Q)Why is it that grace comes very fast to some people, and to some it comes slowly?
Sri Bhagavan: See it is not that I like some people and do not like the others. You might come and ask me - I want some money. I might delay it because in your case my helping you immediately could cause some sickness to you and I would consider which is the best. Giving money or to make you sick? If I feel that well! I should not cause you sickness right now, it doesn't matter if you have a financial problem, then I would not help. Sometime I would help you. Sometimes you might be at the bus stand asking me - Bhagavan, please stop this bus... I might not stop it for you, and you might feel cut off about the whole thing that Bhagavan didn't help me. So, later on you will realise that the bus met with an accident and you are saved. So, I am taking decisions on ... I see what is exactly the best thing for you. that is how I am functioning. To you it might look that I am not responding. I have to take their Karma into consideration, see what is going to happen if I do this... because if your Karma is limited and if I am going to help you somewhere, then you are going to get hit somewhere else. So, I must so adjust the whole thing, for you to build some good Karma and then do it. But very often you lose patience. What you must know is whatever I am doing is for your good.
Q)Bhagavan, many people ask for so many boons and Amma and Bhagavan fulfill them with compassion. How do you make it happen?
Bhagavan: It is not really very difficult for Me to grant a boon to you. Suppose you want a car, all that I do is picturise a car. That is it. But the problem is, you have to be in a certain condition to receive it.
The first thing is Helplessness. Unfortunately, most of you are not in a state of helplessness. Somewhere you feel "Okay, I can do it myself". You have to be very clear that wherever you can do things yourself, I will not intervene. Suppose you have a headache. You can go to a shop, buy a tablet and get well. I will not help. But say, there is nobody to treat you, then I'll do the healing. My grace can come in many ways. Sometimes, I will give you money to go to the doctor. At other times, you may have to go in for a surgery and I will be there giving you Grace. I can also cure you simply without any treatment whatsoever.
If you can do it for yourself, why should I help you? But there are situations where you have to be helped. But you people don't give up so easily. You pray to Me, but secretly you have your plans. You are desperate rather than being Helpless. You keep worrying, thinking how will it be solved? Will it be solved? What should you do? Can Bhagavan do it? If yes, how will He give Grace and will Bhagavan shower me with Grace? So many thoughts cloud your mind. You are continuously talking to yourself and are tensed even though you are standing in front of Me or are remembering Me. You don't give up. Let us take an example. There is a devotee in Madras. He wanted 10,000 rupees very urgently and there was absolutely no way through which he could get the money. He said, "Bhagavan, I leave it to you. If you want to help, you help me; otherwise I am finished. But I am ready for anything. It is up to you now." He made no effort except surrender, for all his efforts were over.
Now there was another devotee in Besant Nagar (Chennai) who does not know him. In his dream, I told him about the devotee who wanted the money (with name and address), and asked this devotee to send the money. This person made out a demand draft and sent it to the address. Now I could help him because he completely depended on Me. However, when people don't surrender, I cannot help. Remember, surrender does not mean that you must become my servant. It means putting aside your mind, which is the basic nuisance. It is an internal process. When you can helplessly give up, it is not difficult for me to shower you with Grace.
The other thing is whatever you want must come from your Heart. That is, let us say, you like to have a nice car because you enjoy going in it. I will immediately grant you your wish. But, if you desire for a car because your friend has it, or you want to show off, then I'm not going to help you. You better work hard and buy one for yourself. So you have to check whether your Heart wants it or is it your Mind craving for the same.
Many years ago, a child wanting to be doctor went to an interview for a medical seat but he was rejected. This was his passion from childhood. And unfortunately, though he did get good marks in the qualifying examinations, he was not selected. So, he and his father were returning home by train. The person sitting opposite to them enquired about the boy as he was very dull. When the father told him the reason, he said, "Don't worry, you will be a doctor". The father and son thought that he was just consoling them. A few days later, when they went for the interview, the interviewer was the person whom they had seen in the train. He gave the boy the seat and the boy later became the Dean of The Stanley Medical Hospital in Chennai. He was a very famous doctor. So, the desire of the heart brought that man in the train and he got the seat. This doctor was so grateful to God that he served the people throughout his life.
So, I will give Grace to people who want something from their Heart. Grace cannot come if you want something out of comparison, envy, greed, etc.
Q)What is Karma ? How it affects our life?
Karma' happens due to our own thoughts and feelings. That is, itf orms in our mind. It determines the intrinsic connection between
our thoughts and the events that take place in our life.
On several occasions, when critical situations occur at different
stages in our life, the prime question that arises is: "Why is that
I only have suffering ?" Especially, when negative events, we do
not like, happen we blame others or the Lord. But actually, who
is responsible for the events that take place in our life ?
Outwardly, are men and situations surrounding us responsible?
Or Are we ourselves responsible for everything ?
Sri Bhagavan says: "We are the Architects of our Life". To whatever
things happen in our Life, we are only totally responsible.
Between our mind and outside world, there is close connection.
Mind affects the outside world. Likewise, outside world affects
mind. But mind is very powerful because it has the creative
capacity. These whole vast worlds have been functioning under
certain rules and regulations. This only is the basis of our life. As
the scientific rules control the exterior world, karmic rules
control our life."
According to one of the karmic laws: 'Yat Bhavam Tat Bavati'.
Like thoughts similar situations. This world itself is a manifestation
of inward state. The situations that we encounter, men we meet,
problems that we confront, various life experiences all these
reflect what is inside us. That is, we only create our life's
situations (happenings). We ourselves are the architects who
create and determine our fate. Our opinions and outlooks are
like a filter that filters our outside world; our thoughts appear
as life's events. Therefore, you become what you think.
