Change is a part of life and change is life! Life has evolved from the one celled amoeba to the complex multi-celled man and the evolution is still on. Lower species of life are changing and evolving into higher species. Man who is considered as the highest species of life on earth is changing and evolving to reveal his innate Divinity. By doing so he understands his real identity and his oneness with all creation.This transformation of man into Divine is the highest form of transformation that can take place – for by doing so, we go back to our source. It is the goal of human existence to affect this change. From our very childhood, we are taught by thought, word, deed, actions, books and example of how to live in a manner designed to help us achieve our aim. Every action that we take in life adds up to the sum of our total efforts and helps us achieve our goal.
We generally wait to do great deeds or magnificent efforts to fulfill our goal. We do not like to do regular deeds daily, small acts and actions which help us in our path. Many of us consider the ‘SitaRam’ mantra as insignificant and long stotras or prayers of praise of God in Sanskrit as superior. Importance is not given to small regular things and small acts. Regular actions of spiritual practices, though small, yield great results and make a huge difference in our lives. For that matter, any action, makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of others. We must remember that we are connected to all life on earth and every action of ours makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of others. The following story is a wonderful example the difference made by a simple action:
A tourist was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. He noticed that the shore line was strewn with thousands of starfish. The powerful waters of the high tide had pulled in a huge haul of starfish and deposited them on the sands of the beach. The tides had receded, leaving behind the fish stranded on the seashore. As he walked along, he noticed another man at a distance. He seemed to bend and pick something from the beach and throw it into the water. This man kept repeating this action again and again. He kept picking something and hurling it into the ocean.
The tourist was curious at the actions of the man. He went up to him and asked him: Good evening. I saw you pick up and throw things into the ocean. What are you doing?
The man answered: I am throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it is low tide now and all these starfish have been washed onto the shore. If I do not throw them back into the sea, they will die here on the beach from lack of oxygen.
The tourist replied: There must be thousands of starfish on this beach. How can you save them all? There are simply too many of them. It is physically impossible for you to pick every one of them and save them. Better to go back home and save a backache. Don’t you realize it is not possible for you to make a difference?
The man smiled, picked up yet another starfish and threw it back into the sea: Look, I made a difference to that one!
We are the man on the beach and the starfish too. Every single action we perform towards a better life and in spiritual practices saves us. There will be many around us to discourage us from performing any action. They will try to make us believe that a small action is of no consequence and hence to let go. Let us understand that each action adds up to a larger total and takes us towards us goal of living a fuller and better life on earth and realizing God. Let us follow the teachings of the Guru sincerely and do our daily SitaRam mantra japa and meditation.
