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December 2011

When the transience of life is understood in all its depth and significance, material possessions are viewed merely as gifts granted for temporary enjoyment. – Chinmaya

A man once went to an exhibition mela along with his son, five years of age. Enchanted by the colourful balloons flying high, the little child expressed his intense desire to possess one. The loving father fulfilled the innocent wish of his beloved child and soon the boy was playing joyfully in the open ground with his favourite balloon. The father too didn’t mind joining him in his merrymaking.

For some time everything was going well.

A loud burst and lo! The balloon disappeared from the sight. The shocked child started weeping. And the father couldn’t control his laughter!

The situation was the same – a balloon burst. But the reactions were so different – One burst into tears while the other burst into laughter! The reason? The above quote answers it all.

The child gave permanent reality to the balloon and got blindly attached to it. Hence he was heartbroken when the balloon was gone; whereas the father, even while engaging in the play, was expecting a burst any time. His prepared mind made all the difference to his reaction.

 In fact everything of the world – our relationships, physical beauty, health, strength, mental and intellectual capacities, worldly possessions and positions, name and fame, power, influence… – are nothing but varieties of colourful balloons, very enchanting and attractive, but unfortunately, one day or the other they have to ‘burst’ and depart from us.

A king once built a beautiful palace and invited saint Kabir to have a look at it. The saint saw the entire mansion and was about to leave without saying a word.

The king, expecting a word of praise, asked the saint to give his comment. Kabir said, “O King, the palace is, no doubt, wonderful. But it has two flaws.” The King, who had taken the greatest care in an error-free construction, became curious and enquired what they were.

The saint answered, “Number one, a day will come when it will be reduced to dust. Secondly, when you depart from this world, you can’t take it along with you!”

Expecting from an object what it cannot give is called moha or delusion. For example, expecting sweetness from salt is moha. Expecting permanent happiness from an impermanent changing world is the cause of all our suffering.

Alas! Life is half spent before we know what it is!

For most of us, life ever remains a foreign language, with all grammatical errors and mispronunciations!!

Once a devotee went to saint Eknath ji and asked, “Sir, how are you able to remain cheerful all the time?” Eknath ji stared at him for some time, ignoring his question, and said, “I see in you that you will not be alive after seven days.”

The devotee returned with a shock. From that day was seen a miraculous change in his behaviour. His wife, children and even the neighbours were surprised to see the change. On the seventh day, the devotee, taking bath early in the morning, and wearing a pair of clean cloth sat in his puja room meditating while awaiting death. Just then Eknath ji happened to come there. He asked, “How did you pass your seven days?”

The devotee said, “During the last seven days I never behaved harshly or got angry with anyone. I kept myself aloof from all unworthy worldly matters. I lost interest in all gossips. All my worldly problems became insignificant. Fearing death, my mind was in God alone as that alone gave me true peace and strength.”

Eknath ji smiled and said, “Good! Now you have truly understood how to remain ever-cheerful!”

A philosopher puts it well, “God writes a lot of comedy; but the tragedy is He is stuck with so many bad actors who don’t know how to play funny.”!!

A Chinese proverb says, “The real miracle is neither in flying in the air nor in walking over water, but in walking on the earth!”

We have no choice but to live amidst the fleeting world and the decaying bodies. Understanding the nature of the world as impermanent and hence developing a healthy detachment from the world of things and beings, and at the same time, ever fixing the attention upon the Real and the Permanent, is called the perfect way of living.

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

November 2011

Let us develop a sense of gratitude to the Lord by focusing our attention on what we have. – Chinmaya

A saint was walking along a crowded road when his eyes fell on a child begging by the wayside.

To every passer-by, the child called out, “Give me something in the name of God! My parents are blind! Help me feed them!”

The saint told the boy, “Why do you need to beg my child when you are so rich!”

The beggar boy was taken aback. “Alas sir, I am poor! My parents are blind and we live on the alms I get.”

The saint thought for a while and then said, “I shall give you Rs.10,000/-. Will you cut your hands and give it to me?” The boy was horrified.

The saint persisted, “How about your legs? Take 10,000/-, but give both your legs.” The boy shook his head, speechless with shock.

“All right then, give me those pretty eyes of yours for 10,000/-…”

“How cruel you are!” the boy burst out. “Will you have me disfigured, deformed and maimed for life?”

