I have observed this tendency in many youngsters to reject Gods and Temples with nonchalance. It seems to them almost demeaning or embarrassing to even talk of it. They believe that life is totally in their hands and it requires nobody’s intervention. On one hand this self confidence is highly appreciated but on the other hand they have completely missed the relevance and significance of religious culture. It is true that the way religion is abused in our society leaves one with nothing but skepticism about the whole idea, but that should not take anything away from the fact that the spiritual culture we have inherited had a profound base and its tenets had a much larger meaning than what we have assigned to it in contemporary society.

For some time let us forget the various names given to religions (Hinduism, Islam etc) and their various subsets and look at the origins of this reverence to the unknown – which we call as religion. Primitive Man was hapless in front of the awesome forces of nature. His daily existence was determined by these forces and he thought by appeasing the wind or the rain in some way, his life would be more controlled and secured. And thus began the saga of rituals. Over the ages these wild incantations developed into a rigid system of “worship” with its own power hierarchies. The notable feature in this development is the fact no matter how refined and purified the prayers became the element of unpredictability and insecurity in Man’s life never left him totally. A fatalistic belief in fate began to rule the mind of man. A giving up of one’s life into unknown hands took the shape of God’s and Goddesses whose task it was to guard the world of uncertainties. Festivals and other days of worship became coded into the calendars of culture and it became the bounden duty of every person to attend places of worship and offer prayers mainly to propitiate the wild and virulent natural forces symbolized by these Gods. But the underlying urge behind these acts is the knowledge that our lives are never in our control. In every religion, we find there is parallel path of thought where a few men rejected the vain idolatry of their times. They were not atheists. They acknowledged the impersonal hold on their lives but they did not seek the reasons for it in the outer world, but dug deep within themselves to seeking out an answer. This line of thought came to be known as mysticism, and invariably in every society the mystics were looked upon with fear. The reason was clear. The mystics looked upon the Gods not as truths by themselves but as symbol of cosmic laws which none had the power to understand or change. A temple to them was not a place for appeasement but a sanctum sanctorum where one comes face to face with his own reality. The reality that life is lived through us and not by us and we have to accept whatever life has to give with a deep inner resignation. That is the true meaning of visiting temple-To prostrate before the cosmos, Understanding truly that every one of us has a role to play in this divine drama and that our personal will is only a myth. In a way we are led by destiny.

So visiting a temple is not to venerate an idol, but look beyond it and look through the inner meaning. If you want to show somebody where the moon is you have to point a finger towards it. Once the person has seen the direction of the pointed finger, he has to look beyond to actually see the moon. Similarly, the temples are pointers to the unknown. Do not get caught with pointer – See where it points too.

The search of every human being is to be able to live a balanced life. A life that is free from sorrow,pain,suffering. From birth till death this is the constant endeavour of every man. Every individual strives for peace in a unique way. But very rarely do we find a person who can genuinely-from the depths of his heart say:”I have found peace”. Why is that out of all the creatures on this planet has man made a mess of his own life? We appreciate nature for its multifarious dimensions. We yearn for the joy that a scenic beauty gives us but we are unable to acquire that quality of well being that organisms around us seem to enjoy. Have we ever observed a dog?It eats when it is hungry, It barks when in anger,it pets when needed too. There is a always a flow in its life. It never stagnates .Whereas the life of a human is always full of pauses and worries. We seek permanency in all our acts. We willfully embrace pleasure and try our level best to shun pain. A choice ridden life is what we seek. We forget to understand the life is a movement- Events happen,Deeds are done but there is no doer thereof. A balanced life is one where there is total acceptance of life and moving with the flow. I can recall a lovely anecdote in the life of the legendary Tennis player Arthur ashe. Ashe was known for gentlemanly behaviour on and off the court. He was the first Black player to have won the prestigious Wimbledon title. In his later years, he was borne down by Cancer. A reporter while interviewing him asked the following question:Why has God chosen you for such a dreadful disease?

