Be one of those who change time

 

A New Year is the time when a lot of people stumble upon the realisation, “Oh! Another year has gone by!” For a few seconds or minutes, we wonder about the current of time that flows by and then again get busy or lost in the world outside. The funny thing is that this happens nearly every year. If we go deeper into these moments of wonder, we realise that there is an aspect of us that is a witness to all the events of time. This witness inside us is unchanging and it is from here that we observe all the change that time brings.

All the events in life until this moment appear like a dream. Wisdom is becoming aware of this dream-like nature of life even as it is unfolding now. Knowing this brings tremendous strength from within and you do not get shaken by events and circumstances. At the same time, events have their own place in life. We need to learn from them and keep moving.

In the past year, how many days were you in sanyas? How many days were you struggling, being caught in maya? Turn back and remember the entire year. Do not run away from anything. Do not reject anything. At the same time, let your attention be on the self. This is a delicate balance. This balance is yoga. This balance is spirituality. Some people think it is about being silent. Some people think it is only celebration. However, spirituality is a harmonious blend of outer silence and inner celebration, and also inner silence and outer celebration.

This year has been very challenging for the entire world. But we need to keep making efforts to make it better for everyone around. This is possible when we are established within ourselves. In you, there is an actor and there is a witness. As you go inwards, the witness aspect grows in you and you remain untouched by events. And as you go outwards, the actor in you becomes more skilful in responding to situations. These two entirely opposite aspects of our being are nurtured by meditation. When you come closer to the Self, your action becomes powerful in the world and right action in the world brings you closer to the Self.

The year that is going by has taught us many lessons; what we should be doing and what we should not be doing. Every pain that we went through brought us some depth, and all the joy and pleasure gave us a new vision of life and hope for the future.

The year gone by saw plenty of rainy days. This New Year let there be sunshine – both in our lives and in society. Let us all have a determination to create a violence-free, stress-free society. Let us resolve to be unshakable within and move towards a better world. Time changes people but there are people who change the time. May you be one of them. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

 

Each one of you is a special gift on the planet! You are the Christmas tree.

The Christmas tree is pointing upwards and its branches grow on all sides, and we all have that capacity to blossom to the fullest of the human potential.

At the time of year when no tree bears anything, the Christmas tree has many gifts to offer and it is evergreen throughout the year.

A Christmas tree bears the gifts and the lights for all. The gifts you are carrying in your life are for others. You offer the gift of service to anyone in need, and you will wonder how your needs are being taken care of!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

The soap opera of falling in love

 

What happens when you fall in love? After a while, the soap opera begins, you start demanding. When you start demanding, the love diminishes. The joy fades away.

So then you say, “Oh I have made a mistake in this relationship.” Then there’s struggle and pain to get out of that relationship. After getting out of it, you get into one more; and the same story repeats.

Know that you have more love than you deserve! You should always feel that you are not worthy of the love that you receive. Think that the love you receive is much more than what you deserve. If you come from this space of humility, then you will behave with magnanimity and dignity in all your dealings. You won’t chew on the past, you will live in the present moment, you will honor the other’s opinions, you will understand the other’s predicaments; that magnanimity will come from within.

If you keep this in mind, that “I don’t deserve this love”, you will not demand love. And when you don’t demand love in your life, it keeps on increasing. You are not here to beg for love. You are here to radiate love!

Dealing with emotional upheavals

 

Happy moments come and pass; sad moments come and they also pass. All these emotions and upheavals keep happening in life. 

There is something in you that remains unaffected by everything, and remains a witness to it all. You are that changeless spirit. 

The real goal of life is to latch on to that something in you which remains unchanged. This is where you feel totally unshaken, where you feel totally content, pure and clear.

Addressing generation gap and other gaps

 

'You are useless, you know nothing' - statements like these, charged with negativity can make a child’s foundation weak.

Spend quality time with children, let them be happy and encourage them to do their best. Allow them to be natural, free, uninhibited. They should be able to speak to anybody, they should be able to shake hands, hug anybody in the family. Then, there will be no generation gap, no parental gap, no teacher-student gap.

Misery originates in one's mind

 

When you are not aware of the tricks and the mumbo-jumbo going on in the mind, then life is misery. This is because life is based on the mind. ‘This is how it should be’, or, ‘It should not be like this’, whenever such thoughts come, it means the mind is coming into play.

Look back at your mind, not at others, and see what drama and pain have been caused by it. When you do that, it is no longer pain, it is entertainment. It is like a multi-channel television, a movie channel that has caused so much comedy, suspense, drama, and misery in your life.

In The Bhagvad Gita also, it is said that the mind is responsible for your freedom and bondage.

The mind is a friend and an enemy. When the mind is your enemy, it ties you down to your past impressions and experiences, because it does not let you see things with a fresh new eye. When the mind is your friend, it brings happiness, freedom, and liberation. So, the mind can be our greatest enemy or our best friend.

Getting rid of your ego

 

For God’s sake don’t do anything to your ego! Just let it be. If you find you have a big ego, don’t try to get it out of yourself. Let it be. You know, trying to meddle with your ego becomes a bigger problem. Then you say, “Look, I erased my ego!” Nobody can do this! Understand that?

You know it’s so difficult to get rid of the ego. It’s like saying – ‘I’m the most humble person in the world! You can’t find anyone with more humility than me!’ Does it make any sense? So if you find there is any ego, let it be like that happily. Don’t try to meddle or get rid of it. Just smile!