The saint smiled. Lovingly he said, “My dear child, God has blessed you with such strong and healthy limbs. Why don’t you make use of them effectively? Why beg when you can work hard and live a life of self-respect!”

God blesses us every moment. But we are habituated in taking all His blessings for granted… or we are busy comparing and proving that we got less… or we pay more attention to what is missing and thus miss out what is present. At the end of the day, there is a thankless, discontented heart craving for more.

No wonder why our hearts ever remain hard and dry, despite receiving so much in abundance.

The statement “Man gets and forgets while God gives and forgives” makes the cause of our misery plain and clear.

True happiness lies not in gaining what we don’t have, but in recognizing and appreciating what we already have. Soon we will discover that counting our blessings is the hardest arithmetic to master!

Once in a children’s camp, the teacher asked the children to list down the ‘seven wonders of the world’. While the grown-up ones rushed in to present their standard stereotype answers, a small girl too, about five or six years of age, hesitatingly submitted her list of wonders. They were 1. To see 2.To hear 3.To smell 4.To feel 5. To taste 6. To love 7. To laugh.

How true!! As has been rightly said, “We thank the one who gave us the wrist-watch but forget the One who gave us the wrist!”

God’s gifts are priceless and invaluable. Lose it, and it’s lost forever. Despite all the modern technological advancements, they remain, even to this day, irreplaceable.

Someone has put it nicely, “I was sad that I didn’t have shoes till I saw someone who didn’t have legs!”

Noble souls find ample reasons to thank the Lord even in the most tragic situations.

Recently, in one of the reputed hospitals, a cancer patient, whose case was declared incurable by the expert doctors, was seen joyously chanting aloud Lord’s name. An astonished visitor, seeing his blissful state asked him with curiosity, “Sir, how is it possible for you to thank God despite giving you such a painful end?”

The patient smiled and replied, “Sir, I am truly grateful to God. How lucky I am that I know the arrival of death long before I die! Now every moment has become precious for me. Facing the inevitable end, my mind now doesn’t wander anymore. All relatives have left me and thus I clearly perceive that God alone is my true companion. With His sweetest name on my lips, I weep and pray from the depth of my heart, which I was unable to do before. Thanks to this disease, I feel His consoling presence as never before…”

Cheerfully accepting even the bitterest experience as prasadam from the Lord is the sign of a true devotee.

O Lord, next time when You answer our prayers, ensure that You have given us the most (and the only) important thing – a thankful heart filled with gratitude.

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

October 2011

A man who wants to do something will find a way; a man who doesn’t, will find an excuse. – Stephen Dolley

For a mind that is willing, there is nothing impossible.

An old man lived in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work. His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:

“Dear son, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potato garden this year. I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting them. I am just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were there, all my troubles will be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren’t in prison… Love, Dad.”

Shortly the old man received this telegram, “For Heaven’s sake, Dad, don’t dig up the garden! That’s where I buried the GUNS!!”

At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden, but couldn’t find any gun. Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what had happened and asked him what to do next.

His son’s reply was, “Go ahead and plant your potatoes Dad… This is the best I could do for you from here.”

For a man of determination, no reason can become an excuse for not achieving the goal. For him, all excuses are lame, however rational or logical they may sound to be. “If I don’t realize my dreams and objectives, then I alone am responsible, none else.” is his open and bold declaration.

But unfortunately, according to us, any responsibility means nothing but a ‘detachable burden easily shifted to the shoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck, Star or one’s neighbour’.

“He that is good in making excuses is seldom good in making anything else!” says Benjamin Franklin.

Someone has jokingly defined an inefficient ‘committee’ as “Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together”!!

The weak alone seek excuses; the strong hardly find any.

There was a giant who was bullying and harassing the children in the village. One day a shepherd boy came to visit his brothers and asked, “Why don’t you stand up and fight the giant?”

The brothers were terrified and they replied, “Don’t you see he is too big to hit?”

But the shepherd boy said, “No. He is not too big to hit; rather he is too big to miss!!”

The mind trained to succeed will find opportunities anywhere.

This is an incident which happened around 40 years back at the intersection of the then Mount Road and Nungambakkam High Road in Chennai. On a busy hour, a man lay there on the roadside in a pool of blood, screaming for help. Seemed to be a road accident. Office-goers resumed their rush to their offices after a split-second glance at the man.

