గురు బ్రహ్మ గురు ర్విష్ణుః గురు ర్దేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురు స్సాక్షాత్ప రబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః
శుక్లాంబరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం
ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే
శ్రుతిస్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం
నమామి భగవత్పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం
ఓం నమః శివాయ
Here is one more post as part of the Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Series.
Lets say there is a very rich man in the town. He
has a very big bungalow and he has lots of servants, guards, dogs protecting
the house. He is not visible and is not approachable either as he is very busy
and you have to cross multiple security levels before being able to reach him. But,
you are curious to know multiple things, like
How much money he has and how did he earn?
How many plots, houses etc doesn’t he own?
How did he earn all of those?
What does he want to do in future?
The list of such questions can go on like that. Now
to get answers to those questions, you will try befriending the guards or the
owner’s contacts or ask some people who live around etc. But you still don’t get
all your questions answered. Importantly, once in a while you will get to hear
contradictory responses as well. That would confuse you more.
One day, you decide, “Enough is enough. The only reliable
source is the owner. If I befriend him, then I will get all my questions
answered and importantly within no time. I need to figure out a way to reach
him. No point checking with so many people, who claim to know the owner in
different ways.”
Once you become successful in knowing the owner,
then not only will you get all your questions answered, but also, you don’t have
to pay much attention to all those security guards, PAs, dogs, Secretaries etc.
Importantly, once the owner instructs them to allow you inside the house, no
one will dare to stop despite all those innumerable security levels.
In our spiritual journey, many of us face questions
for which we don’t find ready made answers. For example
What is life?
Why are we born?
Will I be born again?
Which god to pray and will appeasing the planets help
at all?
What’s the basis for some one’s fortune and some
one’s misfortune?
Is every action in this world predecided?
Like these, the questions can go on and importantly,
new questions crop up, when we get a response to one of the questions. We read
different books, we approach different people, we discuss with similar minded
people. As in the above story, we get to hear contradictory answers at times and
that confuses us even more.
The solution to this is to meet God directly. The
owner of the house is analogous to God. All the security guards, servants etc
are different other devathas, planetary gods etc. While appeasing of all those
does help, but with your dedication and commitment, if you are able to reach
the God directly, then all your questions get answered. For all you know, you
might not have any questions to ask as well.
So, while its important to put in efforts to get
answers to your questions by reading books, listening to commentaries, doing
lot of internal thinking etc, we have to understand that what is more important
is to know the Owner, the God. Let all (as much as possible) the efforts go towards
that objective. Once that happens, your state of life will be completely
different.
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be typos and other
mistakes in Telugu and English. Please ignore
