A small story:
A teacher once asked her students, “Can anyone tell me where you think hell is?”(Laughter!)
After a long silence, one girl stood up and replied, “In my Dad’s study, Miss.”
The teacher was surprised and asked her why she said that.
The child replied, “Every time I go to my Dad’s study, he says: Get the hell out of here!”
Children are trained from a young age, to think of hell and heaven as entities outside of them. They are trained to think that God is sitting above, on a big throne, and watching every movement of ours, and noting down our sins and good deeds.
By thinking in this way, we start the cause and effect cycle of all our actions. We associate good deeds with heaven and bad deeds with hell. We start thinking of God and the whole of Existence as a transaction center. Each one of us becomes a businessman in our own way, whatever may be our real profession!
What do you do when you go to the temple? You purchase flowers, coconuts and fruits, and go to the Deity inside and make an offering in your family’s name to the deity. You tell the name, birthstar etc. of each and every member of your family and do the ritual.
The poor priest will hold one bowl in his hand and you will be telling him a long list of names with all the details of each of your family members. You are so afraid that God will send the blessings to the wrong person, to the wrong household! You give him the exact geographical location etc. and emphasize to him that it is you and no one else who has come with the offering. Only after doing this, you leave the temple. Am I right?
As if God does not know you if you don’t tell him all this! As if you need to remind God of your existence so that he will shower on you. I tell you: All you need to do is, feel continued gratitude towards Him, that’s all. He is always showering on you.
It is not that he sees you in trouble and then decides to bail you out, or sees that you are alright and therefore ignores you. All these are our own conditionings that we project on God and try to read. All these are what society has taught us from a young age.
The concept of gratitude has become so distorted among us. We feel that gratitude is something we have to feel when we are brought out of deep trouble or when someone goes out of his way in caring or sharing. This is the most ridiculous belief taught to us.
I tell you: Simply enter into the temple with a feeling of gratitude; stand before every deity for a few minutes with deep thankfulness, and leave the temple with that same mood. That is enough. The rest will be taken care of. This is the ultimate prayer. Gratitude is the ultimate pooja or offering.
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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.
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