Grahasthasramam : ( 24/05/2013. )

27/02/2019 4. When the householder sees that his sons are able to bear the burden of his duties, when his grandsons are around him, the time has come for his wife and himself to retire from the world and spend their time in study and meditation. Great Rishis of yore were married, but they did not lead the life of passion and lust. Their life of Grihasthasrama was a life of Dharma only. If it is not possible for you to emulate them to the very letter, you will have to keep their lives before you as landmarks, as the ideal for emulating, and you must tread the path of Truth. Grihasthasrama is not a life of lust and loose living. It is a strict life of selfless service, of Dharma pure and simple, of charity, goodness, kindness, self-help, and all that is good and all that is helpful to humanity. If you can live such a life, the life of a Grihastha is as good as the life of a Sannyasin. Married life, if lived in a perfect ideal manner, is no bar to the attainment of Mukti. A goo...

09/02/2019 3. The worldly duties are not ties. The world is the best teacher. You are not required to renounce the world and take shelter in the Himalayan caves to claim back your lost divinity. The world cannot stand in the way of your God-realisation. Live in the world but allow not the world to live in you. He who living in the midst of temptations of the world attains perfection is the true hero. A householder should earn money by honest means and distribute it in the proper manner. He should spend one-tenth of his income in charity. He should enjoy sensual pleasures within the limits of the moral law. Householders have got a very responsible duty in training their children. If they want to shirk this responsibility, they ought to have checked their itching sensation caused by lust, and should have stopped procreation by becoming Naishthika Brahmacharis. Serious punishment is awaiting them in the other world if they leave their children untrained in this world. The...

08/12/2018 2.1 Every householder should perform the following Yajnas. The fire place, the water pot, the cutting, grinding and sweeping apparatuses are the five places where injury to life is committed, daily. The sins committed here are said to be washed away by the five Maha Yajnas which every Dwija (householder) ought to perform and which are intended to satisfy the Bhutas, the Rishis, the men, the gods and the Pitrus. The five great Yajnas (Pancha Maha Yajnas) are: (1) Deva Yajna: This consists of offering oblations unto Devatas or gods with recitation of Vedic Mantras; (2) Rishi Yajna: This consists of study of Vedas and teaching of Vedas to students and offering of oblations to Rishis; (3) Pitru Yajna: It consists of Tarpana or oblations to departed souls and Sraddha or annual religious rites performed for departed souls; (4) Bhuta Yajna: This is distribution of food to cows, crows and animals. This develops cosmic love and an Advaitic feeling of oneness; and (...

18/11/2018 1. The Ashramas or stages of life are four, viz., Brahmacharya, the stage of student life; Grihastha, the stage of householder life; Vanaprastha, the stage of seclusion (forest-living); and Sannyasa, the stage of total renunciation. Each order of life has its own duties. In none of these stages must a man grasp at the special duties of the other three. At the present moment, it is difficult to maintain or observe the exact details of the ancient rules, as the conditions have changed very much. But, if we can have a clear idea of the fundamental duties of each, we shall still be able to shape the life through a regulated course of development and steady growth. The student, after finishing his studies, enters the order of Grihastha, when he is ready to take up the duties and responsibilities of household life. Of all Ashramas, that of the householder is the highest as he verily supports the other three. As all the streams and rivers flow to rest in the ocean, even so...

DIVINE LIFE: -------------------     To practise non-violence, truth and celibacy is DIVINE LIFE.     To be kind, generous, humble, tolerant is DIVINE LIFE.     To practise virtues and be righteous is DIVINE LIFE.     To serve the poor in selfless, dedicated way is DIVINE LIFE.     To serve the sick with all-is-God attitude is DIVINE LIFE.     To be merciful, courageous and devotional is DIVINE LIFE.     To sing the name of God and pray is DIVINE LIFE.     To do Japa and meditation is DIVINE LIFE.     To be an instrument in the hands of God is DIVINE LIFE.     To act rightly and live in God is DIVINE LIFE.     To do unconditional self-surrender to God is DIVINE LIFE.     To restrain the senses to have God-communion is DIVINE LIFE.     To be on with the Divine Will is DIVINE L...

        SPIRITUAL DAILY ROUTINE FOR THE HOUSEHOLDER : --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each householder should have an ideal daily routine. The home life should not be left to itself, but taken care of. In addition to those unexpected things that come up every day—a visit of someone, a telephone call, an invitation to go out with someone—every one of you should have an accepted basic programme, a basic schedule for your daily life, which should include an hour of prayer in the morning and an hour of prayer in the evening. The prayer hour might include the reading of scriptural texts, the reading of sacred and inspiring spiritual books, a few minutes of quiet, indrawn meditation, a few minutes of actually articulated prayer, inspiring prayer. The prayer can be spontaneous; it does not necessarily have to come out of some book. Or it can be both, as there are some very inspiring short prayers in the Gospel ...

  THE SANCTITY OF MARRIAGE : Householders should not forget even for a moment that marriage is a sacred thing. The sanctity of married life has to be realised in all its fullness and in all its seriousness. Marriage is a sacrament. It is not just the union of two bodies. That is the least important part of it. The husband and the wife should not think there is absolutely no love above their physical life. There is a love. Marriage is the bringing together by God (through some mysterious law which operates in this universe) of two souls in this vast, vast phenomenon called life in this vast stream of existence where countless millions of souls are moving in their individual planes of spiritual evolution towards the Divine. Through the Grace of God, through the Divine Will, and through the operationof certain laws that govern this universal life, two souls are brought together. That is the meaning of marriage. Through the coming together of these two souls, God means an ...