Me, My Guru - on On being part of the Society and Social responsibilities!

Contd....

Me, My Guru - on On being part of the Society and Social responsibilities!

So saying he became silent lost in thoughts. Both he and King sat on a rock there that over looked the entire kingdom. It was dark already and the entire kingdom was lit. It looked beautiful and prosperous. Sounds from various quarters talked about the joys and merriment of the entire kingdom. But King and his minister were sad.

“How serious do you think is the situation?” asked the King.

“If and enemy attacks now, each of our subject would think of saving only his skin and possessions and not want to sacrifice or fight for the Nation. They would either flee the country in search of better pastures or sell themselves to the enemy. They would think only of themselves. That grave is this situation – thanks to this mindset” minister replied in choked voice. King was totally shaken and felt to the ground. What he thought was reason for celebration and culmination of his hard-wok ended up being reason for pain and loss. His entire life seemed wasted.

“Where did I go wrong?” he asked when he collected his senses a bit.

“All through you concentrated on the development of Infra-structure and giving prosperity, comforts and benefits to your people. You forgot to ‘educate’ them about their responsibility towards the Nation. You gave them excellent opportunities for individual to prosper and grow rich. But you assumed their character would grow along with riches. You gave them their rights and didn’t teach them their role in Nation-building. In a family of say 4-5, each contributes as per his mite and thus shares responsibility of the family and in upkeep of that unit as they enjoy the privileges of staying together as a unit. One cooks, other earns, one cleans other shares the responsibility of bringing in spirituality into that family. Yet, they all consider themselves as ‘part of family’ and so contribute their share of work and responsibilities.

Nation is a bigger family. If it is not understood or seen that way then why would I keep its road clean? Why would I feel responsible towards its share of work?”

The King sat head bent and night darkened further” our Guru completed this story. But even as she was telling this story we more or less got our answer and few of us felt a bit ashamed.

Contd....

one more mile-stone crossed!

We have crossed one more mile-stone of having crossed 1.5L hits today!

Way to go....that's quite a good news!

Why, i found quotes of what i wanted to say of reading...so read along and find out why this is good news!

Me, My Guru - On being part of society and social responsibilities!

Contd.....

Me, My Guru - On being part of society and social responsibilities!

“Because each one wanted to save his ‘glass of milk’ and thought ‘since all others were anyhow going to pour glass of milk, no one would notice if I pour one glass of water. It wouldn’t matter much. I mean, after all, how much difference would one glass of water make?’ and each ended up thinking so and doing so. The result is for you to see!” explained wise-minister.

The King was sadly disappointed and was lost in thoughts for sometime and then asked “But each one is prosperous and I am giving all facilities A-grade. Then why are they not able to give even one glass of milk to State?”

The King was obviously heart-broken was equally confused. He couldn’t understand his citizens. He felt at loss. But the minister came to his aid and replied “Giving to State has got nothing to do with material riches that person possesses. It has got to do with ‘identity’. Does he ‘identify’ himself as ‘a part of his Nation’ or as a benefactor of his Nation ONLY.

One who owns up responsibility of Nation is one who believes he is part of Nation. It is him who says “ask not what your country has given you; ask what you have given to the Nation’. But the one who doesn’t think ‘he is Nation’ wants to use Nation for his benefit but doesn’t realize ‘Nation’ doesn’t have an ‘Identity’ of its own. Its people maketh ‘A Nation’ what it is! But alas! When a person thinks only of himself or only his family as his own, then he would suffer with anything and everything that has to do with his ‘doing for the Nation’”.

Contd....

https://kantipadam.blogspot.in/search?q=giving+back+to+society

Me, My Guru - On being part of society and social responsibilities

Me, My Guru - On being part of society and social responsibilities

Contd.....

I didn’t like Rahul one bit. There was no taunt in his voice and yet.....his question hit me hard – maybe because it was true in some way. And I hated him for pointing that to me. But years later I was to accept this fact and work on it. But for now I concentrated only on her answer.

