Dance away your stress

Dance away your stress: You are carrying a bomb inside you if you are repeatedly stressed. The way to go is to kill it before it kills you. Instead of getting involved into the madness of your confusion that has caused your stress, you should try to get out of it, either by learning to ignore it or by finding a solution.  Peter Bregman, in his book, The Best Way to Diffuse Your Stress, says you better “think of stress as a monster who lives in your body and feeds on ’uncertainty’. The monster’s most satisfying meal starts with, What will happen if ...? What will happen if one of the projects I am working on runs into objections? And the like. No normal human being can be stress free. Some conquer the ‘monster’, others fail to do so and fall a victim. If one gets cool-headed, much of  the stress factors keep away. Stress is like a parasite and attacks the weakest of minds. Confusion is let loose and a world of darkness seems to be enveloping one. When you say try to forget your stress as one of the ways to be free of it, it means that you learn to live with it but don’t try to be overly conscious of it. You will see, in no time, it has gone out of your being. Its best opportunity comes when you keep yourself ‘busy’ with it and doing nothing else. Bregman says one need not try to manage one’s stress. Instead, try to dance with it. The monster will ease out.  But this kind of ‘solution’ can’t be exercised by everyone. The best way, for most of us, is to use logic to see why you are stressed and why it is clinging to you like a parasite. If we understand this much, then we will understand that we have been worrying over nothing. And you will soon be a free bird. Still not convinced‘? Take this from the great Buddhist philosopher monk, Santideva, “If the problem can be solved, why worry? If the problem can’t be solved, worrying will do you no good.”

Beauty is all within

Beauty is all within: There is an immediate response to what is beautiful and what is not. We respond to pleasure and pain and we put our feelings immediately into words. To understand what beauty is, and to have that sense of goodness which comes when the mind and heart are in communion with something beautiful, has great significance; and until we know this response to beauty, our lives will be very shallow. One may be surrounded by the great beauty of mountains and fields and rivers, but unless one is alive to it all, there is no use. What is beauty? Cleanliness, tidiness of dress, a smile, a graceful gesture, the rhythm of walking, a flower in your hair, good manners, clarity of speech, thoughtfulness, being considerate of others, that includes punctuality, all this is part of beauty  And there is what we call ‘inner beauty’. There is beauty of form, of design, beauty of materialism. You may be fair and have a beautiful face, good features, you may dress with good taste and have polished manners, you may draw and paint well, or write well, but without inward sense of goodness, all the other external factors lead to a very superficial life - a life without much significance.  It is inward beauty that gives grace, an exquisite gentleness to outward form and movement. This is what really counts. To help you discover what is inward beauty is one of the functions of right education.  Can a shallow mind appreciate beauty? It may talk about beauty but can it experience this welling up of immense joy upon looking at something that is really lovely?  When the mind is merely concerned with itself and its own activities, it is incapable of knowing what beauty is. But a mind that is not concerned with itself, and is free of any kind of ambition, always flowers in goodness.  When there is inward goodness, the face is transformed, for inward goodness is a deeply spiritual feeling that makes one glow.    

Give your worries to God

Give your worries to God: A thief enters your house and you manage to catch him. What do you do with him? You are not allowed to punish him; you have to hand him over to the police. Another story: A tiger has begun to prowl around a village. What are the options for the villagers? Can they handle the situation by themselves?  Most probably, they will alert the wildlife authorities who could handle it as we can’t on our own.  Similarly, worrying is a very serious problem, which we are unable to handle and suffer greatly. Who can we give our worries to? The answer is: to God.  Many questions arise. Can we do this? Will God accept them? What will God do with them?  The answer to the first question is that we can do so even though it is not the same. A  thing as tackling a problem, which we are supposed to do on our own. We can only seek God’s help in that, not entrust it to Him. Worrying is seriously dangerous when we don’t act but keep on getting obsessed by some problem, real or imagined.  The answer to the next question is: God will accept our worries if we are His devotees. God have promised such help in various holy books. Yes, we have to qualify for such a favour, which is not too difficult. God does not wish us to worry. He says that using the mind for worrying is being an enemy of the self. And the answer to the last question is simple: God is all-powerful; He can handle what no one can. If we cannot handle a problem, we have to give it to someone who can. Shouldn’t we do so if we wish to be freed from worries? But of course, you have to complete faith in the power of God and His willingness to save you from any kind of harm arising from a real or imaginary source. That is why we say: God bless you!

