Deepawali is the festival of light that awakens the Light in each of us. Our ancient scripture, the Vedanta, recognizes no sin, it only recognizes error, and the greatest error according to the Vedanta is to say that you are weak “ you are a sinner, miserable creature, and that you have no power”. These are the words of Swami Vivekakanda. They are symbolic of the culture that we belong to, of our magnificent heritage that has forever stood firm in its belief that when God created man he bestowed upon him his own power. We belong to a culture that has always celebrated power, which has understood its depth, and by virtue of understanding its depth, deep down in our soul, in our wiser mind, we know that if power precedes responsibility, it is dangerous energy and often results in miscreation. A good example is the story of the demon king Bhasmasur. For thousands of years, Bhasmasur prayed to Shiva for immortality. Lord Shiva refused and told him to ask for something else. Bhasmasur asked that he be granted the power to turn anyone that he touched on the head into ashes. Shiva said ‘so be it’. In that very instant Bhasmasur saw Parvati, Shiva’s wife, and was completely enchanted. He wanted her to marry him, but for that, Shiva had to be killed. Bhasmasur began chasing the one who had granted him the power, and the only option left to Shiva was to run. Shiva asked Lord Vishnu to help him. Vishnu took an enchanting female form known as Mohini. The moment Bhasmasur saw Mohini he was attracted to her and began to plead for her hand in marriage. Mohini told Bhasmasur that she would marry him only if he could match her in a dance, step by step. Bhasmasur agreed. He gradually forgot the power within his hands, and there came a moment when he mirrored Mohini’s action and touched his own head, and through the power of his newly granted boon, he himself was turned to ashes. The power that he had prayed for had destroyed his own life. This is one aspect of power.
On the other hand our epics are also full of stories where great responsibility precedes great power. There is an incident in the life of Lord Rama when someone has to leap across the Indian Ocean to land in Shri Lanka and bring back his wife Sita who is being held captive by the mighty demon king, Ravana. While others saw it as an enormous and impossible task, Hanuman took the challenge, the responsibility, of bringing back his master’s wife. It is only then that Hanuman is made aware that he has the power to fly. Fly he does across the ocean with complete faith and completes the mission successfully. What is noteworthy here is that Hanuman was born with the power to fly, but being powerful before he took on a great responsibility made him frisky and annoying so the power was taken away from him in childhood and restored to him only when he took on great responsibility, so for me, mythology is a wise teacher. She teaches you the ways in which you are subtle, allowing you to learn and learning comes when the time is right. Now I think its time for everybody to awake and feel the power. Power is not an endless sum of money that can buy anything for you in the world, that’s only an illusion of power. The moment that money is lost, there is uncertainty in the world. For me the most important power is the power of love. Having love in your heart makes you powerful. Love is Love. When it is not sought but intensely felt in a place deep inside you, it first overwhelms you and then by virtue of having overwhelmed it overflows.
For me on this beautiful day, I want each of you to burn all the hatred and negative feelings and just feel love. Give as much of love and good feelings as you can, because the more love you give, the faster you receive. You can imagine anything positive that you want and love, and when you do this, you are harnessing the force of love. Give love to the planet and to everyone there, and you will receive the same somewhere. In the same way, when you imagine another person and harm or hate that person, you are lacking love and with certainty, any negativity will come back with equal ferocity to the person who sent it. Please give love. Then apply this to your life, giving as much love and good feelings as you can, because the more love you give the faster you will receive. Even if you are hurt or injured, if somebody asks you how you are feeling, just say you are feeling 100% good, my body is following the principal. This is a blessing, because you appreciate and love your body, your health, and your life is filled with love. Anything that you want to change, your health, money, or relationships; imagine that scene, imagine what you want and feel that you have it. Try spending seven minutes each day imagining what you want. I spend seven minutes each day for one world, one spirituality, for love, food, shelter for everyone on the planet, harmony and love for all beings. Keep imagining each day until you feel as though you already have your desire. Do it until you know that your desire belongs to you, as you know your name belongs to you, and with some things you will get to this stage but it will take some time. You can change anything in your life by changing how you feel. One thing I have learned is that there is one force in life and the essence of true power for me is not with money, social status, beauty, fame or wealth, there is nothing eternal in these attributes. True power does not depend on anything outside of you, it is what resides within you. True power is the genius and creativity that lie within your mind, the compassion and love that flower within your heart, as well as the strength and vitality that hold your body together. It is the life force which flows in your blood which makes you hold your head high in defeat and humble in victory and makes you accept with pride, dignity and equanimity. The only way to invite true power into your experience, is to believe in it and to believe that you are capable of tremendous creativity, that genius lies within you and in your heart, that you have enough love to heal the whole planet, and that physical body has immense restorative powers. Think of love as if it is water in a glass, and the glass is your body. The glass has only a little water in it, it is practically empty. You cannot change the water level in the glass by waging war on the emptiness and trying to rip it out. The emptiness goes by filling the glass with water. When you have bad feelings, you are empty of love and so when you put love into yourself, the bad feeling is gone. Try to love your inner child without blaming others. Try to understand yourself, listen to your feelings. If you were hurt as a child, hold your inner child, hug her, find out what is wrong, accept her, ask the child to speak out, try not to judge or blame anyone or feel you are not enough. Just try to give love and solve the problem. Love yourself, value yourself, feel love and respect for everyone on the planet. Love life as deeply as you can. Love yourself as deeply as you can. Believe that the universe celebrates your decision to live more than you ever thought that you could, for it is only in living totally that you obtain the miracle that is known as salvation. To realize your true powers and be responsible for every moment that life presents to you is real salvation. At this moment I ask everyone to close their eyes, drop all judgment, create life, to transform life and to bring love within you and to everyone that is on this planet.
Dr. S. Mohanambal
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