Vision

There was a millionaire who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted so many physicians and was getting his treatment done. He did not stop consulting galaxy of medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections. But the ache persisted with great vigor than before. At last a monk who has supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for by the millionaire. The monk understood his problem and said that for some time he should concentrate only on green colors and not to fall his eyes on any other colors.

The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green color and directed that every object his eye was likely to fall to be painted in green color just as the had directed. When the monk came to visit him after few days, the millionaire's servants ran with buckets of green paints and poured on him since he was in red dress, lest their master not see any other color and his eye ache would come back. Hearing this monk laughed said "If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth just a few rupees, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large share of his fortune. You cannot paint the world green."

Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world, let us shape ourselves first. Let’s change our vision..!!

********Think simple, Live simple...

Keep Believing Yourself

Doubt can stop you in your tracks, it can drain your desire.
Believing on the other hand can set your world afire.

Believing in your ability affects the way you act
And produces an air of confidence which influences how others will react.

When you believe you can achieve and believe it with your soul,
You possess a powerful asset, you will most likely reach your goal.

Keep Believing Yourself.

English Translation of ADI SHANKARACHARYA'S BHAJA GOVINDAM

Adi Shankaracharya’s Bhaja Govindam

Seek Govinda, O Fool!When the appointed times comes (death),grammar rules surely will not save you.

2 O Fool! Give up the thirst to possess wealth.Create in your mind, devoid of passions,thoughts of the Reality.With whatever you get, entertain your mind, be content.

3 Seeing the full bosom of young maidens and their navel,do not fall a prey to maddening delusion.This is but a modification of flesh and fat.Think well thus in your mind again and again.

4 The water drop playing on a lotus petal has an extremely uncertain existence;so also is life ever unstable.Understand, the very world is consumed by disease and conceit,and is riddled with pangs.

5 As long as there is the ability to earn and save,so long are all your dependants attached to you.Later on, when you come tolive with an old, infirm body,no one at home cares to speak even a word with you!!

6 As long as there dwells breath in the body,so long they enquire of your welfare at home.Once the breath leaves, the body decays,even the wife fears that very same body.

7 So long as one is in one’s boyhood, one is attached to play,so long as one is in youth, one is attached to one’s own young woman;so long as one is in old age, one is attached to anxiety,yet no one, alas to the Supreme Brahman, is ever seen attached.

8 Who is your wife? Who is your son?Supremely wonderful indeed is this samsara.Of whom are you? From where have you come?O brother, think of that Truth here.

9 Through the company of the good, there arises non-attachment;through non-attachment there arises freedom from delusion;when there is freedom from delusion, there is the Immutable Reality;on experiencing the Immutable Reality, there comes the state of ‘liberated-in-life’.

10 When youthfulness has passed, where is lust and its play?When water is evaporated, where is the lake?When the wealth is reduced, where is the retinue?When the Truth is realised, where is samsara?

11 Take no pride in your possession, in the people at your command, in the youthfulness that you have.Time loots away all these in a moment.Leaving aside all these, after knowing their illusory nature,realize the state of Brahman and enter into it.

12 Day and night, dawn and dusk, winter and spring,again and again come and depart.Time sports and life ebbs away.And yet, one leaves not the gusts of desires.

13 O Distracted One! Why worry about wife, wealth?Is there not for you the One who ordains?In the three worlds it is the association-with-good-people alonethat can serve as a boat to cross the sea of change, birth and death.

14 One ascetic with matted locks, one with shaven head,one with hairs pulled out one by one, another parading in his ochre robes– these are fools who, though seeing, do not see.Indeed, these different disguises or apparels are only for their belly’s sake.

15 The body has become worn out. The head has turned grey.The mouth has become toothless.The old man moves about leaning on his staff.Even then he leaves not the bundle of his desires.

16 In front the fire, at the back the sun, late at night he sits with hisknees held to his chin;he receives alms in his own scooped palm andlives under the shelter of some tree,and yet the noose of desires spares him not!

