17.09.2014

Life
Ignorance makes you believe that life functions
haphazardly. Wisdom teaches you that everything that
happens in this theatre of life has profound
significance. What you see today is not the fruit of
chance but a fruit from seeds planted in the past. Plant
seeds of peace now and you will create a life of peace
in the future.
Churning Spiritual Knowledge
Churning spiritual knowledge or thinking deeply about it
makes us a complete authority of that knowledge. What
are some practical ways of implementing churning in our
lives?
Take 15 minutes out of your daily routine every day to
think deeply on any topic related to spiritual self
progress (like e.g. each day's "Positive Reflection" or
something else). You do not need to disconnect yourself
from action to do this. You could do this while taking a
walk, while driving to office, while cooking food, etc.
By churning this way in isolation, the mind is able to
concentrate immediately. Secondly if you read some
spiritual knowledge and afterwards write down the
essence (summary) of it for 5-10 minutes as it has
influenced the mind, then you will find that essence
will remain with you and deepen during the day.
The benefits of churning spiritual knowledge are as
follows:
1. Churning makes the soul feel powerful: it
makes you aware of your powers and increases your
self-respect. Any inferiority complex ends and one
experiences oneself as a great and powerful soul.
Self-confidence awakens as weak thoughts diminish: * I
won't be able to do this. Will I succeed or not? Strong
thoughts emerge instead: * The Supreme Being himself is
with me. I will definitely be successful. Such
confidence and bravery is experienced which strengthens
the soul to undertake any impossible task.
2. Natural and unruffled peace in my outlook:
Churning takes us to the depths of the ocean of
knowledge. The depth of knowledge finishes all our
attractions. In the depths there are no storms, but only
the peace and bliss of unlimited treasures.
(To be continued tomorrow ...)
Soul Sustenance
Role Induced Stress (cont.)
It’s not at all wrong to treat what we do seriously, but
it's a mistake to believe what we do is extremely
extremely important and we are extremely busy people
living an extremely busy lifestyle. This kind of
consciousness makes us over-serious. A very common sign
of this is carrying a lot of thoughts of one role into
the other. E.g. Aarti, a young mother, switches roles
from a software executive in the corporate sector, a
role which she plays in the entire day, to a parent and
wife in the evening. If she is over thinking about her
day-role while playing her evening-role, it is a sign
she is over-identifying with her day role and there is a
lack of detachment. As a result she starts becoming
over-serious and suffers from role induced stress
as a result. There is a deep connection between
seriousness and fear. E.g. In this case of Aarti, as a
result of attachment to her role, there are lots of
fears that she carries regarding her role of software
executive – fear of loss of position; loss of love,
respect and reputation – either in her company or in
general in society, not succeeding, not getting promoted
etc. because of which she is over-serious and she
carries the role in her head almost all the time, even
when she sleeps. That is why so called ‘extremely busy’
people sometimes complain of sleep problems.
This can happen with us, with any role we play.
This kind of stress, just like in the case of the actor
(explained yesterday) is generally made up sorrow, anger
and fear – one of these three different negative
emotions from time to time or more than one at the same
time – phases of dejection or feeling low or a lack
of enthusiasm or a general disinterest in life events;
phases of frustration and experiencing a lack of control
of events and people, due to which there are frequent
outbursts of anger and phases of immense worry regarding
the future, all of which affect our mind, our
physical body, relationships and even success of our
role; although it is our role itself (our
over-identification with it) which is the root cause of
this emotional turmoil inside us. So instead of
benefitting our role, our over-concern for it starts
affecting it adversely.
Message for the day
To be ever ready means to guarantee success.
Projection:
The ones who are ever ready are active and so when a
task comes up, they quickly understand it and attain
success. They do not waste time and energy thinking too
much about it. They recognize the importance of the task
and involve fully in it and attain success.
Solution:
When I am ever ready I am able to be easy. Because I am
easy, all tasks seem easy for me and effort put in for
the success of the task also becomes easy. So I don't
have to do a lot of effort but give my best. Thus I
experience success every moment in all situations.
Experience Peace
People usually look for peace in hill stations, places
of worship or pilgrimage places. A short or long break
from the routine challenges normally gives an experience
of peace. But it is not always possible to get such
breaks. Also once the time spent in silence is over, the
challenges tend to make us lose that peace once again.
So that too becomes a temporary solution. It is
important for me to understand that peace is lying
within me. The external stimulus just becomes an excuse
to emerge that peace. If I find time to spend with
myself and experience that peace at regular intervals as
a practice I will be able to find that peace within me.
This practice will help me to maintain my peace at all
times, and keep me ready for the bigger challenges that
I face.