Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

No sooner had our Guru took her seat, volley of questions flew her way today also…

“Why is my spouse not loving and supporting?”

“Why is my sister-in-law so mean?”

“Why should I be the one suffering because of my disease?”

The questions were many but the tone was just one – ‘complaints’.

Wow! We really did live in a world of ‘why’s’ way too much than required. I saw that today. Our Guru told many times “instead of seeking answer about why you are living with a pain, invest your energy in knowing how to address it. And then do all you can to ‘fix it’. Now I could see her point. But she replied her way – the story way.

“In a certain village lived an old woman. On the hill top lived a monk. This old lady was a poor peasant. So, she wished to serve the monk by being of service to him. He never asked anything though! She carried two pots of water all the way to the monk’s hut on the hill-top daily. She would fill the earthen urn kept there for this purpose. This had been her daily routine all her youthful years and so was it when she had grown old.

She never disturbed the monk. Not even once had she sought anything from him. She would simply fill his urn with the water that she brought, close the urn carefully and clean the courtyard and leave – as silently as she came. It had been years since she had even seen him closely. She didn’t wait to talk to him too! She didn’t expect anything in exchange for the laborious task that she was doing – since years! That thought never even crossed her mind. Just doing this work gave her joy and she did it with complete dedication, joy and love. To a peasant woman this seemed like a very “high purpose of life”. 


Contd.......

# flaws and its uses, cracked pot, expectations, service, purpose of life, no work is small, every one has a role to play, 

also read on this topic : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=balloons

Questions addressed : 

• How to address 'flaws' in our lives?
• What is the purpose of 'flaws' in our lives?
• What do we do with painful situations and people in our life?

Points worth remembering :

• Every situation is right if looked at it with the right perspective.
• Good or bad depends from where you see it!
• Problem or opportunity depends upon your 'who you are'. 
• No person comes in your life without a higher and better purpose. 
• There is a benefit included to every one with every situation/person who is part of our life. The trick is to have 'clarity' and 'perception' good enough to see it and wisdom good enough to use it or benefit from it.
• Keep working on the work at hand 'with total dedication and honesty' till you find your purpose of life. Add selflessness to it and lo! your life and you are transformed for good. That makes you eligible to become 'available' to your call!
• No work is so small to not become purpose of life.

Now the question is :

• Which work do you do as if your whole life depended on it? What is the purpose of your life?
• What drives you to get up in the morning?

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Contd......

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Mohandas was pushed from a train carriage in South Africa. It was an act of racism. If it has been based on hatred, it would’ve become vengeance. And that can turn him hating whites. This also becomes the cause for one to turn into a terrorist or an anti-social element. But, he made it a wakeup call to fight against ‘racism’. He did not make it personal. He worked on changing the mindset that made whites behave so. He did not kill or hurt whites for their behaviour. He said we should make a noise so that they realize that their thought process is oppressive. Just a change of ‘intent’ made new colour to that incident. The ‘intent’ made it ‘dharma’. It was based on ‘equality of men’. It wasn’t against anyone. It was just to stand up for self.

          
When a person uses his failure, pain, suffering, insult to uplift his fellow sufferers it becomes a noble act. It gives purpose to his life. It becomes ‘dharma’. it would let seeds of joy sprout on his and others path.

Corona is a ‘crack’. We have increased our immunity by eating right and exercising right. This way of watering our crack not only benefits us for and against this ‘crack’ but also has put us on better shape, good health, away from other life-style diseases. And that well-being feeling is the flower that’s bloomed because we used this crack to water the right seed.

If we had watered stress, anger, fear in ‘it’s’ face, we could’ve outlived corona but would be suffering with B/P, sugar, heart problems and what not.

So, you see how and where you water and which seeds you water matters” our Guru stopped for her.

We enjoyed our tea. Crack or no crack tea was one thing that we watered ourselves with regularly.

“But, how to water Mil or financial problems?” asked Vinay.

Contd......

# problems and challenges of life, life, issues of life, break down situations, blessing and curse,

Also read : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=pen+and+eraser

Points to take home :

• Don't look for cracks in your life. See the light that is coming through that crack in  your life!
• 
  

In reply to comment : hope the kid likes stories in these posts........

posts which kids may like : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=interconnection+between+

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=apple+and+the+girl

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=uninhabited+island

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=old+woman+in+her+dingy+hut

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=is+luck+by+chance%3F

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=donkey%2C+father+and+his+son

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Contd......

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

“That, we need to look beyond our flaws whatever they are in our lives. Am I right Guruji?” asked Kshama.

Yes. We all carry little flaws in ourselves and in our lives. It can be a boring, unrewarding and a menial job. It may be a painful relationship. For some that could be a disease. To another it could be an attitude like anger, hatred or so. These are the ‘cracks’ in our lives. That is the fact!

Now, the big question is what are we doing with this cracks? Seeds of which plants we are watering daily, every hour with these cracks in our lives. Because whatever seeds we plant we are going to reap those fruits and flowers tomorrow. Will they be beautiful and good enough to decorate our houses or will they be thorns that are going to prick and hurt us? Think about it!” saying this, our Guru stopped.

