Ramnavami festival is on April 14, 2019. We all have found references in Shri Sai Satcharitra about how with great grandeur the festival was inspired and celebrated by Lord Sai Baba and His devotees. On one instance Lord Baba got enraged when Gulal (red colored powder) went off in His eyes and He got angry, abusing and shouting. Devotees took all of them as blessings in disguise that He became angry because He was reminded of how Lord Rama killed cunning Ravana. But was He looking for real Ravana? He pointed five vices like Ravana present in all of us today.
Lord Rama killed Ravana with His Vaanar Sena, but today every individual needs to kill this Ravana by himself. Born in Kaliyug there are vices i.e kama (lust), krodh (wrath), lobh (greed), moh (attachment) and ahankar (pride) in all of us for which no one can be blamed. Our soul has traveled many births and thus it has lost its originality which was peace and happiness. Like a dirty cloth it has layers of dirt in the form of vices which are now its nature and thus considered its normal present state.
On the other hand we cant deny our relation and bond with Lord Baba. Its not our body that is attached to Him, it’s our soul. The soul get appeased when it feels connection with this Supreme Power. However this connection is in high state at some points of the day only and not all the time. Maya plays it’s role and makes the soul detached. As we are devoted to Lord Baba, we are aware in a conscious way how Maya overlaps us. We sometimes succeed winning over it, sometimes not.
We, as devotees of Lord Baba have an opportunity to curb effect of Maya to certain extent. He has chosen us as His devotees as He wants to cleanse our Karma. We are like those dirty clothes which needs thorough cleaning to remove dirt and bring out whiteness. He wants us to move a step ahead in devotion. We ran into His fold when bad times came. He took us out of them and filled us with devotion, courage and confidence. He wants us to give now that we actually deserve. He looks us as souls. He want souls to shed off dirt and come to their original form. Every yug descends, and He wants Kaliyug to descend so that Satyug (SaiYug :)) returns. And that might be the reason that He appeared to us in Kaliyug and very responsive from His tomb. Has not Lord Krishna said, “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata, Abhythanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham” This clearly shows His mission to descend on the earth.
He responds to every sincere call as His duty, but we at times forget our forget our duties. We forget that we need to rise ourselves from this materialistic demands. Material success are prone to perish and they wont accompany to our next birth. What actually transits to next birth are virtues that we accumulate with our efforts.
We always talk about nullifying our karmas and do not want to take birth again as now that we are devotees we know cycle of karma and how to nullify it. Does only praying suffice to clear karma or loving Lord Baba with true heart? There are many other things that we are required to do.
We except the fact that there is Ravan in each one of us but do we ever try to become Lord Ram to kill Ravana by putting efforts. First of all we do not accept that we are holding Ravana in us. We do not tend to recognize them. When we recognize with grace of Lord Baba we find hard to get rid of, agreed owing to busy life and less or nil peace of mind. Modern Spiritual Guru’s are laying emphasis on meditation. We also have read in Shri Sai Satcharitra that Lord Baba used to do meditation when people of Shirdi took rest or slept. He was vigilant to cleanse Karma of His devotees. Even now He is and also wants us to climb a level up as a devotee who is always craving for worldly pleasures.
He want us to be good not only by heart and nature but also by soul. We wants us to wash away dirt from our soul. His grace will help to achieve target but we have to put ourselves to task of cleansing. We need to meditate, calm our mind, free from worldly desires, listen spiritual discourses, live pious life within, think right, appease soul, etc.
Meditation
This method has been prescribed by our saints and we have instances from Vedas and mythological books about how devotees used to do meditation to make their beloved deity happy. Now in this Kaliyug we need to make our souls happy and make it peaceful by meditating. Lot of information about how to meditate is available on the internet, you can browse and adopt any preferable one.
Calm Our Mind
We are allowing our peace of mind to deteriorate by taking useless burden. When things aren’t big, we still see them as big and make unnecessary chaos in our mind. This makes our mind restless. Initially it seems easy but when this happens frequently it becomes habit which is hard to get rid of. This then slowly takes form of nature and then we label it as it is natural to get angry or restless or over burden with thoughts when there are so many happenings in life. Instead even big burdens should be treated as small and then worked upon it. In this way, our soul will be able to regain its original form.
Free From Worldly Desires
This is something which human is not able to get of. To be in society it is necessary to have a appropriate position but one should not crave for them. Once we stop craving they will come in abundance. However, how much we possess, we are going to take nothing with us, not even a needle. So we need to be ever active to possess things of necessity and be detached with them at the same time.
Listen Spiritual Discourses
Spiritual Gurus still exist and we should listen to their simple yet powerful discourses to get a direction to our thoughts. We never know what reaction will any of our action have. They provide simple logics to tackle every day dealings without negatively affecting karma and also cleansing them.
Live Pious Life Within
Being pious doesn’t mean wearing orange colored clothes. It means having pious life in heart and soul. Being pure at heart, thinking good for others and doing good are few ways to lead a pious life. This also doesn’t mean that we expect favour in lieu of favour. Doing good to others selflessly helps attaining detachment and seeing God in everyone. One can serve in various form of annadan, giving some time in form of a community service. Even Baba used to follow the same by curing illness and annadan.
Think Right
Thinking right depends on individual’s personal perspective. Anything that is right in my opinion is not necessarily right from other’s point of view. But creating right thoughts, not creating ill feelings even if we feel someone has hurt us, forgiving and forgetting quickly is a way of thinking right. In short, it is a way to free our soul from unnecessary dark dusty layers.
Appease Soul
The above points refer to appeasing the soul only but a few others than can be followed are to listen soothing music, having good thoughts before and after sleep, being away from negative information, avoiding gossips, laying stress on speaking and thinking positively.
If we celebrate Ramnavami in this way, everybody would be able to kill Ravana from within and become Lord Rama.
Image Credits: SaiYugNetwork.com and Google Images
© Shirdi Sai Baba Life Teachings and Stories – Member of SaiYugNetwork.com
