The Connection Between Luck and Spirituality - Part 2

The connection between spirituality and luck was discussed earlier. Another aspect that obstructs the good fortunes of a family is pitru dosha. The curse of dead ancestors falls on the family when they do not perform pitru pindam, the prescribed after-death rites, and rituals. These rituals help the preta, the dead soul in its journey to pitru loka which begins after 41 days of death. It takes a year to reach the pitru loka, according to the experts.

The departed soul has to pass through numerous obstacles and pains in this journey. So prayers and charities such as annadanam is to be performed for the complete year as it gives peace and ease to the departed soul in its journey to the other world. Once the soul reaches the pitru loka, pious acts, charities, and rituals like shradham are to be continued by the family. It helps the pitrus to evolve from the pitru loka to the higher worlds. The pitrus may get lifted to the upper lokas only if there is good punya, otherwise, they will have to return to the bhumandala for another rebirth.

A virtuous pitru needs a good womb for rebirth. If there is no good womb, the curse of this pitru will work on the family. A good womb means a chaste woman with awareness of dharma. Only a virtuous person will get such a woman as a wife. Then good pitrus and even divine souls can come as their offspring. What a good fortune it will be if a Vivekananda is born as a child, for example!

Normally, the ancestral souls will take birth in the same family tree. So it is important that the children in the family lead a dharmic life. Otherwise, Pitrus in neech rashi will come and take birth in the families that are not god-fearing or do not live, respecting dharma. An auspicious worship system is also important as discussed earlier. Pitrus in neech rashi means the sinful ancestors who had committed some sins or had died by suicide, murder, accident, or a dreaded disease. The women in such families will give birth to children with equally sinful character, or they will die prematurely in the same way as these neech pitrus. Even political and religious vendetta and murders are prompted by evil spirits and pitrus.

Now how to filter or neutralize these bad pitrus who stand behind us like a shadow and obstruct our path? They are neutralized through pitru suddhi. The pitrus cannot be fully neutralized or purified by the tantric methods. The Vedic rituals give only temporary results because of the unique character of kali yuga. The methods of other religions are also equally ineffective in this. So what is the way to perform pitru suddhi?

The most effective way is Gurupooja of Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru. Guru brings the pitrus and the deities under his aura just by his sankalpam. The one that has to be neutralized is neutralized. The auspicious ones are placed for rebirth in the families thus purified through Gurupooja. No rituals are required except prayers. It is a device for gotra suddhi (purity of stock) allowed to Guru by God's compassion. The good fortune, peace, and prosperity of a family are ensured forever through Gurupooja. Society can be reformed only through a lineage of such spiritually sensitized families.

Mukundan P.R.

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The Connection Between Luck and Spirituality

 The Connection Between Luck and Spirituality

Is there any relationship between our spiritual practices and good fortune in life? This was one of the most talked-about topics in the discourses of Navajyoti Sri KarunakaraGuru. The majority of his followers came from the downtrodden class. They were mostly from Sudra communities beginning from Nairs, Ezhavas, and Dalits. Guru was much pained to see the sad plight of these communities. He connected their pathetic situation with their ignorant lifestyle and meritless worship tradition.

Many of them came to Guru at a point when they had exhausted all Punya (good fortune) in life. There was no unity, love, and harmony in their domestic life. Each member of the family held an opposite opinion on everything. They do not help each other most of the time. There will be mutual accusations and mistrust. If one person in the family is well off, he will keep the others at a certain distance fearing that they may ask for some help. Most of them live separately with their wives and children. Their wives feel that the husband's parents are a burden. The poor aged parents become physically and mentally sick because of the environment of insecurity, lack of love, and care.

If any of these people earn some money, they will live ignorantly without any knowledge of dharma because it was not taught to them. Over a period of time, their Punya and health get deteriorated. In the end, they will have only diseases as their companions. When there is no Punya, there will be poverty also. Poverty is both spiritual and material. At last, they go away from this world without earning any merit. This is the domestic situation in most families today.

There are many psychologists and social scientists but they have not been able to identify the real reason behind this or offer a solution. Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru brought to light the inseparable connection between Spirituality and Punya. Every member of the family will have a separate Ishta Devata. One may worship Siva, while the others may like Durga, Vishnu, Hanuman, and so on. All these deities have different qualities, likes, and dislikes. The Vishnu bhakta would be a vegetarian, while the worshipper of Durga cannot live without non-veg. One among them may never go to a temple; he may be an atheist or a Vedanti. So in the same family, you will find different characters that make unity impossible. Most often an outsider will come and take advantage of their disunity. This is the situation in most Hindu families. It is this spiritual disunity that gets reflected at the national level too. Hindus can never be united because of their spiritual disunity.

If you examine the background of these families still closer, you will find that they have behind them a tradition of the family deity. Many families will have a family temple to where they go and worship occasionally. That family deity will be a sort of evil spirits such as an ancestral spirit, kuttichattan, yakshi, brahmarakshas, or any other such evil spirits. These are found more in southern India. In the north the names are different. They are worshipped with the sweet-sounding names of Trimurti or of some other grand gods and goddesses. These evil spirits will shatter the peace in the house, and drain off the Punya of worshippers. When there is no Punya, there will not be good fortunes by way of wealth, health, beauty, riches, wisdom, or fine culture. There will be perpetual misery in life.

Realizing that misery in life is due to the paucity of Punya in the soul, Navajyoti Sri Karunakara Guru opened a new path for such people by which they can earn Punya in life. Thousands of families were rescued from a malignant spiritual culture and were guided into Guru Margam – the New Path of Spiritual Liberation.