“But our flaw like spouse, Mil or financial tension is a crack. How can we water with them? You don’t know our spouses or Mils. They are useless. They can’t water anything” replied Vijaya.

We all laughed. How can our relationship or tensions be used to water something good for us – we all wondered!

“Simple! Any flaw if you make it ‘centre of your life’ it sucks you into negativity of fear, restlessness, anger or depression. But if you make it your inspiration, it can be used to not only make your path laid with flowers but other too! 

Contd......

# let go, inspiration, problems and challenges, opportunities and luck, happiness, flaw, 

pain and suffering, situations of life, challenges of life, life, 

also read previous post : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=on+love-bhagavatam 

Questions : 

• What is the centre of your life?
• Which seeds are you watering daily with your thoughts, emotions and character?
• Can a anger and hatred filled heart love? 

Points to understand :

• If today is result of what you planted yesterday, if today you are reaping what you have sown yesterday, then you know what you'll receive tomorrow with what you are sowing today..........
• Are you sure you'll be comfortable with what  you receive tomorrow?
• Be aware of what you are watering every day!

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Contd.......

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Over the years, one of the pots developed a crack. It started to leak. But, as she was poor and couldn’t afford to buy a new one, she continued with the job as usual. The leaking pot would be half empty by the time she reached the top. But, since even that water was enough for the monk, she continued with her work.

The leaking pot saw that it was only half-full when it was being emptied into the earthen urn.  The other pot would be full and it looked proudly at the leaking pot. After sometime, the leaking pot asked the old woman “don’t you think I am useless? I am half empty by the time you reach the top of the hill. All your work goes waste. Are you not angry with me? Why don’t you change me?”

The old woman smiled lovingly and said “Tomorrow as I carry you up the hill notice the path we are walking on. We’ll talk later”.

The leaking pot agreed to this!

Next day leaking pot saw beautiful flowers on the path. It was so till the mountain cliff. When the old lady finally filled the earthen urn at the monk’s place, she sat down for a chat with the cracked pot. She asked “Did you see all the flowers along your path?”

The cracked pot replied “Yes, I did!”

“Well” continued the old woman lovingly “I knew about your flaw and so held you in a way that the plants and seeds on your path get watered. And now I pick those lovely flowers to place it at my master’s place.  You see without your flaw all those flowers wouldn’t have bloomed. Your flaw is a flaw only if you stop at that. You can turn it to benefit so many as you make your life journey. Then your flaw becomes your strength” so saying she turned towards cracked pot smiling.

Contd....... 

# life and its challenges, problems of life, life, expectations, karma, dharma, 

also read suggested : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=is+luck+by+chance%3F

What did you take so far from this story?

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Contd.......

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

The cracked pot looked at the lovely flowers along the path way! It looked at all the flowers used to decorate Monk’s hut! It beamed with joy.

So, now you tell me, ‘what’ is the ‘crack’ in your pot?” asked our Guru.

“Oh! Certainly my useless spouse!” said one.

“My MIL for sure” said another.

“Take SIL for mine” shouted the other.

“My EMIs” said a voice from behind.

“Corona for me” said someone. We all laughed at the volley of these answers. Most of us had most of these cracks in our lives. When someone told his ‘crack’ that was when we realized even we had it in our life. And that resulted in ‘understanding laughter’.

‘So what did you learn from this story?’ asked our Guru.

“That we are not full ‘because’ of ‘cracks’ in our lives! No doubt there is so much of dissatisfaction, depression and frustration in us!” replied one among us. Few of us nodded in agreement.  

“This again is the classic case of getting wrong understanding and moral from right example and story” said Kshama.

“Isn’t our answer obvious through and in the story?” we asked.

“There is more to it than this. What you say is the fact of life. But what Guruji is asking is way different from that” replied Kshama.

“Then you explain” enquired one.

Contd.......

# life and its imperfections, situations that are irritating to us, life and its challenges, soul agenda, life purpose, 

also read suggested to understand how sometimes things have to go down completely to set them right : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=shipwreck 

Question time : 

• What did you get from this story?
• How does it relate to your life problems?
• Was it useful to address any of the issues you are facing?
• When was the last time you felt problem was actually a blessing in disguise in your life?

Points worth noting down : 

• Every life - be it saint or prophets was laid with challenges, problems and sufferings. 
• What they made out of those made them who they were!
• Situations don't make or break us. We are given situations to help us express ourselves better.

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

Contd......

Me, My Guru – On broken pots

“But, how to water Mil or financial problems?” asked Vinay.

“Work on them through sadhan and healing. Use various techniques as required to heal the situations. Also heal your emotions that rise with these situations. It can be anything like anger, depression, selfishness, fear or any other one. Just keep healing them. Periodically look at the way your emotions vary. Their intensity and frequency become less and less. And with that your confidence, peace of mind and state of well-being also spikes. Not only that your understanding will better. Now you think you understand. Over time your understanding will be right. It’ll happen in bits and pieces. So, healing has to be done again and again. And these flowers – say of peace, contentment, feeling of security, clarity of thought would bloom” she left having said this.