The answer Ashe gave is an eye opener to all of us. He replied : “ Every year Fifty lakh youngsters enter into game of Tennis. Out of which 20 lakh continue playing the game. Amongst these 5 lakh get to play the game at the professional level. Out of these about 50000 play the game at the international level. From these numbers only 330 players get into the Grand slams. Then one amongst these holds aloft the championship trophy. When I held the trophy upon the podium, I did not ask God “WHY ME”. Now when I am bedridden why should I ask him “ WHY ME”. That is precisely our problem. We feel victimized by life. Why should we question the cosmic will. Let us go with the movement and we definitely find the elusive peace and contentedness that we spend our lives searching for. Lets stop asking “WHY ME” and start asking “WHY NOT ME”.

One of the greatest lessons I have learnt in my life is that it pays to remain quiet. Preoccupation has become a disease with most of us. I travel by bus everyday. Many people climb in and out of the bus as I travel to my workplace. It is amazing to see that early in the morning, fresh from their homes, men and women physically present in the bus but mentally so far away. There is a blank look on their faces. They don’t smile, they lack energy. They are outwardly quiet, but you can see it on their faces that they are chattering away internally. It happens to us all the time, doesn’t it?. There is not a single second in a day when we are not thinking. Our bodies are busy with work but our minds are somewhere else. That is why at the end of the day, we are worn out completely. A farmer puts it a thousand times more physical effort than we do, yet at the end of the day he is relaxed. The human brain is never wholly quiet. Frankly, have we had a single moment when we can confidently say that we have been thoughtless. We seem to apparently suffer from a thought tortured brain. No activity can be accomplished efficiently if there is constant interference of thoughts. Swami Chinmayananda used to say “Let your mind remain where your hands are”. In other words, focus on the task at hand and ward of any unnecceasry intrusions. This is obviously easier said than done. But if begin to apply this principle diligently in our lives, we will definitely find that it becomes easier to do this. To learn anything new, we must empty the thought bucket. Now read this beautiful story:

A earnest student kept knocking persistently at the door of a Zen master to learn about enlightenment. The master never allowed him to enter his cottage. The student came again and again. One day, the Master opened the door with a beaming smile on his face and welcomed the student . He made him sit on the chair and started preparing some tea in a vessel. Then he a picked up a cup and started pouring tea into it. The student was watching the master very intently. The cup was full, but the master kept pouring more tea into it. The liquid started overflowing. The student was perturbed. The master showed no signs of stopping. The student couldn’t contain himself any longer and blurted out ” Sir, The cup is full. It cannot contain any more”. At this point, the master halted; and looked benignly at the young boy and said ” Yes, my dear boy, an overflowing cup cannot be filled; so too an overflowing mind cannot absorb enlightenment. Empty your mind first and then come to me”. The student understood the message and payed obeisance to the Guru.

So learn to empty the mind….

As youngsters, we must realize that our personal agenda’s are short term and have no value whatsoever in the scheme of life. No, I am not trying to be fatalistic. We must have ambitions, we must be competitive and we must plan well. All these are absolutely necessary. But while doing these, we must be constantly aware that our activities are subject to cosmic approval. Let me illustrate. As a family, we plan to go out for a weekend. All preparations have been made. We are in a state of tremendous expectation. Suddenly, on Friday evening our car breaks down and the mechanic tells us that it won’t be ready before the weekend. Naturally, we are disappointed. We feel that we have been let down. We skulk over it and normally complain that life has been unfair to us. Well, it may be true. But there is nothing we can do about it. We must always bear in mind the fact that “Man proposes and God disposes”. Everything that happens to us has a meaning and purpose in life. The Chinese mystic Lao Tzu has a beautiful expression to denote this. He calls it the “The water course way”. Water’s natural tendency is to flow. No matter what the obstacle is. It ultimately flows. Our lives should follow this path. Every twist and turn that life offers us must be taken as an opportunity. Who knows what good lies in every evil? There is an old story in our literature. Listen to it.