Thought' is very powerful. This has the creative power. There
is nothing surprising in considering us as co-creators. This is
why; good thoughts and right feelings are quite essential.
The 'creation' starts every time with we see and whenever a
thought with certain feelings arise. An arrow is shot into thought
cycle! Once it is shot, it will start attracting other such thoughts.
Once they hit the target, they return back to the place of their
origin. Thus our thoughts start changing as actions. We only reap
many times over what we sow. If the arrow you shot is 'judging
others' you may have to meet the people who would keep on
judging others! If the arrow is 'damage' or 'hatred' towards
others you may have to meet those who would indulge
in 'damage' to you or who would show feeling of hatred towards
you. Likewise, if your arrow is 'fear', that feeling only would
manifest in the outward world.
There used to be a popular anecdote about a girl.
"She had fear about snakes. She had been having the fear of
being bitten by the snake anytime. Exactly, every year at a
particular day one snake used to come and bite her. Once,
when that day was approaching, she seemed agitated and
panicky. Her parents admitted her in Jaslok Hospital at Mumbai.
But, alas! You see how powerful her fear was! In the hospital at
that particular day and at that particular time, a snake emerged
from the plate in which the food was served and bit her."
Therefore, we only create our world. For this nobody is
responsible. This world only reflects our own thoughts and feelings.
When we remain in a particular way inside, we could not enjoy
the outward world differently. What is found inwardly is manifest
outwardly also. The meaning of the adage "All will happen as you
think only is, you find what you love or you find what you hate".
What is important is; how you feel.
Hereafter the question: "Why it happened to me ?" would not
arise. You only created it. It is a fact that we do not have the
kind of awareness to see the intrinsic connection between
thoughts and action. It can be said that on several occasions,
since there is a lot of gap between these two, it is not possible
to realise this connection. It may take one week, one month,
one year or several years even for thoughts to be changed as
action.
"One lady, by name Seema, had one small taught when she was
a small girl had one strong thought. She thought that only
when she would be sick or away from her house, every member
of that family would realize her value. After sometime, she
was living very happily in the company of her good husband
and children, suddenly she developed cancer and no treatment
could cure her."
If we closely watch the events that are taking place, we would
come to know this connection; our thoughts would come back
as events.They are set in our life according to our stages of growth.
If we are not able to get some answers for our questions, the
knowledge about 'rebirth' would give us clarifications.
One manifestation of thoughts as action is called karmic cycle.
Our life contains a lot of karmic cycles. If awareness about their
function comes to us, we would be able to change the path of
karma to a certain extent. However, when one 'karmic cycle' is
happening, we could not change its courses. Even though we are
endowed with the necessary knowledge and freedom, to do it, it
is highly impossible to effect changes in our life, before a cycle
is over. The frog, which leaps, cannot change direction in mid air.
But as soon as it touches the ground it can change direction before
it leaps again.
A question might arise before us; Why is this world filled with
evil deeds? We are the main reason for this. The world we
witness today is nothing but the reflection of our negative
thoughts and feelings. Once when Lord Krishna was going around
Hastinapur, he happened to meet Dhuriyodan and Yudhishtra.
Lord Krishna asked them how the people of Hastinapur were
keeping on. So to know the real situation existing there,
Dhuriyodan and Yudhishtra decided to enter the town in disguise.
Next day, Dhuriyodan told Sri Krishna that, in the town, there
are only highway robbers, thieves and people who do not know
how to give respect to others, on the contrary Yudhishtra told,
in the Whole town there are only good cultured people and liberal
hearted people who treat even strangers kindly. But see how
much difference is there in their outlooks? Our thoughts only
reflect as truths.
When we are engulfed by negative thoughts, they bring not only
the situations that created sufferings in our life, but also they
create negative situations at various parts of the world. Whenever
we hear about, read about or see the violent happenings we only
create violence. There is a possibility that this might happen in
our immediate surroundings. Likewise positive and negative
feelings that occur within us would be reflected as events in some
other part of the world, irrespective of caste and religion or
belonging to whatever country. We alone are to be held
responsible for the happenings that take place in today's world
we live in. The world, filled with violence, stands testimony to
the collective karma of the mankind. Changing this world into
heaven or hell, depends on every one of us. Therefore, if an
individual is transformed, that is the transformation of the world.
We have understood the power of our thought. We also realise
how essential it is to create Psychological Satkarma in our life.
But how to create Psychological Satkarma ? To our level best,
we must practice to think positively. We must create good thoughts
and practice to look at our life from a good angle. Even wishing
the ple with auspicious words, with a good feeling would
bring in good satkarma.
Nevertheless, on several occasions, though we think of good
things, negative thoughts occupy our minds. What must we do,
then? We must not fight with negative thoughts whenever they
arise. Instead we must have a very sensitive awareness that
thoughts like these are there within us. If we don't push those
thoughts, if we do not fight with them and if we have serious
awareness, then we could experience those thoughts in total.
Sri Bhagavan says: "Anything when completely experienced
transcends into bliss".
At times, when we think about someone, we used to think
negatively or inauspiciously. As soon as we have the awareness
that our thoughts are like this, we must think about that person
and whole-heartedly seek apology from him. Due to this, bad
karma, that is the result of our thoughts, would vanish. We have
to wish that person whole-heartedly.
Sri Bhagavan says: "If you discover love, you shall know exactly how
to live".
We could not develop this love. It must happen. This could be
possible only by God's Grace. If we realise well the real state
within us and our helpless state and pray to God, God's Grace
would save us. We would get liberated from the clutches of
negative thoughts. As the elephant got liberated from the
crocodile by the Mercy Sriman Narayanan, in our life also we
would get complete freedom - 'Enlightenment' - by the Grace
of Sri Amma Bhagavan.
