Warrior of Soul

Living a life at peace is a very simple and hard thing too. Peace is right here within in our heart. The moment we loose our place from the heart, and get into mind, the outside things come and bother. So always bring the mind into the heart.

That is where all these meditations and yoga help. They bring back attention to breath which comes from within between the chest in the heart and lungs. You are no more influenced by the changing external world like people’s moods, emotions, attitudes and actions. You will smile at everything that passes by.

The senses are always perceiving outside environment and giving feedback to Brain. The brain processes that information based on information inside, called “Experiences”. If an experience is not present, brain will create a new row in the database, based on a new animal instinct. And then it sends the signal back into the environment in form of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. This process is extremely fast and happens in a flash of a nano-second. If we keep reacting to every situation outside, we are to get tired one day, and this causes fatigue and we start falling apart. Because we have become too external, every change in the external environment effects us. And we all know very well, that, everything is changing every moment. So how can we depend on something that is changing and depend our life on it.

We humans have to be smart to let that information be gauged and not write any thing it wants in brain. That is where the weapon called “SOUL” comes in. Soul acts as a filter to what we are sending into us and how we respond to circumstances. Intially We have to be aware and quick in being watchful. But as we make this a habit of being aware, it becomes quite natural. Slowing down and watching, without any judgement helps a lot in this process. This non-judgemental attitude awakens the soul.

The strength of Soul is amazing, because it is a drop of Universal energy or so called Supreme consciousness that moves the whole universe and maintains the harmony. The Soul is made up of same material that holds the Earth in it’s proper place, that created Sun and that keeps the whole creation intact. Soul is Indestructible, untouchable and imperishable. It can act like a shield of a warrior, The way a warrior holds his shield and fights the war, same way we can hold our SOUL out there and deflect back any arrows and ammunition coming from all sides in form of Desires, Greed, jealousy and Anger (basically kama, krodha, lobha, moha, madha and maathscharyas), some arrows come from outside and some from within.

So my dears, awaken your SOUL. Build life on a strong foundation of Soul. It is the same soul that is in you, me and everyone around. So take advantage of that special skill Creation had given you, the most powerful shield called “SOUL”.
Many are fighting with the shields of Ego, Jealousy, Insecurity and Greed. Those shields do not live long, They perish within no time.
But the SOUL is self sustaining. It lived ages back, it is living now and it will live forever. You do not know how many births you have taken till now. You do not know how many births you will take in future. It is just like a tree creating a flower, fruit and then a seed within. Same with us. We are the fruits of this Universal tree. The body outside is the flesh of the fruit and will perish after some time, but the seed of us, the SOUL is ETERNAL. Soul, just like a seed of the tree, keeps going back to source and comes back again in different forms and ways. So use the Body of Fruit for giving service to others, just like plants and trees give us the delicacy of fruit and let the Soul liberate and go back to source.

But how do we elevate that soul, how do we bring that soul for our use. Well, It IS.
It is so close but so far.
The pranayama, art of living, meditations or any other way of Yoga has one and same goal. To bring back to center and awaken the soul and live with SOUL. This is rise of divinity. That is when we all become Gods or One with the Creation.

So my dears, practice pranayama, meditate every day for 30 minutes, find a nice Guru who can guide you, not in religion, but in spirit, in soul journey and embark on this beautiful journey called “Life on Earth”.

You might have traveled millions of light years, millions of planets, suns and moons and Earth is just another platform and you will catch another train from here and move to another universe soon. Before you board another train, walk around, wander around, look around the beauty of this planet, Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Sun and Moon. You are actually on a vacation on this planet. Our insane human brains do not realize that, because our mind is trapped in EGO and unending desires. Caught in the desires and Ego we are chasing a never ending dream of illusion and in that Illusion we laugh and cry. We do not have ever lasting happiness. But when we liberate the Mind from EGO and Desires, the Lotus like Soul opens up and everything is eternally beautiful and happy. It is very subtle process. It is so simple but so hard.
Dears, All you have to do is, just let go and enjoy your vacation. What do you do when you go on vacation? You do not look around and get bothered by other people’s attitudes, you are eager to discover more, you are eager to adventure more, you want to take another hike, may be go to another beach, go take pictures of the place, eat good food at some nice place and rest. This planet Earth is like that. We are on a nice vacation, we can make every day a beautiful holiday. There is only Joy in here. You, Me and Everyone in this world have the ability to make this vacation beautiful.

Breathe deep, focus on your center, in your heart, and bring out the Atman (Soul) in you, Make it the Mahatma, because you are one too, Dear. Peace is your nature and nature of everyone. Everyone is on this journey. They are all trying to figure out the world. But some are able to identify it earlier than many more living at a lower level of consciousness. Like in a school, different people are at different classes, different grades and ranks. By hard work they all evolve, we all evolve. It is a communion of souls. As kids we do not get affected by others ranks or attitudes in class. Right! Because we do not have our Ego affecting us. All the kids in the class want to play and have fun, First rank and last rank, does not matter.