A construction worker woman, seeing this scene, threw aside her spade and her lunch pack, gathered the victim, put him in an autorickshaw, and sped off to the hospital. This timely step saved the man.

Of course, she had to part with her tiny nose-ring made of gold to pay the auto fare. Added to this, the loss of that day’s wage which she would otherwise have earned by dint of hard work at some construction site. But had she the mind to calculate it all? No chance!

Where there is a will, not one but thousands of ways unfold from within and without. For a man of stern will, even ‘Impossible’ appears only as ‘I’m possible’!

All situations are but God-sent, with a definite purpose, i.e. to assist us in our evolution. Excuses and escapisms defeat this very purpose. They only serve to delay the evolutionary process. A lesson not learned will be re-taught until well-learnt. Self-discovery is that ultimate lesson to be learnt compulsorily and none can escape it. Thus facing all situations, without looking for short-cuts, with total faith in Omniscient God as our Well Wisher is the best way to lead a fruitful life.

If this is our attitude, then never will we wallow in excuses and accuses, which are but the preoccupation of the inefficient and the incompetent.

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

September 2011

Those who know, do not say. Those who say, do not know. The wise are therefore silent. The clever speak, the stupid argue. -Lao Tsu

This is a true story.

A woman used to travel from Philadelphia to New York every day by train. One day, she was a little late arriving at the station, and hastily managed to board the train just in time.

She found herself in a compartment totally empty – except that a heavy-set gentleman was seated in front of her.

The man lit a cigar and began to puff. The woman was annoyed. Wishing to show her displeasure, she began to clear her throat and groan loudly. But the man continued to puff away lighting a fresh one when the first was over.

Seeing this, the lady lost all her patience. She shouted at him for a long time for disregarding the co-passengers and disobeying Government rules. The man cast a questioning glance at her. Then wordlessly, he stubbed his cigar out and started to read.

A little later, a railway official entered the compartment and was startled to see the lady.

“You are not supposed to be seated here, madam,” he whispered to her. Pointing at the heavy-set man with great respect, he continued, “This is General Grant’s private compartment”.

Shocked, the lady got up made a quick hasty exit. The General did not even glance at her as she left, for he did not wish to embarrass her!

Our condition is exactly similar to that lady. We go on blabbering about every happening, not knowing that the visible world is unreal, being a projection of our own disturbed mind. It is only the wise who know that the world is as unreal as our dream. Just as we ignore the blabbering of a dreaming person, so too the wise remain silent when the worldly people argue, for, he knows that the Self, the Pure Consciousness alone is real, and anything seen in it is but an illusion and hence, essenceless.

For the ignorant, the world alone is real and God, unreal. For the awakened, God alone is and nothing else! Quieter the mind, nearer are we to God.

Once S. Radhakrishnan, the then Vice President of India, went to meet Ramana Maharshi. After around 45 minutes Radhakrishnan came out, and when the media people gathered around him anxiously enquiring what they had discussed, he gave a short, sweet answer, “We met in Silence”!

 The empty vessels make all the noise. The deepest rivers make least din. So too with people.

Practising inner silence is easier said than done. A famous writer narrated his experience, “Once I was condemned to three month’s absolute silence. As I could not speak, I wrote a book”!

George Bernard Shaw sees another reason why we should remain quiet. He says, “Choose silence among all virtues, for, by it, you hear other man’s imperfections, and conceal your own”!

A Sanskrit subhashitam glorifies silence thus, “Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in the cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about”!

God is far far away from people puffed up with the arrogance of learning. Many are the learned and the eloquent, who, despite their vast knowledge in scriptures, grope in darkness within.

But to the humble and the meek, the Lord reveals all His secrets. To such a one who approaches God in all nakedness with a simple and pure heart, He makes him realize his oneness with Him.

God can never be found in noise and restlessness. He loves silence. In nature the trees, the grass, the flowers grow in silence; the sun and the moon and the stars move in silence. To discover Him within, one has to be in silence.

An ancient proverb says, “He who is asleep in continual noise is awakened by silence”!

May the Silence of the Self awaken us all, now sleeping comfortably amidst the continual noise of the ego and the egocentric demands.

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

August 2011

To restrain the vagrant mind and channel its enormous potential towards a given goal constitutes yoga. – Chinmaya

Ordinary sunlight can do nothing to a piece of paper. But the very same light, when converted into a focused beam by passing through a magnifying lens, reduces the paper into ashes instantly. So too with our mind. The art of disciplining the mind is called yoga.

