The Sun, the Vedas, Alice etc

In the restaurant next to where I stay there is a large cookhouse. One can occasionally get a glimpse at the flurry of activity through the small opening into the dining area into which waiters shout guest orders and further collect the prepared dishes for onward serving to guests who are waiting in the dining area.

If you visit the restaurant at 6 am though, you get to see sleepy-eyed waiters and a certain slowness of activity inside the cookhouse. I think to myself: after all, people come in for breakfast only starting 7:30 am or so. And there are not so many people coming for breakfast anyway; further lunchtime - which is the peak hour - doesn't occur before 12 pm so there's enough time. So whats the rush! I thought to myself that perhaps by 10 am they would start getting the dishes ready for lunch.
But I was surprised today when at 7:30 am I noticed that lunch was already getting ready. And the cooking staff were busy as hell - So basically cooking staffs come in starting about 6 am after which they attend to the slow demand for breakfast but further to that, pace immediately picks up. There is no pause. They do not wait for a breakfast time to get over and then perhaps pause a while before starting cooking lunch. No! That's not the case - it's more like a fast-paced movie;- starts a tad slow, but immediately picks up.


There is a wisdom here on how life works and how we too may work. We cannot wait once the day starts - pretty much like the bees, the butterflies, the birds and the sun too...we just have to enter into one activity after the other...with thoughtfulness and attention (Shraddha) but not with self-interest - at the heart of laziness and most planning, there usually is the ego. But this is not the way the Vedas ask us to work. It rather points to the Sun and the seasons and suggests that we involve in our work in a selfless way! It is difficult but not impossible. The surprising thing is that this is not a recipe for ineffectiveness or disharmony. On the contrary progress, effectiveness and harmony increase. We know of E Sreedharan and Abdul Kalam. Their work was clearly an act of selflessness, the wise say so. They were Karma Yogis. And we know how good they were - they were the best of the best professionals.
Another recent discussion with Dr.Manoj seems to align with the similar thinking when he suggested: "to not move forward is to go backward". This was with reference to the suggestion for stopping all forward movement and rather focusing on consolidating the present progress. Interestingly Lewis Carroll had said this well in Alice in Wonderland when the Queen of Hearts advises Alice: “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that” . Its was Dr.Khurshid how pointed to this line in an earlier discussion.

The Uniqueness of this search

It is perhaps because we're conditioned by the world we live in - to aim for, to achieve and to apprehend our goal that we inadvertently commit an error in our spiritual seeking - that of endeavouring  to  "apprehend" the ultimate spiritual experience, the object of our search

Yet upon listening to teachers who teach from the Vedas and Upanishads, the message is clear and consistent - all endeavors ultimately become stumbling blocks - this is yet another uniqueness of the spiritual search - the attempt to get it keeps us from it.

Many of us probably witness this propensity of our minds, to check time and again "am I arriving", "have I arrived" and often frustration sets in...and upon seeing one has not arrived many fears are imagined.

So how is it possible to desire for something, yet not desire for it?

Even the Vedas talk about the spiritual goal as an amazing and wondrous thing - that a seeker finds it, that a teacher transmits it etc are pointed to as the ultimate miracles. Saint Narada says "Grace" is the ultimate reason why one finds that kind of devotion -"Bhakthi" for the spiritual search.

And may be be blessed with this Bhakthi and with it, may we follow the teachings - to rather endeavor to seek the source of "I" - the first thought, the foundation to all mental constructs - and teachers say that over time - for one who is blessed with Shraddha and Bhakti, everything else drops off  - including the desire for the goal...

The teachings time and again talk about ripeness. It also talks about several births that the seeker takes. And there is Nandi who teaches us a profound lesson on waiting patiently outside the temple- and in that wait, there is the willingness to be there until eternity. Are we that ripe?.

The desire for "realization" may be used to offer us direction by practicing  integrity in thought and action, kindness, being a friend of all, forgiving everyone etc

When nothing appears to be going right

I've learned that when nothing appears to be going right, the drama queen mind starts throwing tantrums - by constructing claims of "how this was always the case, how meaningless life is, how pointless it all is, how I'm uniquely having to endure this strange kind of problem etc"

Such tantrums make even the best of parents yield and perhaps throw the hands in despair and refrain from doing the right thing that needs to be done, or worse doing wrong things - excessive and vengeful drinking, smoking, sleeping etc....

We have to remember to "work with our head down" in situations like this....and perhaps be a bit gentle with ourselves but always walk our simple path being careful not to deviate from our values becasue of the tantrum throwing mind....

We suddenly see that things were not as bad as the mind had painted...almost like waking from a disturbed sleep and finding a beautiful dawn or finding surprisingly that the train has reached our station...

May we always remember this....

 

In the face of doubt

It is not "a thought" that may cause anxiety or rob us of our peace. It is rather our judgement of it as "something wrong" and something that "may never go away" which is the problem. Often the clouds of confusion clear and in the shining light of intelligence we "see" how it is the judgement that "something is wrong" which gives birth to the thought to support it, rather than the other way round. This is a game that occurs in a subtle realm of the mind, that it is often difficult to catch the culprit - the judging mind. It is almost as if a decision has been made to find a reason to feel something is wrong.

And for a while - albeit dear a fleeting while, we do find faith, this dear peace giving faith. But what often becomes a difficulty is that we crave this faith - almost like a man in a desert seeks water. The value of peace is much more for a suffering soul than for one who has not met his dark night...yet.

A lost soul in a desert is tormented not merely by thirst and hunger, but the fear of being eternally lost- uncertainty is often more unbearable than physical pain. And impatience compounds the confusion, attaching our ability to be rational.

Forbearance, oh what a beautiful term. Like Nandi who sits outside the temple waiting for Shiva, not the least impatience. And in emobding such forebearance, Nandi has already found Shiva. This is the beautiful mystery. The answer is already found when the question has become clear.

Our faith, patience and forbearance are required only for us to have further clarity on our doubts.

I heard that the Prophet (PBUH) was approached by a woman who suffered a strange skin disease that not only made her very uncomfortable but also caused the clothes on her body to slip occasionally as she tried to manage her illness. The compassionate and wise prophet advised the lady that he could pray for her cure, but however, that forbearance was better for her. The lady accepted the advice and requested in that case, that the prophet prays for her to be free of the difficulty in managing her slipping clothes. This was accepted indeed.

Pray if you can...

Dear child, Pray if you can. And if faith has been uprooted from your heart and replaced with pain, ask yourself what is the best outlook you can bring to your faithlessness and pain. That too is prayer!

Why are you anxious that you are not able to stop your blasphemy? Is not an acknowledgement of god implicit in your act? Is that not better than being faithless.

Have you not heard of the story of Krishna and Sushupala? Sushupala took Krishna almost for a foe - he despised Krishna,  mocked him and always. But in the same lifetime, Sushupala went to Heaven. Because in doing all these things, he always thought of God

God appeared as madness...

The compassionate God appeared one day as insanity, uncertainty and pain
and then as anxiety, OCD, faithlessness and hopelessness....
And I acknowledged him in all those forms...
It is said, if god visits and you do not acknowledge, he will leave
I didn't want him to leave...
So he stayed and in time, brought beautiful days to my doorstep...