The Indian Dharma

In the previous episode, we had witnessed two important characteristics of a person who has gained an absolute control over his / her mind. In fact, we’ve witnessed four out of the ten charactersitics over the past two episodes that Sage Kapilaachaarya is listing out and today let us continue with the fifth and sixth ones. For our reference, we shall re-visit the important slokas that convey this message. Sage Kaplaachaarya says thus:

“Tithikshavaha kaarunikaaha sugruthaha sarva dehinaam!

Ajaatha shatravaha shaantaaha saadhavaha sadhu bhooshanaaha!!

Mayiananyena bhaavena bhaktim kurvanti ye dhrudaam!

Math krutetyakta karmaanaam tyakthah svajana baandhavaaha!!

Madaashrayaaha kathaa mrshtaaha shrunvanthee kathanyanvi cha!!”

So far we’ve witnessed brief explanations of the characteristics “Tithikshavaha”, “Kaarunikaaha”, “Sugruthaha sarva dehinaam” and “Ajaatha shatravaha”. Today we shall move on to the next one in Sage Kapilaachaarya’s list:

“Shaantaaha” – A person who is able to keep himself / herself calm and composed at all times. We would have heard this proverb in the present day that is quite famous – “Empty vessels make more noise”! This is exactly what Sage Kapilaachaarya summarized in just one single phrase – “Shaantaaha”, thousands of years ago! Here we can see that those who have gained an absolute control over their mind, would never over-react for any kind of situation in life. For instance, if there is something good happening, this person wouldn’t jump up and down with joy. At the same time, if there is something sad that takes place, this person doesn’t get heart-broken. Whatever might be the situation, this person would be able to take it with a perfect balanced frame of mind. This characteristic is extremely important for all of us in the present day, given our intense personal and professional commitments every passing day. Some of us might be in high corporate leadership positions, and if we’ve to get nervous and tensed up even for small setbacks that we witness in our everyday routine, we would not be able to make right decisions at the right time, which would in-turn affect the morale of the entire organization or the team that we are leading. Hence, a “balanced frame of mind” is extremely important in whatever we do in life – Not only for our professional side, but also for our personal front as well.

To achieve this state, one should be able to use his / her power of discrimination to judge and analyze the situation in the right manner. How will we be able to discriminate in a proper manner? It is only possible if we have the control over our mind. Many a times we might see people around us who are extremely emotional in nature – They either jump up and down with happiness, or in the other extreme, isolate themselves to a corner or keep weeping even for small failures or setbacks. This would in fact be detrimental for our personal, professional and spiritual growth. Moreover, in the present day we witness many people complaining of mental depression, high / low blood pressure levels, etc. and they keep taking medications even at a younger age! Why does all this happen? It is only because we’ve somehow lost that “balanced frame of mind” due to many reasons, best known only to us! Hence the point here is that, if we’ve to achieve this balance, we’ve to work towards bringing our mind under our control. If we’re not controlling our mind properly, our mind would start wandering here and there and eventually we would start giving into any and every sort of emotion that comes through.

As we work towards controlling our mind thus, our face automatically would become calm and would start radiating with “Thejus”. The moment people see our face, they would be able to discover automatically that we’re calm in nature! As we often keep saying, “Face is the index of the mind” – If we’re full of tension, nervousness, jealousy, etc. our facial expressions would reflect all of these negative characteristics very easily. Thus, the moment people see our face with all of these expressions, they would immediately be able to come to a conclusion that we are crooked in nature. Rather, if we’re able to maintain our calm and composed nature, it would add more and more charm to our face, which would attract many people to come towards us with joy and happiness.

“Saadhavaha” – This is again the extension of the previous point – A person who has complete control over his / her mind would be a “Saadhu”. This signifies the amount of “Bhakti” or “Devotion” this person has towards the Spiritual Master (Guru) and Bhagawan Himself! As the level of “Bhakti” increases further and further in a person, the level of “Sathva Guna” also increases gradually. We’ve already witnessed previously how do we build this “Satva Guna” within us. There are of course many ways, but one important way is through the food that we consume every day. If we’re able to consume a balanced diet, which is not too high on sweet, spice, sour, etc. we automatically gain the “Sathva Guna”, which would result in attaining our mental balance, which would again in-turn contribute to wresting control over our mind.

So for today, let us ponder over these two important points and we shall wait for the next episode to witness the next series of characteristics that Sage Kapilaachaarya is going to talk about! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode, we had commenced an extremely important discussion on Sage Kapilaachaarya’s accord on what are the significant and visible characteristics of those people who have absolute control over their mind. Indeed, as ardent followers of our Sanaathana Dharma and as regular readers of this blog series, it is upto each and every one of us to do a “reality check” upon ourselves, to understand where do we stand. As mentioned yesterday, Sage Kapilaachaarya lists down ten such characteristics, of which we’ve witnessed two of them in the previous episode. As we gradually look into the remaining eight of them, we shall clearly come to know our status today. This would give us a picture of ourselves as to where we stand with respect to our spiritual development and progress.