“In a certain country all were prosperous and there was no crime committed. Produce was good. People were healthy and celebrated life. King was content and said aloud one day “now my kingdom has reached the ‘target – stage’ of prosperity and safety. Now I can be content and relaxed” to which his able minister replied “I doubt about its safety sir. It is prosperous is obvious. But I am sure it is at a very dangerous place of its people being too complacent towards their social responsibility and that for any country is very bad”.

The king was bit irritated and so retorted “how can you say so? Either apologise or prove” to which our intelligent minister replied “Give me an opportunity to prove my point. Just make an announcement that everyone should put just ‘one glass of milk’ in our city’s ‘central tank’ before sunset tomorrow”.

What would be proved by this announcement” asked King out of curiosity. “I’ll explain tomorrow” replied the minister.

Next day after sunset King along with his minister went to the tank. There he was surprised to see it filled with water. He was expecting it to be filled with ‘milk’ but he was surprised that his announcement wasn’t taken seriously. Then his minister explained “Sir, each one of the citizen did follow your order but instead of milk they filled it with water, that’s all!”

“But why?” asked the King confused.

Contd.....

related topics : https://kantipadam.blogspot.in/search?q=selfishness

Me, my Guru – On being part of Society and social responsibilities!

Me, my Guru – On being part of Society and social responsibilities!

Today, we were sitting under the tree listening to her. Everytime we did this, we lived an ‘old-age way of learning’ that of being at ‘Gurukul’. Maybe, this was the reason Rabindranath Tagore conceived the idea of learning under the trees of his school – Shanthi Niketan. Learning seemed less laborious and happened more effortlessly under the trees – oh! For the charm of trees! If only all our ‘education happened not in concrete classrooms but in Nature’...just this thought brought a smile on my lips. Someone should think of such an Institution soon. How much more would children learn and in what fun way! I thanked our Guru for having this tree under which we enjoyed these sessions. Yes, we had to travel a bit more as her place was a little on the periphery of the city – but O! The travel was worth it once we reached it! Maybe it was the informality of this setting that someone asked a question that wasn’t related to religion or spirituality!

“Guruji, we middle-class people end up paying taxed and the rich and powerful get away with various tricks. Why should Government take away my hard-earned money and it instead of benefiting me goes to corrupt politician’s pockets? It is not just. I feel so frustrated when ever I’ve to pay any tax. I know this tax money goes to build the Nation but yet....”

I silently thanked that guy for asking this question. It was something that I wanted to ask but didn’t. When I shared this with our group later during the day Rahul asked “Why didn’t you ask? You are ok to receive the benefit of an answer when the other asks but you don’t want ‘her’ to know that you too feel the same way – why? Are you protecting your image or is it that you know that it is your greed that is the cause of this anger in you?”

Contd.....

This is in ref to http://kantipadam.blogspot.in/2017/11/me-my-guru-on-being-part-of-society-and_29.html?showComment=1511959850018#c1403824903570287312

Tip to understand stories....

Please Note: This series has stories that mean and explain a lot. They are like onions. The more you peel, the more you get. Think, think and think on them. You’ll go from the gross to the finest of understanding. It’s a beautiful journey and you can experience its joy and benefit only if you ‘attempt’ and ‘work’ on these stories ‘n’ number of times. Dust the laziness off your mind and get it to do some ‘real’ thinking.  And more the people contribute to its understanding, wider is your perception. Each person sees and understands from his experience and his perception which is bye the way never complete view. It is also true but not ONLY truth or understanding! You are right and at the same time OTHERS can also be right - you would see it happen here more number of times and that can really widen your acceptance levels and lower your anger and related emotions......

participate in this exercise and see for yourself....

Even those who don't have courage to give there comments here, still please do this exercise to benefit from it....

Me, my Guru – Stories and All! – Clean the House!

Me, my Guru – Stories and All! 

 Clean the House!

The day’s lecture was over. Students went to their Guru, saluted him and took his leave.

A student saluted and asked “Guruji, my problems don’t seem to go away. Can you give me the solution?”

The Guru replied “Clean the house”

That student stared at the Guru and left in a huff.

