Let us define what we want to be and then let others define us as we want to be.

Everyone influences our behaviour to smaller or greater extent, true. How we allow others to influence our behaviour is purely our choice and strength. Given same situation of verbal jab, one might grow tolerant and loving saint where as another becomes a bitter resentment. What makes one follow different path is personal will and purpose. What ever happens outside is just a stepping stone for us to move forward. It is a test which benchmarks our progress. Our reactions and actions with respect to the situation is what defines us as who we have become at that moment. We dont need others to define us. Many a time we create situations without anyone doing or saying anything. Lot of people keep worrying without need for external stimuli.

Only when we choose the direction we shall move in using all the stepping stones to take us in the chosen direction, we can be called reasonably worthy humans. Rest are all following the crowd and being tossed and turned by the wind so to speak. This does not mean that people around you are not influencing but one chooses how others shall influence them by their own virtue either consciously or unconsciously.

So let us take this theory positively for our spiritual development so that we can grow instead tending to blame the whole world, parents and society. Most of the times we live in places where situations are overwhelming us, if this is the case then we need to do lot of soul searching to find a place where we can handle, choose a role which is within our reach and better for our growth, find people who will support us in this direction. We need to gather enough courage and will to do the right thing, its very difficult but worth it.

It is important to know that we do not move ahead just by our self, we are in this world and every aspect of the world influences us, every person we meet and every situation and material. All these help us move forward. It is like friction, we would not be able to walk if there was no friction between our feet and ground, yet this friction is what slows us down, lesser the friction easier we move. So we should be thankful to everyone and everything for our progress and be aware of which direction we shall move using this friction. To reduce friction we must become less egoistic, ego causes friction which moves us forward. Then when we are confident to fly we can renounce ego. Till then ego will keep us firm on ground.

So we need to accept all our shortcomings and weakness as a friction that is helping us move forward. Acceptance of self with proper perspective without judging and feeling bad or guilty is difficult but necessary in all spiritual development. We need lot of tolerance, courage and meditation to empower self to that extent to be able to do it. I use Rajayoga meditation(Brahma Kumaris) to do be aware of my actions all the time and change them in the direction i choose.

Let us define what we want to be and then let others define us as we want to be.

Loving self and Loving being

Recently i was asked "How do i Love my self?" by a very close friend who was facing some problems.

This is very fundamental question that should have been answered in primary school education but unfortunately our education does not understand importance of love in life. It is all about language, math, science, etc, which are good but we still need to review.

Love is also most misunderstood term. People think love is a feeling, emotion or passion. If you ask me, love is just love. One can express love with different feelings like happiness, affection, jealousy, possessiveness, and even hatred is an expression of love. If there was no love there would be indifference but hatred is negative expression of love fundamentally speaking. Similarly lot of different types of emotions express love ranging from enthusiasm, bliss, fear, anger, etc.

Love itself is more fundamental than any of these feelings or emotions. They say love is what connects and sustains this world. When we care for somebody, being affectionate, this is simplest expression of love. When we show concern and empathy, it is again love. Love is expressed in all different relationships in different ways. The way we love our mother is different from way we love our brothers and sisters. How we connect with person decides how we express love, also the expectations play their own part.

Love is not what we logically analyse and accept, or a give and take. Love never cares about justifications or acceptance. Love is not limited that we loose it if we give. More we give more we find love. Again we need not find love outside, we do not need anyone to love us if we learn to love ourselves. We can live independently and happily giving love because we have abundance of it when we love ourselves. Love exists for loves sake and for each and everyone of us. We dont have to worry if a person will reciprocate or not, not to worry about rejection when we love for sake of love. Happiness lives in the wake of love, so if we learn to love, we are always happy.

Only person who looses love is the one who forgets to love the self. Loving our self is what creates abundance of love which overflows to everyone around us. Then we are back to the question how do we love ourself?

what do you feel when you listen to the words, affection, care, concern, happiness, etc. can we correlate these words to relationships in our life how ever small or significant. The relationship where these apply strongly are where our love is channeled. what do we do for a person we love? we care for them, we present gifts, spend time with them, do what they like and need, right?

