TIME FLIES

No matter how hard we try to laugh we discover that the laughter ultimately dissolves into tears. We meet people in life, have intense relationships that all must end in parting one day. The picture of the world before us is that of separation and sorrow.

Whenever we laugh out loud we find tears trickling from our eyes as if to tell us that the end of every happiness lies in sorrow. The end of every union lies in separation.

Omar Khayyam, the famous poet felt this deeply and all his verses carry this theme:

And some we loved,

The Loveliest and the Best

Have one by one

Crept silently to rest.

Time Flies, one thing is certain

And the rest is lies,

The flower that once didst bloom

Forever dies

Ah, make the most of what we may spend,

Before we too into the dust descend,

From Dust and into dust and in dust to lie

Sans song, sans singer, sans end

These verses should make us more alert to appreciating the companions and relationships in life that we have been granted, knowing that one day either they shall leave us, or we shall leave them. For the picture of the world is that of separation on the physical plane.

In this train of life some get off in our presence while we get off in the presence of others.

THE RESTLESSNESS OF THE HUMAN HEART

A moth is ever restless for the flame. From the day that it was born it was searching for something instinctively, but it knew not for what.

It ran hither and thither and saw all manner of things in the world, each of which sought to capture its heart. But no! Noth

ing could satisfy it. Wisdom and intelligence failed to convince the moth that its happiness lay in the things of the world. And it continued to flounder its way through the darkness of the world.

And then one day it saw a Flame burning. Instinctively it knew that this is what it had sought after all its life. It had found its goal at last.There was an inner recognition. It was filled with bliss and peace and it ran forward and mingled into the Flame to become one with it.

In a like manner the soul of man is restless for something. It runs hiither and thither in search of peace and happiness, trying to find it in all manner of things in the world - in material pursuits, in wealth, status, honour, achievements, intellectual heights, in meditation, prayers.

Its restlessness is only abated when at last it meets with its goal and unites with it - and that goal is God.

In all the religions of the world it has been written that the ultimate aim of man is to seek God and to unite with him. That is another name for salvation:

In Hinduism it is stated:

Athaa to Brahm Jigyasa

Develop a Desire for Him.

Buddha said:

Decay is inherent in all compounded things, hence work out your salvation energetically.

In Christianity it is written:

"Seek and ye shall find!"

In Islam it is written

Justajoo kun justajoo kun justajoo

Seek Him! Seek Him! Seek Him

It is up to each person to find his own way for himself. His heart will be his guide and he will know when he has reached his goal.

You are thirsty. You find water. And when you drink it, your thirst is satiated. Your sense of fulfillment itself tells you that you have found what you were seeking.

HAPPY DIWALI EVERYONE

Today in India, on the 13th of October, is Diwali, a day when the entire country is bedecked with lights, from the North to the South, from the East to the West, from the poorest of homes to the richest, cutting across race, religion and nationality.

Today 1.25 billion people who comprise about one sixth the population of the earth have lamps burning in their homes to symbolise the joy of love, peace and goodness in the form of Diwali.

I had phoned a Muslim Chemist yesterday asking him for some medicines- and the first thing he said on lifting up the phone was "Happy Diwali!" even though Diwali is a traditional Hindu festival.

Diwali - the festival of Lights. What does it symbolise?

It symbolises the victory of Good over Evil, the victory of God over the Devil.

It is the day when in 3000 BC or earlier Lord Rama of the Hindus vanquished the evil Ravana and came back to his kingdom- where the people were waiting for him, to receive him with lights - lamps of Clay with cotton wicks burning in oil.

Indeed what is common amongst the people of the world of whatever faith is the realisation that Good is synonymous with God and Evil is synonymous with Satan.

Everywhere evil is detested and Goodness exalted.

HH Shri Nathji, my father had always said:

"The laws of God have been written down within the depths of the human heart ever since time immemorial - they are written down on the slate of the human conscience."

"And it is there in the human conscience that the feeling exists that good is supreme and evil is abhorrent. This is seen in all cultures, all races and in all parts of the world, and has been with man ever since the dawn of history. The ultimate victory of Good over Evil."

Indeed every time evil is vanquished and good exalted there is the burning of the light of joy within the heart of man. It is an eternal Diwali that has been going on since time immemorial.

Goodness is synonymous with Love, Peace, Righteousness, humility, Unselfishness, helpfulness, charity, forgiveness, compassion etc. and indeed every action that is good and noble in the world

These are the values that Diwali is supposed to celebrate.

OBAMA WINS

I am always thrilled when Obama wins in the USA. His winning negates all of the prejudices of the past against the black Americans, and reveals the intrinsic goodness of the Americans.

If they can elect someone called Barrack Husein Obama as the president of the USA, then indeed Americans have risen over their own selves. It is a victory against notions of white supremacy, racial prejudice and religious bigotry.

I congratulate Obama, but more than that, I congratulate the Great American people. History will remember this gesture of greatness of the American voters.

This greatness could only have been manifested when Obama was faced with a powerful white contender like Mitt Romney who put up a fine battle, and thus gave birth to this greatness by losing gracefully and creating history.

A toast to the Great American People and the American Election and the new American President, Obama, and the contender, Mitt Romney without whom this would not have been possible!

As they would be saying in India today

"Barrack Husein Obama - Zindabad!

Barrack Husein Obama - May He Live Long!"

GOD, MAN AND THE WORLD

My Father, HH Shri Nathji (1902-1992) The Founder of the World Prayer Day used to say that there were four stages in a man's spiritual life:

1. The quest for God, brought about also by sufferings.

2. Finding God.

3.Becoming the recipient of His Divine Grace and Blessings - as healing.

4. MOST IMPORTANT = RETAINING that Grace and Blessings.

It is the fourth stage that is so important, and where most people slip with time, because they take God's Grace for granted and forget its worth and begin to lose themselves in self-enjoyment in the things of the world. It is then that suffering hits back with a vengeance.

And this time round God's Grace does not come back so easily because it had been taken for granted. Man has to fully and completely realise the worth of the Grace of God and understand that God had given it to man, not so that man may forget Him and lose himself in the things of the world, but rather to remember the Benefactor along with the things of the world.

My Father described the relationship between God and man and the world like the relationship between a Mother and her Child and Toys.

The child plays with toys and forgets his mother. And when the toys break or he is hurt, he cries out to his mother -- who comes running to lift him up.

The mother tells the child: " Why did you run off and leave me, to play with your toys? I wasnt going to snatch the toys from you, I had given you the toys to play with. But I wanted you to stay close to me -- so that when the toys broke and you fell and hurt yourself I could come running to raise you up!!"

My father used to say:

"God is always with us. But we are not always with him!

We are not with Him when we become engrossed in the things of the world and forget Him!"

"But even then He is like the mother who does not take revenge against her child for forgetting him, and still comes running each time he falls down and cries!!

But how much better for the child to remain close to the mother so that she will always be there to save the child from falling.

In this case she saves the child from the fall and is also close to him.

In the second case when the child leaves her she still saves the child -- but the child gets hurt in the process of falling!!

"God never places a veil on his own face. It is man who places a veil on the face of God -- the veil of man's shortcomings and sins!"