You know, ego is stiffness. When you’re at home, you relax. When you feel at ease, then ego is not there. The antidote for ego is just being natural. One day if you want to act crazy or foolish, it might help you a little bit, because your greatest fear is what others will think. Give everyone the freedom to think whatever they want to think, right? Then you’ll find you’re so much at ease, at peace with yourself.

Source of strength for vegetarians

 

A horse does not eat meat, it just eats grass and grains and you say a horse has a lot of power and strength.

An elephant eats just leaves and grass but the power an elephant has is immense. It does not touch meat.

Monkeys are the most active species, if you look at their activities. Have you seen little ones of monkeys jumping around? They will jump all around, do all sorts of gymnastics. They are vegetarians. They just eat some little things here and there. 

For strength, the purpose of meat is eliminated. It's not for strength. Now if you are eating for taste, that is just a habit of cultivation. You can start liking anything.

Only spiritual elevation can take away loneliness, not soulmates

There are millions of people who have partners, soulmates, who have fallen in love and married the same person, and yet they feel lonely! Many may not come out and tell you honestly, but if you ask the ideal couples, "Tell me one secret, do you ever feel lonely or anything like that?" They will say, "Yes!"

The only people who don’t feel lonely are the ones who are connected with the being, with the Self. Only one, who is established in the Self, feels no loneliness. Only spiritual elevation can take away loneliness, not soulmates.

Growth in life, comes with gratitude/gratefulness

 

Beauty has many aspects, and gratefulness is one of them. You feel grateful when you don’t feel a sense of lack. You cannot be grateful and feel lack. Perhaps you experience both but at different times. When you feel lack, grumbling begins from a corner within. For those who do not have this knowledge, there is no way out of their grumbling. They feel some lack today, and tomorrow they think something else is lacking. There is no end to it. Your mind doesn’t think clearly, doesn’t function properly.

That is why Jesus said, “Those who have will be given more. As for those who do not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” If you are grateful, more things will flow to you. And when you complain and grumble, even what little joy, peace or love you have come into this world with will all be lost.

Grandmothers in India have a habit of saying, “Everything is full.” If a container or grocery item is used up, they never say, “We don’t have this.” They will say, “We have enough of this.” When you feel full in the mind, then ‘plenty-ness’ grows. Not having, is just an attitude in you; it’s the direction you are moving in. Whatever it is, it grows. You sow the seeds, and they grow. If the seed itself is a seed of lack, only lack will grow. Open your eyes and see what you have been given! In that gratefulness, everything grows, life grows.

Communication through Vibrations

This whole universe is a play of prana (life force/energy). Everything has some prana, but the units differ. Stone has one unit, water two, fire three, air units, ether units, animals and trees have 6 – 7 units.

You often see that every god/goddess travels on an animal. Goddess Durga riding on a tiger and God Ganesha sitting on a mouse. It doesn’t click to the intellect, but this is so scientific. It symbolises that each animal brings down a particular type of cosmic vibration on the planet.

Lord Krishna has the highest units of prana – 16. That is why He is referred to as fully blossomed being. A human being has eight units of prana. Hence he is called as Ashtavasu. And humans are born with a possibility to blossom into a fully blossomed state.

So, different energies are present in the consciousness and everything is connected. It’s a network. Everything here radiates vibrations, and those vibrations make things happen around you. True communication happens through vibrations. In fact, we convey almost all thoughts through our presence and very little through words.

Are you aware that sometimes for no reason you feel like talking to some people and, sometimes for no reason you want to avoid some people? A baby or a dog conveys the vibrations of love that no speaker can express. We are all endowed with this presence, yet somewhere our presence has got muddled. We are storing negative things that we have seen and heard in our aura. But there is a way to cleanse our presence and get back to our source.

Through breathing techniques, meditation and mantras we can rekindle positive vibrations within and around us. Spiritual practices and meditation connects you to the universal spirit while mantras are those energising sounds, which help uplift the consciousness. Go deep inside yourself and experience supreme peace and love. This will take us closer to self-realisation and also to achieve success.

Inner peace within us will help deal with violence in the world

 

Some years ago, I went to Iraq to take stock of our relief and rehabilitation work there. We were asked to stay in the Green Zone, the safe zone. There were 12 vehicles and two tankers provided for our security. They said that the Red Zone was quite risky and there had been bomb blasts a few days back. But I insisted on going there. They were worried but since I was their guest, they could not refuse. There, I went to a village that had only Shias because all the Sunnis had been driven away from there. They welcomed me. I sat and spoke with them and told them I wanted to bring a guest that evening and they agreed. So I brought with me a Sunni imam who was among those driven away from that village. When they met and spoke to each other, the villagers decided, “We will welcome back the 8,000 families that were driven away from here.”

When there is a conflict, there is a breakdown of communication. There is no trust. To bridge this gap, you need a channel of communication, a way to connect with all the sides of the conflict. There are some who are extremely sensitive and lose their temper and then there are those who think they are ‘sensible’ and righteous to such an extent that they don’t care about the impact of their actions or inactions. Neither can make good communicators. We need a blend of sensitivity and sensibility. A crucial characteristic of a peaceful person is how best he can connect with everyone.