Now when we love ourselves, all we need to do is the same for our self. Care for our body and mind. Present gifts to self. Spend time for exercising our body or a relaxing massage and reading/watching inspirational books, programs, etc. Spending time reviewing life and meditating. Giving more importance to peace, happiness and harmony in our life. I practice Rajyoga Meditation at Brahma Kumaris, Its been a blessing for many years. This is what we can start doing to love our self. When we are in harmony with our body and mind, there is peace and happiness in our life.

We are not starved for attention and do not remain at the mercy of others (read partners, relations, friends or anybody). This solves many problems in life and gives us strength to face any issues that challenge us, personally, professionally and socially.

When do I start loving my self? Now, Now, Now. I dont need anybodies permission to care for myself, do i? We dont even need money to do most of these. Going for a pleasant walk requires only will to go nothing else.

All the best loving beings. Om Shanti

Balancing Act

We can think Balance in life is very complex subject to look at and understand, difficult to have in practical situations, there is soo much +1, 0, -1 how would i know if my action is +1 or -1? when there are so many grey areas to nit pick and all.... or not. It can also be very simple and easy to understand, depends on your perspective and understanding.

Let us look at simple balance old fashioned one used to weigh in shops or the one you can see the Lady Justice holding in her hand in some old courts if you have them these days. There is a balancing arm held in center with two bowls hanging with threads or chains. what does it represent? we only know that when there is equal weight on both sides the bowls are at same level, then it is called balance. but million dollar question is what is being weighed here?
is it Positive Vs Negative, Good Vs Bad or God Vs Satan? none of these.

The balance has on one side the issues, situations, fears and past that you face, and other side is your capabilities, wisdom, courage and virtues. When your abilities on one side are able to weigh down the problems you face, then you are careless and lazy, wont grow. When problems weigh down your abilities and you are not able to cope then you are under stress, depression or breakdown.

Balance is in between when you are able to face the challenges by developing yourself all the time and increasing the weight of your capabilities. In Life we never achieve a perfect balance because it would mean stagnation we always want the balance swinging slightly with in a range, this will cause growth and satisfaction, fun and hard work.

It was never about good or bad, positive or negative. Balance is about how much you can tolerate and grow. How good you are a judge of your capabilities. If we are lacking some where we got to learn and earn to cope up to bring back the balance in tolerable zone. When one is not able to keep it swinging in the right zone but one side goes down and other side is lighter, then the person is said to have lost balance. In short either too depressed or too lazy and careless.

where does Good Vs Evil come into play then?
Obviously in movies and gossip. LOL..... or may be in philosophy and myth. It exciting to have a dramatic story of a hero a role model with all the super human capabilities or Demi God to idolize. We can take inspiration from them, nothing wrong with that.

Point is when you have good balance in life, you become Good, you know the right way and do the right thing. When one is unable to maintain the balance then one is forced to be a hypocrite and does wrong things due to ignorance, commits crime and even silly mistakes which people regret.

Its a simple perspective of life. Accept life, know what you are and improve that is balance. Nothing else.

What does Doomsday mean to me?

Will there be change at this time?
It is obvious that time is changing faster and faster these days, and change is permanent.

Will there be destruction & war?
Man has made weapons of mass destruction which are capable of destroying world many times over. With degrading morality and self control every day from top to bottom of all societies and governments ( politician stands for lier/manipulator and bureaucrat for corruption in most countries more so in developed & superpowers of now and future). Increasing volatility in middle east and so on.... what is the probability of world war 3? doesn't seem far fetched.

Will there be natural calamities?
If increasing lethality of earthquakes, floods and hurricanes around the world is to go by, you can answer it by your self.

Will there be spiritual renaissance?
Seeds of this spiritual renaissance is visible and is expected to grow exponentially during worst of times to come. which appears to be more of cleaning the world of bad and weak, survival of the fittest?

