Letting it go…

It is very hard… letting things go…

Especially when one feels bonded to the thing, it’s extremely hard to let it go…

One can quote, ‘you carry nothing when you come to the world; nor you carry anything with you when you leave the world’, but, the period of stay in this world makes it hard to let things go.

It is a pain when things don’t happen the way you expect to…

Rather is it the ego that is hurt when what ‘I’ think doesn’t happen, when ‘I’ am not given prime importance, when people can’t see what ‘I’ feel?

When ‘I’ am not important why am I living in this world?

Ok. I understand that when you expect there is a high probability of disappointment!

It is hard to implement in day-to-day life! It aches to let things go off your hand! Something that you felt as yours, that you possess, you ‘own!’ solely yours…

Yet, I’ll say, “Nothing in this world is impossible!”

Whom am I cheating?

Nothing Is Impossible....

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

~ Swami Vivekananda

A trip to Vivekanandar Illam

Last week I had an opportunity to visit Vivekanandar Illam with my Best Friend.

An ardent admirer of Swami Vivekananda, I feel so proud and happy for having visited this place.

Once an Ice House, Vivekanadar Illam now is a repository of the rich Cultural and Spiritual Heritage of India. Swamiji had stayed there for a full week and meditated on the future of India.

I wanted to explain about this Illam but now I feel everyone should visit this place to understand it better.

As soon as we enter we find this big statue of Swamiji.

From here we turn to our left and enter this historical place. The ground floor portrays the history of the place and how it was changed to Vivekanadar Illam from an Ice House.

The path to the next floor includes a huge stall for books, CDs, Photos of the Ramakrishna Ashram with unique collections. The next floor is full of paintings. Visual depictions of various ideas and facts is a treat for the eyes.

Various avatars of Vishnu, extract from a few Tamil Literary works, Indian evolution in spirituality, great spiritual leaders of India are a few of the varied paintings depicted.

The second floor is where we find a gallery of pictures on Swami Vivekananda right from his birth, his travel across the globe, his famous speech in The Parliament of Religions, his friends and disciples, etc quickly talking about the life history of Swamiji.

Now we move to the Third Floor. Entry to the third flooor opens up a big hall, to the right of which is a photograph of Swamiji. Or is it really just a photograph? I could see Swmiji looking into my eyes. This floor is still full of charge and vibrations and is calm and enlightening that you could feel the presence of Swmiji there. Its a blissful experience up there. You could feel a current pass all over your body, charge you with nothing but positive thoughts and from nowhere your heart rejoices with joy and happiness. This is no exaggeration. After so many years, after so many renovation work happening there, its an amazing fact that you feel all kinds of experiences up there.

You turn to your left. There is a dimly lit room, mats spread out, fresh flowers decorating the photograph of meditating Swamiji. I sat there for about 20 minutes or so. No thinking, no expectation, just a peaceful 20 minutes enjoying the place, its calmness, its peace, its vibrations, and experiencing a distant voice lecturing like bombs of fire. May be it was my imagination too...but this dream was also a pleasant one... Imagining as if Swamiji is talking to me, though I didnt pay attention to what was being said. Feeling that I am hearing his voice itself drowned me into the ocean of happiness.

Please take time off to visit this place.

Purity, patience and perseverance!

Bliss!

Just wondering!

Why do people do things that they know they should not or when they know it will cost something of theirs?

I don't understand!

Like,

People who don’t study for their exams and instead watch films; even worse people planning for an escape route like bits to clear it off…

People who say, “I wanna try things out!” and do things that cannot be confronted to anyone else…

People who indulge in habits they know will cost their health…

Then

I realized…

It may be that,

For the ones who didn’t study for the exams, exams and scores were worthless?!

For people who try out things, the pleasure in trying things out is more important than the pains that those things will cause…

For people indulging in destructive habits, best price they would offer for that pleasurable indulgence is their health…

Well!

Its all in the mind?!

But,

I really don’t understand why people have or show double standardness….????

Talk something but do other thing,
Preach one thing and practice the opposite,

Crisply, a life of an oxymoron…

I can’t understand them!

Take home from PD class at RKM

Today I attended the Personality Development workshop at RKM Ashram. We discussed about Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body.

