Do You Seek Help Of God?

Do you seek help of God? If yes, then you are first a believer in God & second you depend on God's grace in your life. Believing in God & Depending on God is good as then you are connecting yourself directly with the marvel of this infinite existence. You shall then be able to know this world better than if you are a non believer in God.

What is the meaning & value of God in your life? Do you depend on God in your bad times? Is God directly involved in your personal life?

Answers to all the above questions have become the subject of a new research. As per the findings published in the journal ‘Sociology of Religion’, below are the findings, where it was found that 8 in 10 people depend on God for help in their life:

As per Sociology Professor Scott Schieman : "Many of us might assume that people of higher social class standing tend to reject beliefs about divine intervention. However, my findings indicate that while this is true among those less committed to religious life, it is not the case for people who are more committed to religious participation and rituals."

As many as 82 per cent said they depended on God for help and guidance in making decisions, while 71 per cent believed that when good or bad things happen, these occurrences are simply part of God's plan for them.

While 61 per cent held that God has determined the direction and course of their lives, 32 per cent agree with the statement: "There is no sense in planning a lot because ultimately my fate is in God's hands."
In Bhagwat Gita also God is teaching the same thing that if we turn toward the God, then God too turns toward us & always protects us in all circumstances. So let's always remember God in our good & bad times so that God can help us always in our life. Below are few verses from Bhagwat Gita which confirm that.

"ananyas cintayanto mam
ye janah paryupasate
tesham nityabhiyuktanam
yoga-ksemam vahamy aham" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Nine verse 22)

"Sri Krishna said: But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have."

"sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
mokshayisyami ma suchah" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Eighteen verse 66)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, Abandon all varieties of religion or Setting aside all meritorious deeds, just surrender unto Me. I shall liberate you from all sins. Do not fear."

Jai Shri Krishna

Understanding Karmayoga as per the Hindu Philosophy

In the Earlier post on Karma, we have known & understood in detail about the "Karma" & how it is related to the origin of one's own body. How Karmas of earlier births become the basis of this birth & how Karmas of this birth become the basis of one's next birth & so on. Now in this post we shall understand about the Karmayoga & how one can know God through Karmayoga.

Simple meaning of Yoga is to get attached to God or to get one with the God. To attain this, there are many types of Yogas that are expounded in the Bhagwat Gita, like Sankhyayoga or the Yoga of Knowledge, Karmayoga or the Yoga of Selfless Action, Bhaktiyoga or the Yoga of Devotion etc. Among all these Yogas, Karmayoga is the one through which one can attain God by just devoting all his/her daily actions to God i.e. doing service of God by doing/devoting all life actions to Him.

Below are the verses from "Bhagwat Gita-Chapter Twelve- Verse - 6-7", in which God is asking his disciple Arjuna to do all his actions / activities for Him only.

'Ye tu srvani krmani
myi sanyasya mat-para
anany-naiv yogen
maam dhyayant upasate'

'Tesham-aham samud-dharta
mrityu-sansar-saagrat
bhavami na-chirat parth
mayy-avesita-chetsam' ( Bhagwat Gita: Chapter XII verse 6-7 )

'Those people, who worship Me by surrendering all their activities unto Me, are always devoted to Me, always meditate upon Me, Having always fixing their minds upon Me, O Parth - to them, I swiftly rescue from the ocean of birth and death.'

Through above verse 6 & 7, God is telling 'Parth' (another name of Arjuna, his disciple), that those people who work for God only & offer all their activities & work to Him only, to such a Soul He shows great mercy, always protects him & finally rescues him during & after death.

Now, how can we work for God only? This whole world is the creation of God only & knowingly, unknowingly, we all are working for the maintenance of this world only. Just introspect & see that, whatever, work or job (good one), you are doing in this world, it is helping in someway or the other in maintaining & sustaining this world. Just take it in that sense, that if all the people of the earth stop doing their daily work, duties, this whole world shall come to a standstill. In that case nobody shall grow food, vegetables, fruits & other things which sustain our life & hence we shall all die. Same is the case with other professions & each person is adding value to this world by doing his/her duty.

Now, though we do duty to sustain this world only but we don't realize that. As this world is a creation of God, so we should work for Him only. If we develop this sense that we are working selflessly to sustain this world created by God only, then also we shall develop an affinity towards God. In the above verses, God is making very clear that if a person offers all his work & activities to God, thinking this world to be a creation of God only, then also He shall be happy with that person & shall protect & shall deliver that person from the cycles of birth & death. By working for God, we shall attain peace & shall attain His love & devotion. So Let's all Work for God only.

