Tag: losing

Fear and Faith

Perhaps it’s fear that makes the world go round, imagine what it would be if it were faith… Faith is when you act on your belief despite your fears. 

Fear and faith are two sides of the same coin, it is when you turn from the material to the spiritual that the former doesn’t hold any influence over you.

Traditionally, humans were spiritual beings who, for prudence’s sake, took care of their material needs; nowadays more and more of us are material beings who, for the sake of prudence, attend to our spiritual needs.

The switch, my friend, from material to spiritual is in your hands, choose wisely….

Om Namah Shivaya

It is from the Source/Unmanifest (Shiva) that Creation/Manifest(Shakti) arises and unto it folds, hence Shiva is called Mahadev (Super God). That is also the reason why Shivaling is depicted in the shape of an elliptical/cylindrical shape (form) emerging from the Unmanifest (substance).

All creation has this Unmanifest Mahadev at its core. Hence the saying “Har Har Mahadev”(Everything is Mahadev) to remind us that all forms are Shiva and Shakti of which the Shakti keeps changing and is impermanent and Shiva is unchanging, eternal.

We experience Shakti every moment but it is to experience Shiva that we practice Dhyana till we experience the permanence in the impermanent which is Advaita(there is no second) and is also Mrityunjaya(Transcending Duality, since duality is only an illusion/Maya)

Om Namah Shivaya 🙏

Happy Mahashivratri ❤️

Value of priceless?

Just witnessed a spectacular sunrise, a sight that never fails to bring that wow feeling, accompanied with a feeling of humility that we are just a small speck of dust in this marvellous creation.

And yet we live in societies that measure the worth of wo/men with the scale of power/success/fame and somehow start evaluating self worth on this scale. How do you put a price on love, discipline, integrity….? Not everything that has value has a price…

Reminds me of Amitabh Bachchan dialogue in Trishul -“Duniya mein daulat hi sab kuch nahin hoti… par yeh baat kuch log nahin jaante”

Peace

People are chasing myriad ways to lengthen their lifespan, without finding peace in the present moment. Then what’s the point?

The principles of finding peace are simple 1. To know that everything is impermanent – which can be simply observed and 2. To develop an attitude of compassion in everything you do. Knowing this is easy, living it is difficult. Hence the people able to do the latter are called Saints, who are far and few.

If your spiritual path is not making you a humble, compassionate person, rexamine it and make a course correction.

How much/many?

How many friends would you accept on social media to know that just one good friend is enough?

How many places will you travel to, till you say you’ve seen the world? 

How much money would you like to have, to you say it’s enough?

How many desires will you fulfil to know it was never about fulfilling desires? 

The answer my friend is blowin in the wind, the answer is blowin in the wind….

Duck or Eagle?

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.

Games you can’t win

There are games intentionally designed in a manner that you just cannot win, wherein there are endless pursuits, deteriorating situations, unpredictable outcomes, these are to teach you that everything in life is not about winning and that you cannot have everything, …Sounds familiar? That’s what our own life is trying to teach us – you cannot have everything your way, you cannot keep winning and most importantly it is not about winning. 

Unfortunately our entire system is created on the basis of win or lose whether it be Presidential Elections or Sports or Business outcomes…You are trying to get your moment under the sun by winning in something, in a life where win/lose really doesn’t matter, it simply goes on. You try to get more wins than anyone else in a game of your choosing and think that is life…Whilst life is not about winning, it is about accepting that it is a game wherein there is no winning or losing, it is about enjoying the game which is completely forgotten.

Win or lose doesn’t matter, are you enjoying the game is all that does. Are you?