Photons (All)

PHOTONS

Burst One (For the Young):

Find

1. Find meaning in life.
2. Find life’s purpose.
3. Find the way to true end of sorrow.
4. Find an end to contradictions in your values.
5. Find how you can be strong and yet not hurt another.
6. Find how you can dissolve your anger in the sympathy of understanding.
7. Find a way to grow – in peace and love – and not in ambition or aggressiveness.
8. Find joy in work – small or big.
9. Find another’s joy or sorrow to be your own.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, January 6, 2003

Burst Two (For the Young):

Finding Meaning and Purpose in Life

1. Imitation cannot be the way to find meaning in life.
2. Somebody else cannot impose a purpose upon our life.
3. Borrowed goals cannot lead us far.
4. God created us originals; let us not die as duplicates.
5. We must drop our false pursuits first.
6. An alert mind can throw light on the artificialities in our life.
7. False prestige, misconceived ambition and prejudiced judgments set us walking a wrong path.
8. We do not want to climb the ladder fast, only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.
9. We must eliminate all illusions under which we could be laboring.
10. Whom are we trying to please, really, through our sweat and toil?
11. We come upon the right direction, when we put aside the wrong promptings within us through being aware of them.
12. Let us move from the false (asat) to the real (sat).
13. Our heart is light, when we put aside the false.
14. Illusions cause unnecessary burden upon our bosom.
15. Right living has freshness of outlook and quietude of mind.

“Out of purity and silence, come words of power.” – Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji

Swami Chidananda
Monday, January 20, 2003

Burst Three (For the Young):

Anger

1. Lack of mature understanding of life makes us live in anger.
2. We live under the burden of fears and regrets.
3. False values underlie our agitations. We value some externalities like looks, wealth or fame; we adore success and popularity.
4. There is a powerful psychological urge to ‘become’ like somebody.
5. There is a feeling of time running out and we have ‘not become’ yet.
6. There is a shallow idea of ‘what we should have been’.
7. Comparison with him or her makes us believe that our life has been terribly inadequate. Anger then boils in us.
8. Amidst all these, we fail to pay attention to wonderful opportunities that life brings to us daily.
9. Unfulfilled desires, agitations and opportunities lost become a vicious circle where we tend to sink deeper into low self-worth.
10. Exercising attention to every moment restores the quietude in us, opening doors to firsthand understanding of our living.
11. When we ‘see’ the false beliefs (or invalid equations) that our mind was clinging to, they drop away. The root causes of anger then melt away.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, February 3, 2003

Burst Four (For Youth):

What First?

1. “Pleasure first, duty later,” says the ordinary person.
2. “Duty first, pleasure later,” says the evolved person.
3. The hypocrite says, “Duty first,” but practices “Pleasure first”.
4. The ordinary one acts by impulse.
5. The evolved one gives thought (consideration) to a possible action. (See Quote)
6. The very mature one sees limitations of thought also (and has deeper insights).
7. The ordinary one puts one’s interest first.
8. The evolved one makes room for others also.
9. The very mature one puts others first, without fear.
10. The ordinary one often fails to see things in the light of reason.
11. The evolved one goes by reason.
12. The very mature one is beyond reason (withuot being opposed to reason).

Quote: Not to do what you feel like doing is freedom. — Swami Chinmayanandaji

Swami Chidananda
Monday, February 17, 2003

Burst Five (For Youth):

Beginning of Meditation

1. Sit comfortably, crossing your legs.

2. Sit absolutely still.

3. Keep your eyes closed; keep them from moving.

4. Observe your breathing for a while.

5. Notice every breath—air moving in and moving out.

6. Notice if there is any tension anywhere in the body.

7. If there is some tension, let go of it.

8. Now see how your mind is working.

9. Watch the movements of the mind just as you would watch a lizard going by.

10. Watch thought, they way it runs, one thought after another.

11. Just watch thought; do not correct it.

Swami Chidananda, Monday, March 03, 2003.

Burst Six (For Youth):

Beware of Thieves!

(Time Management: A. External Thieves)

1. Unexpected or prolonged phone calls.
2. Coworkers (colleagues/classmates) stopping by to discuss their problems or just to chat.
3. Open door policy or the duty to be available.
4. Visitors, clients, unexpected suppliers.
5. Poorly trained or incompetent personnel (especially inadequate secretarial help).
6. The boss, or worse, several bosses.
7. Business lunches, promotional cocktail parties, and other entertainment for outside visitors.
8. Personal or family business.
9. Maintenance, machine repairs (cars, washing machines, television, computers)
10. Appointments (doctor’s, music lessons, sports) for the children and chauffeuring them.
11. Housework, errands, cooking.
12. Interruptions by one’s children (or one’s parents).

(Internal Thieves are listed in Burst Eight)
Based on portions from the book, “The Art of Time” by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, March 17, 2003

Burst Seven (For Youth):

Meeting Desire

1. The process of desire is confusingly complex and most of us are caught in it. When we suppress a desire, our heart becomes dull. So we need to understand (and not suppress) desire.
2. How does our mind get filled with desires? What are the stages in which desire takes root in us?
3. First, we see an object (ice cream, a car etc.)
4. Secondly, we derive pleasure. This sensation could be in seeing itself or in something more (like tasting the ice cream or enjoying a ride in the car).
5. Thirdly, the “thought” comes along saying, “this pleasure must continue”.
6. Fourthly, a succession of thoughts creates and sustains the center of desiring – “I” want; “I” do not want.
7. These four stages cause desire to take root in us.
8. These stages repeat a thousand times in daily life, when we are not attentive to what is happening in its entirety.
9. If the mind can be aware of the whole field of desire – without choosing or condemning – then it (the mind) becomes quiet.
10. In this awareness, desires come up, but have no impact. The mind reacts, otherwise it would not be alive, but the reaction is superficial.
11. In such understanding born of attention, desires do not take root in the mind. They do not cause problems.

(Based on the book, “What Are You Doing With Your Life?” by J. Krishnamurti)

Swami Chidananda
Monday, March 31, 2003

Burst Eight (For Youth):

Beware of Thieves!

(Time Management: B. Internal Thieves)

1. Absence of a daily work plan.
2. Confused and changeable objectives and priorities.
3. Inability to say no.
4. Fatigue, being out of shape.
5. No self-chosen deadlines.
6. Lack of order, messy desktops.
7. Insufficient delegation.
8. Insufficient (or excessive) communication.
9. Indecisiveness or overhasty decisions (sometimes made in committee).
10. Excessive attention to details.
11. Delay in dealing with conflicts.
12. Resistance to change.

Based on portions from the book, “The Art of Time” by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, April 14, 2003

Burst Nine (For Youth):

Purpose of Life

1. Very few clearly know the purpose of their life even though it is such a fundamental issue.
2. The purpose of a bud is to bring out the beauty it has inside and blossom as a flower of color and fragrance.
3. Life’s purpose is to blossom forth and express noble human qualities.
4. Kindness, compassion, unselfishness, spirit to serve and courage to stick by virtue are noble human qualities.
5. The purpose of an egg in a bird’s nest is to bring forth the sleeping beauty.
6. Life’s purpose is to bring forth one’s full potential and find harmony with the entire creation.
7. To love and to perceive love is the hallmark of a higher state of consciousness.
8. We rise to a higher state by a personal discovery of possibilities.
9. To be more precise, every one of us needs to detect personally one’s own false fears and erroneous attachments. Detect them, and then drop them.
10. Many pressures, temptations or attractions generally drive (and shape) our way of living, which then lacks genuineness or depth.
11. Insights coming from the heart embolden us to put aside all artificialities and discover real, natural life.
12. A flame burns brightly then; recognized or not, wealthy or otherwise, small or big, we then live with a silent passion and a quiet energy of extraordinary quality.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, April 28, 2003

Burst Ten (For Youth):

Adore Them

1. Adore those ears, which always hear good words from pious (and practical) people.
2. Pity those ears, which have become slaves to mere praise or pleasure.
3. Adore those eyes (of those who help others), which see and show the right path to blind people and save them from stepping on thorns and falling in pits.
4. Pity those eyes (of self-centered ones), which endlessly look for mere sensation.
5. Adore those hands, which protect from beating people fallen on the ground.
6. Pity those hands, which beat the weak and exploit the poor.
7. Adore those feet, which walk the right path and go an extra distance to uplift the downtrodden.
8. Pity those feet, which rush to wrong activity by sheer habit lacking in discrimination.
9. Adore those learned people, who bear with the imperfections and limitations of others.
10. Pity those learned people, who are arrogant and just demand others’ submission to them.
11. Adore the mind, which forgets and forgives.
12. Pity the mind, which suffers under the weight of its own memories, pride and revenge.

(Partly based on and suitably adapted from Dr. B.S.Ramakrishna Rao’s Chanakya Neeti Shlokagalu)

Swami Chidananda
Monday, May 12, 2003

Burst Eleven (For the Young):

To Do Or Not To Do

1. Everyone wonders often, “Is that my job?” or “How long should I serve?”
2. If the work is worthy, doing it is better than not doing it. (Geeta 5:2)
3. We must give up our likes and dislikes as we do various duties. (5:3)
4. Abandoning agitation over ‘what I got’ is the sure way to peace. (5:12 first half)
5. Our mind gains maturity when there is more service to others in our actions. (5:6)
6. It is a great skill to work without bringing up ‘my gain’ and ‘my reward’. (2:48, 50)
7. Work does not bind us when we have the right outlook, just as water does not make the lotus leaf wet. (5:10)
8. It is all in the mind! We would not feel we are doing anything at all even though there is exertion externally. (5:8, 9)
9. Work is therefore not the cause of our stress; the resistance and reactions within our mind are. (5:12 second half)
10. We may naturally give up certain activities. Such a change has a different flavor to it.
11. There would be hardly any inner struggle or conflict about such giving up. On the contrary, we are so clear that we do not see any other choice.
12. Till such clarity emerges, we are advised to stay humble and, with all patience, render meaningful services to people around us beginning with our near and dear ones.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, May 26, 2003

Burst Twelve (For Youth):

Stimulation and Illumination

1. Boredom, sorrow, insecurity and other psychological discomforts make us look out for a change.
2. A lot of us take the escape route in delicious food, drinks, cinema/TV etc.
3. Certain substances stimulate and please our senses.
4. Sometimes an ideology may stimulate us. A rosy picture of how things should be may energize us.
5. Many a time, one does not know if one is creating new divisions when one embraces some ideals or belief systems.
6. Illumination is pure light where there is no room for conceptual barriers or walls.
7. Seeing directly – with the innocence of a child – is free from the traps of idealization.
8. Knowledge, which is limited by one’s conditionings, is involved in stimulation.
9. Illumination takes place when one is free from all knowledge. One sees an object, a person or a situation as it (he/she) is.
10. Because man gets caught in stimulation, there is so much bloodshed even in the name of religion.
11. The illumined would never justify killing and other forms of violence or exploitation.
12. We arrive at illumination by emptying our bosom of all beliefs; it is not by accumulating some more information about another school of thought.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, June 09, 2003

Burst Thirteen (For Youth):

Solace from the Song Celestial

Sri Krishna speaks to us:
All activities in this world necessarily have some problems just as fire typically carries smoke with it. Do your work anyway upon being convinced that it is your job (1). Accept success and failure as though they are the same and carry on with continued eagerness to perform your duty (2). Do not cling to anyone nor harbor ill feelings for anybody (3). Give your best while you do what is to be done (4). You are at the height of spirituality when you go through the day’s work without any destructive thoughts or selfish urges (5). Pay heed to wise advice and decide your duty (6). Remember, there is divinity in you as you are a part of Me (7). I shall protect you in all ways when you are fully devoted to Me (8). Keep Me always in your heart and discharge your responsibilities (9). I lift My devotees from this ocean of constant change and death (10). You will discover profound peace and true security as you surrender to the way of truth (God) (11).
Note: The above is in a new format, to make for easy flow of reading. The points 1 through 11 are based on Bhagavad Geeta stanzas and their verse numbers are given below.
(1)18:48 (2) 2:38 (3) 11:55 (4) 3:19 (5) 5:3 (6) 16:24 (7) 15:7 (8) 9:22 (9) 8:7 (10) 12:7 and (11) 18:62.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, June 23, 2003

Burst Fourteen (For Youth):

Sensitivity

“I would regard him the supreme yogi, who has equal vision towards all. He does not divide sorrow as his own and of others. Others’ happiness makes him happy too.” Geeta 6:32

Insecurity makes us seek success, to cover up our sense of inadequacy. Driven by desire to achieve, we become insensitive. We start dividing problems as ‘my problem’ and ‘her problem’. We boast of it as practicality also. We pressurize ourselves to pay attention to a business prospect and to deny attention to a rainbow. These divisions become psychological habits too. We divide nations as ‘most favored’ and ‘worthy of punishment’. We classify neighbors as friends and enemies. We look at even spiritual seekers as ‘belonging to our faith’ and ‘opposed to our interests’.
Let us go slow and take a second look at our values. Let us remember that the color of everybody’s blood is red. The value of a coolie’s life cannot be less than a millionaire’s. Love is precious to one and all. Mere material acquisition cannot make anyone truly happy. Let us recognize universal laws of our inner life that apply equally to Blacks and Whites, Muslims and Hindus, women and men.
On the practical front, let us admit logistical limitations. We agree we cannot feed all the starving stomachs or bring relief to everyone suffering psychologically. A great beginning however is made when we feel for the hungry man – no matter who he is, and sympathize with the sorrowful lady – no matter what she is. There is then sensitivity.