As we move forward from here on, I would request readers to seriously take notes of all such important points that we discuss here, and as we go back and try to implement these points in our daily routine life, it becomes easier for us to take a credible measurement of our progress. Just like how we have progress report cards in schools and colleges, and even performance appraisal systems in our workplaces, it is good to have a “Performance appraisal system” for our spiritual growth and development too! J Once we start maintaining our performance track record, it aides us to check on the areas that we’ve really worked upon well, areas that we need improvement and more focus, etc. With these clear metrics, we can make a strong and a steady progress towards “Dharma”. Hence, let us take it upon us to create these metrics and work according to that.

Moving on further thus, Sage Kapilaachaarya continues to list down the characteristics of those people who have an absolute control of the mind. It might be good if we can re-visit those slokas that drive this whole agenda forward. Sage Kapilaachaarya says thus:

“Tithikshavaha kaarunikaaha sugruthaha sarva dehinaam!

Ajaatha shatravaha shaantaaha saadhavaha sadhu bhooshanaaha!!

Mayiananyena bhaavena bhaktim kurvanti ye dhrudaam!

Math krutetyakta karmaanaam tyakthah svajana baandhavaaha!!

Madaashrayaaha kathaa mrshtaaha shrunvanthee kathanyanvi cha!!”

Of course in the previous episode, we had dicussed the first two characteristics – “Tithiksha” and “Kaarunika” in detail. Now let us move on to the third one:

“Sugruthaha sarva dehinaam” – This signifies the characterstic of “constantly thinking good about others and having a concern for others’ welfare more than ours”. In Sanskrit we call this characteristic as “Souhaardham”, which can be translated to “noble heartedness”. As a person who has control over his / her mind, we should make sure that all our thoughts and intentions are positive in nature, and we should be concerned for the benefit of others more than ourselves. This is why we chant the prayer “Lokaah Samastaah Stukino Bhavantu”, which means, “May all living beings in this world be happy and peaceful”. This is what we refer to as a “Noble-heart”. A person is said to possess a noble heart if he constantly thinks about how to keep others happy and contended. Thus, this becomes an important characteristic that we need to adhere to, as we move forward.

However in today’s world, are we having this noble heart nowadays? For a simple consideration, if we’ve to visit our family members on an occasion of a festival or an auspicious day – If people are elder to us, we fall on their feet (Namaskaaram) to seek their blessings, isn’t it? Of course, in those days, people used to bless those who fall on their feet with all their heart and soul. This really would positively transform the life of the person seeking the blessing. But today does this happen? In every family we have some sort of differences, fights, ego problems with each other, etc. If this is the state of affairs, if we go and fall on the feet of these people, seeking blessings from them, will their “blessings” really work? Blessings and wishes would work in the positive way only if they are given with a noble heart and a pure mind. Thus the message from this point is that, if our mind is pure, we would automatically have a noble heart. If a person with a noble heart blesses and wishes someone, these blessings can directly transform the lives of the people who come to seek their blessings.

“Ajaatha shatravaha” – Here Sage Kapilaachaarya conveys an important message – A person who has complete control over his / her mind can never be won over by any fierce enemy in this world! We might ask immediately – How is this possible? Will this person be able to put up any sort of physical fight? The simple answer here is that, even if the worst enemy comes near a person who has absolute control over his mind, he / she would automatically drop down his weapons and ego and fall on his feet, seeking refuge! Such is the power of this person with absolute mind control! Even if an enemy tries to attack verbally or physically in some cases, this person would stand like a wall, without any reaction! We might immediately ask here – Are we supposed to behave like dumb people? How can we not react if someone abuses us in the worst possible way? Sage Kapilaachaarya says that if we do not react at all, this in itself is a huge victory for us! For instance, if we go near a wall and shout at it for 30-45 minutes continues, is the wall going to react? What would happen ultimately? After some time, we would lose all our energy after shouting, drink some water and go away!

If we really ponder over the fact that why do people shout at us and abuse us – It is only to provoke our ego, which would make us react in the same hostile way that they want us to react! Whereas, if we’re able to cut down on that reaction which they expect us to give, automatically we would emerge victorious isn’t it? Maybe it might be tough to withhold for the first few minutes, but if we’re able to sustain that without reacting back, the other person would ultimately be projected as a fool, isn’t it?

We can see this charactersitc amongst great leaders in today’s world too! A detailed discussion of this point awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed a detailed accord on “Detachment” of the mind and how do we practice detachment in the present day scenario, given our strong personal and professional commitments. We witnessed how a detached mind is required to become a good leader and while taking critical decisions in life, on the personal front as well. The broader point here is that, as our mind becomes detached more and more, our ego starts coming down. The moment our ego is won over, our mind would start becoming calm and would not be disturbed easily by any adverse happenings or situations that we go through. This is one point that all of us should remember.

Of course, it is not enough if we just remember all of these important points. We’ve to take conscious efforts to put all of these into practice. As we keep reading through these points, it might seem very interesting and motivating for us at that particular moment. Also as we read through, we might have a notion that these are very easy to follow too. However as we commence the implementation part, there would be innumerable number of challenges that we might have to face. Controlling the mind is never easy, and the mind is compared to that of a mad monkey! If we’ve to control such an extremely crazy entity, we should have an equally extreme level of self-determination within ourselves. To be very frank and blunt, taking up such a “Saadhana” (Implementation) would lead us to lot of mental confusions, unrest, internal agitations, etc. However, all said and done, we should not give it up! Just because we go through all these feelings, if we’ve to give up our “Saadhana”, we should remember that we would again transcend back to “Ground zero” from where we started! Although we might fail in our initial attempts, we shouldn’t lose our hope. We should keep trying and trying till we are on the path. It is like a two-year-old baby trying to walk for the first time – Just like how the baby gets up to walk, every time after it falls on the floor, we should also try and get up everytime when our attempts to control our mind goes into a failure mode. It is always good that we start meditating with a fixed time-frame, or with a constant chanting of a “Manthra”. As per Sadguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), chanting a Mantra repetitively with full concentration yields extremely significant benefits, even if it is for a short duration of time. Hence, more than listening and reading all of this, let us slowly start putting things to practice!

