Create Our World

Lord Swaminarayan. The logo of a Hindu Temple in Somerset

While in Somerset, NJ, my Nana was getting her hair done at a local beauty shop and I had some time to kill.

Wandering nearby, I ran across a Hindu Temple that was very welcoming.  

Mo, which must be short for his full name, showed me around, explained some aspects of his religion, layed out the coming festivities the temple had planned for their 5th anniversary, and gave me some reading material.

“Journey Back to God” is a book written by Sadhu Shrutivallabhdas.  Mo gave me this book and I want to share with you the names of the Chapter Titles and the Quotes of each chapter.

Although religion is a touchy subject to most, I hope that the enclosed material is applicable to anyone, whether they are religious or not.  Whether you agree with the information or not, hopefully it fosters an environment of understanding and growth.

This is a statue and stage in the temple.

“Journey Back to God”

Chapters

1. Affection: “The affections are like lightning; you cannot tell where they will strike till they have fallen.  Affection or love is the fire of life; it either consumes or purifies.  It is the key to the universe which unlocks all the doors.  Affection is the only service that power cannot command and money cannot buy.”

2. Universal Suffering: “In suffering one learns to pray best of all.  It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to suffereing, but to only to one’s own suffereing.  The salvation of the world is in man’s suffering.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

3. Prayer: ”The wings of prayer carry high and far.  God hears no more than heart speaks; and if the heart be dumb, God will certainly be deaf.  The greatest pray is patience.  Work as if you were to live 100 years; pray as if you were to die tommorrow.” – Gautama Buddha

4.Gambling: ”Gambling means hoping to get something for nothing or for very little.  Gambling is an immense waste of time and energy, and we, as a nation can’t afford that waste. (BBC program about England)

5.  Life:  ”We are here to add what we can to life, not to get what we can from it.  Life is a mission.  Every other definition of life is false.  The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.  Make sure the thing you’re living for is worth dying for.”

6. Food For Thought:  ”Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts.  You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tommorrow where your thoughts take you.”

7.  Death Experience:  ”Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear; Of this strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.”

8.  Spiritual Master: ”The pathmaker of your destination to God.”

9.  Mystery of the Mind:  “The mind is like the stomach. It is not how much you put into it that counts, but how much it digests.”

***

“Live everyday as if it were your last.  Do every job as if you were the boss.  Drive as if all other vehicles were police cars.  Treat everybody else as if he were you.” – From the back of “Journey Back to God”

Share your thoughts in the comments section, on Create Our World’s Facebook Wall, or email me at 2createourworld@gmail.com.

Steven M. Newman walked around the world and wrote a book about it, World Walk. 

He left his hometown of Bethel, Ohio on April 1, 1983 and walked back into town on April 1, 1987.

Why did he do it?

“…one day in 1977, I was sitting at my reporter’s desk at the Casper Star-Tribune in Wyoming, when I realized how terribly little I knew about the daily lives and dreams of the everyday people in the other parts of the world. Sure I knew what the newspapers and television said about our world, but what were those people really like? I couldn’t believe they were all that different from me. Nor could I bring myself to join the chorus of fear and cynicism that seemed to be everywhere in American society and the world in general.” 

I read this book, while working at New Dominion School in Central Virginia.  It was eye-opening and a big reason for me believing that the world is a good place.

His message:

“…love, not hate, is the strongest force in our world, and that we as adults can experience life with the same openness, exuberance, interest, playfulness and joy that we felt as children.”

www.theworldwalker.com

Create Our World,

Ben.

I read Siddhartha in my last year of college.  I was going through a classic book reading phase; On the Road, Siddhartha, Travels with Charley, Bonfire of the Vanities, and a bunch of others.

At the time, I recognized although I was about to graduate from Michigan State University, I had a lot to learn.

I was recently inspired to start reading again and looking through my aunt’s books, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse stood out.

Two ideas grabbed me from the book which will be instrumental in my coming journey and maybe yours:

1.  You must learn on your own!!!

“Wisdom is not communicable… Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom.  One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” (Page 115)

We all learn by living.  Sadness, happiness, love, suffering; they are a greatest teachers.

2.  To accept and love your world, as it is

“…it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration, and respect.” (Page 119)

It is easy for me to think that ONE DAY, when I have traveled the world and am wise, I will be happier.  Or ONE DAY, when I have met my soul mate.  Or ONE DAY, when I am rich, that will be the day.

Today is that day.  And it will always be that day.

Create Our World,

ben.

“And Govinda saw that this mask-like smile, this smile of unity over the flowing forms, this smile of simultaneousness over the thousands of births and deaths-this smile of Siddhartha-was exactly the same as the calm, delicate, impenetrable, perhaps gracious, perhaps mocking, wise, thousand-fold smile of Gotama, the Buddha, as he perceived it with awe a hundred times” (page 122) of Siddhartha.