Way of Living - Sri Ramchandra's Commandments

You have by now seen the 10 maxims or commandments of Sri Ramchandra. The crux of the issue is we know what is good, we do not do what is good. When we try to give our mind or intellect or reasoning, use any word you like, more importance than to other faculties that God has given namely feeling, love, attachment, empathy, this problem generally comes. There are historical facts that over about 5 to 6 thousand years or more, we have been somehow giving too much importance to the intellectual or the mental sphere and slowly we are getting away from our basis i.e, Nature. Instead of being one with the Mother Nature we have somehow chosen sometime in history a concept of conquering Nature. Instead of being in tune with Nature we wanted to conquer it and there arose all our problems. This problem was not there earlier, because behind every force that was there, the early man was able to see, the vedic seers were able to see, something which is definitely good and which is in order. Even when he praised or adored Natural forces he was not adoring the Natural forces as such but was trying to see what is the good they were doing to him. When we worship Sun they knew very well what Sun is, but then they also knew without him they will not be in a position to live and therefore they granted him the status of God. Similar is the position with the trees, which they knew is very important for their existence, for natural living, similarly about the rivers, similarly about the mountains so on and so forth. Somebody from the west who was not able to think all this well early and all of a sudden sometime in the middle of the last millennia or the present millennia, the fag end of which we have come already, started their theory of exploitation of the natural resources and consequently exploitation of other human beings also and they taught us the philosophy that perhaps you are very very pre-mature set of fellows worshiping this or worshiping that. They could not go to the basis, understandably, because their thinking pattern is such. It is our misfortune that we have started accepting it as correct and for about 250 years of slavery or perhaps a bit more, I think, we have finally come to a stage when we have got to adjust. We know in our minds that this is right, we are not able to accept it because the language of feeling is almost totally forgotten. Everybody knows some English, some French, some German, some Sanskrit, some Telugu, some Hindi, some language or the other we seem to be knowing. They are all ways of expression; ways of experience or the imperience somehow is lost. The natural love between the father and the son, the mother and the son, father and the daughter, the natural love that is there between you and me somehow got eroded for considerations of what we considered or what we have been taught to consider as good namely opulence, comfort, not bothering about another person, living for oneself, stand on your legs - these type of logics have come and we tended to accept it.

The whole system of Sri Ramchandra tries to restore us back to that fundamentals of trying to live with Nature, trying to be in tune with Nature. We are expressions of the Divine is a word that we have accepted at the mental level. Thanks to the renaissance period of the last century when the great Vivekananda came forward and made this statement, yes, most of us have started remembering our original moors our original traditions most of us have. Many other systems have explained it also, each one in their own way contributed to our understanding of it but behind it is the call that again is generally getting forgotten because we get into vedanta or philosophy rather than the practice. An intellectual thing can take you anywhere, anywhere in your imagination it can lead you to any place but feeling is lost there. Information doesn't become knowledge that easily first, as we have got lot of information in the library, to read and understand it takes some time and knowledge to become understanding it takes an enormous input. There is lot of effort we have to put in between these two. Simply because we know something I don't think we understand that. The most difficult thing to understand in life is the word sacrifice and I am proud of being an Indian knowing the value of sacrifice, but sacrifice is a word which will not go along with individuality. If you talk independence don't talk about sacrifice, they are mutually contradictory, they will not go together.

A society based on the value of independence is bound to fail and that is what our asuras were supposed to have had. What type of stories we have got, I don't have to repeat all of them, most of you know all that. In sacrifice lies the value of Divinity, the Sun burns himself from morning to night so that we continue to live. Sacrifice is the basis of Divinity - when anybody says that you are a Mahatma or you are a Divine personality, he is only trying to tell you that you are capable of thinking beyond your selfishness and trying to do good for others. Only when we talk in terms of selfless service we talk in terms of attributing Divinity to him. Gandhiji is a mahatma for the only reason he was able to sacrifice so much of his personal life for the sake of the nation otherwise he will not be. There are so many, it's only an incident, one example I gave, there are so many people whom you can quote. There are perhaps many more whom we don't know at all, it is not necessary that all Gods should be known also. That is why the number has been put at some staggering 360 crores so that you do not have to count. One or two you will definitely start counting. Who are they? When you put the number at 360 crores you will not bother to count. The simple reason behind it is, there are so many.

Every one of us have got the capacity to become the Divine and how to become Divine is this system. The system of Sri Ramchandra's Raja yoga is not meant just for being getting some satisfaction, some peace of mind. No. How to live up to our potential of being divine? That is our potential, human is not the potential, many people talked in terms of human resource development. I am ashamed to use that word in this country for the only reason I have been told from the beginning that there is a divine resource that has to be developed. So let us develop the divine resource, human resource will come along the way, it is just like one more qualification that we get, let us become human at least I agree, temporary goal, but our goal is not that. Our goal is to become divine, the divine resource has to come out and we are capable of doing such sacrifices, we are capable of doing something very very good to others, atleast we can think good of others. At present we think good of ourselves, from this level let us come out of and think good for others. How much you can do? Later on that starts, first of all let us start thinking something outside ourselves.

It is time to think in those lines, because I will tell you two small examples, they are actually incidents that have happened, I was reminded about them yesterday. One of my distant relatives, happened to be a cousin actually, became a CEO by 34th or 35th year. Right on the top he was, he gave a ring to me about two years back, 'uncle I have reached the position my father and mother have been pestering me for this type of position I have got it now, what next? can you tell me what next?' the question was something over the phone, I couldn't answer in detail so I said, when I meet you next time we will have more occasion, time to talk about it, don't worry carry on. After about 8 days, I received the message that he committed suicide and his only reason is, he has not found a purpose for his life. He had no purpose because he has reached the pinnacle, he got the maximum position that anybody can think of. He committed suicide. There was another incident yesterday, one of my friends, old friend met me after 25 years, he came he was talking to me about his relatives, his cousin actually, this boy belongs to the brahmin community, he married a kamma woman, so far there is no problem. The problem started; it seems one of the conditions for the marriage is that they should not have any children. This fact came to the knowledge of the parents much later and it seems they see once in about 8 to 9 months, they work in two different places in USA far far away perhaps Kanyakumari and Kashmir. So he was telling 'what is this Narayan what am I to do, this is what is the position' I said it is their life they have chosen that independent life, you and I are talking about interdependence, they are talking about independence. So the values are entirely different, unless there is a change in the value system you will not be in a position to communicate to them and they will not be in a position to communicate. We can talk but we will never communicate, exchange of words is always possible, exchange of words doesn't mean anything, we never learn anything from that. So what I am trying to impress upon you is, so long as we are going to live for ourselves, we will lose to have meaning for our life itself, the meaning for life lies only in living for others. If you are going to live for yourself there is no meaning at all, you will get into that frustrating mood, really nobody knows what exactly it is. One more thing also I have to tell you because it seems that when she comes also she will not make him coffee which he likes because she likes tea and so there is a big quarrel every time they meet on this issue of a coffee and tea. I am not joking, this is exactly what yesterday my friend told me and I am just repeating to you because this is the way in which we are going, the amount of tolerance, alright you have coffee I will have tea at least that is a good understanding. No, not that way I come once in a way to meet you therefore you should take tea and he says once in a way you come, you better take coffee where is the end to this? this is a very very funny situation to which we are going and why I am giving such a big sort of an introduction to the whole subject is, let us learn first of all to live in tune with Nature.

