Do you want to be like the salivating dog harnessed to a cart with a sausage dangling out in front on a pole, pulling progressively more and more a tormenting life as a slave to his desires, forever thinking, “when I get her or him I will be happy.” What if that day never comes? Why spend the little time you have on this earth planning and thinking how to have a beautiful women or a good looking handsome man. Be happy now, this moment! Never be deceived by physical beauty. Ask yourself whether the pretty or good looking face, the manner of walking in short, is everything about a person that appeals to you.
Desires are momentarily pleasing to the senses or the body. A worldly man or woman foolishly tries to please themselves with the pleasures of the body and that is all in vain. Those people die of broken hearts having vainly tried for lasting happiness from worldly material treasures. The happiness promised from mortal desires gives sorrow instead. Desires are momentarily pleasing to the senses or the body. A worldly man or woman foolishly tries to please themselves with the pleasures of the body and that is all in vain. Those people die of broken hearts having vainly tried for lasting happiness from worldly material treasures. The happiness promised from mortal desires gives sorrow instead.
Beware The Whip of A Beautiful Face
Those who married that great looking face soon find out beauty or sexual attraction soon part after the allurement diminishes. After a while the good looks start to wane and that face gets boring and can look ugly. What does that really mean? It means the attraction wears off and you messed up and made the mistake of your life.
I can remember the day when I got my first car; how great and exciting it was. However, the initial feeling was not quite as thrilling in possessing that car as was the pleasure and happiness in receiving it. Each day after, I longed for that feeling of first joy for a second time. Unfortunately that feeling of joy did not come back. Desires are that way; they never keep their promises of continuing happiness because they are incapable of bringing that fulfillment or realization. Mental torture goes with attachments.
The sage views all external good looks or beauty whether a jewel, a flower or in the face of a beautiful woman with detachment, he no longer has the cravings for possessions. The sense slave yearns for control and as precious riches and beautiful woman and men are plentiful in this world, so are his desires for them. In his frustration from non-possession he becomes bitter or angry.
However in permitting the mind to harmlessly dwell on that attraction or nourishing it in any way is to ask for the resulting consequences. Even subtly the path it takes will result in identical spiritual destruction. No master or sage would seek happiness from just a good-looking face. Earthly people toil for material acquisitions that are perishable and for goals that are unrealistic and unfulfilling; those who are devotees or students of the Divine do not stupidly imitate them.
The sages from the East were psychological experts. Instead of just laying down and passing laws and commandments of which neither would minimize or shrink man’s resourcefulness for breaking restraints, the sages appealed to the understanding of the human mind by offering convincing analysis of the “why” of correct behavior. Down the stepladder of temptation therein lay the stages of descent to man’s downfall, for brooding miserably over sense allures will sooner or later end in baneful results.
The sense of taste given by food offers a passing pleasure; however, if a person were to gorge himself with all the food he desired he could still not appease his hunger of the soul by fulfilling the desires of his body. The only good thing about desires and bad habits is that they rarely keep their promises and that is why souls cannot be enslaved or deceived forever for these desires are ultimately found out to be habitual liars.
Pleasures of the senses spring from outward contacts and are begetters of misery; they are in essence ephemeral because they have a beginning and end. The valiant can enjoy all the good things without attachment. Every incarnate soul must travel through the pathway of life within the territory of sensations and sense traps to break the chains of forced reincarnations to finally reach its ultimate goal. When armed with the armor of wisdom the man of self-control travels through this pathway with detachment performing his duty in the tricky world of the senses.
The spiritual man in the East pays homage to God in morning meditation upon awakening then he goes around his daily routine. To the common body-bound Westerner freedom from desires is virtually inconceivable as he can’t even start his day unless he pays homage to his desire for his AM coffee and toast. If the spiritual man injudiciously started eating food, his practices that lead to realization would be obstructed. The old adage has a lot of truth to it, “man digs his own grave with his fork and knife.”
The typical types of meat, particularly pork and beef and other types of gross foodstuff vibration overtax the life-force in the body making it almost impossible to undo its obsession with the over taxed vital organs and senses. The food fanatic is so obsessed with his fanaticism in his observance of dietary and health laws that he finds his body-attachment a true hindrance to spirituality. Wrong eating habits cause overeating, greed and finally indigestion. The soul has no desire for food; it is above hunger. If you select the right foods you will enjoy them more when you feel your body is vibrant and healthy.
How many of you are wine lovers? Jesus himself drank wine and one of his miracles materialized wine but the old adage or so-called persuasive argument given in support of drinking wine is that if it was okay for Jesus to drink wine, it is certainly alright for everyone to drink wine. Back then the scant resources of water in that arid land were many times polluted. Juices from fermented grapes helped provide supplemental liquid nourishment for the body as there was no knowledge of technology for water purification systems available in those times. It is quite opportunistic for the wine or any alcoholic beverage drinkers to justify their inclinations in emulation of Jesus.
The great sages have also spoken in opposition to the use of intoxicants. Inebriation used as a vehicle to escape the demands of life produces destructive enslavement. Instead of having your “cup runneth over” in drunkenness, there is a much more effective intoxicant (very few know of) that has the same effects on the brain’s electromagnetic field and produces long term euphoria without drunkenness; this ecstatic elixir is called, meditation.
This planet is a habitat of suffering and trouble. Many human births have been wasted away in preoccupation with the gratification of food and money. We should ask ourselves how we are occupying our precious time this current birth. Humans’ precious moments eventually fall agonizingly apart. After many painful incarnations every human soul will cry out remembering its permanent home is not here on earth. In other words, after many painful adventurous and many awful incarnations our beleaguered soul cries out, “enough!”