Having said thus, we shall now move on with what Sage Kapilaachaarya is advising his mother Devahooti. Of course, we’re repeatedly digressing into lot of current-day issues that we face, but these points are worth understanding if we’ve to make genuine spiritual progress. This is exactly what Sage Kapilaachaarya too says to his mother – If we can control our mind and put these points into action, automatically our life would take a turn towards “Dharma” and in turn we can reach Bhagawan. Now Sage Kapilaachaarya lists out few important benefits that we can reap if our mind is brought under control. Sage Kapilaachaarya says thus:

“Tadaa purusha aatmaanam kevalam prakrteh param!

Nirantaram svayam jyotihi animaanam akhanditham!!

Gnyaana vairagya yuktena bhakti yuktena cha aatmanaa!!”

Here, Sage Kapilaachaarya lists down the characteristics that we would obtain as we bring our mind under control. These would be the important characteristics that great spiritual masters would be embodiments of. Let us look at them one by one. Of course, as I list them down, each one of us can make a self-analysis as to how many of these characteristics are imbibed within us. Sage Kapilaachaarya continues thus:

“Tithikshavaha kaarunikaaha sugruthaha sarva dehinaam!

Ajaatha shatravaha shaantaaha saadhavaha sadhu bhooshanaaha!!

Mayiananyena bhaavena bhaktim kurvanti ye dhrudaam!

Math krutetyakta karmaanaam tyakthah svajana baandhavaaha!!

Madaashrayaaha kathaa mrshtaaha shrunvanthee kathanyanvi cha!!”

Sage Kapilaachaarya thus lists out ten such important characteristics thus. Let us witness them one by one.

“Tithikshavaha” – A person who is an embodiment of “patience”. Of course, we can test our level of patience in various walks of our day-to-day life – If we’re able to exert tremendous amount of patience in whatever situations we come across in our daily lives, we can regard ourselves “up-to-the-mark”!

“Kaarunikaaha” – A person who is an embodiment of “compassion” and “love” towards other living beings around. This is another important achievement, if we bring our mind under control. If we’re able to control our anger and venting, automatically we would start entering into the zone of compassion. The moment we start looking at the positive aspects in a person, we would definitely start having a positive notion towards him / her and thus, our compassion would grow. Similarly, if we see people suffering, are we able to immediately go to them and extend a helping hand to them? If “yes”, we can rate ourselves high on compassion. This doesn’t apply only towards human beings. Compassion should be exhibited to all other living beings as well – Right from insects to giant elephants. If we see any living being undergoing pain, we should immediately be able to run towards them and try to alleviate them from the pain! This is real compassion!

For today, let us stop with this and let us ponder over the points that we’ve discussed. We shall continue this discussion in the next episode and witness more benefits of controlling our mind. Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed a detailed accord on what is “detachment” and how do we exercise detachment in today’s scenario. As we invoked Bhagawan Krishna’s narrative to this point, we saw that His main focus is on the actions and not on the results or fruits of the actions. It should be remembered here that “being detached” doesn’t mean shunning our duties of life – Be it personal or professional, or even spiritual for that matter. It is mandatory that we perform all our duties with 100% effort in all spheres of our life. However, what is important here is that, while performing our actions, our expectations from those actions should be zero or atleast bare minimal. This would help us in many ways.

Today, we shall witness an important extension of this point as to how do “detachment” benefit us and in what ways. So, when we say that we’ve to be “detached” and we should be devoid of expectations from our actions, we might immediately ask a counter question here – If we’re performing actions like this, without any expectations, then how do we plan the outcomes of our actions and how do we correct our actions if there are any mistakes or some criticism? Won’t this mean that we’re completely going directionless, if we’re not having a specific goal to achieve? How can this be possible especially in today’s world wherein we believe in the idea of generating specific outcomes for whatever tasks we do? Of course, these are very valid questions, but this requires a small clarification here – What we’re talking about here is not about the “specific outcomes” that we’re working towards. We’re talking about the resultant of those “specific outcomes” that we’re working towards – Whether we’re going to achieve them or not. Of course, all of us should have specific goals and targets to work on, and “detachment” doesn’t mean that we’re going to work without any of these. The point here is that, although we have a specific target or goal in mind, we shouldn’t be obsessed with just the positive outcome and result. We should be prepared to face even the negative result that might arise from our actions. Our mind should be open to accept criticism too. When can our mind accept criticism? It would only be possible if we’re keeping our mind open and not being obsessive about success. Only if our mind is open, will we be able to receive constructive feedbacks and criticisms, upon which we can work on further to improve ourselves. This phenomenon of having an open mind while performing our actions in itself is “detachment”.