Corruption begins where a sense of belongingness ends. You will see that people take bribes only from those they have no belongingness with. Nobody takes a bribe from their loved ones or those they connect with. Another example of connection can be, how you probably behave when you go abroad and you meet someone who says, “I also studied in XYZ College.” What happens to you? You feel a sense of connection and this connection improves communication. Then conflicts simply disappear.

‘The other’ is always a threat. But with multi-religious and multi-cultural, value-based education, the threat can disappear. Ultimately, the thought process changes when perception changes, opening the door for cooperation and peace.

We have many identities in life. First, we are part of one light, one human race. Our subsequent identities are with gender, nation, and religion. There is violence in the world because our priorities have been reversed. For these identities to be in the proper order of priority, we need inner peace so that we are sensitive to others’ needs and respond appropriately.

Glimpse of the soul

Life is full of interruptions. We need to keep moving. We park ourselves somewhere and then we move again. Now if you park in a wrong place, you need to move sooner, and if you park in the right place, you have freedom to move when you want to. Similarly, you have to park your mind in a safe place. If you have parked your mind in your own garage, nobody can tell you when you should move it. But if you park your mind in somebody else’s garage, they will be after you.

Don’t place your life’s authority in somebody else’s hand. If you do, you will have no freedom. And when you lose freedom, the next thing you lose is love and compassion, because someone who is stifled cannot express their compassion or love. So, take care of the car called mind which drives you. You should drive the mind rather than the mind driving you. Wisdom empowers you to drive the mind. Otherwise the mind is driving; it is an automated car which goes on its own. 

You are sitting, observing that while you want to go left, the car is going right, and you feel helpless. Most of our life is like this. We don’t know what we are doing, we don’t know what we want, and we don’t know where we are going. So we need to take a look at, ‘From sitting behind, how I can jump into the driving seat. How can I make that leap?’, and that is what spirituality is. The essence of the Bhagvad Gita, is “your soul is imperishable; repose in the self”.

Lord Buddha said, “Life has sorrow and sadness, but there is a way to come out of sadness.” Discontinuation of sadness and attainment of happiness both will happen through meditation. The body, the mind, and the intellect have changed, but there is something within us that has not changed. That is a glimpse of the soul.

How to fast during Navratri

 

We fast to cleanse our body as it is essential to give our entire digestive system a break. Here are some essential tips to follow:

1. Fast with the right understanding. Either we overeat or fast too much. Neither is good.

2. Fast for yourself and not to please God! Fasting is to detox your body and feel rejuvinated.

3. Fast because your body needs rest. All year through, you overwork your liver, pancreas and stomach. If there was a labour court for the body, these organs would have complained there!

4. While fasting, eat fruits or light food that is easy to digest. Don't eat anything or everything, just because the food has been tagged as "fast" food.

5. Have a lot of water. Purifying the body with water can bring a lot of balance in the system.

6. Fast as per your body type. Check with an ayurveda doctor to know your body type.

Follow the above and dive deep into the vastness of the consciousness to discover your inner beauty. Happy Navratri!

Surrendering the storm of emotions

Every emotion has a definite sensation in the body. Many a times, we get carried away by thoughts, or feelings and we do not observe the sensations. One should learn how to handle one’s self. We make so many affirmations: “Oh! I will not do this. I will do this.” But, when the storm of emotion rises in us, we find ourselves lost. There is a strange relationship between thoughts and feelings. Thoughts provoke feelings, and feelings, in turn, can bring about some thoughts.

Feeling is subtler than thinking. You cannot have the same feeling all the time, feelings change. When we feel high, we have no problems. The problem comes when we feel low. When one feels low, then the more one tries to feel high, the more the low feelings persist. When you feel low, jump into the lowest. Be like water. The nature of water is humility. It always goes down. Water means acceptance with motion, with dynamism, with readiness to jump up.

The ocean is the lowest. How has the ocean become an ocean? It has accepted the lowest. All rivers from the mountain flow down to the ocean. The ocean is full. The humblest is the greatest. Have you ever loved your low feelings? You have always fought with them. Just close your eyes and go into that low. Do not do any action but just agree. How far will you go down? You will find the ocean there. You will start rising up in no time. Depression and low feelings cannot touch you.

However big the clouds are, they cannot overshadow the sun. It could be the darkest day, but still it will remain day, and those clouds can never make it night. Just go deep, observe and you will see a lot of sensations rising up. Some fears come up. Fear is just a sensation in the body. Agree with it. An amazing thing happens within you. If you try to fight with your feelings, they take a longer time to clear.

There is only one way, “let go” or “surrender”. Surrender means that which you cannot handle, keep it on a plate and offer it. You cannot handle your own feelings, you cannot handle your own thoughts, your own confusion. When we are aware of our confusion, we offer it. That is what is called surrender.

This post is dedicated to the memory of sr. AOL teacher, (late) Sh. Pankaj Suresh Mirgh (1st July 1971 - 28th September 2021).

Ganapati - Remover of obstacles and Giver of gyana

 

The stories in the Puranas contain many incredible and hard-to-believe occurrences. But they should not be interpreted as a nursery rhyme. Their language is Shakespearean and laden with great depth and meaning. We need to interpret these stories with a very refined state of mind.

The story goes that Parvati created a boy out of dirt from her body and appointed him to guard the doorstep. The first question that comes is how could Parvati, the Goddess Herself, have so much dirt? Parvati symbolizes the triguna – sattva, rajas and tamas. The entire creation is made up of trigunas. The dosha or imperfections that originate out of the triguna is an obstruction for the functioning of prakriti. That was the boy that Parvati created to stand guard at the door. 

