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 |   As the first blog entry got exhausted. My second book |
| Evolution of Love Part 2 |
| “Once, in India, I became very fond of a little deer. I had seen one being fed with a little bottle and I said to myself: “How I would like to have a little deer like that one.” Then one day, long after, I told my friends that God was going to give me a deer. So it happened one day, as I was bathing in the river, when the children came running and said: “We have a deer.” I ran out of the water and there was my deer, and I tell you that deer used to sleep in my room and come near my bed – how I loved it! One day I was going away from the school and I told one of the students not to feed the deer for I feared something serious would happen if he did. I had gotten that feeling while chanting earlier in the day. But, sad to relate, he bought a bottle of milk and gave it all to the deer at one feeding, and the deer almost passed out. I almost died with sorrow when I returned. I said: “If there is a God, He will not take my deer away.” So I began to meditate, and after three hours the deer got up. God had given him back to me... I stayed up until 2 o’clock and the deer was still alive. I felt a little sleepy, so decided to go to bed. Strange to say, I didn’t even put the deer in my room that evening, but put it in a room next to mine, and thus I fell asleep. But at 3 o’clock the form of my deer appeared to me and said: “You are holding me back. Let me go! Let me go!” I said: “All right.” Then suddenly I awakened and said: “The deer is dying,” then the whole school awakened. The deer made a last effort to get up, walked toward me, then dropped at my feet dead. I learned a lesson that night. The karma (law of cause and effect) of the deer was over. It was to go, but I was holding it because of my attachment. I was holding it in the body when the soul was struggling to get out of that little form. So the deer’s actual soul came to ask release, and until I gave permission it wouldn’t or couldn’t go, but as soon as I said: “All right,” then it went. God means for you to love everything and see everything in Him, but if you are attached, then you see only death. The man who is attached sees the curtain fall at death, but when he is not attached, but loves with the love of God, then at death he realizes that he has only gone back to God. I was selfish in not wanting the deer to go on to a higher state of development, letting it go when it was its time to go. Animals can quicken their attention, intuition, and evolution through man’s kind, loving, intuitive training. Beating spoils all animals. Mental telepathy can be established between you and your pet. Man can imitate all the sounds of animals; he can crow like the cock, laugh like the hyena, whine like the dog, bark like the bulldog, bellow like the enraged bull, sing like the nightingale, meow like the cat, growl like the tiger, and roar like the lion. By imitating their cries and by loving the animals, man can understand the animals’ food call, water call, mate call, and expressions of anger, hate, jealousy, love, curiosity, and necessity calls. ❤️ God is silent in the stone, He sleeps in the plant, He dreams and cries in the animal, and in man He knows what He dreams and learns to talk. Watch the various sounds uttered by different animals when they are happy, boisterous, or hilarious; then you will begin to interpret the different sounds of animals and use them, in turn, to talk to the animals in order to quicken their evolution. ❤️ Quiet singing allures the mouse, the songbirds, and even snakes. Soft, endearing words are appreciated by cats, who never like harsh commands. They become frightened when their feelings are hurt. Dogs like kind commands in a militaristic language. Horses love soft, firm commands and respond to you intelligent desires. Monkeys love to be alternately petted and commanded. If petted too much, they get spoiled; if commanded harshly, they become paralyzed with fear, or grow indifferent. Tigers can be tamed by whipping and by instilling fear; lions can be tamed by love, fearlessness, and cool commanding. Parrots can be trained by one person’s intuitive love. ❤️ Many birds like human company and human singing and whistling, and quickly respond to human love. Human company and better methods of human training can quicken animal intuition and thereby quicken their evolution. ❤️” |