There lived a young king, who was fair and handsome. He was so proud of his physical appearance that he would take extraordinary care to protect his body from a slightest scar. In his kingdom, there were a group of bandits who were terrorizing the population. No one in the kingdom dared to stop them. The king had no choice but to attend to the matter personally. So one day, he went along with his soldiers to the jungle, where the bandits were reportedly in hiding. The king was more worried about his own physical well being than catching the thieves. He rode carefully along the jungle avoiding all obstacles that may cause damage to his white skin. It so happened, that a small thorn jutting out a tree scratched the kings shoulder and his hand started bleeding. The king was distraught. He felt that his entire life was finished. He began cursing the gods for having wounded him. As this was going on, from no where the bandits swooped upon the king and his regiment. They handcuffed the king and took him to their den. The bandits were unusually happy because they had to sacrifice a fair young man that day. They did not know that the man they had captured was the king. On reaching the den the bandits started making preparations for the sacrifice. The young king forgot all about his wound. He was now stuck with mortal fear. He was going to be burnt alive. They had killed all his attendants and he was alone there in the midst of the forest. The chief of the thieves came up to him and said: “O young man, we are about to burn you. But our custom states that we can sacrifice only a body that does not have a scar. “. The king had forgotten all about the scar and started pleading with the chieftain that he was a king. All his wailings fell on deaf years. The thieves started stripping him to prepare the body for sacrifice. The chief suddenly noticed that there was blood on the king’s shoulder. He ordered his men to stop the proceedings. He told the king” You are fortunate! You have been saved by the smallest of scars”, now you are free to go”. The young king was let loose. He walked to his palace a changed man.

You see, sometimes we are caught up with our miseries so much, that we don’t understand the higher law at work.

Reflect on this.

The other important thing that I want you to reflect upon is Boredom. This is a very common word that is used by most of us. Is it not? We are bored; so we drink. We are bored, so we watch a movie. We are bored. So we sleep. If we analyze our lives closely, a majority of our actions are performed only to escape this demon called boredom. Let us analyze this curious phenomenon.

When do we get Bored? A straight forward answer is that any activity performed mechanically without total involvement in the act itself leads to a state of boredom. Every thing that we do gradually becomes a habit with us. And any act that is performed out of habit patterns invariably leads to a sense of incompleteness. For example, a man starts drinking. The first few pegs relaxes him. He begins to enjoy a sense of peace and well being. Now, he knows that a drink can take him to a blissful state which normally he is unable to attain. So the next time, he begins the drink with this expectation. And the moment the end result becomes more important than the act itself it becomes a habit. By and by, the act loses its charm and it becomes mechanical. This is more glaring example. But if we reflect on our day to day activities, we will find this principle at work. Listen to this beautiful ZEN story.

Three young monks were walking alongside a hill. They were chatting amongst themselves. All of a sudden one of them noticed that there was a man standing at the top of the hill, apparently doing nothing. He was standing at the very edge of the hill with his hands locked behind him and looking down the valley. Now, the three monks became curious. What would a man be doing at the top at the hill at this time of the day?

The first monk said:” I am sure that the man up there is going to commit suicide because his lover has ditched him. Look at the way he is standing near the edge of the hill”.

The second monk rebuked: “No, No. I think he has lost his cattle in the valley and he is searching for them”.

The third monk interjected and said: “Both of you are wrong. He is a spy, who is signaling the approach of the enemy”.

After much debate, the three of them decided to climb up and ask the man himself. They slowly walked up the hill. The man was still unmoved. Finally they reached the top and confronted the man.

The youngest monk said:” Sir, Can we ask you the purpose of standing alone here? WE feel that you may be a forlorn lover grieving over his beloved or a spy plotting against us or a herdsman looking for his cattle. Pray tell us what are you doing here?

The Man turned around and smiled benignly at the monks and said: “Dear monks, I am merely standing”.

Any activity that we undertake should be done with total involvement. Any activity done in this manner will not become a habit for the simple reason that the end result becomes unimportant. I Japan, they have a function called the “TEA CEREMONY”. Very simply put, this entire function is nothing but drinking tea. But in Japan, they have transformed this simple act into a beautiful episode. From sitting down, making the tea, pouring it into a cup and drinking; the entire act is done with total attention and love.

When the Bhagavad-Gita says:” To action you have the right, but to the fruits thereof”. To me it means – Do every action completely and don’t let it become a bore.

Reflect on this.

