pooja.shankar
25th January 2006, 09:38 AM
[tscii:fb963b0afc]BENEFITS OF BLESSINGS
We use words to convey our thoughts and feelings to others. What is a
word? It is a sound-system having a particular shape, quality and
radiation determined by our character and personality, according to
the imprints of habit, force of needs and environmental conditions. A
word is a sound; and sound in turn is a wave.
Let me now tell you about the philosophy of Nature. We see countless
objects and appearances in the Universe. All manifestations are only
associations of energy-particles. Every energy-particle is a tiny,
fundamental basic particle with self-rotative force. Because of its
speedy self-rotation, it radiates a spreading wave - the basic wave of
energy which fills the entire Universe. When some of these
funda¬mental energy-particles come together to form a group, an atom
is brought into being. This atom gives rise to a collec¬tive wave,
which is in addition to the earlier waves from the constituent basic
energy-particles. Two or more atoms form a molecule and now the third
layer of wave starts. In this manner everything - from the individual
particle to the biggest star - is radiating its own wave, because of
the functioning of energy at various levels.
When a wave comes from one manifestation, it has all the qualities of
the object from which it originated. A wave coming from a rose, for
instance, has the fragrance charac¬teristic of that flower. In like
manner any wave emanating from anything is having a distinct quality -
mechanical, chemical, magnetic, electrical and psychic. All functions,
all contents and characteristics of the objects are transmitted from
the wave, through the wave and by the wave.
Take another example, the Sun. The Sun is a star which is a
manifestation of various atoms and chemicals. The wave coming from the
Sun is inducting the same kind of light and other qualities in
everything else it impinges on, be it water or earth or stone or plant
or animal or person, according to the structure and quality of the
object or being in reception.
In the case of a person too,. the wave emanating from him by
radiation, by smell, by sight, by word or by thought -whatever it may
be - carries all the qua h ties of the person. Since every person is
conditioned with the imp4nts of experiences already undergone, his
thought, speech and action would be in accordance with those imprints.
The quality, personality of the individual will radiate and reflect in
this manner.
Every person is having good as also bad imprints. So according to the
conditioning of the mind, the thought coming from a person may be
positive on some occasions and negative at other times. Here the
positive or negative aspect is not according to the person or object
at the receiving end. It is wholly based on the characteristics of the
one who radiates the thought. Without knowing this science, this
philosophy, we have acquired innumerable imprints that are now
ingrained in our personality. Whenever the unwanted or adverse
imprints are activated they become deeper and the personality is
conditioned according to that value. It is hence that one of the
spiritual efforts is to change the negative thoughts as a means to
clear the negative imprints. We have to practice positive, creative
radiation by thought, word and deed. It is here that the value of
blessings comes in.
Effect Of Good Vibrations
What is the state of your mind when you bless a person? You are all
kindness for that person, you are radiating good waves at that time -
otherwise you cannot bring yourself to bless. I have explained in
other chapters how a wave radiating from any source has five
functions: clash, reflection, refrac¬tion, penetration and
interaction. You are directing a thought on another person. What
happens? The wave of your thought clashes on that person and a portion
of it is reflected back to you. Another portion refracts, the next
portion penetrates and yet another portion interacts - it comes and
goes between the other person and yourself. Once you start a thought,
these five functions follow and they are thereafter continuous, under
the Law of Nature. So when you practice positive thoughts, good
vibrations start from you. Accordingly, when you think of blessing
someone, you yourself are automatically blessed. This is ingrained in
the psychology.
By the same token, when you think of cursing someone, you are cursing
yourself in the first instance. The source is poisoned and then only
the poison radiates to others. This is to be understood clearly. Is it
not a fact of personal experience that even anger cannot be directed
on others without you yourself being affected by it?
When you proceed to bless someone, you are actually preparing your
personality, bringing your personality to the positive vibration. Then
you bless and the blessing impinges, clashes, on the other person,
reflects on you, refracts onto and penetrates several persons
including the one who is the object of your blessing. The transaction
of blessing, if one might describe it that way, is not between you two
only. The good vibration spreads out to the whole of humanity, to the
entire Universe in all the directions of the compass. Thus just by
blessing others we are creating such wonderful vibrations and we
qualify ourselves by a higher state of Consciousness.
