So the mistake so far is one and it is an eternal mistake
1. Being eternally turned away from God,
Due to this singular mistake
Let us say one has a family of 15 people – father, mother, few brothers and sisters, spouse, children etc. with whom he is naturally attached. What happens next? Someone in the family falls sick with a serious illness like cancer. This person becomes upset and restless. If someone were to ask - Do you have cancer? No. Then why are you upset? Because my oldest son has cancer! Now the second son meets with an accident. As soon as the news arrives, he loses his peace of mind yet again. Thus, within a family of 15, something or the other keeps happening to someone or the other. He is unhappy in the unhappiness of all those. In addition, he his to deal with his own problems as well. He too falls ill. He too suffers from mental diseases of desire, anger, greed, attachment, pride. He has to endure his own pain and the pains of the others in his family. Human beings suffer from so many problems. It is amazing to see how jiva can bear so much pain. And still say that such and such is mine.
If you hit a dog, he runs squealing in pain. From afar he will look at you with animosity. However, if you show him a loaf of bread, he will come wagging its tail to eat the bread. Then hit it again; it will again run away squeaking in pain, but when you show him a loaf of bread, it will come back again wagging its tail. In the same way, when our kith and kin disgrace us, we realize they are really selfish. We say to ourselves, Shri Maharaj Ji was right. Then a little while later, when our father comes by and says “Oh son! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it, please don’t feel bad about it” and gives a hug. We start thinking - my father is very nice. We immediately forget about the true nature of the world!
During the day, we get detached tens of times but again forget everything. And if somebody calls us dim-witted, we feel humiliated. So are you all-knowing! Oh no, God is all-knowing! So if you are not dim-witted and not all-knowing, then what are you? No, I am dim-witted but it feels bad when someone calls me that. Why? If somebody calls you a human being, do you feel bad? No. See there is an ordinary police officer standing on the road. Somebody introduces him saying he is a constable (Policeman). He says yes I am. He does not say call me a superintendent or chief of police. He does not feel bad about being referred to as a constable. So, we are the victims of desires, anger, passion, greed etc. Then what is wrong if somebody says accuses us of having one of one of those vices for e.g. if someone says you are very selfish, improve yourself. You hear this and get really angry!! Why? Think about it. Why are you feeling bad upon being called selfish? Everyone is selfish. Even saints are selfish. The only difference is that their selfish motive is related to God and ours is related to this material world
So, due to ignorance we forgot our true self and started considering ourselves to be the body and all bodily relatives as our relatives and attached our mind to them. This resulted in us feeling sad in their pain, in addition to our own pain.
After death you attain the object of your attachment. Pay attention. There are 4 areas of attachment, tamoguni (evil), rajoguni (worldly), sattvaguni (good) and divine. If we love any relative affected by evil mode of Maya (tamoguni), after death we will attain evil fruits i.e. hellish abodes. If we love a soul of moderate mode of Maya (rajoguni), we will roam around in the 8.4 Million life forms. And if we love a soul of celestial or good mode of Maya (sattvaguni) and he goes to celestial abodes, we will go there too. If anybody loves God or God-realized Saints, they will go to God's abode and we will go there too.
Jad Bharat was a Paramhans. Once as he was sitting on the bank of a river, he saw that a pregnant doe, scared of a roaring lion, miscarried her calf while crossing the river and the calf fell in the river. Out of mercy for the new born calf, he took it home and cared for it, as if he’d for his own child, thereby got attached to it. At the time of death, since his attachment lay in the deer, he thought of the deer. So after death he had to become a deer.
1. Being eternally turned away from God,
Due to this singular mistake
- Jiva has been under the influence of Maya,
- Hence considers oneself the body,
- Therefore considers the relatives of the body as "my relatives",
- Which in turn results is misery when they are suffering. Also, their actions can cause misery to the jiva.