As youngsters, we have the habit of reacting to words. Observe yourself in your relationships. Every word, every gesture provokes us to do something, which we later regret. This habit develops in the early adolescent period of an individual. It is sometimes referred to as a rebel attitude. We never listen to anybody. All the time we are merely responding. This may seem all right when we are young, but later on this habit will create all sorts of problems for us. Many of us would have heard this lovely parable from Buddha’s life. Listen to it again:

Buddha and his close disciple Ananda used to go out for collecting food in the early mornings. Since he was greatly respected, every householder gave him a share of their food with great reverence. One day, as they were knocked at a door, the lady of the house romped outside and started casting aspersions on Buddha. She accused him of a being an idle man, who could not even earn his daily bread and rudely shut the door on his face. Buddha was unshaken. He merely bowed respectfully to the lady and kept walking. But Ananda was visibly upset. No one had addressed his teacher in such raw language. He was more upset by the fact that Buddha did not react at all, but merely smiled as if nothing had happened. Buddha was aware of Ananda’s state of mind, but said nothing. As they reached the end of the village, Buddha gave Ananda his bowl as a present. Ananda accepted it.

In the night, Buddha held his daily meeting with his bhiksus. He pointed to Ananda and asked him:

“O Great Ananda. The bowl that I see in your hand, whose is it?

Ananda replied “O divine one, the bowl is mine”

Buddha then said” That bowl was mine in the morning, how did it become yours by night fall?”

Ananda responded: “O Great one, you had presented the bowl to me and I had accepted it, hence the bowl has become mine”

Buddha smiled serenely and continued: “O great disciple, because you had accepted my gift, it has becomes yours. In the same way, if the words that were spoken by the house lady were accepted by me, then it would have been mine and I would have got hurt. But I refused her words and so it is hers still.”

Ananda’s eyes were full of tears. He prostrated at the Buddha’s feet and spoke no more.
True actions come out our inner core. This core is tapped only when we are silent inside and not constantly swayed by reactions that are generated by accepting every word thrown at us. Learn to be inwardly quiet. This could help us to live a quality life. Even in the midst of intense action, if our mind is quiet and unswayed, our productivity will improve. Experiment with inner quietness.

More later.

If we could take life as a blessing, then we can understand the value of being simple. Now “simplicity” is an easy word to brag about, but very difficult to practice. It is very easy to be outwardly simple. We hear people say that so and so is a simple man. What is the basis for this observation? Few clothes, little money, small house, few wants – these are supposed to be the common yard sticks to brand a man as simple. But I feel, Simplicity is deeper than all this. Consider this fabulous Buddhist tale

In a village there lived a young monk, who would spend most of his time in prayer and meditation. There was ever a faint smile on his face. He would leave his hut only for collecting alms and food. He had no material possessions what so ever, expect his bare needs. The villagers considered him a great soul. There was a young girl living near his hut, who was intent on capturing the monk’s attention. She tried so many things, but there was absolutely no reaction for the young monk. The girl was vexed and angry. She wanted to teach this monk a lesson he would never forget. One day she slipped outside her village and when she came back a few months later she was pregnant and later gave birth to a child. The villagers were perturbed. The girl on repeated questioning accused the young monk for this deed. She said that the monk had asked her to meet him at a secluded place and when she reached there, the monk misbehaved with her. The villagers in an instant forgot the veneration they had for the monk and all of them stormed to his humble hut and bid him come out of it.
The monk hearing the commotion came out with the same serene face. The village elder said “You are a disgrace to monkhood; you have fathered a child illegitimately. You have to now take care of the girl as well as the child”

The girl was shedding crocodile tears, but said nothing.

The monk replied: “Ho! Is it so” and without further words took the child lovingly in his hands and asked the girl also to step into his house. The villagers had nothing more to say and they left.

For the next one year the monk took care of the child and the girl as if it were his.He discontinued his prayers went out to work, bought food and clothes for them and laughed and played with the child and spoke entreatingly to the girl. The villagers were stunned. Meanwhile the girl started getting ashamed of her act day by day. She never realized that things would turn out like this.

One day, she couldn’t take it any longer and called the village again and told them the truth. The villagers were grief stricken. They went to the monk again with downcast eyes and called him out.

The village elder spoke: “ O great monk, we are terribly sorry for what we have done. We believed the stupid girl’s accusations and treated you badly. Kindly give us the child. We will take care of it. You kindly pursue your spiritual life”

On Hearing this, the Monk said: “Ho, is it so?” and gave back the child to them and went inside. There was absolutely no change in the monks face.

This is true simplicity! Material wealth alone never creates complication. It is our attitude towards them that does. The monk was in tune with life. He treated everything that life offers as a blessing and hence his life was simple. To such a man Crores of rupees are same as a single paisa, because he understands that both are not his anyway. Reflect on this.