| The individual, through search for his own security, has created through many centuries a system based on acquisitiveness, fear, and exploitation. To this system of his own making he has become an utter slave. The selfish conditioning of family, and its own security, has created an environment which forces the individual to become ruthless. Into the hands of the most cunning and the ruthless, the few, has come the machine, which affords the means of exploitation. Out of all this there is born the absurd division of classes, nationalities, and wars. Every sovereign government, with its particular nationality, must inevitably create war, for its acts are based on vested interest. Thus you have on the one side religion, and on the other material conditions, which are continually twisting, perverting man’s thought and action. Almost all people are unconscious, both of the intelligence and of the stupidity about them. But how can each one realize what is stupidity and what is intelligence, if his thought and action are based on fear and authority? So individually we have to become aware, conscious of these limiting conditions. Most of us are waiting for some miracle to take place which will bring order out of this chaos and suffering. Every one of us will have to become individually conscious, aware, in order to discover what is limiting and stupid. Out of this deep discernment there is born intelligence, but it is impossible to understand what this intelligence is if the mind is limited and stupid. To try intellectually to grasp the meaning of intelligence is utterly vain and arid. In discovering for ourselves and being free from the many stupidities and limitations, each one will realize a life of love and understanding. Through fear, we have created certain hindrances which are continually impeding the full movement of life. Take the stupidity of nationalism, with all its absurdities, cruelties, and exploitations. What, as individuals, is your attitude, your action towards it? Do not say that it is not important, that you are not concerned with it, that you don't touch politics; if you examine it fundamentally, you will see that you are part of this machine of exploitation. You as an individual will have to become conscious of this stupidity and limitation. Equally, you have to become aware of the stupidity and limitation of authority in religion. When you once become conscious of it, then you will see the deep significance of the hold it has on you. How can you think clearly, feel fully, completely, when unquestioned authoritative values cripple the mind and the heart? |
| "Since the Unborn Buddha Mind is marvelously illuminating, it hasn't so much as a hairsbreadth of any selfish bias, so it adapts itself freely, and, as it encounters different sorts of circumstances, thoughts sporadically pop up. Ifs all right so long as you simply don't get involved with them; but if you do get involved with thoughts and go on developing them, you won't be able to stop, and then you'll obscure the marvelously illuminating [function] of the Buddha Mind and create delusions. On the other hand, since from the start, the Buddha Mind is marvelously illuminating, readily illumining and distinguishing all things, when you hate and loathe those deluded thoughts that come up and try to stop them, you get caught up in stopping them and create a duality between the one who is doing the stopping and that which is being stopped. If you try to stop thought with thought, there will never be an end to it. It's just like trying to wash away blood with blood. Even if you succeed m getting out the original blood, you'll be left with the stain of the blood that came after. |
| Whatever comes let it come, whatever stays let stay, what goes let go, always keep Quiet, and always adore Self: this is the essence of living skillfully in the world of appearance. Doing all activities of life is to accept whatever comes and not care about what does not come. Things will come so enjoy them and be happy Let the play happen by the Supreme Power; you will be taken care of. Be free to be happy, love has no traps. If you are happy all will be happy, if you suffer, all will suffer, if your mind smells bad others will be affected. Keep yourself happy in peace, Light, Wisdom, Consciousness This is your responsibility. Be happy and have compassion and live hand and hand with nature. This makes birth worthwhile. Start from Heart and see that all arises from Heart. Always do this, Always be This. |
| Cut down whatever appears in the mind. When thoughts of mundane matters arise, cut them off. When notions of Buddhism arise, likewise lop them off. In short, destroy all ideas, whether of realization, of Buddhas, or of devils, and all day long pursue the question "What is it that hears this preaching?" When you have eradicated every conception until only emptiness remains, and then cut through even the emptiness, your mind will burst open and that which hears will manifest itself. Persevere, persevere-never quit halfway-until you reach the point where you feel as though you have risen from the dead. Only then will you be able to wholly resolve the momentous question "What is it that hears this preaching?" |
