How Can God Be Realized?

You know that story of the man who asked his guru how God could be realized. The guru said to him: ‘Come with me. I shall show you how one can realize God.’ Saying this, he took the disciple to a lake and held his head under the water. After a short time he released the disciple and asked him, ‘How did you feel?’ ‘I was dying for a breath of air!’ said the disciple. When the soul longs and yearns for God like that, then you will know that you do not have long to wait for His vision. The rosy colour on the eastern horizon shows that the sun will soon rise."

The Watchman and the Lantern

“In olden days, the Indian village hired a night-watchman to keep down crime and accidents. He would go around the streets and lanes with a square metal lantern open only at the front. The watchman could see, wherever the lantern cast its light.

No rays of light fell on the who carried the lantern. If you wanted to see who the watchman was, you had to ask him to turn the lamp back on his own face.

We are like that!

Our eyes (ears, tongue, etc.) are all facing outward, looking at and feeling the things of the world.

God says, "If you want to see me, turn the lamp (consciousness) around; look within and find the Source of all the light.""

SANATHANA DHARMA

It was bright sunlight and man was enjoying it. After sometime he felt that he wanted to build four walls and a roof over him. In the four walls he experienced darkness and he yearned for light. So he lit a lamp, to his surprise he found that there was darkness under the lamp. So to get rid of it he lit another lamp. Well, he noticed that there was darkness under that lamp also. So he went on lighting lamps after lamps until he was vexed. Fed up he ran out of the four walls to get incomparable, unending sunlight.

In this anecdote it is the Sanathana Dharma which is the everlasting Sunlight, the Four walls and the Roof is our Ego which propels the “I” ness. Lamps are like the other religion. With due respect to other religion it is known that their philosophy is not complete as “it’s always dark under the lamp”.

If only the mankind understands this we all can live as Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam

HOPE

Once there was an old Donkey which lived with a great hope. The Washerman was getting old and he could not work, so he untied the donkey and let it go. But the donkey refused to go from there and stood outside the door of the washerman's house.As the donkey was not working, the washerman refused to feed it also. On the other hand , he would beat the donkey with a stick because it would keep on braying all the time.

The washerman's dog seeing all this, asked the donkey why he is taking all this beating and continuing to stay there. Instead why it did not run away from there. The donkey said," I have heard the washerman telling his daughter, that you continue to refuse every groom i show you, if you continue to do so, I will in the end get you married to this donkey only". So, the donkey says I am hoping for the day when the washerman will get his daughter married to me.

This is how we human beings wait for only good things to happen in the future, a life without sorrow, always young without disease or death for the body.

THE HUMBLE HEALER

Bhagavan Das was a healing saint, who was always wandering in the forests in the Tehri Garhwal district of the Himalayas. People used to come to him from all parts of India and take some vibhuti (sacred ash) from his hands, which would cure all diseases (including cancer) by its mere application on the body of the patient for ten days.

There was an old lady at that time in Indore whose only son was suffering from an incurable eczema in his entire legs and hands. She went on searching by foot in the forests of Garhwal for more than a year as there was no fixed place for Bhagavan Das, the healer. One day she came across an old man with an unkempt beard and disheveled hair. When she enquired from him the whereabouts of Bhagavan Das, the old man enquired why she was searching for the latter. When the lady told him about her ailing son, the old man replied:- ‘‘Never again take the name of that bogus rogue Bhagavan Das who is a cheat and a scoundrel. I shall give you some sacred ash and you apply it on your son daily. I guarantee he will be cured within ten days.’’

After receiving the ash the lady asked the old man his name. The latter replied – ‘‘People call me Kallu Das’’.

The old man was none other than Bhagavan Das himself.

Real saints do not go after Name, Fame, Money and Building Ashrams & they do not like to have their names advertised.