Yesterday I met a saint of Ramkrishna Ashram here in my city Rajkot. I asked him a few questions and he answered them to my satisfaction. My questions were generally regarding my daily life issues. Then, it was his turn to ask me.With a very quiet look on his countenance, he asked me, " Son, why do you think you have come into this world ? What can be the motive ? Who are you ? Are you just this body or something more ? "
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| Who am I? Why have I come into this world?Where am I going ? |
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| Who created me and for what reason ? |
Obviously as an adult,I do have the ability to answer a few of his questions, but deliberately I remained silent as if I didn't know the answers, as I wanted him to answer all of them.After a few seconds, I asked him," Holy Saint, can you please answer the above questions yourself ? I would be very obliged, if you do so." He asked me to come in the evening during his daily 1 hour monologue. I went down to the Ashram again in the evening. His lecture started at exactly 7 pm.
Swamiji, first talked about the condition of the country as of now, especially about the communal sentiment in the northern part of India. ( Generally, he picks up a current topic daily, in the beginning and yesterday was no change since Rahul Gandhi had raked up the Muzaffarnagar communal riots issue and accused his rival party BJP of instigating the riots in the city ).After talking briefly about communal harmony and peace, he gradually came up to the questions that he had asked me in the morning. He said, " Who are all of us? Take for example a person called Rahul Sharma. Who is Rahul Sharma ? Is he just his body containing all the bones, muscles, blood, water etc. which is always within him and also his thoughts that exude out of his brain ? Or is he something more ? "
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| Paramatma - The Supreme Soul |
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| Lord Vishnu -- The caretaker of this entire Universe |
He continued, " Actually, we are much much more than that. All our external structure like our body, our looks are a very small part of what we actually are. We are all, an " Atma" or a "Jivatma" , a Soul which is directly connected to the Paramatma ( God or supreme soul ), in a manner that there exists an invisible link with HIM, every moment, every second - while we inhale each and every breath inside. He takes care of all of his souls, which are basically a part of Himself, every day, every night, every moment. "
" Yogis have said with huge assertion that we all are a part of a grand design made by that Supreme Soul, and even if do wrong deeds in our lives HE never STOPS taking care of us. HE loves all his creatures so much that He would not let wrong things to happen to us." After a small pause, he again spoke, " Being the part of this Divine Soul, the SUPREME BEING, it is our duty to act according to the laws of nature that HE has made. These include, never do anything wrong with others. Never behave in an unrighteous manner with anyone. Never hurt anyone, physically, mentally or in any other way. Never lie. Never cheat or steal or confiscate things that do not belong to us." The final objective of all humans coming to this world is to lead such a noble life that when it ends, we can attain " Moksha" or "Salvation" in which our soul would amalgamate/ mix with the Supreme Soul and we would be then freed from the "84 lakh Feras" ( 8.4 million births) which we are supposed to take from one Yoni to another Yoni ( yoni means species here ),before merging back with him. Inshort, if we behave in a righteous ( religious ) manner throughout the span of our life, then we donot have to again get reborn in any living form/ species ever after and we would be freed from the cycle of birth and death, which would otherwise go on and on. Hence, our final destination is " Moksha" / Attainment of the merger with the Supreme Soul. " After this much discourse, the Swami left and I came back home, pondering over these questions still.
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| Science and Religion - do they conflict with each other or agree ? |
Scientists have tried very hard since decades to find out the answer to these questions -- 1) From where do we come from before birth ? 2) To where do we go after death ? 3) Can death be cancelled or even postponed by a few hours ? 4) Why do all of us grow between the age of zero to 18 - 20 ? Who controls this growth ? 5) Why do flowers blossom after being a bud and then after blossoming, they eventually fade away ? 6) Why can't even a billionaire, who has gathered so much wealth for himself for a lifetime, have to die, when his end time arrives ? Why can't he prolong his life with the help of all his wealth and prosperity ? 7) Why does the Sun rise and set at almost the same time daily ? Who controls its timing ? 8) The earth has been moving round the sun since thousands of years in the same manner. Who controls this movement and why doesn't its timing or speed of its revolution or its slanted angle,change even in a span of a millenium ? The answer to all these questions is mysterious, when we apply our minds. However, when we apply our heart to it, the answer becomes very very simple ! " God does all the above things". He is the sublime,omnipotent force, which prevails everywhere - from a very miniscule atom to the huge heavenly bodies like the planets and the Sun. Even scientists donot deny the possibility of an invisible force / controlling power which acts under certain circumstances.( Higgs boson is known as "God particle" only due to this reason.)
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Even the greats like Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Johannes Kepler
haven't been able to answer some basic questions related to humans !! |
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| Did God really make all these ? |
Inspite of the restless efforts made by physicists and other category scientists to get the " highly precise answers" to the above questions, they have failed partly, since they cannot answer exactly as to WHO is responsible for all the above phenomenon. As Science prefers to remain away from anything which doesn't have evidence, I think even after centuries it will keep searching for the precise answers to above questions, if the highly intelligent scientists keep thinking with their minds. They may come to some formulae and some derivations to reply to the above questions, but they will never be able to answer exactly about the identity of this WHO. The mystery about this "invisible force " will remain unresolved for centuries to come, it seems.
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| There is as much of a mystery in this universe as its perennial beauty. |