A mind that has learnt to concentrate becomes capable of discovering the deep mysteries of the universe, unavailable for the casual passers-by. Such a disciplined mind, applying itself single-pointedly, cruises towards the chosen goal with utmost ease without any distraction.

Henry Ford is an immortal figure in the annals of the 20th century. The visionary entrepreneur, who introduced the concept of assembly-line technology, became the first industrialist who pioneered the mass production of automobiles. He also introduced the first-ever low priced car, called Model T. he dreamed that every common man should be able to afford a car. True to his dream, around 1.6 crores of such cars were sold in the U.S itself!

Ford’s mass-production techniques led to the manufacture of a Model T car every 24 seconds, almost 10 times faster than the earlier techniques!

Ford’s affordable Model T irrevocably altered American society. As more Americans owned cars, urbanization patterns changed. The United States saw the growth of suburbia, the creation of a national highway system, and a population entranced with the possibility of going anywhere anytime. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. His innovations made him an international celebrity.

On his 75th birthday, Ford was asked the secret of his successful career. His answer was simple:

1. I never over-eat. 2. I never worry too much. 3. Whatever I do, I do my best. 4. I trust in the Lord; hence whatever happens to me, I know, it is for my best.

There is nothing impossible for a disciplined mind.

A youngster given to a loose way of living approached a Mahatma. Complaining that he always remained a failure in all his undertakings despite his sincere efforts, he pleaded for guidance. After some thought, the Mahatma gave him a pot full of holes and asked him to fill it with water. The youngster protested saying that it was impossible to fill such a leaking pot. The saint smiled and said, “My child, how can you expect to achieve anything worthwhile with a mind that is also leaking like this pot?”

With all its worries and anxieties, grievances and regrets, likes and dislikes, hatred and jealousies, lust, greed and anger, the mind leaks every moment. Truly, the pot of our mind has too many holes than we can ever imagine; and sadly, through all these holes, the precious ‘present moment’ is wasted.

The mind trapped in the lower becomes incapable of contemplating upon the Higher.

One day Devadatta came to Buddha, saying, “Master, accept me as your disciple! Grant me initiation!”

Buddha said, “Come tomorrow morning at 4 o’clock. But see that you come all alone. Bring no one with you, for I can initiate only one at a time.”

The next morning, exactly at 4 o’clock, Devadatta entered the cottage of Buddha. The Master looked at him and then said, “Devadatta, I asked you to come alone. You have brought a crowd with you!”

Astonished, Devadatta turned back to see who had followed him.

“The crowd is not behind you, Devadatta, the crowd is within you,” said Buddha. “Rid yourself of the crowd, and then come to me for initiation.”

Devadatta turned his gaze within and, sure enough, there were his wife and his two children. He was thinking of them. His mind was filled with thoughts of name and fame and earthly greatness, of possession and power, of the many good things he had done.

A year elapsed before he could rid himself of the crowd. Then he turned to Buddha saying, “Master, now I have come to you alone. Grant me initiation!”

The vagrant mind stops wandering once it tastes the subtler joys of the Self. May we thus through right knowledge discipline our mind and take up the greatest and the most adventurous voyage in life – going towards the Alone, all alone!

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

July 2011

In introspection, the mind itself is the subject of study. – Chinmaya

 In every field, we find the instruments tamed to ‘dance’ to the tunes of their wielding masters – be it the violin of a violinist, the sword of a soldier, the bat of a batsman, the axe of a wood-cutter, the brush of a painter or the plough of a farmer. Experts perfect their instruments before entering their respective fields of expertise.

So too, to be a master of all situations, the mind, the instrument with which we respond to the outer world, has to be trained to remain efficient by not allowing it to lose its equipoise even in trying circumstances.

 Once in America, Swami Vivekananda gave a reverberant speech proclaiming that fearlessness is the message of all Upanishads. A few young men decided to put the Swami to test. They invited him to deliver a lecture.

On the appointed day, within a few minutes after Swamiji started his speech, bullet shots were heard inside the hall. People fled in panic, women shrieked in fear and some fell unconscious. Amid these confusions, there was only one man – Swami Vivekananda – who stood firm, immovable as a rock, fearless like a lion.

Soon the shots ceased. Swamiji resumed his talk exactly where he had paused. People returned to the hall, things returned to normal and it seemed as though nothing had happened.

