Some are destined to live in times of social upheaval, unemployment, terrorism or war, victims of a painful destiny unable to find peace in the past or comfort in the current time. These are the spiritual orphans of the world. There are those who know there is more to the meaning of life than peace or comfort but are unaware of life’s real meaning; they are searching for happiness everywhere except within themselves where true happiness bubbles up from the base of the spine. What does it really mean?
You could be looking half of your lifetime for happiness excepting to find some external circumstances to bring you peace and joy. For the spiritually uninformed, pursuing to acquire useless desires instead of your real needs is not the way. Happiness does not work that way; it springs forth from the base of the spine and trickles upward to the brain when you are in tune. The laws of karma govern out what is measured in the degree of prosperity one has dealt with in life. Your past actions will determine your success.
In spite of that there are outer circumstances that cause happiness or joy to temporarily express itself from within but to the uninformed this condition has simply helped to release a flow of cascading joy from within the hidden pool of ever new bliss. Actual events are generally necessary to bring happiness in individual experiences; however, this creates the need to repeat these experiences. When out of tune joy appears absent of any material cause.
Does finding or making money bring the happiness you desire? Many believe this to be true and spend their whole lives seeking wealth. Man was put on this earth to work for his livelihood but wealth itself does not bring happiness but comfort and luxury. Ask wealthy people if they are truly happy with all the responsibility of wealth. Often time rich people end up giving most of their money away.
Go ahead and strap a heavy box of gold on the back of a mule and see if it will profit from it. This treasure has no value for the mule but it does suffer under its heavy weight. A wealthy miser like the dumb animal suffers carrying the heavy weight of troublesome responsibilities with no benefit from the riches.
If you are one of the poor and live in a boarding house do you call yourself a border? What if you live in an orphanage do you call yourself an orphan? Who of you know your real name? Your real name is ever blissfully conscious of your eternal existence, meaning Sat Chit Ananda so say the masters of India.
How many parents have you had in your thousands of incarnations? We have a new set of parents who adopt our souls in every new incarnation. This planet is not our permanent home it is an orphanage for spiritually retarded people. Who are your real parents then? You address him daily in your prayers; Our Father, which art in heaven. Do you pray to your adopted earthly physical parents? Some cultures do when their earthly parents left earthly life.
Let us all remember in reality it is God who is our continual Parents who through thousands of past incarnations, present and future lives will take care of us as the instrument of never ending parents and relations. We are all strangers traveling solo through this life. In a way no one who you think is yours is yours. You and I are nothing else but pure spirit and because of karmic tendencies our souls are forced to reincarnate with the appearance of a male or female.
Most people do not know how to reach out for something to make them more complete in this ego-centered driven society and when they hear the words guru or spiritual master you can see the funny look on their faces, their reaction is expressionless as though the conversationalist was stupid. Some people are intellectually responsive and you can explain the significance or importance of a true guru. The spiritual master is the only living being who knows the secret thoughts of men and is authorized by God to manipulate certain automatic features of the laws of cause and effect (karma) which can be skillfully adjusted by his fingers of wisdom. A true master is the one and only able to do this.
When you are in the presence of a true guru and become a disciple, he has the power to organize your mind. This is done silently whether in their presence or not. The benefits are incalculable. The true guru, spiritual master with no karma of his own is capable of taking a portion of your cross on his back. You may find an unrealized guru who does not know God, you are then following a school teacher and your time will be wasted as so many do. Many fail and fall before they reach their goal.
The bottom line is if you want to end the repeated endless cycles of incarnations in this gladiatorial boot camp for spiritually retarded people you need a spiritual guide to be de-hypnotized from universal maya (Cosmic Illusion) to eternally forsake the reoccurring dreams of reincarnation in this lower plane of existence, aiming to get out of this cycle to reincarnate in a higher world. Would you ever cross a dense jungle with all the wild beasts without a proper guide? The same applies with the snares in the forests of theology. The spiritual path is a razors edge.
You could be sidetracked by talkative self-appointed gurus or false teachers trained like actors to successfully drive home the words of theoretical speeches. These selected soap box or self-appointed chatterboxes can create emotional, intellectual confusion or misperceptions in the thoughts of listeners and be sincerely persuasive but incapable of uplifting souls. During a period of halfhearted mental rambling, they know nothing about God other than what they have amassed from hours of scanning over books and scriptures. These fake teachers who know next to nothing about God should be reminded never to desire or appoint themselves to be called master. Only God channels his work through pure souls. For the spiritually uninformed the definition of a master is one who is master of himself and not of others. The real masters neither yearn nor display a renowned title of their own.
When the time comes you will find all great masters pick their disciples in the same way with the requisites of attunement, good karma and a readiness to listen. There are certain tests to find out if you have found the real thing; it is all in the book Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, recommended reading for a seeker or to advance on the path.
Yoga starts with yama-niyama to maintain constant equilibrium in your emotional life. That becomes a very strict life. Very few people are willing to analyze their situation in life to determine whether they are progressing or going backward. There are two things in life: there is fate, and there is destiny. They are not the same. If you do not assert yourself in what you are doing in life, you either go forward or backward. Therefore, only when you are certain and begin to analyze your life will you go forward. If you are not aware, you cannot remain still on the platform of Spirit, you are going to move one direction or the other and unless you begin to be aware of your life, you are going backward like some of these orphans who have made themselves beggars.
If you have convinced yourself that you are a helpless mortal and you allow others to convince you, then you have passed a decree in your own mind that you are down and out. No judgment from God or fate, but your own pronouncement of yourself which keeps you poor and worried. Even against the negative opinion of the rest of society, if you bring out by your all-conquering God-given will the conviction that you can’t be left to suffer in difficulties, you will feel a secret divine power coming upon you and you will see that the magnetism of that conviction and power is opening new ways for you.
Now you should understand that this is highly scientific. One day our physicists will explain to us what the masters teach us now; how to be spiritual with the power of thought. When you pray, hold your heart into your hand like a bowl. You are going to God. God will not change your circumstances. You open yourself to God; God pours in His cosmic energy, fills up the bowl of your heart; that energy begins to flow into every cell of your body, and you become magnetic like the solar system and the galaxies. Everything is interrelated with the power of magnetism and you begin to draw to yourself automatically the things you need. God will not change anything; He is going to give you the power, the power of magnetism, which is going to be able to draw that which uplifts you.