Commentaries by Vee Jay Attri during the Book Study – Secrets of Karma
Atma Namaste to all of you. How are you all keeping today? Super happy? Super healthy? Yes! Super strong? Hope you are all taking good care of yourselves. Yes! Physically, emotionally, mentally, also spiritually! These are the times when you have to sustain your spiritual practices.
Spiritual practices is a priority of the day, not an option. You can miss other activities but not your sadhna, your spiritual practices. So, be very, very committed to your practices. And also, as you are progressing, when you are shedding more light, sometimes there is a tendency for the darkness or the dark forces also, to come to us in alarming magnitude.
That is exactly how the system is. The stronger you get, the stronger will be the opposition. It is okay. We fall, we get hurt but we should not lose time in getting up again and walking. Also, most of the challenges, you would have noticed, comes from people who are close to you, either at home or at your work, even through your spiritual buddies.
All these are actually a part of the game. You hare to embrace it cheerfully. Let us not forget the person who actually betrayed Lord Christ was an Apostle by name Judas. It has been like this and that is exactly how the system has been developed.
So, within your own family, if people do not value, do not recognize you or in your own setup, spiritual or professional, you do not get the regard or the respect that you deserve, do not be disheartened. Time will come when suddenly you will find that you will get the right platform. Till such time, focus on getting the lessons.
That is why, it has been said, nobody is a prophet in their own country. So that is one of the proverbs. It is not to be literally taken, but it is simply to tell you that it is possible that people do not recognize your value. There is a very beautiful story that I remember:
Once, a man wanted to master some mantras for rapid manifestations of wealth. So, he was seeking a Guru who can help him with the mantra. The Guru said, “Listen, you have to support me for a few years before I give you this mantra.”
So, the person started serving the Guru for several years and then, years passed. This man could not now wait, he was impatient. Then, he approached the Guru, “Listen, I have already served you for so many years and still you haven’t given me the mantra. Please let me have the mantra. I need to grow and I want to attract abundance.”
The Guru said, “Okay, if you insist, I will give you now.” Please come close to me. So, on his ears, he whispered the mantra ‘Om.’ So, the man was very, very happy because for the first time he is hearing this mantra ‘Om.’ Then, as he started walking along the streets, he saw some of the people, the monks, the bhikkhu as we call it.
They were actually asking for alms from people. In the ancient days, even today, it is there in certain parts of the world, these monks are trained to ask for alms from the people. So, the monk was actually saying the word ‘Om’ before asking for the alms, “Om Bhaghawati Vishanti Om.”
So, the man heard it and he said, “Oh, it seems that this mantra is not very, very special. Even for seeking alms, somebody is using this mantra.” And then, as he started walking along, people started greeting one another Om and then they left. So, he thought for a moment that, “Hey come on, it seems that it is a very, very ordinary mantra that everybody knows. So, I think my teacher has cheated me in giving me a very simple mantra.”
So, he went back to the Guru and then he told the Guru, “It seems that you have not done justice to me because what you had taught me is very, very common and even very ordinary people are using this mantra and you said that it is very, very special. How can I get wealth out of this mantra which is so commonly used by everybody?”
The Guru said, ‘Okay, no problem. Before I give you something even more valuable, you have to do another job for me. The job is, take this stone with you and you move around the city and then get a price for it. Meet different people and ask them how much they can pay for this stone. But do not sell it! Remember, you will not sell it but you will only ask the price of the stone from different people.’
So, the man was moving along the street. He happened to come to a vegetable vendor. He told the vendor, “My dear brother, could you please tell me at what price can you take this stone?”
The vegetable vendor said, “Hey come on, this is basically a stone that is commonly there everywhere. I can at best use it for weighing my vegetable. So, in return for that, you can just pick up a few vegetables because you seem to be a good person and therefore I’m giving. Otherwise, what is the value of this stone?” So, the man said, ‘Okay, give me back my stone, I don’t want to leave it with you.’
Then he moved away to a clock merchant and he told the clock merchant, “My dear friend, please tell me what price can you give me for this stone?” The clock merchant had not even opened any income. So, he was very annoyed. He said, ‘rather than buying things from me, you have come to sell. Move away from here quickly and what price can you expect from this simple stone?’
In this way, the man started approaching different, different people. Everybody was saying that, ‘Hey come on, you are kidding. A stone that is available everywhere and you want a price for it?’ Then, finally, it so happened that the man was passing through a jeweler who was selling diamonds. So, he approached the jeweler and said, “My dear friend, can you please help me? At what price can you take this stone? ”
The jeweler for a moment, was shocked. He said, ‘Either you must be a very, very rich person or someone super rich must have given this to you, or you must be a robber because these kinds of stones actually belong to the royal family. The person who has given it to you must be a king. Otherwise, nobody has the wealth to acquire this kind of precious stone. It is really invaluable. You can buy this whole village, even then this stone is more precious than that.’
