On praying for others!

Pray for someone  -  Me, My Guru

“Pray for someone else! It has a ‘quality’ to bring more abundance and more blessings into life of a person who ‘prays for others’. That doesn’t mean you start doing it and then after couple of months later, call upon me and demand an explanation saying “I’ve been praying/healing for A,B,C and even X,Y and Z whom I dislike and who have hurt me a lot, yet why am I still suffering from this pain in my life?/why I am not getting an increment? Etc” I can only explain the way Universe responds to “Our certain acts’ and yet I am not responsible and answerable to your demanding and accusing questions” our Guru stopped. She was smiling as she let this sink in. 

There was laughter everywhere as we knew the truth in her words. She gave us ‘insights’ into these secret Laws of Universe and we held her responsible for the fulfillment of our desires. We held her responsible as if she were spokesperson of Universe. Neither Universe nor she ever promised us or owed us anything and yet we felt they were obliged to our answer our questions and also our desires. No amount of healing did any good to this side of our character and attitude in most of us. Ofcourse, there were Rahul and few others on other side of this situation too and I doubted if we ever would be able to go on the other side like them. If she still had hopes on us, how can we let her fail? We had to get up and keep going every time we faltered. Not that my belief on Self was that good, but I trusted her faith in me more. And that forced me to come back on this track however long it took me to – everytime I lost it!

“Mein maan bhi loon kabhi haar

Tu mane na....”

मैं मान भी लूं कभी हार 

तू माने ना। 

“Even when I  accept defeat

You don’t....”

Contd.....

On praying for others!

Be strong to face success!

Be strong to face success!

Whenever you are ‘free’ work on your shoulders and knees to make them and keep them strong so that when 

a.       You are finally given higher or more responsibility, it sits lightly on your shoulders.

b.      When you are faced with adversities and are to face tough challenges (like Pandavas had to do during their ‘vanvas’ (retreat/exile into forest) or while waging Kurukshetra war) it seems like a sport to your strong shoulders and knees

c.       When you face adulation and success you are able to stand effortlessly and for long spells of time on your knees to face and bask in your success.

As you dream and work for success and increase in your responsibilities also make yourself strong enough to relish it!

Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

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Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

Use this time to work on your skills that could be added advantage in your career. Use this time to relax and build good health. Do sadhan as much as possible as that is the one that’ll prepare you to be balanced and strong enough to face the success. Learn such of things that you always wanted to like dancing, language etc.

Go on the trip that you always longed to.

In short, do all that you can which you can’t once you ‘go busy’.  Live this moment fully so that tomorrow you don’t long for ‘this break day’.

“Yes Guruji, in school we wanted to grow up and now we would do anything to have our school-live”.

Each one of us related to this fact with our own experience of life and shared with others.

It was then it hit us  - the truth behind the whole lecture. But putting it into effect was a different ball game altogether. Not that we couldn’t. But we wouldn’t – simply because our logic would raise several questions with ‘but why me and etc etc...’.

It was true...we hardly wanted explanations as to why things were the way they were. We wanted situations to be what and how we wanted. We were like those kids – just 6-7 mths old who would pluck their own hair with their hands and cry out of pain and if we hit the hand so that they would release the hold then they would cry that we’ve hit them. Either way they would suffer and cry.

Waiting – it certainly was a lost Art in today’s world of 2mts noodles. It was painful. We were always in a hurry to be on a move – where and why we didn’t know. But as long as we were moving we felt safe. If we had to wait that felt like a ‘death’ to us! We were afraid of that space and emotion. We hated being there, when in fact as our Guru says “It is the best place to be and to experience love, peace and bliss”. I like many times didn’t understand what it meant but whatever it was, it must be worth it!

And I was ready to wait for that revelation to happen to me........

Concluded......

Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

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“Every station in life has a purpose and utility. Yes, but they come at different times for each one of us, so we call them ‘problem times’ as we tend to not recognise them as we are totally clouded by our imagination, expectations, comparisons and conditions. In everybody’s life comes a time when there is a “lull period” or a “stagnant or no activity period”. That time no work seems to happen. Nothing moves. Our mind rotates the Universe 1000 times and yet in reality even a leaf wouldn’t have moved. This difference between ‘mental world’  or you can call it ‘world of your desires/intent/dreams’ and physical world or the hard faced reality is so vast and long that it looks like a dark never ending crevice that seems to suck us within.

