The festive season is upon us, and as we all know, the effect of excess accumulation of food in the body translates to weight which takes even more energy to expend/maintain the body. For whatever reasons, we perceive life as an opportunity to accumulate, whether they be experiences or power/wealth/fame, we think more will mean better but we also know that not to be true out of sheer experience since everything follows the law of diminishing returns but by then we are so attached to accumulating that letting go/detaching becomes very difficult. 

Life was always meant to “let go/detach” which is evident even in our breathing process. You have to let go of the breath taken in, in order for the fresh breath to come in. As I was jogging a couple of days back, I observed that for being a successful distance runner one must let go of his/her breath consciously and the intake of breath is automatic. Once such a breathing process is perfected, the body becomes light and you can run longer/faster. Same holds good for swimming and other endurance sports wherein you empty your lungs consciously & the process of refilling them is automatic. Same also holds good  for other aspects of life – the more you let go(detachment), the more freedom you experience but somehow we cling on to or are attached to the process of accumulating…

How you change the game from “attachment to accumulation” to “letting go/detachment” is up to you. Realise that life is a zero sum game, you can bring nothing in it and certainly take nothing from it so what is the point of attachment to something that is ephemeral…..  

Nietzsche said “the past….should not become the grave-digger of the present”, but thats exactly whats happening with all these protests for reservations, everyone wants rights but are actually moving away from what is right. 

You cannot correct a past wrong by a present wrong – Two wrongs don’t make a right(don’t cancel each other) what was done by the past generations was wrong but the present generation is not right either. Who knows what is right anymore? We are living in seriously fractured societies with intolerence riding high and erupting into violence aka Russia/Ukraine, Hamas/Israel, etc. Have we learnt nothing from the past that violence only begets violence and that is never the solution…

Achieving peace and harmony through violence/force is no peace it is just cease fire, till the next eruption. Are we going to live amidst cease fires or actively pursue peace and harmony at the individual/social level which will come about only if we are willing to let go of past differences and share everything in a harmoniuos way or is peace and harmony just an illusion that we hope for or is it actively being pursued as a foundation of the societies. I guess we will never know and would hand over a further fractured society to the next generations to sort out the mess that their forefathers made, how? Well it is a rhetorical question and in any case we wont be around to see it but my guess is if we couldn’t, they wouldn’t be able to either…

Just lost a soul mate(Leo) who shared our lives for the past 13 years,

Unconditionally loving everyone who came his way,

Though I knew his time had come, it was difficult to say goodbye,

The Doctor tried his best, but then the die was cast,

the end was inevitable and yet prolonging…

Happy that his months of suffering ended and sad that he won’t be there to welcome me when I’m back home…

Unconditional love was what he gave everyone who touched his lives, I’m not sure whether we reciprocated with even a fraction of that…

Great things to learn from this humble soul, even though born in a dog’s form, he was an angel incarnated…

RIP my dear friend, you will be certainly missed but will be remembered always for all the love you brought into our lives… 

We attempt to resolve the mystery of life through reading scriptures, books by Masters, attending spiritual workshops, visiting temples, going on pilgrimages and yet after doing all this the mystery remains unresolved since it can’t be solved through reasoning or deduction, it has to be experienced in the moment through acceptance and awareness.

Reasoning, logic, intellect are good to deal with worldly matters but trying to comprehend the Source through them is like using a knife to cut water. You have to leave the shores of intellect(head) and dive into the waters of acceptance(heart). That, my friend, is the leap of faith…

To align your intent, thoughts, words and deeds with the One Source is the purpose of all prayer. It needn’t be a complicated mantra that you don’t understand the meaning of, make it simple, understandable – such as-

May I have the will, energy and opportunity to keep my body/mind calm and healthy and let it lovingly be of service to the world around me 

or

As long as the body lives, let it be healthy

As long as there are hands, let them serve all lovingly

As long as there are legs, let them go to explore far away places

As long as the heart beats, let it beat for others

As long as the eyes see, let them see the good in the world

As long as the ears listen, let them listen to the good in the world

As long as the mouth speaks, let it be of good thoughts and intentions

As long as the mind is active, let it be calm and sound

As long as there is energy, let it be to serve unconditionally

As long as there is breath, let it be a blessing for all…

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We come from the same Source and fold back into the same, it is in between that we think that we are somehow separate from everything around us and this imagined separation is the source  of our hurry, worry, curry(attachment to sense pleasures) attitude of looking at the world.