A woman was standing behind that man. She too listened to this conversation. She came forward, prostrated in front of her Guru and left with a smile on her lips.

Me, My Guru – Stories and all! - The horse doesn't let me!

The horse doesn’t let me!

An old man was sitting under the tree relaxed. A horse man came hurrying and stood near him.

“You look tired. Get down and have these fruits and something to drink” offered the old man.

“I can’t, the horse may start galloping at any moment”.

Me, My Guru – Stories and all! - But there is no bridge!

But, there is no bridge!

A man was standing staring at the water that was flowing. A dog cam along, jumped across and left. He stood staring at the water. Few children came there laughing, running, playing. They saw the water flowing, jumped across and went away. The man stood staring.

An old woman who was watching him came near and asked “Why are you standing here since long?”

“I need to go to the other side” he replied.

“Then go” she said.

“How can I? There is no bridge!” he replied!

Me, My Guru – Stories and all! - and it rained!

And it rained!

It was long awaited monsoon month. It rained! The farmers danced with joy and the entire village thanked and praised ‘Rain God. And it rained!

People were caught up in traffic due to rains. They cursed rains and it rained....

Old dilapidated houses collapsed and its inmates died. And it rained..

Children came out and played and ....

It rained.........

{P.S : You are expected to give your insights on stories of this series - }

Me, My Guru – Stories and all! - and it stood!

And it stood!

The tree stood. It stood in the middle of the village spreading its branches. Villagers would gather under the tree to chit-chat, share their stories and relax. Birds built their nests and it was bustling with their noises. It protected them from wind, rains and gave them shade, fruits, flowers and breeze that soothed their tired body and mind.

Come autumn and the tree shed its leaves. It stood – bare. No birds on the tree. No one stopped by the tree. And yet it stood.

Spring came and with it the glory of the tree. Birds came back. So did the village-folk. And the tree – well, it stood!

{P.S : You are expected to give your insights on stories of this series - }

Me, My Guru - Stories and all! - The dog on the road!

Contd.....

The dog on the road!

This whole commotion tired them. Each found a place with shade to rest. Couple of birds and squirrels kept running on the ground. Dog lifted its head and kept an eye on them. No, they didn’t need to be barked at. It was enough to be watchful of them. He was alert and his eyes darted in their direction. Some time passed and suddenly a garbage trunk entered the lane. Time to work! It got up swiftly and ran towards it barking at the top of his voice. He caught up with the truck sooner than he had calculated and he was elated. Excitedly he barked non-stop now. His comrades joined him and they all followed the garbage trunk barking at it – continuously! They followed the garbage truck till the end of lane religiously and when it turned into other lane, they stopped in their tracks. They knew they couldn’t take chance, so waited at the end of road barking. And when they were sure that the garbage truck had gone for good, they dropped their ‘attack mode’ and silently, slowly as they were wee bit tired of all the running and barking. And when they stopped to catch a breath, they remembered something and sniffed the ground. All was well!

Yeah, now they traced their steps back. The dog was just half way when he saw couple of boys riding a motorcycle. He ran at them barking. Frightened, they raised the speed. He followed them barking. The pillion rider kept ‘shooing’ the dog and they heaved a sigh of relief when they crossed that lane and the dog stopped following them. Motorcycles were very common in that lane and our dog didn’t bark at each one of them. Neither did he follow them. Neither did he follow them. But, to an onlooker it seemed he barked at ‘some’ motorcycle for no rhyme or reason. No one knew why he targeted whom he did! No one bothered to find out! Dog didn’t find reason to explain to anyone either. He had his reasons to single out few ‘souls’ to bark at! I mean what is he supposed to do if not bark?

No one could find fault with the sincerity with which he barked. He never took an off.  He never went on vacation!

