Actually, You want to RULE????

Mind is slave  to many  things  that are absolutely  temporary  but  give immense bodily pleasure  and thus this mind is engaged  in accumulation  of such resources  which makes one POWERFUL and can easily  consume all those money buying pleasures....

I am totally confused  with the way people are  running  around to achieve  material  gains and then  with stress  and all sorts of manipulation stuffed within, rush to temples  to balance  it off.... The question  still remains... What is it that we are aiming  at????

Temples  where each one should  be treated equally is also busy  in categorization  of praying  preference  within the temple premises  based  on POWER.... This is a sad state  we are living into..... The more we are advancing technically , the more  are our human values deteriorating....

I remember  a very apt question  asked by a renowned  author  to self acclaimed  spiritual  guru of current times. He asked the  guru, "is spirituality  only for  the rich?" A mind boggling  question  which  unfortunately  our great guru  couldn't  answer..... But it left me in a thinking  process  as to..... If minutely observed.... People without  resources  who are struggling  to experience  peace  within  aren't  even exposed  to any learned individual  who can  initiate  the push  within  that  person  to step  on path  of spirituality.... If at  all then  they attend  mass lectures of these  enlightened  people, they are forced to believe what they understood  and unfortunately, most  of it is loaded with fears...... So people end up into religious  ritual  and seldom spirituality  per se....

The scenarios  around  make me feel  strongly  that  ultimately  as we are slaves  to innumerable  habits and  things, heart of hearts, the POWER  ACCUMULATION  RUN is also targeted  at making many around  us slaves to our power  and that's  usually  the sadist  hidden desire  which no one will accept....

With or without  substance, if  an individual  is powerful, he automatically  has dictating  powers  to  feel like a ruler... If not world around  then immediate  family  members  and friends  are  most  likely  ones  who  are  victims  of the  powerful  arrogance...

Its a devastating  viscous  circle  and unfortunately  more and more educated  and learned  people are victims  of this  urge to accumulate  huge power  to satisfy the inner desire  of ruling over others..... I  encountered  an eighth  grade boy who  openly expressed  his life goal  was to become  GOD, so  that  he can rule  all..... I  wasn't  annoyed, rather was  worried  about  the huge suppression  within  this boy who is desperate  enough  to vent  it  all out as soon  as he becomes  powerful....

People, its wonderful  to be  successful , but what's  the ultimate  aim  of life is not to be misunderstood  and clubbed with  professional, material  success..... It can prove hazardous  if aim is not right.....

Take care

Open minds matter more than open eyes

World has indeed come closer...
With globalization everything  is movable  from one place to another  without hassle  and  there are better chances for cultural  exchanges and humanity  enhancements  if this very opportunity  of globalization  is well utilized....

Every few months,  be it a long weekend  or during school  vacation, I find everyone  around  going  either overseas or visiting  different  states  in the  same country. This is quite a different  way to spend  time in INDIAN  CONTEXT  where primitive  mentality  was to visit native place and relatives  to  strengthen  the family  bonds  and likewise  we were  well consumed into and around  our own cultures and people.

With world becoming  a smaller place each day with Internet  connecting people from all over and groups  based on interest levels, it has become an easier affair  to make  choices  that clearly  suit  our needs.. Needs being financial, physical, mental, cultural  or spiritual...

This transformation  should have been a boon to humanity but alas.. Has Somewhere diminished  human values with a narrower  vision.... The broader  the perspective , the  more acceptance of various  cultures; is the  need to seek humanity and essentially should be given top most  priority  but what is devastating  is that  with more and more enhancements  our minds  are getting  narrower  and  rigid....

The very reason that  ancient  believers  would want to visit  the world during  their  spiritual  journey  is have a better understanding  of  self , more  introspective   and  more practical  way to learn the art of mastering  self. This easy benefit  today is misused widely to only pamper self  with  material  needs and carry  a stamp of highly travelled  individual...

With world at our  disposal, it can  serve as a wonderful  opportunity  to open up our minds that were rigid with many imposed beliefs  and thoughts  and there  by allow to view  things  with wider vision and enhance  self within...

The sad aspect  is that all this seldom happens and  I  witness it closely when I  find people troubled  with their own inner belief systems  and are supposedly  one of those fortunate  ones to having seen  this world  largely...

These lovely  individuals who have enjoyed the beauty of this world with their  open eyes unfortunately  couldn't  understand  the wide inner world  only because  their minds were closed....

Its very important  to learn  the  technique  of  opening  up mind  to emerge as a balanced individual....

