They alone live who live for others

They alone live who live for others

My wife called, 'How long will you be with that newspaper? Will you come here and make your darling daughter eat her food?'

I tossed the paper away and rushed to the scene. My only daughter Sindu looked frightened.

Tears were welling up in her eyes. In front of her was a bowl filled to its brim with Curd Rice. Sindu is a nice child, quite intelligent for her age. She has just turned eight. She particularly detested Curd Rice. My mother and my wife are orthodox, and believe firmly in the 'cooling effects' of Curd Rice! I cleared my throat, and picked up the bowl.

'Sindu, darling, why don't you take a few mouthful of this Curd Rice? Just for Dad's sake, dear.

Sindu softened a bit, and wiped her tears with the back of her hands.

'OK, Dad. I will eat - not just a few mouthfuls, but the whole lot of this.

But, you should...' Sindu hesitated. 'Dad, if I eat this entire curd Rice, will you give me whatever I ask for?'....

Oh sure, darling'.... 'Promise?'......... 'Promise'.

I covered the pink soft hand extended by my daughter with mine, and clinched the deal.

'Ask Mom also to give a similar promise', my daughter insisted.

My wife put her hand on Sindu's, muttering 'Promise'. Now I became a bit anxious.

'Sindu dear, you shouldn't insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. Dad does not have that kind of money right now. OK?'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything expensive'.

Slowly and painfully, she finished eating the whole quantity.

I was silently angry with my wife and my mother for forcing my child eat something that she detested. After the ordeal was through, Sindu came to me with her eyes wide with expectation. All our attention was on her.

'Dad, I want to have my head shaved off, this Sunday!' was her demand.

'Atrocious!' shouted my wife, 'A girl child having her head shaved off? Impossible!' 'Never in our family!' my mother rasped.

'She has been watching too much of television. Our culture is getting totally spoiled with these TV programs!'

Sindu darling, why don't you ask for something else? We will be sad seeing you with a clean-shaven head.'

'No, Dad. I do not want anything else', Sindu said with finality.

'Please, Sindu, why don't you try to understand our feelings?'

I tried to plead with her.

'Dad, you saw how difficult it was for me to eat that Curd Rice'.

Sindu was in tears. 'And you promised to grant me whatever I ask for.

Now, you are going back on your words. Was it not you who told me the story of King Harishchandra, and its moral that we should honor our promises no matter what?'

It was time for me to call the shots.

'Our promise must be kept.'

'Are you out your mind?' chorused my mother and wife.

'No. If we go back on our promises, she will never learn to honor her own.

Sindu, your wish will be fulfilled.'

With her head clean-shaven, Sindu had a round-face, and her eyes looked big and beautiful.

On Monday morning, I dropped her at her school. It was a sight to watch my hairless Sindu walking towards her classroom. She turned around and waved. I waved back with a smile. Just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted, 'Sinduja, please wait for me!'

What struck me was the hairless head of that boy.

'May be, that is the in-stuff', I thought. 'Sir, your daughter Sinduja is great indeed!' Without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued,' that boy who is walking along with your daughter is my son Harish. He is suffering from... ... leukemia.' She paused to muffle her sobs.

Harish could not attend the school for the whole of the last month. He lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy. He refused to come back to school fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates.

'Sinduja visited him last week, and promised him that she will take care of the teasing issue.

But, I never imagined she would sacrifice her lovely hair for the sake of my son! Sir, you and your wife are blessed to have such a noble soul as your daughter.'

I stood transfixed. And then, I wept. 'My little Angel, you are teaching me how self-less real love is!'

*The happiest people on this planet are not those who live on their own terms but are those who change their terms for the ones whom they love.*

Love Touch And Inspire your FRIENDS "The life is short, the vanities of world are transient but they alone live who live for others; the rest are more dead than alive”

Om Namah Shivay

Three Ways to Keep Your Calm-2

Three Ways to Keep Your Calm-2

Remind yourself that you are forgiving the other person because their conduct, attitude or mistakes are not bigger than your existence. That you consciously choose to emerge larger than their neglect. Say: “I forgive you because I want to free myself. This is the only way I can close my account otherwise the books will remain open and our pending transactions will be carried forward into the next life. I do not wish to repay your loans. I set you free from making any more payments. I forgive you.”

3. I am the owner

This method is about incorporating the first two approaches in our way of life. It is always remembering that we are responsible for the choices we make. We are the owners of our life, our minds, our emotions. A beautiful Buddhist sutra states: “When you are annoyed with a person, concentrate on the ownership of deeds like this: ‘This good person is the owner of his deeds, his deeds are the womb from which he is born, his deeds are his kin for whom he is responsible, his deeds are his refuge, he is heir to his deeds, be they good or bad.’ ”

It becomes easier to practice the first two methods when we see the other person in the light above, independent of us. You are a customer and so is he. They are the owners and inheritors of their deeds, we ours.