Half way through the day, with all the running and barking done it walked slowly towards the need tree. It lied down with head resting on its front legs. This way it could keep on eye on the road. Now and then its eyes closed but within few minutes it would get up with a jerk. No, not yet. As if to remind itself and others that I was

awake, it barked couple of times. Now no one would think it was asleep. Just a short powernap...but, oh no, dogs were barking. It was up on its feet in a jiffy. It joined others in barking not knowing exactly why it was. It surveyed the place and few minutes later it knew the reason for commotion. A stray dog had entered their area. Now aware of purpose it barked full-throat and stood along with its gang and walked menacingly at the stray dog. Even it barked at them. The exchange happened for sometime and being outnumbered the new entrant left the lane. All dogs went their way once they made sure that it had completely left the lane. They stood at the end of the lane for few minutes before being assured of that!

Our dog went to its spot and sat down. Very soon it would be night and it had to follow tail lamps of passing vehicles. It was really dangerous but was there a way out?

Well, past mid-night and still it was kept busy barking by these passing vehicles! It put its head to rest finally thinking “Tomorrow would be a hectic day!”.

concluded........

Me, My Guru - Stories and all! - The dog barks!

Me, My Guru - Stories and all! - The dog barks!

A dog on the road!

Our dog got up early  as usual. He had his fill in the garbage trash. He was done for the day – well almost done! He walked along the path sniffing the ground. This was his daily routine. We would go around sniffing the entire lane. He never liked to be disturbed during this routine. He had to take a break from his ‘holy duty’ to bark at the ‘diversion’. Thank-fully, today was no such day! God! Was he glad! He looked above and kept looking at the clouds. It was as if he was silently thanking the God up there for giving ‘no diversion’ during his routine. Now, his body relaxed and without any hurry in his sway he walked slowly towards the peepul tree to lie down under its shade. Not that he was lazy but he was disciplined and loved to follow his daily regime (routine). But, he was ever alert to every sound and opened his eyes to check if every thing was fine in his lane. When he felt sure of the same, he closed his eye for a short nap. But dutiful that he was, he couldn’t close his eyes for more than few minutes.

Half an hour since the time he came to lie under the tree and yet it seemed like ages. He got and stood wagging his tail. He felt uneasy and he was right! There was an elephant walking towards him. He started barking at the top of his voice. He wouldn’t let elephant have his way! The elephant kept walking. Dog came forward few steps and started barking. Hearing him bark, his gang of friends joined him from nowhere and together they barked their lungs out. And elephant kept walking. It walked past them. Its trunk swaying from side to side and with no change in its stride, it kept walking. As it came nearer, dogs took two steps back but didn’t stop barking. Elephant passed them. It didn’t turn to see them. It just kept walking! It passed them and walked few blocks away from them. And so dogs kept barking! It was as if they were competing with each other in barking. The elephant was out of sight. And then suddenly became silent and went their way.

contd.....

Me, My Guru - Stories and all! - The dog barks!

The dog barks!

The dog barks. He gets up, walks, barks.

He stretches, barks.

He runs, barks.

The dog barks!

{P.S : You are expected to give your insights on stories of this series - }

congrats!

We already have crossed '225' mark which was second highest number of posts in a year till date...and this year already has become second highest number of posts in a year of our Blog with '246' posts already...kudos to that!

Question time again!

Answer this question ASAP for me :

".....We want happy people around, luxury living,  open minded people around etc in life. But sometimes we don't get that. 

Now coming to me ... I have few standards , expectations from myself n my life thinking I deserve all that. But as of now I am enjoying little of what I expect.

Why are we surrounded with certain type of PPL. 

Why don't we get what all we or I desire for.

How do I make myself worthy......."

Don't try to answer as i would or give answer that i want to listen....tell what you think and how you would answer it.......

Me, My Guru – Stories and all! - But he isn’t taking me where I want to go!

Me, My Guru – Stories and all!

P.S: This series will have only short stories, sayings or few statements. It is up to you to come up with their moral, your opinions, your understanding, areas where you have applied (if already done), where you can and how to benefit with those applications. And please share them here. 

Your queries have been answered in them. All the best! 

But he isn’t taking me where I want to go!

An old woman heard a man curse his horse continuously.

“Why are you angry at your horse?” she asked

“Because he isn’t taking me where I want to go”.

{P.S : You are expected to give your insights on stories of this series - }

on query

on query on saligramam

contd........