As we deliberate more on this aspect, we need to extend a little bit into “criticisms”. Basically there are two types of criticisms – Positive or Constructive & Negative or Destructive. Those critical comments that are made by people who are really interested in our development, come under the “Constructive criticism” category. Of course, those comments that come in a sarcastic and a demotivating way from people, just because they do not like us to grow further, fall under the category of “Destructive criticism”. Now the question here is, how do we differentiate between these two categories of criticisms? In simpler words, how do we handle criticism effectively as a leader?

In order to differentiate between the Constructive & Destructive criticisms, we need to first have a balanced frame of mind. This is required, we need to construe and analyze each comment and deliberate within ourselves whether this comment is good or bad for us. A robust deliberation can happen only if we have a neutral approach towards the problem and the comment. If we’ve to have this neutral approach, our mind should be detached and should not take sides! Rather, if we’re having a biased mindset while listening to comments and feedbacks from people, our ego would come in the middle of constructive feedbacks, and this fuels a huge threat that we’re missing out on real areas of improvement! Hence, it is always advisable that we have an open mind towards approaching criticism, and if we’re able to do this, it becomes easy for us to differentiate between the good and bad ones.

So for today, let us ponder over this important point and let us take a step forward to work towards detachment of our mind. We shall wait till the next episode to move ahead with Sage Kapilaachaarya’s next piece of advice to his mother, Devahooti. Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had tried to give answers for four important questions that might arise from Sage Kapilaachaarya’s first advice to his mother Devahooti on controlling our mind. As an overview, we had witnessed that the mind plays a vital role in whatever we wish to do in life – Whether our actions are professional, personal, spiritual or whatever. If our mind doesn’t co-operate properly, none of the actions would bare any fruit! Hence, for any action to become successful, we should make sure that we tune our mind to that required level of “frequency”. Even for our professional growth in our organization wherever we work, we need to have the right mindset to succeed in whatever jobs we undertake. Similarly for our spiritual growth too, it is the mind that needs to be tuned in such a way that we progress further.

We have also witnessed a brief accord on what are “Vaasanas” and how do our Vaasanaas constantly keep pegging us back from our spiritual pursuit. I’m sure that many of us must have realized this by now. Hence the important point here is that, if we’ve to eradicate our Vaasanas from our mind and make our mind pure, we need to consciously work towards it and keep trying again and again, whenever we fail in our spiritual pursuit. For instance, if we’ve to sit for meditation for 30 minutes continuously, initially we would not be able to concentrate even for 3 minutes continuously, because our mind would be wavering everywhere with thousands of thoughts. However, we should not give up! We should keep trying again and again and as we gradually increase our intensity of our trials, the thoughts that our mind has, would gradually start coming down. As these unwanted thoughts are eliminated from our mind, automatically our mind would start becoming calm and in turn, our Vaasanas would gradually be taken care of. Thus, for every problem, there is a solution! It is upto us to follow the solution and rise up the spiritual ladder.

Another method of getting rid of our Vaasanas is by doing “Mantra-Japa”. If we’re performing constant “Mantra-Japa” every passing day, it automatically generates an internal spirutal energy within us. This would directly be instrumental in getting rid of our Vaasanas that are clogging our mind. The more intense our “Mantra-Japa” becomes as days progress, quicker and effectively can we come out of our Vaasanas. Hence, let us consciously try and do this.

Moving on further, we need to talk a bit about “detachment” of the mind. This is in lieu with what we’ve discussed till now with respect to our mind and how to control our mind. As our mind gradually comes out of our Vaasanas, we enter into a complete state of detachment. Now, what is this “detachment” all about? For instance, if we light a camphor and throw it on the floor, two things can happen here – If the floor has some inflammable items such as grass and other things, this camphor will start burning all of these items and thus the fire will become bigger and bigger. Whereas, if the floor is clean and devoid of any items, the camphor would just burn for 2-3 minutes and gradually the fire would doze off! Similarly, our mind is like this camphor – If our mind is having innumerable attachments like the grass on the floor, we’re going to be consumed by all of them, just like the grass is consumed by the camphor’s fire. Ultimately, this is going to destroy our spiritual pursuit. Rather, if we can keep our mind clean as in the second case, just like the camphor burns for 2-3 minutes and switches off, our mind would also be stable and would be ready for spiritual growth and pursuit.

But here comes a counter question: If we’ve to detach ourselves from our worldly matters completely, how do we lead a life in this earth? Shouldn’t we have a family? Shouldn’t we earn money? How can we survive without all of this? The answer here is that, of course we should have a family, earn money, etc. But just like how water doesn’t stay put on a petal of a lotus, we shouldn’t get too much “attached” to anything.

Imagine that we’re residing in a rented house, rather than an owned house. How would we conduct ourselves? We take possession of this house from the owner for a fixed time period, pay rent on a monthly basis, and once the time period is over, we just move out of this house and go into another! All the maintenance activities, etc. are not ours in a rented house. It’s the headache of the owner, isn’t it? Here, we just need to move in, live for a certain time period, and vacate! Similarly, this world is like a rented place and we’re like tenants residing in this world. We reside in this world until our lifetime gets over and after that, we’ve to leave this rented place! If we have this mindset, attachment would never happen! The moment we start considering this world and belongings as our “own”, we would start getting possessive about things, and thus our attachments start getting built up – Just like how the owner of the house should take care of all the maintenance activities, etc.