After the lecture was over, the youngsters approached Swamiji and said, “Sir, please forgive us. The shots were fired to see how fearless you were. Your faith and courage have put us to shame.”

The thoughts entertained, the words spoken and the deeds done – all of them indicate the state of our mind. Hence it is absolutely essential to take charge of our mind to ensure a life of peace and harmony within and without. And the most efficient way to master one’s mind is through the method of introspection.

In introspection, the mind itself becomes the subject of study – that is to say, instead of applying the mind one starts observing the mind. Great inner secrets are revealed when we thus watch our mind remaining as an alert, impartial witness, without coming under the sway of its likes and dislikes.

A self-examiner in his early days of introspection gets to witness innumerable manifestations of one’s own devilish mind – an indisciplined mind taking delight in the lower, vulgar pleasures of the senses… a disturbed mind tormented by worries, fears and anxieties… a dull mind showing a lack of interest in everything… or a stubborn mind unwilling to give up its old unhealthy habits… a tempting mind compelling to yield to temptations disregarding all intellectual convictions and moral principles… a deceitful mind posing itself as saintly for the seemingly selfless acts of charity and service… an accusing mind eagerly trying to cover up its weakness by finding fault with others… a boastful mind revelling in its own achievements and accomplishments… a wandering mind unable to abide in the Higher … a doubting mind questioning the very existence of God…

The silent moments of ‘witnessing the within’ in the brilliant light of the Pure Awareness speak volumes to the alert and the vigilant.

Once Acharya Vinoba Bhave received a letter from Mahatma Gandhi in which the latter had showered praises on the former saying that he was one of the noblest men on earth. Vinoba ji immediately tore away the letter before anyone could read it and put it to the dustbin. He never allowed the wicked ego to wallow in self-glorification or even to raise its hood!

Maintaining a clean garden of conscience within is possible only by those, who, like a good gardener, time and again clear up the fallen leaves and worthless weeds of mental garbage along with nourishing the plants of noble thoughts.

A person went to a mahatma and asked how to gain peace of mind. The mahatma mockingly remarked, “You have made your mind like the waiting room in the railway station. How can you have peace when you indiscriminately allow all ignoble and vulgar thoughts to enter your mind? So from now on maintain your mind like you maintain your Pooja room. Chant the Lord’s name. Enthrone Him in your heart. Allow Him to remain there, and He will purify you. From then on you will never know misery.”

Let us set aside a definite time every day to peep within ourselves and have a look at what is going on in the mental factory. The poisonous negativities detected while churning the within will then automatically goad us on until we attain the summit of inner perfection called liberation.

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

June 2011

‘Renounce the ego’ is the Lord’s only request; ‘I’ll make you a God’ is the promise. – Chinmaya

 “Can we see God?” is a common question asked by many. The above quote answers it all. You can not only see God, but you can be God as well! In fact, seeing God is being God.

A determined young man – a college student – once confronted Sadhu Vaswaniji and said to him, “You talk of God all the time – but where is He? He is not to be seen or heard! Your God is nowhere!”

Vaswaniji asked him to write those words on a piece of paper. Casually, the student picked up a pen and wrote in block letters: GOD IS NOWHERE. Vaswaniji smiled gently. He took the pen from the young man’s hand and drew a line – a stroke between ‘W’ and ‘H’ and asked him to read it.

The student read it aloud “God is now here”!

God is in the now, and God is right here! God is that light of awareness in whose presence we are aware of form, colour, sound, touch, taste or smell. God is that light of consciousness because of which we are conscious of the outer world of things and beings and the inner world of ideas and feelings. Again, God is that ‘I’ in us without which we have no existence! God thus defined becomes our innermost and intimate experience which none can deny or refute.

If this awareness, this consciousness, this ‘I’, is God, then why is it that we don’t experience the blissful state of Godhood?

Pujya Gurudev gives an apt simile in this regard. Why blame the chocolate if it doesn’t taste good when eaten along with the wrapper. Pure Consciousness ‘tasted’ along with the wrapper i.e. the body-mind-intellect entity or the ego, can only give us limited and painful experiences. Renounce the wrapper of ego and then enjoy the sweetness of the blissful Pure Consciousness.

Also, there is no ‘becoming’ God. Renounce the ego and what remains is God alone!

