An Unopened Gift
Demystifying God.
A blog by Karthik
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It was a serene Sunday morning filled with the melody of birds, insects and chilled winds. I chose silence to observe the rhythm of the nature. It’s the pause of silence in between sounds that adds beauty to the rhythm of music and makes the music pleasant to the ears. I chose to observe that silence. I began the day with prayers to the almighty.
I preferred to be seated on the corner of the park alone silently scrutinizing my thoughts in mind. Slowly I reduced my thoughts almost near to zero. I went into meditation with no thoughts in my mind. I started feeling more relaxed and fascinated by the emptiness of this world. Suddenly a phrase which I read from a magazine flashed in my mind.
“You are more than what you think you are.” I become restless prompting me to search for the divinity inside me. I prefer to enjoy the inner blissfulness inside me.
I started walking filled with thoughts of compassion and generosity.
My phone rings up to a call from my friend Ramesh.
Karthik. I hope you knew my situation. I need your help. Will you please come and meet me next week when you are free. I want to talk with you in person.
Hi Ramesh. I came to know about your situation. I feel sympathy for you. Don’t worry I am here to help you out of your depressed condition. Don’t lose hope. I pray the almighty to give you strength & courage to come out of the worst phase of your life.
Karthik, I have lost faith in almighty. You know how much I am devoted to God? Then why it happened only to me? If that God whom I pray doesn’t have powers to prevent an untoward fateful event from happening? Then Why should I pray him and devoted to him? What is the purpose in doing so?
Listen to me carefully. You have not understood the real purpose of your existence and your relationship with God. I will make it clear once I meet you in person. Till then don’t lose faith & hope in yourselves. I have an unopened gift for you. Upon opening it, your life will become definitely better than what it is now and you can understand the relationship between God & human being, importance of spiritual life and how to handle situations which are beyond your control. You will know the real meaning of Life. Just a few core beliefs and common practices needs to be changed.
I will come with that unopened gift when I come to meet you.
“An unopened gift. Sounds interesting. Will you also give that gift to me? Karthik.” asked Ashwata breaking her silence after a long time.
Hey Ashwata, you have lost. This time I have won. (I made a bet with ashwata that I will make her speak to me within today. She was angry with me for not coming to see her during holidays in her Grandpa’s home. For the past two days, she was just following me and not even uttered a single word. She communicated to me only with signals. I tried all the tricks of the game but nothing worked out on ashwata. I even asked sorry many a times. But surprisingly, the concept of unopened gift worked out.)
Are you frustrated? I just wanted to play with you Karthik. Sorry.
No need for sorry Ashwata. I really enjoyed you communicating with me through signals. Your cute eye and face expressions conveyed a lot than spoken words. But I am longing to hear your sweet voice. Thank God you broke your silence.
Karthik I tried to resist till tomorrow but that the topic unopened gift urged me to speak.
Karthik, you pointed out that some core beliefs & practices need to be changed. Can you throw some light on the topic?
Very observant of you my friend. Listen
The very belief that spirituality needs to be practiced at an old age and practicing spirituality & study of Vedanta at a young age will induce you to an aversion to the world leading to sannyas is a common misconception. Whenever a young person is found studying Bhagavad Gita, it causes anxiety in the minds of parents that his ward will be motivated to abandon the world & his responsibilities. This is nothing but distorted perception of reality. How does a book like Bhagavad gita encourage escapism? Lord Krishna advises Arjuna who is ready to leave the battlefield to fight the battle of life with a mind detached with the results of his actions.
The common belief that Bhagavad Gita & Vedas have information only for those who wants renunciation from all activities of life needs to be changed. By being aware of the message of Vedanta, all the issues and problems can be solved better with the help of the vast knowledge these Vedic scriptures have been endowed with. You will be equipped with a new level of understanding and reasoning. You will understand that the life you are living is not to be lived in that way. You will come to know that in many occasions of life, you have satisfied for an answer which is actually not an answer. This is due to the inadequate level of understanding life.
Last, you can understand the message of Vedic scriptures better at twenties when your mind, Intellect & senses are at prime than at seventies. Moreover it is during the phase of thirty years (From the age of 21 to 50); a person will be actively involved in all the spheres of life facing problems from all quarters. After 50 Years, a person normally tends to slow down. There is no point in realizing and ruing about missed opportunities & reaching for enlightenment at the fag end of your life. You need to extract the best out of existing situations when you are young when you are pitted against all the odds without waiting for the ideal conditions at an old age. This message is what Lord Krishna shared with Arjuna when he was prepared to leave the battlefield.
That’s Great Karthik. It dispelled some of the common notions. But how can I perform an action without yearning for its results? I used to study well to get good marks. I expect good ranks.
See Ashwata, when you perform an action expecting results, there are two probabilities. Either you feel happy, comfort & secure when you achieve desired results or you will feel disappointed, dejected & depressed when you don’t achieve the desired results.
Will you show a same kind of temperament in both occasions?
Definitely not.
Bhagavad Gita induces you to show the same kind of temperament in both of the occasions. The temperament to analyze & look for continuous improvement even when you achieve desired results. The temperament to analyze the cause for failure & look for alternate options with an eye for continual improvement even when you don’t achieve desired results. It equips you with an insight to discharge your duties as an offering to the God Himself. When you offer something to the supreme power that shall be nothing less than the best. Don’t keep the results of the good things & bad things with you. Offer everything to the God. It will help you understand that the criteria in which you have been ranked is immaterial and there is always scope for continual improvement even when you come first in your class. I hope you understand it the way I wished.
