If health is not good, you are obese or diabetic - look at the reason for it. Chances are it's your lifestyle which contributed to it. A rolling stone gathers no moss, so also an active body does not suffer diseases.
Lifestyle became less active probably because of the fact that you have given importance to studies more than any physical activity or sports during your formative years, reason was probably that parents wanted you to focus on studies, always asked you to focus on studies than anything else.
Many stock market biggies have poor health as they have given money as the most prominent role in life than health. Then they lose all their hard earned money on treating diseases.
Sometimes you're not spending nature may affect your partner who may want you to spend more. You may be conservative. Again there would be a reason for it. You might have grown up in middle class or poverty due to which you value money more. Or your parents trained you that way as money was scant.
The law of action and reaction constantly at work in shaping up experience.
When we are toddlers we are fine. We don't think of future or past. We enjoy every moment. Every instant and we think this is how life is going to be always. I remember when i was a small kid I thought that I will always be the same size, my parents will always remain the same way (I didn't know that we all grow old). I thought my family will remain the same way eternally.
We start schooling then suddenly fear of past or future comes into the nerve system. Thanks to teachers and their punishments in the name of discipline. Thus we start competing with other kids. We just want to complete one class and move on to the next with better grades. Then repeat the same in the next class and so on. We want to be better than all the other kids.
At some point we forget the present and focus on growing up fast, getting out of school and getting into a job. We struggle and work hard to get into a job.
Once we get into a job, we focus on being the best employee and get perks for the same from boss. We struggle to get a better raise, a better income,a better position and when things become peaceful we finally want a better job with more money.
We strive again to impress the next organization with our work and talents. This repeats until we get bored of all this one day and want to have so much money that we don't have to work at all. We now get into the mode of investing and gambling in the stock market to get quick bucks. We hate to pay taxes and we find different means to reduce it or avoid it.
As the body grows more we strive hard to get out of the state of being single and find an attractive partner, we try dating but failing and retrying. At times we do find someone with mutual liking but have to still struggle to make it work and lead to marriage if at all it happens.
Once we are married for a few years. We want kids. If that happens after a while we find being single more exciting and want to get out of marriage.
Once we have money and the possessions we want, we strive again to maintain the same standard of income and earnings and maybe try to increase our assets more.
Always in a state of discontent we strive for the next better job, partner, food or recreation.
We live as though we will never die. And we die as though we have never lived.
We live as though we are always right in life only to get reminded by life that we are always wrong. We search always for a limitless nature in every aspect food, sex, money yet we never recognize or awareness as that unlimited Self inside us which watches the whole unfolding drama.
During difficult experiences we feel like dying but when actually dying we badly want to live.
We want stability in job and career yet we want change as well.
The ego still has lot of issues with it. It just realized that it has no right whatsoever with whomsoever in future to criticize.
It has the tendency to behave instinctively if the opportunity presents itself.
Beware ! You may have very high regards about yourself and strong beliefs about yourself and what you stand for. This you is the ego or the Ahamkara in Sanskrit.
Given the opportunity the instinctive mind can "take over" your system. This taking over is what is termed as lack of self control in English. The soul inhabits the human body in this life time. After living through many many bodies of various species this body has been awarded to it governed by karma for further evolution. Due to this living in so many lives in animal bodies the basic instinctive tendencies which are : desire for food, attraction to opposite sex, shelter, fear of unknown or darkness is very much prevalent in it. It's these tendencies that are extremely hard to overcome not as a repression but through understanding.
Observing ones ego at all times reveals just how much the mind seeks pleasure and tries aversion from pain in day to day life
I know I am super conscious right now, all i have to do i observe and stop the subconscious thoughts & the voice of the little ego and shut down the conscious mind by closing the eyes. That’s all there is to reach it, but more difficult to sustain it.
The ego searches for constant improved life, improved relationships, improved conversations, its always in the doer mode instead of being the be’er mode. shutting up the ego avoids a lot of conflicts and allows us to cheerfully bear the karma and move on to the next experience rather than repeating the same old experiences.
Off late I'm realize the dire need to wake up early or at least wake up once awake and depolarize the body and not leave it half polarized in half sleep, the outcome – awareness going into the unexpected area – the sub of the subconscious mind. trust me, its not a nice area to be in.