Its strange that  generations  have passed away by holding  on to imposed  belief  systems  only  because  the  fear  of loosing out the community  support is so huge... There are  only  very few  selected  ones who  have the courage  to accept  the wide inner world  and  follow that  path within which is insightful  and satisfying  to ensure eradication  of numerous  self inflicting  issues  that serves no good....

Thus, with a huge population  traveling, migrating  and being involved  in world wide affairs, lets not close  the inner vision or the third  eye while  appreciating  the external  beauties  of world..... We ultimately  dwell in our inner selves therefore, its important to OPEN MINDS to enjoy  the beauty of this  WIDE INNER WORLD.....

Let's spread smiles....

Sex and Money... Is that all honey????

Each  coin has two sides, similarly  every concept  and term too has its ugly and pretty side...

Each and every aspect that  people talk about, think about, dream  about and worry about is somewhere  related to the basic  core terms called SEX and MONEY.... Everything  else is a derived issue out of these two basic  issues...

It might sound  crazy... But I  can definitely  try and rationalize  this....

For a clear  understanding  of the same, I  would  want you all to refer to the chart given below, its Maslow's chart  showing  human needs from bottom to top in basic  to more advanced  human needs....

MASLOW  's Chart of Human Needs

5.Self Actualization
4.Self Esteem
3.Love, Belongingness
2.Security
1.Food,Shelter, clothing, Sex

I  saw a movie on human trafficking  and while we all condemn  that, despise  that, we all have subconscious  fantasies that  lead to many  harmful  actions( either for self, others  or both) ..... Need based action and greed based action is something  we need to draw our attention  to...

As per Maslow, in the same category  of basic  needs, there is a mention of Sex along with food, shelter, clothing, etc but as humans  have  progressed, the needs after reaching level 4, keeps on rotating within these  and especially  at the lowest level trying  to achieve greed based satisfaction  and that leads  to most of the said  problems in world....

Money being a mode by which  all the said needs  are possibly  achieved , it remains  at supreme level of  need as its a prime requirement and then indulgence  in all other  needs , excess of which again calls for more money  and a way  to even make more  money... Thus... It forms a viscous  circle  and most  of the human  beings  are  trapped into this until  they are in face with a deadly truth of life and death when its too late  to sneak out of this trap and breathe by experiencing  peace and harmony  within.....

The live example  of this being  the flourishing  of cloth, food and real estate  industry  along with human traffickers  to trade into live flesh for money  making out of sexual greed of millions is a proof  to the said statement  that how these  basic  needs are all we are trapped into even after they no longer remain basic  and leads to over pampering  and over absorption  of bodily  needs  which  sooner or later results in disastrous  mental and physical  issues which at times are unfortunately  beyond  repair.....

To discuss on a topic like  this was a need felt thought  as while there are numerous  other  awareness topics being generated  at progressive  levels why aren't  we trying  to solve these  issues at their root level itself...????

Having  said this, I  totally  agree  that  its better  said than done, its not easy to stop exploitation  of body by means of various  available  options  to pamper it with but a bit of focus and alertness of maintaining  a line between  NEED and  GREED probably  will help us in preventing  from many mental  and physical  issues....

Think about it....

Oh fellow... Why follow????

Don't  follow,  dear fellow.....

What happens  when a stranger or any other passer by starts following  you????
Wouldn't  it be a bit scary???
Will it not raise an alarm????
Will you not get shaky within with wierd  thoughts???
Will you not  start to feel responsible  for drawing  someone's  attention  in a wrong way?

Well, these and many such  doubts would  create a chaos in your mind as the prime concern then is our SAFETY... why that  fear arises is simply  because you are not  sure of the hidden desires of the follower...

In another incident, say after a great showcase of your potential  when there are people following you, there's  a proud, high up  feeling  that  someone has become  your fan and is going to ask for an autograph?????

It is so strange  that  we all like the type of  followers in the later  incident  but would feel jittery even  with the thought  of previous  one....

It makes  me feel crazy that we are all weak  minded somewhere  where we all need to be inspired  by someone  and start to follow  their footsteps blindly  and this weakness might have helped millions in achieving  their goals  but its somewhere  not what we individually are... There's  a very different  side to each  of us which often  remains unexplored  as we never dived deep enough to find those hidden treasures...

This also applies  to all the spiritual  seekers who are  set to the path of salvation  but often get trapped midway  as they are blindly  following  the sparkling  light shown by some preachers....

Preacher is a guide , is definitely  a route marker  for us but after the basic  qualities have been put in, it becomes  a sole self responsibility  to search  the ultimate  truth...

