From Deplorable & Doubtful to the Divine & Definite

By H H Maa Purnananda

“Ya Devi Sarvabhooteshu Chetanetyabhidheeyatey; Namastasyai Namastasyai Namastasyai Namo Namah.” – (Sree Durga Saptashati – 5/19)

“The Divine Mother Who pervades in whole Creation as the very Consciousness; to Her our repeated prostrations.”

The whole journey of an individual from being extrovert to introvert, restless to restful and helpless to happy, indeed deserves acknowledgement and applaud! It is the Spiritual journey!

In the bustling megacity, once there happened to be a man of have-nots. As usual, he and his small family of four were happily living under a reasonably maintained rented house. Maximum families are middle-class and lower middle-class, in every country all over the world. The main reason being humans are mediocre on an average and their efforts are also supported with average education and skills. This family too was one of them.

The devotion to the Lord, the dedication to worldly duties and a certain amount of humanity are not the privilege of a handful of well-to-do families alone! Hence, in this family also, each family member had these qualities.

There was another household which was quite affluent and resourceful. The family members were highly qualified and cultured. They too had all the three qualities mentioned above. In spite of having plentiful, they too could cultivate such qualities, instead of being materialistic and arrogant. The only difference between the two families that one could see is, about the money that they could spend for the three activities. Apart from that, there is no difference in the amount of goodness and happiness enjoyed by both the families.

So my question here is that is it sufficient to be good and happy as a human being, whether one is rich or poor, educated or not so educated and so on? Or, does this human life have more to it? Once come under the fold of Sree Guru Parampara, one realises that it is truly not sufficient to be sincere to worldly duties, to be goodhearted and charitable, to be cultured and qualified, and most importantly, it is not even sufficient to be a devotee!

It is extremely important to nurture all the above as a human, but certainly not sufficient! The Guru Parampara that we belong to, emphasizes on studying, learning, practicing and implementing all the Wisdom compiled in our scriptures of Vedant philosophy. The elaborate and precise instructions and explanations have left no stone unturned regarding the valuable human life, which can be lived wholesomely while diligently walking the path of righteousness that would ultimately become the very tarmac for flying into the skies of limitless expanse of spiritual possibilities, while making a perfect landing also, onto the worldly ground with proper knowledge of the falsehood and the ways to manoeuvre through the world, without getting attached or impacted by the world.

When one learns from the Guru about the trivial nature of the ever-changing world of plurality, due to which, living through it being deplorable and doubtful for most of the life, one understands the necessity of coming to the turning point in life, and change oneself from being deplorable and doubtful and turn the life towards the Divine and the definite. Thereafter it really does not matter whether your family is rich or poor! All that matters is your dedicated, disciplined and sincere effort to learn, understand and implement the Wisdom of the scriptures imparted by Sree Guru Parampara.

As in the given Stotra, we acknowledge the Divine Presence of the Mother Goddess and offer our gratitude to Sree Guru Parampara, Who has guided us in life to understand that the true prosperity is when one is rich with the riches of virtues and Wisdom, and, the true happiness is when one is ever satisfied and content under any circumstance.

On the auspicious Sree Adi Shankaracharya Jayanti and Sree Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda Jayanti, this year falling on the 12th and 13th of May respectively, may we be blessed by Their Divine Grace, with true prosperity and true happiness!