| Viswanatha Swami first came to stay with Bhagavan when he was about 19 years old. His father, Ramaswamy Iyer, was a first cousin of Bhagavan. I had the good fortune to spend considerable time with this great devotee of Ramana Maharishi from April 1976, until he became ill and passed away at 75 years of age on the 22nd November, 1979. How he came to Bhagavan has been written about elsewhere. Here I attempt to show how he exemplified, so wonderfully and devotedly the teachings of Bhagavan. When I first came to the Ashram in 1976, I sought out Mrs. Osborne to hear about Bhagavan and to discuss his teachings and their practical application. She told me that I should visit an unassuming older devotee by the name of Viswanatha Swami who, except for his work on The Mountain Path, was living quietly at the back of the Ashram in a side room of the old dispensary. I found his room near the dispensary the next day and went to visit him around 4 pm. Timidly approaching his open door, I saw a grey-bearded man sitting quietly on his bed with his legs dangling and staring straight ahead. I asked him if he was Viswanatha Swami. He nodded and gestured for me to enter and sit on the bench opposite him.I asked him a question about the application of ‘Who Am I’. He did not look at me but said very tenderly, “Bhagavan’s teaching is one of the Heart.” At that moment, he closed his eyes and a beautiful delicate silence filled the room. I too closed my eyes and we sat together in this stillness. Time passed very quickly and after about an hour, he opened his eyes and gestured for me to leave. He said that I could come the next day around the same time if I wished to. This was the beginning of an extremely beautiful and important period in my life. I had planned to stay at the Ashram for only four days but nothing pulled my heart elsewhere during the next couple of years. I am sure it was to a large degree Viswanatha who made Bhagavan come alive for me. It is very true that Bhagavan’s presence is profoundly felt at the Ashram but Viswanatha brought Him alive as a Guru in the flesh. After that remarkable first day, I went to visit Viswanatha daily. For two months, he hardly spoke another word to me. But after that, he told me many stories of being around Bhagavan. He represented Him in such a beautiful and true way. His love for Bhagavan and His teachings were evident in his words and his manner and he often mentioned how still and beautiful Bhagavan was. During those two months, effortless peace became my constant companion and I had the opportunity to sit with Viswanatha daily and to watch him with other people. Ashram workers, old devotees, and others would come in and talk to him about their problems. He gave advice, medicine, money, food, and patience to all those who came for help. He was always surrounded by a wonderful peace. Even his movements seemed silent. I began to feel that he embodied a culmination of the three yogas; deep devotion for Bhagavan, jnana (wisdom) and effortless selfless service. He constantly gave to others in such a kind way without any hesitation. After a period he allowed me to spend more time with him and we started to do pradakshina together. These were wonderful times as he brought Ramana so alive on these walks. He would point out the places where Bhagavan would sit and it was easy to imagine Ramana in these places. Once when we were walking he said, “People say that Parvati walked here. This I don’t know about but what I do know is that Bhagavan Himself walked along this very place where we are walking now.” Words cannot explain the love that was in his voice as he said this. When Viswanatha walked, he was so quiet. He walked perfectly straight, rarely looking to the left or right: just silently walking. One time when we did a pradakshina in the rainy season we got soaking wet. When the rain started to come down, even here, he showed his love for Ramana by reminding me of the gift of this beautiful rain that Bhagavan was giving us. We laughed and laughed with joy at this gift. When we arrived late at the Ashram we went in to get food and Balu served us with equal joy. Viswanatha spoke with great affection about Balu and how he loved to serve the devotees. Once he told me how Bhagavan came to his room in the middle of the night knocking on his door. Bhagavan said to him, “Quick, quick, let’s go for pradakshina before anyone else finds out.” The two of them walked together and Bhagavan gave him teachings along the whole circumambulation of the hill. Viswanatha had such a beautiful smile when he told me about this. He did not smile a lot but when he did his whole face beamed and when he laughed his whole body laughed. Viswanatha always encouraged me to visit the places in the area that were associated with Bhagavan. He would ask me if I had visited places like Mango Tree Cave, Pavazhakkunru, and Turtle Rock (where Bhagavan had his second death experience). Once I did not visit Viswanatha for two days as I had dysentery. I was staying in a small hut at Saraswati Nilayam and was shocked and very touched