Nature teaches you certain things, so the first thing, the first commandment of Sri Ramchandra starts with "Rise before dawn", why should I? Why should I, tell? Why not I get up some time in the afternoon? Sometime 12 o' clock in the afternoon, what is wrong about it? The reason is, when you want to participate with nature, nature starts activity at that time so you also start your activity at that time, before that time you be in tune with Nature. To be in tune would be to follow and that is much more superior. You may perhaps rise a few minutes later or earlier but Sun will rise exactly to the same second according to the calendar, you can see, there will be no change. So there is a meeting place between activity and inactivity, the night was inactive the morning is active. You may put this question to me sir, how do you say that, nowadays we are active the entire night. Yes, we are active we have killed nature, that's why it is so, we have deliberately killed the nature so that there is no difference between night and day. Yes, it is very difficult for you to teach your children as to what is night and what is day. If you are just going to show, going to any metropolitan city, where you will find every time light because it has been my very tough experience to explain to my granddaughter what it is to think about darkness in the night because every where there is light so when I say that nights will be dark, she says no its not dark it is blue, I said no no it is dark then she said no it is blue, so one night fortunately in Hyderabad we have got so many days when there is no power, power cuts so it was easy for me to go and say now you see what it is. That way it is also a blessing now and then you lose power at least we can teach certain concepts otherwise it is impossible to teach that concept. How to say that nights are dark? In a situation like this how do you say that. We have deliberately killed and those of you who know a bit of Ramayana should remember that when this Anjaneya entered the Lanka in the night it was all bright so he was confused whether it was morning or night. It was one of the greatest confusions at that time, I think we are in no better position than that today. I don't want to make the conclusion that all of us are asuras but then by and large that seems to be the position. It is a miserable state of affairs in which we are now but if we want to restore ourselves to balance, first thing is be in tune with nature, night is inactive, day is active.

Your heart is the place where there is both activity and inactivity, it beats, there is one off period, there is one on period. Similar is the night and day, so he says to you that you get up early in the morning, meditate at that time. How long, how much, is secondary issue. That it is one hour or half an hour or 45 minutes or one and half hours each person decides and in a modern world like this since you cannot give too much time, SriRamchandraji Maharaj has fixed the time as 1 hour, he says you take it as 1 hour as the time. It is fairly arbitrary, there is nothing very very unquestionable axiom about it, nothing, you may be sitting for 45 minutes, you may be sitting for 1½ hours, it all depends upon the time but for a busy person to give more than that time is not possible. Those of you who have done some sort of a worship, you should have seen the amount of time we take, generally about three to four hours we take to complete all your things, as against it you restrict it to one hour before the dawn itself. That is very advantageous because we have to go to offices, we have to attend to our work, so do it early. If you do it later you will not be in a position to do justice to both. I am aware of very many pious people at various levels in government service of which I was a part till recently where they say sir, So and so has not come, why? Because of a puja in his house sir he will be coming very late, at what time he is expected? May be around 1o' clock or 2 o' clock. This is a daily situation because everyday there is some puja or the other, something or the other happens. I am not here to judge their ethical standards. No I am not here to judge that but I can only say it has affected their work but if you don't want to affect your work and also be happy, the better way is to get up before dawn, do your puja early.

Sit in the same place for the only reason vibrations are always there. You carry the vibrations in the same place and that's how we start the day but people who have got questions about the tradition they say trikala sandhya. There is something like morning prayer or morning sandhya, afternoon sandhya, evening sandhya, I don't know how many of you are aware of all these things but most of the people who try to do all the three at least gave up the afternoon one very early because it was impossible to leave office at that time to go and attend to that work at 12 o'clock. Of course the purohits have done it to the extent that they were capable of. People who did not have any other avocation except doing priestly work, they have been practicing but by and large for the common man it is out of question and the common man for the reasons which we don't know even coming from greater traditions has moved into the service sector. The reason for that was the alleged poverty, alleged poverty is what made our ancestors move down to jobs, jobs with the westerners and thereby in a sense participated in the betrayal program of the independence of the country. It may be very bitter to hear all this but that is the truth. The truth is by joining their hands we have sacrificed our life and we have come to this position.

Had each one attended to his job properly this position would not have come but then they were told that they were poor, as against people, ancient saints who said that poverty is by choice. Why do you want to be poor? Because, only under those circumstances I can think about God, why do you want miseries? That is the circumstance under which I can think about God, that is the famous story of the kunti herself. As against that value which was there early, we have compromised enormously, we means our ancestors, we are part of them and they were part of us so this is how we have deteriorated. Whatever it is, it has happened, you cannot reverse, you cannot get back, so what is the best way out? If you put that question, best way out, this is the answer that my Master gives you, namely you adjust, you adjust your timings in such a way that you meditate in the morning. You go to your work but then when you go to work, think whatever work it is, think that it is the Master himself is doing and there he is bringing a very big concept of Bhagavad-Gita into practice. In Bhagavad-Gita you find it in second chapter you will find that Lord Krishna clarifies the point, think that I am the doer, not you, you are nobody to do, I am the person to do. If he is the person to do, our efficiency levels will be at the highest because God cannot be inefficient. God by definition cannot be inefficient so whatever is our best potential will definitely come to the forefront if you think he is doing it, so during the day you follow this. Afternoon, you are not going to meditate, it is out of question because your office is there but since you are going to do the entire day all your activities thinking it is the Divine that is performing you will not have the necessity of doing it at that time, it is an alternative that has been given. The third one is, in the evening He modifies the sandhya. Of course the sandya if you have studied well has got a mantra to this effect but least understood. I would not like to go beyond a limit but then if any one of you is interested I will tell you what exactly is the thing that was given. They said that, you have to think that all my activities have somehow caused impressions in me, somehow good, bad, indifferent, some impressions have formed. So it is my activity, my thinking, my attachment, that formed these impressions and therefore it is my duty to get rid of it, so we clean our hands, we clean our face, clean our feet, similarly clean our heart also this is what is asked to be done in the evening cleaning process. Again, before you go to rest think about God and go to rest. Why? Who takes care of you when you are asleep, it is God who takes care of you, the oldest truth of the Vedas is this. In the night we are in the company of God when we are deep asleep and that is why most of us know in this country that we don't disturb people when they are sleeping because he is in the company of the divine, you have normally no business to disturb him. So through the night you go through rest, again activity starts, that's how the first commandment goes.