Shiva is shuddha chaitanya, pure consciousness. Like the sun does not recognize darkness and cuts through it, Shiva does not recognize dosha and slays the impurity. But prakriti cannot stay without impurity. So Shiva replaces the dosha with the head of an elephant, which symbolizes knowledge. Through knowledge, all the doshas or obstructions of prakriti can be taken care of. This is the spiritual and metaphysical meaning of Ganapati being slain.

So worshipping Ganapati as the remover of obstacles and the giver of gyana, knowledge, is the most amazing depiction of the nature of consciousness.  Going a step further, even this difference between prakriti and purusha is done away with. That is why, the Ganapati Upanishad says,

ajam nirvikalpam niraakaaram-ekam

niraanandam aanandam advaita poornam

param nirgunam nirvishesham nireeham

para brahma roopam ganesham bhajema

Ganesha is the only one unborn unmanifest reality. He is nirvikalpa and advaita – the formless, undivided One. This is the play and display of consciousness within itself. While Ganapati is certainly the nirakara parabrahman, he is invoked and worshipped in the mud idol for a period of time for the joy of the devotees. Then Ganapati is asked to merge back into our heart and the idol is immersed in water. This ritual is observed for the sake of devotees, not for the sake of Ganapati. He who is without form is invoked in a form and then his spirit is invoked back into one’s heart as the idol is immersed.

Dealing with loneliness

Just having a partner does not take away your loneliness, mind you!

There are millions of people who have partners, soul mates, who have fallen in love and married the same person, and yet they feel lonely!

Many may not come out and tell you honestly, but if you ask the ideal couples, "Tell me one secret, do you ever feel lonely or anything like that?" They will say, "Yes!" The only people who don’t feel lonely are the ones who are connected with the being, with the self.

One who is established in the self feels no loneliness. Only spiritual elevation can take away the loneliness, not soul mates. 

On Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesha is formless, but on Ganesh Chaturthi we make a form and invoke him by saying, ‘Ganapati, though you are everywhere, I would like to offer my gratitude to you by offering sweets, by offering all that you offer to me; flowers & fruits. You make the sun & moon go around. I’ll take a little camphor around you. So all that you gave me, I offer it back to you!’ And in the end you say, ‘you have come from my heart and you will get back into my heart,’ and leave the idol in the water.

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Lord Krishna - birth of knowledge, love and mischief

 

Lord Krishna said, ‘I am never born and I never die. I am ajanma (one who is never born).’ Celebrating the birth of one who is never born is a very fascinating thing. Before being born as Lord Krishna, there was another birth that Lord Krishna had taken. In that previous birth, he was known as Kapil Muni (a renowned wise enlightened sage). In his incarnation as Kapil Muni, Lord Krishna gave his mother the knowledge of the Self, the knowledge of Sankhya Yoga. So he had an avatar (incarnation) by the name of Kapil Muni before being born as Lord Krishna.

Now, a mother’s love is such that she would always want her child to keep coming back to her in every birth. So, even though she received self-knowledge, still her attachment to her child remained. So in the next birth she was once again born as mother to Lord Krishna –Yashoda. As Kapil Muni, He gave his mother the knowledge of the Self, but as Lord Krishna he gave her a lot of love and affection, and not Self-knowledge. So in one birth he gave her only knowledge and in another birth He gave her only love. He did not give any Self-knowledge to Yashoda. He played and did so much mischief with Yashoda. So today is a day to be mischievous!

The birth in which knowledge, love and mischief all come together is considered as the birth or incarnation of Lord Krishna. So, on Lord Krishna’s Birthday, all of you must take a Sankalpa (pledge or promise) to read the Bhagvad Gita. Read it with its simple translation, and understand as much as you can. If you cannot understand, never mind but at least read it once. Whatever you understand is good enough. Do not expect to understand the entire Bhagvad Gita all at once. Throughout your life you must read and go through the pages of the Gita again and again, only then will you be able to understand it completely. As the level of maturity of our mind and intellect rises, our understanding of the Bhagvad Gita also increases.

Lord Krishna says, ‘Senaninam Aham Skandah’ – Among Military Generals, I am Kartikeya. (Kartikeya was the most powerful leader of armies). Among Munis (wise sages) I am Kapil Muni. Among Rishis (enlightened seers) I am Veda Vyasa. Among Pandavas I am Arjuna. So he says that he is both Krishna and Arjuna. If someone is able to understand the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, they would have perfected the knowledge of Advaita (philosophy of Non-duality of the Self; experiencing all as ‘One’). It is called Vibhuti Yoga. One’s life becomes endowed with Vibhuti. Vibhuti does not just mean the holy ash that one smears on the forehead. Vibhuti also refers to miracles.

Why do good people suffer?

 

Sometimes you feel that you have not harmed anyone in your present life, or even thought ill of anyone, yet you are suffering and going through misery. This question is very common. We often have a very limited understanding of our own life, and think that life is just this short time span of 50-60 years.

You should always remember that people’s ideas, emotions and opinions keep on changing. Everything changes. Many friends become enemies and enemies become friends. You are friends with somebody and suddenly for no obvious reason they become your enemy. You have not done anything wrong to anyone, yet they turn out to be unfriendly towards you. Sometimes people who you do not even know will come to your help. You have not done them any great favour, yet they help you. This friendship and animosity works on a deeper principle called karma. 