Same with school called “Life”, we are all in different classes, some with better rank, some understanding things in a better and faster way and some of them taking time. But we all are here to graduate in some form or the other and evolve into better beings and take off from this planet to other horizons.

Live with Soul and Love with Soul. Enjoy every moment of your stay in this universe. Become a lamp in life, the light is very small, but serves a bigger purpose.
We are all Warriors of Soul.

Changeless Change

We all in our lives at some point or the other, look around and want some change in the situations, surroundings and people. Either we do not like the surroundings, OR the situations are too hard to deal with OR people whom we work with or live with, are not up to our expectations.

Wow! Right there is a key word “Expectations”. That is the core reason for wanting something to change, because there is a big gap between what we want and what we really see and perceive.

This more often happens with people around us, to be more specific with whom we live with or work with, because we spend most of our lifetime doing either of these two.
No two people in this universe are same. Each has their own brought up issues, environments, people and situations they have ran in to. Their experiences form a major part of their mental framework. Spiritually we are all same, but to understand humanity at that level takes quite a bit of evolution and to get there should be the purpose of life.

Anyways, when two people with completely different levels of experience come together, it is very hard to see them behaving the same way. So, the conflicts of opinions do come about ideologies, habits and approach towards life. This results in trying to work out a common ground for their co-existence. Obviously that needs a lot of adjustment from both sides. But how many of the people in this world are willing to accept that adjustment? Some do, and some do not.
The ones that do, continue to be associated, and the others, depart from each other.

This problem typically arises in a family (wife and husband, parents and kids), where one of them is not happy with the other’s habits, ways of life and approaches. In such scenarios, we want the other person to be better, or like us. This is where things can go wrong completely. In some situations where a wife is not clean in her habits, she does not keep her clothes properly, she does not clean the kitchen well, but the husband is a Mr.Clean and he does not accept that life style. Who is correct here? The wife who has always been used to living her life that way or Mr.Clean? Obviously from the little observation, we know, that it would be ideal if Wife changes and they work out something in common.

But in real life scenario how many wives and husbands are willing to change. Is it even acceptable to ask the other person to change? Mahatma Gandhi, like many other greatest philosophers, saints and Humanitarians, mentioned once “You must be the change you wish to see in the world”. Yes, that is a very non-violent and peaceful approach to the world and family problems.
In a situation like the above one, there are only 2 possibilities:
The parties involved, can continue living or working together and Accept each other the way they are.
Or they call it quits and move on with their own lives.

The first option is probably the best if there is not a very big gap between the habits and ways of life. But again neither one of them can influence each other by asking them to change. You accept the person the way he or she is and keep giving Love and Care the same way, immaterial of any change in the other person.

People change when they really feel like changing from inside OR some strong event triggers the change from within. When they decide to change, they will change. Trying to change some one by preaching, instructing and pestering will never ever bring change in people. In fact, change in people who are stuck in habits that are detrimental to their life, is possible, only by Acceptance.
Especially in case of people who are addicted to dangerous ways of living like, alcoholism, drugs, psychological issues or any other ways of life, change comes only in sharing, caring and acceptance. Acceptance of the people as they are, with a cheerful smile, with welcoming arms, no matter who they are, no matter what they do, Blind and Unbiased Acceptance is the only solution.

Acceptance can actually bring a potential change, because, every human has some thing deeper in them called “Consciousness”. That conscience knows what is correct and what is not. People get in touch with that consciousness, only in silence. When we are complaining about the people, it is causing more and more turbulence within the person complaining and also the target.
But, Acceptance of people the way they are, creates a sense of peace inside. It generates a beautiful feeling of being loved. In that silence the other person actually gets to go deeper and love him/her again for what they are.

Once Dr. Wayne Dyer, a spiritual seeker and healer, shared a personal experience. His daughter was going through a serious drug addiction, he tried taking her to many psychiatrists, healers, saints and rehabilitation centers, but none of them brought any change in her. He was almost tired of the whole process. Here we have a person who is transforming lives of millions of people all across the world, and his own daughter going through the addictions. He could do nothing about it.
One day she told her Dad,
“Dad, I will change when I want to and when I feel like. I know what I am doing is wrong, but I have to make that decision”. So she knew inside her.
After a point, he just let go the whole situation and started accepting her the way she is. He never questioned her, lectured her nor took her any where for counseling. She kept loving her without any expectations. And one day she changed, she stopped it all.

We all think we have to change people around and we develop attachment towards them and we want them to be so called “PERFECT” beings. We are all perfect in our own ways. We all have impurities and filth in us in our own ways. Everything is very relative in this world. Good and Bad are relative terms. Read my article “Theory of relativity” to delve deeper into this issue.

Most of the people go through agony and say, “She/he is not changing, Oh God, Help me to change that person, or situations”, just an emotional and anxious reaction to perception of how things are. Rather, a gentle approach is to let the person be the way, because each person is different to start with, and some are totally different to the extent that even gentle approach is hard, In such cases call it quits. But none of the trauma, pain, and lectures asking the other person to change is going to do any good.