Note: The above is in a new format, to make for easy flow of reading. The points 1 through 11 are based on Bhagavad Geeta stanzas and their verse numbers are given below.
(1)18:48 (2) 2:38 (3) 11:55 (4) 3:19 (5) 5:3 (6) 16:24 (7) 15:7 (8) 9:22 (9) 8:7 (10) 12:7 and (11) 18:62.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, July 07, 2003

Burst Fifteen (For Youth):

Arrogance

It is a sign of poverty of heart when our thoughts, words or actions are violent. We impose our views on others and pressurize them to toe our line. “Do it my way or hit the highway!” We may mistake such an outlook for a sign of assertive leadership. Such behavior on our part often brings to us some ‘success’ in this world, no doubt. It is short-lived, shallow and makes us pay a heavy price in certain other respects. Often we stand victorious amidst the debris of a spoilt relationship. Though we are powerful outwardly, there is fear inside us. The tenderness of love and friendship is lost and both the sides carry on with bruised spirits. Superficially, we have won and they have lost. Really speaking, both of us have lost.
Seeking an image is the seed of violence. We want to be ‘good, great, able, rich, talented or pious’. In our own eyes and in the eyes of others, we wish to be ‘somebody’. Desire to protect our prestige sustains this malady. Entertaining thoughts of our future status lends more strength to the psychological phenomenon of our haughtiness. Of course, if we have certain weakness for sense pleasures, it becomes all the more difficult to observe the perversion in the way we treat others. When the senses run wild, our sensitivity becomes dimmer.
Is there not a way of living where our bosom is like a green meadow lit by the morning sun, and right action rises from that land?
“I have already finished off this enemy of mine; I shall eliminate others too. I am the boss here; I accomplish and enjoy; all pleasure and power are mine.” Geeta 16:14

Swami Chidananda
Monday, July 24, 2003

Burst Sixteen (For Youth):

Dying to the Past

Facing situations without the burden of the past is the hallmark of a simple mind. Mostly we find we are in the grip of some memories, which cloud our perception of persons, places and objects. If a man had hurt us in the past, we almost relive that hurt now ¡V though we may cleverly hide it ¡V when we are interacting with him. While meeting a lady who was very generous to us on a previous occasion, we act through a center in us that has pleasant memories as its warp and woof. While caution is understandable in the case of a possible repetition of harmful behavior on the part of the man, it is unfortunate if our mind loses its openness. A rigidity of outlook and a refusal to accept a possible change in him are a great obstacle in moving towards harmony. In the same way, gratitude towards the lady who was good to us is in place; but a sense of obligation bordering on our getting ready to go out of our way (and violate norms and values thereby) is hazardous. Living in awareness keeps our bosom free of these undue residues of the past. We know the right place of things but have the large-heartedness to dissolve memories.
Notions of big or small ¡V in the light of our past success or failure ¡V have no room in a plain mind. We are neither weighed down by a sense of inferiority nor puffed up by the sense of superiority. The simple alertness in us is then like bright light where no shadow of old habit can stay.
Clear perception accompanies a lightness of the heart when we meet the present hour without the interference of judgmental thoughts born in the past.
Do your work calmly, leaving aside attachments (fostered in the past) and putting away anxieties (projected into the future). Offer all your actions to me (Truth) with a truly religious mind. Geeta 3:30

Swami Chidananda
Monday, August 4, 2003

Burst Seventeen (For Youth):

Joy of Work

When we love our work, we do it with the whole of our mind. We are in the present moment and the absorption in action lends a quality of the timeless to our experience. Thoughts of reward and recognition are indeed intruders in good work. At the right time, at the most, we may go into the question of what we get (or got) from a certain activity in which we spent our resources. If it becomes a habit with us to be always concerned with the results of our action and to want more recognition, it is indeed very tragic. More than the finite results, which perish in due course of time, this psychological preoccupation with them makes our souls shrink. We could live in perpetual discontent and this could have serious repercussions on several spheres of our total living. Any achievement rising from a discontent will have a price to pay. The outer glitter of success will be accompanied by inner fear and violence.
Why say, “One day I shall be happy”? Be happy today. Work in happiness and achieve while smiling. Let not your face wait till (the so-called) success to light up. Do not accept this world’s notions of success so easily. Sympathize with this world and its people who have very shallow ideas of all good things. Very few know what is beauty or love, truth or God, success or failure. Examine your life directly with your own unconditioned intelligence. There is a light within you of rays serene that will show to you right action. Let not the foul influences of this mad world create such smoke in your mind’s space that makes this light within dim. On the contrary, let the light within help your noisy mind to calm down and allow true love to shine forth.
Result-oriented activity (however charming it may be) is by far inferior to activity marked by loving absorption. Go for a mature understanding of work. Pitiable are those whose eyes are always on their personal gains. Geeta 2:49

Swami Chidananda
Monday, August 18, 2003

Burst Eighteen (For Youth):

Know the Difference

1. Certain things matter; certain others do not. It matters, to know the difference.
2. Cerain approaches release tension; certain others cause it. Know the difference.
3. The right step reveals freedom; the wrong one puts you into a trap. Know the difference.
4. A certain outlook blesses the other person; a certain other binds him/her to you. Know the difference.
5. Some relationships contribute to your spiritual growth; some others hamper it. Know the difference.
6. Certain food invigorates you; certain other causes lethargy. Know the diff.
7. Right relation with Nature helps you shed your ego; wrong relation (or no relation) builds thick walls of the shell called ego. Know the diff.
8. Meeting with pleasure (or pain) is innocent; seeking (or avoiding) it is a psychological complication. Know the diff.
9. Love is the natural perfume of living; psychological dependence is the vicious mischief of thoughts. Know the diff.
10. True education has no room for fear; false education relishes hierarchy and authority. Know the diff.
11. True religiosity has equal vision; false religion divides humanity. Know the diff.
12. In true meditation, the mind is awake; in false meditation, the mind is doped (in the name of control or stillness). Know the difference.

Swami Chidananda

Monday, September 08, 2003

Burst Nineteen (For Youth):

Spiritual Growth and Books

What role do books play in our inner growth? On one hand, we hear much praise of scriptures – books of wisdom – to such an extent that anybody who does not study them is declared blind. These holy books are called the eyes of a man so he can see what is right and what is wrong. The Geeta, the Bible, the Dhammapada or the Koran reveals to us what our eyes cannot see. The mystic revelations in these works show to us the truth that is beyond sense perception and beyond reason. The utterances of many truly pious people are in fine agreement with the words in these books.
On the other hand, however, we find thousands of well-read people – scholars in religious philosophies – who are no different from those who have not read much. Their selfishness is no less than what we find in others. They crave for pleasure, position or power just as the illiterate do. They are insecure like anybody else is.
Where has the knowledge gone wrong? Will reading one more book convert their bookish knowledge to real knowledge?
Does sincerity or honesty rise from glittering scholarship that makes one an impressive speaker, writer or even a teacher?
The clever man uses scriptural knowledge also, as he does with many other things, to protect and nourish his ego. Religious erudition also comes handy in impressing people, creating a false comfort zone for oneself and actually living a life tethered to self-interest. True wisdom slips through one’s fingers when the least amount of caring for one’s image intrudes in one’s perception of problems. The very books that talk of the highest good then become one’s shield with which one protects one’s false sense of separateness from the rest of life.
Since the Self is to be inquired into by discarding the five sheaths, it is futile to search for it in books. – Sri Ramana Maharshi in the little classic Who am I?

Swami Chidananda
Monday,September 22, 2003

Burst Twenty (For Youth) :

Being Decisive

Indecision is often worse than indigestion. Hasty decisions can be no better. Decide we must, when situations are in black and white. Why delay, when our conscience is clear on what the right thing to do is? We should put aside all dilly-dallying and just act. In grey areas, where we are not sure what is right, it is wise indeed to take time. Let us collect more data, see from different angles of view, consult experts and then, with the picture being clear, decide and act.

With much knowledge in our heads — enough to advise the young and old — we often make foul decisions in daily life. We choose to eat the wrong food, yielding to the promptings of our palate. We tell lies — or hide the truth — to please the people in front of us. We indulge in envy or self-gratification, knowing well the harm that such thoughts do. Why do we fail to decide — to stop them instantly?

Is there a relation between compromise (with values) and indecisive frame of mind? Are a shallow living and a tendency to postpone (worthy decisions) connected?

Find out.

The man of firm decision is dear to me, who is cheerful always and has a natural control over his senses. He has offered his mind and intellect to me and loves me. — Geeta 12:14

Burst Twenty One (For Youth):

Being Useful

Do not judge anyone from the point of view of usefulness or utility. It is sheer lack of love that leads to a utilitarian perspective in human relationships. No doubt you have to evaluate people in functional areas. Do not extend your judgment beyond the context. Remember – life is much more than the several areas or issues that you know of.
When you say somebody is useless, it is your own poverty of heart that is evident. It is certain that you are stuck with a particular desire and the other person cannot fulfill it. It is better that you take care of your desires and urges without labeling this man useless.
Let nobody look at you as useless. May you receive love from all. May no one cease to love you just because you cannot do some particular thing for him. True love, after all, is not “because of”, but “in spite of”. Till you arrive at this true love, you are actually into some trade or commerce but not love.
Your relation with Nature too – with the earth, air, water, sunlight and trees – should rise above utilitarian obsession. Love the trees like you love yourself, not because they give you wood, fruits or shelter.
Only by abandoning the attitude of getting something out of the other person (or Nature), can you actually understand him. Only then you can understand yourself. All exploitation then ceases. Life has the touch of a great new quality.
Having no (narrow-minded) expectations from others, a devotee of truth is clean, pure and efficient. She sees situations from a higher point of view, does not carry forward any regrets of the past, and gives up all selfish and self-projecting deeds. Geeta 12:16
Swami Chidananda
Monday,October 27, 2003

Burst Twenty Two (For Youth) :

Security

Physical security is when we have enough to eat, drink, wear etc. Food, clothes and shelter are natural needs. Other biological needs include sleep, sex, loving, being loved etc. There is enough indeed in this world for all of us. No doubt we dream of a world that has no one starving, no one without a roof over one’s head. Why is it not possible?

The answer is – our psychological insecurity jeopardizes physical security.

Greed in us is a psychological deviation from our simple nature. Greed, jealousy, ambition, revenge etc. cause havoc in distribution of resources leading to shocking disparity between the haves and the have-nots in this world.

We are human beings. There is oneness in billions of us when we highlight our being human. Instead, if we highlight our being Russian or Indian, Muslim or Christian, successful or otherwise, we lose sight of our oneness.

To think I am a Hindu (or Muslim or Christian) is a form of ego, though subtle. It is a self-description that divides man against man. Generally people believe such self-descriptions are necessary. Some regard them as necessary evil. The truly wise know that they are not a necessity.

Can we live our daily life without being burdened by any notion of who we are? If we can have such an open mind, emptied of all divisive labels, our psychological insecurity disappears. We then truly love each other.

When there is love among humanity, all physical insecurity goes away. We share, and do not rob anymore.

Friday, November 28, 2003

Burst Twenty Three (For the youth in you):

Hello Change!

Hello change, welcome inside my home of Truth. You are time, while my home is timelessness. Awareness is its name and its doors are open to all guests like emotions, thoughts and perceptions. There is much fun at this home where great plays – comedies and tragedies – are staged frequently, in its spacious halls and airy chambers. Relative truth and relative falsehood are always the hero and the villain here. And, change, you indeed are their flesh and bones. This home is their life.

Change, my friend, you have come again and again into this home – year after year, AS year after year. Now you are at my door as 2004, which is just another name of yours. But for you, my home is very silent. With your presence too, this home is just as silent; not all see it though.

Your nature is to sing and dance, to laugh and cry. You raise hue and cry over all issues, which are your own creations. You always made people believe that my roof would come down and my walls would collapse. Nothing happened so far; nothing can ever happen to my home.

You are time, space and causation. You are thought, memory, desire and fear. You seem to be everything. Actually you are nothing. You are just my shadow – multidimensional and many-hued.

Loving welcome to you. Come, entertain me with your magic.

O New Year, (I would not ask that serious question, “What is new?”), come on in. My home receives you in all friendship.

* * *

Burst Twenty Four (For Youth) :

Insight into Habit

We hear of habits, good and bad. We are told generally to cultivate good habits. The moralists ask us to give up bad habits. Good ones, they say, make us successful. Bad ones, they warn us, lead us to our ruin. All this advice surely is in good taste and is
understandable.

