by Swami Tejomayananda

First of all why should we analyze so much? Before hoisting a flag, we fix a pole in the ground. Then we shake it to see if it is firm. The understanding that we gain by analysis makes our knowledge firm. Otherwise, when we are saying our prayers and someone says there is no use of praying, we will get shaken.

Why should we pray? Why not just do good work?

For any good work, we require strength and a noble goal or an ideal. Do we have the strength to do good always? For a person, who is doing good, the question arises as to why should I go on doing good when others are not doing so. Besides, we are not able to do good always. That requires tremendous strength. In order to avoid getting shaken from doing good work we must understand the secret of prayer. For a fan to move, it must be connected to the electric supply. We will call the connection, the fan’s prayer to the source of energy. Lord is the source of all goodness. The strength we require to lead a noble life is called spiritual strength and God is the ultimate source of all strength to do good.

Prayer is not begging – give me this, give me that. We want to do good but every time our mind is such that it gets distracted. Duryodhana also knew what was good and what was bad but his mind was such that all the time he went on doing only the wrong things. So, we pray for strength.

For whom should we do good?

We should do good for the Lord because we want to please Him. In life do your dharma and when doing so remember God. In doing so, your mind will get tuned to Him and all His qualities and power will come to you.

When people do good for money and if they don’t get it, they stop. When we work for Bhagavan, even if people criticize or crucify us, we will not be shaken.

Also, if we remember that beauty, strength, talent, everything is a blessing and gift of the Lord, then we will not become proud and arrogant. Ravana suffered a lot, but he could not surrender because of his ego. Prayer helps us remove our ego. So, now we understand that when we pray, we derive spiritual strength, we dedicate our work to God and thus we remove our ego.

We have seen now, why we should pray. Now the question is who or what is God? Is there one God or many? Is He real or just imaginary?

God is ONE. His powers are manifold!

How is that?

See, you are one but many also! When you are listening you are the listener; when seeing, the seer; when singing, the singer; when joking, the joker! The seer, listner, singer are not different, you are only one. You are the listener as the power of hearing is in you, the seer as the power of seeing is in you. The power is one but the instruments are the ears or the eyes. The power is in you, it cannot remain separate from you. In the same way, understand, God is One. His total power is one but His expression is manifold.

Now when you make a pot, you are called a pot maker, when you break it, the pot breaker and when you keep it, the keeper. God is the creator of the entire world, its maintainer and destroyer. Destroying means it becomes unmanifest. Even when the mud pot is destroyed, the mud remains. Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesha are the expressions of the Supreme God. God is the wielder of the cosmic energy that manifests differently, just as the government is one and the ministers are many, God is one with innumerable devata-s like Vayu, Agni, Indra, Varuna, who are the controller of the different powers in nature.

God is that consciousness which makes the inert living. Because of him the eyes see, the ears hear. Some people say “There is no God”. But they don’t know that the power because of which they are able to talk is God. The Veda-s say:-

Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti

God is one, the wise people called Him by various names.

Pray to God because He is great and we get the power for following dharma.

by Rahul Daswani

As with many of my deep realizations, poker on Sun caused me to reflect upon life and realize what the true secret of living a happy life is - to understand that the outcome is irrelevant.

In the poker analogy (life situation in brackets), calling/raising a bet (making a decision) is based completely on current understanding of pot odds (i.e. the limited information which we possess). Often times the river (result) is beyond our control, all we can do is keep making what we think are the right decisions and leave the rest up to probability (God?). Basically this is the reason why I don't like rabbit hunting (thinking about what might/could have been) - it only serves to confuse you (interesting point - some outcomes are NOT reflections of natural progression and those paths followed should not necessarily be taken as guidelines simply because the outcome is desired).

This is not to say that all outcomes are irrelevant - what we must understand that if we act firmly in what we believe, the long term outcome will indeed be positive (faith). We should be at peace knowing that we did all we can, whether we win or lose is irrelevant as long as we play correctly (its how u play the game that matters, not the score?). Since our lives on this pale blue dot we call earth are merely snapshots in time, all we will see through life are short term (temporary) things, thus it is through faith alone and our moral compass through which we can ensure we are taking the right path.

Hence the key to success is always to do the best we can and leave the rest to God, and trust that in the long term, everything will turn out okay, regardless of what it seems like now.

Comments? Easier said than done, but I think quite possible.

The value of work is judged, not by its quantum but by the quality and texture thereof. The quality of action depends upon the ideals which guide and inspire an individual working in the world. The loftier and the nobler the ideals, the greater will be the beauty of his actions and efficiency. All mighty men of superhuman achievements have, inspired by such ideals, done wonderfully great and noble work in the world and the fruits of their actions are enjoyed by generations which follow them.

In the present world, man is found wanting in definite ideals for channelising his activities. He works with a selfish attitude and has no goal or vision in life to inspire him to take to better and brighter actions. He experiences monotony in any work undertaken by him, whether he be a clerk in the secretariat or a manager of an organization. He is fatigued no sooner than he reaches his office and commences his work; and by evening he has hardly any energy to reach his home. In such a state of affairs, his work becomes worthless and he becomes a burden upon the society.

After thorough and sustained investigation, our great masters of the past discovered the causes for such fatigue and showed us the way to overcome them and thereby raise the standard and beauty of our activities and bring about real cheer and happiness in the world. They proved that the fatigue created by our work is due entirely to the mental strain and stress which we, in our ignorance, invite by craving for indulgence in sense enjoyments and ceaseless expectations of fruits of our actions. These extroverted desires and anxieties consume the very life force in us and leave us exhausted.