Left to ourselves we expressed our understanding, questions, doubts and clarified it among ourselves.

When the time to go home came, we got up half- heartedly. Sometimes, leaving her place became more painful than ever. We wished to hang around little longer than needed. But our lives and clocks gave us no option but to leave. And leave we did!

Today, we weren’t ashamed of our flaws. We weren’t angry with the ‘cracks’ in our lives. We were leaving with the eagerness to water right seeds with the ‘cracks’ in our lives – for once!

Which flowers bloomed in our paths – well, that was for time to tell. For now, we visualized, our paths laid with ‘beautiful flowers’.

Rahul said “I liked her answer to Vaishnav’s question “but, why does Reiki/God give these cracks at all in our lives? He can just make it easy for us by making our lives smoother. He must be a sadist to do so!”

“Yes” and she had replied “May be, these cracks are part of God’s divine play to let us work out our lives purpose. Maybe, that’s the way it was meant to be to make our ‘purpose of life’ so beautiful and purposeful in such an effortless way” replied someone.

And that stuck with each one of us as we closed ‘the gate’ behind us!

Concluded.....

# cracked pot, leaking pot, flaws and painful situations in life, challenges of life, life, break down situations, you attract situations in life, 

also read : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=look+at+the+leaf+on+that+banyan+tree

For those who want to know how the 'giver' makes a difference : Read the above given without fail 

Time to ponder :

• Are you making a ‘flaw in your life’ ‘centre of your existence’ or ‘are you making it an inspiration’ to bring purpose in your life? That decision decides which seeds you are watering.
• क्या तुम अपने कमियों को अपने ज़िन्दगी का आधार बना रहे हो या फिर प्रेरणा स्तोत्र ? इस के जवाब पे तुम्हारा सुख-दुःख निर्भर करता है। 

• Is your faith strengthened or questioned? Look at the seeds you are watering.

Question time : 

• What are the cracks in your life?
• Which seeds are you watering daily?
• Watering the seeds happens by way of emotions, feelings, words and thoughts. So where are your thoughts today giving energy?
• Was there a pain in your life that you turned into your strength?
• Was there a strength in  your life that you converted into pain?

Change the perspective lady!

 Contd........ 

Change the perspective lady! 

Sometimes we will fall sick and on other days we are healthy.

Some days we receive people in life and on some days we lose some!

Healing cannot and won’t make a change in ‘change of seasons’!

But it will help us change our perspective for better! Because, it is the perception that decides whether we suffer or enjoy the ‘change of season’ every time!

And that is all we need in our life every time we suffer or are in pain!

So why not put reasoning to good use and change our perspective for better? 

All this time, we have justified our emotions and validated our suffering and pain with reasoning. Today, let's put reasoning and logic to good use - to benefit us. Let us learn to use reasoning the right way. Instead of standing by our desires and our emotions, let's question our desires and emotions. Let's work towards desires if need be, but with the change in our way of working towards their fulfillment. Let’s make this small beginning. Let’s make this small change. 

Let’s see where it leads us. 

Just let’s do it! 

Concluded.........

# change the perspective lady story, perspective, perception, attitude and its effect, good and bad, seasons of life, life and its aspects, celebration of life, reasons to celebrate in life, complaining about life, grateful for life .... 

also read suggested : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=broken+pots 

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=seasons 

Have your ever changed your perspective and found difference it brought about in your life? 

Would there be any change in the state of mind because of change in the perspective?

Reflections – on living our “some” dreams

 

Contd.....

Reflections – on living our “some” dreams

So, one Sunday, I cleaned ‘that patch’ and made it ‘garden ready’. I declared to all that the dustbin was to be ‘an old broken bucket and it was shifted to the other side. Elders of the house nodded their heads and laughed. They knew this was a passing fare. They amused my ‘rules’. They had decided to not bother as they nodded. Only I didn’t know it then.

There, in that place, I planted my plants – bitter gourd, beans and a couple of other plants that I borrowed from the kitchen.

I would religiously water them. When I saw beans and bitter gourd, I knew no bound of joy. I felt that I was an expert in gardening. I even imagined myself to be a ‘successful farmer’.

No internet, no books, no guidance’ to grow them. They would die after a couple of months. I would again plant something else and still work on it with equal fervor.

My love for gardening was seeded there. Then we shifted to an equally small house but with no ‘open space’ between room and kitchen now. Yet, I didn’t stop, I took to pots and failed again and again. But planting, I never stopped.

Then marriage happened!!!

No house was conducive to gardening or so I thought!

My heart kept desiring to have plants but I kept saying ‘When I have ‘X’ type of house I will have plants’.

Finally, I said enough was enough. The balcony was very small. Yet, I started with just 5-6 pots.

Again we shifted. Now the balcony was much smaller. So, I just managed with these 5-6 pots.

Contd.....

# living your dream, dreams, achievements, living in the moment, 

also revisit old post further : https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2009/03/beginners-must-know-tips.html