June 7, 2017 archive

• Life is extremely short. It is like a bubble. Within this, we should take steps to ensure it is fruitful and productive.

• The results of both good and bad actions need to be necessarily experienced irrespective of whether they were performed knowingly or unknowingly. Good deeds result in merit. Bad deeds result in sin leading to sorrowful experiences.
• As it is only the balance of virtues and sins that accompany a being after death, it is very important to engage in the performance of good and meritorious deeds at all hours.
• Through the process of dharmic (righteous) activities, good fame should be earned.

• Without stopping to look back at the earlier achievements, the person should move continuously forward in this path of dharmic activities. He should never provide a chance for his actions to be praised by others. The firm opinion and belief that they are truly dharmic activities should exist within him. Under no circumstances should he feel sorry that he was neither recognized nor praised. One should make life fruitful and meaningful.

Many persons do not get involved in the performance of good deeds. Not engaging in such deeds is also a grave mistake.

Absolute success in any deed comes only when the person has achieved total victory over the senses (indriyas). In its absence, total victory is impossible. Sense-control is not limited to conquering sexual desire and anger. As age advances, the appetite for lust automatically reduces. Sense-control includes conquering greediness, need for recognition, irritation and many such traits. Obtaining absolute victory over senses is no easy job.

How then can the ordinary person, who cannot even repair any part of his body, try to achieve absolute victory over the senses? How can he overcome the society? How can he go beyond the web of fruitive actions and their results that surround him? How is he to cross over these bondages and attain salvation? Gomukha, the ardent devotee of Hanuman, pondered upon the fate of ordinary people and thought of a solution. He then composed this hymn.

It was Treta Yuga (the second of the 4 eons). The fear that sins would drag him to hell and that as a result he would not be able to make the journey into heaven existed in the mind of every being. If during that pure period when Lord Rama was ruling people feared sins, then imagine the degree of fear one should have towards sins during the subsequent eon of Dwapara and the present period of Kali?

Living beings at that time were very knowledgeable. They were aware of the various planes of existence and how one travelled to these planes after death. They knew that evil deeds dragged them to hell and prevented them from moving into the higher planes after death. This fear prevented them from committing sins.

It is said that even the demons of that time feared transgressing dharma (rules of righteousness) and that they strictly abided by these rules even during war. Barring a few demons like Ravana who existed sporadically, all other demons adhered to the life of dharma. Ravana went against dharma so as to be blessed with death at the hands of the Supreme Master. It was not exactly a sin but a visible deed undertaken to show the world the outcome of such evil deeds.

Gomukha, the Vanara, praises the Lord in this manner-

Aparādha śatam nityam kurvāṇām mām nṛsamshakam

Kshamasva dāsā bhudyā tvam hanuman karunānidhe.

Meaning- O Hanuman! O Lord who overflows with endless compassion! Considering me as your servant kindly forgive and protect me, the miscreant, who has been committing hundreds of mistakes every single day.

There is a very famous hymn with a very identical meaning to Parameshwara-

aparādha sahasrani kriyanthe aaharnisam maya,

Dāso yam ithi mām mathwa kshamaswa parameshwara

Meaning- O Supreme Lord! I have been committing thousands of wrongdoings. Treating me as your servant, please forgive and protect me.

Everyone commits mistakes. However, only a few accept their mistakes. Mahatmas accept even those mistakes that they have not committed. They will say, “Perhaps this mistake took place because of me. Maybe it was my fault. Ok, why all this fuss. This is my mistake”. So saying, they will simply accept it. The truth would be that they were in no way responsible for it. Yet, as they have been accused, they will accept by saying, “as far as I know, the mistake did not take place. It may have happened without my knowledge. But ok, since you are saying, it must be true. It is my mistake. I am responsible”. In this manner, they speak the truth yet at the same time they take upon themselves the responsibility of the mistake.

Mean, petty-minded people, on the other hand, will argue, “What is this? On what basis do you hold me responsible? I am meeting you for the very first time and you say that I have harmed you? How can I harm when I have not even entered into your home? Do you mean to say that I broke this object? I have never seen you holding the object and you say that I have broken it. How could it be possible?”

Such petty minded persons refrain from accepting their mistakes. They go to any extreme to prove themselves right. They declare that they do not have even the minutest idea about the mistake and that they were not present in the vicinity at that time. In-between, they will add tidbits of their inherent great traits and nature. They boast of the greatness of their lineage, their ancestors, their father, grandfather and of themselves. Tell me, who can ever help such persons? Only Hanuman should come to their rescue and set them right.