||Aum
Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||
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||Aum
Namo Narayanaya||
In
our hearts... Spring started today... when we all gathered at the Shree
Veeraboga Cultural Centre to witness the blooming of the timeless wisdom of the
Tirukurral by the gracious and loving touch of Swami Vimokshananda. The idea
for today’s blog seemed pre-ordained by a higher power. Yesterday when I had
posted the reminder to our devotees about the scheduled class, brother Kiru -an
ardent student of the Tirukurral- expressed his delight as should it have taken
place next week he would have missed it as he was going to be out of town.
Relating to his absolute delight, I unconsciously replied to his post by merely
saying Anbe Shivam. When Maharaj
began the class today, I was stunned to learn that we were discussing that very
subject matter of love and Maharaj made several inferences to Anbe Shivam (Love is God). With such
subtle commands from the universe, it will definitely be unwise to detract from
that train of thought.
Last
week, we all engaged in the celebration of Gita Week and Krishna Janmashtami
with some very powerful and elevating ideas emanating from discussions on the
Gita. In the midst of this, I still became a little emotional as I browsed
through the gallery of pictures posted by Maharaj of His tour of Northern
Natal. The devotees’ countenance in those areas was a confluence of both
delight and distress. In the company of Maharaj they expressed bliss similar to
the Gopis in the company of Krishna but their minds felt the pain of their
hearts that was impaled by the imminent departure of Maharaj. This would be
their last Krishna Janmashtami with Maharaj. Suddenly the pangs of separation
became infectious as today while I was waiting for Maharaj, I realised there
were just two classes left before Maharaj departs South Africa for His new
mission.
In
today’s class, we learnt that there is
one common thread that binds this whole world... although it may be found in
varying degrees... it nonetheless exists. This emotion or feeling is called “love”
and since we understand through Vedanta that it is God alone that pervades
everything, we can therefore easily allude to the statement Anbe Shivam – (Love is God).
Swami
Vivekananda said: “relationships are more important than life, but it is
important for those relationships to have life in them”. Tiruvalluvar eruditely
points out that those who possess love in their beings truly live, the rest are
merely skeletons clad in skin. Reading Swami Vivekananda, one is exposed to
this idea continuously. Swamiji goes to the level of saying that making
offerings or doing pooja at a shrine
is but preliminary worship. Swamiji emphasised that real tangible worship comes
out of serving Shiva in the hungry, in the poor and the sick.
But
the question arrives... how is it that most of us cannot see Swamiji’s view on
this matter. We can only conceptualise such high and noble ideals when our
hearts reconfigure itself from self-centeredness to embrace the entire universe
as one-and-the-same as yourself.
Today
some people feel so insecure about visiting family and friends in State
hospitals due to cleanliness issues. Yet we read how Florence Nightingale and Mother
Theresa worked in such challenging conditions to nurse the sick to good health
without care for caste, creed or status in society. So it is the absence of
this love and empathy that essentially makes our lives unfulfilled?
Can
we expect people in society to display and exhibit such love if they have not
experienced same in the home? The starting point of developing this culture of
empathy is the family. Former President of India, Abdul Kalam beautifully placed
before the European Union Parliament that his culture based on the Tirukurral
has taught him that when there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty
in the character, when there is beauty in the character there is harmony in the
home, when there is harmony in the home there is order in the nation and when
there is order in the nation then there is peace in the world.
There
is the profound message that comes from the sloka:
Vasudevam sutam devam, Kamsa Chanura
mardanam, Deviki paramnandam, Krishnam vande jagat Guru. It states that we
worship Krishna who is the son of Vasudeva, the slayer of Kamsa and Chanura, the
absolute bliss of Deviki, the one who came as the world teacher.
I
think that it is important that we understand how the Lord came to be the son
of two human beings. It is because of their sincerity in their prayers for a
child equal to the qualities of the Lord. The Lord proclaimed that none is
equal to Him thus in their next birth, He Himself shall take birth as their
son. In that way parents should also pray sincerely and devoutly to God for
children of divine qualities. Children should never be born out of lust, but
must be planned and be born out of sincere prayer. Then like Sri Krishna they
will be the slayer of the greatest asuras
of this world being lust and greed. They will be noble and firm in character.
They will be the absolute bliss of their Mothers... like the sloka said Deviki Paramandam. In the previous Tirukkural class, we leant that Mothers
experience great joy when they give birth to a child... however, greater than
that joy is the joy they experience when their child becomes a leader in
society. Therefore is must be impressed upon every parent how important the
entire process of bringing children into the world is... as well as raising and
nurturing children to be men and women of immaculate character. The home thus
becomes an incubator of “man-making, character-building education” as espoused
by Swami Vivekananda. However in society today, children are raised in crèches;
by nannys, ipads and television - devoid of the love and affection of the
Mother and also the fundamental value systems that constitute a noble being.
How
then can we expect that child to exhibit the love and empathy that is needed to
create and sustain a society that is just, peaceful and divine? It has become
imperative now in the midst of the chaos in the world that we internalise and
make practical the glorious values and ideas from the scriptures and teachings
of the saints so that we don’t have to suffer against something that we can do
something about, something that can be rectified. Our lives and futures lie in
our very own hands. God can be experienced right here and now... not post
mortem... by merely sharing something that costs nothing to give --- that is
love. Through this little act of empathy, an entire revolution can take place.
Anbe
Shivam, Shivane Anbu. (love is god , god is love)
May
we all be touched by the divine love, is my sincere prayer
With
sincere love and prayers
Yogan
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