- Dharmesh Shah

Commandment 6:
Know all people as thy brethren and treat them as such

- Know all people as thy brethren

As the Master says everybody has come from the same central point so just like children of same mother we are all connected with that point and the original thought which was at the time of creation.

First thing to examine is why there is a need to know, because we all have forgotten ourselves, our true nature, true principles by creating a network of "Self" and related with the "Self". Now lets think, how this happened?

Here the Master goes back to the concept of creation. When world came into existence there was a Kshobh and original thought. When motion set things in action, all the particles got separated and assumed a form followed by organic growth, one of which is human being and all having the original thought.

Now lets take an example and see how one created own network. Consider a water and a drop. When drop thinks, that it is a "Drop" the "Self" comes into the existence.

Now when the Drop meets other drop first thing it does is tries to analyze its form, size etc. Next thing it sees is qualities pure, impure, contaminated, processed etc. Then there is love if its form and size matches and qualities match. So this is a conditional love due to which the network of self is formed.

Now consider a case when drop considers itself "Water or part of Water".

When it sees another drop it's a water and there is no question of analysis, there is unconditional love and merging, so no question of forming a network.

- Treat them as such

Now that we know let me try to share my experience in trying to follow this commandment.

First thing that happens is that we start treating all abhyasi brethren as such. This is because they having shattered their network are able to give that unconditional love and we are just giving them back.

Next, we try to follow with the people we are meeting first time, and we feel that we are following the commandment. But here there is no impression or analysis of that person is in our mind so we are able to do that.

The most difficult part is to follow with our family members and friends correctly, as we have already formed the network. So there is a mutual love/hate relationship, which has feelings and impressions attached with it. When we talk because of our prejudice we think, we know how he will behave, so either we don't say what we need to or there is a fear associated with it. So to convert this mutual love/hate relationship to unconditional love, one has to shatter this network and become as pure as possible by thorough cleaning and with Master's support.
Pardon me Master - for creating these categories.

Master talks about bringing world peace by following this commandment. Think over it, how beautiful the world will be if each and every person follows this. There will be perfect harmony without jealousy, hatred and competition only pure love

- Divine Love.

Next Master talks about how this will have effects on the higher layers Brahmand and beyond, which will bring forth its effects in this world. To understand this lets assume that the higher layers keep the individual network of each and everybody. Just imagine how complex and how many hierarchies or layers it will have. Hierarchy by region, country, state, town etc. Hierarchy by religion, caste, sub-caste, sub-subcaste etc. and so on you can think of many such hierarchies by education, language etc. How can the "Original thought" come to us from through such a complex structure ?? All His grace.

Once we start breaking the individual network, and not forming the new one not only we establish our connection with the highest but also we help others by simplifying their network removing ourselves from them so as to help them reach the highest.

That is why Master insists "9pm Universal Prayer", so that the collective force and every individual's thought breaks as many networks as possible and simplifies this complex structure to bring forth "Peace in the world".

Commandment 7:
Be not revengeful for the wrongs done by others. Take them with gratitude as heavenly gifts.

- Be not revengeful for the wrongs done by others.

Lets examine the concept of revenge.
When somebody slaps you, you keep that in mind and next time you get a chance you will slap him twice if not once. If the other fellow is also the same he will beat you more. That's how all the wars in the history have started and that is what going on presently in the world. It is the revengeful attitude, which has disturbed the peace on the earth.
Lets take another example; somebody gives you a gift for your birthday or child's birthday. You keep that in mind and next time you give a bigger gift, if not similar for his child's birthday. So on next occasion even if somebody cannot afford will still try to give bigger gift. Isn't this Revenge??

The point is we have a concept of right and wrong, good and bad, which is why one is considered as revenge and other as being good. We need to come out of this fallacy.

- Take them with gratitude as heavenly gifts.

Why should we take everything as everything coming from God? Lets examine the theory of "Karma" - Everything happens to us is because of our own actions.

As Master says "When we do something applying our head and heart it forms impressions, which remains in the seed form and gets washed away as a Bhog, which needs to be undergone." The circumstances have to be created to undergo the bhog. The other thing Master says is "Nature wants to keep everything pure and crystal clear just as it was in the beginning."

