Loyalty

Quote from the True charm and power of Vedanta

 

LOYALTY

Loyalty is love which never wavers, which is always steady, unquestioning, deep total. It is also one sided not based on any expectation it is its own reward, love for its own sake.

True religion is this kind of loyalty to God, whether as a person or as an idea. A truly religious man never for a moment doubts that God exists. he is there always with him sometimes within sometimes without watching over him helping him guiding him at the root of his being the source of his inspiration not separate from him , at one level God and he are one and the same.

If God is a person He is clear, well defined with a from the from the devotee likes best handsome ever benign, love personified. Sometimes the devotee merges into Him sometimes God merges into the devotee they becomes one. As if God deliberately becomes human with all the faults and frailties of the devotee so that they can be closer to each other, enjoy each other’s company, have fun together laugh and play. everyday they devise new games, devise new ways of teasing each other, sometimes they love sight of each other but the separation even if for a moment, is unbearable and soon they are gain together love redubbed. This is how the play goes on interminably

Religion is love of God whether as a person or as an idea. Either way this love works miracles. It changes the devotee into what he thinks God is. If he thinks God is purity he become pure himself. If God is goodness he becomes good himself. A man changes according to the company he keeps. Being in the company of God all the time the acquires the qualities he attributes to God. This being in the company of God is what is called religion God may be an imaginary being, but the change takes place all the same . This is because to a devotee God is real. He is as real as he himself. If possible more  . Even if God is only an idea that idea is concrete to the devotee. That idea possesses him, changing him completely . He is that idea personified it is he loyalty that triggers life change.

 

 Addiction and return of the prodigal son

 By Narayani Ganesh

Addicts are commonly dependent on chemical substances – like alcohol, tobacco products and psychotropic drugs – or even gambling, impulsive shopping, and stuffing one’s face with food, to ‘help’ them tide over each day. Although addictive behaviour is often hereditary and is largely a medical condition, addicts and their empathisers assign reasons for chemical and other dependency, almost ignoring the disease – addiction is a disease – and focussing on triggers like losing one’s job, dumped by a lover, financial losses, work pressure, bad marriage and so on. The addict may further overdose because of guilt and shame that bring low self-esteem, preventing him from asking for help and discussing his condition.

Social stigma, loss of self-worth and fear of rejection pushes the addict deeper into addiction and in extreme cases, leads to death either by suicide or failing mental and/or physical health.

When the prodigal son leaves home after demanding and taking his share of wealth that he spends on drinking and gambling, living dangerously, he finds he has no more means. Now penitent but full of shame, he journeys homeward, resolving to live a ‘servant’s life’. And atone for his wayward behaviour.

Espying him from a distance, his father rushes forward, welcoming him with a warm and forgiving embrace, relieved that the son he thought dead was back, alive. The miffed older brother is hurt that the prodigal’s return is celebrated with fatted calf while he, always virtuous and dutiful, was never given special treatment.

Vernon E Johnson in his I’ll Quit Tomorrow uses the Biblical story to say that forgiveness entails acceptance by not only the father but the brother too in this case – it should help the addict accept and forgive himself to facilitate healing and recovery.

Addicts are caught between their behaviour and their values that are contradictory, leading to poor self-worth that could lead to self-harm. Johnson quotes an addict: “I’m a civil war!” He is a single but divided entity … Hence, Krishn says in the Gita, verse 16:16, “Bewildered by innumerable fancies, trapped in the web of delusion, addicted to desires and enjoyments, they descend into hellish suffering.”

Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard expresses despair thus: “Oh, what a miserable wretch I am. Oh, how unbearable it is to be me.” Such feelings lead to a downward spiral. Lifting oneself up requires not just self-effort but also family, peer and societal support, perhaps therapy and/or rehab, in addition to access to spiritual vistas that can open up a promising present and future. Any spiritual practice like meditation, reflection, pranayam and chanting, in moderate doses, can greatly improve holistic wellbeing and boost self-worth and help the practitioner realise that the jivatma, the individual self, is an intrinsic part of Paramatma, the Universal Self suffused with powerful energy.

A multi-disciplinary approach with self-effort and faith can enable a better life. Interestingly, Johnson mentions that for any addict, the four stages of recovery are admission, compliance, acceptance and surrender. The exact same thing is said in the spiritual domain – for the seeker, the four stages of progress on the path to Self-realisation are to first admit that you need help to overcome the ego and material addiction, then show compliance with your guru’s guidance, accept your imperfections, and surrender so that transformation can happen, that could lead to non-attachment and transcendence. (ganeshnarayani@yahoo.com)

 

IF HE EXIST

 I drive joy there was a doctor in Benaras who spent 7 minutes in the morning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friends laughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting 7 precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting 7 minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste 7 minutes rather than a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 7minutes joy that I derive 4m.-

 

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