Sunday, August 17, 2008

STRANDS

Some random observations:

  • When we wake up early, those few seconds of effort seem torturous, but the whole day is blissful after that. But if we yield to temptation in those few seconds, it costs a whole day or more of inconvenience and guilt....So those few seconds are the most crucial and that's how life is, the most important decisions are taken in a span of few seconds and if we listen to our conscience and fight the temptations of our mind, life becomes much easier...And it is so easy to miss that soundless voice....we ve got to REALLY listen to ourselves
  • Our mind is like an unmagnetized piece of iron, with thoughts like the iron molecules scattered everywhere and once it is magnetized, the molecules are aligned in one direction or the mind is perfectly focussed, that s when we live life...But the process of magnetization is the step-hard or easy through whatever path we choose to take, those few seconds of non-yielding to temptation may make all the difference

And none of this can matter at all...Who really knows?Only the desire to change it can tell...Nothing else...

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

JUDGEMENT!!

The other day, I was watching Guruji's commentary on the Narada Bhakti Sutras and something which he said really struck me:
(Not in his words- but the essence of it)
Maya means that which is measurable and all the things in this world are measurable...But that is not real..because, measurement is relative- what weighs 40kgs here, will weigh only around 20 kgs (forgive my calculations here, I have forgotten my Physics after leaving school) on the moon and it will be weightless in space..SO our measurements are not real...

Then, when we judge people, we are only measuring them, then HOW can they be real? What you judge of a person, is not a person.. They are not their qualities, they just are ( I leave it blank, Guruji knows, all of us who know Guruji, have learnt it from him, but do not KNOW it yet, as we are yet to experience it at its fullest...which we will and those who do not, just do the course mail in to ask how :) cause I presume you want to know who your own selves are ...

So watch your mind, it is quite an interesting thing to do, capable of engaging you for a long time and with interesting results too as I have experienced :) might explain my periods of silence ..one emerges a new person when one does that..and when you find yourself judging, know that none of it is real.. one does not even know oneself, how can one know others??

An account of Ashtavakra

This is a story, rather historical account of an enlightened soul...It is one of the most beautiful accounts of something that has been spoken about..And this can change our lives, if only we ponder over and be aware of the depths of it.

Ashtavakra

There have been cases on record: one very great mystic of India – I have spoken on him for almost half a year continuously. His name was Ashtavakra. And what he has written is tremendously important; each sentence has so many dimensions to be explored, but the man himself was in a very difficult situation.

Ashtavakra – the name was given to him, because he was almost like a camel. In eight places he was distorted in the body – one leg was longer, one arm was shorter, his back was bent – in eight places he was distorted. That’s how he was born, with a crippled, distorted body. But even in a crippled and distorted body the soul is as beautiful as in the most beautiful body.

He became enlightened, but his body was too rigid to change with his inner change. His eyes started showing something of the beauty, but the whole body was in such a mess.The story is that the emperor of India in those days was Janak and he was very much interestedin philosophical discussions. Each year he used to call a big conference of all the scholars,philosophers, theologians or whoever wanted to participate. It was a championship competition.

One very famous philosopher, Yagnavalkya came a little late. The conference had started and he saw standing outside one thousand beautiful cows. Their horns were covered with gold anddiamonds. This was going to be the prize for the champion. It was a hot day and the cows were perspiring.

He told his disciples, ”You take these cows. As far as winning the competition is concerned, I am certain. Why should the cows suffer here? You take them to our place.” They had their own place in the forest.

Even Janak could not prevent him, because he knew that he had been the champion continuously for five years, and he would be the champion this time, because there was nobody else who could defeat him. It is not right to take the reward before you have won, but his victory was so certain to everybody that nobody objected. And his disciples took away all the cows.

While Yagnavalkya was discussing, a very unknown scholar was also present in the conference. Ashtavakra was this unknown philosopher’s son. His mother was waiting for her husband to come home. It was getting late and the meal was getting cold. So she sent Ashtavakra to bring his father home, because he could not win the competition. Why should he unnecessarily waste his time? He was a poor scholar and there were great scholars there. Ashtavakra went. There were at least one thousand people in the conference, the highly cultured and sophisticated scholars of the country.

As Ashtavakra entered, looking at his distorted body they all started laughing. But Ashtavakra was a man of tremendous integrity. As they started laughing, he laughed even louder. Because of his loud laugh they stopped. They could not believe that he was laughing.