Not only that, the good thoughts that form the basis of the blessing
and the good actions that come in train become a super-imposition on
adverse thoughts and unwanted imprints. Having grasped the logic of
the philosophy, if we go on increasing the good vibrations and good
radiation in thought and action, these gain predominance in our
person¬ality and the earlier conditionings of adverse nature are
gradually neutralized and finally they become dormant.
As 1 said, your mind has to be in a peaceful state when you bless.
There is no aggravation because if you are in a aggravated state, you
cannot bless. When you bless, you are automatically coming to the
Divine Consciousness. Therefore for Truth-seekers blessing is a
wonderful technique to harmonize their own thoughts. At the time of
blessing, the vibration, the wave, permeates your cells, the very core
of your being and it spreads out to and envelops all the persons in
the vicinity, whether they are related in your thoughts or not. If I
am to give an illustration for this, I would mention a plant in a full
bloom. Whoever goes near the plant would get the fragrance of the
flowers. The fragrance is not reserved only for the person who tended
the plant it does not discriminate. Likewise a person who radiates
good thoughts would be of benefit to one and all in the society.
This theory is also valid for negative thoughts which would cause
harm not only to you but to others too. That is why you should
assiduously practice to avoid negative thoughts. What is the practical
way to do this? Build up good thoughts, positive thoughts. That would
suffice.
More Potent than Mantras
Do you have to choose any time or occasion for blessing? No, any time
would do. Many persons chant some mantras, mainly to keep their mind
engaged. There are some mantras that do give good effect according to
the specific sound-vibrations. After increasing the energy to a
certain level, however, they might give a different effect. But
blessings are safe and beneficial always. Blessings are more powerful,
effective and divine than chanting mantras.
When you have no specific work on hand, if you have to wait for Your
turn to buy a ticket or board a vehicle, just bring into your mental
picture someone close to you and go on blessing that person ten or
twenty times: Then go to the next person and bless him or her. This is
something you have to practice. Otherwise the advice would go with the
wind like other good intentions and pious resolutions. Unless anything
good is put into practice systematically, it will not be useful in
times of need.
In Karma Yoga, we give these blessings just after medita¬tion. Why?
During meditation you are coming to the peace¬ful state of mind. Your
mental frequency becomes subtler and subtler. It is at this time that
we start blessing. What is the sequence of the persons you bless?
First, you bless your¬self, that is, the cells of your body, your
imprints and your life-force: "By the Grace of the Divine I will enjoy
good health, long life, prosperity, wisdom and peace." Is there
anything more to seek? You want to maintain the health of your body
and mind in order to do your duties to the society in a conscientious
manner, to enjoy life and get enlighten¬ment and perfection! That is
why we have selected these five values to, bless yourself faith - good
health, long life, prosperity, wisdom and peace. This is
auto-suggestion. Auto-suggestion gives imprints to your own
Consciousness and your physical cells. Once you give auto-suggestion,
these imprints will start working, reflecting, even when you are not
thinking, even when you are sleeping.
A doubt may arise: "Does not blessing oneself constitute
selfishness?" No, not at all. Unless your body and mind be in a fit
state, how will you be of service to the society? Suppose you neglect
your health and fall ill, what happens? You are no longer useful to
the society; and on the contrary, it is the society that has to take
care of you. Is this not a double loss? In order to avoid this double
loss and make the society and self, progress and profit, you bless
yourself. Looked at from this angle, blessing oneself is indirectly a
distinct service to humanity.
After blessing yourself this, you bless your life-partner -husband or
wife. Friendship is found to be essential in one's life in order to
fulfil one's needs to exchange thoughts, to obtain advice and to share
happiness and sorrow. For all these the best friendship is that
between husband and wife. Therefore we have to maintain and fortify
this friendship by blessing the life-partner. Good friendship between
life-partners would bring in all benefits in life to both of them.
