Acceptance

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Redemption: Gandhi shows a way out of Hell

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Excerpt from Redemption Stories: Unwasted Pain by Mary Ciofalo: The movie Gandhi inspired me - particularly one scene. In it Gandhi is fasting again to try and end the horrific riots between the Hindus and Moslems. A trio of Hindu men comes to tell Gandhi that they have stopped inciting their people, and that he must now end his fast. One of them flings a piece of bread onto Gandhi's cot and tells him, "I am going to Hell, but you must eat and live." Gandhi says, "Only God determines who goes to Hell. Why do you think you are?" The man replies, "I killed a Moslem child." Gandhi winces, then says quietly,"Why?" The man replies, "They killed my wife and my son." After a moment of silence, Gandhi says quietly, "I know a way out of Hell." The Hindu man looks shocked. It is clear that he never considered redemption for himself. Gandhi says, "Go find a child without parents and raise him as your own. Bu
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Seek out the expertise

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If a law-suit has to be filed, one approaches a lawyer. To get rid of a disease, one has to call upon a doctor. In the same way, if God is wanted, the company of Sadhus must be sought. - Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
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Ramana Maharshi on Bhakti and Total Surrender

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While Bhagawan hailed Self-enquiry ( jnana marga ) as the sure, direct path, he would often say that the goal of Self-realization can also be reached through surrendering oneself to God: " Jnana Marga and Bhakti Marga ( prapatti ) are one and the same. Self-surrender leads to realization just as enquiry does." "What the bhakta calls surrender, the man who does vichara (enquiry) calls jnana . Both are trying to take the ego back to the Source from which it sprang and make it merge there." Lest we be lulled into thinking that surrender was the easier of the two, he asserted that, "A devotee concentrates on God; a seeker, follower of the jnana-marga , seeks the Self. The practice is equally difficult for both." Why is that so? "Surrender appears easy because people imagine that, once they say with their lips 'I surrender' and put their burdens on their Lord, they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can have no li
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