Water drop on a lotus leaf

 

There is one song from a Tamil movie “Baba” which captured my attention after my mom casually explains its meaning while watching it on TV. Its a beautiful music composed by AR Rahman and the song lyrics go like this

“santoshi santoshi santoshi nee santosham kondadu sanyasi santoshi santoshi santoshi un santosham un kayill nee yosi.”

Meaning : Cherish the happiness which is inside you, No matter what happens – your happiness is in your hands – think about that. Its so very true that no matter how miserable the experiences are which are given by life – if the awareness is transferred to a pleasant experience – say a beautiful scenery from nature – you are still happy.

Example: Imagine you are in a dark prison alone with no one to speak/interact around. Now imagine that while sitting there you are totally in control of your mind and you imagine a beautiful beach in Hawaii. You imagine it so perfectly that you can see the waves coming and washing your feet, the slippery sand pulling your feet inside, the beautiful trees on the coast etc – And guess what – you are actually happy as long as you continue to imagine it and the dark cell does not exist.

The above is just a small example which summarizes that your happiness is in your hands. There are many people today who even though in a beautiful beach – instead of enjoying the beach – they are actually thinking of some depressing event that happened in their life in the past.

The next important lines of the same song which gives a much important message goes like this.

“maya maya ella maya, chaya chaya chaya ella chaya, pattum padamaley tottum todamaley, tamare eley tannir pol nee votthi votthamalliru”

Meaning : Everything around is an illusion, everything around is just your own (mind’s) reflection. Like a drop of water on top of a lotus plant leaf – which is Touching the leaf and yet staying untouched, live your life in (actinic) love yet free of attachments.

 

Illustration: A drop of water on a lotus plant leaf which is touching the leaf yet remains untouched as it does not leave any traces of itself when it moves around on the leaf.

Controlling Anger

 

Yesterday, a good friend of mine wants to know how to control Anger. I explained that its not a one line answer and it needs a detailed explanation. All the explanation below is directly from my Guru – in his book “Gurudevas-ToolBox” which is available at himalayan academy website.

ANGER EXISTS IN THE LOWER CHAKRAS

Angry all the time?

Anger, I have observed, is the most difficult fault for people to overcome, because it comes in so many different forms: pouting, long silences, shouting, yelling, swearing and more.

Those who remain prone to anger should not do raja yoga or any form of intensive mantra, japa, or pranayama amplification of the energies into higher chakras—lest that collective energy plummet into the corresponding lower chakras and be vented through fear, anger and jealousy.

My satguru instructed,
“Do good to all. God is there within you. Don’t kill. Don’t harbor anger.”  

There are eight rungs of anger on the “violence ladder:” sneaky anger, the cold shoulder, blaming and shaming, swearing, screaming and yelling, demands and threats, chasing and holding, partly controlled violence, and blind rage. Some people are just angry all the time because they live in the lower nature, constantly engaged in mental criticism and arguments.
Anger makes a person cunning in his thinking, and of course the predominant underlying quality of anger is fear. He is always afraid of something. It is generally something that may happen or is going to happen. He is always in conflict with someone. These are the motivating forces of the conscious mind: anger and fear. Most people live in the conscious mind unconsciously.

Anger is also, like fear, an instinctive control, and at one time served its purpose. The onrush of anger served to protect man’s private interests in critical situations by injecting adrenaline into his blood and thus preparing him for defense. But as man evolves closer to his real, actinic being, he discovers that actinic love, understanding, compassion and wisdom are higher qualities than anger. Anger can eventually be controlled by putting a sum of money—five dollars, for example—in a jar each time one becomes angry and then donating that money to an orphanage. It soon gets too expensive to get angry. However, for devotees who are wealthy, that doesn’t work. For them, I’ve found the penance of fasting for the next meal after they get angry works. We all know the refined, uplifting feeling of bhakti. Every religious person in the world has experienced this at one time or another. It is the total surrendering of oneself to God and the Gods. As the soul emerges out of the lower aspects of the instinctive mind, the muladhara chakra begins to unfold because of the bhakti that has been awakened through daily worship and sadhana. Admission and honest confession then bring up repentant feelings through the  subsuperconscious mind quite unbidden. When this happens within the devotee, it is truly a boon, marking progress on the spiritual path. Confession, the voice of the soul, can now be heard. As the intellect clears, the honest truths of experience, formerly hidden to oneself as well as to others, are revealed. The soul, the conscience, emerges in all honesty and remorsefully confesses the burdens it has been carrying. Yes, confession is truly the voice of the soul. Nothing is hidden to oneself when dharma supersedes adharma.

The entire book (Gurudevas Toolbox) is available for free download in PDF form at this link. click here to get the same. It also explains how to conquer the lower emotion of “uncontrollable fear” which is very common in women.

Many more important free e-books are available in this link.

Related posts: Techniques for Mind control (Mindmap), Understanding is control.

Difficult Projects

 

Life offering me lot of difficult projects at work and also at home off late. These projects require undivided, zero distraction oriented attention in order to drive them to completion.

Though they are tough projects, its a great opportunity given by this great university of life to improve my concentration and willpower. My concentration has tremendously increased over the past weeks and I am able to hold awareness steady over my projects.