17 One may, in pilgrimage, go to where the Ganges meets the ocean, called the Gangasagar,or observe vows, or distribute gifts away in charity.If he is devoid of first-hand-experience-of-the-Truth,according to all schools of thought, he gains no release, even in a hundred lives

18 Sheltering in temples, under some trees,sleeping on the naked ground, wearing a deerskin,and thus renouncing all idea-of-possession and thirst-to-enjoy,to whom will not dispassion bring happiness?

19 Let one revel in Yoga or let him revel in Bhoga.Let one seek enjoyment in company orlet him revel in solitude away from the crowd.He whose mind revels in Brahman,he enjoys, verily, he alone enjoys.

20 To one who has studied the Bhagavad Gita even a little,who has sipped at least a drop of Ganges-water,who has worshipped at least one Lord Muraari,to him there is no quarrel with Yama, the Lord of Death.

21 Again birth, again death, and again lying in mother’s womb –this samsara process is very hard to cross over.Save me O destroyer of Mura (Lord Krishna),through Thy infinite kindness.

22 The Yogin who wears but a godadi (shawl made of rags),who walks the path that is beyond merit and demerit,whose mind is joined in perfect Yoga with its goal,he revels (in God-consciousness) – and lives thereafter – as a child or as a madman.

23 Who are you? Who am I? From where did I come?Who is my mother? Who is my father?Thus enquire, leaving aside the entire world-of-experience,essenceless and a mere dreamland, born of imagination.

24 In you, in me and in all other places too there is but one All-Pervading Reality.Being impatient, you are unnecessarily getting angry with me.If you want to attain soon the Vishnu-status,be equal-minded in all circumstances.

25 Strive not, waste not your energy to fight against or to makefriends with your enemy, friend, son or relative.Seeking the Self everywhere,lift the sense-of-difference born out of ‘ignorance’.

26 Leaving desire, anger, greed and delusion,the seeker sees in the Self ‘He Am I’.They are fools those who have not Self-knowledge,and they consequently, as a captive in hell, are tortured.

27 The Bhagavad Gita and Sahasranama are to be chanted;always the form of the Lord of Lakshmi is to be meditated upon;the mind is to be led towards the company of the good;wealth is to be shared with the needy.

28. Very readily one indulges in carnal pleasures;later on, alas, come diseases of the body.Even though in the world the ultimate end is death,even then man leaves not his sinful behaviour.

29 ‘Wealth is calamitous’, thus reflect constantly:the truth is that there is no happiness at all to be got from it.To the rich, there is fear even from his own son.This is the way with wealth everywhere.

30 The control of all activities,the sense-withdrawal, the reflection, along with japaand the practice of reaching the total-inner- silence– these, perform with care, with great care.

31 O Devotee of the lotus-feet of the teacher!May you become liberated soon from the samsara through the discipline of thesense-organs and the mind. You will come to experience theLord that dwells in your own heart.

Truly mine...!?!?!

Is the love between u and me a race...
where you run ahead, causing me to chase...?

I believed its a bond between the two of us,
where we walk together with mutual concern and trust.

I gave you comfort by giving a lot of space
You took leaps forward and have me at you, a gaze..

I do not know why is this happening,
Is this my fault, my love overly sharpening?

I am sure , with you I am not being possessive,
Or is it that I am being impatient or impulsive?

Now and then do I brood it over,
I get no answers, causing my mind to hover.

Many a times to you have I called out,
Do you really hear me?-I do not want to doubt.

I do not want our relationship to rot,
Want it to succeed, but not for it to be a naught.

All I can do is let things be as they are,
Let me then see your distance with me-near or far.

Giving myself time, about other things to be realised,
What else do I need in life and have them precised.

I do not want, on you, my feelings to burden.
To keep you happy is what I want to harden.

Its better that I let you go, is about what I want to shine,
Cos if you turn back to see me then, I know you are truly mine...!

Lonely...?

For all those, who in life, are feeling lonely,
Do read this,coz its for you solely.

