Packing Parachutes

INSIGHTS INTO EXCELLENCE
Packing Parachutes - Excerpt from Chapter 16
By Charlie Plumb
(http://www.charlieplumb.com/book-insights. htm)

Recently, I was sitting in a restaurant in Kansas City. A man about two tables away kept looking at me. I didn't recognize him. A few minutes into our meal he stood up and walked over to my table, looked down at me, pointed his finger in my face and said, "You're Captain Plumb."

I looked up and I said, "Yes sir, I'm Captain Plumb."

He said, "You flew jet fighters in Vietnam. You were on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down. You parachuted into enemy hands and spent six years as a prisoner of war."

I said, "How in the world did you know all that?"

He replied, "Because, I packed your parachute."

I was speechless. I staggered to my feet and held out a very grateful hand of thanks. This guy came up with just the proper words. He grabbed my hand, he pumped my arm and said, "I guess it worked."

"Yes sir, indeed it did", I said, "and I must tell you I've said a lot of prayers of thanks for your nimble fingers, but I never thought I'd have the opportunity to express my gratitude in person."

He said, "Were all the panels there?"

"Well sir, I must shoot straight with you," I said, "of the eighteen panels that were supposed to be in that parachute, I had fifteen good ones. Three were torn, but it wasn't your fault, it was mine. I jumped out of that jet fighter at a high rate of speed, close to the ground. That's what tore the panels in the chute. It wasn't the way you packed it."

"Let me ask you a question," I said, "do you keep track of all the parachutes you pack?"

"No" he responded, "it's enough gratification for me just to know that I've served."

I didn't get much sleep that night. I kept thinking about that man. I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform - a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back and bell bottom trousers. I wondered how many times I might have passed him on board the Kitty Hawk. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said "good morning", "how are you", or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. How many hours did he spend on that long wooden table in the bowels of that ship weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of those chutes? I could have cared less...until one day my parachute came along and he packed it for me.

So the philosophical question here is this: How's your parachute packing coming along? Who looks to you for strength in times of need? And perhaps, more importantly, who are the special people in your life who provide you the encouragement you need when the chips are down? Perhaps it's time right now to give those people a call and thank them for packing your chute.

The Ideal of Karma-Yoga- Swami Vivekananda

CHAPTER VIII

THE IDEAL OF KARMA-YOGA

The grandest idea in the religion of the Vedanta is that we may reach the same goal by different paths; and these paths I have generalized into four, viz. those of work, love, psychology, and knowledge. But you must, at the same time, remember that these divisions are not very marked and quite exclusive of each other. Each blends into the other. But according to the type which prevails, we name the divisions. It is not that you can find men who have no other faculty than that of work, nor that you can find men who are no more than devoted worshippers only, nor that there are men who have no more than mere knowledge. These divisions are made in accordance with the type or the tendency that may be seen to prevail in a man. We have found that, in the end, all these four paths converge and become one. All religions and all methods of work and worship lead us to one and the same goal.

MOTHER

ABBREVIATION OF MOTHER: M:MOST O:ORIGNAL T:TOPCLASS H:HONOURABLE E:EXCELLENT R:RESPECTABLE Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My Mother. Smiles of happy sunshine, Arms of everlasting love, Touch of sweet roses, There is magic in the air Whenever You are there, Mother, everything to U I owe, May all pleasures of life come your way. When u feel u r alone in a crowd, when u think no one can understand u, when u think your love is rejected by others, and when u hate your life just close your eyes and think about her who loves u truly, cares for u in your loneliness, dies when u cry, she is no one else but MOM The love she has deep in her heart, Always gives me a good jump start, She is the one who’s love is true, Thank u Mom for being u. The Miracle of Life Nurtured by a woman Who gave us Love and sacrifice… is “MOTHER” When you feel you are alone in the Crowd, When you Think No one can Understand you, When your love is rejected by others, & when your hate your Life, Just Close your eyes, & see, Her face who Loves you, More than any one else, Who Care for you in loneliness, & dies when you cry. She is no One, But your Sweet Loving Mother. Love your mom first. There is no velvet so soft as a mother’s lap, no rose as lovely as her smile, no path so flowery as that imprinted with her footsteps. Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible. A mother serves her sugar with A bit of peppermint To clarify the passages That carry what she meant When she first set to bear a soul Quite separate from her own, Whom she would cherish, yet must teach To live and die alone. M – For the MILLION things she gave me, O – For she’s growing OLD, T – For the TEARS she shed to save me, H – For her HEART of purest gold, E – For her EYES, with love-light shining, R – For she is always RIGHT and always be. Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs… since the payment is pure love. Once upon a memory Someone wiped away a tear Held me close and loved me, Thank you, dear Mother . If I have never said thank you for bringing me into the world I'd like to do that now. The sweetest sounds to mortals given are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven. Never marry a man who hates his mother, because he'll end up hating you. A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary. The Best, Which Touched: When I came home in the rain, My Brother Asked: Why U Didn’t take an Umbrella. Sister:(Advised) why didn’t U wait till rain stopped. Father(Angrily) : Warned! only after getting cold, U will realize. . . . Mother: while drying my Hair, said, “STUPID RAIN! couldn’t it wait, till my child came home.” That's MAA (Mother) __._,_.___