Like some one said, “Change is the only constant thing in this world”. So everything and everyone changes forms, attitudes and behaviors. But do we have patience, time and ability to accept the situations and people as they are during the period of turbulence. There is no prescribed formula for anything in this world. Acceptance of situations, people and circumstances is the key to peace.
As discussed earlier, In any given circumstance and at any moment of time, we have two choices, we can either move on to another state or remain in the same state, but learn to completely accept and be in harmony with the situations and people around.

The assumption, that we have control over issues outside us, is a MYTH. Anything we can do is only inside. All of us in this world, look and yearn for Acceptance, by people and world around, Of course ultimately we realize that accepting ourselves to begin with, is the key, because universe is constantly changing. Accept yourself and let other person Accept themselves.

Definitely, this article is not intended to change anyone, just a few perceptions :-)

Theory of Relativity

Societies form, they thrive and they flourish for a while and then the degeneration takes place. Past is a period of degeneration from which the seeds of future sprout to grow into a new tree of society. During this process of regeneration, there is something interesting happens which we do not care to give importance to. There is always a change in the way we look at terms called Good and Bad. The Good of Today is Bad of tomorrow and the Bad of Today is Good of tomorrow.

We can analyze certain traits of day to day lives and compare it way back to half a century from now and then correlate to see that certain things that were considered Evil at that time are taken for granted and certain things that were pretty common at that time are considered inhuman and come under the Criminal Jurisdiction today. For these variations between certain periods of time we frame a word called "Generation Gap" and Kids keep blaming parents for valuably invaluable customs and traditions and Elders keep saying that Kids are totally spoilt based on the trend and changes in the Society. But there are very few sensible and critical thinkers who feel that changes in Society are pretty common and that we need to go with the change. Change is the Law of Nature.

Yes, it is and we have a tough time facing and accepting that change. With this change, the definitions of Good and Bad keep changing too. The way we dress changed, the way we work changed, the way we travel changed. We become so attached to the deeply rooted traditions and customs that we do not want to be moved from the so-called normal trend. We tend to forget that even the Mother Nature follows the same pattern. The branches and stems of culture outside are happily branching out with new leaves and blooms every year with a greater and greater energy. Probably some one would say that well the roots are the same, so why change? But the roots that we do not see with our eyes also keep forming new and tertiary roots for the existence, They do not depend on the one and only same root, they take the best from the original root and keep going forward to explore and discover new arenas of earth and give more strength to the existing tree to bloom better and better than ever. If a tree can do that, how different are we from being part of nature. People build a wall of Ignorance around themselves and blind folded run in the darkness of their mental weakness and use the culture to defend and cover themselves against the mistakes they do in their day-to-day lives. In this process we keep coining phrases called Good and Bad.

A few more thoughts to prove this, Women was never considered to work outside the house in 18th century. If someone did that, they were called revolutionaries at that time. But today it is the way of life. In the past Man was the only one to earn bread and butter for the family. But today, every Guy wants to marry women who would get a paycheck home to add to the luxury of life and it is perfectly normal. But the same thing a century back was considered Bad. We people wait for some one to change first and then follow. And the people who begin the process become revolutionary leaders, social reformers or anti social elements some times.

Let's take a view about Love marriages vs. Arranged marriages. Love!! What is that? Did it exist in the past or is it new HiTech term we coined in the process of Industrial and IT revolution recently. Go talk to your grandparents and you are sure to listen a comment "In our days, we used to listen to what parents said, their word was the law for us, that is why we did not have any marriage break ups at our time." There was no term like "Love marriage" in the past, but today, yes it is a way of life. So in this race of Globalized Economy and world, which culture is the best, who is right, Is an arranged marriage performed in an Asian Culture good or a Love marriage performed in a Western culture.

Well, today we are so busy that we do not even have time to pause for a second and think to see if there is truth and reality in what others say. We frame our thoughts, ideologies and anything against those is considered Bad and anyone who is with it is Good. We tend to forget that what is good for me in a certain circumstance might be bad for the other person and vice versa. We never take a deeper look and say what was the circumstance, the dynamics of changes in the society and the causes of those events. As long as we keep doing that we will keep listening to the word "Generation Gap", more and more.

We keep living in the state of ignorance and keep framing rules for useless things and keep wasting time, instead of thinking for a second, what difference am I making in my day to day life for the benefit of the people living around me. We keep wasting time and arguing about what is Good and Bad. If we all could one day stop this Relative comparisons and tagging every act of ours "Good" and calling the acts of others "Bad" for a selfish/ego reasons, we will have a better world to live. Don't we feel at the end that these two are the terms that we coined for our selfish expression and exploitation of invincible aspect of nature, the TIME.

Yes, Einstein came up with the greatest theory one could have ever come up in the Scientific, Philosophical and Social arena. Everything in this world is quite relative. As Einstein himself quoted once about the Theory of Relativity "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."