Below is a verse from "Bhagwat Gita-Chapter Two Verse - 47",

"karmany evadhikaras te
ma phalesu kadachana
ma karma-phala-hetur bhur
ma te sango ’stv akarmani" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Two verse 47)

"Sri Krishna said: You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

In the above verse God is asking his disciple Arjuna to perform his prescribed duty & not get attached to the fruits of its action. If one does all his/her actions without considering or thinking about the Fruits these actions shall produce & devotes that action & its fruit to the God only, then he/she is not bound by that action & that action shall not bear such fruits which shall be the cause of his/her next birth. Once a person is relieved of taking rebirths then that person can go to the abode of God & live there with Him & he becomes a liberated soul.

Art of doing actions for the sake of God only & doing all his/her actions without thinking or keeping in mind the fruit of that action is only what is called Karmayoga.

Jai Shri Krishna

Understanding Karma as per the Hindu Philosophy

"Karma" in its simplest term is "Action" only. Any action that we do with our body & mind is termed as "Karma" but the word "Karma" has a much greater significance as per the Hindu Philosophy than just simple meaning as "Action". In Hindu scriptures Karma is related to the origin of one's own body. Karmas of earlier birth become the basis of this birth & Karmas of this birth become the basis of his next birth & so on. This relation of Karmas to rebirth in Hindu Philosophy is the key thing which makes it different from doing just any action in life. Now how these Karmas are related to rebirth as per the Hindu Philosophy?

As per the Hindu Philosophy, any action that we do, produces some fruit or has a consequence. In simplest term, if a man works for 8 hrs in a mall, he expects his salary of 8 hrs at the end of his job. It may be given to him at the end of the job on that day, may accrue to his account weekly or monthly, but the man expects that he shall get his salary after doing the asked for job. So this "Expected Salary" is the "Fruit" of his 8 hrs of "Actions". Similarly any other "Action" or "Karma" done in life automatically has some "Fruit" attached to it. In terms of "Karmas" done by a man, all the consequential "Fruits" are determined by God himself. Say you donate some money to a Charity or you feed a poor man, what "Fruit" shall incur to you for this good work done by you? Or say some man beats a poor man or a man murders someone, then what "Fruit" shall incur to him for this ghastly act done by that person? In all such acts or Karmas done by all persons, the consequential "Fruits" are determined by God himself as per the divine laws & not by any human being.

So by now we have seen that all "Karmas" or actions done by a man have a Fruit related to it & that Fruit is determined by God only. But how these Karmas become the basis of Rebirth as per the Hindu Scriptures?

As per the Hindu Philosophy, any "Karma" done by a person, remains with that person, unless he/she has enjoyed the consequential Fruit arisen out of doing that Karma. For a good act done by him, he shall bear good result & enjoy it. Similarly for a bad act done by him, he shall bear bad result & shall have to bear punishment for it. Unless that person enjoys good or bad result/fruit arisen out of doing that Karma, it shall remain forever with that person & leave that person after that person has enjoyed the fruit arisen out of doing that Karma. Now whatever action/karma one performs with his body, mind or even speech, that Karma after getting finished, goes in to his reserved stock of Karmas i.e. it adds up to all the other accumulated karmas earlier done by him.

This stock of Karmas (having its reservoir in that person's mind) is having all the Karmas done by that person in this life & also done by that person in earlier births taken by that person. At the death of a person he/she takes with him/her all that accumulated Karmas which contain Karmas done in this birth & also the Karmas from the previous births for which its fruit is yet to be enjoyed .

So at the death of a person, out of this accumulated Karmas which that person carries, Divinity or God as per the divine law takes a handful of those Karmas which have begun to bear the fruits & a new body is made with the seeds of these fruit bearing Karmas. So basically any Karma done becomes the seed of the next birth. In Hindu Philosophy all these Karmas which become the basis of or the seeds of a new birth of a body, are called "Prarabdha" or "Fruit bearing actions" or "Fate" even. In the next birth, a person again does Karmas & these gets added to his earlier accumulated, unspent stock & so on this cycle goes on for a soul of taking birth after birth.

So in this way, so long as the reserve stock of Karmas remains with that person, a part of it continues to be taken out of that reserve stock by the Divinity as "Prarabdha" or "Fruit bearing actions", for being enjoyed in one life-time of that person. A soul's perpetual journey from one birth to next birth goes on like that with the law of karma. This soul knows no liberation, so long as this stock of un-disposed off actions or karmas performed in number of lives of that person is not completely exhausted.