Thus, the point here is that, we should lead a personal life, family life, professional life, etc. but we should be able to “maintain a safe distance” from all of these, by not getting too close to anything. Of course, we have to discharge all our important duties towards our family, our job, etc. but that duty should not be focused on the end-result. This is what Bhagawan Krishna also says:

“Karmanyevaadhikaaraste maaphale shukadaachana!!”

The simple message here is that, “Do your duty without expecting the end result of it!” If we’re able to attain this state, this is what is called “detachment”. In other words, we’re performing our duty, but we’re leaving the result of it to Bhagawan to take care! Bhagawan knows when and when not to give us the fruits of our actions. Hence, if we’re having a supreme master who’s guiding us in all aspects, why should be bother about the result? Let Him take care of it!

So for today, let us ponder over this important aspect of life and let us take a conscious step to come out of our Vaasanas, desires, expectations, etc. which would aid our spiritual progress. Of course, it’s easier said than done! But we’ve to put a conscious effort in this direction to realize our goal. We shall continue this interesting and important discussion further in the next episode as well! Stay tuned! 🙂

In the previous episode, we had witnessed the commencement of a very important passage of conversation between Sage Kapilaachaarya and his mother Devahooti. As Devahooti raises her biggest concern with regards to the knowledge of enlightenment and spiritual development, Sage Kapilaachaarya doesn’t give it off straightaway! He first starts from the scratch as to how to condition the mind and make it ready to receive the knowledge that is required to attain Moksha. Yesterday we had witnessed Sage Kapilaachaarya’s accord on why should we condition our mind. In fact, in the subsequent Yuga, Bhagawan Krishna outlines a big framework in his Bhagawad Gita about the importance of our mind and how to bring it under control. We’ve witnessed a glimpse of it yesterday as well.

Now moving on into this important discussion, we had finished yesterday’s episode with a set of questions that are unanswered still. We’ve to now witness the answers for those questions today as we move forward. To remind our readers of the questions, here we go: 1. Why does our mind accumulate these bad and negative emotions and thoughts? 2. Is it only by cleansing our mind that we would be able to rise up our spiritual level? 3. Why can’t we try and rise up with the exisiting state of affairs? 4. If at all we’ve to cleanse, how do we cleanse the mind and make it devoid of all these negativities? Let us start answering each of these four questions one by one as follows:

To answer the first question – Why does our mind accumulate the bad and negative emotions and thoughts? The important answer for this question is that, our mind “carries forward” our “Vaasanas” from our past births. In other words, our character is primarily based on what we were in our past births. For instance, if we have a “Vaasana” towards money and materialistic luxuries, all our actions, thoughts, etc. would only be directed towards fulfilling all of these materialistic pleasures only. In another case, some people might have a “Vaasana” towards the people of opposite gender, and subsequently their actions would be directed towards fulfilling that desire, come what may! Thus on an overview, our mind is always “filled” and “enriched” with our Vaasanas that we’ve accumulated over innumerable births. Subsequently, our thoughts, emotions, actions, etc. are directed only according to our Vaasanas and it is very difficult to break this chain!

This answer brings us to the discussion for the next question – Is it only by cleansing our mind that we would be able to rise up our spiritual level? My answer to this question is “Yes”! If we’ve to progress spiritually, our mind should compulsorily be cleansed. This is because, even if we have the interest of making spiritual progress, our “Vaasanas” would keep pulling us down every now and then! Even if we have that will-power to sit and meditate, for instance, thousands of thoughts would run through our mind as we sit and close our eyes! As a matter of fact, whether we like it or not, most of these thoughts would be in line with our Vaasanas. As our thoughts keep surfacing up more and more, it becomes very difficult for us to stay focused during the time of meditation. I’m sure, some of our readers might have had such experiences as well.

Again, this answer brings us closer to the next question – Why can’t we try and rise up with the exisiting state of affairs? In fact, this question is an ally to the previous one – The straightforward and blunt answer to this question is that, our Vaasanas are extremely powerful in nature, which in turn reflect in our thoughts and emotions as well. Hence, in order to defeat this powerful entity, we need to put in an “extraordinary” effort. This now brings us to the answer of the fourth question – If at all we’ve to cleanse, how do we cleanse the mind and make it devoid of all these negativities? The simple answer is to keep trying our best everytime to come over it. Everytime we fall down, we’ve to get up and start moving! There’s no alternative to it. For instance, if we sit to meditate and if we feel that we’re getting pulled into our negative thoughts, we should try and become aware of it as quickly as possible, re-start our focus and keep moving on. The more we show the resolve to focus, the easier it is for us to come out of our Vaasanas.

In fact, this is the main reason, why we perform certain austere spiritual practices. For instance, why do we emphasize that we’ve to keep chanting our “Mantra” every time? The main reason is that, if we’re continuously chanting our “Mantra”, our mind will start gradually moving away from our “Vaasanas”. As we’re trying to focus on the “Mantra” that we’re chanting, the mind slowly starts to calm down. Of course, the power of the “Mantra” would also aid our cause! It is to be understood that every “Mantra” has its own power and significance. The power of the “Mantra” will have a significant impact on our body’s metabolism as well and this is scientifically proved! As our body metabolism gets streamlined, slowly our mind would also fall in line with our body’s metabolism. As our mind gets streamlined, slowly our Vaasanas would also start decreasing. As this process continues, at one stage, our mind would completely become free of our Vaasanas and we would attain a state wherein nothing in this world would tempt us into fulfilling worldly pleasures and we would would enter into a complete state of “detachment”!

