Eternal Pursuit

How long it had been since you stopped pursuing something worthy? In our childhood, we pursued one or two things to achieve our dreams; be it educational and career oriented courses or cherished hobbies.

What was the driving force to pursue such goals? Was it a desire to get into high earning job or business, or to satisfy our non-financial interests, such as music or playing? What happened to our zeal that was there at some point or other?

We can see some people have enormous energy to pursue their goals and hobbies, irrespective of their age. That reminds me of a person who is very religious in his hobby of enrolling members in an association he is attached to. His passion to that association is evident during elections. I don’t know whether he devotes his time to his family or not, but he must be deriving satisfaction from his activities.

Now, coming to my point of the driving force behind the different pursuits people take up, we can see that the pursuits keep changing over a period. As we grow our pursuits also grow in scope and scale.

Pursuit of anything consumes our precious time and energy. Of what utility is our pursuit depends upon the relative weight we assign to it. Pursuit of pleasure has no end in life, if we closely observe. We follow one object after the other in our pursuit.

We can recall the law of diminishing returns in economy. As per this law, our satisfaction decreases progressively as the quantum of our consumption increases, or as the time period increases. Meaning, thereby, the same object which gave us satisfaction earlier gives less and less satisfaction when it is used often or used over a period of time.

That’s why they say variety is the spice of life. In our quest for variety we lose concentration and focus needed to pursue our original goal to its logical end. That gives us another reason to go for another goal. Thus we constantly change our focus and goals. But, this is the vicious circuit and is a trap.

We go after a number of different goals one after the other. When do we stop and see what is that we really want? If we want to achieve happiness from our living, we need to pause a little and calm our mind. Then, the calm mind will work efficiently and guide us to pursue our goals effortlessly. That is one way of finding a workable means to achieve our goals in life.

As far as the kinds of pursuits are concerned, we can have a lot of them but the one pursuit we should remember in life is pursuit of happiness beyond material possessions and physical objects of life.It is eternal and everlasting and will be with us forever.

We came here without any object and therefore looking for happiness in objects is of no avail. Let us remember this fact and accordingly, let us look beyond and look inside deep in our hearts. We listen to the true calling of our inner being then and find out what it is to  have eternal bliss. Let us pursue this inner calling and  take up the inner journey as Eternal Pursuit. No other pursuits are required thereafter, for our true happiness.May all pursue the Eternal Pursuit.

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Hippolions

A hippopotamus hides in water for most part and occasionally lifts its head and after looking out for some time again goes inside water. A lion on the other hand, looks around in a majestic way always while roaming. People admire and also fear a bit due to lion’s ferocious ways while in action. But, it is surprising to see people clap for a hippopotamus and not for a lion. While many people think that hippopotamus is harmless, in reality, it is a dangerous creature. A lion is never misconstrued by people, in this way. We see some people boast about their boldness in taking decision while lecturing others and pretend to have the qualities of lion in the forest. They expect others to take their words and follow them. While there can be no question on their confidence in speech, in practice, they thrive only because of the contribution and strength of silent workers behind the scene; and  not on their own.

When the time to lead arises, instead of being in the forefront, they mysteriously hide behind bushes and appears to be busy. This conceited way of behavior made me to coin a new word, the Hippolion, to symbolically denote the two faceted qualities of certain people in our daily living, wherein, they exhibit appearance like lion but hypocrisy in action like a Hippopotamus.

This phenomenon is not limited to any particular field. We can see in every aspect of our life. It may be a serious business for some to portray as a savior in front of the crowd in public functions and get publicity in return for paid clapping. People also forget the reality, thereafter, as they get the entertainment and our Hippolions get the breathing time for the next public function.

We never hear back from them about the fulfillment of promises made from the platforms. Whether pretending is preventing their performance or pretending itself is their performance, is the question we need to ask ourselves to have any reasonable answer.It is time to think deep and see the truth in order to adjust our life accordingly.

In fact, we can see that the very nature of people is an admixture of natures of all creatures in the universe; and to appreciate this phenomenon, one needs to do further inquiry. When we observe different people closely, we can see through their real nature. We all have certain amount of the qualities possessed by every other creature. Only the degree of predominant nature varies in each individual and usually, that predominant nature comes into expression, which we attribute to that person at a given instance.

Some people express, though rarely, the minute and hidden qualities in any situation, even in adverse conditions and that’s what separates them from others. We call them as Mahatma or Great Person. So in the end we all have ability to express subtle qualities we possess inherently, which otherwise will be hidden in the corners of our being without being exhibited at all. We, thus, lose lifetime opportunities if we do not bring out those qualities in life. Expressing humane qualities in all circumstances, uniformly in our daily dealings is the way to be a human being literally. Otherwise we are nothing but social animals.

