Health and Hope

Worry is a substitute for faith. Worry does for some people what faith does for others
In a Peanuts cartoon, Linus was talking to Charlie Brown and observed: "I guess it's wrong always to be worrying about tomorrow. Maybe we should think only about today." Charlie Brown replied, "No, that's giving up. I'm still hoping that yesterday will get better."
What we need to is to focus our attention on the things that are really important, our families, for example. Many of us are more fortunate that we deserve with our families. We've got great kids though they may get on our nerves from time to time. Weather or not they still live at home We may not live in Beverly Hills or the Trump Tower, but our house is warm and full of God's grace. And most important, we need to focus on our relationship with ourselves, our society and the creator .
Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud Proverbs 16:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deut. 6:5).
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:22b-23 Excuses for sinning entered the world when Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the snake. Since that first passing-of-the-buck, things haven’t changed all that much
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1 Corinthians 3:18
Reaching out to needy children,Showing them our love and care,Is one way that God can use usTo bring hope in their despair. —Sper
Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them. —Mark 10:14

In Fairness

Investigate well, show favour to none, maintain impartiality, consult the law, then give judgment — that is the way of justice. Thiruvalluvar, Thirukural Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment. Mohandas Gandhi We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it. Their perch and not their terror. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure 2.1.1 The precepts of the law are these: to live honestly, to injure no one, and to give every man his due. Justinian I, Byzantine Somebody does somethin' stupid, that's human. They don't stop when they see it's wrong, that's a fool. Elvis Presley Sadbhavana means having good feelings towards everybody. It is about the need for compassion without boundaries, without interests. Sunil Dutt I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not. Michael Pollan

Water Power

Every human should have the idea of taking care of the environment, of nature, of water. So using too much or wasting water should have some kind of responsibility and with that, a sense of discipline. The Dalai Lama There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things. For this reason there is no substitute for it. Lao Tzu Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water, if water there be in all that region. Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded forever. Herman Melville, 'Moby Dick' Water, like religion and ideology, has the power to move millions. Since the very birth of human civilisation, people have moved to settle close to it. People move when there is too little of it, when there is too much of it. People journey down it. People write, sing and dance about it. People fight over it. And all people, everywhere and every day, need it. Mikhail Gorbachev

Think About It

Thought is the most potent and creative power in the world. It initially takes shape in an individual mind. When shared with others, any benevolent thought starts growing as a vibrant process encompassing more and more people. Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world. The Buddha The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all. Abraham Lincoln The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you’ve gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can i find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him? Chuang Tzu

Nature of Universe

Rama: When there are countless universes arising and dissolving in the infinite consciousness, why do you teach me of their nature? Sage Vasishta: In that way, you have gained the understanding that the world is a long dream. You have gained knowledge of the relationship between a world and its meaning or the object it denotes. Hence, all this discussion of the world-appearance and imaginary creation has not been in vain... When, having known all that there is to be known, you attain knowledge of the three periods of time (past, present and future), you will see all this to be true. In every atom of this existence there are countless universes — who has the power even to count them? Yoga Vasishta The cosmic energy grows in space unbounded, Many cosmic vapours impart strength to it. The friend of mankind, it lies there within. The lap of nature’s laws, Enjoying the affection of sisterly cosmic rivers. Rig Veda The spirit within nourishes, and the mind, diffused through all the members, sways the mass and mingles with the whole frame (of the universe). Virgil

Illusion Vs Reality

God made the illusion look real and the real an illusion. He concealed the sea and made the foam visible, the wind invisible, and the dust manifest. You see the dust whirling, but how can the dust rise by itself? You see the foam, but not the ocean. Invoke Him with deeds, not words, for deeds are real and will save you in the afterlife. Rumi, ‘Mathnawi’ Because its nature is not determinable, maya is said to be inexpressible. They are in its grip who think: ‘This is mine, i am the body, the world is real’. O son, no one can ascertain how this mysterious illusion came into being. As to why it arose it is because of the person’s lack of discerning inquiry. Kaivalya Navanitam Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live. Mark Twain Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces. Sigmund Freud

The Interval

Between two thoughts there is an interval of no thought. That interval is the Self, the Atman. It is pure Awareness only. Jnana Vasishta A desire arises in the mind. It is satisfied immediately; another comes. In the interval which separates two desires a perfect calm reigns in the mind. It is at this moment that you are freed from all thought, love or hate. Swami Sivananda The collapsing impulse, even though going to a state of no expression — nothingness, Atyanta-bhava — imparts its quality onto the gap. The gap is therefore the silent witness, which sees the previous impulse and the following impulse. It holds in silence the memory of both. The nature of the gap which holds the memory of both, the previous and the following impulses, is called Anyonyabhava. This is what maintains order in creation on the field of the unmanifest Atyanta-bhava. This is the secret of all transformations on the path of evolution. sanskrit quote of the day.com Spacetime entails a new concept of distance. Whereas distances are always positive in Eucli-dean spaces, the distance between any two events in spacetime — called an "interval" — may be real, zero, or even imaginary. Wikipedia

Overcome Suffering Through Surrender

Satsang: Swami Sukhabodhananda www.prasannatrust.org
Swami, how are we to avoid suffering? You are so focused on action that you don't realise that an action which is born out of ignorance is an extension of ignorance.
Hence, more than engaging in action, we have to enlighten our action with understanding. Understand that you are the creator of your suffering. This understanding will help you dissolve suffering.
An unhappy person in heaven will convert even heaven into hell; a happy person can convert hell into heaven. So, change is not required anywhere except within yourself.
If you have an unhappy mind, even if you are in heaven, you will 'stink'. So, to overcome suffering, you have to understand that your unhappy mind is the cause.
There are two types of sufferings. Legitimate and illegitimate. Legitimate suffering is sorrow that is proportionate to the situation.
For example, your loved one dies. This sorrow is valid. But if you continue worrying for more than one or two years, then there is a psychological aspect to it.
To handle legitimate sufferings, you should understand that such suffering is the result of your past deeds. Illegitimate suffering is suffering that is not proportionate to the situation.
For example, somebody calls you a fool. You brood over it for days on end. It is this suffering that one can end through right thinking.
When your suffering is due to karma, your past deeds, you have to understand that you are only repaying your debt. Many people had gathered in a village to listen to Lord Buddha.
Buddha did not start his sermon, but waited for someone to turn up. After a couple of hours, a young maidservant arrived and joined the gathering.
Then he began his sermon. Someone asked, "Why did you wait for her?" Lord Buddha said, "In my previous birth, I had promised her that after my enlightenment I would teach her. I had to wait for her so that I could fulfil my promise".
A man was very unhappy. His friend had not returned the money he had borrowed. One of my students told him, "Your money is deposited somewhere, and at the right time, it will return to you".
Such an understanding makes us surrender our sufferings to the mystery of life. Surrender is a leap from the ordinary to the sacred, from the logical to the cosmic.
Surrender is like opening the third eye... 'I am'. Surrender is real growth. Growth involves no suffering. Resistance to suffering creates suffering.
For example, if a stone is thrown on the wall, it makes a noise. But if a stone is thrown in empty space it just passes through.
A wall is like the ego. When somebody says something unpleasant and you have a wall of ego, you get hurt. If you are empty of ego, the word will just pass through without encountering any resistance.
Surrender is in the realisation that God gives me what I need more than what I want. Surrender is trust. Surrender is being open to life.
Very often we suffer because we are not open to the vastness of life. We are bound by our know-ledge. We are dead to something that is beyond our knowledge.
What we know is finite and what we do not know is infinite. To be alive and limited to what we know, and dead to what we do not know, is a deep cause for suffering.

Frustration

Wherever you find frustration, you will always discover that the person concerned had been too self-centred and the only hope for him is through learning to take interest in other people, to find joy in the joy of other people. This is the royal path that makes for health, for strength, for efficiency. This great truth — universal and human — we should apply to the world and to our life in it. Swami Ranganathananda Frustration results from a sense of limitation. Frustration cannot end, therefore, as long as humans are identified with that which is limited: a physical body, a "mind", and personality. I am not personal; i have no individuality, so how could i have individual meaning or an individual purpose? Floyd Henderson Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours. Ayn Rand When the frustration of my helplessness seemed greatest, i discovered God's grace was more than sufficient. Charles Caleb Colton

