Does God exist? Depends on what you refer to as God.
Is it a power/person sitting up in the sky controlling everything and keeping tabs on good/bad deeds?
Or is this God/ power within you?
Or there is no God/power and everything is simply happening…
You are free to choose your option but it may or may not be true, so what is true? That, my friend, has to be found out by yourself should you be interested in doing so…
We are born in a world of conclusions expressed by religions, enlightened beings or prophets. Due to the inherent limitations of words to convey exact meaning, there could be a variation in what is intended to be conveyed and what is actually conveyed/understood. To accept what is expressed in words at face value is just the beginning of the spiritual journey, to experience it directly is the purpose of the journey…
If you read any newspaper on any given day there would be news about AI taking over human civilization, Statistics about % of people living below poverty line, Billionaires going on Space Travel, New Champion in Tennis/Cricket, New age Baba Wanga predictions of the world coming to an end in July 2025, Global Warming, Nuclear War, Third World War and other reports of murder, etc. What are we coming down to? Technology is bringing us closer and yet we are seemingly moving apart…There don’t seem to be any rational answers for what we are chasing and why?
We are living in an increasingly technologically connected yet psychologically disconnected world. Technology is taking its own course and giving power to destroy the world in the hands of unstable, even insane leaders. If they don’t kill us, global warming will…How do you find sanity in such insane situations? The answer is for all to find connection with the Divine within us and that is the only way of retaining your sanity and being connected with all again since we are all connected at Source.
Our nature is brought out in every action we perform. We seem to be born with certain preferences, likes and dislikes, desirable and undesirable behaviours, etc. These are merely our personality traits and they can be changed 100% if we so wish since these personality traits are nothing but long standing habits that get passed on from one lifetime to another. A sum total of all die hard habits is called the nature of a person and is generally accepted as not changeable but that is not true, this can and should be changed if desired.
The will to change however depends on the acceptance of a person that something needs to change in him/her. Most people take the easier way out of simply blaming others instead of embarking on the path of identifying and implementing change which is a difficult process. The maturity to accept that change is needed usually comes either after the habit has already brought upon ruin or it’s too late.
For others it is the case of “Kalta pan valat nahi” (I understand but can’t seem to bring about change). Consequently, in a world where everything is impermanent, sadly your nature remains permanent. Hence the importance of good sanskars – which is not just inculcating good habits in children but also in ourselves. However what is considered good is itself confusing in a morally compromised world. So you have to find your own balance – that is the concept of Sattva in Yoga… It is not about balancing things in your life, it is about being a balanced person….
The World Wars, if at all, have shown us that nothing is achieved by Wars and yet here we are at the brink of a war, which both nations can’t afford (One more so than the other) wherein the instigation is from terrorist outfits but the masterminds could be from across the world. There is no way that you can get to just the masterminds or the terrorists so there would be loss of innocent civilian lives in doing so…
There was an interesting situation shown in the last season of “The Wheel of Time” series on Prime Video wherein two boys are excommunicated from their tribe for resorting to violence to bring back their kidnapped sisters from some violent kidnappers. The tribe follows “The Way of Leaf” wherein violence in any form leads to excommunication. The boys don’t know what to do post excommunication so they say that they will protect the tribe from violent people using violence and allow the tribe to follow its non violent ways. It led me to think that is “Ahimsa” practical and possible at all in a world where violence is an accepted way of life and we already have mechanisms in place to deal with it – legislation(Civil and Criminal Laws), executive (Armed Forces, Police, etc), judiciary (interpretation of laws with respect to the situation), media (to report facts)… Whilst we may have our own views of whether the mechanisms are working at all or not, one thing is certain that violence is an accepted fact.
So do we start compulsory military training, like some nations that have accepted war to be a way of life, for all our citizens(25% or more of which are under poverty line) or do we give peace and religion a chance and create a safe place for people to live without the fear of terrorism/war, if so how? The answer my friend is blowin in the wind, the answer is blowin in the wind…
Our body, thoughts, ideas about life change drastically as we age, so does the content of our lives, our possessions, our memories, our long standing habits (which can also be changed). We are much like the Ship of Theseus wherein all aspects of our lives seem to have changed and yet something remains the same which is the cognizing/witnessing aspect of consciousness that precedes “I/Me/Mine”, the lens through which we view the ever-changing world.