I had been attending this workshop on and off since 2003 I guess. The moral strength, the spiritual strength that is there in me is solely out of the association with the ashrama and I owe a great deal to the Holy Trinity!

But a mother will always be a mother! Mother is dear to me.
I draw strength, immense mental strength only from her. Its not the scriptures or writings or words that transpired me. Its just the thought of the Mother and her continual presence I feel within me pours and fills me with love! I learnt to love people and almost everything in this world only because I saw the love in her eyes. Mere sight of Mother turns you into a kid yearning for love!

I learnt to be confident, bold, stand for my conviction and principle from the regular whips and blows of Swami Vivekananda's words.

By saying this I don't attribute love and courage to Mother and Swamiji respectively. I just mean to say that I need a Mother to fill me with love and care, I need a Swami Maharaj to whip me whenever I commit a mistake. Its my way of relating to the Holy Trinity.

And,

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa...
Its only Bhakthi to Him. I don't feel like asking him anything. Meditating on him gives Peace, Calmness and loads of Bhakthi Bhava in the child.
I had always wanted to express the experiences at RKM. Only today I had the courage to throw the laziness and key it down.

Coming to the one thing I inscribed in my mind from today's class is this:

Three things are highly essential to have a healthy mind.

I heard it like this "Trikarna Shudhi"

1. Purity in Thought

When there is purity in thought, the words that come out will also be pure.

2. Purity in Words

When the thoughts are pure, the words let out are pure, automatically the action that we do will be pure too.

3. Purity in Action.

I really believe that if a person could follow this, he should succeed in every endeavor of his.

Purity, Patience, and Perseverance!

Give me light,

Asathoma Sadhgamaya,
Thamasoma Jyothirgamaya,
Mrtihyoma Amrithamgamaya,
Om Shanti Shanti Shantihi.


From the unreal lead me to the real,
from shadows lead me to the light,
from death lead me to immortality,
let there be peace everywhere.

Random thoughts

I just wanted to make a note of couple of thoughts absorbed from two different people I met.

First,

I heard one of my friend say, "When you don't like a quality in a person you see, that means, you possess that quality and since you want to get rid of it in yourself, you dislike its presence in the other person"

Second,

"Relationships, in any form, are mirrors to reflect the individual. To reflect the child in you, you have got a mother; to reflect the most secretive part of you, there is a soul mate for you; like this it goes."

Both these ideas are interpreted differently each time it is thought about.

LOVE

LOVE

Love is the only way to stop all bad and corrupt things happening in the world.

Its only through love that we can attain anything.

Love everyone equally and nothing will stop you from respecting others. When your heart is filled with love, you will not need an external push to do anything.

Love a person truly, you will resist any external pressure that tries to split you!
Love a sport, you will play it, however tight your schedule be!

Similarly apply this to everything.
When everyone applies this, complaints in all forms will come to an end.

I would like to include a quote of Swami Vivekananda, “MY nature is love Him. And therefore I love. I do not pray for any-thing. I do not ask for anything. Let Him place me wherever He likes. I must love Him for love’s sake. I can not trade in love.”

Complaints complaints complaints

“Do you own house? Have you bought a land for yourself?……”

I have heard this many times.

When I walk past the streets last week I started to think, we all build houses, protect it with walls and claim that it is our land. The land that we own now comes from our ancestors but did the people who lived in the past bought it from anyone?

I think.

People should have lived for a very long time in sync with nature and only when they were in need of some other thing they would have traded this land and thus this should have started.

But who are we to claim that this piece of land is ours?

Leave the land form.

In India people fight for rivers!!!
They say that the river belongs to their state and that they can’t lend it to their neighboring state. Sounds stupid! The rivers have their own way to flow on the land. Who are we to stop that? Why does man wants to dominate and rule the nature? After all we all came from the nature and still we depend solely on nature to survive. Why should then we fight among ourselves and try to do the impossible?

Now I feel, if we would have all lived in a common place, if we would have shared our resources with one another, if we had respected the laws of nature, this state that the world is facing could be avoided. It is the community living that could restructure the society and build some values in people.

I also understand that I might sound absurd in thinking this way. But I will still believe that if we respect the nature’s law we will live in peace!

I know I complain too much. But, this complaint follows my previous one. Leave respecting nature. Do we at least respect our fellow humans? We don’t. There is no respect that we show for another person’s existence!

