The path to God

Initially when religion was introduced to me as a kid,it was more like an business deal.I say some Sloka/mantra, for a particular number of times and my desires could be fulfilled.I followed it faithfully for a large part of my life.I was always afraid of some bad deals from God if I messed up any part of the mantra.As a kid I have prayed sometimes whole nights so that I would be in the good books of the Gods.I targeted few Gods and by-hearted few easy and powerful mantras and was a contended customer.At the same time when I was going through the devotional phase I used to be moved by the plight of beggars at the temple doorstep.To me entering a temple was like entering a court of justice.I calculated the bribes I wanted to offer God and decided what I would receive in return.But as I was reaching the age of 15 I started questioning the motives which lay behind my devotion.My faith on God was as long as God could fulfill the desires I had.This over dependence on God was always there.Even though I used to be interested in Buddhism and read other religious theories..my dependence was like a addiction.I ran towards it every time I had a problem.The time was getting ripe for me to leave all these transactions.So when out of sheer accident,I visited a temple, when I was 18 ...I pleaded God to pass me in one of the exams.I decided that if that would happen I would chant something umpteen number of times.I passed that exam but I never chanted.My relationship with this Godfather kind of God started getting sour.I could not deny the fact that God was not helping the billions who were suffering.Slowly I started to discover a new kind of God.This God never asked for holy chants or bribes.Never wanted me to visit "expensive " temples.This God only helped me see myself the way I am.

Spiritual Stages

Taken from the site
http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritualresearch/spiritualscience/spirituallevel_saints/images/Spiritual-Level-March06.gif
courtesy:Venkat

Acceptance!!!!

I think I have written a lot about how we should accept ourselves and our circumstances.But there is a huge other side to acceptance..Non acceptance is as important as acceptance.When we accept wrong versions of what we are through the perceptions of others...we are doomed!!!
But there is no way that we can escape these wrong notions.Every second we have some image hitting us through our minds.The only way through,is losing the way.Once we have constantly struggled through all the wrong ways...our soul would have suffered enough.There will be no more struggle.We just let it go and go on a path which is of least resistance.

Obstacles in Relationship..

Many people try not to get attached and live in a kind of shell surrounded by the ocean of people.This policy of trying to forcibly be away from people is not healthy.Its not detachment in any sense.Fear of attachment is not detachment ..it is cowardice.If fear of any kind exists then we are again attached to fear itself.So its not the people we meet we get attached too.It is only deep seated fear of pain.Pain and pleasure are the same thing.Just a momentary sharp emotion which can give rise to different sensations in the body.The pain/pleasure occurs in the mind first and then the body responds to it.If we get hurt because we are attached we start crying.The body follows the mind.But the mind is fickle and if shown something more pleasurable we run again behind that forgetting the pain.True detachment does not mean we ignore the person or try not to maintain any relationship...Being truly detached means we treat every person in the same way ...everyone becomes special.Detachment is also a process ...When every living being is given the same amount of respect as our beloved then we have become truly detached.
Practically is it possible to live without getting worried about the other person?
I feel that most of the time when we take care of the mental processes of our own mind ..everything just falls into place...Every problem in a relationship is again a reflection of problem within us.Cultivation of Aloneness is the best solution to most of the problems in our relationships.

Spiritual land

Most of my own spiritual pursuits was to run away from the present situation.There is nothing more contradictory to my life than this feeling that I belong somewhere else.The events which have never happened to me look so wonderful.The places which I have never visited look so beautiful.The people who I have never met look amazing.This feeling to never accept anything is again a desire ...this desire should also be accepted.I feel this feeling is born when the mind gets a voice.Always there is some hidden treasure ...always there is a chase...
This other probable world with perfect people,amazing beauty,non polluted and with equal rights does not exist.Claims that this promised land exists has made billions of people believers in everything.But to reach a point where this realization sinks in takes lot of effort.Once we travel through the wheel of life we find out how everything...how every relationship is fake..Once these boundaries are broken we dont long for spiritual lands or spiritual people.

Person-Personality

Every incident in our life brings out a different personality.There is no constant personality within us.Its just the projection of our thoughts which we feel defined to a particular personality.Once we forget identifying ourselves with some basic structure,we free ourselves from lot of emotional burden.We train our minds to look at ourselves in a certain way.We get hurt when our own image gets proven wrong by others projections.But the other's projections are also are own projections.Knowledge even when got from others is again our knowledge..as we use our limited minds to understand the situations.

