Contentment Part -2 (Teachings to Change lives)

తృప్తి -2

Baba gave 2 suggestions to keep us in the present.   

1) Always be contented. 

2) Fret over nothing and not to worry about things you do not have or cannot get.

What is contentment anyhow?

The soul is complete and this completeness is what we thrive for. But we do not understand this fact or this is beyond our comprehension. But our mind wants to search always for this absolute truth. We always want to acquire more and more.  We keep on searching for this completeness but the place where we are searching is not correct. All these worldly objects cannot give us this completeness that’s why we keep acquiring. Whenever we turn our focus inward in to our own psyche then we will find the answers. We can then enjoy the world better.

Do we need to get rid of all these worldly objects?

Do we stop doing daily Karma (life’s duties) so that we won’t suffer? 

As long as we have mind and body, we cannot escape performing these karmas.   Then what is the solution?  

We have a body and this body has needs. If we can learn to use the resources of nature to the extent that we need and we are not greedy, we can experience this great feeling of contentment. Once we experience this enjoyment there is no going back. This does not mean that we need to stop working or stop achieving great things in life.  Whatever we reap we are entitled to be blessed with. But the greed always comes into picture and makes us suffer. 

That’s why Baba gave the second principle “Fret over nothing and not to worry about things you do not have or cannot get”. If greed consumes us, then the feeling of contentment is gone.  Without understanding the truth about the completeness and mind constantly running after worldly objects, we can forget about peace.  So we need to hold onto the objects that have this completeness. But all these worldly objects do not have this quality. The happiness we derive from these worldly objects is not permanent.  Only thing that

is permanent is the absolute (Paramatma- Supreme God). This consciousness is allover and ever present. This universal energy is present in every animate and inanimate object. We have this inside us as the SOUL. This makes us breath, think and perform every act of life. Without which there is no existence. But we cannot experience this truth and bliss without some effort. Our scriptures showed us the ways to achieve this.

We can accumulate so much wealth for generations. Is it giving us this kind of permanent happiness? 
The reason is body can enjoy only what it can enjoy. For a body to survive the actual needs are not that many.  Say someone likes a sweet and we keep on giving them that sweet. After eating few pieces, the mind and body will say that’s enough. If the sweet is what makes us happy it should cause that happiness always. But that is not the case. Sometimes mind wants more but body cannot accommodate. When that favorite object becomes too much, we say enough! We need to understand the limitations of human life then only we can stay in the present. By doing so, we can bring this feeling of contentment in to experience slowly. 

Baba taught this feeling of contentment through a maid to Dasganu. He made him experience this when he wanted to write commentary on one of the scriptures (Esavasyopanishad). Once dasganu writes a commentary on Esavasyopanishad but could not derive the meaning or crux of the scripture. Baba then tells him that he can learn the meaning of this through a maid at Kakasaheb Dixit’s house. What did he learn from her?

She was seen singing about a beautiful saree (Indian traditional dress) even when she was wearing some rags. Then Dasganu through Mr. Pradhan presented her a new saree. She came next day wearing that new saree and played with household with same happiness. Next day she comes with her old rag and she was as happy as before. No signs of despair in her expression.   She showed same happiness throughout. This is what Upanishad says “ Tena Tyakthena Bhunjidha”  “Enjoy by renouncing” .

Scriptures say that this creation has everything that is necessary for life. We need to use only our share but not indulge. Then everyone can get their share. But some people want to acquire everything around them either legally or illegally. This happens every day and we get caught up in this cycle. We need to understand the nature and limitations that we have. We cannot take anything with us when we die, forget about all the stuff we acquired. If we understand this truth and the reality of life that is death, we can enjoy the present and whatever we have. This is real contentment and this will lead us to the Paramatma (Supreme God).

OM SAI RAM!         

