You imagine, To lead a perfect life. A life full of dreams , And no sorrows. But is this possible? A life without hiccups, And no loss ? Or do you feel, The wonders of life, Without falling down? No, absolutely not. Your joys, your happiness, Your ecstasy and every high Thing feels wonderful ‘cause You once tasted the bitterness Of sorrows, of defeats, Of losses. Life is an adventure , Once you go down, And then you go up. Happiness to sorrows, Sorrows to pain, Pain to contentment, And finally contentment to joy…
If you see some pictures of Lord Shiva ,there is a third eye on his forehead which is mostly half closed. This third eye is highly symbolic.
According to Hindu mythology, Lord Shiva is the God of destruction, he is also the Beginning of Creation. In fact, his ‘Tandav’ dance symbolises cosmic dance of the universe, which is the cycle of creation , preservation and Destruction.
Whenever corruption and sins go out of proportion in the universe, Lord Shiva opens his third eye to destroy them and bring balance or order in this world. There are various interpretations about it.
One such theory is that , since Lord Shiva is Yogi his third eye symbolises inner eye or spiritual eye which see the world beyond the material world.
When our two eyes become blind or get lost in the gloom and corruption of the material world then we have to try to see through our inner eye which is obviously difficult.
While our two physical eyes see the world and get lost in the illusion of past and future, our inner eye exist in the eternal ‘Now’ and helps us to know the real meaning of our existence.
This inner vision is a practice, a kind of meditation which enables us to live in the present which is devoid of any negativity of past and future. It calms us , give us peace and help us to see the physical world with a broader perspective.
Today is Mahashivratri, the great night of the lord Shiva. It is the night of unison of Shiva and Shakti (union of Universe’s Dark Matter and energy)– the embodiment of love, power, and oneness. May this occasion opens the inner eye of this already troubled world and brings happiness and peace in this world.
Beauty of nature stops alluring him, money becomes useless to him, pleasures of every sort feel like a curse to him, do you know why? Because he has only few days to live, he is suffering from a rare disease, he doesn’t want to wait to suffer more, he wants to die right now.
But wait, something stops him , he is hit by a magical charm . He can see those brown eyes , that shined like pebbles touched by divine hands. Those eyes chasing the flight of a bird who wants to fly high, those eyes chasing dream and is now watching at him. His little child, his life that will continue to thrive even after his death.
And so he has to live for his kid, his beloved, his people who love him, who depend on him , who are his only solace in his world of sufferings, the reasons he should live for. He has to prepare them , giving them wings ,so that when his time will come they would be ready to live without him .
Life continues to wander in confusion until sufferings come and the reasons become clear.
All the material things which we achieve or aspire to achieve give nothing but momentary joy that vanishes as soon as we face the real test of life, sufferings, failures, losses.
Almost all of us are suffering with this disease called as procrastination. No matter how hard we try we can’t help ourselves to get rid of this disease , yes ,it should be called as a disease. It’s like the most dominating code embedded in our memory.
What is the biggest mistake you make in life? Buddha replied- The biggest mistake you make in life is when you think you have time.
It’s like we delay our most precious work and leave it in the mercy of time. And after sometime we are punished by it. The situation after this becomes so frustrating That our regrets almost kill us.
The funny part is that we know we are doing it wrong but still we can’t help ourselves. It’s like we become slaves of this very tricky phenomenon. Writers are plagued by this, dreamers are crippled by this and it’s tough to get out of this.
Is there any way to get rid of procrastination?
The first step towards this is to know that only ‘Now’ is real and your past or future is imaginary. You can’t control your past and future but you have all the opportunities to make your present as fulfilling as possible.
Everything you do now will automatically affect your future and if you will allow your past to affect your present then it will always give you disappointment and negative vibes.
Laziness is a sleeping giant that eats your precious future, stay away from this ,otherwise you are going to become mad (affects your mental health) in the near future. You can get rid of this with discipline, waking up early in the morning and engaging in half an hour of workout, can create a perfect setup for a successful day. Making this as your daily goal can work wonders for your overall goal.
You are born to follow the path of Karma, your Karma to make a positive change in this world. It starts with you and ends with the happiness of the people around you. Your existence is precious so not only follow your Karma but also worship it .
Even a small change made by you can do miracles for the world, so never ever think that your work is insignificant.
Hopelessness is the biggest enemy of an individual. His sufferings may be tremendous in the current moment but it depends completely on his choice, his freedom, to show a positive or negative attitude towards it. And no one can take away that power from him.
Question is how strong we are to face difficult times?
Life doesn’t make sense when we become numb to everything happening around us, especially negative events. There is a deeper meaning in our sufferings, without it , we can never know the real worth of happy times.
Happiness can truly be felt after a long night of struggle and pain.