Story of Nanak's Death And Birth of Japuji

Courtesy: Osho International Foundation. www.osho.com. Excerpted from The True Name. The Japuji are the very first words uttered by Nanak after self-realisation: Nanak sat on the bank of the river in total darkness with his friend and follower, Mardana.
Suddenly, he removed his clothes and walked into the river. Mardana called after him, "Where are you going? The night is so dark and cold!" Nanak went further and further, he plunged into the depths of the river.
Mardana waited... but Nanak did not return... Mardana ran back to the village and woke up everyone. It was midnight, but a crowd collected at the riverside because everyone loved Nanak... They ran back and forth the whole length of the river bank but to no avail. Three days passed.
By now it was certain that Nanak had drowned. The people imagined that his body must have been carried away by the swift current and perhaps eaten by wild animals.
The village was in mourning. On the third night Nanak appeared from the river. The first words he spoke became the Japuji. So goes the story — and a story means that which is true and yet not true.
It is true because it gives the essential truth; it is false in the sense that it is only symbolic. And it is evident that the more profound the subject matter, the greater the need for symbols.
When Nanak disappeared in the river, the story goes that he stood before the gate of God. He experienced God... God spoke to him, "Now go back and give unto others what I have given unto you".
The Japuji is Nanak's first offering after his God-experience. Unless you lose yourself completely, until you die, you cannot hope to meet God. Your annihilation becomes his being. As long as you are, he cannot be.
This is the symbolic meaning of drowning in the river. You too will have to lose yourself; you too will have to drown. Death is only completed after three days, because the ego does not give up easily.
The three days in Nanak's story represent the time required for his ego to dissolve completely. Since the people could only see the ego and not the soul, they thought Nanak was dead.
The one who is lost invariably returns, but he returns as new. He who treads the path most certainly returns. While he was on the path he was thirsty, but when he returns he is a benefactor; he has left a beggar, he returns a king.
Whoever follows the path carries his begging bowl; when he comes back he possesses infinite treasures. To appear before God, to attain the beloved, are purely symbolic terms and not to be taken literally.
There is no God sitting somewhere on high before whom you appear. But to speak of it, how else can it be expressed? When the ego is eradicated, when you disappear, whatever is before your eyes, is God Himself.
God is not a person — God is an energy beyond form. To stand before this formless energy means to see Him wherever you look, whatever you see.
When the eyes open, everything is He. Ego is like the mote in your eye; the minute it is removed, God stands revealed before you.
And no sooner does God manifest, than you also become God, because there is nothing besides Him. Nanak returned, but the Nanak who returned was also God himself.
Then each word uttered became so invaluable as to be beyond price, each word equal to the words of the Vedas.

Symbolism

What constitutes national honour...? Is it about hoisting the national flag and singing the national anthem? Symbols are important as they serve as a visible reminder of who we are as a nation and what we represent... Of what use are symbols by themselves? Desicritics.org You will be pleased to know i stand obediently for the national anthem, though of course I would defend your right to remain seated should you so decide. Ira Glasser Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfilment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart. Martin Luther King, Jr We are sick with fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas. Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin. Alan Watts

Seed of Contentment: The Beej Mantra

Malay MishraThe basic beej mantra or Om Namah Shivaya, the panchakshri, inspires elevation to the highest levels of consciousness.
Marking the beginning of Creation, it is also equated with the Nada Brahmn. Shiva, as the creator-destructor, is invoked through this mantra at the beginning of any austerity and through japa or meditation.
Shiva is synonymous with cosmic time as He symbolises the beginning of awareness, that which created the universe. The concept of maya or illusion is woven around it to distinguish the different levels of consciousness.
Remembering Shiva reciting the beej mantra and studying the Shiva Purana can lead the spiritual seeker to higher realms of awareness, aspiring to merge in the mahavakya, 'Shivoham', to the highest level of consciousness where the individual ego dissolves into the Absolute Self.
Sadhana is the acme of human life, as it constantly evolves towards perfection. Sadhana is spiritual movement consciously systematised, and once reaching equilibrium, reflects in everyday living and adherence to core values of life.
This, therefore, becomes a lifelong process. As the mind gains more maturity and leads to equipoise, sadhana builds into life a rich repertoire of guidelines which define the contours of living.
The spiritual seeker begins his search for truth with an inquisitive spirit. He signals to fellow travellers on the spiritual path the need to rise from the mediocrity which is contrived and false, when life's actual meaning is just experience.
Ignorance is the beginning of the quest for knowledge. From ignorance arises the impulse to know. The journey is arduous, tricky, at times painful.
But having begun it, with proper sadhana and swadhaya, there is no looking back. As silence stills the mind, the moment is transfused with radiance and dynamism.
Jivanmuktas, yogis, nitya-siddhas and chiranjivis — all spiritually evolved — have, with their energies, lent a helping hand to aspirants on the spiritual path.
They have cautioned that shortcuts are to be abjured on the spiritual journey. There should be no half measure, no stop gap.
Discipline is required of the aspirant in whatever state of conditioning he may be. The gradual inward progress is silent and unseen, like the quiet unfolding of a bud into a beautiful flower.
As it progresses further, personality traits get refined and many of life's mundane problems get addressed by force of will power and unshackled energy which builds up within.
The aspirant by imbibing Shiva-consciousness brings Shiva-Shakti together and forges cosmic creation within, silently guiding the ego to its eternal resting place, where it merges in absolute consciousness.
The Immanent is sublimated in the transcendental, and this takes place within the human being, as repository of Divine Will.
From the individual, it should transmit to all levels of society. Sri Aurobindo had prophesied that it would rest on India to provide spiritual leadership to the world.
That India has to be a spiritual India, comprising spiritual beings, united in their mission to rid the present-day world of ignorance, poverty and squalor.
The combined energies of spiritual teachers and realised masters, past and present, should guide us all towards that goal.

Old Age

In-breathing and out-breathing. Do I prepare for thee, death in old age, long life, and prosperity. All the messengers of Yama, that roam about, dispatched by Vivasvant's son, do i drive away. Atharva Veda Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Samuel Ullman Old age is like climbing a mountain. You climb from ledge to ledge. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become but your views become more extensive. Ingrid Bergman Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet lendar of a well-spent life. Charles Dickens

Egoism Is Nothing But Poverty Of Spirit

Aruna Jethwani http://spirituality.indiatimes.com
Knowledge is increasing, is happi-ness increasing? Schools are multiplying, are happy homes multiplying? Today's knowledge inputs teach us to be selfish, manipulative, and more aware of our rights than of Dharma.
Sadhu Vaswani aspired to integrate education with atma vidya. He said that education is not a withered parchment, it is the flowing waters of spirit. It helps you reach out and touch the lives of others. You learn to live beyond your own narrow self.
Greed and selfishness increase with specialised courses in strategy. In such a situation of education, happiness is not included. Current education disintegrates the personality of students by keeping spirituality out. Man is whole and needs to learn to develop in all directions. So-called super education glorifies the ego.
Egoism is spiritual poverty. Allen Bradley writes in Future Education: The major portion of human family can see no further than the next meal, the next entertainment thrill, or new acquisitions a new car, flat, TV or the next holiday. True education should bring the realisation that these are a means, not an end. They could be aids to a happy life, but not happiness in themselves.
Recently, I met someone who was my classmate at university. She was a brilliant student. Her oratory and boldness had made her an icon on the university campus. We envied her. We presumed that she would have a brilliant career. Somewhere in her ascent, she lost touch with reality, made wrong choices and ended up living at the mercy and kindness of her friends.
She had received an excellent education but it was not related to life. It did not teach her how to cope with frustration. It did not inspire her to reach out to others. It did not give her enough humility to see reality, nor strength to fight her circumstances. Her education lacked a lot.
I was barely 10 when my father made me write an essay on the bushman in Australia, the pygmy in Africa, and the eskimo in the tundra region, each of whom receives education in his own way. In his wisdom he added, 'What you learn in school is history, geography, and science'.
Today, between the controversies of single and multitasked skills, Montessori and top-of-the-line education, students miss out on the ultimate equation in life. Prestigious institutions claim to motivating students to realise higher goals, but none of them even mention the true goal of life happiness.
Brahmacharya meant training of physical and mental aspects. Thoughts when purified develop into a strong mind. Compare it with today's education; students receive information rather than life skills the most important of which is emotional balance. They receive degrees and grades but have no clue to equanimity.
In fact, students turn neurotic scrambling for marks. A spiritual element is necessary to meet the new demands of the dynamic but flat world. Yoga and meditation are processes that create space for Self and its need to love.
Practical lessons in compassion in action and love in action such as service to community, caring for the elderly, reverence for all life, if integrated with the regular teaching curriculum along with celebration of all festivals, will not only spread joy of unity but will also bring a sense of fulfilment so essential to happiness.