My guru says - This willpower and concentration thus cultivated from everyday life can be internalized later towards the final goal of self realization.

Here is an excerpt from “Merging with Siva” which talks about the same

 

It is not developing a strong will by having a lot of half-finished jobs. It is not developing a strong will by starting out with a bang on a project and then fizzling out. These only attach awareness to that which it is aware of and lead us into the distraction of thinking the external mind is real. Then we forget our inner goal of Self Realization because the subconscious becomes too ramified with, basically, our being disappointed in ourselves, or the willpower being so diversified, or awareness being so divided in many different ways that whatever we want to do never works out because there is not enough will, or shove, or centralization of energy, or awareness is not at attention over the project enough, to make it come into completion. A tremendous will is needed on the path of Self Realization, of drawing the forces of energy together, of drawing awareness away from that which it is aware of constantly, of finishing each job that we begin in the material world, and doing it well, so that we are content within ourselves. Make everything that you do satisfy the inner scrutiny of your inner being. Do a little more than you think that you are able to do. That brings forth just a little more will.

Related Posts : People with Willpower

Various coverings

The goal of every aspirant on the spiritual path must be to identify and remain as “Awareness”. Gurudeva states that this is the the most basic aspect which one should strive for. There are many coverings around awareness which we end up identifying in life during the experiences that it offers. Where awareness flows – energy goes. The practice is to try to remain as awareness.
When awareness becomes conscious of the body, and identifies itself with it – all the instinctive tendencies such as survival, mate, sensual pleasure, reactions such self defense are alive.
When awareness becomes conscious of the Mental/Emotional body we identify ourselves with emotions such as anger, sadness, happiness, depression, loneliness, pride, arrogance, jealousy, revenge etc and they appear very real.
When awareness becomes conscious of the Intellect – we are aware of science, problem solving, scheming, politics, stock market, investing, reasoning, world affairs, management etc. People in this state of conscious believe “reasoning” is the only God. If its not reasonable its not acceptable. They are of the probing nature and most of it is induced by fear and insecurity. The intellectual world is never ending as it keeps adding onto itself. In the corporate world the better the reasoning capabilities and intellect of the person the more valuable he is deemed by the organization which hires him. Higher the intellect greater the paycheck.
When awareness becomes conscious in the Super-conscious regions – fine arts, music, creativity, soothsaying, intuitional-problem solving instead of reasoning-problem solving, dance, instrumental music, breakthrough inventions in science and technology comes naturally to a person. For those mystics who live in these areas every day and night – the world looks like a playground. Awareness seems to expand rapidly in these areas of super-consciousness and man feels one with the world. Everything falls under the right perspective. Everyone enters these areas during deep sleep but only mystics know to enter these areas consciously.
Simply put when awareness is not conscious/attached to any particular area of mind and free to travel to any area of the mind can enter the super-conscious regions.
When awareness is only aware of itself, by consciously being directed on itself – it dissolves in its own essence my guru says. God Siva's all-knowingness may be experienced for brief periods by the meditator who turns within to his own essence. The Tirumantiram explains, "When the soul attains Self-knowledge, then it becomes one with Siva. The malas perish, birth's cycle ends and the lustrous light of wisdom dawns." Aum Namah Sivaya.
So the first step is to identify and stay as awareness before we realize Lord Siva – my guru says. Its a pre-requisite to knowing Lord Siva. A mental picture which guru describes for awareness is a golden ball having 4 eyes in 4 directions.

Karma and Prayaschitta

Im moving in a very tough test offered by life now, though i take complete responsibility for whatever is happening to me - awareness is moving to areas that are unpleasant. I centre myself and try to relax a little and awareness is back to those states. There are strong temporary illusions that suddenly come in life, trouble the mind and go away. But the mark remains. Finding it difficult to stay like a child which can live continuously in the "now" as if nothing happened. So that shows i still have a long long way to go in this spiritual progress. 

From gurudeva:

What Is Sin? How Can We Atone for It?

Sin is the intentional transgression of divine law. There is no inherent or "original" sin. Neither is there mortal sin by which the soul is forever lost. Through sadhana, worship and austerities, sins can be atoned for. Aum.

Bhashya

What men term sin, the wise call ignorance. Man's true nature is not sullied by sin. Sin is related only to the lower, instinctive-intellectual nature as a transgression of dharma. Still, sin is real and to be avoided, for our wrongful actions return to us as sorrow through the law of karma. Sin is terminable, and its effects may be compensated for by penance, or prayashchitta, and good deeds which settle the karmic debt. The young soul, less in tune with his soul nature, is inclined toward sin; the old soul seldom transgresses divine law. Sins are the crippling distortions of intellect bound in emotion. When we sin, we take the energy and distort it to our instinctive favor. When we are unjust and mean, hateful and holding resentments year after year and no one but ourselves knows of our intrigue and corruption, we suffer. As the soul evolves, it eventually feels the great burden of faults and misdeeds and wishes to atone. Penance is performed, and the soul seeks absolution from society and beseeches God's exonerating grace. The Vedas say, "Loose me from my sin as from a bond that binds me. May my life swell the stream of your river of Right." Aum Namah Sivaya.