We Help OURSELVES, NOT THE WORLD - Swami Vivekananda

WE HELP OURSELVES, NOT THE WORLD -

Yet we must do good; the desire to do good is the highest motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to help others. Do not stand on a high pedestal and take five cents in your hand and say, "Here, my poor man," but be grateful that the poor man is there, so that by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but it is the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect. All good acts tend to make us pure and perfect. What can we do at best? Build a hospital, make roads, or erect charity asylums. We may organise a charity and collect two or three millions of dollars, build a hospital with one million, with the second give balls and drink champagne, and of the third let the officers steal half, and leave the rest finally to reach the poor; but what are all these? One mighty wind in five minutes can break all your buildings up. What shall we do then? One volcanic eruption may sweep away all our roads and hospitals and cities and buildings. Let us give up all this foolish talk of doing good to the world. It is not waiting for your or my help; yet we must work and constantly do good, because it is a blessing to ourselves. That is the only way we can become perfect. No beggar whom we have helped has ever owed a single cent to us; we owe everything to him, because he has allowed us to exercise our charity on him. It is entirely wrong to think that we have done, or can do, good to the world, or to think that we have helped such and such people. It is a foolish thought, and all foolish thoughts bring misery. We think that we have helped some man and expect him to thank us, and because he does not, unhappiness comes to us. Why should we expect anything in return for what we do? Be grateful to the man you help, think of him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellow men? If we were really unattached, we should escape all this pain of vain expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. Never will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment. The world will go on with its happiness and misery through eternity. -cont'd

Go Kiss the World - Subroto Bagchi

This speech was delivered to the Class of 2006 at the IIM, Bangalore on defining success by Subroto Bagchi CEO MindTree. I was the last child of a small-time government servant, in a family of five brothers. My earliest memory of my father is as that of a District Employment Officer in Koraput, Orissa. It was, and remains as back of beyond as you can imagine. There was no electricity; no primary school nearby and water did not flow out of a tap. As a result, I did not go to school until the age of eight; I was home-schooled. My father used to get transferred every year. The family belongings fit into the back of a jeep - so the family moved from place to place and without any trouble, my Mother would set up an establishment and get us going. Raised by a widow who had come as a refugee from the then East Bengal , she was a matriculate when she married my Father. My parents set the foundation of my life and the value system, which makes me what I am today and largely, defines what success means to me today. As District Employment Officer, my father was given a jeep by the government.

There was no garage in the Office, so the jeep was parked in our house. My father refused to use it to commute to the office. He told us that the jeep is an expensive resource given by the government- he reiterated to us that it was not "his jeep" but the government's jeep. Insisting that he would use it only to tour the interiors, he would walk to his office on normal days.. He also made sure that we never sat in the government jeep - we could sit in it only when it was stationary. That was our early childhood lesson in governance - a lesson that corporate managers learn the hard way, some never do. The driver of the jeep was treated with respect due to any other member of my Father's office. As small children, we were taught not to call him by his name. We had to use the suffix 'dada' whenever we were to refer to him in public or private. When I grew up to own a car and a driver by the name of Raju was appointed - I repeated the lesson to my two small daughters. They have, as a result, grown up to call Raju, 'Raju Uncle' - very different from many of their friends who refer to their family driver, as 'my driver'. When I hear that term from a school- or college-going person, I cringe. To me, the lesson was significant - you treat small people with more respect than how you treat big people. It is more important to respect your subordinates than your superiors. Our day used to start with the family huddling around my Mother's chulha - an earthen fire place she would build at each place of posting where she would cook for the family. There was neither gas, nor electrical stoves.The morning routine started with tea. As the brew was served, Father would ask us to read aloud the editorial page of The Statesman's 'muffosil' edition - delivered one day late. We did not understand much of what we were reading. But the ritual was meant for us to know that the world was larger than Koraput district and the English I speak today, despite having studied in an Oriya medium school, has to do with that routine. After reading the newspaper aloud, we were told to fold it neatly. Father taught us a simple lesson. He used to say, "You should leave your newspaper and your toilet, the way you expect to find it". That lesson was about showing consideration to others. Business begins and ends with that simple precept. Being small children, we were always enamored with advertisements in the newspaper for transistor radios - we did not have one. We saw other people having radios in their homes and each time there was an advertisement of Philips, Murphy or Bush radios, we would ask Father when we could get one. Each time, my Father would reply that we did not need one because he already had five radios - alluding to his five sons. We also did not have a house of our own and would occasionally ask Father as to when, like others, we would live in our own house. He would give a similar reply," We do not need a house of our own. I already own five houses". His replies did not gladden our hearts in that instant.

Nonetheless, we learnt that it is important not to measure personal success and sense of well being through material possessions. Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my Mother would never sleep. She would take her kitchen utensils and with those she and I would dig the rocky, white ant infested surrounding. We planted flowering bushes. The white ants destroyed them. My mother brought ash from her chulha and mixed it in the earth and we planted the seedlings all over again. This time, they bloomed. At that time, my father's transfer order came. A few neighbors told my mother why she was taking so much pain to beautify a government house, why she was planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant. My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would not see the flowers in full bloom. She said, "I have to create a bloom in a desert and whenever I am given a new place, I must leave it more beautiful than what I had inherited". That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind that defines success. My mother began and galvanized the nation in to patriotic fervor. Other than reading out the newspaper to my mother, I had no clue about how I could be part of the action. So, after reading her the newspaper, every day I would land up near the University's water tank, which served the community. I would spend hours under it, imagining that there could be spies who would come to poison the water and I had to watch for them. I would daydream about catching one and how the next day, I would be featured in the newspaper. Unfortunately for me, the spies at war ignored the sleepy town of Bhubaneswar and I never got a chance to catch one in action.. Yet, that act unlocked my imagination. Imagination is everything. If we can imagine a future, we can create it, if we can create that future, others will live in it. That is the essence of success. Over the next few years, my mother's eyesight dimmed but in me she created a larger vision, a vision with which I continue to see the world and, I sense, through my eyes, she was seeing too. As the next few years unfolded, her vision deteriorated and she was operated for cataract. I remember, when she returned after her operation and she saw my face clearly for the first time, she was astonished. She said, "Oh my God, I did not know you were so fair".. I remain mighty pleased with that adulation even till date. Within weeks of getting her sight back, she developed a corneal ulcer and, overnight, became blind in both eyes. That was 1969. She died in 2002. In all those 32 years of living with blindness, she never complained about her fate even once. Curious to know what she saw with blind eyes, I asked her once if she sees darkness. She replied, "No, I do not see darkness. I only see light even with my eyes closed". Until she was eighty years of age, she did her morning yoga everyday, swept her own room and washed her own clothes. To me, success is about the sense of independence; it is about not seeing the world but seeing the light. Over the many intervening years, I grew up, studied, joined the industry and began to carve my life's own journey. I began my life as a clerk in a government office, went on to become a Management Trainee with the DCM group and eventually found my life's calling with the IT industry when fourth generation computers came to India in 1981.. Life took me places - I worked with outstanding people, challenging assignments and traveled all over the world. In 1992, while I was posted in the US , I learnt that my father, living a retired life with my eldest brother, had suffered a third degree burn injury and was admitted in the Safderjung Hospital in Delhi . I flew back to attend to him - he remained for a few days in critical stage, bandaged from neck to toe. The Safderjung Hospital is a cockroach infested, dirty, inhuman place. The overworked, under-resourced sisters in the burn ward are both victims and perpetrators of dehumanized life at its worst. One morning, while attending to my Father, I realized that the blood bottle was empty and fearing that air would go into his vein, I asked the attending nurse to change it. She bluntly told me to do it myself. In that horrible theater of death, I was in pain and frustration and anger. Finally when she relented and came, my Father opened his eyes and murmured to her, "Why have you not gone home yet?" Here was a man on his deathbed but more concerned about the overworked nurse than his own state. I was stunned at his stoic self. There I learnt that there is no limit to how concerned you can be for another human being and what the limit of inclusion is you can create. My father died the next day. He was a man whose success was defined by his principles, his frugality, his universalism and his sense of inclusion.

