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Date Posted: 03:26:42 10/09/05 Sun
Author: m - 17 Aug 2005
Subject: Re: The Spiritual Aspect of the Vegetarian Diet 2
In reply to: m - 17 Aug 2005 's message, "The Spiritual Aspect of the Vegetarian Diet" on 03:25:38 10/09/05 Sun


“A man is known by the company he keeps.” If you want to know how your children are growing, have an eye on their companions, and from them you can easily judge your children.

We have all been created by God. All of us are embodied souls. Soul is of the same essence as that of God and God is in all of us; and we should, therefore, love one another. That is what St. Paul taught all His life. It is written in the Koran: “O human beings, do good; be good to your parents, relatives, orphans, the needy and the poor, your neighbours, and your fellow beings; such a life pleases Allah. Allah is within each one of us. The haughty who is selfish is not cared for by God.”

A Master Saint always enjoins:

1. Love and reverence for all creation from the highest to the lowest
2. Observance of non-violence even in the depths of the heart
3. Truthfulness
4. Non-injury to one’s feelings by thoughts, words, symbols, and deeds
5. Kindly treatment towards all
6. Cheery temperament
7. Faith in the innate goodness in man
8. Avoidance of giving bad names to others
9. Non-indulgence in slanderous and amorous talk and idle pursuits
10. Avoidance of accusations for they boomerang with greater intensity

If one is keen for God-realization then one must not hurt anyone’s feelings, for heart is the seat of God. Have you ever realized that a mango seed when embedded gathers all the sweetness from the soil, while a pepper seed attracts all the bitterness in it. As a man thinks, so he becomes. Nothing is good or bad in the world but our thinking makes it so. We, like the one or the other of the seeds, draw upon impulses from the atmosphere as suits our own mental make-up.

We have in Mahabharata, the great epic poem of ancient India, that outer signs of a chaste and clean life are good deeds. Just as a tree is known by the fruit it bears, so is a man by what he does. This is a great teaching of a great value. It helps a man to flourish and receive a good name both here and hereafter. He will be the friend of all creatures for he resolves not to hurt or kill any of them, not even the humble bee nor the lowly ant. Such a person will surely know the Truth one day.

Prince Dhritarashtra, the son of Kuru, the mighty King of Bharat, once hurled a rebuke on Gandiva, the mighty bow of Arjuna, the Pandav Prince. Arjuna got angry and, touched to the quick, put his arrow on the Gandiva. Lord Krishna, who happened to be near at hand, asked Arjuna as to what he was doing. Arjuna replied: "I, as a Khastriya Prince, had taken a vow that if anyone would but say a word against my mighty bow, I would not spare him.”

Lord Krishna said, “O Arjuna, could you tell me the fruit of Dharma or Righteousness. Is it pain or pleasure?” Arjuna replied that Dharma or Righteousness consisted only in the resultant love and harmony.

So one must first think of the result before doing or even contemplating any deed. It will certainly prolong one’s span of life.

A person with a virtuous life will never entertain any evil idea against any person and will never lose his temper and get excited. Such a one gets longevity in life. The life process is calculated by means of breaths. Normally, breathing is going on very rhythmically – some 10 to 12 per minute. But when a person is in a paroxysm of rage and is excited, he takes 20 to 23 breaths in a minute. Thus there is a veritable truth hidden in the saying that good deeds or virtues prolong life; while evil deeds or vices shorten the span of one’s life.

Remember, you may even do meritorious deeds, but if you do not live a good moral life you are nowhere. Try to live by the precept of the Master and then alone your words can have weight with your friends. You cannot preach of chastity with lust in your heart and a leer in your eyes. You cannot dupe people for any length of time. Sooner or later the cat will be out of the bag. The public cannot trust you blindly for long and take you at your face value. Excuse me, if I were to question as to why societies and preachers very often get a bad name? It is because they do not live by the teachings they preach to others.

A Godly person is possessed with a right mind and a right heart. He has both within and without a perfect spring of peace. His dealings are fair, open, and unquestionable. Truth springs from the very bottom of his heart. The audience is spellbound and gets a feeling of comfort by hearing him, as his utterances are drenched from the cooling effect of the loving and chaste thoughts within him and everyone feels satisfied. As one among many, he stands as a tower of strength because of the purity of his heart. Lord Tennyson, a great poet, speaking of Sir Galahad (one of the Knights of the Round Table) puts in his mouth the words: “My strength is like the strength of ten because my heart is pure.”

It is said that out of the abundance of heart a man speaks. On the other hand, if a person is selfish and mischievous, he cuts with his own axe the tree of his life on which he sits with complacency. Everyone will be afraid of him and live in terror of him. People dread even to see his face and consider him an ominous being. If such a person goes anywhere, people shun him outright, even from a distance, and consider him an unlucky anathema.

A righteous person, on the other hand, has his eyes on his weaknesses and through self-introspection, weeds them out one by one. Swami Shiv Dayal Singh Ji advises that one should pick up his failures one by one and cast them out. All other Saints have said this thing in the same strain.

1. Love thy neighbour as thyself.
2. Do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you.

The whole of the religious philosophy hangs by these two cardinal principles. If one puts before him these two golden rules, his life will surely be transformed. The person who has neither an element of sympathy in his heart nor a human touch is not fit to be called even a man, and he cannot know God. He who treats his enemies lovingly will disarm them in no time.

Insofar as you can, try to do no injury to anyone. Be good to all and you will be at peace with yourself and be a radiating centre of loving grace around you. The prayers of others to whom you may have done good, will help you. The good thoughts of others will swarm around you with a benediction. The very idea of doing good will first affect you and will draw all good vibrations from the surrounding atmosphere.
In a nutshell, we have just laid a Panch Shilla or five fundamental truths on which we can build the wonderful mansion of spirituality. These are:

1. Non-violence in thought, word, and deed
2. Truthfulness
3. Chastity
4. Love for all and hatred for none, irrespective of position, wealth, or learning
5. Selfless service – physical and financial and a willing share in the joys and sorrows of others

“The Living Master cuts asunder the Gordian knot of an initiate.”

“The disciple of the Master refrains from sins.”

Those who will follow the above will enrich their lives here and hereafter. They will control their mind and outgoing faculties by coming in contact with the living Word of God through the living Master-Saint.

(Circular Letter “The spiritual aspect of the vegetarian diet” by Sant Kirpal Singh, issued in July 1958)

The whole creation is the temple of God.
There is no place where He is not.
In minerals life is sleeping;
in plants life is dreaming;
in birds and animals life is awakening;
and in man life is awake.

As such we are brothers of all creatures,
of plants, of birds and animals.
So the flowers and trees,
sparrows and doves are as members of our own order.
How simple, pure, loving and beautiful they are!
We should learn lessons of leading lives of purity,
holy simplicity and Divine love from them.

Kirpal Singh

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