Finding the Ultimate : The non transient SKY

The winter was coming to an end and the spring was all about to set blooming colors of life, on a cool Thursday evening I was sitting in my living room and watched the distant sky, I saw the floating clouds on clear blue sky. The rays of the setting sun threw a splash of gold on the smooth sailing packets of cloud. A question arose - 'why am I enjoying the little floats of cloud? What makes me smile as I see this little act of nature?'

        As I wondered, the answer came in a slightly philosophical assessment. There are two ways to look at it. I can be attached to the cloud passing by or I can take the sky as my point of reference. When I think the cloud to be mine, I will lament the loss as they pass by and slowly fade away. I will be in pain thinking I could have owned them and viewed them every single moment because they give me happiness. I felt sad.

And for a moment I paused and thought what if I was the sky, the sky be mine, how would I feel about the passing clouds? It was joy. It was the joy of having the presence of the clouds, the beauty of the clouds and the little play and dance they did on the sphere. I enjoyed the clouds. I could feel the little smile on my face. Suddenly, it amazed me because of the fact that the same situation can result in completely opposite emotions. The reason for the two different results was simple. It was the 'point of reference'. 

         If I refer to the clouds, I felt remorse because they were moving, going away, fading, never to come back. If I refer to the sky, the omnipresent, encompassing, infinite sky, the clouds are a transient but at the same time pleasant and beautiful. Their existence at that very moment has a reason. Out of many reasons, one definitely was making me joyous. That gave me happiness. I was not perturbed by the fact that they will go. I knew it.

Similar is the joy and happiness we get from attachment. Attachment to the right aspect of our existence and short life span on earth will result in happiness and sorrows. Attachment to physical objects that are transient in nature has always resulted in sorrow, even after the momentary pleasure we derive out of it. Attachment to   people and the surroundings, and the emotions generated out of our relationships are nothing but the beautiful clouds. They are generated for a reason and they exist in our lives for a reason. The good and the bad - memories, people, things, emotions are short lived. They will come and go. They too shall pass. If we refer to those and live by those, we will be sad once they go. Now, the same clouds of feelings, people, and objects can be enjoyed even when we refer to them from the SKY, the sky of permanence. The enduring and everlasting spheres where from the small clouds of life generate ultimate joy. We have to find our Sky, the permanent blue sky where in the transients can float and charm. That sky has been realized by the Siddhas or the accomplished Ones. Each has his own Akshaya sky, which eventually merges and is unified. They are defined in different cultures, different philosophies, over different ages of human civilization and addressed by different names. Every human takes that journey to find the Ultimate, sooner or later. The sooner one realizes, the longer happiness persists.

Go look for your SKY.

PS: I wrote this blog in June 2013. Six months later, in Dec 2013 while reading the 'The Tibetan book of Living and Dying', I found something similar mentioned by author Sogyal Rinpoche. Page 26 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING-"Reflect on this: The realization of impermanence is paradoxically the only thing we can hold onto, perhaps our only lasting possession. It is like the sky, or the earth. No matter how much everything around us may change or collapse, they endure. Say we go through a shattering emotional crisis . .. our whole life seems to be disintegrating . . . our husband or wife suddenly leaves us without warning. The earth is still there; the sky is still there."

How to get rich ?

We have survived the most feared doomsday in the history of human civilization. The Mayan calendar and the deadlines have been proved wrong but as the human race survives, the most advanced species on the face of the earth are getting wretched. They are getting poor and hence feeble.

Talking of poverty, if you look at history, the meaning of wealth has changed over time. The cave men's wealth was food, they hunted animals and conquered forests for food. That resulted in capturing territories and hence building kingdoms. They invented weapons made of stone, wood, brass. Definition of wealth changed. In order to maintain and protect the kingdoms, the wealth needed was strong men, warriors. To create and maintain the system, a currency was needed - then came precious metals. Gold captured the imagination of thinkers and philosophers. The same shiny metal would be no value a few thousand years ago for the cave men. They could not have made attacking weapons out of it. Meaning of wealth changed again. With gold and jewels, men fought for power. The next phase of human civilization saw the emergence of pride, the pride of becoming world leaders. The world wars were not meant to capture gold mines of hostile countries. It was the supremacy of human prowess. We evolved from that and we have reached a point where we have everything our fore fathers wished for as their wealth at different phases- food, gold, land, prowess, dignity and pride. So, the question arises - what do we wish for now to call ourselves wealthy? How do we get rich today?

