SunCorp

God give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change........
Courage to change the things I can..............
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

The scriptures clearly define the three qualities of tamas, rajas and sattva present in all of us. Tamas is inertia or resistance to transformation. Rajas is aggressiveness, restlessness or result-oriented action. Sattva is the characteristic of purity inside us.

As human beings, all of us have this wonderful quality which gives us patience, tolerance and establishes us in a state of utter tranquillity. But our sattvic nature has been pushed to the background. That is why we make no progress in spiritual practices like meditation. Total confusion, problems and worries are the fruits of tamas. Lack of peace or a disturbed mind is the fruit of rajas. Peace, happiness and contentment are the fruits of sattva.

 Our sattvic nature is given to us in the form of energy by God Himself. It empowers us to cope with problems in a very systematic way without affecting our mental peace or depleting our humane qualities. It tunes us to Divinity and activates our Soul. Just like we preserve food using a preservative, we should preserve our minds using the energy called sattva. If we want to have unflagging inspiration, zeal, zest and dynamism, we have to soak our minds in sattva.
    

Sattva gives us the ability to remain unruffled at all times. We interact with so many people. Whatever people say, we should never allow inner peace to get destroyed. If there is a grain of sattva in us, other people’s thoughts, words and actions will bombard and kill it if we react to them. Even if somebody accuses you, keep quiet. After a while that person will realise his mistake. When we don’t react and become completely quiet inside, what comes out of us is sattva and peace. This is in the form of a vibration. We cannot see it, but we can feel and experience it. These divine vibrations are extremely powerful. They transform people and situations, as no words can.

When we don’t react, our sattva acts like a concrete wall and shields us from other people’s negative energy. If we react, all that energy will invade us in the form of vibrations. Then we will feel depressed, tired and depleted of energy. Sattva is an armour that protects us from all kinds of negative vibrations, as well as an antenna that attracts positive and divine vibrations. Physical proximity is not required for the transmission of such vibrations. They are transmitted automatically even when we think of a person. That is why, when we pray for somebody’s welfare, though that person is far away, our prayers benefit him.

We allow our sattvic qualities to drain away in so many ways — through over-reacting, indulging in negative thoughts and emotions and even through unnecessary talk and gossip. If we want to retain our equipoise, we must avoid such things. The whole point of venerating a guru or god is to increase the sattva in us. We think doing so would resolve our problems.

However, the main purpose is to increase the sattva in us. Sleep replenishes our sattva to the extent of 25 per cent. The guru rejuvenates our sattva one hundred per cent. Selfless prayer, meditation, chanting the holy names of God and spending time with evolved beings restore our sattvic qualities. We must constantly replenish this energy inside us. When we establish this quality in us, God resides in our minds. The vibrations of peace and happiness that we exude will bring contentment and serenity into the lives of all those around us.

