Soft is Strong

We usually think that soft is weak.

 

But we have heard that soft women when needed can be stronger than most men around them.

 

Air & water are in gaseous /liquid state , but can erode the rocks in solid state.

 

Air finds its way into many so called air tight containers.

 

Water tight compartments are penetrated by water / a leakage by a small lapse.

Think about it.

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong

Krishna & Butter

We all have seen pictures of Krishna enjoying butter & stories of Krishna stealing butter.

But why butter?

Is it because he loved cows? Then why not milk or yoghurt ??

Cows represent the satvik qualities - white, calm, caring and so on.

Well butter is the outcome of churning milk/cream/yoghurt.

So to reach Krishna the output from the satvik cow, goes thru the various stages and needs to go thru the churning process and then it reaches Krishna.

Now maybe when we see / think of Krishna and butter, we may have a new perspective.

Another way to understand is that Krishna used to steal butter. What does this signify? Butter is the final product of a process: the milk is first made into curd and then the curd that is well churned becomes butter. And like milk or curd, life is the process of churning through so many events, happenings and instances. Finally butter comes out, which is the saintliness in you

FIR

We know how well we are doing on teh spiritual path by the FIR test

• F - frequency of
• reading scriptures
• being in satsang
• thinking of the learnings
• swaying away & becoming aware
• I - intensity of
• desire to read more
• go for a stasang
• go deeper in the knowledge
• being disturbed
• R - revisit / repeat / revise /recovery
• the chapter read
• going to satsang of such groups
• revise the knowledge
• recover from the disturbances

Try it....it does work to help us move on

Passion & Gita

Yesterday I watched a Kathak performance by the Maestro - Pandit Birju Maharaj & his disciples.
They were all very passionate about the dance form and it was a treat to witness their performances.

Birju Maharaj & his troupe , demonstrated the creation of various scenes with the bells tied on his / their feet  -  A peacock rain dance, ducks in a pond, a hockey game, geometric sequences and much more. it was an amazing experience.

But what I really want to share is that he said he saw dance in everything. He sees the combination of rhythm & movement in everything from signing on documents to typing on lap tops to playing ball and in opening window. And he works to recreate the scenes with the rhythm & movement in the dances that he composes. And its his passion for the dance which enables him to see dance everywhere and he works very hard to share it with others.

Its said when you are passionate about something you can connect everything around you to that subject.

Wish I had the passion for Gita knowledge to that extent - to see the Gita principles around  & to be able to translate them to others in a form that they can appreciate & enjoy and then make the connection.

Praying & Waiting!

Gita in Bollywood movies

All movies have some element of Gita in it. We just have to look for it.

1. Om Shanti Om

- what we wish for or want, becomes a vasana & we come back to complete it / live it. Om wished to be born son of a rich guy with luxuries...remember & behold ...there is a mention that the life we lead & events that happen we have wished for them in the past

- for a good casue the cosmos helps you when you ask ...the famous bottle award speech

2. Agneepath

- In new version the villian repeatedly talks about Atma not dying while killing someone
- Only the one who is stronger can forgive the weak ( physical, financially ...depending on circumstances)

The trees & oxygen

The cost of Oxygen. A very interesting perspective!

In one day a human being breathes oxygen equivalent to three cylinders.
Each oxygen cylinder on an average costs Rs 700, without subsidy.
So in a day one uses Oxygen worth Rs 2100 and for a full year it is Rs
7,66,500.  If we consider an average life span of 65 years; the costs of oxygen we use
become a staggering sum of Rs 500,00,000. Rs 50 million. Thats a million USD!!!!

All this oxygen is derived free of cost from the surrounding trees.

Imagine having to pay for the air we breathe!!!!

Very few people look at trees as a resource and there is rampart tree
cutting going on everywhere which should stop.

Please care for trees.  In olden times there was a saying if you cut a tree your family will be cursed unless you plant 7 new trees. A very simple way to preserve the enviorenment.

