Rahul Desai's Blog

History repeats itself. Earlier today, in the evening, I was sitting at home sipping the best coffee in the world (I made it); and it suddenly felt if I was getting back to my good old routine.

Well, talking of ‘repeating’, the only thing in common was the coffee in the evening and The Economic Times – Editorial page. But that too was good enough for me to plunge into the days in Bhopal. I can still remember how I finally grew the habit of reading The ET, thanks to Raghu (CEO, iBranch.in). The better, I am now at this new home (/house/flat/apartment) of mine with absolutely no looking back.

So I landed up at the spiritual column - ‘Cosmic Uplink’. Although the article could've been more interesting compared to regular ones, this one part of it made great sense to me:

“…the pursuit of atmasuddhi involves freedom from all aspects of one’s past and present, which have the effect of sullying his soul, reflected in unnatural developments or situations, obstacles, shallow relationships, fruitless transactions and such irritants, which most persons are heir to.”

Munch the rest of the article at this link.

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• Done with all the books you have in your collection and wondered what to read?
• Hate fiction, and need a break from philosophical/idealistic books?
• Ever felt that urge of reading but not sure what to read?
• (With my limited collection of books, this is the permanent challenge I face every now and then.)
  

Well, The Economic Times Editorial page is the place for you. Of all the articles, ‘Cosmic Uplink’ has always done wonders to me. Without dragging it further, here’s a short story I recently read in that column. The message of this short-story is much shorter than the story itself – however, it channels us to ‘the ultimate’. I liked it, I hope the same for you.


A seeker once went to a Master and asked to be initiated into enlightenment. The Master replied, “Tat tvam asi - you are That. The divine self lives within you. Meditate on that Self, merge in that Self, realise that Self.”

“Is that all?” said the disappointed seeker. “But I already know that. Please reveal to me the inner secrets, the real stuff!” The Master replied, “That is all I know. This is the entire caboodle. I have no other secret. But since you don’t seem to be satisfied, try the Master who lives down the road.”

The pupil hurried to the other guru and posed the same question. “I do not part with my teachings so easily,” replied the teacher. “You’ve got to earn them with sincere sadhana for 12 years.”

The seeker agreed at once and was assigned to clean the cowsheds as part of sadhana day after day. Thus the years went by, with the seeker dreaming of enlightenment as he shoveled cow-dung every day. Finally, the great day arrived and the seeker ran up to the Master who said, “Oh Son! How well you’ve served me. So here it is: Tat tvam asi; Know it, meditate on it; merge into it.”

“Is that all?” cried the enraged seeker. “But that’s exactly what the first guru said.” “Well,” the guru replied. “The truth hasn’t changed in 12 years!”

Time for introspection!!

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Suhas and Hiral – one of my closest friends and one of his closest cousins, resp – recently brought this amazing game from one of their (common) closest cousins, a game called OSHO – Heart to Heart Tarot (A Unique Tool for Spiritual Quest).

The ‘tool’ had a big set of cards – big in size, like those real (stupid?) tarot cards. Every card had an amazing picture painted on it, with a word/virtue linked to it – things like wholeness, patience, deathlessness, and eighty odd such cards. The other thing was the book - the instruction book, which had detailed description about the attribute written on the card. Like any other simple ‘game’, one had to pick a card (spread upside down on a table, next to a magic crystal ball – just kidding) from the bunch and the ‘Reader’ would read out the significance from the Instruction book (or just speak out of mugged up knowledge). Simple as that!

The interesting part, it was a ‘game’ for all of us - the night Suhas and Hiral brought this ‘tool’ in, it was pretty late and I was half asleep. They still made me pick a card and it read ‘Listening’. Then someone (Dipal?) read through the instruction book, and I was quite impressed by the excerpt, I had to tell Kaushal about it. Kaushal is an insanely crazy Osho-fan. He dropped by my place, I showed him the cards, he made me pick one and guess what? Of eighty odd cards, I happened to pick “Listening” again!

Considering these coincidences and the motive of the ‘tool’, I fondly started believing that it was a ‘message’ and I had to pay attention to that. Probably God wanted me to ‘listen’ to what He had to say about ‘Listening’. (Now that sounds/reads dramatic!)

Whatever be the reason, I felt it made great sense – Listening:

Listening is one of the basic secrets of entering into the temple of God. Listening means passivity. Listening means forgetting yourself completely – only then you can listen. When you listen attentively to somebody, you forget yourself. If you cannot forget yourself, you never listen. If you’re too self-conscious about yourself, you simply pretend that you are listening – you don’t listen. You may nod your head; you may sometimes say yes and no – but you are not listening.