What will be future?
No body can say for certain what is going to happen in their own life tomorrow. But we can all hope and work for creating heaven on earth. Hope is the best. why not be happy and spread love. give up worry and tension and accept faith and peace.

Consciousness, Thoughts, Energy & Matter

Matter energy equivalence in science is well established. In nuclear reactions matter transforms into energy and energy into matter. Its quite common. Even on form of matter or element (Chemistry) changes into another. which was dream of alchemists of the past. They dreamed about transforming Lead into Gold ( philosophers stone? ). One form of energy transforming into other was very common and used way back before newton. light converting into heat and electricity is very common today. this establishes that matter and all forms of energy we use are various manifestations of same material in different elements and energies.

But when we talk about mind matters, consciousness, etc. It is only clear that mind influences matter. Or matter has the ability to act according wishes of mind. Problem with science is it does not know that thoughts exist and have certain energy associated with them which in turn influences matter. This energy in many spiritual schools of thoughts has been shown as subtle or astral matter and and energy belonging to a different plane of our existence. Thoughts do not behave like matter or material energy. Thought energy is more clearly understood based on power of faith, will and persistence. This in turn is influenced by consciousness which controls thoughts. consciousness is even more sublime than astral. Totally different plane as it does not follow properties or laws of thoughts and astral.

Energies on these three planes of consciousness, astral and physical influence one another but do not follow each others laws of existence. They act differently and respond differently, yet there is a harmony in those interactions which makes our life easier and automatic on earth.

When light becomes heat, it acts like heat and there is less light. when lead is transformed into another element, there is less lead and more of the element produced. This is transformation.

When we wish for something to happen and it happens, the total mass and energy of physical world is not altered, but only there is increase or decrease in measure of disorder in the world. (laws of thermodynamics for science students). So thoughts influence matter but do not become matter or material energy in my knowledge. Thus Law of conservation of energy and matter is valid in physical world.

Om Shanti

What is death?

Death is a perception of a change of natural order which has been dramatized because of ignorance, ego and attachment. When we see ourselves as soul who lives on for eternity then there is no death at all for us, but we just leave this body for the next part of our life. Its as easy as changing a dress. take off one set of cloths and wear another. Is that sooo dramatic? but the illusion that body and its present day relations are everything makes death something to be feared because we got to leave the old clothes like a child who loves the birthday dress and refuses to get out of it. From this perspective death does not exist in fact. body is made of material which goes back to material. can a chair die? no it can be broken, burnt or rotten, but we don't associate death with it. So material body cannot die, all material returns to nature which has been borrowed in the first place. The soul or life doesn't die, we live on. Our true existence & identity is not the name of this body but that of incorporeal soul. when we learn to realize ourselves as soul we grow beyond death. Death is only an illusion of body consciousness. Giving physical existence undue importance in eternal life is ridiculous but unfortunately that's how things are. Let us be immortal, its just a change in perception from ignorance to truth that we are a spiritual being experiencing a physical world temporarily.

How to deal with death?
Mostly people find it difficult to understand death and its consequences. This is cause of lot of emotional and insecurity problems. People perceive death as destruction, end of life and departure. They forget that life is eternal. We need to remember and help people who are coping with this loss and depression with this understanding that life is eternal. The person who has left the physical realm had to go, no one can stop it nor is it in our good to interfere with natural order. They will be with us always but not just in this physical form. We need to understand that our feelings, emotions and thoughts are not just for us. but they influence the souls who have departed. If you are in misery in their memory, the departed soul feels it and that miserable energies make their journey beyond difficult and unhappy. Would we want to be a problem for them? Instead why not remember them with love and faith that they will be with us, always send supporting and loving thoughts of helpful energy to help them in their onward journey.

Om Shanti

Pure Karma Vs Ordinary Karma

Intro: Karma in Sanskrit means action. Action performed could be at level of awareness, intention, thoughts, emotions and finally on gross level physical. yes awareness and intention are also actions in their own level. They act and influence our environment even before we think, feel and act on physical level. These actions at various levels interact in energy form leaving a residue of energy signature or impression in our astral and physical bodies. This impression can manifest as a habit of attracting similar energies or in simple language good and bad things happen until this energy impression is cleared. So all states of mind, intentions, feelings and actions leave energy impressions and influence our personality as expressed from time to time(better explained in the book "the secret" about law of attraction of likes).