Then during a period of philosophical curiosity, God offers the curious child the teachings through a good book, apparently by chance, when the seeker is sincerely in search of a spiritual teacher. But when the student or aspirant is not content with inadequate placations from run-of-the-mill religious treatises coming from mediocre teachers, he is now ready for the truth. At this point, the Lord sends a master to help the student retrace his steps to his rightful heavenly kingdom.
Some people are like intellectually responsive beings and not uncommon there are some more like instinctively motivated animals; when you talk to them about sex, money or food they are so materially minded they reflexively understand and respond like a salivating dog. But when you try to have a significant philosophical discussion with them about the mysteries of life or God, their reaction is expressionless as though the conversationalist was stupid.
The unguarded ordinary and untrained human being who roams into the terrain of enticements falls imprisoned whether to unexpected likes and dislikes or aversion and attraction to the senses. Yoga entreats man to retain a grip of iron on the thought process of his mind. One must not lose self-control even with the utmost provocation. When we conquer the mind we will conquer the world.
Should You Marry a Non-Spiritual Person?
No, here’s why, there are many qualifications to consider before tying the knot. The most important one for an ideal marriage is if neither one is spiritual, man nor women you should not marry that person; you will not be loved.” Love is not a human quality but God himself. When you feel love for people you have allowed God to flow through you at that moment. All the love you express for your mother, father and children is simply He who loves through you. When you think you love your mother; it is He who loves your mother; it is He who loves your father and it is He who loves your children.
Even though you can express conjugal love which is the great expression of human love to a mate it’s idealistic and very tricky, and sadly most people will leave this life with little satisfaction in their hearts. You may marry a very moral person who will keep their marriage vows but still that in no way means love. The warning is real, however in the name of freewill or freedom it is in our nature as human beings to desire to do the things that are bad for us. Mention to the self-willed individual to do a thing that is good and naturally he will do just the opposite.
What is love? Love is the divine power of attraction and the universal nature of love has many appearances. Based on feeling there is motherly love and based on reason there is fatherly love. There is the joint benefit of love between the master and his apprentice. There is the pure relation of the human love of true friendship that is without any obligation and then there is the highest love of all which is God’s love between the spirit and soul. But most of us have not learned how to develop, purify and enlarge our human love into divine love. The only way to describe what real divine love is to explain its effect. It is so overpowering …so great would be your happiness if you could feel just a tiny speck of real divine love.
Many people recognize that the feeling or the attraction they feel for their partner is love and think it unnecessary to analyze what love really is. It becomes a huge mistake for the romantically involved to marry on impulse. When some become excited their senses peak and they mistake the pleasure of the senses for love and are misled.
Those who marry for good looks, beauty or sexual attraction soon part after the allurement diminishes. The good looks wane and the pretty face gets boring and can look ugly. Beware the whip of a beautiful face. Another problem for young couples besides the lures of physical attraction is similarities of common interests, marring for money or for climbing the social ladder. What do these things have to do with love?
Worst of all is paying a karmic bill from a past incarnation of indiscretions of cheating on your mate. There could be thousands of years of past life actions pursuing someone. This is why the average person is so helpless against the binding effects of past karmic actions. It is impossible to escape from the tribunal of cosmic laws that govern every single human action until we all work out and fully pay our karmic bills through reformation, suffering and prayers for deliverance. In time it is possible to be partially or wholly free from adverse effects of bad karma.
The laws of karma work with or without your permission. You will unknowingly be karmicly induced into a rotten marriage to pay back your karmic debt. However once the bill has been paid you can extricate yourself with willpower from the bondage of a bad marriage. While the consciousness is completely shackled in psychological chains a great deal of knowledge is required to cut through them. These are not like ordinary chains for in their subtlety they are even harder to get rid off because of the difficulty in recognizing them let alone knowing how to destroy them.
There are ways to avoid this from happening but if you are not spiritual there is no chance. To have your karma forgiven is a monumental task and would require the grace of God or the intervention from a real guru or saint. Play it straight in this life to avoid suffering in the next.
The master tells us that young people with semi-developed discrimination venture into this world unguarded and under the influence of blind will without meaningful purpose squander energy on passions, hasty resolutions and the uncontrolled appetite for the traps of visual temptations. All actions are freely chosen, but once one has acted there is no longer free choice to the consequences. Worldly temptations constantly urge us to do wrong by appealing to present habits and prenatal karmic tendencies. It is wrong to interpret the hollow voice of our ego as divine guidance for the voice of the ego is devoid of divine guidance and one soon learns that no matter how much misguided rationalization one uses, nothing can lessen the karmic responsibility of hasty actions. Rationalization is never the answer, for you will always justify your reasons for the things you want to do.
Those of you who understand the power of attraction and repulsion do realize that like attracts like and if you are not spiritual you will not attract a spiritual mate. If you believe the words of the masters and want to be loved and have a spiritual mate or partner and you are not on the spiritual path these words may be hard to swallow. Considering the state of this world you may want to think carefully about looking into the spiritual path especially if you want true or divine love in your life.
There is a scientific prayer affirmation in the SRF Lessons for Home Study for those who meditate and pray, given by the spiritual masters and the great one’s which is the promise to prevent you from making a mistake in choosing your true life companion or soul-mate. This prayer does have some prerequisites. It must be practiced for a minimum of six months with concentrated faith and have effected a heartfelt attunement with the Heavenly Father during your prayers and meditation. By continuously affirming this prayer desire, you will be blessed and marry an appropriate mate; but if you were attracted to one who is basically incompatible and mismatched the Heavenly Father will prevent you from making an incorrect choice by changing the circumstances. From the teachings of PY.