Likewise, animosity and acrimony in married life would result in
accidents, disease, loss and all-round misery. The thoughts of the
life-partner are more powerful in effect because an interaction is
constantly going on between the two. Curses from one's life-partner
could even be deadly because of this. So at any cost, we have to
maintain this relationship between husband and wife. Blessing the
life-partner thus will harmonize the relationship between the two.
The third blessing goes to one's children. Your children are but off
springs of your own soul with all its imprints of experiences -
hereditary imprints. They should live well, shine and progress in
society. Having brought them into the world, you have the
responsibility to raise them well. So you bless your sons and
daughters, one by one.
We next bless our brothers and sisters. From what source have we
taken birth? Parents, the life-force of parents. The same life-force
is your brothers and sisters, the only difference between you and any
of them being time-span. What you are, that they are. All of you being
one, all are affected by the wave and vibration of the life-force,
whatever you do and whatever they do. Therefore you should bless your
brothers and sisters so as to preserve harmony.
Then friends Friendship is an asset in one's life, a treasure in
fact.. Experience would have taught everyone, the value of friendship,
in moments of distress as well as joy. We may have a hundred friends
but only a few of them are close to us, participating in our pain and
pleasure. Blessing such friends during post-meditation will nurture
the friendship to mutual benefit.
Even the self-employed among us have bosses and assis¬tants in some
sense of the terms. Most of us of course are working in some office or
factory. Harmony at the work spot is an invaluable aid to efficiency
and prosperity. It is in this context that we have to think of and
bless whoever may be related to us in day-to-day life, the purpose
being to maintain harmony in every facet of our life.
Now we come to those who consider us to be enemies. Actually I am not
his enemy, and if, for some reason, he is hostile, I do not have to
lose my peace and pay him back in the same coin - this is how you
should streamline your thinking. You have a duty to change this
attitude of enmity and what would be an easier beginning for this,
than blessing him? Blessing your enemy causes no loss to you. It is
the enmity that would be lost in due course, as you can find out for
yourself through experimentation.
Finally we bless the world. When we bless mankind as a whole, we
actually expand our minds. All the experiences gained by the
life-style of mankind from the primitive age up till now are contained
in the society as cultural values. All the people on this Earth of
ours are linked to one another in some way, as can be proved by taking
up a morsel of food. How many countries indeed are linked in that? The
food grain might have come from India, the spices from Indonesia, the
cooking oil from South America, the culinary art from China and so on.
Likewise the dress you wear, which is the finished product of a
multitude of materials and labor from a cross-section of humanity. The
landscape of the world is one if you take the ocean-bottom into view,
the water spread is one and so also the atmosphere. If one country is
affected, all are affected, although this may not be apparent at first
sight. Therefore we have to expand our mind and bless the entire
world.
Our blessing is that responsible leaders in all countries should
acquire spiritual knowledge. The objective is that they should
administer public affairs with vision and compassion, eschewing means
and methods that could cause harm to any country or any section of
people, now or in future. In this manner we shall systematize the
series of blessings, starting from self and expanding out to the whole
world.
This may appear to be a ritual in the beginning but what is a ritual
after all? A ritual is a practice to do good things without fail and
with dedication, time having been apportioned and allotted for the
purpose. Blessing may begin as a ritual but it will become a good
habit in due course - a habit that would make life easier and more
enjoyable. The more you bless the more becomes the harmony between you
and your environment. In process of time, you become one with Nature,
one with the Almighty. The Almighty will shine in you and from you. In
addition to other spiritual practices, blessing will help you to reach
the go4 with cheer in your heart.
Summary
We all are within the wave-field of the Universe. Any wave whether
emanating from an inanimate or animate source will affect everything
on which it clashes. As the wave carries all the qualities of the
thing from which it starts, the same quality will be induced in the
thing or person on which or whom the wave clashes. According to this
philosophy of Nature, every thought spreading out from a source will
affect others with the corresponding results. Blessing is one of the
techniques by which we can sublimate our personality and also create a
good effect on others. Therefore a Karma Yogi can do immense good to
himself and others by blessing self, life-partner, children, sisters
and brothers, close friends, bosses and assistants and enemies too, if
any, and finally the whole world of humanity for individual peace,
harmony in the society and peace among all nations.[/tscii:fb963b0afc]
We use words to convey our thoughts and feelings to others. What is a
word? It is a sound-system having a particular shape, quality and
radiation determined by our character and personality, according to
the imprints of habit, force of needs and environmental conditions. A
word is a sound; and sound in turn is a wave.
