Go Ahead
The following article is reproduced from Chinmaya Udghosh magazine
When Hanumanji was asked to cross the ocean and find Sitaji, he met three obstacles. The first obstacle as he started was, one of his uncles came in the form of a mountain and said, "You rest on this mountain". Hanumanji said, "No". rest has to be discovered in work. Those who want to discover rest outside the work get tired very fast in the work. Vedanta is relaxation, not after action, but during action. This art of relaxing during action is called Yoga. There is no entertainment required after the action. Why are we tired? We are tired because we are mental fighters. We have either not chosen the field of our interest, or even after choosing the field of interest, have an anxiety to do something very fast. or we are attached to something which we are not getting. Therefore "Why is that thing not there" - this thought is still hanging in the mind. When that thought is there, how can there be easy flow of some other thought?
Even after the best efficiency or talent, a person may be a failure becuase of his attachment. I want something to happen very fast and it is not happening. Wanting something to happen is not bad; there is no problem in wanting. But the attitude "No, no, no .... it should happen by that time", and more than that, a longing that it should happen as I want, is not a healthy attitude.
This world belongs to the Lord. Things happen at their own time, in their own way. Increase your qualifications, and desire will follow. We increase our desires, so qualification is missing. Anything will reach the deserving; this is the law. If a person deserves money, he will get money, I will add one clause 'in time'. If one deserves reverence, he will get reverence. If one deserves love, he will get love.
The first law is that we will get it; but, qualification has to be there. And how will that qualification come? Consistency, continuity and commitment to anything that we undertake - commitment at the intellectual level, consistency at the mental level and continuity at the physical level, the level of sense organs. If this is not there, I don't think any success could be very long lived. It will be a very short success. One has to pay the cost. Continue, continue, continue .... this is the first point.
Take your pick
Everybody is waiting for the future. We are totally helpless in this present situation, as if the present situation has nothing to do with our evolution and growth, and that we cannot do anything. The beauty of life is in increasing our choices, and not in increasing our compulsions. When we are not acting properly, our compulsions for the future will increase. A weak mind is surrounded by weak situations. A strong mind is surrounded by strong situations. What does that mean? Weak situation means there is compulsion, and strong situation means there are choices. The more a person evolves, the more are the opportunities. A person gets lush opportunities. Opportunities are another name of our investment; investment in the past; investment of three things - commitment, consistency and continuity, which come forth as opportunity.
Pujya Gurudev used to say, "Today alone will express itself as tomorrow". Tomorrow would not be an isolated thing from today. What would be the mood in the morning would depend on what I had done the night before. What I have pursued the whole day will decide tomorrow's programme as well. Things are connected. Whatever you want to pursue, keep your goals intact, no problem. But if we are put in some crucial situation, it has something to do, some purpose to fill. The system is intelligent. The situation must have wanted certain things; fine, let us go through it.
A person wrote to Gurudev, "Swamiji I am suffering much, but I cannot leave this work". He wrote two words, "Suffer gracefully". This is the first obstacle, that we are tired. Tired with people, tired with work, and therefore, we want to retire. Our joy is not there in the action; it is in something else. In every small bit, even if there is no joy, we have to learn to discover joy. Interesting people are those who make boring things more interesting and boring people are those who make interesting things boring.
We can make anything interesting. Don't make your compulsion your sadness. Make your compulsion an opportunity. Then, that compulsion will go after some time. We have two areas in life - where we are compelled and where we have choice. The room of compulsion is big, and choice is very small. So what to do? Construct some doors, so that the compulsion room can become an opportunity room.
All great people had very compelling situations in their life. See the life of Abraham Lincoln; he was a farmer. See the life of Einstein; he was a school dropout. It was not a very good start. Choice is not the first room of life. If anybody had too much choice, it would spoil his life. We spoiled ourselves where we had more choices. Thus Lord does not give us choices, unless we are prepared to take it. That is the beauty of the system. Let not the compulsion be a sadness, a boredom, a depression. We have to discover something to grow out of it. We have to live the life. Live with laughter, live with cheer, live with courage, live with patience, live with vitality, and go ahead. Think, today also i can have a great day.
True heroism
The second obstacle was (the demoness) Sursa. She said, "I want to eat you". Hanumanji said, "Eat" and Hanumanji became double the size of her mouth. Ultimately, when the mouth was too wide, Hanumanji became so small, entered into her stomach and came out. He said, "You have already eaten, because eating means going into the stomach". Meaning? In front of the situation, our courage and faith should be doubled, then the situation will feel smaller. The problem of the situation becomes big when our faith becomes small. There is a feeling, "I'll be crushed by it". No, you will not be crushed by it. Have this tremendous courage, "I cannot be crushed by it". Teacher is not a teacher if he is not imparting faith. Scripture is not a scripture if we are not getting faith. We have to double our faith as per the situation. At the same time, be very small - be humble. People who are very dashing become too rough as well. Be dashing in the outside world, in front of the situation, but at the same time, have also the softness of the rose petal.
