How to build life?

Building lives are often the most complicated, most despairing and most confusing of all, as we are often caught in the mire of forces of attachment, which makes us believe that the life and its objects are real. Again, when the forces of attachment are cut asunder by the forces of nature, the objects around which we build our lives crumble, creating chaos and confusion. When the basis of life around which we build our lives crumble, we become desperate. In that state, we begin to seek answers for life. Life has to be altogether built on a new platform which doesn’t crumble or fail. Building such a life would be a huge challenge, as the new basis of life would often conflict with our conventional ideas that we hold. So how to build our life?

How to do it?

We will look at the prerequisites of the new platform upon which life has to be built.

1. Build a life that doesn’t die – The first major failure in life is life itself. Life is slowly ebbing out and we need to find a solution for that. Death takes away everything in our lives, of all our achievements, and of all our relationships with people and society. Therefore, we ought to build a life which defies death. Is it possible not to die? Yes, it is. Death is always a body- phenomena. We need to know that man is more than the body. If we were only the body, then we would be like animals and cannibals, always fighting for survival alone. Death is a limited dimension, but there is an unlimited dimension in man which doesn’t die. The man has to grow from this limited dimension to the unlimited dimension.

Build a life without death

The idea of body is nothing but the forces of attraction which intends, ‘I’, and ‘mine’. The forces of attraction always operate through the senses. All forms of gratification through the senses strengthens the idea of the body. All forms of restraint of the senses reveal the limitless dimension of man. Any sense impression, which intends the idea of enjoyment, must be rejected. In fact, meditation is all about negating sense impressions.

A man meditates only to converge his forces on a higher plane, where the limitless dimension is revealed. Meditation is a tool to reveal this limitless dimension. A man meditates to overcome death. Entertaining the idea of enjoyment and meditating at the same time is incompatible and futile. So the first thing to build a life is to restrain sense impressions, to restrain all the forces of attraction which intend enjoyment, to restrain all senses not to form any sense impressions. This act of restraint must be followed by a meditation process which reveals our infinite dimension.

2. Build a life around non-objects – Most of us build of our lives around objects which are dear to us. The objects are sometimes our loved ones. We work for them for our whole lives. We develop great forces of attraction towards them. We do a great mistake by holding on them to be permanent and forever. Beauty fades, and what appeared once attractive becomes repulsive. Old age creeps it and death overtakes eventually. This is the fate of all of us.

Building life around relationships

Next, we build our lives around our wealth and property. The problem is again the same. They are not going to remain forever. These objects are made of material and they have a life cycle. They are subjected to corrosion and ultimately all objects go down. So How to build our lives?

Those who have developed a great spiritual maturity can altogether shed objects completely, but for those who could not it is better to develop forces of detachment. Forces of detachment don't mean you have to hate your loved ones. You must love and at the same time remain detached. This is little tricky but with practice, it can be achieved. A man is involved in objects and at the same time remains aloof.

3. Build a life on strength – Strength means detachment. A person who is attached is subjected to love, hatred, and anger. By expending our forces on attachment, hatred, and anger, we become weak- physically, mentally and morally. We lose our strength. We must remember that nobody is going to hurt, expect ourselves. Therefore pointing fingers at others is always vain. It shows our helplessness.

Therefore, life has to be built around strength. The body, mind and breath must be tuned to perform at an optimum level. Any deviation in the forces of body, mind and breath is not going to help to achieve our goal.

Build on strength

The key to building our lives lies in not the forces of attachment but in the forces of detachment. Try and build your lives over it, I am sure you will not suffer.

Thank You.

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Dream Vs Day Dream.

Dream:

When Dr. Kalam said, ‘Dream, Dream, and Dream because Dreams transforms into thoughts and thoughts result in action’, he meant a vision and not a daydream. Such a dream is consistent with our goals, and we are trying to achieve it ever since from our childhood. It is a dream which many successful people have chased. We often come across so many of them in history – successful scientists, entrepreneurs, sports persons, and people in other fields. The dream is not just a personal goal but a universal vision, impelled by an idea to do good to humanity. History has forgotten those people who seemed great, but without humanity. Great men are those who bring themselves their achievements for the betterment of humanity.

Dream, Dream and Dream - Dr. Kalam

Dreams are a thing which is not to be taught, which cannot be bought, and which is uniquely yours, and which cannot be copied. Everyone has such a dream; but following the dream is what matters. Many lose their dreams in their pursuit, either for the fear of society or for the number of obstacles to be crossed. Dreams are always worth attempting, as it is always yours and you only can do it. The sign that you are progressing towards a dream is that you don’t get sleep, and that you are aware of the passing every single minute or second without attaining the goal. Therefore if you dream you are going to lose your sleep, and if you sleep you are going to lose your dream.

Day Dream:

Day dreaming is often what people do when they don’t have any real dreams. This dream is always without any purpose. It always happens in a hypothetical reality, which doesn’t exist. Just like an adolescent boy or a girl dreaming a dream about a person, whom he or she had not seen, had not met, and the events in the dream is not going to happen anytime in future etc., the dreams lack any real utility. Futile is the one word which can be used to define day dreaming.