Contentment Part -1 (Teachings to Change lives)

తృప్తి -1

Spiritual thinking and meditation on God will keep us in the present. So that mind does not wander in to past or future. As long as this world exists there will be creation, sustenance and merger (laya). In the world of mind there will always be creation of thoughts and these thoughts will take a form. This will take a shape in to some kind of situation. These thoughts sometimes will sustain forever and there will be no closure. So we accumulate so much unimportant or important thoughts in our psyche. Where are these thoughts going if they are not removed from our system? When a person is born, takes life and leaves the body in the end. So what happens to these thoughts? They will accompany you to the next birth in the form of impressions (vasanas). These impressions will throw us into imbalance some times. In Hinduism the trinity takes care of the creation, sustenance and ultimate merger (destruction). What can we learn from this? When God is responsible for the creation of this universe, we are responsible for our own inner universe. 

Here we need to question ourselves, who is that “Me”? 

Where is this “Me” feeling coming from?

Is this external body, life force (breath) or inner faculty of mind?

Understanding these questions is real spirituality. Life is just not being born and dying.

Our scriptures mentioned so much about Maya (illusion). This Maya is in control of Supreme God. We are all bound by this Maya but Maya is in control of God. What is this Maya anyhow?  Overcoming this so called Maya is not at all easy. But our great teachers (Gurus) showed us the way to overcome this. So many religions and sects described this path in different ways. Our great enlightened teachers always are in blissful state beyond the effects of this Maya. This life death cycle is compared to an ocean. The sea is enormous and appears to be endless. We cannot imagine crossing this ocean with a small boat without any paddle.  We might be able to travel if we have some kind of ship.  This ship could be compared to various spiritual paths (like Jnana (knowledge), Bhakthi (devotion) etc.)  We can cross this ocean one day or the other with this means. But having a Sadguru (enlightened teacher) is like travelling in an airplane and crossing the ocean just like that.  We need Guru’s blessing to cross this life’s ocean. Then all the calamities and dangerous sea creatures cannot harm you. That’s why we all have to yearn for Guru’s blessing.

Baba said “I do not need 16 or 8 modes of worship, just say My name - Sai Sai. I will make sure that you will cross this dreadful ocean”. Look at this assurance and who could be better? Guru is the way to go and simply by following Guru will take us to the destination. 

Baba’s words were short like the Vedas, pithy, deep and full of meaning, very comprehensive, but compressed. They were deep in meaning and very exact. They were never futile. They were balanced and priceless. Remain aware and alert to your past and future. Accept your fate and manage within your means. Always be contented. Fret over nothing. “Oh! Though I am a fakir and have no home nor household, sitting uninvolved in one place, leaving aside all mundane matters, yet, Maya is inevitable. She even harasses me often. I forget her but she does not forget me. She always comes and embraces me. Adi Maya originates from God and bewilders even Brahman and others. Then what could be said about a poor fakir like me! Only the mercy of God can save you from its clutches. Without continuously reciting God’s name, this attachment will not be destroyed”. This is the way Baba described the powers of Maya to his devotees and extolled the recitation of God’s name as the antidote of Maya. ‘Saints are my incarnations’ as Krishna has said in the Bhagvad, when talking to Uddhava. Who does not know these clear words?

Therefore, for the sake of the welfare of his devotees, whatever the great Sai, cloud of mercy, said explaining the substance of this statement, listen to it with great humility. “Such pious persons have become my followers whose sins have been destroyed and they have understood me. If you recite “Sai, Sai,” always, I will take you beyond the seven seas. If you believe in these words, you will be certainly benefitted. I do not need elaborate worship either sixteen folds or eight fold.

Where there is infinite faith, I reside there”. So spoke Baba to his devotees, from time to time, with tender love. Let us derive solace from the recollection of these loving words.

Here Baba gave his word and a path to get over this so called Maya. This could be the easiest path to overcome the illusions of life.  Baba said “Remain aware and alert to your past and future”. As long as we can stay in the present, we can easily overcome the difficulties of life. We get disturbed as soon as the past or future comes into picture. Our mind and our impressions won’t let us stay in the present. This mind wants to think about either past experiences or worry about future.  Baba said Maya is in control of Sri Hari (Lord Vishnu) so it is inevitable to recite his name if we are bound by the inscrutable Maya. He needs to give us that power. 

