Manage Life, Manage it All -2

What have I done with my life

Life as been given to us as a rich and precious gift by nature and God. The greatness of life is measured by what one has done with it- what one has achieved. If one has not learnt how to manage one's life and gain bliss, peace, happiness, and immortality, then all of life has been wasted. Do we ever ask ourselves the question, " What have I done with my life that I can be proud of? What have I achieved with my own merits, with my own efforts, which I can present to the world before I leave? What can I place before the lord with love and pride?"
Here pride dose not mean arrogance but the positive emotions associated with something of value worth presenting. For example, our parents have given us everything- our investments, our riches, knowledge, education, this body, health, etc. What are we going to present to them so that they can be proud of us? The Bagavath Gita starts with a question by the blind King Dhritarashtra "What did the people and also the sons of Pandu do when, desirous of fighting, they assembled together on the holy plain of Kuruksheyta. O Sanjaya?"

This world is a kurukshetra the very word Kuru comes from the verb 'to do'. This Human life is a Kharma bhoomi- a field of action where we perform actions and accordingly achieve greatness. Dhritarashtra asked "Oh Sanjaya, tell me what they did?"
The quality and nature of actions determine whether we are close to material or spiritual goals, closer to the Lord, nearer to happiness or not. Mere actions do not bring about success and achievement. Many simple folk approach us, "Maharaj please bless me. I have been working for so many years, but nothing is happening in my life.
Nothing will happen!.
For example, I decide to drive to a certain place; I may go on driving and driving and yet never reach my destination because I am driving in the Opposite direction. Without work,
Achievement is not possible but it is not mere work that brings about achievement. Everybody does action and the results are according to right or wrong actions. Therefore Dhritarashtra uses the word "Dharma Kshetra" Dharma means the art of management by which one can bring about productive results in material as well as spiritual life.
One common factor in the life of all great masters is that they asked the question, "What have I done?"
Tulsidas was unable to conquer his desire for his wife. She asked him, "All you have done is for this mass of flesh. If you had done half of that for the Lord, you would have gained Him. What have you done for Ramachandraji, That question changed his life.

Once Gurudev visited Hong Kong and I organized a gathering of youngsters to meet him and ask questions. I did not expect them to ask the inevitable question, "Why did you become a Swami?"
Gurudev in his most humorous style, said," I was studying in college and a most beautiful; young girl joined the class in the middle of the term. She had long hairs and all the boys were crazy after her. She fell in love with me and I fell in love with her and of course we went around the trees many times singing film songs. But one day she broke my heart and got married to my best friend. My heart was shattered, I was crushed, I wanted to commit suicide but I thought that I would as well become a Swami. Then he said Jokes apart as a young man, I tried to achieve whatever I wanted, I used to always ask myself, Is this what I want? Am I proud of my achievement? Is this what I want with my life and every time I realized that all I did was not enough. Gurudev explained how this question came to Siddhartha when he saw the sufferings in the world. Living in the luxury of a comfortable Palace, with his beautiful wife and the newborn baby, he suddenly
understood that if death came and looted it all away? What could he be proud of? The day he asked himself this question, that very day, Siddhartha left the house to become Buddha.

Gurudev often used to say, "Whatever you have in life is his gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to him."

!!! Will Continue !!!