Lord of Pravrutti and Nivrutti

Gratefulness in Pravritti

God is the Lord for both Pravrutti and Nivrutti. You have to please the Lord even in Pravrutti. If the Lord is not pleased in Pravrutti you cannot please Him in Nivrutti also. The fundamental requirement to please the Lord in Pravrutti is to have satisfaction at every step. The contentment with whatever you have will always please the Lord. You must be happy with whatever is already given to you by the Lord and you must always thank for the past. You should not put your eye on the present or the future and put an application to the Lord. Even if you have travelled from one place to other place, you must thank the Lord for having protected you during the journey. You have reached the destiny only by the grace of the Lord. It is not sure that one will reach the destiny by a bus or train or aeroplane. If any accident takes place you are gone forever.

Everybody is under the influence of strong ignorance and thinks that he has reached the destiny by his effort. Some people think that reaching the destiny does not need any effort and it is just a routine thing. Therefore, either you feel egoistic for your effort or you neglect the journey as a routine matter, which does not require any effort. Both these are illusions. You have reached the destiny by the grace of the Lord only. Therefore, in every stage you must remember the Lord and express gratefulness to Him. By such behaviour, the Lord becomes immensely pleased and is encouraged to do everything for you.

Jesus always used to thank the Lord in every small work also. He always thanked the Lord for the past and never was worried about the present or the future. He thanked the Lord for the four breads already given. He never was worried about the thousands of visitors, who came to see Him and they were feeling hungry. He never planned about the future consequence of such situation. The Lord was extensively pleased and multiplied the four breads into thousands of breads. Therefore, contentment with what already you have and thanking the Lord for whatever was already given will please the Lord. You must thank the Lord even for every respiration because it is only by the will and grace of the Lord, the lungs are working and the air is going in and coming out of the lungs. The heart beats and every beat is only by the graceful sanction of the Lord. I find several people, who crave for money every time irrespective of whatever they had. They never attain the satisfaction at any stage of the growth of their financial strength. God becomes displeased with such people and will not grant further wealth because the fellow will never get satisfaction.

There is no use of granting any amount of wealth because the fellow is never satisfied. When the satisfaction is absent, he will not thank the Lord with full heart. Even if he thanks, it is only for the future sanction. Therefore, if you really wish to have the grace of the Lord to remove your present financial crisis and poverty, the first step you have to take is to have satisfaction and complete contentment with whatever you already have. You plan with the existing funds and adjust yourself accordingly. If you have the will to adjust you can adjust to any quantity of wealth. When the adjustment is done, you will have the full satisfaction. Then if you pray the Lord, you will not ask for anything more because you are already satisfied. In such case, your prayer is not for the fulfilment of any desire. Your prayer requires the Lord Himself and not anything other than the Lord. Your prayer will be in His praise only and not for any desire because you had the full contentment already. Then, the Lord gets real pleasure from you and will force His grace on you continuously. He will rain wealth on you forever.

The wealth will be multi-dimensional. Wealth does not mean simply cash. Wealth means health, good children, good appetite for food and good digestion, good sleep, perfect peace, and success in every effort, continuous courage, knowledge and finally the salvation. Goddess Lakshmi is in eight forms and one form is only money (Dhana Lakshmi). Therefore, if you really wish to get rid of the eight forms of poverty from your life and if you really wish for the eight forms of wealth, the only qualification you have to attain is the full contentment with whatever you have already. The Gita says the same (Nitya Truptah…). Shankara was in such a state. When He praised Goddess Lakshmi, she rained golden fruits. He did not take even one fruit from that heap. He desired for Goddess Lakshmi and for Her grace, but He never desired for the fruit of Her grace. He derived bliss from praying Her and from Her constant grace. The gold rained by Her does not give bliss. It gives only tension and worry. It creates dissatisfaction always. It destroys the contentment. If you have ten gold coins you will aspire for one hundred. After getting hundred, you will aspire for thousand. There is no end for this. You will never achieve the contentment and you will be in the stream of dissatisfaction till the death. Therefore, if you touch the beginning of this chain, this infinite chain of wealth carries you away. If you do not touch it you are always having the contentment. Shankara told that the poor fellow is always fortunate (Koupinavantah Khalu Bhagyavantah). Shankara also told that the money would lead to misery of dissatisfaction only (Arthamanartham…).

If Kaika was satisfied with whatever position her son had already, she could have not lost her husband. Her son might have been happy in the palace. By her greed only, she became a widow and was scolded by all the public. Her son also left the palace and lived like a saint in a village. If Sita had been satisfied with the ordinary deer present before her hut, she would have lived happily. Her desire for the golden deer brought all the troubles for her.