The Structure of Brahmanda: The Indian Concept of the Universe

The rishis called our universe Brahmanda and had explained its structure both in its astronomical and spiritual aspects, long before modern science. Brahmanda is a vast egg-shaped space with multi-dimensional biospheres with distances of trillions of light-years. The sun and its planets including our earth rotate in this space.

Brahmanda has a north pole (Dhruva Nakshatra) as well as a south pole that determines the time and space of Brahmanda in a vast emptiness. Dhruva Nakshatra might have a much deeper mystical meaning related to the creation of Brahmanda. We will not go into that now. Apart from the Dhruva Nakshatra, there is also the Saptarshi mandala(the great bear) consisting of seven celestial orbs on the outer periphery of Brahmanda. A line visualized as the path connecting the north and south pole through the center is considered the axis of Brahmanda.

There are 27 nakshatras or the Milkyway galactical constellations arranged like a girdle at the outermost ring of the Brahmanda. These nakshatras are grouped into 12 Rashi mandalas or constellations. All these nakshatras or Rashi mandalas emit unique radiances. They exert their corresponding influences upon the souls in the Brahmanda defining their structure, qualities, and character.

Like the earth spins around the sun, the sun has a similar movement around a Rashi mandala. The movement of the earth around the sun produces micro-time such as day and night, seasons and years, and along with it, the evolution of life too. The movement of the sun around a Rashi mandala produces macro time such as Yuga, Chaturyuga, and Manvantara that measures the process of creation and dissolution internal to the Brahmanda.

There are fourteen biospheres or lokas for the souls to reside, seven up and seven down in the space between the north pole and south pole of the Brahmanda. The seven worlds below are called Patala Loka, the nether worlds.

Our Loka is Bhuloka that forms part of the solar system. It is situated at the center of the axis of Brahmanda. Above the Bhuloka is Bhuvarloka (antariksha). Above this space is Swarga Loka. Above Swarga Loka are still more finer lokas called Maharloka, Janaloka, tapoloka and then Satyaloka, (the seat of Brahman or God). These lokas are also referred as Trimurti mandalam, Rishi mandalam, Iswara mandalam, Brahma mandalam or Parabrahma mandalam by other sages.

Brahmanda is the dwelling place of trillions of souls of different nature. Each loka is inhabited by various types of souls with different frequencies of consciousness and happiness or bliss. For example, in the Gandharva loka ( a sub-world in the Bhuvarloka), happiness (ananda) is hundred times than the manushyananda. Similarly, in the Pitruloka, Devaloka, or Swargaloka, the ananda is many hundred times more than that of manushyananda. The ananda in lokas above Swarga such as Maharloka, Tapoloka, and Satyaloka are in many many thousandfolds. The souls aspire to evolve through these lokas and to merge with Satya loka, the penultimate resting place of all souls. The souls go up and down in these lokas, taking several bodies according to their karma.

Brahmanda is a finite world, meaning it has a beginning and an end. The age of a Brahmanda is measured in terms of Manvantaras. 71 chaturyugas constitute a Manvantara. A Chaturyuga means a cluster of four yugas, namely Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and Kali (43,20,000 years). A Manvantara is equal to 71x43,20,000 years = 30,67,20,000 years. At the end of 14 such manvantaras (or a Kalpa) the Brahmanda gets dissolved, only to be reproduced in the next Kalpa. The present Brahmanda is seven Manvantaras old, i.e. approximately 15 billion years. There are seven more Manvantaras to go before its dissolution. Modern science says our galaxy has come into existence about 14 billion years ago. This comes very near to the 15 billion years of the manvantara time scale.

A soul can access the higher lokas only through a mahatma who has got evolved to that loka through long Tapasya. Various soul groups like Pitrus, Yakshas, Kinnaras, Gandharvas, Siddhas, Devas, etc. occupy the space between Bhuvar Loka and Swargaloka in the Brahmanda. The Loka above Swarga is. Mahar Loka, which is the seventh in the hierarchy of Lokas. Only one out of billions of souls may reach Mahar Loka and the Lokas above it because of the resistance from Yogabhrashtas.

Who are the Yogabhrashtas? Yogabhrashtas are those jealous and fallen souls who have got slipped in the path of spirituality. Even some angelic beings also are included in this. Satan, Jinn, etc. are the other names for Yogabhrashtas. They block the path of other aspirants who want to ascend to higher Lokas. Even great Mahatmas that we know of remain in between the border of six and seven, i.e between the Swarga and Mahar Loka.

Sri Krishna was the only soul in the distant past who could reach up to Tapo Loka or the abode of Ishwara, transcending the seventh and eighth heaven or gyana Bhumika. In recent history, Prophet Muhammad was shown the Mahar loka (the seventh heaven) by an angel. But he could not actualize it further. A group of ferocious spirits (Jinns) corrupted his ideology in the subsequent time. The reason why Sri Krishna does not advise the worship of devas is to be found here. He stopped the worship of Indra. He humbled the pride of Brahma. He chided the Vaidikas whose main aspiration was to achieve the pleasures of Swarga.

In the present age, Sri Karunakara Guru is known to have transcended the eighth and ninth gyana bhumikas through the help of Sri Krishna. On the day of Guru's spiritual ascendence, a revelation came from the Light: "What I wished for ages has been fulfilled now". Sri Krishna, appearing in vision, advised the followers to pray to Guru only from now on. A new Guru Mantra or Akhanta Nama was also revealed from the Light. The devotees can ascend to Parabrahma Mandala, the highest Loka, through the chanting of Guru Mantra.

Mukundan P.R.