However, going into it with certain precision, a habit can be mechanical. It can be without understanding or awareness. We could have certain judgments about ourselves based on our habits, which may not be true. Getting up early, being vegetarian, being regular in physical exercise etc. are no doubt good; but true goodness in life is much more than several of these put together. Do we make sweeping judgments and get
caught in a false sense of superiority at times? If we do not have one of the ‘good habits’, do we again jump to a conclusion and have an unnecessary sense of inferiority, if not guilt or shame?

Can we do the good thing, day after day without becoming mechanical? Can we do the right thing everyday without letting the sense of “I am the good guy here” creep in?

Should goodness necessarily rise from the ground of blindly repetitive activity? Can it not come forth from the fountain of awareness?

In awareness, thoughts and actions do not leave behind the residue of judgment. In lack of awareness, thoughts are half-digested and actions are incomplete. Pride or shame make the matter worse. Awareness leaves the slate clean. We move to the next moment with freshness.

Goodness, when cultivated, is a psychological burden. When it is the natural perfume of living in gentle awareness, it is like sunshine; it belongs to all.

May Shiva (Awareness) and Paarvati (Good thoughts and
actions) bless us this Shivaraatri.

Om Namah Shivaaya.

000

Wednesday, February 18 is Shivaraatri this year..

Shiva is Pure Awareness. Paarvatee is “thoughts”.
Awareness without thoughts means no functionality.
Thoughts without awareness breed ego and hence
bondage.

Burst Twenty Five (For Youth):

Listening is Loving

True listening is not just through ears; it is with your whole being. You then listen to not just what the other person is saying but to his whole being.
Alas, you remain caught in your own self-concern and related preoccupations. You pay attention to what you like and turn deaf to what you dislike. Attachments and aversions – seeking pleasure and avoiding pain – come into the scene even when the other person is saying something to you. Where is listening if you thus filter what he wants to convey?
In seeing the pettiness of all preoccupations, the mind sheds its attachments. You then discover quietude and space. Listening then helps you understand the other person beyond the words that he utters. You feel his whole personality as he verbalizes only a bit of his mind.
The mind, the flow of thoughts, has become so mechanical that actual seeing has gone dim. The incessant chatter of thinking creates an illusory realm of experiencing where you are afraid and are trying to do something hastily. Some memories or the other bring about insecurity and they drive you to constantly react to some imagined scenarios. You carry stress in the mind and this prevents you from listening.
Desire for gratification is also a mischief of memories. Some fancy holds you captive and, when the situation looks favorable, you indulge in hopes of a great time to come. Can you listen at all when your mind is away into the unborn future?
Empty your mind of yourself. Listening then just happens. There is then love.

Swami Chidananda
March 16, 2004

Burst Twenty Six (For the Young) :

Happiness through Inner Simplicity

Our thoughts often create such complications in our way of living that we suffer unnecessary conflicts, inhibitions and complexes. Certain artificialities or unnatural ways of thinking and acting make us miserable. We then pretend and invite undue stress. Inner simplicity, which is absence of such self-created, psychological friction, is just what we need.

Thoughts bind us and thoughts set us free. Winds bring clouds that obstruct the sun and the winds alone take away clouds.

Irrespective of wealth or sophisticated lifestyle, we can have a childlike simplicity about us, which is truly the key to much happiness in daily life. True intelligence alone, however, can save us from getting caught in the web of social conditionings that make us pretend or put up false images of ourselves. It is not so much the ‘will’ to remain simple that helps us, as it is the ‘seeing’ of the false. We need to pause and proceed in life, so that we can see actually the unnecessary drama that we enact in various human relationships.

A simple mind has increased ability to live in the present. We are then able to ‘eat while eating’, ‘take bath while taking bath’ and ‘play while playing’. Our minds are where our hands are. There is a natural integration of emotional, intellectual and physical layers of the personality.

A simple mind is not at all a dull mind. It is intelligent, but not clever in the sense of going after selfish ends. It is the fountainhead of virtues and bestows on us good health too.

When our mind is simple, we easily recognize the area where we are truly good at and serve the society in that area without any conflict. We practice our sva-dharma. When the mind is complex, we are attracted to what is none of our business – para-dharma. Doing our duty leads us to the pinnacle of spiritual perfection – the wisdom of the Self – svaroopa-dharma.

When our mind is simple, we meet eternity in the present moment.

Swami Chidananda

April 2, 2004

Burst Twenty Seven (For Youth):

Should we slow down?

In this world of tremendous confusion, we get the message, “Speed up; do not miss the bus,” at some places and quite the opposite, “Slow down; put your house in order,” at other places. What are we to do?
“Hasten slowly,” said Swami Chinmayanandaji. That is wonderful indeed but we need to understand this matter thoroughly.
Either speeding up or slowing down cannot be the solution to human conflict when we take it as a formula and are not sure if it is the right thing in a given situation. Suppose we are in a comfortable position to speed up in a certain activity, with no damage of any kind anywhere, it would be foolish indeed to just stick to an idea of slowing down. It would be an artificiality that is not related to the ground reality. In a similar way, to speed up in a situation where there are already self-created pressures and much unnecessary tension is meaningless. Somebody who has made a policy of speeding up everything she takes up would make the mistake of hurrying up in way that adds to the damage and stress.
A proper understanding of every situation is primary in deciding how we need to go about our work. On its foundation alone can we indulge in the luxury of riding on a slogan – be it “Run and Get it” or “Pause and Proceed”.
In our eagerness to hitch our wagon to a star, we very often adopt some ideology too soon. Alas, before we realize what is happening, we are no more ourselves in the process!
Some of us yield too quickly. All are hurrying up and we dare not be different. Others among us resist too frequently. We are perhaps unduly suspicious and would not take even good advice. Fear rules the roost in human life – a fact most people do not recognize.
Do not slow down because of fear of being different. Do not slow down for that is fashionable now. Do not slow down as a reaction to someone (whose authority you dislike) asking you to speed up.
Slow down if you really find you need to pay more attention to details of a given work. Slow down if your understanding of your lifestyle tells you to do justice to more aspects of the whole of life.
Do not slow down because Photon Bursts say so. Slow down if the light within you shows humps (speed-breakers) on the way ahead.

Swami Chidananda
May 1, 2004

Burst Twenty Eight (For Youth):

Pursuit of Fame

There is a topsy-turvy situation when we pursue fame, if we do. True happiness is when we live in the present moment, giving our best to the work on hand. (It need not be work alone; it could be playing with a child or walking on a field.) We relate to the activity with gentle attention and there is no unwarranted memory or projection into future. Excellence comes about with total involvement. Even aiming at excellence through thoughts like, “I must do things excellently” could sidetrack us in the sense that we might be giving priority to the good image of ours that we are likely to build.
Can we not act, with joy in the action itself? Seeing the worthiness of the activity, we give our heart and soul to it; rest of it is what will happen on its own. Fame, a good image, reputation, material rewards etc. are thus really side products of good work done. To pursue them and to work hard for their sake is surely putting the cart before the horse.
Pursuit of name and fame is thus a corruption of the human mind. It is a sad deviation from the reality of the present moment. We indulge in the illusory pleasure of the dead past or the unborn future when we attach value to fame.
“A man chases name and fame everywhere – at home, in religious places, at gatherings and at the market place. He wants to be recognized even when he is in the forest and when he goes finally to the grave. He invites unnecessary misery and suffers endlessly in this seeking of a special place for the self. Alas, he misses totally the bliss of the within.” (Manku Timmana Kagga: Verse 653)

Swami Chidananda
Thursday, June 03, 2004

Burst Twenty Nine (For the Young):

Why is Life Such a Struggle?

For no one, life is a bed of roses. The eminent and the affluent often have more difficulties than the common man has. A struggle of some kind or the other marks our life until our last breath. Total peace is only at the graveyard, remarked somebody.
In an old story of Indian epics, the god and the demons put in tremendous effort and churn the (milky) ocean. They sweat and toil and face many obstacles. They use a huge mountain – Meru – as the churning rod that is placed on the back of a huge turtle (which was no other than Lord Narayana). The rope they use is none other than the big snake called Vasuki. They are eager to find nectar that should emerge from the bowels of the sea. Halfway through the saga, a deadly poison called Halahala comes out rather than the life-giving nectar.
So is our life too. We are time and again called upon to exert, and exert more. The promise of some sweet, sweet results is our temptation. We fall many times but rise and walk again. On our way, we meet with terrible disappointments and even sorrowful calamities.
In the old story, Lord Shiva comes along and drinks off all the poison. The churning continues and finally, lo, the desired fruit nectar rises from the depths of the ocean.
Let us not lose hope in our endeavors. Let us not say, “Why should we take these pains?” Swami Chinmayananda said, “Narayana likes the smell of sweat!” Another wise lady remarked, “The fruits of labor are sweater than the rewards of fortune.” Let us rest assured that Shiva will surely come to our rescue, to clear away all negative products that may come halfway.
“Act, act in the living present; heart within and God overhead,” sang H.W.Longfellow, who also remarked, “Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal.”
Whenever we face a struggle, let us look at it as a sign of something very sweet and truly significant to come about in the near future.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, June 28, 2004

Burst Thirty (For Youth):

Thinking Low of Oneself

The habit to continuously judge oneself is a psychological trap. Self-criticism has gained respectability among some, who believe that they can improve by constantly identifying their faults, blaming and condemning themselves. They live in a small world indeed, where their mind – with all its limitations – is the whimsical and nasty ruler.
When I think low of myself, it is surely with reference to certain standards that I have chosen. A tenth standard boy thinks he is not fit to live on this earth if he does not get a certain percentage of marks in his final examination. We can easily see that his limited mind is making a mountain out of a molehill. This is certainly not to say academic performance has no place in life. The part should not rule the whole.
A girl feels very great of herself when the boy she admires falls in love with her. That is natural and fine. All the same, we can see that the human mind of finite knowledge is at play.
When we feel we are good, and when we think we are not good, these judgments have a way to keep us in the realm of the finite. This realm is of memory, conditioning or the past.
Typically we then exercise our will, saying to ourselves, “I again made the mistake; I shall NEVER do this again” etc.
Whether we like it or not, the faculty of willing is generally a part of our life. I am not sure if the question, “Should we will anything or should we not?” has any meaning.
When will power operates in us – with less or more energy – it can be very interesting to watch the movement and notice the role that our past plays in that operation. Do I will, or does my past surface as the will?
Mature living has to be free from mechanical movements. Doing something wrong, repenting it passionately, suffering for a while and then, after getting refreshed, doing that wrong again is a cycle of events that we go through very often. To go to the root of the issue requires a self-observation that is not mechanical. It is a quiet awareness of the whole. It is different from identifying with a part and fighting with another part. A judgment, “I am this way” comes in opposition with the wish, “I should be that way”. Two thought-bundles have created an illusory duality. This division causes inner conflict.
When we see that all judgments are a petty affair, an awakening takes place where the ‘wrong’ ends without any noise. Without the trauma of guilt or shame, the so-called sin evaporates like camphor in the flame of unbiased attention.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, July 26, 2004

Burst Thirty One (For the Young):

Manage Your Mind

When we catch cold or have some gastric trouble, we immediately take care of our food and bring the disorder under control. That is on the physical plane. What do we do when our mind gets upset? What are the options before us when there is anger, depression, boredom or lack of motivation in us?
Very often, the eyes see something or ears hear something, and the mind is disturbed. No wonder the advertisement industry takes full advantage of this. The media bombards us with sensations. People gossip and it causes various waves to rise in the lake of our mind. In the absence of these external factors, our own memories can work up a disturbance in the zone of our emotions. What do we do?
We need to care for this friend inside us – our own mind. With love and attention, we need to get the mind’s cooperation in walking the right path. Such self-education leads to better conduct on our part in many situations and brings peace to us.
Inner freedom is a state of mind, nothing else. When our attachments do not exceed limits, we experience the serenity of inner space. We need to intelligently correct our senses (eyes, ears, tongue and so on) and hold them back from their instinct-driven ways. When we can calm these senses, which otherwise are like wild horses, we have a special power within us and that power bestows upon us the joy of liberation.
Let us cut off some of our false attachments, if that is the right thing. Let us give up some others when it is better to do so. Let us remove them from the store of our memories in some other cases. These attachments are the root causes of much of our agitations. These are the knots in the fabric of our thoughts. The garland of attachment that looks very beautiful to our mind is itself the hanging rope many a time for the self (soul).
Managing the mind is – to a great extent – managing its numerous attachments. In discovering right relationships with objects and persons, we uncover the treasure of happy living.

