Query: A Burning DESIRE. How do you develop a
burning desire if you are lacking in it? Is there a small first step that I could
take?
Vijay
Kumar: I rarely come across people with intelligence as expressed by you.
You are so forthright in expressing your views that few people have the guts to express... matters in such a
clear tone. What more could one ask for or want out of life!
I am sure that you are a believer of God. You may not have desire for material
riches but having a goal in life is very essential ... you love music ... that is more than sufficient ... what in
music is that you want ... or you want to become one? Some goal may be for a short span to start with!
I had a passion for knowing the ultimate reality! I
went in search of God not knowing where to find him ... I had but to find him ... no matter what obstacles came my
way. After a gap of 25 years I succeeded when God Almighty gave me a direct darshan (one-to-one contact). That was
the ultimate goal of my life then. Yet, my ultimate goal was dictated by God ... teach what you have learnt before
you depart from this body! I'm very happy doing it ... never knowing from where the funds would come from to
support my family and me.
The grace of God has been with me all throughout ... the belief I have
in God is the ultimate one can have in a lifetime... Never concerned with what the others feel or say! One must
always cherish the work one indulges in ... it should be a work of choice ... never superimposed upon us by our
elders ... we are human
beings not animals ... we're supposed to be doing what our inner voice commands us to do.
Your problem stems from the fact that your thinking at the moment is
negatively oriented. You are most of the time confused ... since the moment your father left you ... you are but
living life for the sake of it. To get out of negativity in your thinking pattern you have to get out of the
past. You have to bury your
past forever ... only after you come out of your old thoughts shall you be able to concentrate on the present ...
and thereafter only shall you be able to develop a goal in your life. The goal not for your own self but for
helping the community and the self as a whole.
To come out of the past you need to forget and forgive one and all ...
the circumstances may have been not in the control of your father ... why blame him or anyone else for what has
befallen you. We are all instruments in the hands of God ... we must continue our life doing our karma. More on
Karma here.
Now I shall narrate a small story about an Indian sage who was amongst the highest of all the intelligent beings of
his time-
It was the time when King Janaka ruled over a province of the Indian
kingdom. He was a very Spiritual person ... Time and again he conducted various seminars, discussions on matters
related to Spirituality
and Religion.
After a certain stage of time he organized one of the largest shows
... a chat forum ... the one like the dialogues of Plato ... where in all were invited to have discussions related to Spirituality. The losers would quit
and the winner alone would survive the end.
When discussions were proceeding among the priests ... entered this sage with his retinue of assistants trailing
him. The King had announced that the winner shall be given 10,000 cows and on the each horn was tied five coins of
gold. (In all ... 10,000 cows and 100,000 gold coins were to be won by the winner)
The moment sage Yajnavalkya entered the premises ... he ordered his
assistants to open up all the cows and take them to the hermitage ... an unbelievable feat for this aroused hot
discussions among all the 5000 learned priests who had gathered there in hope of earning the invaluable prize. They
argued, "what does this gentleman think of himself"? ... he has not yet entered the discussions and yet he has the
guts to order the prize to be taken home. How does he assume himself to be the winner?
The poor priests had one thing missing in all of them ... the
knower of all ...
the self realized ... one who gains the ultimate wisdom ... is never short of confidence ... sage Yajnavalkya
knew from the very beginning that none among all the priests had Realized God ... gained enlightenment ... and as he
alone had been blessed by God Almighty ... he exercised his right to the prize. King Janaka also knew before
that it is only sage Yajnavalkya who shall win the end but kept quiet during the arguments for it was up to sage
Yajnavalkya to prove his worth.
One of the intelligent priests asked, "Why a learned sage was
interested in the materialistic riches"? Sage Yajnavalkya replied that today he had only come for the prize and he
shall have it ... where is it written that people with a Spiritual bent of mind do not have the right to the prize.
What he actually meant was that the prize was not meant for inciting the sensuous side of the human body but could
always be used for the benefit of mankind by a truly Spiritual and intelligent being.
If God grants an ordinary human being a lottery then, within his limited
thinking he thinks of spending the money on material comforts ... but for a Spiritual person the money is
only a means to a goal.
In brief, you must come out of the negativity present in you forever and
only then shall you form a goal in your life. The habits of the past are to be buried forever ... you must be
able to love your work to the extreme ... only then you shall be able to inculcate in you a
habit of living in the
present ... this is the most important ingredient on the path of becoming what Napoleon Hill said in his "think
and grow rich" ... "anyone can become a millionaire, "if he really wants to become one".
Always there to clarify your queries (send your query),
Essay by:
Vijay Kumar "Atma Jnani" ... The Man who Realized God in 1993!
Full text of query: Few days later, he gave me a copy of "Think and Grow Rich" by "Napoleon
Hill" with the remarks that anyone can become a millionaire, "if he really wants to become
one".
"If he really wants to". That is the problem. I read this book years ago
as a teenager, and was stumped by the most basic requirement. A burning DESIRE. I would fantasize about doing
great things, being like a Ghandi or Einstein, or great Spiritual leader, but I could not take the
responsibility to do so. I read a lot of books, can spout all sorts of things that I learned, but cannot walk
the talk for very long. How do you develop a burning desire if you are lacking in it? It seems that my whole
journey in life has been as a seeker looking for truth. (and for a father, as mine abandoned me when I was
five). and I have found many answers, and people show up in my life often to teach me, BUT I do not have a
strong enough desire to take responsibility for my life.
It's like I have the attitude that God will take care of me, and I just
have to be open to it. and so I have survived and I am doing much of what I have a passion for, but I'm like
a 55 year old baby, waiting for someone to take care of me, and rescue me. So I introspect and withdraw from
the real world and its responsibilities. My bills clutter the inbox, I procrastinate on my taxes. Every once
in a while I will get a kick in the butt from a friend and I will make some progress, but my will is weak.
and yet I do have gifts of music, and the goal of being able to touch hearts and minds with my music and
there by bring others closer to God. But I can't seem to bring myself to take charge of my life and do what
is necessary. Instead I write this letter asking for help. Yet having no confidence that I will be able to
act on your advise. Is there a small first step that I could take?
Top of page
|