The secret of success therefore, lies in overcoming such mental dissipation by choosing a definite and noble ideal or goal in life, working relentlessly and with dedication, concentrating thereupon for its achievement. Such activities, undertaken in a spirit of surrender and selflessness, lend constant inspiration and inward solace, a charm and a cheer to life and lead us to efficiency and success.

Religion no doubt provides man with the highest ideal but he, in the context of the present competitive world, and with his attention focused only on himself and his egocentric demands, finds it impossible to revolutionise his attitude to work. But the law of nature knows no compromise. Achievements, be they material or spiritual, can be measured only by the extent of selfless dedication. The great thinkers of this country therefore suggested that we choose an altar other than our own individuality, such as the welfare of our society or the growth of our nation, or any other work undertaken for a larger cause, and direct all our activities towards that one goal.

Thus, religion gradually helps us to develop a broader vision and practice the art of working for a cause larger than our narrow, selfish ends and learn to draw inspiration from our work itself. The satisfaction of a good job done selflessly is far superior to, and more comforting than, the impermanent joys arising out of worldly acquisitions and mere sense gratification.

Success in life lies in one’s own bosom, not in the world outside; and religion provides the access to it.

The average human mind gives up too early without striving enough. Even the almost impossible situations become possible if the actions are in tune with Dharma. In this section we shall see how Arjuna, backed by the wisdom imparted by Krishna, dealt with all the impossible situations that he faced in the Mahabharata.

In the 11th chapter of the Bhagawad Gita Arjuna gains an awe-inspiring vision of the Cosmic Form. He perceives many spectacular sights, some wondrous, some terrifying. In one scene he perceives Bhishma, Drona, Karna and Jayadratha entering the blazing mouth of the Cosmic Man. One cannot help but wonder why Arjuna had to specifically see these four men.

Arjuna always doubted and greatly feared that to conquer these four would not just be difficult but rather impossible. Besides being skilled warriors, all four were blessed with great boons.

Jayadratha, the King of Sindh, besides being an accomplished warrior, was blessed by his father with a boon that whosoever’s hands his head falls out of, that person’s head will burst into a thousand pieces. Early in the war we find him defeating Bhima, Yudhishtira, Nakula and Sahadeva when they attempt to protect Abhimanyu. Thus, only an equally powerful warrior would be able to vanquish him. But this would demand a supreme sacrifice on the part of the warrior, akin to a suicide squad. Arjuna could take this up, but then without Arjuna victory for the Pandavas is almost impossible.

Bhishma was blessed by this father that he would die at will and hence could not be killed. Drona, the teacher, undefeated hitherto, was known to posses a lot of secret weapons. Karna, yet another skilled warrior, was born with an armour which could not be penetrated by any weapon.

It is natural that by looking at a situation like this, one would give up saying it is impossible. But, when one is rooted within and tuned to Dharma, one develops clarity and even the seemingly impossible becomes possible. Krishna in his wisdom finds a way out of every impossible situation.

Keeping in mind Jayadratha’s boon, Krishna asks Arjuna to shoot in such a way that Jayadratha’s head lands in the lap of his father who is meditating in the forest. The moment the head falls in his lap, not knowing what has happened, he throws the head onto the floor, resulting in his head bursting into a thousand pieces.

Before the war commences Bhishma bestows Yudhishtira with the blessing of being victorious. Krishna asks Yudhishtira to return this blessing to Bhishma.

When Yudhishtira returns the boon to Bhishma, Bhishma laughs and asks Arjuna to tell the person who sent him there, that he does not take back anything he’s given. But Yudhishtira insists on returning the boon saying he doesn’t want Bhishma’s words to go untrue, since with Bhishma in the war Pandava victory was impossible.

Bhishma reassures him that they would be victorious as blessed by him. Of course, he would continue to fight till the end, but if they brought a woman into the warfield, he would put down his arms. When Yudhishtira questions this possibility, Bhishma laughs asking him to question the one who sent him there, as he knows everything. Later we see that Shikhandi, earlier born as a woman, disarms Bhishma and taking shelter behind him, Arjuna shoots an array of arrows which push Bhishma to the ground.

Drona had never lost a war till then and no one was equal to him. Drona’s only weakness, his deep attachment to his son Ashwatthama, was the only thing that could bring him to naught. Aware of this Krishna comes up with a strategy of killing an elephant named Ashwatthama. Yudhishtira, known to never lie, does not agree to this strategy. But Krishna convinces him to remain silent if Drona questions him and that at most he should answer that he is unsure whether it’s an elephant or a man that has died.

Bhima comes out yelling jubilantly that he has killed Ashwatthama. Drona knowing it is impossible for his son to be killed turns towards Yudhishtira to clarify. Yudhishtira answers “Ashwatthama is dead. I don’t know whether it is the elephant or man”. As Yudhishtira is replying, Bhima blows his conch which drowns the second line. Hearing this Drona puts his arms down. Drishtadyumna, Drupad’s son and the commander in chief of the Pandava army, then severs his head.

Blessed by his father Suryadeva, Karna was born with an impenetrable armour. But, Karna is well known for his charity and never to say no. Knowing this Lord Indra goes to Karna in the guise of a sadhu asking for his armour as alms. He gives away his armour, but is well protected by the merits of his punya (good deeds). Hence, later Krishna himself approaches Karna and asks him for all the merits of his punya.

Later, as Karna aims the nagastra at Arjuna, Shalya, Karna’s charioteer tells Karna to aim at Arjuna’s chest. But Karna does not pay heed to him as he wants to belittle Arjuna by shooting at his neck. But at the opportune moment Krishna lowers Arjuna’s chariot and Karna’s arrow hits Arjuna’s crown. Disarmed, Arjuna then kills Karna.

On the face of it these strategies might appear unfair. But it is important to note that walking into a war field with boons is in itself not fair. It is cunningness. And cunningness has to be dealt with cunningness.