Let us say one has a family of 15 people – father, mother, few brothers and sisters, spouse, children etc. with whom he is naturally attached. What happens next? Someone in the family falls sick with a serious illness like cancer. This person becomes upset and restless. If someone were to ask - Do you have cancer? No. Then why are you upset? Because my oldest son has cancer! Now the second son meets with an accident. As soon as the news arrives, he loses his peace of mind yet again. Thus, within a family of 15, something or the other keeps happening to someone or the other. He is unhappy in the unhappiness of all those. In addition, he his to deal with his own problems as well. He too falls ill. He too suffers from mental diseases of desire, anger, greed, attachment, pride. He has to endure his own pain and the pains of the others in his family. Human beings suffer from so many problems. It is amazing to see how jiva can bear so much pain. And still say that such and such is mine.
If you hit a dog, he runs squealing in pain. From afar he will look at you with animosity. However, if you show him a loaf of bread, he will come wagging its tail to eat the bread. Then hit it again; it will again run away squeaking in pain, but when you show him a loaf of bread, it will come back again wagging its tail. In the same way, when our kith and kin disgrace us, we realize they are really selfish. We say to ourselves, Shri Maharaj Ji was right. Then a little while later, when our father comes by and says “Oh son! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it, please don’t feel bad about it” and gives a hug. We start thinking - my father is very nice. We immediately forget about the true nature of the world!
During the day, we get detached tens of times but again forget everything. And if somebody calls us dim-witted, we feel humiliated. So are you all-knowing! Oh no, God is all-knowing! So if you are not dim-witted and not all-knowing, then what are you? No, I am dim-witted but it feels bad when someone calls me that. Why? If somebody calls you a human being, do you feel bad? No. See there is an ordinary police officer standing on the road. Somebody introduces him saying he is a constable (Policeman). He says yes I am. He does not say call me a superintendent or chief of police. He does not feel bad about being referred to as a constable. So, we are the victims of desires, anger, passion, greed etc. Then what is wrong if somebody says accuses us of having one of one of those vices for e.g. if someone says you are very selfish, improve yourself. You hear this and get really angry!! Why? Think about it. Why are you feeling bad upon being called selfish? Everyone is selfish. Even saints are selfish. The only difference is that their selfish motive is related to God and ours is related to this material world
So, due to ignorance we forgot our true self and started considering ourselves to be the body and all bodily relatives as our relatives and attached our mind to them. This resulted in us feeling sad in their pain, in addition to our own pain.
After death you attain the object of your attachment. Pay attention. There are 4 areas of attachment, tamoguni (evil), rajoguni (worldly), sattvaguni (good) and divine. If we love any relative affected by evil mode of Maya (tamoguni), after death we will attain evil fruits i.e. hellish abodes. If we love a soul of moderate mode of Maya (rajoguni), we will roam around in the 8.4 Million life forms. And if we love a soul of celestial or good mode of Maya (sattvaguni) and he goes to celestial abodes, we will go there too. If anybody loves God or God-realized Saints, they will go to God's abode and we will go there too.
Jad Bharat was a Paramhans. Once as he was sitting on the bank of a river, he saw that a pregnant doe, scared of a roaring lion, miscarried her calf while crossing the river and the calf fell in the river. Out of mercy for the new born calf, he took it home and cared for it, as if he’d for his own child, thereby got attached to it. At the time of death, since his attachment lay in the deer, he thought of the deer. So after death he had to become a deer.
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यं यं वापि स्मरन्भावं त्यजत्यन्ते कलेवरम् |
तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भावभावित: || गीता 8.6 |
yaṃ yaṃ vāpi smaranbhāvaṃ tyajatyante kalevaram |
taṃ tamevaiti kaunteya sadā tadbhāvabhāvita: || gītā 8.6 |
In the Gita, Shri Krishna says to Arjun, after death you attain whoever you think of at the time of death. Like this we have roamed around in the 8.4 Million life forms. We have had uncountable father, mother, brother, sister. But we never realized that we are not this body.
We are the soul. God and Guru are our only relatives. This world is not our relative. Once you attain this knowledge firmly, you will start progressing on the path of your welfare.
We are the soul. God and Guru are our only relatives. This world is not our relative. Once you attain this knowledge firmly, you will start progressing on the path of your welfare.
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