Let me now tell you about the philosophy of Nature. We see countless
objects and appearances in the Universe. All manifestations are only
associations of energy-particles. Every energy-particle is a tiny,
fundamental basic particle with self-rotative force. Because of its
speedy self-rotation, it radiates a spreading wave - the basic wave of
energy which fills the entire Universe. When some of these
funda¬mental energy-particles come together to form a group, an atom
is brought into being. This atom gives rise to a collec¬tive wave,
which is in addition to the earlier waves from the constituent basic
energy-particles. Two or more atoms form a molecule and now the third
layer of wave starts. In this manner everything - from the individual
particle to the biggest star - is radiating its own wave, because of
the functioning of energy at various levels.
When a wave comes from one manifestation, it has all the qualities of
the object from which it originated. A wave coming from a rose, for
instance, has the fragrance charac¬teristic of that flower. In like
manner any wave emanating from anything is having a distinct quality -
mechanical, chemical, magnetic, electrical and psychic. All functions,
all contents and characteristics of the objects are transmitted from
the wave, through the wave and by the wave.
Take another example, the Sun. The Sun is a star which is a
manifestation of various atoms and chemicals. The wave coming from the
Sun is inducting the same kind of light and other qualities in
everything else it impinges on, be it water or earth or stone or plant
or animal or person, according to the structure and quality of the
object or being in reception.
In the case of a person too,. the wave emanating from him by
radiation, by smell, by sight, by word or by thought -whatever it may
be - carries all the qua h ties of the person. Since every person is
conditioned with the imp4nts of experiences already undergone, his
thought, speech and action would be in accordance with those imprints.
The quality, personality of the individual will radiate and reflect in
this manner.
Every person is having good as also bad imprints. So according to the
conditioning of the mind, the thought coming from a person may be
positive on some occasions and negative at other times. Here the
positive or negative aspect is not according to the person or object
at the receiving end. It is wholly based on the characteristics of the
one who radiates the thought. Without knowing this science, this
philosophy, we have acquired innumerable imprints that are now
ingrained in our personality. Whenever the unwanted or adverse
imprints are activated they become deeper and the personality is
conditioned according to that value. It is hence that one of the
spiritual efforts is to change the negative thoughts as a means to
clear the negative imprints. We have to practice positive, creative
radiation by thought, word and deed. It is here that the value of
blessings comes in.
Effect Of Good Vibrations
What is the state of your mind when you bless a person? You are all
kindness for that person, you are radiating good waves at that time -
otherwise you cannot bring yourself to bless. I have explained in
other chapters how a wave radiating from any source has five
functions: clash, reflection, refrac¬tion, penetration and
interaction. You are directing a thought on another person. What
happens? The wave of your thought clashes on that person and a portion
of it is reflected back to you. Another portion refracts, the next
portion penetrates and yet another portion interacts - it comes and
goes between the other person and yourself. Once you start a thought,
these five functions follow and they are thereafter continuous, under
the Law of Nature. So when you practice positive thoughts, good
vibrations start from you. Accordingly, when you think of blessing
someone, you yourself are automatically blessed. This is ingrained in
the psychology.
By the same token, when you think of cursing someone, you are cursing
yourself in the first instance. The source is poisoned and then only
the poison radiates to others. This is to be understood clearly. Is it
not a fact of personal experience that even anger cannot be directed
on others without you yourself being affected by it?
When you proceed to bless someone, you are actually preparing your
personality, bringing your personality to the positive vibration. Then
you bless and the blessing impinges, clashes, on the other person,
reflects on you, refracts onto and penetrates several persons
including the one who is the object of your blessing. The transaction
of blessing, if one might describe it that way, is not between you two
only. The good vibration spreads out to the whole of humanity, to the
entire Universe in all the directions of the compass. Thus just by
blessing others we are creating such wonderful vibrations and we
qualify ourselves by a higher state of Consciousness.