Above all, he taught me that success is your ability to rise above your discomfort, whatever may be your current state. You can, if you want, raise your consciousness above your immediate surroundings. Success is not about building material comforts - the transistor that he never could buy or the house that he never owned. His success was about the legacy he left, the memetic continuity of his ideals that grew beyond the smallness of a ill-paid, unrecognized government servant's world.. My father was a fervent believer in the British Raj. He sincerely doubted the capability of the post-independence Indian political parties to govern the country. To him, the lowering of the Union Jack was a sad event.

My Mother was the exact opposite. When Subhash Bose quit the Indian National Congress and came to Dacca , my mother, then a schoolgirl, garlanded him. She learnt to spin khadi and joined an underground movement that trained her in using daggers and swords. Consequently, our household saw diversity in the political outlook of the two. On major issues concerning the world, the Old Man and the Old Lady had differing opinions. In them, we learnt the power of disagreements, of dialogue and the essence of living with diversity in thinking. Success is not about the ability to create a definitive dogmatic end state; it is about the unfolding of thought processes, of dialogue and continuum. Two years back, at the age of eighty-two, Mother had a paralytic stroke and was lying in a government hospital in Bhubaneswar . I flew down from the US where I was serving my second stint, to see her.

I spent two weeks with her in the hospital as she remained in a paralytic state. She was neither getting better nor moving on. Eventually I had to return to work. While leaving her behind, I kissed her face. In that paralytic state and a garbled voice, she said, "Why are you kissing me, go kiss the world." Her river was nearing its journey, at the confluence of life and death, this woman who came to India as a refugee, raised by a widowed Mother, no more educated than high school, married to an anonymous government servant whose last salary was Rupees Three Hundred, robbed of her eyesight by fate and crowned by adversity was telling me to go and kiss the world! Success to me is about Vision. It is the ability to rise above the immediacy of pain. It is about imagination. It is about sensitivity to small people. It is about building inclusion.

It is about connectedness to a larger world existence. It is about personal tenacity. It is about giving back more to life than you take out of it. It is about creating extra-ordinarysuccess with ordinary lives. Thank you very much; I wish you good luck and God's speed. Go! kiss the world !!!!!

Stand out of my light - retold by Sw. Atmananda(my classmate)

Stand out of my light

One story that has been told over and over again is about the meeting of Diogenes and Alexander, the Great. When told under a spiritual context, it is not to document history but to put across a couple of points that the great masters have to teach. Hence you will hear many versions of the same. This version is my favorite because it marks the height of awareness and consciousness that a person can reach and how much we can simplify our lives. It is also not Rajasic and tells us what true surrender means.

Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who roamed around naked and owned absolutely no possessions. Some say that Diogenes was the Greek name for Dandi. Once upon a time he was living under a tree beside a river. He ate whatever people gave him. People thought he was mad. One day when he dipped his begging bowl into the river he saw a dog drinking water. It glanced at Diogenes from the corner of its eyes as if “What is this animal doing?” It immediately occurred to him that he actually did not need a bowl to drink water and immediately threw it into the river and started drinking water just the way the dog did. The dog immediately accepted him and from that day they both started living together under the same tree and sharing whatever they found to eat.

Now Aristotle had asked Alexander to meet Diogenes. Alexander’s army happened to camp nearby and his military officers reported to him that Diogenes was living outside the village. Alexander immediately sent an officer to invite him. When the officer arrived, Diogenes was lying under the tree and it was past noon.

The officer said, “Alexander, the Great wants to meet you. So please do come with me”. Diogenes said, “Oh!! I love meeting people and would have gladly joined you if I did not have all these guests to entertain all day. So please tell your king that I will not be able to come”. At this the officer looked around and said, “I can’t see a single person here. All the time you are just lying around and mumbling to yourself. Where are your guests?” Diogenes replied, “You see, in the morning, a cold wind rubs past my body and wakes me up. No sooner am I finished talking with the wind, the birds in this tree wake up. You see, there are quite a lot of them on this big tree and I have to talk to each and every one of them and send them of to work. And by that time, the Sun comes. He is my good old friend and I have a lot to talk with him. Further he comes only once a day. When he is gone, I bathe in the river and talk to the fishes. When I am done entertaining all these guests, I am completely beat and collapse. Consider my age. I will not have any strength remaining. And the same story keeps repeating every day”.