Swami Chidananda
Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Burst Thirty Two (For the Young):

The God Factor

Someone wrote on the blackboard, “God is nowhere.” Another wrote a long vertical line in the middle of the word ‘nowhere’ so now it read, “God is now here.”
Play of words, exercises of logic and somersaults of conceptual or even creative thinking cannot help in understanding God, the ultimate mystery of our existence. God is beyond the mind’s ken. The one who seeks to know God should know, “God is where I am not.” Any seeking covers God and the cessation of seeking reveals God as the one who was always present.
There is order in this universe on the levels of the microcosm and the macrocosm. Atoms have their amazing arrangement and galaxies have their awesome organization. Nature’s laws govern all phenomena. Man’s discovery of those laws, of course, is an endless journey where the horizon goes on extending further and further. In our quiet, contemplative moments, we realize how magnificent this creation is. Einstein remarked, “How everything is comprehensible in this universe is most incomprehensible.”
God is the truth behind this order, these laws and this magnificence. He/she/it is that which words cannot describe. Thanks to God, words describe infinite number of things.
The state of no conflict, of complete harmony, of unconditional love is God. Appreciation of beauty where you forget yourself gives you a glimpse of God. When you work in such a way that you neither feel pressure nor laziness, you are in a state of ‘flow,’ God is smiling away. Such charity where you do not know you are giving brings God within the reach of your experience.
When you are conscious of your image, feeling either proud or inferior, your thinking introduces a division that hides the vision of God. Both the man who thinks he is a sinner and the man who thinks he is a saint miss God for such thoughts separate oneself from the reality.
No wonder a wise man remarked, “God defined is God defiled.” In the silence of utter humility, and not of stupidity, one has no stance or position and lo, God alone then is.

Swami Chidananda
October 21, 2004

Burst Thirty Three (For Youth):

Eclipse – Outside and Inside

The lunar eclipse takes place on a full moon night. The orb of the moon, which is otherwise fully lighted up, is dark on this night for the earth’s shadow falls on the satellite. We have total darkness in place of the lovely moonlight (in total lunar eclipse).
Our mind is like the moon in many ways. As the moon draws (and reflects) light from the sun, our mind draws (and reflects) light from the Self (Atma). This mind of ours is a great delight to one and all, when the quality of sattva is predominant in it. This often happens with all of us and it is then truly like a full moon night. However, there are rare times when just the opposite happens. When the shadow of the self (center of selfishness in us) falls upon the mind, it is under eclipse and we lose all sight of right and wrong. Tamas, and not sattva, reigns supreme then and alas, we commit blunders under the influence of the quality of tamas.
The eclipse outside is regarded a special event by scientists. They study the situation with great care. For ages humanity has viewed the time of eclipse with care and caution. Religious people have observed special rituals and prescribed rules for categories like pregnant women during such times. Both solar and lunar eclipses are believed to be times when the houses are to be given a clean up after the event is over. People take an extra bath upon the release of the moon (or the sun) from the shadow (or obstruction).
When we realize that our mind is under siege by an undue amount of self-centeredness, we should go about the matter with extra caution. We had better lie low for a while and get into action after the mind reverts to reasonable objectivity.
On the whole, this mind of ours is such a companion of ours that wisdom lies in a constant watch over its movement and doing what is truly appropriate at a given moment. Have a mature relation with your mind. Do not either trust it fully nor walk away from it (you cannot) in desperation. Be friends with your mind and let there be a respectful distance too in the friendship.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, November 22, 2004

Burst Thirty Four (For Youth):

Silence and Living in the Present

An inner silence or a quiet watchfulness alone makes possible living in the present. When our mind is noisy and we are carried away by some conclusion, it is impossible to be free from the clutches of memories and judgments.
The ego is on one hand the product of memories or past conditionings, and on the other, thrives on the endless chasing of personal desires. Acquiring or hoarding of objects and becoming somebody are our constant preoccupations. The illusion that one more object in our possession will make us complete results in a wild goose chase, and we go on suffering. In the same way, the fancy that a certain position, professionally or in the society, will bring meaning to our life also keeps us on the run. There is such force normally in these mental movements that we are miles away, psychologically, from the actuality of life. Alas, we then are going in circles of imagined factors and are not in touch with facts.
What is silence? What is watchfulness? The moment we choose one thought over another, true silence is lost. Such choice implies an agent behind the choice and that is the noisy self. If we are really silent, we observe thoughts as they are. We observe external things also as they are, without interfering in them through some interpretations based on our likes and dislikes. Selective watching, with a motive behind it, only strengthens the self. Our ego gets refined or more sophisticated.
Living in the present cannot be willed. When there is attention with a childlike innocence, the pressures of the past and of the future vanish. Living in the present then just takes place, without our putting a seal of recognition upon it. The moment we say, “Ah, I am living in the present today”, we are not in the present for such judgment is surely the sign of our feeding on the past.
So the truth of this matter is that there is no such thing as practicing awareness. We just need to be aware now and there is only now. All indulgence in thoughts like, “I shall extend my awareness to longer and longer periods slowly” give reality to the self that is conceived on the axis of psychological time. Truth is timeless and any practice is necessarily in time. How can the two be together?
Let us not make a virtue of this so-called living in the present. Let us understand that we just need to be fully awake this moment. This moment alone is true and it contains eternity.
The truth is the light of all lights. No darkness touches it. Shining brilliantly in your own heart now, it is the beginning of wisdom and the fulfillment too. It is at once the means and the end. (adapted from Geeta 13:17)

Swami Chidananda
Monday, February 21, 2005

Burst Thirty Five (For Youth):

Physics and Metaphysics – Part I

Physics studies forces in nature such as heat, light, gravity and sound. It goes into how these forces affect objects. It unravels the relationships between all the phenomenal forces. On the whole, physics examines the ‘observed world’.
Metaphysics begins where physics (usually) ends. It looks at the ‘observer’ and reveals wondrous possibilities in the (human) being that observes the world. The dictionary defines metaphysics as the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of existence, truth and knowledge.
Physics takes the question, “What is this?” and discovers volumes of knowledge. Metaphysics explores the query, “Who am I?” and shows unbelievable hidden powers and ways of transformation.
Physics believes in the reality of matter/energy duo. Everything in the (observed) world is either matter or energy. Matter, which has mass, may convert also to energy, which spreads as waves. Matter is localized and, as particle, is at one place only at a given moment of time. Energy on the other hand, as wave, is present at several places at the same time.
Metaphysics talks of consciousness as the ultimate reality. The observer, in essence, is consciousness. Mind, brain, sense organs and all objects that are perceived are products of consciousness. This is the stand of the Vedanta.
Shakti (Goddess Parvati in popular Hinduism) represents matter/energy. Shiva represents consciousness. While Shiva is held as supreme, he cannot move even an inch unless Shakti joins him. This is the content of the first verse of Adi Shankara’s Soundarya-Lahari (a hundred verses on the Goddess of beauty). So consciousness, along with matter/energy, accounts for all the phenomena of this universe.
Does the observer affect the observed? Some scientists (like Amit Goswami, Ph.D. of University of Oregon) have proposed that consciousness (essence of the observer) is the agency that focuses (the observed) waves to look like a localized particle. This, if true, resolves one of the riddles of quantum physics.
Your world may not be in your hands; possibly, your world is totally in your eyes!

( To be continued in Burst 36 )

Swami Chidananda

Monday, February 21, 2005

Burst Thirty Six (For Youth):

Physics and Metaphysics – Part II

Is the whole universe nothing other than vibrations of energy, as Physics would propose? Or is it all consciousness appearing as matter/energy, thanks to limitations of the observing equipment, as Vedanta would suggest?
Realizing the truth of the first proposal has tremendous potential in applied science (technology) and we can contribute to more growth and prosperity for humanity.
Realizing the second possibility can bestow upon us great peace. Our conflicts can come to an end, if the subject-object division itself ends.
One view of who we are is that we are specks in the infinite stretch of space and time. A second view is that space and time are within us. Adi Shankaracharya, in Dakshinamurti Stotra, says space and time are conceived by the human mind!
In advanced physics, there is much uncertainty about the nature of things like an electron. Oppenheimer said long ago, “If we say an electron moves, it is not correct; if we say it does not move, it is again not correct!” The Ishavasya Upanishad (Vedanta, from Rig-veda) declares about the ultimate reality (Atman, Brahman), “It moves; it does not move. It is inside; it is outside. It is far; it is near!”
A great thinker observed, “A little science takes you away from spirituality; more of science takes you closer!”
Physics began proposing that matter is indestructible and energy also separately is indestructible. It later proposed that the matter-energy duo is indestructible, while conversion between them could take place. The Vedanta proposes that the observer (consciousness) is truly indestructible. Is it too much to accept that the intelligence that finds out the secrets of matter or energy is in itself of a higher order of reality?
All confusion and sorrow have arisen from a false division created by thought (thinking). Thoughts create the ego – the false I. This false ‘I’ is the culprit then in bringing about human misery. Interestingly, we have in Mathematics the number i (square root of minus one), which is in a sense not possible (as negative numbers cannot have a square root) and yet is quite a valid figure in many branches of Math. The false I of philosophy and the i of Math seem to have a common ground!
“Truth is one; sages describe it in many ways.” That is the old adage. Are we nearing a point of time when we can recognize that Vedanta and Physics are describing the same truth in two different ways?

Swami Chidananda
Monday, March 21, 2005

Burst Thirty Seven (For Youth):

Sweat it out

Living itself is an exercise of yoga. You need to conduct yourself with much care and understanding. Time and again you will meet with delicate situations, which test your equanimity and alertness. Can you walk on through the corridors of life without getting stuck at the walls? You are a yogi when you are neither caught in the tight embrace of things nor are constantly running away from matters. You neither depend on company nor avoid it. You are alone in a sense, being your own companion on the journey of life. All the same, you are not averse to or afraid of people.
Restraining the senses, training them to have a healthy relationship with objects of pleasure and keeping them fit is an integral part of mature living. So is the case with the mind. Do not look at all emotions as bad. Identify and nurture good emotions. Do not indulge in them excessively. When you fine-tune the senses and the mind, you become ready for perceiving the deeper, spiritual potential of everyday life. A natural equanimity becomes a part of your experience as events tend to toss you and old habits tend to drag you to despair.
Work hard. Sweat it out, not in a mechanical or dull way. Go about it with enough attention to details. Do a fine job of all your well-chosen duties. Work on money, men and matters. Work on yourself too. Work on physical issues, keeping in mind aesthetics, cultural sentiments and true fairness to everybody involved.
Not by erudition, but by freedom from ego is the bliss of wisdom gained. Work for it through an all-time wakefulness. Let it not be mere philosophical ideas or clever verbalization. Know it to be an every moment challenge. Gather information where required. Let go of concepts and judgments. Learn and grow. Unlearn and simplify.
Strive thus in the mill of life.
(Inspiration: Kagga 703 – 704)

Swami Chidananda
Monday, April 11, 2005

Burst Thirty Eight (For Youth):

Physics and Metaphysics – Part III

Shri Ramana Maharshi perhaps is an excellent exponent of metaphysics. He is someone whose statements (born of personal experience) can hold physicists in awe. He says, for example, “Time and space have no validity but for the observer. The play of time and space can take place only if there is body-identification (that creates the observer). When the observer (an entity that arises in body identification) disappears, the truth of our existence has no limitation of either space or time. (Saddarshanam, verse 18)
Interestingly, Jiddu Krishnamurti often spoke of ‘observing without an observer’. He too pointed to the breaking down of divisions between the observer and the observed. This undivided Awareness could baffle the physicist, as the fundamental requirement for any experimental observation is that there be a division between ‘the measured’ and the ‘one who measures’.
Ramana does not spare us when we are all the time caught in the world of senses. He declares that our world is nothing but a creation of our own thoughts. Sound, touch, form, color, taste and smell (the sense objects) constitute this (observed) world. All these objects are validated by our sense organs (ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose) and they in turn are dependent on the mind, as they would have no impact on us if our mind were to be away. Thus the mind, being made of thoughts, is the stage on which the play of this world is played. (Saddarshanam
By remarking that thought is a response of memory, Krishnamurti has questioned the validity of our world of joys and sorrows. Thoughts, rooted in memory, take us into a fancy world and away from reality. He too appealed for humanity to rise above the domain of thoughts and stay in pure attention, which alone can help us stay in the present moment, the reality.
Causation, space and time are the bread and butter of physics. Metaphysics points to a reality that is not touched by these three. Ramana asks us to be rooted in the NOW, which is fundamental. Just as all counting has to begin with the number one, right understanding of life has to start with the NOW. The future and the past that our mind conceives are only projections of thought. What we meet is always the present. To be aware of the reality of the present moment is most important, without which thoughts can take us for a fancy ride indeed. (Saddarshanam 17)
Wise people and mystics like Ramana had a vision of the metaphysical reality in which alone all the puzzles of physics will ultimately find their resolution.

Swami Chidananda
June 20, 2005

Burst Thirty Nine (For Youth):

Love Of Truth

False values cover the face of truth. Right from childhood, we come under the influence of some fancy or the other, which hold sway over all our activities. Teenage fancies leave us when we enter our twenties, but other rosy ideas take their place. Adi Shankara laments in his famous work Bhaja Govindam, “Games and sports catch our fancy during childhood; the opposite sex occupies our mind when we are youthful; all kinds of worries disturb us as we get old; alas, when shall we turn to Truth?”

