Words from the Master

Now coming to the fear of God, God is also unknown to us and so we fear God. Understand: God is nothing but the name that we give to Existence, to Cosmos, to the Existential Energy, to the Life Force that pervades this Universe. This Existence, this Universal Energy knows only to love. If you can understand this much, automatically all your fears will drop. People fear God so much. People ask me, “Swamiji, people say that if we do good deeds or punya instead of doing bad deeds or paapa, we will go to heaven and not to hell. Is this true?”

First of all, understand that Hell and Heaven are not geographic. There is no heaven or hell located above your head. They are terms created just to instill fear and greed in man, that’s all. Hell or heaven can be interpreted as having either a tumultuous death or having a peaceful and conscious death, that’s all.

Any moment in your life that you have spent in meditation is a moment of punya or good deed. When I say meditation, I don’t mean closing your eyes and sitting. I mean, moments that you have been consciously in the present; when your consciousness has been with you; moments when you come out of your normally subconscious state and are in the present; moments when you have felt and resonated with the Existential Energy.

Any moment that has not been spent in such states is paapa. All the moments of conscious states are like your bank balance. At the time of your death, it is these states that will surface and liberate you.

People think that if they offer pots of milk to the deity at the temple, their punya will increase and they will reach heaven! Let me tell you: By offering milk to the Lord, nothing is going to happen. When you feel a swelling gratitude towards Existence, you can express it by offering milk to the deity that you worship as Existence. That is perfectly alright. But please do not link it with punya etc.

Even a drop of milk offered with pure joy and gratitude is a moment of sincere meditation that will stand by you at the time of death. On the other hand, pots and pots of milk offered out of sheer fear of missing out on gathering punya, will not get returns. So, please increase your awareness and live consciously. Make every moment, whatever may be the thing you are doing, a meditation. That is enough. You can live without fear of sins.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.