If your time is good, your worst enemies also start behaving like your friends. And if your time is not good, then your closest friends too will misunderstand you and start behaving like your enemies. If you look back, you will realise that somewhere you have sown the seeds for a tree of thorns. So today, or sometime later, you will surely have to reap the thorns of that tree. 

There are two types of karma: one that immediately gives fruit and second, one that yields fruit sometime later. For example, if you place your hand in a fire, you will immediately get burnt, right now, not tomorrow or any time later. But if you sow a mango seed today, it will take a few years for it to grow into a tree. In the same way, some karma yields their fruits almost instantly, while some take time to bear fruit. 

Look back at your own life and see how many challenges you have had and how you have sailed through them and come out. This will give you confidence. The other option is to realise that you have to pay some debt, and so you are undergoing what you are undergoing. But do not think that every problem or suffering that you go through is only because of your actions from past lifetimes. Some of it also comes because of the foolishness and ignorance from the present lifetime also. 

You cannot simply say that the people who are good keep suffering, or keep going through difficult times. People also suffer because of their own foolishness, and because of their ignorance. If someone says, ‘I am very good and noble’, and then goes and puts his hand in fire, then he is bound to get burnt. You should also have a presence of mind and use your intelligence before you act. To free yourself from the results of past actions, you should be regular with sadhana (spiritual practices).When you see this from a bigger perspective, great inner strength dawns within you and you are able to smile through any situation.

Devotion - the pinnacle of Love

 

The center of life is love, yet we seem to be so far away from our own centers. What can connect us to our centers, what can bring us back to ourselves? This quest is ongoing. You need a little thread to be connected, you need something to hold on that raises the hope in life, that brings light into your eyes, that makes your heart feel lighter, adds wings to your heart. 

What is that something that is missing in our life, that can transform our lives from misery to celebration, that can turn the tears of sadness to tears of joy, tears of gratitude? That thread we need, that life saving thread, such threads, such ropes, such strings are called sutras, that which has the essence and in short gives you something to hold on, uplifts you. A tiny thread can make a kite soar high in the sky, a tiny thread makes the kite go up in the sky. So this mind needs such a sutra, a thread. 

One such sutras are – Bhakti Sutras – the aphorisms of love. There was a sage, a rishi in ancient days whose name was Narada. Narada means one who connects you to the source, one who is in the centre as well as in the circumference. Most of us reel in our circumference, we remain in our circumference, we are just trying to find our centre but we never reach there. We move in circles, we remain in the exterior. And there are those who live in their centers, who live in the world of their own and not connected to the practical reality of life.

Often you find this happening in the world. Some people who are very much in their ideology, but they are not so practical and others are so practical that they drop all ideals or goals so there is no progress in life. You need a balance, a path, a connectedness with your ideology and the practicality. Wisdom is that which makes high ideals possible to live in daily life, in the mundane existence. Rishi Narada is also called the Devarshi, is a playful Rishi is known for creating mischief. He plays double role at two different places. There is a colloquial expression in India which says not to be like Narada. He would create trouble and problems everywhere, but all that problem and trouble will turn out to be something very good for everybody.

See, life is no fun without some mischief, life is not a struggle, life is not boredom, life is not a weight on your head, it is celebration, it’s a play. Your life is a play and display of consciousness. Narada was one such Rishi, one of his kinds, he would create mischief, and he would connect people who normally don’t connect. He would connect you to the centre, to your own existence. When life is stagnant, you need to go to Narada, he will keep you moving. And how does he do that? With small aphorisms, the tiny sutras, the tiny words of wisdom, the Bhakti Sutras. ‘Bhakti’, the divine love. Love in its ultimate form, love in its pinnacle.

Enthusiasm should never die

 

How would you like to see yourself? Happy & bubbling with enthusiasm or dull & difficult to please?

People who keep a long face & expect others to cajole and appease them make others run away. Lovers often do this.

It’s okay for you to show your upset mood or tendency once in a while, but doing it over & over again is taxing for you and people you love.

If you want attention, all you get is tension!

On Guru Purnima 2021

 

Guru Purnima is celebrated with this idea in mind that you do a revision of your own wisdom, knowledge in your life - how much life is filled with wisdom and how much it is not, where we have integrated the wisdom in life, and how we have not. Do an assessment of how far you have progressed in life.

Now don't be scared, what appears to be a failure is not a failure at all but every failure is a step towards success and success is just nothing, it is just a concept. In the big picture you will see that life is much more than what you consider as success. You know you think something is success because you find yourself small, life is smaller than your achievement. So any time you feel that you have succeeded know that you have much bigger potential, you are much bigger than anything that you have done or you have achieved, because your being, your self, your life, yourself is much more powerful than anything else.

You just have to recollect these words and think several times, sometimes it may just go above the head. Oh, why is Gurudev saying success is nothing? When you realize your potential every success appears to be very small and if you are proud of your success that simply means you are not aware of your potential. The master is a part of you and you are a part of the Master, this is what you have to know, realize--like the air within the body is part of the air all around you, like our body is part of this earth, you are part of your mother, you are part of  your father.

Similarly wisdom, your consciousness, is a part of the big mind. Our small eye is part of the big eye that encompasses the whole existence and that is what the Guru principle is, a Master is. A Master is ekum (the only one), nityam (eternal), vimalam (pure), achalam (unshakeable), sarvadhi saakshi bhutam (a witness to all types of thoughts, all types of emotions, all types of intellects), i.e. it is much more than just thoughts, concepts, emotions, concepts like right or wrong, good or bad, it's much beyond all that is relative and even beyond that, that is pure consciousness.

