Rosedale, Toronto
Destiny
These days I’m missing Argentina, Cuba, Guyana, Trinidad, Suriname, India, South Africa, Mauritius as well as parts of the US and Canada, which are all my regular places of visitation. Woe is me! Like so many people on this planet, Earth, we are bound.
My peers, some of which are sannyasis (full-fledged monks), gurus and sages, both men and women, are all in the same boat. Most of us have established a home-base.
But we have considered carefully what is our actual home, and are we moving in the direction of being "homeward bound," as Simon and Garfunkel might say. We have a word in Sanskrit which reflects that ultimate place, Vaikuntha. "Vai" means without and "kuntha"refers to misery. So we are looking at what is referred to as the ultimate abode; where there is no distress. Can you imagine such a place?
During a virtual memorial on behalf of Indira Nayee, that took place in our local area today, devotees from their individual living spaces 'Zoomed' in to express some words of glorification. Several of the speakers used the safe phrase, "a better place," not specifying Vaikuntha. It is really hard for anyone of us to judge a soul’s destination, even if she or he lead a life of piety. Who are we to judge a person’s destiny? That is not our job, however, we can make some wholesome generalizations based upon a person’s overall behavior while on this planet. The general rule of karma holds that where there are kind acts a good next life is determined, and if our actions are dubious and shady then some term in darkness is the outcome. Sounds fair, doesn’t it?
May the source be with you!
3 km
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