The body is born and will die but there is this element of eternity that precedes birth and survives death of body. You are that. This knowledge has to be directly experienced and the one who does that is “Mrityunjaya” – the one who has overcome the fear of death.
Intellectuals try to fill the mind, the wise try to empty the mind.
It is in emptiness that true creativity happens, everything else is just a rehash of something learnt earlier.
The Source lies beyond both filling and emptying and is not concerned with either and yet it is the cause of everything. It can only be reached in complete silence which is also the way of emptying the mind
There’s an interesting story of a “Duck or Eagle – you decide” floating on Whatsapp wherein a cab driver chooses to focus on rendering a great service to each of his clients instead of sitting and complaining about everything that’s bad with the world around(which is plenty ;-)). The story uses the analogy of ducks and eagles – ducks just make noise and complain whilst eagles soar high. So be an eagle not a duck….
I realise that most people have made it a habit to complain about almost everything that touches their lives and in effect make lives miserable for not only themselves but also everyone around them by focussing on what’s wrong.Now there is another way that could be chosen and that is to find what is right about everything and what is good in everyone – it may not change the factual situation but it puts your mind into a positive frame to find a solution and hopefully does that for others around you as well.
My fathers advice to most sportsmen who he trained as a sports psychologist was “Choice of Focus”. You can and you must choose what you focus on. The mind usually brings up memories of failure that deject you and reinforce the same behaviour repeating the same cycle of failure. Instead you could choose to remember the successes or even imagine you being successful in whatever field you choose and lo! it happens. Try it, it certainly doesn’t harm but puts you in a positive frame of mind.
So the next time you open your mouth to complain about something, know that you could use the same energy to praise something that’s good or better still, start working on correcting whatever wrong you notice, instead of just complaining about it.
Humility is a sign of spiritual progress. Pride is a sign of ego.
Ego driven/Intelligent people are able to glibly rattle off verses from Holy Scriptures and assume that they are in a position to guide others on the spiritual path but they forget that they cannot share what they have never experienced.
Hence look for humility, silence in Guru’s. Such Guru’s(Ramana Maharshi, Buddha, Nisargadatta Maharaj…)would encourage you to practice silence, being in the moment as a witness and find out for yourself. If you can’t find one then it’s better to walk the path alone….
Your direction is more important than your speed. Look inwards in silence
Most people think that Yoga is performing some body twisting exercises to improve flexibility.
Yoga is not only about flexibility(Asana), else every Gymnast would have been a Yogi.
Yoga is not only about breath control(Pranayama), else every endurance athlete would have been a Yogi.
Yoga is not only about maintaining a code of conduct(Yama/Niyama) nor only about withdrawing your attention(Pratyahara) nor only about sitting in meditation for long periods of time(Dharana/Dhyana)
Yoga is all of the above till you realise that life is not about seeking/doing but about accepting/being…(Samadhi)
MAGA+MIGA = MEGA, both depend on how you define “Great”. Is GDP the measure of “Great” or is Technological/ Military Superiority? Complete disregard to environmental sustainability / human values in the pursuit of economic, technological, military superiority, surely cannot be termed as “Great”. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening.
We live in a world with 8 Billion Human Population & God knows how many other sentient beings spread across different geographies that have been defined by drawing imaginary borders/lines to divide not only land/water/sky but also everything that comes within those boundaries. A handful of chosen or self appointed megalomaniac leaders of the 8 Billion control the fates of others and they seem to be hell bent on defining “Great” as economic prosperity coupled with technological and military superiority…
We have to first redefine “Great” to have a foundation of humanity and environmental sustainability and then make all efforts to get somewhere from there. If we don’t, we may not need any meteors for the extinction of the human race, we will self destruct ourselves….
Bodhisattva 