That is what consciousness is. That is what I am and that is what you are and this is when you realize I am not just this little mind which has cravings, aversions, likes, dislikes and all sorts of things, I am much more than this. I am part of the universal consciousness - thou art that - that is the ultimate wisdom. You are that consciousness, you are that infinite potential and that is what a Guru is and that is what you are.

So on Guru Purnima day a student or disciple does not feel he is separate from the Guru, he is a part of the Guru and he makes life a celebration, only then can life become a celebration. In Sanskrit there is a proverb that says there is no joy in small things, joy is always there in something that is much bigger, greater and lovely and that is what you are. We need to remind ourselves of that again and again and again.

See, we don’t realize we are breathing most of the time right? We realize only when we are climbing a hill or too many steps and when we start panting then we know. Nowadays people have started realizing the importance of  deep breathing, how important it is to breathe more. In the same way we don’t realize, even though we are in it, it is just out of sight because we are so busy running all the time in the rat race for the accessories of life. So Guru Purnima is the time when you relax.

It is good to see thousands of people who are doing a silence program this week to take a few days, not weeks to go deep within and be in silence. It does so much good, it removes all the cobwebs in the mind and the witness consciousness wakes up from within.

Once such awakening happens then it is irreversible, you can not just be gloomy again. The gloomy mindset can be overcome by gratitude, by feeling grateful. In the world, in activity, when we are busy, when we are interacting with people it is quite natural to feel drained or when gloominess sticks to you which may be due to others doings and not your own we can snap out of it when we realize that this is all just part of the whole game, part of life. We should realize that life is much much larger, bigger than events whether pleasant or unpleasant and meditation is the key for it. Silence and meditation is necessary. At some point you will not have to make an effort to meditate at all. Even now there is no effort in meditation, even with eyes open while talking, walking and while doing your work you are meditating, you remain in a meditative state.

Today everything is happening from a different place - satsang is happening in a different place, I am talking to you from a different place and you are watching from a different place but still we are all in one place, that is here (the heart).

Importance of laughter

 

Laughter comes from the centre of our Being, from the core of our heart. Our belly is so full of laughter that the laughter permeates every cell in our body.

True laughter is true prayer. When things go all right, everybody can laugh, but when everything falls apart, and yet you laugh, that is evolution and growth.

Nothing in life is more worthy than your laughter. Never lose it. Events come and go. Some are pleasant, and others, unpleasant.

There is an area deep in you that is left untouched. Hold on to what is untouched. Then you will be able to keep laughing.

Trying to see meaning in life

 

Don’t try to see too much meaning in every little thing, then you are not living life but are simply stuck in concepts and ideas.

As we grow, our understanding changes, mind changes, & perception changes.

So, not analyzing at all is no good, and too much analysis is also no good.

Lonesome ego?

 

Ego needs the other to be there. All alone by yourself, your ego falls off!

That is why a very egotistic person is either very comfortable being alone, or very uncomfortable being alone. They want someone else to express their ego, or because they are so tired of expressing all the time and nothing has worked, they like to be alone.

If you are natural, you don’t mind if there are people or if there are no people, because you are the same.

Buddha is the manifestation of silence

 

When Buddha got enlightened on that full moon day in the month of May, it is said that he maintained silence for the whole week. He did not say a word. Mythology says that all the angels in the heaven were frightened. They knew that it was only once in a millennium that someone blossoms like Buddha. Now he was silent!

The angels then requested him to say something. He said, “Those who know, they know even without me saying it and those who do not know, will not know even if I say it. Any description of light to a blind man is of no use. There is no point in talking to those who have not tasted the ambrosia of life, and therefore I am silent. How can you convey something so intimate and personal? Words cannot convey it. And, as many scriptures in the past have revealed, words end where truth begins.”

The angels said, “What you say is right. But consider those who are on the borderline, who are neither fully enlightened nor totally ignorant. For them, a few words will give a push, for their sake you speak and every word of yours will create that silence.”

The purpose of words is to create silence. If words create more noise, then they have not reached their goal. Buddha’s words would definitely create silence, because Buddha is the manifestation of silence. Silence is the source of life and is the cure for diseases. When people are angry, they maintain silence. First they shout and then silence dawns. When one is sad, they ask to be left alone and retreat into silence. Similarly, silence is the recourse one takes to if ashamed. If one is wise too, there’s silence.

Look at the noise in your mind. What is it about? Money? Fame? Recognition? Fulfillment? Relationships? The noise is about something; silence is about nothing. Silence is the basis; noise is the surface. From the very beginning, Buddha lived a very satisfied life. Any pleasure was at his feet the moment he wanted it. One day he said, “I would like to go and see what the world is.”

Buddha set out in the quest for truth, all by himself, leaving his palace, his wife and son. The stronger the silence, the more powerful will be the questions that arise from such a silence. Nothing could stop him. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get away during the day, so he quietly escaped at night and his search continued for several years. He did all that people told him to do, he went from place to place, fasted, and he walked many paths, before discovering four truths.

