Close Your Eyes to Life. {133.}

Radhasoami!
****


Now, this is a tricky statement, indeed.


Closing one’s eyes to life
hardly seems like an ideal solution
to its umpteen ills,
or the most sensible mode to consummate it,
or to even truly transcend it.


However, instead of indulging in
mere intellectual satisfaction
to the detriment of truth
{yes, that is very possible!}, 
let’s try and get
what I’m trying to put across.


God and meditation and redemption
are enabled only through life
yet remain beyond it
and involve its transcendence.


Life is not the ultimate reality,
nor the best existence possible.


Life is a transitory state,
which the enlightened employ for their salvation.


The Buddha’s memorable last words on earth
perhaps cannot be bettered:
“All composite things pass away.
Strive for your own liberation with diligence.”


Life is just life -- 
dismally, incorrigibly, hopelessly -- 
even if one discusses God,
or the route to salvation;
the true journey has not begun yet.


The actual treading of the path
in meditation
is internal, solitary, lonely;
with one’s eyes closed
to life in its entirety,
both its best and worst.


God is beyond life.
Meditation is beyond life.
Salvation is beyond life.


Life cannot lead you to the afterlife,
unless you employ it rightly,
by denying it,
and seeking to transcend it rightly
through the prescribed techniques of meditation,
under the tutelage of
a living true master.


Well, well, nothing seems simple or easy.
There are too many usages
of such words as 
‘right’, ‘rightly’, ‘prescribed’, and ‘true’ 
in the preceding paragraph. 
And pray, who determines  ‘rightness’
and how exactly?


Once you have yearned for God, 
you cannot go back to 
square one again; 
your transcendence is rendered fated. 


God is the supermagnet
that loves Her children.


If you really want God,
just trust that you will 
be magically guided towards Her.


Remain true to your being
and honest in your quest.


As Goethe observed in Faust,
“For he who is unceasing in his striving
is ours for his redeeming.”
****


Radhasoami!

Desire for God and Salvation. {124.}

Desire for God and Salvation. {124.}
****

Radhasoami!

The Buddha had named desire
as the root of suffering.

Desire is, indeed, central to
all human engagements and desserts.

Nothing in life can be achieved
without a consuming desire for it.

Alsorans fare ill even in spirituality,
which mandates total commitment.

The essential perspective in the blockbuster film The Matrix
is not without its foundation in reality and logic.

This world and life are not real
they are merely a means
for the soul to awaken
and arrive unto its Maker.

The one who lives
determined and guided by
this perspective and focus
naturally grows indifferent to the
fleeting plays of illusory reality.

Hence, one ought to form
only the fewest of relationships,
involve in the world minimally,
and limit one’s external attachments.

Let the soul ever meditate
longing ardently for its Parent,
and eternal bliss in the loftiest paradise.

Desire only God and salvation
sincerely, rightly, wholeheartedly, intensely.

God inexorably draws such a one
unto Her sacred lap and bosom.

Radhasoami!
****

Life is a Brief Opportunity. {75.}

****
Radhasoami!

Life is a brief opportunity.

Life is God’s gift to the Jeevas {living beings}.

Birth in human form is priceless
because it enables one
the rare chance of securing salvation.

All else is basically just trash,
if not outright sin,
{sin being defined as
travesty of God’s will}.

Sensual thrills are shortlived,
material possessions cannot be lugged
into the hereafter.

A pity that most people
seemingly live only for these.

True, no person can even
desire God on one’s own;
it is God who gifts
the deserving souls
faith and longing.

So, all that one truly has
are essentially one’s soul
and one’s good deeds.

Life is too brief a dream.

Almost before one even realizes it,
one gets close to losing it.

All this is merely to stress
that one ought to
obey the Buddha’s last words,
by persevering steadfastly for redemption,
which our Revered Leaders also mandate.

That would be a life spent well,
with its purpose realized best,
regardless of all else
that constitutes merely Maya,
or illusory, destructible reality.

Radhasoami!
****

Materialism: Its Purposes & Uses. {21.}

****
Radhasoami!

Satsangis have been enjoined to aim for & remain satisfied with merely a moderate degree of worldly success. Why is this so? What does the above injunction really mean, in practical terms?

There is, of course, no end to human desires. As the Buddha had very rightly described as his first Great Truth, desires are at the root of all human suffering. Hence, being extremely selective in one’s desires makes eminent sense, both practical and spiritual.

Moreover, globalization & consumerism subject the lay person to a virtual barrage of material products that are desirable and apparently necessary for one’s living. Under such circumstances, it is rather tempting for one to succumb to the craze for more & more material possessions.

This would naturally entail a greater focus on & efforts expended in amassing wealth. Not for nothing had the holy Bible also asserted that “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

So, if Satsangis were to recklessly seek money by hook or by crook, & determinedly rival others in the possession of worldly success & material possessions, then they would forget their real goal in life: that of ensuring their salvation.

Life in human form is precious, not because of the consumerist goods that we can buy while alive, but because it offers one the chance to mystically secure one's eternal seat in the loftiest paradise of Radhasoami Dham.

However, Satsangis are also mandated to live by one’s honest efforts, & not to have any loans pending against others. Thus, financial independence & integrity are central to the Satsangi lifestyle.

Further, various studies conducted around the world suggest that if a person’s material needs have been well taken care of, the person becomes naturally drawn towards religion & spirituality.

It is also an obvious truism that even the performance of one’s devotions & services by an individual requires money.

Besides, the spread and establishment of a new religion in the whole world will naturally entail finances of a mind-boggling order.

Hence, Satsangis should responsibly draw the line rightly on how to earn enough money for a comfortable & dignified living that enables one an adequate performance of their religious duties & aspirations, while taking care not to get caught up in the senseless vortex of naked pursuit of wealth or the acquisition of material possessions.

Radhasoami!
****