All of us have heard the story of the tortoise and hare race. The moral preached is “Slow and steady wins the race”. If you think about it a little, you will figure out that the actual moral is “Fast and unsteady looses the race”. This is a classical example of misinterpretation which almost all great scriptures and parables suffer from due to the limitation of the narrator. This parody is that it is accepted by the majority of the world.
Similarly when somebody says, “I want to see God”, what is it that he actually means? We all know that God is omnipresent which means God is every where and we are seeing him in each impression formed on our mind, but this friend of ours is not able to recognize him. But that still is not his problem. He has a preconceived notion of what God is – A physical form, a light, some glitter, some glamour, some fireworks… He is seeking a sort of spiritual entertainment or an experience out of the ordinary when he sees God. If God comes to him in any other form, he is not ready to accept him as He is because it the set idea in his mind that he is looking for and not actual God. Infinite God cannot be limited by a form.
Now when our friend says “I want salvation”, what does she mean? Most of the times she does not even know what the word ‘salvation’ means but she wants it badly. If we tell her that salvation means that she is forced to sit in one corner of the world and not move till the end of time she will suddenly say, “I can’t sit for more than 15 minutes, my legs start paining”. What she has experienced is that there are pains and unhappiness in the world. She wants to get over it. She has heard some where that by getting salvation one stop’s being affected by the pains. So what she really means is that she does not want the ups and downs of the material world.
There are lots of thoughts which require correct interpretation and only a Jnani will be able to interpret these correctly. Hence utilize the Jnana Yoga sessions of our Guruji in Satsangs, courses and our magazine. Dig into the past issues, his past speeches on tapes, CDs and enjoy the nectar of truth by hearing the right interpretations. This is one way for you to develop your Viveka (discrimination) and this will take your further in your spiritual quest.
Jai Gurudev
Similarly when somebody says, “I want to see God”, what is it that he actually means? We all know that God is omnipresent which means God is every where and we are seeing him in each impression formed on our mind, but this friend of ours is not able to recognize him. But that still is not his problem. He has a preconceived notion of what God is – A physical form, a light, some glitter, some glamour, some fireworks… He is seeking a sort of spiritual entertainment or an experience out of the ordinary when he sees God. If God comes to him in any other form, he is not ready to accept him as He is because it the set idea in his mind that he is looking for and not actual God. Infinite God cannot be limited by a form.
Now when our friend says “I want salvation”, what does she mean? Most of the times she does not even know what the word ‘salvation’ means but she wants it badly. If we tell her that salvation means that she is forced to sit in one corner of the world and not move till the end of time she will suddenly say, “I can’t sit for more than 15 minutes, my legs start paining”. What she has experienced is that there are pains and unhappiness in the world. She wants to get over it. She has heard some where that by getting salvation one stop’s being affected by the pains. So what she really means is that she does not want the ups and downs of the material world.
There are lots of thoughts which require correct interpretation and only a Jnani will be able to interpret these correctly. Hence utilize the Jnana Yoga sessions of our Guruji in Satsangs, courses and our magazine. Dig into the past issues, his past speeches on tapes, CDs and enjoy the nectar of truth by hearing the right interpretations. This is one way for you to develop your Viveka (discrimination) and this will take your further in your spiritual quest.
Jai Gurudev
2 comments:
I remember staring blankly at you when you animatedly iterated this story in your room, back in the department, when, rather, I was expecting to be lectured about LISP, and computer languages, in general.
I'll be a sticky fan. Do write more often :)
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