The Presence

Meditate and realise this world is filled with the presence of God. Shvetashvara Upanishad
There are three classes of devotees. One says, "God is up there", and he points to heaven. Another says that God dwells in the heart as the "Inner Controller". But the evolved devotee says: "God alone has become everything. All things that we perceive are so many forms of God". Sri Ramakrishna The personality absolute, manifest in all creation fine, If thou desire to know of His pervading the universe, the reality and sign, Go! And on the surface of wine observe the bubble, see how the wine is within the bubble and the bubble within the wine. Abu Sa'id
Say no longer that God is invisible. Do not speak thus, for what is more manifest than God? He has created all only that you may see it through the beings. For that is the miraculous power of God, to show Himself through all beings. For nothing is invisible, not even the incorporeal. The intellect makes itself visible in the act of thinking; God makes Himself visible in the act of creating. Corpus Hermetica

Think Positive

Negative feelings, such as violence, are damaging to life, whether we act upon them ourselves, or cause or condone them in others. They are born of greed, anger, or delusion, and may be slight, moderate, or intense. Their fruit is endless ignorance and suffering. To remember this is to cultivate the opposite. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2:34 Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all good things will be yours. Swedish proverb A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes. Mahatma Gandhi If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. Swami Vivekananda
People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong...Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom? Thich Nhat Hanh

Enchanting Experience of Living Truthfully

K Langar Truth is bitter to those who live on the foundation of falsehood. They fear truth and so they call it bitter. For a person leading a righteous life truth is an asset, a source of strength.
To him truth is the basis on which he stands and negotiates all activities of life. Truth is the basis of wisdom. You can be an intellectual even if you disrespect truth but you cannot be wise if you are inclined towards falsehood.
Scriptures and religions value truth and define it in many ways. Brahmn or ultimate Reality is described as truth in the upanishads.
Truth is Brahmn and Bliss. India's national motto is: Truth alone triumphs — Satyameva Jayate. Truthfulness in thought, words and deeds is the fundamental requirement for your elevation.
The Bhagavad Gita says that one should rise above different modes of nature or Prakriti and establish oneself in truth.
Saints say that Brahmn and Atman can be realised by holding on to truth. Truth is like a compass which shows you the right track.
The Mahabharata says that there is no virtue equal to truth and no sin greater than falsehood. To be truthful presupposes a prior commitment to non-violence.
Non-violence is the basis of the search for truth says Mahatma Gandhi. Vedanta declares that truth must be free from contradictions, so evident that it can do without any proof and truth must be universal.
Each plane of existence or consciousness has its own truth. As you progress on the path of self-elevation, a higher truth replaces the one that was active before.
Aurobindo advises that each one has to find out which form of truth is sought after by his soul and, then, he should organise his life around that truth.
Truth is absolute as well as relative. The highest truth is absolute truth or God and relative truth moves us higher and higher to get close to Absolute truth. When we know the truth all our doubts and misconceptions fall away and things become crystal clear.
A truthful person has great power of conviction. Truth also gives life. Truthful persons are a source of joy to all; they are kind, compassionate, childlike and loving. A truthful person is honest, just, straightforward and sincere as all qualities are modified expression of truth.
Both scientists and spiritual persons are in search of truth. Science and religion will therefore meet one day. Truth is the guiding principle for both worldly and spiritual life.
Since their goals are the same, there can be no contradiction between science and spirituality. Enlightenment comes only when there is complete understanding of truth.
Today you may feel that truthfulness cannot carry us far to obtain materialistic goals. You may call truth as bitter but if you follow truth it will eventually work out best.
When you realise the goodness of truth you will understand that you were living in misery by living in lies. Truth also creates a distaste for sense objects which raises us beyond sense perceptions.
While it may be true that truth as a value is compromised in the present times, this cannot overshadow truth as a virtue and truthful living as the greatest virtue of all.
Truthfulness coincides our outer life with inner life. When we become truthful we get past the avoidable tendency to hide things from others. Human relations can never thrive on untruth. Be truthful and gain the warmt

Let's Dance

E-mail forward When i meditated on the word Guidance, i kept seeing 'dance' at the end of the word.I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realises that, and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music.
One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing Lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully. The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word Guidance. When i saw 'G' i thought of God, followed by 'u' and 'i'. God, u and i dance. As i lowered my head, i became willing to trust that i would get guidance about my life. Once again, i became willing to let God lead.
My prayer for you today is that God's blessings and mercies be upon you on this day and everyday. May you abide in God as God abides in you. Dance together with God, trusting God to lead and to guide you through each season of your life.

Search For The Centre Of Consciousness

The writer, a neurosurgeon, is setting up Centre for Consciousness Studies.
The brain's neurons are differentiated to execute specific functions. All sensory perceptions reach nerve centres that are specific for a particular sensory modality. However, all attempts to localise the centre for consciousness have failed.
In an experiment, an electrode was implanted in the brain adjacent to the pleasure centre of a caged mouse. When a lever was pressed, a small current would be released which would stimulate the locus of neurons and the mouse experienced a sensation of pleasure.
When the mouse realised that pressing the lever was the cause of the wonderful sensation, he endea-voured to keep pressing the lever tirelessly till he died of exhaustion.
Happiness is therefore just a matter of neuro-transmitters stimulating specific areas resulting in momentary gratification — a chemical reaction in the brain.
Duality is a warp in perception. In reality these partitions do not exist. They are just notional values assigned by the perceptive apparatus. They are actually variations in the intensity of only one modality.
The experiment where light is made to pass through two slits to determine if light is a wave or particle form, pronounced that light simultaneously exists as wave and particle.
This presented the scientific community with a paradoxical conclusion hard to fathom, a daunting task for the perceptive apparatus which is limited to comprehending only one of two possibilities.
Science is based on reductionism. Science teaches one to classify, make subgroups, and analyse all events as cause and effect.
It programmes the brain to fragment, not assimilate. But observations in quantum physics show that subatomic particles behave in a way incomprehensible to classical Newtonian concepts. Similarly, dark and light, pleasure and pain, cannot have an either/or existence. It is our perception that triggers this dichotomy.
Events or people get classified by the intellect, which analyses the event, compares the event with its database or memory and delivers a threat or no-threat verdict.
This makes the subject interact with the environment. This interaction is primordial in nature, in-built for survival.
The categorisation of reality into subgroups such as pleasant or unpleasant, endea-vouring only pleasant situations to prevail, causes unhappiness.
Medically, when there is a threat perception, there is a rise in heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar, which keeps the individual in a state of combat with typical responses: fight, fright or flight.
If the threat perception apparatus keeps getting stimulated too frequently, then the body, instead of shifting gears, often compensates by raising these parameters permanently. This causes high incidence of hypertension and diabetes where stress is a definitive cause.
In the enlightened state, what changes is not the environment but the perception of the environment. Consciousness is just awareness. It is non-judgmental, with no reaction.
There is no classification. It is just a witness. When perception eliminates all fragmentation, one become conscious, aware. Then we no longer get exhausted — like the mouse did, trying to manipulate the pleasure-giving lever.

Dharma and Adharma

For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked and for the establishment of dharma, righteousness, i come into being from age to age. Bhagavad Gita 4.8
Dharma literally means mode of being. It is the essential nature of a being that determines its mode of behaviour. So long as our conduct is in conformity with our essential nature, we are acting in the right way. Adharma is noncon-formity to our nature. If the harmony of the world is derived from the conformity of all beings to their respective natures, the disharmony of the world is due to their nonconformity. God does not stand aside, when we abuse our freedom and cause disequilibrium. He does not simply wind up the world, set it on the right track and then let it jog along by itself. His loving hand is steering it all the time. S Radhakrishnan
Dharma is our true place in the cosmic process: in time, space, awareness, thought, deed and desire....In order that we fulfil our role in the divine play we must behave within our Dharma. That is, we ought to do the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, and for the right reason. By this we attain balance. Ramesh Manocha

Integrate The Process Of Dying Into Your Life

Christopher Mendonca We don't give death serious thought unless we come face to face with it. Confronting death, we see clearly that we must leave behind all the things we possess, even our ideas, insights, and all that we think is 'ours'.
We sense the transitoriness of all that is created and know that we must part from our family and detach ourselves from all relationships.
We have no clue as to what will happen next. Do all the cherished memories of this life just vanish into oblivion? We are afraid and the element of uncertainty only adds to the intensity of fear.
The process of dying, interestingly, is woven into the fabric of life. There is a continuous cycle of death and birth in the seasons; winter gives way to spring.
The sun sets before it rises again, and each day and night display before our very eyes the continuous cycle of death and birth.
The varying shades of brown and green leaves speak of a constant process of life giving birth to life but not before the process of dying. The countless cells in our body die only to be replaced by new cells.
In our minds we experience the constant birth and death of myriad thoughts and ideas that are here one moment and have disappeared the next.
Death is an abstraction we fear. Dying, however, is a daily reality that we can learn to accept. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus is all about death and dying. The celebration is meant to take away the 'sting of death'.
The central message of the Easter Season is that if the process of 'dying' is integrated into one's life, then we need not be afraid of death, when it comes.
Death thus becomes an event in life. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus went to Jerusalem after raising Lazarus from the dead, knowing full well that he would meet with his own impending death.
Here was Jesus, walking right into it not with any sense of bitterness and anger but with a sense of anticipation and joy in the full realisation that it would be His hour of triumph.
Here is one who is not afraid of death because his whole life has been a process of dying. During his life, Jesus was at pains to put this message across to his disciples and when he spoke of 'rising from the dead'.
Fear of death is largely linked to the ego. It is what we are most attached to that we are afraid of losing. The larger the influence of the ego, the greater the fear of death.
The way of the Cross which Jesus invites his disciples to follow is the way of daily dying to self. It is not a way that ends in death, but in His Resurrection.
We learn this from the stillness of meditation as it leads us into the present moment in all our daily activity. The faithful recitation of the word in our practice of meditation teaches us to turn our attention away from the ego and learn to live in the present moment.
"In the pre-sent moment, we experience a fullness of life that liberates us from the fear of death. Rooted in the present we can see the rising and falling of things which is the process of dying that renews and deepens life".

