Feed the Atithi (guest)

Meaning: As stated on the line of Athervaved  9/6 and 3/7 – O good householder men! You should first feet the ‘atithi’, the guest who comes unannounced and then eat.

Message: Atithi has been considered as the fourth great deity after the mother, the father and the Guru (i.e. the spiritual teacher). As such thieves, cheats and criminals may also pose as ‘atithi’ and ask for food, just as the demon-king Ravan cheated the venerable Sita by coming as a monk. In reality the implied meaning of the word ‘atithi is those generous souls who come to someone’s home, even if they may have to undergo hardship, for doing good and by their cooperation and grace, give benefit to the householder. In the ancient times, generous minded saints similarly used to grace householders by their visits and tried to make them happy and prosperous by their virtuous influence. It is but proper as well as necessary to welcome such excellent human being as one would welcome deities. That is why the scriptures advocate that the ‘atithi’ should be considered as a deity and to honor him properly by the injunction k=- ‘atithi devo bhava’ i.e. consider the atithi as a deity.

 Great importance is attached to five yagyas in the Veds and ‘atithi yagya’ is one of our daily duties. When a man comes to our home, who is learned in the Beds and scriptures and who has dedicated his life to the welfare of the world, then we should be hospitable to him by offering food, clothes etc. In addition if some poor, sorrowful, helpless person or orphan comes at our doorstep or meets us at some place, then we should help him in every way. That too is ‘atithi seva’ or service to the ‘atithi’

In the ancient times, the householders used to take meals only after feeding the ‘atithi’ and used to consider themselves unfortunate when they did not come across any atithi. We too should have such sentiments in our hearts. The meal fed to an atithi never goes waste. If by getting energy from our food someone works for the upliftment of the society or country or someone’s life is protected, that itself is important. An atithi should never be disappointed by us and asked to go, but it is also necessary to be cautious about wicked and bad men.

These days special hospitality is shown only to friends, guests, government servants etc because of the possibility of benefits through them. Under any excuse, whether a child’s birthday, marriage, or if someone has passed an examination people are invited with insistence and lavish arrangements made for food. Not only those but arrangements are also made for liquor and dance. Is this really atithi satkar? Is it not give and take that just because someone had invited us for a feast on his child’s birthday, then we too should go one better? Is it not pure business that by spending something on the guest, the path to earning a much larger amount is cleared? Is it not a means to get one’s work done by bribing the higher executives? We should also remember that the amount spent thus on one person’s food, liquor etc can go towards helping ten-twenty helpless persons who are really needy. This itself is real pious deed.

Depression as Blessing

A recent research study found that traits like sadness and defeatism define depression but they have their positive side, too. The research conducted by the University of Basel, Switzerland, says depressive individuals perform better than their normal peers in decision-making tasks.

What is depression? Depression is a symptom of deprivation. When you think that you are seriously lacking in something that you earnestly desire, this thought is bound to lead to depression. Depression is not a physical phenomenon; it is psychological in nature. If you feel that you have gained what you wanted to gain, that will give you a sense of satisfaction. But when you feel that you have failed to achieve your goal it leads to depression. In the first case, your life very soon comes to a full stop, but in the second case your life goes on, punctuated by commas.

Unpleasant experiences are painful but they make a necessary contribution to advanced intellectual development. Without undergoing this kind of experience, no one can be a super achiever.

A survey undertaken earlier entailed studying the lives of one hundred super achievers in order to discover their common features. It observed that one common trait of all these super achievers was discontent.

Discontent not only leads to an unending passion to achieve some prospective goal but it also engenders an unremitting urge to achieve more and more. Thus it becomes the master key for a high degree of success, whatever the field of action. Where contentment puts a full stop to everything, discontent pushes you on a non-stop journey. This is the greatest advantage of depression.

History has always shown that those living in carefree comfort, and not therefore a prey to despair, have generally failed to achieve any notable success; in contrast to those who beset by adversity, have fallen into depression only to emerge subsequently as super achievers.

If, according to the law of nature, the journey of super achievement pursues a painful course, you are bound to keep to that course. In this case, you have only two options; either achieve super success by paying its natural price, or die without ever knowing super achievement

Nature has demonstrated this fact in several ways. For example, if you want a glass of apple juice, you have to crush an apple. This applies to anyone who wants to be a super achiever: He is to oblige to tread the thorny path prescribed by nature because, without fulfilling this condition, no one can reach his desired goal.

It is a fact of life that one who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth is fated to live out his life as an average person, whereas those who are born without this silver spoon contrive to achieve great success.

In the beginning, depression seems to be a curse but in the end, depression turns out to be a blessing. In fact, depression is only a temporary phase of life. It is in no way permanent. Depression is like a tedious journey. During this journey, you may be tired or bored, but when you reach your destination, you experience total happiness and satisfaction.

Deeds for the Progress

Meaning: The line of Athervaved 20/92/5 says us that – O God! May we, along with our sons, daughters, brothers and friends, always be involved in deeds for the progress of the soul?

Message: To go ahead for personal and spiritual progress, it is necessary for us to have within us the courage to fight against difficulties and lack of facilities. Man should give more emphasis on increasing his willpower instead of increasing the material means. In real progress there is not as much contribution of means and situations as of thinking and ambitions. The proper blend of all these is possible through profound resolve.

All the members of the family must make a firm resolve for spiritual progress and undertake their daily work. With that their personality will become excellent and the family will be uplifted. The formation of man’s personality is the result of his own insight, engrossment and velour, and is much more important than many other achievements in this world. One has to give an introduction of one’s willpower, daring and vision and one has to go in the opposite direction to the one adopted by common people regarding morals and methods. The common people are involved in achieving prosperity and praise in return for a price, while, on the contrary the spiritual persons have to satisfy themselves with little under the policy of ‘simple living and high thinking’ and also face the ridicule, non-cooperation and opposition from their colleagues.