It is like silence. Stop making noise and the silence is already there. Stop dreaming and lo! The waker alone remains. It is only a wrong notion in the mind which makes us believe that we are this body-mind entity. Scriptures ask us to remove this imaginary egoistic notion, logically proving that the seen ego (the body-mind entity) is different from the seer, the Pure Awareness. Abidance in this Awareness itself is being God.

The Lord can only request us to renounce the ego; He cannot do it for us. The choice is given to us – whether to allow the play of the tyrant ego in us or allow God to take over. Making the first choice will mean keeping all the mind-born diseases like worries and anxieties as our constant companions. Make the second choice and we will see for ourselves how effortlessly the mind rests in peace, receiving the timely and appropriate guidance from the Divine.

Professor Samuel F B Morse, the inventor of the first electromagnetic single-wire telegraph system and the co-inventor of the Morse code, was asked in an interview, “In the course of your experiments at the university, there must have been occasions when you felt you were at a dead-end, knowing not which way to turn.”

“Of course yes,” he answered. “Such situations happened more than once.”

“Then what was your reaction?”

“I prayed for light, more light.”

“Did God give you what you asked for?”

“Yes, He did,” answered the Professor. “That’s why I always felt that I never deserved the honours that came to me from Europe and America. All this is due to God’s help. I wasn’t in any way superior to other scientists. The Lord had to bestow this gift (telegraphy) on mankind, and He had to choose someone. I am grateful that He chose to reveal it through me.”

Prof. Morse did not make the mistake of forgetting the Lord, as is the case with most of us. Once the invention was made in May 1844, the first message he sent through the telegraph was, “What God hath wrought!” (= what God has done).

It takes a great amount of maturity and wisdom to say, “O Lord – Thine, not mine!”

Thales, one of the seven wise men of ancient Greece, famously known as the father of modern science, was once asked, “What is the most difficult thing in this world?” Without a second thought, Thales replied, “To renounce one’s ego!”

Hundreds of devotees thronged to see the Master. This used to shatter the silence of the ashram, upsetting the inmates living there. But the Master seemed to be just as content with the noise as with the silence. One day, the disciples came to the Master, complaining about their difficulty in meditation due to the absence of silence in the ashram.

With a gentle smile, the Master replied, “silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of the self!”

May we remain ‘absent’; and in that silence of absence, may we recognize His Eternal Presence!

O   M         T   A   T         S   A   T

May 2011

Your life will be blessed if you need nothing until you have it.
– Chinmaya

The above quote is an advice given by Pujya Gurudev emphasizing the importance of practising contentment in our daily living.

It is said that the richest man is the one who is truly contented in life, and not the one who has lots of possessions, as has been widely misunderstood.

 “Who is wise? The one who learns from everyone; Who is powerful? The one who has governed his passions; Who is rich? The one who is content; and who is he? No one!” says Benjamin Franklin.

A rich man came to a Swami and offered him a thousand rupees. Swamiji asked the rich man, “You are offering me a thousand rupees. How much do you have for yourself?” The rich man answered, “Swamiji, I have many lakhs of rupees with me.” Swamiji asked, “Do you still wish to have more?” “Surely yes!” answered the rich man.

“Then I shall not accept your thousand rupees”, said Swamiji. “For a man must not receive from the one poorer than he!”

When the rich man expressed his inability to understand, Swamiji elaborated, “Though I have nothing, I desire nothing. You have so much, still, you desire more! Surely the person who desires to have is poorer than the man who feels satisfied and desires nothing!”

Our possessions have nothing to do with contentment. It is said, “A begging bowl was large enough for the saintly Diogenes, but even the whole world was too little for Alexander!”

Now, how to develop contentment?

First of all, we must realize the fact that any amount of indulgence is never going to give permanent satisfaction. Rather, satiation of desires only intensifies our craving to indulge more and more.

The name Mahmud Gazni once spelt terror all over India. Wherever he went, he looted, plundered, kidnapped and killed. In those days the temples of India were repositories of great riches. The idols were made with precious metals and adorned with precious gems. Mahmud ransacked these temples and killed the priests looting everything. From the year 1000 to 1026 he mounted at least 17 raids against India. It is estimated that Mahmud took from India jewels, gold, and silver in excess of 3 billion dinars, in addition to hundreds of thousands of slaves. He lived an indulgent life and had 9 wives and 56 children.

