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Swami.rtf
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\f0\fs22 \cf0 Enlightenment\
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\'93How do I gain enlightenment?\'94 someone said to me the other day. \'93Can you not grant me some deep experience? I want a radical change in my life.\'94\
I get this asked frequently by many enthusiastic seekers. They are in search of a panacea, some mystical reality that will solve all their problems (spiritual and emotional) forever. While many aspirants understand the importance of persistence and individual effort, most others are looking for a quick fix. Here\'92s a beautiful quote by Adya Shanti that mirrors my own thoughts in ways more than one:\
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\cf3 Many seekers do not take full responsibility for their own liberation, but wait for one big, final spiritual experience which will catapult them fully into it. It is this search for the final liberating experience which gives rise to a rampant form of spiritual consumerism in which seekers go from one teacher to another, shopping for enlightenment as if shopping for sweets in a candy store. This spiritual promiscuity is rapidly turning the search for enlightenment into a cult of experience seekers. And, while many people indeed have powerful experiences, in most cases these do not lead to the profound transformation of the individual, which is the expression of enlightenment.\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\cf2 One of the greatest misconceptions about enlightenment is that it will just happen. Not so. It has to be earned, it has to be lived. Sometimes I find it challenging to explain to seekers that true enlightenment is not a one-off special moment, but more a culmination of lifelong experiences and practices that result in the dawning of a great insight. I don\'92t blame them for thinking that by the magical touch of some guru or maybe by being struck by lightning, they will arrive at a moment of enlightenment. Partly because we have plenty of spiritual books out there that give that impression. Even I may have inadvertently conveyed the same by sharing one of my most defining spiritual experiences in my memoir. For that matter, Buddha\'92s enlightenment under the Bodhi tree is often construed as an isolated event of extraordinary significance. It was anything but that.\
In comprehending and highlighting such experiences, we tend to overlook the tremendous amount of effort that goes in realizing that state. For a moment, think of enlightenment as winning the Nobel Prize. We can\'92t have it just by visiting other Nobel Laureates and we certainly can\'92t be awarded it just because we want it. After a lifetime of commitment to a cause or producing a phenomenal body of work, and assuming the circumstances are favorable, the committee might consider your nomination and grant you one. No doubt winning the Nobel Prize will bring about a change in your life and lifestyle to a degree, you will inspire more people and so on. But, beyond that, there\'92s not much. It\'92s not going to improve your relationships, it\'92s not going to fix your physical health etc. Those challenges will remain.\
Without preparation and readiness, any spiritual experience is hardly transformational. And if an experience doesn\'92t trigger some kind of lasting transformation in you, however subtle, it holds little meaning ultimately. When you continue to walk the path sincerely, diligently, many learnings, lessons and experiences give you the wisdom to lead your life differently. Differently so in a manner that it\'92s more conducive to retaining a state of bliss. Having said that, even if you are enlightened, it doesn\'92t mean that you won\'92t experience pain or that you will always find joy in everything that goes on in your life.\
R.K. Laxman , one of India\'92s most famous cartoonists ever, writes a lovely passage in his travelogue\'a0
\i The Distorted Mirror
\i0 .\
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\cf3 People are curious about my profession and try to clear their doubts by putting all sorts of questions. Recently a lady asked me, \'93Do you do the drawings for your cartoons yourself?\'94 I answered, \'93Yes, I do.\'94 Then she questioned, \'93And the captions to the cartoons, do you write them too?\'94 \'93Of course,\'94 I said. And, finally, she asked, \'93The ideas for the cartoons, don\'92t say you think them up too?\'94\
\'85\
There is one [question] that is rather rarely asked but which makes me go into deep introspection. This is: \'93When you look around, does everything appear funny to you?\'94\
A cartoonist does not lead a charmed life of perpetual fun out of the reach of the cares and worries that bedevil his fellow men. The fluctuating prices of onions affect me in the same way as they delight or outrage a primary schoolteacher. Likewise, taxes depress my spirit. Bores at the mike, and traffic jams drive me crazy. Surely a doctor does not always look at life in terms of coughs, colds, allergies and bronchial inflammations. A star of the silver screen, I am sure, has enough sense to know that beyond the range of the camera life does not continue to be full of idyllic scenes, sex, songs and ketchup-blood. Why, then, should a cartoonist see living caricatures and hear rib-tickling dialogue all around him? So I comfort myself with the self-assurance that my view of life is normally as banal as that of the next man in the queue for sugar or kerosene.\
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\cf2 Enlightenment is something like that. It does not mean that you don\'92t feel the pain or remain eternally unaffected by everything that goes around you. All of that we must go through based on our karma, temperament and attitude towards life. The only thing that changes is that you grow into a more spiritual being, you become increasingly resilient and kind. What life hurls at you doesn\'92t change, how you catch it or dodge it, does. When it builds to a tipping point, you become kind of independent, very independent. Less worried about what the world thinks of you, how it perceives you and so on. In other words, you draw your own cartoons, write your own captions and, much to the fascination or disbelief of others, come up with the ideas too.\
As the famous Zen saying goes, \'93Before enlightenment: chop wood, fetch water. After enlightenment: chop wood, fetch water.\'94\
Being a\'a0
\i jivan-mukta
\i0 , a liberated soul, or an enlightened person does not relieve one of his or her duties. Self-realization is not, as Eknath Easwaran put it, a compensation for one\'92s good deeds. It is but simply an outlook towards life that you gain from experiential understanding. If you really wish to get a grip on the notion of enlightenment then look upon it as a way of life, a commitment to virtues, as a promise to carry yourself a certain way and leading your life in a manner that befits you.\
Liberation is not plonking a glorious flag on top of Mount Everest, it is but a mindful and diligent journey meandering through many treks and hikes, stopping and camping along the way, meeting and greeting fellow travelers, absorbing the breathtaking views, appreciating the challenges, rejoicing in where you are already. All this while you remain inward focused but goal-oriented.\
When you realize this, a better sense of wellbeing and happiness shrouds you. You understand that there are no dark moments, that you are already enlightened. You just need to live a certain way to experience it. Then you laugh at the discovery that how unnecessarily seriously you\'92ve been taking yourself. As Thich Naht Hanh said:\
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\cf3 I laugh when I think how I once sought paradise as a realm outside of the world of birth. It is right in the world of birth and death that the miraculous truth is revealed. But this is not the laughter of someone who suddenly acquires a great fortune; neither is it the laughter of one who has won a victory. It is, rather, the laughter of one who; after having painfully searched for something for a long time, finds it one morning in the pocket of his coat.\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\cf2 A religious man called a monk and invited him to bless his new home. The monk politely turned down the request saying he\'92s busy.\uc0\u8232 \'93But, what are you doing?\'94 the man insisted.\u8232 \'93Nothing.\'94\u8232 Thinking that the monk was perhaps not in a mood to visit that day, he let it be and phoned again the next day. \'93Can you come today to bless my home?\'94\u8232 \'93Sorry,\'94 said the monk, \'93I\'92m busy.\'94\u8232 \'93Doing what?\'94\u8232 \'93I\'92m doing nothing,\'94 replied the monk.\u8232 \'93But that was what you were doing yesterday!\'94 said the man.\u8232 \'93Right,\'94 the monk replied. \'93I\'92m not finished yet!\'94\
Enlightenment too is an ongoing affair. No doubt, there can be a transformational moment that changes something in you forever. Living that change, however, is a matter of mindfulness and more. True enlightenment, that.\
This is it. This life. It\'92s beautiful. Live it. Love it. For yourself, for others. Laugh it away. That\'92s all there is to know. Most of the rest, life can do without.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Mind Full to Mindful\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\f1 \cf2 One day, Buddha was having a quiet moment with his monks when a man approached him and said, \'93Can you please impart me the greatest wisdom in the fewest possible words?\'94\
Buddha recognized this man\'92s presence and his question, and acknowledged it with a gentle smile, maintaining his silence.\
After waiting for a few minutes, the visitor bowed before Buddha and said, \'93Thank you very much. I have received the message. I shall take your leave now.\'94\
Shariputra, one of the more rebellious monks who never hesitated to pose questions to Buddha, asked him as soon as the visitor left, \'93How could this man thank you and gain something that we could not see?\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93Shariputra,\'94 Buddha replied, \'93a good horse runs even at the shadow of a whip. This man was ready.\'94\
Shariputra, however, still did not understand. When Buddha rose from his seat and left to rest for the afternoon, he checked with all the other monks if any of them understood. Apparently, none of them had. They decided to get together and request for great wisdom in the evening discourse.\
They asked Buddha, \'93Can you also impart us some knowledge, some wisdom, some insight \'96 never mind with the fewest possible words \'96 without saying anything at all? Maybe one of us is also ready.\'94\
Buddha just lifted a flower that was beside him, and held it in his hands for a few minutes. He did not say anything. He simply looked at the flower, unblinkingly. This was what Buddha did to impart the greatest wisdom, the greatest way of meditation, the greatest insight \'96 without saying anything. He just stared at the flower, then raised his eyes and smiled. Nobody else smiled except Mahakashyapa, one of his disciples. This was Buddha\'92s first documented transmission of Zen. This is where it all started.\
Mahakashyapa smiled because he understood what Buddha was trying to tell him, with a flower, with silence.\
Anything I or anyone else says will be an interpretation of that. Have you ever wondered why we offer flowers in worship? It\'92s not just for colour and fragrance. If it were just for that, we could offer many other beautiful things. We could smear our deity in beautiful colours; we could spray him with perfumes and scents. But why flowers? There is a very real and beautiful reason behind it. You see, a flower is a living thing. It has life and with time it withers.\
Buddha clarified further, addressing all his monks but looking at Mahakashyapa, \'93Everything is there, Mahakashyapa. Everything is just there. Nothing needs to be done. All you have to do is enjoy the beauty of this flower, with the mindfulness that this flower is not going to last forever \'96 this will one day wither.\'94\
An easy and beautiful way to experience Zen is to keep a flower at your desk at work, and perhaps one on your dining table and in your bedroom too. Don\'92t water it. Don\'92t replace it every day, either. Replace it only when it withers.\
Japanese texts say that the first Zen sutra uttered by Buddha was\'a0
\i Hana Wahraku, Ben Koku Na Haru
\i0 \'a0which means that a single flower blooms, and throughout the world it is spring.\
A flower in Zen is referred to as Buddha because he was born under flowers. He even died on flowers and lived on flowers. His devotees truly loved him more than they loved their own lives. He gained his enlightenment under a tree of flowers. Your mind can also be compared to one. When your mind blooms, the whole world is in spring. When it experiences autumn, no matter how much beauty there is in the external world, all feels lackluster. Everything is doomed and in gloom. Therefore, Zen says, let me simply focus on my mind. Because if I keep my mind in a state of bloom, the world is automatically beautiful.\
You are a flower and you have a beautiful life. Compare your lifestyle to those of billions of people, who can\'92t even afford to live a basic life. Most people don\'92t just order anything they like when they go to a restaurant. They look at the prices on the menu and then decide what they can afford. Not everybody enjoys the luxuries of life, but you do. Remember where you are in your life and what you are blessed with already. If this is not enough, if this still seems inadequate for you to experience happiness in life, then tell me, what would make you happy? Nothing else.\
Zen teaches us that happiness is not a pursuit. It\'92s not something we have to seek. Yes, we should have a zeal, zest and passion for life, but passion should not be taken as recklessness or an immoderate effort. This thing about passion, where you are constantly told you must have a \'93passion\'94 in life, is a very new, very American phenomenon. Billions of people lived before this came into vogue, and they had no \'93passions\'94 in their lives. But they were happy, quiet and content nonetheless.\
Zen says, just let me be in the present moment, that even breathing is a blessing. If I can\'92t be happy with what I have now, I can never be happy with whatever I may have in the future. It is all but apparent that every time and under any circumstances, you will have at least one difficult person in your life. You will face at least one big challenge. And you will have to deal with at least one adversity, whether that is mental, physical, emotional, psychical, psychological or spiritual. This is very much a part of life. But in all this, to be able to flow is Zen.\
In the thousand years after Buddha passed away, Zen did not really catch on. This is because people need anchors; people, they need rituals. When I say to people, \'93Just sit and be aware; you don\'92t have to do anything,\'94 they think it isn\'92t sufficient. As if they have already mastered the art of sitting still! If I give them a mantra \'96 and it is very rare for me to give someone one \'96 they will chant it for a few weeks, maybe months, and then come back to me and say, \'93Okay, what\'92s the next step?\'92\
This is very material thinking. There is no next step. If you can\'92t become one with yourself using any given path, there is no \'93next step\'94 that will ever get you there. There are stages in meditation, not steps, but you don\'92t get to those stages by doing different things. You don\'92t experience those stages by going further. In fact, they are more like states than stages.\
You just do what you do. You keep perfecting it; you keep championing it and then you reach that stage. As a certain martial arts master said to his student, \'93Don\'92t worry about learning ten thousand moves. You are not going to perfect that many. I am not interested in teaching ten thousand moves that you may do only once or twice. I am only interested in teaching you that one winning move that you will practice ten thousand times. That will become your perfect move.\'94\
1000 years passed and in the south of India, in a place called Kanchipuram, in present-day Tamil Nadu, a child was born into a royal family. Deeply influenced by the Buddhist teachings, he set out on a remarkable path that not only revived the Zen thought but took it far and wide\'85\
What you\'92ve just read is an extract from\'a0
\i Mind Full to Mindful
\i0 , my new book on Zen wisdom based on the discourses I gave in my Zen retreats in Canada and India. It\'92s a simple read, very Zen-like, full of anecdotes, with some humor and lovely illustrations. Since Zen is about living in the present, it is about \'93Now\'94, I don\'92t see any reason for you to not get your copy \'93Now\'94. I hope you enjoy this read. \uc0\u8232 \
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
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\f0 \cf2 \
Intention Vs Skill\
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\f1 \cf2 On a daily basis, I hear stories of despair and frustration, of helplessness and procrastination, where with utmost sincerity someone or the other tells me that they so want to do or be a certain way but no matter how hard they try, they keep going back to their old behavioral patterns. Why do we fail to keep our promises or why the path to success (even in small endeavors) is paved with hurdles and obstacles?\
I think I might just have the answer for you in simple and clear terms. But first, a little story that highlights my underlying philosophy.\
An affluent farmer owned coconut plantations, a barn with tens of cows and a small poultry farm. Waking up to a glorious sunrise over the ocean and sleeping under the starlit sky, he lived a simple and content life with his wife and a pet dog.\
\'93We need a full-time farmhand,\'94 his wife said, \'93someone who can stay with us.\'94 The farmer agreed as most of his staff would go back to their homes in the evening and given that they were aging, they required someone to be with them. He sent around a word in the village that a vacancy was available. Many people approached him for the job but one young man stood out in particular for his enthusiasm and confidence.\
\'93And why should I hire you?\'94 the farmer asked.\uc0\u8232 \'93I am honest, hardworking and skilled,\'94 he replied.\u8232 \'93Those I presume by default. Most who apply have those qualities.\'94\u8232 \'93Maybe,\'94 the young man said, \'93But, I can sleep through a raging storm.\'94\
The philosophical reply caught the farmer\'92s fancy and he hired him. True to his word, the farmhand worked tirelessly and managed the affairs well. Within a few months, he completely won the confidence of the couple and they started relying on him more and more.\
One night, their pet dog began howling rather ominously. The farmer and his wife tried to pacify it without any success. Soon, they realized that a violent storm was building up. He leaped out of his bed and rushed to his farmhand who was fast asleep.\
\'93Wake up!\'94 The farmer shook him. \'93A massive storm is coming!\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93Go away,\'94 he replied with squinty eyes staring into the flashlight the farmer held near his face.\u8232 \'93This is ridiculous! Get up, I said!\'94\u8232 \'93I told you, I can sleep through a raging storm,\'94 he answered in a groggy voice and turned to the other side.\u8232 \'93I\'92ll deal with you in the morning!\'94 the farmer yelled and ran outside with his wife to secure his property. The gale-force winds were blowing and a constantly thundering sky made it hard to even hear each other.\
They went to the shed first only to find out that bales of wheat and haystack were neatly bound and covered by a tarpaulin that was secured using tight guylines. The farm tools were placed in the storage shed next to it. The barn was properly locked and the cows looked calm and content with plenty of fodder and water in the trough. The door of the coop was latched properly. Everything was in its place.\
\'93Well,\'94 the wife said to the farmer, \'93he is certainly prepared to sleep through a raging storm.\'94\
We wish to be safe from adversities, temptations and obstacles but the key is preparation. Wanting to secure yourself, desiring to be a certain way, while important, is only the beginning. In fact, it\'92s the easy part. Whether or not you are equipped with (or at least committed to learn) the right knowledge and experience is what determines the probability of success.\
Recently, on the first day of my program, our AV vendor took a double booking and put an inexperienced person in his place to handle our event. The competent core team who was handling the event and our army of devoted volunteers sensed that the quality of our PA system could be better.\
\'93Sorry, Swami,\'94 someone came to me afterwards and said. \'93We\'92ll ensure this doesn\'92t happen tomorrow.\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93Apology accepted,\'94 I said, \'93but, unfortunately that\'92s unlikely to fix the problem.\'94\u8232 \'93I\'92ll personally man the PA system tomorrow,\'94 another pitched in.\u8232 \'93I appreciate it,\'94 I replied, \'93but, are you an expert? Please let\'92s aim to get the vendor back in here.\'94\
To their credit, they took control, pulled up the vendor, made some changes and the rest of the program went smooth as fresh butter (since I\'92ve been talking about cows and barn, a more appropriate analogy didn\'92t occur to me).\
I went on to explain the difference between intention and skill. It is one thing to have the intention to do something right and it is quite another to have the skill to do so. Sometimes you want to help someone or the other person wants to help you, that\'92s all very good but unless you possess the right skill, such intention is not going to amount to much. This gap between intention and skill is why many of us face failures in our endeavors. You may be a great artist, for example, but if your work isn\'92t selling then acquire sales skills. Success in each area requires a different skillset. Perhaps, that\'92s why, learning is a lifelong process.\
You want to be calm, but have you learned this skill? You want to surprise your partner by baking a cake but do you know baking? Plus, if the cake turns out a brick (hopefully, not charcoal), and your partner doesn\'92t appreciate, should you feel bad? Could you deliver in line with your intention? We want to care, love, succeed and so on but in the face of not having the appropriate skill, there\'92s little hope. Almost everything we know in life, we have learned it somewhere. And what we know really well is usually what we have done repeatedly, something we have championed by way of practice and training. That\'92s all there is to it: whatever we intend to accomplish, we need to master the skill behind it. A wise person told me once, \'93The only thing more expensive than hiring a professional is to hire an amateur.\'94\
A small crowd gathered around an old man who fainted in a busy market. Tearing into the assembly a man rushed to the spot where a woman was trying to revive the patient.\
\'93Get away, woman!\'94 he shouted. \'93I\'92m a first-aid specialist. I know exactly what to do.\'94\uc0\u8232 The woman tried to speak but he wasn\'92t having any of it. Finally, she stood on the side, her arms crossed, while the first-aider made frantic efforts to resuscitate the old man.\u8232 \'93When you get to now-call-the-doctor part,\'94 the lady said calmly, \'93I\'92m right here.\'94\
Whatever it is that you want to attain, that\'92s what you want to\'a0
\i be
\i0 . To achieve that, you wish to act or work a certain way. That\'92s your\'a0
\i intention
\i0 . Whether you are able to actually work in your intended manner is a matter of\'a0
\i skill
\i0 . The good news is that given reasonable time, guidance and discipline, each one of us is capable of mastering just about any skill.\
Next time, you find your efforts are not taking you anywhere near your goal, just write down your intention and underneath it the skill required to act in line with your intention. All confusion will dissipate. Work hard on the skill and the rest will fall in place.\
Bridge the gap between intention and skill; success is not far then. It\'92s never too late to start building that bridge. Indeed,\'a0
\i now
\i0 \'a0would just about be the perfect moment to begin.\uc0\u8232 Still waiting?\
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\f0 \cf2 \
Peace\
Swami\
\
The Spirit of Service\
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\f1 \cf2 Legend has it that\'a0the\'a0valiant ruler of Mewar, Maharana Pratap, was once sitting with a humble attendant of his.\'a0The\'a0year was 1580 when he was overpowered in an ongoing conflict with\'a0the\'a0Mughals. Though five years later, Maharana would reclaim most of his empire, presently however, he had been keeping a low profile and rebuilding his army. In this period of hostility and uncertainty, living on frugal means, he was sent two mangoes by one of his subjects.\
His servant cut\'a0the\'a0mangoes in eight parts and arranged them on a plate. They looked luscious, inviting and ripe.\
\'93Tell me how it tastes,\'94 Maharana Pratap said giving\'a0the\'a0first piece to\'a0the\'a0servant.\uc0\u8232 \'93Hukum,\'94 he said, after relishing a bit, \'93it is most delicious!\'94 And he requested another piece.\
A bit surprised, Maharana handed him one more which\'a0the\'a0servant gobbled down in a flash and pleaded for more. The king was taken aback at this unusual behavior but out of care for a man who had been serving him for ages, he obliged.\
\'93Please,\'94 he begged, \'93I\'92m starving. Give me\'a0the\'a0rest and I\'92ll personally go and fetch new mangoes for you.\'94\
In practically no time, one after another, he ate seven pieces while\'a0the\'a0king\'92s expression changed from that of amusement and compassion to disbelief and disgust.\
