Life

There are so many people in this world, and almost everybody has a different idea of what life means. For some people, life is all about eating, getting married, and having  fun. Somebody spends the whole of his life in the quest for power . Somebody has an unquenchable thirst for money . Somebody devotes his entire life to spreading the message of his religion . Somebody is driven by curiosity about nature and relentlessly works throughout their life to discover a natural phenomenon . What surprises me is that all of them are equally convinced. So many people believe in different gods , and each is equally convinced that the God they worship is the only one. Different religions preach many different things, and people from different religions believe that what their religion teaches is the gospel truth. People join a cult in the name of spirituality and become so sure of the ideas spread by that cult, however distant they may be from reality. It appears that everybody is ou...

The talks to prevent war fail miserably in this world. Thousands of people keep suffering. There have been so many saints in this world, and if their words had been properly communicated to the whole of the world, we would not have been fighting so many wars. What happens? Where are the worlds of realised souls lost? Almost every parent tells their children to stay away from addictions, and yet so many children fall into the trap of drugs and alcohol. What goes wrong?  We see so many examples of ineffective communication around us. There are misunderstandings in relationships, ego trips and battles, and even countries fight due to miscommunication. It seems so simple. Why can't we say what we want to say, and why can't the other person listen to what we want to say? I think that if we address the issue of communication, our relationships with the people around us, in particular, and society in general, will also improve significantly. There are two fundamental elements of comm...

 The discovery of truth is a very sensitive task because we often assert our opinions in our endeavour to discover it. Discovery of truth requires setting aside "our opinions and beliefs", but often we are quite obsessed with our life experiences. The ego has to hold on to something. It is easy to see the tangible things it is holding on to, such as our home, office, relationships, wealth, and positions. However, it is more difficult to observe the intangibles to which the ego becomes attached, such as social and self-image . All of us are social beings. We live in a society and therefore have many interdependencies with one another. We carry out almost all the social interactions from behind the mask of " social image ". We try to behave well toward people around us, even when we get irritated by a few of them, because we want to maintain a mask of "being understanding". Social image has many advantages. The social image of "being good" gives ...

Yaksha asked Yudhistira about the greatest wonder of this world, and he replied that people die every day on this Earth, and yet we remain so sure that we are never going to die. That appeared to be the greatest wonder to him. Another great wonder of this world I often get amazed by is that people like Bhagat Singh could give their lives for the country's freedom, while most people will not mind taking others' freedom for petty benefits if they do not fear the law. People like Socrates will drink poison for expressing their thoughts freely, while some would agree with outright stupidity at the drop of a hat just to get small favours. While some people will work painstakingly for years to put on that space suit to get a glimpse of space, many would spend their entire life in their mental stories full of jealousy and hatred. How come the same human body and mind manifest so differently? I feel that the strength of character that should have been the greatest virtue of a human b...

 The ego has a natural tendency to control, while all of us have a natural tendency to explore. When we go to the mountains, sit by the side of a river, watch the wild birds, that "free spirit" within us comes out in the open, and we get lost in the magic of nature. We suddenly become thoughtless, as if thoughts are too limited to absorb the beauty and grandness of nature. When we travel by air and peep out the window at the clouds and the horizon, we get mesmerised by the wonderful show of nature. When we suddenly encounter a good soul, we talk to that person for the first time and feel as if we know them for life. Time flies by, and we don't have a sense of time. We stumble across so many wonderful things, and then? Then, the ego wants to control. We had such a beautiful experience at a tourist station, and now we want our family members to have the same experience. We plan a visit to seek the same experience. We plan visits to seek out the experiences advertised on so...

Today, we had a very interesting discussion at the Sunday dialogue at Model Town. One of the key questions we discussed was: "Why do some people stay more aware than others?" There were so many different perspectives. The discussion started with knowledge. A friend said that if we keep gathering knowledge from different sources, we tend to remain more open. Another friend challenged that claim, arguing that all knowledge exists in the domain of the past, and therefore, awareness seems quite different from knowledge. We discussed whether one can ever express one's awareness. It appeared to most of us that no one can express "what he is aware of" to others because the moment "thoughts" interfere, that "awareness" disappears.  One question that stayed with me even after discussions is why some people stay more aware than others. Why are so many people "fixated" on their viewpoint? I feel that there are varied reasons for the same. Howe...

 Yesterday, while watching the new series "Samkalp", I recalled the following lines from the famous bhajan "Damru wale baba" मन ही है बेकार में जो संकल्प-विकल्प बनाता है जिधर चाहता है मन उधर ये प्राणी दौड़ के जाता है मन सब को भटकाये जग में क्या नर और क्या नारी.... डमरू वाले... डमरू वाले बाबा तेरी लीला है न्यारी..... The hero of the net series is Maat Sahab, who gets humiliated in a university election and makes a samkalp to take revenge on the people in power in Delhi. To achieve this target, he establishes a gurukul and selects the best students there. He gives them a good education so that they clear the civil services examination, and then uses his entire network of civil servants against his opponent. In the process, he abets many crimes, including murders and also anti-national activities. All of us take many samkalps. The story "Damru wale baba" is a mythological tale in which Parvati visits Lakshmi at her home. Lakshmi humiliates her for not having ...

Life is fun. It's all about good food, a nice home to live in, dining out with friends and family, pleasure trips, and chit-chat with the people we like. Basically, it's all about fun. That seems so nice and simple. But the moment we think about these things, immediately our minds become full of fear and apprehension. Apprehensions about the future. Will we be able to get all these things in the future? Will our children be able to get all these things in the future? Since we need money to get most of these things, we feel like earning and saving money for the future, and we end up in a trap. Some "smart" people have learned the art of living in the present moment. They feel like enjoying themselves whenever all these things are available without thinking of the future. They will not mind even borrowing money to have fun.  Why do people who have had a lot of fun in their lives suffer miserably? If somebody had fun for 40 years of his life, he should be happy for the r...

