Om Namah Shivaya, Ramji. You are my guru in this life.
Ramji: OK. If you’re my disciple, then please reply to my comments to this email. I think my ideas will save you a lot of time and worry.
You have changed the way I look at the world.
Ramji: That’s great!
I’m a householder so it becomes very hard to get rid of my ego. I sometimes try to practice karma yoga but am not good at it.
Ramji: Getting rid of your ego is not possible. You need a good healthy ego to manage the householder role. Karma yoga is the perfect philosophy for making family life beautiful. You probably need to know more about it because it is a really enjoyable practice. We all have karma until the day we die and karma yoga is the best solution for a happy life. Karma yoga gives the ego a sense of purpose and teaches it how to intelligently manage necessary karma, eliminate unnecessary karma and cultivate good karma.
I know I need to practice hard to get rid of my karma.
What karmas (activities) do you need to get rid of? Before you set out to get rid of something it might be wise to figure out how you obtained it in the first place. If you don’t, you will just create more unwanted karma.
I hope in my next life I get a guru like you in my early years so that I have only one purpose in my life and that is to realize that “I’m that”.
Ramji: More good news, Rajiv. There isn’t a next life. Only this one. Even if you die you come back to this world and I will still be here waiting. So let’s solve this problem now.
So what is your purpose in this life? I’d say it was trying to get free of the idea that karma is limiting you. Vedanta proves that you are actually not affected by karma (what happens) even though it feels as if you are affected.
A guru is someone who removes ignorance. Ignorance of what? Ignorance of one’s self. So you can do your karma in the karma yoga spirit and pursue self-knowledge at the same time. I’ll let you think about it for a while. Let me know your thoughts.
Here’s what one of my disciples who discovered what he really is said to me today, “The devotee gets a gift that keeps on giving: a simple love that reveals itself as a beautiful, part-less, solid never-ending subtle sense of bliss and peace that cannot stop ever because it is nature itself revealing her majesty through one’s seemingly limited self.”
I was really touched when I got this email from you.
Ramji: I was equally touched by your beautiful bhakti for me. You are like Arjuna who says to Krishna, “Please teach me. I surrender to you.” Krishna teaches him karma yoga when he asks, What is karma?”
I never thought I would ever get to talk to you even through email. So this is really a wonderful moment for me. Thank you so much for being there and thanks a lot for your love and blessings. It means a lot for me. My pranams to you and Sundri
Ramji: You’re most welcome, Rajiv. It’s my duty to serve devotees like you. Pranams you to also, You are indeed not different from me.
Om and Prem.
Ramji