when, who should I see approaching me at 4 pm but Viswanatha Swami! He said, with a smile and a chuckle, “Mohammed has not come to the mountain, so the mountain has come to Mohammed.” He gave me some chyavanaprash he had brought. Viswanatha was very fond of chyavanaprash as a general tonic. After that, he said, come, we are going for a walk. I said that I had dysentery but he replied that I would be fine. Needless to say, I was fine. After walking for a while, I asked where we were going. He told me, “It’s a secret and you will like it.” We walked out of the town to a small shrine. This was Gurumurtham one of the places where Bhagavan had stayed in His early days. Viswanatha showed me the indentation in the wall where Bhagavan had sat for long hours. Viswanatha was always ready to talk about Bhagavan and his teachings. During one period, I became very sluggish and dull. I decided to do a retreat in Hyderabad with the well-known Buddhist meditation teacher Goenkaji. When I returned from this retreat several people were critical of my need to go away. This disturbed me so I thought I would ask Viswanatha about it. I went to the Ashram in the morning planning to see him in the evening. As I started walking up the steps by the bookstore I met Viswanatha as he was coming out of the Ashram office. He looked at me, smiled, and asked if I wanted to go for tea. It was a hot summer’s day and he was carrying his umbrella. As we were walking out of the Ashram, bells started to ring. Viswanatha said, “Sound comes out of silence, sound is sustained in silence and sound returns to silence, silence is all.” We drank the tea and I thought this was a perfect time to talk with him, but I felt shy. We walked back to his room and he said, “Come into my room, there is an article I want you to look at for The Mountain Path.” He gave me the perfect opportunity but I still felt shy to do so. After I had read the article, he asked for my thoughts on it. He then asked me if I had anything else to say and I said no. He said to come back around four. As I left, however, he called me back and said, “Hey you, what do you want?” I was amazed at how Bhagavan had so wonderfully set the whole thing up to help remove my doubts and worries. I told Viswanatha about the Goenka meditation that I did and how the meditation emphasizes the purification of the latent (unconscious) mental tendencies. He looked at me so sweetly and slowly started to lie down on his bed. As he was lying down he said, “I know nothing about the mind or its tendencies. All I know is, be asleep to it all.” I am sure to this day that his face changed complexion, almost becoming grey, and he started to snore. I was sitting there and he was snoring. At that moment, an Ashram worker came in to see Viswanatha. He saw Viswanatha sleeping there and he promptly lay down on a bench as well and started to snore. I decided to lie down too on the bed beside Viswanatha and went into a deep deep stillness. After a while, I became aware of the noises around us and looked. Viswanatha was rising from the bed and staring at me. He said very pointedly, “Do you understand?” The Ashram worker was still snoring. Viswanatha laughed and said, “He does.” As I read over these few words, I see that they just cannot convey the beauty of this great devotee of Bhagavan. His love for Bhagavan and his gratitude to Him shone in every action he did and in every word he uttered. It is strange that we never spoke about Viswanatha’s initial meeting with Bhagavan, but everything he said and did reflected his love and devotion. Sitting quietly at the back of the Ashram in his room, he truly was a hidden gem. |
| Abuse: A rite of passage Like most south Indian middle class women who went to elite yet conservative schools, I did not use 'bad words' until I went to college. In those days, when the Internet wasn't around for immediate enlightenment, I remember stealthily learning the meaning of the word 'f***' from the giant Oxford English Dictionary that sat in our drawing room. An investment my Tamil medium educated ambitious father made for his two children. The 'bad words' were for the boys who considered the acquisition of this vocabulary to be as necessary as a moustache to grow into manhood. Many of the English words, in those days, came from watching WWE (it was WWF then) and they would practise the wrestling moves and the abuse in the school corridors with the solemn expression of having achieved admission into an exclusive club. I didn't mind it. I even found it strangely exciting. I was among the girls who laughed at dirty jokes and found them clever. It never occurred to me, however, that I could use those words, too. I forbade myself before anyone else could. The Tamil 'bad words' were a lot more hard to stomach. They sounded cheap, crass. The first time I was called 'thevidiya' was on the road, I was in school uniform and crossing the road to buy