\'93You thankless rascal!\'94 Maharana thundered. \'93You are unfit to serve me.\'94 And with that, he put\'a0the\'a0last piece of\'a0the\'a0mango in his mouth only to spit out\'a0the\'a0next moment.\uc0\u8232 \'93You call this sour and bitter mango delicious?\'94 he exclaimed. \'93It tastes horrible!\'94\u8232 \'93I seek thy forgiveness,\'94\'a0the\'a0servant said. \'93For years, you have fed me and my family. Through thick and thin, you have protected us. I can\'92t give you anything in return but at least, I could avoid you tasting those sour mangoes.\'94\
It is fair to expect love in return of love. It is normal to desire acknowledgement of our efforts or recognition of our talents and work. Friendships and relationships thrive when people reciprocate in kind.\
The\'a0spirit\'a0of\'a0service, however, is an entirely different matter.\'a0Service\'a0expects nothing in return other than the well-being of the one we are serving.\
True\'a0service\'a0requires absolute selflessness, something even beyond altruism, for in\'a0service,\'a0the\'a0benchmark is not on whether you are acknowledged or special. Instead, your goal is to devote everything you\'92ve got to serve\'a0the\'a0cause that matters to you. And there lies\'a0the\'a0paradox,\'a0the\'a0more we devote ourselves wholeheartedly to our mission, without worrying about recognition,\'a0the\'a0greater success and satisfaction we derive from walking\'a0the\'a0path.\
Sometimes, people ask me what is surrender and how do we surrender to a cause or person?\'a0Service\'a0is surrender. Without surrender true\'a0service\'a0is not possible and without\'a0service\'a0surrender dies a quick death. Surrender is that feeling at heart that makes us let go. It helps us ease and relax. It makes us understand that we don\'92t have to control everything that is going on in our lives and we can\'92t. And\'a0service\'a0is then devoting wholeheartedly to what we do control: our actions, words and response to whatever comes our way.\
Moshe Kranc cites a beautiful parable (variations of which are found in every culture) in\'a0
\i The Hasidic Masters\'92 Guide to Management
\i0 :\
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\f2 \cf3 I once ascended to the firmaments. I first went to see Hell and the sight was horrifying. Row after row of tables were laden with platters of sumptuous food, yet the people seated around the tables were pale and emaciated, moaning in hunger. As I came closer, I understood their predicament.\
Every person held a full spoon, but both arms were splinted with wooden slats so he could not bend either elbow to bring the food to his mouth. It broke my heart to hear the tortured groans of these poor people as they held their food so near but could not consume it.\
Next I went to visit Heaven. I was surprised to see the same setting I had witnessed in Hell \'96 row after row of long tables laden with food. But in contrast to Hell, the people here in Heaven were sitting contentedly talking with each other, obviously sated from their sumptuous meal.\
As I came closer, I was amazed to discover that here, too, each person had his arms splinted on wooden slats that prevented him from bending his elbows. How, then, did they manage to eat?\uc0\u8232 As I watched, a man picked up his spoon and dug it into the dish before him. Then he stretched across the table and fed the person across from him! The recipient of this kindness thanked him and returned the favor by leaning across the table to feed his benefactor.\
I suddenly understood. Heaven and Hell offer the same circumstances and conditions. The critical difference is in the way the people treat each other.\
I ran back to Hell to share this solution with the poor souls trapped there. I whispered in the ear of one starving man,\'a0\'91You do not have to go hungry. Use your spoon to feed your neighbor, and he will surely return the favor and feed you.\'92\
\'91You expect me to feed the detestable man sitting across the table?\'92\'a0said the man angrily.\'a0\'91I would rather starve than give him the pleasure of eating!\'92\
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\f1 \cf2 When our attention shifts from worrying about ourselves to adding value to the lives of those around us and serving a greater cause, our inherent goodness rises to\'a0the\'a0surface. All becomes possible then.\
Good things become great in due course. Good people become great people with\'a0the\'a0passage of time. This is\'a0the\'a0natural progression. For, goodness does not focus on making a name but making a difference. And that\'92s what\'a0service\'a0does: it makes a difference.\
The ability to care for and serve others is what distinguishes an ordinary person from an enlightened one.\
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\f0 \cf2 Peace\
Swami\
\
Right to Dream\
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\f1 \cf2 It was an overwhelming feeling, something that stunned me and almost sent me in a trance.\
Last month, on 19-Dec, I had the honor of\'a0{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "https://www.facebook.com/dr.a.samanta/posts/1444192999022982"}}{\fldrslt \cf4 addressing 10,000+}}\'a0children gathered in one giant hall. It was the largest assembly I had addressed till date. And no, it was not the size of the audience that my eyes welled up. Nor was it the fact that those children gave a thunderous applause when I entered. It was something entirely different. Read on.\
In 1992, a simple man who had grown up in abject poverty with a widowed mother and seven siblings took an unconventional step. He was 27 years old at the time, an age when most of us are thinking about our material goals, an age when it\'92s hard to see past our own desires, when parents are asking about your plans of getting married and settling down and all that. And yet, he quit his job as a Chemistry teacher in a private college and traveled to the innermost regions of his home state, Odisha.\
The idea was very simple: make quality education accessible to the poorest of the poor.\
He brought 12 tribal children with him after giving many assurances to their parents most of whom spoke in a local dialect and did not even know Odiya, the language of the state, or any other official Indian language. He took responsibility for their safety, meals, accommodation, uniforms and education.\
Fast forward to 2018. 25 years later, Prof. Achyuta Samanta\'92s Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, or KISS as it\'92s commonly known, houses 27,000 tribal children where they are educated from kindergarten to all the way to post graduation. KISS provides free meals, accommodation, education, uniforms, medical facilities to everything else you can imagine under the sun including churning out international rugby players.\
Prof. Samanta didn\'92t just stop at that. Alongside, he built another organization called KIIT (Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology) where 27,000 paying students are enrolled in various courses. Campus spread over 400 acres. 54,000 students combined (in both KISS and KIIT). 12,000 staff. All from one person\'92s dream and relentless action.\
\'93For every one student enrolled in KIIT,\'94 Prof. Samanta told me, \'93we induct one tribal student in KISS. Income from KIIT is used to fund KISS.\'94\
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{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "https://www.facebook.com/dr.a.samanta/posts/1445816238860658"}}{\fldrslt \cf4 Meeting Achyuta Samanta}}\'a0was a heartwarming experience as he radiated love, wisdom and humility. Till date he lives in a two-bedroom rented house I was told. Never marrying, he has devoted his life to elevate the lives of hundreds of thousands of young children.\
I was amazed to see the discipline and responsiveness of the children. Throughout my speech, every time I asked them a question to ensure they were with me, they answered promptly and correctly. They understood my message, humor and stories.\
\'93It is not your but my pleasure and privilege to be here,\'94 I said to the children. \'93Your mere sight is inspiring me to do more for our world. I thank you, your parents and your teachers.\'94\
\'93Everyone who takes birth is blessed with three basic rights,\'94 I added. \'93Life may not seem fair but no one can take these three rights away from you. The right to dream, the right to choose and the right to act. Dream with open eyes. Make mindful choices and act responsibly.\'94\
The purpose of this post is not to glorify Prof. Samanta, for people like him are beyond endorsements or odes. They are their own makers who cut through adversities like stone through water. Instead, I just wish to share with you how each one of us carries within us a seed of greatness. It is up to us whether we resign to our fate or rewrite it.\
It all starts with a dream but at first, a real dream is not always a grand vision. Google, Facebook or Microsoft founders, when starting out, never thought they would end up building mammoth organizations. Often, the beginning is just a tiny matter you care about, something that\'92s close to your heart. As you continue to work with persistence and sincerity, your dream grows with you. You begin to gain the wisdom to see what all is needed to realize your dream. That, many things must come together for something to take place. Which of the following you think is required to realize a dream?\
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Hard work\
\ls1\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext \uc0\u8226 }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Destiny\
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Courage\
\ls1\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext \uc0\u8226 }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Competence\
\ls1\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext \uc0\u8226 }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
All of the above\
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\cf2 The truth is that these are merely the ingredients of success and on their own, ingredients alone don\'92t make a great dish. It is also the recipe, portioning, presentation, ambience, whether it\'92s Beethoven or Bollywood songs playing in the background and so on. Together they influence our overall experience and eventually contribute to how delicious a preparation might taste. In other words, I am suggesting that it\'92s only when we create the right conditions that our dreams begin to materialize.\
If you focus on creating a conducive environment, achieving the desired outcome is only a matter of time then. I remember watching countless birds perch on the trees I see from my window. When it was spring, they came, sang, chirped, played on tender new leaves, butterflies and bees sat on blooming flowers, the grass was green as were the trees. Birds of beautiful color and tiny wings came. I did nothing special to invite those birds except that for the last two years, we had been tending to the health of flora around my cottage. We focused on creating the right conditions and Nature took care of the rest.\
In a family or an organization, if you want to encourage truth and transparency, you have to create an environment that supports it. Whatever we want to boost, we have to encourage it. Therefore, when you are working towards your dream, all you have to do is to be mindful and ask yourself, \'93this step I\'92m about to take, is it taking me away from or towards my dream?\'94\
One baby step followed by another, by another and yet another\'85this continues till one day you walk into your dream, when all that you dreamed once is now around you in the real world. That unreal feeling you get when you climb the Mount Everest, that Samadhi a yogi attains after years of yogic discipline, that moment when a founder-CEO rings the opening bell on the Wall Street to mark the IPO of her company\'85\
\i That\'92s one small step for a man and a giant leap for mankind. ~Neil Armstrong
\i0 \
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\i \cf5 My gratitude to the phenomenal\'a0{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "https://twitter.com/arunbothra"}}{\fldrslt \cf6 Mr. Arun Bothra}}\'a0and his loving family who left no stone unturned in organizing a highly productive stay in Odisha and took care of every little detail. Through him alone, I had the chance to meet the wonderful children at KISS.
\i0 \cf2 \
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Shedding Your Past\
\'93I want to change but my past haunts me, Swami,\'94 a visitor said to me recently. \'93I constantly feel guilty for my sins. How do I get rid of my baggage?\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93Two things will follow you to your grave,\'94 I replied. \'93Wanna guess?\'94\u8232 \'93My karma?\'94\u8232 \'93And creditors,\'94 I joked. \'93One comes with baggage and the other with a bag.\'94 He laughed a nervous laugh.\u8232 \'93One is debt,\'94 I added, \'93and the other a debt-collector.\'94\
Our baggage is our unpaid debt.\
And in our life, we attract all sorts of people, some of whom are karmic creditors and they play the role of debt-collectors. That is not to say that there\'92s no way of shedding our past.\
Out of ignorance or arrogance, we all seem to have said or done things we wish we hadn\'92t. Doing bad karma does not necessarily make one bad though. Often, good people end up doing bad things and the so called bad people do plenty of good too. A mere bad thought or action does not make you inferior. Instead, what shows inferiority of consciousness is when we don\'92t have the courage to admit that yes I messed up and I am sorry about it.\
Denial or non-admission of our mistakes creates more baggage than anything else. The moment we accept our fault gracefully, we flush out of our system the emotions of anger (why did I have to be in that situation?) and guilt (why couldn\'92t I act differently?). No doubt that the incident may still remain etched on your mind for a long time, but its recollection does not wreck your peace anymore.\
In\'a0
\i The Way of Chuang Tzu
\i0 , Thomas Merton cites a beautiful story called Flight from Shadow:\
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\f2 \cf3 There was a man who was so disturbed by the sight of his own shadow and so displeased with his own footsteps that he determined to get rid of both. The method he hit upon was to run away from them.\
So he got up and ran. But every time he put his foot down there was another step, while his shadow kept up with him without the slightest difficulty.\
He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough. So he ran faster and faster, without stopping until he finally dropped dead.\
He failed to realize that if he merely stepped into the shade, his shadow would vanish, and if he sat down and stayed still, there would be no more footsteps.\
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\f1 \cf2 Call it our past, baggage, our shadow or anything else, the fact is we can\'92t really undo our actions. We can\'92t take back uttered words or undesirable actions. At the most, we can apologize, repent, regret or even heal over time. The truth remains that our past travels with us wherever we go. Only when we are in dark, our shadow merges with the darkness around it. In such darkness, we may momentarily feel that we have no baggage but that\'92s an illusion because we have not got rid of the darkness. Instead, we have hidden ourselves from light.\
Even the most lit room has a dark corner, however small it may be. Similarly, even the best lived life hides in its heart a darkness of some kind. That\'92s our shadow, we can\'92t get rid of it and we have absolutely no reason to be afraid of it. We are beings of light and therefore shadow is inseparable from our existence. What matters not is how long or dark our shadow but where it is: in front of us or behind us.\
One way to have respite from your shadow, as Chuang Tzu contended, is to step into the shade. The tree of grace has that shade as does the tree of truth and forgiveness. The shade of these trees softly absorbs the shadow of the person underneath.\
Another way, often tempting, is to be in the dark and live in it. In darkness, while you may not see the shadow, you won\'92t see much else either\'85no beauty, no light. Millions around us choose to shut themselves from everyone and everything. Due to fear, paranoia, guilt and other feelings, they spend an entire lifetime in dark just to avoid a shadow. The wise one, however, knows better.\
It\'92s only when our shadow is in front that the path ahead appears dark. And, our shadow is ahead of us when we turn our back towards light. When you walk towards light, your shadow will go behind you. It will no longer obscure your path with darkness.\
And that\'92s just about the only method I know of dropping our baggage: we must journey towards light with hope and compassion for ourselves and others. This is the only way to leave our shadow behind us. Forgive yourself for the mistakes of the past. Go easy. This will do you much good and will help you do good for others, which in the longer run can only ever be a good thing.\
If you keep walking your footprints will be behind you. Stop and brood and you are right on them. Pretending that we are spotless like the fresh Himalayan snow, at some point in time, each one of us has cast stones at others. At times, we have been at the receiving end too. In the end, it matters not much so long as we put it behind us.\
I came across a nice little joke in\'a0
\i The Comic Teachings of Mulla Nasruddin
\i0 \'a0by Imam Jamal Rahman. Slightly edited:\
A mother brought her rude young son to Mulla, complaining that she was tired of his rebellious ways.\uc0\u8232 \'93Please,\'94 she said, \'93do something to put a little fear in his heart.\'94\u8232 \'93Right away,\'94 Mulla said confidently. \'93He\'92ll be docile as a cow in no time.\'94\
Mulla stared fiercely into the boy\'92s eyes and commanded him to listen to his mother. He contorted his face terribly and growled deeply. The whole act was so fearsome that the mother fainted and Mulla rushed out of the room. When she regained consciousness, she chided Mulla. \'93I asked you to frighten my son, not me!\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93Madam,\'94 Mulla replied, \'93when you invoke fear, it consumes everyone. It has no favorites. Why, I got so scared myself that I had to leave the room.\'94\
Our shadow, like fear, has no personal favorites. A hue of darkness arises naturally wherever a shadow falls. That\'92s why it\'92s all the more important that not only we make a commitment to face and walk into light but also inspire others to do the same. For, we may be bright as the mid-day sun, if people around us are living in darkness, their shadows will fall on our path. Be light and spread light.\'a0\'a0Moving in the direction of a noble aspiration, towards goodness and kindness is walking into light.\
Let the light of the heart merge with the infinite light around you. Darkness will not matter then. If anything, it will only give greater depth, purpose and meaning to your life.\
Keep walking\'85towards light.\
Peace Swami\
\
What makes a Relationship work\
Our world is made up of people. Usually our finest and worst memories have other people in them. You may desire luxury cars, beach houses, yachts and what not, ultimately though, you dream of sharing them with someone. Away from the madness that courses through the world, you may imagine running away or being by yourself on a remote island or in a Himalayan cave but eventually, your heart yearns to share your joys and sorrows with someone, that perfect person who is there for you, who understands you and so on.\
When love is such a fundamental and mutual requirement of human existence, have you then ever wondered that why do people struggle to be together or fall out so quickly?\
Let me share with you the story of one of our volunteers at the ashram. He along with many others spend a great deal of time here and keep a careful watch. A happy-go-lucky soul, I have seen him keeping the cats away from our kitchens, shooing the birds from trees whenever I sit in the garden, and scaring other dogs. We call him Mixoo because his face is jet black while the rest of his body is snow white.\
While Mixoo is adorable, he\'92s not exactly known for compassion or peace. The other day, someone caught him peeing at the towel of one of our monks. A towel that had been harmlessly drying in sun on a line and not hurting Mixoo in any way. When he was confronted, he wagged his tail, gave the most innocent look and walked away remorsefully. Only that the very next day, he was angling at a towel again.\
He was pulled up once more and thankfully Mixoo refrained from venturing into such leisurely expeditions after that. I\'92d come to accept everything about his behavior except his dominating other creatures in the ashram especially when I sat outside and fed them. Mixoo, however, wouldn\'92t stop eyeing and gorging on others\'92 share. As a result, I banned him for one week to come in my garden and be around during my lunch hour.\
One day, in Feb 2017, I was sitting under my favorite tree and my lunch was about to be served when Shamata Ma (one of my resident disciples) came and told me that Mixoo was no more.\
\'93What!\'94 I couldn\'92t believe my ears. \'93Just yesterday I scolded him and sent him away. He was perfectly fine and playful!\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93A snake bit him in the afternoon, Swamiji,\'94 Ma said. \'93We quickly got a taxi and rushed him to the hospital. The vet gave him an injection, put him on a drip and tried everything but unfortunately, he didn\'92t make it.\'94\u8232 Ma\'92s eyes were filled with tears. I suddenly lost my appetite and Mixoo kept flashing in front of me.\
My lunch was brought and I shared the sad news. A veil of sorrow covered our happiness like unexpected rainclouds on a sunny day. Everyone reminisced how Mixoo used to play and boss around. They recounted many funny stories and we all missed him too much. I rapped my knuckles for scolding him the day before. I remembered him going out of my garden sad. Lunch felt tasteless and the afternoon slow. The evening aarti in the temple was an ordinary affair. I couldn\'92t swallow the truth that we would not see Mixoo again.\
The next day, Swami Vidyananda came running to me most excitedly and said, \'93Swamiji! Mixoo is hale and hearty. He\'92s just fine!\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93But, Ma said he was taken to the hospital and treated and he couldn\'92t survive.\'94\u8232 \'93That was a different dog who had only just started coming here. Ma thought we called\'a0
\i him
\i0 \'a0Mixoo. He is naughty as ever. I just gave Mixoo bread with cream.\'94\uc0\u8232 I erupted in joy and went downstairs. There he was, wagging his tail vigorously. Looking at his shaking and swaying, one might even think his kundalini was awakened, if you see what I mean. I waved him down and he came running and began rolling on the grass in front of me.\
For the next two days, Mixoo was treated like a VIP (Very Important Pet), a celebrity, and every resident of the ashram was elated and fed him all kinds of delicacies. I am sure that he was confused at the sudden display of this great love and attention. He must be thinking, \'93What did I do? What\'92s wrong with these guys? I hope they know that I am\'a0
\i Mixoo
\i0 . The Mixoo. Why me? Why now? Truly, humans are nuts, I tell you. A crazy bunch. Fried with me one day and drooling over the next. What\'92s going on!\'94 I could not only understand his confusion but appreciate it too.\
He was preferred over all the other mongooses, cats and other dogs for the next many days. And it drove home a beautiful lesson: sometimes, you don\'92t know how much you love someone until they walk out. Often, we take the presence of our loved ones for granted. When two people get used to each other, everything between them becomes a kind of norm: love, care, respect, affection and so on. While it\'92s a good thing, it has its downside too: when something becomes normal for us, we often stop valuing it. We start to feel that we no longer have to work on ourselves or on our relationships, that those good feelings will always remain. What had been a privilege, a blessing, all along is now seen as a right. Soon, such sense of entitlement creates expectations. Unfulfilled expectations, in turn, are the root cause of all sore relationships.\
When two people grow apart, both start to focus on the negatives of each other. We only see Mixoo bossing around or marking towels and then one day when we can\'92t see him anymore, we find the same aspects naughty, even cute. All real and mature relationships undergo a phase of crisis when everything you know is challenged. In fact, it is only in stress that you really get to know how fragile or strong a relationship is. And, there\'92s only one thing that sets apart the couple who are celebrating their golden jubilee from the one who are fighting in a court within months of marriage. That is: in a healthy relationship, you focus on the positives in the other person while in a negative one, you do the opposite. When you focus on what\'92s good than what\'92s bad, you naturally learn to value what all is there. And when you truly value something, you work hard to protect it.\
During a heavy downpour that flooded the streets and looked nothing short of a deluge from the time of Noah, a man entered a bakery. His umbrella was battered in the stormy rain and he was completely soaked.\uc0\u8232 \'93One bagel with cream cheese,\'94 the man said.\u8232 \'93Just one?\'94 the baker asked, surprised to see a customer at this hour.\u8232 \'93Yes.\'94\u8232 \'93You must really love my bagels!\'94\u8232 \'93I don\'92t eat bagels. It\'92s to go.\'94\u8232 \'93Oh,\'94 the baker said, \'93is it for your wife?\'94\u8232 \'93You think my mother would send me out in this weather for a bagel?\'94\
It is easy to get carried away and think me-me-me, but a functional relationship is about a lot of patience, mutual care and respect. With such traits blossom the wild flower of love, spreading its fragrance all around, making life more beautiful and worthwhile. Since no man\'92s an island and considering that our memories, thoughts, desires and dreams have other people in them, we may as well value the people we already have in our lives. For, you always value what you truly love. And the only way to keep love is to love back. Love begets love.\
\i (By the way, just two days ago, I saw Mixoo sauntering about the river side without a care in the world.)