You can go through the commandments that are there, the books are available the commentary also is there. What should be the type of prayer that I offer? Should I ask for something of a relief from my problems? Should I ask for some relief for somebody who is suffering in my house? Or should I ask for something else? So when God is there to ask we don't ask all these things we ask only for our being one with him. A question may arise whether it is not human nature to think about others. Yes we do, it is not human nature that as such that makes you think. It is the attachment that you have developed that makes you think as such and that attachment has been given enormous importance compared to another fundamental logic, a very fundamental truth of science, that 'as you sow so you reap'. It is a fundamental truth but whenever we think in terms of God we wanted exemption from this axiom. This is an axiom 'as you sow so you reap' but whenever the concept of God comes, we always think in terms of seeking exemption from this under some rule. As a government servant I would like to put under this rule so and so please give me some exemption, it happens. It has been our habit, from which time has it been our habit? Selfishness is a point that we have got of the animal nature because it is a preservation instinct. Selfishness is another word for preservation, you want to continue that's what you call selfish, you want to annihilate then you won't call it selfish. Nobody annihilates himself for selfishness, but then the human nature should be in accordance with the divine which annihilates itself, every second it burns itself to see that I live. The one Suryanarayana that all of us are aware of, goes on burning incessantly so that I live here, that is the type of demand of God. These attachments that we are saying that are ours actually are not really attachments. When you go deep into it finally I would like somebody to be happy, yes I would like to. When your house burns except for a mother nobody bothers about the child, they run away. So all these talk of trying to do good for somebody etc., you can understand for yourself what it is, why should I make conclusions I can only tell facts, this is the fact. That is the fact of life, we would like to save ourselves, basically that is an animal instinct, nothing wrong about it because we are animals, everyone of us is an animal how can we say we are not, we are animals. Actually we are naras, a small level above vanaras, in the vanara you have got a tail and we are nara, we don't have. This nara has to become one who can think and that is a manava, a man who starts thinking is a manava, a person who thinks for the good of others is a manishi and a person who goes beyond that is a kavihi. Not every poet is a kavi, kavi is somebody different and he is capable of seeing where ravi cannot see. That means he is capable of going beyond the limits of Nature, limitations are not there for a kavihi and he is supposed to be paribhuhu and he is supposed to be swayambhuhu, so many adjectives have been given in the Vedas for that. It is very difficult to grasp the concept of what is the extent up to which we can grow but the misfortune is we tend to live at the animal level, it is true and most of our prayers are dependent upon that animal level. So it is for each one of us to know whether we should restrict ourselves only to the animal level or we should move beyond that. While it is a fact in day to day life we do pray for all these things, our approach to God should be always, in our meditations, for our spiritual upliftment, not for the relief. I may have some problem, you have some problem, my wife has some, your mother will be having some, something like that, it is natural for you to ask, you will have to grow out of it. Incidentally now this problem has come I will tell you one small incident, few days back I received a letter from another gentleman. He was to have his first child and there was some labour problem and this happened in the U.S.A, not here, so this man was already a practicant of this system so he sat beside his wife and then I think touched her body or something like that and prayed for her relief from this pain or whatever it is and she did have a good delivery and the problem is over. This man's problem started now, he started writing to me sir you asked me to think only in terms of the ultimate I did it like this what am I to do? I said you already done it then what is the point, every person does it and you also have done it, grow out of it.

One thing is to know where I am, one thing is to know what I should aspire for, so what I am asked to aspire for is the 2nd commandment, what I am, I think everyone of us know what we are, then why talk about it. This is too obvious, the 2nd thing is too obvious for all of us, when you have got a head ache you will say at least let me not have headache during meditation, at least this prayer you will have. You will not yield so much to the divine to say that he will know better, no. You will at least put some amruthanjan here or a zandu balm there or some other brand, these things do happen. If you are a bit more religious you may go to some vibhudi, you may take some sripadarenu or you may take some tulsi teertham, do something, you will do something or the other to get rid of it. There is nothing very very great about it, very abnormal about it, every one of us would do it because it is a natural instinct. We have to come out of that natural instinct somehow and let us have an aspiration for that. When we ask God let us not ask for these things, these things we know how to get rid of them, at least, thanks to so many doctors now they will sort out most of the problems. We should aspire for spiritual upliftment. Begin your puja with a prayer for spiritual upliftment and rest not till that is achieved'. Rest not means, everyday if you are saying I will not rest till that time, it will not work, it's a life time approach so we must go on doing this puja only in that way seeking for One, that is why the prayer says to you 'Thou art the only God and power to bring me up to that stage'. This is the one of the most challenging things for us and at the same time one of the most unique prayers we have got. We are not asking for a status less than that of God, less than that of divinity. We would like to be one with the Master, His status shall be mine because we are He, we are no different from Him so don't ask for a position less than that, ask for a position equal to that. In the end of course you realize you don't exist, He alone exists that is a separate issue. Ultimately you don't become that, only He becomes you but that is a separate subject but the fact is we are asked to pray for that. That is the challenge, that is the possibility that we are talking of. We are not talking in terms of being just disciples or devotees or slaves. That is granted in the beginning itself 'we are yet but slaves of our wishes', that we know. That is a very very polite way of saying that I am a slave of my animal instincts, slaves of my wishes. Suppose you just change those words 'wishes' and then put 'animal instincts', it applies better it makes more sense to understand but then my Master is always polite so he has given in that way and this is one of the prayers He got from the divine and therefore he gave it as it is.

The 3rd commandment says, oneness with the Divine, complete oneness. That means so long as we are selfish, self motivated, we are thinking about ourselves, our goals and our petty ends, you will not be in a position to become Him because he does not distinguish between one and the other. All our conflicts arise mainly because of individualities and personal goals, conflicting goals actually, very very conflicting goals we have got. Therefore somebody becomes inimical to you, you think it is but nobody is inimical, we think he became because his goals are just in the opposite direction to ours, we ask something he asks something else. So in the whole process it becomes very difficult to move on unless we start yielding to that and if you yield towards the divine the chances are that you become one with Him. As I hinted already, you don't become one with Him, He becomes one with you because you are His expression. This is another vedantic problem in Vedanta, the problem always starts with saying that atman and Brahman are the same. It is the Brahman which is the atman and not the atman which is the Brahman, and then aham brahmasmi has been very very badly quoted out of context. If you read the original vedic thing it does not mean anything, it means only when I have realized that I become this, the concluding part of the mantra but interpretations will always be there. Mind is capable of playing and it plays, if there is one thing that is still left with us of a monkey that is the mind. You are able to get rid of the tail alright but then the mind is playing jokes and it is playing monkey everyday. It plays all sorts of monkeyishness and we have to control that, we can't suppress it because it is something God has given so we have to control, bring it to a state of balance.

