lessons Srimad Bhagavad Purana

When he was created man was given the power of discrimination and he was given a good intellect. These should help him to set his thoughts on the Brahman. After so many births, far inferior to the human status, after passing through the worm state and then reptile state and then animal state, man is granted the privilege of having a human form and a human mind and a human intellect. Why? So that he can use them properly. This body should be kept alive very carefully for but one purpose: to attain salvation because that is the only reason why we are given this form.

Live in the world of men without being attached to anyone or anything. Set your thoughts on me (Krishna). Act in the world without any desire to please yourself.

Concentration is essential if one desire to attain one-ness with the Paramatman. Srimad Bhagavad Purana

 

Anger comes from desire and has many unpleasant consequences. When what we ardently desire remains out of reach, we are angry with those around us. We are sometimes angry with ourselves, or even with God. We take it out on anyone who is unfortunate to come into contact with us at the time.

Our words and gestures indicate how angry we are, and our anger is evident even in our eyes and the way in which our lips twitch. Thus we reveal our agitated frame of mind.

Once the anger has passed, we may forget the words we used to abuse others, but the recipient of the abuse remembers and remains hurt.

The consequences of anger are long lasting.

It takes us just a second to throw a stone into a bucket of water, but the ripples that this sets off, take awhile to settle. In the same way, it is easy to lose one’s temper in a second, but the consequences last for a long time.

How do we control anger?

This takes practice. If we give ourselves time, any angry feeling that we have, will eventually subside. Once this stage is crossed, we will, in course of time, learn not to react angrily, no matter what the provocation.

If someone insults us, we must introspect, and see if we deserve his censure. If we do, then we must correct ourselves. If we do not deserve his scolding, then we should ignore his words. If we have been wrongly accused, then once the abuser realizes this, he will be sorry for his words, and will develop respect for us.

If we have hurt someone, we should not feel ashamed to apologies. Control of anger, thus, is the first step in the attempt at spiritual progress.

Source – the Hindu

 

When a thorn gets into the sole of your foot, you procure a second thorn. After taking out the first thorn with the help of the second, you throw both thorns away. Likewise, you should procure the thorn of knowledge in order to remove the thom of ignorance. After destroying ignorance, you should discard both knowledge and ignorance. Then you attain vigyan -Sri Ramkrishna