Getting Lost

There are always instants when life becomes so busy that we forget what we should really do.On my recent trip to New York I have come to realize what anxiety means.Starting from the grieving faces in the subways,angry hip-hopper and to the late professionals who are rushing towards a never ending deadline.Anxiety is not what we are really missing but the feeling that we are going to miss something.

Reflection of passion

I wrote this while listening to yanni "Reflections of passion"
Passion exists for a minute.. we make it a memory and hold it on for ever...


As the gush of air plays with your hair
As you dance in joy at the brilliance of silence
The inward jot of finding someone new
The dawning of a new era
New dreams like tiny waves of a mighty ocean form
The spirits rose so high that all divisions look invisible
Plans were chalked out to make life ,more pleasurable
These things happen so fast and you feel insecure,you weep with joy
The impermanence of nature starts following you
Everything which was exicting gets you into a rut
Then suddenly everything breaks
All that is left are the reflections of our passion

Can Men and Women Be Friends?

I was having a debate with one of my friends(guy)as to the possibility of friendship between men and women.

From my perspective it is possible for men and women to be friends.If I was interested in a guy in any other way I wont pretend to be friends with him in the first place.To me being honest with myself is very important.All the books/spiritual techniques ...everything goes down the drain when we ourselves have no idea of defining what a relationship is and what are the limitations we place upon them.Personally I feel I have the necessary discipline to remain with my own ideals/beliefs.But the possibility of the other person not being so inclined and having other agendas besides friendship always exits.But then again whenever I have had a platonic friendship I have made it clear to the guy that I just want to be Friends.I have no intention to increase the bounds of the friendship.

I remember a small instance from the life of the philosopher UG Krishnanmurti(paraphrased)

There was once a woman who had entered the room and sat in front of UG.She was staring at him and had different interests other than philosophy.There was no exchange of words between UG and the lady.When she was leaving UG just told her the following words
"I know you are attracted to me ..but let me guarantee you,that nothing is going to happen.You are wasting your time,I have enough discipline in me which is enough for both of us.

That is the attitude which actually can foster a successful friendship between men and women.As a person we need to have discipline and clear set goals.If that is not possible then the friendship should not be continued.The problem in a friendship between men and women is not lust but dishonesty and absence of integrity.

A good article from pyschology today
http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20010901-000031.html

Astrology...Curse or cure

I have always had an interest in Astronomy.But whenever I mention it to any Indian,99.9% of them think its astrology that I am talking about.I feel any person who seriously thinks Astrology can save their lives ,should go and take a appointment from the nearest shrink available.Its like a never ending battle with superstitions.Now vastu shastra,feng shui and loads of other channels are present to save our lives from misery.In a country like India where people dont have small huts to stay happy..there are millions of people paying loads of rupees to have good flow of energy in their comfortable homes.A mind unlit by reason cannot be saved by anyone.It will lead you to destruction like slow poison.

Words from Vivekananda taken from
"Man the maker of his destiny"
http://sboray.tripod.com/Srinidhi/vivek.html

There is an old story of an astrologer who came to a King and said. "You are going to die in six months." The King was frightened out of his wits and was almost about to die then and there from fear. But his minister was a cleaver man, and this man told the king see that they were fools. The king would not believe him. So the minister saw no other way to make the king se that they were fools, but to invite the astrologer to the palace again. There he asked him if his calculations were correct. The astrologer said that there could be not a mistake, but to satisfy him he went through the whole of the calculations again and then said that they perfectly correct,. The king's face became livid. The minister said to the astrologer, "And when do you think you will die?". " In twelve years", was the reply. The minister quickly drew his sword and separated the astrologer's head from the body and said to the king. "Do you see this liar? He is dead


I think the Greeks first took astrology to India and took from the Hindus the science of astronomy and carried it back with them to Europe. Because in India you will find old altars, made according to a certain geometrical plan, and certain things had to be done when the stars were in when certain positions, therefore I think the Greeks gave the Hindus astrology, and the Hindus gave them astronomy.

In London, a young man used to come to me and ask me, "What will become of me next year?" I asked him why he asked me so." I have lost all my money and have become very, very poor". Money is the only God of many beings. Weak men, when they lose everything and feel themselves weak, try all sorts of uncanny methods of making money, and come to astrology and all these things. " It is the coward and the fool who says, "This is fate'" - so says the Sanskrit proverb. But it is the strong man who stands up and says, "I will make my fate." It is people who are getting old who talk of fate. Young men generally do not come to astrology. We may be under planetary influence, but it should not matter much to us. Buddha says, "Those that get a living by calculations of the stars by such art and other lying tricks are to be avoid"; and he ought to know, because he was the greatest Hindu ever born. Let stars come, what harm is there? If a star disturbs my life, it would not be worth a cent. You will find that astrology and all these mystical things are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food and rest.

