One of the blog readers asked me a question

A very simple question.. but for which I don’t know the answer

The question was How to attain salvation?

One of the reasons for which I have my photo in the blog.. bcos many people get mislead by my name Gurudev , thinking that I am some saint who just came down from the Himalayas with all answers :)

I personally am really not interested in the after life scenarios.. I find it more interesting to work towards making this beautiful earth a better place to live in but at the same time definitely would love to know from a scientific perspective about what death really means, if at all it means anything..

Neverthless, these are some of my thoughts about the salvation based on whatever little I know about the ancient vedas..

If you are not inclined towards a spiritual life, I dont think the lines below will be of any interest to you.. I am not a spiritually inclined person either.. but definitely have an opinion on everything in the known/unknown universe.. my college friends keep saying that I teach them things which I myself don’t know ;)

The ancient Indian vedic texts say aham brahmasmi, which means I am the God in Sanskrit.

So, how can a person claim to be God?

By replacing the selfish I in the sentence with the selfless I

The entire concept of God and life in the vedas is that life or soul or atma as we call it is a part of the higher soul or the divine soul of the universe called paramatma. Just like cells in our body are part of a higher organism called a human! If the cells in our body are selfish then they do not realize that they are a part of a higher structure called a human body and instead just work only for themselves.. whereas a selfless cell which realizes that its a part of the human body as a whole works for the betterment of the entire body!

A person who realizes this truth that we are a part of the universal divinity, attains salvation or moksha and gets united with the higher paramatma.

So if we are to claim to be God ourselves, and not just part of the God, then one has to think beyond the self, in terms of the entire universe.. become selfless by giving up selfishness

Think and work for the greater good of the entire world, for the entire society, than for just oneself or for just one’s own family..

Which is why the vedas also say that, for a person who has realized the existence of a universal soul of which he/she is a part, does not require any religious rites to be performed after death because such a person is bound to attain salvation!

And how to realize the existence of a universal soul? By identifying one’s self with the universal soul.. and acting like a universal soul.. who would always work towards making this universe of ours a better place to live always working towards resolving the problems that exist in the society.. always ensuring peace and harmony in the society.. Vedas say Vasudaiva Kutumbakam (entire earth is a family) and Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu (May all the people live happily)

Aham Brahmasmi = I have the universal responsibility

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, every time when God wanted to do something good to this world, he didn’t do it by himself/herself.. instead God created a child.. you are one such child.. identify and achieve the purpose of your being on earth.. and you can say Aham Brahmasmi