Everything has a purpose

Every event or situation in life has a purpose.

Like the famous conversation in Shawshank Redemption which Red made with the rehabilitation officer… where “rehabilitation is just a made-up word. A politician's word, so that young fellas like you can wear a suit and a tie and have a job.”

So is every situation or need in life.. just a place to get engaged and busy..

So, maybe when there is a need to suffer and serve, we have natural disasters. And when there is a need to suffer and express, we have protests and revolutions..

What do these enlightened masters exactly have that make them look so accomplished??

Good approach to living life

In the last few weeks, I have learnt a very good approach to living life. The focus of every moment of life is to only keep your self busy and work on the right things. So, completing the job commitments, some seva, some family commitments, some efforts on career, some knowledge sessions and helping whenever anybody needs help, life is busy and is going to be busy like this till you are alive. There is no choice here and there is no other possibility.

May be as years keep passing, you will grow in your career, get married, have kids responsibilities, then you will grow older, become more tired physically, marry off the kids, become retired, and leave the body some fine day. Till the time that death touches you, the only aim is to keep asking, what is to be done next? And keep putting efforts.

There need not be and should not be any strong desires that make you look for happiness in any possibility in future. Because life is to be lived only in the present moment. And how is it to be lived? By putting efforts in the right direction and then later, giving up the fruits of these efforts and being contented in the actions. Because as you have experienced, true peace lies only in the actions. Rest, whatever is to happen in life, will happen.

No peace!

Always know that there is no peace anywhere else. Hence, if you are, say, going on a trip, or to a satsang, or to listen to a teacher or to a movie, or wanting to leave office in the evening for some interesting work, know that mind may not get any gratification after reaching there. Peace should be now, here, at this moment. There may not be and need not be any extra peace or gratification at the new place. Whatever your purpose be, you should not expect anything in future time or event. Going anywhere with this understanding may probably help you keep your mind to yourself..

Why do people grow old?

There is so much of mystery in this entire event of life.

If you see the general cycle of life, you can see how the nature works.

When you are a kid, you want to enjoy the pleasures of life, may be some games, video games, a vacation or an ice cream. You are not bothered. As you grow up into teens, your focus is more on attracting and impressing every body around you. As you burn your fingers and grow up to youth, you become a bit wise or ‘mature’. Now, have your responsibilities, ambitions, plans and goals set up. When a person is young, he/she looks attractive, is aggressive about life goals, etc. As years of hard work, desires, success and failures pass by, the body starts looking older. With more and more years, the body starts giving up, cannot run or walk up the stairs that fast and it also starts showing up wrinkles. In general, people are attracted more towards young people than the old ones. So, the kids, when they grow up, naturally love their kids more than their parents.

It seems that in old age, the nature is asking the mind to slow down. Start giving up aggressiveness and feverishness and start relaxing now. The more a person resists this, the more depressed and fed up he becomes with life. And what next after this or beyond this? Only God knows…

Life is busy...

Commitments and work never stop. It is a never-ending reality of life. And most of the times, life looks over-loaded. So, you have to make choices, mess up some things at some times to cater to other prioritized things, like job during the days of AOL course, or kriya and meditations to work on some other commitments sometimes, or some other work delay at other times, to make meditation a higher priority, or health a higher priority.

As Guruji says, life is like riding a bicycle. You need to balance all your work. The only additional thing that I realize is, this bicycle journey is not going to stop any time till you are alive. Even if you complete some work today and feel relieved and good, it will not stay for long. Because, you will have some other work for tomorrow, and some other for day-after-tomorrow and so on. And if you do not do that work at that time, you may feel imbalance, and sometimes frustration… that’s how life is.

Excitement and depression are complimentary

Guruji said in the 2nd talk of Ashtavakra Geeta that you are blessed when the realization of futility of existence and boredom of routine, which cannot be done away with any other pleasurable activity, comes in you.