Seeing the positive side of every situation, is an art which is really the art of living. It’s extremely difficult to become perfect in this art, in fact there is no such thing as perfection. It is something we learn throughout our lives.
Finding inspiration from every tough situation, searching for happiness in small moments during difficult times, learning from failures, are all we can try to do to carry on.
It is upto us to fight or to give up when something hits us, it is upto to us to curse our fate or find peace or contentment in our failures, it is upto us to live life on our terms. Surely , it is completely our choice to stay happy or sad no matter what the situation is.
Most of us have gone through criticism in our lives for one reason or another. It can be for our failures or for any mistake we committed unknowingly. But no matter how hard we try to take it positively, we feel bad and feel low in confidence after facing it.
It is in our nature to commit mistakes time and again in our lives for which we are criticized by the people in our surroundings. The criticism we face can be constructive and we should always have an attitude to take it positively.
We should realise that we are imperfect souls, we are bound to commit mistakes , we face failures more often than not but instead of cursing ourselves for a long time we should try to improve ourselves through those experiences.
From our birth to the last second we breathe , we make mistakes, we learn from them and improve ourselves even for few seconds before death.
So open yourself for every situation you might face in the future. If it is any criticism , you have to learn from it like a sincere student. If it is any failure that suck your energy then you have to be like your star, Sun that continues to burn in spite of losing energy every second.
It might not be an ideal time for you right now but your perseverance will give you what you always wanted to achieve.
It is the inherent quality of humans to look for something to cheer about but there has been very few things to celebrate this year.
One year ago I wrote about the horrific year which had gone by because of pandemic, little did I know that a much bigger storm awaited us. The Delta variant brought us on our knees, exposed our health facilities and took away many of our loved ones.
I lost few of my relatives and I have seen their families finding it difficult to get back on track. It is a testing time for entire humanity but ‘hope’ is something We would never forget even on our death bed.
Each of us is bruised right now, But that would not hinder us From finding our feet once more, To stand again and look for sunshine
I am not expecting anything in the future or in the upcoming year and it would be more prudent to stay in this moment a bit more and feel each second which is going by in joy.
Lets make our ‘now ‘ as beautiful ,as joyous as possible. There is nothing we can gain with hate and we would never know how much time we have. So our each act is extremely crucial and can make a difference in a positive way in this world.
Death is stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “ die before you die”- and find that there is no death. -Eckhart Tolle
What I have become, I don’t want to know anymore! I have been fed to all that I am not and I only came to know about that when I faced death.
I identified with my mind. I let it dwell on my fears which gave me sufferings and frustrations. It made me to shed tears for my past and worry for my future.
It stole my ‘now’. It overpowered me, I became its prey and it fed my life. I became my failures, my sufferings which lingered only in the past. It became my sense of self.
Who am I ? Just my failure or suffering ? No it can’t be true. I cannot be the figment of my mind, just a mere thought?
No I can’t let my smitten mind feed me. For that I have to die before I actually die.
I have to stop thinking, I have to come out of my unconscious self and cling on my heart beat which exist in the ‘now’. I have to breathe in my present and exhale my past.
This will kill my ego, my fear, my sufferings and all that is born out of my past and future.
My false self will die and my true self will emerge from the eternal now. I am not the past and future , I am all that is happening right now !
Your deep inner self which resides in your consciousness, your true identity, which can only be accessed by the stillness of your mind .
What is stillness of mind?
By Stillness of mind, I mean when you are not thinking about the future or the past. In fact the process of thinking itself is not being in the present ,where your heart beats with every passing second.
Life is ‘now’ and you are not the slave of your mind. The reason behind most sufferings or grief is your mind. It makes you think , makes you accomplish things but at the same time it controls you to look for more wealth, exploit things before finally exploiting yourself.
How our thoughts affect us ?
If you can’t stop thinking about material things or can’t control your thoughts then you are surely enslaved by your mind. Most of us are slaves. And that’s why we struggle to find inner peace, happiness and even struggle to find the meaning of our existence.
Enlightened are those who can feel life right in the present without thinking too much aboutit.
Just try to find a moment for yourself , focus on your breathing, declutter your mind from all thoughts, feel the moment residing in the eternal now, the oneness ,yes right there your existence lies, your true identity.
We are not only gifted with life but also with death. Death follows us since we are born like a shadow of life itself. So where there is life there is death.
Death
Parents not only give birth to their offspring but they also donate death to them. They pass on light of Love and also darkness of hate to their children in some or the other way. And the darkness of mind, heart or the material world achieves nothing but fear.
Fear
Fear is natural to every living being though it is only the imagination of an uncertain future. In spite of knowing that fear is just an imagination ,it is extremely difficult to triumph over it.
The Perceptions Square 