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If we offer
something to God, we should never be proud of it, because no material object
can ever be the price for anything Divine.
***********
The
pleasures of this world are limited and temporary. The soul being Divine, can never be satisfied
by such pleasures.*********
God is
all-pure. Through whatever sentiment we
attach the mind to Him - fear, friendship, lust, etc - our mind will be
purified, and we will attain Him. ********
Only
moments spent in sweet remembrance of Shree Krishna are worthwhile.
Time spent in
forgetfulness of Him is wasted in sin.
************
To
attain the grace of God, we will have to purify the heart completely. This is possible only by the guidance of a
genuine Guru.
Along with
devotion to God, devotion towards the Guru is absolutely essential, because it
is by the grace of the Guru that one attains God.
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Featured Kirtan CD
Barsane Wari Radhey
Prescription For Happiness
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Upcoming Events
Swamiji's USA Tour
Philadelphia Retreat
May 29th - May 31st
Sunnyvale, CA
June 6th - June 12th
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June 13th - June 19th
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June 20th - June 26th
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June 26th - July 1st
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Current News
Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat
Shree Maharajji inaugurated a new primary
school at Kunda, near Kripalu Intermediate
College campus and also graced the education
fair conducted by students of Kripalu
Primary school and other
institutions.
Jagadguru Kripalu Yog
JKYog is pleased to announce the
inauguration of 2 Bal-Mukund centers for children and a weekly satsang center
in DC area. JKYog has also started new Bal-Mukund centers in New
York and New Jersey.
Swamiji has successfully completed his
lecture at Maryland, New
York and New Jersey.
Swamiji
has recently concluded his program in Ashland, MA. He will now proceed to
Philadelphia for a Spiritual Retreat with devotees from across USA.
|
The Editor
Jagadguru Kripalu Yog
XVII/3305, 1st Floor,
Ranjit Nagar,
Near PUSA,
New Delhi - 110008
India
7405 Stoney Point Dr
Plano, TX 75025
USA
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Welcome to the
Jagadguru Kripalu Yog
e-Magazine |
Importance and Role of a Guru
by Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj
The Vedic scriptures
have clearly established that the only way to attain God is through bhakti, devotion. Although, all the descensions of God are equal
in terms of Their power and Divine bliss, the highest level of love is revealed
in the loving pastimes of Shree Krishna. A soul can love God through different sentiments.
We can love God by considering Him as
our Master, and ourselves as His servants. This type of devotion is called Daasya bhav. Similarly, we can love Him as our friend, son
or our Beloved.
The highest form of devotion
is considering God as our Beloved, and loving Him without any material desires.
The only aim should be to make Him happy. This form of worship is called Madhurya bhav, or devotion in the
conjugal sentiment. We can receive this
Divine love of Madhurya bhav by the grace
of our guru, after purification of our heart by Sadhana, devotion. Hence, it
is extremely essential for all spiritual aspirants to gain knowledge of the supreme
form of love and about the grace of a guru.
Guru
tattva is knowledge about God-realized Saints. We will aim to learn what is revealed about guru tattva in the Vedas and these are
not my personal views. Hence, you must
listen with great sincerity and devotion, because the Vedas are the authentic
word of God, and revered by all. The
Vedas are eternal and flawless.
There
are three types of personalities:
1. Soul or a
human being - purush.
2. A God-realized
personality or Saint - Mahatma or Mahapurush.
3. The Supreme
soul, God - Paramatma or Parampurush.
Of the three
personalities, God is beyond maya,
since
it is His own power, and He rules over it.
māyāṁ tu
prakṛitiṁ vidyānmāyinaṁ tu maheśhvaraṁ
God says, "This
material energy, Maya, is one of My powers, and it is subordinate to Me". Maya in its original form is lifeless and
has no power. Maya gets its energy and power from God, and we souls have been under the
control of maya since eternity.
Who is a Mahapurush? When a soul attains God, its personality changes
from a purush to a Maharapurush. That soul is no longer under the influence of
maya, nor does the soul rule over maya. He is now beyond the reach of maya. Such a personality is called a God-realized Saint,
a Mahapurush or a Mahatma. There are many names used to
describe such personalities.
A soul under
the influence of maya cannot know anything
about God because the mind and the intellect are under the control of maya, and God is beyond maya. At present, even if God were to come and stand before
us, since our vision is material, we would not be able to receive His Divine love. We have seen God many times during the
descension, avatar of Lord Ram and Shree Krishna. But due to the
influence of maya, we perceived Him in a material form. We were not able to perceive the
Divinity in Him due to material influence.