\i0 \
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
The Basis of Honor\
Brahma Dutt had been serving the state for forty years and was the most trusted minister in the royal court of Kashi. The king not only consulted him on all important matters but also doted on him to the extent that Brahma Dutt often dined with the royal family. He had full access to the king\'92s private chambers. The courtiers respected him for his uprightness and the subjects of Kashi revered him for his wisdom.\
One day, the security guard of the treasury noticed Brahma Dutt pocketing a few gold coins without recording it in the ledger. He mentioned it to the security chief who instantly dismissed the complaint saying that the honorable minister must be in a rush or the guard, mistaken. A couple of days later, the same thing happened again: Brahma Dutt stole more coins and once again the complaint was dismissed. When the guard reported the occurrence the third time, two new watchmen were deployed on the post. They too confirmed that Brahma Dutt routinely pinched a handful of coins from the royal depository.\
They brought the matter to the king\'92s attention who chastised them for doubting someone as virtuous as Brahma Dutt. This did not deter the security guards from doing their job, however, and eventually they caught him red-handed one day when once again he walked out with a small bag of gold coins without documenting it.\
\'93How dare you touch me?\'94 Brahma Dutt shouted as soon as the guards nabbed him. \'93Don\'92t you know who I am?\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93You may be whoever but right now, you are a thief,\'94 the security chief said. \'93Better cooperate or you\'92ll be sorry.\'94\
Brahma Dutt tried to wriggle out of the situation but the guards were unrelenting and after making a forceful arrest, they presented him to the king like a petty criminal.\
\'93What do you have to say in defense?\'94 The king asked Brahma Dutt after hearing the facts.\uc0\u8232 \'93Nothing, Your Majesty.\'94\u8232 \'93Throw this crook in the prison,\'94 he ordered. \'93I\'92ll announce the full sentence within a week.\'94\u8232 The king was distraught to know that the man he had trusted all his life turned out to be a corrupt official. He stripped the royal insignia off Brahma Dutt\'92s jacket and adjourned the court. The news spread like wildfire and people called Brahma Dutt a thief, rogue, scoundrel and many other things.\
\'93Is everything alright?\'94 the queen asked when she saw the king roaming about in his chamber in the middle of the night. \'93You seem rather worried.\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93I can\'92t fathom that someone like Brahma Dutt could stoop so low and betray me,\'94 the king said and narrated the entire incident.\u8232 \'93So, he said nothing in his defense? Really?\'94\u8232 \'93Not a word.\'94\u8232 \'93Well,\'94 she counseled, \'93there must be more to his act than meets the eye. You must speak with Brahma Dutt privately. Someone like him wouldn\'92t need to pilfer petty amounts, don\'92t you think?\'94\
Before announcing the sentence, the king confronted Brahma Dutt in private and said to him, \'93How could a wise and reputed man like you do that! You served my father, as a child I played in your lap. You could have asked me for the money or for a loan.\'94\
\'93Your Majesty, not a penny has been misappropriated. I had already put the money out of my pocket before I started taking it out a little bit every day. You can have it checked. It was a simple experiment.\'94\uc0\u8232 \'93This is not the time for riddles, old man,\'94 the king said impatiently. \'93Speak clearly.\'94\u8232 \'93Lately, I had started wondering,\'94 Brahma Dutt replied, \'93that, what did you really like about me? Was it my wisdom, my long years of service, my unbiased advice, my reputation or what? I wanted to know what the courtiers and the people of Kashi respected me for?\'94\u8232 \'93All of that perhaps.\'94\u8232 \'93I agree. But,\'94 Brahma Dutt continued, \'93none of that could save me, O King! One small act of misconduct and I was promptly labeled a cheat and scoundrel and what not. I have come to the conclusion that it was my conduct alone that earned me the respect. The moment my conduct was questionable, everything else ceased to matter.\'94\
I find in this story a lifetime\'92s worth of wisdom. Our conduct is our first introduction of our education, upbringing and character. There are always people out there who are more talented, skilled, knowledgeable and intelligent than us. Those who exceed us in looks, wealth and achievements. In the grand scheme of things, however, none of that really matters. It makes little or no difference to others that how long you may have served them or how true your intentions or high your IQ, what ultimately matters is that how noble is your conduct.\
Sure, we earn respect based on how much or what all we know and have, but such honor is based on the assumption that beneath our attainments rests good conduct. No one respects (maybe out of fear but not intrinsically) a gangster like they would a saint. If you examine the lives of Rama, Buddha, Mahavira, Christ or Muhammad, you\'92ll discover it\'92s not that they gave truths to the world that the sages or prophets before them had failed to impart. The world knew already most of what they shared. Instead, it was their conduct that accorded them an immortal status in human history.
\f3 \cf7 \cb8 \
\pard\pardeftab720\sl340\partightenfactor0
\cf7 \
Whatever be the conduct of a great man (or woman), common people tend to follow that. The world tries to reach the benchmark set by great people with their exemplary conduct.\
\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\f1 \cf2 \cb1 Conduct, in my view, has three aspects. One, how we carry ourselves and consequently behave with others. Two, how truthful our actions are vis-a-vis our words or promises. And three, how we act under all circumstances. Whether facing adversities, battling temptations or rolling in wealth, somewhere it\'92s our conduct alone that represents who or what we carry inside.\
Like a good conductor effortlessly directs a group of artists producing soulful music that melts and moves us, our mind conducts the ensemble of our thoughts, words and actions. When they are in harmony, the orchestra of life comes alive with beautiful music. But, when each one is playing in a different key and tempo, oblivious to the instructions of the conductor, indifferent to the music of others, all that comes out is cacophonous noise.\
\'93What would be my worth if I were a slave?\'94 the king asked Mulla Nasruddin.\uc0\u8232 \'93It\'92s impossible to imagine, His Excellency.\'94\u8232 \'93Still, I insist. Make a guess. Say a figure.\'94\u8232 \'93With or without your royal robes and embellishments?\'94 Mulla asked.\u8232 \'93With everything on my person as it is.\'94\u8232 \'93Around nine hundred dinars.\'94\u8232 \'93That\'92s ridiculous, Mulla,\'94 the king yelled. \'93My clothes alone are worth that much.\'94\u8232 \'93His Excellency!\'94 Mulla said. \'93I\'92ve already factored all that in.\'94\
Without gentle words, noble intentions and truthful actions, we are worth no more than the sum total of our possessions. The journey from humanity to divinity is paved with good conduct. People may want us for what we do for them, they may respect us for what we have, ultimately though, they love us for how we make them feel. And, how we make others feel is almost entirely dependent on our conduct.\'a0It\'92s as simple as that.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\u8232 \
My Truth\
t\'92s been a while since I last wrote. I am ready to share some information with you all. Here\'92s all about my abouts (how, when, where, what) in the three periods of time. I will try to keep it short.\
On the afternoon of 15th March 2010, I left for my spiritual journey. I went to Varanasi. By 18th March, I had found my guru 80 kilometers north of Varanasi in a little village. He initiated me into sanyasa on the 11th of April. My guru is a Naga saint, seventy five years of age. I left his ashram four months later because I had renounced to seek my own truth; he wanted me to look after his properties and take his seat. I did not want to manage a \'93spiritual business\'94. I came to the Himalayas. Six kilometers further north of Badrinath on the way to Neelkanth, I found a suitable cave on a mountain summit called Narayana Parvata. It had breathtaking view of several waterfalls, multiple water streams and the incomparable pristine purity of the Himalayas. I did two important sadhanas there.\
Two months later, after completing my sadhanas, I went to the abode of lord Jaganatha (Puri). I spent nearly two weeks in Orissa ineffectually searching for a suitable seaside location. I came back to the Himalayas. This time I selected an even more remote location in the Himalayan woods. I will vivify the place in detail some other time. In short, it was simply majestic.\'a0 Regularly sojourned by such wild animals as deer, boars, bears and monstrous rodents, it had a splendid view. It was like Nature\'92s golf course. I started my sadhana there on the 19th of November. I came down for a day to send you folks an email on the 27th December before starting my most important sadhana on the 5th Jan. It lasted for 150 days. Meditation and related activities took 17 hours of time. I will elaborate more on that upon my return. With divine grace, it got completed successfully. In the last 100 days of my sadhana was complete isolation and solitude, even from my own thoughts. The outcome has left me fulfilled.\
I can not give my present whereabouts. But I am happy and safe and in total bliss. Bliss that pervades my entire being almost all the time. I have learned to maintain my meditative state irrespective of the state of the world outside, at any point in time that is. I am moving onto my next and final destination of my spiritual journey.\
My next and concluding sadhana is more a test than an actual sadhana. My core and mainstream sadhana is complete. I have found what I was looking for. It has dawned. I get it now. It is all crystal clear. I got an unambiguous vision of my deity on 13th Feb and then again on May 11. The extraordinary bliss that permeated my whole body thereafter stays with me all the time. I can go back into that experience anytime at will. A one-off fleeting experience that you can not replicate is of little use if any. If we have experienced something as a result of our efforts, we should be able to experience it repeatedly at will. If we have followed our approach systematically, the same experience should occur each time on providing the same conditions. Anyway, I will write more on it later after my return. After completing my concluding sadhana, I will come back and see you all. I will disclose my return date at the end of this email. Before that, I would like to share with you the essence of my findings. As follows:\
Buddha propounded that there is no God or supreme creator. Krishna declared that He is the God. Einstein said that everything is the sum total of energy. Meera found her truth in Krishna, Ramakrishna Parmahansa in Kali, Tulsidasa in Rama, Sankracarya in the formless and many others found there own versions of the truth. Most people agree that kama, krodha, ahamkara etc are not good for them; why do they still engage in them? I wanted to experience my own truth. I am at complete loss of words to put my experience and my current state in words.\
Self realization is no serendipity. It is not an aha moment. Intellectual comprehension of such realization may well be an epiphany, the actual realization is far from it. Self realization can be achieved by anyone who is willing to put in the effort. Dawning of such realization will leave you with only answers. You will no longer have any questions. Intellectually, you may understand the underlying philosophy or doctrinal principles but such an understanding may only make you more rigid. You will end up merely subscribing to a theory with no confirmation about its validity.\
If you believe that the Divine has a form, you can see his form in this very lifetime. If you believe that the Divine is formless, you can experience deep absorption (
\i samadhi
\i0 ) in the foreseeable future. That is what I experienced multiple times. Your world is made up of your thoughts. If your world has a God in it and all your thoughts, all the time, are about Him, His very form will manifest before you. If your world has bliss and all your thoughts, all the time, are focused on such bliss you will experience such bliss. That is a tough ask though because a perfectly stable and still mind is required to meditate on one thought for prolonged periods. It can be achieved with an initial intense effort.\
Just like a neo literate finds it hard to read but achieves proficiency over time, you will encounter numerous hurdles on the way. If you stay course, you will most definitely get to the destination. I have come to know that if you do\'a0
\i bhakti\'a0
\i0 or\'a0
\i dhayana\'a0
\i0 incorrectly, you are not going to ever get to the destination. You will not feel any of the things various scriptures or exegetical texts state regarding blissful experiences or similar other extraordinary claims. If you can do it correctly, you can experience and bring forth your divine side in a short time frame. I have to declare though that it requires a super intense effort.\
I will elucidate my version of what is \'93correct\'94 upon my return. The truth is very simple and you all know it too. But experiencing it is an entirely different ballgame. Most people know right from wrong, yet why do they find themselves engaging in unscrupulous and undesirable acts repeatedly? That is because their mind is not tamed. A restless mind and its modifications (
\i citta vritti
\i0 ) drive them towards experiencing and enjoying the world through their body alone. Purity of discipline, whether in\'a0
\i bhakti\'a0
\i0 or in\'a0
\i dhyana\'a0
\i0 can help you tame your mind. You will then experience an indescribable, incessant flow of bliss. I used to read about it and had some experiences far and few in between. The actual sustained experience of\'a0
\i samadhi\'a0
\i0 is an incredible one. The bliss stays with you all the time with very little effort afterwards.\
I would like to elucidate the difference between intellectual comprehension of the truth and actually experiencing it. Suppose that someone is suffering from cataract. That person is aware of his visual impairment. Is that awareness adequate to correct his vision? He knows where the problem is and he knows that the resultant effect is his inability to see correctly. He is also aware that undergoing a procedure to remove the cataract will fix his vision. Intellectually, he gets it. He understands it. That awareness does not help him in seeing unhindered though. His impairment is not the result of any intellectual\'a0 malfunction. Therefore it can not be fixed with any intellectual comprehension or correction. He must undergo the procedure to correct his vision. Similarly, your distorted view of the world or your deluded mind (
\i citta
\i0 ) is not an intellectual problem.\
Subscribing to any philosophy or believing a certain theory to be the truth \'96 both of which are functions of the mind \'96 is not going to help you uncover your true self let alone any\'a0
\i samadhi\'a0
\i0 or a\'a0
\i darsana\'a0
\i0 of your deity. The most beautiful thing is that you can experience your true nature and you can experience that incessant flow of bliss by taming your mind. A mind that\'92s not settled and under complete control will render you unable to perform devotional service (
\i bhakti
\i0 ) or meditation (
\i dhayana
\i0 ) correctly and purely. In the absence of such purity, you are unlikely to experience anything profound. Once you are able to replicate your experience, your world will change for ever. You would have turned inwards. Completely. You will go through three stages as follows:\
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\f4 \cf9 Dependent\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\f1 \cf2 This is the first stage. You are dependent on the world for everything. Their comments or criticism arouse positive or negative emotions in you. Their presence or absence makes you feel good or bad. Their actions can give you fulfillment or grief. In essence, your world of thoughts has a lot of people. As a result your world revolves around them. You can not live in solitude. Once you start to turn inwards and inculcate morality in absolutely everything you do with purity of your worldly, spiritual and moral discipline, you will move to stage two.\
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\f4 \cf9 Self-dependent\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\f1 \cf2 With unfailing morality and purity of discipline, you will start to form your own view. A view about yourself and your world. A view that will remain mostly unmoved by what others think of you. They will still, however, be able to dictate often how you feel about yourself. As you become increasingly self-dependent, you will find solitude a reasonable companion. Someone you don\'92t mind spending some time with occasionally. Your state of mind starts to acquire some stability where you find yourself enjoying most of the things you have to do. However, whenever off-guard your inner world is still overcome by restless thoughts and senses. Your view of the world is still conceptualized based on your acquisition of second hand knowledge. As you begin to get glimpses into your true nature and continue relentlessly, not recklessly, towards self purification, you will move to stage three.\
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\f4 \cf9 Independent\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\f1 \cf2 You experience an unceasing bliss that permeates your being. You exude radiance and you no longer have any confusions about anything at all. It all makes sense to you now. The realization has dawned on you. You are no longer driven by your mind.You have a still mind with no thoughts and you develop super awareness and super consciousness. Once you discover the pristine purity of your mind, you will understand and know the reality of everything around you. By the time you cross this stage, you will have an answer for everything. You will find yourself unaffected by the worldly emotions. You no longer have any inclination for worldly enjoyments nor are you left with any cravings of any nature. Even your spiritual experiences cease to hold much meaning. You become independent. And that is your true nature. Always in a state of bliss, everything you undertake leads to the same outcome \'97 bliss. Your vision of your deity and your state of\'a0
\i samadhi\'a0
\i0 will not leave you at anytime. Everyone around will experience bliss too, just like everyone under the sun is basked in the sunlight indiscriminately. Whenever you will look at anything or anyone, they will only come across as pure bliss.\
I have come to experience that you can get to stage three and beyond in a short time frame, in this very lifetime. It does not come easy though. An intense effort with the right conditions and balance is required. I may write on it some day in the future in detail. This email is neither the right forum nor the appropriate medium to elaborate my truth. I have shared the vital details with you nevertheless.\
It is no longer a phantom. There is nothing I seek now. I no longer have anything I would like to accomplish or do. For the sake of my vow (
\i sankalpa
\i0 ) and to put my truth to test, I have to spend some more time in solitude. I am more than willing to share my version of the truth with you should you wish to experience the bliss that you perhaps have come to believe as mere allegory in the present times.\
How much longer are you going to go through the unnecessary slog? Do you intend to keep driving to the supermarket till the licensing authority refuses to renew your license on account of your inability to check the blind spot? Are you going to continue to pretend that is how life is supposed to be? Are you waiting for something or someone? How much longer are you going to continue sipping the distasteful instant coffee? Are you going to continue building your world around people? Are you going to get old and be contented with mere phone calls from your children?\
One day you will be woken up from your sleep by a knock audible to you alone. That knock will be the one to put you to the ultimate sleep. At that moment, you will realize that you have already had your last meal, your last phone call, your last email, your last sleep, your last bath and your last conversation. Someone else is having the last word though. It won\'92t be yours. Your preference to stay or go will be mercilessly ignored.\
I am not suggesting that you renounce the world. On the contrary, I am imploring you to learn to live. Gracefully, peacefully, blissfully with the right view of the world and with your own version of the truth. You live in your own house, you wear your own clothes, you do your own job, you drive your own car, but your view of the world and your view of yourself is not your own. It is affected constantly by the world around you. It does not need be that way.\
When you discover your true nature, you become a renunciate even amidst all worldly activities. You can continue your present lifestyle and ride an emotional roller coaster rather frequently or you can experience and expose your divine side. No matter how novice or expert the surfer, they can keep waiting for the best swell or start riding the waves. What matters is that you atleast make a sincere, sustained, persistent and serious attempt. Just look around you. There is so much clutter. Do you need that in your life? Remove the clutter inside you and the outside will start clearing itself. Remove the clutter outside you and your inner cleansing will begin automatically. Live your own life with others, but not induced by them. Your own version. You will be amazed at the discovery of your own truth. It will leave you flabbergasted, spellbound, dumbfounded and completely fulfilled. You will stand delivered.\
This life is like a long drive. There may be some diversions along the way, some stop signs, a probable speeding ticket (or two), some traffic slow-downs, some beautiful scenes along the way, a couple of pit stops, sometimes a breakdown too\'85you keep moving till you get to the destination and then you want to get back home. You come to understand that getting to the destination was not as important as enjoying the ride for a destination is merely another stop. Go on enjoy! But by turning inwards. The drive outside is an illusion, the one inside could not be more real. The one outside is like traffic moving around you whereas the one inside is you driving your own car. You can change course and drive off-peak hours or take a different motorway with much less traffic. The decisions you make inside will change the world outside you. I would like to bring the subject matter to a close for now before this email turns into a scroll. After I complete a couple of outstanding action items, I shall see you all. That should take place within this year. The two dates I have in mind presently are 9-10-11 (9 Oct) or 11-11-11 (11 Nov). That\'92s almost an entire year earlier than I had communicated earlier. I am looking forward to see you all and I am thankful to you all. I have got what I wanted. Upon getting it I realized I am what I wanted. Upon such realization it dawned on me that I am the realization. There was no I either thereupon. I will write to you again in the next few weeks. And I will certainly single out the date by August end and will communicate accordingly.\
I wish you all peace. Please expect to hear from me again soon.\
Please forward this message to all those who have expressed the desire to be included in the recipients list and to all those who you believe may be benefited by it in any way.\
Swami.\
\
Himalyan Expectation\
You know, everyone is carrying an invisible load. Since it is invisible, you remain unaware of such weight as well as oblivious to its continuous piling up. From the moment you can recall to the present one, it has been on your consciousness. As a result, you have accepted it implicitly like a citizen accepts the laws of the country of residence. It is an unequivocal, silent and unconditional acceptance. If you haven\'92t guessed it already, I am referring to the huge weight of expectations. You may believe that you don\'92t have any or that you have only the basic and realistic ones. Think again, I urge you, after going through the following section.\
