Face... Embrace... Accept...

Life is chain of events!

Some pleasant and some unpleasant... We happily accepts pleasant ones but always try to avoid unpleasant ones. We need to realise that we are just an actor through all the events. Each moment will pass and emotions attached to those moments will also pass. What stays untouched is self. Try to watch the moments passing by each event. More you try to avoid, more you drown into it. 

Face it, embrace it, accept it!

Don't try to run away or defend yourself. Just watch yourself and let the events unfold in front of you. 

Meditate! 

Take it as it comes

"Take it as it comes"

We might hear this quote so many times. For all of us it is one of so many inspiring quotes. When in day-to-day life; we face lot of obstacles and feel not so confident about coming events or problems in the life, it lifts one's self-confidence. 

“Take it as it comes” gives immense confidence to us and asks us to drop all worries surrounding that event or problem. Forget what may come or what may not come, and let us see what comes our way. But we never try to see what it actually does! It takes your mind from future to present moment and so fear of future to freedom of present. Have we ever thought of present moment? What is present moment?

Present moment is this, this, this, this….. It is passing by and very close to you but still far from you because of perception -“mithya” created by your own mind. We never stay in this moment for continues period. It is so close to you that you never realize. It is very basic mind game, it longs and desires for something and everything, which is not with you and always takes you away from present. It asks you to run after something and so you always forget your “SELF”.

Sometimes it takes you to sorrow, guilt feeling from past or other time it takes you to worries and fear of future. Present is always neglected. Whereas present is so much powerful, it gives you all positive and takes away guilt, sorrow, fear, lust and what not. It makes you immensely strong. In present you are free from all worries. You are not servant of your mind. In fact there is no mind! And that is ultimate pleasure and truth. 

Sri Sri Ravishankar says, “Live in present moment!” It means you realize your “SELF”. It is not possible for anyone to start living in present for continues period. It needs a practice of meditation and it is indeed possible and many have done it and many are doing it.

Close your eyes everyday for few minutes and take few deep breaths and observe your mind. There are some online meditations available. You can follow below guided meditation. 

So let's start living in present and "Take it as it comes"!
Happy Living! :)

The lost shine of Hinduism

"The ignorant are fanatically religious and the intelligent are fashionably atheist. The wise are obviously spiritual" - Sri Sri Ravishankar

How true is this statement! Today prejudice prevails towards the Hinduism, spiritual gurus, pundits, ancient rituals. Particularly this is the case with the youth of India. Today's youth don't think twice before blaming whole religion and all the Gurus or even God for all wrongdoing prevails in the religion and they also feel that they are intelligent in doing so, whereas most elders actually believe each and everything in the name of God.

I am not denying that there are fake pundits and gurus exist in India. I am just saying because of few fake people in religion, you cannot blame that religion itself is fake or each and everything in Hinduism is fake and stop practicing invaluable vast knowledge it has given to the world! 

There is lot of wrong things happening all over the world. We don't blame whole world for that. We don't blame our Muslim friend because of thousands of terrorists who practice Islam around the world. Then how come that logic does not apply here? If you visit some fake doctor and he/she gives you wrong medication. Once you come to know about the truth, will you blame medical industry or the fake doctor? I know you have very clear answer in your mind. It is the doctor who is to be blamed. When it comes to spiritual guru, people are so casual to say for each and every spiritual guru that, "Abhi iski bi bari ayegi". 

It is not only fake pundits are to be blamed for this mess up. Human mind sees what people around us wants it to see. We perceived the "concept" which actually does not exist. Now the "concept" here is, "Hinduism is bunch of superstitions and meaningless rituals and thus all spiritual gurus or pundits are thieves and fake!” There is a definite role of TV media in changing people's way of looking at something. Is it the fact that all Hindu gurus have done all wrong? The answer is NO; they have done much more good for the society then what is being projected by media. All flashy and insensitive news about wrong doings of some random fake gurus are all over the news. The prime time coverage media gives to spread negative things is nowhere in comparison to positive news. Doesn't it affect the mentality of viewers and the society? Doesn't it change your way of looking at the religion or Guru? If this is media's responsibility which spreads only negative impression, whose responsibility is to spread positive? I am sure media is not going to take much interest in something which is good. I read somewhere, "Don't be a football of other's opinion!". It is very much relevant here. One has to experience by himself/herself before coming to any decision. It doesn't take too long to decide using your intellect. This negative atmosphere has completely taken away bright shine of Hinduism and its practices. Today it takes long time to make people understand that meditation/yoga/spiritual knowledge is necessary in today's hectic world. To live life happier way, we have to give some respect and place to this practices in our life.

In ancient times, the King use to include spiritual gurus in their cabinet and every child use to get spiritual education and everyone use to practice mediation, yoga. Basically everyone use to spend a small time from their daily routine for "Dharma". We need to bring back right balance in the life. Today we are living in the world where almost every minute, some serious crime is taking place. We definitely need this to be controlled by strict laws, but simultaneously we need to think and work on, how can we make people more sensitive and aware, to avoid them from indulging in heinous crime? There is no other way but to make people practice Dharma in routine life. We have to establish the lost paradigm of Hinduism, the respect towards the gurus, the real essence of Hinduism. 

We need to stop this cheap movement of shaming and defaming India's one of the greatest gift to mankind - The Hinduism. It is just way of living life and not only religion.  