Thought is a power and what you think you become.
Let's take a materialistic example, as it would be easy to understand in this world full of it. Say a person has Rs. 10 lakhs as his balance in the world and he wants to become crorepati (get Rs 1 cr). Now when he applies all his thought and energy towards that. The thought power disturbs the nature's balance and to undergo the bhog, he gets that money from his business. To keep the balance nature has to give it back where it belongs, so he has to suffer loss later on to complete the bhog created by his own action. This is very simple example but if you consider other parameters like if money comes from 10 different people and goes back to 50 other people, think how many families will suffer and the revengeful attitude of each family can cause innumerable coils, which will need to be restored.

Now think of it in terms of feeling of love and hatred. How many times we are revengeful by giving hatred for hatred and love for love. Let me clarify that its doesn't mean we should not give love, but when it is given in response to love, may be other person doesn't deserve it or we are denying love to other deserving person.

Take a moment to look back at the events in your life and you will surely understand how you have built your own fate in this life itself. That is why the Prayer says

" We are yet but slaves of wishes putting bar to our advancement"

So what should we do, take everything as coming from God and thank Him for allowing you to undergo the bhog and helping in purification. Now question arises what to think, what to do, I am feeling helpless. Yes, feel the helplessness, surrender to the Master who is omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient and do everything as His trustee. As Gita says do the "Nishkam Karma".

Commandment 8:
Be happy to eat in constant Divine thought whatever you get with due regard to honest and pious earnings.

Here for the first time Master talks about the material aspect of life (food and earnings) and how we can use it for spiritual progress. As Master says materialism and spirituality are interwoven like warp and woof. Materialism is something we cannot avoid in today's world, so why not make use of it for spiritual benefit. First thing to understand is the term "materialism". As Master says "it is something which pervades the entire sphere of Maya." This is very important because people often confuse this with maya. To live we have to eat food, provide home for family, earn to be able to fulfill these duties. We need various things like clothes, furniture, vehicle and so on. But to have attachment with these is maya, which we need to get rid of. Owning is we have to do, but own it as a trustee of the Divine., so that there is no attachment and use it for His purposes, since everything is His.

Now lets look at the commandment and see how we to do that.

- Be happy to eat in constant Divine thought, whatever you get

Here happiness and divine thought are the most important, as Master says "happiness is a state next to the Divine" and fixing our thought on divine we establish the link with the ultimate. By applying thought to food, thought being energy and food being matter absorbs the energy, which after eating gets converted to blood and flows through the whole body. This way whole body starts to get purified with the divine energy and as Master says "so much distance is covered so easily."

Another thing to note here is "whatever you get", we know everything is His, so there is no point analyzing what you get. If we do that we are diverting from happiness and divine both, knowing the power of thought we know where we can land, so lets not move away from the path.

We all know the distance we have to cover is infinite, so each and every opportunity to reach the goal should be used to the fullest extent. So Master says "if all our actions should be done with happiness and divine thought so as to reach the goal. By maintaining the pure thought throughout, we start purifying the surroundings or the layers which affect us. As they get purified, it enables us to remain purer and the chain reaction continues. SO not only we are moving towards the goal but also move others knowingly or unknowingly.

- with due regard to honest and pious earnings

With so much stress on purity, all our earnings should be honest and pious to enable us to remain pure. Earnings is the basis for sustaining in this material world as purity is the basis for sustaining in the spiritual world.

Commandment 9:
Mould your living so as to rouse a feeling of love and piety in others.

Out of all the commandments, I found this one to be the most difficult to follow, so lets try to understand what Master says to be able to follow it to the extent possible.

- Rouse a feeling of love and piety in others.

How can we rouse a feeling of love and piety in others? We know each one have a separate identity and different nature. Each human being behaves separately to a particular situation, so in such a case how should we mould ourselves to be able to follow this commandment?

Master says "Live your life in such a way so as to become cynosure of His eyes."
We all have felt His love, His grace sometime or other. Some feel it more some less but we know it is there, in spite of our blemishes, animal characteristics and egoism. The moment we create a vaccum in us we receive His grace. The only thing we can do and must to become "cynosure of His eyes" is to express the Divine fully and completely throughout the day and night. Or in other words let Him express Himself through us.

As we have established our goal in commandment 3, how to achieve complete oneness? By becoming perfect vacuum or in other words complete purity, so the Divine is expressed all the time.

Here Master gives example of Nature and uses the word Divine and Nature interchangeably. Nature is completely balanced providing the environment of complete growth for everyone. The other thing to note is that there are so many elements in nature and each having its own purpose and role in the creation. To maintain the balance each one had to be in right proportion, it any of them increases or decreases, She knows how to bring it to balance.

Earlier there were so many trees and forests and then we started cutting them down for our selfish interests. As a result carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide increased making the earth warmer. Now realizing that we see everywhere people planting plants and trying to stop cutting of forests and preserving it to restore the balance.

