I am the boss of my Mind !

 

Loved this chapter so much from Gurudeva that i wanted to post it here.

The Cause of Joy and Sorrow

Somewhere the idea was born that man should live in states of happiness and joy all of the time. But, in the first place, happiness and joy depend upon unhappiness and sorrow, even to be recognized or appreciated. If man would only know that whatever emotion transpires within him foreshadows its opposite. Secondly, suffering is a greater intensity, a higher vibration, than happiness. You do not learn much from your happiness's; you learn from the states of suffering, which awaken the higher consciousness of your soul. But suffering has no value for its own sake.

You learn more from the states of suffering than happiness

When the mind recognizes it is suffering over something or other, it is time to practice meditation, to see into the causes, to expand your consciousness a little bit more so that you will grasp the workings of life and its karmic laws. Then you will attain to a greater intensity than either joy or suffering has to offer. You will view the wheel of life, of cause and effect, objectively. And you will not so quickly identify yourself with the lower emotions or the objects of your own mind's creation.

Then there are the people who, like a fish caught by a fisherman, grasp onto the hook, who step on the spiritual path, but spend their time flip-flopping in the water, tugging at the line, swimming first one way then the other, never really approaching the surface. Why? They live in their ego, that's all. Their consciousness is limited. The ego is just a trifle dumb. Have you observed an egotistical person? He is just a little dumb, isn't he--not aware of the layers and layers of wisdom within him.

It is the wise man who recognizes the importance of controlling the forces of his mind. His life is a struggle to make his philosophy real, to gain control of the cycles of experience which have tied him to the wheel of karma. You don't escape the chain of cause and effect by just sitting with your eyes closed, trying to keep awake, trying to meditate. The genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day, having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not allowing it to flop around at the end of the line. This type of diligent concentration will definitely change you from the inside out.

The genuine practice of yoga involves meeting new challenges each day, having new realizations each day, becoming the boss of your mind, not allowing it to flop around at the end of the line.

You will begin to realize, more and more, that you are the creator of your life and every aspect of it.

But your incarnation on this planet is not complete until you have exhausted the wheel of karma, and it will not exhaust itself unless you gain control of it. The wheel of karma, of cause and effect, the world of form, is apparent only when you look at it. You only attain the natural state of your radiant inner being when you step off the wheel of karma. It is not natural for man to live bound to the lower states of mind, ignorant of the fact that God dwells within. But the hearing and understanding of this truth is only the first glimmer of the dawn, a preliminary awakening. The rest, the final realization, is up to you. It is up to you and you alone to penetrate the veil of illusion and realize the Self, the Absolute, beyond desire, beyond the experiences of the mind. It is up to you to realize God.

Aum Namasivaya

Pilgrimage Trip Learning's

 

Had a wonderful darshan of Shirdi Sai Baba @ Shirdi for more than 10 minutes. Though heavily crowded there was a sense of peace I could feel in it. Other visits included Dhagdu Sheth Ganapathi temple and Lord Siva @ Pune and Shani temple @ Shani Shingapur.

The learning's from the trip were many. In a nutshell it was along the following lines.

• The importance of the practice of tyêmmûîf state in Shum language - the state of being of protecting the inner life by remaining two-thirds within inner consciousness and one-third in external consciousness. The peace it generates in mind is really amazing especially even at the end of a long tiring day. This in turn leads to better health as well.
• The importance of keeping the physical body fit by not feeding it too much/too less of food and its effect on the mind.
• How People live in greedy states of consciousness and the way lack of fulfillment in life is driving them for aggressive marketing (@Shingapur)
• The sense of “pursuit of happiness” driven by lack of fulfillment in every person whether it is a better job, better spouse, better car etc.
• The way people react in anger for a short amount of time (by totally identifying themselves with the ego) @ specific circumstances.
• Many people living with so many voices in their mind all the time. This is exactly what the wise folks say “we are a crowd inside us”
• The power of staying unattached to circumstances, places, events or people as mentioned in this post.

The need for planning

 

Today i read about Gurudevas speech on Planning : the Key to success and have set out some goals to myself accordingly.

The Nandinatha sutra states

"Siva's devotees approach each enterprise with deliberate thoughtfulness, and act only after careful consideration. They succeed in every undertaking by having a clear purpose, a wise plan, persistence and push."

I have set goals along the following categories and intend to be persistent in achieving them.

1) spiritual goals
2) social goals
3) cultural goals
4) economic goals
5) educational/career goals
6) physical and health goals

Aum Namasivaya

Oneness and its stages

 

I discovered this article on the web courtesy: enlightenment-online.com which describes various stages of enlightenment. This is in sync with what my guru says as well. The various states are as shown below. All info below is directly from enlightenment-online.com

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Stages of Enlightenment

The Witness state--

1.  No more inner conflict.  You witness the mind and thoughts for what they are and experience the world as it is.  You live moment to moment in the present.
2.  Includes stage 1, but with an ever present feeling of joy.
3.  Includes 1 and 2, but with a great silencing of the mind.