Mulla Nasrudin was having frequent episodes of anxiety attacks and became a patient of hypertension as a result.

“The reports are fine,” the doctor said, “you should probably see a psychiatrist.”

“Psychiatrist?”

“Yes. Maybe you have a business or a family problem that’s causing these panic attacks. Just a few weeks ago, I had a similar case. The patient was worried about a $20,000 loan and had a nervous breakdown.”

“How did you cure him?” Mulla asked.

“I told him to declare bankruptcy and that life was too short to be wasted over a loan,” the doctor said. “He’s enjoying perfect health now and has completely stopped worrying.”

“I know,” Mulla said. “He has not only stopped worrying, he has also stopped picking up his phone. I’m the man whom he owes the 20,000.”

Life is a seesaw, you know. Sometimes you are at the receiving end and other times giving. You go through your ups and downs, highs and lows, but, either way, to come off the swing, without hurting yourself or the other person, you have to bring it in the balanced position.

We must repay our loans. Everyone owes someone. If you want to close the books, relieve them from their debts and set them free. Nature will write off your borrowings too in return.

Om Namah Shivay

The Practical, 'Airplane Route' To God

The Practical, 'Airplane Route' To God

I had the opportunity to meet and live with a great master from India.

Many of you may have read the very famous Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa Yogananda. I read it when I was a young man of 22 in New York City . I'd been seeking truth in all possible ways except the right one. I looked for it in science, the arts and political systems.You can't prove God

Always, I tried to avoid thinking of God, because I believed, as modern science teaches, that you can't prove God. So why think about Him? I tried to find fulfilment without Him, and, thank God, I failed.

It was in a mood of extreme desperation that I came upon Autobiography of a Yogi. That book so changed my life that I took the next bus from New York to Los Angeles, a journey of four days and nights, to meet him.

I had been a very arrogant young man. I never thought I'd say such words to anybody , but when I met Yogananda, the first words I said to him were, “I want to be your disciple.“

He must have seen how desperate I was, because that same day he gave me the vows of discipleship and accepted me in the monastery .

Ultimately , we all have to make peace with our Creator.We have to understand who we are, where we've come from, and what the purpose of life is.The goal of life for everyone is to seek God, whether they know it or not. We are all children of God: Most vicious criminal, the most brutal dictator. Great ambassador Yogananda was one of the greatest ambassadors of Indian culture that your country has ever sent to the world. The Sanatan Dharma of Hinduism, which he taught, is the religion of the universe. You might call your religion Christianity , Islam, or Buddhism, but all true religions have the same purpose to give you the understanding that the goal of life is to find who and what you are, as bliss. Yogananda came to show us that motivating all life from behind is the soul's desire for bliss.

When you travel the world, you see that people everywhere are seeking happiness, and it comes back to this same truth.

The same God that's in Yogananda or Jesus Christ or Krishna is in you. Underneath all that you've been seeking in life is that One, universal God.

Yogananda's message is the path of Kriya Yoga which he called “the air plane route to God“. He was the representative of a line of great gurus who, through Lahiri Mahasaya of Benares, brought this great message to all. He showed us how to bring Divine Reality into everything we do. This was, to a large extent, his mission to the world.

The highlight of my life was meeting and being with my Guru. It was like being in the presence of God.Behind everything he said or did was a message ­ to realise the bliss of our own being. He saw all of us as potential gods filled with divine bliss. What these great masters are, not only can you achieve, you must achieve. You are eternal, although you've lived in this world wandering in delusion. That search can go on forever, but there is something that never leaves you ­ the longing for the bliss of God. Someday you will awaken and know yourself as a child of the Infinite Lord. I bow to that Lord in all of you.

Om Namah Shivay

Vivekananda Saw Practical Vedanta As Panacea

Vivekananda Saw Practical Vedanta As Panacea

Swami Vivekananda was never concerned with world-negating spirituality distanced from the din and bustle of daily living. He was intensely perturbed by the endless suffering of mankind and discovered that the root of all suffering lies in ignorance, disharmony, divisiveness and confinement of consciousness within finitudes. His esoteric experience of Advaita philosophy of Vedanta offered him a unique panacea. In the light of his experience of cosmic consciousness he found a bridge between science and spirituality, between religions and between the mundane and divine. From absolutely secular, scientific and experiential philosophy he developed the concept of practical Vedanta as a formula of living.

Swamiji prescribed the following motto of life as self-realisation and selfless service to humanity: “Atmano mokshartham jagaddhitaya cha.“ The twofold complementary agenda can be best practised with the concept of practical Vedanta which is not a religious but a spiritual formula for all.

