Sivas will be done

Aum namah Shivaya

Thou will be done.

Anbe Sivamayam Satyame Parasivam

I beg Siva to help me surrender to His will

I pray Siva to help me in making correct decisions in line with Dharma without creating Karma.

The "untethered soul" book learnings

Thanks to my Milwaukee colleague who recommended this book

• We do only two things in life: cling and resist

• Living life with the mentality of dying any moment will make you more accommodating of people, more patient with circumstances and more soft and pliable. In other words - death teaches us how to live.

• Who are you that is lost and trying to find yourself? The concept of you and your world and your clinging and your resistance was created by you out of nothing. You created the dark clouds (thoughts) around and now trying to find who exactly are you in those clouds?

• Do your dharma (duties) well and then it will clear you from your karma

• The inner room mate is always there trying to tell you something, it doesn't let you stay quiet. Surrender to His will and stay so, The "quiet" will come.

• We end up meeting our destiny in the path we take to avoid it (this line is from Kung Fu Panda actually).

• Everything is predetermined. Its an illusion to think you are under control. You can will what you wish, but can you will what you must wish?

• Use the circumstances offered by life to free yourself by staying as the subject. Do not ever try to identify yourself with the objects

• Sometimes when the ego is watching the object, it suffers or enjoys, becomes the possessor or loser, owns or disowns. So both the subject and the object are the creations of the mind only.

• First the one became two, and then more vrittis followed. Know that the moment you name/give a sound/form for something, you have switched from nonduality to duality.

• Lack of inner resources leads to laziness and boredom.

• All the states that you want to attain in life are already present in the mind.

• That emptiness is the fullness of everything. Say loudly "Siva's will be done" and stay quietly.

Be the energy

There are only two possible ways the awareness gets dispersed and we are what is popularly called "lost in the game"

- an event in the conscious mind which linksto another thought causing a chain reaction
-past residual impressions popping up all of a sudden

these two distractions prevent me from being consciously conscious.

Watch the watcher, that is the way out.

while meditating today felt the being of energy in me, this energy is always there and is called by many names - awareness, willpower or energy.

When this energy gets conscious of limiting thoughts due to past conditioning, we feel like a being with limits. This results in misidentification.

This is what I learnt today when I went within.Aum

Fate versus Karma

A friend tries hard to succeed by taking a big risk in his career by quitting his current job and trying to win a better job, at the end all his plans are foiled and he loses the job he was seeking for to someone else, along with the earlier semi-stable job. Meets his friends and relatives and shares his agony with them – about how unfortunate he is and how fate is playing a big role in his life – and something doesn’t allow him to move past a particular point in life. He also loses faith in all the temples and gods he visited and the numerous Guruji’s & prophets who had promised him success. I have seen many people start hating God and denying that there is no such thing called god existing.
In the past - I have encountered similar situations in my own life – I try hard to correct a problem – it backfires or just doesn’t work no matter what I try. On some days it seems like a very smooth sail, on other days no matter how hard I work the storm just keeps getting worse.
Here is the answer for such questions from my gurudeva: Consistency is the key to the conquest of Karma. Whatever happens to us in life is not due to fate. There is no such thing called fate. Whatever happens to us – good or bad is a result of ones own making – ones own beliefs, lifestyles, past grooming, the way one lived life since childhood, past lives etc. We alone are responsible for the good or bad decisions as well which we make as we sail through the river of life.
I heard Vivekananda’s saying once which says : Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached. Another guy called Randy Pausch – a very famous professor from the Carnegie Mellon University - said the same thing. The stumbling blocks that come to stop you from reaching the goal come for a reason. They want to know how badly you want your goal ! They are there to stop the others who don’t want the goal as badly as you want ! The famous Japanese guru (Pai Mei) from the movie “Kill Bill” screams at Uma Thurman -- during the Kung-Fu training when she cries in pain while hitting the wooden blocks with her bare fist - ‘Hit  it harder, The wood should be afraid of your fist !”
To summarize – consistency and willpower are the keys to the conquest of karma. There is nothing called fate. We make our own fate through setting positive or negative patterns in life.
This inspiring story of Abraham Lincoln portrays one such example:
A common list of the failures of Abraham Lincoln (along with a few successes) is:

• 1831 - Lost his job
• 1832 - Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature
• 1833 - Failed in business
• 1834 - Elected to Illinois State Legislature (success)
• 1835 - Sweetheart died
• 1836 - Had nervous breakdown
• 1838 - Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker
• 1843 - Defeated in run for nomination for U.S. Congress
• 1846 - Elected to Congress (success)
• 1848 - Lost re-nomination
• 1849 - Rejected for land officer position
• 1854 - Defeated in run for U.S. Senate
• 1856 - Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President
• 1858 - Again defeated in run for U.S. Senate
• 1860 - Elected President of the United States (success)

Here is the famous Pai Mei training scene from Kill Bill

Beautiful Movie

Forrest Gump, what a wonderful movie ! Tom Hanks plays the lead role. Very good performance. When he is a kid, school refuses to take him in because his IQ is well below average (<80) and is autistic. He gets in though only to find that His schoolmates treat him like an animal. He is treated as the “unwanted one”. Nobody likes to sit next to him in the school bus and is treated like dirt. Except for one girl – Jenny who offers him a seat.

I was discussing about this movie with Mitti in office bus and he rightly summarized it – It shows the power of human spirit !

An untalented, low IQ young boy is taught by his mom only one thing – “Don’t allow others to say that you cant do anything.”

This movie opened my eyes in some aspects

The Insignificance of Money

• Forrest puts all his money earned from Ping Pong endorsement to buying a shrimp boat because he had promised his dead friend Bubba that he would start a shrimp business along with him.
• Once becoming a millionaire in shrimp business Forrest donates more than half his fortune to Bubba’s family and building a medical centre and then starts working on cutting grass for free.

“Forrest Gump: And cause I was a gazillionaire, and I liked doin it so much, I cut that grass for free.”

[When he doesnt get a single shrimp from sea he says the below]

“Forrest Gump: [dejected] No shrimp.
Lieutenant Daniel Taylor: Where the Hell is this God of yours?
Forrest Gump: [narrating] It's funny Lieutenant Dan said that, 'cause right then, God showed up”

The Impermanence of Relationships

“Forrest Gump: You died on a Saturday morning. And I had you placed here under our tree. And I had that house of your father's bulldozed to the ground. Momma always said dyin' was a part of life. I sure wish it wasn't. Little Forrest, he's doing just fine. About to start school again soon. I make his breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. I make sure he combs his hair and brushes his teeth every day. Teaching him how to play ping-pong. He's really good. We fish a lot. And every night, we read a book. He's so smart, Jenny. You'd be so proud of him. I am. He, uh, wrote a letter, and he says I can't read it. I'm not supposed to, so I'll just leave it here for you. Jenny, I don't know if Momma was right or if, if it's Lieutenant Dan. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it's both. Maybe both is happening at the same time. I miss you, Jenny. If there's anything you need, I won't be far away.”

The Power of Selfless Will

Forrest Gump: I gotta save Bubba!

Mrs. Gump: You have to do the best with what God gave you.

The Power of Love & Understanding

Forrest Gump: You know it's funny what a young man recollects? 'Cause I don't remember bein' born. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But I do remember the first time I heard the sweetest voice in the wide world.

Jenny Curran: Were you scared in Vietnam?
Forrest Gump: Yes. Well, I-I don't know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out... and then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bayou. There was always a million sparkles on the water... like that mountain lake. It was so clear, Jenny, it looked like there were two skies one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the earth began. It's so beautiful.
Jenny Curran: I wish I could've been there with you.
Forrest Gump: You were.

I got quite emotional on seeing the movie, it kind of made me feel how insignificant we are when we try and judge or criticize other people who are playing mere roles as designed by the cosmos.

PERSISTENCE

The movie also shows the power of persistence over everything else. A guy who has no vision or expectation from life – who does things just for the sake of doing, repeatedly on seemingly stupid projects – attains all the success in life.

