PRINCIPLES FOR PROGRESS

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PRINCIPLES FOR PROGRESS

 

Loving Sai Ram and greetings from Prashanti Nilayam.

 

For this Sunday, we have excerpts from Prof. K Anil Kumar's

book " Satyopanishad " .

 

Question) Swami! Kindly instruct us in the main principles making

for progress in spheres such as Science, Politics, Ethics, Religion,

and Spirituality.

 

Bhagawan: If you follow three main principles, all round progress is

ensured. You will undoubtedly progress in all fields of activity,

individual and collective. The first principle is daivapriti, Love

of God. The second is papabhiti, Fear of Sin.

 

The third is sanghaniti, Morality in Society.

 

Unless you love God immensely, you cannot fear sin. With fear of

sin, morality gets automatically established in society. Thus, the

three principles are interdependent and interrelated. I often tell

my students, " Before you do anything, just put this question to

yourself: Will Swami approve this action? Is this going to please

Swami? " Your intense love for Swami will not allow you to do

anything wrong.

 

Evidently, love of God leads to fear of sin.

 

We find turbulent and raging waves in the sea dashing against

boulders that stand steady and unshaken. In the same way your faith

should be steady, strong, unshakeable, and unwavering, irrespective

of losses, failures, defeats, troubles, difficulties, and problems.

For instance, if anyone says to you, 'There is no God, " what reply

should you give? You should reply in this way, " All right, you don't

have your God, but what right do you have to deny my God? " Never

forget God, remember pancaksari, the five lettered mantra -

'devudunnadu ' - (1) de, (2) vu, (3) du, (4) nna, (5) du, (Telugu

sentence with five letters meaning `God exists'). In order to see

that you don't doubt this, repeat astaksari, the eight lettered

Sanskrit mantra, sams'ayatma vinas'yati, (1) sam, (2) sa, 3) ya, (4)

tma, (5) vi, 6) na, 7) sya, 8) ti which means 'doubt is death'.

Never doubt God.

 

In a sentence like this, " God is nowhere " reflects your pitiable

plight of being denied His presence. Now, take out 'w' from the

beginning of the fourth word 'where', and join it at the end of the

third word 'no'. Then the sentence reads, 'God is now here'. Man

most unfortunately commits sins but is not prepared to face their

consequences. He expects punyam, merit, the result of good actions,

but does not refrain from doing papam, sin. Nor would he do any

meritorious deeds to get good results.

 

Is there any logic or rationale for him to get good results? How

foolish are such expectations? How do you expect one kind of result

from an altogether different and opposite kind of action? Always

bear in mind the whole thing comes back to you in the form of

reaction, reflection, and resound. You cannot escape them. When you

fully realise this, you will not commit sins or involve yourself in

harmful deeds. So you should 'Love God' and 'Fear Sin'. With these

two, there will be 'Morality in Society'.

 

Question) Swami! Many speak of culture? What is the value of

culture?

 

Bhagawan: Culture is very important because your life and its value

depend on it. Culture is a way of life. Culture enables you to

experience divinity in your life. Culture helps one to know unity in

diversity. Without culture, man becomes a demon. He falls down in

stature and ultimately ruins himself.

 

You know that sea water is saline or salty. Human life is like a

vast sea. God's grace is like sunlight that falls on the sea. The

seawater because of the heat of the sun becomes vaporised. This is

the vapour of bliss that settles as clouds in the sky to fall down

to the earth as rain. It is the rain of love. The seawater is salty

but the rainwater is sweet. Why? Where does the difference lie?

Seawater is refined by sunlight. So also, our life must be cultured

and refined. The value of life will then go up.

 

A piece of iron worth less than a rupee can be made into a beautiful

costly watch after it is processed and refined. This is due to the

culture it has undergone. So long as a boulder remains itself, it is

bound to be neglected. But, once it is in the hands of a sculptor,

chiseled and hammered, and shaped into a beautiful Krishna idol, it

starts receiving respect and worship. Why? It is only culture that

makes all the difference.

 

A boulder, once trodden by everyone underfoot and now in the form of

an idol, occupies a place at the altar in a temple and is worshipped

everyday. This is the value that culture confers. Without culture,

one develops a foolish view of life finding diversity in unity. For

example, take a needle. It stitches pieces of cloth into a garment.

The needle stands for culture. But scissors cut the cloth into

pieces. This is the condition in the absence of culture.

 

Jai Sai Ram.

With Love and Regards,

" Heart2Heart " Team.

 

Ram Chugani

Kobe, Japan

rgcjp