If you can get an explanation of phenomena from within its nature, it is nonsense to look for an explanation from outside. If the world explains itself, it is nonsense to go outside for an explanation. Have you found any phenomenon in the life of a man that you have ever seen which cannot be explained by the power of the man himself? So what is the use of going to the stars or anything else in the world? My own Karma is sufficient explanation of my present state. So in the case of Jesus himself. We know that his father was only a carpenter. We need not go to anybody else to find an explanation of his own power. He was the outcome of his own past, all of which was a preparation for that Jesus. Buddha goes back and back to animal bodies and tells us how he ultimately became Buddha. So what is the use of going to stars for explanation? They may have a little influence; but it is our duty to ignore them rather than hearken to them and make ourselves nervous. This I lay down as the first essential in all I teach: anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet.

Indian Ancient Literature and View of Women Part 1

I have always wondered why women in all cultures were subjugated so a lesser role.How did the world end up being a male dominated place.If you have to understand the present we have to dig up the facts of the past.I dont say its a male propaganda to wipe out the female race out of the planet.But then again history points us to that direction.
Caution:If there are any deviations in the post presented below...Please let me know...Historical accuracy is much appreciated.Male chauvinists ..stay away!!!


Most of the ancient Indian books have so much hatred for woman.Women were shown in such a bad light.
What is the use of being a spiritual motherland ??
What is the use of having literary gaints?


Untruthfulness,rashness,guile,studpidity,avarice,uncleaniness and cruelty are woman's seven natural flaws of a woman.
The wife with offensive face should be given up.
Source Chankaya Niti Sastra

Day and night women must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and, if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control.

Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit for independence.

Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly worshipped as a god by a faithful wife.

laws of Manu

In the pre-Sankara period, Hinduism was a religion filled with foolish rituals.It was more a tribal land with Vedas stil existant but never considered seriously by common lay man/woman.(even now that is the case)
Buddha brought a welcome change to India and propagated giving women equal status as men.Buddha was not opposed to the vedas,but he was opposed to foolish rituals.Common example of that would be ..
Women were able to light the funeral pyre..In Hinduism only males get to do it.Buddha did not allow females to become nuns.He was worried about the safety of the nuns..as in those days forests were ruled by dacoits.But history tells us that Buddha did agree to let women become nuns after some persuasion from his mother and wife.

Religion

Religion is not a good word to define our preferences .What we eat, how we behave, how we react or to believe in a higher power or not , can never be defined by religion alone. We as humans have diverse interests and our behavior is shaped due to our attitudes and affinities. May be the whole approach to isolate us into one religion is very irrational. I liked what Dalai Lama's view on religion is he compares different religions to a table with different varieties of food. When a person wants to eat he/she takes little of different varieties and in the quantity he/she likes.
Instead of providing a space in applications/forms, where you should enter a particular religion.. there should be more space provided to write a paragraph on your basic beliefs. That gives a more general insight into the person .If the person whole heartedly believes in one single religion ..then he/she can write down the name of the single religion. By doing this we can reduce the different barriers we create starting from how we identify ourselves.

I love reading about other religions. even ancient/ tribal religions included. Most of the religions have a foundation set out by another religion. All the religious fanatics don’t read history and have no interest in archeology. If they could dig little bit into the past centuries they will know why the world is shaped up this way. I feel any belief system which says that the other belief system is inferior or superior is going to end up in forming into a cult society. All religions are assimilation of the practices of the native people. When we discriminate the minor sects present in a religion we are contradicting the principles which built the religion in the first place. The problem of caste system which is present in Indian system is in itself a contradiction. Most of the people understand and interpret caste in their own limitations. But I am confident that caste system was not formed to discriminate but it was a effective tool for finding out the occupation of a person. But it gets used for the wrong purpose and again a system is used to make life miserable instead of simplifying things.
Religion went a whole circle of uplifting a person and improving the society but it caused lot of destruction also. Now the place of religion is taken by science.

English Un - Learned

from a forwarded mail

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English'.

In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as
replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

Meditation and Contradiction

Life is always full of contradictions.Nations build weapons to maintain peace.The other day when I visited Vipasanna meditation center (www.dhamma.org) in Georgia,I witnessed a contradiction of ideals.