a puff from the bakery opposite the school. I don't remember why I was called that but I remember my face turning hot, my body trembling with fear. And shame. I don't remember the face of the man who said it but I remember the moment. It was in college, a women's college, that I finally learnt the meanings of many of the words I'd grown up listening. The girls around me used these words, in Tamil and English, with abandon. Perhaps it was the security of being in all women environment where we didn't have to play at being women all the time. We didn't care if our bra straps peeked. If we sat with one leg up. If we wolfed down our food, gravy dribbling down our chin. We discussed men, what turned us on and what didn't. Nobody worried about what the outside world would think. Within that campus, we could be people with human desires. We didn't have to act like women. We could just be women. It was also in college that I discovered feminism, understood why I was so angry about the world around me. It was in college that I understood I was right to be angry. I enjoyed using 'bad words' to express my frustration. It was liberating to say 'I don't give a f***' at last - a phrase that often captured my response to the many opinions imposed on me by a patriarchal system. I had never been able to articulate my response with the appropriate emotion before this. I began to analyze the vocabulary of abuse which had fascinated and frightened me at one point. I realised that really, these words that men throw at women to silence them like a deadly 'Avada Kedavra' curse were so predictable all over the world, whichever language you consider. Variations of slut, references to genitals and pubic hair. And if you are a man, references to the women in your family or your emasculation. The line of sophistication that separated English abuse from abuse in other languages blurred. I had found English more acceptable because the men uttering these words were more likely to belong to my own social class. The Tamil abuse came from men on the streets. Or at least, the 'classy' men tended to keep the Tamil abuse to their all male circles. All abuse began to look the same. And predictable. I asked a drunken man who was leaning against me on a public bus to move away. He called me 'thevidiya'. I laughed on his face. Once I refused to look at myself the way the patriarchal world did, words like 'slut' simply stopped having any effect. I was a slut because I did what I wanted. I didn't shudder anymore. I was proud. I wore the label on my sleeve. As for genital names, I found them funny. Though those who use these words pride themselves on being 'bold', it is really our discomfort with sex and sexuality which has turned the names of these organs into words of abuse. Nobody calls anyone a hand or a foot, for instance. Most of us are here in the world because we came out of someone's vagina and yet, in popular culture, it's an organ of shame and cowardice. Calling someone a dick or an asshole is an attack on their attitude. Calling someone a pussy or a cunt is to 'reduce' them to just that one organ - weak, unable to defend, meant to be screwed. I've always found this ridiculous and after childbirth, even more so. Once I understood abusive words, I became immune to them. It even became boring to hear the same words. There is a singular lack of creativity in how men abuse women and it didn't help their already unattractive personalities. I remember a random stranger on the Internet sent me a picture of his penis because he didn't like what I'd written. I suggested that he tie a ribbon around it to make it more presentable. I found it hilarious that this man thought I'd look at his picture, curl up and die. That he had so much power over me, a woman he didn't know at all. He is not alone. A lot of men who verbally abuse women believe they have that kind of power over them, the power to use words they assume the women themselves would never use. Most times, their target is a woman who has crossed a line. A line they've drawn for her though they don't know her at all. They are under the belief that these words will make us shrivel, shiver, turn us into abashed little girls who must hide our faces. They don't realise that there is no shame in our anger. That we protest not because we're worried about our 'reputation' but because the abuse eats into our time and we'd rather do something else than read the five 'bad words' they've painstakingly typed over and over again. It's boring. It's like dealing with an annoying fly buzzing around you. Distracting but insignificant. You feel compelled to swat it not because you fear it but because you'd rather not have it around. You fling a newspaper at it while thinking about the work you have to do, the plans you've made with your friends. The fly, however, believes you are spending all your life and resources trying to get rid of it. The fly derives its self importance from the attention it believes you are showing it. It thinks you care. When actually, you don't give a f***. |