Yes I understood. Thanks. Why your friend ramesh had lost faith in God? What happened to him?
Many people like ramesh understand God as a supreme power which is beyond their reach and whatever their wishes will be fulfilled by God if they perform some special pujas & sacrifices. If everything goes well by chance, luck or their hard work, they will praise God. If it doesn’t go well or some untoward event happens, they will lose faith in God.
That means God doesn’t have powers to do good things for a person who believes in him? (Ashwata)
(After a long thought)
Temples have been build to harness the power of God by performing Vedic agamas & mantras regularly so that it can serve as an instrument for mankind to realize the presence of divinity (GOD) inside him & nurture the same by feeding the mind with divine thoughts & actions. By doing so, after few cycle of births & deaths, you will become a source of divine energy.
So assume that I have realized the presence of God inside me. How will it address my problems & issues? (Ashwata)
Once you realize the presence of God inside you, you will learn that except a sacrifice, every kind of action performed in this world is binding. Hence perform all action as if it were a sacrifice that you are doing in the name of God. Do it without any attachment. You will be tempted to learn & follow the rules & rituals prescribed in the sacred literatures to live a righteous life.
When you derive happiness from your own self, who alone yourself can deny happiness?
If you don’t realize the presence of divinity inside you, then you presume that God is responsible for whatever happens to you & surroundings and a human being doesn’t have control over the situations.
If you realize the presence of divinity inside you and attached to it, you will clearly perceive that the Gods in temples are not responsible for whatever events happen to you , the God (divinity) inside you and other creatures & the law of Karma as a whole is responsible for whatever events good & bad that happens to you and your surroundings**. The more you nurture the divinity inside you, the more blissful your life will turn out to be.
Moreover the power of reaction to an event (good & bad) is present inside you. Sometimes you cannot control the way things turning out, but you can certainly change the course of things by the way you react to an event. If all the mankind realizes this eternal truth and reacts to an event according to the ways prescribed in our Vedic scriptures, then all the problems surmounting the world will disappear.
That means Ramesh had not reacted the way prescribed in our sacred Vedas. (Ashwata)
That’s fantastic. You grasped the concepts clearly. You are really intelligent Ashwata.
The fact is that you are making me intelligent. Thanks a lot Karthik. So will you handover that unopened gift to Ramesh when you meet him? (Ashwata)
An unopened gift is already embedded in the souls of every human being. Once we peel off the layers of ignorance, core false beliefs, ego, false prestige and other obsessive habits, the divine personality laced with pure love scented with the fragrance of spirituality will emerge as an unopened gift .Learning from Vedic scriptures like Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and implementation of the learning in day to day life holds the key to open the unopened Gift. Once the door to permanent happiness*** inside you is opened and all the inner blissfulness inside you is within your reach through practice of meditation and leading an ethical life as preached by the sacred Vedas & holy people.
Sounds great Karthik. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. Oh! The busy chorus of life started again. How to find silence in this noisy atmosphere? Yelled Ashwata pointing towards the traffic jam outside the park at 8.30 AM
I made her observe the silence between her heart beats by placing her thumb finger below the palms of her left hand.
You don’t care about the external world. Just observe the silence that is already inside you.
She smiled innocently with kindness & gratitude.
My phone rings to a call from my friend Prakriti. I put it in loudspeaker mode.
Karthik Have you finished with the task of writing the love story? (Prakriti)
Actually I am not satisfied with the way the story turned out. Give me time till 31 Aug 2010. I will finish it up. (Karthik)
Wind it up Karthik. I need the story urgently to help my friend’s love from the obstacles they are facing at present. (Ashwata breaking into laughter.)
“Karthik I can’t control my laughter. My stomach is paining. Are you writing a Love Story? I can never imagine how the story will turn out? A story to rescue lovers from obstacles. I think that they will run away from love & marriage after reading your story. I don’t think they will unite. “ Ashwata told in the midst of continuous laughter.
You are teasing me…. Ashwata… I will not leave you. (I started chasing Ashwata)
Karthik I am just kidding. Please leave me… (Ashwata).
I stopped there. Then she came slowly to me greeting with her childish smile. How nice is the true affection between a brother and sister. How lucky am I to have a sweet sister like Ashwata.
Post Script:
** No one is free from action. Every moment of their lives, people are forced to act whether they like it or not. This is because of the influence of the gunas. (Bhagavad Gita Ch3:5).
When the divinity (GOD) present in you is covered with layers of ignorance, the influence of the gunas will force you to act & respond in a way which will take you away from reaching the supreme abode. When action is inevitable*, why perform an action which will nullify your progress in your journey to merge with the supreme divine power?
*The state beyond action can neither be attained by abstaining from prescribed action nor by renunciation. (Bhagavad Gita Ch3:4).
***When such a state of never ending happiness is hidden inside you, why wait till old age and next birth to pursue happiness? You should start immediately from the very next moment itself to pursue the same. After opening the unopened gift, you may wonder at any moment that why I have not opened that Gift long time before. So my dear friends, I take immense pleasure in presenting you the Key : The Bhagavad Gita in PDF format to open that unopened Gift hidden deep inside you.
The download link is http://www.e-vedas.com/books/bg.htm
May you be blessed with an insight & thirst to know the Eternal Truths from the Vedas and with courage and conviction to pursue the same?
Kindly accept it as my Gift and grant an opportunity for me to help you.
Let all the Glory be to God.
A blog by Karthik.
Send in your comments/suggestions to karthikthewriter@yahoo.in
(An Unopened Gift)