The officer had heard that Diogenes was a mad man. So he went back to the camp and reported to the emperor that Diogenes was too busy to meet him without going into the details. Alexander, himself rode down to meet Diogenes the next day. When he arrived, Diogenes and the dog had finished feeding and were lying on their bellies and enjoying the Sunshine beside the river. They did not even care to move when the party arrived. The guard stumped his spear and announced, “Diogenes, do you know who has arrived to meet you?” Diogenes opened one eyelid and drowsily asked “Who?” The guard continued, “Alexander, the emperor of the world.”

At this Alexander spoke gently, “Diogenes, I am pleased to finally meet you. If there is anything you want, please ask me and I will give you all that you want to make your living comfortable”. Diogenes said, “Alexander or who ever you are, I was enjoying the Sun before you came and stood between us. So if you could, please move out of the way and I will be comfortable again”. Alexander felt ashamed and moved aside but the guard felt offended and cried out, “You fool, do you even know who Alexander is? He is the only person who has defeated all the armies in the world.” Now Diogenes moved a bit and said, “You see the wind that breezes past, if it stops moving in and out of your lungs, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else. You see this river flowing. If it stops giving water, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else. You see the Sun shining above your head. If it stops giving light, you are the Emperor and so is everybody else.” Alexander understood the meaning and Diogenes had said everything that was to be said. Before leaving, he made a closing remark, “Had I not been Alexander, I would have liked to be Diogenes.” Hearing these words, Diogenes suddenly sprang up and just like an innocent child said, “Had I not been Diogenes, I surely would not have liked to be Alexander.”

-Retold by AtmaAnanda

The Eye of the Tiger - Sound track Rocky 3

Risin' up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive

So many times, it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive

Chorus:
It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight
Risin' up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night
And he's watchin' us all in the eye of the tiger

Face to face, out in the heat
Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry
They stack the odds 'til we take to the street
For we kill with the skill to survive

chorus

Risin' up, straight to the top
Have the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not gonna stop
Just a man and his will to survive

chorus

The eye of the tiger (repeats out)...

Fearlessness

In enjoyment, there is fear of disease;

In social position, there is fear of falling off;

In wealth, the fear of hostile kings;

In honor, the fear of humiliation;

In power, the fear of foemen;

In beauty, the fear of old age;

In scriptural erudition, the fear of opponents;

In virtue, the fear of traducers;

In body, the fear of death;

All the things of this world pertaining to man are attended with fear; renunciation alone stands for fearlessness.

==>The Vairagya shatakam, verse 31

One Paragraph that explains "Why Me"!!!

ONE PARAGRAPH THAT EXPLAINS LIFE!

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983..

From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:

"The world over, 50 million  children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the  grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'. And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' "

"Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrow keeps you Human,
Failure keeps you humble and Success keeps you glowing,
But only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going...”

The first principles for eligibility of knowledge

Forgiveness of oneself,

Forgiveness of others,

Only love towards every human being and creature on this planet,

No hatred towards any person or creature in the universe irrespective ...,

No enemies in this world - be it creatures or human beings - only friends,

No expectation of love from any creature or human being on this planet,

Love, respect and caring for one's body which is the vehicle,

-AA's master.

What level are you at?

Q. How do you know what level of spirituality you are at?
*Sri Sri: *It depends on how often your buttons can be pushed. If you have
no buttons to be pushed then you are very strong.

Hope.....

Hope is like a Flowing river of which the ceaseless desires constitute the waters;
it rages with the waves of keen longings and the attachments for various objects are its animals of prey; scheming thoughts of greed are the aquatic birds that abound on it,
and it destroys in its course the big trees of patience and fortitude;

it is rendered impassable by the whirlpools of ignorance and of profound depth of bed as it is,

its banks of anxious deliberation are precipitous indeed. Such a river the great yogis of pure mind pass across to enjoy supreme felicity

Verse 10 - Vairagya shatakam

Paradox of choice

Paul Hawken's speech -

Paul Hawken's Commencement Address to the Class of 2009 University of  Portland , May 3rd, 2009.  Paul Hawken is a renowned entrepreneur, visionary environmental  activist, and author of many books, most recently Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. He was presented with an honorary doctorate of humane letters by University president Father Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C., when he delivered this speech.

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful." Boy, no pressure there.

But let's begin with the startling part. Hey, Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate  of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation - but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.

Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of operating instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air, and don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food - but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: YOU ARE BRILLIANT, AND THE EARTH IS HIRING.  The earth couldn't afford to send any recruiters or limos to your school.  It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know  what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data.

But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing  to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore  some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description.

Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refugee camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen.

Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United  States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say,the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is  true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, re-imagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of  moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to  the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown - Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood - and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But
for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit.  And today tens of millions of people do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, and non-governmental organizations, of companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart.  What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. Think about this: we are the only species on this planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time than to renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it.  We can either create
assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams.  Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at  any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a  millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than  there are stars in the universe - exactly what Charles Darwin  foretold when he said science would discover
that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating  organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, challenging, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hopefulness only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.

here is thy knowledge, here is thy ignorance

http://www.belurmath.org/gospel/chapter14.htm

Truthfulness leads to God

MASTER: "I feel very happy when I see Shivanath.   He always seems to be absorbed in the bliss of bhakti.  Further, a man who is respected by so many surely possesses some divine power.  But he has one great defect: he doesn't keep his word.  Once he said to me that, he would come to Dakshineswar, but he neither came nor sent me word.  That is not good.  It is said that truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga.  If a man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God.  Without this regard for truth, one gradually loses everything.  If by chance I say that I will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of it, lest I lose my attachment to truth.  After my vision of the Divine Mother, I prayed to Her, taking a flower in my hands: 'Mother, here is Thy knowledge and here is Thy ignorance.  Take them both, and give me only pure love.  Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness.  Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.  Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil.  Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.  Here is Thy righteousness, and here is Thy unrighteousness.  Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.'  I mentioned all these, but I could not say: 'Mother, here is Thy truth and here is Thy falsehood.  Take them both.' I gave up everything at  Her feet but could not bring myself to give up truth."

