Every individual wants balance, happiness and progress in life. First of all, let’s understand the true essence of a balanced, happy and progressive life. When an individual gets married, he becomes part of a couple and co-creates a family. Many individuals as part of several families co-create a society, and in the same process, a nation. In this process of expansion, individual merges his or her identity with a larger entity. It is the ‘individual’ who plays a pivotal role in the social and national fabric. At the same time, an individual’s destiny is inextricably linked with that of his or her spouse, family, society and nation. In other words, every individual has five aspects of life: Personal, Conjugal, Familial and National.

Every individual wants to exist and progress. Life and growth is every individual’s inherent urge. Everybody likes growth. However, what kind of growth is desirable? A tumour in our body is also growth. But no one wants tumorous growth in the body. Nobody wants a tumour in his body. If a man goes to the gymnasium every day, and only exercises with his left arm, he would find the muscles in his left arm have become stronger after a few days, but the muscles in his right arm remain as weak as before. If an individual wants to build a strong body, all parts of the body need to become stronger. Similarly, if a man wants to achieve all round development in his life, he has to achieve development in all five aspects of life: Personal, Conjugal, Familial, Social and National. Such a growth is called balanced growth. Suppose a man is successful in his personal life but he has strained relationship with his wife and doesn’t command the respect of his children at home, he doesn’t have balance in his life. To take another example, if a man achieves success in his personal life, takes good care of his family but doesn’t enjoy a healthy relationship with his neighbours, colleagues, friends in the society, he cannot claim to be having a balanced and successful life in the true sense. A man can be considered truly successful, when he achieves success in all the five aspects of life: Personal, Conjugal, Familial, Social and National. Then there is perfect balance in life.

How can the individual get balance in all the five aspects of life? To gain this balance man needs to have a balancing factor in life. The balancing factor is the living Ideal- the purushottam of the age. He is fulfiller the best. Man has to align himself to the Living Ideal to achieve balance and harmony is life.  

Famous scientist, Dr. PK Parija was on a visit to Satsang Ashram, Deoghar to spend some time in the divine company of Sree Sree Thakur Anukulchandra. During their conversation Sree Sree Thakur asked Dr. Parija if he ever went to the market to buy vegetables. Dr Parija replied that he had been to the vegetables market a number of times in his childhood as per his mother’s direction. Sree Sree Thakur then asked him how he knew if the shop-keeper was giving him the right quantity every time he went out to buy vegetables. Dr. Parija mentioned that the shop keeper used to put vegetables on one side in the balancing scale and put weight on the other side. Once the big needle in the middle of the balancing scale aligns with the small needle on top, I knew I had got the right quantity.  

Sree Sree Thakur in a loving tone said, “In this world, where the man is riddled with so many problems and challenges how can he find that balance in the balancing scale of life? Don’t you think that like the big needle, the man has to align to someone in life? Don’t we need that small needle in our life? Don’t we need that balancing factor in fife- the Living Ideal?”

That day Dr. Parija understood the importance of having a Living Ideal in life and the true meaning of finding balance. When we accept the Living Ideal, all aspects of our life personal, conjugal, familial, social and national move in tandem. We achieve perfect balance.

We need to attach ourselves to the Living Ideal, love Him and serve Him. When we love him, our attachment towards our passions and complexes goes away. Love for the Living Ideal or Guru is the highest form of Love. If we love the Living Ideal and follow Him unconditionally we shall gain absolute control over our lower passions and weaknesses. We shall become transformed and purified souls. If, instead, we only follow our own whims, ignoring Him, then we receive accordingly. A man attached to the Living Ideal, becomes a loving, caring, wise, efficient, agile and strong human being. A loving and caring man is a happy man by nature. And if he is also wise, efficient, agile and strong, he makes progress and achieves progress in life. His progress may not be a windfall, but it is always steady.

When we align ourselves with the Living Ideal, our innate and instinctive qualities flourish. Let’s hear about one more incident from Sree Sree Thakur’s life. A mother came to Sree Sree Thakur with her 12 year old son. She complained to Sree Sree Thakur about her son’s addiction towards movies. The boy was going out to watch movies almost every day. Thakur smiled at the boy and said, “Very Good. Keep watching.” The mother was taken aback. She had thought that Thakur would advise her son to give up the bad habit. Thakur said to the boy that he could watch movies everyday but there was one condition he needed to fulfil. He needed to come to Thakur everyday watching his movie and then narrate the movie to Sree Sree Thakur. The boy nodded his head in affirmative. Thereafter the boy visited Sree Sree Thakur every day after watching a movie in the theatre and narrated in great detail the story that unfolded in the movie. This continued for a few days. However, by now the number of movies he was watching had come down because some of the time he would have otherwise spent watching movies was now spent with Sree Sree Thakur every day. He also almost stopped watching all bad movies. How can he narrate such bad stories to Thakur? By now he had become very selective and choosy about good movies only. One day Sree Sree Thakur told him,”You see, so many people come to meet me every day. Hence, I am not getting enough time to listen to your narration everyday. Why don’t you capture these stories in writing? Whenever I find time, I shall read them. The boy agreed to do so. When he started writing, he got even less time to watch movies. Watching a movie was easy, but capturing the story in writing was difficult and time consuming. Therefore, his movie time even reduced further. One day he came to Thakur with piles of papers in which he had captured the stories of the movies he had watched. Thakur was very happy to see that. Sree Sree Thakur’s face lit up. He said, “Well done. Now you can write your own story and own script. Go home and start writing. Come to me after your finish. The boy was very eager to please Thakur. The young kid ran home and started writing his own manuscript. A few months later, he was back again before Sree Sree Thakur and this time he had come with his own manuscript. Sree Sree Thakur was extremely happy that day to see the manucript. A few days later, a noted film director and producer visited ashram. Sree Sree Thakur showed him the manuscript and asked if he would be willing to produce a movie based on this manuscript written by the twelve year old boy. The producer glanced through the manuscript and he could not believe that a twelve year old boy had written this manuscript. He felt that only an experienced and talented writer can produce writings of such high calibre. He agreed to produce a movie on this manuscript. This is what happens when man is attached to the Living Ideal. Man’s innate, instinctive qualities bloom and flourish. In this case, Sree Sree Thakur brought to the fore the inner quality of the boy like a master craftsman. The Living Ideal always nurtures and nourishes man’s instinctive qualities.