ELEVATION OF CHASTITY

There has been a natural elevation of chastity as a virtue both by men and women. Even the most sophisticated among men may not like to marry a girl who is not chaste. While exaggerating the sex appeal of the feminine form, poets have at the same time glorified chastity, and built around virginity an aura of purity, innocence, beauty and nobility. The great majority of young women undoubtedly remain virginal up to the time of marriage either from high motives and ideals, or the force of family and public opinion. There is no happiness in anything we do unless it is the beneficiary of the stamp of approval of the society we live in.

Chastity is founded essentially on self-restraint and self-discipline. Like many other virtues, it is the outward expression of inward discipline. Chastity may be better defined as self control within the sexual sphere. Chastity is a virtue independent of all creeds and religions. Chastity is a virtue only if it is natural and not when it is forced upon woman by others, especially man. When chastity is transformed into a mere compulsory continence, it ceases to be either natural, or a virtue, or beneficial. It’s essential character is lost sight of.

IMPORTANT PART IN THE LIFE OF MAN AND WOMAN

The sex urge in man is often compared to fire. Fire has been harnessed to serve mankind in various ways, and its controlled use has always been necessary and beneficial in man’s day-to-day living. Sex is the prime urge in man which is the means of perpetuation of the species. It certainly plays an important part in the life of man and woman , but unbridled license is more devastating in its effect than fire. The sex urge is fundamentally associated with the maternal instinct. In woman it manifests as the tenderness and self-sacrifice spontaneously forthcoming in a mother for the welfare of her offspring, and in men, as a protective emotion towards the weak and helpless.

The mutual attraction of the sexes when elevated to a higher plane, is a sublime feeling known as love. It is the starting point in setting up man’s primordial invention, the family. Man takes a wife to set up a family as he has, like his wife, till then formed part of a larger one which, when it has grown to a certain size, has to be decentralized. In nature’s dispensation, it would be clear that everything is so arranged that all other factors are subordinated to the central idea of maternity.

PILGRIMAGES

Pilgrims are persons who journey to sacred places as an act of devotion. Every religion has its places of pilgrimage-Jerusalem, Mecca, Benares, Bodh Gaya and many others. It is also a common feature of almost all religion that they enjoin on their sacredness. Hindu monks, during a certain stage, have to live in continuous pilgrimages as they are prohibited them from staying in a single place for more than a few days.

A pilgrimage has three distinct constituents: the pilgrim; the place of pilgrimage and the act of pilgrimage. The sanctity of a particular place depends on faith and sentiment. Many stories are built around such places to distinguish them from others. In the mind of the person undertaking a pilgrimage, there is the picture of the pilgrim centre as a holy place with associations of holy men and their holy acts.

A pilgrimage really originates in the mind of the prospective pilgrim. Generally, the place selected to go is a far-off one, not easily accessible. There is often a certain penance enjoined before and during the journey. Some religions have conventions of fasting, continence, meditation in the form of repetition of God’s name, restrictions as to the color of one’s dress, prohibition of shave or hair cut for the duration and others.

LOVE OF GOD

A great thing is love, a great good every way; which alone lightens every burden and bears equally every inequality. For it carries a burden without being burdened, and makes every bitter thing sweet and savory. The noble love impels a man to do great things. Love of god need not conform to any set specification. God can be loved in different relationships. Love wills to be free and to be detached from all worldly affection, so that its inward vision be not hindered, and that it suffer no entanglement in temporal prosperity, or discomfiture of misfortune.

Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger, nothing wiser, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller or better in heaven or on earth; for love is born of god. Love can be variety and richness. It can be colorfully sublime and imaginatively improvised. Love is swift, sincere, devoted, cheerful, and delightful; strong, patient, faithful, prudent, long suffering, manly and never self-seeking. The lover of god becomes purer, nobler, more peaceful and more joyous as he gets closer to god through love for him.

It is quite clear that the love of the devotee for god is a self-abnegating love, it liberates instead of enslaving unlike ordinary human love.

PRAYER IS POWER

Prayer is not only worship; it is also an invisible emanation of man’s worshipping spirit- the most powerful form of energy that one can generate. The influence of prayer on the human mind and body is as demonstrate as that of secreting glands. Its results can be measured in terms of increased physical buoyancy, great intellectual vigour, moral stamina, and a deeper understanding of the realities underlying human relationships.