Love and Like

To love someone whom you like is insignificant

To love someone because they love you is of no consequence

 To love someone whom you don't  like means you have learned a lesson in life

 To love someone who blames you for no reason shows that you have learned the art of living.

-  master

Wanderer -Sterling hayden

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea... "cruising" it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about. "I've always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can't afford it." What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone. What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed. Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?

Sterling Hayden

Detachment.

Detachment and Being Detached By Remez Sasson

Detachment is an inner state of calmness and being uninvolved on the emotional and mental planes. It is definitely not indifference. People who are indifferent do not care about anything, and are not active and initiative. On the other hand, people who possess emotional and mental detachment can be very active and caring, though they accept calmly whatever happens. Such people accept the good and the bad equally, because they enjoy inner balance and peace. If they cannot do or change something, it does not disturb their peace of mind. If they are convinced of the importance of some action, they will pursue it whole-heartedly, and can ignore distractions easily. If they succeed with what they do, that is fine, and if they don't, they will either try again or forget the matter and move to something else. Count the number of times you got emotionally involved in something against your will and better judgment. How many times have you got angry, frustrated or disappointed? How many times have your moods swung high and low? Each time you tell yourself that next time you will stay cool and calm, and yet each time you forget what you said. When it comes to personal affairs, it is hard to stay emotionally uninvolved. You get involved, and this is quite natural, otherwise life would have been boring. Involvement makes life ticking and active. Yet, it advisable to develop at least some detachment, as this will help you in many situations.

Detachment is important in daily life, in the pursuit of ambitions and on the spiritual path. It is of great importance to everyone, whether pursuing spirituality or material success. Every spiritual tradition speaks about detachment, but detachment cannot be confined only to spirituality. Detachment Let me give you some examples of detachment. Suppose you meditate, but thoughts keep coming into your mind. You get emotionally involved with your thoughts, follow them and forget about your meditation and concentration. If you were able to manifest detachment it would have been easier to ignore the disturbing thoughts.

Detachment would have helped you to stay collected and concentrated. What happens when somebody says to you something that you do not like? You will probably become angry, unhappy or insulted. Why is this so? Because you value other's people words and opinions more than you value your own thoughts and opinions of yourself. You let other's people thoughts, words and actions influence your happiness, actions and reactions. Your happiness and actions depend on them. On the other hand, if you are able to stay detached, you will not be disturbed. You will stay calm. You will even be able to benefit from what they say. You will not waste hours thinking about their words. Have you ever thought how much time and energy is wasted every day brooding on useless thoughts and feelings because of the lack of detachment? Much of the anger, frustration, unhappiness, disappointments and fights are due to lack of detachment.

One of the ways to develop detachment is through meditation. It is a gradual and automatic process. In meditation one endeavors not to follow the thoughts and feelings that rise. It is a time of a mental and emotional vacation. Meditating day after day develops the habit of staying cool and calm, not only during meditation, but also in all daily life. If you practice any kind of meditation, sooner or later you will start to experience detachment. You will find that you feel and behave in a different way under circumstances that previously raised anger or agitation. You will find that you handle your daily affairs of life in a calm and relaxed way. Real detachment means inner strength, and the ability to function calmly and with full inner control under all circumstances. A detached person is not harassed and hurried, and can do everything with concentration and attention, thus insuring a successful outcome of his actions.

True Freedom

True Freedom to the soul comes when one overcomes all the mighty fears and still doesnot loose hope

1) Fear of infamy

2, fear of rejection from society

3, fear of rejection from the beloved

4, fear of rejection from the loved

5, fear of driving

6, fear of falling down on the path

7, fear of blame

8, fear of getting bamboozled

9, fear of betrayal

10, fear of failure in ones so called duties

11, fear of dishonesty

12, fear of exhaustion

13, fear of lack of knowledge

Name and Form

Everything in our memory is composed of events. Events have name and Form..Where do name and form arise from?

These are further associated with emotions...The source of emotions is events - which could be from memory or from events happening right now...

Realisation that everything associated with name and form is unreal - as they are impermanent  is very important.

How long will you run away ----> for it has to come one day, and the burden has to be borne.........

The only option is forgiving yourself and and forgiving others for the inequities committed......and pray for the strength to bear the burden..- that burden which uncommits itself at the right time and leads one to freedom...

Living by the heart or by the head

Living by the heart or by the head...

The heart says do this and the head says don't do this because you have a flight to catch, you are very busy  doing a lot of stuff, throughout the day...etc. If what has to be done is a good job - say redeeming someone, or say making a donation or anything that involves giving -  by taking  that courage and prayer one can escape discomfort - not by running away.The head brings in a 1001 obstacles for it applies logic.

This logic is sometimes so skewed that one will have to live in the reflection of the past and will definitely have to bear the burden of the heart if not now- sometime in the future..

The silent prayer - "show me the light" is in the true sense telling the soul to follow the heart.

Munna beta - Mama ko namaste Karo

The summarization of Moha are in the following simple sentence in Hindi...

"Munna beta - Mama ko namaste Karo"

This sentence normally arouses a heart attack in ................. but I feel sad for the person....

- A.S

Any object event desire feeling or memory is unreal

Any object, event, desire feeling or memory is unreal and arises from the source. The source is the only real.

any object, event, desire, feeling or memory is associated always with a name and form. The name and form arises from the source  like waves and merges back into it after a period in increasing order of time ... memory takes the most time to arise and merge back - it is hard to delete it, objects take a little more time to arise and fall back, desires come and go, feelings come and go and events are the most transitory manifestations of the source.

This realisation that the source is the only real and everything else unreal is called Dispassion - and this is the highest blessing

Free Will from the Kathamritha of Sri Ramakrishna

VAIDYANATH: "Sir, I have a doubt. People speak of free will. They say that a man can do either good or evil according to his will. Is it true? Are we really free to do whatever we like?"