But alas, at the time of death, all the wealth that he had amassed was of no avail to this ruthless conqueror. He lay on his death bed with profound agony, tortured by the memory of his countless crimes and sins. He had lived a life tainted by greed, lust and violence. All the wealth he had captured could not bring him a moment’s peace in those crucial final hours of his earthly life.

On his death bed, he called his ministers and counsellors and warned them not to live as he had lived. He instructed them thus, “When I die, open my hands and let them hang loose outside my coffin as you take my body in a funeral procession. Let the people realize that despite all the wealth I have looted, I had to leave this world empty-handed.”

Contentment makes the poor man rich, while discontentment makes even the rich man poor!

 No one has ever attained total satisfaction by indulgence and fulfilment of their worldly desires. It is like trying to quench the thirst by drinking salty water, or putting off the fire by pouring ghee to it. Hence says the Bhagawad Gita, “The desirer of desires can never be happy”.

 Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away the fire!

 Once having realized that worldly pleasures and gains cannot give us total contentment, the next question is obvious, i.e. what else then, can give us total fulfilment?

The scriptures answer our problem saying that the true contentment comes not from outer acquisition, but from the inner realization that it is the very nature of the Self to be content. The Self, being the abode of Eternal Existence and Infinite Bliss, is the only place where our joy seeking mind can fully rest in peace. Once we realize this, our mind will stop wandering outward, like a well-fed pet dog which never gets attracted by the filth in the streets.

Just as a rich man’s son need not struggle to gain his father’s property, all the wealth already being his, we too, the children of the Heavenly Father, have inherited from Him His true nature, the Self, which is our very own. It is available for us at all times and in full measure. It contains all that we seek in life – security, freedom, joy, love, peace or contentment.

But sad to say, our condition is like that ungrateful son who, having lost touch with his rich father, is leading a beggarly life pestered by unending wants.

Blessed indeed is the one who, having realized this, shifts his attention from without to within. And with this shift comes the final end of an otherwise endless journey started billions of births ago, culminating in a perfected state of having everything and wanting nothing.

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April 2011

Success is not in the trophy won but in the race run. – Chinmaya

 The above quote reminds us of the famous verse from the Bhagawad Gita: Karmanyevaadhikaaraste maa phaleshu kadaachana.

The verse says that we have the right only in performing actions and that we have no right to insist upon their results. Here, in the above quote, running the race is the action and winning the trophy is the result of those actions.

 We are, therefore, asked to concentrate upon the work at hand rather than worry about the future results. The present is the only moment where the action can take place, and hence anxieties regarding the results will only bring out inefficient actions. Actions thus performed with a disturbed mind, cannot but produce inferior results.

 The famous musician, Arturo Toscanini, celebrated his eightieth birthday. Someone asked his son, “Walter, what according to your celebrated father, is his greatest achievement?”

 Walter replied, “For my beloved father, there is no such thing. Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the greatest thing in his life, whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange!”

Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. The past and future are illusions, as they too exist only in the present.

 Life is a great and wondrous mystery, and the only thing we are sure of is what is right here right now. As life is a succession of moments, we are successful when we live each and every moment. It means living our life consciously, being aware that each moment we breathe is a gift.

 A famous quote says, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present!”

 It is said that God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road!

To bring our entire attention to the present – our head, heart and hands – to the work at hand, not allowing our mind to wander either into the dead past or into the unborn future, is itself called Yoga.

 Also, referring to the above quote, if actions are performed keeping the ‘trophy’ in mind, then we are only postponing happiness to the future, uncertain and unknown. Vedanta says that happiness does not lie in the object, but it is the very nature of the subject, the Self. Hence it is not impossible to remain happy and contented even while ‘running the race’.

From the standpoint of worldly wisdom also, we find that it is not the end result which determines our joys and sorrows. It is the way we respond to those results that determine our state of the mind.

 Little Raju was very much excited. His class was all geared up to present a play during the forthcoming School Day celebrations. He had set his heart on being selected to play a part in it. Day after day, he chatted on excitedly about the role that might be offered to him, and how well he would play it.

 His mother, however, had her own fears. She felt that he may not be chosen to play a part, and feared that he might be terribly disappointed.

 On the day the roles were allotted, she went to pick him up after school. As usual, Raju ran up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement. “Mama”, he gushed, “I have been chosen to clap and cheer!”

 One who has cultivated to think positively ever remains happy irrespective of the outer happenings.

