Maya is the most formidable opponent on the road to God realisation. It takes different forms and shapes in different ages to lure the minds of people away from the very purpose of life.

Despite the obviously undeniable  manifold advantages, in this modern age of science, it does appear that  internet, mobile phones and television are the three latest incarnations of Maya!

Once there lived a man who had a unique pastime. Whenever he found information about organised tours to  Kshetras or  Thirthas, he would immediately join the group. By doing so, he had visited almost all important kshetras hundreds of times. He once narrated all this to his neighbour, who was heartbroken to hear the same. He cursed his illfate that prevented him from visiting kshetras and thirthas. He was heartbroken and was crying inconsolably. He told his neighbour 'How fortunate you are! You must have earned countless punyas by your yatras.'

To this, he replied, 'I will give you all the punyas i earned from all these yatras! in return, will you give me those tears that you are shedding ?'

Very true indeed! What purpose is achieved by travelling to all Kshetras mechanically. All and sundry go on trips to holy cities! Our hearts should melt in devotion when we think of the Kshetras. Only then, the true purpose is achieved.

When someone steals an insulator or small piece of equipment from an electrical transformer, he cannot be branded as stealing electricity.  Likewise, one stealing idols from the temple cannot be branded as stealing God or the divinity that it contains.

Electricity does not impact a technician who wears gloves and other insulating equipment. The impact of the electric shock is directly dependent on the strength of the insulator; the weaker the insulator, the more the impact of the electrical shock.  Likewise, so long as one wears a gear of disbelief in God, he cannot perceive the divinity even when he touches the idol of a deity.  The moment he starts faintly believing the existence of divinity, it is manifested to him to that extent.  The degree of manifestation of divinity only grows with one’s strength of faith and belief in God.

A worm in a garden had built a cocoon around it a few days ago.  One day, the pupa slowly developed a crack and the live being inside it was trying to come out of the shell.  A little boy, who had been observing this all along could not bear the struggle the insect was undergoing to come out of its cocoon.  So, using a small stick, he cracked open the shell, in the intention of freeing the insect. Alas, the insect lay dead right there!  Had it taken the normal course of metamorphosis, it would have emerged as a beautiful butterfly fluttering its brightly coloured wings.

Spirituality can be likened to this metamorphosis.  The troubles and afflictions that one encounters in the course of his spiritual path might seem like a tough ordeal when he undergoes them.  If he tries to find an easy shortcut around them or tries to escape these ordeals, the process will only lead to a disaster.  These ordeals are very mu... more

When a spiritual aspirant who has been initiated by a Guru is in the company of his friends and family members, when his mind is always engaged in one thing or the other, he is rarely given a chance to think about the greater purpose of life.    When he is left alone without any company – friends, music, books or any kind of entertainment, his mind is totally disengaged.  He then starts to contemplate on death, the rare nature of this birth, the importance of attaining God in this life and so on.  The state of winning over thoughts that engage the mind is important for a spiritual aspirant.

When you meet your friend and ask him what happened that morning in his house during breakfast, he is able to narrate to you everything.  However, he is not able to relate to you incidents that happened in his house in his absence.  That is because the mind is a wonderful recorder, which records all the happenings, incidents and events that are fed to it as impressions.  Everything that one comes in contact with, through eyes, ears, smell, taste and touch are recorded by the mind and stored for eternity, not only in this birth, but also in all earlier births.  By querying the mind for these, one will certainly be able to extract them.  Just like one has to exert additional force to pull out the bottommost book from a huge stack of books, by deep contemplation, one can uncover all the incidents of the past.

It is only these recordings that are stored as ‘Vasanas’ (latent impressions) within oneself and’ form the basis for the ne... more

An elderly businessman distributed all his business affairs amongst his sons and daughters and went into retirement.  Soon he noticed some evil forces rearing their heads in the business and good forces losing ground.  So, he got back into the business fulltime and destroyed the evil forces and saved the good forces.  Not only that, he also analyzed the reason for the upper hand of the evil forces. He discovered that the workers had become incapable of following the rules and regulations laid down by him long ago.   Hence he promulgated another set of rules and regulations that were easier to follow and yet as effective as the earlier ones.

In the same manner, The Lord created this Universe and everything inside it in such an admirable manner.  He also codified a set of rules for its proper conduct in the form of the scriptures.  Yet, later when he saw that evil forces have pervaded in the world, out of sheer mercy an... more

Once, a person went around telling people that God conversed with him often.  It happened for a few days.  The fact of the matter was that God did not talk to him at all!

After a few days, this person sincerely prayed to God to speak to him. God appeared in his dream and told him, ‘Even when I did not speak to you, you went around telling everyone that I have been speaking to you! So, why now, should I talk to you?’

Ordinary mortals take all the merits ('punya') from the cosmos and emit their sins to the cosmos. On the contrary,  Avatara Purushas absorb the sins from the cosmos and give out the merits to the cosmos. Thus, they maintain the cosmic balance.

It is said that if one attains the Holy Feet of a self-realized Guru, it is their final janma and that liberation is assured. If that is the case, one may wonder why that does not happen to all who come to such a Guru.

The answer is very simple. This question arises only because the meaning of “attaining” a Guru is misconstrued. “Attaining” does not denote the physical act of meeting a Guru. “To attain” would mean to surrender one’s entire self unto His Feet with absolutely no trace of ego and to view everything around as His divine play.