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May God Almighty, the Supreme Creator of countless millions and billions and trillions of universes with their own solar system, lunar system and the stellar galaxies like our Milky Way and mighty heavenly bodies like Betelgeuse and extra bright galaxies like Andromeda, shower Divine grace upon you all as well as all your brethren of our Human Family who are floating around in the vastness of infinite space as co-passengers in a spaceship called Planet Earth. Though it is astoundingly huge and bigger than any spaceship which human scientists have ever created, yet it is only a tiny speck much smaller than a mustard seed, as it were, when compared to the colossal bodies among which it is moving in its orbit like something lesser than the dot that makes a full-stop at the end of a sentence.

O man! Fully realise your minuteness. Be aware of your littleness. Never forget your nothingness in the unimaginable and incomprehensible vastness in which your world and you live. Then alone your human ego which is your greatest enemy will not become puffed-up. It will be somewhat subdued. Your human ego is your most dangerous foe. That alone stands in the way of your experiencing the Bliss and Blessedness of Divine Experience. It is the one great obstacle to the Transcendental Joy of the Supreme Spiritual Experience of the Non-dual Brahman or the All Transcending Great Reality!

In last month’s letter we tried to make a practical assessment of our Motherland’s present situation. We saw on the whole it presented a positive picture and something in which we, as its citizens may find satisfaction. In connection with this assessment I had addressed you as my beloved countrymen to do all that you can to rear up the generation of tomorrow (which your children constitute!) so that it is filled with deep love for its Motherland and that it is endowed with the feeling of its being One Single National Family under the great Mother Bharatamata. This will become the basis of a great National Unification. To quote from last month’s letter, “Right from very childhood and young age the children have to be encouraged by their parents to develop love for their country all over India because, Young India is the India of tomorrow. They constitute the coming generation. Those who are children today will be the grownup and responsible citizens of our country tomorrow. Our children do not belong to us. They have been sent by God into our keeping so that we may care for them and bring them up in the right and ideal way, so that they become not only exemplary citizens of their own country but they may also become exemplary and ideal citizens of the world encompassing Human Family that populates this earth planet of ours in its different countries spread out in all the ten directions of the compass in both our hemispheres.

I am now going to tell you about a great and a wise man and a wonderful soul whom God had endowed with unusual and extraordinary insight into human nature, human psychology and mysterious truths about the apparent facts about human relationships. He was something of a genius with a poetical heart and with thoughts and sentiments noble and sublime with equal ability to express them in the most exquisite and beautiful language. His name was Kahlil Gibran. He was from the land known as Lebanon. It is a very ancient country. It is a country which has been referred to in the Old Testament of the Bible where there is an account of a great big palace that the reputed king Solomon decided to build. It is stated that for the timber work of his palatial structure he ordered that timber should be got from the Ciders of Lebanon. Even to this day the National symbol of Lebanon is the Cider Tree. Even today on the top of a mountain there exists a great hoary Cider tree that is reputed to be more than 2,500 years old, i.e., the oldest Cider existing in the world.

I have travelled to Lebanon quite a number of times and stayed there for varying periods of time. During which periods my hosts took me all over the country and showed me everything that is worth seeing. The people there are very kind, nice and friendly. They are a loving people. As there are three religious communities named the Maronite Christians (they are independent of the Vatican), the Muslims and a little known third community called the Druze. The last third community called the Druze is a very broad minded and tolerant community which believes that all the religions in the world contain Truth in them and if lived and practiced properly, any and every religion will take us to the one identical God who existed before this universe was created and before any religion, any Prophet or any Scripture ever existed. A number of different families have very kindly hosted me with great love and served me with very great sincerity. They are the Mansour family, the Hayek family, the Sara family, the Kahale family and a couple of others.

The great poet, Kahlil Gibran was born in Lebanon but migrated to the West when he was a young man. But, after living most of his life in the Occident he could not resist the inner call of his Motherland pulling him by his heart-strings. It was irresistible. He decided to return. But the large circle of his followers, friends and students tried to dissuade him. But, Kahlil Gibran replied, “I do not wish this body of mine to be interred in an alien soil. Neither would any of you. I wish that last resting place of my mortal vesture should be in the soil of the very land that gave it birth”. The day of departure comes, Kahlil Gibran is at the harbour to board the ship. The large crowd of his friends young and old, men and women and children gathered together at the harbour to bid him farewell at the moment of his departure.

Now, I take the liberty to quote some portion from this great man’s book titled THE PROPHET which brings out the relationship of the present generation with the next coming future generation,

“And a women who held a babe against her bosom said, speak to us of Children.
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you, And though they are with you
yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite and He bends you with
His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable”.

Your privilege is to nurture them, rear them up and make them grow up to become the citizens of tomorrow’s world. Upon your sincere and earnest efforts depends the nature of the human family that will people planet earth of the next generation. Therefore the parents have to lead such exemplary lives that they make themselves shining ideals to be emulated by the offspring.

The ancient Indian ideals handed down to us by our noble ancestors from bygone times are, not Getting, Possessing and Enjoying. On the contrary, the ideals before you are Getting, Giving and thereby Benefiting Others and Making Others Happy. Compassion and kindness take the foremost amongst virtues. A truly compassionate human being is verily a demigod. Who does not know about Raja Ranti Deva and his wife who during a severe famine prepared to die of starvation in order to give a meager quantity of food they had obtained, to a Chandala and his two dogs ? Who has not heard the story of king Shibi who gave shelter to a dove that was being pursued by a hungry hawk ? From where did these persons get these noble and sublime ideas ? From our ancient Rishis, Munis and great personalities like illumined and enlightened seers and sages. They are the shining lights and the priceless wealth of Bharatavarsha. See what our Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj had to say about these great souls.

“May God bless Mother India, our sacred glorious Hind.
The land of Rishis, Yogis, Sages of high spiritual culture.
India is the only land where God-realisation is the goal.
India is the only land where Rishis, Yogis abound.
India has produced mighty kings and statesmen,
Rishis, Sages, Yogis, Avatars, Poets and Heroes,
Like Yudhishthira, Arjuna, Valmiki and Viswamitra,
Like Rama, Krishna, Vyasa, Vasishtha and Sri Sankara.
It is a land of Dharma, where people practice Yama and Niyama.
It is a sacred land, where holy Ganga, Yamuna, Sindhu flow.
It is a peaceful land of broad tolerance, where all religionists dwell,
Glory to India, glory to Hind, may Lord bless our Hind!
May all her children in love unite and do their duty aright.
May God bless them with health, long life, peace and prosperity.
May Lord make them brave, virtuous, dutiful and Divine!
May Lord fill their hearts with pure patriotic spirit!
May India’s fame extend fully over the world.
May India shine gloriously with culture and civilization!

Om Namo Bhagavate Sivanandaya!
At the Worshipful Lotus Feet of
Satguru Bhagavan Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj
(Swami Chidananda)