Below are the verses from "Bhagwat Gita-Chapter Twelve- Verse - 6-7", in which God is asking his disciple Arjuna to do all his actions / activities for Him only.

'Ye tu srvani krmani
myi sanyasya mat-para
anany-naiv yogen
maam dhyayant upasate'

'Tesham-aham samud-dharta
mrityu-sansar-saagrat
bhavami na-chirat parth
mayy-avesita-chetsam' ( Bhagwat Gita: Chapter XII verse 6-7 )

'Those people, who worship Me by surrendering all their activities unto Me, are always devoted to Me, always meditate upon Me, Having always fixing their minds upon Me, O Parth - to them, I swiftly rescue from the ocean of birth and death.'

Jai Shri Krishna

Sun Reflects the Same in All Water Pots

Just before the dawn, all around in the sky there is darkness but the end of night is just about to come. Then slowly Sun starts emerging & it dispels the darkness into light. Sun is also the source of energy to this world. Though Sun is 150 Million Kms from the earth but still it's rays & energy nurtures our earth just like a mother feeds her children. Sunlight is also the rich source of Vitamin-D which is essential for our body.

In Hinduism Sun is considered as a God. It is also called Surya (सूर्य, sūrya, lit "the Supreme Light"). He is worshiped in different names, chiefly as Surya Narayana, Bhaskara, Aditya, Ravi, Mitra, Bhanu etc. Many Hindus start their day with Sun worship. Even there is a temple dedicated to the Sun God at Puri in Orissa state of India. Sun God or Surya is considered as the only visible form of God that can be seen every day by us. Symbol of Sun or Surya is regarded as one of the auspicious signs for the Hindus & people place the sign of the Sun over main doors as they think it would bring them good luck.

Supreme God "Lord Krishna" Himself declares in Bhagwat-Gita that in one of it's forms He himself is there as "Sun God" which is sustaining this whole world.

"yada aditya-gatam tejo
jagad bhasayate ’khilam
yac chandramasi yac chagnau
tat tejo viddhi mamakam" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Fifteen verse 12)

"Sri Krishna said: O Arjuna, The splendor of the Sun, which dissipates the darkness of this whole world, comes from Me. And the splendor of the moon and the splendor of fire are also from Me."

"adityanam aham vishnur
jyotisam ravir amsuman
maricir marutam asmi
nakshatranam aham sasi" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Ten verse 21)

"Sri Krishna said to Arjuna: Of the Adityas I am Vishnu, of Lights I am the Radiant Sun, of the Maruts I am Marici, and among the stars I am the moon."

Now here is, how the Sun is considered in philosophy to understand the Atman or Individual Soul. In reality the Sun, Sunshine and Sun's reflection are one but also the different. All-pervading sunshine is non-different from the sun. Both are heat and light, yet the Sun retains its form and identity as the source of everything.

Now just take the numerous "Pots filled with water" & put these below the bright noon Sun. Reflection of the Sun can be seen in all the pots & it appears that individual Sun is appearing in each pot. Not only that, water of each pot gets heated equally when Sun is reflected in the water pots. Now just as the Sun may be reflected in numerous pots of water, so the same one God is reflected in the hearts of all living beings as the Antaryami. Same Sun may shine in it's reflections on water kept in different pots but the different reflections are only apparent -'reflections' of the Sun, the real Sun is only one. Similarly there is one True Universal Self or God who is eternally pure, eternally perfect, unchangeable, unchanged; as it has never changed; and all these changes in the universe are but appearances in that one Universal Self.

This Sun appearing in different water pots analogy tells us many other things. Now just see that as long as the water exists in the pot, Sun's reflection is seen in the water pots but as long as pots are emptied of the water in it, Sun's reflection disappears. Similarly our body is like the earthen pot in which "Mind" is like the water in the pot & in this "Mind", Atman or Self's reflection gives life to this body. Now as long as the mind of a person exists in the body (pot), the image of the God or true Self (Sun) appears in this body & keeps itself alive. Now the very moment Body (pot) is emptied of "Mind", the death of a person happens & the true Soul which is the reflection of the "Universal Self" goes back to Him, just like the image of Sun in the 'Water Pot' goes back into the Sun when Pot is emptied of Water.

Jai Shri Krishna