In the Gita there is a mention that nature is doing its duty endlessly of providing is sunshine, oxygen , water and som much more. Without expecting anything in return.

The least we can do is respect nature and and learn selflessness from it.

Different roles of a person

A lady who is a teacher at school, is a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter , a daughter in law at home. IS also a neighbour, a community member & a colleague etc. But she is the same one person, playing different roles. Its tough to switch roles every now and then , but she needs to in the best interest of everyone.

Now lets revisit Mahabharat & Gita learning's ....

The role of Arjuna in the war field is just to fight - giving his all to it, doing maximum justice to his role. When he plays the role of  the fighter he should not share the concerns of his other roles - father, brother, son, son-in-law, nephew or any other. If he does, it is like splitting himself into many roles at a time and thus diluting his vyavasaya buddhi. Diluted dedication is inefficiency. When you play the role of the fighter, be just the fighter and not the father, brother or anyone else. When you play the role of the worker, be just the worker and not the father, mother, husband, wife or anyone else.

Gita teaches us that we may have many roles to play, but for each action / interaction we are doing that as our duty/karam for a particular role. And at that time we need to be focused on our duty in that role.

This gives multi tasking a new dimension. Its not about doing many duties at one time, its about how quick we can switch from one role to another without diluting any focus.

Simple Math

We are always working 2get and finding it difficult 2give.
Most of our life is about how 2get and what 2give.

Try replacing 2 with 4
And now work towards 4get & 4give

Square of 2 is 4. If 2 is a line, then 4 is its area of coverage .

It changes the perspective & dimension.

Forgiveness ( for older kids & grown ups)

We all hear about forgiving being an important element for self evolution.

As we know only that who can forgive should forgive. Can I forgive you for a wrong you have done to Mr A??? We teach our kids that they need to say sorry to the person that they have hurt or caused discomfort.

In the movie Agneepath - there is a very interesting dialogue about the fact that can a weak person forgive? Or only the strong can forgive?

• Saying sorry without meaning is no good - its lip service
• Asking for forgiveness when one realises ones mistake - is a state of awareness
• Making efforts to make good the wrong done ( to whatever extent possible) - is in the direction of freeing oneself from the karma impact

 On the other hand

• when a person is hurt & is expecting an apology - we are attached & create a karma
• when forgiveness is requested if we feel good ( ah he is asking for my forgiveness) - then we are in ego
• when we truly forgive - is when we elevating ourselves from the karama bandhan

When we become aware of a mistake we have made, we should ask God for punishment and not forgiveness. Thus we free ourselves from the karma that was created by that wrong we did.

A story

A Mahatma was going with his student in a boat. Another boat following them had many kids in it. These kids kept teasing the Mahatma and his student. After some time the boat carrying the students, collapsed. Immediately the Mahatma slapped his student. Student asked: why did you do that? Mahatma said: I am sure you must have thought "good that their boat collapsed" so I punished you immediately for that wrong thought so that you do not carry it further and get bonded by it.

Solid, Liquid & Vapour (for adults)

The water vapour always rises & water always fall down.

Also normally we think all solids are heavier than the liquid form & should sink. So why do ice cubes float in water?????.

Its not about the weight (as mass cannot change when state changes). In case of vapour its the heat. And in case of ice its the Archimedes principle. But it floats only as ice & eventually melts and mixes into the water itself.

The water cycle takes water through its stages and its a never ending cycle. Similar to birth and rebirth to some extent - till the atma is tied with its karmas!

Imagine if H2O became H and O...will it still be part of the water cycle??? No.

Just like if the atma was freed from its karmas, the Atma will merge into Paramatma.

Also when we light a fire the flame always goes up, never down!!!

The flame of a lamp signifies knowledge & inspires you to move up... in a way it elevates you.

Peace & Conflict

My son had Peace & Conflict as a unit in Humanities at school and they researched personalities like Gandhi & Churchill in this unit.

When he mentioned P&C , I said that's what Gita mentions too.

Arjun wanted peace, had conflict in his mind!

