27.05.2015

Conductor Zubin Mehta, right, leading the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New
York, on Feb. 22, 2011
Are You
Directing Your Inner Orchestra Well ?
Our inner orchestra
is made up of different musical instruments.
These instruments are our memories, desires,
tendencies, mind, beliefs, emotions, feelings,
fears, intuition, judgements, creativity, our
imagination...
Who is the director of this orchestra? You. Who
are you? You – the consciousness, you - the
soul, you – the being. When you direct your
inner orchestra well, you can remain unaffected
by external influences. If you, the director of
the orchestra, close your eyes for a few moments
and cover up your ears, what happens to the
orchestra? The music is not very harmonious or
sweet; it is noisy and you suffer. To make the
orchestra play according to the inner voice of
your being, according to your purest intentions
and values, you simply have to be awake, alert
and attentive, and listen with your heart, not
with your physical heart but with the heart of
your being.
Work with
Self-respect
The one who works
with self-respect is the one who wins the
cooperation of others. When we do things while
in our natural state of
self-respect, it creates cooperation. On the
other hand if we have
ego because of which we expect others to
recognize our work and
appreciate it, it creates competition and
jealousy. If someone is not
cooperating with me, I need to check within
myself why I am performing
that task. If there is the slightest feeling of
trying to prove
myself, I need to remove it. In its place, there
needs to be the
thought in the mind that I want only success in
the task and nothing
else.
Checking Myself On
The Stage Of Action
Once we become aware of the possible types of
thoughts that the mind creates at different
times in the span of a particular day, then we
are in a position to keep a check on our
thoughts and understand where our energy is
being wasted. Once we realize that there are
patterns of waste and negative thinking at some
times during the day, which are usually
triggered by certain situations or people, we
can apply a brake on the pattern of habitual
negative thinking, thereby transforming this
energy wastage into something more positive.
It does happen, that when we are informed about
the benefits of meditation for the first time,
perhaps in a course or a presentation either in
the office, in a center of a spiritual
organization or elsewhere; we realize the need
for the same but we also feel that, in order to
get the house of our minds in order, we need to
leave our busy city lifestyles behind and head
for the hills. There, we think, we will find
the time and the physical and spiritual
environment to practice meditation and get our
mental state in order, but this is absolutely
untrue. While going on an occasional spiritual
retreat is certainly useful and recommended for
the development of the spiritual self, the real
workshop is life itself. Even if I am able to
maintain a positive and powerful state of mind
in a retreat, it is in our daily actions and
relationships with others where the challenge
lies, it is on the stage of action or karma
kshetra that we have to check whether we can
remain soul-conscious i.e. in the awareness
of our spiritual identity. It is here where we
have to see whether we can apply the brakes on
patterns of negative thinking, establish and
maintain patterns of positive thinking and test
whether we have reached the stage where, no
person or situation, however negative, can
disturb our state of mind.
Soul Sustenance
Improving
The Quality Of Different Areas Of My Karmas
(Part 1)
Karma yoga (experiencing meditation in
practical life situations) functions in two
ways:
• By filling the self with power, the
transformation of action is possible. This
in turn brings about change in my sanskars.
• By absorbing the qualities of the Supreme
Being my sanskars change.
It's necessary to experiment with this to
discover its validity. On one level, whatever I
have done, I have to receive the return for that
but, on another level, just simply pure love for
God is the factor that purifies, cleanses and
forgives. Whatever my past Karma may have
been, the fire of God's love, the fire of a
powerful connection with Supreme is able to
resolve it and remove its impact from within the
soul itself, in terms of negative personality sanskars and also in terms of negative
karmic effects in real life situations. Thus
it can be seen why yoga or the union of
love with God is so crucial.
If one looks at the whole pattern of human life,
there are four areas of Karma
which need to be improved:
• Karma that I perform for
myself,
for my own sustenance and upkeep.
• Karma that I perform with or for others
in terms of relationships.
• Karma that I perform, not out of need
or necessity, but for leisure or entertainment.
• Karma that I perform as service
of others.
In the next three messages, we shall explain how
we can improve these four areas of Karma.
Message for the
day
To share virtues
along with knowledge is to encourage
transformation in others.
Expression:
When we have to give a
suggestion/advise to someone we tend to share a
lot of points of knowledge in order to make them
understand. We try to prove logically why they
have to change. Although the reasoning is right
most of the time, the others don't seem to
change either because they don't understand or
because they don't want to understand.
Experience:
When we want to bring
transformation in others we need to make sure to
share our own virtues along with the points of
knowledge. To share virtues means to give them
an experience of our love, peace, good wishes
etc. When they experience our virtues, they'll
be willing to bring about change quickly.