When this type of oneness with the Divine is possible? Or when is it possible for the Divine to become one with you? When is it possible? Only when we try to shed off our unnecessary load. Too many attachments, too many prejudices, too many opinions towards several things, most of our discussions are meaningless discussions. I don't know whether you had funny discussions but I did have, so I can share what I had. You go to a cricket match and then see some fellow playing, somebody bowled and somebody played, ok, matter is over, between them it is sorted out. We start arguing 'had he played like this it would have been different, foolish fellow he did not know, no no he played very very well'. Next fellow says something, third fellow says something else and you get into terribly heated argument about the whole thing and the evening is over, we have forgotten to see the match also. In the whole process of one stroke the match is lost, I don't know who wins there but we have lost the game. This is what our arguments are, most of your arguments if you can see, this is how it ends. The system of education that we have got is one of competition instead of coexistence, instead of co-operation, we have unfortunately opted for the western concept of competition. Krishna and Sudhama both were disciples, they never lost their self in competition. Krishna passed out very early, Sudhama came out much later but nobody said that this fellow is inferior or that fellow is superior. They always said he is a person who has studied under the same teacher and therefore venerable. The only person who unfortunately upset the cart was Drupada who misbehaved and therefore the whole of the Mahabharat was there, part of the Mahabharat is part of that story. Now one person saying that he is superior, had he also maintained the same principle as Sudhama and Krishna, the problem would not have been there. Competition is the beginning of all trouble. All of us are made by God and according to his design. The rose is as beautiful if not more than a lotus, let us not go on comparing them and then contrast and fight. So this one upmanship is the concept that has been given more into our head, as I have already mentioned in Mahabharat itself it is there but more into our head thanks to the west because they wanted to bring some difference between us and they started saying this fellow is superior that fellow is inferior. Those of you who know a bit of social psychology know there is a community called Mundagmar in south New Zealand, one more is called Arabish, the Arabish fellows live in plains, the Mundagmar fellows live in mountains. The arabish fellows in the classroom who were given an exercise of mathematics, now whoever had completed were asked to lift their hand, somebody did very fast and then lifted his hand, in Mundagmar community they refused. This fellow has completed his exercise but he did not lift his hand, when asked why, he said let everybody pass then I will lift, when asked why, he said because we have to live together in the forest, you can fight in the plains we cannot fight in the forest. If you fight in the forest amongst yourself you will definitely be killed by some animal, in the plains we can afford to fight. So the beginnings of this type of competition comes only when you are affluent and when certain other values take over. We don't have to, we don't have to go on arguing, somebody had played you see the game and then go. No, nobody would like to, people would like to get into troubles. This is a general feature, I agree a general feature, today we have to unlearn quite a lot. The process of spirituality is mostly unlearning, not learning, we don't learn anything in spirituality for that matter we only unlearn whatever we have learned. Whatever samskaras we have got we would like to get rid of them, get rid of them and you are liberated, we are back to our original place. You learn something then we are lost in samskaras, one more samskara you have got. You start arguing your philosophy is superior to that of mine, advaita is superior to visistadvaita, visistadvaita is superior to dvaita, dvaita is superior to advaita, you go on arguing there is no end to this, because a person would like to be one upmanship. I am just up, I am better than you, why should you be better than me, why not all of us be equal, no. It is acquired nature. You see children they don't differentiate in the beginning. All children are innocent, they join together, they play well, of course they argue, they fight among themselves, they immediately compromise, everything is done. As they grow you will see the thing, they take uncompromising stands. In the early life they are all compromising on all levels and as we take on a silliest thing also they will be uncompromising, they will not compromise on this. So this is an acquired trait, it is not a natural trait, natural trait is to coexist, be in peace, be in peace is the natural trait, be in conflict is what you have learnt through civilization, eternal conflict for no reason what so ever. You may think that I am unpatriotic but then I will quote one small incident as to why we are fighting on borders really one does not know why, because those glaciers will never go nor that fellow is going to sit there but still we go on arguing and the same thing is what Bertrand Russel said. He said you people all the time tell tolerance, why don't you just keep quiet on this issue. If that fellow were to take manmohan line or macmohan line, whatever line it is somewhere in border and it seems they are fighting over a place where nobody will go at any point of time in his life except these unfortunate soldiers who have been posted there to fight, very very unfortunate souls. Why they are fighting there, nobody knows and he said why are you fighting on all these things, small things, it doesn't matter much, why do you fight and then for having said it some big agitation was there and he was thrown inside the jail. Poor fellow Bertrand Russell has to go through miserable life for having said something like this. I don't defend him nor am I in total agreement with that logic nor am I opposed to the defense policy of the country but what I am trying to tell you is, this is what we have acquired. Finally if you look at it, the whole thing happens to be some sort of a small fight on very small issues. Most of the difference of opinions we have got are only silly difference of opinion.