Expectations are those desires you believe you have the right to see fulfilled. Due to your own conditioning by numerous factors, you develop expectations. They are the primary cause of all grief and stress. Desires, in turn, are those lingering thoughts that you don\'92t abandon. Those thoughts that you have pursued and followed; these are the building blocks of your world. Cemented in attachment, you keep erecting walls of desires around you eventually finding yourself completely trapped with no escape doors. It is a profound subject and I will cover it in detail at another time. For now, I will focus on the present topic of expectations. Expectations ruin your world while desires sustain it and thoughts create it. These all are products of the mind, generally a restless and ignorant mind. Expectations, I figure, are of three types. As follows:\
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\f4 \cf9 Expectations from self\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl540\partightenfactor0
\f1 \cf2 Based on your education,\'a0
\i samskara
\i0 , upbringing, your social circle and your professional life \'97 all of which play an important role in your conditioning \'97 you expect yourself to be a certain way before others. You have set for yourself certain benchmarks and standards derived out of information passed onto you in many forms; normally based on the religion you practice and the company you keep in addition to other social and personal factors. When these expectations, the ones you have from yourself, are not met, they give birth to shame and guilt. You feel low and tormented. In a state of as much denial as disbelief, you feel miserable and lost. The eternal you stays buried under these expectations majority of which is a big load of rubbish; putrefying garbage and nothing else. Filter them. Only keep the ones that strengthen your consciousness and make you a more compassionate person. Contemplate on what kind of a person you would like to be as opposed to how you would like to be seen as by others. You may gain an insight!\
\pard\pardeftab720\sl500\sa415\partightenfactor0
\f4 \cf9 Expectations from others\
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\f1 \cf2 These are the ones you justify and wrongly believe that you rightfully deserve. Whether it is reciprocation, love, things, words, gestures \'97 whatever they may be. Based on all that you have observed and absorbed, all that you have been told and taught, and all that you feel you have done, you desire a certain outcome, often favourable. And because you feel what you desire is legitimate, just and natural, you have added to the burden of expectations. With these, sometimes you are also able to put pressure on the one you expect from all the while increasing your own. When these expectations are not fulfilled, they give you grief and disappointment proportionate to the magnitude of your expectation. Make a list of all the people you care about and what all you expect from them. When done, know that they expect just as much from you. You relinquish yours and with your purified energy they will accept you the way you are gradually lowering their own expectations from you. That\'92s how nature works. Don\'92t just take my word for it; try it and see it for yourself.\
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\f4 \cf9 Others\'92 from you\
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\f1 \cf2 These are designed to give you stress. You are under constant pressure from peers, bosses, friends and family. You have laid your burden on them and they, on you. Beyond the most basic ones, rest all can be dumped. Whether you fulfill their expectations or not, awareness alone is sufficient to condition you and disturb your already perturbed state of mind. When you are clear about the first ones (from yourself) and are able to let go off the second ones (from others), these ones will disappear automatically. Your new found individuality will silently condition others and their expectations.\
Do what you may; you must never part with morality. It is the foundation of bliss, the mother of all virtues. A virtuous life, however busy or entangled it may be, will always result in peace.\
After writing my last post in June, I traveled to Kamakhya (Eastern India \'96 Assam). I had to complete an important initiatory process there. I had the time and opportunity to visit Buddhist monasteries in various regions. Most of them are beautifully set in the living mountains flourishing with flora wonderful past describing. My visits only reaffirmed my own thinking that any attempt to institutionalize spirituality will result into a religion, like any other, with greater emphasis on execution than exploration. The soul of spirituality leaves when labeled as religion. Busy doing than discovering, the lamas were engrossed in following tradition than finding truth.\
In the spirit of an itinerant ascetic, I ranged the Eastern Himalayas before parking myself in a near perfect cottage tucked away in the woods. Though not as sequestered as my previous locations, it was utterly quiet and serene still. I sat there for a month long mantra sadhana. Ah! What sheer joy!\
You have to experience the Himalayan solitude to know what I mean. It is only in solitude that you will discover the drift of your thoughts and the nature of your mind. You discover true beauty. And, beauty does not lie in the eyes of the beholder but in the mind of the perceiver. The cleaner the mind, the greater the beauty, and the quieter the mind, the longer lasting the experience. An empty mind is not a devil\'92s workshop; a passionate mind is. An empty mind, in its own right, is but a divine blessing.\
A quiet mind that has discovered its own nature will set you free. When was the last time you felt free? Like, really free? Free like the rivers that flow unattached, like the wind that simply can not be bound, like the bird soaring high in the sky or like a mendicant who has discarded the worldly ways and has shaken off fear, guilt, shame and traditions that had soiled his consciousness earlier?\
A concluding thought, born out of dental hygiene:\uc0\u8232 Life\'92s like a toothpaste. Initially, it feels full and plenty. The feeling stays until the first few uses. Thereafter, its shape takes a dent. With each subsequent squeeze, you find yourself adjusting its shape, especially if you are someone with attention to detail. Barely do you reach midway, you now have to squeeze bottom up each time. Before you know it, you are at the end of it. But just when you think you are done with it, you squeeze harder and some more comes out. One is rarely out of toothpaste altogether. The last few uses give you the opportunity to buy a new one before you run out of luck with the current one that is now looking flat like a man under debt or expectations!\
Similarly, life feels long, full and plenty at first. Childhood years go by real fast. Afterwards, it is mostly about adjustments before you find yourself at the end of it squeezing harder. But a new body awaits you after you discard this one much like the toothpaste. Life is what you make of it. With nuclear energy in the nucleus of every cell in your body, there are billions in you, it is your choice whether you leave it buried for the fear of radioactivity, or make a nuclear reactor of great utility, or if you let your dark side rule you and make instruments of destruction. The choice is yours.\
Go on enjoy! Squeeze the best, not the hell, out of life. Drop your worries for what is in the book of fate must come to pass. Let go off the meaningless struggle. Watch every moment unfold. Discover the inner ambrosial reservoir of eternal youth, beauty, bliss and joy. Share your life like you share the toothpaste but be yourself like the toothbrush you don\'92t share.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Bhakti\
Last week was packed with action. I met a lot of people, gave discourses and enjoyed Kirtan. People poured in everyday and sang bhajans for hours while I sat and enjoyed in ecstasy. I was deeply moved to see their devotion and love. Expressions of divine love in the form of tears, laughter, goose-bumps, trembling flowed freely as they sang in throaty, husky and melodious voices accompanied by music that accentuated the joy to rapturous levels. I am now proceeding to enjoy some company with \'93solitude\'94 while busying the body and prana in a yogic practice.I would like to elucidate the concept of bhakti, devotional service. The path of bhakti is not as arduous as dhyana, meditation. However, it requires complete surrender if you want to experience the truth with bhakti alone. Combined with the practice of dhyana, bhakti flourishes very quickly and yields amazing results. The system of nine forms of devotional service (navadha bhakti) is designed so that you can take your mind off all worldly matters and channelize your consciousness. This ultimate stage hardly comes easy though. An unstable mind will make you a victim of its restive tendencies vitiating your peace and quiet required to do devotional service correctly. There are three types of devotees (bhaktas). As follows:\
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\f4 \cf9 No Bhava\
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\f1 \cf2 This bhakta is the socialist type. He or She has no desire to serve God or humanity per se. They have mistaken religion for spirituality. Lured by lust and lucre, this bhakta is more worried about building temples, acquiring bigger premises for the religious institution, installation of more deities and holding processions in great fanfare. He will be on some temple committee busying himself with the mundane matters. People of similar mindset regard this individual as a great bhakta, while he believes himself to be the greatest. Otherwise living a debauched life, they expect a special place at each puja. In reality, these bhaktas have been unable to let go off their vikaras. Their lewd eyes look upon all women as objects of lust. Driven by their ego, they flair up at the slightest friction. Due to the deluded nature of their socio-religious practices, they count themselves among the greatest devotees of all times. Occasionally, they will entertain themselves and others by signing a bhajan or two. A bhakta of this nature is anything but that. They derive great pleasure in getting their feet touched and will lavishly blurt out hollow blessings no less than a siddha. Very prompt in offering advice, especially spiritual, they work very hard to push their opinion down your throat.\uc0\u8232 God has never manifested his form in the middle of any procession. He has never emerged out of some idol made from stone. He is in the stone too but the stone is not him. Bhaktas of this category are living in one great illusion. Only some divine intervention, also known as grace, can help them for they listen to no entreaty from anyone.\
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\f4 \cf9 Borrowed Bhava\
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\f1 \cf2 An overwhelming number of devotees fall under this category. This bhakta has not discovered his own truth yet. Their upbringing and second-hand knowledge has shaped them the way they are. He starts out based on a borrowed philosophy, further he borrows the method of worship, the prayers (stutis), devotional songs (bhajans), the associated practices; everything is borrowed. And unfortunately, they are handed down all that from those who have no direct experience themselves. The preachers either heard it from someone or read in some text belonging to an entirely different era, if not age. Ofcourse, they failed to ascertain the esoteric meaning, instead accepting it as told. This bhakta is devout in carrying out his daily practices. He believes that the idol is God! He fails to see his god in a child, in a needy person, in a dog or in a cockroach. He does not feel the pain of others; compassion and mercy are not to be found anywhere. He has come to believe, for reasons unknown to humanity, that his god is greatly pleased by his hollow acts of external worship. He is more worried about cleaning the altar outside than building an exquisite one inside. Many practitioners of various religions fall under this category. This bhakta will adopt morality at convenience and desert it when needed. Haunted by his desires, rage and ego continue to be his masters.\
Better than the first one, this bhakta still has some chance of realization provided morality becomes the foundation of his living and self purification, that of his life. Innate pure bhava will start to rise from the chambers of his heart elevating him.\
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\f4 \cf9 Own Bhava\
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\f1 \cf2 Bhakta of this highest type and a rarity, you have discovered your own truth. Much like Tulsidasa, Meera, Surdasa, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Guru Nanak, you have turned inwards. You still worship your deity\'92s form outside but with your own bhava. Your acts of inward worship being projected outside are mistaken by onlookers as pure acts of outward worship. This leads to creation of sects further confusing the seekers. This bhakta has transcended the traditional rituals of external worship. Due to a highly virtuous life, and even higher righteous conduct, you have completely purified yourself. In essence, you have become the deity yourself. With child-like innocence and indifferent to the ways of the world, you spend your time in solitude. However, in solitude as well you are always in the company of your personal god. And even in the midst of greatest crowd, you are perfectly alone with your deity. Desires, therefore all vikaras, have completely left you, for, how can darkness and light coexist! You are the light, light of love, peace, bliss and knowledge. Because you have found your God, you develop great dispassion (vairagya) \'97 a natural by product of self-realization. You are ready to work some miracles and your mere presence will transform bhaktas of the first two types as well as others from different walks of life. Just like a student no longer has any use of the text books from the class he has already graduated; you have grown out of rituals and textual practices. For, who has found God by following such practices anyway?\
Bhakti is an act of devotional service, not demented rituals. It is okay to start with a borrowed bhava. With ever increasing purity and commitment imbued in your life and living, you will discover your true bhava before long. The hallmark of a great bhakta is unremitting vairagya and an even state of mind under most, if not all, circumstances. When you relinquish your desires effortlessly and they do not come back to you, a vision of your lord is imminent. You can eulogize feverishly or apologize fulsomely, if you are playing a beggar, you will only collect pennies. Become a worthy recipient and whatever, not whoever, it is that you want will land in your lap; thankfully, not literally.\
Bhakti when done with purity, surrender and vairagya, severs all fetters. It can not deliver you from your ripe karma (prarabdha) however. It will make you imperturbable though. There is no escape from the law of karma. Upon realization of your own bhava, you will gradually move to the ultimate stage \'96 parabhakti. I will write on it some other time.\
So, should you kill your desires and chant the holy names all the times, perhaps even renounce the material world? If you have come to that conclusion, either I could not have conveyed myself any worse or you could not have misunderstood any better. How can you kill the air? You can not curb or kill the desires, lest you erupt like a volcano. Continue to enjoy what life has to offer you within the bounds of morality. Work ceaselessly towards self purification. Along with, start bhakti if you believe in God and only if you can exercise surrender. Bhakti is rarely comparable to love-at-first-sight. It is more like a relationship where your love and bond with your deity grows over time. If you can not surrender, bhakti is not for you. In that case, you can start the practice of meditation and be prepared to bear the rigors of such practice. Only a strenuous effort is going to bring noticeable results. Do not even attempt to curb your desires without understanding their intrinsic nature first. They will go away automatically in due course with either pure bhakti or right meditation; combination of both will set you free in no time.\
Do not abandon external worship till you discover the inner one. Let the truth unfold steadily. When you continue to tread the path with grace, resolve and reverence, never foregoing truth, mercy, forgiveness and compassion, you will certainly come to grace. Have no doubts about that.\
Between slog and sloth, equidistant from indulgence and immolation, there lies the wondrous path of devotional service.\
In my next post, I will cover the subject of desires. If you are able to get a handle on that, you will experience radical and sweeping change in you. Stay tuned. Next post is going to be in the first week of October. I am going for my next sadhana that will not finish before September end.\
I am going to grab a bite now and on that note:\uc0\u8232 Life is like a thali meal. You are very hungry, that\'92s why you ordered it at the first place or perhaps it seemed economical or maybe it was the variety that lured you. Much like in life, you give yourself a series of reasons or excuses before you arrive at a decision. The thali comes before you. Wow! There is a bit of everything, more than half of which you least care about. Some dishes you have to suck on, others require chewing, some you drink and yet there are others you simply leave untouched. It is bedecked with mostly savoury items and a dessert if you got that deluxe thali.\
You go through the first few bites very quickly, each morsel one luxurious bite, before the law of diminishing returns kicks in. The subsequent bites fail to yield as much fulfillment as the previous ones. You no longer adorn each bite as lavishly with multiple curries as at the beginning. The charm is fast eloping. You are now engaged in a conversation, generally with yourself or your bite-buddy if you have company: ah! Why do these guys fry paneer! They should know it becomes hard and not as succulent. I should have ordered the extra chapattis instead of the rice. Look at this mixed veg, a huge piece of potato with just two pieces of cauliflower. This dal is a shocker etc.\
You saved the dessert for the last but now you are feeling full. You still have some of it, because you have paid for it you feel. You have been conditioned to not let go. Hands somewhat smudged in oil, if not smeared in curry, you lift that glass of water to quench your thirst. The residual oil in each bowl of curry gives you the unhealthy feeling. You wonder if you made the right choice. But it is all done now. What is noteworthy that in every likelihood you are going to order the same thali next time too.\
Similarly, life is all about choices. At first, the illusory and elusive pleasures of the world draw your attention like the variety in your thali. Eventually, you get tired \'97 not tired of enjoying them but tired of your inability to sustain such enjoyment, a subtle feeling of non-fulfillment does not leave you. You are unsure from what to keep versus what to rid of. Much like analyzing the thali, you keep analyzing the choices you make in life and you keep your engagement alive in wishful thinking on matters of the past and future. You save the best for the last, but when \'93last\'94 comes, you no longer have the appetite for it. Cravings of the tongue give way to the reality of digestion. At last what quenches your thirst is that glass of pure water. It has not nutritional value, neither a price tag nor any refill conditions. It is Nature\'92s offering and its purity is the primary factor in giving you that feeling of fulfillment.\
Go on enjoy! Order a thali. How about one for the soul too?\
Refill, anyone?\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
The Desire Tree\
Just like moisture is inseparable from water, and, heat from light, desires are inseparable from mind. For, desires are but thoughts un-abandoned. Thoughts are just that \'97 thoughts. They are not good or bad, neither sublime or ridiculous, nor right or wrong. All such labels are mere designations you have given based on your conditioning. Intrinsically, thoughts are all the same \'97 identical. It is what you do with the thought that matters than the actual thought itself. Upon emergence of a thought, its pursuit will either take the form of a desire or an emotion, positive or negative. All karma originates from thoughts. A lingering thought destabilizes your mind, disturbing your state of tranquility like the ripple in a still pond. A quiet mind with purified self remains unaffected by the fulfillment or abandonment of desires; both outcomes are perceived by the mind anyway. So, whether you want sense gratification or gratifying recognition, satisfying love or a simple laddoo, there is no difference.\
While the law of karma cannot be discounted, you are doubtlessly a product of your own desires. Your desires prompt you to take action or tread a certain path. Before you can know the nature of your desires, you ought to understand the nature of your mind.\uc0\u8232 When a desire is fulfilled, it gives you temporary joy & pleasure. The outcome is as ethereal and elusive as the desire itself. If desires could be satisfied forever, it would not be fallacious to seek fulfillment. However, when fulfilled, countless more spring up. Once you understand the nature of desires, they stop bothering you. Since you now have a firm grip on the tranquil state of your mind, your thoughts will disappear immediately upon emergence. While desires cannot really be classified, to aid ease and understanding, I am categorizing them for you. Here:\
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\f4 \cf9 Physical desires\
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\f1 \cf2 All forms of sense gratification are pure physical desires. You envisage a pleasant outcome from the fulfillment of these ones. Such anticipated pleasure prompts you to hold onto the thought of satisfying your desire. As a result, your actions, emotions and intelligence work together to attain that fulfillment. These desires can be insatiably active or eternally latent in you, sometimes both. Whatever you enjoy through the body is basically sense gratification. Most people expend their whole life satisfying these ones. They experience everything through the body, live for the body and die for it. They remain faithful, obedient and unquestioning servants of the body. Their life revolves around body\'92s needs for food, clothing, copulation, comfort, care and so forth. Fulfillment of physical desires is fundamentally linked to body\'92s well being. Human body, however, continues to deteriorate and many work incessantly hard to maintain it. A vain exercise, that.\
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\f4 \cf9 Emotional desires\
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\f1 \cf2 Need for love, reciprocation, recognition, sharing fall under this category. These are the result of an ignorant mind and have emerged from conditioning of your mind based on your present lifetime and possibly karmic residue from previous ones. These desires impel you to look outside for fulfillment. You need \'93somebody\'94 for companionship, sharing etc. Since you are now searching outside for inner fulfillment, you have set out on a quest comparable to ranging the universe from one end to the other. Till your last breath, you continue to play a puppet to these ones. Physical ones may subside when body grows weak and old, but emotional desires remain alive and kicking. These desires arise when you forget your true nature and when you are dependant (see My Truth for more on this term). The term \'93emotional needs\'94 is a misnomer. Emotions are a product of the conditioned mind and as such mind has no needs. The sight of a slaughter house may trigger a negative emotion in you, whereas it may be positive for the business owner and neutral for the machine operator. It all depends on how you are conditioned. Upon discovery of your true nature and in maintaining that state, emotional desires will simply disappear.\
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\f4 \cf9 Intellectual desires\
