Love with Service - Baba

[Guest guest]

Shankaram Shiva Shankaram

 

 

One must understand that death can strike at any moment. So he must try to do as much good as possible. No use in procrastinating, on the assumption that one has several years to attend to one’s family, before you depart from this world. One does not know whether one will be alive the next moment. This is the Guideline #1 for life. God has His Master Plan and there is nothing you can do. Surrender yourself totally to God, and He will take care of all your wants. This is Guideline #2 of life. You need not be restless trying to ‘achieve’ something. God is the doer and He takes care of you, whether you

pray or not. God cares for you even when you do not pray. A mother knows when to feed her child, regardless of whether it cries for nourishment or not. God is much more loving than a worldly mother. Good deeds make you happy. Evil deeds cause you misery. This is the golden code of action and reaction – the Guideline #3 of life: Karma and the benefits. God does not interfere in this. You have the option to choose between good and bad, to choose to be happy or to wallow in misery.

Life gives you various experiences, propels you through trials and tribulations to a destination and these experiences lead you to the ecstasy that spirituality is.

Accept life as it comes, regardless of whether the experiences are sweet or bitter.

That is the mystic poet Pisiranthaiyar’s formula, ‘I do not harbour any worries about life; I have become like a log flowing along with the current. I know that the current will take me to my destination. I have become enlightened and sane. Nothing can ever go wrong with God’s decision for me. I am neither overwhelmed that someone is superior to me, nor do I look upon anyone as inferior to me.’

No one’s experience is bigger or smaller to anyone else’s. Each to his own. How can anyone compare his experience to anyone else’s ?

It is possible that a slight breeze uproots a large banyan tree and it is possible that a willow tree can withstand the onslaught of hurricanes! Similarly no experience is good or bad. Flow along with each experience as it comes, knowing fully well that whatever God does is always right for you. Everything is intended to lead you unto your self.

Attaining God or comprehending His Presence must stem from you. No scriptures or mantras can lead you to the Truth. Self-realization is the natural consequence of taming your thoughts, and this is what spirituality is all about.

Many people wonder if Love for God will be an impediment for service to Him. This depends on how that Love manifests itself.

Certain people, when they get intoxicated with their Love for God, will not be able to perform service or even their worldly duties too. They prefer to be immersed in devotion.

Love for God can lead you to serve God in some capacity. You can compose lyrics singing His Glory. You can render manual service at temples, like Appar Swami did. Whenever Appar went on pilgrimage, he used to weed the gardens (called in Tamil as ‘Uzhavaarappani’) in the temples he visited. Unto his last, he was on this service, focusing his thoughts always on the Lord.

His life is an example of the type of service God relishes. At a time when famine struck the land, Appar and TiruGnana Sambandar sought the Lord’s Mercy for prevailing over the effects of famine. God granted them each a gold coin every day, and bade them to use it for charity. In Appar’s place, the visitors were able to have their food before noon, whereas in Sambandar’s place, the mealtime extended till about 3 pm .

When Sambandar questioned his people about this, they replied that God had given Appar genuine gold, whereas the gold coin given to Sambandar was amalgamated, and therefore it took time at the grocery shop for them to test the genuineness of the gold before selling the required groceries to Sambandar’s men. When Sambandar pondered over this distinction, he realized that all that he had done for the Lord was sing His praises and even for that, God had rewarded him with a pearl palanquin to travel in and sheltered him from the heat of the sun under a pearl umbrella.

Whereas Appar, despite his old age, motivated people, through his songs, into thoughts of the Lord and also rendered manual service by weeding temple gardens, thus gaining a better place in the Lord’s books which was the reason for his being rewarded with genuine gold

Our life is like a dream; the mind weaves illusions and pretends them to be true. There is nothing called joy or sorrow. He who understands that the Divine is within him and pervades everything in this Cosmos, is not distracted by any external object. He rises beyond attachments and the temptations of desires. He who surrenders all his actions to God is unaffected by virtue or vice.When you instate God in your mind and heart, you have settled the debt of your life. Once you understand this, you are in

Moksha. He who does not understand this wallows in attachment. This drama of life produced by God is a mystery that mystifies even the celestials. What impact can planetary movements have? If God decides, everything is in your favour. God composes the script but man assumes ‘This is Fate’. The Master Director casts us in various roles; we just enact them in this vast stage called ‘the world’. Everything that happens in this world has been written scene by scene a long time ago by this Master Planner. What is destined to happen shall happen as is ordained; we are just witnesses - - checking if we play our role to perfection. Do not be at loggerheads with God in your prayer to Him seeking the reason for your worldly suffering. None of these matters. The most blissful happening is rising above worldly bondage and attaining His Lotus Feet - - finding your way to the Blissful Re-union with your Eternal

Friend.

Love & Blessings - Baba

Chant & Be Happy ' Shankaram Shiva Shankaram"

- Mahalaxmi

 

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