sahiti

Lot of people (including yours truly) are struck with a profession which is not their passion. It is not what they love to do. They still do it because it gives “job security” or “good pay” or both.

I love kids and i enjoy teaching. Teaching kids would have been my ideal profession or starting a school my dream.

What prevents me from going after my dream? The same, “insecurity about future”. The thought “What if suddenly i become unwell or there is an emergency and i dont have money?”

So let me earn and save while i can. Dreams can wait!!!

Really???

When one knows that he has got only limited time to live, one does what he loves the most without a second thought. There is no reason for any compromise. “the time is running out. Do it NOW. else you never know” will be playing in the back of your head. You do not postpone doing what u love to do. You live life the way it should be, NOW, in the present! (This reminds me of Sarath chandra’s blog “Me? I was finel” )

Is it only people with terminal illness that have got limited time?

No!

It holds good for everyone. All of us have got only limited time! A terminally ill patient atleast has a notice period. Others dont even have that! The unexpected visitor, Mr Death, can come knocking any moment! So, isnt that a stronger and more urgent reason to live the present moment to the fullest?

What prevents man from living in the present and reaching for his dreams? Why does he compromise?

what is man really afraid of?

Of death?

Or of Outliving his resources?? (and hence long life?)

As i have discussed in one of my previous blogs, I agree with the view that each religion/concept/Guru is a door through which the vast open grounds of “the Absolute truth” can be entered.

As the door is just imaginary one to the vast open ground, there can be infinite doors. As we know there are many Gurus, spiritual leaders (self-proclaimed and otherwise), the enlightened people! The mistake that the common man (blame his manipulative mind!) does is, pulling the Guru down to his level, instead of he attempting to rise to the level of the master!

I am amused with the type of questions that people go to the masters/Gurus with! About the college seat of his son, about a job, then about a high paying job, about when they will marry…so on and so forth..! When you find your Guru, you have the infinite offered to you on a platter and what do you take?! Understandably when one goes to the perennial, holy Ganges, he can get back only as much water as the container he carries can hold! One goes with a spoon gets a spoon of water, one who goes with a glass gets only a glass and one who goes with a tanker gets just as much!  It is the same when you go to a master! You get only as much as ur brain is capable of conjuring and asking…pea brains get just that…peas!!!

How pained the enlightened souls must be when they see us use them as one more reason to bicker amongst ourselves and even zealously kill each other in their name! (It is in this context that I see FGs(http://backfoot.rediffiland.com/iland/backfoot.html) post "To My Personal Christ" Don't know whether that was what he intended or not)

How much have we understood their purpose? How much have we understood their teachings? Don't you think they would be happier if they see people understand their true teachings, remember and practice them, than when people become self-appointed protectors of the honor of the enlightened master! How ridiculous is it to think that one can protect the "honor" of an "enlightened" soul for, does an enlightened soul dwell in the murky waters of the dualities of honor and dishonor?

Don't you think the ultimate offer that one can give to a Guru is to practice his message and "become" his message instead of merely chanting his name? It is in this context that I say, "Forget the Guru, and remember his message", for they both are the same! Or better still, the message is the actual/real guru, not the physical body or its name! A Guru would be more happy to see someone imbibe his message without knowing even his name, than see someone chant his name without knowing his message!

Have u ever tried reading zen tarots? I visit the zen tarots section of osho website and read sometimes. I do not interpret them, i just read! ALL of them are pearls of wisdom and so simple that i keep reading 20-25 cards continously sometimes. Here I share two of the cards that I liked the most. (Believe me, it was very difficult to choose!)

First card: Letting Go

When all the trees have been cut down, When all the animals have been hunted,When all the waters are polluted, When all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money. - Cree Prophecy


One of My all time favourites
Artist: Bob Dylan
Album: Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits
Title: Blowin’ In The Wind

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, ‘n’ how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they’re forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, ‘n’ how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, ‘n’ how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

Post triggered by
http://justsuni.rediffiland.com/scripts/xanadu_diary_view.php

The felling of huuuge trees to make roads in the Garden city of Banglore is very sad(for the want of better word!)! Lot of people raise a hue and cry about the environmental disaster. The irony is that it is the same ppl who complain about the narrow roads and traffic jams who complain about the felling of trees. What we have got to realize is that, you cant both have the cake and eat it tooo..! There can be a middle way, a way to ensure that the traffic is under check and the trees retain their “birth right” atleast to live! It is using the personal 4 wheelers ONLY when necessary! Honestly how many of you commute to office alone in car, daily?!?! One person per car…! what a gross wastage of natural resourses, pollution and traffic jams !!!! One need drive it to office daily just bcos we have them!!! I have a friend of mine who says he uses his car instead of bike to avoid pollution! What he doesnt realize is that it is ppl like him who are adding to it in the first place. My prescription would be…

If ur office is less than 5kms use cycle.

5-15kms use 2 wheeler,

15+ AND no commutation provided by office..only then use car !!!

Imagine how much better and less congested the roads would be without felling trees!!!

Common guys, a little dust is not gonna do THAT MUCH harm to you when compared to felling trees/environmental pollution/global warming..etc :-))))



PS: Felling trees, killing dogs…etc. I always wonder what makes man think that he ALONE has the right to live and everything else in nature is there to serve him and should make way as and when he wants, even at the cost of his own life/health in the end! What a vanity!

This is one question that i have been contemplating on. The Indian scriptures say, a Guru is a must for the seeker of truth as the path is ardous and fraught with pit falls and mirages. Taking one who knows the path as guide will hasten the journey and make it more endurable. This makes “Guru” preferable, but not mandatory.