The Katopanishad says,
uttiṣhṭhata
jāgrata prāpyavarānnibodhata
O souls
sleeping in Maya! Arise and awake. Seek the lotus feet of a Mahapurush. Note that the Vedas have not said, "Arise and
seek God". We have to realize that we cannot
reach God with our material possessions since God is Divine and we are under material influence.
But
a God-realized
personality can help you reach God. He may have been like one of
us some time back. But now, he has reached God. Go to him,
and he will impart all the scriptural
knowledge. He will teach you who is God? How does God look?
How to reach Him? He will explain all the required
knowledge. Only a
guru can make a soul a God-realized one. Not everybody can read
the Vedas and understand them, because:
vedā
brahmātmaviṣhayāḥ
"The Vedas are divine like God". Just as no one can
know God directly, nobody can attempt to read the Vedas and aim to understand
them. Even the very learned celestial gods, Sarasvati and Bruhaspati get confused while listening to the Vedas and are not
able to conclude anything. Even the
creator of this universe, Lord Brahma, could not understand the Vedas. It was God who graced Lord Brahma, after which he could understand the essence of the
Vedas. He then passed on this sacred
knowledge to his descendants.
The Vedas contain contradictory statements which
cannot be reconciled by the human intellect. The literal meaning is different
from the actual meaning.
anantapāraṁ
gaṁbhīraṁ durvigrāhyaṁ samudravat
Even the Ramayan written in this age, Kaliyug has conditions attached to it.
je
śhraddhasambal rahit, nahiṁ santan ko sāth |
tinha
kahaṁ mānas agam ati, jinahiṁ na priya raghunāth |
1. You need to have faith
and strong belief in God.
2. You need to have a God-realized
Saint to teach.
3. You must have love for
God (Lord Ram).
When you fulfil these three conditions, only then can you understand
the Ramayan. Similarly, even the Bhagvad Gita has certain conditions to be fulfilled before you read
them.
There are many contradicting
statements in the Vedas, that even the most learned of scholars cannot
comprehend or reconcile. Only a God-realized Saint can understand them, and reveal
the secrets behind them.
parīkṣhya lokān karmachitān
brahmaṇo nirvedamāyānnāstyakṛitaḥ kṛitena
tadvijñānārthaṁ sa gurumevābhigachchhet
samitpāṇiḥ śhrotriyaṁ brahmaniṣhṭham
Hence, it is clearly
mentioned in the Vedas that one must surrender to a God-realized Saint to
acquire knowledge of Vedas and other holy scriptures, instead of attempting to
read them by oneself.
Continued in the next issue.... |
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Secrets of Spiritual Sadhana
by Swami Mukundananda
Continuing from the last month...These are the next lines of the series "Sadhana Karu Pyare".
isi kā abhyās
puni puni, karu nirantar pyāre
unkāsukh hī
chahuṁ niśhi din, sukh na nij chahu pyāre
unakī ichchhā
meṁ hī apanī, rākhu ichchhā pyāre
We should always
think about God but it is equally important to have the willingness to serve
Him. We are the servants of God and Guru. Just like the different parts of a
tree - the leaves, branches, and the flowers, they all serve the tree. Another example to consider is how different
parts of the body and the organs serve the human body. Similarly, we are parts of the energy of God.
It is our duty to serve the Supreme power. Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji said -
jīver svaroop hay kṛiṣhṇer nitya dās
500 years ago, Chaitanya Mahaprabhuji had said that
the soul is an eternal servant of God. Today Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says:
sau bātan kī bāt ik, dharu muralidhar dhyān
The most
important point is that keep your mind in Shree Krishna and
baṛhavahu sevā vāsanā yah sau jñānan jñān
The most
important piece of knowledge is to increase the desire to serve, to do seva. What is the meaning of the term,
'to serve'? Do you think seva means
to clean the utensils, or to clean the meditation hall or to make a donation? No. Then what does seva mean? It
means, to constantly desire for God's happiness, because our primary aim is to
please Him. This is called seva bhav, or the desire to serve. It is the nature of love.
God is very clever. First,
He created us in such a way that we desire for all the happiness on earth, and
then He puts forth a condition that we should not wish for happiness of the
self. Instead, wish for His happiness. Our intellect says, "If we are to forget
about our happiness, and think about God's happiness, we stand to loose
out. How can we live without
happiness?"
God says, "When you wish for
My happiness and you will make an effort to make Me happy, I will not be selfish.
I am here to grace every soul. If you serve Me and make an effort to make Me
happy, I will increase that Bliss thousands of times and return it to you."
The happiness
that we get by serving God is called Sevanand. It is considered as the highest of all the
levels of happiness that we get in the realm of God. Even the bliss of a vision of God, Darshananand seems very less when
compared with the happiness we get from Sevanand.
