'LIFE'

  'What is Life?' Everyday we talk about life. Life is prana shakti (Life-force). It is chaitanya, Consciousness, prajnya and a creative energy. It enables movement, growth, and reproduction. It is a divine force, daivi shakti. It is He, the Lord, Who Creates and Enters into it as 'Prana', Life-Force. However, it is also true that He is everywhere, even in inorganic matter, since there is nothing called void, or vacuum. Everything is filled with Him. "He created and entered into it"-  'tad srushtva tat eva anuprvishat' is the doctrine. In fact, "He only Exists, and nothing besides Him". He, the Lord, has entered into all that exists- living and non-living! He entered into creatures and is seated in their heart! In this sense of the term, "all creatures are divine"! One must realize this divinity and respect all.

  It is interesting to note how our lives are shaped over a period of time from birth to death. Much of our traits, conduct, behavior, depends on many a intricate factors. Some are carry-over of the past lives as prarabhda karma. Some are earned over time in this life, sanchita. These also create one for the next life as agami. One must be careful and eradicate all that accumulates over time as sanchita karma and be flawless, pure, and try to attain the divine state. This requires an attained person as a good guide, teacher. It is hard to find one in our midst since we are all suffering from basic problems of hunger, thirst, eager to enjoy sensuous life in a material world with the help of the sense organs which are prone to out-going in search of endless desires and dreams! Hence one should look for a renunciate, a selfless teacher, and serve him in order to please him and get his blessings. Such a renunciate one is hard to find since he is not interested in worldly pursuits. He mostly lives alone in the forest, a secluded place like a hill-top! We must give up our indulgences in the worldly life and look for such a guruji.

 What governs our lves? A number of important factors, some unknown and some intricate ones, govern our lives.  This is very important since an understanding of this will help attain to the highest. important.  In the first place, we all carry a heavy baggage brought from the accumulated karma of past several lives. Second, we go on accumulating karmaphala much more in this life and get entangled. Thus, there accumulates a balance to our credit and, we need to clear all these bank accounts of credits and debits, first. This life is one of a Bank and the account starts with a, opening balance of credit as soon as we are born. We come with an Opening Balance and die with a Closing Balance! If we have loan or Term Deposit Account to our credit, we have to attend to the call of the Bank. One cannot be free unless all accounts are closed, once and for all. In fact, we must be free from all credit and debit accounts of our lives, past and present, in order to get rid of this bondage. We should clear all our past dues in this life, but it is very difficult to do this since we do not know what is carried over from the past life and what is there at present in our account! But, it is sure that we suffer or enjoy due to this! Moreover, we go on accumulating credits and debits to our account, year after year. Thus, the prarabhda should be taken care of first. Next, we should be careful not to accumulate any in the present life.

  Our lives are governed by many unknown factors. Hence we must pray Lord Almighty to enlighten us as to why we are born on this transient death-knell, mrutyu loka, taking repeated births and deaths as results of  actions, karma phala. We are lucky if we come with the Good Will , blessings of elders and parents, teachers, and divine grace. It is very important that one should be lucky, since luck plays a large part of life in addition to divine grace, bhagavad anugraha.

  Let's pray Lord Almighty to get His blessings to attain mukti, moksha, freedom and liberty so as not to take birth again here on this earth. We must always remember that we are brilliant shining stars at our heart and soul, but it is covered by a thick stain of desire, greed, and ignorance. Once we take birth here, it is karma phala that dictate our fate and cause rebirths and death! "Samsare bahu duhkha sare, paahi Murare, krupaya sare, Govindam bahaja Govindam. Also, they said, "punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam, punarapi shayane janani jatharam, Govindam bhaja Govindam, Govindam bhaja moodhamate!" said the Learned ones.

  We must always pray the Lord for His divya anugraha, divine grace.