Know"how"!

I wonder how? 

Criticism and leftism changed its attire totally. The "buddhijeevigalu" on my social media list are so secular to wish eid, Christmas and other festivals to all of us. Very appreciative task,no doubt. It's wonderful to be so, an ideal society can be formed when we wish each other on such fantastic festivals.

 Culture creates civilization.

But?

Few don't seem to enjoy and wish same for our festivals too. Right from yugadi to sankranti!!!! 

A Hindu doesn't enjoy his own festival!!!! Not just it but passes critical statements against their own festivals. That sounds wierd.

The goodness of saying let your year be filled with sweet and sour on yugadi! ( Ideologically- only when we face difficulty the happiness will have meaning)

The goodness of saying "eLLu Bella tindu olle mAthadi(have till and jaggery and speak good)".

The joy of visiting 21 homes to see lord Ganesh, binds us so much together. 

The merriness in distributing lemon juice and kosambari on sriramanavami.

Wah!!!

Each festival has its own glory. 

And how can one criticize? 

To our amazement, there was another forward circulated on social media- to construct more hospitals than temples. Wow! How merciless. 

Illness is temporary but hunger.... ??????

Hindu temples are not just temples. We believe tulsi theertha can solve our Physical illness, we believe doing pradakshina to god is a good exercise, we believe feeding people is the greatest possible karma. 

Potentially this was altered by few and miscommunicated to many and several misunderstood it. We did not live in past, so we do not know what was it like in the previous era of societal set-up. There are 100s of books which show negation over hindu dharma but there are 1000s which say positives. Let's live in present, embracing the goodness of Dharma. 

To believe or not is personal choice but to speak ill about temples which serve food to 1000s and lakhs- is it fair enough? 

One can watch it in India's mega kitchen series. How temples serve food! 

Shirdi

Dharmasthala

And many...

So now can it be compared? 

Between hospitals and temples? 

Coming back, dharma is left to people's choice. To idealise it or not is left to individuals' mindset. 

My Hindu dharma taught me to respect humanity ( vasudhaiva Kutumbakam). That is total secularism. It helped me pray - lokah samasthah sukino bhavantu. And I am proud I am born and brought up in such a divine culture. 

No doubt, every dharma has different dimensions, it is upto us whether we take it from the right source or from such gangs of "buddhijeevigalu" who have known it half. When dharma flows in right direction people behave right, but when there's illusions added to it midway negation develops and spreads. 

Take aways : 

1. It is ok even if you don't follow your dharma, but your fellow countrymen does. Atleast have respect for their sake. 

2. IMPORTANTLY, Know full before criticizing. Read information from sources directly.

🙏

Happy Sri Rama navami! let's stay safe!

Quarantine is that one word which has been trending all through the go. The alarming calls given on various media platforms, is about it. I was once amazed to hear my "friend in maid" saying, "akka naaLe inda baralla. Mane Quarantinu ( sister I will not come from tomorrow, should be home quarantined). The usage of a foreign word as ours, always astonishes me like nothing else. A pun which says:

Kannada + English = Kanglish

However, in no time I realise, the seriousness of the situation is more significant than the amazement. 

While I sat at home feeling doing nothing, a news came in saying the celebrities are stuck home, couldn't able to attend their TV shoots. And the bulletin beneath the visual said- "doctors are striving hard to save Covid-19 patients". Whom are we celebrating? Who should be celebrated? 

Doctors, nurses, news reporters, the civilians....? 

Or 

Who?? 

On the other hand, it goes to the heart of mystery, thinking over and seeing people dying. The media is a juggernaut, building a great time of awareness trying hard to make people sit at home to watch them and bring reality into our eyes, trying to hit hard with an emotional stick. Just to make us sit home. Our leader followed by our representatives are begging hard to stay home. 

What is striking us away, out of house? 

1. Someone doesn't like to sit at home.

2. Someone wants to sit at home, but circumstances are not allowing him to. 

3. Someone should be quarantined, but that person intends to spread infection (these are the dangerous creatures).

4. Someone doesn't want to sit at home because he/she hates Prime minister, and because our Prime minister made the announcement.

5. Someone wants to politicise the ocassion, to attain sadistic pleasure.

6. Someone is not aware of the gravity of the situation.

The list goes on for various reasons. 

Great! We have a list of reasons. But how to resolve this situation?

