Key Learning Points from
‘The Seven Hindu Spiritual Laws of Success’
by Swami Bodhananda
Freedom is that ability to make use of your environment to explore your potential and to express that Infinite Potential while interacting with the world. This is the meaning of Moksha.
1.Law of Brahman :
It states that existence is a Field of Infinite Potentialities and is grounded in Consciousness. This Infinite Potentiality is always ‘anxious’ to express. It is so full, it is always eager and ready to express. There is infinite energy – a need for this spirit to express.
Our innate creative urge is the very ground of our existence.
As you pursue Kama & Artha, within the limits set by Dharma with the awareness that Brahman is your true nature, you actualize yourself, manifesting the spirit in the midst of activity. That is the meaning of freedom, Moksha.
Freedom means manifesting that inner spirit continuously as you are pursuing your material goals. Unless this is understood, one fails to realize the necessity of desire.
Desire is the fuel for self-actualization, Moksha. This desire shouldn’t be the desire to grab and possess but must involve the element of sharing abundantly.
Patanjali says in the (Yoga Sutras. 2:18) : This Prakriti ( the objective world of the senses and sense objects) exists in order that the experiencer may enjoy it and thus become liberated. This Prakriti (physical and mental) is for your enjoyment. Prakriti will challenge you; she will tease and inspire you, and if you respond, life will be a very enthralling experience.
However, people think that it is not within them to take a risk, to respond to a creative urge and succeed.
By engaging in the outer challenges, we are able to go deeply into ourselves and explore our unique potential. Engagement is vital to your spiritual unfoldment – a healthful, happy, fulfilled life. Through that self-expression, total fulfillment, freedom, Moksha is possible while living in this world.
2.Law of Maya :
Maya here implies constant change. Be prepared. When you are ready to embrace constant change, you can manifest your full potential in any situation. Make change a religion. Want change. Continue to change and grow. That is the way to discover one’s self.
3.Law of Dharma :
This law states that every individual is unique and has a unique personality, mission and destiny. There may be a grand ground from whence we all spring, but we also have to deal with our unique individuality. Thus it becomes important to understand our uniqueness, learn to cultivate it and explore the world through self-expression.
We all have non-negotiable needs. Even a mother who is an embodiment of total sacrifice and unconditional love will not tolerate the son beyond a limit. We should have the honesty to admit that we have such non-negotiable needs.What is important is matching our needs with out talents while interacting in a given situation. Put your needs on the table and ask the other person to also do that. Then alone can true negotiation happen. Then we become non-violent individuals, non-violent to ourselves and non-violent to others. Realizing others needs while communicating our needs is theb meaning of non-violence, Ahimsa.
That is also the basis of marriage : we are trying to mutually grow in our association with one another. As we mutually grow in relationship, the unique needs and talents of each person are expressed and fulfilled. Progress in isolation is very anemic and unhealthy. What we require is progress in the context of everyone’s progress.
If your activities do not contribute to the general well-being of the world, there is something wrong in what you to do.
If someone serves your purpose, it is your duty to serve his or her purpose also.
Living all alone one cannot fulfill or explore one’s innate potential. Others are necessary.
Dharma means an ability to incorporate, to encompass or embrace the other, to be sensitive and respect the other person’s individuality, respect his or her need to grow in his or her own way. We want all to contribute their efforts and to fulfill their needs because work gives us self-respect.
Non-violence means respect for another’s uniqueness.
4.Law of Karma :
Karma is a new energy or independent impulse introduced by an individual into the orchestra of events. Action produces a boomerang effect and the intender becomes the final target of hos or her own actions. No one can escape.
Whatever action you initiate in this world may go a long way, but finally the action will find you out. Karma returns to you like a wrongly addressed letter.We have to be very careful about what thoughts we entertain, because we are introducing something into the cosmos, creating disturbances in the cosmic mind.
Finally, thought has to manifest somewhere. You become the recipient of the product of that thought because only that way, is the loop completed.
The first application of the Law of Karma is to understand that what happens today, which you cannot change, is the result of your past karma, your past thoughts and actions. This thought releases a lot of energy : ‘I am clearing my debts.’ You have a healthy feeling : ‘ I am paying back my debts.’
The second application is : If you want to lead a happy life, you must do such deeds today that will create happy experiences in the future.
The third application of the law of Karma is : Take charge of your life. You are the master of your destiny. It puts the reins of your life into your hands. When you take charge, every natural force will support you.
5.Law of Yajna :
This is the law of sacrifice. This is the law of ‘Giving and Receiving’.The flow of life is possible only due to sacrifice. Something or someone is sacrificing for the flow of your life to continue.
This law says : ‘whatever you want to receive, first give. You receive only what you give. The seed’s discovery of its potential and its fulfillment depends upon its yielding, its surrendering and offering up itself. Unless it offers itself to higher possibilities, for a higher ideal and higher satisfaction, it will never discover its potential and yield its blessings.
The law of Yajna says that whatever you try to possess will perish in your hands, conversely whatever you give and share will flourish and come back to you. If you want to flourish, don’t possess.
In the Bhagwad Gita, Krishna says ; ‘Work as an offering is liberating, any other attitude makes work constricting.’
The first principle of sacrifice is that you must have something to sacrifice.Those who want to sacrifice must train and prepare themselves so that they are worthy of sacrifice.
It is the spirit of sacrifice of souls like the biblical Abraham (of his son Isaac) or Christ or Ram is what keeps the world going.
