How to Inspire Yourself to Give the Best Effort in Everything?
How to Inspire Yourself to Give the Best Effort in Everything?
There is a huge difference between love and lust While lust
burns the heart and the keeps us incessantly thirsty, love satiates it and fill
it with the sweetest divine bliss. We must ask ourselves question, do we love God,
or we are doing business with him.
One man was walking by the oceanside. When he felt thirst. How
to quench it? He saw a coconut tree ahead laden with coconut eighty feet above
the ground. In great enthusiasm, he climbed up, plucked a few of them, and
threw them down, but when he liked towards the ground he began scared. How will
I go down> If my foot slips, there’ll be no stooping? He prayed Sita Ram!
When I was small, I used to come to your temple with my mummy. Today If you
make me reach below in one piece, I will feed a hundred brahmins with that Sankalp,
he started going down “Sita Ram, Sita Ram, Sita Ram…” Halfway, he looked over
his arm. Sita Ram, not a hundred brahmins! I will definitely feed fifty brahmins,
Sita Ram...
Not fifty, twenty-five, then he came to ten, then five, two
and then one, and finally, when his feet fell on the ground, he said, “Sita Ram,
what had been resolved I had said, I’ll said one brahmin. These are days of
great financial difficulties. I’ll feed myself, and you be happy.”
What was this man doing? He was engaging in business with God.
We must understand the distinction. Where the sentiment is give and then take, and
give and take that is not love. It is business. Where the sentiment is take,
take, take what is there in it for me? It’s all about I, me, myself and my
happiness. That is also not love. It is lust. Where the sentiment is give, give,
give sacrifice for the happiness of the beloved, that is real love. So, the
opposite of love is lust. In between is business. We must try and cultivate the
sentiment of true love within us. Then we will develop the finest intention in
all our works to please our Supreme divine beloved.
Let’s take inspiration form this story. Every Indian has heard
the of Tansen. He was the great musician in medieval India for whom it is said,
he would sing Raga Megh Malhar and cause the rain to fall, and he could sing Raga
Deepak and get lamps to be lighted. He was one of the crown jewels in the court
of the Mughal emperor Badshah Akbar. One day Akbar asked him, Tansen, you sing
so well. Who is you guru?” Tansen said, “Huzoor, he is Swami Haridas. He resides
in Vrindavan,” Akbar said, “Call him over to Delhi I wish to meet him” Tansen
responded, “Huzoor, he will not come. He is sadhu, a renunciant monk. For him,
a beggar and a king area alike. If you aspire for his darshan you will have to
go to Vrindavan. Akbar consented to make that sacrifice t see this noble soul.
He changed his attire, and incognito, he accompanied Tanseb to Vrindavan. They
reached the hermitage of Swami Haridas. He was a saint in medieval times who is
reputed to be descension of Lalita Sakhi, one of thew ashtha (eight) Mahasakhis
of Radha Rani. Now, after darshan (Visitation) how to ask guruji to sing something?
Tansen – he took the tanpura and began singing and would deliberately make
mistakes Finally, with the intention of teaching his pupil, Swami Haridas took
the tanpura and said, “My child, not like this! Let me show you” When swami
Haridas began singing Akbar’s ears opened up. He felt he had never heard any celestial
music like that. Later, while returning, Akbar asked Tansen, “The way you guru
sings, why can you not sing like that?” He was the same emperor who earlier had
asked,” You sing so well, who can be your guru?” Tansen gave a brilliant
answer. He said,” O King! It should have been evident to you. I sing for the
pleasure for Hindustan, for you. My guru sings for the pleasure the king of the
world, Bhagavan. That inspiration, which he has behind all his actions, how I can
ever replicate it?”
So, when we hold the flame of selfless divine love in our
heart, when we fill our mind with pure loving sentiments of selfless love, that
will purify our mind and bring out he best in us. |And when the intention behind
our actions is to please God through them, with that motivation, we will be inspired,
to do the best in what we do. As the saying goes, the talents we have I God’s
gift to us. What we make of it is our gift to God. So, in this way through love
for God, we will become the best that we can be, and inspired by that love, we will
do the best that we can do, and the consequence of this will be we will feel
the best that we can feel, and that is the purpose of life and how it will be accomplished.
Let this much be our understanding for now.
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