We need to learn not to entangle the present with past and future. What do we mean by this? Mind would never like to enjoy whatever is in front of it but worry over other things that happened in the past. It will express a fear that this happiness will be lost.  We need to show resolve in times of difficulty and take care of the issue like an average smart person will take care of the same problem.

OM SAI RAM!

True Happiness Part - 2

నిజమైన సుఖం -2

Reasons for unhappiness

The scriptures emphasize that there are only three reasons for all the difficulties of life. We were given scriptures to understand this. For every thing we use in our daily life, we have a manual and we refer to these manuals when any appliance, television or computer does not work. We learned to ignore these manuals. Christianity emphasizes the Bible and the followers try to find answers from the Bible for daily problems. Vedas (Hindu scriptures) are of course difficult to understand, but we have simplified versions of these rules through Bagavad Gita, Upanishads and Puranas. The three reasons are as follows; Adhi-daivica, Adhi-bowthica and Adhi-atmica.

ADHI DAIVICA:

This is where your problems are related to past karma. You can not change the past karma most of the time except with the help of a Guru or through some divine help. So what do you do when you are hit with a major disease or unforeseen circumstances, you have to accept what ever you acquired at that time. But you have to fight it with the help of a calm, collective mind and do what a reasonable and wise person would do in a similar situation.

ADHI- BOWTHICA:

These are the problems caused by the external factors where you do not have control over. Mother Nature can cause havoc some times with various calamities.

ADHI ATMICA:

This is related to intellectual errors and these factors are generated when we make mistakes in our daily life. Some of them are irreversible and some of them are correctable.

In any case most of the problems kind of fall in to these 3 categories. People also have to understand that death is a reality not a bargain. Who ever can understand the death, will admit that one day every one has to die and they do not even take any thing with them. Even this body of our own, that we all adore and take care with such a great admiration has to be left here in this mortal world. One should not say that “So it does not matter and I don’t care about any thing”. Like we adore life, we have to love death also. What’s wrong talking about it and thinking about it? People always say that to be successful in life, you have to have the end in the mind for any project you start. So why can not we have a plan about how we want to lead our lives. This is where the whole problem is, because we are not sure about what we want in our life and we just drift in the currents of societal obligations. We ignored the commandments of life and we live for others. We buy things for others sake, in fact we do lot of things for the society even though that does not make us happy. We keep acquiring objects thinking that these objects will make us happy. But they never make you happy. You have to learn to understand your mind and really see what makes you happy.

Major culprits of this Happy- Unhappiness cycle.

Kama (lust), Krodha (anger), Lobha (greed), Moha (delusion – mislead the mind), Mada (euphoria) & Matsarya (competition)

Practical Solutions

If some body can monitor above factors with caution and use wisdom in their lives, they can first understand their emotions. Some times our level of thinking is not enough to understand where we are.

Albert Einstein said, “The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them”. If we need to solve the so called problems, we have to come out of this usual worldly thinking and have to acquire some Godly characters and selfless thinking.  

Every religion or philosophy is based on their scriptures or concepts and they give you fundamentals of life. When you follow them you have less of a conflict and this could be the only way to happiness some times. It may be happiness in another life or world... but none the less it is happiness. The faith plays a major role in this happy- unhappiness cycle. You will have to face the music of your mind unconsciously or consciously. All of these religions, sects and orders believe that there are certain rules or behaviors that must be observed and kept, before you can be happy.

Bhagavad-Gita teaches us to follow the Dharma. Dharma is about expressing and acting according to one's core nature. This eliminates potential conflicts in the mind and leads to happiness. When ever you run away from your core beliefs, your mind will play tricks on you.