That truth which  we all know of but seldom experienced.... The reason  being, its a shift within which cannot  be bought  by other divine  beings around but is a procedure  that needs self help....

The reason  for this abstract  is simple  enough and that  is,  The moment  people follow you, stop  and ask yourself  whether is that your goal or when you start following  others understand  that you have  an inspirational  figure  to learn from not settle there....

All my ritual loving readers, just hold for a moment  and ask yourself  are you  doing this ritual  as you are not sure of yourself  fulfilling  your goals without these and are these reminders of the same  or you feel that  regularly  following  rituals is what you aimed for???

Its a long way  and short life..... Lets learn from our own lives the truth of the ultimate by soaking ourselves  into its indepth  ocean of knowledge  for that divine rest.. .....

Flawless is like fairy tale!!!!!

Flaw????  "Nah, I  don't  have any..... "
Well , how many of us have gracefully  accepted  this....  Let's  not talk about how  bad or harmful is that  flaw, the  truth remains  that  each one  of us has one quality that is NOT GOOD....

This being a fact, the human race using their inborn  abilities  to think and argue is excellent at covering  up and the result  being we all end up living in a superficial  world  created by us.....

There is this fearful and coward self of ours that  believes in dressing up our  flaws so as to remain protected from attackers who would misuse this against  us and benefitting  themselves.... Well, to this endless effort  of covering  up said flaws  are a major  WASTE as no one has ever been successful  in keeping up that  perfect  image intact lifetime..... To  give a serious  example  is none other than all those great  men who  have selflessly  worked towards a social goal too are ripped off  when their single flaw is surfaced LATER......

Having  said this, will  it not be better to self judge and accept  all those negative  traits so as to have  an enough awareness  to work towards its improvisation....

This was pertaining  to self, let's  talk  of family  and close  friends..... "oops.... Never..... My family  is seldom  wrong or is naturally  the best ever...."
Its great to have high regards but most of us get blindly attached to it and end  up living  a life  in denial  mode..... In an effort  to safeguard  our people  from  others  judgemental  views we too get into a superficial  image of those near and dear ones and spend  our entire life  in covering our  family  and friends  as we clearly  ASSOCIATE THEIR FLAWS being  a black mark on SELF..... Thus, it is no act of greatness to keep up an perfect  made up  image  of people associated  with us, it is in the  end  all a very SELFISH ACT, as acceptance  of family  and friends  flaw would hamper self image too and thus  the whole  effort  in saving that  IMAGE.....

I come across  every second  individual  who is on high alert to act defensive  in self presentation and many have died  in those  notions that we (me and my family  is  GOD  s best creation) ... Well,  let's  see a broader perspective .... The very fact that  one would  want  to defend  either self, family , friends  or community, religion, country, etc means  that rather  than  working  towards self improvisation, we are more  keen and  using all our resources  in proving ourselves  Best....

To end this controversial  topic, none of us are Perfect,  Flaw is Fact...... Therefore, acceptance  can only  serve as a stepping  stone  towards  betterment  and DEFENSIVE attitude can only  deteriorate  us further....

Choice is ours.....

Suicide vs Samadhi....

Suicide  commonly  heard  of.....
Samadhi referred as an ancient  act of highly  enlightened  people....

A question  arising  out of my  thinking  process, why was samadhi considered  highly respectable  where as suicide highly  condemned....???
Where as both acts bring about  an end to life.....

The little  knowledge  that I  have so far gave me an understanding  of the  two acts and their acceptability  or  otherwise  as,

Suicide  is an act which emerges out of a highly  dissatisfied  soul, someone who is not  able to cope  up  with   rejections  and  dejection  that life  events put them into.. These people are under the influence  of self hatred and hatred towards the life  creation and are in an urge to put an end to it all thus they take up the drastic  step of  exiting from life to teach people around  a lesson of life....
Therefore, SUICIDE  IS AN ACT OF ESCAPISM AND ABSOLUTE WEAKNESS OF MIND that  arises out of  acute  depression.....
The ironical  part here is  that one who  does  not understand  Life is set to teach others a lesson of life  by ending their own.....

On the other hand Samadhi, which too was bringing  about an end to life by many saints and holy  men was meant as RETURN TO THE ORIGIN... return to origin  essentially  meant that  merging with the nature or where  we belong.... The most  important  and prominent  difference  here is that these souls decide  to adopt samadhi as they  have achieved  supreme level  of  satisfaction  from life.... SAMADHI IS  TAKEN UP BY THOSE WHO HAVE REACHED THE  HIGHEST LEVEL OF  SATISFACTION AND ARE FULLY CONTENT.....
These people who have been  said to taken samadhi as a means to exit from life have initially  while  alive reached a mental state  of samadhi and thereby felt it was no point in physical  life....