Every one of us on the planet at some time or other has probably given thanks to an unseen power, irrespective of the faith we were born into or follow.
    There is one God, there is one earth, and there is divinity in each person and every living thing. If we joined together under the canopy of the sky and the sacred earth and shared in God’s bounties, we would find the peace and love which we all pray for. What a haven this world would be if only we treated each other with kindness and sweetness. If we could only begin with our own individual lives, we would set the wheel of peace in motion.
    A story from Aesop’s fables is instructive. The North Wind and the Sun once entered into a debate over who was more powerful. They agreed to a contest: whoever could make a person remove his coat, would win. They selected a man who was making his way home on a long trip on foot.
    The North Wind took the first turn. It blew its wind hard, trying to blow the man’s coat off. It huffed and puffed, but the harder the wind blew, the more intently the man wrapped his coat tightly around himself. The North Wind tried for a long time to get the man to take his coat off, but it did not work.
    Next, it was the Sun’s turn. It began to send warm, loving rays onto the man. Eventually, the man began to feel warm and unbuttoned his coat. The Sun continued steadily to shine. Finally, when the man felt warm enough he took off his coat.
    With a smile, the Sun turned to the North Wind and said, “As you can see, my warm, loving ways made the man remove his coat, whereas your strong, forceful ways caused him to resist”. Likewise, love and gentleness always win over force.
    Some people feel that they can get the best out of others by being forceful, harsh and critical. Hardly anyone responds positively to such treatment. We feel that we have to treat others severely to get them to do anything.
    However, quite the opposite is true. We can be more persuasive by using the power of love and gentleness. People get discouraged when they are spoken to harshly or abruptly. They shut down and withdraw, but when people are given loving and encouraging words, they want to go out of their way to do more.
    How can we attain this level of kindness? It is often said that in order to attain outer peace, there must first be inner peace. Through meditation we can achieve the inner peace that comes with the knowledge of ourselves and of God. If each person would attain inner peace and treat others with love and kindness, it would not be long before we find outer peace reigning in this world.
    Even while attending to our daily obligations, we can find opportunities to show love and kindness to others. There are so many ways to spread God’s love to those around us. A kind word, a helping hand, a gentle touch can help brighten another’s day. With this angle of vision, we will find ourselves doing whatever we can to eliminate the pain and suffering of others.
    Adding honey to life makes the world more loving. Adding the warmth of love makes things go more smoothly. If we can be like the Sun and send warm, encouraging words and smiles to others, we will find that we can be more effective in whatever we do.

Life has two layers: the essential, and the accidental. The essential is never born, never dies. The accidental is born, lives and dies. The essential is eternal, timeless; the accidental is just accidental. We become attached to the accidental and we tend to forget the essential.
    You become attached to money but money is accidental. It has nothing to do with essential life. You become attached to your house or car, spouse, children and relationships. Relationship is accidental; it has nothing essential in it. It is not your real being.
    You have become attached to ‘my’ and ‘mine’ — to possessions. And you have completely lost track of your being. You have completely lost track of ‘i’. ‘My’ has become more important. When ‘my’ becomes more important then you are getting attached to the accidental. When ‘i’ remains more important and ‘my’ remains a servant, then you are a master. Then you live in a totally different way. Using the word ‘i’, in an absolutely nonegoistic sense it means your being. The accidental man lives on the periphery. The essential man remains centred.
    You create a world of illusions around you. You get attached to things which are not going to be with you when you die. You go on being identified with things which are going to be taken away from you. Become more and more essential and less and less accidental. Only that which is eternal is true; only that which is going to be for ever and ever is true. That which is momentary is untrue. The momentary has to be watched and not to be identified with.
    This game of ‘my’ and ‘mine’ is an absurd game — but this is the whole game of life. This earth was there before you ever came here, and this will be here when you are gone. The diamonds that you possess were there before you ever came here, and when you are gone those diamonds will remain here — and they will not even remember you. This game of possessiveness is the most foolish game there is — but this is the whole game.
    People who become certain about the accidental are going to be frustrated, their certainty is going to create much frustration for them. Their certainty will create expectations, and they cannot be fulfilled — because the universe is not there to fulfil your expectations. It has its own destiny. It is moving towards its own goal. It does not care about your private goals.
    All private goals are against the goal of the universe itself. The essential man comes to know, to feel, that ‘I am not separate from the Whole and there is no need to seek and search for any destiny on my own. Things are happening, the world is moving. There is no need for me to make any struggle, any effort; there is no need for me to fight for anything. I can relax and be’.
    The essential man is not a doer. The accidental man is a doer. The accidental man is, in anxiety, tension, stress and anguish, continuously sitting on a volcano — it can erupt any moment, because he lives in a world of uncertainty and believes as if it is certain. This creates tension in his being: he knows deep down that nothing is certain.
    When things are no longer important, only consciousness becomes important. When things are no longer significant, a new search, a new door opens. Then you are not rushing towards the without: you start slipping into the within. The kingdom of godliness is within.