In this age of competitiveness, young minds are easily drawn towards ambition, career and a so called cut-throat attitude in all their dealings. At a tender age they realize the value of being aggressive. All round them people pursue only one activity diligently and that is making money. All other values are merely paid lip service. Parents talk about compassion, love, fearlessness, God and all such high sounding phrases, but rarely do the kids see these principles put into action. The Mother talks about equality but the kid watches her treating the servant maid differently. The father talks about fearlessness and the kid observes him groveling at his bosses’s feet. It is important for us to understand that action speaks louder than words. Merely verbalizing ideas are not going to impart those values which we think are important for the Child’s growth. If we cannot practice something which we preach, it is better to stop talking about it. The simple reason is that words create a dichotomy in the child. And once this contradiction takes root, it becomes extraordinarily difficult to uproot it.

The human Child is a rare specimen. It needs tender caring and nurturing for ten to fifteen years. In these formative periods, every imprint it gets leaves a lasting mark which haunts him or her in the prime years of adulthood. I am writing these articles not the parent but for those young adolescent minds who are a witness to the chaos that they see around them. It is an attempt to help them see things in perspective. And probably gain an insight into what their parents and other elders are trying to tell them. I intend to follow no set pattern, but write as my instinct guides me to. Normally, we would like to know the credentials of the writer we are reading. In that regard, I am a No Body. My only qualification to pen these words is that I have made terrible blunders in my life. Life has been enough to forgive me for those mistakes and helped me mature into a better individual. I guess, this is my way of repaying my gratitude. Well now, let’s move on.

At the outset, Youngsters must understand that they have been blessed with a lot many things in life. A secure family, a home, good food, clean clothes and above all financial security. Elders do often tell us to count our blessings and not the curses. We get irritated when we hear them say it over and over again. But what they say is very true. At this very moment millions of kids all round the globe are struggling to get a bit of those things that we take for granted. Imagine what would happen to you, if there was no food in the house for a day. I am sure most of us will grumble about the grave injustice done to us. But reflect for a moment, there are young children outside your very homes, who are without food for a week. If you regard your discomfort as grave, how would you describe their pain and agony? I was reading Anita Pratap’s Island’s of Blood recently. She is a great journalist who has reported from those areas of the globe beset with calamities both man made and otherwise. She draws poignant pictures of mankind. The cornerstone of that book is the conclusion. She says that the only lesson her extensive travels has given her is to be grateful for the simple joys and pains of normal life . This is a wonderful lesson for all us. This is not philosophy. This comes a lady who has seen the sufferings of people in varied circumstances. We should be thankful for all that we have, not because our parents tell us so, but realizing for ourselves that what we see as normal is nothing more than a temporary blessing. We should Thank life that we are not in a situation where a morsel of food is a rare sight. Whenever we look at a rag picker or a poor servant maid, let us not treat them indifferently. Let us look at them with awareness and understand their plight and at the very least give them a compassionate look, a helping hand, a friendly smile not with an attitude of condescension, but with humbleness that comes with the understanding that we have been blessed, truly blessed!

Adi Sankara writes in his celebrated poem “Bhaja Govindam” “ The pride that we have in these Phrases “My Family”, “My wealth”,” My People” ,” My Youth” Life will erase all this in a moment”

The saint here points here to the vanity of our notions. Right from the air we breathe to the Cadillac we drive is a Prasad (a blessing). Enjoy it, Relish it but don’t gloat over it.

Reflect on this.

I think it is very important to understand the nature of the mind at a very young age. As we grow up it becomes increasingly difficult to do so because all our thoughts would have become rigid. We must understand the difference between the ‘Thinking mind’ and the ‘working mind’. The thinking mind is the ‘me’ that posits a past and the future. The working mind is the mind at the moment doing the job. To live in this society, the working mind must function well. Our success and failure depends upon the quality of our functional thoughts. It is a well known fact that our work suffers if we anticipate results. Smooth functioning of the mind is required to do a job well and more importantly we should be anchored in the present moment. This fact is very well illustrated in sports. For example in cricket we refer to a batsman in form. It simply means that he is playing the game effortlessly. His hand’s and feet move with an elegant grace. It seems to us as though the bat hits the ball out of its own volition with no one actually hitting it. To watch a Vivian Richards or an Adam Gilchrist bat is to see poetry in motion. To me, this is a perfect example of the working mind doing its job unhampered without the intrusions of the ‘me’. You can contrast this with another batsman who is struggling to keep his place in the team. His batting would be a self conscious effort, because his mind is projecting the outcome of his stroke play and his future in the team and not about the shot perse.The same is the case with any job that we do. I have observed that good and efficient software programmers are those who do not work for deadlines. They focus all their energies in solving the problem at hand and more importantly they enjoy what they do.