Plainness is something that is in nature, it's plain. When you are angry be angry, when you are loving you love. When cyclone comes it does not distinguish between the places, it simply comes, when floods come they don't distinguish he is a good fellow he is a bad fellow, I will drown only this fellow, I will not drown that fellow, no such thing is possible. It is plain and we through our artificial means have started controlling our feelings to such an extent that many times we don't express our true feelings. Finally the personality, the persona being understood as some sort of a mask has totally covered your soul. People know only personalities, nobody knows the soul but our souls are one, we are one with each other, there is no difference between you and me. It is the personality that is giving a conflict and persona you know is a word that is coming from the word mask. It's a mask, I have a mask you have a mask and this is what is fighting. Basically internally I want you to be good and you want me to be good. I want to be kind to you, you want to be kind to me, basically everybody has got this feeling. People are now afraid of touching a person, this has happened in the west much earlier, this is happening in India now, in some places at least. Somebody gets into an accident and if you touch him you are in troubles, if you touch that fellow you are in troubles because he says had you handled me better I would not had this problem, he goes to the court and then you are lost. For having attempted to do something good, you are getting into troubles. The personalities are in troubles now but basically the instinct is the same, there also they want to do some help, do some good to others. If 30 years or 40 years back or even about 50 years back, if you try to help somebody he used to accept it, today they will ask you the question why is it you are doing this. As a matter of fact I found this question in the institute also, many of the participants put this question why is it you people are doing this free, why is it. I want to be good, that's all, I have no axe to grind. I want to say something which I know, if you are kind enough to come and hear me I will tell you, you don't want to hear me and go alright you go, but then why is it you are doing is the question I could not understand. We will also show you the papers there are earlier batches of people who put this question, why is it you are doing this, what is it you want to do. We only said we want to be brothers, at least we want to tell you that we are brothers, whether I behave as such or not it depends upon my behaviour but at least I want to tell you. That's my intention, I have no intention to tell anything wrong to you. I have benefited from my great Master which I wanted to pass on to you. Please see what it is, if you can follow it, follow it, if not, very good having spend some time with us let us be happy. This is what I have been telling but then that itself is a big problem for us to defend, it has become very big problem now and then it becomes, why do you waste so much time? I don't waste, I spend, I usefully spend. When I communicate to you, I consider this is the best time that I spend. A few good words to others is what we can do because all other places it is selfish motive that is guiding us. I am not doing any marketing here, because by marketing I am not going to get anything. By marketing a system like this, what is it I am going to get? Because a stage has come when people started questioning genuineness of selfless service itself because it has become so alien to us now in this present atmosphere it is very difficult to convince people. This has started, I think in several walks of life it has started actually, when somebody is prepared to marry without a dowry he is asking a question, who is this fellow, there must be something terrible deficient about him, otherwise why should this fellow marry like this, he seems to be well qualified and all that. Genuine goodness is being questioned now, that is the dirtiest level to which we have fallen now, thanks to your competition thanks to what every word, we have got. A stage has come when we should come out of this at least. Let us behave as personalities capable of being divine, we need not yield to this much of animal instinct. Animals we are, there is no doubt about it, who is not an animal? There are many qualities that are in us which cannot be so easily got rid of, they are animals. That is the message actually given to us by some of the stories on Indra, they were just trying to tell you that even if he is a God, he can become animal, the possibilities of a person of a high rank falling low is what was hinted at. We don't have to accuse anybody for that but the possibilities are there because it is always there, every person suffers except that is our basic, base actually from which we are growing.

The next commandment talks to you about being truthful. There is one thing very interesting you must have noted about the whole commandments. You do not find one sentence which says you should not do. Not a single commandment is there which says you don't do this as against other commandments of other religions where they say you should not do this, you should not do that, you should not steal somebody's property. you should not take away another man's wife, all sorts of things. This is what the commandments are there in the Bible and so also in Koran. As against it, here as according to our tradition, it's the question of the Satya that matters. Rtam and the satya are the two concepts which are very very unique to our system, this land actually. Rtam is natural order, there is a universal order, you disturb any one of them the whole thing collapses. There cannot be any change in the planetary positions, the way in which they move, the path in which they move, you just disturb one from the other you are in troubles, you are in chaos. Just what can happen to you is something nobody can imagine. If sun were to rise just a fraction of a second later than what he is supposed to, then we are in real troubles we really don't know what will happen to us, so that is the natural order. On the natural order is dependent upon your truth because that is the truth. Truth should always be linked with the Rtam. Rtam, Satyam -they are interdependent. By following that order in my life I maintain that order, by that order I live, this is what you are supposed to remember everyday at the time of eating food. There is a mantra for this which says that because of the truth, the eternal dharma that is there, the rhythm that is there, I am able to practice the truth and because I practiced the truth the rtam shall continue. Any change in this is likely to lead us to disaster and that is what is happening today with your ecological imbalance. You try to touch this, you misbehave with the nature and it starts giving its own results. You get akala varsham, you get enormous heat, all our making only, nobody else has made it. Now you come to know after enormous amount of misuse of nature, you come to talk about it today and the joke of it is, the people who have polluted started telling us who are just now learning to pollute, that you should not pollute. They are the fellows who have polluted, whoever asked them to do that. So this is the problem between the developed and developing countries. They disturbed it so badly they are now telling us now you should not do because they know now what the problem is, this we knew from the beginning. Recyclable energy systems etc things that now we are taking about really funny for me to hear. Our fellows knew it much earlier all these things, they knew, they never wasted anything but today we are again learning all sorts of things. We seem to be learning, really we are just only remembering or recall. Something that is buried deep in us is being recalled now. So this particular nature, be truthful is not a question of just speaking truth in this system, speak truth is not this, it is be truthful. Our true nature is that of being divine and we should be truthful to it. The call is that you should be divine, you should live for others, you should sacrifice yourself, your values should be of the higher order, be in truth, that is, be in that condition which God has asked you to, be truthful to you nature. We are descendents of the Divine, we are expressions of the Divine, we are manifestations of the Divine and that is our right to uphold it. I don't have to become devilish, I need not. The charm of the system is that we are asked to be one with the Divine. You are one there is no doubt about it, only thing is we are trying to put it low saying, no,no this is not the practical way of living, the practical way of living is to kill the person first. Whoever is opposing you, don't be one with him but try to exploit him. If he is very mild try to make best use of that fellow, this is what we have been told. A situation of trying to exploit, that is not our truthful nature. Be truthful, truthful to our real self, one with the Divine, that is our condition, then, everywhere it will be only peace of mind, every where it will be only peace otherwise there will be only conflict. When you are not true to yourself then there will be conflict, all wars are attributable only to that. Exploitation is not the way to live, cooperation is the way to live. Exchange of commodities was what, beginning of economy. Today it is not exchange, unfair deals, actually it is the middle man who makes it, who never does anything that is productive. He is the fellow who is making maximum out of it. Our economy is such a wonderful economy, it is a British economy. They never had any resources, they never had any market, the funniest fellows in this world are these Britishers. They never had anything in their land, they never had a market. So the market is elsewhere, the raw goods are elsewhere, this fellow exploited. It is a very very funny situation and it has become the model, so what type of models we have got you can see for yourself. So be simple, be truthful, be truthful to yourself, be truthful to your nature, it's not difficult to follow that actually but it appears very difficult to follow because if you take it as truth speaking then it will become troublesome. Be truthful is easy to follow, truth speaking is really tough, then you will get into real trouble. So understand the commandment well so that you will be in a position to live comfortable in a modern world otherwise you will get into enormous confusion, you really don't know what to do afterwards.