Day Dreaming

Day dreaming begins when we don’t have any real work to do. It begins when we are lazy to the extent that we are unable to move ourselves a few inches in the cushion in which we are seated in. They seek things which fuel their day dreaming. For example, watching television serials endlessly, watching movies and songs endlessly, and surfing internet endlessly etc. Day dreaming also arises from physical weakness – when we don’t exercise properly or when we don’t do any physical work. Day dreaming arises when we fail to face or confront the real world. It is just like hiding ourselves under a mask from the real world. Only when tragedy strucks, the mask falls for a while, only to be worn again, for we are utterly weak and helpless.

Watching TV endlessly

It is the choice which is left to you whether to dream or to day dream. Dream is real and gives meaning to life, and one has to do some hard work for it; whereas day dreaming is poisonous and only leads to weaknesses in our lives. Therefore DREAM.

Thank You.

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Case for Non-Violence

All desire to live; none wishes to die. If animals were to be food for the man they would voluntarily surrender themselves to be butchered. All act of killing cause immense pain and suffering. Imagine how we jump ourselves around when we get a small cut accidently by a razor blade and yet we wish to decapitate the body of others for our own pleasure. Imagine how we could not even bear a little excessive heat or cold for a moment, or even a mosquito bite, and yet we wish to inflict pain on others, which is 100x more painful, for our own pleasure. Life is same in all beings, only forms and bodies differ.

Mosquito bite

One of the greatest impetus for religious life is to come out of pain and suffering. Every day in our lives we see that. Every day we read it in newspapers. In fact, the news is all about death and obituary. There is no day in which the newspapers has not reported a death in one form or other. Earthquakes, wars, accidents, murders and other forms of death fill the paper every day.

News - Disaster

Death, pain, and suffering are a universal experience common to all beings. If man were to come out of that, he wishes the same to all beings. Therefore, the first obvious thing in religious life would be non-violence. Hinduism begins by non-violence (Yoga Sutras: 2:30 begins by Ahimsa), Buddhism begins by non-violence (The four noble truths), and other religions as well. Great men like Buddha had an ideal far removed from the ordinary religious. It surpassed the love for humanity and embraced all animals as well. The goal he decided was to get everyone out of suffering.

All-embracing love

The great teachers of mankind, found in their religious experiences, that even an iota of inflicting pain or suffering on others is bound to come back. They create an adverse karma, which one reaps in equal measure. Therefore, one ought to be careful not to create such adverse karma. The teachers also found that the human body has the ideal set of conditions for achieving liberation, and any harm done to it means stalling the liberation process. When you harm others you disturb the whole liberation process. Though animals do not possess such ideal conditions for achieving liberation, yet harming it would undermine the liberation process. Therefore, from the point of view of liberation non-violence has to be exercised.

What exactly does non-violence constitute?

1.       Abstain from inflicting direct physical harm or pain on human beings as well as animals. There are some group of people who argue that plants too possess life and if that is the case, there would be no absolute non-violence. Yes, it is true to a certain extent, but plants don’t bleed and cry when we uproot them; the sense organs are completely missing and the faculty which discerns pain is completely absent. Pain involves sensory organs in relation to a body and a nervous system which transmits the pain to the brain and a resulting experience. This cycle and the system is completely absent in plants and other similar life forms. Therefore, the pain is negligible.

2.       Non-violence constitutes complete detachment. Attachment to any object or person brings a series of motion resulting in pain or suffering to a particular person. The more self-dependent a person is, the more he will be able to help others. The more dependent a person is, the more he is likely to harm others.

3.       Non-violence is exercising love and helping others in distress. Only a non-violent person would be truly able to sympathize with the suffering of others. He becomes a great humanitarian, helping others in time of distress.

Humanitarian aid

Non-violence is not merely abstaining from flesh, but is essentially non-harming, non-attachment and helping others in distress. But it will be good if a man essentially abstains from eating flesh and blood.

Thank You.

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God, Power and Peace

The way we perceive God in relation to our materialistic terms of life is very important, as from that relation springs many misconceptions and a wrong road to spiritual illumination.

First, I would like to declare as a law that God is not associated with material things or material phenomena. In fact, God can be attained only by giving up all material phenomena. ‘Immortality can be attained only by renunciation and by nothing else, not even by wealth or progeny’ says the Upanishads. The highest religious life of any religion demands renunciation and purity. That is why we find the great religious teachers of the world spend their best part of their lives in completely isolated places for spiritual practices. Because these places are bereft of any material affluence. We find the great teachers, some spending their lives in forests, some in deserts and some in isolated places etc.

Buddha Meditating in an isolated spot

But the notion of God only in relation to spiritual benefits stop with the great men. The great rulers of earth wanted power. They found God to be synonymous with power. They held innumerable sacrifices to propagate their power and wealth. They found God appeased and grant them power and wealth. In ancient Egypt and in Rome we find this. We also find innumerable instances even in our country. The great Cholas erected huge temples to glorify their power. The Great Raja Raja Chola erected Brihadeeswara temple after subduing neighboring states. We find in one sculpture, that the great King was coronated by God Shiva himself.