DEDICATION

Another characteristic which led him to his success was his Absolute dedication to Mentors/guru and Love for peers.

The benefits of Willpower

 

Today I’m very glad and proud of my brother. I had always motivated him about the power of will (Sankalpa Sakti), made him read gurudeva’s thoughts on cultivating willpower, the need to finish what is started and improve the will by using the will by doing every job better than expected such that the inner soul is satisfied. He has really worked on this aspect in his studies – I have seen him work so hard and exhibit will that he is a true example of amazing things the human will can do. The big project that was in front of him were the II PU exam and CET (Common Entrance Test) exam. I observed the following about him

• Can work for 12 hours without breaks continuously for an year! – True example of exhibiting willpower for difficult projects.
• Very good attention to detail – rehearses the entire exam with timing.
• Attempted & solved 7 physics exams at home before writing the final exam.
• Backup planning and attempting extra questions for failsafe during exam time by saving enough time by solving problems faster upfront.

The willpower he exhibited is being reflecting in the results today.

• Result -> 99 Percent in PU Exam
• 19th Rank in CET for Karnataka State (from amongst approximately 2 lakh + candidates)

The results of hard work and willpower are sweet and he surely deserves it. May Lord Ganesha bless him for a bright future in Engineering.

Gurudeva says

In the very same way, in the external world, if you begin something, you finish it. If you are working on a project creatively, you maintain your efforts until you bring it to a conclusion. It is such people who become truly successful in meditation.

Aum Nama Sivaya

Related Posts: put more energy, Sivas Will, people with willpower, unleashing willpower

Task List growing long ?

Using Willpower to accomplish tasks is channelizing the rarefied energies into those thoughts pertaining to the tasks of interest - which in turn will lead to the accomplishment through action.

Make a list of Tasks that are needed to be accomplished and allow the thoughts to meditate only on those. To create and hold a thought in mind without getting distracted requires perfection in concentration.

Recently saw the English version of “Ghajini” Movie (Memento)– and saw that how even though the hero has a forgetful short-term memory – he gets the things that he wants done – by capturing the photographs of people he deals with – and allowing the thoughts to only ponder upon them without any other interfering thoughts. A picture helps to visualize a goal very clearly and will lead to the accomplishment of the same.

Its good to have a pictorial representation of the goals/tasks that we wish to accomplish. This will lead to channelization of the bodily energies towards that particular goal. Planning to implement this approach in my life from today :)

Here is my first goal:

"Be Like Him"

Aum Namasivaya

Put more energy !

Read this great advise from Gurudeva today:-

Then when we are working in our daily life, involved in external things and material affairs, the point of reference is that the energy within and the core of the energy and the Self itself are real. The key is to put more energy into each activity you are engaged in. Rather than renouncing it, really work at it. Put your whole self in it. Get enthusiastic about it. Then you are flooding more life force through the body, right from the center of life itself. Having the Self as a point of reality reference and not the material things, with the life force constantly flooding through these nerve currents, you are actually seeing what you are doing as part of the cosmic dance of Siva, as the energy of Siva flows in and through you. Through this practice you can cut through many of your deep-rooted subconscious hang-ups that were provoked in past lives without having them come to the surface, simply by creating a new habit pattern of facing and looking at yourself as a divine being performing your dharma in God Siva's perfect universe. You create the new habit patterns by doing everything as best you can, with as much forethought and as much energy as you can command. This approach will bring steady progress on the path of personal spiritual realization and transformation.