After much thought and weighing different valuables I posses, I came to conclusion that if there is something I would call wealth and thus protect it is Relationships. We build and treasure relationships in our life and like wealth it comes to your rescue when you are in distress. The tools used to earn this wealth is love, compassion, forgiveness, accommodation, ignoring faults in others. It's not an easy job to do. Like it takes sweat and persistence to build wealth, so does relationships need a big heart and patience. People don't realize how much vulnerable our life has become that it takes years to build a good relationship and earn the right people in our lives. Having said so and as the old saying goes, it takes years to build and so it takes a few seconds to loose.

Like money and gold, if we do not build on it, we lose it. We spend it and we waste it. Similarly behaves relationship. Once we have the people in our lives, if we do not nurture them with constant love, affection, care and communication, we too will lose them. Look back and you will realize how much wealth you have wasted in the last few years just because you did not have time to value them as wealth. We did not spend time and effort of retaining those. We lost them.

Now, what we get out of this wealth is far more precious than what you could harness from so called fictitious worldly wealth. Relationship is non-perishable, money is. You never lose this - It stays, waiting for you. Look back, forgive if you are hurt, find if you have lost, establish connection to someone in the past. All it takes is a little time and a heart filled with love. That gold will come back to you. This has happened and will keep happening. Unlike money, lost relationships can be regained and re-earned. All the tools it needs are the one that I have already mentioned and many more that you know but above all tools you need - Patience and Acceptance. Rest all will follow.

Since all this inspiration comes from my Gurujee and Baba who guides me in my journey towards being a better human, the wealthiest people on this earth today are the ones who have built that relationship with the Supreme, or, are on the path of building the same. Your love and journey towards Baba, guided by your Guru will lead you to discover the greatest wealth of your life. Go, get on the journey and earn more wealth. Go, get rich.

PS: discovered something similar in Dec 2013 while reading - Page 24 - THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING effects their actions have had on others, and experience the emotions their actions have caused. One man told Kenneth Ring: I realized that there are things that every person is sent to earth to realize and to learn. For instance, to share more love, to be more loving toward one another. To discover that the most important thing is human relationships and love and not materialistic things. And to realize that every single thing that you do in your life is recorded and that even though you pass it by not thinking at the time, it always comes up later.

From "India Against Corruption" to "Individuals Against Congress"