Meditation and the energy released from it makes the memory patterns come out swiftly from the Muladhara chakra and magnify the latent karmas, that’s why experiences become intense for a beginner in meditation.
The newest learning I had is when advising somebody a solution one should look back at the experiential pattern where I myself (oneself) wiggled out of the same situation in a prior experience – maybe which happened in this or past lifetime and explain that rather than use the intellect. Experiential Knowledge is always the best than bookish or intellectual knowledge.
The current objective for me is often try to be the observer of the little ego instead of being the little ego constantly trying to improve itself from its cocoon of self created experiences.
Aum Nama Sivaya
I meditate intensely and after half an hour – I see the mind for what it is – a “self created principle” to put it in my gurudevas words. Thoughts come and go, then mind is still, yet the stillness is also a state of mind for a good observant ‘third’ eye. The thoughts are due to unresolved karmas and I observe them as they are being worked out by the soul. What is it that prevents me to realize Parasiva from this point?
Gurudeva answers
It is karma that keeps us from knowing of and reaching life's final goal, yet it is wrong to even call it a goal. It is what is known by the knower to have always existed. It is not a matter of becoming the Self, but of realizing that you never were not the Self.
Daily I observe behind every conversation with family and friends – the mind working out its karma. It is the cause for ‘pleasant’ or ‘heated’ conversations. Then I observe that a dominant karmic desire that has dominated the mind – the desire to be better / improve. It is this desire to improve which is present in every human being that takes the soul finally towards the self.
But Gurudeva says
Prior to that, it is a goal. After realization, one thing is lost, the desire for the Self.
After self realization the desire for the self is also lost because the ego which “houses” the desire is dead. This is the reason gurudeva asks people in general
Are we ready for the final journey life has to offer? Are we prepared to endure the hardships of sadhana, to suffer the death of the ego? Or would we prefer more pleasures in the world of "I" and "mine"?
My Immediate Goal : Maintain the meditation consistency in mornings. The thing to be practiced now is maintaining awareness over the object of concentration for a greater amount of time at will until effortless concentration is achieved.
Life has finally put me amidst people who are my own very relatives and close to my heart – but unaware of the God & Gods and see them as a product of imagination, unaware of the laws of karma, like to live life with lot of glitter and glamour, too many conscious and subconscious desires which are not yet satisfied, fear and negative emotions ruling their life on a day to day basis, anger taking them over when their wishes are not met, selfish and self centered, pessimistic with no willpower or Goals – either material or spiritual in life. In short such people are called “Anava Margis” (Those who follow the path of the ego) in classical Hindu Literature.
As my gurudeva says “The person who has the least – desires the most” – I'm finding it true in their lives. my Karmic consequences has created circumstances in my life to deal with such people on a regular basis & I'm not sure how I will deal with this. I surrender to the Holy Almighty Lord Siva and accept His Will. Sivas Will be done !
Many of my own relatives are accustomed to show-ff every small thing they do as something great. Their attempt to show others that they are superior is constant, their arrogance and pessimism has completely covered their souls in ignorance. Here is the answer from Tirumantiram for all those folks who like to show-off
The black-footed Garuda bird flies across the sky; a black-hued serpent dies in a deep well, all unseen. So, stop bragging of your greatness, O heart! Be like the river that merges into the wavy ocean.
- Tirumantiram 2513.
The Tirumantiram wisely points out that there are many things happening in the world unseen, so why are you begging for attention by bragging about your greatness? Be like the river which merges into the wavy ocean without even leaving a trace.
Siva has sent all these people in my life to teach me something and that is – How not to live life in confused lower states of consciousness.
Aum Namah Sivaya
Related Post: The World is my University
This blog is dedicated to my beloved gurudeva Sri Sivaya Subramuniya Swami. This dedication honors those mature souls who have guided me into what to do, how to live, think and feel, and those not-so-evolved souls who have taught me by their example, words and actions how not to live for a productive, joyous life.
Yes, "All are our teachers: some teach us what to do, others teach us what not to do." The decision as to which of these two paths to follow is ours and ours alone.
