The Secret of the Natural way

As a seed turns into a sapling, a sapling into a plant, a plant, into a tree

Buds to flowers, flowers to fruits, fruits to seeds,

So is the journey through our lives.

A divine soul not free in an animal body,

First come the desires, the urges, the nervous energy, the arrogance,

Then the actions to satiate them, fun at first, weary later on, as new and new urges are born, there seems no end,

Out of the weariness comes the stress, dissatisfaction, and the unrest that don’t let u sit any more.

Then comes the search, the search for the unknown, the unnamed, till the lights becomes the shapes.

And then, then when the disciple is ready, the master will come along.

This is the way of the soul, the journey to its destiny, where it belongs to.

Alas, no short cut, even with laying down the suit and taking up the monk robe prematurely. Till the partial satiation of the urges, the robe is no armour against them.

We all are beings of the same light, and to that light we all shall return. Unknown to us, we2 all are moving through the voyage, slowly and continuously, at different stages. You are not the same person, you were 20 years back. In hindu ‘Ashram’ system, the life is of four stages, ‘Brahmcharya’, ‘Grihastha’, ‘Vanprastha’, ‘Sanyas’. This is the same natural sequence of life and shows that even the very spiritually inclined hindu way of life, follows this natural way.

No need to worry, no gain of the hurry. Just stay on the  path, and all will happen in due course, just as surely as  the seed becomes the fruit. No need to run away from the world, it is very real and this world is the way though. One cannot cross the river by avoiding the water.

 Just the awareness of the journey will take you from the beginning to the end. Just the slightest awareness in the back of the mind, a reminder to self once in a while, that life is more that daily bread and butter, ‘will bring the most minor changes gradually in the thinking and the approach.

Slowly, step by step, gradually, in the natural way.

This is the Tao.

Tao of emptiness!- An empty cup can hold anything!

Each of us is filled with countless unspent possibilities.Each of us is gifted with a unique gifted mind, no lesser than any other.
Every mind is unique due to its special skill where it excels and gifted because any average human can attempt and accomplish learning any skill to an average level. Yes, I may not do everything in an extraordinary way, yet I can do everything to an average level and excel in some of them.
If this is true, why we fail or do not try.

Because we are  filled with fears of failure. We are fill of self-imposed limitations. Yes the only limitations we have are those we have put in. The questions come to ourself like, "How can I? I have never done it!" "I simply can't.This is not my thing. How can I play a  guitar? I am a mechanic."

Empty yourself of the above. Get rid of fear of failure and what others think, its immaterial. Accept  that you may fail the first few times. That is how everything is learnt.  Could you ever learn  bicycle, if you never fell, if you never tried due to this fear.

In the end you can  be anything you want to, a painter, writer, engineer, economist, histroian, social scientist, singer, anything just name and you can be all and yes together. Simultaneously you can be all, without being a Genius. Those we call genius were actually the people who knew the above pseudo-limitations. They were never afraid of failure.  Even Edison tried a particular  experiment in 300 ways without disappointment, because every failure made him nearer to success.

Forget your limitation, your self cross-questions, fears of  failures and peer. Throw all these phantoms into the trash and you will win in whatever you try.

Be empty of all fixed notions, be empty like a cup, because an empty cup can hold anything, while a filled cup can't receive a single drop.

This is the Tao of emptiness!

Tao of emptiness!

Bamboo is the strongest timber per unit weight, why? Answer- Emptiness
Bamboo is the most flexible amongst all trees and thereby survives the strongest storm, why? Answer- Emptiness
Bamboo makes the flute, the most melodious music, why? Answer- Emptiness

Bamboo is even regarded as the ideal behaviour model. As bamboo has upright, tenacity and hollow heart, people endow bamboo with integrity, elegance and plainness though it is not physically strong. Just as a bamboo is hollow-hearted, one should open his heart to accept anything of benefit and never have arrogance or prejudice.

Be empty like bamboo, bereft of all biases, fixed notions, self imposed limitations.  Leave the burden of past behind. Forget the  unfulfilled aspirations of next 30 years. Be in the present and do what comes your way with involvement, diligence and beauty. Even the journey to the ends of earth completes step by step. Every step counts. Remember the journey is more fruitful than the end.

Be natural, spontaneous, simple yet strong, plain yet deep. humble yet filled with divine music and wisdom.

Be empty, be like the bamboo.
This is the Tao of emptiness.

Tao of surrender.