MASTER: "Everything depends on the will of God. The world is His play. He has created all these different things -- great and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious. This is all His maya, His sport. You must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind.

"As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is God Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise sin would have multiplied. Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it.

"But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: 'I am the machine and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator. I am the house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver. I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.'

--

"A man becomes liberated even in this life when he knows that God is the Doer of all things. Once Keshab came here with Sambhu Mallick. I said to him, 'Not even a leaf moves except by the will of God.' Where is man's free will? All are under the will of God.

--

"It is God alone who has planted in man's mind what the 'Englishman' calls free will.  People who have not realized God would become engaged in more and more sinful actions if God had not planted in them the notion of free will.  Sin would have increased if God had not made the sinner feel that he alone was responsible for his sin.

"Those who have realized God are aware that free will is a mere appearance.  In reality man is the machine and God its Operator, man is the carriage and God its Driver."

--

Man has no free will. He is not even free to die.

--

Fate or FREE WILL

http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/The_Riddle_of_Fate_and_Free.htm

(A dialogue between His Holiness Shri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswami and a Disciple): [His Holiness was the Sringeri Mathadhipati 1912-1954.]

H.H. : I hope you are pursuing your studies in the Vedanta as usual?

D.?? : Though not regularly, I do make some occasional study.

H.H. : In the course of your studies, you may have come across many doubts. D.?? : Yes, one doubt repeatedly comes up to my mind. H.H. : What is it?

D.?? : It is the problem of the eternal conflict between fate and free-will. ?????? What are their respective provinces and how can the conflict be ?????? avoided?

H.H. : If presented in the way you have done it, the problem would baffle ?????? even the highest of thinkers.

D.?? : What is wrong with my presentation? I only stated the problem and ?????? did not even explain how I find it to be a difficult one.

H.H. : Your difficulty arises in the very statement of the problem.

D.?? : How?

H.H. : A conflict arises only if there are two things. There can be no ?????? conflict if there is only one thing.

D.?? : But here there are two things, fate and free-will.