Good Friday

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows...But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, Isaiah 53:4-5 God will credit righteousness — for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:24-25 He could hear the crowds screaming "crucify" "crucify"... He could hear the hatred in their voices, These were his chosen people He was beaten, bleeding and weakened...his heart was broken, But still He walked. He could see the crowd as he came from the palace. He knew every smile, laugh, and shed tear, But now they were contorted with rage and anger...his heart broke, But still He walked. When i forget how much My God loves me, I remember his walk. When i wonder if i can be forgiven, I remember his walk. And to show him how much i love him, I wake up each morning, turn my eyes to him, And i walk. Anonymous

The Resurrection

O Spirit! Command my soul to arise from the sephulcre of littleness into Thy vastness of everywherene. Paramhansa Yogananda Jesus said: "I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" John 11:25-26 The cross is the only ladder high enough to touch Heaven's threshold. George D Boardman The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death — that is not the great thing — but that... we are to, and may, live nobly now because we are to live forever...Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer; Death is strong, but Life is stronger; Stronger than the dark, the light; Stronger than the wrong, the right; Faith and Hope triumphant say Christ will rise on Easter Day. Phillips Brooks Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless...Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals. Charles M Crowe

Quilt Of Holes And The Illumination Of Christ

As i faced my Maker during the last judgment, i knelt before the Lord along with all the other souls. Before each of us we laid our lives like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that was our life.
As my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, i noticed, to my horror, how ragged and empty each of my squares was.
They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labelled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations i was faced with in every day life. I saw hardships that i endured, which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, their tapestries were filled with rich colours and the bright hues of worldly fortune.
I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty; it seemed like binding air.
Finally the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, the scrutiny of truth. The others rose; each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been. My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise.
My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn't had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life, and laughter.
But there had also been trials of illness, and wealth, and false accusations that took from me my world, as i knew it.
I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life.
I had often been held up to ridicule, which i endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in the hope that i would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me.
Now, the time had come; i had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and i had to accept it for what it was. I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air.
I gazed around at others who stared at me with wide eyes. Then, i looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image, the face of Christ.
Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, "Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles".
Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you."
I was overwhelmed. It was wonderful. May all our quilts be threadbare and worn, allowing Christ to shine through! God determines who walks into your life... it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go.
When there is nothing left but God that is when you find out that God is all you need — to let the light shine through. E-mail forward

Rumi's Language of Silence and Love

Moosa Raza http://spirituality.indiatimes.com
The mystic, Jalalludin Rumi, saw the world both in its material and spiritual aspects, as a multipolar world — full of opposites that sometimes complemented each other and at other times, clashed. What Rumi taught us was to understand these inherent contradictions and harmonise them. "The life of this world is nothing but the harmony of opposites", he said.
The way to find harmony is not to get bogged down in the chicanery of words or in the hair-splitting of philosophies. The way to achieve it is through the language of silence. "When the lips are silent, the heart has a hundred tongues", says Rumi: "Listen! Clam up your mouth and be silent like an oyster shell, for that tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul, my friend".
Through silence, Rumi reaches a level of consciousness where he loses all his mundane identities. This is not an easy or pleasant experience. When an individual loses his historical identity, the loss is keenly felt at first. That is why Rumi cries plaintively "What shall i do, O Muslims, i do not know who i am?
I am neither Christian, Jew, Infidel, nor Muslim! I am from neither the East, nor West. I hail not from the land or from the sea. I am not from the land of India or China, Bulgaria or Saqsin, nor Iraq or Khorasan". Having lost his mundane identity, Rumi has attained a higher supra-existence, for he says "I have shed duality, and see the two worlds as one.
I seek One, i know One, i see One, i read One". It is in this shedding of duality that one is able to reconcile the opposites — sulh-e-azdad — and find the harmonious music of the spheres: "To look at the ocean, beyond the spray, to look at the essence, beyond the words".
Rumi wrote his Mathnawi, his poems, in memory of his master Shams Tabriz. The Mathnawi is nothing but a paraphrase of the Qur'an, and equally a paraphrase of the Gita and the Gospels.
In one of his ecstatic moments, he said: "I have sucked the marrow from the Qur'an, and the bones i have thrown..." Rumi had no respect for squabbling scholastics who lost sight of the spirituality of the Qur'an, and indulged themselves in splitting hairs about the words of the scriptures.
Nor did he have any patience with philosophers. "Paradise is populated by a majority of simple folk those who kept them-selves away from the mischief of philosophy".
Rumi's message is to rise above mundane identities, go beyond ritualism and scholasticism, beyond hypocrisy and the mischief of philosophy, and breaking the shackles of words to reach a state where we can say with him, "Beyond belief and unbelief lies a vast ocean. I wander carefree in that clime".
The path to reach that clime is through Love. And what is Love? Rumi despairs of defining Love. "However much i might try to expound or explain Love, when i come to Love itself, i am ashamed of my explanations... Love alone can explain the mysteries of Love".

Teachers and Learners

To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner. I am not a teacher, only a fellow student. Soren Kierkegaard "Whose child is this?" i asked one day,Seeing a little one out at play. "Mine", said the parent with a tender smile, "Mine, to keep a little while, To bathe him and comb his hair... To prepare him that he may always be good, And each day do the things he should". "Whose child is this?"i asked again, As the door opened and someone came in. "Mine", said the teacher with the same tender smile. "Mine, to keep just for a little while, To teach him how to be gentle and kind... And get the best he can from school". "Whose child is this?" i ask once more, Just as the little one entered the door. "Ours", said the parent and the teacher as they smiled, And each took the hand of the little child. "Ours to love and nurture together, Ours this blessed task forever". Author unknown

How My Aunt's Legacy Unveiled The Stars

Virginia Woolf Excerpted from The Daily Times, Karachi.
My aunt, Mary Beton, i must tell you, died by a fall from her horse when she was riding out to take the air in Bombay.
The news of my legacy reached me one night about the same time that the Act was passed that gave votes to women. A solicitor's letter fell into the postbox and when i opened it i found that she had left me £500 a year forever.
Of the two — the vote and the money — the money, i own, seemed infinitely the more important. Before that i had made my living by cadging odd jobs... i need not, i am afraid, describe in any detail the hardness of the work, for you know perhaps women who have done it... But what still remains with me... is the poison of fear and bitterness which those days bred in me.
To begin with, always to be doing work that one did not wish to do, and to do it like a slave... and then the thought of that one gift which it was death to hide — a small one but dear to the possessor, perishing and with it my self, my soul, — all this became like a rust eating away the bloom of the spring, destroying the tree at its heart....It is remarkable... what a change of temper a fixed income will bring about.
No force in the world can take from me my £500. Food, house and clothing are mine forever. Therefore, not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hatred and bitterness... So imperceptibly i found myself adopting a new attitude towards the other half of the human race. It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole.
Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. They are driven by instincts which are not within their control.
They too, the patriarchs... had endless difficulties, terrible drawbacks to contend with. Their education had been in some ways as faulty as my own. It had bred in them defects as great.
True, they had money and power, but only at the cost of harbouring in their breasts a vulture, for ever tearing the liver out and plucking at the lungs — the instinct for possession, the rage for acquisition which drives them to desire other people's fields and goods perpetually; to make frontiers and flags; battleships and poison gas; to offer up their own lives and their children's lives... Watch in the spring sunshine the stock-broker and the great barrister going indoors to make money and more money when it is a fact that £500 a year will keep one alive in the sunshine.
These are unpleasant instincts to harbour, i reflected. They are bred of the conditions of life; of the lack of civilisation, i thought... by degrees fear and bitterness modified themselves into pity and toleration; and then in a year or two, pity and toleration went, and the greatest release of all came, which is freedom to think of things in themselves.
That building, for example, do i like it or not? Is that picture beautiful or not? Is that in my opinion a good book or a bad? Indeed my aunt's legacy unveiled the sky to me, and substituted for the large and imposing figure of a gentleman, which Milton recommended for my perpetual adoration, a view of the open sky.