Buddha gave his first discourse on Vipasanna meditation in a deer park.The deer is used as a symbol of initiation (of disciples)and the wheel of dharma was made to roll from that day.The property which lies beside the meditation centre is a hunting ground.In the western culture hunting is an essential sport.During the hunting season everything that moves is killed(No exaggeration here)
On one side there are people who try to save insects and not harm them.Then on the other side of the fence there are people who kill for fun.

Our maturity lies in accepting the various contradictions which rise up in our lives.By ignoring one side and supporting the other turns us into a (ideal) fanatic.

Knowledge is power

There are lots of questions which as individuals we need to answer.There is so much knowledge in the world that it may take several lifetimes to even comprehend the enormity of it.I feel knowledge ..any knowledge is not power.Depending upon our own affinities knowledge about specific activities/ things becomes a powerful weapon to take out ignorance.
We have to be selective even about the knowledge we acquire.Filling more crap in our minds makes life more complicated.We need knowledge so that we can live like sane creatures and also be able to fulfill our duties as a responsible human beings
One example is the English language...
Do we really need to know so many words?
Why cant the world be a happy place with limited vocabulary.I have a allergy towards all those people who show-off their enormous vocabulary.Every day new words are added.To the future word-smiths ,words are beautiful creations like music.But to a ignoramus like me, its just waste of digital bits and paper space :)
If Shakespeare could be contended with a limited vocabulary of 4000 words..I guess the new generation should not be burdened with enormous dictionaries.When learning happens without any expectations ...we become truly learned.Most of the time in common conversations, people only use slang for everyday conversation.Then in the professional atmosphere the language is polished with some neat words obtained from some online dictionary.This divergence in our own speech,thoughts and behavior is our need to create a personality.I feel spirituality/religion should give people the strength to express what they are...what they really are

The story of Stuff

The story of stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

American consumerism has been defined so well by this video.India's economy is improving so well.Now that American products are reaching Indian soil and there are more tie ups with American companies I feel the American economic rules will start hitting Indian soil.
Traditional Indian small scale industries may be destroyed by foolish exported economic rules.
This video was very interesting because of the environmental concerns.
Personally I was trying to imagine all the stuff I had accumulated in the past 2 years.I really dont need so much stuff but I have collected it.So may be aware consumerism is required so that we cause less harm to ourselves and environment.

We make our own memories

Our own attitudes decide what our perception is.Then when we store it as a memory, we color it with our own biases.When we meet a new person(most of the time)we make a preconceived notion of how they are.Everyday events are seen through our own limited knowledge.When we are young, any event which would have shocked us,may not be that scary now.But sometimes we shade it with nightmares and then it is going to be scary even in our adult life.So the problem is we may never know what really happened.All our memories are our creations.
Each memory causes a emotion.We should question the deep rooted cause for our suffering or happiness which is obtained from our memories.I am not saying that release from suffering only happens when there is a absence of a past/memory.The solution lies in our understanding of our own emotions.When we are able to look back at our misery and say to ourselves that its inevitable and then question the reason...then we are on a path to understanding.

Self Improvement

When I joined the university to pursue a masters degree my aim was to get my life into a stable mode.I thought that by following society standards and scaling up my levels to include a higher degree will somehow equip me with more knowledge to deal with life.I have been wondering how following our heart requires tremendous amount of courage!Its not only breaking the societal norms but it also taking chances in our personal life.As humans we are supposed to plan what we are going to do for the next decade... so that we offer stability to everyone around us.I am no way smarter than what I was 2 years back.

What I feel I learned ...
I now have a more diplomatic way of dealing with people.
I cover some of the hard truth with professional lies.
I have learnt to deal with people better.
But the most important learning process (in life)is to learn to be independent.When we can love ourselves and depend on ourselves for love ..we have attained the highest level...Every other degree or knowledge is actually a waste.

Life and its purpose

There is a question at least,a few of us keep asking ourselves.
Is there a purpose to life?
We try to seek a purpose and build a purpose through our narrow visions.
But mostly its not a purpose we are searching.We are just bored and we feel there is something exciting waiting for us.We are waiting for some great miracle to happen which will put all the pieces of the puzzle together and make it whole.May be its high time we throw purpose out of the window.
This is all there is !!!

Music ....IS UNIVERSAL

I check the Top 20 singles in USA.
Most of the common themes in most of the music videos are

love,pain caused because of love(FAILURES),sex,pleasure,hatred on the boy friend/girl friend,loneliness,anger....
I check the Top 10 songs in India..

Hindi

The common themes
love,lost love ,lust,sex...

Tamil
The common themes
Love,lust....sex.

The instrumental music in all languages is quite refined and breaks all these barriers.But the publicity given to them is minimal.