Life giving me experiences off late where I am witnessing both evolved souls who are teaching me what to do and also those not-so-evolved souls who are busy with the “family-life” (samsara), Karma and Anava.
Thank you O Supreme Lord Siva for all these learning's and bless me that I maintain this perspective that the World you have created is the University of constant learning and evolution for the soul.
Aum Nama Sivaya
Loved this chapter so much from Gurudeva that i wanted to post it here.
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
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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Energy, awareness and willpower are one and the same.
- When we are subconsciously conscious that we are a super-conscious being, and
- the subconscious mind has accepted the new programming that energy, willpower and awareness are one and the same thing,
-- then AND ONLY THEN the subconscious begins working as a pure channel, so to speak, for super consciousness. Awareness can then flow in a very positive, in a very direct, way.
- when the subconscious mind has accepted the fact that the mind was all finished long ago in all its phases of manifestation, from the refined to the gross
Second Learning:
My Big Stupid Ego
Scorpio was born knowing the secrets of life and death, and with the ability to conquer both if he chooses. But astrology constantly advises him that "he must know that he knows." The ancient mysteries fascinate his brilliant mind. Out of his powerful empathy with human nature grows the outstanding detective, the composer of great musical works, literature of depth and permanence, or the actor who projects with unusual dramatic intensity. Sometimes he lives alone, near the sea, as strong and as silent as the tides. Sometimes he faces the public, wearing a mask of calm reserve and control, to hide his intense desire to win. He can be a politician or a television star, an undertaker or a bartender, but he'll manage to top all his competitors. And hell do it so effortlessly it will seem like an act of fate rather than his own powerful will.
Scorpio is deeply interested in religion, intensely curious about all phases of life and death, passionately concerned with sex and violently drawn by a desire to reform. Yet he's also heroic, dedicated to ties of family and love, and gently protective of children and weaker souls. He can be a saint or a sinner. He can experiment with the darkest mysteries this side of Hades, or he can scathingly revile sin and decadence. Whether he emotes from a pulpit, at a business meeting, or from a stage, his hypnotic appeal pierces through his audience, literally transfixing or transfiguring them. It's really rather frightening. Even if the Scorpio has temporarily allowed bitterness, drink or melancholy to drag him into the Bowery, you can bet your old copy of Dante's Inferno that the other bums will clear a path when they see him coming.
Scorpios can bewilder you with his twin Scorpio traits of passion and reason. He's master of both: intellect and emotions rule him equally. Scorpio is more than intelligent. If he's a highly evolved specimen, he's also deeply philosophical, concerned with mysteries of existence, and he'll come close to knowing the answers.
His Sun position gives him several paths to follow. He can imitate the nocturnal scorpion, who will sting others and even gong himself to death for the pure pleasure of stinging - or he can imitate the glorious, soaring path of his symbolic eagle, who rises above earthly limitations, and uses his strength wisely and justly.
Great generals like MacArthur, presidents like Theodore Roosevelt and scientists like Madame Curie and Jonas Salk are eagles. More United States presidents have been born under this sign than any other.
No matter what my dad, mom, aunt, relatives say or advise or think about me, i always do and execute what i think is right based on my own observation of life. i do respect their opinions, but end of the day thats what they are - "opinions". And everyone has one. Why am i so ?
Every Scorpio is a law unto himself, and completely unconcerned with what others think of him. He would like to be respected as a good, solid citizen, but if it interferes with any of his intense ideas or goals, then he couldn't care less, and those who gossip can just go to the place Pluto rules. None of his important decisions are hampered by the opinions of his friends, relatives, neighbors or enemies. I'm sorry to say, not even by you. Don't run away yet. Such beautiful self-containment and sureness of purpose can create a mighty attractive, free spirit who's not always fussing about what people think. Are honesty and courage and integrity such bad bargains? They may have lost a little of their sparkle in today's marketplace, but rub off the dust they've collected, and you can still get them appraised as genuine.