Stop Clinging

The man of knowledge feels neither desire for the dissolution of the universe, nor aversion to its existence. The blessed one, therefore, lives happily on whatever subsistence comes as a matter of course. Ashtavakra Samhita He perceives the universe as the Self itself. As long as there is ignorance, one looks upon the world as the root of all misery and tries to shun or destroy it, so to speak. But with the birth of knowledge of the Self, his vision is changed and everything is revealed as the Self alone. Swami Nityaswarupananda He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy. But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise. William Blake The foolish reject what they see, not what they think. The wise reject what they think, not what they see. Huang-Po Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. Oprah Winfrey When i let go of what i am, i become what i might be. Lao Tzu

Steer Your Mind to Selfless Service

MATA AMRITANANDAMAYI As told to Sudhamahi Regunathan.
The human body is anyway impermanent, so it is better it wears out in service. Constant effort and hard work are absolutely essential.
Be engaged always in the service of people. The human body is anyway impermanent, so it is better it wears out in service. Constant effort and hard work are absolutely essential.
If ten rupees is earned by hard work, we must return a thousand rupees to society through more hard work. Prayer and worship are not enough. There is no difference between the Creator and His creation. Do you need to show a candle to the sun? Similarly, you do not need to worship God.
He is within you and in everybody around you. In service to His creation you establish contact with the Creator. Krishna, even though he was complete in himself, still worked relentlessly. Arjuna however wanted to run away from the scene. You cannot run away. You have to do your bit. Not always will the situation be to your liking.
You may not be able to change it. You can only change your mind, your attitude. If your neighbour makes too much noise, you can complain to the police.
If your street is noisy, you can move elsewhere, but if your mind is creating all the chaos, what do you do? Recognise those circumstances we can change and those we have to accept.
A king got pricked by a thorn when he was out hunting. He was furious and ordered that his entire kingdom be carpeted. His ministers were in a fix. Wherefrom would they get so many rolls of carpet? A senior minister offered the suggestion that the king wear shoes and thankfully the king appreciated him.
Similarly, we too should be able to change our attitude, we cannot expect the world to change.
How can we change our attitude? For that, mind control is important. Our mind is like an old car that stops only after colliding against some object, for its brakes don't work well.
Modern cars come to a standstill the moment you apply the power brakes. The mind is like a supermarket with many thoughts.
In a supermarket we do not buy everything and anything. We take only that which we want. Similarly, we should let only some thoughts develop and let the others disappear.
The mind is like an elephant. An elephant, along its path, keeps plucking, tearing at any branch or leaves that come its way. But when the mahout keeps it on track, it is focused and walks a straight path. To still the mind and to have its remote control in our hands, we need meditation.
However, people meditate, do japa while their mind is travelling elsewhere. To steer the mind you need to be aware, to be mindful. If someone were pointing a gun at you, how conscious you would be of yourself! It is that kind of alertness or awareness that we should have all the time. If we are close to fire, how careful would we be!
That is how careful we should be with every moment of our life. The mind is like water, it is always turning downwards weighed down by our many desires and worldly aspirations.
Water always flows downwards. But look at fire, it always leaps upwards. If you put fire under water, it sends water also upwards in the form of steam.
We should be like that. Our mind should be able to be light and alert.

Mind as Maya Confounds Mechanistic World View S H VENKATRAMANI

In the age of science, information and knowledge, our basic article of faith is that, in order to manage any process, we should be able to measure it and understand it in precise quantitative terms.
As T S Eliot observed, today we measure our life in coffee spoons. We seek to understand the most involved webs of human feelings as chemical processes and reactions.
To nurture our zest for life, we believe that we only need to activate our adrenal glands that will, on their own, produce certain chemicals and send them into the bloodstream; and lo and behold, we will automatically be charged with a passion to live and achieve.
Likewise, if we stimulate our pituitary glands, the brain will begin to secrete certain chemicals that will signi-ficantly ease our muscular movements.
Then we will no longer feel that we are chunks of flesh, meant to sleepwalk our way through life. We will feel that we are inspired bundles of high energy, raring to go.
We are confident that our blood chemistry will enable us to summon our failing courage and rekindle our lost hopes.
This mechanistic world view is the result of the basic limitations of the western paradigm that is uncomfortable with the intangible refinement of the world of the infinitesimal.
Scientific laboratories are struggling to come to grips with the microcosmos through angstroms and nanoseconds. Science feels equally lost when it faces the grandeur of the infinite. For the Occidental mindset, it is a mission impossible "To see the world in a grain of sand,/ And heaven in a wild flower,/ Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/ And eternity in an hour".
Einstein's Theory of Relativity was the first to rattle the deterministic foundations of western science. The legendary physicist proved that there was nothing absolute or immutable about a given span of time or a given distance in space. Quantum theory shook the foundations of western physics further. It proved that you cannot spe-cify at which precise point in space will a subatomic particle like an electron be, at a given point in time.
Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle further compounded the discomfiture of western science. The Uncertainty Principle says that you cannot, with equal accuracy, determine both the position and the velocity of a subatomic particle like an electron at a given time.
So it becomes even more daunting for the 'scientific' mind to empathise or resonate with the transcendental spirituality of eastern philosophies and religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Zen. The 'rational' mind lurches from point to counterpoint and from thesis to anti- thesis — for, if a ray of light is not made up of particles, then it has to necessarily consist of waves.
If you are not happy, then you are sad. Experiencing reality first-hand, taking care not to examine it through words or concepts, is possible only when you transcend the circumscription of the material world view and soar beyond thought. That is what eastern philosophies hint at.
When you try to become deeply aware of reality by directly looking at it, and not by analysing it through your mind, or comparing and contrasting it with other creations of your mind, then you directly perceive the truth that the question of going beyond the mind is itself a mental mirage. After all, there is no mind in the first place. The mind is maya.

Hanuman Jayanti

Hanuman conquered innumerable difficulties with courage, patience and undaunted spirit... He had immense courage and presence of mind. He was steady and firm in his actions. He was always suc-cessful in his attempts... He had not a tinge of selfishness in his actions. All his actions were offerings unto Lord Rama. Swami Sivananda Victory to thee, O Hanuman, Ocean of Wisdom. Hail to you O Kapisa! (fountainhead of power, wisdom and Shiva-Shakti). You illuminate all the three worlds (entire cosmos) with your glory. You are the divine messenger of Sri Ram. The repository of immeasurable strength, though known only as Son of Pavan (Wind god), born of Anjani. With Limbs as sturdy as Vajra, the mace of God Indra, you are valiant and brave. On you attends good sense and wisdom. You dispel the darkness of evil thoughts. Hanuman Chalisa The character of Hanuman teaches us of the unlimited power that lies unused within each one of us. Hanuman directed all his energies towards the worship of Lord Rama, and his undying devotion made him such that he became free from all physical fatigue. And Hanuman's only desire was to go on serving Rama... and through Him, serve all. Hinduism.com

Power Punch

First of all, power is about making life for people around you better. Second, power is about feeling better about yourself, in the sense that you have done good things and people have benefited. And I would say it's certainly much more the first than the second power is all about making a difference to the people around you. N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys I don't feel as though i am superman. Power is responsibility and hard work... the day one forgets that, all power leaves you. Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Power is a very loaded term. It seems to suggest influence and how much influence i have or don't have is for others to judge. Power is also a very misunderstood term. Being called powerful tends to boost people's egos. I have no ego. I just do what it takes to make my businesses thrive. If people say i'm powerful, it's not going to change my character or my behaviour in any way. Vijay Mallya, Chairman, UB Group To me the thing that matters most is the ability to influence the course of change... After all it's about the power of ideas. Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys

Life is an Opportunity, Make the Most of It

Discourse: Avdeshanand Giriji http://spirituality.indiatimes.com
Life is an opportunity; it is God's greatest gift. Life, full of promise, is expanding every moment, and the transitory moments flit past before we know it. Pause to think: Am i being vigilant in life? Am i endeavouring to learn how to experience true consciousness?
What we are or wish to become and the constant exercise of its acceptance or opposition is what causes the state of inner conflict. This inner conflict is verily like a great war being waged in us and the huge armies of conflicting emotions attacking and counter-attacking reduce us to a state of helplessness.
This state gives rise to confusion and despair, increasing our vulnerability and affecting adversely our ability to move towards equanimity.
Only when you cultivate the habit of reaching out to conscious knowledge and concen-tration, you will move towards greater clarity and understanding of the present state. In order to set this process in motion, you need to make a fundamental change in your daily routine.
A person is able to make his future bright and secure only to the extent that he is able to transform himself. This transformation does not take place on its own.
This fundamental change will be the result of your dedication to those purposeful ideals which you form studying the scriptures, teachings of sages, and by emulating the high example set by noble preceptors.
When you perform your duty after becoming conscious of loyalty to self, then all directions inspire you to move towards your aim. When life's aim is clear, knowledge of direction is spontaneous. When your spiritual ambitions yearn for fulfilment, reawakening takes place.
In your preparation to be perfect and great, as a seeker, you have to give up narrow-mindedness. The first step in
the journey to perfection is this: A seeker, instead of looking for perfection in others, should try to make himself perfect. This change is the basis of real progress and fundamental development. For his own progress a seeker should not wait for the progress of others. Such a wait would cost him dearly.
Introspection, just once, means a touch of that great immeasurable power of limitless energy and supreme brilliance. As soon as our inner self awakens, the seed of all these good things sprouts, and then all our mental, physical, super-sensual powers fill us with the fragrance of consciousness achieved in our own presence and then inspire us to Supreme Divinity, excellence and an exalted living style.
We have not to give up or abandon something for this achievement, nor have we to hate or ignore anybody, because everyone is the abode of the same Almighty. We are the extensions of that One only.
In this state whatever experience you gain will cover all your information and knowledge and will create in you a divine experience of supreme compassion and divine love. You will then be an instrument for common good and welfare of all.
You will become most sacred like the purity of all the holy places of pilgrimage and experience the divine peace of worship. It is our nature to be most sacred and for achieving this state all our activities should be directed towards the Supreme.