At a time when there was so much prosperity, Buddha gave a begging bowl to his main disciples and asked them to go and beg! He made kings take off their royal robes and take a bowl in their hand! Not that they were in need of food but he wanted to teach them the lesson of becoming ‘nobody’ from being ‘somebody’. You are nobody; you are insignificant in this Universe. When kings and geniuses of that time were asked to beg, they became embodiments of compassion.

The first truth is, there is misery in the world. In life, there are only two possibilities:

1. one is to observe the world around us and know from others’ sufferings,
2. the second is to experience it and find that it is misery.

The second truth is there is a cause for misery. You can be happy without a reason, but misery has a cause. The third is that it is possible to eliminate misery. And the fourth truth is that there is a path to be out of misery.

Observe your true nature. What is your true nature? It is peace, compassion, love, friendliness and joy and it is silence that gives birth to all this. Silence swallows the sadness, guilt, and misery and gives birth to joy, compassion and love. In this way, everyone can enjoy and cross the ocean of misery.

Ways to be successful and stress free in the corporate world

 

As times are getting tougher in the corporate world, many are feeling the pinch. Stress impacts the way we think, feel and behave, thus affecting all aspects of our life. The consequences of letting stress rule are nothing short of disastrous and tragic. So how to be successful without paying the heavy price of a stressful life is what everyone is asking these days? I would say it’s rather easy and simple.

It’s like riding a bicycle

What is the secret to riding a bicycle? Balance! It’s about staying at the centre: not letting it fall to the right or left. When it’s falling on one side, you bring it to balance. When you go out of balance, you feel the pinch. Listen to that. Don’t just ignore it, acknowledge it and come to the centre. Whenever you go out of balance in any aspect of life, listen to your inner voice, and come to the centre.

Balance work and rejuvenation

First, balance your time between work and rejuvenation. Take care of your food, exercises and take time out for some meditation and relaxation.

Take interest in art

Second, take interest in some art form. In the corporate world, you are loaded with left-brain activities like logical thinking, planning, analysis, etc. So you need to balance the left-brain activity with the right-brain activity. Painting, music, poetry or any other kind of creative and recreational activities activate the right brain. When the two hemispheres of the brains are balanced, you can experience higher clarity, higher creativity, higher productivity, higher efficiency and higher relaxation.

Strike a work-life balance

Third, strike a work-life balance. Listen to your inner voice. If you have ignored your family, it pinches you. If you have ignored your social commitment, it pinches you. If you are ignoring your business, it pinches you. If you are ignoring your spiritual practices, it pinches you. So wherever anything pinches you, come back to the centre.

Do acts of service

Fourth, do some seva (acts of service). Be useful to people around you. It’s the best antidote to stress. You must contribute to society. When you do some act of service and kindness, it brings immediate feeling of inner rejuvenation.

The secret of true success is in balancing all aspects of life without being attached or averse to any of them.

Rejoice in beauty, the entire creation will rejoice with you

 

Often, we mistake pride for arrogance and those who have arrogance mistake it for pride. But there is a clear distinction. Arrogance is being insensitive. When there is no humility in pride, that pride turns into arrogance. When there is no awareness in pride, that pride turns into arrogance. When there is no love or service along with pride, that pride turns into arrogance. It is the same knife. With just a little twist to it, you can either cut your butter or hurt your finger. Arrogance goes with the small mind. The small mind, being unaware of the magnitude of existence, thinks it is the greatest, the biggest, the highest.

Pride brings joy and in joy there is pride, but if you become insensitive, you get lost in your joy and pride. Pride accompanied by humility brings awareness of goodness, of beauty, of one’s luck, of one’s heart. Luck is a language of the heart. When the heart says, “lucky” or “unlucky”, it is referring to something that is beyond one’s capacity, beyond one’s mind, beyond one’s abilities. Something that is beyond the smallness of mind, something that is out of reach, something that is enormous, you call luck. Isn’t it?

The mind or head knows only facts, while the heart makes every- thing big. Poetry comes out of the heart. Poetry is exaggeration, and beauty is nothing but exaggeration. There is no fact in beauty. If you try to analyze beauty from your mind, the beauty is gone. Beauty is a language of the heart. The heart decorates, elaborates, exaggerates. When you read a poem, when you sing a song, when you describe something beautiful, it’s always from the heart. Justice is from the head. A quality comes from the head. From the heart comes only uniqueness, specialty. Everything is made special from the heart, but often we get it backward. If there is some negativity, we deal with it from the heart and if something is positive, we say it goes to our head.

We exaggerate problems. If a mistake has been made or there is some suffering, some misery, we blow it up beyond its dimensions. If a few people get sick in town, we say, “Everyone in town is sick. Everyone is always sick here.” We exaggerate and eternalize. Many newspapers thrive on this exaggerated negativity, but if something beautiful happens, they say, “Let’s see the facts.” They want to look at it from their head rather than through the heart. We do the same thing, don’t we? We need to switch it around. When you see the negative quality in someone, analyse it. Why is this person being so negative? What is behind it? What does he want? Reason it out. Don’t see negativity through the heart because then your heart becomes sore. Analysis of negativity brings compassion in you. An exaggeration of some good brings waves of beauty in you.

You have to take a step to make this shift. If you see one beautiful quality in another person, decorate it, exaggerate it, make it big. Whether the person is beautiful or not is immaterial. Those who exaggerate positive qualities become positive themselves because our body, which is nothing but space, gets filled with praise. You have heard the phrase, “Praise the name of the Lord.” You are asked to do it not because God is going to be greater because of your praise or some person will become great because of your praise. No. In the act of praising, you become beautiful.

