Abhyasa : Why giving the right blessings (aas’eervaadam) is important.
As I have been turning inwards, I have recently discovered that the unhappiness of the world, of others that I love, that makes me unhappy.
DSC_0090 : Western India : Photo Credit : Son And Friends : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
In the lives of others we are not in the driving seat and any advice we give is like back-seat driving, annoying to those who have to suffer it. It even often feels like unsympathetic nagging. So I sat and worried about the affairs of other humans, my loved ones.
Then recently I had this brilliant idea! I can’t help, I can’t advise, so let me bless them. This is useful to someone who wants to enter the vanaprastha as’rama.
So I think about what’s troubling the person and what I think that person needs to solve their problem and I bless them with that. It’s not a generic world peace blessing, its a very specific timely blessing.
And I found that it makes me very happy and free. I have since then tried it on people I don’t even know, like some Ethiopian students who have some problem and I felt better.
A blessing is not a wish and its nor a prayer to God to bless someone. It involves your sankalpa or will power. It comes from you!
It is said that kings like to distribute their material wealth and saints like to hoard their tapobalam. They do not like to bless easily. (That he who has affluence should become liberal, or that he who is endued with wealth of asceticism should become reluctant to spend it, is not at all surprising : Saunaka to Janamejaya : Mahabharata : Santi Parva : Apaddharmaanusasana Parva).
Blessing others helps us attain peace.
It satisfies the activist bit in us. You are helping but in a causal plane, not in the instrumental plane. It makes you peaceful.
That is why I now believe the sages used to say “Om s’Antih, s’Antih, s’Antih” before starting on any studies of Upanishads. Its a blessing that the whole world be peaceful, which leads you to the peace you need so you can study and meditate. (There are other theories too.)
The best blessing of all.
The best blessing of all is contained in Viswamitra विश्वामित्र‘s Gayatri Mantram : “dhiyo yo nah pracOdayAt” as well as Gandhiji’s bhajan :”Sabko sanmati de bhagvan!”
Let our minds be illuminated!
Authorship and Copyright Notice : All Rights Reserved : Satya Sarada Kandula
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