Sufi Delight

I become you ,you become me ,I become the soul, you the heart, How can they now claim ,I am apart, you are apart? Amir Khusro By day i praised you ,and never knew it. By night i stayed with you ,and never knew it. I always thought that ,I was me... but no, I was you ,and never knew it. Rumi Repeating the name ,of the Beloved ,I have become the Beloved myself. Whom shall i call the Beloved now? Bulleh Shah O Allah! If i worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if i worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if i worship You for Your Own sake, grudge me not Your ,everlasting Beauty. Rabia al Basri 'I' and 'you' are but the lattices,/ in the niches of a lamp,/ through which the One Light shines./ 'I' and 'you' are the veil/ between heaven and earth;/ lift this veil and you will see/ no longer the bonds of sects and creeds./ When 'i' and 'you' do not exist,/ what is mosque, what is synagogue?/ What is the Temple of Fire? Shabistari

Rumi's Eternal Dance

As The Mystical SeekerPranav Khullar http://spirituality.indiatimes.com
The quest for liberation and the path leading up to it has been metaphorised and expressed richly in various cultural traditions through music, poetry and dance. Jalaluddin Rumi's mystical legacy, for instance, continues to inspire generations, transcending all ethnic boundaries, reverberating in every corner of the globe.
Rumi was a passionate musician who believed that music and dance were to be seen as spiritual disciplines in themselves, a perfect trigger to lead the soul to higher dimensions a concept and philosophy which led him to found the order of the Mevlevi, the dance of the whirling dervishes, the "Sema" or turning, the sacred ritualistic dance, which represents the journey of the seeker who turns to truth through love and abandonment of the ego.
Rumi's meeting with his preceptor Shami Tabrizi, is consi-dered the great catalytic point of Rumi's life, which converted him from an intellectual scholar to a passionate Sufi. The intense call was evocatively penned by Rumi as "the drum of realisation of the promise is beating/ we are sweeping the road to the sky/ your joy is here today, what remains for tomorrow...". But Rumi also saw inner transformation as an arduous process, almost painful, since it required the death of the ego.
Rumi talks of the Islamic concept of Oneness: "What is Tawhid? To burn oneself before the One", says Rumi in his Mathnawi. Man has to die unto himself to be one with that divine consciousness. The death of the ego stands at the heart of Rumi's thinking, and is quite physically embodied in the swirling movement of the sacred dancing he evolved as a measure to attain truth.
Dance became a rhythmic expression of dhikr or remembrance. As Rumi would put it "...whatever there is, is only He/ your footsteps there in dancing/ the whirling... see... belongs to you/ And you belong to the whirling...", a kind of remembrance that the whole universe there is whirling around Him.
Equally magically, Rumi loved the "ney", the reed flute, and saw in it a metaphor for the seeker himself: "...listen to the reed, and the tale it tells, how it complains of separation...". The wandering minstrel that he was, he saw music and dance not just as expressions of divine love, but complete 'paths' in themselves, in which the bliss of divine communion could be experienced easily. The true spirit of the Sufi is musically sketched as "...we are the flute, our music is all Thine/ we are the mountains, echoing only Thee...".
The ecstatic flight into the Divine was, for Rumi, best embodied in the path of music, "helping the seeker focus their whole being on the Divine... and in doing so the ego is destroyed and the soul resurrected". In quintessential Sufi style, he reaches out by declaring his mission as one of love, where "...love's nationality is separate from all religions. The lover's nationality and religion is the Beloved".
Shahram Shiva cites this as the enduring legacy of Rumi, "...where the world of Rumi is neither exclusively that of a Sufi, nor that of a Hindu, Jew or Christian... it is the highest state of a human being, a fully evolved human being...". It is a testimony of the universality of his mystic-musical appeal that Rumi concerts are being organised worldwide in this International Year of Rumi.

Water World

Water flows from high in the mountains ,Water runs deep in the Earth ,Miraculously, water comes to us, And sustains all life. -Thich Nhat Hanh Fierce national competition over water resources has prompted fears that water issues contain the seeds of violent conflict. -Kofi Annan, UN SG What is the earth but a lump of clay surrounded by water? -Bharatrihari Children of a culture born in a water-rich environment, we have never really learned how important water is to us. We understand it, but we do not respect it. -William Ashworth We labour long and earnestly for peace, because war threatens the survival of man. It is time we laboured with equal passion to defend our environment. A polluted stream can be as lethal as a bullet. -Senator Alan Bible Though living near a river, do not waste water; though living near mountains, do not waste firewood. When you drink the water, remember the spring. -Chinese proverb

River Mythologies Tell A Different Story

V Rajaraman http://spirituality.indiatimes.com
With most of the world's rivers under threat from pollution and global warming, it would be instructive to revisit our traditional perceptions of rivers as life-givers and sustainers.
Spiritual tradition enjoins us to remember in our daily prayers the sacred rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and Cauvery as a thanksgiving to Mother Nature. In ancient times people held rivers in awe and endowed them with mystical origins.
The turbulent Ganga was brought down to earth by Lord Shiva and to humble the pride of Ganga knotted her in his matted locks. The Cauvery began its flow from a 'kamandala' that sage Agastya kept by his side while meditating. Vinayaka, taking the form of a crow, tilted the vessel and the water that spilt from the vessel became the wide and sprawling river. This is one among the many Puranic versions of the origin of the Cauvery.
The Cauvery since that timeless mythical day has been flowing through the plains braving the vicissitudes of history. In the process, under the patronage of administrators from the ancient Chola dynasty to recent times, the river has engendered glorious traditions of art, music and literature. The cultural heritage which Thanjavur and Mysore have inherited could rival that of any other in the world.
The trinity of Carnatic music, Thyagaraja, Shyama Sastri and Muthuswami Dikshitar, belong to the Thanjavur-Cauvery delta. The mighty temples that dot the banks of the river, many of them masterpieces of architecture, still bear eloquent testimony to what the Cauvery did, not only in fertilising the soil but in nurturing the mind and soul of man.
The tradition continues even today though mutilated by opportunistic interpretations of modernity. The Cauvery watches it all with sagely dispassion from Coorg where she originates in the cool and dense shades of the green mountains and flows into the eastern coast where she meets the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal.
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are at loggerheads over the sharing of the waters of the Cauvery. "Politics is too much with us", as poet William Wordsworth once bemoaned. A little philosophical reflection is necessary to subdue frayed tempers and nerves. Do we belong to a river or does the river belong to us?
I wonder if there would have ever been the glorious Egyptian civilisation if the waters of the Lake Tana in Ethiopia and those of Lake Victoria, much south of Egypt, had been stopped from flowing their respective courses into the Nile Valley of Egypt. And what if China stopped the mighty Brahmaputra flow through the gorges of the Himalayas into the plains of north-eastern India?
'Never ask the origin of a sage or the source of a river' is a familiar adage in India. Rivers are known to rise as though from nowhere, change their course unpredictably or just go into subterranean oblivion like the mythical river Saraswati which continues to baffle geological speculation.
To arrogate claim over a river or its waters is to ignore its unpredictability, its vagaries, its potency for destruction as much as our failure to understand its blessings. At the substratum, a philosophical recognition or, still better, a perception of the river is necessary to understand how best to harness its waters; in short how best to use its waters for the benefit of all, for the common good.

Spotlight on Sport

Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words, it is war minus the shooting... there are quite enough real causes of trouble already, and we need not add to them by encouraging young men to kick each other on the shins amid the roars of infuriated spectators. George Orwell Unlike any other business, sports must preserve an illusion of perfect innocence. The mounting of this illusion defines the purpose and accounts for the immense wealth of sports. It is the ceremony of innocence that the fans pay to see — not the game or the match or the bout, but the ritual portrayal of a world in which time stops and all hope remains plausible, in which everybody present can recover the blameless expectations of a child, where the forces of light always triumph over the powers of darkness. Lewis H Lapham Cricket — a game which the English, not being a spiritual people, have invented in order to give themselves some conception of eternity. Lord Mancroft Many think life is a game; the English think cricket is a game. George Mikes

