May 4, 2022

Notes by Janvika Gupta

The virtue that we learned about today is called Shraddha. It means to have faith. It is of 2 kinds.

1. Shraddha in yourself.

2. Shraddha in bhagwan.

Faith in Yourself is believing that you can do it.Trusting yourself that you will be able to achieve anything that you work hard for.

 How to practice shraddha in yourself – 

1. Get rid of words like “I can’t do it.”

2. Keep your promises – to others and to yourself.

Faith in God

To understand this Shankarji told us a story of Lord Krishna and Arjuna. Once they were passing through a jungle and they stopped at a poor farmer’s house for some food and drink. Farmer happily shared his meal of the day which was a glass of milk he got from his very old cow.The farmer split the milk into 2 parts and gave it to Krishna and Arjuna. They both had the milk and while leaving Krishna blessed the farmer that may your cow die. Listening to this blessing Arjuna got surprised..

Further on their journey they stopped at a rich merchant asking for food and drink.Merchant refused to serve them saying that he is very busy. While leaving the merchant Krishna blessed him that he may get more wealth.

Hearing this Arjuna could not stop himself and asked Krishna that why did he cursed the farmer and blessed the merchant with more wealth. Krishna smiled and replied that farmers cow was being a distraction and was keeping him from becoming one with God so if the cow dies farmer will have  less distraction and will become one with God whereas merchant will be busy earning money and will have no time to become one with God.

So the story taught us that if we try to do good then God will help us where as if we are not on the right path the challenges in our life will be extremely difficult that they could even make us give up.

How to practice Shraddha in Bhagwan –

1. Through Prayers. It is of 3 kinds.

•      Prayer for inner strength to overcome bad habits
•       Prayers to show gratitude.
•       Prayers for the happiness of everyone.

2. We should never pray for things for ourselves.

RAW 

Say thanks to each component of the food before you eat your meal.