MOST PEOPLE THINK OF THEMSELVES AS REMOTE FROM GOD, BUT THE HIGHEST SOULS ARE LIVING WITH HIM EVERY DAY, NO MATTER WHAT THEY ARE DOING. THEY ARE LIVING WITH GOD, WHOM WE CALL SHIVA, WHILE WORKING, WHILE DRIVING OR performing ordinary chores. Siva is, for these remarkable devotees, closer than their breath, nearer than their hands and feet. This is the true spiritual life, which recognizes that there is nothing that is not Siva. Living with Siva is Siva consciousness. The reconciled past releases consciousness into the eternal moment in which we see Siva as the life and light within everyone's eyes. Living with Siva is living with everyone -- every reptile, fish, fowl, animal and creature, to the very smallest -- in a consciousness of the one life force within all of them that sustains this perfect universe. Truly, God Siva is everywhere. He is the energy within our mind manifesting thought. He is the thought thus made manifest. He is the light within your eyes and the feel within your fingers. God Siva is the ignorance which makes the One seem as two. He is the karma, which is the law of cause and effect, and He is the Maya, which is the substance of evolution in which we become so deeply immersed that we look upon the outside world as more real than God. God Siva is all this and more. He is the Sun, the Earth and the spaces between. He is the revealed scriptures and those who have scribed the scriptures. He is all who seek the wisdom of scripture, too.

Siva dances in every atom throughout this universe. Siva dances energetically, ceaselessly, eternally. Siva is perpetual movement. His mind is all-pervasive, and thus He sees and knows everything in all spheres simultaneously and without effort. Siva is the Self, and He is the energy we put forth to know the Self. He is the mystery which makes us see Him as separate from us. He is the energy of life, the power in the wind. He is the dissolution called death, the peace of motionless air. He is the great force of the ocean and the stillness on a calm lake. Siva is All and in all.

Our great God Siva is beyond time, beyond space, beyond form and form's creation, and yet He uses time and causes form. He is in the sky, in the clouds, in the swirling galaxies. Siva's cosmic dance of creation, preservation and dissolution is happening this very moment in every atom of the cosmos. Supreme God Siva is immanent, with a beautiful human-like form which can actually be seen and has been seen by many mystics in visions. Siva is also transcendent, beyond time, cause and space. Such are the mysteries of Siva's being.

Jai Gurudeva

Siva’s Will be done

 

The global recession seems to have affected my willpower too. Feeling very lazy to get up early in the morning on weekdays as well as weekends. Cold weather is also contributing to it – makes it very hard to get up early and go to temple. Past few days i have not been doing anything other than lazing at home during weekends watching TV, eating food etc.

Gurudeva has mentioned the following things about Willpower

It is only when one identifies his willpower as separate and a tool unto itself that he is able to move into the next phase, of discerning the difference between the primal life force within him and what it manifests.

Complete surrender to Sivas will is when the instinct and intellect is quieted.

Therefore, the process is one of breaking up the patterns of instinct and intellect, separating the impulses of them both, through regular and regulated periods of sadhana and meditation, so that the divine will, spiritual energy and infinite awareness can filter in and cause a new intellect to form. Beginning the sadhana, and the continued practice, is the first sign that Siva's will is being done in the aspirant's life. New energy abides within him because of the transmutation from the base to the Divine. New knowledge comes forth from within him as he builds upon it through remembering his accumulated inner experiences as if they occurred but a moment ago.

LORD SIVA TEMPLE, COIMBATORE, TAMIL NADU, INDIA

Aum Namasivaya

Gurudeva – On Overcoming Karma

 

I will be putting the above quote from Gurudeva to practice in my life from today.

Aum Namasivaya

MORE THE WILLPOWER WE USE, MORE WILLPOWER WE HAVE

Everyone has willpower. It is inherent to the makeup of the physical-astral-mental-emotional body. The center of willpower is the manipura chakra, located at the solar plexus. Unlike other energies, the more willpower we use, the more willpower we have to use. Actually, by
exerting our willpower, we store up new energy within the manipura chakra. This happens when we work a little harder than we think we can, do a little more than we think we can do. By putting forth that extra eff ort, we build up a great willpower that we will always have with us, even in our next life, the next and the next. Willpower is free for the using, actually. Therefore, the more you use your individual willpower in your religious service, in your business life, your personal life, your home life, your temple life, in fulfilling all the yamas and niyamas, the more willpower you have. It is an accumulative, ever-growing bank account.

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

A New outlook of life

By making the number of in-breath counts equal to out-breath counts -- and by holding the water-vapour-like-prana (blur and odic) just inhaled along with air in the solar plexus -- it is possible to effortlessly maintain concentration and willpower on a particular task for any desirable amount of time. Experienced this fact recently and realized its practical importance.