The central theme of Vedanta is essential unity in diversity or ultimate oneness of existence. Brahmn alone abides. Its manifestation through names, forms and attributes are merely apparent within time, space and causality rooted in cosmic delusion. Each soul is potentially divine and essentially one. Hence Vedantic Self-realisation is infinite self expansion in the universe as expression of the Absolute. There is no divisiveness in One without a second as Christ also experienced, “I and my Father are one.“

Practical Vedanta is rooted in Upanishadic revelations. But the best lesson is found in the Gita delivered at Kurukshetra which teaches us unattached action with spiritual anchorage.

Joyful action flows from the centre of our being where we are not lost in the circumference of worldly doing and possessing with undue attachment.Then every action is divine action and play of the divine in the divine world. The mundane and spiritual get united in massive oneness and we experience joy in life as the play of consciousness.

For Swamiji renunciation did not lie in negating creation but in divinisation of entire creation and serving all. When we behold Creation as expression of the Absolute within and without our sense of personal loss, then gain or ego satisfaction get automatically sublimated. Instead of being player we become observer of cosmic drama with joy of Being.

The resultant effect is selfless love for entire Creation and absolute freedom from human bondage. Then our happiness no longer depends on anything or anybody but flows from within.

Sense of immortality gives us our freedom to act without fear or temporal concern. Tremendous sense of harmony enables us to enjoy apparent diversity in thought, action, belief and worship. We become not tolerant but appreciative of one another and rise above sectarian boundaries where solutions to all problems flow from empathy.

Practical Vedanta starts with self-purification through selfless service which is possible only when we are grounded in cosmic Self through constant Self-inquiry and deep meditation. Self-expansion leads to falling in love with everybody with perception of own Self. Then our life becomes an instrument of cosmic will for playing divine tune as a finite expression of inexpressible Infinite.

Swamiji wanted us to attain this divine consciousness and make it our sole mission and direction. In that elevated consciousness our personal suffering becomes enactment, disharmony a veil of ignorance and the creation a cosmic drama. Behind all these remains blissful singular existence and consciousness of cosmic Self behind the plurality of names, forms and attributes. Therefore, he said, “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.“

Om Namah Shivay

Reason ­-The Sap Of Vedanta Philosophy

Reason ­-The Sap Of Vedanta Philosophy

The faculty of reason is a human prerogative. It arises from the ability to think. All other beings lack this faculty . Reason makes a human the chef d'oeuvre of creation. But few make the effort to develop the art of thinking and reasoning. People do not seem to realise that thinking is skilled work; that you need to learn and practise it.

On the contrary you believe that it is a natural process like breathing or eating. That you can think clearly and accurately without putting in the necessary effort on your part. It is not so. If you are to develop the faculty of thinking and reasoning, you need to devote as much time and effort to it as you would to learning any other skill.

Art of thinking

In the world today few have developed the art of thinking. People are possessed with groundless beliefs. Propositions are accepted without question as a matter of course. Their beliefs rest upon superstition or someone's mere assertion. Do you realise that many of your strongest beliefs had taken root in your childhood?

Now as an adult you find it difficult to question their veracity. They seem to be obviously true. You feel even to question them would be absurd.

Take the example of two men professing different religious beliefs. One, a staunch Hindu; the other, a devout Christian. They were born the same day in a maternity ward 40 years back.The attending nurse committed a colossal blunder. She mistakenly exchanged the newborns in their cradles. The Hindu baby was placed in the Christian mother's cradle, and the Christian in the Hindu mother's cradle. And the two children were brought up unknowingly with the opposite domestic, social and religious influences. You could imagine the natural consequence. Both have now grown up holding beliefs totally opposed to their original family and religion. And each now swears by his particular belief !

William Drummond remarks: He who cannot reason is a fool; he who will not is a bigot; he who dare not is a slave.

Parroting of ideas

With these facts in mind, look at the present-day world. One set of people is hawking spirituality with their own views. Another set is blindly accepting them. Religion has been reduced to mere parroting of ideas picked up from preachers. Neither the preacher nor the pupil can claim to have gone through any systematic study and research, reflection and absorption of the truths of life. People are confused and confounded. In such an irrational state of affairs how can there be any spiritual edification? The world remains as poor as ever, morally and spiritually . People are afflicted with worry and anxiety . They undergo mental strain. They suffer from stress. This has been a perennial problem with human beings.

Time to wake up

The world must wake up from its slumber. You must start thinking, questioning, enquiring and reasoning with the truths of life. The philosophy of Vedanta satisfies the tests of reason and logic. It complies with the principles of sound judgment. The truths that are acceptable to your intellect are what you should apply in your life. Verify their authenticity. Then you begin to taste the joys of higher and chaster living. With your personal experience you would delve deeper into the essence of Vedanta and attain peace and happiness.

