Miscellaneous - Religion   

Aim of human life religion

CHENNAI: Among the innumerable living beings in the world only human beings have been blessed with the ability to realise their spiritual nature, which will enable a person to transcend joy and sorrow, and liberation from rebirth. The scriptures state that even the celestials can only enjoy their merit (Punya) in the form of joy but cannot strive for salvation. One can then appreciate how rare it is to be blessed with human birth, and having obtained it, every individual must utilise it to overcome bondage for this human life to become purposeful.

In his discourse, Sri Sakti Srinivasan said it was ignorance of one’s true nature that caused bondage. Only realising that one is the Self (Atman) and not the body-mind-intellect personality will remove delusion. The analogy of lighting a lamp inside a dark cave is apt to understand how Self-knowledge can remove the primordial ignorance responsible for human bondage. The Bhagavad Gita states that if one understands that the Supreme Being is eternal and all-pervasive, His divine glories become established in the person by developing devotion.

Lord Krishna told Arjuna that He endowed His devotees with wisdom, “On those ever united through meditation with Me and worshipping Me with love, I confer that Yoga of wisdom through which they come to Me. In order to shower My grace on them I, dwelling in their heart, dispel the darkness born of ignorance by the shining light of wisdom.” The word “Yoga’ means union and hence indicates union with the Self.

Arjuna then wanted to know the divine glory as knowing it facilitates meditation and unalloyed devotion to Him. The Gita gives an extensive description in this context beginning with the assertion that the Lord is the universal Self seated in the heart of all beings and hence He is the beginning and the middle, and also the end of all beings. There is no limit to His glories which are infinite and the human mind can grasp only a fraction of even His manifest splendour. One must therefore understand that wherever excellence is seen in the world it is only a part manifestation of God’s splendour. By meditating on any aspect of the divine nature it is possible to attain union with the Self.

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