The only barriers that makes us lose focus from being awareness -- and force us to end up being the mind with its 60,000 useless thoughts we get on an average everyday -- and thereby prevent the "will" at the solar plexus to manifest "willpower" are

1. Mental Arguments with oneself or others.
   
2. Engaging mind in sexual fantasies.
   
3. Consuming Non-vegetarian food / those veg food which grow below the earth.

That way we don't add more into the subconscious dross -- and end up removing stuff from it.

If this is followed correctly -- it becomes easy to detect the other barriers due to the newly acquired siddhi -- which is the power of observation. The other barriers that i came across were

1. Thoughts/Beliefs implanted by society/parents in those early childhood days. These are tightly wired into our subconscious makeup - and some of them are plain erroneous.
2. Our very intellect which brought us till here in life and its associated novelties.
3. Strong Opinions/thoughts of people around us.

The intellect -- which is responsible for the "inner talk" in our mind can lead us on and on. Due to its being subtle in nature -- its more difficult to keep track of it and subdue it. In fact it may be happening this very moment as you read this post and you could still be unaware of it. But by a strong motivation and sheer will it quiets down eventually.

Thoughts, beliefs and goals that we have formed for ourselves in the past probably due to influence of family/relatives or sometimes books/novels also play an important role from capturing awareness in the mess of consciousness. One has to be there to understand what these subtleties mean.

Bottom-line is the more you remain the "watcher"/"awareness"/"energy", whatever you call it the more knowledge you receive in every minute of the day from this great University of Learning called Life.

Lord Krishna who recently celebrated His birthday in our home says these beautiful words in the Bhagavad Gita

When the yogi, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in Transcendence--devoid of all material desires--he is said to have attained yoga.


One should engage oneself in the practice of yoga with undeviating determination and faith. One should abandon, without exception, all material desires born of false ego and thus control all the senses on all sides by the mind.


From whatever and wherever the mind wanders due to its flickering and unsteady nature, one must certainly withdraw it and bring it back under the control of the Self.


The stage of perfection is called trance, or samadhi, when one's mind is completely restrained from material mental activities by practice of yoga. This is characterized by one's ability to see the self by the pure mind and to relish and rejoice in the self. In that joyous state, one is situated in boundless transcendental happiness and enjoys himself through transcendental senses. Established thus, one never departs from the truth and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of greatest difficulty. This indeed is actual freedom from all miseries arising from material contact.

As a lamp in a windless place does not waver, so the transcendentalist, whose mind is controlled, remains always steady in his meditation on the transcendent Self.


Steady in the Self, being freed from all material contamination, the yogi achieves the highest perfectional stage of happiness in touch with the Supreme Consciousness.

Hare Krishna

People with Willpower

There are many individuals on earth who have consistently lived life such that their awareness was a manifestation of willpower. They consistently attain their dreams and desires one after another. Such individuals are functioning on the manipura chakra - the realm of willpower. Their focus on a project can last as long as they want it to -- to drive the project to successful completion.

It is such people who become successful in meditation and self realization -- my guru says.

Examples of such folks whom i have witnessed in life are : Bjarne Stroustoup (C++ inventor), James Gosling (Java Inventor), Donald Knuth (Author of the book -- considered as the marvel of computer science called "The Art of Computer Programming"), Bill Gates (Founder of Microsoft), Rutherford (famous physicist), Randy Pausch (The Carnigie Mellon University Professor who recently passed away due to cancer)

Mr Randy Pausch explains how to attain life's dreams by giving his own life as an example. Mr Pausch is one of the key guys responsible for the Alice Project. He was a Virtual Reality expert and has contributed a lot to Electronic Arts (EA) the company which develops 3D games such as Road Rash, The Sims -- all of which are successfull. Some of the technology from his and his students work was used in the Spider Man III movie as well.