Whatever you think you want to achieve in life is actually an indicator that you are still under the illusion of separation (Maya) and that is the only thing you need to transcend. For once you do so life is bliss – no hurry, no worry, no curry.

If you want to ask yourself whether your spiritual process is working for you – check whether you still are hurried, worried or attached to sense pleasures and if you are then there are still miles to go before you sleep…

How you choose to look at life is your choice and there is nothing right or wrong about it, it’s just the way people are and that is the beauty of the world to experience life in different ways and enjoy the variety.

It is when people adopt the “I am right, everyone else is wrong” attitude that the problem starts. Then some people resort to violence(in words/actions) to express themselves(the right wingers in every part of the world) whilst others choose non-violence. Whilst violence seems to be an immediate solution, it is never so, it only initiates a chain of violent events that doesn’t culminate well…

Be that as it may, such is life again and you cannot really change the orientation of people unless they realize it themselves but you can certainly choose to express yourself non-violently in words and actions and make a difference, albeit small. In most cases you can agree to disagree and move on with life without resorting to violence.

As the Beatles song says “Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend”. Live and let live…

My today’s post on Gandhi’s Satyagraha movement elicited a mixed response, not about Satyagraha but about how good or bad Mahatma Gandhi was…. This set me thinking about Character assassinations that are being done on social/news media by one and all, even God’s aren’t spared, let alone mortals.  Today’s social media is dragging Savarkar, Gandhi, Nehru, Buddha etc into controversies and passing judgements on their characters… I wonder who are we to judge?

People seem to have an opinion/ view on everything and want to wear the label on their sleeve but when it comes to taking action whatever is convenient is upheld, regardless of the earlier view/opinion… In other words, people are judgemental about what other people should or shouldn’t have done but when it comes to themselves the scales of judgement are flexible…

Reminds me of a biblical story – Jesus had once said to a mob wanting to stone a woman(not the man) suspected of adultery that  “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” and not a single man could even lift a stone…the mob dispersed…

A similar example is given in Ramayan: The story goes that after shooting the fatal arrow on the battlefield of Lanka, Ram told his brother, Lakshman, “Go to Ravan quickly before he dies and request him to share whatever knowledge he can. A brute he may be, but he is also a great scholar”

So you see, no one is 100% right or wrong. There is good and bad in everyone, we must learn to take the good and leave the bad just like the metaphorical Swan that can separate and drink only the milk from a mixture of milk and water signifying that we must absorb what is good (milk)in the world and leave out the bad(water)…

Back in school days, Star Wars was my favourite movie and it was my first introduction to the concept of a life force – Prana and to be a Jedi who uses life force for the welfare of others. As children we used to emulate the characters in our own minds. 

It was later that I realised that the Jedi’s were actually Yogi’s as we would call them in India but with a difference that they used the force to counter the dark forces much like Ninja Warriors. Luke Skywalker the budding Jedi who under the training of Yoda the Jedi Master upheld good and Darth Vader – the Jedi who chose the wrong path under the training of the Dark Emperor sought power & destruction…

But it is not as simple as shown in the movies that there is a dark side(villains) and there is a good side(heroes). In real life you are the hero for some and a villain for others. Real life has all shades of grey that you have to keep navigating at every turn, every decision and that is why the faculty of Buddhi has been provided to choose wisely…both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader exist in everyone and who you choose to emulate becomes your destiny…To become a Jedi/Yogi amidst all the lures of the dark side is the journey of every soul .

Hence the Mantra/ prayer for guidance of intellect (and consequent actions)- Gayatri Mantra as explained by Swami Chinmayananda – 

“May my intellect be steady without agitations; may it be clean without the dirt of passions. May the light of consciousness come to shine forth a brilliant beam of its radiance through my intellect. Thus my perception of the world be clear, my discrimination subtle, my judgments correct and quick, my comprehension of situations and beings precise and wise.”

John Lennon’s “Imagine” is actually just stating a possibility that we can co-create and free ourselves from the bondages of past differences (between nations, people, idealogies, etc)that are continuing to destroy a perfectly good present…

We suffer that which we can’t let go since this life is temporary, impermanent and in that, change is the only constant. To hold on to past differences is bringing the past into the present and losing the opportunity of creating a completely new present since our responses are conditioned by the past.

As Mirza Ghalib puts it “Kuch is tarah maine zindagi ko asan kar liya, kisi se mafi maang li, kisi ko maaf kar diya”

Micchami Dukkadam