| This is how traditions are born.. 😄 A new camp commander was appointed and while inspecting the place, he saw 2 soldiers guarding a bench. He went over there and asked them why do they guard it. "We don't know. The last commander told us to do so, and so we did. It is some sort of regimental tradition!" He searched for last commander's phone number and called him to ask him why did he want guards in this particular bench. "I don't know. The previous commander had guards, and I kept the tradition." Going back another 3 commanders, he found a now 100-year old retired General. "Excuse me sir. I'm now the CO of your camp you commanded 60 years ago. I've found 2 men assigned to guard a bench. Could you please tell me more about the bench?" "What? Is the paint still wet ?!?" 😂😀😀 |
| A young man in his mid-twenties knocks on the door of the noted Guru. He said: “I’ve come to you because I wish to study Vedas.” “Do you know Sanskrit?” the Guru asks. “No,” replies the young man. “Have you studied anything from Hindu philosophy?” “No, Guru. But don’t worry. I just finished my doctoral dissertation at Harvard on Socratic logic. So now, I would just like to round out my education with a little study of the Vedas.” “I seriously doubt,” the Guru says, “that you are ready to study Vedas. It is the deepest knowledge ever known. If you wish, however, I am willing to examine you in logic, and if you pass that test I will teach you Vedas.” The young man agrees. Guru holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face; the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?” The young man stares at the Guru. “Is that the test in logic?” The Guru nods. ”The one with the dirty face washes his face“- he answers wearily. “Wrong. The one with the clean face washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, the one with the clean face washes his face.” “Very clever,” the young man says. “Give me another test.” The Guru again holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face, the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?” “We have already established that. The one with the clean face washes his face.” “Wrong. Each one washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. So, the one with the clean face washes his face. When the one with the dirty face sees the one with the clean face wash his face, he also washes his face. So, each one washes his face.” “I didn’t think of that,” says the young man. It’s shocking to me that I could make an error in logic. Test me again.” The Guru holds up two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face; the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?” “Each one washes his face.” “Wrong. Neither one washes his face. Examine the simple logic. The one with the dirty face looks at the one with the clean face and thinks his face is clean. The one with the clean face looks at the one with the dirty face and thinks his face is dirty. But when the one with the clean face sees the one with the dirty face doesn’t wash his face, he also doesn’t wash his face. So, neither one washes his face.” The young man is desperate. “I am qualified to study Vedas. Please give me one more test.” He groans, though, when the Guru lifts two fingers. “Two men come down a chimney. One comes out with a clean face; the other comes out with a dirty face. Which one washes his face?” “Neither one washes his face.” “Wrong. Do you now see why Socratic logic is an insufficient basis for studying Vedas? Tell me, how is it possible for two men to come down the same chimney, and for one to come out with a clean face and the other with a dirty face? Don’t you see? The whole question is nonsense, foolishness, and if you spend your whole life trying to answer foolish questions, all your answers will be foolish, too.” May we all have the wisdom to ask, and answer, the wise questions! |
1. " SUCCESS is like wrestling a Gorilla. You DON'T quit when you're tired. You quit when the Gorilla is Tired........" 2. " Pain is Temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts Forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ASK myself, which would I rather live with ?....." 3. " If plan A doesn't work, the alphabet has 25 MORE Letters......." 4. " The man who thinks HE CAN and the man who thinks he can't are Both Right. Which one Are YOU ?......." 5. "I Know NOW,after many years,that the Finding/losing, Forgetting/Remembering, leaving/Returning, NEVER stops. The whole of Life is about Another chance, and while we are alive, till the very end, there is always Another Chance......." AND....THE MOST IMPORTANT.... 6. " Who told you it was too late? And MORE Importantly, WHY did YOU Choose to Believe them ??????........" So True..... |
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