Lockdown | Treasure

Life Lessons from Lockdown and Isolation

Well-being of Body and Atma

Home - Dharma & Culture

Immunity - Satva Guna

As long as we stay at home, we are safe. When we go out, we have to wear a mask to prevent spreading the virus from one person to another. We have to develop immunity to avoid getting infected. We have to get enough Vitamin D from sunlight and Vitamin-C from citrus fruits for gaining strength so that we won't get affected by the Virus or any Bacteria.

As long as we stay within our Dharma and our Culture, we are safe. When we go out without our Traditional dress and Religious marks, it is likely to contaminate thoughts of ours and others (Rajo Guna - because of our dressing style). We have to develop our Bhakti to get rid of Our Karma by Doing our Anushtanam ( Sandhyavandhanam, Puja - Thiruvaradhanam, Nithya Anusanthanam). Through Bhagavad, Bhaagavata Acharya Kainkaryam (service), Satva Guna will increase.

Virus - Rajo & Thamo Gunas

Sanitizer - Chanting & Anushtanam

We should not touch our faces to prevent viruses from entering our bodies. We have to wear a mask in a proper way. We should not keep on adjusting the mask often as that itself may put us in danger due to contact with the face. We have to keep our hands clean always using Sanitizer/soap to remove the virus which might have reached our body by accident when we go out (even for essential activities). We should not go near flames with sanitizer in hand to avoid fire accidents.

We have to follow Achaaram (good conduct) for not letting Rajo, Tamo Gunas enter inside us through any of our senses (seeing, listening, smelling, touching, and eating non-Satvik food). We have to purify our senses often with Chanting and Anushtanam.

Triguna - Nature and Symptoms

Priority Settings (High Vs Low)

Maintenance - Karmanushtanam

Entertainment - Worldy matters

As long as we have somebody to help and maintain our house, we won't mind living in big houses. Only when such help is not available and we are on our own, we realize the difficulties.

Acharyas and Bhaktas (out of compassion) are helping us by spreading positive energies through their Achara, Anushtanams. Without thinking about the responsibilities assigned to us by Bhagawan, we are just enjoying the benefits without any of our efforts. But we can't continue the same way all the time. At some point, we have to develop our maturity to hold the responsibilities and perform our duties. If we get lost in materialistic pleasures without any realization, Bhagawan reminds us of this through some means.

When we are managing ourselves we focus on priority items and drop the nonpriority items

When we attain maturity, realize the ultimate goal, we will reduce activities like "Beautifying our temporary shareeram"; "spending time in Entertainment", etc. The focus should be on learning satvishayam (listen, introspect and change) and to perform our duties..

Showing Gratitude

towards

Doctors and Helpers

Bhagawan and Acharyas

We have to certainly show gratitude to all those who help us as a service without any expectation.

We owe lot of gratitude to Bhagawan who blessed us with a human birth, Rishis and Acharyas (who guide us out of compassion without expecting anything in return) and to our Ancestors.

Expectation vs Realisation

Expecting Gratitude

Showing gratitude

We generally expect others to be grateful to us even when we do a small favour to them. We will feel bad if they forgot to show gratitude.

We might be grateful to certain people who helped us in need for worldly matters. But we need to see whether we are showing gratitude to Bhagawan, Rishis, Acharyas and Ancestors. At first we have to be aware of what they have done to us and How to show gratitude towards them.

Bhagawan

Bhagawan blessed us with a Human birth after we took so many low level births out of our Karma. Human birth itself is a wonderful opportunity. We are blessed with a sixth sense especially to explore the Purpose of birth and with senses (Karmendriyas and Gnanends riyas) which can be used to come out of the birth cycle. If we miss this opportunity, we (Atma) may have to wait long to get this opportunity of human birth.

Probability of Getting Human Birth Again

We can show gratitude to Bhagawan by showing a little bit of interest in understanding and following Shastra, a user manual for human life given to us by Him. Since we can't understand those with our knowledge, He has given Rishis and Acharyas too to explain those to us. Bhagawan will be pleased even if we think about Him often and try our best to do some service to Him and Bhaktas. Then He will bless us with more satva guna to turn us towards Him, moving away from materialistic pleasures gradually.

Rishis

Rishis blessed us with their Vedha, Vedhantha, Ithihasa, Purana works as a guiding light to make use of human birth.

Rishis will be happy if their works are being used by us for our good only. We can show gratitude to Rishis by spending some time on reading any of their works and try to understand them.

Acharyas

Bhagawan blessed us with Acharyas to guide us during our period of life. Acharyas learn the Shastra from their Acharyas completely and then give the essence of everything to us as per our understanding level. Through their Achara and Anushtanam, they will enlighten us gradually if we approach them humbly.

Acharyas will be happy if we make use of our human life effectively without getting dragged totally into materialistic pleasures. They are always ready to enlighten us with real knowledge as a service to Bhagawan. All we have to do is approaching our Acharya who is from a Guru Parampara.

Ancestors

We have to show gratitude to our ancestors who were a cause for our human birth. Whoever owes Pitru karyam like Tharpanam, Shrardham should do that without fail. Other family members have to attend shrardham to get blessings of ancestors.

Social distancing and Self-isolation

Gatherings - Asathsangam

The social distancing is very necessary for the survival of the human society. Everybody needs others support for many of the day today activities. However, the physical distance still need to be maintained.

We have to differentiate between Atma and Body. We have to learn about Atma Paramatma relationship. We have to understand whatever is comfortable for body is not comfortable for Atma. Being with satsangam only, this awareness comes. Being in association with people who don't know to differentiate between Atma and body, we used to see only the outside world instead of seeing the Bhagawan inside. During this period, we are now made to be in isolation to turn our eyes towards Him. This is the time to maintain distance from the people who are full of Rajo and Tamo gunas.

Family time - Sathsangam

Immunity - Positive energies

By following Acharam and Anushtanam, we can spread positive energies everywhere (Lots of negative energies are present now everywhere because of our current lifestyle and negligent attitude towards Acharam and Anushtanam). We are now made to follow some Acharams (Greeting with Namaste rather than handshakes/hugs, avoiding unnecessary gatherings, washing hands, and legs before entering the home) out of fear, which should be followed out of a belief on the Shastra, a user manual given to us by Bhagawan on how to lead our life.

We have to increase Satva Guna as immunity for not getting carried away by Rajo and Tamo Gunas.

Responsibilities

Bhagawan has assigned important anushtanams (duties) to all (Trikala Sandhyavandanam, Daily Puja, prayer at divyadesams, celebrating festivals) which need to be carried out without fail. With the brightness of light only, darkness can vanish. Sandhyavandhanam has to be performed to remove the hindrances to sunlight. (Taking little time from entertainment, these duties can be performed bringing in more positive energies)

Equally women also have to adhere to auspicious things and should not disregard those in the name of fashion. Women can help to spread positive energies by easy-to-follow activities like:

Wearing Tilakam/Kumkum in the forehead - helps absorbing energies from sunlight.
Not letting the hair loose (attracts negative energy)
Wearing ornaments like bangles, anklets, toe rings, etc.. which can absorb positive energies and can keep negative energies away.

Parents have a great responsibility for showing the right path to their children. Parents need to serve as role models for their children, as more often children are likely to follow the deeds of parents. By explaining our Culture (Dress style, hair style, manners, etc..), Tradition (Festival celebration), Sampradhaya (Value education), they can make their children understand the significance of these things and then follow them with interest.