The third obstacle was the presence of another demoness as Hanumanji was crossing. She used to catch and pull down anybody flying over her. Hanumanji killed her. In life, don't compete. You will find in every place that somebody is better than you. Only one person has no one better than him. Who is that? God! Everywhere you will find someone better. We spend more time in thinking of those who are ahead of us. Instead of taking inspiration from them, we take bitterness and anxiety. I have learnt that love is blind, but jealousy has many eyes. We are intolerant with someone. We want something that somebody else is having, then there is the anxiety that when he can have, why can't I? Never mind, you'll also deserve it. Give a pat to someone who is going ahead in life. Take inspiration. Everybody is unique in his own way. Everybody is not meant for everything. Everybody can go in his own direction, and excel somehwere in life, which others don't have. Everyone is meant for something very specific. This is the glory.
When the heart is full of love, it is a free mind. A bitter mind is occupied; occupied mind is inefficient, because flow of thought is not there, there is a blockage. With a blocked mind, there cannot be efficiency; there cannot be performance. Learn to encourage everyone; learn to take everyone with you. To work alone is easy, but to work with many people around is difficult. When you take others, others will give you a push. If you start pulling someone, the system is such that you will also be pulled. I have met such beautiful friends in my life who had encourage me like anything. It is very easy to increase our head, but very difficult to expand our heart. Please note, the world is lived, not with the head; it is lived with the heart only. Those who have heart are cheerful and happy. Head should not be so big that the heart and stomach are inside the head. Everything has its place, and that is the beauty. Gurudev used to say, "Beauty is symmetry".
Remember these things: relaxation during action, converting compulsion into choice and opportunity, keeping courage and faith bigger than the problem and situation, and going together in life. The field of action should become a field of love as well, to bring people together. Expand the heart; that will work more in life. The heart is the only element that never fails, even after death. That is the only instrument that works after all the failures and even after we have lost everything else.
When Hanumanji was asked to cross the ocean and find Sitaji, he met three obstacles. The first obstacle as he started was, one of his uncles came in the form of a mountain and said, "You rest on this mountain". Hanumanji said, "No". rest has to be discovered in work. Those who want to discover rest outside the work get tired very fast in the work. Vedanta is relaxation, not after action, but during action. This art of relaxing during action is called Yoga. There is no entertainment required after the action. Why are we tired? We are tired because we are mental fighters. We have either not chosen the field of our interest, or even after choosing the field of interest, have an anxiety to do something very fast. or we are attached to something which we are not getting. Therefore "Why is that thing not there" - this thought is still hanging in the mind. When that thought is there, how can there be easy flow of some other thought?
Even after the best efficiency or talent, a person may be a failure becuase of his attachment. I want something to happen very fast and it is not happening. Wanting something to happen is not bad; there is no problem in wanting. But the attitude "No, no, no .... it should happen by that time", and more than that, a longing that it should happen as I want, is not a healthy attitude.
This world belongs to the Lord. Things happen at their own time, in their own way. Increase your qualifications, and desire will follow. We increase our desires, so qualification is missing. Anything will reach the deserving; this is the law. If a person deserves money, he will get money, I will add one clause 'in time'. If one deserves reverence, he will get reverence. If one deserves love, he will get love.
The first law is that we will get it; but, qualification has to be there. And how will that qualification come? Consistency, continuity and commitment to anything that we undertake - commitment at the intellectual level, consistency at the mental level and continuity at the physical level, the level of sense organs. If this is not there, I don't think any success could be very long lived. It will be a very short success. One has to pay the cost. Continue, continue, continue .... this is the first point.
Take your pick
Everybody is waiting for the future. We are totally helpless in this present situation, as if the present situation has nothing to do with our evolution and growth, and that we cannot do anything. The beauty of life is in increasing our choices, and not in increasing our compulsions. When we are not acting properly, our compulsions for the future will increase. A weak mind is surrounded by weak situations. A strong mind is surrounded by strong situations. What does that mean? Weak situation means there is compulsion, and strong situation means there are choices. The more a person evolves, the more are the opportunities. A person gets lush opportunities. Opportunities are another name of our investment; investment in the past; investment of three things - commitment, consistency and continuity, which come forth as opportunity.