Whenever you have felt a sense of great beauty, that is when you have reached your home, that is when you have been in touch with your Self, because you are so, so beautiful. Whatever beauty you see in the world is only a projection of the being, of the Self — a glimpse of the Self. Meditation helps you see the beauty within and the beauty outside. When you rejoice in beauty, the entire creation rejoices with you. The very purpose of such variety in this creation is to bring you back to your Self, to come to know that you are beautiful. And in that bliss, all that you need, all that you would want will simply keep happening.

Say NO to drugs, YES to spirituality - get high on life

 

The most basic trait of human nature is to seek happiness. It is amazing to see what all man does to find happiness; the list goes on and on, endlessly. In reality, happiness comes from within but most seek it outside. The senses can give pleasure but the soul craves for something more. When sense pleasures are not enough, one seeks an ethereal experience. 

This impulse of seeking is present in everybody and is the beginning of one’s spiritual journey. Unfortunately, many people are tempted to take shortcuts in this quest for joy and end up with drugs. Drugs seem to give a high and people do say they take one to an altered state of consciousness. However, the after effects leave the system totally shattered eventually. One’s aspiration to find freedom, love and happiness leaves them with bondage, despondency and misery. Having something is not joyful but not having it is painful – this is the state of addiction.

Spirituality has a big role to play in dealing with such a situation. Meditations, breathing techniques, pranayama and satsang have helped millions around the world to overcome addiction over substances and alcohol. Many people have shared that they feel the same high after doing Sudarshan Kriya that they used to feel after taking drugs but without their damaging consequences. Scientists say that psychoactive drugs are addictive because they cause a surge in dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with happiness and contentment. Research has shown that meditation increases dopamine levels naturally by an average of 65%. A session of group singing or satsang also leaves one exhilarated and energized for many hours. These practices build strength in the mind so that one doesn’t feel the need to rely on external substances to feel an inner high.

Another thing that is important in rehabilitation is developing an attitude of service. A ‘what more can I get’ mindset leads to obsession and depression while a ‘how can I serve’ attitude leads to joy and freedom. This shift in attitude brings a sense of purpose to anybody’s life, but more so for someone on the path to recovery. With a firm resolve and the right effort in the right direction, the old patterns of addiction begin to loosen their grip and true freedom begins to dawn. Apart from its remedial effect in drug rehabilitation, spirituality is very effective in prevention of this malaise as well.

Youth who have a spiritual bent of mind do not take to drugs easily. Spirituality builds a value-based character in a person which acts as a shield against unhealthy peer pressure. Invariably, short term joy ends up as long term misery and it is spiritual education alone that gives the wisdom to choose a little discomfort in the short term that finally leads to long lasting happiness.

Discipline of yoga

 

Yoga is what happens when you are in the moment, so totally at ease and in peace. So what is yoga? It is chitta vritti nirodaha. Yoga means uniting with your source. This happens when the mind, which is chattering all the time, suddenly becomes silent. Yoga is called a discipline. When does the need for discipline arise? Discipline arises when something is not very charming to begin with.

There are three types of happiness. One is sattvic — happiness which is not pleasurable to begin with, but ends in joy; rajasic — happiness that seems to begin well but ends in misery; and tamasic — there appears to be happiness but in reality there is only misery from beginning to end. 

No discipline is necessary for tamasic happiness. Wrong discipline results in rajasic happiness. For sattvik happiness, discipline is essential to begin with. It need not be uncomfortable all the time. But if it is uncomfortable, then you should be able to bear with it. You need discipline. That is why Patanjali begins with the present, when things are not clear and when your heart is not in the right place. 

The discipline of yoga is nobody’s imposition, it is self-imposed. Shasana means rules someone imposes on you. Anushasana is the rule you impose upon yourself. When you are thirsty and want to drink water, you do not say “Oh! This is a rule, I must drink water”. When you are hungry you just eat. When it comes to the question of enjoying oneself, no discipline is necessary. When you are happy, when you are in peace or happiness, then you are already in yourself. There is no discipline there. But when the mind is wagging its tail all the time, then discipline is essential to calm it down. The fruit of it is eventually blissful, joyful. Like a diabetic saying, “I have the discipline not to eat sugar”. 

There is a lot we impose on ourselves — every morning we wake up and brush our teeth, and brush them again before going to bed. But these have been self-imposed from childhood by your mother. Once it became a habit, you understood it was for your own good. And then you found it was no longer your mother’s rule, but your own. In the same way, keeping yourself clean, hygienic, exercising, meditating, being kind, considerate etc- all these rules you have imposed on yourself are discipline. 

Yoga is the act of restraining or freeing the mind from the clutches of the modulations of the mind. There are five types of modulations of the mind — wanting proof for everything, lack of comprehension, imagination, sleep and memory. All through the day, your mind is in one these modulations. But, if there are those moments when you are not sleeping, not remembering old things, not imagining, or looking for proof, then that moment yoga has happened. 

At that moment what is happening? You are just by yourself in the journey of your own self, which is the source of joy or source of love or source of peace and knowledge. This happens whenever you are watching the sunset or when you experience beauty in your life or when you experience lot of energy in the body. This also happens after pranayama (breathing techniques) or during meditation. The mind is then free from all these five modulations. That is why when you do yogasanas you put the body, mind and breath, all in one rhythm. That is when real yoga is happening and you are with yourself.