From The Universal to The Universal
Divine Life
Society Publication: - Seek
The Beyond by Swami Chidananda
"The first jnana I want
to give you is: This life is only a journey. You have come here; you don’t
belong here. You are on a journey, and at the end of the journey you will have
to leave and go. So nothing is really yours here. Nor do you belong here. This
is the First truth.
"The second truth is that
when a person is on a journey, they usually have a destination to reach. What
destination have you set for yourself? Think of it! Your destination cannot be
anything here for the simple reason that you do not belong here. If you reach
any destination here, it will be here and you will go elsewhere. So you can
reap no permanent benefit from whatever secular, temporal, worldly, earthly
goal that you set for yourself—no matter how great it may be.
It may even be something as
comprehensive as banning the use of nuclear weapons, something upon which the
fate of all humanity on planet Earth hangs. It may be something as big as the
United Nations or the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. All these
things are trivial, for the simple reason that none of them can be your real
goal; because no matter what you achieve here you will go empty-handed. You
came empty-handed, you’ll go empty-handed. Therefore, think!
"Third truth: All these
important things—that there is no proper provision in India today for the youth
and that you must do something about it—is based on the egoistical feeling that
there is a you and that you can do something.
"Look here, this world
has been going on for hundreds and thousands of years before you and all people
came. You come now and you will disappear like little insects coming in the
rainy season having a 24-hour lifespan. Empires have come and gone. You have
come and you will go. This drama of life will go on, the world will go
on—another 1000 years, 2000 years, 10,000 years.
"You are nothing. There
is some higher power that has been looking after this world for eons.
Scientists say that the first sign of life came on planet Earth so many
millions of years ago. What is your calendar of 365 days before millions of
years? So don’t worry about it. There is some higher power who is quite capable
of looking after this world that you are so concerned about. You better take
care of yourself, so that during this precious little human life between an
entry point and an exit point that you do something to improve yourself, bring
out all the latent potential within yourself.
"And before you leave,
try to do maximum benefit to God’s creation—into which He has put you. That is
the only thing that makes life worth living. Life’s importance is not assessed
in terms of how much you have amassed, what titles you have, how many audiences
you have addressed or how many books you have written. All that is vain fancy.
The value of life is in having come here, before you go how many people have
been happier, how many have been benefited, how useful have you been to God’s
creation. Not only human beings, the whole world."
"How many tears have you
wiped from crying children, orphans, widows, helpless people, from poor,
suffering people in the remotest villages where there is no drinking water, no
sanitation, no education—they are disease bound? Try to do something. Go there
and give them a proper road; they are cut off during the monsoon season. Go not
to the posh cities, but help suffering humanity in the rural areas. Bring
sanitation, hygiene, medical aid. Give eye camps for those who are blinded with
cataracts. Then you have done something.
"Our culture, our country
has as its highest ideal in life paropakara, benefiting others, being useful to
others, doing something that is good for others, not only for yourself. Paropakara
is the highest ideal. This body has been given only for this purpose. So bring
about a change in the orientation of your vision.
"So this I am telling you
personally. What then is the goal? Your goal is to go back from where you came.
There is a great Universal Soul. You are not this body, this cage of flesh and
bones. You are not the five karma indriyas or the five jnana indriyas. You are
not this mind, emotion, sentiment, imagination and various moods such as anger,
passion, greed, envy, jealousy. You are not even this little "I" that
you are identifying yourself with when you look in a mirror. All these are not
you. You are a center of radiant consciousness, shining consciousness—eternal,
imperishable, unborn, beyond time, beyond space, infinite. Read the second
chapter of the Bhagavad Gita every day!"
This is not an individual
addressing an individual. This is the Universal addressing the Universal. And I
said that you belong to that dimension. This is a golden chance to lift
yourself up from this confined consciousness to your real dimension of infinite
consciousness, universal consciousness. That is why we are here.
"May the Universal
Consciousness grace and fulfil whatever is there in your heart, whatever you
are aspiring for, whatever you are ardently longing and wishing for. May it be
fulfilled!"
Excerpts from:
From The Universal to The Universal - Seek The Beyond by Swami Chidananda
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