A Life Free of Burden

Why are we not able to progress quickly?

The reason why people do not progress quickly is that they are loaded with a pile of external opinions and thoughts.

If you go for a walk in the morning and someone asks you where you are going, you reply cheerfully that you are taking a walk. How cheerful your face looks!

At 10 or 11 am, if you are going the same route and someone asks you the same question, you answer dispiritedly: "I am going to office/" You no longer exude cheer. Why? Because your mind is full of all kinds of ideas - " I have to do this, I have to do that ……." - you are burdened with the sense of doer-ship. This is not the way. Go to the office or your shop, but plan your day in such a way as if you were a prince at play. You should take all your duties as if they are acts of amusement.

You may think, "If I take my work like pastime, my business will suffer."You're wrong. If you free yourself from anxiety and stress, you will work better. Why should you worry? You have seen the events of the past, you are seeing the present and you will also see what will come to pass in the future. At the most, you will die, and die you must some day or the other. Don't be afraid of death; don't try to save yourself from death, and don't try to escape it either: Invite and welcome troubles with a challenging and playful curiosity. Then they will lose their severity.

Many people are in perpetual fear of being insulted. Insult is far better than the fear of death. Death is preferable to the fear of death. Criticism is better than the fear of criticism. Fear fans the fire of distressing thoughts; it diminishes your energy. So live life free of fear, worry and stress.

Poet Melton's wife would chide him when he set out to walk with the aid of a walking stick. "Every day you go for a walk, but what do you seek to gain from this? You can't even see properly now"

Milton would reply, "Birds sing, winds play about and cress me. In that fresh morning air, when the dawn comes tearing the nocturnal darkness apart, it brings an untold beauty. I go to see that beauty."

His wife would say, "But you don't have vision. How can you see beauty?" Milton would reply: "Beauty is not seen with external eyes. The eyes that see beauty are within us"

Similarly, to analyze our life there is no need of the external eye; we need the internal eye. To see how calm or happy we are, or what is the state of our mind in adverse circumstances, we don't need external vision. We don't require external eyes to see if we behave with equanimity in the face of troubles and insults.

We require the internal eye to respect or we remain untouched by them. This insight to make life joyful and free is available only from satsang and company of saints who have awakened to their real Self; and is perfected through the practice of developing the 'witness' attitude. Therefore, instead of carrying the burden of the sense of doer or enjoyer, one should seek refuge in the enlightened ones and comprehend their witness absolute, eternal, pure, knowledge personified real self free from all bondage.

A Package Deal

Our daughter's wedding was round the corner and my wife had been pestering me to make the arrangements. Lazy to the core, responsibilities, I had been avoiding this work on some pretest or the other. But when things reached a tipping point, I decided to take the bull by the horns and find a suitable tent-wala for the wedding.

My neighbors were kind enough to give me the address of a tent-wala whose services he had used for his daughter's wedding, with a word of caution. "You can't beat these guys as far as rates are concerned. But if you'll beat them in one thing, they will beat you in two," he warned. Nevertheless after a long discussion with the tent-wala, we arrived at a price for the shaming. "Are there any discounts"? I asked. "Sir, there are no discounts, but the price for you will be less if you take our package deal" came the cocky reply.

I'd heard about deals between Mittal and Arcelor, Sonia and Lalu and, more recently, Sonia and Mamatadi. But getting an offer from a tent-house salesman took me by surprise. The "package deal", it turned out, consisted of "all normal services plus furniture, decoration, mandap and food arrangements" I quipped: You are only a shamiana supplier, what do you know about furniture, decoration and food?" The salesman said: "We have a working relationship with other suppliers aimed t taking care of all our customers' need. Bring your cheque-book along and we'll take care for all your worries!

India's on the move, I told my wife when I got back home. Even tent-walas talk about working relationships, customer needs and what have you. "What's wrong with that? My wife asked. "If fast-food joints in cinema halls can offer deals, why can't poor tent-wala? This is what you call empowerment. Only, it wasn't just one tent-wala, there were four salesmen, each offering a deal different from the other. While one offered a free chair for every table, the other offered a free something else for every chair. I asked my wife: "If the number of guests we invite is fixed what we will do with extra tables and chairs? Besides, I hate this word deal. It makes me feel as if I am doing something's sinister, something under the table, like politicians. One more thing, the offers we get in cinema halls are not deals, they are combos"

"We never had these things in our times", said Arvin, a friend, who overheard our conversation. "All we had were Bata prices and off-season discounts. Marketing was largely transparent. Nobody hid anything from you. In fact there was nothing to hide. There were straightforward products with straightforward prices. You either took them or left them. These days they tell you only half the story, the other half is for you to guess. Or it's hidden behind asterisks saying conditions apply, in print you can hardly read.