We are with truth when we perceive situations without selfishness. When the light of our perception is marred by the shadows of our self and its designs, we are out of contact with truth. Is there a way of life where we see things as they are, without the interference of pressing thoughts about how they should be? Preconceived ideas of how things should be, how people should behave or how institutions should run can come in the way of right perception.

The main problem is selfishness, which enters into the picture very quietly without our noticing it many times. We are attached to ‘our’ ideas and fondly believe that those ideas alone are the right ones. We may not be open for considering other possibilities. While we think we are pursuing what is right, the fact may be that we are fighting for the cause of the self.

Popular religions have declared that devotion to God washes away all selfishness. Shri Shankara declares in his Shivananda-lahari, “Hail these devotional verses which are like a river that washes away the dirt of all impurities in the readers and leads them to a state of utter cessation of all worldly suffering.” (Verse 2) Saints indeed have all along set examples of selfless living and, while the external marks of their religions were different, they lived in love of truth. People who came in close touch with them felt a great difference about their conduct. There was no trace of self-centeredness in them.

Abandoning self-centeredness is certainly the hallmark of love of truth and living with truth.
Shivananda-lahari is a poem of one hundred verses by Adi Shankaracharya in praise of and devotion to Lord Shiva.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, August 15, 2005

Burst Forty (For Youth):

Saying No, Wisely

Fearing that we would displease the person in front of us, we hurry to say yes, only to regret later. Saying no is surely one way a lot of us can regain our peace of mind and protect order in our daily life. Popular and outgoing speakers have called it a great power to be able to say no. They have compared it with solar, wind or even nuclear power.

By saying yes without enough thought, we might make people happy. Will that happiness last? In the long run, all our restlessness can burst out and we might hurt the very person whom we first pleased. An unwise yes thus is the forerunner of much trouble. People come to us with their personal agenda and, to get their job done, they speak very sweetly to us. We feel praised and tend to say yes to their proposals. In the process we lose our time, money or certain valuable traditions of the family or institution.

For example, someone invites me over telephone to deliver some lectures at his town after praising me, saying how wonderful a speaker I am – so knowledgeable, yet humble etc. I forget how his organization is known for disorder and irregularities; I put aside all my other commitments; I do not remember the hassles of going to his place and I say yes. I do so to avoid his displeasure or to save myself from his further (nagging) persuasion. I put the telephone down with a sense of relief – Ah, I can now attend to other things. But the one simple yes that I said will cost me now many days of travel, long hours of preparation and many kinds of disturbance to regular work.

Saying one no over the telephone could have saved me all this.

Saying yes when actually our heart is whispering no can lead to injustice to our organization. We may individually become good in the eyes of the person in front of us but our company may have to pay for our mistake. Do we want that?

Saying no displeases or disappoints the man before us. However, if we have said no after due consideration, even this man may see the fairness of our decision.

Saying no mechanically to any request is foolish. We lose good opportunities by such a thoughtless no. Saying no instinctively smacks of insensitivity. If our no comes from the ground of dislike or aversion to the person making the request, it is even worse. Such behavior leads to more and more of psychological entanglement for us and we would be caught in the net of our own likes and dislikes.

Say yes or no after giving proper thought to the matter, without being carried away either by praise or by some dislike.

Swami Chidananda
Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Burst Forty One (For Youth):

Touch and Touch Not

All of us feel many times that this world is a very bad place. It is very difficult to manage it. Quarrels and scandals are everywhere. Disease and death are common. Jealousy and deceit have found their homes in people’s hearts. Our own mind also is bad very often. Vulgar and wrong thoughts rise with great force even as we watch helplessly.

At the same time, we have to live in this very world, which is supposed to help us learn and grow. How?

Touch this world and yet touch it not, say the wise. “When one of your hands is at work, hold God with the second. Upon completion of the work, hold God with both your hands,” said Sri Ramakrishna. So one way to “touch and yet not touch” this world is to keep in mind the higher truth (called God by many sages). A second way is to understand and remind ourselves constantly that this world, which looks solid, is actually hollow. All its glitter and glamour has no pith.

If you are a lover of flowers, see their colors, smell them and enjoy. Do not take them in your hands and squeeze. They give a pungent smell if you crush them like that. Take a second example. The water in a forest pond is clean and clear. Take some and drink it without disturbing the depths. If you stir the deeper areas, much dirt will surface. This world is like that. Keep right distances and do your duty with some detachment. If you get too much involved, taking too much on your plate, you are inviting trouble.

Live lightly. Tread gently on this earth. Balance your efforts at success with an inner simplicity and humility. Do aspire to reach peaks of excellence, but remember again and again that you are just one among the billions of human beings caught in the struggle of existence.

There is a field beyond success and failure, right doing and wrongdoing. God awaits you there. Do not stick to hard judgments and conclusions. Go with the flow, accepting events as ordained by the Almighty.

Work in the field of the three gunas (attributes) – sattva, rajas and tamas. Remember that the truth is above these three.

(Inspiration drawn from the Kannada work Kagga – Verses 625 and 626)

Swami Chidananda
October 6, 2005

Burst Forty Four (For Youth):

Surrender and Inner Freedom:

“Inquire or surrender. These are the two paths to freedom.” Maharshi Ramana said all the approaches to spirituality belong to the two categories of inquiry and surrender, which are essentially the ways of wisdom and devotion respectively.

The self is the sense of separate I in all of us. Elimination of this self is the crux of the matter in both the disciplines of inquiry and surrender. The self is made of its own memories and sustains itself through self-importance. Upon gaining some purity, this self understands God’s importance and greatness and abandons its obsession with itself.

“Save me,” says the devotee to the Lord. “Drop the ‘me’ and you are saved,” says the Lord. The devotee then comes around, “I offer myself to you.” The Sanskrit word samarpan means total offering, while arpan means offering. Swami Chinmayanandaji used to humorously say, “If not samarpan, do some arpan!”

Who or what is God? Well, He is the unity of all creation, which is the truth. The self is a denial of that unity and therefore is false. The illusory self suffers its self-created miseries, matures and gains the insight that it requires an altogether different approach to happiness than all its usual ways of earning and hoarding. Adding some more wealth or fame to its list of collections, it sees, takes it nowhere near infinity. A journey from the self to a better self is utterly futile. What is needed is a leap to no self. That is surrender.

Become food for the Lord, says the sage of Arunachala. When we eat food, it becomes a part of us. It loses its separate existence. Likewise the devotee merges with the Lord in pure devotion. Harih karta, Harir-bhokta – goes the good old saying: the Lord is the doer and he alone is the enjoyer. The devotee turns to naught. Though zero, he (she) is now truly a hero for in this becoming nobody he is everybody. Being nowhere, he has the bliss of being everywhere.

In surrender there is freedom. God acts through the devotee. Contrary to our usual feelings of insecurity, the devotee here gets everything he needs. Yoga-kshemam vahamyaham – I shall look after the devotee who has surrendered to me, says the Lord in the Geeta (9:22). When the self subsides, it will not be a case of void or non-functionality. Truth operates through the mind and body of the devotee. Meaningful action takes place with the touch of love and care.

Stop suffering from the burdens on your shoulder which actually do not exist. Surrender to Him and be free.

Swami Chidananda
June 1, 2006

Burst Forty Five (For Youth):

Soham – The Description:

Who are we? Are we bad or good? Are we for ever chained to varieties of limitations, or do we have an infinite potential for achievement and fulfillment? Any thinking man wonders on these lines at some time or the other. All other knowledge becomes meaningless if we do not know ourselves. To put it in other words, to have a poor self-esteem and lose hope on ourselves renders any other good side of ours worthless.

To feel, “I am good, nice and worthy of love and respect,” is such a necessary ingredient of happy, productive living that, without it, we might turn towards harmful ways of behavior. The Vedanta declares, “You are ever complete, full and free of inadequacies.” The student understands this and says, “I am That” – so’ham (sah = That, aham = I am). So this __expression so’ham is a pithy description of the beauty and majesty of our existence. It is the ultimate positive assertion of human goodness. The uplifting and reassuring words of many poets and writers are like an echo of this seminal statement – so’ham. For example, H W Longfellow writes in his A Psalm of Life, “Life is real, life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal.” The job of all motivational speakers is to kindle the flame of so’ham in the hearts of their listeners. Parents and teachers are fulfilled when their children or students experience a greater worthiness within themselves and that in essence is so’ham.

So’ham is a mantra, a string of sounds with a mystic power. Chanting it, we fill ourselves with self-confidence. Repeating it, we assert our hidden divinity. Contemplating upon its meaning, we remind ourselves of all the spiritual potential that is waiting in us to be tapped. We may take a deep breath, and say so’ham while holding the breath inside. When we hold air inside our chest after inhaling, the state is called antah-kumbhaka. When we hold the chest empty after exhaling, the state is called bahih-kumbhaka. We may practice the “so’ham during antah-kumbhaka” and receive many benefits of sound physical and mental health.

As we think, so we become – is an old piece of wisdom. We must receive good thoughts from every corner and look at life in their light. Tagore prays in his Nobel Prize-winning Gitanjali, “Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.” Such thoughts can help us gear up to daily life’s challenges better.

So’ham is the gist of a vast amount of good literature. It is the cream of all works that equip us to meet life with courage, cheerfulness, compassion and true love.

Swami Chidananda
Monday, July 31, 2006

Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.
Pablo Picasso.

Burst Forty Six (For Youth):

Fulfillment In Serving Others

It is in giving that we receive, observed Saint Francis of Assisi. The mystics of different traditions of the world found out hidden truths of life that can bless us with great peace and fulfillment.  An old Sanskrit verse goes –

Trees bear fruit for others’ sake!
Rivers flow serving all creation!
Cows give milk for others’ sake!
This body is meant for serving others!³

It is an open secret of spirituality that we derive peace by giving and we live in fear when we keep to ourselves.All of us begin with acquiring and hoarding, increasing our personal possessions. We do this in search of security. The ‘I, me and my’ is soon seen to be a thorn in the flesh! Then we awake to the spiritual truth—“Renounce and rejoice!”

This does not mean that we could be careless in handling money, time or other resources.Fools rush inwhere angels fear to tread. We should give in generosity and not our of recklessness.The strong and wise alone can sustain true generosity.Others lead themselves to more trouble or misery when they try to serve!

We can never give to others what we do not have! We need to material wealth, and more importantly, spiritual wealth in order to give and serve! The latter is the bedrock of service.

One has learnt the art of divine living when one is able to give freely of oneself to others and yet is at peace with oneself.Apparently one is becoming zero by giving; really one emerging as a hero! In our false fears, we imagine we shall be reduced to nothing if we are generous, in reality, we experience infinity when we strike the chord of harmony with fellow beings!

How much should we give and how far should we go in serving people? A saint said, “Give till it hurts you”. That could inspire us to loosen our attachments and be free of false fears. However, as said before, true wisdom is never oppose to common sense or discretion. Certain scriptures in fact caution us and urge us to give to the truly deserving, at the right time and at the right place (See Geetha 17:20)

Giving food to the starving is a great gift; greater is the gift of knowledge.The former brings satisfaction for a moment, while the latter can give to the recipient (through self-reliance) happiness for all her life. We find thus that there are different kinds of giving. yes” To reach out to a friend or colleague in distress and ease her burden is, spiritually speaking, a gift we give to ourselves. Even listening with empathy can go a long way to make the other person feel better.

Let us give; let us serve; let us share! Let us strengthen each other with what each of us has!

Swami Chidananda
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Burst Forty Seven (For Youth):

Holding Truth Tightly

The diagnosis of the terrible state of affairs of human life can be summed up in one phrase, “departure from truth”. Lack of peace, tremendous amount of psychological turmoil and finding our existence itself meaningless are all the result of our losing our hold on truth, which happened at some time with or without our noticing it. So the old prayer goes, “O Lord, lead me from the false to the true.

The voice of traditional religion puts it, “Hold God tightly”.Sri Ramakrishna, the sage of Dakshineshwar, appealed, “Hold God with the second hand when one of your hands is at work; when the work gets over, hold Him with both the hands.” Those saintly thinkers who made no room for God in their philosophy (like the Buddha or J Krishnamurti) highlighted the importance of “staying aware” all the time. The Vedanta declared awareness (Consciousness) to be the supreme truth. The Upanishads pointed out the limitations of thought and word, and insisted that the truth is not any verbal or mental concept.

It is easier to recognize slipping from truth than it is to know that we are staying with truth. Disorder of many kinds results, when we move away from truth. Our actual life gets filled with dullness or aggressiveness and all our scholarship just cannot help us touch the ground of true peace. Our knowledge and our various skills fill our stomachs only (bhuktaye, na tu muktaye³) and fail in bestowing upon us real cheerfulness.  We succeed in laughing loudly during our public appearances while our private life bleeds with countless personal wounds.