Om Namah Shivay

Three Types of Doers

Three Types of Doers

While doing work there are three types of doers.
A Sattvik doer
A Rajasik doer
A Tamasik doer

You have to see, which category you come into at this moment. It is not going to be the same all the time, it changes.

Who is a Sattvik doer? A Sattvik doer is one who, whether work has happened or not happened, whether success or failure, they have not lost their enthusiasm. Utsaha means Enthusiasm, and Dhrty is that something which uplifts you and upholds you. That which sustains life and prana, the presence of that energy is a Sattvik Karta (doer).

The second type of doer is a Rajasik doer, one who is always interested in the outcome. He is so attached to the outcome that if something goes up he jumps up to the ceiling, and if something goes down he goes down along with that. He feels totally destroyed when things don’t happen, and when things happen, his ego gets a boost, ‘See, I did it’. This is a Rajasik doer. Though he does everything with a lot of passion, but along with the passion there is a lot of Rajas. Rajas means, there is a lot of anger, ego, a sense of challenge, etc. Have you had this experience, if someone doesn’t do something and you just challenge them, they immediately get up and say, 'I take it as a challenge'. That sense of challenge is a Rajasik Karta.

The Tamasik doer is one who thinks that everything is always bad. One who is always regretting, ‘Oh, I should have done electrical engineering ten years ago, I made a mistake’. My dear, you have already crossed those ten years, what is the point of regretting. Often you will hear mothers tell their children, ‘Since 10 years I am telling you.’ Or a wife tells her husband, ‘It's been 30 years of our marriage and you’re still like this.’

So, Vishaadi means Regretful or Remorseful, and Dhirga Sutri means anything you tell them they would say, ‘Oh, that is not possible. It is very difficult you know’. They beat around the bush so much and then come up and say how things cannot work. They finds everything difficult, everything hopeless. This is Tamasik Karta.

These are the three types of doers. See at this moment, in your mind, what type of a doer is coming up? How do you move from being a Tamasik Karta to a Rajasik Karta, and then to being a Sattvik Karta? This is the challenge and this is the path.

Om Namah Shivay

Does contentment come after indulgence or without indulging (the senses)?

Q: Does contentment come after indulgence or without indulging (the senses)?

Guruji: Contentment comes with an elevation of your consciousness. It is a higher experience. It comes when you do not dwell on something again and again. That is why in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Maharishi Patanjali answers the question, 'How to get Vairagya (dispassion)?', by saying, 'Drishtanu shravikavishaya vitrush’asya vashikara sanjna vairagyam'.

If you keep focusing your mind on all that you have seen, all that you have heard, etc., then you will only get more of that. In the Bhagavad Gita also, Lord Krishna says, 'Dhyayato vishayan pumsah sangas-teshupajayate. Sangat sanjayate kamah kamat krodho 'bhijayate'. Krodhad bhavati sammohah sammohat smrti-vibhramah. Smrti-bhramshad buddhi-nasho buddhi-nashat pranashyati'. (2.62 & 2.63)

It means: If you keep thinking about food the whole day, then the moment you see food the more you will want to eat, even though you are not hungry. It is only because your mind is dwelling on it. The capacity of our senses to enjoy is limited, but the hunger in the mind is unlimited. When there is disproportion between the mind and the body, there is disharmony.

The needs of the mind and the body are different. If the mind and the body are not in harmony and sync with each other, then it causes a great imbalance. It causes huge embarrassment, and a host of problems follow. These disorders like Bulimia, etc., are the result of all this. So, for contentment the first thing to do is to put a brake on the mind. You have to first decide that you want to put a brake to this (habits or tendencies of the mind). And then, to counter what follows, you have to give it some substitute.

For example, someone has a habit of smoking, and you make them give up smoking. They cannot immediately give it up, you need to offer them some substitute for the smoking. And the best substitute is Sadhana (different pranayamas etc.) By doing sadhana, a different kind of joy rises within. That is what is called Pratyahara.

A deadline for your work brings a different kind of energy from within you. At that time nothing else matters. No sense gratification is an issue then. When there is a dedication in life to do some work, or when there is an emergency to get something done, then all your energies are automatically channelized in the fulfilment of that work. All cravings and aversions simply get subdued automatically. Now you cannot have that all the time. But having a goal or a cause from time to time will help you come out of your hunger for insatiable desires. So, by being one-pointed towards a task or a goal through the help of your Viveka (sense of discrimination) helps.

The second thing that helps here is Sadhana (spiritual practices). And greater than these two is the state of being in utter love. When you are so deeply soaked in love, then you simply do not bother for anything else. In that state, following rules and discipline also does not feel like a burden to us, because our love and dedication is focused towards a goal.

Om Namah Shivay