Many a times, you want to talk to the world,
but maybe left, with your views by them unheard.

Such times will let you become restless,
Making your emotions difficult to harness.

As the saying goes, "An Idle man is a devil's workshop",
Slowy will your mind, to another road start to gallop.

In your mind,will negative thoughts begin to hatch...
And from others, will you start to detach.

"Who will listen to me", does you heart assume,
Causing you to be spell bound,sad and to fume.

This state of life is quite dangerous,
As its going to be at your heart, very strenous.

How do you come out of such a trauma,
And stop looking at things as if an enigma?

A sincere suggestion would be to forget that you are alone,
And choose to be happy always, rather than to moan.

Relinquish the thoughts that prove to you as malign,
Consecrate your life, mentations that are benign.

Do those things that cause to divert your mind,
Soon will you realise that joys are not difficult to find.

Fill your life with thoughts of beautiful colours,
Cos it will teach you how to be from isolation, averse.

This will not only make you mentally agile,
But also will your heart not be anymore fragile.

Learn to live a life that is tension free,
And allow your soul to go on a happiness-spree..!

So come out of the state of loneliness,
and deprive your life of its emptiness :-)

Optimism

Once upon a time, there lived a king.He ruled a small kingdom in India.He had around ten
ministers among his subjects.He greatly confided in one of them.The king would always approach
the minister whenever he needed advice.The minister fervently believed in one principle of
life-"Whatever happens,happens for the good".He quoted the same to the king at every
situation they went through.

One day,the king had a lesion on his left thumb while cutting fruits for himself.The minister cited
his quote even on seeing the cut on his hand.The king, consumed by rage, summoned the guards
to imprison his minister. The minister,smiled and repeated to himself,"Whatever happens,happens for the good".

A couple of days later,the king sets out to the jungle for hunting.After going deep into the
woods,he is caught hold of by the tribes dwelling there.Looking at his majestic make,they decide
to sacrifice him to their deity.Before making preparations for the ritual killing,the tribes happen
to notice the wound on the king's thumb.Seeing this,they get absorbed by disappoinment
and free the king, as they believed that a person to be sacrificed needs to have an flawless body.

It was only then that the king realised the significance of his minister's words.He went to his kingdom and released the minister from the prison at once.He told him his whole encounter with the tribes and asked for apology.The king also knew that the minister must have repeated his same sentence when he was imprisoned and questioned the same.The minister smiled
and said,"I have always followed and escorted you as a shadow.Had I accompanied you to the
forest the other day, your thumb would have saved you, but I would have served as a healthy
source of sacrifice to the tribes! Ha ha".

If one accepts the fact that whatever happens,happens for the good,life seems smoother,happier and our burdens that we may face in our lives tend to reduce by a greater extent....

Optimism....let it escort you all your life :-)

Traffic!

Standing at the bus stop and waiting for my bus,
I look forward to having a day at the office, less adruous.

Stepping into the bus and peeping through the door,
I find a seat to sit and travel for an hour more.

The bus started off on the road...
And I was thinking what to do..I was so bored..

Looking out of my window,came to my sight,
a struggle between vehicles, all the drivers' plight.

Soon did I realise that I was now in a mire called "Traffic",
Finding everyone else on the same boat...a condition so pathetic!

The people in hurry and who can't let go of time,
Try to warn each other...are they playing a mime?

Two vehicles drive up in a speed that's rash,
Seeming to cause to each other, a stupendous dash.

To let other vehicles go, can't one seem to wait,
Instead do they proceed on their ways, causing to bait.

Little do they realise, this will not clear
the traffic, that has infused in all, a kind of fear.

Hardly can one find the saviour- the "Traffic Signal",
To calm them down bringing this chaos to an absolute null.

To follow the road rules is what must one understand,
As this would solve their confusion, it being a magic wand.

To reach one's destination safe and sound,
Should each us be to the road rules, closely bound.

Hope one finds the reason as "safety and peace" to choose,
And drive by keeping in mind the essential-the road rules.