On spiritual practices and desire to change for better

? Please tell us, Guru Ji, what spiritual tradition do you belong to? Is it Vaishnava, Shaiva or some other? And, please, tell about your tradition in more detail.

? I was born to a brahmin family where they believe in sanatana-dharma. Sanatana-dharma is the most ancient spiritual knowledge of the Indian culture, which teaches about common spiritual values and a single God. Vedas, Shastras, Upanishads, Puranas ?all are the ancient sacred scriptures and refer to this culture. All gods and goddesses, for example Brahma, Vishnu, Kali, Shiva, Durga are the various manifestations of a single power of God in the sanatana-dharma.

With the time, many trends (which were called traditions) appeared in it. But just like all the images of God are the manifestations of a single God, the same way all the traditions spring from a single source ? sanatana-dharma. I believe in a single sanatana-dharma which says that God is a single power. In the pursuit of spirituality and God there should not be a framework.

God is for everybody. It isn?t possible that my God is in this room, and your God is in the other room. But one phenomenon really exists ? every man can choose his ishta ? the beloved image of God. And all the traditions ? Vaishnava, Shaiva and others are in fact related with this choice.

Ishta is any image of God that a man loves and believes the most. The choice of ishta depends on the man?s karma. One loves Christ, another loves Allah, other loves Vishnu and the other ? Shiva and so on.

From ancient times to now those who love Krishna, Vishnu or Narayan call themselves Vaishnavas, and those who believe in and loves Shiva ? Shaivas.

For big spiritual achievements a man ought to understand that the power of God is single, while Vishnu, Shiva and other images are the manifestations of this divine power.

Always try to achieve the true knowledge. There is nothing wrong with studying the ancient culture, however, getting acquainted with any culture, always try to comprehend the sense and the depth of this knowledge, and never restrain the boundless concept of God by any framework. God is a single power and every man, whichever spiritual path he follows, can achieve Him.

? Why did you choose the path of spiritual Teacher? Now the society is in crisis and we need spiritual development. What do you want to give us?

? You asked about the Teacher. When a person achieves atma-gyan ? the state of cognising one?s own self ? the wishes of his own are absent in him including the wish to be a teacher. He will simply impart knowledge. And when he begins to impart true knowledge to people, then disciples appear. And when the disciples appear, then the one imparting the Knowledge becomes the Teacher. But this is not a profession, as a profession of a teacher in the world.

What do I want to give you? We live in a period of changes. At this time the mankind awaits the true spiritual assistance. With my knowledge I want to help you to become strong inside so that you could live well under the changing circumstances and grow spiritually.

? How to cultivate the spirituality in children?

? For any parents, children, not money, are the greatest wealth. There might be no money, but if you raise your children to be spiritual people, it will be your greatest wealth. Try to develop the children?s understanding what is right and wrong from the early days.

How to teach them?

Children must be taught not only by words. The most authoritative example for them is their parents. If you treat each other with love and respect, it gives your children the most important spiritual knowledge. Then you will not have to raise them with some special methods. They will be developing correctly by themselves.

The harmonious parents? relationship is very important, it will set an example and provide a great support for children and they will take the right path in their lives. Children experience distress if they see the tension between parents. They cannot develop correctly in such an atmosphere, because they love both ? mom and dad? For a healthy development of a child the mutual understanding between parents and a prevailing good family atmosphere is necessary.

? Teacher! Why does it happen that when you work with yourself and are changing for the better, people do not always understand you and continue treating you as before?

? I will tell you why it is so. For example, today you learnt at a satsang about the necessity of working with yourself and you started the next day. But it does not mean that before that you had done everything correctly. Your past is still there; in fact, none of your thoughts words and actions disappear. Your past karma remains and gives results.

A person thinks that he has thought and it is over; he has said and everything is over, he has done and nobody has seen. But it isn?t so. Once you thought and the power that is inside and around you has heard this. It means that any actions: thoughts, words and deeds bring a result.

Now you understood how to live correctly, but before, you committed mistakes due to your ignorance. Past karma exerts its influence on you, but if you persistently keep on working on yourself and performing spiritual practice, then the influence of the past negative will not be so strong and it will eventually go away. Other people will start feeling and understanding that you are changing to better. They will see it and with time they will change their attitude towards you.

The past exists and it is impossible to run away from it. That is why try to permanently think, speak and act well.

When a person does something and does not achieve any result in this life, he thinks, ?How much good I did, why is there no result?? It will come for sure. From the moment you started your work, be patient, because the past will still influence you. But never think that you are putting effort and it brings you nothing. The work with yourself always gives a result. And if you cannot see it now, it only means that there is still much negative karma to be cleansed. A man is mostly oblivious of this process. He wishes to attain a visible result instantly, without understanding that in reality a serious process of karma cleansing is going on. He is not aware how much negative he gets rid of. When the process is over, you will notice the result of your work.

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