मनवा  मेरे  तू  क्यों इतना  घबडाता ,

जब  तेरा  है  मालिक  भाग्यविधाता 

क्यूँ  चिंता  तुझे  कल - परसों  की ,

क्यूँ  प्लानिंग    है  तेरी  बरसों  की ,

जब  अंतर्मन  में  तू  भी  ज्ञाता ,

हर  कण  प्रभुइछा  से  ही हिल  पाता.

कल  क्या   होगा  परसों  क्या  ये  तो  पहले  से  ही  तय  है ,

किस  और  गिरेगा  पासा  इस  बार , ये  भी  अदि  से  निश्चय  है 

छोड़   दे   चिंता , छोड़   गणित ,

बस  विश्वास  तू  कर   अडिग , अमित 

मत  लड़ो  हवा  से , तैर  मत  विपरीत  बहाव 

ठहर  इक  पल  समझ  हवा   को  ,

उपयोग  करो   विपरीत  दशा  भी , यही  सिखाये  हमें  है  ताओ

Tao of the self!

आह जिसकी जुस्तजू आवारा रखती है तुझे ,

वो राह तू,  रहबर भी तू, राही भी तू, मंजिल भी तू.

Tao of total surrender

Manwa mere tuu kyun itna ghabdaata,

jab tera hai maalik bhaagyavidhaata

kyun chinta tujhe kal- parson ki,

kyun planninng hai teri barson ki,

jab antarman men tu bhee gyaata,

har kan prabhuichha se hil paata.

Kal kya hoga parson kya ye to pahle se hi tay hai,

kis or girega pasa is bar, ye bhi adi se nishchay hai

chhod  de  chinta, chhod  ganit,

bas vishwaas tu kar  adig, amit

mat lado hawa se, tair mat vipreet bahao

thahar ik pal samajh hawa ko,

upyog karo  vipreet sthiti bhee, yahi sikhaye hamen hai tao

Tao of forgiving!

Do not ignore a single quarrel, a single argument, one complaint, one grievance, as it all keeps adding up, one by one, silently, overloading your subconscious, till it becomes lethal.

All thoughts, experiences, all pass through the lane of the conscious and settle in the subconscious, forever.

Imagine, a town getting settled at the rate of our thoughts. Soon it will be exploding. Similarly, if not protected by the subconscious, the conscious would fuse, burn out.

Still, this transfer is not one way. What goes in, also keeps coming out, in form of dreams, memories etc. The recurrence is also in form of stress, panic, anxiety. This is the process of genesis and multiplication of stress and stress generated above problems which push the man sometimes to the limit of the chasm, and unfortunately sometimes beyond. .

The way to protect oneself from the above and thereby remain happy and calm a check-post needs to be put up, allowing any thought, memory etc only after they are received in a positive form. In other words, take every person and event in a positive way, take a broad view and forgive all. Even the small things.

Keep forgiving, keep forgetting, keep the garbage out.

Save yourself from the otherwise impending avalanche of pain, anxiety etc, the breakdown.

Whenever a bad memory comes up, take the above approach. Start this today and soon your life, moods, all will take the way upwards.

Do this and be all you want to be, all you can be, and all you are destined to be.

A troubled, loaded, worried mind can not climb a single step. Therefore, Unload your worries, lighten yourself, be calm, be happy and step on the path of Tao, because the Way of lightening is also the way of enlightening.

Forgive and be happy, live longer and better, grow spiritually. This is the tao of forgiving!

The spirit of water...

The spirit of water is the true tao

it flows spontaneously, where it meets the slope,

no inertia, no resistance, no momentum, all spontaneous,

the softest of all, offers no resistance yet cuts into the even the hardest,

the origin of all life, the three thousand beings,

water is the source of all life, supports all life, as is tao,

no colour of it own, takes the colour of all, yet the spirit of water retains,

no odour of its own, takes the odour of all, yet the spirit of water retains,

no flavour of its own, takes the flavour of all, yet the spirit of water retains,

listen to the poetry of the rain, the song of the waterfall, the music of the ocean, listen to what is tao,

dip your hand in the flow, close your eyes and feel , what is tao , rushing through your fingers,

see the rush of the river, and you see nothing but the tao,

water is the true spirit of tao, tao is the true spirit of water,

Understand the spirit of water and understand the spirit of tao

know the spirit of water and know the secret, know the spirit of tao.

Tao of Love: Second only to divinity.

