Skip to main content

Gangasnana | Guruji's Thoughts | 1 min.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa used to remark jocularly about persons going for Gangasnana. "Well, as they approach the holy banks of Ganga, their sins fly from their body and sit on the distant trees. But as soon as they start back after their bath, the sins pounce back upon them!" The moral is, man's character cannot be molded by mere momentary upsurges of emotions. It is only one in a million who will be endowed with the mental stamina to turn a momentary gush of feelings into an abiding part of his character. That is why, all our great authorities on mental discipline have ordained us not to succumb to overflow of emotions and weep in the name of God but to apply ourselves to a strict discipline of day-to-day penance. Effusion of emotions will only shatter the nerves and make the person weaker than before leaving him a moral wreck. It is just like a liquor-addict who is left imbecile after the effects of liquor subside.


Namaste!

[Source: Bunch of Thoughts]

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I have just begun to collect flowers!

In 1955, during the 51st birthday celebrations of Param Poojaneeya Guruji, a meeting of Karyakartas was held at Calicut in which many Pracharaks including Shankar Shastri Ji and Venuettan had assembled. To everyone's surprise, Mananiya Dattopant Thengadiji arrived at the meeting. He had no official programs planned at Calicut. Curiously, Shastri Ji inquired about the purpose of his visit. "A swayamsevak from Feroke (near Calicut) has written to me about starting a BMS unit in his tile factory", replied Thengdiji. "I'm here to meet him". Quite soon, the swayamsevak arrived and took Thengadiji to Feroke. After a few hours, Thengadiji returned to Calicut, after forming a temporary committee of BMS at Feroke. Back at the office, Venuettan asked him if there were any BMS units anywhere else near Calicut. As always, Thengadiji's cool reply was that there were units in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Bhopal and Hyderabad. "With the other units so far, how can ...

Punctuality and Discipline

When we conduct daily Shakha, mistakes are natural. The duty of correcting such mistakes falls upon the senior Karyakartas of that Shakha. The preparations for Sangh's winter camps are begun one month prior to the event. During one such event, a few swayamsevaks reached the campsite very late. Mananeeya Balasahebji, who was in charge of the camp was really disappointed at this. Later that day, in the meeting, he said: "The most important work has been handed over to the most incompetent men…." Those fiery words struck everyone. From the next day, everyone was sharp on time. Mananeeya Balasahebji's words didn't hurt the swayamsevaks, but taught them a lesson. This incident is still narrated in the Sangh circles to suggest that punctuality is very important to discipline. Namaste!

Bhavishyapurana and Muslims | Mahamadas | Talks with Guru | 4 mins.

Disciple: In a Q&A session with an eminent Muslim scholar, I came to hear the following argument: In the Bhavishyapurana, there are references that after 4000 years, a man named Muhammed would come and he should be given due respect and reverence. Is this true? What is Guru’s take on this? Guru: The fundamental basis of the Sanatana-Dharma-Shastra is the Vedas. Vedas have 4 parts [Samhitas, Aranyakas, Brahmanas and Upanishads], 6 Angas [Shiksha, Kalpa, Vyakarana, Nirukta, Jyotisha and Chandas] and 5 Upavedas [Ayurveda, Dhanurveda, Sthapathya-veda, Gandharva-veda and Arthashastra]. Since the complex concepts in the Vedas are unfathomable for common people, they have been explained with the help of stories (in ‘Puranas’) and biographies (in ‘Itihasas’/epics). Hence, the Vedas and their allied scriptures are considered as the primary sciences and the Itihasa-Puranas as secondary. Now, among the Puranas, the 18 Maha-puranas command primary status. The Bhavishya-purana in questio...