Our GIR Tour and Vedantic Concepts _ Day 3

Our GIR tour and vedantic concepts.
Day-3

Menue for the breakfast at the hotel was – soup, Chhola, bhatura, bread pakoda, butter bread sandwiches and fruits watermelon & papaya, soups, soft drinks. 😋

Now how to choose? What to eat and what not?🤔

I remembered the first question of Prashnottar Ratnamalika by Bhagvan Adi Shankaracharya.
“Kim upadeyam? ( what can be taken/followed? क्या ग्राह्य (ग्रहण करना ) है?”
Answer is- “गुरूवचनम्।” ( Guru- Self Realised master)

That means you have to follow your Gurus teachings only. And Guru always tells “dos and don’t ” to the seekers favorable to achieve the ultimate goal.  So I remembered that – ‘Treat the body as a vehicle for your spiritual journey. Try to maintain it just like you maintain your car like regular servicing, filling proper amount of fuel and cleaning as per the company’s instructions so that your journey will be obstacle free.’

2nd question is,
“Kim Heyam?( what should be discarded?)”

Answer is – “अकार्यम्। ” (whatever not inspired by shastras- actions hindering the spiritual path. )

Sadhana panchakam also mentions 40 points to maintain our lifestyle favorable for the spiritual journey.

So, I decided to apply my theoretical vedanta knowledge in actions.
My stomach was calling me….mind was pulling me….flavors of food were attracting  me towards the dining table.
So to maintain my vehicle( body), I started eating(like filling fuel…..not less not more but the proper)

Eaten (grahyam) Chhola, discarded bhatura….
Eaten  fruits, discarded bread pakoda…..
Eaten one butter sandwich discarded other piece….
Drank soup discarded softdrink……

Thus we all made our individual vehicles ready to enter in our cedan car for GIR. We were late by 30 minutes to reach the car.
Altaf said- “koi dikkat nahi” ☺

In the evening at 6.30pm we reached at GIR wildlife hotel.
The hotel was not like usual ones….it was as if a farm house. Not the farm, but that was a mango orchard. There were so many mango trees with raw mangoes hanging in abundance. The beauty of the nature is the Lord’s glory. That is called Ishvarsrushti. Brahman manifested in the form of natural beauty.  🤗

Our cottage cum villa was like one in horror movies.🙄 At extreme end with old and unplanned look. But everything we  needed was there…..( In childhood I used to afraid of the ghost. But now, vedantic knowledge made me fearless.🤪. Hope ghost is not hearing my statement 🤥🤕🤣)

Housekeeper boy came in the room with all the materials ( water bottles, pillows, keys,etc), and asked
” Itane durse sher dekhane aye ho?” ( Did you come to see a lion from such a long distance?)

“Yes….”

“Most of the tourists couldn’t get the sightings…. luck ki baat hoti hai…….”🤨🤨

( we became silent…..)😑

He said , ” But sometimes the lion comes at our hotel gate, we have seen it in cctv…”(kabhi kabhi sher hotel ke gate tak ata hai, hamne dekha cctv camerame)

( we  got delighted…..)😘🤩

Seeing our delighted faces he asked,” aren’t you afraid?/ Tumko dar nahi laga??”😱

Our common expression was – we are so eager and excited to see a lion that we will feel obliged even if he / lion happens to eat us…..ha…ha…..👻😄😄
🏃……..He ran away……..

Before sleeping, I was recalling all the happenings of  the whole day…correlating with the concepts I learnt in classes and pondering over……..

“To achieve the goal to see the lions , we have been  doing so much efforts and hard work by spending money & time with consistent desire without allowing it to fail accepting and adjusting whatever coming in the way…..
What about the highest spiritual goal? Do I have the same intensity in desiring That? Do I spend enough time on contemplating upon That? “

Thus making my mind determined to continue the Sadhana with perseverance to reach That Ultimate, I have ended the day 3 world…..

      Hari Om !