This leads to different reactions depending on the type of action you performed. So virtuous thinking, honesty, tolerance, giving up greed and anger will lead you in to your inner world. The Soul is originally in a happy, liberated and blissful state. We tainted it through our mind, ego and intellect. This is like dirty water thinking “I am not water but I am dirt”. There is no transparency there and you need to be calm with out many waves in the river of life.

Buddha says that every problem arises out of desire, Kama or lust. Ultimate happiness is only achieved by overcoming craving in all forms.

The Buddha practiced the following code of conduct in his own life:

1. Respect life 2. Earn all that you have 3. Control your desire, rather than allow desire to control you. Buddha gave eight fold path for happiness.

1. Right View 2. Right thought. 3. Right Speech. 4. Right Action 5. Right Livelihood. 6. Right Effort. 7. Right mindfulness. 8. Right Concentration.

We have to have right view so that we can have right desires which are selfless. They should be causing no pain to other people and not at the expense of other people. Then right speech is essential to have mental peace. We do not want to lose balance so that it will create more problems for us and people around us.

We have to adopt right kind of livelihood with some principles. To achieve this we need effort with faith. Above all we need our full attention in what ever we do. How can we expect good outcome with out proper mindfulness and concentration. Meditation on what ever we do is essential.

Buddha said that we have to recognize that our own desires have brought us this pain and suffering, and understand that letting go of this desire can bring us peace.

If we try to understand the human nervous system physiologically, all of our emotions are in a way related to autonomic nervous system that is adrenaline in your blood. When this is released in your blood, it causes damage to the lining of the blood vessels there by causing plaques. These plaques will ultimately cause strokes and heart attacks. Is it worth putting your body through this stress every time you go through different emotions? By controlling your senses by various means, you can control this. When you are able to control the adrenaline that is released (when you get emotional), your blood pressure and heart rate will not elevate and you handle things very calmly. So by right understanding and by practice you can master this. This is possible by doing meditation or prayers.

The stories and teachings from Sri Sai Satcharita are so intricate with ordinary life and we can not separate them apart. We really have to study each and every story and by doing so our intellect will be at par. Then we can tread the difficulties of life with some direction. Otherwise we will get lost in this jungle of life.  In every story there is something to learn and we have to ask Baba to teach us the right meaning behind each story. Baba will definitely show us the way.

Baba explained beautifully what true happiness is! He also gave us some tips to overcome this so called sorrow. 

Mukti (Release) is true joy or happiness. 

Coursing through births and deaths is unhappiness. 

All the joys and sorrows of samsara are unreal. 

People, money and objects might give us some happiness but it is not permanent. 

Joy and sorrow are mere delusion. 

Mere appearance of worldly joy is not true happiness. The worldly man is forcibly drawn to it, as he believes it to be true happiness. Our past karmas will control our suffering and there is no escape for anyone. When ever we can understand this fact, some relief is on the way immediately. 

Even though it appears that some one else causing havoc in our life but we are ultimately responsible. 

We either pity our condition or take care of the issue with right attitude. We need a peaceful mind to tackle the problems of life. For hungry and poor it is just survival. But for rich it is much more complex. Rich needs to be humble. We have to lead this battle of life with the help of God.   

Baba's tips:

So know your true nature. 

Understand where you came from and where this cycle of life and death takes you. 

Understand that you have the same energy as animate and inanimate objects in this universe. 

If you are a Christian, think that you are all created by only one God, we are all one family and came from one source. When we feel this reality, experience the truth and immerse ourselves in this infinite bliss, there is no unhappiness. Every thing is at a balance. Start enjoying the present, stop thinking about what will happen tomorrow but perform your actions as things come along. Use past as an experience which will help you climb to new heights.

Great Gurus like Sri Shirdi Sai Baba can rescue us from this dreadful situation. We need a guide like Baba to travel in this forest of life and death. 

OM SRI SAI RAM!

True Happiness Part -1 (Teachings to Change Lives)

నిజమైన సుఖం-1

I want to be happy all the time; I don't want to be unhappy at all". This is the common perception as human organism, we all have. 