When classifying karma, people use good and bad karma to indicate good and bad luck instead of understanding its importance and how to use it in practical life. Now let us see what pure and ordinary karma is.

Ordinary Karma: Normally 99% of people today are in physical or role awareness in the sense, they are not in higher self or soul conscious state. They are cut off from truth or spiritual potentials and powers. Thus their perception of the world is incomplete or at the most a crude shadow of the truth. Thus they fail to manifest their true nature but remain in maya or illusion of truth. All the actions done in this incomplete awareness are called ordinary karma.

Such ordinary karma leaves energy impressions on our astral and physical bodies which influence our further decisions. They become habits which act involuntarily on us. They become good/bad luck. In all these impressions are like different imperfections in our energy field. Naturally our spiritual self tries to clear them and purify the energy around it. When such energy is released, it takes the form of physical sensations as a response to the situation. It could be good one in the sense pleasure, happiness, good feeling or bad one like pain, misery, irritation, etc. In either case, it has positive potential to influence our state of mind and decisions making us a slave of those sensations. When we get pain we tend to get depressed mildly or otherwise resulting in attracting energies from surrounding which are similar to the impression being released and end up reinforcing the impression. This appears as doing same mistake again and again in life. When we experience pleasure we tend to want more of that and attract the impressions being release and reinforce it. This appears as enjoying the life in complacence. these are the opposite polarities and ones experience could be anywhere in between on similar lines.

Either case we are not purifying our self and limiting ourselves to what we already have. This is called limited feelings. we have placed boundaries on what we can perceive and feel without knowing. This also expresses itself as fear of unknown. Because to release the energy impression we need to tolerate the process without getting influenced by it. We need to let go both the pain and pleasure to grow spiritually or to purify our energy system. When we fail to let go the impression, they as the last resort try to get released in the form of fever or a disease. So these energy impressions decide what kind of diseases one is vulnerable to or kind of material prosperity one achieves in life.

Pure Karma: True spiritualist practice performing pure karma. Pure karma is the action performed when we are connected to our higher self or soul conscious. When we are able to have faith and such faith releases all the potentials to manifest situations as per the needs of the Soul. Such a person is able stay in powerful state of peace, love and perceive things as they are instead of as they appear. remember that true love, peace, wisdom and bliss are our nature and not results of our actions. Pure actions are very graceful and all nature and God support such actions to make them happen. They benefit the whole world and inspire/empower/help others/seekers around in the process of purification and spiritual growth. These actions are performed because it is our nature to act in this way and not because we get something out of it or because we are supposed/expected to. Though we receive much more than we give, it will not matter.

In this kind of karma, the energy impressions created do not act as blocks and do not influence our ability to perceive things of a different kind. They do not become habits and we dont struggle with them. They are not good or bad. They are just energies or gifts useful for future actions. Such impressions get released in the form of spiritual gifts, experiences and prosperity. When we are able to use it for benefit of others they multiply many fold. We have total control over our karma in this state.

Note: these thoughts are based on teachings of incorporeal God Shiv Baba.

Om Shanti

What is Positive thinking?

What is Positive thinking?

Thinking process is called Positive when it has certain values associated with it. In short they are enthusiasm, courage, tolerance, right vision, confidence, will power and faith. There are many more aspects which are applicable but these can be called the core values of positive thinking.

Enthusiasm: that all situations will help me grow by teaching me how to deal with them. I am willing to learn and enjoy the process of learning no matter what the result. There is no negative or positive result. Result is the lessons I will be learning and not the resultant situations.

Courage: I know that I do not understand the situation and I am taking the risk of loosing some thing material or my good or not so good image in others view. Though I am afraid and not so sure of the consequences, I have the courage to move forward in all the difficulties.