More about him his life here

Below is the famous lecture he delivered at Carnigie Mellon University called as "The Last Lecture"

Unleashing Willpower at any time

I learnt many things from my guru yesterday, want to write it down in my own words. Understanding His words in a true sense and actually realizing it took a lot of time. But it eventually sank in me. Thank you gurudeva for enlightening me time and again, and rescuing me in times when i had got the feeling of almost giving up.

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,

• 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

-- 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.

From these sayings i realized that if i need my subconscious to understand this, then all that i have to do is - meditate on the fact --- especially on those areas of the mind where i tend to identify myself with --- that they are just a region in the mind and mind was all over long back in all stages of manifestation and that novelty is its nature. This when done repeatedly for a long time will finally make the subconscious believe in the way my guru has mentioned. This is the key to keep the awareness - a powerful will at all times.

Humble salutations at my gurus feet for cutting my gross mind with this knowledge.

Second Learning:

People who have really worked hard and attained lot of success in life by their own willpower are the ones who are at a stage where they are ready to exit the "Anava Marga" - or the path of the ego. These are the souls who know how to use will for getting what they want. After attaining immeasurable success and wealth and fulfillment for whatever they had desired such as money, power etc, the desire for material things slowly wanes. Their desire for wealth, fame or money wanes in a natural way. If a person is still desiring all this then he has just started on the anava Marga for he hasn't seen fulfillment yet. A person below the Anava Marga is confused in life, doesn't have a well defined goal yet, will never manifest a strong desire for attaining anything worthwhile in this lifetime.

So its important for people who are below the path of Anava to manifest a well defined desire, a goal and strive to achieve it. The desire should and will go only after fulfillment and that's when we exit he Marga and go to the higher paths of selfless bhakti, kriya and yoga. If a person suppresses his desires for things outwardly- because that's what the society thought "desire less", but buried in his subconscious -- is the desire for things, fame/money -- then he/she is nowhere progressing. Manifest a well defined noble desire -- exhibit willpower and achieve it. This is the way to succeed in life. Such a person prospers both materially and spiritually. Those are the kind of people who can execute big projects and drive them to completion by pure willpower. Such people are the ones who can become extremely successful in meditation.

Quotes from Confucius

courtesy : http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Confucius/

Confucius' quotes have often filled me with energy and motivation, when i'm feeling low on will. His quotes are simple yet they have opened my eyes when i see the mistakes i did in my life. I have put some of them which are really important to me in my life.

* I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

* It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

* Men's natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them far apart.

* Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.

* Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.

* When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

* Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.

* Have no friends not equal to yourself.

* He with whom neither slander that gradually soaks into the mind, nor statements that startle like a wound in the flesh, are successful may be called intelligent indeed.

Persevering through terrible experiences

The worst experiences are the ones which bring about the best strengths and character.

Once a man prayed god to give him strength, God responded by keeping a huge heavy rock blocking him. The man had to struggle to push it out of his way. It took many days. But at the end of it he got what he wanted - Strength. Due to the constant pushing of the rocks he had a well developed musculature, and his arms had become strong - This is how God answers prayers.


Some experiences in my life are so strong and so terrible - that i end up completely identifying myself with the mind. It happens within a flash of a second. one thought leads to the other ultimately resulting in a miserable state of mind with all the emotions surging like a volcano eruption.

On the goal to the merger with Siva there are many many pitfalls - major one being how we respond to the experiences in life. As long as we react, these miserable experiences keep repeating. The experiences stop when we have understood them and stop reacting to them. End of the day it was an experience - neither favorable or unfavorable, but a result of some past karma carrying some lesson and necessary for the evolution of the soul.

The spiritual path is a long, enduring process. It does not reach fruition in a year or two years.

The spiritual path brings lots of ups and downs, and the greatest challenges will come to the greatest souls. With this in mind, it becomes clear that steadiness and perseverance are absolutely essential on the spiritual path.
- Gurudeva

In the Shandilya Upanishad (upm, p. 173-174, dhriti (steadfastness)) has been described as preserving firmness of mind during the period of gain or loss of relatives/friends/a loved one. This implies that during times of sorrow, difficult karmas, loss and temptation, when in mental pain and anguish, being misunderstood by a loved one, while suffering a heart-break, feeling alone and neglected, we can persevere, be decisive and bring forth the dhriti or steadfastness strength within us and thus prevail.

