How to banish worry? - Tips-1 Catch your thoughts

During my formative years I used to be 'moody' - most of the time brooding over what happened in the past or worrying about unborn future. If everything goes well, I will discover reasons to be unhappy. One could see me either in an upset situation or getting ready to upset. Retrospectively I feel that I have thrown a precious part of my life spending on a futile moods.

During my mid thirties when I developed blood pressure, the doctor who checked my BP consecutively for a week which they do normally before confirming that One is hypertensive. Finally he wrote a prescription which was not a medicine but the name of a book "How to stop worrying & start living" authored by Dale Carnegie. I was frustrated by his action because I expected a medicine and not a book. I never had a habit of reading and hence it was not of much use to control my BP. The doctor's rationale was my BP was more due to my worrying habit than secondary reasons.

However I kept the prescription in my valet. After six months I picked up that book from an exhibition and reluctantly started reading. Later the learning from the book transformed my life. I have gifted this book to at least 100 people.

Later I was impressed with a placard that was carrying a quote which read as "Worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due". I pasted this placard in my bedroom and read every day when I get up from bed in the morning.

The next challenge was to learn how do I expel a worrying thought from my mind. This needs a skill of knowing my mind all the time. Later I acquired this skill of watching my mind as a witness by practicing Meditation. This technique was preached by Lord Buddha which is easily said than done.

Today I know what thought is being processed in my mind at any point in time. I also learned from my Guru that 'I am not the mind, and it is an instrument creator bestowed on me as hand and leg'. Knowing the mind empowered me to manage my mind. When I know my mind is engaged in a worry thought, I just say 'Next' as doctors call their next patient. Immediately my mind drops that invalidating thought.

If you wish to master over your worrying habit you need to learn how to read your mind which is possible only through meditation.

Jai Gurudeva
Love you all
With whole of your heart
NC

Unity in Diversity

Religion has done more damage to humanity than the benefit it added. It partially fulfilled the human need of being together as a group but it created groupsism which divided the human race. The prophets appeared every 1000 years whenever there is a deterioration of human values and to restore them back. If not the human race would have perished long time back by destroying each other. There is no atom of difference between the sayings of the prophets as they only preached dharma of life and not dogmas & rituals.

The preaching of the prophets have been subsequently documented as scriptures. In this process there were many things added with vested interest to control people in the name of the religion. The prophets never had any intention to form a religion.

Rama appeared 4000 years ago, Krishna 3000 years ago, Buddha appeared 2500 years ago, Jesus 2000 years ago, Mohammed 800 years ago and so on. All the prophets said the same principles for human harmony.

As Krishna propounded, "Whenever there is a decay of human values, I will appear again to restore Dharma". The true meaning of the word Dharma is misunderstood. Many people think Dharma means 'giving to poor people to get punya' so that we can go to the heaven after death. It is the most ridiculous interpretation of Dharma.

The simplest meaning of dharma is 'living life as per the law of nature'. Chinmayananda gives an example 'The Dharma of sun is giving warmth' & 'Dharma of tiger is eating meat'. The animals follow dharma by letter and spirit because they have not been empowered to make choices but human is evolved to make choices. With the result we have made many wrong choices and religion is one among them.

Instead of uniting people religion divided us through scriptures, dogmas and rituals. Today the extinction of mankind appears to be imminent due the animosity among people in the name of religion, caste, color and creed.

Let us banish this hatred and extend love and compassion towards each other because we cannot exist without the presence of others in our life who may belong to other beliefs. The moment we say 'belief', it automatically means it is not truth.

Anything not seen becomes 'belief' and hence your belief and my belief are only 'BELIEF'. No one can say whose belief is right as long as it is not seen as truth. Your God and my God both are only 'Belief'. Then why to fight on something which is yet to be proved?

In summary: 

Vivekananda said 'We have to find unity in diversity'. We all belong to 'Human Religion'. Only belief needed is we all need each other for our well being.

Love you all

With whole of my heart
NC

How to banish worry? - A thought on Surrender

One of the modern days killer is 'Worry' which consumed more life's than any natural calamities. Blood pressure, tooth decay, diabetic are all due to this killer worry. If we don't manage this monster, it's menace will be unbridled. If we have to manage something, we need to understand it first - what is not understood can never be managed. In this series I wish to share my thoughts on this most important skill we need to master to make our life meaningful & peaceful.

Vedanta proclaims our true nature is 'Sath - Chit - Ananda'

Sath - Truth
Chit - Pure consciousness. 
Ananda - Bliss
Let's understand our true nature which we have lost in bargain to 'Comfort' and ended up in a mess.

TRUTH:
This is a bit complex concept to explain but still let me try. A truth is one which existed before, exists now and will exist for ever - it has no beginning & end; it is eternal. With this definition if you look at the material universe, none of the objects we see will fulfil this definition because all are perishable including stars and galaxies.

I know you are raising your eyebrows as we are also perishable. Of course yes- our body is perishable but not the 'life spark' that animates us which is eternal. This means the television may be perishable but not the electricity that animates it.

CHIT:
Chit is the pure 'consciousness' with which we recognise this World. If we fall in coma also this consciousness is alive which keeps our heart & lungs to function. In all three states - waking, dream state & deep sleep state this consciousness is functions its duty. We are truly the consciousness and not this body.

ANANDA

The approximate translation of this Sanskrit word is BLISS. Bliss is not happiness as to be happy you need a reason but bliss is 'Happiness without a reason'. We are born as a creature to be happy without any material things to make us happy. But we screwed up our true nature in the name of civilisation.