Cheers to team Anna to have pulled one of the biggest practical jokes of the world. No, literally. The joke was tried on more than one billion people. Millions got directly involved, either in person or on social media. No other revolution had seen such participation in every continent on earth as did India against corruption. Anna Hazare was the messiah. Road rallies, radio, Facebook, twitter, I-Am-Anna branded T-shirts and what not. There were 10 million hits on Facebook alone and Anna Hazare was almost the Time Person of the Year 2011. Alas, the Arab spring protesters won the grand finale at the very last moment.
                       The movement started in March 2011 and let me quote the very words of Anna"The government has not seen what people power is. It is more powerful than Parliament" It was wise by the way they had chosen the name of the movement because as Congress party said " Anna had a hidden agenda". I guess that was the name ! Because now IAC can be used as Individuals-Against-Congress party and target 2014 general elections. Jokes apart, Now, here is the funny part which non-political public haven't realized yet. It was "India" who was against corruption but when this becomes IAC party, there will be no India in it. Meaning, if you are thinking that your role as a protester will help you chose a representative in parliament, better stop day dreaming. Here on, You (protester) have no more role. You will be invited to cast your vote sometimes in 2014. 
                        Wait a minute, that reminds me of something. YOU have been doing this since 1947. Mr Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi mentored the congress party to take care of India after the so called Brits ruined the legacy and fortune of the greatest nation of the world. Look what happened: half a century later, trillions of dollars are stacked in secret locations around the world even beyond the reach of Mr. Bond. Congress was an alternate to the cruel British Raj and now IAC needs to be created as an alternate to Congress. For around 100 years it was the people, who came participated, got hit, sacrificed their lives. Once the rulers went away, few hundred people controlled by a few individual leaders ruled the nation. Those YOU "people" came to vote and watched helplessly how these handful of leaders exploited them for next 50 years. So old formula, like in Bollywood. But amazing part - It Works !! 
                         Now, Anna ji, just for your information you are not the first one. Your team needs to know that a similar party was formed to transform India and take the rule back to the educated and non-corrupt masses. It was named Lok Paritran. Paritrana meaning "To bring relief from the cause of distress" in Sanskrit,The party was formed in February 2006 by a group of six graduates from IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur. This party contested in 2006 Tamil Nadu elections in 7 constituencies, but failed to pull crowd. It was reported that the party was split. One faction formed another party called Bharat Punarnirman Dal. Then came Baba Ramdev's Bharat Swabhiman Andolan. Same formula, different name.
                             60 years later, same story will be repeated. My condolences go to the families who lost their near and dear ones for India's independence in 1947. So does my condolences go to the emotionally shattered and confused volunteers of India Against corruption and general Indian public. Gear up for 2014 and make sure you come and vote like our fore fathers did. 

The Ultimate Power

(The origin and End of life)

Ever wondered how flawless initiation and culmination of any event is, needless to mention- Life?

              When a woman gets pregnant, in her womb germinates a new life. A life in a sac which had no sign of life before! A regular body doing its daily metabolic activities suddenly becomes the generator of a new life. Every new life has a soul or aatmaa, at least all religions believe so. Now the question arises where did this life come from? Answer to this question is not a mystery. Medical world can provide explicit details. But we have to agree that from ‘nothing’ a life full of energy and sustenance emerges. The new body will come to the world and maintain its lifecycle for years to come. The body will take energy, give energy and will create a presence in this world.

                Having said that, what ignites a thought in my mind is this – Was there an energy which existed in the womb to germinate a life? I believe yes. And since we know that the super power or the ultimate energy is still a mystery for non-believers and a matter of realization for great saints and gurus , it definitely exists. I realized this recently.  And I want to validate my belief.

               God as we know is the ultimate power with no limits and no definition. I believe every Sadhak seeks for the final answer and wants to realize the ultimate definition till the very end. But what they have found in this path of realization is that the Ultimate Energy is FLAWLESS. That intrigued me to think, is that flawless energy present in the womb of every woman which generates a new life? I believe yes and because of one characteristic – It being flawless. The conception or fertilization generates a flawless life, in six weeks you can feel the heart beat of a new life and the body takes shape.

               As the body takes shape and organs develop, the life although generated from the ultimate energy, starts to indulge and divulge into the world around it. Starting here on, the body starts getting flaws, one after the other, the life gets vulnerable to factors around it. Starts with physical complicacies and then as soon as it steps into the world, it is on its own. Here, the mental and psychological complicacies creep in. And the struggle of the life starts, struggle to survive and keep up with the challenges of the world. Some bodies successfully survive these, some do not. Some get physically challenged, some mentally but most of them survive, in their own ways. Maybe, because the energy is still there. And interestingly, as the life progresses towards the culmination, it loses all the flaws, sheds all the pain and gain it had accumulated in its journey, it suffers in order to get rid of the flaws and finally merges into its own origin. It becomes one with the Ultimate power ( I say Shree Sai, Lord Jagannath, Maa Durga – All different forms of the same Energy). And there are no sufferings what so ever as it merges in the same. From zero to zero or may be from God to God, a life is a mere role in this world that we play– so why waste it? Why not find your purpose and play your role? Why not make a difference?

I love Baba. I am from him. I will end in him.