So, he returned the stone back to the man and the man came back to the Guru and told what happened. The guru told him, ‘Listen, the value is given only by people who have value for what have been given to them. If you take my mantra to be very ordinary, it is ordinary for you.’
The message is you have to understand that not all the people will have or give you the value that you deserve. It is not possible. That is why, you have to set your expectations from people properly. If you set your expectations from everybody uniformly, you will be utterly, bitterly disappointed.
Anyway, the first thing is not to have any expectation but even if you have to have expectation, set your expectations correctly from the right people. So, it doesn’t mean that people do not value you and therefore you are not a valuable person. If you are a part of this group, personally, I can tell you, you are the chosen one. You are perhaps one in a million, or even more.
Such is your amazing value, you are truly the chosen one. Especially, in these times, when the help is needed for the humanity and you form part of a small group, you can imagine how great we must be and what is our fortune that God and the hierarchy has chosen us to be a part of this group, in blessing nearly 8 billion people of the world. This is not an ordinary activity.
To receive this kind of an insight, wisdom itself is a mark that you are a very, very precious one. So, setting the expectations from the right people is more important and therefore at any given time, do not be disappointed. And also, all the time do things for the sake of doing.
The moment you want people to reciprocate what you are giving, that exactly forms part of the misery. That is exactly why, disappointment comes, sufferings come, pain comes, hurt comes and so on. Is the point very, very clear?
Alright, let us continue with our study session. We were talking about how it is important to eradicate pests for the sake of one’s preservation or survival. You remember we talked about pests and insects, like cockroaches. It is better to eradicate them. They not only cause health issues but generally many other unpleasant things that happens.
This is not a very useful thing and therefore, it is alright to eradicate pests and insects but at the same time, every time you eradicate, do it in a very merciful way that they leave their vehicle that they possess rapidly and quickly. Is it clear?
And also, do a short decree that, ‘may you ascend to greater light, may you ascend to another higher level of your evolution, something like that.’ So, with the decree, you complete and then cut, cut, cut, release. There are times when we have to take care of ourselves.
So, there is a very interesting story here:
A mosquito kept disturbing a monk who was meditating. The monk said: “Go to the place you belong to; Buddha bless you.” The mosquito left but returned after a while.
Again, the monk said, “Go to the place you belong to; Buddha bless you.” The mosquito left, only to return again! Finally, the monk clapped his hands with the mosquito in between and said, “Go to the place you belong to; Buddha bless you!!!”
So, you may say this, ‘Go to the place you belong to, may you evolve! God bless you!’ Something like that, if ever you have to take care of a mosquito. Alright!
However, it is important to avoid unnecessary or cruel ways of killing or extermination. In general, do not be cruel towards other beings in any way, such as keeping birds in small cages, the bad karma of which may result in losing one’s freedom in life, or even ending up being imprisoned in some other lifetime.
These have all basically now become a very big business, putting birds in cages. On one side, you sell and if you go to countries like Thailand, in temples, you will find there are many people who actually had captured the birds in cages, and then people, foolish people, they considered it to be an act of mercy for releasing the birds.
So, you had to pay a price for releasing the birds from the cage but then, these birds are again trapped and again put in the same cage. There are times when you simply cannot do anything. That is what yesterday we said. Things that you cannot do anything about you have to bless, allowing the soul to evolve, and then, just be detached.
Also, if ever you are fond of keeping birds in cages, ensure that the cage is big enough for the bird because sometimes, I heard from some people, they are keeping certain birds like parrots because it is an endangered species.
So, that could be one of the reasons why people, with the intention of protecting them, they keep birds in cages. But generally speaking, avoid keeping birds in cages and that too small cages. That actually curtails the freedom of the bird and your freedom will also be curtailed as a karmic consequence.
You need to be aware of many such subtle levels of karma. Or simply remember the Golden Rule: “Do not do unto others what you would not want others do unto you.”
So, whatever you want others to do for you, be willing to do it for others. If somebody is making your life miserable by infringing in your freedom, that is an indication that in the past you have done it. At least now, you learn not to infringe in the privacy or freedom of people unnecessarily.
I’m using the word unnecessarily because there are times when it might be necessary for you to know what is happening, that is apart from that but in general, be happy and allow others to be happy. That should be the motto of life!
Further reading: Secrets of Karma, Page 139