When we are true to our self, the next easy thing for us to follow would be that we come to know that we are expressions of the divine and so are all others. So the much talked about concept of fraternity which is based more on business transaction today, where you have got Rotarian brothers, you have got Lion brothers. Rotarian brothers I could understand a bit, lion brothers is difficult for me to understand and so many other brothers are there. We also call ourselves brothers but the real brotherhood comes only when you know the common origin. When you know the other person also has come from the divine and is an expression of the divine, then we will be in a position to treat him as a brother. But do you know the present day world of competition, a stage has come, how the brother feels, suppose a person who has got very good IQ, may be 200 or something more than that, the other fellow may be moron in the same family, he is ashamed to call him a brother. The parents also don't like to own that fellow, they also put him inside and then say don't come out. Somebody is visiting us so that is your room, you go and sit there, they lock. So that is the level to which our so called competitive spirit has taken us. Previously this type of problem was not there, say about 80 years back or 90 years back, when we read the stories of several families, even when the eldest brother is an imbecile he is the person who was respected. He was an imbecile, no doubt about it, but then they respected him because he was somebody elder and each man tried to help the other. Suppose a person is a bit better than the other he was very happy to help the other person. Giving and taking was so easy and natural then. Now there is neither giving nor taking. Taking of course is there in the sense of exploitation, giving is not there. We have, we have our own words, we have got our own dictionaries that we have developed, new dictionaries can be easily written today.

So to know the other person as a brother itself is a big problem, and that becomes possible only when you know you are coming from the same source. So without this union with God, without the simplicity and plainness that we develop and we feel the presence of divine in us and we know that we are the expressions of the divine, it is very difficult to accept the other person as a brother. You will not, not because we were not capable of it earlier. We were capable of it. We were having a civilisation based on that but the present day civilisation which is based on exploitation, competition, conflict, comparison will not enable you to think in those lines. It literally prohibits you from behaving like that and you have got an interesting answer for this from the so called religious people or traditional people who say that "vaadi karmandi idi". It is his karma that he is like that what is it I can do. That is not, that was never the philosophy of karma in this country. The karma as I told you earlier, it is natural principle of "as you sow, so you reap". This was the principle of karma in the simplest of terms but we are supposed to help here. It may be true that is his karma but what is your karma? What is your swadharma? Your swadharma is to help, your swadharma is to be divine. What is your swadharma? Not to exploit others. Our swadharma is one to help and once you help that man also will get some relief. You also will get relief that is a separate subject but then this particular concept has gone totally and one should not feel sorry if our parliaments and assemblies are loaded with such imbeciles; because that is the only place where finally they could land. Since you did not allow them to enter your offices and schools; they found their way to the assembly. Let us not feel bad about it. It is we who made them so. If all the thugs and gundas have joined there, it is by our choice. We have made them enter there, they became the street rowdies first, dadas, what else could he do? He had atleast muscle, so those people who did not have muscles they are separate set but people who had muscle, no brains, had brawn that was capable of doing several things. They got things done, they are able to get things done which you cannot. If you want any admission to any school in a particular area, the best place to go is not your district educational officer or director of school education or the minister. Catch hold of the local gunda that fellow will get you the next day the seat. This has been my practical advice to many also and they all succeeded in getting seats. The easiest way is to do that. because they will get it. If you want to go to any cinema and you don't get ticket, tell that fellow he will get it for you. Why unnecessarily waste your time there. That is how they became leaders, and then they are leading our nation and we are being led. So nothing wrong about all that but then that is not brotherhood. Had you been kindly to him, had you only spend a few hours more with him, he would not have become that. I know many of these politicians, internally I know how nice they are, externally how bad they are, both these things I know, both the things are there. They cry, when we say a few good words they cry.

So brotherhood has become a big liability. Everybody talks brotherhood, it is very easy to say, but who is a brother? One who can share, is it not? Share means what? Divide! What a definition we have got! From share to divide. You share food, sit along with me take a few biscuits, I do not count how many biscuits you take, how many biscuits I take but then no, that is not the concept of brother. I have got four, you have got three therefore cut it into one by two and then eat it. Previously a person, they say that this fellow is not capable of living on his own, let us give him something more, I am capable of living on me therefore I won't take it, I don't want it, be happy. No, that is not our concept today. Even when I can afford to live on my own on a much better scale than the other person, I would like to have my pound of flesh. This is the degraded level to which we have come. All this because we don't understand it is divinity who is expressing. If only that is there, I think we would have given every person his due. Naturally a tree which requires manure will be given more manure, a tree which does not require that much manure will not be given that much of manure. What is great differentiation we are trying to make? Each according to the need, each according to its capacity. All these concepts are lost. As I told you sharing has unfortunately meant divide, so really one does not know why the dictionary should have two words one is share and another is divide, one is enough why have two words. Your dictionary can be shortened but then that is the level to which we have come to.

The most funniest aspect of it would be, if you have gone to any dinner to any marriage now a days, previously dinner means people used to serve in the plates and all that, that culture somehow is lost. Now it is kept somewhere, some common plates are there and you have to collect it and then go. They expect some 500 people or 1000 people there but then we also know that some persons somehow take more than their quantum and after sometime you will find that, that plate will be empty so people will start rushing to that preferred item first. For what reasons we do not know we rush and then take their pieces, so literally what is happening is nobody wants to share even in those circumstances. Each person sharing, no, no sharing, only exploitation. Who is smarter here? So remember the dogs and remember these men, the beautiful analogy comes to you. You can paint, if you are a painter you can easily paint. If you are a poet, you can write. So sharing is lost, fraternity is lost. It is not lost today only, it has been lost long long time ago, they have never been achieved. Vali and Sugreeva are there, Sundopasundas are available, any number of examples you can go on giving. Fraternity has always been an elusive affair, and you will never be in a position to accomplish it unless you know that you are divine and the other person is divine.

There are three principles which the French Revolution has thrown out; Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. These are the three concepts thrown out to the modern world by the French revolution. All the three are spiritual values and they do not stand in the secular level. That is the reason why we are not able to achieve any one of them. We gave a distorted version for it and then stated that equality before law, and not that all of us are equal because we are all children of the divine. So we misinterpret it to mean that it is equality before law. Is there one universal law in this world? No. Each country has got its own, perhaps each state has got its own, and each locality will have its own. The law will be variable according to the goonda that is available. The enforcement people who enforce law, they decide as to what is law. So similar is the fraternity, it is a spiritual value. Only when you know you are coming from the divine, we will all be equal. Where is fraternity, you tell me? In which place is it available? The one place where it was possible and was practiced earlier was the family system, in a joint family system like ours in this country. Elsewhere in the world no such experiment was done, nobody knows what it is and today family as an institution is perishing. People have finally come to the stage of living together. That is the west. The latest western style is living together, no question of marriage. At any time you can walkout. Some people say why all this, even this why? So they are independent, so family as an institution also has perished. So Fraternity where are you going to have? How do you express fraternity? What is the way? What is that the French revolution has been able to achieve? All the three values that the French revolution has given which are unfortunately only at the spiritual level have been brought down to secular level and the experiments are failing. We are only posing ourselves that we are the biggest democracy or somebody else is doing something else. It is all a big drama that goes on. All of us are equal but some of us are more equal. How contradictory that sentence is obvious to any person who is capable of thinking but then that is well accepted norm in any administration.