I agreed. It was like incoming and outgoing call schemes or mobile companies. Only when you get the bill do you realize what you've gone and done. Two years since I took my connection, I am still to understand the business of incoming and outgoing calls. Arvin reminded me that they also wanted us to believe we can save more by spending more!

At this point, my wife interrupted: "Bata prices and discounts are passé. These are the days of happy hours, combos, grand slams, early bird discounts, and buy two-get one free, buy talc-get soap free and of course, package deals all aimed at making you buy what you don't really need. Go the mall I go to and you'll know what presentday marketing is all about." And that's how the tent-wala came to be absolved.

Arrivals and Departures

Flying has now become a terminal condition

Does it have something to do with Saturn becoming more saturnine, or kalam more calamitous? Blaming an Icelandic eruption would be too far-fetched, or simply too far, so instead of the volcano, should we blame El Nico? Is it the negative energy released by 'honor' killings and dishonorable top-cops? There has to be some reason not visible to the naked eye, or even to the fully addressed mind, that accounts for the serial aviation accidents, actual or averted, that have shaken us in the past fortnight.

The fiery end of AI express flight 812 on May 22, the worst ever Boeing 737-800 crash in terms of fatalities, was an unmitigated, unnerving, unconscionable tragedy, but the horror stories which have been streaming out of the skies ever since seem more like farce. Perhaps we should be thankful. For, if those near accidents had come any closer to their grim potential, we would have little to laugh about these either.

Just three days after Mangalore, the travel plans of the presidents of India and Turkmenistan managed to divert as many as 11 Delhi-bound flights. But why you are complaining it? You are getting a free ride to Chandigarh/Lucknow/Jaipur, no? And extra egg bhurji in addition to scrambled appointments too. Expectedly, the Rajasthatn expedition had the most adventure courtesy gusty winds, dust storms and no approach radar at Sanganer airport. When the jet Lite, kingfisher and jet Airways flights finally kissed the ground, they had only three, 10 and 13 minutes of flying time left in their respective fuel tanks. This kind of mathematical neatness may hold up the universe, but it could also have brought it crashing down for their 524 passengers.

In the past week, more bungles tumbled out of real life headlines than anything that could be thought up by a script writer of film drama or black comedy. A tire burst forced a Srinagar bound spice jet to return to Delhi and land with full emergency regalia. Air India had to perform a nail biting 'go around' at Patna airport. An AI express Dubai-Pune flight with 112 passengers rapidly descended several thousand feet above Muscat in a loonatic fashion - the pilot had gone to the toilet, the autopilot got disengaged, and the copilot couldn't control the plane. Then in Mumbai, an IndiGo Airbus 320 blithely entered a runway on which a jet airways boeing was cleared to land, and was already just about 1.8 km from touchdown. An alert ATC saved the day and 230 passengers calling out to the jet pilot to abort the flight, and  the two planes swished past each other.

Yes, Holy/ Bolly/ Tolly/ Molly-wood has been overtaken by folly-wood. Drama (and slapstick) in real life is now showing t an airport near you. And smashing the box-office and passenger confidence. \the descent is scary, dark and deep, and we have air miles to go before we sleep in peace.

Yet all this third world muddling is happening against the background of our swishy new terminals, the most visible proof of India's globalization  Sharad Pawar's disparaging of the earlier Mumbai airport as 'worse than a bus station' is a forgotten nightmare now that these spaces re as different from their socialist avatar as Mr Pateel is from Mr Pawar. Every arrival or departure revels a whole new extension or at least yet another, even more exclusive international brand outlet manned by women as sleek as cabin crew, and made up like the kitchen crew of saas-bahu serials. The runway too is getting the hi-tech treatment, but in the light of the recent adventures of our planes, perhaps it should be called a 'runway' instead.

Best Work to Perform

Meaning: As the stanza of the Rigved 1/90/7 the meaning can be given like this - "Do such work in the world whereby everyone will enjoy happiness, peace and cheer.

