(A note from Gurudev at the Rishi Homa at The Art of Living International Center, Bangalore on the occasion of Navratri)
Just now the Vedic pundits recited a beautiful verse from the Sama Veda. The verse says:
This Samsara (material world or the illusory world) is born from the mind. The world as we understand it, is not what lies outside, but it is our mind that is behind our perception and understanding of this creation.
Now to cross over this ocean of misery (this Samsara), there is a bridge that we can use. What is this bridge that helps us overcome this Samsara, and what lies on either side of it?
On one side there is Adaana (greed, lack of charity). Adaana means to have this constant hankering of 'I want this, I want that'. We do not feel like giving and sharing with others. So the verse says that you should drop this quality of Adaana by sharing and giving generously in charity.
Then it says that you must drop your anger by becoming more peaceful. And finally it says that you should drop your doubts and wrong beliefs by being more firmly established in faith and devotion to the Divine. When you firmly latch on to Shraddha (unwavering faith), then all your doubts and negativity simply disappear. In the same way, when you pursue the truth and establish yourself in the truth, then all falsehood and negativity disappears.
So these are the qualities that lie on either side of the bridge that takes you across Samsara.
In the next line of the verse, it says that it is difficult to cross the ocean of misery, but you must still do it by constantly practising these noble qualities.
What will you get by constant practice? You will become steady and established in the divine and you will cross this Samsara. You will experience the nectar of immortality (the Self) and you will become a glowing light.
The next verse says that you are originally a part of God, a part of the divine. So unite back with your source, and let your mind dissolve and unite with everybody and become one with the divine, as you originally were.
Otherwise what happens is that you think something, and someone else thinks something else, and your minds do not meet. When minds do not meet, that is where the problems start.
This is the last verse of the Rig Veda and this is how the Constitution of India also ends. So the verse is a prayer to unite the assembly of our thoughts and minds in harmony with the big mind. 'Let there be equanimity at every level because everyone is the same and everyone is a part of the divine. Let all our minds go together without any conflict or differences'.
It is very beautiful.