The Oneness state--

4.  Includes the first 3, but with the permanent feeling of being connected to everything.  You no longer feel separate.
5.  All of the above but often, or at will, you feel you are the observer, the observed, and the observation.  You become the song you hear, the dance you dance, the tree you see, etc.
6.  All of the above but often, or at will, you expand into Cosmic Consciousness and encompass all of creation.  You feel you have become all of life.

God-Realization--

6 +.  Your Inner Dweller, Higher Self, the God Within, etc., (whatever name you want to call it) comes forth and is very present in your life. Your life is a constant flow of Divine guidance.

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I love the explanation of various voices of the ego within us in the below Video. The transcript is below:

Would you please clarify to us the meaning of oneness?

Answer: There are several degrees of oneness.

• Let us first look at oneness within oneself.

Right now you are not an individual. You are divided within, you are a crowd inside, you who is the son, friend, father of so n so, you are the friend employer or employee of so n so. There are so many beings within who are all the time talking.

Then again there is your conscious and your unconscious self, your authentic and your inauthentic self all having a dialogue all the time. You are the dialogue. When the dialogue shuts down you become all one inside. Alone means all one. There is no more division.

• At the next level you would find oneness with your fellow human beings.
• At the third level you would discover you are one with the earth the tree, the water and the sky, you are one with nature.
• You discover you and the universe are one.
• Ultimately you discover you and God are one. You would discover You are God. I intend to take you step by step to the final oneness.

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It is so very true that there are so many voices within us. As the power of observation becomes more and more better within ourselves we being to perceive these voices. They are constantly happening within us even now as we speak. These voice are what are responsible from keeping us away from our true self, peace of mind or the energy within.

Met my guru

 

I go with Saravana to Rama Krishna Mutt last Sunday to hear a 1 hour talk from my Guru Sri Bodhinatha VeylanSwami and the experience was really great.

I sat in the calm hall @ Rama Krishna Mutt waiting for my saffron robed guru and his disciples to arrive and there was an atmosphere of peace flowing through my mind. Finally Gurudeva arrived and spoke about Hinduism Basics, some of his personal experiences with various devotees in different countries, the relevancy of Hinduism in modern era, the misconceptions in other religious leaders.

One example which I really loved was regarding a Catholic priest who mentions that He is waiting to die and go to heaven to be greeted by the Lord. Gurudeva says that Hinduism has a different perspective regarding this. For us every moment is Living and Seeing God – we don't have to die or wait to die in order to see and experience God. Constant experience of the divine is what Hinduism is all about.

Seeing my guru was like seeing Lord Siva Himself. While he speaks my breath was regulated and I could feel the energy in my spine – And the more attentive my awareness was locked on him. I hope to work under His guidance and have already started practicing Shum which is a mystical language which my guru’s Gurudeva discovered through his meditation. To summarize - Shum is a language of meditation, for meditation, by meditation. My guru immediately recognizes me to my pleasant surprise and I even got a photograph along with him – thanks to one of the other devotee there. Then i take his blessings by touching his feet. All this happens so fast and my guru is already leaving Bangalore back to Kapaa, Hawaii.

Overall it was a great experience. Thanks to Gurudeva for bestowing his darshan and blessings upon me. After this myself and Saravana went to a restaurant for to enjoy a good dinner.

Jupiter enters Capricorn

In Sanskrit it is "Guru" planet entering "Makar Rashi".

Lord Rama belonged to Makar Rashi and when this planetary event occurred (guru entering his rashi) Rama had to give up the kingdom and take up 14 years of forest exile.

From one perspective this appears like trouble, on another perspective, it means guru came into His life so that He could shine to His fullest potential which actually happened in Lord Rama's Life.

I myself am Makara rashi and Jupiter entered this constellation on Dec 6th 2008. And I'm beginning to see many changes in life. By the grace of my guru i hope to brave the challenges and emerge successful.

A colleague of mine described a nice observation about life. He says when we were born - "our parents didn't expect that their kids would grow up to become Software Engineers in reputed MNCs and earn 5/6 figure salaries". Then he says "Do you know who your great grandma is? What she did?" I said "No" And he says something like "Everything even relatives gets forgotten, all gets washed away by the all powerful time". Third example he gave was about some of his old colleague friends - who got sacked from a textile company in a town in Tamil Nadu due to "low" performance - the same guys ended up working in a top company in the US few years down the line. So the sacking actually helped them advance their careers. To summarize what i learnt from him was

While flowing with the river of life - its the unexpected things that happen to us that make the journey exciting and give invaluable insights. The river experiences calm waters, violent falls, smooth sand, tough rocks, every minute is full of unexpectedness. Yet it keeps flowing and finally merges into the Ocean.

There is lot of truth in his words, we struggle everyday in pursuit of happiness, everyone is seeking fulfillment in one form or the other, better job, better food, better clothing, better financial security, better mate etc - every single human wants fulfillment, yet all the hard work and achievements in attaining those fulfillments are forgotten soon by us and society and life itself which is temporary, is over. Even on obtaining the fulfillments - lets say a brand new car for example - the sense of ownership lasts for a few days and then slowly over time the longing for a better car starts, the emptiness again slowly takes over.

Related Posts : The River of Life