Having said thus, many of us might have a bigger doubt – Is this possible or not? The answer is, “Yes! It is possible!” There are people who have done this and have been successful as well! Of course, it would require tremendous effort and resolve from our side. This is a great challenge that lies in front of us, given our various commitments that we have in today’s scenario! Are we ready to take up this challenge and resolove? Let’s ponder over it for today! We shall wait till the next episode to continue with Sage Kapilaachaarya’s accord! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed how Sage Kapilaachaarya’s mother was so fortunate enough to receive the highest spiritual knowledge from none other than her own son! This is one of the rarest incidents ever that could have happened in the world, and Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana brings out this incident beautifully and in an extremely thought-provoking manner. We witnessed yesterday that Sage Kapilaachaarya is consoling his mother, who was expressing her anxiety that the whole world is slowly moving away from spiritual progress and the development of Atman (Soul) and this is because, people are lacking the basic knowledge that is required for this progression to happen.

Sage Kapilaachaarya now commences his advice to his mother on this subject, and this is an extremely important learning for all of us moving forward. As I had mentioned yesterday, Sage Kapilaachaarya is going to make some sweeping statements that might not go well with few of us, however, truth is truth! Great sages of yester years never had the habit of using “juicy & flowery” language to communicate. Their way of communication was always straightforward and to the point directly, without mincing their words! It is we who’ve to grasp the advice in the right way and try to implement them in our regular lives. This, as mentioned, forms the prima-facie portion of the third Skandha of the Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana.

Sage Kapilaachaarya commences his advice thus:

“Yahaa avagraho avam veeteth ye tasmin yojitastvayaa!

Yoga aadhyaatmikah pungsaam matho nishresaayame!!”

The first and foremost advice that Sage Kapilaachaarya starts with is how to control the mind! In every aspct of life, if we require to get the deepest understanding about it, we should analyze the aspect until the grassroot level. Only then we would get the in-depth knowledge about something. Say for instance, we’ve to learn the game of cricket – How does the coach teach a batsman who is a beginner? He first explains the way in which we’ve to see the ball, when the bowler bowls it, isn’t it? He would give specific instructions as to how to approach a short-pitched ball, over-pitched ball, bouncer, Yorker, etc. He would teach us the various types of foot movements that we need to follow for each of the different types of deliveries. Also of course, the way in which we’ve to move the bat is also important, and thus, this is a co-ordinated activity between the bat, leg and our hands. But the most important of all these is how do we focus on the delivery – The mind should be as calm as possible and open as well. Thus to succeed as a batsman in the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virat Kohli, etc., controlling of the mind is of paramount importance. Only if our mind is calm, will we be able to give our 100% focus to the ball that is being bowled.

Similarly here too, if we’ve to succeed in our quest for spiritual development, our mind should be “conditioned” for it. If our mind doesn’t co-operate with us in any of our pursuit in life, we can never achieve anything!

“Manayevahi manushyaanaam kaaranam bandha mokshayoh!!”

Bhagawan Krishna Himself says this in the Bhagawad Gita that if the mind is brought under control, a person can achieve anything in this world! As we commence our spiritual journey, we might need to perform few austere practices to bring our mind under control. This is “Step 1”. The reason why we’re giving paramount importance to our mind is that, especially in today’s world our mind is polluted with millions of thoughts and emotions. Out of these, some might of course be good and constructive, but unfortunately many might be bad! These bad thoughts, negative emotions that we might perceive in our mind should be removed. Only if this cleansing happens, will our mind open up for spiritual progress.

As we say thus, few questions might arise in our minds here. Some of them might be: Why does our mind accumulate these bad and negative emotions and thoughts? Is it only by cleansing our mind that we would be able to rise up our spiritual level? Why can’t we try and rise up with the exisiting state of affairs? If at all we’ve to cleanse, how do we cleanse the mind and make it devoid of all these negativities? An important discussion awaits us in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed an important extension on the point of discussion on the purpose of birth, as narrated by Sage Kapilaachaarya. We’ve been talking continuously about “Atman-Development” and how would this enable us to reach “Moksha”. As part of this important discussion, we had witnessed how we get pulled back every now and then by loads of worldly things that we keep doing every passing day. One main confrontation that happens every now and then is “conformity to societal pressures”, which we had a detailed discussion in the last episode. We witnessed how we’re bound to societal norms and when we tend to deviate from it, we face “rejection” altogether from the society, which is one of the biggest fears that we are gripped in, as part of our daily life. The primary point here is that, if we’ve to succeed in life, we’ve to at some point in time, try and break the shackles of the society and move ahead to follow our goals and passions. Of course I understand that it is easier said than done, but this should not result in our complacency. We should make a conscious effort to follow our heart and passion and success would reign in only when we do it. Once we’re going as per our passion, we would become free of fear and unwanted stress. This can directly be converted into spiritual progress, as we would be able to spend more time in Atma-development.

Thus continuing with the discussion on the significance of our Aatman, Sage Kapilaachaarya’s important piece of advice to all of us is that, we should focus more on the development of our Aatman, than our physical body and the materialistic aspects that surround it.