Raja Raja Chola coronated by God Shiva.

These Kings even go to the extent of identifying themselves with God. Because with the aura of authority of God and rituals, they subjugate people as they like. They enforce rules in the name of God, and the people are bound to obey, as they are made to believe that these rules are decreed by God himself. But what the Kings failed to realize is the transitory nature of their wealth and Kingdom. These kings disappeared with their kingdoms in due course of time. These Kings, instead of desiring immortality, at best utilized God as a law reinforcement agency.

The next category of people, we find are very dubious. The proverb goes, ‘Beware the sanctimonious, beneath there is boiling dirt’. This is with reference to the people who pose themselves as custodians of God but utilize God for gratifying their greed and selfish interests. From ancient times, the institutions of God, are closely guarded by these men, and at best they bar people from direct access to God. This is very prevalent even now. One can find even now, some priests sitting close to Lord Jagannath in Puri, and demanding money. You are saved if you give some; otherwise, be ready for a volley of abuses and curses. These dubious priests, instead of desiring immortality, at best utilize God, to satiate their greed.

Therefore, one must be careful, whenever God is associated with material phenomena. There is an incident of Jesus whipping away traders and money changers inside the temple. Here is the actual passage from the holy book.

Jesus driving our money changers from Temple

‘And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.’

I feel, one must use God and its associated places solely for the purpose of nature – spiritual, and not as a medium of propagating wealth, and not as medium for satisfying greed and selfish desires, not as a medium for business and trading, because immortality is not attained through these.

Thank You.

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The Beauty of Dharma.

Ananda was a disciple of Buddha. One day, when he was out for collecting alms, as was the tradition of the ancient Buddhist monks, he felt thirsty. He came across a well and found a girl standing nearby. He asked for water and the girl replied that how can she, a girl of peasant and low origin, give water to a holy monk. Ananda replied that he intended water and not the caste origins. The girl was delighted and fetched water for Ananda. She mistook the gesture of Ananda for love. The next day she went to the monastery in search of Ananda and came across Buddha. Buddha at once discerned the contents of her mind and asked her to sit nearby.

Buddha said, ‘You have acquired great merit by fetching water for Ananda. It is not the Ananda that you love but his kindness. It is not the external demeanor that you love but his inner dharma. By practicing this dharma, a man becomes more graceful, outshining the manners of kings and queens, because real beauty consists in dharma.’ Later, on hearing the discourse of Buddha, the girl shed all affections for Ananda and embraced Dharma.

Ananda and the peasant girl

Dharma is a tool, a universal path, based on karma, in relation to the reality of the world, to overcome all painful part in our lives, and ultimately leading to infinite peace (nirvana). By practicing Dharma, man grows in morality, ethics, peace, love and compassion, resulting in a graceful demeanor. All outside beauty pale in comparison with the beauty of inner dharma.

Understanding Dharma:

                The practice begins by staying connected with the present reality, the reality as mentioned in the four noble truths (1. the truth about suffering, 2. the cause of suffering, 3. cessation of suffering and, 4. the path leading to the cessation of suffering).

After comprehending the reality, the next step would be to refrain from karma that creates pain and suffering. This is done by mentally following the train of thought, leading to the series of chain of resulting actions, culminating in suffering, death, and consequential rebirth. By refraining from adverse karma, comes peace. With peace comes joy, a flow of happiness within.

Dharma is not always lingering on the suffering part, but a concrete, pragmatic transition to the practice part which brings peace and happiness.

Dharma and reality:

Dharma is to be aware of the present reality. To live in present reality, one must reject all hypothetical realities that the world offer. For example, television, social networking, and newspapers etc. make a man live in a hypothetical reality that doesn’t exist. It makes a man forget the present reality and ultimately forget himself. A man could have done some useful work instead of dwelling on a non-existent reality.

Hypothetical reality

Dharma and middle path:

Dharma is following the middle path. A man has to think right thoughts, do right actions, speak in a right way, live and work in a right way; only when these conditions are fulfilled, a man will be able to concentrate and meditate in a right way. Dharma is not refraining from work, but doing the right work leading to meditation.

Middle Path

Dharma is doing the right work. Right work refers to the action, 1. Which is free from violence, 2. Which is done with truthfulness 3. Which doesn’t’ covet the property of others, 4. Which retains self-control and 5. Which doesn’t create an attachment for objects.

Work done in this manner leads to meditation and peace.

Dharma and compassion:

                The highest ideal of dharma is not to relieve oneself of pain and suffering but relieve all beings from pain and suffering as well. As a result, man grows more in love and compassion for all beings. He sympathies, understands, helps and loves the suffering ones.

Dharma and India:

                A little practice of Dharma can bring great peace to a man, his neighborhood, his state and ultimately, the nation. Dharma formed the core principles of statehood in ancient India. We find Ashoka the great, propounding the principles in edicts throughout ancient India, laying the foundations for an empire based on peace and Dharma.

Edicts of Ashoka

The Ashoka Chakra still flows in our tri-color flag, which symbolizes peace and Dharma. It is not only etched in our flag, but etched in our minds forever. Therefore practice Dharma.

Thanks You.

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