Not only that, the good thoughts that form the basis of the blessing
and the good actions that come in train become a super-imposition on
adverse thoughts and unwanted imprints. Having grasped the logic of
the philosophy, if we go on increasing the good vibrations and good
radiation in thought and action, these gain predominance in our
person¬ality and the earlier conditionings of adverse nature are
gradually neutralized and finally they become dormant.
As 1 said, your mind has to be in a peaceful state when you bless.
There is no aggravation because if you are in a aggravated state, you
cannot bless. When you bless, you are automatically coming to the
Divine Consciousness. Therefore for Truth-seekers blessing is a
wonderful technique to harmonize their own thoughts. At the time of
blessing, the vibration, the wave, permeates your cells, the very core
of your being and it spreads out to and envelops all the persons in
the vicinity, whether they are related in your thoughts or not. If I
am to give an illustration for this, I would mention a plant in a full
bloom. Whoever goes near the plant would get the fragrance of the
flowers. The fragrance is not reserved only for the person who tended
the plant it does not discriminate. Likewise a person who radiates
good thoughts would be of benefit to one and all in the society.
This theory is also valid for negative thoughts which would cause
harm not only to you but to others too. That is why you should
assiduously practice to avoid negative thoughts. What is the practical
way to do this? Build up good thoughts, positive thoughts. That would
suffice.
More Potent than Mantras
Do you have to choose any time or occasion for blessing? No, any time
would do. Many persons chant some mantras, mainly to keep their mind
engaged. There are some mantras that do give good effect according to
the specific sound-vibrations. After increasing the energy to a
certain level, however, they might give a different effect. But
blessings are safe and beneficial always. Blessings are more powerful,
effective and divine than chanting mantras.
When you have no specific work on hand, if you have to wait for Your
turn to buy a ticket or board a vehicle, just bring into your mental
picture someone close to you and go on blessing that person ten or
twenty times: Then go to the next person and bless him or her. This is
something you have to practice. Otherwise the advice would go with the
wind like other good intentions and pious resolutions. Unless anything
good is put into practice systematically, it will not be useful in
times of need.
In Karma Yoga, we give these blessings just after medita¬tion. Why?
During meditation you are coming to the peace¬ful state of mind. Your
mental frequency becomes subtler and subtler. It is at this time that
we start blessing. What is the sequence of the persons you bless?
First, you bless your¬self, that is, the cells of your body, your
imprints and your life-force: "By the Grace of the Divine I will enjoy
good health, long life, prosperity, wisdom and peace." Is there
anything more to seek? You want to maintain the health of your body
and mind in order to do your duties to the society in a conscientious
manner, to enjoy life and get enlighten¬ment and perfection! That is
why we have selected these five values to, bless yourself faith - good
health, long life, prosperity, wisdom and peace. This is
auto-suggestion. Auto-suggestion gives imprints to your own
Consciousness and your physical cells. Once you give auto-suggestion,
these imprints will start working, reflecting, even when you are not
thinking, even when you are sleeping.
A doubt may arise: "Does not blessing oneself constitute
selfishness?" No, not at all. Unless your body and mind be in a fit
state, how will you be of service to the society? Suppose you neglect
your health and fall ill, what happens? You are no longer useful to
the society; and on the contrary, it is the society that has to take
care of you. Is this not a double loss? In order to avoid this double
loss and make the society and self, progress and profit, you bless
yourself. Looked at from this angle, blessing oneself is indirectly a
distinct service to humanity.
After blessing yourself this, you bless your life-partner -husband or
wife. Friendship is found to be essential in one's life in order to
fulfil one's needs to exchange thoughts, to obtain advice and to share
happiness and sorrow. For all these the best friendship is that
between husband and wife. Therefore we have to maintain and fortify
this friendship by blessing the life-partner. Good friendship between
life-partners would bring in all benefits in life to both of them.