Let us respect nature or at least our fellow beings and make this world a happy place to be!

Vivekananda

"Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached"

~ Swami Vivekananda

The Great Master

[Taken from, “My Master” - a lecture on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami Vivekananda]

In the presence of my Master, I found out that man could be perfect, even in this body. Those lips never cursed anyone, never even criticized anyone. Those eyes were beyond the possibility of seeing evil, that mind had lost the power of thinking evil. He saw nothing but good. That tremendous purity, that tremendous renunciation is the one secret of spirituality.

"Neither through wealth, nor through progeny, but through renunciation alone, is immortality to be reached", say the Vedas. "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and follow me", says the Christ. So all great saints and Prophets have expressed it, and have carried it out in their lives. How can great spirituality come without that renunciation? Renunciation is the background of all religious thought wherever it be, and you will always find that as this idea of renunciation lessens, the more will the senses creep into that field of religion, and spirituality will decrease in the same ratio.

That man was the embodiment of renunciation.

today,

The day went on so well. I am feeling happy that I wanted to post this.
Had a hearty talk with one of the most admirable person at office. Learnt so much within a short time.
There are many things in life that I yearn to attain. Today i had appended to the list, 'Forbearance'.
Somewhere today I read a quote that sounded like this, "The essence of greatness lies when one chooses to feel fulfilled while others drown in madness"! Oh! What a coincidence!
This lady[the admirable person in my office!] is simply superb and I am able to relate this quote with her instantly!

I heard her saying...

"I don't feel bad when I am not recognised! I willl feel bad when I feel, I am worthless!"

Its true. There were times I yearned for recognition, I threw few things when I was denied recognition....

Now,

I realise, its the passion to the work that adds value to your life and not mere appraisals that matter!

Thats why I started off saying, Today went on well!!!

True. This day I learnt a lesson in my life!
I am happy!
:-)

[Self?!] Motivation

I was just thinking about motivation, self help books, etc… and that’s when this thought flashed to me.

When a person is sad, or depressed and lacks confidence in his/her self, other people try to bring that person to normalcy either by comforting words, incidents and stories, which would motivate the individual.

Every time I helped people come out of their depressions and grief, I found that the individual had the urge to get out of their present gloom state. So anything that is offered as comfort to grieving people is but a trigger to make them feel that they should at one point come out of this state of theirs. Unless and until a person feels so, any amount of motivation and comfort is but vain.

Thus any motivational article, speech or workshop is nothing but to empower the individual the ability to self motivate.

This is when these quotes, “Self – help is best help”, “than kaiyae thanakkudhavi [a Tamil proverb]” made sense to me.

The instances when a person will feel depressed, lonely, or sad is predicted by the circumstance alone. There is no guarantee that there will always be one person beside to tell “You should come over this”, “This will soon get over”.

The bottom line is we should love ourselves, understand our mood swings through deep and regular introspection. As love for the self increases, love for life also increases. If there is love within, the individual will have love to show to others. When each soul realizes this there will be love everywhere. There will be no room for depression or discomfort anymore.

Wish our earth be filled with love and love alone!

New breeze in my life...

Today,
The 17th of December 2006 is an unforgettable day in my life. December is the month of music in Chennai. I had decided to attend all the concerts given by Bombay Jayashri this month. To stress out from the hectic schedule of work, I decided to chill out myself by attending a concert. I went to Shrimathi. Vani Jayaram’s concert held at Ramakrishna Matriculation Higher Secondary School, T.Nagar. However, I didn’t have any high expectations when I left for the concert. For me Bombay Jayashri is the one and only to give soulful music. Still, I went.

Now I am so ecstatic that I am not even able to put in exact words to describe the bliss I am experiencing. There are three main reasons for my ecstasy. First, I decided to attend music concerts and learn to appreciate arts and took the first step towards it. Two, the hall that I went to attend this concert was Sri Sarada Bhavan, a hall dedicated to the holy mother Sri Sarada Devi. RKM Ashram – my first gateway into the world of spirituality. Three, ofcourse the renderings of Smt. Vani Jayaram.

