Understand that if your family completely supports you and gives you the courage and confidence that you are a leader, you will be successful in your professional life or social life. The right family is really important to be successful in society because only that will give you the courage and confidence to take major decisions in your life.

In the same way, only your body can give you the confidence for you to achieve enlightenment. That is why yoga plays such an important role in the path of enlightenment. It works on the body and mind and gives you the confidence and courage that you can execute whatever you think.

During the vedic times in India, the whole life, the whole society was based on enlightenment. 70 percent of the people were enlightened and the remaining 30 percent were seeking, working towards enlightenment.

Arts, sciences, education, lifestyle – every sphere of life, every action was directed towards the ultimate experience of enlightenment. Classical dances like Bharatanatyam, traditional vocal and instrumental music, traditional architecture of temples and sculptures, classical paintings and art forms, the science of languages like Sanskrit, the sciences of astrology and vaastu, the unique gurukul system of education, traditional ceremonies right from birth through marriage to death – every single activity in every dimension of life was an expression of the enlightenment of the great seers, as well as a means to get enlightened.

India is the spiritual incubator that produces enlightened masters. For a premature baby you need an incubator where you can maintain the correct atmosphere, oxygen, food, heat, and take care of the baby until it can survive on its own.

In the same way, for an enlightened being to land on planet earth and completely express his enlightenment and share it with the world, he needs an incubator. India is that spiritual incubator that nurtures the enlightened being because the very societal structure of ancient India was created only for the inner science research and enlightenment. Every sphere of life, personal or professional, was only to experience the ultimate state that is enlightenment. To this day, the society of India is best suited to nourish the seeds of enlightenment and grow enlightened beings.

There can be nothing more than the enlightenment experience on planet earth. No philosophy, no system, no theory, no ideology, stands, survives, or thrives for more than one generation if it does not have an enlightened base, the base or inspiration from an enlightened being.

In ancient India, there were at least 3000 kings ruling at different times. Not a single king or kingdom that was not guided by an enlightened master was able to flourish.

Even today if you go to South Indian villages, you will see huge temples built of stone, installed by enlightened masters. But the palaces that were constructed by the same kings for themselves no longer exist.

Understand, the same king and the same architect who built the temples to hold the enlightened energy, also built the palaces for the king to stay. One might think the king would have used better material for his own palace! But today, if you see, the temples are still standing while the palaces have disappeared with time.

In my own village Tiruvannamalai in South India, the village in which I was born and brought up, we have a temple that has twenty-five acres of built up area. The palace built by the same king is not there. It is just ruins. But the temple built by him is still alive because the enlightened master’s energy is there.

The biggest service you can do in your life, the best use you can make of your life is to keep this science of enlightenment alive on planet earth. Planet earth is alive today in spite of all the atomic weapons we have piled up, all the depletion of forests, minerals, and natural resources. It is so because of the presence of enlightened masters. As long as there are enlightened masters on planet earth, planet earth can never be destroyed!

source: Living Enlightenment