Similarly we should live in perfect balance and in harmony with the Divine, keeping in mind fair right and due regard for everybody. When people see divinity in us, they will be automatically attracted and will also behave accordingly. We see examples of the people by reading books and good stories or by listening to lectures have changed their behavior. Just imagine if we express the divine, and everybody even if only reciprocates, how effective it will be and soon earth will be devoid of jealousy, hatred, ego etc. and will become Heaven.

This is possible only when we live in His (Sri RamChandra's) consciousness. You can see several examples in the institute of people and families living and spreading His consciousness, have crossed physical limitations and living in perfect harmony with nature and complete balance in all walks of life.

Commandment 10:
At bedtime, feeling the presence of God, repent for the wrongs committed. Beg forgiveness in a supplicant mood, resolving not to allow the repetition of the same.

This commandment looks very simple, but still struggling it to follow it to the fullest extent. Lets examine it in parts to be able to understand.

- At bedtime, feeling the presence of God

First thing is to understand why at bedtime, as the Master says it is the meeting point of activity and inactivity. We go from active state to the inactivity. As the tradition says, when someone is sleeping He is in the company of God. Hence bedtime is the time when we try to be free from all the worldly things and go to sleep.

The most important and difficult thing is "feeling the presence of God". Now how to feel the presence of God, no one has seen the God then how can we feel His presence. Here the Master says, for the beginners when you feel a temporary lull or calmness. The other word Master uses for God is "Nothingness". When we are free from all our worldly attachments, jealousy, greed and ego, we are free or in other word "nothing" so that we make ourselves deserving to feel the nothingness. If we cannot be free from all these bondages for even for 5 minutes at bedtime, then forget about reaching the goal.

Once we feel the presence, the link is established and we know the relationship and that He is the Master and we are all His slaves. Initially I found this very offending, but with His grace continued on the path and was contemplating over it again and again. Let me share my viewpoint over it. At the time of joining the system, we are "slave of I 'ness". I 'ness is the Master and "I" slave of it. All our actions are directed towards serving the "I 'ness".
        - I am father, so my son should behave like this.
        - I am husband, so my wife should follow me.
        - I am his son, so my father/mother should forgive all my mistakes and still love me.
        - I have so and so degree, so people should respect me.
        - I gave him Rs.100 that day so he is now my slave.
        - I am boss of this person. Hence I deserve complete respect.
Our goal is to have complete oneness with God or "Nothingness". The only way to achieve the goal is to become "nothing" is to give up "I" and that can be achieved by accepting "Nothingness" as the Master instead of "I 'ness". Contemplate over it, and then you will surely feel the greatness of the Master.

- Repent for the wrongs committed. Beg forgiveness in a supplicant mood

Now that we know the relationship, we should be able to lay before Him every wrong committed. How do we know what is wrong and what is right. As the Master says "we should be able to put before Him all the wrongs committed knowingly or unknowingly". He knows what is wrong and what is right. Now if one says that "He hasn't committed anything wrong", then we know that He hasn't accepted the Master as yet. Since it is the "I", who is making one say that. As the Master says, the real repentance is that of "leaving the Homeland". We left the homeland, the state of complete balance and formed our individual networks filled up with "I" and now struggling to balance that. Once we start shattering all these networks, then the sense of the homeland comes and the real repentance starts.

As the Master says "repentance is the jerk to the thought waves and creates a vacuum in the heart and this gets filled up with His grace". When the repentance is real, Master also feels so and thinks that this mistake is pardonable, so that the vacuum created gets filled up with His grace. So we get rid of the unwanted things and become purer. The purer we become, closer we are to the Master. Ultimately, we have to assume complete purity, the state that was there, when we came to existence for the first time. So the more we realize the wrongs, the more we repent and with His grace purer we become.

- Resolving not to allow the repetition of the same.

Now that we know His greatness of forgiving our mistakes, it is our duty to make a resolution that these things will not happen again. If we keep on doing the same thing again and repenting again, then it is like taking a bath and then jumping in the mud. It is our responsibility to keep the purity granted to us by the Master. Unless we make that effort, we cannot reach the goal and goal clarity hasn't taken place.

If you think why this commandment is the last, then you will realize that it is because we are failing everyday in following the first nine commandments and so we need to repent and keep trying our best to be achieve the goal.
Wish that everybody in the world realize the greatness of the Master, and arrive on the right path.

"He is the way, He is the means, He is the Goal"