BANGALORE: What we are today is the essence of how we have been in our past lives as well as our actions in this lifetime. We may be of the opinion that many rich people whom we know don't follow dharma, are not spiritual then how is it that Goddess Lakshmi has bestowed her grace upon them? So, today if we feel people are wealthy it is because they would have performed good karma or noble deeds of performing charity, helping the poor and downtrodden. That is how they would have earned the grace of the goddess of wealth.
Remember, the more we give, the more we receive in bountiful. In this manner, by performing good deeds they would have earned so much in bounty that they are now carrying it forward in this present lifetime as well and enjoying the fruits of their past life actions.
Now, they should nurture it further by imbibing spiritual culture in their present lifetime so that Lakshmi remains with them eternally. For this, the grace and guidance of the Guru is essential.
The Guru will teach us how to churn our mind through meditation, mantra jaap and contemplation upon spiritual truths. When we follow the same implicitly, both the good and the bad emerge from deep within us as well. When the churning began, the mountain caused Vasuki to exhale heavily.
His breath formed into thick clouds that burst into rain showers that fell on the Gods.
Likewise, when we meditate, the feeling of intense devotion arises from within us that act as showers of blossom on our ishta devata or our aradhya devata our favourite God or Goddess of worship.
However, many a times our faith is shaken by negative thoughts, crooked thoughts that also emerge. These negative thoughts cause harm to others as well as induce negative karma for us. This is likened to serpent King Vasuki spewing poison and the movement of mountain leading to death of many creatures in the sea.
During the churning of the ocean, serpent’s rubbing against the mountain squeezed out many medicinal extracts from the medicinal plants that were growing on the slopes of the mountain. These juice extracts ran down the slopes of the mountain into the sea and revived many suffering creatures in the sea.
In the same manner, when the bad and poisonous thoughts emerge from within us, many spiritual truths that our Guru has imparted to us also simultaneously emerge to counteract the negative thoughts and correct our thinking pattern.
This creates a clash between the thoughts which flares us up disturbing our inner peace just like the rubbing of the serpent against the mountain also flared up many fires which had to be put out by Indra by bringing in rains.
Similarly, we have to seek the aid of our senses during meditation. When our senses or indriyas are directed towards our own spiritual evolution, automatically they facilitate in excavating the inner treasures from deep within us.
The fire of unwanted desires, ego, which is mostly associated with the body as "I" and "mine" are doused off by our own senses. It is after this stage that wondrous things start surfacing from within us. Kamadhenu - wish-fulfilling cow emerges as supreme willpower. Just like, Sage Vasishta was given the guardianship of Kamadhenu, likewise, our Guru takes the custodianship of our will power so that this will power is not used for selfish interests. Otherwise, the willpower, if driven by our senses becomes the white horse of Indra, Uchchaihshravas, and if fuelled by ego becomes Airavata, the white elephant.
Remember, both Airavata as well as Uchchaiahsravas emerged from the churning of the milky ocean. While Uchchaiahsravas and Airavata fulfilled the purpose of their creation being Indra’s vehicles or vahan, the purpose of our life is not the same. We are not created to serve our senses. We are created to win over our senses and reach our soul.