A different  perspective  to it can be once an individual  has reached a point  of absolute  stillness would not  wish  to carry on with any act to survive physically  so as to get them away  from the state of stillness....

As a mental health  professional, I  have some conflicting  views on Samadhi in current situation ;as Mind  is the most  complexed thing  which has very little  clarity about most of the universal  facts and is a victim of almost all physical  agonies .... Therefore  under the  superficial  feeling  where a depressed mind  would claim to have fulfilled life duties and thus enter samadhi is a little  hard to believe...

Meditation  and the eighth stage  of yoga which takes the mind to the absolute  balanced  state is indeed an art to  practice.... A state of stillness where  the body  is only performing its routine  acts where mind  is totally unaffected is what is the  state of samadhi one should strive to  achieve.... This stage is the highest  level of spiritual  intelligence  which can tune an individual  to not get disgusted of physical  life and neither  get involved in any physical  pleasure.... Infact, it is a state of happiness  that is felt  under any given  condition.....

Having  said that  keeping  up with life  could very much also result  in physical  ailments  that can result  in acute pain and bodily suffering  and if an individual  can maintain  mental stillness  then, it is in true sense an achiever of Samadhi  at spiritual  level... As atma samarpan should not involve bodily negligence  as it wasn't  an individual choice  to take birth so should death not be a given choice either???
This life is a learning experience of soul  at all levels which also includes stages  of suffering  towards the death....

If life has nothing  to contribute  towards  society  then perhaps  it has something  to teach  the soul within  and thus is the  unique  life given to each of  us in our own personalized  gift  wraps which we find surprisingly  good  and bad at different  times ....

Take care....

Compete and compare..... Enter the greed breed...

Compete??? *
For??????

A particular  school  of thought  says competition  is healthy.... Indeed.. But there  are given conditions  under which they  are healthy..
Like....
Discovery  of the  best  of one's  abilities
Eliminating  the laziness within
And an urge to build up self confidence...

Apart from these, there is no individual  benefit  to be competitive.... On the other hand if the above  mentioned  goals  are achieved ... Then competition  should be with  ONLY SELF....
But.. Sadly... We humans forget the essence  of competition  and  soon cross that  thin line of competition  and encounter  COMPARISON... this is the zone people should never ever enter....

The killer of humanity, downfall of virtues  and  inviting  restlessness  are all this area can give us.....
Comparison , therefore  is like self  inflicted  torture  and life long  companionship  with anxiety..

I  see people  coming  to  me with  major issues  and when it's  cause is boiled  down, it reflects  that it was an unsaid comparing  trait which  plays  the  culprit.

Again  the sad part here is people are seldom interested  in comparing  themselves  to enlightened  people or humble  and modest population  who have  gained  immensely  but are grounded from the core... The reason being that  doesn't  give others a JEALOUSY  FEEL and  the mediocre  self  of humans  only race the ones who  are in possession  of all sorts  of material  things to gain that  extra attention....

Having  said so it is  easier  to gain  material  happiness  if not by hardwork and integrity  then by cheating  and immorality  thus all are engrossed in that competition  followed  by comparison  to achieve that mind-blowing  high ranking position in society  with all eyes following  them and  that is the goal people have set...

Whereas to achieve  the eternal happiness  it involves  high amount of self study, introspective  attitude and competition  with self at a constant  pace which is not attention  gaining  and people don't  feel its worth till..... All that  comparisons put them into a never ending  state  of Anxiety  and  depression......

Folks, it is therefore  very important  to cautiously  compete and not let go off our peace within as it is not sensible  to gain attention  while loosing  inner harmony....

Most  people  who are unfortunate  victims of this  competition  followed  by comparison  are those who start having a high self image where  by they cannot tolerate  anyone  else doing better than  them in all feilds ...

I know of  college toppers, millionaires and most  affluent  people being victimized  by the disease of COMPARISON  as they seek to achieve a perfect picturized life and cannot come in terms with what  life has to give them in their  journey....

Self help tip:

A simple and spiritual  way  to help  overcome  any distress caused by life events and dissatisfied  feeling  is to understand  as to how any episode  of life has contributed  in enrichment  of the soul within... Which means how refined have you become  with a blow is something  to be cherished  rather  than cribbing.....

Stay calm...