Ratanjit's Advice for Stress-Free Living - Spirituality

Ratanjit's Advice for Stress-Free Living
You have questions. Ratanjit has the answers. His worldly experiences have taught him a lot. And now, he wants to share that knowledge with you.

Question:
Why is this Guru system so embedded? The message is important - not the messenger. We all make the mistake of following one messenger (guru) and shutting off all our critical
faculties.

Answer:
Your point is right on the target. It is the message that is of prime importance and most empowering. Please allow me to share an actual incident that took place while I was in India last February where I released two of my books through my publisher Roopa & Co.

I was invited to address a gathering of financial executives from one of the most prestigious equity firms in Mumbai. It must be a gathering of some 250 executives. At the end of my talk and question & answer session, some executives gathered around me for some personal questions. One executive in his mid 40 or so asked me,

“Sir, I have a very personal question for you. Your lecture was very enlightening and it was very clear to me that you have a very thorough understanding of the ‘Bible’. In fact I have never heard Bible explained so fundamentally. Obviously your study of Bible is very thorough and thus your knowledge comes from the Bible. But then Sir, why did you not acknowledge that fact and offered the credit to the bible?”

Another gentleman standing right next to him immediately responded before I had a chance to say anything,

“No-No..Sir’s lecture was based on ‘Upanishads’ and not the Bible. But I am really disappointed that Sir did not even mentioned any thing about Upanishads.”

Before I could say a word a Sikh gentleman who was listening, jumped in and said,

“You both are wrong. Just look at him, he is wearing a turban. Obviously he is a Sikh and I know what he is talking about. It is all in our ‘Sri Guru Granth Sahib’ and he should be proud to acknowledge that all his knowledge comes from our Guru Granth Sahib. Sir, please tell me if I am wrong.”

I smiled and responded,

“Gentlemen: please allow me to share what happened with me a few days back and hopefully it may address some of valid issues that you wise people have raised.”

All three of them stepped forward looking a bit tense and curious. I continued,

“I met one of my old college classmate on this trip who is a very successful businessman in Mumbai. He invited me and my family for dinner at his beautiful penthouse in the posh area of Khar. It so happened that his daughter with her 13 month old baby was visiting him that night. The little girl was fascinated with me and did not hesitate to play in my arms. It was a full moon night. I was trying to draw her attention to the moon by pointing a finger at the moon, but every time I pointed my finger at the moon she would catch hold of my finger in stead of looking at the moon.”

All three gave me a look as if they were asking how was my story addressing their concerns, until I asked,

“Now, my friends aren’t you doing the same thing as that little girl was doing? All these scriptures (equal to the finger) are pointing you towards a path (Moon so to speak), but you guys simply want to hold onto the ‘finger’ (the religious Scriptures). Furthermore, you want to own it, worship it, fight over it as to who has a superior ‘finger’ (religion), but not at all persuaded to go where these religious scriptures (fingers) are asking you to go. And, you are upset that I am not holding on to the ‘finger’ (acknowledging the scriptures).”

“My friends the real mission is to go to the ‘Moon’ or in other words practice spirituality and not hold onto the ‘finger’ (the scripture). Spirituality is basically ABSENCE OF DUALITY. These scriptures are merely instruments that guide us in our journey to reach the ‘MOON’ (reach NIRVANA through loosing your EGO and practicing ONENESS).”

I continued,

“By the way, the same thing holds for your ‘AVATARS’ or Gurus or your revered Gods in the human form. They were here to show us the path. It is their teaching and their message that we need to follow, but, unfortunately, what we do is worship them or fight over them but never try to fully comprehend and follow the path they have shown us. Now, before you guys kill me please THINK! Would you ever be cured of a disease if you simply worshiped your doctor, but never took the medicine that doctor prescribed for you?”

The most amazing part of this incident was the ending. One of the listeners jumped forward and fell at my feet. So you see, the worshiping of the messenger continues regardless of all the sincere efforts of the messenger to do the otherwise.

Do you have a thought or question for Ratanjit? He'd love to hear it. You can email him at email@ratanjit.com .