Janak asked him, ”I can understand why they are laughing – because of your body; but I cannot understand why you are laughing. And you stopped all their laughing with your laughter.” A single man stopped one thousand people’s laughter.Ashtavakra said to Janak, ”I thought this conference was for scholars and philosophers, but these are all shoemakers. They can understand only the skin. They cannot see the inner, they can only see the outer.”

There was a great silence. What he was saying had a great truth in it. Janak dissolved theconference and said, ”Now I would like to inquire of Ashtavakra only. He has defeated you all just by his laughter and his statement that, ‘You can’t see the inner, you can only see the outer; you are all shoemakers.’ Shoemakers work with the skin of different animals. I dissolve the conference and, Yagnavalka, return those one thousand cows, because you also laughed. And when Ashtavakra laughed, you also stopped!”

It was a very strange situation; it had never happened before. And then began the long inquiry of Janak, the emperor. He asked questions and Ashtavakra answered them. Each answer in itself carried so much meaning and significance.

Because his body was in such a bad shape he could not get identified with it. Sometimes blessings come in such disguise. He could not go out, because wherever he went people would laugh, ”Look at that man! Have you seen anything uglier than this?”

So most of the time he was in the house, meditating, figuring out, ”Who am I? Certainly I am not this body, because I can be aware of this body, I can observe this body from within. Certainly that awareness has to be different from the body.”

Because of his crippled body he experienced enlightenment. The only barrier is identification with the body. But he could not identify, the body was so ugly. He never looked in a mirror; it would have been such a shock.

But Yagnavalkya had to return those one thousand cows to Ashtavakra’s house. He was young and he defeated one thousand old philosophers, well-versed in the ancient scriptures.

It is one of the strangest things in this country that on every book written by any prominent mystic there have been hundreds of commentaries, but nobody has commented before me on Ashtavakra. And he must be at least five thousand years old. For five thousand years nobody has bothered to look into his statements, which are so significant.

But his inner enlightenment, his inner understanding could not change his outer appearance. And yet for those who are going deeper into themselves, the outer does not matter. They would have seen even in Ashtavakra tremendous beauty, but it would not have been of the outer circumference, but of the center.Most often the inner change changes the outer, if the outer is not too rigid. But the outer never changes the inner.

You need to have eyes, going deep into people’s beings, which is possible only if you are going inwards yourself. The deeper you go into yourself the deeper you can look into other people’s beings. And then a totally new world opens its doors.

Monday, August 4, 2008

SOME THINKING


One of Newton's laws says (roughly) that an object continues to remain in its state of rest or uniform motion unless an external force acts upon it... I think this holds in the following way:
That in places like the ashram,we are at our natural selves, uniform state of rest and happiness and where we experiences forces like Guru Tatva that produces positive acceleration -towards our 'source'- to which all of us are knowingly or unknowingly moving
When we come to the outside world, negative external forces pull us down, slowing down our rate of acceleration and with our sadhana, we move forward at a considerably slower rate which to which more positive forces like seva and satsang add up... :)

All these negative forces don't let us be ourselves-be it desire, greed, ambition, anger...frustration...all these are not us, cause when we are comfortable and away from them, we want or play, laugh, have fun and do whatever we do back in the ashram.. Everybody faces glow and charm the other faces around

But in the 'real world', these negative forces overcome us and we start to think that they are us...But as we meditate and do kriya, we get the energy to realize them and handle them, hence the peace and the charm are back, but it's more difficult around here, unless you keep increasing and sustaining the meditation exponentially..

This is something I realized and this does not come easy...Handling them is an 'art' in itself and takes courage and strength..

True Love (in the romantic sense) is not experienced truly unless you are in that stable state...it does for a few...There is absolutely no point looking for it - it simply wont work that way, it has to happen, otherwise it will be fake and short-lived not to mention painful....and totally unnecessary

On the other hand, it gives us time to focus on what we truly are and why we are and so on..Who knows even if we do that, we might find yet another puzzle to solve maybe in a new universe which will take even more millions of lifetimes to find. And we wont know unless we crack this...and even thinking of this takes so long...
And yea, I guess it helps if in love there is a higher goal...That's when the love has full chances of survival...But then who knows, love might be just a ruse for progeny of species..Still..it feels good..in every little way (when it happens and if it does )

But for all eternity, it is Guruji for me, whether I sometimes forget or not ...He's the only one who is ALWAYS there, in his own mysterious ways... And I love him for that