One, who wins on the spiritual front, may not receive cheap praise, may suffer from want in material comforts, but becomes vitalized through the continuous grace of God. Only some rare individuals are lucky enough to achieve deep contentment and the glory of leaving behind an ideal worth following. Greatness is achieved only with idealism in thought, character and conduct.

Every member of the family must strive for spiritual uplift in individual life in this way. This itself is the education of good conduct. What kind of behavior should we have towards our own and others, those of the same group and those of the opposite group, with friends and enemies, known persons and strangers, with external enemies and internal enemies (like anger, lust, greed, attachment etc)? Only they are able to achieve the proper answers to all these questions and doubts, who are constantly engaged in the uplift of their soul. Man’s life is formed according to the results of his deeds. With good deeds he achieves progress and with bad deeds his moral downfall occurs. The Vedas teach us to constantly increase virtues in us and give up bad tendencies. In this way the life will become pure and excellent.

In a happy and prosperous family, all members should behave in this way. It is the special responsibility of the parents to provide the children the experience of excellent behavior and be helpful in their spiritual uplift.

Children Should be spiritually Strong

Meaning: According to the line of Yajurved 33/77 – for the benefit and welfare of the children their parents should make them spiritually strong by giving spiritual and other excellent education.

Message: When man gives birth to children, then naturally it is his responsibility to look after them, to educate them, to have them religiously initiated, to get them married and to help them to earn their livelihood. It is proper for a man to arrange for the nourishment, clothing, and education and look after their health during the childhood and teenage of his children and help them to stand on their feet so that they can be physically and mentally independent in future. It is the duty of the elders and parents to provide nutritious diet, proper education, simply healthy entertainment and proper friends to the children. Such media and atmosphere should be provided to them for improving their qualities, deeds and nature, that they get the direction for becoming cultured gentlemen. An elder who does not carry out this duty should be considered a criminal for neglecting his duty. If because of their indulgence, the children become lazy, given to luxurious habits, fond of only tasty food, arrogant, rude and wicked, then they have done injustice to their children by such ruinous indulgence.

After the birth of a child, the entire condition of the house should be such that there should be no possibility of dirtiness, malice, impudence and immorality. Everyone must carefully keep this in mind. Like a very skilful and sensitive spy, the child goes on constantly observing our conduct and dealings and learns many things. His nature will be formed only on the basis of whatever is taught to him during this period, and on his growing up, his future will be shaped accordingly. For those understanding this fact, it becomes an unavoidable duty to control their wicked tendencies, create gentle conditions of goodwill and good behavior and willingly give up whatever is necessary to be rejected. Parents should not quarrel and have maximum restraint ON SEX SO THAT THEY DO NOT FIND THEIR CHILDREN GETTING SPOILT.

The education of the children is not dependent on lectures and advice, but on imitation. Their tender mind is incapable of understanding long sermons of advice, but their heart is completely capable of understanding and accepting whatever is happening. Therefore, whatever has to be taught to them must be actually demonstrated to them. Now the ancient ‘gurukul system’ does not exist. (In the gurukul system, the child used to live with the teacher in his hermitage in the jungles up to the time of his youth and learn from him). Today there is no atmosphere of good character and culture in the school, colleges and the streets. The children are bombarded with only bad thinking and bad culture from all sides. Therefore it becomes necessary in such a situation that the atmosphere in the home must be extremely clean, peaceful, and full of gentle and moral conduct, so that the children get inspiration for adopting good qualities.

All the Family Member should be Laborious and Happy

Meaning: According to the line of Athervaved 7/60/4 – all the member of the family should earn and be happy. They should not be upset with hunger and thirst nor should they be afraid of each other.

Message: We may not have money or wealth, we may not even be in a position to give anything to anyone, but we are always capable of one thing and that is cheerfulness. We can constantly get the benefit of virtue and contentment by distributing cheer. If you include cheerfulness in your nature, develop a sense of humor, and then wherever you be, you will be spreading cheer and whosoever comes in your contact will feel pleasant and will be impressed.

In its purest form, cheerfulness is a state of mind which depends on inner culture. There are innumerable men who keep smiling in poverty and can laugh whole-heartedly in troubles. People with a generous and balanced personality are able to laugh in any situation. They know that human life is full of facilities as well as difficulties, favorable and unfavorable circumstances. Up to now no such man has been born who received only facilities and favorable circumstances and had never to face any troubles. In the tales of our ideals Ram and Krishna, there is a description of only struggle against difficult situations in their entire lives. Whatever the great men of the world, they all have smilingly fought adverse situations and have turned them in the right direction by changing them.

The same is the basis for a happy and prosperous family. In every family, the situations of happiness or unhappiness, troubles and hardship arise. A man who keeps on weeping over his troubles, adversities and hardships will always be unhappy. If he keeps comparing himself with more prosperous people, then he will be continuously angry over his bad luck, and will express his frustration with every person in the form of anger. His entire life will be like a symbol of mental imbalance.

As against the above, the person, who compares himself with a person of lower status and is contented with whatever he has achieved, then he will always be cheerful, he will always feel that whatever he has got by the great grace of God is much better than what millions of others have got. In addition God has given us that something for which millions of people hanker. Such person will consider himself lucky. Only persons with refined temperament are blessed with this mental attitude. Such men find joy everywhere and have tremendous faith in people’s goodwill.

The family of people with such thinking always has a happy and peaceful atmosphere. Even by bearing hardships, but living with love and contentment they cooperate with one another. This creates an atmosphere of freedom from fear and worry and through that the path to everyone’s financial, social, religious and spiritual progress is opened up.