I’ve told many times not to ask questions related to astrology, numerology or pooja procedures as they are not my area of expertise. I don’t do job of ‘Google’ – of collecting data from all and sundry and giving you that! I talk only out of experience and wisdom drawn from it. What I haven’t practiced or experienced, I don’t talk about.

I don’t use predictive science because they are limited and based only on our past karma. What’s the use of knowing that I am going to fall today if I can’t change it? Instead of following some procedure stated by some one I would rather use procedures that help me to heal them from the root of my karma which is my attitude and thereby desire to change my fate thus!

So, ‘changing myself’ gives me far reaching results and hence I would do only such procedures. Hence, I didn’t get inclination to use procedures that would give me ‘material benefit’.

So I repeat, don’t ask me procedures to do any ‘pooja procedures’. Ask people who call themselves experts in it!

Saligramam is a ‘special stone’ found exclusively in River Gadaki of Nepal and has impressions of ‘conch’ made by the creature/river worms called vajra keeta that uses it as its home. This shape may differ and the shapes of impression on these stones give them their related names and benefits that they bestow on the owner.    Pooja procedure for each of these is different as per the tradition related to it.

Mythology has it that Shiva had to kill an asura named Jalandhara in order to protect Deva Ganas. But his wife Vrinda being a ‘Sati’ (women who are chaste and faithful to their husbands not only physically but also mentally gained a special power which raised them to a level of being a ‘sati’ – a pure one!) protected him from his vanquish. Her faithfulness and purity emitted such powerful vibrations that even Shiva became helpless in killing ‘Jalandhar’. So he asked Vishnu to diminish her chastity and Vishnu took form of Jalandhar and reduced her purity. The protective shield around Jalandhar became weak and he was killed by Shiva. Vrinda became angry and cursed Vishnu to become a stone and he is believed to take a form in the ‘saligramam’.

Saligramam as is considered ‘Vishnu’s direct manifestation’ demands regular pooja with full ‘nishta’ (all the rituals performed as per the scriptures and without any deviation even for a single day). Moreover, it is considered a treasure house of ‘power’ and hence can give both ‘good and bad’ effects depending upon the devotee. I usually don’t recommend any such ‘powerful’ tools as they reflect only our greed which we associate with anything ‘more powerful’ etc words...we tend to not see that they also will bring us down and tamper with our lives if we don’t know to use the energies correctly....and know to retain and sustain that energy regularly....

So before going in for such ‘stones’ or other aids /tools like ekamukhi rudraksh or huge crystals I would say beware and be cautious.....rest is your decision. Don’t get back to me on the same  again....(I mean on such topics or related ones too!)

Concluded...........

on query...

On query of Saligramam

As per Vedic philosophy or Hinduism as it is called by many “All paths lead to the same God – the goal of entire Universe”. Only Vedic philosophy has the maturity and hence the sanity and courage to state this truth openly. Some of the paths that are well known are that of

a.devotion towards God in the form of any of His manifestations – the Bhakthi Marg.

b.The path of knowing the divine through logic, analysis and contemplation

c.that of serving the society and working towards its betterment as a karmayogi

d.doing one’s duty as per his station in life – be it as a spouse, student or an employee with purity of intent, love and non-attachment towards doership is called ‘swadharma’.

e.the path of a mystic

f.following the path of Pathanjali and walking ‘Eight fold path’

g.Ahimsa and love towards each and every being including trees and animals.

h.following various rituals of performing pooja and following religious traditions

i.life of an ascetic or a wandering monk

j.even an atheist by ‘denying the existence of God’ at every step is working his way towards reaching that centre of all existence – the Be All and All That Is – The All Pervading Brahman whom we refer to as God!

These and so many other paths either take you towards ‘the Eternal’ or aid you in making progress towards that end!

Yet many times a traveler of one path for absence of need and utility of other path procedures can choose to ignore them partially or completely as the case may be.

contd...............

The greatest curse of Kaliyuga – Praising and fault-finding – Me, My Guru

Contd.......