If you feel that life is unfair to you, just imagine Bharata's plight. Bharata is out for a pleasure trip to his Nanihal, and Kaikeyi asks for two boons from Dashratha. Bharata not only loses the company of his dear brother for 14 years but also feels guilty for a crime he was never a party to. For the next 14 years, he repents for a fault that he never committed. It is because his mother, Kaikeyi, lost awareness for a few moments. Greed and ignorance took over her existence for some time. What she thought was the greatest welfare for her son turned out to be the greatest punishment for him. Where did Kaikeyi go wrong? She did not understand that each human being is different. She thought that material possessions and rulership are very important in life, and his son will be deprived of these because Ram is the elder son. She never realised that her son was quite different from others. She did not realise what mattered to her son. Probably, she never connected with her son that dee...

 रामायण भगवान राम की कहानी है। यह उस युद्ध की कहानी है जो राम ने धर्म के लिए लड़ा था। यह सबसे कठिन परिस्थितियों में भी राम के धैर्य और समभाव की कहानी है। जब उन्हें अचानक, अयोध्या के राजा के रूप में राज्याभिषेक होने से ठीक एक दिन पहले, जंगल जाने के लिए कहा जाता है, तब भी उनके चेहरे पर ज़रा भी चिंता या बेचैनी नहीं दिखाई देती। यह एक या दो दिन के लिए नहीं, बल्कि पूरे 14 वर्षों के लिए था। यह प्रेम और मित्रता की कहानी है। राम की हनुमान, सुग्रीव और विभीषण के साथ मित्रता की कहानी। यह भाइयों के बीच प्रेम की कहानी है। लक्ष्मण अपनी नवविवाहित पत्नी उर्मिला को छोड़कर, खुशी-खुशी राम के साथ जंगल चले जाते हैं। भरत राज्य पर एक कार्यवाहक (caretaker) के रूप में शासन करते हैं। हालाँकि, रामायण की कहानी में एक बहुत ही महत्वपूर्ण छिपा हुआ सबक है जो आज के आधुनिक संसार के लिए अत्यंत प्रासंगिक है। असल में, रामायण माता सीता की कहानी है। जब राम ने अपने पिता के वचनों का मान रखने के लिए जंगल जाने का निर्णय लिया, तब सीता महल में ही रुक सकती थीं और वहाँ के समस्त सुख-सुविधाओं का आनंद ले सकती थीं। लेकिन उन्होंने रा...

Ramayana is the story of Lord Rama . The battle fought by Rama for dharma . The equanimity of Rama even in the most difficult situations. He will not have even the slightest of worry or angst on his face when he is asked to go to the forest all of a sudden, just a day before he is to be coronated as the king of Ayodhya . Not for one or two days, but for 14 years. It's a story of love and friendship. Rama's friendship with Hanumana , Sugriva , and Vibhishana . It's a story of love among brothers. Lakshmana would go willingly with Rama to the forest, leaving her newly wedded wife, Urmila . Bharata will rule the kingdom as a caretaker. However, the story of the Ramayana has a very significant hidden lesson that's highly relevant to the present-day world. Ramayana is actually the story of Mata Sita . When Rama decided to go to the forest to honour the words of his father, Sita could have stayed back in the palace among all the comforts of the palace. She decided to go wit...

In relationships, we have two opposing thoughts: possession and exploration . The feeling of possession is based on the meaning we assign to the relationship, based on our past experiences. On the other hand, exploration is entirely in the domain of the unknown. For example, since childhood, we have been told about marriage . We see so many couples living together. We develop a meaning of marriage. We may feel that marriage is all about living together, taking care of each other, helping each other when we fall sick, going to social functions together, having meals together with a chat, travelling together, and so on. Our minds are " meaning-making machines ", and we make such meaning of marriage. If we have a very strong view of marriage, based on our past experiences, we will become possessive of it. Any deviation from that meaning would be painful. On the other hand, when we marry, we want to explore each other and also to explore together. This exploration will be comple...

Children are very inquisitive and quite open. However, their openness soon disappears because they are made to feel safe within the four corners of the beliefs held by their society's members. They should not enquire about the meaning of life and death, and should accept whatever their society generally believes. Most children also choose safety and security over enquiry. They find it safer and easier to accept these widely held beliefs and "settle" for a meaning of life that is confined to getting a good job, having kids, buying a home, saving for the future, settling the children and then waiting to die. In the meantime, a few spikes of pleasure, here and there. What is the alternative way of living? A life full of passion and exploration. Living like a scientist who passionately explores the hidden secrets of life, an engineer who builds with passion as if giving shape to his imagination, a doctor trying to solve the puzzle about the human body every time he treats a p...

  कबीर यह संसार है, जैसा सेमल फूल, दिन दस के ब्योहार में झूठे रंग न भूल It's "Semal" flower season. These flowers look very attractive from a distance. However, they last for very few days. Kabira says that the same applies to our materialistic pursuits . Our achievements and possessions do not keep us happy for long. It's not just a theory. All of us have experienced this in our lives. How many days does the happiness of getting good marks in the class last? What about the happiness of getting a job? Does it last for more than a few days? What about marriage, home, and car? Does it last for more than a few days? No. All of us know this, and yet we keep setting targets . One after the other. We wish for so many things we do not have, depending upon our circumstances. We continue to make efforts for the same. People toil day and night to get their desired colleges, degrees, jobs, properties, cars, and "settle" their children. They do all these things, and th...