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.

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Dignity of labour – Ramayana Me, My Guru

Dignity of labour – Ramayana

Me, My Guru

Contd......

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....

Dignity of labour - Ramayana - Me, My Guru

Contd.....

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

We had completed our class early today and we used that time to pose some personal questions.

“Guruji, my m-i-l doesn’t allow me to go out and work and I feel listless, directionless, purposeless and hence angry, frustrated and depressed all through the day. Is she not wrong? What does she lose if I go out to work?”

“My issue is bit different. My career has been more or less stagnant both by way of promotion and monetary benefit. I hate it more when people with little or lesser qualifications get either or both of them. What do I do to my boss? Sometimes I entertain crazy and evil ideas in my brain for him. I wish I even had guts to put them to practice”.

Each came out with their issue saying it was different but those of us who were listening found it too repetitive. Were these people not listening to her in ‘all’ classes or do we all listen to solutions only when we face a problem? Othertimes we are either not attentive or find it redundant for us to look, know and learn these solutions as we are not ‘there’ yet! What ever be the reason, one thing was certain, most of us were selectively deaf!

The loss was entirely ours as we lost previous limited time with her in posing same questions again and again. And the fun part is though it had been addressed since ever, we grew restless when she didn’t reply immediately.

We haven’t lost the habit of our school days when we used to learn our subjects for exams and just before exams and conveniently forgot them immediately after exams. If there was no exam, no need to learn anything! We still followed that kiddish behaviour with us! If we learnt it the first time we heard it then we wouldn’t suffer ‘the situation’ when it propped. We wouldn’t even go on some painful emotional trip! But all this was good on paper. Our practice remains what it always was.....

Contd......

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!

Contd.....

Reflections - Life, a puzzle?

 

Contd....

Reflections - Life, a puzzle?

Now, with this understanding when I look back at life, then the way things worked out gets a new perspective altogether. Now, everything seems to be ‘right’. It may have been painful, uncomfortable, displeasing, and not to my liking and yet it was the ‘right thing’ that happened. Because now I see ‘the big picture’ emerging.

If this be the case of the past, is it not the same with the present too? Whatever I am undergoing – though painful and not to my expectation, would it not be right for the future to unfold itself? So, life and its situations are just about unfolding itself, layer by layer, bit by bit in time so that the ‘picture’ forms itself on its own – in time!

So, you see, it was never about me!!! It was always about the big picture. Now, from this perspective when I view things of the past and of the present, ‘whatever happens, it’s right’ is understood well!

So, does that goes to say that "Life is a puzzle, unravel it?" right???

Get back with your feedback!!!

Concluded.......

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# life is beautiful, on life, life is a puzzle, mystery of life, meaning of life, purpose of life, everything happens for a reason, everything that happens happens for good, 

previous read suggested:https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2014/11/god_14.html    

and

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-change.html  

and

https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/2017/06/dignity-of-labour-ramayana-me-my-guru_18.html 

the question you have is answered in one of these links.......go find them....

Questions addressed and points made:

• Life can be lived forwards and understood backwards only....
• Life may not make sense while it is happening but at a later day, most of the things find an explanation to validate their happening......
• Life is beautiful even when not understood.
• Live life, let understanding to God or the Creator.
• To understand we need to have basic qualifications of having overgrown few of our traits like hatred, ego, doubt, laziness, selfishness, manipulative nature and so on. We also need to develop few of the essential qualities like love (that is pure and selfless), selflessness, purity, honesty, commitment, discipline, faith, patience and so on.....
• Let's first work on gaining the qualities required and losing qualities harmful for us and then understanding will happen on its own.....
• Why is this thing happening/not happening in my life?

Achchamma - Great character in a simple lady doing menial job!

 

Achchamma - Great character in a simple lady doing menial job!

 

A lady comes to clean the toilets, say, once in 3 to 4 months. During Covid she couldn’t come. She had left for her hometown in AP. But, she kept calling me at regular intervals just to enquire about my well-being! She wouldn’t talk much. Just would call and enquire about everyone’s health in-house.

She came to meet me after 3 years. I asked if she would clean. She said “No, I can’t. Doctor asked me not to”.

I smiled and asked “Then why did you come all the way?”

She replied with a smile “I’ve come for 3-4 days stay. Came to check on your well-being. That’s all!”

She asked me to give her some money. I gave her the money I give to clean the toilets! She was touched immediately.

She asked for food. As there was no one at home, I cooked only khickdi for the day. I shared the same with her. She relished it as always.

And then, she asked for a broom and started cleaning my balcony. She tended my plants, dusted my door-mats and said “You gave so much. How can I leave without doing any work? It’s unethical to take money without giving any service. I don’t like it”.

She is not a “Reiki channel” and yet knew and lived the exchange of energy in the full and right way!

She was poor in material riches and yet didn’t think she ‘deserved’ favours, goodies or even money from others – for free!!!

She could give only her service by doing ‘menial jobs’ and yet she didn’t fall back on the usual and oft-repeated excuses/dialogues of my students and people in general.

Contd.....

# menial job, character, mindfulness, awareness, attitude, life is all about attitude, happiness is all in the character, joyful, gratitude, abundance, validating, 

also read: https://kantipadam.blogspot.com/search?q=Dignity+of+labour+%E2%80%93+Ramayana