Tolerance: I willingly and happily accept all the consequences and pains in the process of dealing with the situations and decisions. I do not despair or blam any one for the losses and setbacks. I am prepared to and shall enjoy tolerating all such difficulties as they are for my good.

Right Vision: All the relationships, money and material possessions I have and that which I shall have will come and go but the lessons, values and good principles I learn in this process will enrich my life and make it worth living for my self and contribute to the development of the society. So I am not attached to the people, money or property but to the values and principles for the benefit of the world.

Confidence: I believe in the right values and growth. I know that no matter what the consequences and situations I shall encounter, I shall always gain an new experience and learn new lessons. So I can never fail in life. I may loose some things or many things but shall always enrich my life with the experiences and lessons life has thought me. I shall never loose hope because there is no loosing as I remain unattached to material gains and losses.

Will power: I am responsible for all my decisions and actions. I choose to win and shall win by choosing to never give up. Only one who gives up looses. Every failure shall be my stepping stone to success.

Faith: I am bound to succeed in the end. All the world and all the situations I am facing and that I shall face are put together to give me the shortest path to success. No one can stop me from success as I have chosen success as my birth right.

Learning to Learn to be Happy

Last month i met a small boy of about 10 years while on a trip to Southern parts of India, who told me that he got tensed and felt stress when he lost in games and i was supposed to help him come out of the stress.
I asked him, "how do you come out of stress? you are not stressed all the time. you seem to be happy most of the time".
He said, "I don't know, I just forget stress after some time."

One solution he told for coming out of stress is to forget stress and you will be happy. it was so simple but profound lesson. As adults, it becomes difficult for us to forget like children do because of deeper attachments. One can to overcome these attachments by practicing regular and systematic meditation.

I asked him, "do you like learning to play the game better or new game?"
He said "Yes. I feel happy when i learn something new"
I said, "when ever you loose try to learn what you need to learn to win. when you learn you will never become stressed for loosing. You will be happy because you have learned some thing new."

when we feel we are loosing in life it is because we are not focusing on learning. we can never loose anything when we learn something. We fail some times because we attempted to do something which we have not yet learned. when we learn we go closer to success. Then it is said "Every failure is the stepping stone to success". we can always remain happy by learning to learn from every failure. Once we practice this then there is no reason or place for misery, stress or loosing in life. This is the simple way to be happy. Learn a new lesson and be happy. Boy was satisfied.

Did you learn meditation? Meditation is the way to learn the process of learning to be Happy.

What is Belonging to God?

Belonging to God and just remembering God are not same. People in worldly Bhakti also remember God, but they are not able to use this relationship for spiritual benefit of themselves or for World peace. We belong to Supreme Almighty Baba and use His powers. Learning to belong to Baba is essential in this practice. Let us see what belonging means.

Where do you belong to? When you say you are from place ‘X’. X has a special place in your heart. You call it your city. You feel my-ness and sense of security being in X. Wherever you go and stay in the world, you will belong to X alone. Right?

When you say you belong to your family, what does it mean? You feel comfortable with your family and you feel that it belongs to you and you have right over your family. It is the closeness of relationship. Right?

In office, when we say so and so person belongs to the manager/boss. It means that person reports and is confident of manager/boss. That person will not be afraid/intimidated by anyone in lesser authority then manager/boss. Right?

Now what does belonging to Baba mean? Do we realise that who ever we may interact with/who ever we may stay with/who ever we may spend time with but we belong to God alone. When we belong to some one, our priorities change putting that person in priority. We shape our life and priorities according to the requirements of the person whom we belong to naturally. This is belonging. When we learn to belong to Baba, we learn to have right over our Father We learn to really be with Baba. Then we can say we are children of Supreme Baba. Until then we remain in Bhakti and do not understand the knowledge. This sense of "My Baba" and I belong to no one but Baba is essential in spiritual practice. Now check if you are remembering Baba, what was the belonging ness you felt in this process? If you are being with Baba, what did Baba mean for you? Did He mean just another good Soul or did He mean world for you? To what extent were you able to love Baba? Was it just love a fellow being or love that sweeps us off ground?