God Particle and Brahman

God Particle - "Higgs Boson"

Recently CERN scientists found the most important particle of standard model of particle physics and named it after British physicist Peter Higgs. 

According to findings after the years of research, this is the particle, which defines mass of anything and everything present in this universe. So whatever things are present in this universe, at the core of all these things is Higgs boson and that is why, it is often called as “God Particle”.

I was watching news about this and one of the Hindi news channels showed a Sage saying, “Chalo acha hai, ab ja ke science ne bi maan liya, har kan kan me bhagwan hai, hum to sadiyyon se kehte aa rahe hai, ab science ne sabit bi kar diya!” That time I did not think much about that, and just laughed out. Then today I was reading about ‘God particle’ on the Internet and suddenly realized doesn’t it sound similar to what ancient Rishimunis said thousands of years ago about Brahman?

There is a holy book of ‘Yoga Vasistha’. This book is one of the most important books of the Hindu philosophy called “Advaita Vendata” and this is the only book I read from lot of Hindu scriptures. There is English translation available by SwamiVenkatesananda.

I read one sloka from that book as follows:

astiha niyatir brahmi cic chakttih spandarupini
avasya bhavitavyaika satta sakala kalpaga (60/8)

Swamiji translates it as below.

In this verse, Lord Rama is asking to Vasistha about god.

Vasistha replies,

“There does exist, O Rama, the power or energy of the infinite consciousness which is in motion all the time; that alone is the reality of all inevitable futuristic events, for it penetrates all the epochs in time.

It is by that power that the nature of every object in the universe is ordained.
That power (cit sakti) is also known as Mahasatta (the great existence), Mahaciti (the great intelligence), Mahasakti (the great power), Mahadrsti (the great vision), Mahakriya (the great doer or doing), Mahodbhava (the great becoming), Mahaspanda (the great vibration).
It is this power that endows every thing with its characteristic quality.
But this power is not different from or independent of the absolute Brahman: it is as real as a pie in the sky.”

So it says, there is a power, which is not different from Brahman and which exists in each and every object in this universe and that is only responsible for the nature of all objects. Doesn’t it absolutely just as what scientist found about Higgs Boson? Yes, ‘Brahman’ is the word in Hindu scriptures used for modern physic’s ‘Higgs Boson’.

There is sloka in Chhāndogya Upanishad. It says,

“sarvam khalv idam brahma”

It means: "All this that we see in the world is Brahman".

Another one in 'Mandukya Upanishad' 

 सर्वं ह्येतद् ब्रह्मायमात्मा ब्रह्म सोयमात्मा चतुष्पात्

It means: “All indeed in this universe is this Brahman; He is Atman; He has four steps/quarters.”

There are some more slokas in the Rig Veda. I came to know about this when I started searching on the Internet about relation of modern physics and spirituality. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar mentioned about these slokas in one of the talk recently. In the Rig Veda, there is a Sukta called Nasadiya Sukta, in the 10th Mandala, 129th Adhyaya, there, around seven verses are written.

Nasadasinno sadasittadanim nasidrajo no vyom paro yat
Kimavarivah kuha kasya sharmannambhah kimasid gahanam gabhiram

Its brief meaning is; the space of pure consciousness or energy, which here and there appears to have consolidated and appears to be matter. What appears to be matter is really not matter, it is all one energy, and that one field is called Brahman, and that is what everybody is, that is what everything is.

You can find detailed meaning of this on Art Of Living site.

All these slokas indicate that ancient Rishimunis were already aware about the concepts of modern science.

And there are many more mention of Brahman in the Hindu Scriptures and philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. All these explain about Brahman, responsible for nature of everything exists in this universe and beyond this universe. As lord Shri Krishna said in the Hindu religion's holy book the Gita, Brahman is omnipresent and omnipotent in nature. Shri Krishna uses the word ‘Servam’, which includes both living and nonliving objects.

It is just we need to understand the concept of Brahman mentioned in the Hindu scriptures and listen to what Rishimunis said, with open mind as we listen to scientists and understand science. People are happy and can blindly believe what Modern Science says, but when it comes to Spirituality or Religion, people closes their door of ears and mind! People who talk about broad mentality is first to become narrow minded when it comes to Spirituality. They think all these are man made stories and so myths. Have they ever tried to understand what it actually means?

Hope people show acceptance to these great Hindu scriptures and philosophy and understands the concept of Brahman and relation to God Particle.

Need to have more respect to our religion!

I believe in H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Once I had been to his Bangalore ashram. We call him Guruji with love. Guruji asked one simple question that day, "How many of us have read the Gita?" There were 3500 to 4000 people were seating, unfortunately very few people raised their hands! Then Guruji made us understand, why should we read the Gita? From that day I started reading Gita.

Actually Hindu people do not have enough respect towards their religion. We should see how Muslim or Christian people's respect and commitment to their religion. Most of all of them have read the Quran or The Bible at least once. It is really very nice thing. I appreciate them. They are really respecting Allah and Jesus Christ, and they do read the Quran and the bible often.

One more thing, I noticed, most of Hindu people often make joke on Hindu god or goddess. Many times I saw people play a drama and joke on The Ramayana or The Mahabharata, to make people laugh. I never saw any Muslim or Christian people making a joke on Allah or Jesus. What a great respect they have for God! And we, Hindus, often take God’s name as a Joke! We should learn from Muslims and Christians.

Need to have more respect to this great religion. In fact everyone should have respect for all religions. Don't make joke out of it!