If you make a habit of sincere prayer, your life will be very noticeably and profoundly altered. Prayer stamps with its indelible mark our actions and demeanor. Prayer is a force as real as terrestrial gravity. It is the only power in the world that seems to overcome the so-called “laws of nature”; the occasions on which prayer has dramatically done this have been termed “miracles”. True prayer may not restore the dead child to life or brief relief from physical pain.

Prayer is a mature activity indispensable to the fullest development of personality-the ultimate integration of man’s highest faculties. Prayer is the effort of man to reach God, to commune with an invisible being, creator of all things, supreme wisdom, truth, beauty and strength, father and redeemer of each man. This goal of prayer always remains hidden to intelligence.

THE WAY OUT

When you love someone just do not expect to be loved in return. You just do not worry whether the return love is there or not. If you are on a job, think that you are doing something noble as a service to your fellow men, forget you are working for a wage. Take it that god is providing you with the wherewithal to keep you going. In your own mind dissociate your work and your wage. It is only when you link these two that you start arguing with yourself first, and later with your employer, whether you are being paid adequately for the work you do.

We have to remember that each one of us is a part of this world. The world is not something that is apart that is apart from us. If we do something for the world, in reality we are doing it for ourselves. Instead of just telling ourselves that we shall do our duty without expecting any return, it is better to remember that whatever we are doing is for ourselves i.e. for our own sake. One of the best ways to keep the body and mind healthy is to engage oneself in useful productive work.

JOY- THE INEFFABLE PEACE

Joy is independent of any external object or internal emotion. It is simply the state of equilibrium. It seeks nothing and gives man the only thing that is worthwhile in life: JOY itself! Once you have grasped this secret, JOY UNLIMITED is yours. Joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live.

Man’s comprehension of joy is as an ineffable peace-the peace that passed understanding. The body, the mind, the senses, the intellect are all at rest-there is a lightness, a buoyancy which does not goad you to action. Then comes the perception of the existence of the soul as different from, and superior to the body, mind and intellect.

The description of happiness, joy, may seem to indicate that it is beyond the compass of ordinary run of individuals. Not necessarily so, because there is an element of joy or happiness in pleasure itself. It may be said that pleasure is happiness in patches. When we feel happy we are having a glimpse of that one solid happiness. When there is no particular reason to be happy or unhappy, let us lift our state of contentment deliberately to a high level, and reflect joy- think, act and speak joyously.

FULFILMENT OF PLEASURE

It is nature’s compensation for man’s exertion to meet his biological needs. It may be even a bait. Whenever he feels a want, man has to exert himself and in the course of satisfaction, derives a certain enjoyment – an agreeable sensation- which may be termed pleasure. When he is hungry, he has to seek and prepare food. When he eats, not only is his hunger assuaged, but he derives a certain pleasure feeling also. Thus the very act of fulfilling a biological need, gives rise to pleasure. Nature originally must have meant the pleasures of sex to be a bait to induce men and women to undertake the responsibility of parenthood and thus help the perpetuation of species.

This link between man’s natural needs, the exertion required for their fulfillment and the pleasure he derives in the satisfaction of want, is often lost sight of. The result is the hunting of pleasure for pleasure’s sake and a divorce between the need and its satisfaction. For example, instead of realizing that he takes food to satisfy his hunger, man may, so to say, put the cart before the horse, by seeking food as a source of enjoyment. This is fulfillment of pleasure and fulfillment of life.

GIFT OF GOD

Happiness is the gift of god. The reason so many people fail to find happiness is that they do not know where to look for it and where to get it. They think they will find it in wealth; but money alone never made anyone happy. They think they will find it in ease; but freedom from responsibility produces restlessness more often than it produces happiness. They seek after social position, thrilling types of pleasure, places of honor; and often they try to find happiness in some gross indulgence.

They are on the wrong road. So long as they live they will never find happiness along any of these highways; and that for the simple reason that happiness is in our hearts, or it is nowhere. It is a condition of the inner life not of the outer. Its chief characteristic is peace, not possession; contentment, not ambition; love and sacrifice, not pleasure and indulgence. It comes when a man stops fighting the universe and rests himself in the hand of the one who has made the universe and still manages it- when he stops trying to find happiness in the world and looks for it in his own heart.