But it is just an assumption! Remember, ‘even ‘This shall pass!’. Season is not the same all through the year. However beautiful and welcoming spring be it is followed by rainy and then autumn. Autumn is that part of year and season when nature and trees stand stark naked with all leaves shed. Barren they still hold their head high as they know ‘Springs around the corner’.

Ok, season’s time is fixed but it is not so in our life. For some it is one year and for some it is 7 years also. But the purpose remains the same. It’s time to be in sadhan, relax, learn and develop art of waiting and develop the art of enjoying ‘where you are’.  Because, only a person who uses this time correctly enjoys the hectic activity and success activity and success filled ‘after period’. Otherwise, one starts complaining ‘God, I am so busy maam, I feel bored and tired. Wish I had a break!’ and this wish when fulfilled we cry that we are not able to live life that we deserve!

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Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

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Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

They were totally confused. How can they take such an insignificant task so seriously? And where in that is there job satisfaction or opportunity for growth or a possibility of expressing one’s abilities? How come he is happy without any of these present? And to this Hanuman replied “Entire day as I need to notice when he yawns I need to look at Rama’s face without any distraction. What more can a bhaktha like me ask for? I get to keep seeing ‘the most beautiful face’ in Universe all day long. I am blessed and thanks for giving such an important task for me to carry out’.

Sita, Lakshmana and others were flabbergasted.

It’s not the work that maketh the man; it’s the man that maketh the job. Every job is equally important in the world. That’s why it is important for one and all to understand the ‘dignity of Labout’.

Having said this, our Guru went into meditation. Sometimes my mind worked in crazy ways. Now it said “She’s closed her eyes as she is afraid to face volley of questions that would follow this story”. I knew this to be far from truth but the voice in my brain kept pounding such irrelevant suggestions. It was at such times, I doubted my sanity. I even doubted if I was thinking with my brain or not?

But Rahul and few like him had their own explanation to explain her weird acts. They sounded terrific but I wished not to believe them and go with my brains rattling.

She opened her eyes and no sooner had she done that, the volley of questions were thrown at her.

“But my boss is no Rama. Infact he is more of Ravana so how can I be happy just working for him with no extra benefits”.

“Neither is it any good looking at my mean minded mil’s face” blurted Priya.

Everyone laughed. These characters universally seemed to assume these characteristics and adjectives. The surprising fact was everyone seemed to associate with such similies.

Contd......

Dignity of labour – Ramayana Me, My Guru

Dignity of labour – Ramayana

Me, My Guru

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Or may, we ‘blew’ our problem so much that we believed it to be unique to us and it needed special treatment. It could also mean that I didn’t want or wasn’t accepting ‘the given solutions/answer’. The usual excuse for this was always ‘I know you would say this but....i agree with you but....’. We wanted an answer/solution our way only! And that was a dangerous condition we put ourselves in. It could mean any of the above reasons or all of them at once!

She being herself tried to put ‘the same and right solution’ in the ‘new bottle’ every time and those of us who were not part of the query like it. Whether we followed her advice and solution or not, whether we accepted it or not, one thing was for sure – we always enjoyed her stories that were part of her explanations. How she came up with so many of them was beyond us but it was good for us. We listened with rapt attention as she started her explanation “After waging war with Ravana and winning over him, Rama returned to Ayodhya along with Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman. After coronation, Sita, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrugna distributed all the work related with Rama amongst them. They were in immense love with Rama and longed to serve him the best and hence chose as much work as possible to fulfil that desire of

theirs. Hanuman was left alone. He approached and sought some or atleast one work. Not able to drive him away completely and yet being unwilling to share their work with him, they hit upon a plan. They called him and said “Hanuman we want to give the most important work to you. That is, whenever Lord Rama yawns, you ought to click your fingers in front of his mouth”. He readily agreed and was seen to be with Rama – day and night. Others got irritated. They gave him such an insignificant job so they could spend all the time with Rama but here was Hanuman right in front of Rama – day in and day out not leaving his side even for a second. Irritated and greatly confused they sought an explanation from him and he replied thus “How can I be careless in fulfilling my role? So, I am with Lord Rama day in and day out as one never knows when he would yawn”.

Contd....