|| Shri Hari ||

Prison -  A School

(A discourse given in the Nagpur Prison)

Until God Realization does not take place,  all ‘jivas’ (beings) are prisoners.   You all should not think that we are very lowly.   We are all children of God !   Just as you have come to this prison against your will,   you have not come here out of your own independent will,  in the same way,  we have all come to  this world on becoming dependent,  and after coming here, we are experiencing the fruits of our past deeds.  So long as a  man, subject to his ‘karmas’ (actions),  enjoys its fruit,  till then, he remains a prisoner.    

Human birth is the only birth,  in which one can realize the God,  the Supreme Reality.   We can become independent once and for all,  dependence will be wiped out entirely,  and for this itself this human body has been received.   In this, there is two kinds of sense experiences -  pleasure and pain.   Man thinks he has become independent,  while occupied in enjoying pleasures, and while suffering pain,  he thinks he has become dependent.   But this is a misunderstanding.   If we were independent in enjoyment of pleasures, then we would only enjoy pleasures and pleasure all the time,  and not suffer pain.  But this is not in our hands.  He has to undergo both pleasure and pain.   

There is one exceptional point in suffering pain ‒ In enjoyment of pleasures,  our merits are decremented,  but in undergoing pain,  our sins are destroyed !   You have come here to wipe out your sins.   Man is imprisoned due to some sin or the other taking place.   On staying in prison, till his prison time,  the sins are destroyed,  and when sins are wiped out,   he becomes purified.   Therefore,  now,  you, me and all of us should want to be free of pain and sorrows,  not to do any work  that is sinful,  unjust,  wrongful conduct, mis-demeanor and against scriptural injunctions.   You are getting an opportunity to learn this over here,  in the form of work.   

This prison is a school.   Here you get the education,  that henceforth,  I will not commit such sins.    The pain that one feels from all the dis-pleasures in world such as from illness, suffering great financial loss,  being insulted,  receiving criticism, that pain is for teaching, that sometime or the other we have sinned,  and this pain is the fruit of those sinful acts.  Therefore,  henceforth we will not commit any sin ‒  one must learn this lesson.   On suffering the consequences of past sinful deeds,  the sins are destroyed.  With the annihilation of sins,  one becomes pure, free of any blemishes.   

When the favorable situations come,  when money comes,  it is a payback for our virtuous deeds.   The unfavorable situations that come,   when man suffers financial losses,  someone dies,  when he falls sick ‒ it is all a fruit of sins.   Man goes to heaven, and enjoys the pleasures of his virtuous deeds.   With the enjoyment of pleasures,  the merits are decremented,  and once again he falls down to the  ‘mrutyulok’  (the abode of death - world).   ‒   

‘क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति ।’ (गीता ९ । २१)  

Ksine punye martyalokam visanti  (Gita 9/21)  

Meaning:   Their merit is exhausted,  they return to the mortal world.

 

Sins are destroyed through experiencing adversities, and merits are destroyed through gratification of pleasures .  

‒From the book in Hindi ‘Vaastavik Sukh ’  by Swami Ramsukhdasji