Life has been providing these experiences to me lately, probably due to my own past karma, however the good part is it is giving me a chance to exhibit the quality of dhriti. My guru was tru when He said that the world is our university and each experiences is there to test us. From past 2 days, i can say that i have got a some amount of success in being steadfast and im happy about it. Going forward it will be the way i live my life.

One translator of the Varuha Upanishad used the word courage to translate dhriti. Courageous and fearless people who are just and honest prevail over all karmas--benevolent, terrible and confused. This virtue is much like the monk's vow of humility, part of which is enduring hardship with equanimity, ease of mind, which means not panicking.

The Tirukural reminds us, "It is the nature of asceticism to patiently endure hardship and to not harm living creatures" (261). And we can say that dhriti itself is a "hard ship"--a ship that can endure and persevere on its course even when tossed about on the waves of a turbulent sea.

Many a times I wonder why it is good to passively endure hardship. To persevere through hardship one must understand, as all Hindus do, that any hardship coming to us we ourselves participated in setting into motion in the past. To endure hardship and rise above it in consciousness is to overcome that karma forever. To resent hardship, to fight it, is to have it return later at a most inconvenient time.

The following steps will be put into effect from this day in order to express the quality of dhriti - steadfastness more effectively:

• An essential part of steadfastness is overcoming changeableness. Changeableness means indecision, not being decisive, changing one's mind after making a deliberate, positive decision. Changing one's mind can be a positive thing, but making a firm, well-considered decision and not following it through would gain one the reputation of not being dependable, even of being weak-minded. No one wants a reputation like this.

• To be steadfast, you have to use your willpower. Willpower is developed easily in a person who has an adequate memory and good reasoning faculties. To be steadfast as we go through life, we must have a purpose, a plan, persistence and push. Then nothing is impossible within the circumference of our prarabdha karmas.

• It is impossible to be steadfast if we are not obeying the other restraints that the rishis of the Himalayas laid down for us as the fruits of their wisdom. All of these restraints build character, and dhriti, steadfastness, rests on the foundation of good character. Character--the ability to "act with care"--is built slowly, over time, with the help of relatives, preceptors and good-hearted friends.
  

• Observe those who are steadfast. You will learn from them. Observe those who are not, and they, too, will teach you. They will teach what you should not do. To be indecisive and changeable is not how you should be on the path to enlightenment, nor to be successful in any other pursuit.

• Surrender all resistances unto Him - know thats All is Siva, everything is His will, and He is the ultimate well wisher of the soul.

Bhagwan Baba - a perfect example of steadfastness gave me a good darshan at whitefield yesterday for more than half an hour. He has a major backbone problem and a deteriorating physical condition - yet He arrives for darshan regularly everyday to bless His devotees. His projects that were discussed during a speech yesterday - are a perfect example of how seemingly impossible things are made possible by power of will and steadfastness. Sri Sathya Sai Water supply project which supplies drinking water to the whole of Godavari district, Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital - providing free health care to all people including the tribal people who have no money - Shame on all the so called great countries like USA, UK, Australia and the whole of Europe for these countries cannot even think of something even close to "free" health care despite their technological advancements !

Thank you Baba for all the things you have done selflessly to mankind and for answering my prayer yesterday regarding Mr Manjunath and family, and for calling me for your darshan. I dedicate this blog post to You.

Obstacles for willpower

Personal problems, minor/major setbacks in life, minor failures, inferiority complex, health problems and most importantly getting side-tracked to accomplish many goals at the same time will lead to diversification of will. When will becomes diversified there isnt enough energy to drive the job to completion and we end up identifying ourselves with the subconscious mind because of our being disappointed with ourselves.

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.

Make it a habit of finishing each job that you start and doing it well beyond your expectations. When this is done the inner scrutiny of the inner being gets satisfied. Will is the spiritual quality that makes all inner goals a reality.