Therefore, what is required from us is to pray for our evolution from animal behavior to becoming a Human being. We express human quality even though it is not predominant, initially. We will be what we ought to be, then. That’s when we can stop ourselves to be seen as hypocrites or animals in human form. Let us resolve to be a Human being first, before craving to be a leader.

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Being Trustworthy

Someone asked about the reason why people do harm to the other person, when in fact; they actually loved so much the other person. Is there any particular reason for these types of situations?  Some say they never imagined that their trust would be breached so blatantly. They get disappointed with unexpected outcome of their trust with the other person.

To my mind, it appears that in the first place, we don’t know whom to trust. We need to understand the dynamics of trust. Trust is not same as that of developing a simple relationship or a long friendship bonded by attachments.  Trust builds up between people, when they get associated closely on a particular cause; say a charity work or social cause. After sufficient understanding of their inherent qualities and watching their true nature in public as well as in private, trust develops between people.

What we see outside of them is to be assessed from what they are in private. Their intentions may be good, but what happens when their behavior is unacceptable to us? whether in public or in private.  The friendship may break and the Love may also break.  But then we do not feel hurt badly all the time. Why? Because, in the first instance itself, we have not taken pains to develop that friendship or relationship in all cases. It hurts us only when we invested our time and after deep thinking, venture into developing the attachment with the other person. We never take each and every friendship or love seriously and therefore, we are not affected badly by the sundry quarrels between friends or relations, even if they break.  

Is it lack of coherence in their behavior or lack of consistency in behavior towards us that leads to breach of trust? The answer will be difficult and it depends upon our own expectation. All the time, we expect others to behave with us and with others too, as we want. Is it not unfair to them?    A friendship or love may develop in just minutes because of the inner push or urge to get something quickly, out of the situation, which may last long or not. Trust does not develop in haste.

Trust demands that we respect each other for what they are and how their behavior is and discard expectation from others. Then trust further gets strengthened. Any deviant behavior by other person is treated as normal and we do not get perturbed with their short term behavior or actions. That is true demonstration of trust.

Since there is no expectation from or by any of the parties involved, there is no haste or ill feeling among themselves. Things go on smoothly then. It is only when we want to control the outcome, attachment begins and the moment we perceive loss of control; we get disappointed, as there is no true trust. We thus need to differentiate between a relationship driven   by attachments and a trust developed without any selfish intent.

Trust in Divine Master will bring every other thing in the universe close to us and we truly become trustworthy, then. Let us develop trust among the entire humanity.    

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Stress free life

People are, generally, worried to take responsibility even though they know that they gain satisfaction with the work they accomplish. Why is it so? If we take up the task at hand with the idea to do it right now, we probably will not have anxiety or so called “stress” in common parlance. We all, at some point of time, felt stressful for one reason or the other.

I recollect an interesting situation some 27 years back, when my friend was driving a moped and I was pillion rider. Suddenly a traffic constable blew whistle to stop some traffic offenders and my friend also stopped for some time and drove forward afterwards. The constable started running towards us sensing something wrong on our side. My friend stopped again but, as soon as the constable slowed down, my friend again raced. This flip flop went on for some time and finally the constable stopped our moped and asked for documents like driving licence and insurance. One by one all the documents sought by the constable were shown by my friend. Seeing everything alright, the frustrated constable left us.

I asked my friend why at all he resorted to this hide and seek drama, instead of straight away showing the documents to the traffic constable when you know all the documents were available with you and you need not worry when he stopped. My friend coolly said that he just wanted to tease the constable, who normally harasses the innocent people.

This illustrates two things. One, we need not worry when any law enforcement agency questions us so long as we know that we did nothing contrary to the law. In that way, we can be stress free. Secondly, if we  are stress free, we can enjoy any process, however cumbersome and tedious it may appear to be, even if it is painful sometimes, because we intentionally acted  that way.

This is the crux of the matter of being stressful or stress-free, in a given situation.

In contrast, we can observe that some people become very stressful on seeing clients or inspectors of various authorities. Why? Inwardly, they know that something was lacking in their work. ; they might have evaded some responsibility or  might have some hidden agenda or diverted the issues, instead of discharging their duty or they think that they are clever and skillful in handling people. Why do we need to manipulate  people, when people interact with us in a normal way and reciprocate our behaviour?. Is it that we know, inside our minds, that our behaviour is not in consonance with the situation? Or, we think other people are inferior to us? Anyway, it indicates our own lack of some qualities, which we need to learn further, to become a human being.