Your destiny is your own to seize

Your destiny is your own to seize: Whatever happens to you in life is for your good. If you analyse, you will find God's grace hidden even in cruel and difiicult situations. This is why the wise thank God while facing problems and take them as His blessings. Without doubting his decision, they accept every happening and move on with it. The Lord has placed you exactly where you should have been. You need to be there to balance some Karma or to grow yourself. If you pass successfully through that situation, you will find yourself elevated to a higher position. Nothing happens by chance. There is a cause for everything. Each problem is a way to your progress. You should keep yourself balanced under all circumstances of gain or loss, success or failure and respect or disrespect. Nothing is as important as your reaction to it. The world is neither good nor bad; it depends on how you look at it. Whatever is inside you appears outside too. Analyse yourself, speak less and to the point, which protects your mental energy.  According to the law of attraction, whatever you doubt or are afraid of is attracted towards you. Be sure there is nothing in this world which you are scared of. Whatever you are scared of, face them squarely with the belief that nothing can harm you; face them till the fear for them is eradicated completely. A real mishappening is never so fearful as the thought or imagination about it. The psychology of such things affects only the weaker minds.  One should not have the thought of comparison since none is either better or worse than you; all souls are created equal. On awakening the dormant energies within by achieving oneness with the Lord, one can share the infinite energies of the Lord. As soon as your level of consciousness rises up, the hold of destiny on you loosens. This is why spiritual people are not afraid of fate or destiny. Situations of the world no longer affect them.

The tree of life

The tree of life: Several years ago, I planted a bottlebrush tree in my garden. My love for the tree is inexorably linked with its deep vermillion flowers which have been the show-stoppers in my arrangement in the living room every morning. However, much to my may, this winter I noticed that for the first time the tree had shed all its leaves and the branches too were drying up. Soon, all that remained was an unsightly trunk jutting out of the earth. The gardener pronounced the tree ‘dead’ and made arrange ments to have it uprooted. I refused. Finally, we reached a compromise to just cut off the top and leave the stump as a garden seat.  While pottering around the garden last week, to my pleasant surprise, I noticed green shoots sprouting from  the side of the stump. Nature resurges against all odds. Now, as I sit watching my tree slowly coming back to life, I cannot help but wonder if it is a metaphor for life and how it applies to the way we see the world. We too, like the gardener, are unable to see the ‘life-force’ that exists in the things around us. While all of us had given up on the ‘dead’ tree, invisible to the naked eye, was the life in it that hadn’t. The example of the tree is a lesson for us not to live fatuously and allow a few extenuating circumstances to deter us from looking at our own inner magnificence and resilience. Look at it this way, did the ‘life’ in the tree give up because of one harsh winter? Did it give up when it was reduced to a mere stump? With a similar resolve can’t we too bounce back from every adversity and celebrate the triumph of our grit over the odds of destiny?  To face the adversities of life we need to push through our fears and limiting beliefs and engineer a positive mind-set that should constantly remind us that ‘this too shall pass’ and that good times are around the corner.

The power of kindness

The power of kindness: The power of kindness is the greatest power in the world for winning the hearts of the people, their affection and friendship. In Islam, it is said that one day the angels of heaven asked God: “O God, is there anything in the world stronger than rock? Yes, God replied, “Iron is stronger, for it breaks rock, ” “Is there anything stronger than iron?” “ Yes, fire, for it melts iron.” “And is there anything stronger than fire?”  “Water, for it quenches fire.” And what is stronger than water? “Wind, for it can move the waves.” “And is there anything stronger than wind?” “Yes, a kind heart that gives alms to the poor in secret, not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing.”  In the Ramayana, it is said there is nothing difficult to achieve in this world for those who have other’s interest in heart. In the Gita, the Lord says, “Who is free from malice towards all beings and who is kind and friendly to all is very dear to Me.” Once I was travelling from a nearby village of Vellore to Chennai. It was a remote place, and was raining. My driver lost the way. He saw a man standing near a bus stand waiting for the bus. He stopped the car and asked him the correct route to Chennai. The moment the man tried to explain, the bus arrived. The man did not board the bus and started explaining. After the explanation, I thanked him and asked why he missed the bus. He smiled and said that it was his duty and he was feeling satisfied and would catch the next bus within an hour. We introduced each other and exchanged our contact numbers. I waited for him till he boarded the next bus. The next morning I received a call from him saying that the bus he missed had met with an accident. Who had said that if you serve the universe, the universe will serve you?

Conquer the self within

Conquer the self within: We have a treasure house of divinity within us. Hidden deep within the soul of every human being is divine wisdom, immortality, love, light, peace, and bliss. Rather than engage in conquest over others, we should engage in our own internal conquest to gain mastery over our own-selves. By doing so, we can find a haven of peace andhappiness within us. Bringing about peace among people requires a subtle yet profound shift in the way we approach conflict. Those in conflict need to move from self-serving positions based on material possessions to shared interests based on honour and spiritual values. Meditation can help us realise these noble values.When we come in contact with the spiritual reality within, we realise that the measure of our worth is not our outer territories and riches, but all the good we have done in this world. If you want to take the measure of a human being, its not the size of one’s head, but the width and breadth of one’s compassionate heart.What matters is not how much food we can amass at the expense of others, but how many mouths we can feed. What matters is not how much money we can gain from others, but how much we spend toward helping those in need. What matters is not how much land we can take from others, but how many homes for the homeless we can provide.What matters is not how much power we can seize from others, but how we can empower others to achieve their true purpose in life. What matters is not how many people worship us, but how many people we can love and respect.If we spend time in meditation on the inner light and sound of God, and if we commit to performing acts of self less service, we will find that, in this millennium, zones of conflict will be transformedinto zones of peace and love. Act now and be in peace and happiness.