When awareness becomes diversified, renew it. Discover the will. Back to the spine. Feel the energy in the spine. There is no lack of it, is there? The more you use of it, the more you have to use of it. It is tuned right into the central source. When you become aware of the energy within your spine and within your head, you have separated awareness from that which it is aware of, for that is awareness itself, and that is will. Feel and Concentrate on the energy within the spine.

Come slowly out again and you have all the willpower you need to finish any job that you've ever started, to make decisions, to do things and handle your external life in a very positive way, so that it does not capture awareness and hold it steadfast for a period of time, deterring you on the path of enlightenment.

Discipline is the next goal to be attained. When you go into a meditation, decide first what you are going to meditate upon and then stick with it. So, you have to be very, very firm with yourself when you begin a meditation so that you stay with it the way you originally intended to do and perform each meditation the way you intended to perform it. This brings us into discipline. By not seeking or responding to discipline, you can learn to meditate fairly well, just as you can learn to play the vina fairly well, but you will never go much farther than that.

Locating "will" through feeling

Sleep is a cleanser for the subconscious mind. By the use of willpower this can be done slowly or quickly.

When you sleep, you are cleaning out the subconscious mind and educating it to face the experiences that you must go through as you evolve. This is done automatically, but you can help it by the use of your will. Everyone has willpower, but few know that they have any more than a certain amount. It is really unfair to tell them they have unlimited powers, because they have not the consciousness of how to awaken them, and it only leads to a subconscious frustration unless you give the key along with the statement. This is the key, and when you practice it you will realize that you are not a mere man in a physical body. You are a being that has unlimited power within: the power to acquire, to give, to understand, to love, to remember, to be magnetic and to be happy. This power is yours. It is locked up within you, only to be realized through the conscious use of the will. The will is a thing, just like your body, your mind and emotions when you learn to separate and control them. The will you can also control, once you locate it through feeling. This feeling you must search yourself for and try to locate where it is and trace it to what it controls and weigh it as to how much you use to accomplish different missions. You do this through concentration -- just plain thinking, coupled with feeling.

This is your birthright, your heritage. When you grasp this will from within, your consciousness will unfold before your vision. And during sleep you will speed up the process of purification and build strength daily until you fall into a conscious sleep.

Staying positive with willpower

Willpower is a spiritual quality which makes all our inner quests and dreams a reality. Willpower is defined by my guru as follows "Willpower is the channeling of all energies toward one given point for a given length of time."

As explained in earlier posts -- 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. One extremely important lesson in life ---- When we find ourselves not able to finish a project that we have started, because it got too boring or because its taking too much time. we have to be extremely positive and not allow the subconscious to become ramified with our basically being disappointed with ourselves. We have to work out extremely positively with our subconscious. -- Take a mountaintop attitude. If you are having a difficult day, tell yourself, "I'm working with my subconscious mind. Admittedly, things are not working out very well for me today, but I think I will have it all adjusted by evening." Then leap back in into the project where you had left it,work on it and finish it well beyond your expectations. Make every work you do satisfy your inner scrutiny and that brings about a little more willpower. Willpower has to be 'cultivated' like how we cultivate plants.

The habit of becoming constantly distracted makes it impossible for you to truly concentrate the mind or to realize anything other than distractions and the desires of the conscious mind itself. But with love & understanding of your own mind and with a constant positive attitude its possible to get right back on track and finish what we had started.

Driving a difficult project to completion doesn't take a lot of time. It just takes a lot of willpower. Someone can go along and work years and years and years and, with a minimal amount of willpower, constantly be distracted, constantly be complaining and constantly be unsuccessful. Another person can have the exact same approach and over a short period of time be extremely successful, because he has will. The previous way he lived his life, the previous things that he did, he handled in such a way that that willpower was there, or his awareness is a manifestation of willpower, and he goes soaring within on this will.

A person situated in the 'manipura' chakra is already doing pretty well in this arena. If you are working on a project creatively, you maintain your efforts until you bring it to a conclusion. It is such people who become truly successful in meditation.