Kindle Notes & Highlights
Ultimately, the fruit of all material endeavors is death, but the soul foolishly thinks that it will bring him everlasting happiness.
The real friend or companion is the Lord, who is situated within the heart. It is only He who can give real happiness. The Lord is so kind that He patiently sits in the heart, trying to guide the conditioned soul to come back to Him. Certainly no material friend would remain with his foolish companion for a life time.
Some Koranic verses narrate that trees glorify God. “The grass and trees bow to Him in adoration [Koran 55:6]”. As stated in the Vedic literature, all the trees, overloaded with fruits and fresh twigs, bent down to glorify the Lord76. Without the spirit soul, trees cannot grow. When any material object displays growth, it must be understood that there is a spirit soul within it.
Meat eating is contradictory to the idea of realizing God within all living beings.
Many animals are herbivores, they don’t eat meat. Human beings have the superior intelligence to understand that all the varieties of foodstuffs that are available to him are the most merciful arrangement of God. One who takes his food, without first acknowledging that it is God who supplies all our necessities of life, eats only sin. As blood and flesh does not reach Allah [Koran 22:37], all scriptures of the world recommend that vegetarian foodstuffs should be offered to God. “If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it [Bg. 9:26]”.
In the Koran and the Vedas two paths for spiritual advancement are described. One permits regulated sense enjoyment according to the scriptures. The other recommends the path of renouncing the fruits of one’s work for the satisfaction of God. “Some of you desired this world and some of you desired the next [Koran 3:152]”. “In the Vedas there are directions for two kinds of activities, activities for those who are attached to material enjoyment and activities for those who are materially detached [SB 4.4.20]”. Although the Vedic texts allow regulated and limited sense enjoyment for gradual
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“Eat and enjoy for a little while [Koran 77:46]. When will you realize that, ‘Of no profit to me has been my wealth’ [Koran 69:28]? O believers, your wives and your children are certainly enemies to yourselves. So beware of them [Koran 64:14]. Your wealth and your children are only trial. With Allah is the highest reward [Koran 64:15]. O you, who believe, let not your wealth and your children divert you from the remembrance of Allah [Koran 63:9]”. These verses illustrate the temporary nature of material attachments and enjoyment. Excessive attachment to family members increases one’s
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The individual often wants to win over material existence, with the help of bodily strength, children, wife, relatives, etc. One does not see that his family members are all destined to death. One should examine the fact that his father or his father’s father has already died. Next, one should understand that he and his children are destined to die. No one will survive in this struggle for life. Our relatives are not only mortal, but often bewildered by ignorance. The duty of the believer is to reach the path of renunciation. Those who are engaged in the path of sense enjoyment are bewildered
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Any aristocracy, any social prestige or any advancement of material civilization without God is like the decoration of a dead body.
The living soul is always different from the material body. Victimized by ignorance, one in vain searches after permanent living conditions, which is impossible to find in this material world.
If one desires freedom from the inauspicious path of sense enjoyment, one must cease to act as a sense enjoyer.
The path of renunciation is superior for it leads to the Kingdom of God, where there is no labor, no stress, no frustration, no fear, and no death.
Having a form and being formless, Allah can be seen and not seen, according to one’s level of perception.
As heat and light are formless energies of the fire, but only fire has form. Similarly, Allah’s effulgence is formless and God’s spiritual body from where the effulgence emanates has a real form.
“Yet there is another unmanifest nature, which is eternal and is transcendental to this manifested and unmanifested matter. It is supreme and is never annihilated. When all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is [Bg. 8.20]”. “His Throne does extend over the heavens and the earth [Koran 2:255]”.
The criterion of happiness is to act for God without self-interested intentions. To act for God is the duty of everyone because everyone is a servant of the Supreme Lord.
“Work done for the pleasure of Supreme Lord has to be performed; otherwise work causes bondage in this material world. Therefore, O Arjuna, perform your prescribed duties for His satisfaction, and in that way you will always remain free from bondage [Bg.3.9]”.
“Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krishna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt [Bg. 8.7]”.
Work without self motivation is the beginning of the spiritual path. When selfless work is done with the knowledge that one is a servant of God, one becomes more advanced.
When an individual is further advanced he can understand that in the Kingdom of God there are spiritual activities that constitute devotional service.
Remembrance of God is neither possible for the self interested fruitive worker who is just interested in how to maintain his body, nor for the argumentative mental speculator.
“Who remembers Allah while standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and who reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: Our Lord, You have not created this in vain, all glories to You. Save us from the chastisement of the fire [Koran 3:191]”. “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform—do that, O Arjuna, as an offering to Me [Bg.9.2]”. “Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend
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The Koran states that a believer, who has faith in God [Koran 2:82] and whose work is righteousness [Koran 2:25], is better than the hypocrite.
“Unless one gives freely of that which is loved, one cannot attain righteousness [Koran 3:92]”.
Service to God involves using one’s possessions, time and energy for His pleasure.
Material gains are destined to death. In good times, they are like friends, and in bad times, these friends become strangers.
When the body collapses and becomes unconscious, the worms and insects will rejoice. They will celebrate a great festival. The body’s beauty and strength will not last. The soul, which is eternally young, will awaken by using the body in God’s service.
To submit to God one has to be free from hate and have equal vision towards all living beings. “To act equitably is nearer to piety and is pleasing to Allah [Koran 5:8]”.
In pure faith, one sees God, his religion, his teachings, his prophets and his servant as one. If God is one, His teachings are also one.
Out of intolerance, different foolish religious leaders consider their God to be different from the God of others, but that is not possible. God, who has different names, is the same.
Religion that consists only of external rituals or even of getting everyone to accept the same exact scripture or the same form and name of God will not bring universal harmony.