When you listen, you become just a passage, a passivity, a receptivity, a womb: you become feminine. And to arrive, one has to become feminine.  You cannot reach God as aggressive invaders, conquerors. You can reach God only… or it will be better: God can reach you only when you are receptive, a feminine receptivity. When you become yin, a receptivity, the door is open. And you wait.

How true!

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Stress Management

Do one thing at a time. Do it mindfully. Do it well. Enjoy the satisfaction. Then go on to the next thing. Multitasking might work for computers, but humans have yet to get the hang of it. It leads to careless mistakes, shoddy work and unreliable performance. Worst of all, having to do things over. This is no way to live. Give what you’re doing your undivided attention. Take the time to get it right. And enjoy the experience. Is your life fulfilling? Or is it merely crammed? Know the difference and you’ll realize it’s not the quantity of activities you engage in (or possessions you collect) that ultimately determine your happiness. One naturally unfolding, enriching experience can easily surpasses many rushed and distracted ones. But you may be so chronically overscheduled, you never give yourself a chance to enjoy anything to the fullest. Experiment. Choose an occasion and give it your complete, mindful and unhurried attention....

Throw something out every day. You’ve got too much stuff in your house. Office. Garage. Attic. Useless clutter that’s weighing you down, getting in the way, obscuring the things you really need. Be realistic. If you’re not going to use it, lose it. And you don’t have to make a humongous project out of it. Every day, find one thing you don’t need and toss it. Or give it away. Over time, the clutter will begin to vanish and space and order will magically appear in your home and in your life.

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From: Raghvendra Pandey
Date: Mar 14, 2006 3:22 PM
Subject: Discussion between Rulers of the Earth...

This is in regard to our discussion that day in Jehanuma about what Ram said to Bharat when he came to meet him in forest. It’s a glimpse into what it takes to RULE! It’s all common sense and high degree of self-discipline. (Link at the bottom)

There are many things which Rama refers to in his lecture, which suggests that their issues were not very different from what they are today.
He talks about:
- Corruption in the army
- Bogus spiritual preachers
- Vagaries of monsoon (indirectly so, by saying "fields should not be fed exclusively by rains")
- Smart-brains turned anti-social.
- Discrimination between rich and poor in imparting justice.
- Atheism and "over-emphasis on religion" !!
- Preparedness of armies...etc.

http://www.valmikiramayan.net/ayodhya/sarga100/ayodhya_100_prose.htm

and the most impressive part is the concluding line :)

"A wise and learned king, having obtained and ruled the entire earth, properly by righteousness and by administering justice to the people, indeed ascends to heaven when detached from the mortal body."

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Most people in the world today suffer from stress. To deal with stress you must first find out its origin. Identify its source before you can root it out. Imagine there is a foul odour in a room. The smell actually comes from a decomposed mouse behind the curtain. Without finding its origin, you may try to drown the odour with air freshener and perfume. Such methods may restrain the smell for a while but cannot eradicate it. For eliminating it completely you must locate the source of the odour. The moment you find the dead mouse you know exactly what to do. You then understand the absurdity of applying external solutions to an internal problem of stress. You must therefore get to the bottom line of stress. Then alone will you be able to deal with it, reduce it and ultimately become stress-free.

Stress arises from an ungoverned mind. One cannot afford to let the mind take over one’s actions. The mind has no direction or dimension. The intellect alone can direct, govern and control the mind. If the intellect is not available for guiding it or not powerful enough to control it, the mind can go berserk and devastate the personality.

If your intellect does not exercise its control over your mind, desires develop into their different permutations. When you feed your desires (kama) indiscriminately and gain your desired objects, you yearn for more and more objects. You crave for larger possession and greater enjoyment. You develop passion, lust or greed (lobha). If you continue to cater to your greed and acquire more and more material wealth you become intoxicated with success and mentally deranged. You lose yourself in delusion (moha). Having reached the state of moha, your desires can modify into either arrogance (mada) or envy (matsarya). Arrogance towards those who rank below your level of achievement. Envy at those above your level. In the giddy heights of success and prosperity, you maintain a constant fear (bhaya) of losing what you have gained. If however, your desires are ever thwarted by any person or object, you develop anger (krodha) at the particular obstruction.

All these passions agitate your mind to cause stress. The way to control and discipline your desires is to work for a higher ideal in life. Fix a goal, an ideal which serves a common cause, benefits your community and country. Then the mind finds an inner peace and satisfaction.

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