Radiant Immortal Soul!
Blessed Couple;
Jai Sri Ram! May God bless you!
Upon this very happy and auspicious day of your sacred marriage, I pray to the Lord to shower His grace upon you both and grant you happiness, health, prosperity and success in life. I am very happy to give you this little message about the greatness and glory of married life and the sanctity of the home of a house-holder in the Grihasthashrama. This message, I give in the name of Parama Pujya Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj invoking his blessings and Guru-kripa upon you both. Receive this message with earnest attention. You will be greatly benefited.
The significance of married life is great indeed. Fortunate indeed is that couple who start married life with right understanding of its importance and greatness. Marriage is a sacred spiritual partnership between two souls who have come upon this earth to evolve an ideal life of nobility, virtue and Dharma and attain their goal of divine perfection through such ideal life. Therefore, the home of the married couple is a sanctified centre of spiritual life. The home is their place of worship, prayer, spiritual Sadhana and daily meditation. The cultural ideal of your holy motherland, Bharatavarsha, regards this second stage of a person's life, namely, the Grihasthashrama, as the sacred field for the practice of noble virtue, Paropakara and Dharma and for the awakening of your true inner spiritual nature. You are Divine Atman. You are not merely a physical creature or a mental-intellectual being but you are a spiritual being far superior to the lesser biological and psychological aspects of your temporary human personality. You are divinities without birth or death. Your eternal, imperishable, immortal, spiritual nature must be realised and experienced in this very life. To attain this wonderful experience the wife and the husband must help each other. They are mutual helpers in this grand adventure of ideal living and spiritual unfoldment.
The home is a sacred arena for the attainment of self-conquest and self-mastery which is more thrilling than the scaling of Mount Everest. The daily life of the Grihastha and his Grihalakshmi must be the sublime process of manifesting their inner divinity and expressing it outwardly through thought, speech and action. Lead this divine life. Truth, purity and universal love and compassion constitute the basic foundation of such divine life. The essence of divine life is selflessness and Seva, devotion and daily worship, concentration and regular meditation and to discriminate between the real and the unreal, the divine and the undivine, between the spiritual and the unspiritual.
Blessed couple! May you both lead such a divine life! Feel that your house is the abode of God. Make God the most important factor in your life. Give God the central place in your daily life. God who is the Lord of the universe is the master of your home also. Feel it a sacred privilege to be servants at His feet. Tell Him with deep feelings, "I am Thine, all is Thine, nothing belongs to me. Thou art everything O Lord. Bless me to worship You and to serve You in and through all beings." Feel God's divine presence always in your home. Feel that you are doing everything to please Him, to glorify Him. Make your home the holy house of prayer. Both of you must worship together, pray together and glorify God together. Uphold Dharma. Love and respect each other. Evolve the life of harmony, beauty and mutual regard. Develop noble character. Let moderation and a wise self-control be the keynote of your life in all things. Create a sublime spiritual atmosphere within the home. Shine with lofty virtue. Let your life be an inspiration to other young couples. Make such an atmosphere at home that one who enters your home must feel at once inspired and elevated. Such is true success in life. In such a home Satya-Yuga will prevail. Kali-Yuga cannot enter there. Such a home is Vaikuntha on earth. Such is the glory and greatness of Grihasthashrama.
Always regard your married life in its correct perspective and recognise its sanctity, spirituality and divinity. This is the wisdom. This is the way to joy, peace and blessedness. This is the secret of spiritualising all your activities and living Yoga in daily life. Thus the home-life will become the gateway to immortality, spiritual perfection and divine realisation. Verily, Grihasthashrama, when it is rightly understood and nobly lived, becomes the great portal to eternal blessedness and liberation. Our salutations and adorations to ideal married couples who are visible divinities and worthy of our worship. In that home where dwell the Pativrata Nari and her loyal and devoted husband like Bhagavati Mother Sita and Maryada-Purushottama Lord Rama there the Devatas from Devaloka come to offer worship and feel themselves sanctified. All the sacred rivers like Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati abide in such an ideal home. That home is sacred like Varanasi, Prayaga, Ayodhya, Mathura and Dwaraka. May this world be blessed by such ideal married couples, and such sacred houses of ideal Grihasthashrama! I wish you joy and peace. May your life be radiant like the shining sun and bring light into the lives of many others! Hari Om Tat Sat!
With regards, Prem and Prayers for your highest welfare and happiness,
Yours, at the feet of Sri Gurudev,
(Swami Chidananda)
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