Likewise, animosity and acrimony in married life would result in
accidents, disease, loss and all-round misery. The thoughts of the
life-partner are more powerful in effect because an interaction is
constantly going on between the two. Curses from one's life-partner
could even be deadly because of this. So at any cost, we have to
maintain this relationship between husband and wife. Blessing the
life-partner thus will harmonize the relationship between the two.
The third blessing goes to one's children. Your children are but off
springs of your own soul with all its imprints of experiences -
hereditary imprints. They should live well, shine and progress in
society. Having brought them into the world, you have the
responsibility to raise them well. So you bless your sons and
daughters, one by one.
We next bless our brothers and sisters. From what source have we
taken birth? Parents, the life-force of parents. The same life-force
is your brothers and sisters, the only difference between you and any
of them being time-span. What you are, that they are. All of you being
one, all are affected by the wave and vibration of the life-force,
whatever you do and whatever they do. Therefore you should bless your
brothers and sisters so as to preserve harmony.
Then friends Friendship is an asset in one's life, a treasure in
fact.. Experience would have taught everyone, the value of friendship,
in moments of distress as well as joy. We may have a hundred friends
but only a few of them are close to us, participating in our pain and
pleasure. Blessing such friends during post-meditation will nurture
the friendship to mutual benefit.
Even the self-employed among us have bosses and assis¬tants in some
sense of the terms. Most of us of course are working in some office or
factory. Harmony at the work spot is an invaluable aid to efficiency
and prosperity. It is in this context that we have to think of and
bless whoever may be related to us in day-to-day life, the purpose
being to maintain harmony in every facet of our life.
Now we come to those who consider us to be enemies. Actually I am not
his enemy, and if, for some reason, he is hostile, I do not have to
lose my peace and pay him back in the same coin - this is how you
should streamline your thinking. You have a duty to change this
attitude of enmity and what would be an easier beginning for this,
than blessing him? Blessing your enemy causes no loss to you. It is
the enmity that would be lost in due course, as you can find out for
yourself through experimentation.
Finally we bless the world. When we bless mankind as a whole, we
actually expand our minds. All the experiences gained by the
life-style of mankind from the primitive age up till now are contained
in the society as cultural values. All the people on this Earth of
ours are linked to one another in some way, as can be proved by taking
up a morsel of food. How many countries indeed are linked in that? The
food grain might have come from India, the spices from Indonesia, the
cooking oil from South America, the culinary art from China and so on.
Likewise the dress you wear, which is the finished product of a
multitude of materials and labor from a cross-section of humanity. The
landscape of the world is one if you take the ocean-bottom into view,
the water spread is one and so also the atmosphere. If one country is
affected, all are affected, although this may not be apparent at first
sight. Therefore we have to expand our mind and bless the entire
world.
Our blessing is that responsible leaders in all countries should
acquire spiritual knowledge. The objective is that they should
administer public affairs with vision and compassion, eschewing means
and methods that could cause harm to any country or any section of
people, now or in future. In this manner we shall systematize the
series of blessings, starting from self and expanding out to the whole
world.
This may appear to be a ritual in the beginning but what is a ritual
after all? A ritual is a practice to do good things without fail and
with dedication, time having been apportioned and allotted for the
purpose. Blessing may begin as a ritual but it will become a good
habit in due course - a habit that would make life easier and more
enjoyable. The more you bless the more becomes the harmony between you
and your environment. In process of time, you become one with Nature,
one with the Almighty. The Almighty will shine in you and from you. In
addition to other spiritual practices, blessing will help you to reach
the go4 with cheer in your heart.
Summary
We all are within the wave-field of the Universe. Any wave whether
emanating from an inanimate or animate source will affect everything
on which it clashes. As the wave carries all the qualities of the
thing from which it starts, the same quality will be induced in the
thing or person on which or whom the wave clashes. According to this
philosophy of Nature, every thought spreading out from a source will
affect others with the corresponding results. Blessing is one of the
techniques by which we can sublimate our personality and also create a
good effect on others. Therefore a Karma Yogi can do immense good to
himself and others by blessing self, life-partner, children, sisters
and brothers, close friends, bosses and assistants and enemies too, if
any, and finally the whole world of humanity for individual peace,
harmony in the society and peace among all nations.[/tscii:fb963b0afc]