Transform Heat To Light With Inner Alchemy

Do not use heat as heat: use it as light. When you think anger is coming to you, close your eyes and meditate on what anger is. Dig deep inside and find out the source from where it is coming. When we get angry we begin to think about the object of anger, about who has created it, and not of the source of anger, from where it is coming. When you get angry, close your eyes. This is the right moment to meditate. Go deep, and you will come to the source of heat from where the accumulated energy is bursting forth to go out.
Observe it; do not indulge in it — because if you indulge in it, it will be thrown out without being transformed. And do not suppress it — because if you suppress it, it will be thrown back to the original source which is overflowing. It cannot absorb it. It will be thrown back again with a more forceful movement. Just be conscious. Move inward to the source. This very movement slows down the process; this very observation transforms the quality of anger, because this calm observation is an antidote.
Anger and calm observation are different phenomena. When this calm observation enters into anger, it changes the energy, the very chemical composition of it, and heat becomes light.
Then the anger is neither thrown back to the original source which cannot contain it because it is overflowing, nor is it thrown to the object in a foolish wastage. Then this energy neither moves out to the object of anger, nor is it suppressed back to the original source. This energy moves to the periphery of your body as light. When diffused, anger becomes ojas, an inner light.
So do not be disturbed and disappointed if you have much anger. That only shows you have much energy. A person born without anger cannot be transformed. He has no energy. So be happy that you have energy, but do not misuse it.
Energy in itself is neutral. This is the secret science of inner alchemy — to change heat into light, to change coal into diamond, to change baser elements into gold . Our 'chemistry'is born out of alchemy. The word 'alchemy'comes from Egypt. The old name of Egypt was 'Khem'and 'Al Khem'means 'the secret science of Egypt'. The Egyptians were deep in the alchemy of inner transformation, in how to transform the inner chemistry. Many Egyptian mum-mies are preserved. They are the oldest, most ancient mummies, and still scientists are not able to probe into how and why they were preserved.
Why they were preserved is difficult to understand, but more problematic is the 'how', by what chemical process they were preserved. They are still as fresh as if they had just died. If there had been any outer chemical process, our chemistry could know it; we are more chemically developed than old Egypt. The real thing is that these bodies were preserved not by any outer chemical process, but by inner alchemy. If your sex energy, which is the source of life, can be transformed inwardly, then your body can be preserved for any length of time very easily — even for a million years. If the cells of your body lose sex then the body can be preserved, because birth comes through sex and death comes through sex. Your freshness, the youngness of the body, comes through sex, and then deterioration comes through sex.
Excerpted from The Ultimate Alchemy. Courtesy: Osho Inter-national Foundation.

Joy of Satsang

' Bin satsang vivek na hoye Ram kripa bin sulabh na soye'— Without satsang, vivek or the power to discriminate does not come. It is difficult to obtain vivek without the grace of Rama and without participating in satsang. It is tough to live in this jungle we call life. Tulsidas, Ram Charit Manas Satsang is to be in the presence of a Master, in a loving communion. It is a very special word — it cannot be translated into any western language, because nothing like this has ever happened there; it is uniquely eastern. In fact, the relationship between a disciple and a Master is an eastern phenomenon, a contribution of the East to the world of consciousness... Between a Master and a disciple the question is not of knowledge but of being. Not that the Master knows more than the disciple — sometimes the disciple may know more. The Master is more than the disciple, not that he knows more. He has more being, he has more soul. It is not a question of his memory; it is a question of his existence; he has a totally different kind of existence — integrated, centred, rooted. Osho

You Can See i to I When You Transcend the Ego

Jahanavi Shandilya
In school, children are constantly reminded to "put the donkey last". Relegating the 'I'or the first person singular — that this page now uses in the lower case — to last place might have been nothing more than a teacher's fetish for the rules of English grammar.
However, the principle underlying the tradition of putting the 'donkey'— a euphemism for the first person singular — last could possibly arise from the realisation that the idea of an individual who identifies his body with himself is an anthropomorphic concept that reeks of self-importance and arrogance. In other words, it's the ego-expression that, though shackled by the body-mind entity, deludes itself to be master of all it surveys. Contrast the concept of the individual 'i'and its infinitesimal smallness and limitations, with that of the more expansive and inclusive 'I'that refers to unlimited awareness.
The 'I'is all-pervasive; but the 'i'is restricted to the one individual who occupies a certain space. If the 'I'is infinite consciousness — without beginning or end — it is understood to be pure.
When it's not, it's impure and that notion is represented by 'i', a mere speck or less in the vastness of infinite consciousness. Sage Vasishta took great pains to explain to Prince Rama the difference between the bada 'I'and the chhota 'i': When its own reality is seen the 'I'does not appear as the ego-sense any more, but as the one infinite reality, 'I'.
In fact, 'I'becomes entity-less. When this truth is revealed to one with a pure mind, says Vasishta, his ignorance is at once dispelled; but others cling to their own false notion like a child clinging to the notion of the existence of a ghost. Craving for heaven and even for liberation arises in one's heart only as long as the 'i'is seen as an entity. So there is only unhappiness. The notion of 'i'as 'I'can be got rid of only through self-knowledge.
Only by the constant remem-brance of the truth that the self is a pure reflection in the infinite consciousness does the notion of an anthropomorphic 'i-ness'cease to grow. The world-appearance is a juggler's trick; all subject-object relationships between it and me is foolish. When this understanding takes root, 'i-ness'is uprooted. When it is seen that it is the 'i'that gives rise to the notion of a 'world', both of them cease in peace.
However, continues Sage Vasishta, the higher form of 'I-ness', which gives rise to the feeling "I am one with the entire universe, there is nothing apart from me", is the understanding of the enlightened person. Another type of 'I-ness'is when one feels that the 'I'is extremely subtle and atomic in nature and therefore different from and independent of everything in this universe.
This, too, is conducive to liberation. It is the individual 'i-ness'that identifies the self with the body and this is to be abandoned.
By persistent culti-vation of the higher form of 'I-ness', the lower form is eradicated. Until then, all references to the individual must necessarily be represented by the lower case 'i'.
In due course even the higher form of 'I-ness'should be abandoned, Vasishta advises Rama. Then one may either engage oneself in all activity or remain in seclusion: For such a one there is no fear of downfall.

Another Beginning

Ugadi and Gudi Parva are Hindu new year celebrations that fall on the first day of the month of Chaitra according to the lunar calendar. It signals the end of the winter harvesting season and the start of the upcoming one. Thanksgiving to God is celebrated by rejoicing through dancing and singing on the occasion. Hindubooks.org Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha Another fresh new year is here.../ Another year to live!/ To banish worry, doubt, and fear,/ to love and laugh and give!/ This bright New Year is given me/ to live each day with zest.../ To daily grow and try to be/ my highest and my best! I have the opportunity/ once more to right some wrongs,/ to pray for peace, to plant a tree,/ and sing more joyful songs William A Ward Age after age, Millennium after millennium, Yugadi returns. Bringing with it new joy of the New Year and of a new life. D R Bendre Nothing is worth more than this day. Goethe

Krishna's Message Is That Of Universal Love 'Abdu'l-Baha

A man from India said to 'Abdu'l-Baha: "My aim in life is to transmit as far as in me lies the message of Krishna to the world".
'Abdu'l-Baha said: "The message of Krishna is the message of love. All God's prophets have brought the message of love. None have ever thought that war and hate are good. Every one agrees in saying that love and kindness are best". Love manifests its reality in deeds, not just in words. For love to manifest its power there must be an object, an instrument, a motive.
There are many ways of expressing the love principle; there is love for the family, for the country, for the race, there is political enthusiasm, there is also the love of commu-nity of interest in service. These are all ways and means of showing the power of love. Otherwise love would be unseen, unheard, unfelt and would remain altoge-ther unexpressed, and unmani-fested. Love is unlimited, whereas material things are limited. You cannot adequately express infinite love by limited means. Perfect love needs an unselfish instrument, absolutely free of fetters. The love of family is limited. Often members of a family disagree; they might even hate each other. Patriotic love is finite; the love of one's country causing hatred of all others, is not perfect love. Compatriots also are not free from quarrels amongst themselves. The love of race is limited; so is the love of country. Love must be free from boundaries. To love your own race may mean hatred of all others, and even people of the same race often dislike each other.
Political love is bound with hatred of one party for another, so this love is limited and uncertain.
The great unselfish love is bound by none of these imperfect, semi-selfish bonds; this is one perfect love, accessible to all and can only be achieved by power of the Divine Spirit.
No worldly power can accomplish love that is universal in nature. Animal creation is captive to matter, but to man, God has given freedom.
Animals cannot escape the law of nature, whereas man may control it, for he, containing nature, can rise above it. The power of the Divine Spirit, enlightening man's intelligence, has enabled him to discover means of bending natural laws to his will. He flies through the air, floats on the sea, and even moves under water. Man's intellect has enabled him to overcome limitations of nature, and to discover her mysteries. The Divine Spirit will give to man greater powers than these, if only he will strive after the spiritual and endeavour to attune his heart to Divine infinite love. When you love family members or compatriots, let it be with a ray of Infinite Love. Let it be in God, and for God. Wherever you find the attributes of God — love that person — whether he be of your family or of another, of your country, faith, colour, race or another.
The underlying goal of achieving universal love should motivate you to accept everyone as your own and love them unconditionally.
'Abdu'l-Baha, son of the Prophet Founder of the Baha'i faith, on the occasion of Naw Ruz, the Baha'i New Year.