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\f1 \cf2 A conditioned mind, outwardly focused, when temporarily satisfied from the fulfillment of physical and emotional desires, gives birth to intellectual ones. These prompt the individual to create something new or engage in seemingly selfless social causes. Fulfillment from these desires lasts longer than the first two ones. When all else is going well, and when you feel that sense gratification and emotional fulfillment are not enough, these ones take birth. By their very nature, a certain degree of insight is gained. However, an egotist, unsettled and ignorant mind will continue to bind you. You may devote considerable time and energy on these ones, the first two will still not leave you. Predominantly because you have simply engaged your mind elsewhere rather than settling it. Often, pursuit of these desires creates something valuable for the society though. Creating a charitable organization, working towards a material or spiritual discovery, devoting to a social or a religious cause are examples of intellectual desires. Better than the first two, these help you turn inward. The greatest thinkers, inventors and scientists were the product of intellectual desires.\
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\f4 \cf9 Transcendental desire\
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\f1 \cf2 Unlike the other three, this one is always in singular. When the only burning desire to discover your true nature remains, half the work is done. Chances are you have this desire because you have realized the futility of gratifying infinitely insatiable desires of the first three types. Fulfillment of the transcendental desire will free you from the fetters of ignorance, removing all shackles of conditioning. Desire of this nature is the ultimate quest of discovering your own truth. Without saying much, you could be Krishna, Christ, Buddha, Mahavir or any of the greatest preachers, prophets or thinkers the world has ever seen.\
Your false ego holds the fort of physical desires and in turn is boosted by the fulfillment of such desires. Your emotional desires fuel your ego and intellectual ones satisfy it. Ego, a profound subject matter, is a topic for another time. I shall cover it in the near future. For now, know that your false ego is merely an accumulation of your karmic imprints due to\'a0experiencing the world, since eons, as an external and real phenomena. If you peel off the layers of an onion, you are left with nothing in the end. Similarly, when you purify yourself no trace of ego will remain in you for it is the impurity and ignorance that make up this intangible yet concrete element ego.\
Non-fulfillment of physical, emotional, and intellectual desires shatters, hurts, and alters your ego respectively. Paradoxically, non-fulfillment of transcendental desire will arouse dispassion in you impelling you to work harder toward discovering your true nature. And upon that discovery, your ego will dissolve completely. The first two types of desires make you seek the joy outside. That permanent bliss is never to be found outside. So, despite your sincere and strenuous attempt to continuously experience joy from them, you continue, albeit unknowingly, to feed such desires all the while creating more.\
When the raiment of your peace and calm is woven from the fabric of intellectualized truth and conceptualized knowledge, it will unwind itself in a jiffy, without notice, any time your latent desires erupt or when in crisis. You can only tame the beast once you understand its nature. Desires are first to be understood, then tamed, followed by their mastery later conquest before they are eliminated.\
Concentrative meditation will still your mind, and therefore desires. Contemplative meditation or pure bhakti will decimate them completely. Eventually, you will need to learn to take your mind off each time a desire arises. With practice, you will actually start to see you desires as mere thoughts with no intrinsic value. To detect emergence of thoughts requires an ever-present and alert mind \'97 quite like the security system at the airport that beeps even if you walk through it with a penny in your pocket. Riddance from physical desires requires contemplation and relinquishment. Elimination of emotional desires requires reflection and dispassion. To rid of intellectual ones, intelligence and an inward dawning of wisdom is required. Fulfillment of the transcendental desire requires a firm adoption of all aforesaid methods as well as complete surrender if you are a bhakta or an unflinching practice of meditation if you are a yogin.\
One need not be alarmed when desires come knocking, it is only natural. They key is to win the battle without fighting, to reach at a compromise without making one. When you discover your true nature, you will no longer have any illusions about your needs or desires.\
Desires are attractive fruits on the mind tree. How many can you clip or pluck after all; you need to get to the root. And the root of the desire tree is aptly called mind. Expectations are the illegitimate children \'97 with desires as their step-siblings \'97 of an ignorant mind and conditioned self. Once married to a desire, be ready to pay child support for a very long time to come. With many ongoing affairs with other desires and de-facto \'93expectations\'94 at that, you do the math. It pays to be loyal the wise say.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Life is like the four seasons \
Life is like the cyclic four seasons. Irrespective of anyone\'92s preference, each season emerges when due giving way to the next like thoughts in the human mind where cessation of one is immediately succeeded by the emergence of another. During cold, nature shrinks; in autumn, it sheds; in summer it expands and in spring she blossoms. Seasons we dislike seem to last longer.\'a0Flowers bloom in spring and it rains in monsoons.\'a0Temperature drops in winters and mercury rises in summer like consciousness that is affected by the state of prana in your breath. It is all pretty set, almost like a put-up-or-shut-up system.\
Similarly, we all experience life\'92s various colors. Depending on what time of the year you are born, you may experience spring before autumn or vice-versa. And depending on where you are born, you may enjoy pleasant sunshine for most part of the year than bitter cold all year round. You learn to cope up with weather conditions. You layer yourself in winter and the opposite in summer. You get yourself an umbrella during the rainy season. In some regards, it is like always running away from what is at hand. We are always trying to save ourselves. Being one with nature means to experience and enjoy absolutely everything it has to offer. While you should save for the rainy days, you are not exactly a squirrel \'96 are you? Go, wet yourself in the rain sometimes \'97 it may well be grace that\'92s trickling down. Experience the cold \'97 it will only make you stronger.\
When the sun of adversities is shining hot on you turning the warmth of life into scorching heat you find unbearable, you may consider moving to a cold place. When life looks listless like the naked trees of departing autumn, you just need to be a little patient. spend your waiting period looking at pictures of the spring or move to that part of the world where fall it is not. Change is constant; it comes in small, immeasurable units just like even the heaviest downpour is materialized by tiny drops of water. That may not be the desired change however. To seek the change you want, you have to make decisions accordingly. In fact, you have to become the change yourself. A radical decision means a leaping change and a more conservative one brings about safer change.\
Or, the other option is to simply turn inward and know that experience of all external phenomena is merely a short-lived experience of the body. The eternal bliss, percolating drip by drip, within you, is now looking like an ocean. You are safe, happy and blissful inside \'97 completely protected from all heat and cold. While you can see the beautiful colors of fall, it is always spring inside with countless varieties of beautiful flowers dancing to their perfect glory on the mellifluous notes of the gale of bliss (anahata nada); just the right temperature. No muggy weather inside; no bitter cold \'97 only indescribable beauty.\
Go on, have a vacation! Take a trip to the quiet seaside of bliss within you. I can help you with the one way directions. For, I am confident, you will not feel the need or the urge to return once there.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Nature Vs You\
Why Me? It is a question that knocks many during the course of their life, some simply get knocked out by it while others, only knocked down. All of you must have seen, on many occasions, horrible things happening to good people and terrible people leading a life of richness. It is not uncommon to see those who took utmost care of their health, suffer from dreadful diseases. Many a time those who abused their body in every possible way go well into their nineties enjoying good health. Some, who always had been faithful to their partners are deserted by them for no apparent reason. This person who played by the rules ends up single, lonely and devastated \'97 both emotionally and physically, often financially too.\
So, how does this all fit in?A right answer is an offspring of a correct question. Instead of brooding over matters negatively asking \'93why me\'94, you should examine the life of your role model and ask \'91why not me?\'92 or \'91how can it be me?\'92If you want to greatly enhance your capabilities, you need to start deriving power from Mother Nature. Nature, that is full of divine energy, has something extraordinary to offer \'97 both towards fulfilling your material and spiritual ambitions. However, before you can have nature work for you, you need to develop a personal ecosystem \'97 a conscious replica of Nature.\
If you observe nature closely, you will find that there is no struggle in its play. It accepts what helps it to move and simply rejects all that misfits in its ecosystem. You offer a seed at the right time, it sprouts, other times, it perishes. You offer it artificial material like polythene and it is neither accepted nor destroyed; Nature simply rejects it. Before you can develop a personal ecosystem, you need to spend time analyzing yourself. Know what is hot from what is not for you. Understand what triggers disagreeable reactions in you and what prompts right actions from you. You need to know what makes you tick from what turns you sick. Since you are the one who is affected, this intellectual exercise focuses entirely on you. Do not go down the binge road or attempt to change anything in others. You are the subject, object, cause and outcome we are concerned with. Once you start to know yourself, even if only intellectually at this stage, you are ready to synthesize.\
Like nature, accept and therefore let sprout all that leads to bliss and reject all that misfits. Like the seed that perishes rather than sprout when sowed in the wrong season, learn to absorb all that is right but is offered to you at the wrong time. Nature does not leave any trace of the perished seed, it is called absorbing, forgiving and forgetting. You must remember not to complain like Nature. Much like Her, whenever anything is offered to you, you should either accept, absorb, or reject. They are the only three choices. It is impossible for anyone to grieve you unless you let that happen to yourself.\
Unfortunately, the same goes for all the positive emotions too \'97 no one can give you joy unless you allow yourself to be happy. Nature is always open to all, but it simply pursues its own course. Remember however, this is only an intellectual exercise; it will not take you right to the destination. It will set you on the right path of discovering a state of peace and bliss though. Once you discover your own truth, all this will be like kindergarten education to a doctorate.\
As part of this intellectual exercise, playing in the act of nature, you can choose from one of the four roles. The more you stick to the same role, the greater the proficiency in acting such role out. Sometimes a switch is a necessity, other times, merely a convenience. After all, you may be the CEO, you still report to the Board. Or you may be the Director, you don\'92t escape being appraised by your better half. I am elucidating the four roles for you. Ascertain which one you are playing presently and then work from there. As follows:\
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\f4 \cf9 The Penitent\
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\f1 \cf2 There is no dearth of people who take on the role of The Penitent. In a state of remorse, they choose to beg from nature. Begging only yields pennies and one must look downright pitiable to collect even that. The Penitent treads the ruinous path of self-pity, constantly whinging and has decided to cling onto his deluded belief about himself especially in regards to his inability to live a meaningful life. The hallmark of The Penitent is that he is always begging and is never happy. He has chosen to no longer try, assuming he ever did at the first place that is. No one can help these beyond a certain point. Only when they choose to make a switch to another role are they ready to elevate themselves.\
The Penitent is always wondering \'93Why Me\'94 and believes that the successful are so either on account of deceit or a stint of luck. A noteworthy point: no one wants to play this role. The one who does, often has harbored great negativity and remorse; So much so that they refuse to be helped. In some rare cases, due to\'a0
\i prarabdha
\i0 , one is forced to take on this role. God or Nature \'97 two words you can safely interchange \'97 does not come to the rescue of the Penitent, save some\'a0
\i pauranic
\i0 \'a0legends. If you are drowning in the water and do not know how to swim, you can beg till the cows come home, no God is going to emerge anytime soon. You can have nature help you provided you know how to summon her in the hour of need.\
The lives of the greatest yogis,\'a0
\i tapasvis
\i0 ,\'a0
\i bhaktas\'a0
\i0 and divine souls are full of examples where they would tap into the power of nature to help others, rather than begging from her. Praying is not to be confused with begging. A prayer when unaccompanied with the right effort and\'a0
\i bhava
\i0 \'a0does indeed sound like pleading. Praying can yield desired results provided some conditions are met. I will cover this another time; it is a sublime and beautiful subject, the one I will take delight in expounding. Getting back to the current topic, no matter what, try to refrain from playing The Penitent. There is no glory, only gluttony, in this role. Instead, choose the one from the following three:\
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\f4 \cf9 The Peasant\
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\f1 \cf2 The majority out there play this role. They accept whatever is handed down to them; whether that is religion, philosophy, rules, teachings, methods, relationships; everything. The Peasant will accept it, mostly unquestioningly. They do not even dare to seek their own truth or make amends. They have found their comfort zone in their false sense of security. He is not concerned with the illusory nature of the world or its reality. From his point of view, he could not care less. He has a roof, even if rented, he gets his meals as well as his share of venery. Day in, day out \'97 he will show up at work till his last day of retirement; he will go home and have his dinner; he will copulate as permitted by his body and will blindly follow a certain religion. Ironically, there is not much wrong in playing the Peasant. How does it matter to the frog of the well that there is an ocean outside! The Peasant makes a great supporter. Nature often takes care of the Peasant because he is playing by the rules and doing his share of work. As a result, he will receive his entitlements so long as he continues to effectively perform his role. This role has no charm or excitement. The Peasant is not living but simply getting by. The day he is able to taste the richness of life or its right but seemingly unfair brutality, the Peasant wakes up from his slumber. He refuses to play this role any longer. Almost everyone plays this role at least once in their life. some get tethered to the post of comfort while many choose to range and move about freely. Of those who break new ground, they generally play one of the following roles:\
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\f4 \cf9 The Peer\
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\f1 \cf2 At some point in time, often due to an inner awakening, the Peasant asks himself the most important question of his life \'97 is there a better way to lead my life? When pursued, this question is sufficient to set the ball rolling. The Peer, unlike the Peasant, starts to build on his new found individuality. He starts to create his own ecosystem no longer accepting everything on face value alone. He learns to question, a skill he develops and nurtures over time. His life has more action and excitement than the Peasant. But the Peer is a transient role. With great tenacity, he will either move to the top level or fall back to being a servant. On the positive side, even if he does go back to being the Peasant, he will never be the same again. He is going to be an outstanding one. The Peer understands that the nature must support him in his endeavours \'97 after all it is survival for the fittest. He is not happy just being a bee anymore, he wants to be the queen bee. The Peer starts to experience greater joy. He finds obstacles clearing themselves from his way, especially so if he persists with intelligence \'97 adapting, adopting, abandoning, absorbing whatever, however, whenever and wherever needed. The crown of The Potentate awaits such seeker.\
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\f4 \cf9 The Potentate\
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\f1 \cf2 The Potentate has discovered his own truth. He fully understands that mere great physical effort does not equate to extraordinary results. In the accomplishment of any goal, several factors and forces play their part \'97 a lot of which remains veiled, invisible, incomprehensible and inexplicable. The Potentate has struck a chord, actually almost a deal, with Nature. Nature passes on its divinity to the Potentate choosing him to serve humanity and help numerous people along the way. More than just an instrument of God, this one becomes a working replica of Nature. He gets almost all his work done with the mere power of a thought originated from his pure mind and released into the cosmos through his divine aura. His very voice and every word uttered becomes the supreme sanctum sound piercing through the hearts of those who come in contact with him. He has found his true nature, super-knowledge sprouts, as if automatically. He becomes the\'a0sovereign\'a0of an exalted and seraphic kingdom \'97 the hearts of people.\
So, what does it take to become the Potentate! Here is the answer; brevity being not my forte, I shall make it short nevertheless:\
1.\'a0
\i Naitikta
\i0 : Inculcate morality in your speech, actions and thoughts.\
2.\'a0
\i Vairagya
\i0 : Be indifferent to the pleasures of the material world.\
3.\'a0
\i Marga
\i0 : Choose your path \'97\'a0
\i bhakti\'a0
\i0 or
\i \'a0dhayana\'a0
\i0 to begin with.\
4.\'a0
\i Shradha
\i0 : Commit yourself fully to your chose path.\
5.\'a0
\i Pramana
\i0 : Form your view based on direct unsullied experience and not intellectual fabrication.\
6.\'a0
\i Tapas
\i0 :\'a0Persist with patience and intelligence till you get to the end.\
7.\'a0
\i Samadhi
\i0 :\'a0Allow the truth, your own truth, to dawn on you.\
8.\'a0
\i Anubhava
\i0 : Continue still till you are able to replicate your experience.\
9.\'a0
\i Turiya
\i0 : Learn to absorb and live with the extraordinary bliss that gushes forth and stays with you.\
10.\'a0
\i Samarpana
\i0 : Dedicate your life to helping others, so you may help other seekers.\
The joy of giving far exceeds any other.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami.\
\
Life is like a Movie\
Life is like a movie. Whether it is good or bad, long or short is more a question of individual preference than industry positioning. Some movies unanimously fall in the category of tragedy while many others get classified as comedy. Some go like a slow drama, some, melodrama while many are too action packed to be a drama. And, of course, some are labeled as horror and some simply are horrible. Some are thrilling while many others, grilling. Once in the cinema hall, you seem to have a little choice.\
Regardless of how bogus the movie, you rarely choose to quit. You feel you may as well sit through since you have paid for it. some people choose to commit movicide \'97 they leave in between consciously. Sometimes, the movie is just too good. Oh! but the rowdy ones behind must comment on every scene all the while kicking your seat with each movement of their wobbly legs. Not to mention the guy next to you, the one who is on a mission to exhaust nation\'92s corn chips supply, keeps munching with loud crackling sound as at apocalypse.\
To top it all, you may have well-behaved creatures in the row in front who are slurping their cola like the hiss of an anaconda. They have decided to release all the locked up cola in the mini glaciers in the glass by shaking it vigorously, almost like micro-global-warming. You feel helpless, perhaps frustrated. Your attempts to ignore it all and focus on the movie offer you little consolation. Similarly, such is life.\
There are some factors in your control while many others seem completely out of bounds. You learn to live with some as matter-of-fact and some others you struggle with. But let me share a secret: you can change the movie whenever you want, absolutely at will. Change in the movie will automatically bring about change in the audience that surrounds you. You would not really take your kids to a horror movie classified beyond their present age, for example. The noisy guys are unlikely to be found in a romantic movie and so forth.The movie of life, while projected on a screen you can see externally, is undoubtedly your own choice.\
Your mind is the powerful projector playing the reel of your thoughts. And this projector is powered by the vital life force (prana) in your breath. If your mind is under control, you can change the reel to your liking. And if your breath is under control you can simply pause or turn off the projector at will. I have not only shared an important secret with you, I have also exposed, in clear terms, albeit briefly, the most important yogic secret.Go on enjoy! Have a nice time at the movies. How about pitting the Pitt and colonizing the Clooney for a change! Play your own movie, the one you like, the one that delights you, uplifts you and boosts your spirits. Play it at your own terms, in your preferred setting; watch it in your private hall, arranged and serviced as per you preference. That is how I watch it!\
Care to join me, anyone?\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
The first Step in Meditation\
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\f4 \cf9 Prerequisites\
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\f1 \cf2 A burning desire to experience your true nature and an unwavering commitment to your chosen path are the prerequisites. Please reread\'a0{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.omswami.com/2011/10/the-be-natural-system.html"}}{\fldrslt \cf4 Nature and You}}, especially the last section listing the ten points.\
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\f4 \cf9 Starting Point\
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\f1 \cf2 Commit to the practice of meditating daily, even twice a day if you are on the path of meditation. If you want a vision of your deity, you need to develop a bond first. Start crying for you deity while chanting the holy names. Sounds unreasonable, if not outright silly? Try it to see the results. Offer whatever you are doing to your\'a0
\f5\i Ishta
\f1\i0 . Eat, breathe, live, sleep for your personal god. It is the slow and steady path but the one that can purify you quickly.\
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\f4 \cf9 Commitment\
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\f1 \cf2 It is a question of priority. Can you give me an hour of your time daily? If not, can you start thinking about what I tell you when you are driving, or bathing, for example? If not, can you give up watching TV or reading newspaper and devote that time to the path? If not, can you set aside a certain number of days in a year exclusively dedicated to the practice, almost like a meditation retreat? I am happy to offer you direct supervision and guidance. If not, can you start practicing compassion and non-violence under all circumstances, and, truth under all possible circumstances? If not, for every emotion or sentiment offered to you, can you return love? Imagine where you will end up if you adopted all of the above.\