The Pandava's tried to resolve the issue with peaceful alternatives, but Kauravas reactions worsened the conflict.

All the seniors wanted peace but had conflicts in their minds over duties & commitments & promises.

Peace does not give rise to conflict. However a conflict well handles with help from fundamental principles will lead us to peace.

The prism effect

During Physics we all have studies the prism effect.

Below is a copy paste from Wikipedia for ready reference
Before Isaac Newton, it was believed that white light was colorless, and that the prism itself produced the color. Newton's experiments demonstrated that all the colors already existed in the light in a heterogeneous fashion, and that "corpuscles" (particles) of light were fanned out because particles with different colors traveled with different speeds through the prism. It was only later that Young and Fresnel combined Newton's particle theory with Huygens' wave theory to show that color is the visible manifestation of light's wavelength.
Newton arrived at his conclusion by passing the red color from one prism through a second prism and found the color unchanged. From this, he concluded that the colors must already be present in the incoming light — thus, the prism did not create colors, but merely separated colors that are already there. He also used a lens and a second prism to recompose the spectrum back into white light. This experiment has become a classic example of the methodology introduced during the scientific revolution. The results of this experiment dramatically transformed the field of metaphysics.

Now lets look at it with the spiritual bent of mind.

The light always had the colours but only after going through the prism there were visible. So the colours were unmanifested with in the light.

Just like the many features of divinity that are in us and around us - but not manifested for our physical eyes.

The physical sense organs are limited in their ability to sense only the very gross.

For examples the frequency that a human ear can pick is different from what other animals can pick or radios can pick. The radio wave frequencies are all there, just we only pick some of them.

Gross to Subtle

Explaining gross & subtle to children is sometimes challenging.
Try doing with the 5 elements
1. Earth - we know, feel, touch, see, hold, cut - the grossest of all!
2. Water - we know, feel, touch, see, hold, but cannot cut - going towards subtle!!
3. Air - we know, feel, touch, hold, but cannot see or cut
4. Fire - we know, feel, see, touch, but cannot hold or cut
5. Space - we just know - out of reach of our 5 senses....most subtle!!!!

Sun : Rays & Reflection -

Think about it...Sun rays are there all the time ...but some times they fall on surfaces that reflect it and double the light ! We have studied in science about black absorbing light and white / silver reflecting it!!!!

The sun is same everywhere ...we just see it differently. Clouds covering sun does not mean sun is gone, just we cannot see!

Being in Norther & Southern hemispheres does not mean Sun moved, just where we are looking from !!
Sun rays are there but if we don't draw our curtains our rooms will stay dark.

Rays travel in straight lines....straight line is the shortest distance between 2 points!

Have you noticed a ray of sun / a beam of light thru the curtains sometime?  But do you see it if all the curtains are drawn???  You see the rays when there is darkness around but we don't notice them other wise....

Also do you recall studying Umbra & penumbra ?? The shadows depending on sources of light and distance....all are based on the characteristics of the Rays.

And we all know light travels faster than sound!!!!

So how does all this relate to spirituality???
1. The path to God is straight
2. If you are clean you can reflect divinity to others
3. God is everywhere & same, just depends how & from where we see it.
4. Enlightenment is about light, and light travels faster than sound!
5. When knowledge coming from different sources , we may get blurred like the Penumbra, but that does not change the light or knowledge!!!

Numbers & Spirituality

Think about it....

One : soul / atma / paramatma
Two : Parmatma & Prakariti
Three : Triangle - the simplest shape to enclose an area . Think 3 Gunas
Four : Square - considered a perfect shape - equal sides & right angles. Think 4 awasthas - Brahamcharya / Grasth /Vasprasth /Sanyas. And think 4 Vedas
Five : Pentagon - 5 sides - think 5 senses - Gyan Indrian & 5 karam Indriya
Six : Hexagon - 6 sides ????
Seven : Heptagon - 7 chakras / VIBGYOR / 7 Maharishis
Eight : Octagon - 8 sides??????
Nine : Nine planets
Ten : 10 Avatars