Falsehood becomes an entanglement which keeps us continuously and endlessly busy. Our conscience whispers here and there but we ignore its words of caution. We say to ourselves, “Just a little more time; I shall set this one more matter right; then I am fully available to truth.” Alas, the web of deception keeps us trapped in it.   All our notions of gradually coming out of it—step by step—remain just soothing concepts which hold no water really.

We just step aside, once for all. Let us go for truth right away. (Put God first, here and now.) Let us wake up from our slumber in one instant, walk forth and not look back at the bed again. There are no steps to awareness; we just have to stand apart from thoughts and stay firm. There is no use hunting for the causes of various problems in our (mental) life.  all analysis with our limited intellect, also can lead us nowhere. We cannot reach the timeless truth through the corridors of time. It is by totally negating time (cause and effect) that we discover the ground of no time.

The endless theories of this world about gaining self-perfection are only the pleasurable occupation of a clever mind. Through such modes of self-development, the mind (the self, the ego) sustains itself. All these paths and ways of self-improvement are as though funded by Falsehood Inc. The show goes on. One rare soul smells something fishy about the whole thing and question it all.She then holds truth itself (and not the well-conceived system / path to truth).

As long as we imagine a going, our journey never ends. We must go through life without thinking about the process of going. Thinking binds us. The thought, “ I have come quite far; now I have just a little more to go,” keeps the “I” strong and steady.When there is no thought and therefore no judging, the truth shines forth on its own. The thought, “ I have wasted my life in worldly pursuits,” is known to be bondage; even the thought, “ I have worked hard for my liberation, I have left no stone unturned,” is also equally bondage. True freedom is freedom from thought itself. The silent mind is the seat of this freedom.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi, October 11, 2006

End notes:

1 asato maa sad-gamaya (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajurveda)

2. prajnanam brahma- Aitareya Upanishad, Rigveda

3. viveka-Choodamani: verse 60

Burst Forty Eight:

What is Intelligence

True intelligence is way beyond the well-known quotients IQ and EQ. The IQ (Intelligence Quotient) has been popular for long and, as everybody knows, it captures areas of logic, reasoning and clever processing of information. It is highly head-oriented and they say the left side of our brain has these abilities. Today slowly even machines have begun to have some amount of IQ called artificial intelligence (AI). For example, a machine plays chess and beats even grandmasters. The EQ (Emotional Quotient) is more heart-oriented and covers the domain of emotional energy in oneself and in others. It does so in both the areas of understanding and applying the energy. This has proved to be very valuable in all spheres of human activity. Better leaders, more effective negotiators and even more harmonious heads of families have all been found to possess higher EQ.

True intelligence is the key to total freedom. It is such a breakthrough that, when we have it, there is a fundamental difference in perception of situations. IQ and EQ may sit comfortably with this intelligence. In other words there is no contradiction between them and the true intelligence. It has the fragrance of simplicity, innocence and natural being. While good IQ and high EQ can help us occupy positions of advantage in the society, true intelligence can bless us with joy and peace without any position being necessary at all. The old Vedanta scriptures called this intelligence the liberating wisdom¹. All other knowledge and skills are “for enjoyment and not for freedom”². This unique gift is marked by psychological simplicity and it removes divisions and barriers between one another. As our false notions of high and low go away, we are able to act in an impartial way towards one and all.

Jesus Christ once was watching a soccer match between Catholics and Protestants. He stood up and clapped when the Catholics made a goal. Spectators behind him thought he too was a Catholic. To their surprise and confusion, he rose and rejoiced when the Protestants made a goal too. As this went on for a while, the people in the rows behind him concluded, “He is an atheist.” Impartiality is so rare.

Psychological simplicity is the key to tremendous, if not total, freedom from stress. We pretend to be knowledgeable, powerful, well-placed etc. and invite a lot of unnecessary pressure within us. We live in the fear of being exposed. When true intelligence cleanses our mind of all the tendencies behind such pretensions, we enjoy a great sense of being unburdened. We do not need to have many possessions, for example, but we think we ought to have them. We need not know many things, again, but there is a self-created pressure in us to know them all. Once somebody asked J Krishnamurti, “What do you think of Osho?” Krishnaji simply replied, “I do not think of Osho.”

True intelligence empowers us to drop false beliefs, attachments and values instantly and totally. Is it not very thought-provoking that the Prince Siddhartha saw old age, sickness and death on just one occasion and was deeply moved by the sight? He must have perceived it so intelligently that a radical transformation took place in him, paving the way to Buddha-hood. The wife of Shri Tulasidas said to him, “If only you were attached to Lord Rama like you are to me, you would have been free by now.” The husband perceived these words in a state of great intelligence and lo, the man changed drastically that moment onwards. (His wife must have regretted her saying those words for the rest of her life, or perhaps she did not.)

We see thus the nature of true intelligence as distinct from mere scholarship, methodical reasoning or healthy emotional makeup. It is something that breaks the shell of ordinary thinking and, touching the core of human existence, gives us a glimpse of the essence of life.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

Friday, December 15, 2006

Footnotes:

1 saa vidyaa yaa vimuktaye – That is wisdom which leads to freedom.

2 bhuktaye na tu muktaye – Viveka-choodamani, verse 60

Burst Forty nine:

Fun At Our Cost

Many of us believe in God. We also hold that He created this universe. Moreover, He is maintaining it and will one day destroy it too.

When we look around, we find such a perplexing variety of events in this world – happy and sorrowful, humorous and depressing. It has been so from time immemorial. Emperors and ordinary people go through unpredictable changes in their lives. Life is no bed of roses all the way, even for the rich and the famous.

Is God having fun with all these? Without His will (or consent), we read in holy books, even a blade of grass does not move¹. Our laughter is therefore by His design and our grief too is as per His fancy. All that we go through – conflict, turmoil, crying, weeping, seeking and feeling desperate – are all amusement for Him. He enjoys watching the grand show of life as someone (like Ravana in the Ramayana) puts his whole life in jeopardy by being unable to control his lust, or as someone else (like Duryodhana in the Mahabharata) digs his own grave by falling a prey to greed. Some (like Vishwamitra) are attached to austerity (tapas) and carry it on along with some basic delusions like wanting some special status (of Brahma-rishi). Some very virtuous people (like King Harischandra) suffer endlessly, with their families (like Chandramati, the king’s wife) put to incessant misery. Yet others (like Damayanti) are separated from their spouses (Nala) and are frantically trying to re-unite. Then there are couples (like Arjuna and Subhadra) who go through the tremendous grief of the loss of their child (Abhimanyu). All these upheavals or prolonged unhappiness of humanity on the earth seem to be entertainment for Shiva, the Supreme Lord.

All of us in millions seem to be flowers and Shiva apparently drinks of the nectar from us. Every one of us seems to provide to His palate a distinct flavor. Our life, running into a saga that is rich in the nine sentiments (nava-rasas), is a veritable feast for Him.

Is this not cruel?

As the old saying goes, God defined is God defiled.  God is truly beyond all conceivable descriptions. The above picture of Him enjoying the diverse scenes of human life is not false but is inadequate. It is one view that highlights a certain aspect of the supreme truth. Primarily this depiction implies that the creator is not affected by the joys and sorrows of the creation. The Vedanta books go one step further therefore and say He is the quiet witness (sakshi) of the play of names and forms. To say that He rewards the good and punishes the wicked is also a certain level of appreciation of the God principle. It appeals to many an intellect, especially in the early stages.

A number of spiritual points of view help us to abandon harmful, self-centered viewpoints. At their culmination, we give up our ego and are free. That is the state of unitary consciousness, devoid of all divisions. We then see harmony right in the midst of chaos. We see indestructible life amidst all death.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

(Basis of the above writing: Verses 36 thru 40 of Marula Muniyana Kagga, a Kannada work)

1 tena vina trinam-api na chalati.

Burst Fifty:

Transforming Thought Into Action

First of all, not all people get good ideas and thoughts. Even among those who are inspired by a nice vision, not all are able to fuel that vision and fire it into action. Why?

Nature has its laws for good reasons. If thought were to get converted into action without delay, a lot of our whims and fancies also would become concrete actions in no time, and that is not desirable. It is therefore good in a way that there are some filtering processes before a thought takes the form of its corresponding action.

Great people like Gandhiji were convinced that a truly strong desire, felt from the bottom of our hearts, never goes unfulfilled. Hard to believe, even as it may seem, there is more than a grain of truth to such a conviction as India ’s Father of the Nation had.  A strong, earnest desire in the depth of our being is indeed like a banyan seed, which, though very small in its size, grows into the huge tree in due course of time. Calling such a desire the Deep Driving Desire, Sri Eknath Easwaran also highlights its power in his writings. This DDD is often quite different from what we let the public know and is other than what even our own conscious mind recognizes most of the time. It is only with a lot of quiet self-observation and honest introspection that we can take note of our DDD. Then we can see that much of our life so far also was shaped by it and it is at work even now, everyday!

Call it poorva-samskaras (past impressions, from previous lives) or early childhood influences, the cause of the deep driving desire is not as important as is the question of how we may free ourselves from its limited confines. In the case of Mahatma Gandhi and many other saintly persons, the net resultant force of their past seems to be of a noble nature. No wonder their lives became exemplary. In the majority of cases of us, the rest of humanity, alas, our own true calling seems to be ‘not yet ripe or strong enough’ and our energies get dissipated in other ‘not so worthwhile’ areas.

We need to sit, watch and weed out a number of thoughts within us which weaken our noble energies. Clarity about where we want to go should emerge in a natural way, as a result of our coming face to face with the many voices within us.  We have always believed in our own original goodness. We therefore have to rest assured that ‘cleaning up the house’ will leave us with good discoveries.

Even on a daily basis, small victories are important as they are sweet in the first place, and they further lead to big victories. “What is it that I really want to achieve?” is a question that we may ask at all the junctures of doubt and despair. By holding this question powerfully, we can separate the grain from the chaff.

Every thought has the potential for turning into action but it is other thoughts that cancel out its potency. Good thoughts making their way through a number of other less important ones is the hallmark of an integrated personality. When this happens without much struggle or conflict and when our bosom is free from negative energies like self-doubt or varieties of fear, there is the fragrance of spontaneous dynamism.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi Monday, April 9,

Burst Fifty-One :

The Way To Peace

Travel light, in your mind zone, if you want peace in life. Do not load yourself with heavy and rigid opinions about people. No doubt various events of life leave behind pleasant and unpleasant memories, which tend to cause images to be formed in your mind. Stay alert and prevent such image formations. Adopt a broad vision and let go of any emotional residue like hurt or pleasure that people might have generated in you. “If your mind keeps from judging and you are not led by the senses, your heart will find peace,” said Lao Tzu, the great writer of Tao Te Ching. Being impulsive in matters of sense pleasure is certainly another major cause of misery in life. Many people think they are good people and, if at all they enjoy certain pleasures, it is all with their own honest earnings and therefore there should be nothing wrong. They do not realize how such an indulgent way of living affects their mind also and, often without their knowledge, they would have taken wrong decisions. They would have postponed the performance of their duty and would have remained insensitive to the true needs of their friends, colleagues or relatives.

How simple and interesting – there is an error each to avoid on the planes of the senses and the mind. On the first plane, do not get enslaved. On the second, keep sending all your judgments to the recycle bin.

The senses are five, as you know. They are the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue and the skin. All audio-visual programs hold sway on our eyes and ears. On many nights, we find it hard to stay on for even half an hour more for the sake of study or meditation (prayer). Then, if we play a DVD movie, we can keep watching for two hours or more. This shows how much sense gratification means to us. Many of us have, similarly, a terrible weakness of the palate. The tongue, just about two inches long, is such a powerful sense organ that we keep munching something or the other again and again. It is generally more because of an inner unrest than out of hunger or thirst. Extend this to the other senses (sense organs) and you will find the truth of Lao Tzu’s words.

In the context of eating or over-eating, Eknath Easwaran, the noted author, gives a simple advice, “Stop one bite before your stomach is full.” That is his nice way of what the Geeta (6:17) called moderation in food, sleep etc. Shri Ramana Maharshi added speech as one more area where moderation helps a seeker tremendously in her sadhana. To put it simply, we conserve vital energy when we avoid excess in things like food, sleep and speech.

Coming to the matter of keeping away from judgments, it is obvious that in a lot of cases we need not have opinions or judgments at all. In cases where we are expected to have an opinion, we may go for a little liberal and generous stand. Then our mind remains lighter. We must know that, just as we would not like people to have rigid views of us, it is good for us to not put people in rigid frames. Let us leave room for change. Who knows, the other man might have totally changed since we met him the last time.

The ground of judgment is the fertile soil for so much of prejudice, ill will and other forms of negative energy. Negative tendencies harm the person harboring them. They may not do much to others towards whom they might be directed. If we may take an analogy, think of the hilly areas where, when we say something, it echoes several times. If we say a good word, the hills might echo the good word four times. If we utter an abusive word, that also comes back to us four times. So is the case with malicious thoughts. When we think of somebody as bad, this thought can keep hurting us. What is more, this thought can sometimes quietly make us exactly like the person who is bad in our opinion.