How I can be happy? 

Why I am unhappy even though I have money, fame and every thing in life? 

Does more wealth will make me happy for ever? 

These questions are lingering frequently in our daily lives. Who can not have these kinds of questions in their minds at one time or the other? We might think that "If I can get this job, or meet my soul mate or marrying one, if I can win a lottery, inherit or earn lots of money. This could be a common thinking in human minds. Is there any thing wrong with this kind of thinking?

Let us say that we have all the answers. Some one was able to acquire all these so called perfect things in the life but still there is some thing lacking, which makes you unhappy, apathetic, anhedonic and indifferent to all the materialistic things that you already have at that time. If we talk to people who supposedly have everything, they say that they are also unhappy and they say that money is not everything. So what should we do and this is very confusing.

Understand unhappiness

Before we talk about happiness, we should really understand what unhappiness is. 

Is unhappiness, not being happy, being sad or feeling pain, sorrow and just what ever makes us feel uncomfortable. 

This could be defined differently and it is different for different people. 

Unhappiness is a derivative of happiness and happiness is the root cause of unhappiness. Because our mind accepted certain experiences which were acquired through our senses, mind, ego and intellect. The society plays a major role in reinforcing these so called experiences. Society told us about good, bad, poor, wealthy, truth, untruth and lots of dualistic attitudes. The environment around us puts so much pressure on the mind and creates conflict more times than not. Since the birth of the child, until the death we are bounded by these societal norms and perceptions. We are caught in this vicious cycle of likes and dislikes with

out much relief. Some people are more conscious of society than others. Some might say that they don't care about the society but they are still unhappy. There is no simple answer to these questions. Even when we want to choose between two good things, there is conflict and this leads to excitement, which leads us into unhappiness. This is sad that we are unhappy even in the mist of happiness. Do we really love happiness or we want to be victims and like playing this role as a victim. Do we want to feel sorry for ourselves and we want others feel sorry for us?

Psychology of unhappiness

When a child is born, the parents go through so much of emotion. Mother goes through nine months of patience carrying the child and when baby is delivered you can imagine what she goes through. Even though there is so much pain involved in the process, the ultimate truth is happiness. Why is this different, did we learn to look at this whole process differently? If we think crying is a sign of unhappiness, when the newborn cries, we rejoice. This event can teach us so much of insight in to the science of happiness. 

Everything thing in this universe, including happiness and unhappiness, have a beginning and an end. We always want unhappiness to end but not the happiness. This is the reality of life. If we do not realize this, we will be unhappy all the time. Once we are happy, we worry about loosing it, instead of enjoying it. This is the psychological quality that human mind goes through most of the time. This is one of the real causes of unhappiness.

We take our lives granted with out realizing that darkness will set in as soon as the day ends. Where there is day, there should be night also. We can not just worry about the oncoming darkness and stop enjoying the day. When we look at the solar system, what is night? Why we are able to see the darkness? This is because of the existence of Sun only. Otherwise every thing will be pitch-black and you won't be able to see even the darkness. If we can consider Sun as happiness and darkness as unhappiness, we are able to recognize the unhappiness because we had the experience of happiness that is the "Day". So this concept can educate us to understand certain principles behind this duality. 

There is a difference between the darkness out side and in a room where there is no Sun light, it is pitch black. You can not see anything. This could be the situation in people who are depressed. For them the happiness also does not matter and this is called anhedonia. This is where you need professional help to come out of the clutches of severe depression. This is where people do not see the light at the end of tunnel and there is no silver lining to these dark clouds. But this state is easily treatable than addressing just unhappiness alone.

Our attitudes and personalities could complicate this journey to happiness. We need intense training and knowledge about ourselves in training the mind to be in this path and to sustain in this state. It is so difficult to unwind the erroneous concepts, notions and impressions that are strongly imprinted in our minds. Nobody really cares if you're miserable, so you might as well be happy.

OM SAI RAM!