Jai Shree Sai

A Man's Existence under Sri Sai: Purpose of Pain

I recently read an excerpt from ‘Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space’. You will realize that scientists and philosophers have been constantly striving to visualize an object from different frame of references and one such was the view of earth from Saturn. It was merely an obscure pale blue dot in a vast universe. That brings me to believe that a Guru's vision of earth and lives on the surface of the planet is way better that what can ever be captured by satellites and all possible man's inventions. The spiritually elevated seekers like Guruji and the supreme incarnate Sri Sai could very well see beyond the worldly existence and affairs of man on the time constrained existence of planets and lives. Like the satellites in outer space refer to earth as a small dot where the man, his machines, his creations, his love and hatred, his accomplishments have no relevance what so ever in the infinite universe, so does the Sadguru visualize much beyond the worldly affairs that we are engrossed in our lives. He under the influence of the Paramatma can visualize clearly what ordinary eyes and our thought process cannot. He can see from far and high and deep in the hearts and minds of the mortals.

That brings me to think why in our short lives and our finite existence, we get into conflicts - conflicts within one's self, conflicts with ideologies, believes, faiths and practices. And why such conflicts cause pain? Why do we get hurt? Why can't the supreme power control and diminish such sufferings? The more I think and focus on Baba, I faintly and vaguely get a reply. EVERY PAIN HAS A PURPOSE. Everyday challenges, everyday sufferings have a reason. An ignorant like me have interpreted the reasons being two fold - Self development and Spiritual progress. One intends to cleanse your senses, helps hold yourself together, makes you more tolerant, more patient, execute your daily duties and social responsibilities, builds your character, helps feel sympathy for your fellow beings, helps you being kind and generous and makes you able enough to dedicate your life for services to others. The other intends to take you closer to the Supreme power. The spiritual journey through realization where you get a bit closer to your Guru, Sadguru and the Supreme Lord every single day. Man like any other animal seeks help, cure and comfort when in pain, this seeking of help reaches its pinnacle when one seeks the blessings of the Guru and ever emancipating Baba. Understanding and accepting not only comforts for the pains and losses in our life but also drives us a little closer to Sri Sai. Every pain has a reason and purpose and we need to accept that and seek His blessings. May Sai Bless.

No Body, One Soul

Question arises when someone address you as 'You are no body'. Questioning - who you really are? Are you irrelevant and non-existent for somebody at that moment? May be yes and may be not, depends on the person who addressed you as no body and depends on the situation which provoked the speaker to say so. No matter what goes through your mind at that instant, the reality is that he or she was right, if not in whole, partially right. You are No-Just-A-body, you are a soul embodied by matter, the matter is called body. A man's relevance and identity is beyond the matter because science has proven that matter change. No matter can stay in one form forever, it has to change under different circumstances, it has to erode and decay and eventually take another shape. Your body is no different. Referring to science, what remains intact is the energy. It can transform from one form to the other but the total energy remains the same. This is something our vedas and ancient scriptures have referred as a phenomenon with our soul. Soul like energy is intact is often encapsulated by a body or rather matter which changes form time to time.

Now having realized that, the next question that arises is having a limited span of time of the body which we refer to as life on this earth, would you focus on caring, uplifting and realizing the eternal soul or the short lived body? One side of the coin is no mystery for humanity since its origin. The reality is that matter changes and the body dies. No one ever with what so ever power of science has been able to stop the nature's process of death or diminishing the matter. One the other side of the coin, the intangible part of this concept is that who will validate the ever existence of a soul?. Trying to find an answer to this question, it makes me wonder why in a time limited span of life, a man seeks God, why he/she feels the pain and happiness of something completely unrelated to his/her life? why a living being cares for his/her siblings, relatives, non living things around them, animals, trees and flowers? Why do you and like all your forefathers have been seeking guidance from books and scriptures? We have knowingly and unknowingly shaped our lives in a way designated by ancient and prehistoric texts and we constantly go back to these books for showing us the right path in this short life. Why reading the Mahabharat, the Ramayana, The four vedas, the Gita, the Sai Satcharitra, the Bible and many other religious scriptures have influenced mankind in achieving peace and happiness. The answer lies in the question itself. Souls exist through these books.