Looking through the eyes of spirituality, the purpose of any action is served only when it purifies the mind. This happens when all our actions are performed as a worship of the Lord, taking their results as Prasadam from Him. When actions are performed with this attitude – called the attitude of Karma Yoga – the mind gradually gains purity. With such a pure and quiet mind, one gains the knowledge of the Self, which is the very purpose of life.

While performing actions, if this spirit of Karma Yoga is missing, then those very same actions bind us. In this sense, even if the outer ‘trophies’– of name and fame, victory and wealth, powers and pleasures – are won, we will still be considered only a failure, as we have failed to win the inner ‘trophy’ – our true Self.

 All may not get the outer trophies as they are limited in number, but the inner trophy, the only real trophy, is available for all, provided we ‘run the race’ with the right attitude – the attitude of Karma Yoga.

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March 2011

Beating one’s own drum is worldly outlook. Beating oneself into shape is spiritual effort. – Chinmaya

There is a widespread belief in the minds of the people that spirituality means an exhibition of supernatural powers like reading others’ minds, walking over water, flying in space, predicting the future, or showing some miracle.

 The above quote makes it very clear: Any ‘beating one’s own drum’, i.e. any effort where one tries to project oneself as extraordinarily great or special is not spirituality. True spirituality involves ‘beating oneself to shape’, i.e. it involves an effort to efface our little ego and allow the Divine Will to express through us. Whereas the worldly outlook encourages the development of the personality, spiritual outlook works towards the annihilation of the personality.

‘Personality’ is nothing but a false notion which an individual gathers about oneself in the process of interacting with the world. Any such notion is only an imagination born of the mind and hence not true. One has to know oneself as the Supreme Self, of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, as that alone is our real nature. Any effort which destroys the wrong notion in us and reveals to us our true nature is real spirituality. And this effort itself is the greatest austerity, says the great sage of Arunachala, Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi.

In the spiritual path, therefore, the effort is in annihilating the wrong notion in us, i.e. the ego. This annihilation of ego is what makes the spiritual path most difficult as it almost amounts to committing suicide. But this ‘self-destruction’ is unavoidable to regain and relive as the true Self. When the self-asserting ego dies as a part of one’s spiritual sadhana, one becomes very humble. This we see in the lives of all saints and prophets.

In the dark and troubled years of religious conflict, just before the partition of India, Sadhu Vaswani was asked to give an address on “Education and the Spirit of Islam”. The talk was presided over by the then Vice-Chancellor of the University, Mr Haleem.

The assembled scholars were stunned by the brilliance and depth of Sadhu Vaswani’s address. A highly ranked official, who had listened to the talk, came up to meet Vaswaniji. “Sir, are you a Hindu or a Mussalmaan?” he asked. “I am between the two”, answered Vaswaniji with a smile. “But between the two there is nothing”, the official insisted.

The great saint replied, “I am that nothing”!

Our Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayanandji used to humorously say that in the world, as a part of organizing an event, after every ‘brainstorming’ session, there follows a ‘claim storming’ session, if everything comes out well. But if the whole event turns out to be a flop, then there follows a ‘blame storming’ session!

In silent egoless service, Mother Nature is our best role model. Sun rises and seasons change in silence, flowers blossom and fruits ripen in silence. All growth happens in silence. All the important physiological functions like blood circulation, digestion etc. happen in utter silence. Let us, therefore, learn to serve in silence.

Ishwara Chandra Vidyasagar, one of the greatest leaders of Bengal and a man of affluence and influence, lived a life of utter simplicity. He wore simple clothes and often passed unrecognized.

One day as he was going along the road, he saw an old and poor labourer, with his back bent and his steps faltering due to a heavy load. Vidyasagar’s heart went out for him and he asked him, “Brother, may I carry this burden for you?”

Not recognizing his benefactor, the old man gratefully relinquished his load. Vidyasagar lifted the load and carried it on his back right up to the destination. Reaching into his pocket, he took out a silver coin and pressed it into the palm of the baffled labourer saying, “Brother, please bless me”.

The drum belongs to Him. The ability to beat the drum also comes from Him. We show our disregard and ingratitude when we ‘beat our own drum’ forgetting the Lord who has given us everything.

Our ego is our greatest enemy. This enemy resides in our own heart. Hence instead of worrying about how to change the world and the people around, let us pay more attention to ‘beat ourselves to shape’. In fact, this is the only way to shape the world too!

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