If you carry out an initially intense effort, the flux of purified energy will automatically bring about the required changes. If you tread the path slowly, steadily and correctly, the urge to increase intensity will emerge automatically. So, either way you can get to the destination. At some point, a dedicated effort will be required if you want to get to that state of permanent bliss. Do not ponder over matters of future in regards to taking time out; it is lot more important to get started. Choose one, many or all of the aforesaid points. From my point of view, I would like to offer the complete system \'97 the system of self transformation. A piecemeal introduction will be of little use. And to document the whole system, I require some time.\
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\f4 \cf9 Riddance from impurities\
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\f1 \cf2 Imagine a glass full of salty water. Your goal is to get rid of the salt. There are many such methods as distillation etc to choose from, all of which lead to the same outcome. However, all of them require certain apparatus and paraphernalia. The easiest way is to start pouring fresh water in the glass. Soon, it will start to overflow. If you continue pouring the fresh water, eventually not a trace of impurity will remain and the glass will be full of pure water. Such is the state of your mind. If you cannot afford the system of\'a0
\f5\i dhyana
\i0 (
\f1 comparable to processes requiring apparatus), you can start pouring in devotional sentiments or moral thoughts. All impurities will flow out of your system leaving you pristine and unblemished.\
We cannot change the past, so give yourself a clean state with resolve and do not be too hard on yourself. Regardless of what all has been done in the past, if you want to go through self purification leading to self transformation, you can do it. I doubt there has ever been a saint who never sinned. And even if there were, it still does not change the life of those sinners who became sages. The primary difference between a sage and a sinner is the former\'92s ability to exercise morality and return all emotions with love and love alone. The sinner reacts but the saint only ever acts, unconditionally if you will. Nobody can stop you from acting with compassion other than you alone.\
If you do not change what you do, how can Nature change what you get! After all, we only ever reap, in multifold, what we sow!\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
The two Spiritual Approaches\
Living in the woods is an experience divine in itself, saving disagreements with insects, mosquitoes and rats. The wild ones start to behave like chartered socialites but insects and mice seem to have traded their conscience for securing a place in the woods. They are all there to train you though. Once you learn to put up with them, putting up with \'93humans\'94 is a child\'92s play thereafter. During my main meditation of seven months, I lived in a run-down hut. It was old and pseudo-abandoned, like many gadgets in your possession. It had more cobwebs, some gossamer and other, more prominent, than the blades of grass that made the\'a0thatched roof.\
The only thing that outnumbered the webs were holes in the walls. For, the walls were made from wooden planks haphazardly placed next to each other. A job seemed to be done by either the unwilling or the underpaid worker, if not both. The webs reminded me of the traps of thoughts intelligently crafted by the mind, and, holes, that of glaring loopholes in human assumptions about the universal existence.\
Bees, hornets droned in hundreds around that place, predominantly because on the ground had blossomed thousands of mini-flowers of blue, white and yellow hues. The yellow ones were of particular interest to the baboons as if they, the primitive restless apes with no civic sense, had sophisticated taste buds. You could see how beggars too can be choosers when presented with the opportunity. While believing a certain theory of science, apes would be my ancestral cousins, I still did not feel much respect for them. For, they were rowdy like the passionate mind and restless like the indecisive one who fails to stay on anything like the baboons who would keep hopping from one branch to another. They were very cute though and occasionally I found myself appreciating the fine down on their bodies that protected them from subzero cold and chill. The monkeys still did not win over the monk though. Unlike the brown city dwellers, and I am only referring to apes, these ones had silver gray fur with black faces and limbs dark as coal.\
Moving on from apes to bees, I had the opportunity, on multiple occasions, to closely observe bees, ants and spiders. From those moments emerged an interesting analogy, I would like to share with you: As follows:I found that bees and ants were always working, bees being more restless. Unlike any cow, goat or buck, I never found one relaxing. Even on the hive, they were constantly buzzing. A feature common among both ants and bees is that they work for someone else \'97 for their respective queens, and that they both live in colonized settings.\
Another important point, equally noteworthy, is\'a0that\'a0they are busy hoarding. Possibly because they work for someone else, their\'a0sovereign ensures that they are always working servilely for a pittance, if that. The bees have accepted it as a fact-of-life. After all, if thousands others are working like peasants, this must be the right, decent, social, rewarding and only way of working \'97 strikingly resonant with the common human psyche. The bees, it appears, \'a0choose never to stop and think; they have simply bought into the group intelligence \'97 if all others are following this approach, it must have some merit. The queen bee, as I understand, is of slightly larger size than the \'93worker\'94 bees. But that is not the only differentiation, it is the unique scent of the queen bee that makes it the queen bestowing the royal status.\
Before I offer you my \'93interesting analogy\'94, I would like to draw your attention to the ways of the spider. A spider is a unique and an independent operator. A spider does not buzz or budge for food. It selects a place, almost as an act of apparent intelligence, and quietly begins its work. It is not worried about the future. It weaves its web and waits patiently, often not staying in or on but outside the web. I never saw any spider showing any signs of restlessness. It lives for the present moment and resides neither in colonies nor in abject slavery. It does live on faith, but not blind faith. I observed, if for days no prey finds its death in the web, the spider starts to weave a new one.\
Like the very competent person, the spider gets the job done without overworking. Some creature comes flying right into the web; the spider starts to move immediately. It is swift and alert like a mouse this time. It strangles its prey to death and feeds on it till satisfied. As time continues ticking, with each new dawn, the providence keeps delivering fresh food right at the \'93webstep\'94. The spider, like the ultimate devotee, has learned to do the right karma and live with complete surrender. It lives on the faith that food will come, for it seems to know that all karma must bear fruit eventually.\
So! you can choose to be the spider or the bee. The choice is yours. While their ways of working could yield results accordingly in the material world too, my focus here is spiritual attainment.\
The queen bee is your mind. If you continue to work for your mind, you choose to do so at your own peril and that too for a dribble. It will keep you busy in the unnecessary slog and you will continue to drone loudly as well as hop restlessly till your last breath. Being the bee, you may enjoy the fragrance of the flower from whose pollen you are extracting the juice but you will not be allowed to partake of the honey. The honey in the hive is much too much for even the queen (read mind). Someone else will simply walk away with the whole apiary one day. Do not work for your queen. Starting a revolt may simply be a gut reaction but sustaining such rebel needs great effort and intelligence while seeing it succeed requires all of the above plus extraordinary persistence, tenacity and discipline.\
If you are going to revolt against the restless and listless life of a bee, you better be ready to assiduously work till the end; your task is mammoth \'97 finding peace in a noisy world, and your goal, only as monumental as audacious \'97 turning the queen bee into your obedient slave. It is achievable though. The stillness of your mind will make you larger than life and unflinching morality will give you the scent that will madden not only the queen bee but all other creatures that will ever cross their glance with you. A snake may be million times more deadly than the lion, but it is latter\'92s grace and manner that has him crowned the king; for, among other things, under normal circumstances, a lion does not kill unless it is for lunch.\
If revolting is not your cup of tea, you may choose to be docile like the spider. It still requires a significant mind shift. While continuing to be the bee enslaving the queen is a matter of revolt and resolve, going from bee to spider is more like a renaissance. From living in dense colonies, you now must learn to live peacefully in solitude. Ever doing the right karma, you learn to surrender with utmost faith. You let go off hopping around and learn to be still and situated in the\'a0
\i bhava
\i0 \'a0of your lord. You do what you have to do leaving the futility or fruition of your efforts to your deity. You are no longer interested in the honey or temporary pleasure from the fragrance of a flower. Like the spider knits its web with the sole purpose of preying, you \'a0do all your work with the only intent of seeing your I
\i shta
\i0 .\
All the time, the spider is firmly established in the\'a0
\i bhava
\i0 \'a0of plundering \'97 it stays on the wall but moves without a moment\'92s hesitation at the first sighting of any foreign creature in its web; you too, like a true devotee, must stay in the\'a0
\i bhakti bhava
\i0 \'a0stealing every opportunity of rendering devotional service. Great mindfulness is required to see no opportunity leaves you unmet. With the surrender matching that of a spider, the providence will take care of you without fail. In other words, you will be a worthy recipient of divine grace. The spider weaves the web but never gets caught in it, like the self-realized person who lives in the world but never gets entangled in its fabric. Like the spider, he understands that the web is designed for provisions and that unless he is careful, he will, with time being the only separator, one day, become the provision himself. He lives in the world like tongue in the denture, enjoying the taste but not getting bit or chewed.\
Like hive is the work of bees, and web, spider \'97 your life is your creation. You have worked hard collecting nectar from the flowers building your own hive and many times, you have swallowed your own spittle in knitting your world. Unlike the spider weaving its web round and round, I can only hope that you stopped, however rarely, to critically examine, analyse and value your work. Whether you are the spider or the prey, if you get entangled in the web, you will only be greeted by struggle and agony.\
Go on enjoy! Learn to sip the juice from flowers with detachment till such time that you learn to imbibe the nectar within you. In your relentless pursuit of weaving your own web, be sure you do not design it so complex that it turns into a trap. You deserve better.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Depression the Yogic view\
Today I found out about someone who is suffering from depression. I sincerely wished I could see them in person and help them come out of it. Since that may not be possible considering my physical location, I am choosing this blog to convey my message.I have known many people who have suffered from depression; some were affected so severely that they quit their jobs and virtually locked themselves in their homes, almost like solitary confinement. With some I spent tens of hours spanning over months to assist them in coming out of it.\
When one is affected by depression, the kith and kin experience it too. But all the others in the family have to cope because if they start to express their depressed state, the patient suffers even more. In this post, I am going to focus on the definition of depression, its cause and cure. It is a challenge to cover the topic in detail in a blog post, I must try nevertheless. Embrace yourself for a long post.\
Before I offer you my point of view, I would like to draw your attention to certain important details. As follows:\
Please remember that I am not a medical but a meditation specialist. My viewpoint here is based on my years of yogic practices (
\i kriy\uc0\u257
\i0 ), meditation and many months of very intense practice. The sole purpose of such meditation was to experience the true nature of mind, its natural state that resultantly unravels the mysteries of mind; not brain, not body, just mind.\
The information in this post is primarily and directly based on the knowledge that gushes forth when I am in a state of meditational equipoise. To better illustrate my point, I have drawn on information from\'a0
\i vedic
\i0 \'a0texts, hence my use of Sanskrit terms, as well as from my experiences in dealing with those who went through depression during the course of their own lives. If you can see the world through my eyes, the scenery will change instantly. And to have my vision, you just have to do what I do; everything else will follow in tow. Please read this post several times to understand the message.\
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\f4 \cf2 What is Depression?\
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\f1 \cf2 Depression is a state of mind. It is not a physical ailment; it is not a neurological disorder and it is rarely\'a0a malfunctioning of the brain. It is strictly a condition of the mind. And mind pervades your whole body and beyond. It is for this reason that pacification of the mind calms the whole body just like its restlessness upsets the whole system. Severity of depression can be ascertained from the symptoms of the patient. While I am using the term patient, that truly is an oxymoron. There really cannot be a \'93patient\'94 for depression because it is not a \'93disease\'94 that one can suffer from. It is simply a mismatch of the colliding psychic imprints (
\i v\uc0\u257 san\u257
\i0 ) also known tendencies of the mind. Mind cannot malfunction for the true nature of mind is pure bliss (
\i \uc0\u257 nanda
\i0 ) and beyond all subjective characterizations and dualities (
\i dvanda
\i0 ). Good-bad, right-wrong, true-false and so forth are examples of such designations and dualities.\
In order to correctly adjudge the severity of depression, please go through the following section carefully and patiently. I will try to simplify but we are dealing with a complex subject. So, reread as many times as required to fully absorb the meaning.\
You have three bodies, namely, gross body (
\i sth\uc0\u363 la \u347 ar\u299 ra
\i0 ), subtle body (
\i s\uc0\u363 k\u7779 ma \u347 ar\u299 ra
\i0 ) and causal body (
\i k\uc0\u257 ra\u7751 a \u347 ar\u299 ra
\i0 ). Your gross body is your physical body made from flesh and bones etc. Your subtle body is made from your consciousness and an amalgamation of your emotions. And the causal body is made from your soul (read Self or Mind). On the causal body rests both the gross and subtle body. These three bodies operate in conjunction with five sheaths (
\i ko\uc0\u7779 a
\i0 ), namely, gross (
\i annamaya ko\uc0\u7779 a
\i0 ), mind (
\i manomaya ko\uc0\u7779 a
\i0 ), life force (
\i pr\uc0\u257 \u7751 amaya ko\u7779 a
\i0 ), wisdom (
\i vij\'f1\uc0\u257 namaya kosha
\i0 ) and bliss (
\i \uc0\u257 nandamaya ko\u7779 a
\i0 ). These collectively affect the five fundamental energies (
\i v\uc0\u257 yu
\i0 ) in your body, namely, vital life energy (
\i pr\uc0\u257 \u7751 a vayu
\i0 ), descending energy (
\i ap\uc0\u257 na v\u257 yu
\i0 ), ascending energy (
\i ud\uc0\u257 na v\u257 yu
\i0 ), thermal energy (
\i sam\uc0\u257 na v\u257 yu
\i0 ), and diffusive energy (
\i vy\uc0\u257 na v\u257 yu
\i0 ).\
Manipulation of the energies can affect the state of the sheaths as well as the three bodies, and vice-versa. Everything, absolutely everything that happens in your body is directly linked to the aforesaid. I will not elucidate the energies and sheaths in this post, lest this becomes a book. I will, however, briefly explain the three bodies and their link to all bodily and mental conditions that require medication for their cure.\
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\f4 \cf2 Gross body (Physical body)\
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\f1 \cf2 According to\'a0
\i Ayurveda
\i0 \'a0and many other yogic texts, your physical body is made from seven key elements. They are saliva (
\i rasa
\i0 ), blood (
\i rakta
\i0 ), flesh (
\i m\uc0\u257 \u7745 sa
\i0 ), fat (
\i meda
\i0 ), bones (
\i asthi
\i0 ), marrow (
\i majj\uc0\u257
\i0 ) and the creative fluid (
\i \uc0\u347 ukra
\i0 ). The composition of three humors: wind (
\i v\uc0\u257 ta
\i0 ), bile (
\i pitta
\i0 ) and phlegm (
\i kapha
\i0 ) determine how your body treats intake of any food from the air you breathe to the fatty desserts you may enjoy. The five energies affect such factors as digestion and metabolism. That is purely from the perspective of the gross body. Once the gross body has processed the food, the subtle body (read Consciousness), depending on its own state determines how such food affects your physical body. It is for this reason some eat very little but accumulate a lot of fat and some eat lot more but do not put on any weight.\
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\f4 \cf2 Subtle body (Consciousness)\
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\f1 \cf2 In simple terms, subtle body is another name for your state of consciousness. At any point in time, your consciousness can be in one of the five states namely, conscious (
\i caitanya
\i0 ), subconscious (
\i upacaitanya
\i0 ), unconscious (
\i an\uc0\u257 caitanya
\i0 ), non conscious (
\i acaitanya
\i0 ) and superconscious (
\i par\uc0\u257 caitanya
\i0 ). Further more, you could be in dreaming\'a0(
\i svapana
\i0 ), waking\'a0(
\i j\uc0\u257 grat
\i0 ), sleeping\'a0(
\i su\uc0\u7779 upta
\i0 )\'a0or transcendental\'a0(
\i tur\uc0\u299 ya
\i0 )\'a0state. Once again, to preserve brevity, I will elaborate on these terms another time. For now, I just want you to be aware of the terms to gain a holistic view. This is where all your emotions live, in the subtle body that is. All involuntary functions of the body, including heart beat, pulse, blood pressure and the like are impacted by the subtle body. Control of the subtle body can give you direct control over all the involuntary functions of the body. I say this from first-hand experience I can demonstrate under laboratory conditions.\
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\f4 \cf2 Causal body (Soul)\
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\f1 \cf2 Your causal body is directly responsible for your consciousness and bodily existence. Many yogic texts state that upon death the soul travels from one body to another just like we discard sullied clothes for fresh ones. But that is not all; the soul does not travel alone. Along with it go the tendencies of the mind (
\i citta v\uc0\u7771 tti
\i0 ). Such tendencies that have been strengthened by experiencing the world as an external phenomena through the perception of sound (
\i \uc0\u347 abda
\i0 ), touch (
\i spar\uc0\u347 a
\i0 ), taste (
\i rasa
\i0 ), form (
\i r\uc0\u363 pa
\i0 ), and smell (
\i gandha
\i0 ) with the aid of ears, skin, tongue, eyes, and nose. Causal body, in a way, is your true nature. It is your unconditioned Self, natural state of your mind. But just like rusted iron is a poor conductor of electricity, conditioned Self is a poor conductor of bliss. All tendencies of the mind live in your causal body.\
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\f4 \cf2 Life Cycle of a Disease\
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\f1 \cf2 Most physical diseases are not the causes but the symptoms. They are symptoms of a conditioned consciousness that is now polluted. When subtle body is stressed, the signs of disease will emerge in the physical body. It is possible to curb certain diseases of the gross body with treatment and therapy but complete healing only occurs when the root cause is eliminated from the subtle body. Imagine a cancer patient who gets operated for a tumor in the stomach. Whatever be the nature of his tumor, if he does not change his lifestyle \'97 directly affecting his gross body, and does not change his outlook towards life \'97 directly affecting his subtle body, his tumor is likely to come back. If he can get in touch with his causal body, either by way of meditation (
\i dhy\uc0\u257 na
\i0 ) or deep devotional absorption (
\i mah\uc0\u257 bh\u257 va
\i0 ), he can flush the disease out of his system, forever that is.\
Some diseases originate in the gross body and traveling through the subtle (consciousness), affect the causal body (soul).\'a0Such diseases affect one\'92s physical, mental and spiritual health. These ones are easier and quicker to fix compared to\'a0those that are due to the diseased causal body. Those ailments that occur in the subtle body, directly from polluted\'a0consciousness, grow into resident diseases in the physical body. An emotional imbalance, therefore an ill subtle body, is\'a0the primary cause of all chronic ailments. The ones originating from the causal body take the longest to heal and often\'a0end up being terminal conditions of the physical body.\
The state of your conditioned soul has a direct impact on your consciousness which in turn affects your physical body.\'a0Those who live a stress free life tend to enjoy a longer life in a healthier body. Functions of the physical body are\'a0affected by the state of the consciousness and soul. For example, a patient administered with general anesthesia cannot\'a0move as his consciousness (subtle body) has been influenced. And someone proclaimed dead, therefore signifying absence of causal body (soul), is unable to ever get back his state of consciousness or body movements.\
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\f4 \cf2 Causes of Depression\
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\f1 \cf2 A pertinent question: what causes depression? Depression is a state of mind. It originates in the causal body. The mind has become a victim of its own latent tendencies. It can happen from curbing your desires or an unfulfilling life, both of which are caused by ignorance of the conditioned mind. A lot of people lead an unfulfilling life; some choose to ignore the voice of the soul while many others drown it in material pursuits. But, one day it catches up.\
There can be no external medication for the sick causal body. Before we can get to the cure for depression, it is important to ascertain the type of depression.\
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\f4 \cf2 Severe Depression\
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\f1 \cf2 If your body is now unwell because of the depression and you have developed hypertension, high blood pressure, loss of appetite or irregular appetite or similar problems, your depression has already traveled to the physical body. Chances are you suffer from constipation as well. To label your depression as severe, in addition to the aforesaid physical symptoms, you must also have all the signs outlaid under \'93Mild Depression\'94 and \'93Illusory Depression\'94. You are at this stage because of a stressful life, emotional turmoil and because your soul went through a long period of starvation somehow managing to survive the spiritual famine. This does not mean that your depression cannot be cured; it merely signals that you will need to work at all three levels. I shall cover this in a bit more detail under the \'93Cure\'94 section.\
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\f4 \cf2 Mild Depression\
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\f1 \cf2 If your body is fit but you simply have lost taste in most things you used to enjoy and you find yourself indecisive as well as indifferent, chances are your depression has risen to the level of the subtle body but has not yet touched your physical body. It is still at the level of the consciousness. It can be cured with discipline and effort.\
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\f4 \cf2 Illusory Depression\