The happiness that we get by serving Him is even greater than the bliss God gets from Himself. This bliss of God is
called Svaroopanand, which God gets
from His own Svaroop, or self. But the happiness that a devotee gets by
serving God is called Svaroop-shaktyanand. This Svaroop-shaktyanand is greater than Svaroopanand. God graces His devotee with a greater level
of happiness than His own Self, and then sits within the devotee to enjoy that
Bliss. Hence, the Bliss that God gets
from His devotee (through seva) is
greater than His own bliss!
This is why God becomes the servant of His own
devotee. He says that the love He gets
from His devotees is greater than His own Love! Hence He says:
ahaṁ
bhaktaḥ parādhīnoḥ
God says, "I
offer Myself to My devotee." Now, if we
want to make God our servant, we need to first remember that we have to desire
His happiness. His wish should be
our wish too. We do have the willingness
to serve Him, but we make mistakes. For example, a devotee says, "Swamiji,
please come to my place for dinner". Swamiji says, "I have to visit many other people too, and I have to
reach a certain place before 4 pm, and then leave for my evening lecture." The devotee gets upset with Swamiji for not
fulfilling his wish! What are we saying
by this? "Swamiji you must come and
serve us! Fulfill our desires!"
This is not
called service attitude. The meaning of Seva bhav is to wish what God and Guru wish. True seva is when a devotee does not impose his or her desires and likings upon the personality being served.
We
pray to God and also wish to serve Him, but the service
attitude is contaminated with the desire for self-happiness. This
is the reason why Shree Kripaluji Maharaj says: "Serve Him according to
His interest and liking. Remain happy by seeing His
happiness. If you practice
this, you will never go wrong in your devotion, or feel any
disappointment." At times, our mood gets off, we feel sad and
express disappointment on our beloved Guru and God. This happens
because we do
not perceive our happiness in His happiness. If we begin to feel
happy in
His happiness, our state of mind will remain pleasant and positive.
If someone
questions that Radhaji used to be
upset with God, what about that? True,
but that is because She wanted to increase the happiness of Shree Krishna. She does it to increase the Divine bliss of Shree Krishna, not because she is angry with Him. That is a different
chapter which will be discussed later on. |
Bal-Mukund Showcase
Bal-Mukund welcomes all contributions of
creative works from children in different areas including poetry, moral
stories, art work, etc.
*******
Bal-Mukund
Contribution
Happy Mothers Day!
By
Esha and Sonika
Harish
*******
The Boy actually Fed God
A
brahmin
used to worship his family deity with food offerings everyday.
One day, he had to go away on business. As he was about to leave
the house, he said
to his son: "Give the offering to the deity today and everyday.
Make sure God is fed." The boy offered food, but the stone deity
remained silent. It would neither eat
nor talk. The boy waited a long time,
but still the deity did not move.
However,
the boy firmly believed that God would come down from His throne, sit
on the
floor, and partake of his food. Repeatedly
he prayed to the deity, saying, "O Lord, come down and eat the
food. It is already very late. I cannot sit here any
longer." But the deity did not utter a word. The boy burst
into tears and cried "O Lord,
my father asked me to feed you. Why will
you not come down? Why will you not eat
from my hands?" The boy wept for some time with humility. He then
got up, picked up a stick and said
"Are you coming down to eat or should I start beating you?"
Immediately,
the
deity, smiling, came down, sat before the meal and ate it. The
boy was very happy. Henceforth the deity would eat the boy's
cooking every day. After a few days, his
father came back and started to prepare the offering. There was
no grain left for cooking. The boy's father asked his son, "Where
is the
grain?" The boy replied, "God has eaten
everything." The father was surprised
and said, "How is that possible?" The
boy replied innocently, "Why not? God
has eaten the food."
The
father was not ready to believe his son. He thought that the boy was lying and began to scold him for not
speaking the truth. The innocent boy
kept repeating that God Himself sat down to eat and hence the grain got over in
a few days. The father decided he had
enough of the lies. He asked his son to
prove it otherwise, he would get a thrashing.
The
next
day, he prepared the food for offering and asked his son to ask God to
come down and eat. The boy happily
accepted and prayed to God. Nothing
happened. The father was now sure that
his boy is a liar. The young boy pleaded
in front of the deity, but God did not come. At last, the boy got
up and picked up the stick. He said, "Will you come down and eat
or shall
I beat you up?"
Immediately,
God came down and started to eat the offering. The father was speechless with wonder to see that the deity had really
eaten every bit of the offering! He
could not believe his eyes. He was
ashamed because he doubted the boy's innocence.
