Santhusti

My dear associates in the path,

On this auspicious occasion of celebration of the 137th birthday of the grand Master Pujya Sri Ramchandraji Maharaj of Fategarh, in utter humility and lowliness of my being I make bold to utter a few words that would disturb the deep Silence due to His august presence.

Now a days we find a major shift is occurring in our economy and it makes little difference where we live, the cyclical shift is obvious. We are prone to believe that this down turn of events is caused by external factors. But the truth it appears to me is that every one of us has played a role in this cause in a way that may not be obvious to us. Whoever, the media, the family, the government or the industry is analysing the down turn and has called it bad has missed a point. I find that none make a mention of the beauty of decay.

We know as students of spiritual life that everything that we see in 'form' is on its way to decay and slow dissolving including our dear bodies. It is elementary Viveka that everything is in a state of constant flux. However we seem to be surprised when this principle gets applied to our bank balance and holdings on the share market and other assets. For the wise it should be clear that the economy is really a mirror of how we feel on the inside and these feelings are the effects of thoughts both conscious and unconscious. It is obvious it is the unconscious thoughts that affect us most. With the changes that are now happening we are asking ourselves to tighten the belts and see the great good causes of economic and frugal living. What we do not really understand is all this problem is due to what I may call "not enough effect." However much we have we have imbibed the philosophy of 'not enough.' The ' not enough effect' is the feeling of not having enough whether it be in our finances, our relationships, our sense of time, our confidence, our health and our spirituality too. This problem was clearly stated by Rev.Babuji Maharaj when he said the present day problem is 'greed.'

Deep within we have a feeling of 'insufficiency' and that is the root cause for this feeling of 'not enough'. We feel incomplete because we have somehow lost the intimate inter personal relationship that we have with the Divine. The natural complementary part of our being is the Divine but not knowing this we start feeling the need to use the world of material things like money, possessions, friends, spouse, career etc. But it is not realised that any amount of money and riches will cure what may be called the disease of 'poverty consciousness.'

I wonder whether I am bordering on abrasiveness when I say that we are in a condition of 'psychic sleep.' A psychic sleep where we have allowed ourselves to be seduced by the attractions of the material world and we have chosen to forget our true and real nature and most importantly our connection with the Divine. Thus this recession, that we are told we are facing, can also be viewed as an opportunity to know who we really are and start living as per dictates of the interconnectedness we have with the Divine.

It is true that the catalyst behind most of the successes in this world is a need to prove something because one feels inadequate, but the Natural Path, the Path that satisfies the soul is one of completeness at every step of the way. Following this path of the Master makes living a joy because it does not postpone the feeling of being enough. At the very first stroke of introduction to the path the Pranasya Pranah is introduced into our being and the path towards Divine gets etched with sincerity and seriousness it deserves. Thus in this path of the Master being enough is not something we achieve but it is something that we are. The most satisfying path, then, is not so much what we are accomplishing as what we get to be, while we are accomplishing. We get to be the creative power of the Universe, traversing the realms of the Pind desh, Brahmand and Para Brahmand and move on slowly towards the condition of prapanna prabhu developing the consciousness of being complete and not only just 'enough.'

The purpose of life it may thus be seen is to participate with the Divine in all its manifestation bringing in completeness. Though we may have to acknowledge our role in this process it is essential to remember that the Divine never forgets us, more so when the connection with the divine is reinforced with the ingress of Pranahuti. This factor when gets imbibed in the core of our being we find that we are enough in the beginning, the middle and in the end of every type of journey in our life. A deep sense of well being gets enshrined and we feel confident and complete in every aspect.

Many of the aspirants in the path somehow do not feel or I may say do not hear their inner voice which asserts the immediate presence of the Divine within us. It is an acknowledged fact of sadhana that every one of us Imperience the Divine through its main characteristic of Peace and Balance whenever we meditate and receive Pranahuti. I presume that we ignore it because the self image we have got used to accept does not permit us to think that we are complete and that we are full in respect of every aspect of life. It has been the practice of everyone to think that there is something lacking somewhere even when it is not really felt. Sages, saints and seers and Masters from times immemorial have been saying that the Divine rests in our heart. We may have a sense of being surrounded by the Life Force, but we forget that the Life Force is also within us. And if the Life Force is within us, we are enough.

But though we feel so we tend to ignore the same because we have been indoctrinated into thinking that we are not complete. And what is more in order to be complete we are told we should compete with others. We have been told from the beginning through education or cultural norms that we should compare ourselves with others and either feel superior or inferior and never equal. The talk of equality the society talks about is a myth as we are never allowed to be happy when we equal others. But our Master has been asking us to become equal to him. The last sentence of the prayer he has given us says 'thou art the only God and Power to bring us up to that stage.' Please note that it is His stage that is the goal for us. It has been stated by every seer and saint that we are made in the image of God. But we confuse ourselves and do not realise that being made in the image and likeness of God is not something we have to strive for. We are so and it is only the moral and spiritual courage that is required to say so. Then 'Aham Brahmasmi' becomes true and real. This is but an ordinary stage in this path because we know for certain that the Master is with us always.