This is just a foundation to explore why we have become a 'Worrying machine' when our true nature is SATH - CHIT - ANANDA. See you in next post for 'Worry Management' tips.

Love you all
With whole of my heart
NC

Parenting - Golden moments

We all passed through the stages of toddler, childhood and adolescent stages of growing. But we don't remember the emotions we went through which is very important to recognise the emotions of our child.

The small child heart beats at the rate of over 100 beats a minute and slows down as it grows beyond 7 years of age. The heart rate is the function of curiosity of external World. As a young baby it explores the world outside all the time and hence the faster heart beat. If the baby sees a rose flower it is 100% focused on it.

Although we were a child we have forgotten that state of mind and expect our children to behave like an adult. We feel embarrassed when our child makes a tantrum in a public place or not following table etiquette.

We tend to put down the child yelling at them as "Behave yourself". When we do the child gets confused what are we up to. Whenever the child laughs we put them down saying 'Why are you laughing?' Laugh is the characteristics of a child which is divine. The child becomes serious over a period of time and looses all its charm.

In parenting it is important to feel like a child putting ourselves in their shoes and let them manifest their feelings the way in which Divine created them. The child is the form of divine with all its innocence and pure consciousness. If the parents miss this period of their child they will have to regret it later.

Wish you a quality time with your divine being.

Whole of my heart
NC

Parenting - Ritual & Superstition

People got angry when Rajneesh said, 'Parent destroy their children'. He does not mean that the parents are conspiring to destroy their loved ones but they do unconsciously. Let's examine how?

Children have born with innumerable possibilities to blossom if we don't force them into a conforming & stereo typed human beings as our parents brought us up. What are those conformance and why they destroy our children's personality is what I wish to cover:

RITUALS:

Rituals are the practices we follow without knowing 'Why we are doing'. This is due to the fact they were taught by our parents 'How to do them without reasoning why to do?' We can't blame the parents because they themselves don't know 'Why' part of the rituals. For example if I am a Brahmin, I have to wear the sacred thread. I went through this ceremony when I was a young boy and till date I don't know why I must wear the thread. This kind of rituals are many in each religion although I cited an example.

When we force our children on these rituals upon which they are curious about knowing why, they become a dumb children loosing their ability to think. In many religion this conditioning on ritual is done before 7 years of age because the child's rationale brain becomes stronger which will reduce the blind faith of the children. If you cannot make the a dumb child before 7 you lost the opportunities once and for ever!

SUPERSTITION:

Like rituals superstitions are blind beliefs like 'cat crossing is a bad omen' which are passed on to children which destroys their self confidence and unnecessarily intimidates them from growing intellectually. Parents unconsciously pass on this stupid beliefs to their children there by put them under undue pressure while negotiating their life.

In SUMMARY:

1. Please in the name of religion don't condition your children with the blind belief you learned from your parents. This shatters their originality and puts them as conforming human being who has limited possibility.

2. Whatever superstition you picked up from your parents , don't pass it on to to your children. If you do then with the reasoning. Remember not to invent a reason for the sake of making your child to your belief. 

3. Teach your children only 'Principles' that govern this universe which will strengthen your children to become a noble human being. Principles are laws and facts that decide the outcome of our actions. I will cover some principles from next few posts for your reference.

Wish you a great Parenting experience with a lovely children.

With whole of my heart
NC

Why human beings chase wealth?

There are few characteristics which are common among all human beings such as our body system's functioning and the way our mind works. All human ambitions are also common such as 'Amassing material wealth' except few exceptions like Buddha who relinquished all carnal pleasures and became a recluse. Can't imagine sometimes how he could do that? From a common man's perspective Lord Buddha is mad.

May be because of what Buddha did we remember him after 2500 years later when we don't even know who was our great great grandfather! It is a million dollar question to answer 'Whether Buddha was mad or my great great grandfather.

As usual you don't need to agree to what I am going to say. My analysis goes like this:

Right from my 'Enquiry' of life started, I was curious to know why human beings without exception chase wealth at the cost of everything else? If this greed is not present akin to animal kingdom, this planet will not have 90% people below poverty line.

The creator for some unknown reasons kept only two motives for all living creations - the 'self preservation' & 'Procreation'. The 'self preservation' drives us to somehow survive and escape from death and procreation drives us be after sex. This is common between animals as well as human beings but for the only difference. The animal do everything unconsciously where as human do consciously. Both science as well as Veda confirms that human is the most evolved species on Earth and there is no further evolution possible!

As we are conscious being we only know that one day we will die and no way we can escape from death. Our self preservation does not permit us to accept death and we wish to live for ever. This desire to somehow escape from death makes us to amass wealth with a hope that we can escape death if we have enough money.

The other reason for tendency to amass wealth is, human beings always wants to grow more than what they are. This desire to become infinite is restricted by our physical limitations. Due to this limitation we try to aggrandise materials, land space etc. This gives a notional feeling of expansion of ourselves. For example Hitler or Alexander wanted to acquire the whole world.

Some Yogis thought you can grow inwardly to merge with the divine that resides in you there by you become all pervading, omnipotent, Omniscient being. This is what Buddha did. Please remember one thing - Human race never worships those who were greedy and had the maximum material possessions; but touches the feet of a yogi who relinquished everything and merged with divine.

Jai Gurudev
NC