There is yet another argument that only a lighted candle can light another one, so a Guru is MUST for seeker of truth.
But somehow, I am totally at a loss. Some may say, Am not yet worthy, so confused. The day i prove my worthiness, my Guru will “appear”.

I did meet some of the God-men. What they teach is logical and acceptable most of the times, but it is the subservient “follower”s around them that scare me and drive me off! (The “Jai Gurudev” tribe, as i call it!)

I keep wondering how someone (the followers) can carry out unquestioningly all that is said by the Guru. The amount of time and the effort that the followers are ready to donate for a seemingly mundane activity at any given point of time fills me with awe ! I feel out of place amongst them!

Can I ever be so subservient? (Firstly, Is that needed? A mandatory quality?) Is that my ego that comes in between me and my Guru? Is it possible to approach a Guru with intellectual bent of mind and not absolute devotion ? (As Adi shankara says, that intellect may mature into devotion when complete! But Absolute devotion to start with doesnt seem to be my cup of tea!)

Something that one of my friends said got me thinking “If enlightenment is an open ground to which each Guru is a door or path, why do ppl sit at the door and spend time decorating the door and singing praises of the door than entering the ground!?”

Sometimes I wonder whether it is possible to find a guru who would not demand total, unquestioning compliance to whatever he/she says.

A Guru with more compassion towards beings like me entangled in the web of logic and reason.
A Guru who would make me worthy instead of testing my worthiness.
A Guru who would evoke compliance/acceptance than demanding it..

The wait continues….

PS: In short, may be the egoistic me is waiting for my Guru to find me instead of the other way around

Who ever told you that the bamboo is more beautiful than the oak, or the oak more valuable than the bamboo? Do you think the oak wishes it had a hollow trunk like this bamboo? Does the bamboo feel jealous of the oak because it is bigger and its leaves change color in the fall? The very idea of the two trees comparing themselves to each other seems ridiculous, but we humans seem to find this habit very hard to break. Let’s face it, there is always going to be somebody who is more beautiful, more talented, stronger, more intelligent, or apparently happier than you are. And conversely, there will always be those who are less than you in all these ways.

Comparison brings inferiority, superiority. When you don’t compare, all inferiority, all superiority, disappears. Then you are, you are simply there: nobody is higher and nobody is lower, nobody superior, nobody inferior. Everybody is incomparably unique.

The way to find out who you are is not by comparing yourself with others, but by looking to see whether you are fulfilling your own potential in the best way you know how.

Let me confess, I am no good at penning down my thoughts and the few posts that u find here are my only literary “achievements” to date…;-)
I always get digressed and in the end, one objective glance at the output makes me think “Oh!man! what was i trying to say” and i chuck out the whole attempt in dispair..
dont believe me? Well..I have a proof Read on..this is the output and hence the title :-p

It is amazing to see how most of our responses are programmed since our birth by parents, society and later on by ourselves.

What is more surprising is that we dont even realize that!

The basic human instinct for acceptance and attention is exploited to the fullest. A child is told “Be a good boy!”.. his fiery spirit is tamed and the programming begins. “Good boys listen to what papa says” “Good boys dont answer back to elders” “Good boys never get into fistcuffs” (irrespective of who started it first?!?)

This age old list of “Good” things seems to be inexhaustible..anything and everything is added to the list spontanously by any elder.

(I remember the ragging time during which the junior is supposed to repeat 3 golden rules 1) The senior is always right 2) The junior is always wrong 3) Incase of any discrepency refer to rule no. 1) !!! :)))

Right from “You get less marks, you should be ashamed!” to “you have more xpensive car/posh(er) bunglow than your collegues, you are more successful”

For me life looks not like a matrix, but just a plain switch case or if else

if(more hike)
be happy;

if(promotion)
happy;

And we keep adding more and more such switch cases with each passing day ..which we call “experience”

Ever wondered, why only success(whatever be the definition!) brings happiness.. cant we make it a just

while(1)
be happy;

Bcos, end of the day it is happiness we want..not good marks, high pay check, big car….

It is very difficult to do that…almost impossible, bcos to do that we need to unlearn…
(yeah,the word “unlearn” fills me with awe!!)

Learning is ok..but unlearning…?!??! whatz that ??!?

It means doing away with automated responses and living with more awareness. Taking control of the situation, instead of merely being a puppet controlled by external paramters and doling out the programmed responses…and asking..”how can i not get upset, how can i not be sad!” helplessly

Now, instead of ” if someone pleases me i am pleased, and if someone irks me i am irked ” How about…if someone irks me i am pleased?

How you feel is controlled by others…ever realized that?

A co-driver who overtakes you from left and almost hits you on your way to office is enough to spoil your day for you?!?!? Or a shout/snap from ur loved one will do that… How sad..


I have been trying that(if someone irks me i am pleased) for quite sometime…but consistantly failed..
I give out the programmed, irrirated response and later realize that …
I am trying to realize before i respond

In any case it is fun…Try it and let me know…how you fared


PS: There is a story of how wild elephants are tamed. A baby elephant is brought and chained with strong big chains. It pulls hard untill it bleeds and can no longer wrestle and then gives up. May be it tries for some days…care it taken that it doesnt succeed during that period. The elephant then understands that it is impossible to break the chains and gives up once for all. It learnt “It is not possible to escape. The chains are very strong” After it grows and bcoms a full sized elephant it could have easily broken the chains had it tried …but the elephant cannot “unlearn” what it learnt the hard way…(It may even be giving paternal advice to other elephants to give up if they tried..narrating how hard it tried and failed….”wisdom” from personal experience …you see! I like this example that underlines the importance of unlearning aalot …