Published from “Three Minutes” series written by A.S.Rajagopalan Swami of Ohio.
Today, I want to be very brief and precise. This “Three minutes” details 17 points that you need to know to achieve permanent peace and happiness.
1. It is rare to be born as a human being. God had blessed you enormously. Be thankful that you can think and act. He likes you very much and that is why you are reading this.
2. First, we need some authoritative statements for conviction. Veda-s are anonymous, so they do not carry the baggage of an author’s views or shortcomings. They are the ultimate rule-books.
3. Hinduism and shrIvaiShNavam stress social and spiritual aspects. A simple definition of shrIvaishNavan is the one who loves everyone, friend or foe, since everyone is part of the Lord.
4. Karma – Deeds from past continue forever and they control your basic three characters (Purity, Passion and Inertia) that determine your current actions, add to yourkarma, and determine your future birth.
5. Soul is different from body, mind, brain etc. The Soul never dies, but body and others do. When the body dies, the soul carries the karma onto the next birth and this continues forever.
6. The balance sheet of accumulated good and bad deeds finds your next birth. As long as you are in bondage, you are in an infinite loop that is void of permanent happiness.
7. Even good deeds bring rewards like righteousness or wealth, but these benefits are temporary. However, mokSham removes you from the birth/death cycle and puts you in the ever-bliss mode.
8. The Universe is also temporary, for it is perpetually created and destroyed. mokSham, a pristine and blissful environment, is a place beyond this universe.
9. Escape from bondage only happens when karma goes to zero. It is hard to know when this happens, considering the perpetual bondage cycle.
10. Several methods may make this karma go to zero such as performing good deeds, realize oneself, and contemplating about God. But these will take infinite years and still may not be effective.
11. The easiest short-cut is prapatti, a total unconditional surrender to the Lord. Accept your utter inability and beg Him to award you mokSham.
12. Anyone is qualified to perform prapatti. All you need is to realize your incapacity, lack of knowledge, restlessness to stay in bondage, understand who the ultimate God is, and beg Him.
13. shrIman nArAyANa is the only supreme soul, who is all powerful and has infinite great qualities. He is sympathetic, compassionate, and will definitely reward you the mokSham.
14. You need a guru, who is the mediator between you and God and does the process. The Guru learned all this from the unbroken chain of previous gurus all the way from God.
15. Prapatti does not ask anything from you. All it asks to be faithful to God, be good to everyone, remember your lowliness and respect others and their beliefs.
16. How long does it take to surrender? Prapatti is a just 10 minute process. No money, energy, or skill is required. It is just an honest outcry from the heart. It needs to be done only once and after prapatti, the rebirth cycle ceases.
17. One who has done Prapatti is a prapannan. He can live happily and peacefully for this short stay on earth like a person keeping the boarding pass and waiting for the plane’s departure. Upon death, he goes to mokSham to live there in eternal happiness and never returns.
Life is really simple. But we insist on making it complicated.