What pleasure can you seek in future? Remember that life is boring and life is routine; and life is meant to be like this.

No ambition or even intention in job is going to help you be with that inner self of bliss. At the same time, all that you need (not want) will come by whenever needed. So, tapas lies in living life freely, with no intention from moment to moment and serving others whenever they are in need.

Always remember, a mind excited about good prospects of future is going to go into depression in the next few moments. Because it seems that both excitement and depression are complementary and they follow each other. So, tapas lies in knowing that neither expectation from future, nor excitement is to be fallen prey to, because in later moment they will lead you to low feelings, misery and depression. Tapas lies in staying dispassionate even during times of success and failure, as finally all this is the play of the Divine and its only when we enter the small mind, that these distortions in feelings start and pains start in life.

Aggression and depression

Many times, I have found myself going through cycles of aggression, followed by depression. Aggression normally happens due to high energy, may be high prana, that makes me desirous of doing some good things, and all this finally leads to restlessness and aggressiveness in the mind, maybe to express, and followed by smashana vairagya, depression and misery later. Next time, be aware when this cycle approaches you.

So, whenever such aggression about some activity starts touching you, know that you need to drop it or atleast be aware of it, else depression will queue up at your doorsteps.

Know that there is no peace outside. And there is no need for any strong intention or desire for anything to happen in any particular way outside. All is already governed by the universal intelligence and all that needs to happen will happen. For example, if you feel that a particular volunteer or a person is not ‘correctly mentored’, then this thought may guide your actions. But finally know that that volunteer, as any other person on this planet, is guided by God and will get the experiences that he/she needs either through you or through somebody else.

Know that you are here only to put efforts and keep yourself busy. Rest, what happens outside is not of interest and is to be surrendered.

Amidst chaos, everything is perfect.

Longing and Imperfections

I experienced that with longing come imperfections and distortions of love.

When you are in longing, you seek love and attention of others. This brings imperfections like ego and jealousy, especially when you feel that others are getting that love and attention.

Longing has no solution. You have experienced both being in the presence and not being in the presence of the person you long for. You learnt that even if you be in the presence of the person you long for, it is incomplete and does not guarantee trupti for ever. Maybe, a couple of days later or even hours later, you will again long. And if you are not in that presence, you feel that urge and maybe, depression.

Whatever it be, it seems that first you go through both being in the presence and not being in the presence, and experiment with both. And, maybe, what you conclude is that you should learn to be with the self and not with any other person’s company.. however difficult that may be, that seems to be the best solution.

Tapas

Many people on the path of devotion have longing to do service. Any other activity, like job may lose its juice and at times, it may seem like a jail.

But, if God has made it compulsory for people to spend time going through job and earning money, then there’s got to be some purpose. Searching for purpose is futile as the scope of logic is very limited; the mystery and purpose of life extends beyond logic and intellect of an ordinary man.

Guruji says that the purpose of job is experience, money and discipline in life.

So, just like seva, take the responsibility of job and other things in life as tapas. It’s no longer about whether you enjoy your work or get bored. Practicing dispassion in your work, both during likes and dislikes is also a sadhana. Make your life a sadhana even during job. Because in job, you need to be always aware to see that you are not carried away either by the enjoyment or boredom of the work that you do or by the six distortions of love.

So, henceforth, whenever you are in your office, know that this too is tapas dictated on you by God. This is not your choice.

Expression and Ego

Expression to others should always be freed from ego. The more the ego is, more is the lack of energy in expression and more the dryness in it. If ego comes before expression, you have to work consciously and dissolve it at that moment.

At the same time, in the inner self, there should be dispassion and detachment. If you start expecting from others around you, you shift your centre outside you and your prana becomes low. You again forget that there is not anything outside. Everything is only inside.

So, completeness and silence inside with no expectation of inclusion from others outside, and fullness in outer expression of enthusiasm in any activity that you take needs to be practiced at every moment.