Once let's close our eyes on this auspicious day of Sriramanavami and remember Lord Rama. 

Lord Rama was one person who strived all his life, just to keep up promises. The best part of his personality is, he was composed inspite of the hardship , not for a day or two but throughout his life( saHtu nityaM praShAntaathma). 

Isolating himself to benefit his kingdom and uplift dharma, and run in the path of it: never perplexed, never deteriorated, but stood a stalwart, he was Rama. Just two people around and none to resolve his mind but himself, caring for the two and all, who came with him to be with him at any point of life: he was Rama. His ethics is to be revered always. He kept himself strong during his journey in the forest, the toughest period of isolation. 

But us? 

It takes enormous time to discuss the presence of his persona and significance of his existence in this land. But one thing we need to heed at this point of quarantine period is- "the tranquility of SriRama". 

Being on the same land that he was born, how can we not follow him? Isn't it the time to think? Instead of complaining and compelling ourselves to turn-away from the isolation call. Let us remember him for his strong mind, let us remember his toughness to face difficulty of isolation, let us remember his perseverance to help society, let us remember him, for he alone is the pinnacle of personality. 

Though we cannot match him, for he was the greatest soul; we can atleast try to follow his footsteps. 

He isolated to establish dHarma, let us isolate to help ourselves and our loved ones. Let's stay home, let's be safe.

 It's time to rebuild our conscious and process right thoughts. Let's get inside. 

raame chittalayaH sadaa bhavatu me bho raama maamuddhara| 🙏

Special thanks to Mr. Ananth Ravi, my uncle for motivating me to remember an ideal soul and write his significance at this point of our lives. 

Just be 5

More on free thoughts! 

How will we know whether a thought is making us or breaking us? 

The reality of thoughts is that it keeps occuring by itself and has no filters. To control our thoughts is to be a great meditator. However, we a layman in the path are not sure of thoughts itself, how can we ever control it? 

Observation. True, we heard it right. Observation is the key to unlock spiritual progress. Few make a good habit of writing personal diaries, which actually helps in the process. To know my thought struggle and its leads. 

Either by writing or knowing my thought flow will help enroute the path towards righteousness. 

Just like the river flow, we can always change the direction towards right. But to know what is right, a pure heart to think is enough. Whatever be the situation, just to think - whether this is humane or inhumane. 

Enough. Rest will be good. 

So the key towards spiritual well-being is-

1. Observe your thoughts. How is your mind thinking. Make a note of thoughts in a diary if necessary. 

2. Make sure those thoughts arise for the benefit of all. Thoughts need not do good to others, but should not harm others. 

3. Let the thoughts revolve around efforts and not results. 

4. Thoughts on efforts will make us stronger, thoughts on results with no efforts will break us. The thought of 'what if' will definitely ruin our day and so will be life, says lord Krishna himself.

5. Let's build ourselves in this way, and life will be blessed. 

Thus, the path of spirituality flourishes. 

Just be 4

#justbe 4

Free thoughts come and go. As Sadguru asks in his lecture- "is there a necessity to overthink?"

How to know the difference between thinking and overthinking then? 

That's an interesting point to make. 

Whenever a person makes notes for a reason, for example a thought process to prepare for what to speak for some XYZ cause; that becomes thinking. That is preparing a thought for making efforts, to do certain karma. 

But many of us think over the results, being judgemental about it. Instead of thinking about our efforts we are more likely to think over- "what might happen if i don't pass or fail?". So there you start the process of overthinking which gives free thoughts with ease. I try hard to overcome this.

Our mind has become a convenor of such free thoughts which is portrayed as significant in our lives. But which is not true. 

Thinking about results only makes us feeble and we tend to increase unnecessary thoughts which attempts to destabilize our mind. 

Hence making a clear distinction between these two kinds of thoughts is the key. 

So when can we do this? 

Silence.

Yes. Closing eyes and observing mind. What kind of thoughts often arise in our minds. Let your mind free and let all the thought come out one by one. Just give way to each one of it and allow such unwanted free thoughts.

Once one starts letting all thoughts and frees out mind. The vaccum starts replacing the unnecessary thoughts. But the known intellectuals say it requires years of tapas. 

However taking a baby-step in this great process of getting more humane sounds interesting than to remain ignorant and overthink.

So let's try to sit 5 minutes in silence in a day and try observing our thoughts and let's discuss further. Shall we????