The greatest curse of Kaliyuga – Praising and fault-finding – Me, My Guru

A: I get up daily at 3am to meditate/do yoga/exercise

B: you are great but for us it’s impossible

A: I give 50% of my earnings to charity

B: Great maam! You don’t have family life like us...(?)

By using ‘great’ what exactly are you trying to say?

Are you pleading excuse for not being able to do the needful?

By praising other are we demeaning ourselves so much as to seal our need to live our potential, outgrow our limitation or raise our limitations?

By calling some one great continuously we don’t become great. We ‘become’ great by living their words and actions, ideals and principles. Get inspired by people whom you call ‘great’ and live the possibility”.

Today, she seemed to repeat the same words again and again. Earlier I would’ve judged her but today I saw her desperation to get to us. she knew we weren’t yet with her and so she was taxing around those words so that it would atleast hit us a little but.....

We understood what she was trying to tell. Finding-fault was easier to digest than praising others. No, not because it was some rocket science – on the contrary with the examples that she supplied it was as simple as A for apple and yet..

If we took it simply, it meant we would be totally out there in the open working and living towards our potential. We lost our cover to be ‘where we were’ completely and that by any standard was fearful. Agreed we wanted to heal ourselves but not so much as to leave the comforts of being in this ‘now space of being ourselves’. I don’t know about others but to me it would take long time to let go off this shield of self-preservation – that of fault-finding and praising others. Now when I look back, that didn’t matter, what mattered was ‘would I ever leave this shield?’ As in all matters that mattered and yet I was not strong enough to take ‘right decision’ over ‘pleasant one’ I passed the ball on to ‘time’ saying “only time would tell...!”

Concluded............

reads suggested: https://kantipadam.blogspot.in/search?q=comparison

i am giving you related reads of previous posts so that you may read them and recollect the other aspects of the same topic which we have already dealt with and then get complete picture of the same.....that way you wouldn't pose same questions again and again......

The greatest curse of Kaliyuga – Praising and fault-finding – Me, My Guru

Contd.........

The greatest curse of Kaliyuga – Praising and fault-finding – Me, My Guru

“Then praising others should be good. How can it be its twin evil? Please explain Guruji” asked someone among us.

She straight away started giving examples and it really was funny to hear from her mouth. She always made them sound humorous. There was never a taunt in her voice.

“A: Her pongal tastes so good.

B: But her house is not kept clean.

A: his discourse is good.

B: yes and listen to his telugu

A:He is such a great artist

B: he comes from the family of artist

All through ‘B’ is praising and agreeing to what ‘A’ is telling but also see how the praise takes the limelight away from the ‘quality’ and highlights the reason behind it or some other trivial quality like telugu (language here), family etc. The point being the ‘purpose’ is lost completely by this praise. And since its praise nobody can find fault in it and yet the purpose of ‘learning’ or getting ‘inspired’ to develop a quality or drop one is lost by simply killing that chance by that praise.

A: Rama was great son as he was able to leave his kingdom and go live a life of a celibate just so that his father could fulfil his promise.

B: Yes, that’s why he is called Great. Nobody can be like him..

B1:But that was possible as he was ‘God Incarnation’.

B2: In today’s world it is not possible!

Every reaction reeks of finding ‘an excuse’ not to rise up to his level. His life should be an inspiration to develop those qualities. What’s the use of reading his story, discussing his life and its incidents, listening to discourse if all we come out of saying “Oh! That’s why he is God! These scriptures are not read so that we know and accept him as ‘God’. They are talking of a ‘possibility’. They tell us ‘how to behave’ in such testing situations. But instead we.....” the way she rolled her eyes leaving the sentence mid-way – well we all ended up laughing our lungs out!

Genuinely praising the other is good – both for the other and us. It boosts other’s confidence and when we praise others our heart chakra gets healed automatically. We see the good in the other and that betters our perception over time. We outgrow our inferiority complex. It shows we are not insecure. But all this is possible only if the praise is genuine – not when it is flattery or some marketing technique to please the other.

But look at the motive of your praise!

Contd.......

also read:https://kantipadam.blogspot.in/2016/05/are-we-carrting-unnecessary-luggage.html?showComment=1463706463888