“Yehsa aatma pataha avvyaktaha nashtah kaalena bhooya saa!

Tam pravarta yukthum deham imam viddhi mayaabhrutam!!

Gaccha kaamam mayaa prushtaha mayi sanyastha karmanaa!

Jithvaa sudhijayam mruthyum amritatvaaya maam bhaja!!”

Continuing thus with Sage Kapilaachaarya’s important life instances, from the moment he was born on this earth, Kapilaachaarya knew nothing other than “Aatma-Development”! Right from inception, he was very clear with his agenda. Looking at this, his mother Devahoothi initially couldn’t understand the “uniqueness” and “peculiarity” of her son! However, gradually she started realizing that Kapilaachaarya is not an ordinary person at all! She finally asks her son thus, “Oh son! I’ve been through various aspects of life – Happiness, sadness, anger, frustration, etc. but till date, I do not have the knowledge on how to lead a life that is beyond all this! In fact, not only me, but none in this world have an iota of this important knowledge! Therefore, oh son, can you please educate me on this?”

Hearing this from his mother, Sage Kapilaachaarya replies back thus, “Oh mother! Please do not worry! I’m here to give you all the requisite knowledge on how to lead a life beyond worldly attachments. In fact, you are the medium through which I’ve to communicate my very purpose of birth, along with these important messages that I’ve to convey to the world! It is a true fact that the world is slowly moving away from the quest towards spiritual growth, and I’ve incarnated in this world to stop this from happening! Hence, I’m going to give few important points that you’ve to ponder upn!”

Saying thus, Sage Kapilaachaarya requests his mother Devahooti to sit beside him and starts giving her lot of advice. This is an extremely unique situation wherein a son is advicing his mother, instead of the normal vice-versa that usually happens. This “Upadesha” (Advice) given by Sage Kapilaachaarya to his mother Devahooti occupies a prime place in the third “Skandha” of Shrimad Bhaagawatha Puraana text. We shall try to digress into what exactly Sage Kapilaachaarya said to his mother. As we dicuss this, some readers might feel offended, or some statements which Sage Kapilaachaarya is going to make, might not be acceptable to some of us, due to various reasons, that might be best known only to us! However, truth is truth! It can never be twisted nor morphed! Whether we like it or not is in our personal discretion. Of course, we might know and be aware of many of what Sage Kapilaachaarya is going to tell us here. But the real question is that, whether we know all these in the way we should know them!

So for today, let us try and prepare ourselves for a deep grind of sweeping statements that Sage Kapilaachaarya is going to make. We shall commence this important discussion in the next episode! Stay tuned! J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the previous episode we had continued an important discussion as to how “fear” grips us in today’s life and how is this pegging us back from our pursuit towards Atma-development. In this regard, we had witnessed the role of media (both print and electronic) in spreading and injecting fear and distress amongst people, which directly results in a subconscious level of scare towards life as a whole. This results in people getting afraid to face the realty of life many a times and we can witness too that many of us getting afraid and tensed even for small things in life, owing to a wrong perception of the bigger picture. Subsequently in yesterday’s episode we had witnessed how “pursuit towards excellence” is also a huge factor contributing to our fear in life as a whole. We had spoken in this context on how we get terrified with many things, right from childhood and how this fear develops and manifests itself as we grow older, thus eventually leading to the losing of our individuality completely.

Especially with the Indian context, we witness every passing day how children who are in their 10’th or 12’th class pressurized so much with so much of academic work to do. On top of all this, an illusion is created as if it is only these marks that a student scores in the board exams would determine his / her entire future of life! How stupid is this? Does it mean that all those who haven’t secured the top marks or ranks in board and competitive exams dumb in nature? It is never the case! Personally I’ve seen many of my friends who scored less in board exams, excel in their professional lives beyond par! Hence, all of this “ideologies” and “beliefs” that it is only the board exam results that determines the entire future of the child is totally false and baseless. Of course, I’m not saying that board exams aren’t important or anything of that sort. Readers shouldn’t be misled here. All what I’m saying is that, life has lot more to offer than just these examinations. A human life is beyond all of this, and during the process of it, we sadly fail to realize it!

This can be viewed in another dimension too – In terms of something called “Society” and “Societal Capital”. Now what is this society and how does the society contribute to the fear factor in an individual? Let us take this discussion forward in today’s episode. Basically when we talk of the society, it includes a wide variety of people with whom we are in contact with us in our everyday life – both directly and indirectly. This includes family members, friends, neighbors, people in our locality, village or town, etc. who know about us directly or indirectly. Of course, with today’s advent of social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) the whole world has shrunk into one small village or into one society!

