Thus Spake the Divine - Reject Money; Absorb Good Characteristics

Thus Spake the Divine

Reject Money; Absorb Good Characteristics

I visit many places and stay in different kinds of accommodation. In some places, the kitchen will be too congested. Smoke from the kitchen will permeate the entire house. So, I always look forward to a place, where there is lesser smoke. In the process, I am sometimes surprised to find a kitchen, which has the least amount of smoke! When such a thing happens, I set up my pooja near that kitchen!

Generally, I don’t prefer travelling to cities and wish to stay back in villages. The main reason is that in cities, under the pretext of modernism and fashion, high levels of indiscipline prevail. I find villages much more disciplined in terms of adherence to rules and regulations prescribed under our Shastras. Since city dwellers compel me to visit them, I honour their invitation and travel to cities.

Having come to cities, I have found that a city’s atmosphere is quite different from my own perceptions. People in the city have more commitment towards religious rituals. They are more deeply involved in pooja and other spiritual practices than people of villages. Just as how the oven sends smoke outside and makes the place cleaner, city people have purified themselves by adhering to the Codes of Dharma in a strict and faithful manner.

People in villages have more leisure time than city dwellers. With the available time, they can follow all the Codes of Dharma sincerely. But, in reality, they don’t follow any codes or rules and waste their time. Comparatively, city residents are involved in lot of work. They spend their time in office, social work and entertainment. In the process, they skip some of the rituals of our religion.

Still, it appears that there is an element of repentance in city residents. That is why, despite their multifarious activities, they still individually and in groups perform poojas on a small scale, recite God’s name while doing Bhajans, worship in temples and attend religious discourses etc. This brings them happiness to some extent.

However, for achieving complete happiness, we should fully adhere to the Codes and Laws of our Dharma. City life is ultra- modern and people here are compelled to search for money all the time. But one should try and keep away from this greed of running behind money. Instead, they must focus more on spirituality. The best is to renounce one’s ego fully. Once ego is renounced, we can do everything with full commitment and extend Bhakti towards God. This will lead to our own enlightenment as well as wellbeing of the society.

It is a pathetic state of affairs that people are running behind material pleasures and modern lifestyle at the cost of virtuous thoughts and actions. We already know that people who have indulged in flamboyant lifestyles in other countries have become depressed. As a result, they have turned to our Vedanta, Bhakti etc. We, unfortunately, have given up our ancestral way of living and have taken to what has been discarded by foreigners.

Such a flaw has crept in only because we have started giving prominence to money. At least from now onwards, we should stop doing this and put in our whole-hearted effort in acquiring good qualities and virtues. Only then can the purpose of this birth be achieved.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Speciality Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.

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