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\f1 \cf2 If your signs of depression are limited to great boredom, sluggishness, stupor, insomnia, phobia, and restlessness, your depression is at the initial level. You are still in the green zone and can get back to your original mental health in a short time frame.\
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\f4 \cf2 Cure for Depression\
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\f1 \cf2 For the cure to work, you must be in agreement with my aforesaid thesis. If after reading the above, you find yourself nodding affirmatively, continue reading.\
Before you get to the actual cure, please be aware that your depression is not the result of some overnight act and therefore cannot be fixed overnight. You must not get depressed about not being able to quickly get rid of your depression. Be patient. You can surely come out of it as easily as you went into such depression at the first place. But be very patient and relaxed about it. Know that it is your mind playing tricks and if you catch it red handed, it will stop.\
Let us get to the cure:\uc0\u8232 If you are not taking anti-depressants currently, half the job is already done. Please do not start taking such pills. They are soporific substances designed to artificially pacify your brain creating the illusion of a calm mind. Gradually, their dosage needs increasing as your brain gets used to it.\
To not only completely get rid of depression but feel fitter than you have ever been, you need to cover all three aspects: body, consciousness, and the soul.\
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\f4 \cf2 Gross body (Physical)\
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\f1 \cf2 Do the following, or some of the following, to regain fitness of your gross body:\
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\ls2\ilvl0\cf2 \kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 1. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Tire your body out a little. Go work out in the gym or play some sport.\
\ls2\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 2. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Eat vegetarian foods that are alkaline in nature. Avoid acidic foods. Increase intake of whole meals. Avoid starchy foods and spices.\
\ls2\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 3. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Eat at strictly the same time every day. Do not keep large gaps between your meals. That prompts the body to use stored energy raising insulin levels.\
\ls2\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 4. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Go to bed at exactly the same time every day. Do not get stressed about not being able to sleep. Just hit the sack as a matter of discipline.\
\ls2\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 5. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Get up at exactly the same time.\
\ls2\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 6. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Avoid watching TV. It really dulls the body and mind.\
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\f4 \cf2 Subtle Body (Consciousness)\
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\f1 \cf2 To purify the subtle body and therefore your emotional health, do the following:\
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\ls3\ilvl0\cf2 \kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 1. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Do some selfless service or engage in an emotionally fulfilling social or spiritual cause.\
\ls3\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 2. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Do what makes you happy. If you like going outdoors, painting, cooking, reading or whatever it may be, do it. Do NOT read up on depression and other people\'92s stories.\
\ls3\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 3. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Do not talk to those who drain you out emotionally. Reduce phone calls and pointless conversations.\
\ls3\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 4. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Do not mention to anyone that you are under depression. Most people will say there is nothing to worry and that you are just stressed, and all the others cannot do a thing about it.\
\ls3\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 5. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Even the physicians, after you pay them a few visits and keep complaining of depression, they will diagnose you with it putting you on some ludicrous prescription plan. I even suggest that depression is probably a trick condition, a highly profitable one, created by the pharmaceutical companies.\
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\cf2 Depression is not a type of fear that you need to face it to decimate it. It is just a state of mind, albeit not the desirable one. Just like you think of ice cream but may not have it, you can choose to let go off depression exactly like that. It is impossible to know or feel that you have depression till you entertain the thought of actually having it.\
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\f4 \cf2 Causal Body (Soul)\
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\f1 \cf2 Give at least thirty minutes of your time every day doing the following and watch depression disappearing miraculously before long:\
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\ls4\ilvl0\cf2 \kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 1. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Meditate for fifteen minutes in the morning and fifteen minutes just before going to bed. Doing for longer duration will be even better. Before you can meditate you need to build concentration. In order to do that, light a candle, keep it at your eye level and at a distance of about two feet from you and watch it unblinking. It will take some effort to not blink but do it for as long as comfortable. It is a deviation from the standard concentration practice of\'a0
\i Trataka
\i0 where eyes are just not blinked.\
\ls4\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 2. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Listen to some devotional songs or pleasant music to take your mind off worldly thoughts.\
\ls4\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 3. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Sleep on your right side whenever possible. This activates the lunar channel\'a0(
\i ida nadi
\i0 ), left breath and brings down body temperature. There is a reason why meditational practices flourish in cold places. Discriminating faculties of the mind calm down significantly when in cold and breathing through the left nostril.\
\ls4\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 4. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
Try to maintain a happy disposition. Know that you are an instrument in the hands of the Divine and that He is looking after you. To the one who seeks His sanctuary (
\i \uc0\u347 ara\u7751 \u257 gati
\i0 ), he basks in His Grace unconditionally. Harbour no doubts on that front.\
\ls4\ilvl0\kerning1\expnd0\expndtw0 {\listtext 5. }\expnd0\expndtw0\kerning0
And smile! Try it. Do not let that smile leave your face.\uc0\u8232 \
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\cf2 The practice of meditation stills the five energies and pierces through the five sheaths.\
Oversimplifying, there is no more to you than the three bodies, five sheaths and five energies. If you work on the three aspects, that is \'97 body, consciousness and soul, you will see tangible results within a period of twenty eight days.\
Doing it continuously for forty days will stabilize the energies. Most yogic practices take six months to show their full effect. So, doing it for the full six months will completely get rid of your depression all the while transforming your state of consciousness and the spin of your chakras. You will be completely healed. Six months. No medication.\
Art is long and time is fleeting as Robert Frost would say. There is much I want to write and share on this. This post has become heinously long already. I hope that you can put in the effort and feel better by following the approach.\
May all sentient beings experience bliss and live a life free of diseases, poverty and hunger.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Life is like a Musical Instrument\
Life is like a musical instrument. It can sound mellifluous or cacophonous depending on the player who is playing it. Some instruments require perfect stillness of the fingers, others, great dexterity. Some you have to beat while many you have to blow. Each one\'92s music is unique with some being outstandingly distinctive. Some are only ever designed for accompaniment. Some are very famous, others popular and many, only too obscure. In the hands of an expert, the instrument seems to come alive; so much so, it becomes hard to know who to appreciate more, the instrument or the player.\
Some instruments are larger than life while many are smaller than a stapler; the same goes for players and their temperaments too. Intrinsically, an instrument is devoid of any essence for, it is always the player who makes it sound either like flowing river or falling rocks. It almost seems that any given instrument gives you very limited choice \'97 one drum with a couple of sticks or seven notes and an octave or two, after all, in how many different ways can you play it. But, we all know, that the \'93player\'92 can just play tunes with each sounding one better than the others. What a miracle!Quite similarly, life is how you play it.\
The player always comes up with more enigmatic, enchanting, unique tunes \'97 tunes that stir your soul, the ones that can make you cry or laugh, tunes that you could have never perceived, but the player continues to surprise the world. What else can explain existence of millions of soundtracks, instrumental or otherwise, across the globe. If you are able to play all the tunes that Mozart or Beethoven ever played, while that is commendable, it is not sufficient for the world to appreciate you or for the history to grant you a place in its ranks. If, however, you played only your own tunes outperforming or even outnumbering, qualitatively or quantitatively, any of the past greats, the world will respect you for your originality. Across all fields, the ones who come up with their own, original viewpoint, philosophy or theory are the ones who help the society move forward.\
Go on play! But be sure to play your tune. Make your own music. Avoid blowing your own trumpet though. Add your own voice. Take training first, if necessary, so you learn better how to play. But never take training on what to play \'97 you be the decision maker on that. Play the most beautiful music present in you adding your inner voice. Once trained, you can produce the most seductive, enchanting, melodious and rapturous music, upon hearing which your inner voice will find sound automatically in the manner most profound and sublime besides being original and unique. Do not play anyone else\'92s tunes. Select your own instrument, play your own tune, why, conduct your own orchestra in manner no less than grand, in style no less than great with unmatched grace. Well, that will certainly require turning inward!\
Please, but for the welfare of others, a public performance \'97 only after you are ready to step outside the bathroom, robed appropriately.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
The silent Agreement of the Faithful\
From day one at the ashram, we have been having regular visitors. There are two locals who visit us absolutely every day. One is fair colored and the other one is dusky. They both have very different temperaments yet they come almost at the same time. The fair one likes to sit close to me whereas the dusky prefers to maintain distance. It appears they do not come for any j
\f2 \uc0\u8134
\f1 ana or to listen to discourses. In fact, they have no questions. They are happy expressing their love. The dusky one has sharp features and she is not as emotional as the fair one. The fair one however has soft eyes and a pleasant countenance. Like the two-legged locals, the fair one seems to have not had a bath since Christmas. She likes to roll on the ground as soon as I approach her. The dusky one simply wags her tail from a distance. So much so for the human-animal bond\'85 I am putting us in the human category, albeit a little doubtfully.\
We cook food twice a day. We make it a point to cook two extra chapattis for our friends. Because of their love, they often end up getting some additional bites from me too. When I am eating, they come and sit next to me unblinking, gazing at me out of their soft eyes while clearly expressing the need for food. Their expression is convincing and their persistence, only too compelling.\
The other day, while their loving gaze was imploring me to feed them out of my share, they suddenly started barking. While I sat thunderstruck from their unexpected loud bark, they moved at lightening pace to the other edge of the ashram. I wondered; I thought perhaps another dog nearby in their territory prompted such reaction as I had witnessed a vicious dog-fight on the very first day. Such is the nature of mind, an outcome of millions of years of evolution: we rely on the knowledge from past to make sense of the present. Transcending this tendency is self-realization. Always living in the present moment and being aware of every single such moment that unfolds before us is the hallmark of a highly vigilant mind.\
Getting back to the present story, there was no sign of another dog, instead, they were barking at some visitors. From the scent of the strangers, the dogs figured they meant no harm. Consequently, they backed out. The strangers were three local women who had come to pay us a visit. The locals come to the ashram as if they are visiting a temple. They have no questions about God or the Divine. Occasionally they have queries around the well being of their cattle and kids, about rain and rainy days; but that is pretty much about it. Please allow me to make some stereotypical statements without prejudice or pun.\
Education somehow takes away the devotion. The educated wants to know before he does. He feels he must base his faith on certain intellectual ground. It must make sense to the educated. Comparatively, the villagers are quite simple. They are just happy to believe. Could that be blind faith? The faith of the educated is blinded by his self-proclaimed scholarship based on his custody of second-hand knowledge. The faith of the villager is based on nothing. It is empty of all cognitive content. In one, the believer is blind and in the other the belief is blind. If one is better than the other that is for you to decide. To the devotee, however, he needs no rationale.\'a0
\f2\i Bhakti
\f1 \'a0
\i0 is designed to cut the chords of perceptions and proclivities. For that, one must rise above intellect. Such transcendental state allows the believer and the belief to become one. The moment you become one, at that very second will manifest the form of your deity. Not just a column of light or some haloed figure of various hues, I am referring to a tangible form you can touch.\
Once again getting back to dogs, I was touched by their loyalty. Because we have been feeding them, they started watching the property. They want to protect us. That is the silent agreement of the faithful. They get food, they start watching. They get love, they give love back. They don\'92t get love, they still give you love. No matter what your mood, they wag. No matter what their mood, they still wag. When you feel playful, they want to play with you. You give them chapatti with ghee, they accept it gleefully. You offer them without ghee, they seem just as happy.\
The only discrimination they do is to differentiate between their provider and the stranger, between the friend and foe of their master. That is the silent agreement of the faithful.\
Their behavior matches, if not surpasses, the one you come to see from a self-realized soul. They are living in the present moment. Is it any wonder that dog is an anagram of god? After all, it is the same God who lives in all. No exceptions. And who lives in God? Are drops fundamental to the sea for the ocean is made up of drops? Or, is it the other way for it is in the ocean the drop finds refuge? Either way, both are complete in their own right. The invocation mantra of the\'a0
\f2\i I\uc0\u347 \u257 v\u257 sya upanishad
\f1\i0 \'a0states the following:\
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\f6 \cf2 \uc0\u2323 \u2365 \u2350 \u2381
\f1
\f6 \uc0\u2346 \u2370 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2350 \u2342 \u2307
\f1
\f6 \uc0\u2346 \u2370 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2350 \u2367 \u2342 \u2306
\f1
\f6 \uc0\u2346 \u2370 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2366 \u2340 \u2381 \u2346 \u2369 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2350 \u2369 \u2342 \u2330 \u2381 \u2351 \u2340 \u2375
\f1 |\uc0\u8232
\f6 \uc0\u2346 \u2370 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2360 \u2381 \u2351
\f1
\f6 \uc0\u2346 \u2370 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2350 \u2366 \u2342 \u2366 \u2351
\f1
\f6 \uc0\u2346 \u2370 \u2352 \u2381 \u2339 \u2350 \u2375 \u2357 \u2366 \u2357 \u2358 \u2367 \u2359 \u2381 \u2351 \u2340 \u2375
\f1 ||\
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\f2\i \cf2 om p\uc0\u363 r\u7751 amada\u7717 p\u363 r\u7751 amida\u7745 p\u363 r\u7751 \u257 tpur\u7751 amudacyate |
\f1\i0 \uc0\u8232
\f2\i p\uc0\u363 r\u7751 asya p\u363 r\u7751 am\u257 d\u257 ya p\u363 r\u7751 amev\u257 va\u347 i\u7779 yate ||
\f1\i0 \
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\b \cf2 Thus:
\b0 \'a0That is Complete. This is complete. From complete has emerged complete. After taking complete away from complete, what remains is also Complete.\
The Nature also operates on a silent agreement. One for another time\'85\
Hare Krishna\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Living in Pjyamas\
You come home tired; knackered and knocked out. You had the usual day. You probably dozed off that five minutes extra in the morning that triggered the start of a frenzied day. Everything had to be done in a hurry; by the time you got to breakfast, the delay was extended to ten minutes. God alone knows who ate the five minutes you did not even snooze.\
Anyway, you either go for a breakfast that is not filling or you skip it altogether. You justify skipping your breaky saying it will help you shed some weight but you do not want to think about the damage it will cause including insulin level in your blood that is now matching economic inflation. You turn on the lousy radio in your car, go through the traffic slower than an old snail. You reach work. Before you take another breath, you log on and fire off an email or two, almost silently declaring your time of arrival.\
Hectic day! Pointless meetings, useless attendees, baseless targets, senseless spending, reckless execution, endless emails, mindless planning and only lesser remuneration; in short, all the elements were present to make your day the usual corporate day. You spend your day exchanging nods in agreement, when in fact, you violently disagree internally. But for the sake of maintaining world peace, you let it go with a nod and a grin. You exchange smiles and\'a0pleasantries with the one you would happily hew the head off and feed on his gore before walking around holding his hacked head by its hair, like a prized possession, in the manner of a wrathful goddess. I dare not think what if the victim happens to be bald.\
It is lunch time. You are hungry but because of the missed breakfast, skim milk coffee, and consequently raised insulin levels, your appetite is deluded like the conditioned mind. You are not sure what to eat, just like you are unsure why you are even working the way you are. A full meal is a bit too much and just the sandwich is a little too less. Oh! these choices. You are asked to join for lunch by your co-workers. You promptly agree and you all go in a group like a flock of sheep. You land in a noisy restaurant, as if the inner turmoil is not enough. Everybody is talking, no one is listening and barely anything can be heard. A natural start, that. You finish that lunch, pay your share of the bill and get back to work. It feels boringly quiet. You finish the rest of your day.\
You start commuting back to home. You are too tired to think. Maybe, you take a couple of personal phone calls. You turn on some music and not the radio channel hoping it may relax or excite you. But in between traffic and changing lanes, before you know it, you are home. Maybe you are someone who jumps\'a0straight\'a0into the shower or perhaps you eat a light meal, brush your teeth and take that shower that makes you feel fresh and light. Either way, after the bath, the most important moment of the day arrives: Lo and behold, it is emerging on the horizon \'97 you slip into your pajamas.\
It feels as if the stressful day did not happen. You feel free as the flying bird and quiet as mouse. Let us not think about your spouse\'92s decision to flick through each channel on the satellite TV a minimum of forty seven times. Getting back to you, slipping on the pajamas has done something to you. You feel yourself. You are now laughing, talking, eating and behaving differently. The fourteen dollar walmart-retailed-made-in-china pajamas have done what the four-hundred-dollar Versace trousers could not. You just feel very comfortable. You may have the compulsive disorder of ironing your night suit but that does not deter you for you are being yourself now. What\'a0miraculous pair of pajamas!\
I hope you know what is happening behind the scenes. You are feeling free and light because you are being yourself. You do not have to pretend to be someone else. \'a0Mostly that someone else is not a person but a role. It may be the role of a competent worker, a kind boss, a friendly peer, a team player at work, a disciplined driver on the road, or a good listener on the phone, a caring mother, a loving partner, a compassionate fellow, a fine daughter and so forth. You are not given the chance to be in your pajamas. You always have to wear the garb of the role. The guise you put on also, as if automatically, brings about some changes, however subtle, prominent or temporary, in your personality. Because now you are \'93playing\'94 a certain role, you have the invisible burden of getting and doing it right.\
The act of turning inward is like putting on the comfy, wrinkle-free, and soft pajamas. Once you are in your pajamas and you learn to be comfortable seeing clad in one, you not only perform every role far more effectively but also with much greater ease, almost effortlessly.\
Living in your pajamas means being yourself. No make up, no matching shoes or accessories, or carrying yourself a certain manner, no crap \'97 just you being who you are. You no longer have to laugh softly with great finesse, you can roar like the thunder, peal upon peal, if you so wished. Why bother having or wanting anything from those who will only give you that if you were a certain way! Accept others as they are and do not waste your time being someone else if they cannot accept you for who you are. Once you turn the tables on your mind, everything will become clear. You will love everybody in their pajamas and they will only have love and respect for you. All other emotions are now in the dirty laundry with your other garbs.\
Go on now! Find yourself that pair and learn to live in it. You need to discover yourself before you can be yourself. After all, even in pajamas, an XXL will not give you comfort and warmth if you are designed for an XS.\
Discover your own truth. Wear your own pajamas \'97 preferably made from natural material like cotton, for the last thing you want is to have that pair made from artificial fabric. Clearly, you are not getting ready for a fancy dress competition. In your pajamas, you may resemble the mighty pooh or the miniature teletubby, but whoever you may look like, you will entertain yourself heartily; know that much for a fact.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
Life is like a Trip to the SuperMarket\
Life is like a trip to the supermarket. You go grocery shopping mainly as a matter of necessity. You may be someone who either makes a mental note of what all you are going to buy or someone who is in possession of a well documented list before you enter the supermarket. In any case, once in, you invariably recall some additional items. You are not too keen to make the trip but it seems you have no choice. You park your car away from the unfettered shopping carts that are ranging the parking lot with no sense of direction and with complete disregard for basic traffic etiquette.\