See for yourself. Whenever we knowingly shirk off our roles and responsibilities, we feel jittery and become stressful when our actions come into scrutiny. So if we avoid our work now, remember that we have to compress our feelings of guilt at some other time, which leads to worry and stress.

Stress ,per se ,may not be bad, as we all know that some amount of pressure is essential to get the work done. If the required work is not done or necessary effort is not applied, then stress builds up in our body. So, one best way to avoid stress is to willingly do the work, whatever it may be. Doing something is important rather than planning to do. That’s the reason we see hard working people are healthy and stress free. We can see that condition from the faces of people.

Stressful people often evade our pointed questions on some important subject and get angry without reason. If they just acknowledge that evading their responsibility is not going to reduce their work or burden, then they will understand how easy it is , to be stress free. Any variety of measures to reduce stress will not bring results unless we train our mind to be calm and balanced, as the cause of stress is inside the mind, which is undisciplined  and in general, constantly wavering.

Some people think that by bullying or putting others down, their immediate problems are solved. Instead of taking required action from their side, their behaviour further agitates their own mind if the other person coolly puts up with whatever is meted out to him, like a saint.

The reason is not difficult to understand. It is because of the drifting  away of the mind from truthfulness. By being truthful means, having alignment in our thought, word and deeds. That is another way of defining, the quality of having Integrity.

So long as we maintain integrity, our body, mind and our inner being, we  will be in harmony with nature and therefore, stress will not find its place in us.  As we all know, our individual mind is a factory of thoughts and if , somehow, that is made calm, the body will also be healthy. We realize our true nature.

We are healthy by nature but we create conflicting thoughts in our mind, thereby producing stress. So let us take control of our mind first, to face the life’s situations in right spirit and enjoy the fragrance of life. Let us not pretend with anybody. Let us not procrastinate anything, we need to do, as procrastination only builds stress. Brooding over past or future things, without action on our part is the main cause of worries and stress.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Instead, let us contemplate on the Nature and Reality of life. Let us be natural and truthful, to be a happy person always. Let us be stress free. Let us say good bye to worry and stress, by taking action in an unattached way. We would not need stress management lessons, then. We would be able to  manage and do the things with responsibility. All our actions will then be joyful to everyone.

 

 

Neutral Thinking

We often hear from all the so called successful people to develop positive attitude towards life and people for a successful life. I wonder what it is to be positive. Is it saying yes to others opinion or wishes? Or is it being supportive to the offenders like sympathising or empathising? If anybody expresses the difficulty or helplessness to do a thing needed to be done for their own sake, what sort of advice given by us will be treated as positive by them?

Suppose a man is not in peace with himself because of his misdeeds and now fears punishment from the Government, what type of advice or opinion will be treated by him as positive, with regard to the next course of action, he has to take?  Is it the suggestion to declare the misdeed prior to discovery by the authorities or a clever way to escape from the situation by another trick? Whether the advice is treated as positive or negative depends upon the gravity of the misdeed and the relationship of the advice giver and taker.  Often, one tries to strike a balance between impact of the quantum of punishment meted out as per law if discovered or the imposed penalty for its pre disclosure.

This reminds me of the surrender of some persons once involved in outlawed activities, in India at various points. What happened to those surrendered persons thereafter? Whether the persons who surrendered were satisfied with their decision or not, and whether their surrender achieved the objectives of the State, is mostly unknown to the public, to comment on those acts as positive or negative. Any opinion on these types of issues, is further is affected by the implied and stated objectives of both, the State and the surrendered people. We don’t know yet. Nobody talks about it afterwards, because it is no more profitable or sensational to the media.

So, coming to the point, being positive or negative in life is relative. There is no absolute positive or absolute negative situation or action in life. It is in between. It is an agreeable action amongst the society, to say in common terms.

Now, let us come to the aspect of negative thinking. Is it fearsome to hear about negative word itself? For any medical test conducted for diagnosing a disease, the test result is designed to be declarative if outcome is positive. Meaning, thereby, a positive test result indicates presence of a certain disease and a negative result lack of it. So the patient prays for getting a negative result.   Similar is the case for any expected outcome. So the expectation decides whether something, be it an opinion or an examination, is positive or negative.