Love is not an emotion. Its a big heap of different emotions, which are generally misunderstood for each other and the word Love is loosely used for the lot. These emotion range from affection, compassion, the higher magnitudes of empathy, strong friendship, to infatuation, obsession and finally platonic to some degrees of lust too.

Confusing one for other is a cause of severe pain in life, like understanding infatuation, or obsession so common in young age for love is a serious trouble. Similarly taking good friendship and companionship for love kills the friendship too.

Coming to infatuation, small doses in young age is OK and memorable. The higher the dose, and the higher the age, damage is more. Still higher the age, still higher dose, destruction follows.

Infatuation should be treated as such. Emotion impulse combined with hormonal kicks plus peer pressure, plus social temptations like valentine days, Cards, movies and serials and lots of things.

It feels good while it lasts, but then it wasn't meant to last longer. Enjoy when it is and cherish the sweeter part later on, taking it as infatuation only. No complications, move on. It was a part of growing up.

However, infatuations later on in life, should be viewed much much much more seriously. Stress of dailylife, lacunae in personal life, lack of companionship, no body to share too, again unsatified hormonal drives, un-exhausted early emotions cause the confusions in the mind, forming the rosy fog, where a lot but Love looks like Love and one is in a soup. Here it is not Love but a psychosomatic disorder. Alas, when the emotions are exhausted, the desires are part sated, sometimes one finds oneself chained. This scenario minus the commitment, minus the understanding, minus sacrifice but plus Ego goes “Kaboom!” In short this is what has happened to a many love marriages of college life. However situation is not beyond rescue, with some counselling, there is little that won't be fixed using a lot of commitment and sincere humble effort. About this situation more later on.

Coming back to Love, symptoms are a bit different. Symptoms may be a complete surrender, feeling no need to be somebody other than what one is, finding somebody you would love to get old with. This is Love, this is divine, this is the Juice of life, without which life is a drag, a burdensome routine. Never let anything any anything let ruin it, slip it away. Guard it with your life, this is your treasure.

Give your all, hold none, forget the spots, revel in the brightness, never back out for making amends, make every day a memorable day. This is the Tao, the Tao of Love.

Tao of stressless life

Road rage, people getting inflammed for a little money or for trivial matters. News full of these things, especially in a metro. Why is the world getting so crazy?

Sociologists, psychologists, politicians all go in different directions on these matter. What I see is the latent anger, latent stress piling up from home to office, from morning to evening, from office to home, the thunder cloud following everywhere. Life is getting complicated. Longer and longer distances to go, more and more factors to deal, more and more to interface with and time becoming less and less and less. Deadlines, targets, competition, job inscecurity, promotion, EMI, family, friends, relatives and what the heck even neighbours.

Do we really want to live in such a mad, mad, mad world, where you can get killed for a car scratch? Nobody does.

However, like everything else, the solution is far less complicated.

Where one sees a angry or irritable person , he sees the event the timely cause and the person responsible for the event etc. What I see is a troubled, fragmented, unfocussed, fatigued mind.

When one killed another for a car scratch, it wasn't a conscious decision, it was not a response. It was a reaction, when something gave away in a mind already at the tenterhooks. It was when primal instinct took control and reasoning collapsed. What is more and more alarming is the vast number of people living sooooo close to this abyss.

Coming to the solution, first get lots and lots and lots of sleep. Let the furnace of the brain cool down, let the repair team get to work. Remember, these problem alongwith the problem of lifestyle diseases started rising around fifteen years back, when something else also changed the lifestyle of indians. That was the arrival of Cable Television to India. It came and people stopped sleeping the full cycle of eight hours give or take one. Sleep this full cycle for two to three days and see the biig biig biig difference in the state of mind. Feel lighter, calmer, better and ready fro the day.

Full sleep of eight hours is also a sure remedy for high blood pressure.

Pranayam or any other activity that pumps lots of air into lungs helps a lot, since in daily rigmarole even the natural breathing is forgotten, starving the brain.

However a big but! A problem. People usually so close can't sleep even when they want. Again a simple remedy. When at bed to sleep, close the eyes, observe the incoming, outgoing breath and start counting it. Don't force deep breath etc. Just count as an observer. Mostly before you reach 50 you will be counting 'z's.

Do it at day time anytime, in office, in transit, anytime and the overclocking brain will cool down and get focussed in minutes.

Follow the above and life is calm, successful and maybe fun.