All fulfillment lies in giving alone or sacrifice. However today, the ‘winner takes it all’ philosophy thrives – a philosophy of greed and selfishness. As a result of this attitude : violence, dissatisfaction and dis-harmony prevails in the world. A society which lives the principle of sacrifice becomes an affluent and glorious society.
In the long run, the ‘winner takes it all’ philosophy doesn’t work. Instead the winner himself has to be sacrificed. A Sanyasi like Gandhi lives in total sacrifice : he reduces his or her needs or comforts and lives simply.
The heart of Yajna is to offer your work at a higher Altar.You must be the best if you want the ecstasy of offering yourself at the highest altar. This requires you to discipline and train yourself. To be worthy of sacrifice, you must be a paragon of virtue and excellence. Development of your excellence is possible only when you rub shoulders with other excellent people.
One who sacrifices will not sit back to enjoy the fruits, that is for lesser mortals. He goes on making more sacrifices. The more he sacrifices, the more continuously he is fulfilled. The more he becomes fulfilled, the more he sacrifices.
Many misunderstand what Yudhisthira did in Mahabharata. His spirit was that nothing that one possesses is so precious that it cannot be given away. We need to take risks and play the dice game laying everything at the altar of uncertainty. There is a lot of excitement in this kind of life.
Know that your restlessness is the whispering of eternity. What you already possess is not your final destination. You have to explore the horizon further and farther. Take lots of risks and willingly embrace uncertainty. Putting yourself on the firing line, you can even challenge God. Nothing short of this can give you true fulfillment and ecstasy.
6.Law of Yoga :
This is the law of detachment. Most parents spoil their children due to their passionate, attached love. Due to their fear psychosis and extreme attachment, frequently Indian parents don’t allow their children any degree of freedom and personal choice. In the process, the children replicate that fear in their own responses to the world, clinging to their parents lifelong. And that is exactly what such parents want!
In their effort to control and manipulate the children, parents make their children into parasites. And as a consequence, even when the child grows up, he or she remains forever emotionally crippled and unable to discover his or her true potential.
The one who is detached- attracts and the one who is attached repulses good energy.
Yoga is creative activity. How do you define creative activity ? Creative activity is an ability to create without being exhausted. The more you create, the more you are inspired.
Never co-operate with your pain. Give up the idea that you are unhappy. Suffering is only your interpretation. Think that you are happy and happiness spontaneously happens. Give your attention to something wonderful and beautiful. When you detach and observe, objects lose their power over you. Only with your permission does thought gain power.
Krishna says : ‘Yoga Karmasu Kaushalam’ Excellence in work is Yoga. Relentless pursuit of a goal is Yoga.
Emotional problems can rarely be solved by direct confrontation, analysis or discussion. They must simply be forgotten ! If you discuss emotional problems, the more they will occupy and confuse your mind. Soon, you will rationalize and find logical answers to your position. Then your position becomes very rigid and you turn the whole house-hold into a war-zone. The best thing is to forget it.
Refuse to carry emotions forward. If some-one calls you a donkey, forget it. That is ‘detachment’ and the only way to solve emotional problems.
To attain mental quietude, pursue a course of action. While you are pursuing the action, don’t re-act, only do the right thing. That is quietude of the mind. Yoga requires a supremely active person. That person alone attains absolute mental quietude and in that process invokes the Infinite Power of spirit. His or her actions are aglow with the light of Spirit and whatever he or she touches becomes a success. That is the true meaning of detachment and Yoga.
Through such pursuits one develops three types of intelligence :
1. Analytical or Technical Intelligence
2. Emotional intelligence : Because one is dedicated to one’s goal and has little time for negativities
3. Spiritual intelligence : One accesses the infinite powers of spirit.
7. Law of Leela
This is the law of playfulness. It says that the maximum achievement is possible with minimum effort meaning that Creativity is the quotient of achievement divided by effort.
Creativity means rest-less activity. No rest is required. A creative person is always active and never complains. Such a person is always inspired. The more we act, the more inspired we are. The more we function, the more flow we experience. And the more flow we experience, the more we are inspired.
The best way to inspire, to bring out your inner energy is to work unceasingly and enjoy your work. When you work unceasingly and experience that flow of energy, work becomes a spontaneous, joyful, playful experience.
According to this law, the most intelligent person is the most effortless person. Intelligence is equated with effortlessness. Effortless creativity and maximum output from minimum energy go hand in hand.
There is an effortless method (upaya) to solve any problem. Yatna means just ‘effort’, Pra-yatna means ‘adequate and appropriate effort’
Make it a principle in life. If you put forth relaxed effort, the outcome will be better. Patiently watching problems solve themselves is what is called effortless playfulness. An intelligently busy person can find time for anything and everything.
When you enjoy what you are doing, then you operate on a level where plenty of energy is available to you.
Don’t say that you will be happy when you will do something or achieve something. Don’t create any gap between yourself, your activities, your aspirations and your happiness. That gap is merely psychological and the source of all problems. To close that gap is the loftiest intelligence. Decide to be happy right away. Coming from this, your work becomes a flow experience.The law of Leela says that the highly accomplished person is the most relaxed person.
When your spontaneity awakens, there is no hesitation, deliberation is integrated effortlessly. Your responses are spontaneous, instantaneous and natural. Such a person never stops anywhere. Over time, the most of us become bogged down with inertia, no energy to move.
But an enlightened person is constantly on the move, and , the more he moves, the more he enjoys spontaneity and the more his energies awaken. This is the final state of supreme spiritual unfoldment. Spontaneous and playful, nothing holds you back.