Next, listen to him speak. The tone can be velvety soft, husky or sharply cutting, the speech slow and measured or clipped and staccato, but what he says will never be self-effacing. Scorpio has total ego. He knows what he is and he knows what he is not, and nothing anyone else thinks will change this knowledge. Insults roll right off his back, and compliments don't move him a fraction of an inch. He needs no one to tell him his vices or his virtues. At best, he'll calmly agree with your appraisal; at worst, he'll suspect your motives.
I have the habit of facing difficulties instead of running away from them. I have been like that since childhood. It sometimes feels better to avoid but i dont. Why i like to face my difficulties head on rather than avoiding them ?
When experiences becomes intense after a meditation and sensitivity levels increase, difficulties seem to get magnified. Many people i know give up meditation in order to avoid the miserable feelings. But somehow i never did. I always felt these experiences even though making me feel miserable and affecting me, are actually important for my own spiritual evolution. I liked this excerpt below which points out that trait.
It's quite an experience to see the Scorpio man operate under adversity's black clouds. While others are mumbling and crumbling and grumbling, he is at his forceful, courageous best. He seldom wallows in envy or self-pity, and he doesn't happen to think that life owes him a single farthing. You can just imagine how much time that saves. Instead of pouting in hurt anger when real troubles hit, he meets them head on. Conquer them? But of course.
That's what he was born to do.
I have had this experience in the recent past. I can be extremely possessive and jealous, which naturally i want to avoid. Why am i so possessive about people i deeply love and respect ?
Scorpio is intensely loyal to friends. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Some of them do this literally, for friends, relatives or loved ones-in battle or in a civilian crisis. The Scorpio soldier leaps instantly, instinctively, to brave the bullets and drag his buddy to safety. The Scorpio fireman gives his life to rescue the child in the burning building. Sometimes it seems Pluto people unconsciously seek violence deliberately, as a challenge to their strength.
He's fiercely possessive of what he believes to be his, whether its his love or just success, but his ambition is never obvious. He quietly waits for the chance to move ahead all the while he serves, knowing he is qualified for the position above him. He takes control slowly, but very surely. Scorpio can do just about anything he wants to do. If he really wants it, it's most definitely no longer a dream. The dark, magical and mysterious power of Pluto turns desire into reality with cool, careful, fixed intent.
If you're in love with a Scorpio male and the word passion frightens you, put on your track shoes and run as if King Kong were pursuing you. He is.
I'm not speaking of romantic passion alone, though that may be at the head of the list. I also refer to passionate intensity about politics, work, philosophy, friendship, religion, food, relatives, children, clothing, life, death and any other categories you can think up. A Scorpio man is not exactly what your psyche needs if you're repelled by emotional excess. Don't look back. Just run.
Look at the eyes. They can be green, blue, brown or black, but they'll be piercing with hypnotic intensity. Most people feel nervous and ill at ease under Scorpio's steady gaze. You'll have to break the spell and look away first. He'll out stare you every time. It's a foolproof identification of the Pluto personality. Scorpio eyes bore deeply into you, mercilessly, as if they're penetrating your very soul They are.
Scorpio never forgets a gift or a kindness, and it's richly rewarded. Conversely, he also remembers an injury or an injustice, but there are different ways of reacting. The eagle will crush the enemy so the enemy learns never to hurt him again, win the fight, and leave the defeated to go his own way. The deadly nocturnal scorpion will first sting, then plan destruction, then sting again. He's not content with merely evening the score. He must totally destroy the enemy, or at least top him.
The typical scorpion stinger will lie awake nights figuring how to get even. If a neighbor deliberately scrapes his fender, he'll scrape two fenders on the neighbor's car the next day, and maybe drive over his carefully pruned hedges for good measure.
These scorpions are seldom content with forcing the shoe on the other foot to teach enemies how it feels. They glue the sandal on with cement. However, with the gray lizards, Pluto revenge takes the form of bitterness held inside for years, which inevitably causes deep melancholy or actual, lingering physical illness. Seething Scorpio resentment, turned inward and never expressed, poisons with deadly certainty. Turned outward, it can create guilt, because the stinger scorpion is ashamed to harm the defense-less, when all is said and done. Therefore, it should be turned neither way-inward nor outward. It should be conquered by looking up and forgetting, like the eagle- never by looking back in anger and retaliation.