Aren't we all spiritual? To achieve spiritual contentment.

#justbe 3

We tried to understand the relationship between truth and silence in our previous blog. That is- whenever we accept ourselves as we are, there arises a true understanding. Like in the example we took, if Mr. X had accepted that eating omlette is no crime, since food is personal choice, then there wouldn't have been a problem. The problem arose, only when he thought his truth may discredit his social ego. That is where the so called lie takes birth. Instead making oneself comfortable with their own being, brings enormous change in one's life. 

So the very mantra is - accept it! Whatever it is. Your truth, your weakness, your positives, whatever it is. 

This acceptance transpires to oneself only when the person starts observing himself. To do that, staying silent is the key. Just when we make sure that we sit silently for only a few minutes a day and observe our free thoughts, we will know who we are! 

With a thorough practice of sitting silent, the free thoughts gradually reduces in number and you start building an aura of silence around you. This aura will fill in positivity wherever you attempt to establish. You tend to flourish slowly. 

Now the question is- how is spiritual contentment related to this? 

Spirituality is not anything else that is apart from you, but it is an instinct to be loyal to do anything which is part of you. 

To do anything(task) which we like in a great solitude means we are putting all our soul to make it happen. This great solitude comes only when we achieve an aura of silence around us, as discussed above. 

So the contentment is natural and is a bliss in this state. 

Achieving spiritual contentment with this continuous practice is paradise itself. 

The present scenario of our busy days pleads for it too. 

Happy blissful days ahead! 

What to expect in the next blog:

Relevance of spirituality in our daily lives! 

(More on free thoughts) 

Just Be - 2

#justbe

I connected spiritual contentment, silence and truth in my previous blog. So let's discuss on how it is related. 

Truth is the first part. With a wonderful conversation with my sister-in-law, she gave a beautiful example. 

"If Mr. X ate omlette for breakfast today. But in the office when Mr. Y asks what you ate today, he says dosa. So that's a lie. Then how can you say it as the face of truth when there's a lie also?" 

It's perfect. Like I said in my previous blog, delivering a truth has many assorted emotions being played in the background. While Mr. X is saying he ate dosa, it is not true, but his feeling of getting isolated in a societal setting plays the major role. That is, 'the assumption' of Mr. X that Mr. Y might dismay his truth, becomes a truth there. 

Psychologically, in our present system of socialising there pops out the concern. Whether Mr. Y accepts that truth (a lie of dosa) or disregards Mr. X's story and tries to reestablish the truth. So ultimately, the establishment of truth is in a continuous process, which has no end. That is what we are supposed to give a thought on. 

While you are silent and concede to yourself and remain for yourself, there arises a great step towards realisation. It is not that you are not caring about the world. But to remain within you so that you try to establish yourself first. Once you do that your mind deciphers the thin line between what to think and what not to about the world. That will ultimately help you towards spiritual contentment. 

There you start realising on- how to see the truth. There you start rebuilding your reality with all consciousness. 

PS: Special thanks to you Shlagha, for helping me in reconstruction of my thought process. 

What to expect in my next blog! 

Aren't we all spiritual? To achieve spiritual contentment.

Just Be - 1

#justbe

Truth has many faces. This is a common story we often hear. So I always thought, if it has face, whose face will that be! 

Truth doesn't have anything called-"its own". The face of truth will be seeker's face. For example if there is a fraudulent in the town, the truth of the fraudulent activity has different faces. Might be investigator, the victim, the fraudster, every one has their own verses of the story. To believe or not believe is secondary but to first have a side is important. The verse of an individual has assorted emotions being played while delivering his thought towards the story. Hence nothing is false. It is just as true as the sky we see. We just get to see it from the earth, and we can even judge: the sky is infinite, the sky is blue, the sky is filled with cotton rolls called clouds. We can utter what ever we want, that will be our verse of the story. However, the sky's version might be different on how, why it looks blue, if at all it is.

It is fact that the truth is never established fully in any case. There will always be a next step in establishing from the established truth. Thus it is a multi-dimensional story. The existence of the universe has many hidden facts. 

Seeking truth in whichever matter be like trying to establish our own mind and refining so that we will be reflected in a better way. Not just to showcase to the community but to grow from within. 

Seek the truth in silence, and it will prosper you in a better way, leading to the energy of spiritual path. 

Such a terminal will be a bliss! Spiritual contentment in silence is bliss!