I had never ever in my life witnessed such a concert [though this was only the second time I am attending a live concert!]. The concert was not a musical concert. It was something much beyond that. My god! Her voice, the feel that she added to each syllable she let out… even a layman would have internalized what devotion is. What a concert! I feel so proud that I am able to appreciate the music, the devotion in it, the soul in her music. I am ECSTATIC!!!

after a long time i felt a sincere urge to blog.

i am working on my written sample for my higher studies. i have got a great idea for its subject. the survey that i did during my college proves to be of greater good to me now. i am going to take that as my topic for the research. it had always brought out the talents in me and i hope this idea of doing a research in it would exhilarate me even more.

i also plan to do some research on the topic "the world's perception of India". as far as i have searched the net for any details about India, most of the projections stray away from what India is.

most of the people out there in this so called Global Village are still not aware of what a country India is in reality. i wish my research work be a holistic approach towards bringing the Real India into the limelight.

My life at office

My life at office is going great. I am enjoying my time at office cos it has well suited my interests, passion and more than anything it is aligning with the talents that i possess. I am able to express my ideas freely. I am also learning lots in this process.

Now my new project has started and I am into it right from the beginning. Initially when I joined I thought I will be reworking on some existing projects and that I will not be able contribute much to the product itself. but now I am in the process of learning.

This job is going to lay my foundation in the field of education so strongly.

Mixed feelings

I am now in a very confused state. I am unable to handle the changes in emotions that are caused by the varied events happening day in and day out. In one day the good, the bad, and the ugly happens and its hard to take them all neutrally.

I really wanna be indifferent to all that are happening around me, in the sense the events happening around me....but am unable to do so.

I wish I take life as simple as it is.

How much care one loses when he or she wants to be someone rather than something?!!




Or

Is it me, who takes comments too personal?

I know not how it occurs..... but few words get deep into my heart and leaves cuts (or wounds?) that never heal and keep ringing in my ears.........

I read, its not the event that makes one feel sad or good, its how the mind of the individual perceives it. So, by this definition, should I work on my mind in understanding things better?

Another probable question is do I allow trespassers to hit my heart? But how long shall I keep vigil on who's trying to trespass their threshold? I want to take rest too!

Its really hard........and yesterday was a bitter one for me!

Hope to come back with a good mood.

the elections

today i was watching the news. Elections coming close, the campaigning have all started.
I just wonder how power or want of power can make people topsy-turvy overnight?! X and Y ally and campaign this year. U and V become their oppositions.
Five years pass....
Then suddenly everything is collapsed.
X and U join hands; Y and V too.
What seemed like a greatest ally years before now become worst of all enemity.
As a whole I am forced to believe that all these people in the name of democracy and campaigning are only fooling we people.
We are all behind the best spokesman and not a good politician. Whoever talks nicely, impresses us most, give us more discounts and freebies we go behind them.
Till we are ready to get cheated, cheaters never cease to come.
As a first step if for one day we spare to come to the poll station and vote the right candidate we can eliminate false votes.
Well, how many of us have a voter ID card by the way?
I myself got it this year only!
Our excuse, 'We have all kind of problems in our life let alone this political chicanery!'
We become mere spectators to see the country being robbed on and on and on....
Do we have the time and responsibility to ask the 'leaders' to fulfil everything they have promised us? Who cares for them? If we don't care for them (the unfulfilled promises), then why should they (the 'leaders') bother?
Its high time to think!


Its time for me to do my more important job!!!


Its easier said than done!! Contributing to the true democracy!!!

Amma,

Mom,
You are Mother Of all Mothers;
This day,
Is one among God’s choicest selections.
You were born in November coz,
You,
are Noble that makes everyone of us admire you,
are Omniscient in knowing what one wants and not,
are a Visionary who raised our standard of living,
are the Epitome of Love-Ah! Needs any explanation?
always Makeover our misdoings!
Brought us up the way we must be,
your Endurance know no limits,
are Resilient.
That doesn’t say it all Mom,
November had only eight letters!
You are ---------
A superwoman,
Something that cannot be defined,
Something that cannot be measured,
But surely,
Something that could be felt!
Thanks Mom,
This day,
Also is a day,
To say that we love you,
To say we care for you,
To say we are what you made us to be!
Long live this precious possession of us!
Happy Birthday Dear Mom…


P.S.:
written on the eve of my mom's birthday...Nov 11 2005