If Ravana were satisfied with his beautiful wife, Mandodari, he would have been happy. His attraction for Sita ruined the whole family and kingdom. Dasharatha gave two boons to Kaika who was his youngest queen. He gave the two boons due to over attraction on her. She was very young and therefore, does not have any maturity of mind. Therefore, it is the foolishness of Dasharatha to have given the two boons to the youngest lady Kaika and those two boons finally took away his life. Rama wanted to fulfil the desire of Sita due to His attraction towards His wife. But, Lakshmana advised Rama not to go after the golden deer, which must have been a trick of the demons. Lakshmana had that wisdom of analysis because he left his wife and came to forest with full control of his mind and senses. Rama due to constant association with the beautiful Sita was so much attracted to her that He could not deny her desire.

Therefore, association with the people decides the whole fortune based on the nature of those people. If Rama valued the association of Lakshmana, He would have been very happy. He voted for the association of Sita and landed in troubles. He lost the discrimination power due to constant association with such a beautiful lady, who was very young and therefore, had immature mind. Thus, both Dasharatha and Rama were misled by the attraction towards their young beautiful wives. Bhishma was the protector of the throne of Hastinapuram. Protection means protecting the interest of the king and the way may be sometimes harsh.

Bhishma knows that his son Dhritarashtra was doing wrong. Had he become harsh and controlled Dhritarashtra, the whole Kaurava dynasty should have been protected. Bhishma could not become harsh and this mistake led to the total destruction of the dynasty. Similarly, Dhritarashtra could not control his son Duryodhana. After all, Dhritarashtra was the king and any order of the king has to be followed. He need not fear because powerful people like Bhishma, Drona, Krupa etc., were associated with him in seeing the implementation of his orders. In spite of such possibility, he blindly followed his son due to blind attraction. The result of that was that his son was completely destroyed. This teaches us that the head of the family, father, should control his children and should not mind to use any amount of harshness in the future welfare of his children. Such harshness will be praised as the real love.

Draupadi laughed and criticised Duryodhana when he came as a guest. Due to this, Duryodhana revenged on her. She reacted towards his revenge and took an oath that unless he is destroyed, she will not fold her hair. Bhima was emotional and always tried to fulfil her oath. But, Dharmaraja was wise and tried to avoid the war even at the cost of her oath. Bhima fulfilled her desire but the final result was that she lost all her children on the last day of the war. Finally, she repented but was of no use. Therefore, the head of the family as a husband should always control his emotional wife and should follow the path of wisdom like Dharmaraja. He should not be blind like Bhima just to fulfil the desire of his emotional wife. In long run, the path of emotion will be very sad and irrepairable and no repentance can rectify that. Krishna was hit by the leg of Satyabhama. She was proud and was always controlling her husband. But finally, with the help of Narada, Krishna taught her a lesson and she ended in trouble. Rukmini was without any egoism and was obedient to her husband. Finally, she won her husband and got the ultimate success. This is a lesson for all household wives. Similarly, Rama also taught Sita a lesson about her undue attraction towards the golden deer. Therefore, unless you satisfy the Lord in Pravrutti, how can you satisfy the Lord in Nivrutti, which is more critical?

I passed through a severe phase of poverty in My life. There were days when I had just handful rice just once in a day only. But, I am telling you without any trace of hypocrisy that I was fully contented with whatever I had. I allowed all the family members to eat the food first and whatever little leftover was taken by Me with full pleasure and satisfaction. I was with full health and I was not having any trace of illness in those days. I was very active both physically and mentally. My concentration on God was at climax in those days. I always praised the Lord with full bliss and never asked the Lord for single paise. I was thanking the Lord always for that handful rice given to Me because I compared Myself with several beggars and pitiable animals like street dogs, which were not blessed even with that amount of food. My position in the list of living beings was very high. I never thought that My position was low. For that high position, I always thanked the Lord. It was the best time for Me to test the faith, loyalty and sincerity of My wife towards Me. I searched for any trace of dissatisfaction or displeasure in her mind towards Me. But, I am proud to announce the truth that I could not find any such trace in her mind. She was always consoling Me and preaching Me the philosophy whenever I acted in grief. Whenever I remember those days, I feel that those days were the most sacred days in My life. In those days only, I raised to the highest spiritual level and I was completely absorbed in God. Thus, the poverty in materialistic line was the richest time for Me in the spiritual line. The wealth and happiness bring egoism and inertness to the brain. The poverty and misery destroy the egoism and will make you to think God always. Therefore, if you analyse really, poverty is wealth and wealth is poverty.

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