IF OUR heart is not fully engaged in an undertaking, it immediately becomes a chore. Even worship becomes a chore when our heart isn’t in it. When we feel involved, all hard work becomes a joyful worship.
When our heart isn’t engaged in a task, we are distracted. Even as we pluck flowers, or prepare offerings for our favorite deity, our thoughts stray on something else, or someone else. We might be thinking about our office work or other events in our life. We fear that we will invite the wrath of God by not praying.
AS WE go through our daily life, we expect better things to come our way. We dream that when that better thing, or person, or event comes along, we will renounce all our old habits and possessions and move on.
Some people take this foolishness to great heights. Let us say one is tempted to consume alcoholic drinks. That person may suppress that desire feeling that drinking alcohol is a sin and that it would lead him to hell. He believes that if he stops taking alcohol on earth he will ascend into heaven.
Our worries have no meaning or purpose. If we allow ourselves to release our grip from worries and relax in the present, then we can begin an intimate spiritual journey. It is not the purpose of our life to indulge in these wasteful worries...
WHEN we ask a question, many a times the answers we get are unexpected. One such question is: Who Am I? We will certainly ask many questions in our lifetime. This question is central to all our other questions. The other questions supplement and compliment this central question.
WE CRINGE when questions come our way. We try to avoid searching questions that cause us to look within. Only questions that lead us towards the experience of peace will give us bliss. Bliss or joy is grossly misunderstood. We equate it with the excitement of a new acquisition
WE ARE constantly searching outside for answers. It is almost as if the answers to all our questions and problems can be found outside, somewhere, somehow. How often do we succeed in that?
Our Vedic scriptures say that we are divine creatures whose true nature is bliss. We are created to enjoy the pleasures and the bounty of the Earth. Scriptures have clearly said that the source for this pleasure is from within. Only when bliss, joy, and pleasure spring from within, do they bring lasting joy. Being continuously in the state of inner bliss is called Enlightenment.
As we go through life, various mental setups get created within us. More and more of our personality becomes molded by the people we are with and the situations we encounter. Unfortunately, a lot of this is shaped by the media. Television creates programs in such a way as to draw you into it, and it uses a lot of subtle and not so subtle ways of grabbing your attention.