The lives and after-lives of souls, both good and bad has lived through the ages. The lives of saints, kings, teachers, disciples, farmers, warriors, servants, and Gods have been passed over for ages from one generation to the other, sometimes written, sometimes by folk lore. All these books have are individuals, incidents, teachings and realizations that can help us learn and shape our lives for a meaningful existence on this earth. If we have ever been influenced by the life of great saint, we know his soul is present. Reading the Sai Satcharitra and vaguely relating to the life around Sai Baba and for that case reading the Bhagwad Gita or Bible and being able to learn from the inferences of Lord Krishna, Jesus and Sri Ram makes us realize that those great souls of Gods and Demigods still live and exist. Had that not been true, we would not have felt the greater necessity or seen the greater expansion of spirituality in this modern world. If closing your eyes and for a moment seeking blessings from the Guru or the Paramatma or seeking comfort from someone you love gives you peace and happiness, you already realized that there is no Body but one Soul. And yes, you are nobody and you are one of them....

Happy Indi-Pain-Dance Day

I wish all my fellow Indians happy Indi-pain-dance day. Sounds weird isn't it? How can I be so sarcastic on a day that we have celebrated for over 60 years with enthusiasm and pomp? The sound of the national anthem and the hoisting of the tricolor always brought goose bumps for all these years. Not any more. I dont feel it. May be we forgot what independence means or may be the whole concept of independence on the 15th of August, 1947 was not meant to be in the first place.

My heart aches as I write this and its been hurting since I gained conciousness and have been trying to figure out why we celebrate this day. We should have gained independence from the British raj by waving a war. The PAIN caused by the shameless DANCE of corruption that mother INDIA is going through, I have felt that for years now. Gandhiji's non-violence method did pave the way for our independence but sadly enough we lost the zeal and fighting spirit of the Aryan's whose blood still run in our veins. Bapu would surely be ashamed of us all and specially of the clan he lent his surname to. He would have never realized that one day we would drag the nation to the morgue, killing it a little every day for over half a century.

I don't want to and don't have to mention the instances of how corruption has become a part of our lives like daily meals. We eat it every day and reason it with a energetic word called survival. Yes we survive, we forgot how to live and in the process have killed the values and ethics that built this civilization thousands of years ago. I don't want to mention how corruption and bribery and siphoning of public money is happening in front of our eyes every day. We know the names and how it is done, media can't help. Even if they do, the bad guys are not scared any more, people like me have given up and how many of us would go to the court to fight a public litigation, charge-sheet the corrupt and how many courts and judges would be needed to bring the demons to justice? As I browsed through the news everyday for the last ten years or more, only thing I have realized is that corporations and political leaders are getting unaffected by anything around them. We are a tolerant nation - we do our job well.

Joseph Marie de Maistre, a 18th century french philosopher said "Every country has the government it deserves". I can't agree more to this statement. Yes we deserve the corruption that is affecting our lives today. And the reason is because we are corrupt and we hardly try to lead our lives in a righteous path. We do whatever is convenient for us and profitable to us. How may of us have said NO while paying bribe at the local driver licenses office? how many of us said NO to copying in exams? how many of us have said NO to easy money that comes through any profession? how many of us are doing or at least trying to bring in a difference to the lives of the under privileged? The list is endless. Have we ever tried to think beyond are needs and satisfactions? Answer would be bleak to none.

Then why complain? Why are we complaining that political leaders are corrupt? Are you right in your own small world? Are you doing things or at least trying to make things right at home, loving your family and friends? Are you doing your job properly ? Are you sympathetic to your countrymen? Do you care for the the injured person laying unattended in an accident scene? If the answer is NO, then do not blame any government, do not take out rallies against the system. Rectify yourself. Change the way you live and think. Become less selfish and think beyond your small little world. Remove yourself from the shackles of bondage and you will realize the true meaning of Independence.

And for the day when India will be Independent, I will wait and strive for it every day. Will you join me?