H.H. : Exacly. It is this assumption of yours that is responsible for your ?????? problem. D.?? : It is not my assumption at all. How can I ignore the fact that the ?????? two things exist as independent factors, whether I grant their ?????? existence or not? H.H. : That is where you are wrong again. D.?? : How? H.H. : As a follower of our Sanatana Dharma, you must know that fate is ?????? nothing extraneous to yourself, but only the sum total of the ?????? results of your past actions. ???????? As God is but the dispenser of the fruits of actions, fate, ?????? representing those fruits, is not his creation but only yours. ?????? Fre-will is what you exercise when you act now. D.?? : Still I do not see how they are not two distinct things. H.H. : Have it this way. Fate is past karma; free-will is present karma. ?????? Both are really one, that is, karma, though they may differ in the ?????? matter of time. There can be no conflict when they are really one. D.?? : But the difference in time is a vital difference which we cannot ?????? possibly overlook. H.H. : I do not want you to overlook it, but only to study it more deeply. ?????? The present is before you and, by the exercise of free-will, you can ?????? attempt to shape it. ????????? The past is past and is therefore beyond your vision and is ?????? rightly called adrishta, the unseen. You cannot reasonably attempt ?????? to find out the relative strength of two things unless both of them ?????? are before you. But, by our very definition, free-will, the present ?????? karma, alone is before you and fate, the past karma, is invisible. ??????????? Even if you see two wrestlers right in front of you, you cannot ?????? decide about their relative strength. For, one may have weight, the ?????? other agility; one muscles and the other tenacity; one the benefit of ?????? practice and the other coolness of judgment and so on. We can go on ?????? building arguments on arguments to conclude that a particular ?????? wrestler will be the winner. ??????????? But experience shows that each of these qualifications may fail ?????? at any time or may prove to be a disqualification. The only practical ?????? method of determining their relative strength will be to make them ?????? wrestle. ??????????? While this is so, how do you expect to find by means of ?????? arguments a solution to the problem of the relative value of fate ?????? and free-will when the former by its very nature is unseen! D.?? : Is there no way then of solving this problem? H.H. : There is this way. The wrestlers must fight with each other and prove ?????? which of them is the stronger. D.?? : In other words, the problem of conflict will get solved only at the ?????? end of the conflict. But at that time the problem will have ceased to ?????? have any practical significance. H.H. : Not only so, it will cease to exist. D.?? : That is, before the conflict begins, the problem is incapable of ?????? solution; and, after the conflict ends, it is no longer necessary to ?????? find a solution. H.H. : Just so. In either case, it is profitless to embark on the enquiry ?????? as to the relative stregth of fate and free-will. A Guide D.?? : Does Yor Holiness then mean to say that we must resign ourselves to ?????? fate? H.H. : Certainly not. On the other hand, you must devote yourself to free- ?????? will. D.?? : How can that be? H.H. : Fate, as I told you, is the resultant of the past exercise of your ?????? free-will. By exercising your free-will in the past, you brought on ?????? the resultant fate. ?????????? By exercising your free-will in the present, I want you to wipe ?????? out your past record if it hurts you, or to add to it if you find it ?????? enjoyable. ?????????? I any case. whether for acquiring more happiness or for reducing ?????? misery. you have to exercise your free-will in the present. D.?? : But the exercise of free-will however well-directed, very often ?????? fails to secure the desired result, as fate steps in and nullifies ?????? the action of free-will. H.H. : You are again ignoring our definition of fate. It is not an ?????? extraneous and a new thing which steps in to nullify your free-will. ?????? On the other hand, it is already in yourself. D.?? : It may be so, but its existence is felt only when it comes into ?????? conflict with free-will. How can we possibly wipe out the past ?????? record when we do not know nor have the means of knowing what it is? H.H. : Except to a very few highly advanced souls, the past certainly ?????? remains unknown. But even our ignorance of it is very often an ?????? advantage to us. ??????????? For, if we happen to know all the results we have accumulated ?????? by our actions in this and our past lives, we will be so much ?????? shocked as to give up in despair any attempt to overcome or mitigate ?????? them. Even in this life, forgetfulnes is a boon which the merciful ?????? God has been pleased to bestow on us, so that we may not be burdened ?????? at any moment with a recollection of all that has happened in the ?????? past. ??????????? Similarly, the divine spark in us is ever bright with hope and ?????? makes it possible for us to confidently exercise our free-will. It ????? is not for us to belittle the significance of these two boons-- ????? forgetfulness of the past and hope for the future. D.?? : Our ignorance of the past may be useful in not deterring the exercise ?????? of the free-will, and hope may stimulate that exercise. All the ?????? same, it cannot be denied that fate very often does present a ?????? formidable obstacle in the way of such exercise. H.H. : It is not quite correct to say that fate places obstacles in the way ?????? of free-will. On the other hand, by seeming to oppose our efforts, ?????? it tells us what is the extent of free-will that is necessary now to ?????? bear fruit. ??????????? Ordinarily for the purpose of securing a single benefit, a ?????? particular activity is prescribed; but we do not know how ?????? intensively or how repeatedly that activity has to be pursued or ?????? pesisted in. ?????????? If we do not succed at the very first attempt, we can easily ?????? deduce that in the past we have exercised our free-will just in the ?????? opposite direction, that the resultant of that past activity has ?????? first to be eliminated and that our present effort must be ?????? proportionate to that past activity. ??????????? Thus, the obstacle which fate seems to offer is just the gauge ?????? by which we have to guide our present activities. H.H. : The obstacle is seen only after the exercise of our free-will; how ?????? can that help us to guide our activities at the start? H.H. : It need not guide us at the start. At the start, you must not be ?????? obsessed at all with the idea that there will be any obstacle in ?????? your way. ??????????? Start with boundless hope and with the rpesumption that there ?????? is nothing in the way of your exercising the free-will. ??????????? If you do not succeed, tell yourself then that there has been ?????? in the past a counter-influence brought on by yourself by exercising ?????? your free-will in the other direction and, therefore, you must now ?????? exercise your free-will with re-doubled vogor and persistence to ?????? achieve your object. ??????????? Tell yourself that, inasmuch as the seeming obstacle is of your ?????? own? making, it is certainly within your competence to overcome it. ??????????? If you do not succeed even after this renewed effort, there can ?????? be absolutely no justification for despair, for fate being but a ?????? creature of your free-will can never be stronger than your free-will. ??????????? Your failure only means that your present exercise of free-will ?????? is not sufficient to counteract the result of the past exercise of ?????? it. ??????????? In other words, there is no question of a relative proportion ?????? between fate and free-will as distinct factors in life. The relative ?????? proportion is only as between the intensity of our past action and ?????? the intensity of our present action. D.?? : But even so, the relative intensity can be realised only at the end ?????? of our present effort in a particular direction. H.H. : It is always so in the case of everything which is adrishta or ?????? unseen. Take, for example, a nail driven into a wooden pillar. When ?????? you see it for the first time, you actually see, say, an inch of it ?????? projecting out of the pillar. The rest of it has gone into the wood ?????? and you cannot now see what exact length of the nail is imbedded in ?????? the wood. That length, therefore, is unseen or adrishta, so far as ?????? you are concerned. Beautifully varnished as the pillar is, you do ?????? not know what is the composition of the wood in which the nail is ?????? driven. That also is unseen or adrishta. ???????????? Now, suppose you want to pull that nail out, can you tell me ?????? how many pulls will be necessary and how powerful each pull has to ?????? be? D.?? : How can I? The number and the intensity of the pulls will depend ?????? upon the length which has gone into the wood. H.H. : Certainly so. And the length which has gone into the wood is not ?????? arbitrary, but depended upon the number of strokes which drove it in ?????? and the intensity of each of such strokes and the resistance which ?????? the wood offered to them. D.?? : It is so. H.H. : The number and intensity of the pulls needed to take out the nail ?????? depend therefore upon the number and intensity of the strokes which ?????? drove it in. D.?? : Yes. H.H. : But the strokes that drove in the nail are now unseen and unseeable. ?????? They relate to the past and are adrishta. D.?? : Yes. H.H. : Do we stop from pulling out the nail simply because we happen to be ?????? ignorant of the length of the nail in the wood or of the number and ?????? intensity of the strokes which drove it in? Or, do we persist in ?????? pulling it out by increasing our effort? D.?? : Certainly, as practical men we adopt the latter course. H.H. : Adopt the same course in every effort of yours. Exert yourself as ?????? much as you can. Your will must succeed in the end. Function of Shastras: D.?? : But there certainly are many things which are impossible to attain ?????? even after the utmost exertion. H.H. : There you are mistaken. There is nothing which is really ?????? unattainable. A thing, however, may be unattainable to us at the ?????? particular stage at which we are, or with the qualifications that we ?????? possess. ???????????? The attainability or otherwise of a particular thing is thus ?????? not an absolute characteristic of that thing but is relative and ?????? proportionate to our capacity to attain it. D.?? : The success or failure of an effort can be known definitely only at ?????? the end.? How are we then to know beforehand whether with our ?????? present capacity we may or may not exert ourselves to attain a ?????? particular object, and whether it is the right kind of exertion for ?????? the attainment of that object? H.H. : Your question is certainly a pertinent one. The whole aim of our ?????? Dharma Shastras is to give a detailed answer to your question. ??????? ?????Religion does not fetter man's free-will. It leaves him quite ?????? free to act, but tells him at the same time what is good for him and ?????? what is not. ?????? The resposibility is entirely and solely his. He cannot escape it by ?????? blaming fate, for fate is of his own making, nor by blaming God, for ?????? he is but the dispenser of fruits in accordance with the merits of ?????? actions. You are the master of your own destiny. It is for you to ?????? make it, to better it or to mar it. This is your privilege. This is ?????? your responsibility. D.?? : I quite realise this. But often it so happens that I am not really ?????? master of myself. I know, for instance, quite well that a particular ?????? act is wrong; at the same time, I feel impelled to do it. Similarly, ?????? I know that another act is right; at the same time, however, I feel ?????? powerless to do it. It seems that there is some power which is able ?????? to control or defy my free-will. So long as that power is potent, ?????? how can I be called the master of my own destiny? Whatis that power ?????? but fate? H.H. : You are evidently confusing together two distinct things. Fate is a ?????? thing quite different from the other one which you call a power. ?????? Suppose you handle an instrument for the first time. You will do it ?????? very clumsily and with great effort. ???????????? The next time, however, you use it, you will do so less ?????? clumsily and with less effort. With repeated uses, you will have ????? learnt to use it easily and without any effort. That is, the facility ????? and ease with which you use a particular thing increase with the ????? number of times you use it. ???????????? The first time a man steals, he does so with great effort and ????? much fear;? the next time both his effort and fear are much less. As ????? opportunities increase, stealing will become a normal habit with him ????? and will require no effort at all. This habit will generate in him a ????? tendency to steal even when there is no necessity to steal. It is ????? this tendency which goes by the name vasana. The power which makes ????? you act as if against your will is only the vasana which itself is of ????? your own making. This is not fate. ???????????? The punishment or reward, in the shape of pain or pleasure, ????? which is the inevitable consequence of an act, good or bad, is alone ????? the province of fate or destiny. ???????????? The vasana which the doing of an act leaves behind in the mind ????? in the shape of a taste, a greater facility or a greater tendency for ????? doing the same act once again, is quite a different thing. It may be ????? that the punishment or the reward of the past act is, in ordinary ????? circumstances, unavoidable, if there is no counter-effort; but the ????? vasana can be easily handled if only we exercise our free-will ????? correctly. D.?? : But the number of vasanas or tendencies that rule our hearts are ?????? endless. How can we possibly control them? H.H. : The essential nature of a vasana is to seek expression in outward ?????? acts. This characteristic is common to all vasanas, good and bad. ?????? The stream of vasanas, the vasana sarit, as it is called, has two ?????? currents, the good and the bad. ????????????? If you try to dam up the entire stream, there mey be danger. ?????? The Shastras, therefore, do not ask you to attempt that. On the ?????? other hand, they ask you to submit yourself to be led by the good ?????? vasana current and to resist being led away by the bad vasana ?????? current. ????????????? When you know that a particular vasana is rising up in your ?????? mind, you cannot possibly say that you are at its mercy. You have ?????? your wits about you and the responsibility of deciding whether you ?????? will encourage it or not is entirely yours. ????????????? The Shastras ennciate in detail what vasanas are good and ?????? have to be encouraged and what vasanas are bad and have to be ?????? overcome. ??? ??????????When, by dint of practice, you have made all your vasanas ?????? good and practically eliminated the charge of any bad vasanas ?????? leading you astray, the Shastras take upon themselves the function ?????? of teaching you how to free your free-will even from the need of ?????? being led by good vasanas. ????????????? You will gradually be led on to a stage when your free-will ?????? be entirely free from any sort of coloring due to any vasanas. ????????????? At that stage, your mind will be pure as crystal and all ?????? motive for particular action will cease to be. Freedom from the ?????? results of particular actions is an inevitable consequence. Both ?????? fate and vasana disappear. There is freedom for ever more and that ?????? freedom is called Moksha

