Student Stage • The supreme value of the student period is incalculable. Student life is the most

precious life. The way in which you utilise this period will decide the nature of the coming years that lie ahead of you.

• Your happiness, your success, your honour and your good name all depend upon the way in which you live now. In this present period, you are preparing your future. Remember this. I wish you to be great.

• The world has put its faith in you. Your elders keep their hope upon you. Now is the time for you to wisely mould your life, your character, your physical health, and your entire nature. It is like the laying of the foundation for an important building you wish to construct. If this building is something very important to you, then just think how much more important its proper foundation becomes in your view. The strong and continued existence of the building depends certainly upon the foundation.


• This is the stage you are now in. Let your preparations be wise, correct, and of such a kind that will lead to your true welfare, supreme good, and lasting happiness. You should acquire knowledge not only of History, Geography, Mathematics, etc., but also about human nature, the science of self-control, the art of developing a pure mind, the duties of men and women, and the proper relationship between you, the world and God.

• Thus, the first 25 years of human life should be dedicated to acquiring good health, perfect character, self-control and all that is necessary for you to know in order to live life righteously, to be financially independent via some trade or profession, and to thus attain lasting satisfaction and happiness.

The Four Stages of Life -The Student Stage


The Four Stages of Life The second Stage : Married Life

• Having already created a firm and ideal foundation, the student enters into the second stage of life, the householder's life. One is not merely entering into a physical partnership with another physical creature, is not entering into a social relationship with another family, but is entering into a spiritual partnership with another soul in order to fulfil a mutually shared divine destiny, so that the relationship between husband and wife is essentially a spiritual partnership between two souls. Your spouse is to you everything: companion, friend, consoler, helper and partner in this great spiritual adventure. Such is the ideal and total concept of this relationship. With such an understanding, the home becomes not only a place for living the normal worldly existence, but also a place of worship and devotion. Daily worship, helping those in need, and honouring the guest (especially the chance visitor who happens to be at your door at the time of food) become primary duties of householders.


• Another aspect of the householders' duty is to evolve between themselves reciprocally a certain ideal behaviour of mutual love, honouring each other's individual freedom. Such an atmosphere becomes the ideal ground for nurturing the new generation. The children find that between their parents exists a beautiful relationship of harmony, love, mutual respect and tolerance, which creates an ideal atmosphere for their growth. Through their personal relationship the parents place before the children an exemplary way of conducting themselves which becomes the first educational process of the child. Home is, therefore, the nursery of the nation, nursery of the world. Providing an ideal setting and an ideal atmosphere for the generation of tomorrow is an important duty of the married couple.

The Four Stages of Life The second Stage : Married Life


The Four Stages of Life Third Stage : Retirement

• Having fulfilled the duties of raising children, making them adults capable of standing on their own feet, a new stage of life comes into being.

• Up till now you were entirely preoccupied with your family and your profession, providing for your parents, wife, children and other dependants.

• To a certain extent, it was a self-centred life, although one practised selflessness for the sake of the children and family. But now one must give way to the new generation.


• Having retired, with a little more leisure on your hands, and with a vast reservoir of professional experience and expertise, one has the time to become true selfless servants of the society, to become altruists and philanthropists.

• This is also the time for husband and wife, together, to enter more into the inner life, study, meditation, prayer, pilgrimage.

• We must realise that a time comes when we have to say "Good-bye". We have to prepare for that last journey.

The Four Stages of Life Third Stage : Retirement


The Four Stages of Life -The fourth Stage : Renunciation

• At this time of life the only duty is to gather together one's mind and place it upon the Supreme Being.

• That is the fourth quarter of life, the sunset period of one's life, when all your relationships and connections are coming to a close.

• At this time, your entire mind should be fixed upon the Eternal, no more on the passing world. You have fulfilled all your duties, and now you have to depart. The river is reaching the ocean, and a time will come when it has to merge into the ocean

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The Four Stages of Life -The fourth Stage : Renunciation

• Here one's mind has become calm, steady and pure. One's heart is desireless and free from all cravings. One is established in perfect self-restraint and virtue.

• This ideal state is the fruit of right living. Here, one automatically becomes absorbed in the contemplation of the Supreme and moves towards God-experience. He or she reaps the harvest of a rich inner spiritual life, supreme peace and bliss, obtaining that ultimate objective for which one has taken birth.

• That is the goal to be reached. What must you do? How must you live? How should you manage life satisfactorily? There are Twelve Keys to successfully managing one's life


Post Box No. 167, Babesa, Thimphu, Bhutan. Tel. +975-2 ......• Asato Ma Sat Gamaya. Tamaso Ma...

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Transcript of Post Box No. 167, Babesa, Thimphu, Bhutan. Tel. +975-2 ......• Asato Ma Sat Gamaya. Tamaso Ma...