Enjoy Differences For Variety Spices Life

Swami Sukhabodhananda www.prasannatrust.org. A young couple asked, "We have been married for several years but the only thing common between us is our irreconcilability. We are not able to make decisions; our indecisiveness is our common point. We don't even smile at each other. What do we do?"
My response is simple: Celebrate. Celebrate your differences. Make your differences fuel your togetherness. Just imagine how boring life would be if there were no differences.
Often people say they are upset that life is full of contradictions. Life is not so small that we can put it into compartments like good and bad, right and wrong, evil and noble.
Life is vast; so vast that it is big enough to include contradictions in its fold. The Kali symbol is a good illustration of this.
Goddess Kali is shown dancing on the chest of her husband, Shiva. She loves her husband and at the same time dances on his chest, almost killing him. Life is full of contradictions.
One has to accept them gracefully and at the same time change whatever is possible. We also have to learn to accept what cannot be changed.
While we're discussing differences, let us also accept the fact that the context of a relationship should be one of love, and not of expectation.
Love has to go through transformation and purification. Only then would we find that we are bigger than our differences, and that we are slaves to differences.
Differences add richness, variety and spice to life. One should be creative in a relationship. In a music concert, there would be different musical instruments but all of them are harmonised to create symphony.
The many tones, pitches and notes come together in a pleasing symphony. Exactly in the same way, you are different, your spouse is different. Learn to enjoy the differences
The most important aspect in a relationship is that we should stand for transformation and growth. Transformation involves de-hypnotising ourselves.
We are hypnotised into believing that love begins where differences end. Differences in fact add richness to life.
The only thing one should be alert to is that differences should not be based on the ego; but on inner growth. We can operate either from personality or from innocence.
Personality comes from ego while innocence comes from a childlike nature. That which arises out of ego makes you feel heavy whereas what arises out of childlike innocence makes you feel light.
When we are happy and pure and operate from innocence, our logic will have a different lustre; our understanding would have a different aura. It becomes divine.
On the contrary, when we are impure and unhappy, our logic becomes dull and dry. The greatest decision one has to make is the decision to be good, happy and helpful to humanity.
In every organisation it is important to take healthy decisions and create good discipline. This adds character to organisational culture.
Enjoy life's differences and make decisions that take you closer to your destination:
Life is an opportunity, cash in on it. Life is an adventure, get into it. Life is a tragedy, grow from it. Life is a struggle, make it sacred. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a promise, meet it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a duty, fulfil it. Life is a challenge, face it. Life is a dream, realise it. Life is beauty, feel it. Life is bliss, experience it.

God's Children

A parent should never make distinctions between his children. The Talmud In a family, parents are responsible for the welfare of children and offer children an embracing, unconditional love. World Scripture I think that saving a little child And bringing him to his own, Is a darned sight better business Than loafing around the throne. John Hay, 'Little Breeches' Love children especially, for like the angels they too are sinless, and they live to soften and purify our hearts, and, as it were, to guide us. Woe to him who offends a child! Feodor Dostoevsky Children are God's apostles, day by day Sent forth to preach of love, and hope, and peace. James R Lowell Cornelia kept her in talk till her children came from school, and these, said she, are my jewels. Robert Burton Just become a child, and your eyes will be able to see the point. And from that moment, growth goes on happening. Osho

The World Is What You Like To Think It Is

L R Sabharwal Socrates was sitting outside of the gates of Athens. A man came up to him and said, "I am thinking about moving into Athens. Can you please tell me what it is like to live here?"
Socrates replied, "I would be happy to tell you, but first would you please tell me what it was like in your previous home city?"
The man roared, "Oh, it was awful. The people stab you in the back and rob you blind. I am leaving only enemies". Socrates frowned and continued, "Well, you best be on your way because you will find the same thing here in Athens".
Later another man stopped to speak to Socrates and inquired, "I was considering moving here to Athens. Can you tell me what it is like to live here?"
Socrates asked the visitor: "First tell me, what was it like in your previous home city?" The man smiled and said, "Where i come from the people all work together and help each other. Kindness is everywhere and you are never treated with anything but the utmost respect". "Welcome to Athens", smiled Socrates, "You will find the same thing here".
The world is what we think it is. The outside is a reflection of our inner self. If we look at the negative side of things, then our outlook would be bleak.
And if we are an optimistic we would feel that positive things surround us everywhere. The first person had negative traits whereas the second person had everything good to say about his home city.
Most situations in our life can be seen as a relationship interaction, be it a personal relationship such as internal dialogues, or our dealings with a friend, family member, or co-worker.
All things around us are merely reflections of our self-emanations. If we learn to live our lives with this understanding, then we have no one to blame for our lives.
Usually we want to blame other people and the outside world for everything. The physical world is a projection of our beliefs and feelings which we then think is "reality".
As a man thinks, so he becomes. To take charge of our lives, we have to go within and become intensely honest with ourselves about ourselves.
Start accepting that whatever comes to us comes because we have attracted it with thoughts, beliefs and feelings. We can take charge of our lives by taking charge of our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and tendencies.
Belief is the thermostat that regulates what we accomplish. A person, who believes he is worth little, receives little.
If you believe you are unimportant, so every-thing you do has an unimportant mark. As time goes by, lack of belief in ourselves shows in the way we talk, walk, and act.
Unless we readjust our thermostat, we shrink in our own estimation. And, since others see in us what we see in ourselves, we grow smaller in the estimation of others. You are a product of your thoughts.
When you adjust your thermostat, you move forward. When you believe in yourself, good things do start happening. Your mind is a conception workshop producing numberless thoughts.
You have to explore your inner self, "Think doubt and fail; Think victory and succeed". http://spirituality.indiatimes.com

Kashmiri Quatrain

Whether my words have meaning tomorrow, Tomorrow's critics will decide; But I’ll find the gushing waters eternal If they relieved you of present pain. Translated by Trilokinath Raina
Shadows: Give up questioning your destiny and hope of eternity, if you can get hold of a few moments, enjoy them... Opening the eyes exposed my dreams to the evil eye. Many surging vernal breasts became scorched wilderness. Take a look around and you see a sizzling fair, Reckon a thought and a lone crow in the void. The days gone by i longed to create stars; I wrack my brains now to give myself a name. All beliefs are like withered greenery on the uplands, All consciousness is like an infuriated serpent. All gods are mine own shadows, All monsters like my animated self. Halls appear to be furnished with the gibberish of monkeys, Comb the forests to robe saints. What kind of steering and whither the shore, The boat is drifting unguided in the dark. O danseuse, circle round him disrobed. Abdul Rahman Rahi, Kashmiri writer-poet, winner of Jnanpith Award 2004

Disaster Management Of A Sage

Ajit Singh Hakuin Zenji, an 18th century Japanese Zen master, was known for his piety. It so happened once that an unmarried girl from his neighbourhood got big with child.
When questioned by her parents, she named the monk as the father of the unborn child. Enraged, the parents minced no words and lambasted the monk severely.
Hakuin Zenji would neither refute nor accept the allegation. "Is that so?" was all he would reiterate. When the child saw the light of the day, it was brought to Hakuin Zenji.
The monk would now find food for two, though in the wake of his soiled reputation, he would, many a time, receive more barbs than food.
By the time the year was out, the girl-mother could stand it no longer and revealed the identity of her lover, a fish market help, to her parents.
The parents apologised to the monk, repeatedly begged his forgiveness and the cu-stody of the child.
The sage handed over the child to them, mumbling a whisper: "Is that so?" Innocence is neither defensive nor offensive, neither reactive nor proactive.
When first the monk said, "Is that so?", he perhaps meant: "Is this what these people believe?" As he was aware of who he was, he was like an alien to their belief system.
He didn't depend upon their opinion to define himself. To him the charges were irrelevant offscourings that called for no response either in yes or no.
While his reputation played see-saw, he turned around and spoke to existence: "Is that so?" A man of piety owes his allegiance only to existence.
When the child was brought to him, he took yet another existential dispensation. A sage does not question anything dished out to him by existence.
Any hesitation would be tantamount to a disregard of existence. J Krishnamurti would call such an attitude "choicelessness" but a sage does not choose even "choicelessness" because that would mean losing his inner dyna-mics, his inner balance.
In Zazen Wasan, Hakuin Zenji's song in praise of zazen, he sings: "We stand beyond ego and past clever words/ Then the gate to oneness of cause-and-effect is thrown open".
What the child needed immediately was a father's love and protection and not the gossiper of idle village folks. Being in present was his metier.
And so he baby-sat the child till the day he was asked to part with it. Had he not deve-loped any bond with the child? We don't know.
We only know that he remained rooted in the fulcrum of his inner balance. For him depth of living was more meaningful than any length of living.
For length we scour the past and the future but depth happens in the hear and now. There was no knee-jerk action from him, only a lover's plaint to existence: "Is that so?", that is to say, What is this joke, now?
The sound of one hand clapping is a beautiful gift of Hakuin Zenji to Zen. This koan like any real koan cannot be solved. But it is an existential treat to be experienced.
We who bobble in the ambit of bubble chambers created and sustained by a ceaseless flow of frivolous thoughts, would do well to work on it to get a glimpse of Hakuin Zenji's envious, yet accomplishable, state.