Moral:
You must love God with firm faith. Then He will surely Grace you.
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Question:
There is an age old saying, "When
you are ready the teacher will appear". Swamiji, what is that "readiness"
required for the GURU to appear?
Answer:
Before I answer your question, please let me explain its context,
for the benefit of everyone. The Vedic
scriptures have repeatedly instructed that we need to surrender to a Guru, to
attain God.
Tadvigyanartham sa gurumevabhigacchet
samitpanih
shrotriyam brahmanishtham (Mundakopanishad)
The Vedas say, "To know God, approach a Spiritual Master, who is
both well-versed in the knowledge of the scriptures and is also
God-realized. Serve him with faith and
humility." The same principle is
reiterated in the Geeta and the other scriptures as well:
Tasmadgurum
prapadyeta... (Shreemad Bhagavatam)
Tadviddhi pranipatena... (Bhagavad Geeta)
Guru binu bhava nidhi ... (Ramayana)
These scriptures emphasise the need for a Spiritual Teacher for
progress on the spiritual path. They also
mention that the Guru must be a God-realized personality, who is seated in the
Absolute Truth.
However,
the question that stumps a seeker is how to find a true Guru.
Where should we go? The God-realized Saints are Divine
personalities, who are beyond our material intellects. So, what
criteria should we use to recognize them?
Fortunately, God helps the sincere seeker in this task. He is seated in everyone's heart, and so when
He sees that we are ready, He not only brings us in contact with a genuine Guru,
but also creates our faith towards the Guru by inspiring us with the feeling,
"Yes! This is the personality for whom I
was searching." Without this inspiration
that comes so strongly from within, we may stand before the Guru, and yet not
recognize him as a true Guru. Or we may
recognize his Divinity, but feel no motivation to surrender. Hence, it is said that when God sees we are
ready, He bestows His Grace, and we find our Spiritual Master.
However, you have asked what that "readiness" is. Here, readiness means a sincere aspiration to
attain God. We must firmly decide that
our goal is God-realization, and we must desire it intensely. When God sees this in any soul, He bestows
His Grace and creates that connection with the Guru.
Often people search for Spiritual Teachers, but their desire for God
is mixed with material aspirations. In
accordance with their motivation, their faith is created in so-called spiritual
teachers who pander to their material desires. After many years, such seekers realize that their guru was not perfect,
and they feel they have been cheated. However,
they must blame themselves for developing faith in a wrong personality.
Hence, the best way to find a genuine Spiritual Master is to develop
an intense aspiration for God. When He
sees this "readiness" in our heart, He will arrange for us to meet our teacher. |
Trivia Time
Char Dhams
Char
Dham refers to the four Holy Abodes located in the sub-continent of India. The four holy pilgrimage places are at the
center of Hindu culture, tradition, faith and devotion. They are revered as the abode of Gods since
eternity and ancient shrines serve as the symbol of God's grace for millions of
Hindu across the world.
The four holy places are,
Puri - Situated in coastal Orissa, Eastern India.
Rameshwaram - in the Southern Indian state of
Tamil Nadu, at the tip of peninsular India.
Dwarika - at the Western edge of India, in the state of Gujarat.
Badrinath - in the mighty Himalayas
of North India.
Each of these holy sites have been
associated with Hindu culture since time immemorial. They bind the people of
various cultures and traditions across the country and keep the flame of
devotion burning high in people across all ages and sects.
Adi Jagadguru Shankarachaya played a
pivotal role in uniting the people of India and reviving the Hindu Dharma
across the country. He traveled throughout the country and grouped the four
sacred places Badrinath, Rameshwaram, Puri and Dwarika as the Char Dhams,
or four holy places.
Hindus consider that their life reaches
complete fulfillment if they visit these four sites and some even believe it takes
them to God's own abode after death.
Himalayas or the Abode of the Gods, as it is known, is traditionally a place
of austerity and spiritual sadhana. It is
looked on as a region of great spiritual importance.
In the picturesque land of the Himalayas, Garhwal region is very famous for its beauty. It houses another 'Chota Char Dham' or the Small four Holy Abodes - Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
These four sites have immense spiritual
significance for Hindus and other spiritual aspirants alike and serve as a
beacon for millions of devotees on the path towards God.
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Jagadguru Kripalu Yog
Kati Ghurnan Asan
Method
Stand-up straight with a distance of about one foot between
your feet. Hold your waist and rotate it
five times in a clockwise direction and then anti-clockwise. Inhale
(Radhey) when your waist comes forward and exhale (Shyam) when your waist goes
backward.
Benefits
It makes
your waist flexible and activates the liver and kidneys.
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