Pujya Gurudev used to say, "Today alone will express itself as tomorrow". Tomorrow would not be an isolated thing from today. What would be the mood in the morning would depend on what I had done the night before. What I have pursued the whole day will decide tomorrow's programme as well. Things are connected. Whatever you want to pursue, keep your goals intact, no problem. But if we are put in some crucial situation, it has something to do, some purpose to fill. The system is intelligent. The situation must have wanted certain things; fine, let us go through it.
A person wrote to Gurudev, "Swamiji I am suffering much, but I cannot leave this work". He wrote two words, "Suffer gracefully". This is the first obstacle, that we are tired. Tired with people, tired with work, and therefore, we want to retire. Our joy is not there in the action; it is in something else. In every small bit, even if there is no joy, we have to learn to discover joy. Interesting people are those who make boring things more interesting and boring people are those who make interesting things boring.
We can make anything interesting. Don't make your compulsion your sadness. Make your compulsion an opportunity. Then, that compulsion will go after some time. We have two areas in life - where we are compelled and where we have choice. The room of compulsion is big, and choice is very small. So what to do? Construct some doors, so that the compulsion room can become an opportunity room.
All great people had very compelling situations in their life. See the life of Abraham Lincoln; he was a farmer. See the life of Einstein; he was a school dropout. It was not a very good start. Choice is not the first room of life. If anybody had too much choice, it would spoil his life. We spoiled ourselves where we had more choices. Thus Lord does not give us choices, unless we are prepared to take it. That is the beauty of the system. Let not the compulsion be a sadness, a boredom, a depression. We have to discover something to grow out of it. We have to live the life. Live with laughter, live with cheer, live with courage, live with patience, live with vitality, and go ahead. Think, today also i can have a great day.
True heroism
The second obstacle was (the demoness) Sursa. She said, "I want to eat you". Hanumanji said, "Eat" and Hanumanji became double the size of her mouth. Ultimately, when the mouth was too wide, Hanumanji became so small, entered into her stomach and came out. He said, "You have already eaten, because eating means going into the stomach". Meaning? In front of the situation, our courage and faith should be doubled, then the situation will feel smaller. The problem of the situation becomes big when our faith becomes small. There is a feeling, "I'll be crushed by it". No, you will not be crushed by it. Have this tremendous courage, "I cannot be crushed by it". Teacher is not a teacher if he is not imparting faith. Scripture is not a scripture if we are not getting faith. We have to double our faith as per the situation. At the same time, be very small - be humble. People who are very dashing become too rough as well. Be dashing in the outside world, in front of the situation, but at the same time, have also the softness of the rose petal.
The third obstacle was the presence of another demoness as Hanumanji was crossing. She used to catch and pull down anybody flying over her. Hanumanji killed her. In life, don't compete. You will find in every place that somebody is better than you. Only one person has no one better than him. Who is that? God! Everywhere you will find someone better. We spend more time in thinking of those who are ahead of us. Instead of taking inspiration from them, we take bitterness and anxiety. I have learnt that love is blind, but jealousy has many eyes. We are intolerant with someone. We want something that somebody else is having, then there is the anxiety that when he can have, why can't I? Never mind, you'll also deserve it. Give a pat to someone who is going ahead in life. Take inspiration. Everybody is unique in his own way. Everybody is not meant for everything. Everybody can go in his own direction, and excel somehwere in life, which others don't have. Everyone is meant for something very specific. This is the glory.
When the heart is full of love, it is a free mind. A bitter mind is occupied; occupied mind is inefficient, because flow of thought is not there, there is a blockage. With a blocked mind, there cannot be efficiency; there cannot be performance. Learn to encourage everyone; learn to take everyone with you. To work alone is easy, but to work with many people around is difficult. When you take others, others will give you a push. If you start pulling someone, the system is such that you will also be pulled. I have met such beautiful friends in my life who had encourage me like anything. It is very easy to increase our head, but very difficult to expand our heart. Please note, the world is lived, not with the head; it is lived with the heart only. Those who have heart are cheerful and happy. Head should not be so big that the heart and stomach are inside the head. Everything has its place, and that is the beauty. Gurudev used to say, "Beauty is symmetry".
Remember these things: relaxation during action, converting compulsion into choice and opportunity, keeping courage and faith bigger than the problem and situation, and going together in life. The field of action should become a field of love as well, to bring people together. Expand the heart; that will work more in life. The heart is the only element that never fails, even after death. That is the only instrument that works after all the failures and even after we have lost everything else.
No comments:
Post a Comment