Therefore we can see the dilemmas of life through these types of prisms. Contrary to the alternating nature of positive or negative aspects, why don’t we inculcate a neutral attitude in life situations? We normally cannot be neutral because of our prejudices and unbalanced mind which continuously oscillates from one extreme to the other. That’s life in general. We change constantly. But we expect a neutral decision from a judge to get justice. We expect the nature to be neutral for us. Why?  One reason could be that, we inwardly know that nature is just and balanced and it does justice to one and all. We all look for that balance in our life. We forget that we were born in a balanced condition but our actions created all the confusions and the result is turmoil.

We did all things with the idea to be a sole beneficiary over others, not in some but in all aspects. We learned the so called competitive spirit in the course of our education.  Now the same competitiveness has brought us to this unbalance in our mind and society. Therefore, we want everything to be set right by the leaders in various walks of life. Instead, why don’t we see things through a clean and crystal clear lens? Then we see things as they are.

Neutral thinking is seeing as it is and without any coloured lenses or prisms which distort our vision and presumptions.  Instead of intending something and getting some other thing, we will, then, be like the nature; neutral and equal to every other living being, with no passions, hatred and undue attachments. Relationships will then be just as they should be. A brother is a brother and a stranger is a stranger. Nothing more and, nothing less. Worries will vanish because there is no positive or negative expectation from anything, situation or person. Then we will see the beauty of life in its true colours and enjoy the nature and it’s every creature.

So, why cannot we learn to be neutral? Just try, we will feel the reality.  Are you ready to think neutral? It will be more appealing to be neutral than being positive or negative. There will be no pressures or anxieties for us, then.  Remember, when we take a position, then, there will be an equal and opposite position waiting to counter our thinking in the universe. So let us begin to be a neutral person, a natural being, from now onwards.

That doesn’t mean that there is no action from our side. No. We do perform actions as per requirement, as a duty for duty’s sake, but we do not expect the results, to be as per our thinking. Results will be according to our actions, no doubt. But we are detached from the outcome. Then, we reap what we sow. Justness will then work in our life. Are you starting to think Neutral from now? Think over it. Experiment for gaining real experience. Be a true being, my dear neutral co traveler on this planet.

 

Grain Journey

How long do I need to go through this dry spell, as it is very difficult to continue my journey without having a drop of water, leave aside having a stream of running water that I am so accustomed to enjoy. I remember in my early lifetimes or avatars or births, so to say, I used to be kept wet by the nature so I am always fresh and happy. People used to respect me so much as they used to give me and my fellow beings due place in their homes. My journey started when I mixed with heavenly rain drops enjoying the fall from such a high level as all creatures cheered the event – eagerly waiting for quite some time.

That grand welcome from wet eyed farmers gave us satisfaction for which we took pains to come back to earth to fulfill their hunger in equal measure without discrimination amongst all living beings unlike present day humans who, in their greed, store us for years together in dry places for their profit motives, depriving, at the same time, other needy beings. From the earth, we used to wait to enter our mother crop which is usually three to four months as per wishes of the farmer. Sometimes we take the form of wheat, sometimes sugar cane or corn and so on.

See what is happening now. It is almost one year that I am struggling to sprout in the field. Then after taking shape in the crop, my farmer used to nurture us without chemicals so we were happy without that typical itching and inflammation on my tiny body. We used to spring up in abundance and while farmers were celebrating our entry to their house, in our new form as fresh crop, we used to see happy faces all through our journey to store houses, whole sale and retail stores etc. More so in all creatures from worms to insects to birds, animals and humans all eager to take some of us to their homes for feasts planned in their own way.

This phenomenon is quite common those days,with open transportation and leaking gunny bags. All creatures used to eagerly await to welcome us from the green fields. We used to satiate many creatures starting from the field itself, secondly during transportation to various stores to the tiny kitchens, and from there to the varied sizes and shapes of bellies for further churning in their long intestines. The whole journey used to be a winding and exhilarating experience. In this process we used to satisfy many creatures by filling their bellies throughout our journey. Even after consuming us to their satisfaction people used to leave balance of us in cooked form to many animals as leftovers for their consumption, not thrown out in drains.

So our journey used to be a perfectly laid out mechanism equal in proportion to all creatures according to their needs,not their greed.That is how nature does justice to all. But what is happening now? When we starve for wet ground, tired farmers are abandoning the fields due water shortage. Who made the shortage a recurrent phenomenon? Some greedy farmers dug deep wells and overfed the cash crops such as tobacco, jute, cane etc for their profits depriving us the food crops which fill up thousands of creature’s bellies. Some humans, out of their lavish lifestyles, cook us more and instead of consuming or feeding other creatures, throw us after making us stink or stale, in bins. What is the Result? Every one of us is stuck in our journey to our source. Some of us are stuck in the beginning phase itself waiting for formation of clouds, not being able to drop down to take form on earth, like unborn child so to say. Our situation is no different. Some of us are stuck in fields waiting for rains to sprout, some in unused stocks in the hoarder’s go-downs, some stuck in cooked stale food, some in drains.