Lastly we need not go to the Himalayas and live like ascetics in order to find peace. Living where we are, a little care about the use of our sense organs and a little precaution in judging others would go a long way in ensuring much peace of mind to us.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

Monday, June 04, 2007

Burst Fifty-Two :

The Value Of Originality

A Christian priest advised her parishioners rightly, “God created us originals; let us not die as duplicates.” She was appealing to them to avoid blind imitation, which surely cannot be the way to find meaning in life. Right from young age, many of us tend to get confused about what we are to do in life, how we should conduct ourselves and so on. With an utterly limited knowledge of life, we then look upon someone as our role model and begin to cleverly do everything as he or she does. Psychologically, this could be due to an unnecessary sense of insecurity within us. Whatever it is, our behavior then has departed from the natural and artificialities have crept in. An alert mind can throw light on the deviations and help us rediscover our own personality.

Life becomes an endless compromise when we have not asked ourselves, with seriousness, “What is it that I really want to do?” Coming under some influence or pressure all the time, we pass our days, weeks, months and years in playing second fiddle to the vision of some other person or some organization. “If you have no goal of your own, somebody else will have you work for his goal,” go the words of warning. We postpone working on our true calling (svadharma) for the demands from different quarters seem to be too strong. More often than not, it is not the strength of the external demands but the lack of strength within us that keeps us indecisive. We need to look within and question“Where do I truly belong?” More the clarity about this issue, greater will be our strength to face the society and make headway against the tide.

Creation has infinite variety. Every one of us is unique. It is important for us to identify what we are good at and what we love the most. Many wise counselors advise, “Be yourself. That is the cure to your ailment of depression, dissatisfaction or even stress.” Being our own true self does not mean we cut off from people and not pick anything from them. We surely can learn or even derive inspiration from others. They could draw from us too. That is different from copying the ways or manners of others. Right living has freshness of outlook and quietude of mind. Our heart is light, when we put aside the false. We drop our copied pursuits and eliminate all illusions under which we could be laboring. False prestige, misconceived ambition and prejudiced judgments set us walking a wrong path. We must see that somebody else cannot impose a purpose upon our life, though his intentions may be good. Borrowed goals cannot lead us far. We do not want to climb the ladder fast, only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall.

A lady who works 15 hours a day but is rarely seen to be stressed was interviewed. She said, “My secret is that I work for myself. Everything I do is self-motivated, which means no one else has asked me to do it. You get stressed if someone makes you stay on and tells you to finish this or that before leaving the workplace. In my case, more I work on (my own) projects, more I learn and feel satisfied.” We must envy this woman indeed who has found her niche in those three businesses that she runs. In fact her work evolved from small to big over 20 years. All she did was to honestly pursue activities that she loved. Luckily for her, market conditions were favorable so she also became a financial success. Irrespective of making much money, we would have more joy, greater energy and deeper fulfillment if only we keep busy in the field of our choice – true to our original constitution.

As the Veda says, “Let us move from the false (asat) to the real (sat).” Whom are we trying to please, really, through our sweat and toil if we are all the time away from our true home? Illusions cause unnecessary burden upon our bosom. We come upon the right direction, when we put aside the wrong promptings within us through being honest to our own conscience. Swami Chinmayananda roared, “Out of purity and silence, come words of power.” Not just words but beautiful actions also emerge from a state of inner integration.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

Monday, July 9, 2007

Burst  Fifty-Three :

The Soul’s Journey Of Evolution-1

Navarâtri means nine nights. Along with the tenth day of celebration of the good over the evil, the festivities came to be known as Dussera (dasha = ten, ahar = days). The observance of Dussera has a symbolic significance of throwing light on a soul’s journey from bondage to liberation.

The first three days of navarâtri are devoted to worship of Durgâ, the goddess of power. During the second set of three days, we give importance to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. The third and last set of three days is for adoration of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge. Every one of us, due the delusory power of mâyâ that has its sway upon us right from the moment of our birth, has certain insecurity and therefore our first need is to feel protected. Worship of Durgâ thus symbolizes the natural need of every human being for safety and security. After feeling reasonably well-sheltered, we find we are in need of pleasures and comforts. Lakshmi provides us wealth which is the gateway to all the enjoyments of the world. As we get more mature, we realize the importance of knowledge and, no wonder, we worship Saraswati for that purpose. Pretty soon we become aware of the liberating nature of ‘spiritual knowledge’ and, attaining it, gain total freedom. The complete victory of the good over the evil, signified by the tenth day vijaya-dashami, is actually possible only in the transcendental wisdom of self-knowledge.

The Geetâ describes a soul’s evolution in another language and that is the idiom of gunas. Tamas, rajas and sattva are the three gunas in the order of increasing maturity. Tamas (tamo-guna) is characterized by dullness, darkness, insensitivity and inertia. As we grow out of it, upon learning lessons in life, rajas (rajo-guna) takes over and we are then very active, outgoing but restless and error-prone. We may apparently do a lot of good but in a deeper analysis we create new problems every time we solve some. Seeing the limitations of rajas thus, we calm down and take a more intelligent look at life as a whole. Sattva is born then. Sattva (sattva-guna) is marked by wisdom and peace. It is of the nature of light and knowledge. We are more balanced in our outlooks and we are equanimous in success and failure.

Staying in sattva for a long time, we are pushed beyond the realm of gunas by divine grace. Then there is total freedom. That is the happy end of the long journey of the soul.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

Monday, October 1st, 2007

Burst Fifty-Four :

Forgive Them And Move On

In the life of everybody among us, there is some hurt that we are nursing. If it heals fully, we can move on and embrace this New Year with fresh energy and much cheer. To err is human and to forgive is divine¹. Let us be divine, and that is a gift to others and to ourselves as well.

One way to forgive the other person who has caused a wound in us is to reflect on our own shortcomings. We must realize how we too have hurt somebody or the other quite badly, at some time or the other in our life. Do we want those people to whom we were unfair to harbor any ill will against us? Apply the golden rule – do unto others what you want them to do unto you. Let us just put the matter behind and look with new eyes.

A second way is to believe firmly in God and think that God will settle the accounts. We need not carry the burden of the unpleasant memories. It is perfectly all right if God, in His infinite mercy, lets the wrong-doer go scot-free. He knows better for sure.

To realize that it just causes continued misery to us if assume an unforgiving attitude could be a third way to arrive at forgiveness. We decide to give up our sorrowful way of living. To suffer the memories of the pain inflicted upon us by the wrong-doer is in fact tantamount to letting him (or her) inflict it upon us again and again. Why give him (or her) a second, a third and a fourth chance when the first one alone was terrible enough?

An old Sanskrit verse² goes, “What can the wicked do to you if you have the weapon called forgiveness in your hand? If a ground has no grass, the fire that falls upon it dies down on its own.”

In heightened self-awareness, we notice that the ego in us has created a false comfort zone where we expect everyone to be good to us. Even a small thing like somebody not inviting us to a party makes us angry. We feel let down. Somebody not coming to see us when we visit their town, as another example, disturbs us. It should actually not matter. (Sometimes such things relieve us of stress as there is less demand on our time.) However, any explanation smells fishy to the ego. We start analyzing and come to unsettling conclusions.

Have our own thought patterns made us weak? Have our ways of interpreting relationships led us to a situation where everything pains us? Do we get insecure if people do not smile at us? Do we get suspicious if they do?

In intense attention to the ways of the mind, we get free of much clutter in the psychological domain. In economy of thoughts, we can see clearly that the world is what we make of it. We are the world.

WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008, EMPTIED OF REGRETS AND FILLED WITH JOY.

Swami Chidananda

January 1, 2008

Varanasi, India

1  A well-known old saying

2  kshamaa shastram kare yasya, durjanah kim karishyati?

atrine patito vahnih svayamevopashaamyati.

Burst Fifty-Five :

Take It Lightly

Nine out of ten things that cause stress in daily life are actually not a big deal. They are just situations and most of us make a problem out of them. A lot of old conditionings make our mind slip into the grooves of habitual patterns (of thinking and feeling). An alert and mature mind would take all these things in its stride without fuss. Habits die in the heat of alertness, in the light of (living in) the present.

We need to see the truth of the amazing power of attention, which can drive away all tension. It is all about seeing clearly how we are causing pain to ourselves by just our ways of thinking. If we may use an analogy, a man pricks himself with a pin and cries, “Ah, it is paining.” When he just sees that no other person than himself is the cause of that pain, that ‘seeing’ instantly becomes ‘right action’. He stops pricking himself.

Therefore it is important to be self-aware. We should not only be aware of our words and deeds, but also of the thoughts behind them. Some of us are in tension right in the morning, when we are in a hurry to get ready to go to work. A while ago, while on bed, we would say, “Ah there is enough time; let me sleep a little more”. Now, the same mind gets panicky and rushes with things. Like the pendulum of a clock that goes from one extreme to another and swings back, our mind moves from indifference (or negligence) to great concern and urgency. In the face of pleasures and comforts, we forget duty and later, as work stares us in the face, we ride the waves of many negative emotions such as guilt, shame or blaming somebody else. This whole thing becomes a repetitive game that the tricky mind keeps playing, day after day.

We need to break the patterns of thinking within us, and act responsibly. In this context, it is important to avoid all judgments in a situation for they carry negative energy. We need to directly perceive ‘what needs to be and can be done’ and just do it. When we judge ourselves as lazy, incompetent or any other thing, it will further limit our capacity to work. We need to discard such conclusions right away and, now, act rightly with heart and soul. Doing even small jobs, having seen their importance, gives to us satisfaction. Cheered up by that, we can go further and live our day in vibrant action, from moment to moment.

Judging others also can be a convenient escape from decisive, right action. If we blame it on Tom, Dick or Harry, and wait for one of them (or a fourth person) to come around, how would worthy tasks be done at all? However, if we see clearly that somebody needs to be told to do something, we must go about making him or her do it. For this, we need to employ the right means of communication or persuasion. Entertaining judgmental thoughts about people and going in circles over those opinions, their justifications and counter-arguments will only be drainage of energy.

Self-awareness, during times of (self-caused) tension and stress, clears the basic cobwebs of conditioned thinking and makes for light-hearted living. That is psychological simplicity.

Swami Chidananda

Monday, February 11, 2008

Burst Fifty-Six:

Life Divine

We hear much about spirituality and about living a divine life. Countless traditions are found around the world to guide us on the path to a higher plateau of living. There are certain new age philosophies also which claim to break away from all that is old and they prescribe some practices too. What after all is divine life?

The teachings of many religions revolve around God. Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Christianity lead the bandwagon. Some religions are silent on God. Buddhism and Jainism are the foremost examples. New age thinkers like J Krishnamurti also had little to do with God (or gods) of world religions. All the same, the perfume of a divine life comes to us wafting up from all their gardens that are full of noble thoughts. Even as they appear to contradict each other in many respects, all of them apparently have a certain common ground which elevates us.

One way of identifying the divine is to see something of lasting value in a person’s behavior or activity. The world, with all its endless charms, is known to constantly change; its pleasures are fleeting. When we chase wealth, it seems very worthwhile but the happiness it gives diminishes after we acquire it.  Without blaming wealth per se, we may say therefore that there is no lasting happiness in wealth. The same applies to youthfulness, physical beauty, name, fame, and strength of body and mind. All of them are a passing show. What is lasting then?

Let us not find fault with woman (man) or gold. Our attachment to them, born of ignorance, is what causes unnecessary dependence upon them. This attachment is purely a psychological phenomenon. No wonder therefore many teachers declare spiritual growth to be a matter of a psychological revolution. A deep change in the content of human consciousness, they say, makes the true difference. Otherwise it is all mere stuffing of information into our head, or playing with symbols, and chasing subtler illusions in place of the well-known gross attractions of the world.

Shri Krishna and The Buddha appeal to us to re-examine our attachment to the transitory glories of this world. “Take them as they come but leave them as they go,” seems to be their message. Not to cling to any pleasure or stay emotionally involved in matters of status but to move freely through life’s situations is the hallmark of wisdom. If we have this broadmindedness, our life will have the stamp of divinity. Whether we believe in God or not then does not matter. Questions like, “Is there re-birth? Is it all right to worship idols?” lose their significance.

Constant vigil over our thoughts, words and deeds can expose our false attachments. Right in the morning, we may try to understand what makes us stay an extra hour in bed. Is it due to real bodily need or are we suffering from mental unrest? Do we go for coffee by mere habit or do we actually feel the need for a stimulating drink? We may examine our human relationships too under the sharp lens of discernment (viveka). Are we possessive of somebody (and envious of another) because of some shallow conclusions? Are we afraid of someone because of repetitive patterns of thoughts arising in us, which again could be based on some questionable beliefs?

We are enslaved and weakened by our own subconscious mind. A hundred religious practices as well as certain direct approaches like mindfulness are all meant to purge our mind of false conditionings. A free mind is truly the forerunner of divine life.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi, April 20, 2008

Burst Fifty-Seven :

No Residue

For most people, activities of life not only cause physical tiredness but also mental exhaustion. When we are wise, the latter reduces if not disappear.