Message: The corner stone of man's stability and progress is his dedication. If we ignore our responsibilities and the prescribed duties, then such obstacles will be created, that life itself will become difficult, let alone progress and achievement. Every achievement in life depends on dedication to work. The stability and safety of every achievement depends only on dedicated faith in work. It is our own responsibility to keep this very valuable body healthy, nourished and long-lived so that we can perform maximum deeds for people's welfare and create an atmosphere of peace, happiness and cheer everywhere. It is our duty to save the mind from worry, sorrow, disappointment, fear, anger, impulsiveness etc, for maintaining mental capacity and excellence. With that only the qualities like joy, enthusiasm, patience, courage, satisfaction, balance, stability, concentration and trust can enter the heart. If the mind is allowed to grow like wild grass, it becomes our own enemy. It is every man's duty to bring his mind under control and make himself cultured.

The joy of family-life is incomparable. But it is possible only when every member of the family carries out his responsibility properly with full involvement, care and honesty for all the needs of every member regarding health, comforts, satisfaction and development. We must also fulfill the responsibility of giving our love, time and cooperation to make the children cultured and organized. Only responsible people are able to get the joy of family-life.

Every member of the society also is burdened with human responsibilities. Every citizen of a cultured society remains awake and alert towards his moral, societal and national responsibility and increases the reputation of the country. It is every man's duty to maintain the purity of thought, atmosphere and ecology in the society. The extent to which a man takes interest in the uplift of the society and personal abnegation for public-welfare, to that extent he is great.

It si necessary that all of us understand very properly our duties so that everywhere in the society, there is an atmosphere of peace and happiness and all can go easily on the path of progress. Let us listen to the voice of our soul and go on striving for making this human life meaningful by fulfilling the tasks decided by the God.

Big Bird of the Storm

When there is a severe storm, birds with small wings are caught up in it, but large birds with strong wings fly upwards and save themselves from becoming victims of the storm.

On the basis of this phenomenon there is a saying in the English language. “Big birds of the storm.” This applies to people of high thinking, to those who can save themselves from the environmental storm. That is they can live on their own without becoming affected by the external world.

Who are the ‘big bird’ of the storm? They are the ‘big bird thinkers’ who can live independently, drawing on their own mental resources. Big bird thinkers are those who do not become angry even when provoked. They are those who maintain their positively even in negative situations, who can control their thoughts in such a way that they can see all men and women as human beings, whether friends or foes, and who can keep the peace even if others turn violent.

‘Big bird thinkers’ are those who are so mature that nothing can distract them from their objectives, who give well considered responses when in adverse situations, rather than simply indulging in an emotional backlash.

There is a saying in Hindi “Kuttu bhonkte rehte hain our hathi chalta rehata hai” – the elephant walks on without being disturbed by barking dogs. This is the best illustration of one who has the capacity for ‘big bird thinking. Life is full of storms, full of barking, full of untoward situations – these things are due to the laws of nature and no one is in a position to abolish the laws of nature. So you have only two options; either to waste your time and energy by constantly stopping to reactionary behavior or to ignore all undesirable situations and try to live like the elephant in the adage. Elephant style living is the only successful way to live in this world.

‘Big bird thinking’ is only another name for spiritual thinking. Spirituality is not something mysterious; it is positive thinking. All spiritual people are positive thinkers and all positive thinkers are spiritual in nature. Spirituality and positive thinking are almost synonymous with each other.

There is a beautiful story in Hindu mythology: Once a man became furious and he kicked Ram in the chest. Ram’s response was quite unique. He said: “Mere lokhan seene se tumhare komal paunwen ko chot to nahi lagi?” I hope your soft leg was not hurt by my iron chest.

Spiritual behavior is friendly behavior towards every human being – to both friends and foes alike. Spiritual behavior is like the behavior of flowers that can live with all their fragrance in the neighborhood of thorns.

An Urdu poet has beautifully expressed this: “Gulshan parast hoon mujhe gul hi nahi azeez, kaaton se bhi nibah kiya jar aha hoon mein” –I am a lover of nature, I don’t only love flowers, but I can live normally with thorns as well.

Spirituality is good for the all round development of the individual’s personality, for it makes you free of tension and friendly towards all. Spirituality is the way to all kind of success.

Positive thinking makes you a ‘big bird thinker’ and ‘big bird thinking’ imbues the human character with spirituality. Although this is an inner wquality, it is this inner quality that has the power to better all your external affairs.