Soul Curry

Dont get bewildered by the title. This is the name of the article which comes every sunday in TOI LIFE. Every week the real happenings in once life are given here. Whoever reads this will definitely be moved by the plight of the narrator. Basically what is given in the soul curry is: a person narrates tough times in his/her life and how did they get on and how well they dealt with the situation to move on. I am sure that if somebody reads this article once, one will feel that their problems are nothing. In last weeks article , one female was explaining that she lost 2/3 part of the body in an accident. She also lost her relatives in the accident. Her husband is the only source to get on with the life. After few years he also expired. Imagine her position where there is nobody to take care of her and she cannot take of herself. After reading all her story to the point how she is living today, my opinion about what I feel as a problem and difficulty has changed. What I would feel as a problem is not a problem at all if I compare mine with the problems that many people in the world are facing. I retrospected myself that my disappointment with the small issues I have at the current moment is nothing and unnecessary. Move On should be everyone’s ultimate philosophy. This reminds me the Zen way of living which says that, like a stream flowing down the mountain that finds its own path is finding your own way. If you try to block the stream or resist it, it just goes around without a pause and it will finds its own way. This way is like a fallen leaf moving along with the stream. If you allow the stream to carry you, its strength become yours, you are one with nature , without clinging, without attachment leaving the past behind, living in this moment.

 

Stop Hating, liking and disliking……….

Hey..I dont like him….I hate him….I hate the way he/she talks..hating …hating these are so common in everyone’s life. Someway, somehow, somewhere they hate something or someone. We start hating the other person if we dont like his actions, talk or whatever he has been doing. So we had a picture in mind that how everything should be? If the other person does not behave according to what you like…hating starts. If the thing does not work in you way you start hating taht. This is the funda behind hating. Our mind is programmed over a time what is right and what is wrong? We are not mature enough to edit our knowledge. So whatever the other person does falls in your wrong list of things or you dont like..you start hating. But look from a broader view. The same thing holds good for whatever things happen to you in life. When you have pre-defined set of things which you like and dont dislike, unhappiness is inevitable. Its better that your mind should be software rather than hardware. Stop hating, liking and disliking but experience whatever the things may be and however the things may be. If sorrow happens in your life dont dislike it but experience it. There is a great Zen saying which states that ” Feel the sorrow inside your heart, draw energy from the eastern rising sun and the warrior prepares a cup of tea”. What it means is : Feel the sorrow whatever you have inside your heart but dont get stuck or disappointed with the state you are in and get up, fill up your soul with fresh energy like how sun rises everyday. But in doing all these things dont miss small small things. The warrior has to face a war where he might lose his life in serving for his country but he is preparing and not missing his cup of tea. Understand the saying deeply and feel, experience everything……….

 

Controlling Mind- Dont live in past, dont live in future , enjoy the present that is presented to you

As it is said mind is a flow of thoughts. Mind can take you to anywhere in just a moment of time. In bhavagadgeeta krishna says controlling mind needs a rigorous practice. I can say who can keep their mind in control are genius and we can do wonders if that task is accomplished. Several gurus have preached their ideas in keeping mind under control. Ramana maharshi said if you do pranayama you can keep mind just as you trap a bird to a cage. I did not remember sanskrit sloka behind this. Buddha took one more step ahead and propose very simple principle to do this. He said, whenever your mind is jumping like a monkey just turn your concentration on your swasa(breath). Make your mind to focus on swasa. This is an exercise which keeps your mind in control. Just try this whenever you are under control of mind and you want to keep mind under your control. Apparently, there are many techniques existing to keep the mind in control. He talks of another technique where he says dont give scope for words to dominate. For example if you are seeing a flower just observe thats it. If you let your words then you start comparing with something else(another flower) and the sole beauty that your enjoying by watching the flower vanishes. Everything has a beauty in itself, so when you are watching something just observe but dont let wordliness to dominate. These are excerpts from swamiji discourse and includes editing from my side with whatever little understanding.

You can watch swamiji’s discourse on aastha channel every monday,tuesday and wednesday at 11.00PM to 11.20PM

 

Spiritual Journey

For the past three days I was attending spiritual talks by swami sukhabodanandha. The talks gave entertainment and enlightenment. The talks basically were on Bhagavad Geeta which is the book of life. It teaches you how to live a life peacefully by inhibiting the bad qualities that are part of every human being. He extracted the beautiful meaning encoded in the sanskrit verses and unfolded to the audience in the form of excellent examples. They are just real time examples where we can find lot of our peculiar mannerisms when dealing with different situations. I read his books unknowingly rather accidentally while I am pursuing my masters. I got inspired by his mind blowing examples and his way of presentation. Now I got a chance to attend his live talks. He emphasizes that our mind is just a flow of thoughts. Mind is always involved in fight between bad and good thoughts. He says pandavas are good thoughts and kauravas are bad thoughts and bhagavdgeeta explains how to win over these more number of bad thoughts. In the talks, I have observed 80 to 90% of the people are middle aged and old aged and the rest is youth. I can say that its a myth saying that bhagavad geeta is advisable to only old people. I can still remember that my grandmother used to read that at the age of 75 and I was under impression also that its for only elder people. But now I realize the importance of bhavagadgeeta which should be read by people when they are young. It does not make sense to go through the sanskrit verses and spend your whole time in memorising the verses. What is important is to get the real meaning involved in it. I can confidently say that there are too many preachers in India who teaches bahavadgeeta than a few who literally implement those preachings. Knowing does not matter following and implementing matters. Life gives you so many live examples to show How you should be and How you should not be. But you should be conscious enough to catch and understand those things. Swamiji beautifully says that we are spending our whole time in liking and disliking the moments that you face in your life. What he says is to experience the every moment that you face in your life. Just think in ourselves are we not doing this? and this is the main cause for whatever unhappiness, stress etc etc. I will give you the details of each talk explaining the examples and good quotes quoted by him.