So spirituality alone is capable of making us live upto the level of this particular standard of fraternity is what I am trying to stress and that is possible only when you know your common origin and common origin can be known only in your heart, not elsewhere. Only when you know that God is there with you, you will be in a position to concede the point that God will be there in him also. If God is there only in some temple and I am the priest for it, definitely it is my God and is not your God. He is mine, I possess that idol, I possess that temple. There are people, wise people. If you go to Travancore, the Padmanabha temple belongs to the king, the Travancore king owns the Padmanabha temple. It is a part of his palace. You cannot enter there unless he completes his worship first, he is the first person to come. After the king goes, then you can go, otherwise you cannot go inside. There are certain rules and restrictions etc. things that are there. This is so everywhere, the dharma kartha has to come first then only you can go. Or some Jeeyar swami will be there he has to come and then only you can go. Something like that will always be there, somebody possesses God. When it is something like an external thing it is possessive, if it is something internal everybody possesses his own God so I do not have to fight with you. I have my God with me and you have got your God with you. Unfortunately or fortunately God is one, we know definitely, yes! we are from the same source. All people who worship different types of deities, I do not think they have got different Gods in their heart. There cannot be a christian God, there cannot be a muslim God, there cannot be a hindu God, there is only one God. So we come to this commonness only when we go beyond the level of religion itself. Then only, it will become possible. So religion has to be transcended. When? How? What history is going to do let us watch and see. At present we have seen religions have failed. Whether it will be transcended or not is what you have got to see. It is a matter for us to observe. Some more years we are going to live so we will see, what is going to happen to it.

Once we know that it is something that everybody is our brother etc things, the point raised namely that we try to be one up and feel bad or good about somebody etc things. We start thinking that somebody has done harm to us or somebody has done good to us. So long as we have got the concept of somebody is doing good to us, it is ok. We may not be very grateful to him but we will never be ungrateful to him normally. When a person does good generally people don't acknowledge it but I must tell you an interesting joke which I had some 20 years back. I was with some minister then talking to him and he is known to have founded many educational institutions etc. things in west godavari district and so many allegations are there and so many praises are there. Somebody was telling him 'Sir, so and so is accusing you of such and such thing'. Then for a moment he kept quiet and then his reaction was I have not done him any good then why he is it that he is abusing me? He ought not to. That was his experience. What I am trying to tell is even when you do good, somebody may still accuse you. I don't want to go into merits or demerits of that, it is the statement only that I am just telling.

So we try to be grateful normally to a person who has done good. When somebody has done harm to us, we try to feel bad or certain times when we think we are capable, we would like to take revenge also on the fellow. In this process what happens is we develop more samskaras, we gain more impressions. The worst point that comes to you as a practical person who meditates is, when you try to take revenge on somebody or try to do something against him it haunts your mind during meditation. It is the worst naraka that you can go through. Personally I have learnt this lesson and therefore I pass on this message to you. People did harm, true, that is what at least on that day I thought. I never thought it is a part of my karma that I should have gone through, no it was not. So I used to feel that we must do something back to this fellow. For no fault of mine this fellow has done like this therefore I should do like this and it disturbed my meditation so badly and I was not capable of thinking about God at all, I was all the time meditating on this fellow. See the devil has become the object of meditation rather than God, so in your own interest we should not have anything of this negative attitude in our mind. In our own interest, not for anybody's else. Whatever you want to do, you do. Like nature, if you want to slap, you slap then and there itself, there the matter ends. If you want to meditate over this and then plan an action against him, then it is definitely getting into hell, it is nothing other than hell to which we will go. If you want to experience hell try to take revengeful action on somebody and then meditate then you will understand what it is. It is the worst that you can ever think of. Ignoring is also not that easy because your ego is hurt. While I will not say that you please ignore, it is easy to tell from a platform to tell several things, it is all right but as sadhaka I will not be in a position to tell that. I will say you ignore but you cannot ignore, that also I know. By continuously thinking about the divine, on the divine light, at least making an effort you are capable of forgetting this. There are two aspects of it. One thing is to forget and another thing is to forgive. Forgetting is a natural process, God has given that capacity to us. We forget almost 90 percent of the things we forget every day, it is a God given gift. If we remember everything we will be in torture, enormous torture but forgive you know is very difficult, it is very difficult. Unless you grow to the level considerably in spirituality, it is very difficult. Even there it is possible, still to retain this feeling. So it is the yielding to the divine alone that enables you to finally forget, erase it out also. Unless He owns you up you will be owning your samskaras. There will be traces of it. As I aways call the vasana will always be there. While the samamskaras may be washed out, the vasana will definitely be there. This is a problem for us, very difficult to understand that because he says here, be not revengeful for the wrongs done by others take them with gratitude, taking it as gratitude as divine gift is a real tough job to practice.

Intellect will enable you to get away from God. Buddhi is the basic trouble. Mahat is the one that links us with the divine. Buddhi will segregates us from divine because the intellectual aspect of it is based upon the following. The sense organs, the motor organs are the inputs. Through this we get information, all information. Whether it is your perception, whether it is your inference, whether it is your analogy, all knowledge is based upon only these sensory inputs and this is what is processed by the mind. It processes information etc. this is what is looking down. What is looking up is the Mahat. Mahat looks to God, Buddhi looks to the world. That is why in the gayatri you have got a word Dheeyo yonah prachodayat. No buddhi. If you bring buddhi there, you are lost once for all. Buddhi is capable of distinguishing, cutting, analysing, analytical mind is possible with buddhi. Aesthetic mind is possible only with Mahat. Any amount of your dissection of frogs or flowers will never make a frog understood by you nor a flower understood by you. You can definitely say what parts that contain etc things, all the things you can add. A flower is appreciated as a flower only by a poet. A Kavihi alone is capable of doing that, one who is having empathy will do that. One who has got intellect will not be in a position to do that and this I started with in the beginning. Empathy is the feeling, that language we have forgotten. To be in tune with the divine is what we have forgotten. We are more in tune with the nature. We are analysing more and more of nature. Analytical mind is what has been given enormous importance. Any amount of your intellectual conviction about any one of these things will not help you. You have to yield to the divine. Yielding to the divine is yielding to your Mahat. It is again a principle that he has given. It is the one which begins the entire thing. The purusha and the prakriti, the first product of which is the mahat, then only the remaining things come. It is the Mahat that has got to be in tune with, that is the original vibrations, that is what you feel in this system of meditation. The transmissions given are all only from that level. Now revengeful we need not be. We can forget. All right sir I have forgotten all these, what does it matter. Many times you may not be.