A hundred people pass in front of a mirror and images of all of them are formed on its surface. However, they go their way and the mirror remains unaffected. Even the heaviest of those visitors does not leave behind a ‘residue’ through his or her image that was formed upon the mirror.

Can our mind also likewise be totally silent after a hectic day filled with interactions? Can it be silent in the sense of absence of regret, guilt, pride or other residues? Can it be quiet but vibrant, cheerful and available?

Shri Krishna calls this akarma in karma (Geeta 4.18). Non-action in action is when the action does not leave behind any noise in our mind. Ordinarily we go on remembering especially the moments of friction, compromise or contradiction. I should not have said that, or I should not have done that, etc keep coming up in our thoughts. Upon a close examination of the matter, we realize that all this is the result of self-importance. The ego in us is much upset if something goes wrong at our hands. I should be perfect and all should admire me, etc are the underlying assertions.

We cannot be quiet by deciding to be so. At the most it will amount to suppression, and the emotions suppressed will explode at a later time. Many people in the world take shelter under some ideal and, in its inspiration, are successful in making the selfish worries and agitations subside. Religious or secular models give us often a lift and we are able to put aside our sorrows of loss or defeat. The limitation here is that the ideals also tend to change and, as we evolve, we cannot receive the same inspiration from them as we did before. Further, many realities of life collide with the ideals we adore and we are torn between the ideal and the actual. Some of us even meet with a total disillusionment with regard to what we held before as the supreme truth or the most right way of living.

The healthiest way to arrive at inner peace is by giving up egoistic ways right away. We need not cling to some conceptual support (like an ideal) to do this. We need to directly see how our thoughts have given undue importance to I, me and my. What I said, how somebody ignored me and how my position was undermined – these are the crux of the matter. Let us not justify it all saying it is most natural. If we do so, then endless suffering also would be natural. Egoistic ways are not so much natural as they are wide-spread and common.

Our mind is in a true learning mode when we keep the ego under control. The ego is itself a bundle of residues and it further causes residues to be formed. Right in the present moment, we must perceive situations with full attention. As we do so, we gain understanding and move on. There is no burden of hurt or pride. Then, as Shri Krishna put it, though there was action (which normally strains us), it is as though there was no action (for the mind is free of all strain)

Swami Chidananda
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Burst Fifty Eight:

Upanishad on Peace

Vision of oneness is said to be the basis for true, lasting peace in the upanishads. Eternal serenity is theirs who realize the one timeless truth that underlies all the ephemeral names and forms, says Katha (2.2.13). Hatred, delusion and sorrow leave the bosom of a person who sees ‘all in the Self’ and ‘the Self in all’ according to Isha (6, 7). All waves are in water and water surely is in all waves; while the waves are many, water is one. When we are attached to the external names and forms, peace eludes us. When such attachment comes to an end, the naturally resulting vision is of the truth that the Vedanta speaks of. Thoughts born of ignorance and false projection make some persons very dear to us and some others loathsome. The separate self is sustained by these likes and dislikes, if not made of them. The inquiry “Who am I?” dispels the self and makes way for the undivided Self to shine forth.

Even the gods are described as infected by the (separate) self that leads to pride upon being successful and sadness if one fails. The Kena (3.1-12, 4.1, 4.8) has an illustrative story where the gods register a victory over the demons and thereby feel tremendous self-importance. The Supreme Truth (Brahman) then teaches them a lesson and they regain their humility. Values like humility as well as control over the senses and the mind are related to gaining true wisdom, which in turn blesses us with peace. The upanishads connect ‘right seeing’ with the attainment of peace. The Mundaka (3.1.3), for example, compares God and man (Supreme Self and Individual Self) with two birds sitting on the same tree (the body). In ignorance, man is miserable; upon seeing God, he shakes off both virtue and vice; he attains absolute equality with God. Right seeing thus leads to the understanding of non-duality, which frees man from all sorrow (3.1.2).

We have to bear in mind that the Vedanta does not hold peace to be the product of some action or practice of some technique. Selfishness pervades our life (24 hours x 7 days) and the mere practice of some exercise (even if you call it meditation) cannot eliminate this thorn. Such an exercise, performed in an exclusive manner at some place and time, would be a very compartmentalized affair. It can give only temporary calmness. An examination of who we are (or what we are) exposes the ego in us; a new understanding that we are one with the entire creation, devoid of any superiority or inferiority, alone can free us from the bug of the self. Then we awake to the Effulgent Self in which peace always was, is and will be.

Swami Chidananda
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Burst Fifty Nine :

That Light within Us

The more we are caught in the mental chatter of “I, me and my”, the more we are actually in the darkness of a cinema hall, though the movie might appear splendid. Our ability to put aside all unnecessary forms of personal insecurity and our capacity to care for others ushers us into the wide open fields of bright sunshine and pleasant winds.

Even the so-called successful people among us are just passing through a sweet dream. We are not awake to the truth of our being intimately related to all life on the earth. Success blinds us to the reality of the millions suffering in this very world where we live. Furthermore we come under the illusion that a whole lot depends on us. This self-importance is the essential darkness that becomes the womb of much suffering in due course of time. Somebody or the other does whisper to us to take a second look at life. We do not listen. Eliza Doolittle says to Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, “Without your help, the earth can spin, the tide comes in and the clouds roll by.” Higgins gets jittery.

A small finger, placed before our eyes, can block the vision of vast scenarios in front of us. Our pre-occupation with self-interest can likewise make right seeing impossible. Reading books or listening to discourses may not really help. The clever self can gather all religious knowledge also for its own reinforcement. “I know the scriptures better,” can be another way of nurturing the ego.

Are we earnest to change radically? Are we truly eager to get out of all our self-made prisons? Or are we content to just beautify the walls of the jail or enlarge the cells? Real readiness to break the shackles is the major milestone in our spiritual journey. Then we set off the fire crackers of the festival of lights. Then Shri Krishna kills the demon Naraka.

Let us not stay in the comfort zones of nice words or beautiful phrases. Let us inquire who we are and what our mental models¹ are. What kind of picture have our thoughts created of our own? While doing small and big things, what is our sense of our own identity? For example, we could put in a few hours of hard work at our office and, while doing so, imagine we are such contributors that the company has got to promote us pretty soon. In the same situation, we could also think it is a privilege to offer our services to a very worthy project and wish that maximum people be benefited by the work. While the action is the same, our mental models might depict us as benefactors, beneficiaries, leaders, servants or nothing. (To be free of any opinion as to who we are is the most difficult possibility though not many may recognize it so.)

Inquiry is one way of putting it while watching is the second. See the movement of thought, even as it builds and erects models after models, can be a very fascinating exercise in itself. Rising above our usual impatience to think something, we could just see how thoughts are rising. Most people do not appreciate this witnessing for they do not see what wonders it can do. Staying as the choiceless witness (saakshi) gives to the mind a different treatment as compared with the hundreds of things that we ‘do’ with the mind. We usually indulge in certain thoughts, suppress others, react to yet others and so on. For a change, why not just watch them?

When love god Manmatha tried to disturb Shiva, the Lord just opened His third eye and just looked at the flower-arrowed intruder. The god of love (of lust rather) went up in flames like the cones of Diwali. We have this light within us, by which we can see the formations of thought like ‘me’ and ‘mine’. This seeing is the portal to freedom. It has the capacity to liberate us and no amount of noble ‘thought, word and deed’ actually can do it.

May we live a first-hand life being directly aware of what are doing, thinking or feeling. May we assert thus our true nature as being far above the body and mind.

Swami Chidananda

Diwali Day, October 28, 2008

1 For an elaboration of mental models, please read Dr. Srikumar Rao’s ARE YOU READY TO SUCCEED? published by Random House. The book covers many aspects of how our own thoughts limit us and cause suffering. Visit alternatively www.areyoureadytosucceed.com

Burst Sixty :

Number is Secondary

A few pillars support the ceiling of a large hall. A small number of compassionate people can keep a society in good shape.

The violence and corruption around us definitely tend to unnerve us many a time. What can we, a small number, do? Will it make a difference at all to the world at large, if a few of us change? No wonder such questions or doubts make us lose the sense of urgency about change. What is worse, we look out and expect others to change.

An old story goes that there was a big fool in a certain village, who thought he was very wise. He was seized by fear one morning, “What if the sky falls down?” He noticed there were no pillars holding the sky and it seemed to him that humanity was in great danger. The terrible thing could happen anytime.

Everybody laughed at him and many just ignored him as he posed the question to the people of his village. Somebody at last said to him, “Go to the wise man in the forest; he will answer your doubt.”

The fool went straight to the muni (sage) in the forest and said, “Tell me why the sky is not falling. I do not see any pillars supporting it.” The muni asked him to stay for a few days at the forest and he would be given the right answer. The next day, the muni said to the fool, “Please go to the small town to the north of our hermitage and beg at the doorsteps of a few houses. Bring some grains, vegetables and such things.” Before the fool could get going, the muni said, “One more thing. Please remember to scold the people of the house as they bring food to give to you.”

The fool did exactly as told. Even as the women of different houses brought rice, wheat, vegetables or fruits to him, he verbally abused them. As a normal reaction to such behavior on the part of a beggar, the householders refused to give him any help and many of them rebuked him in return.

Surprisingly, however, there were a few, very few indeed, places where the lady of the house listened patiently to his irresponsible outbursts and, smiling gently, gave him alms anyway! The fool thus successfully brought a little food to the muni, to the latter’s delight. After this happened a few times, the muni said to the fool one day, “Look! People like these ladies are the pillars that hold the sky. They were kind to you in spite of your thoughtless behavior towards them. They are the invisible pillars that prevent disasters from happening.”

Maharshi Mahesh Yogi used to say that a society will be totally free of crime if just two per cent of the population meditates daily. Pulled down by unnecessary doubts and endless apprehensions, we do not live in peace. If only we slow down, sit in silence and observe how the self operates in us, unbelievable change will take place in us. When we change, the world around us also changes.

We ask, “We may be loving and compassionate. How will it help when the other person has a knife in his hand?” The answer is, “Be truly loving and compassionate for a couple of years and see. You will face successfully a dozen people rushing towards you with knives in hand.”

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

Monday, December 15, 2008

Burst Sixty One :

Efficiency and Effectiveness

Everyone wants to be efficient and effective in one’s field of activity. Many a time, however, one loses interest and enthusiasm and just drags on. What could be some tips to work towards the best results, with peace and joy in the heart?

Negative emotions weaken us and prevent us from playing well in the game of life. When things like guilt, pride and shame (called GPS¹ by somebody humorously) occupy our bosom, it is extremely difficult to do well in complex work situations. When failure depresses us and insult injures us, we tend to withdraw and under-perform. In other words, the varieties of “results of action” disturb our equanimity and we are unhappy. How do we remain like the lotus² leaf, which does not get wet even when water falls upon it?

Terrible attachment to success, defined by us in narrow terms, is the cause of our getting into low spirits. We need to put things in the larger picture and take a second look. What appears a loss in one sense may come out as a gain in another. Financial loss may help us review some of our relationships and may enable us to weed out false friendships. Loss of health could make us slow down and savor the joy of reading or of music. There is an old story of a king who did not have the small finger in his right hand. He thought it was a very bad thing, but his prime minister suggested that it could be good in some way. Angered by that suggestion, the king got the prime minister jailed. The next day the king went for hunting and some tribal people captured him. They were about to kill him before a huge idol of their deity, making him a sacrificial offering, when they saw he had a handicap. They let him go for he was unfit for the sacrifice. When he came back to the palace, he released the prime minister, who remarked, “How good it was of you to put me in jail yesterday; otherwise I would have come with you to the forest for hunting and those tribal folks would have severed my head in front of their deity!”

“Every adversity has some blessings hidden in it,” observed Swami Chinmayananda. We need to constantly question and review all our opinions on what is good and desirable. All that glitters is not gold. The grass on the other side of the river looks greener. Let us avoid jumping to conclusions and keep an open mind. Our ego, which is nothing but a bundle of memories, invites unnecessary suffering. If only we turn objective, we would regain our poise and balance.

Sage Ramana used to narrate a story where a woman boarded a train with a heavy basket on her head, filled with vegetables. Even after she took her seat, she would not keep the basket down on the ground. When other passengers asked her, her reply was, “The train is taking the burden of my weight; as for the basket of vegetables, let me keep it on my head.” That is what we do, when we act egoistically. We burden ourselves where there is no need; the sense of I, me, my and mine is the basket of vegetables. We keep it down and relax when we replace the “I” with “We”.

Seeing the falsehood in our present values leads to a change of our mind’s content. Then a number of apparently depressing scenarios do not pull us down. We remain cheerful and succeed in bringing out the best from within us.

Swami Chidananda

Varanasi

February 9, 2009

(Camping presently in Hyderabad )

1 GPS = Geosynchronous Positioning System

2 Geeta 5.10