You walk towards the supermarket; just before you enter, you pull out a shopping trolley with a jerk. Your freedom is now limited to the movement of the cart. You are greeted by a colorful view of fresh produce and big flashing cards depicting price. An overwhelming feeling takes you over; a few moments later, you are lost. You are now walking past various aisles like the mouse trying to navigate its way through a maze. There is stuff everywhere. It does not matter which way you dart your glances or still your gaze, there is more stuff. And many choices for every item, at that. Did it really have to be that complicated!\
Your shopping cart that is now full of items is behaving more like a pram with a handful three year old in it. You have to put in the extra effort to make it move with precision. Exactly like a child\'92s pram, you do not feel comfortable leaving it unattended. You do part with it to quickly grab that item, you keep a watch on it \'97 as if, a group of cart thieves are waiting for the right opportunity or there is a cart ranger who will book you for parking in the wrong zone. Anyway, feeling drained and thirsty, you get in the check out lane. You are greeted with the customary smile by the check out operator.\
They ask you if you are doing well. But they are not really interested in knowing that, for, they start scanning before you can answer. At least, they are not judging you from your purchases; the fact is they could not be bothered. In other words, they are as interested in knowing about you as you about them. The total turns out to be more than expected. You bite the bullet paying it. You also make a soon-to-be-forgotten mental note on\'a0being careful about your purchasing next time. You walk up to your car, unload everything from the trolley and load your car only to unload again when you get home just a few minutes later.\
So strikingly similar to life, your supermarket experience. Your life may be easy if you know exactly what you want, but this world can be an overwhelming place. The work of making choices does not cease till your last breath. Like grocery shopping, the choices you make determine the financial and material outcome at the check out time. The more you choose to load in your cart, the more tied you are to it. Like the supermarket purchases, some things you buy impulsively, others, thoughtfully and yet there are many you pick based on looks while there are some you thoroughly scan and compare before buying.\
The way you act in life can be ascertained from your way of grocery shopping. If you are looking for a responsible partner, carefully observe other shoppers and pick one from those who are buying off a list prominently held in their hands. If however, you are looking for the adventurous type, look for the most stacked cart with the owner who is on the phone and who also buys the chewing gums and magazines while waiting at the checkout counter. That is that for the partner tip; after all, you may as well pick the one you will share your meals with from the place you buy the ingredients from.\
Anyway, getting back to the choices, you feel walking through the various stages of life is an automatic act \'97 almost like moving through the aisles of the supermarket. You feel that way because of your conditioning. Only if you choose to stop, think and reflect on your life, your choice maybe wholesomely different to the current ones.\'a0Just like the checkout operator, the worldly conventions are only customary.\
The world is not really interested in what you mean; just so long you buy the stuff and pay your bill, you are labeled worthy. But regardless of how much you buy, or if anything at all, you still have to exit and get home. You may love or hate the supermarkets, they are only transient; you must leave eventually. There are no chairs there for you to sit and wait, no place to hide either. Such is the reality of this world too. It is transient, a temporary place and a permanent illusion. This is not your permanent home, certainly not that of your soul. You will only feel peaceful when home. Irrespective of the size and state of your home, you do not feel lost in your own home.\
The world inside is your home. It is complete; eternally stocked with all the provisions, it is plush and full of infinite luxury. No stress, no loading-unloading, no bill payments, no making choices all the time. Whatever you want, and, can ever want, is available in plenty. Go home! Be at home!\
Next in the line, please\'85\
Hare Krishna\uc0\u8232 Swami\
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Living with Love\
If I were to pick the most important word from the dictionary, without a moment\'92s hesitation, I would pick Love. The greatest and most sublime of all emotions is love. Its\'a0profundity renders it unjust for love to be merely classified as an emotion, it is a state of being, a transcendental state at that. The more firmly you are situated in love, the greater the bliss; such bliss that is immanent in you will start emanating from you. If it were to come down to just one difference\'a0\'a0between being divine and being human, it would be former\'92s ability to always only give out love compared to the latter who, sometimes, falters.\
This genuine word most pure, in this artificial world mostly impure, however, has been overused and abused so often that it has become a blanket term for many things it is not. A lot of people love someone or some philosophy or a cult or sect or their possessions and devote their entire life, saving for and protecting them. People also refer to growing in and out of love and consequently relationships. Some pledge their life and \'93love\'94 to each other only to separate later on. There are many who find their love fade away with\'a0time\'a0like the most glittering colors do under the sun. But if it was true\'a0love, how could it fizzle away? Truth, while it may be not be absolute, is not dependent either. Similarly, true love is not conditional, for what is based on certain criteria is more an agreement.\
Many a few are able to love God truly. God does not talk to them or directly answer their questions. He does not partake of their offerings nor does he ever show His form to them. They still continue to love God and cry for Him however. If they are not doing such worship out of any fear or with a view to attain some objective, they are close to true love. Whether they are completely established in love can only be ascertained when they hold a communion with the God in a human being. If they are still able to love everyone with the same emotion, they have become an embodiment of love. When, the only emotion they reciprocate with is love, they are no less than love incarnate. Know that in the presence of such person your own being undergoes a silent transformation.\
Loving God is easy for He neither criticizes nor complements; He does not hug you nor stave you off. You have accepted Him the way He is. He is a product of your belief; unfortunately, often not your own belief but the one passed onto you. Loving God is still a divine act for a human being; loving all is a godly act of a divine being. If you do not have any realization of your own, and you do not have any knowledge about anything but if you choose to only return all emotions with love, people will offer you the highest place on the altar of their hearts and will worship you more than they ever worshiped God. When stroked by\'a0trouble you will be in their thoughts before God and when struck by joy they will attempt to contact you before visiting the shrine.\
So, how can you ascend to the level of a divine being! Actually, it is easier than you think; the practice may be harder than mere comprehension of the underlying philosophy. You must be comfortable with yourself and be contented with what you have in order to cultivate the emotion of love. You must also learn to stay inwards so you may not only maintain your blissful state but be\'a0imperturbed\'a0by the emotional, intellectual, and material offerings of the world. That will allow you to always only give out love \'97 pure, unalloyed and pristine.\
Love is innate in everyone. It is the cause of your existence and the basis of your being. It is often misplaced at the same time in most people. Love when misdirected takes the form of an attachment and when mispositioned, it promptly becomes an obsession. Till such time that you turn inward completely, you can make an effort to discover your present state of love. The following section will help you do that. Once done, you can repair it if damaged, rejuvenate if worn out, renew it if expired, and strengthen if weak. It is going to take some work but the rewards are infinitely priceless. Regarding the present placement of love in you, reflect on the following:\
People love different things and they do so differently. Often attachment, infatuation, attraction or certain desires ranging from lust to liking, from pity to passion are mistaken for love. Love may well be the basis of such emotions as well as the trigger but it is when love is polluted and no longer pristine, it permanently assumes one of the aforesaid forms. Love is very fluid, and, an apt shapeshifter. Of those who love, their love is generally divided among the following three in no fixed ratio; sometimes they only love one of the three, other times, only two. Your goal is to channelize all your love from other categories into the single most important one. Onto the categories:\
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\f4 \cf9 Those who love things\
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\f1 \cf2 There is no dearth of people who fall in this category. They love things and they are totally, head over heels, in love with their possessions. Personally, I am always amused when people are in love with non-living things. These ones are deeply attached to their cars, gadgets, accessories and so forth. Basically, for everything they own and has a price in the market, they are in love with that. If this person\'92s wife has a car accident, he is more worried about the car and insurance than his own wife. He may, only just, cleverly hide his emotions and customarily enquire about wife\'92s well being immediately followed by a series of questions regarding the car, damage and the like. A significant portion of their time is spent caring for their soulless possessions, the rest on talking about them and any remaining, worrying about them.\
Love is a peculiar emotion. It transforms\'a0you into the one you offer it to. You start loving a criminal, you will find yourself accepting his immoral ways becoming one yourself with your acceptance. You love a saint, you will turn into one too. Similarly, when you start to love things, you become a lifeless thing yourself. The only difference \'97 you have consciousness and things do not. When in love with things, you will not be able to love people; certainly not so freely or expressively. I hope you know that your car, house or golf clubs do not love you at all. They are just as ready and able in anyone else\'92s hands as in yours. If you continue to be a thing by loving things, you will soon be a thing forgotten as well. Because you are a thing now, you will either be outdated, obsolete or\'a0old-fashioned\'a0one day in the future, for, that is the fate of all \'93things\'94 eventually.\
If, sadly enough, you are one of these people, you need to do some serious thinking. Let go off your attachment with things. Direct all your love to the other category. Love only grows when distributed among living beings, for it is only in another living being that it lives, otherwise it dies. Loving things will drain you out of love leaving you hanging high and dry; too high for anyone to hear you and too dry to retain any fragrance or taste. If you do not start loving people infinitely more than you love your things, you will waste your beautiful life on lifeless things before the life in you flees away too leaving all, absolutely all such things, behind you for others to use and abuse at their will and leisure. Your dead photo hung incongruously, in a manner no less unceremonious, on a listless wall will be the only reminder that you ever existed.\
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\f4 \cf9 Those who love philosophy\
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\f1 \cf2 Some people are in love with a philosophy, a religion, a cult, a sect, a cause or a certain belief system. Of the above, a cause if dedicated to the welfare of others may be worth loving. The rest may deserve your attention, opinion or even sympathy but not your love. Remember, you are what you think but you become what you love. These people, the ones who love not things but a certain intellectual proposition, are still better than the first ones. At least, they develop their intellect or live their life in accordance with the religion or cult. All religions, I believe, have something wonderful to offer.\
There is a caveat though. An ongoing affair with a philosophy, can turn one into a fanatic and sometimes, an extremist. Once down that route, it is very hard to change. Since you adopted a doctrine, not based on your own discovery, but either at the whim of your mind or a superficial intellectual grasp, giving it your love will turn you into a superficial and dry person. Love perishes in dryness.\
Those who are in love with a philosophy or the like have bought into someone else\'92s opinion; consequently, their love, its concept, and its expression reduces to an artificial manufacture and opinionated theory. Most religious professions, paid or voluntary, social or commercial, fall under this category. Such practitioners consider the cause or doctrine above other human beings. Some will even give or take life for such cause.\
If, by any remote chance, you happen to be in this category which you may be justifying by branding your obsession as your passion, please, I implore you, take a good look and try to see\'a0trees\'a0from woods. If must you dedicate your life to a philosophy or a set of\'a0dogmas, at least, create your own.\
A borrowed one will only fetter you robbing you of your freedom. The\'a0ultimate\'a0attainment is to shift your focus of\'a0love\'a0from this one to the next category; as follows:\
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\f4 \cf9 Those who love other living beings\
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\f1 \cf2 You are the one who has learnt that fellow human beings, regardless of the virtual differences of race, creed, pigmentation, are just about as human as you and as divine as the One you worship. I thank you for gracing the planet earth. You make this world a beautiful place. You may practice whatever religion, you have discovered and understood the essence of spirituality. When you treat everyone like you treat yourself and see everyone as you see your God and when everyone only gets back love from you, you are a sage. True love is unconditional. It is not governed by the action-reaction laws of motion just as it is not a theory of physics.\
When you throw a stone or a flower in a lake, the lake accepts both with equal indifference. The stone drowns immediately; the lake accepts it and does not complain. But the lake thanks you by keeping the flower afloat. When you either expect or want anything in return for your \'93love\'94, be sure what you have is not love. When you give love conditional upon having something first \'97 be it mannerisms, love, respect, anything at all \'97 that is not love either. But, when the only thing you have to offer is love, that undoubtedly is love.\
Whenever you buy anything from the market, you always pay the price with money. Money is the only thing you offer to buy the intended item. The more you have the more you can buy. Equivalently, love is just about the only currency for all that is priceless. The more you have it, the greater your choice. The more you can give, the more you can buy. Just like you may have a million dollars, if you are not prepared to part with a dime, you cannot buy anything. You may be a great saint or a heinous sinner, if you are not willing to give love you cannot have any in return. When you give out every ounce of love you have in you, you will be rewarded with an infinite supply of bliss and love.\
Love is part of your very existence. If you want to experience bliss without treading an arduous path of tedious practices, just start giving out love. For every emotion you are offered, return it with love; for each gesture you are shown, gesticulate back yours of love, for every word uttered to you, articulate yours with love. Try this unfailingly for a few months and see the difference for yourself.\
Give your love to people, living beings, before you offer it to a religion or a thing. And things remain just that \'97 lifeless, soulless things. Tell your car that you are very sad today and see if responds with the care you always showed it. Talk to your God, your religion, telling them you are feeling low, and see if he comes out of the book, picture or idol. Try the same with a human being, you will at least get a response. Before you go tell another person of your woes, listen to someone with his and help him feel better. When done to a few people a few times, you will always have a listener, a carer, someone who wants you to be happy.\
I hope you know that your love is worth lot more than wasting on things.\
Go on! learn to love so you can learn to live! Express your love. Make someone feel special. Make others feel important. Make all feel human. Make everyone a recipient of your\'a0love. Make each one yours. If you are tired of being human, become god instead. Be divine. All of the above is only possible when you can live a life free of expectations. And that, in turn, is possible only after you have turned inward. Turning inward will open the flood gates of\'a0love\'a0and bliss. It is only natural then you will give out what you have in you. Imagine being infinitely loving and blissful and eternally so at that.\
Love.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
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Life is Like The Sky\
Life is like the sky, sometimes cloudy, other times, very clouded. The same sky offers a completely different view depending on the time of the day. At night it is full of stars and the waning or the waxing moon. During the day, it is full of light. Artificial lighting of cities make the beautiful star-studded sky hazy. The same sky when covered with clouds hides both the very bright sun or the soft moon. Clouds seem to come from nowhere followed by rain. Sometimes the same cloudy sky dislodges a hail storm, other times, the very quiet but cold snow.\
If you look up, you are looking at the infinite sky. If you look straight you may be greeted by the horizon creating the illusion of sky meeting earth. Rain, thunder, showers, snowfall, even day or the night are merely transient phases in the sky. The sky does not get affected by it. It remains infinite and blue. Moods of various seasons are allowed, if not accepted, by the sky in an unassuming and unattached fashion. It does not lose its unsullied nature. You can move to any part of the world, the sky stays the same. Whether it is the noisy jet that is flying or the quiet trackless bird, the sky does not discriminate. The clouds may be in the sky but the sky is not in the clouds. How ideal!\
Similarly, a life of purity will always be like the blue sky. If you are always aiming for something higher, a terminal point may never come just like if you are running towards the horizon, there is never a finish line. A rainbow always emerges in the clean sky. And sky is often clear and clean soon after the downpour. When you are experiencing rainy days, take an umbrella or sit tight, be patient, clear days are just round the corner. If you always want a clear sky, you may have to live in the normally inhabitable deserts. When life appears dark like the sky on the night of new moon, you can settle your gaze at the glimmering stars. When sun is spewing fire, do not stare at it. Let it be certain in your mind that all the colors of sky are only the most temporary phases.\
Your true nature like the blue sky is unaffected by all internal and external phenomena. If you always find it cloudy and muggy, you are merely looking at a photograph depicting that weather. Removal of that picture (read thought) from your sight will unveil a new one. It is merely your conditioned self that you do not experience the pleasant tropical weather all the time. When you turn inward, the sky is beautifully blue with pleasant temperature. You can be by the seaside or the Himalayas anytime you wish, absolutely at will. There is a microcosm in you. When you know who you really are, the clouds of ignorance and all negative emotions dissipate promptly. Only the warmth of love, the radiance of peace, the shower of grace, the clouds of compassion, the soft moon of kindness, and forbearance\'a0of the sky remains. You remain pure, unblemished, for that is how you really are.\
The dawn always follow the dusk, summers are greeted by the winters, days follow nights, but, these all are ephemeral expressions of duality; expressions of the conditioned mind and an interdependent phenomena. Is light absence of darkness, or, is darkness absence of light? Is joy lack of sorrow, or, is sorrow lack of joy? Is heat absence of cold, or, is cold absence of heat? In essence, these are subjective characterizations and dependent on the conditioning of an individual. A farmer in Australia may feel pleasant at thirty five degrees Celsius whereas an immigrant from Alaska may sweat at twenty five.\
While experiences of the body can not just be ignored, all things experienced by the mind can be turned into a sublime and uniform experience, a divine one. It is not that the self-realized will not feel heat or cold, he will bear both with grace. That is only for the external phenomena; for all emotions, desires and the like, the self-realized remains unaffected, unperturbed and alike \'97 just like the sky.\
Free yourself. Know yourself. Be yourself. Realize your Self.\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
\
The chosen Path\
When there is any confusion, it is not real calling.\
What is the difference between real thirst and illusory thirst? Real thirst can only be curbed for a short period whereas the illusory one disappears as soon as you are able to take your mind off it. When the calling is real, the decision is barely and rarely in the hands of the one ordained. Nature will automatically drag that person in his natural play field. Real calling is never a product of the mind, desired way of living is the result of cogitation and deliberation. In latter, one analyses a series of options available and chooses the best one. Real calling connects at a deeper level. It cedes all cogitation.\
If you choose your \'93desired path\'94 and feel it is not for you after you have started walking it, leave your desired path. Simple! Who says that one has to stick to something for one\'92s whole life? A good way to test is to start living it quietly. Live the desired way unannounced and see if this is what you want. Take time off and live it completely for a short period first. Once you feel that this is exactly what you want, you can make your decision public. Years ago, I stumbled upon a funny yet sublime quote: \'93If at first you do not succeed, don\'92t tell anyone.\'94\
Treading any new path requires that one gives up the old one. Imagine climbing a staircase. At some point in time, you must completely abandon the present rung of the ladder to get to the next one. With one foot on the preceding rung and other on the next one, it is impossible to advance. Often non-fulfillment comes when the seeker wants the best from his past with his present (read chosen) lifestyle. It does not work that way. A new lifestyle is a new lifestyle. It may not have any elements of the past. A tamed mind finds it easy to adjust and love it whereas an outwardly focused one wants the best of the both worlds. In fact, it holds true for all aspects of material life too. Mind is always making you compare your past with present to create a picture of the future, immediate or distant.\
If you are willing to relinquish \'97 not the world but your world of desires \'97 treading any path becomes easy. Without\'a0
\f2\i vair\uc0\u257 gya
\f1\i0 (indifference and dispassion towards the material comforts) it is not possible to tread any spiritual path and without\'a0
\f2\i abhy\uc0\u257 sa
\f1\i0 \'a0(spiritual discipline), it is impossible to get results. \'a0The path is arduous but peerless work meets priceless rewards!\
Peace.\uc0\u8232 Swami\
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The Successful or Successfool\
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