The Divine Life ideal offers a panacea for all the social
and political ills of the modern world. The three fundamentals of Divine LifeServe,
Love, Give are the pillars upon which an individual can stand and uplift himself and the
brotherhood of man can be built. Thus the life in this world can become more fearless and
happy as well as purposeful.
If one tries to observe people, one may see there three types of persons extroverts,
introverts and ambiverts. Extroverts are persons whose mind always goes outwards. They
become slaves of their senses. They are after money, pleasure and passion, position and
power, honour and acclaim. They are bound with the conditions and circumstances and the
circumference of life. Naturally, their pursuit is of the outer and they forget the
purpose and destination of human life.
Introverts are those persons who are reflective and contemplative and long to study their
inner realm, the inner universe hidden within. Goethe called it as Mans inner
universe. They renounce pleasure and position, keeping themselves aloof away from acclaim
and honour. The charm of the world is such that one may find only a few who are
introverts. Ambivert is a person who does not cut himself from the outer, but lives in the
inner and makes the outer a vehicle of the inner. He dedicates his life in
selfless service of humanity and places his life as an offering at the altar of the Great
Creator of the universe the Lord. Such a person realises the sanctity of service, seeking
nothing for himself, keeping ablaze the Divinity within. They are the embodiments of
humility and compassion and love pure and simple at heart. But without becoming introvert
it is not possible for anyone to become ambivert. And such a person is called sadhaka in
its real perspective. In fact, man is an inborn sadhaka, but fails to recognise the
same due to misconceptions, misunderstandings, arrogance and vanity.
Holistic View
There is a common tendency to isolate spiritual principles from politics, especially in
these days of great intellectual power. Dreamers and visionaries are often brushed aside
as people with their heads in the clouds, out of touch with stark realities. In so many
ways man has become wedded to the doctrine of self-salvation, self-achievement and
self-dependence that in the resultant excitement of great material achievements he is in
danger of forgetting the eternal truths upon which this entire universe exists and its
future heritage depends.
The bad habit of complaining against others, the conditions and slackness in sincere
attempts, and a lack of love for himself and humanity and man becomes a prey of vanity
which subsists on false values. Man generally thinks falsely that he is unblemished and
superior to others and that others are blemished and inferior. The inevitable consequence
is that he gets a perverted vision and loses the capacity for seeing and accepting Truth.
If a man develops an attitude of selfishness, he is liable to poison every good sight and
tie. But, if his attitude becomes one of helpfulness and understanding, he shall beautify
every tie foes will turn into friends, problems will have their solutions and man will
have his salvation. Unfortunately, man thinks his gain in the loss of others, his progress
in anothers downfall and his happiness in anothers unhappiness. It is a
tremendous mistake and a dangerous trend born out of indiscrimination and selfishness.
The inspired visions of saints, mystics and leaders in the religious education, social,
economic and artistic scene of every country have truly reflected the true aspirations of
the people. From these visions was born the practical reality of everything which is
recognised to be good in their way of life. And of course, everything that is discordant
or bad is the outward result of individual and collective negative or evil thinking or
beliefs.
One of the greatest saints of the present day Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj has placed
before the world the Divine Life gospel for the uplift of the individual and
attainment of divinity in the end which can be summed up in six succinct words, Serve,
Love. Give, Purify, Meditate, Realise.
The physical frame of a man owes much to the world because it is made of the same five
elements of which this world is composed. One has, therefore, to serve one and all without
any distinction whatsoever and without any expectation of return or reward so that he may
clear out his debt towards the world. One must properly understand that the acquired
wealth and power are not his own but are the trust of the poor and weak. In
the right use of things lies the key which consists in the service of others. Service and
sacrifice, hence, are the acme of duty and dutifulness. When a duty is performed as a duty
for dutys sake, it becomes the source of salvation and not the bondage of
attachment. But he should not have the idea of doership. Hence the service and performance
of duty with a feeling of responsibility and pure heart without expectations, which is
prompted by an inner sense of fellowship and unity, reduces attachment and destroys the
sense of doership and thus liberates the man.
Love is light, life, eternity. There is nothing else to achieve in this world but love. In
love consists the perfection of human life. All impurities are rooted in the craving for
the pleasure of the senses, but love is not there. Love is the nature of the beloved and
the life of the lover. One must know that faith and Love go together, because in the sense
of unity resides Love and in the ending of desire is the dawn of Love. Man has sincerely
to understand that the outer form of action warranted by a given situation generally makes
little difference to the Love and sympathy in ones inner attitude. The man has to
learn a great lesson that he has to love even a sinner, while hating the sin. A man, who
is an inborn sadhaka, must learn the lesson of forgiveness even without asking for
the same from the person who has done something wrong. Thus only the impurities of
mans mind can be washed off. Of course, it requires great moral strength to seek
forgiveness for ones own past wrong actions. Only one who is truly repentant and who
has realised that any satisfaction of the senses derived from evil propensities is bound
to reap a harvest of evil and sorrow.
Man should not be confounded with a seeming contradiction between forgiveness and justice.
Mans sense of justice is distorted, on account of the limitations of his ego, his
reactions are perverted. Strictly speaking, in one sense, man can do justice only to
himself because he can understand his own mind and not of others. As a man and as a sadhaka
one should, therefore, refrain from judging others; and also one should be forgiving
others in so far one feels wronged by others. When the mind is devoid of hate, a long step
is taken by man towards recovery. Love is the tremendous curative force for an individual
and for the society. So the great Master emphasised greatly this love factor and preached
in practice Love all, hate none. God is in all, do not hurt Him.
The urge to give happiness to others helps man to destroy his own craving for pleasure.
The desire for pleasure is the cause of frustration; giving and sharing what you have and
serving others with compassion consumes the craving for pleasure. He warned an aspirant
that generosity motivated by attachment, and renunciation caused by anger are fruitless.
The truth is that the supreme giver is ours, but all the things He gives are His.
Therefore, man should learn the lesson of giving and giving with happiness all the good
that he possesses and not think that by giving he will lose. In fact he will gain
something which is Divine and Eternal.
If the three mottos above Serve, Love and Give are properly understood and practised by
man in his day-to-day life, he will find that his heart has become purified and he is
living in a higher stage and better society. In fact, in the renunciation of ones
rights and protection of rights of the others lies the secret of attainment. His mind
becomes purified and then alone he is in a position to meditate and realise.
This is the gospel of Divine life which is the need of the hour, and if we follow this, we
shall be serving this world in a better way on its upward march. Then alone can there be
Ramarajya.
Let us march on this path with confidence and faith, with sincerity and strength, with
devotion and dedication. May God and Gurudev bless you!
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