This is the Karma yoga the Bhagavad-Gita talks about. Do the job in hand with all the functional knowledge that one has got but do not worry about the outcome. Results are never in our hands. It never was. If we were to diligently analyze our actions, we would to out utter surprise find that even though we have initiated many activities; the end result was always dependent on forces beyond our control – hence unpredictable. Read the biographies of eminent scientists and discoverers and you will find not one of them thought of the prizes and the accolades that their work would bring them. It is the sheer joy of pouring heart and soul into whatever they were doing that filled their lives.

I remember many years ago Swami Chinmayananda had come to speak on Vedanta in the Rabindrabarathi auditorium in Hyderabad. That was the first time I was listening to him. I had already heard a lot about him and his vibrant oratory. The auditorium where he was to speak had excellent acoustics. Swamiji was known for his punctuality and he walked in exactly at the scheduled time of 6.30P.M. With a flowing beard, Piercing eyes, a beaming smile, clothed in a silk ochre robe – he looked like a patriarch from the past. I would never forget the first words that he spoke with his deep throated voice. He said “Let your mind be where your hands are”. I was shaken. I don’t remember much of the lecture then after. But this line remained with me ever since. Observe how true the statement is. We are always worried either about the past or the future hardly paying attention to the present moment.

A Zen story to conclude:

A student seeking enlightenment approached a master. As soon as he entered the master pointing to the hills yonder said “Look at the magnificence of the mountains”. The student bowed asked his question “Master, teach me the way to eternal peace”. The Master hardly paying attention to him and looking outside the window continued:” The flight of the birds is a scene to behold”. The student reiterated his question. To which the master enigmatically replied “The touch of cold air on my skin is bliss”. The student began getting irritated and started to walk out when he heard the voice of master saying “ I have been teaching you the path, Remain in the NOW”.

There is always a difference between chronological and psychological time and a correct understanding of both will go a long way in living a peaceful life. J Krishnamurthy often used to stress the distinction between the two in his talks. We always believe that there is a tomorrow where anything can be achieved. This is obviously true, but the question is – Is it true of everything. We need to go to college tomorrow: and we will,. There is chronological time involved there. But is time required to change psychologically and this is the subject matter of this article. We are jealous today and we pledge to overcome it tomorrow. The question is – is there physical time involved there. Can we become better tomorrow without understanding what we are in the present moment? I believe that all our tensions and worries are because of this psychological postponement and the false belief that time is required for us to change. We can observe this phenomenon commonly in our spiritual endeavours. We honestly believe that there is a distant goal to be achieved and take up spiritual practices that will supposedly help us reach the so called state of enlightenment. After years of practice we tend to become more frustrated because the goal seems to ever receding. Disillusioned with our current practice, we grope for a better one and pursue the new system as diligently as the old one only to find out that no system can take us an inch closer to the goal. This is a classic case of psychological postponement.

To change internally, no time is required. By positing that I am bad today but will become good tomorrow is merely an illusionary stance that we tend to take. If it has to happen then it should be instantaneous. This may seem rather illogical to many of us. But check out whether any change within you has happened in gradation. Even if it does there are always the seeds of the past lying dormant within us. We normally find true changes happening within us only when there is a crisis. When there is no time to think or postpone. A robber did not become a Valmiki through thought or practice. It happened. In atomic physics there is a concept called mutation. It means a change without a trace of the past. Psychologically we must mutate, there should be no graduality to it. Chronological time plays no role in it. And there is way we can force this change.

It is the ego that creates this need for physical time. The thought structure which we call the ‘me’ seeks permanency. Hence it projects everything in the future. And wherever there is a future, time gets involved. Not understanding this we get caught in a vicious circle of seeking and achieving. Let us live in the moment. All is right now. Relax and allow the cosmic will to unfold itself. This is true enlightenment. Don’t worry about time.