I will tell you my famous example that I always quote. If you go in the street and still that Hyderabadi culture is still there and somebody will be going in the bus and then he will simply spit on your face from the bus and it will come to you. It may be on your face in which case you easily wash it off. It may be on your shirt then it becomes expensive for you, just not water something else has to be done. So you cannot take any revenge on that fellow. What will you do? You cannot run after him. You are in helpless situation where you are victim but you can't take revenge but you will never forget that fellow. You will be going on raving against that fellow, in the road, in your office, at home, next day also. Till you get one more insult, this insult will be persisting in your mind. You must be very careful; if you are going nearby a bus, one should watch what will happen because you really do not know who is there inside. It happens, you are in a situation where you cannot take revenge, you may rave, you may go on crying, you may shout. The same position, I told this example which much more humorous, but most of the employees working in government offices or else where, they have got the same problem, every day they get some problem. They cannot take revenge. They simply had to swallow it and come and they sit and rave in the seat, sit and talk to his colleague who may not go and inform the boss again, they have to be extraordinarily careful to whom he is talking. So these are all things that happen but what is most important for us to understand is, it is very difficult to do but it is easy when you yield to the divine. When you know that the things that happen because of divine gifts, God knows what is best. Tough, it is one of the toughest commandments to follow. Not impossible but fairly difficult, I should concede the point that it is fairly difficult. Having gone through stages definitely I can say it is tough and most of the time when you are able to ignore that also, to forgive becomes a real problem. So you remember it, you remember the insult and the vasanas are there the moment it comes. That is why our people from the beginning have been asking us to be away from such environment. Please don't go into situation like that and then get into troubles. Be away as far as possible and it is only the cleaning process that finally will throw you out of the situation because this is the samskara that you have made, the vasana that you have made. It has to be washed out by you and it takes time.

One of our pet subjects in our country is as to what satvik food we should take, what rajasik or tamasik food we should avoid. Finally it made even Vivekananda complain that this was kitchen culture of ours. He made this statement in a humorous way; he did not mean anything bad about it. What he was trying to tell is that don't make much fuss about who is serving it or who is making it. As you digest it, it becomes part of your good food, because the satvik food is one which is taken with a feeling that it is a prasad. The concept of prasad is very common for all of us and traditional homes you know; in no traditional home they eat food without offering it to God. Without naivedyam they will never do; they will not take it. Today we have no time to think like that. I was telling you in the case of marriage, so is the position even at home and fast food centres have become so very common today you really don't cook at all at home, so there is no question of somebody cooking and somebody eating. We eat something in between but whatever it is, whatever we eat at least my appeal would be at least think that this is what God has given you for that day and then be happy to eat it because most of us while eating go on shouting at the other person talking some nonsense etc., this you should avoid. At least at that time you can think about God and then simply eat, enjoy your eating atleast, if nothing else whatever little we have. SriRamchandraji Maharaj tries to bring in another concept here. He says that every second some cells are dying some new cells are being born and so when the new cells are having this type of power to support, the divine power to support, you become more and more satvik and you become more and more divine. This is one more concept of SriRamchandraji Maharaj which he brings in here and then explains. I think it is something that is everybody, every person, irrespective of whether he follows Ramchandra he does not follow Sri Ramchandra, he can easily practice this. This is one thing that we can always practice without any difficulty, nothing very difficult about it to follow and it does good. At least it makes you digest your food well, minimum health requirement is satisfied. Second thing that I personally found is it definitely transforms your thinking, you start thinking differently. These changes come to you over a period of time, nothing comes overnight. Today I have taken like this, tomorrow morning I will test, you will not be in a position to test like that. Over a period of time you will succeed in this.

Among the last commandments you have got, what is the purpose of life. All these things we should do why? We mould ourselves not to become pious ourselves, that any way we have to, but others may develop piety and love. You become example for others, for simplicity, for naturalness, for goodness, for help, for being a brother, all these things become possible for you to tell the other man without opening your mouth. You will be in a position to influence them with your behaviour. He is a different person - is one particular goal that we can definitely keep for ourselves and then live upto it. Mould yourself in such a way as to develop love and piety amongst others. My way of looking at it has been always that this is the goal of life. If there is one goal about which I am very clear, it is this one goal that is very clear for me. We should live in such a way that other person develops love towards God because love towards God means love towards all. The world is definitely a better place to live. When all of us love God and mutual love is there and mutual dependency starts, we become interdependent not only amongst ourselves, but with God in every sense of the term then life is definitely much more worthwhile to live than the present day of strife, conflict, war unnecessary bickerings, all the time mind being in turmoil, allowing ourselves to be exploited by all sorts of fellows. These things will not happen once we mould ourselves in such a way. This is one of the greatest commandments. This is something that has been common for the Vedic period, common for the Buddhism. The concepts of maitri, the concepts of prema all these things are dependent upon this, this is the practical way of putting it. Develop love, develop friendship, all these things but we have to mould ourselves for that. Moulding is a bit much more difficult than the other things because when you mould yourself, you become an object of attention if not adoration for somebody else and what a beautiful world it would be when all of us are equally lovable. Some of us are more lovable today I agree, at least to some people. If all of us are lovable to each other, I think world could be the kingdom of God, which really it is. It is a kingdom of God today but then we made it a kingdom of asuras that is the trouble, so let us turn back.

All said and done there will be certain lapses in our behaviour due to either animal instincts or due to human considerations or other reasons, many reasons. Then before going to bed, pray to God, feel bad about what you have done, repent for it and then don't repeat it tomorrow. Repent it and take a resolve not to repeat it next day because most of us know how to repent but none of us know how not to repeat, next day morning we do same thing again. We repent, in all our humility we cry before God, please excuse me for whatever I have done etc. things. Excuse upto that extent it is fine, you repent, seek excuse but no decision to resolve not to repeat it. So that is another aspect of it SriRamchandraji Maharaj stresses it here, resolve not to repeat it. That is a very very significant point, practical point for us to note because most of us know, when we go to bed most of us pray. Normally coming from any fairly good family he will pray before going to bed but then for what? Duswapnam tashya nishyati that is all that majority of people pray for that they may not have a bad dream. A funny prayer that I just was trying to tell you as to how we look at the prayer. So instead of asking for duswapnam to be eradicated, pray to Him that I may not get up tomorrow morning as a bad fellow. Duswapnam let us have, it does not matter much. Anyway this is how I could share my thoughts on the commandments given by the Master.