Now how does this society contribute to the fear in an individual? Many a times, especially in the Indian context, we would be able to witness that we live our life not for the sake of ourselves and our spiritual development, but for others! In other words, most of the time we are worried about what others would comment about us if we perform any action, irrespective of whether it is good or bad! For instance, in many parts of India, it is a societal belief that a child should mandatorily do a graduation in either Engineering or Medicine and nothing else! All other professions aren’t looked upon with dignity amidst the society. What are the implications of this societal perception? Say for instance, I’m a woman and I’m aspiring to make a career in modelling and fashion designing – Will this become a realty for me in my life? There would be stiff resistance and opposition from many quarters – Parents, immediate family members, friends, etc. The moment my parents come to know of my interest in fashion designing or modelling, what would be their reaction? Immediately they would say, “Oh! These professions aren’t a sign of a decent girl!” Now what do they mean by the word “decency”? The meaning for this word is given by the society that a woman should be conservative in many ways! If I as a woman want to break the shackles and come out of this, it wouldn’t be possible in many cases! A sense of fear is always induced by parents that I wouldn’t be “socially accepted” if I take up such “glamorous” professions! Some people of course have the mental strength to challenge this societal perception and come out of it, but sadly and unfortunately, many women in this country aren’t able to do so! This creates a subconscious fear within them that if they take up such professions, they would face rejection in the society and would be branded as “anti-social”!

Thus, this fear of “societal rejection” is fast gaining prominence amidst our people, irrespective of any gender. In case of males, this fear looms large if they’re not enrolling themselves into an engineering or a medical school for graduation! How stupid is this again? Can everybody in this world become engineers and doctors? If all of us were engineers or doctors, who will be technicians or patients? If all of us were engineers or doctors, who would manage our income and money? Don’t we need dedicated Chartered Accountants? If all of us are engineers or doctors, don’t we need some recreation activities to relax ourselves? For that, we would require people who are excellent artists, like dancers, musicians, painters, and those who are experts in various forms of theatrics! Moreover, we would require people who excel in various kinds of sports as well! Thus, the world is wide open to be explored! There are truckloads of opportunities to excel in this world, but sadly because of societal pressures and fear of rejection amidst the society, we turn blind towards these opportunities to succeed and make an excellent career!

So what is the main lesson that we learn from this discussion? The primary point here is that, if we’ve to succeed in life, we’ve to at some point in time, try and break the shackles of the society and move ahead to follow our goals and passions. Of course I understand that it is easier said than done, but this should not result in our complacency. We should make a conscious effort to follow our heart and passion and success would reign in only when we do it. Once we’re going as per our passion, we would become free of fear and unwanted stress. This can directly be converted into spiritual progress, as we would be able to spend more time in Atma-development.

Hence for today, let us ponder over this important point and do the needful. We shall wait till the next episode to witness Sage Kapilaachaarya’s next important message! Stay tuned! 😊

 

In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sage Kapilaachaarya’s continued message on what hampers our Atma-Development agenda and here he explains how our “fear” in the external world contributes to pegging us away from the one-pointed agenda for life. Of course in the yesterday’s episode we had witnessed the role of today’s media – both print and electronic, spreading some sort of a fear amongst all of us. Many of us might not be realizing this upfront, but subconsciously we do keep accumulating all of the negative news that is being spread across in the media platforms. When time comes, these subconscious feelings and fear that we’ve developed over a period of time, comes to light and this can be extremely dangerous. Because of this, we would start getting scared even for small things in life.

This is exactly what Sage Kapilaachaarya presents here – If we’re going to live all our life in some sort of fear, we’re never going to make any spiritual progress, for, fear is one of the huge hampering factors for Atma-development. Of course, it is not only the media that is the sole cause of spreading fear amongst the people, but there are many factors too in today’s context. Sadly, even when we are children, we’re constantly being brought up in an environment of fear – Fear of performance! If for instance, we flunk in one exam or we score lesser marks due to some reason, our family and school would immediately take us to task! I still remember my schooling days, where children would be beaten with the scale and stick if they fail in exams! Upon seeing this, I as a child would get extremely terrified and this itself would trigger a negative sense of feeling within me! The worst part is when we start comparing the performance of one child with the other’s. This is perhaps the most pathetic thing to do ever, because every child has his or her own individuality and not every child can excel in every subject! It is to be realized that one child can never be compared with another and it is like comparing an apple with an orange! Parents should have this basic understanding as they mold their kids. We should realize that every human being is differently created by Bhagawan and every human being is born in this world for a variety of purposes. So, just because one child fails in one exam, it doesn’t mean that the poor child is bad! This child might be able to excel in some other domain, if trained in the right direction and as parents, we need to identify the interest of our children, thus mold them accordingly.

Thus, the moment a child feels that he / she is being compared and contrasted with other children, it leads to a fear and sort of a depression. As a result, an “inferiority complex” sets into the child’s tender mind and in many cases, this becomes an irreversible phenomenon as the child grows up! This also leads to a situation wherein the child totally loses his / her individuality and he / she starts to “fake” his / her whole life ahead, just to please someone else! How dangerous is this situation? Although we might realize the graveness of the problem, unfortunately, many of us would have gone through this knowingly or unknowingly!

Hence from this discussion, the point that I’m trying to drive home is that, today’s “pressure for excellence” is only creating fear and scare amongst our younger generation and this is an extremely dangerous trend moving forward. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why our younger generation is slowly moving away from spirituality and spiritual growth. I’m dedicating one full episode on this because of the graveness of the situation, and if this continues for another 10-15 years, threat is looming large and is casting a huge shadow on our people as we move further and further away from spiritual progress. This again validates Sage Kapilaachaarya’s claim that not many people are showing interest in realizing their purpose of birth!

So for today, let us ponder over this important point and let us do the needful! We shall wait till the next episode to witness more of Sage Kapilaachaarya’s explanations! Stay tuned! 😊