Swami Vivekananda's passing away

http://www.eng.vedanta.ru/library/prabuddha_bharata/swami_vivekananda%27s_passing_away.php

The Divine child - AK

Oh! Most noble child of the Crazy Kali,
Your soul is poetic and your song is mystic
But why doubt your own Mother?
She who is worshiped by the Trinity
and who is Divine Love personified
Will she forsake her own child?
Nay, Never, Not once in an eternity.

How can ignorance catch hold of thou?
Thou has risen from the Womb of Perfection
From Perfection is born Perfection
and what remains is only Perfection
So have declared the glorious seers of yore
who drank the holy milk of the Vedas.

You weep for your Mother
Who protects you in her very bosom
Shun this misery and bother
Arise, Awake and Shine
from the deep slumber of Maya,
You are Divine!  You are Divine! You are Divine!

-AK

Meditation and thoughts....

Whatever thoughts and emotions arise in meditation, allow them to rise and settle, like the waves in the ocean. Whatever you find yourself thinking, let that thought rise and settle, without any constraint. Don’t grasp at it, feed it, or indulge it, don’t cling to it, and don’t try to solidify it. Neither follow thoughts nor invite them; be like the ocean looking at its own waves, or the sky gazing down on the clouds that pass across it. You will soon find that thoughts are like the wind; they come and go. The secret is not to “think” about the thoughts but to allow them to flow through your mind, while keeping your mind free of afterthoughts.

Edge of the Cliff - God

When God leads you to the Edge of the Cliff, Trust Him fully and Let Go, Only One of Two Things will happen, Either He'll Catch You When You Fall, Or He'll teach You How to Fly! "

refutation 1:I think this question doesn't even arise, since God is leading you right ;) The trust that God is leading you doesn't leave any space for doubts and questions.

refutation 2:For a person with complete faith, the thought may not arise. But, it is obviously meant for someone who's faith is still not 100% firm. Why,  even Jesus during his last moments cried out - "Why Lord have you forsaken me..." - something like that.  The real test of the firmness of one's faith is when one is on the edge of a cliff...most of the times, we are not on the edge, in fact we are far from the edge.

The porcupine

Rumi likens the soul of the believer to the porcupine: when you beat it, it spreads out its quills and grows bigger!

There is an animal called the porcupine that grows big and
fat when beaten with a stick.
The more you beat it, the more it thrives: it grows stout
on the blows of a stick.
The true believer’s soul is a porcupine, for it grows stout
on the blows of suffering.
This is why the suffering of the prophets and saints is
greater than that of any other creature.

~ Jalaluddin Rumi (A.D. 1207--1273)