Monday, September 18, 2000
Be Yourself
By- B.Upadhyay B.Upadhyay is a Freelance writer.
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As I understand one can not be spiritual only by performing daily rituals--includes offering flowers and fruits on the pictures of their idol god or goddess, lighting scented incense, and chanting mantras, etc. I have seen many Hindus, who have been doing this since early childhood, and still the basic realities of Hinduism sound perplexing to them.
I used to perform similar activities just a couple of years ago, and never tried to figure out the real essence of Hinduism. I am sure it is all futile doing those daily rituals. It is merely wasting of time, if you do not endeavor to know the teachings of Hinduism.
It is totally scientific and can be realized only after practicing and analyzing the great ideas of Geetha, Upanishad and Veda, which are considered as centuries old epics. I can still remember my dad's words-"look inside yourself, hear your inner voice, know your heart and mind". "Do not just run after the materialistic world, which can simply satisfy your senses-which are temporary and never help you acquire your inner peace." Years later, I realize his valuable saying.
That's true, you are never satisfied from the materialistic world. I do not mean to say that you have to run away from your possessions and follow the spiritual path. I simply mean, you can understand yourself, your precious features only by knowing yourself and your powerful mind.
Can you give me an hour of a day, where you can know yourself in depth? I guess, your answer will not surprise me-"oh, I do not have time to do that, I have lots of things to do".
In this hi-tech age, we really miss such valuable things, because from early morning till late night we are in front of computer, answering hundreds of e-mails, writing reports, scheduling meetings, etc. And, by the time we reach home, we may find something more to do, and finally after completing them when we look at the hanging clock we may say-"Oops it is already 2 am, and still I have some assignments to be completed. And, in this circumstance what do you think of yourself-- just a hard working person or a very efficient human computer?
Anyway, even in this hectic schedule you can have some time for yourself, if you realize it is worth doing. Try to learn from your mistakes, remember your words, actions, and thoughts. Give yourself some time for relaxing your mind. Do not worry for future, try to live in present. Future will be taken care by itself.
As mentioned earlier, knowing yourself means to know your activities and thoughts keep an eye on them. You may mistakenly do something worse and later you have to pay the price. Remember, Geetha says-as you sow, so you reap. This sentence has very powerful meaning and you can have an excellent experience of it, however, you need to develop your interest. I am sure, your interest will lead you to the appropriate path. Geetha reveals the truth and reality of this universe, the only thing is you have to believe in it first, and then try to use it in your daily life. Sooner or later you will know the reality.
Krishna-the great Yogi of ancient age-said, man has come into this Karmakshetra (field of activity) only to engage him/her in activity, not in order to earn the fruit of such activity. This very common statement of Geetha, I guess is know to every Hindu. Whoever the individual, however scholarly, he/s can not escape delusion and so he/s is subjected to grief, which acts as a brake upon activity. Arjuna, the great hero of Mahabharata, capable of renunciation and wisdom, is deluded by the awful needs of war and this grief handicaps his activity too. I can still memorize the discussion that I had with my dad 12 years ago, when he used to repeat the saying of Geetha---engage yourself in Karma (activity) but never desire for its outcome.
My point then was-why one can not think of getting the fruit of his/her activity? My good example used to be-having done well in my exams, surely, I will desire for good grades, so how can I remain without thinking of my result, that's totally a bias. The very truth was reflected on my mind only after pondering on it for a long time.
So, let's think of arranging sometime to through ourselves in peace, love and harmony-where we can know ourselves in silence-Geetha has this message to all of us in this biotech world, where we even can not claim as ourselves vegetarians. After tasting your tomato soup, you may supposedly say---your soup tastes fishy. And, later we find out that it contains the DNA of fish.
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