All these experiences are totally unexpected and contrary to our way of passing the life, which is through the mouths and stomachs of creatures satisfying all the way, for which we are meant for. Our purpose is to be food for all to fulfill the hunger of creatures in the process we derive happiness.

 

Thus we complete the journey from raindrop to the stomach of creatures, back through drains, sewers to Mother Earth. Again from the drains, we get carried away by gushing rivers to the oceans and finally by evaporation to the clouds.

If the chain is broken or bypassed by the unconcerned humans, being the most intelligent and supposed to be leaders of the Animal kingdom, are they not just depriving the hunger of creatures but obstructing the dictum of nature?How can we serve the creation on earth for which we are ordained? Surely this is the time we need to appeal or pray to the Nature, urgently, to set things right and give sense and wisdom to the humans who are responsible for the greed, injustice and utter selfish situation prevalent now; leading to degradation of environment.

May Nature intervene by granting wisdom and good sense to all humanity for the benefit of all creatures. It is sure to happen and good times are ahead and humans will mend their ways before Nature bends them. Your loving Grain. Your source of happiness. With love.

Agenda

We often plan a lot to do especially in our quest to achieve career goals, skills to learn and master the art of dealing with people and so on, the so called soft skills to win over people or learn from others etc to say the least if not controlling the resources. So long as we are not confronted with opposition in our way or view, we think we are on our way to conquer the circumstances if not the world. Through this march, we will use techniques such as strategy formulation, influencing, talking with others in a way they follow us including agenda fixing etc in our dealings. Having agenda per say may not be an unwanted or unnecessary thing, but in the process, we may be marred by our own accord as the discussion with others will be viewed as a win or lose situation, instead of having a meaningful dialogue for mutual learning and gain from wisdom of the people.

When we want something invigorating or input unhindered with motives, we need to engage in free discussion, and for that, we have to keep aside our desired outcome during the discussion. How do we do that? In our anxiety to hear what we want from others, we, in a subtle way, send signal to their subconscious mind our expected outcome. This often results in getting what we want unconsciously, but we will be far away from the solution to our dilemma as the incoming wisdom, if at all any, is in fact blocked by our own ignorance. This is in a way self deceit or spiraling in our own thoughts. So, we will not get the fresh input or idea from others, leave aside influencing others. In other words, our discussion becomes futile.

What we wanted in the beginning and what we got. Just ponder over.

How to come out from this vicious cycle? One way is to be just, plain and simple in our dealings with others. Then, true trust develops in our relationships. We become stress free in life and enjoy being with our true nature and then we no more need any agenda or for that matter, no more people skills are required, as the way we behave and interact with others will itself become genuine. We then do not need any certification or approval from others in our daily dealings. How beautiful the life will then be, to know practically, we need to clear off our motives and just without prejudice, see others as moving wisdom in their own standards. Life will then be, a joy always for us as well as those around us. What else is needed then? Probably, nothing.

Coloring

We encounter people in life that can be categorized as either ambitious and interesting or competitive and envious, especially in close circles. Why this comparison is done at all? Is it because we tend to differentiate people the moment we see them by our conditioning or by the way our mind processes the information? This question also is faced by everyone at one stage in life.

The reason is we forgot the way how to look at life and its beauty in proper perspective, without any coloring. By coloring I mean viewing the simple things in life the way we want them to be rather than the way they are. Added to it is the mixing of our likes and dislikes, by the social circumstances we are brought up.

So the prejudice is a given condition for most which decides the course of our thinking and viewing others whether subjects or objects. We make up things on our own, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Later we start seeing the differences among our creation and are wondering at the same at the same time. Who is responsible for all these made up things and when can we stop seeing so and see things as they are? Time will teach us in due course.

The Eternal Question

The Eternal question who am I and from where I came and where I am going now and what is the destination. These are basic instincts a human feels at some point of time and in my case it started from my childhood period. In fact I used to ponder over the universe and meaning of life and our purpose in life which took me to look for in books and observation of various systems of beliefs so to say, not to speak of any particular philosophy. The search however gave me hope and confidence that surely I will encounter the truth. Blessed by the great Master, answer is available verily in me only. What it is exactly, is difficult to express but for a craving soul, understanding comes by itself.