What Stands Between You And Complete Happiness?

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Complete happiness is when one is completely free, totally liberated. Who stands between us and our liberated state? Our own mistakes and blunders. These are the main obstacles. Let’s study how…

Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the Enlightened being, states:

“Once a senior monk asked the Lord when he would achieve liberation and the Lord told him that his liberation would come when his Knowledge and his understanding became flawless. Your mistakes have become the obstacle to your liberation. When your knowledge and your understanding become free of mistakes then you will achieve liberation… Make your understanding and your knowledge pure by whatever way you can. Is there anything wrong with what the Lord says?… This whole Universe belongs to you. To understand this is liberation. Why then do you still not understand this? It is because you are still bound by your own mistakes.”

He further explains: “There are only two things: the Pure Soul and circumstances.

Why do circumstances arise?

Everyone faces different circumstances. One person never encounters hostility in his entire life, while another suffers abuse all the time. Why do two people encounter entirely different circumstances? The reason for this is that the one living a peaceful life has never had the intent to hurt anyone, while the one being abused has had numerous intentions to hurt other living beings.

How do these circumstances arise?

It is possible to find the causes of these circumstances. Say you come across a very poor old man in the street and you give him eleven dollars. Your friend is astounded that you are giving him so much money, hence he tells you to give the old man only one dollar. Now you are the giver and the old man is the receiver, but since your friend interceded, he created an obstruction for the recipient. An obstructive karma has been created for your friend. This obstructive karma of your friend will prevent the inflow of money to him in the life to come. All that you encounter in your life are the collective circumstances of everything you had done in your previous life.”

These are all our karmas and that is why the mistakes are ours and no one else’s. In this world, no one else is at fault. Others are merely ‘instruments’ in delivering the effects of our karmas to us. The suffering is ours; just that it comes by way of others.

“If you have no place to stay and someone offers you accommodation, you will feel a sense of gratitude and attachment towards him. If he asks you to leave, you will feel resentment and abhorrence towards him. There is no need for attachment or abhorrence. He is merely instrumental in the process. When your merit karmas come into fruition you will encounter people who will help you and when your negative karmas come into fruition, you will meet with your adversaries. In either case they are all just nimits (‘instruments’); they are not at fault. Everything depends upon your karma and the timing of their fruition. This is what our spiritual science says. How wonderful and simple it is!

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A person who does not have true knowledge will be overcome with attachment if someone praises him and if someone insults him, he would be overcome with abhorrence. Whenever a person praises you, it indicates that your merit karma is in operation and whenever someone insults you, it indicates that your demerit karma is coming into fruition. The important fact is that in either case, the other party is not at fault. You will receive praise at the hands of your ‘instrument’ who is meant to praise you, and defamation at the hands of your ‘instrument’ who is meant to denounce you. They are not at fault. That is actually your karma coming into fruition. It has nothing to do with the ‘instrument’.

If you are not at fault, no one in this world will bother you. Do people or policemen on the street bother you? Does anyone harass you? If not, then you had not committed those faults.

Whenever you hurt someone even slightly, you should realize that you are at fault. You will understand this as you will feel uneasy and agitated from within, because the other person is obviously suffering the hurt. If someone gets hurt or affected by your mistakes, you should immediately do ‘pratikraman’ (repentance) in your mind and settle the matter. As long as the inner enemies of anger, pride, attachment and greed exist within you, you will continue to create new accounts (karma).”

If we make a mistake, no doubt we will create a new (karmic) account, but we can erase it by instantly doing pratikraman i.e. confess the mistake before God, ask for forgiveness, and take a vow never to repeat the mistake even if you are hurt by the mistakes of others. That’s called praikraman!

“Once a person decides that he wants to destroy all his mistakes, he can become fully enlightened (experiencing complete happiness). We are all bound by our mistakes. If you destroy all your mistakes, you become fully enlightened. The Absolute Soul (our real Self) has no faults whatsoever.”

How can a Gnani Purush, the Enlightened One, help you?

All he does is simply sheds light on your mistakes; and shows you ways not to support and protect your mistakes. People never realize their mistakes unless a Gnani Purush points them out. There are infinite such mistakes, not just a few. When will you see those faults? You will see them when you become Self-Realized with the grace of Gnani Purush. Today, your inner enemies of anger, pride, attachment and greed obscure your vision and blind you. After Self-Realization, you become totally impartial towards your physical behaviour, your thoughts and your speech. That’s when you will be able to see all your mistakes.

And gradually, under the guidance of the Enlightened One, as we learn to see the world as faultless, our face becomes radiant with the bliss of liberation. All suffering is a result of our own mistakes. Once these mistakes are gone, our work is done. Once these mistakes are eliminated, we are free!

Param Pujya Dadashri concludes, “You have had this desire (of attaining complete happiness) in many previous lives, but you were not absolutely committed to it. If you were committed, you would have used up all your merit karma effects in acquiring it. That would be the result of an absolute commitment for liberation. Instead you have used up your merit karma to acquire material wealth, and physical comforts. You have spent all your merit karma on everything else but your liberation. If you had made the absolute commitment for liberation, you would have spent your merit karma for only that. Look at me. I made the absolute commitment for liberation and therefore, I do not encounter any obstacles. Others have obstacles but not me.”

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