Ahimsa

Lately, my mind has just been all over the place. I thought I would get my answer while meditating but, the mind would stay still. I wondered why, maybe some chakra is out of balance. Just when I began to give up hope, a book by Dr. David Frawley arrived in the mail.

The first chapter took me back to the basics, to the yamas and the niyams. I was following the niyamas which has increased by awareness about myself but I had forgotten about the yamas that were supposed to balance out the things I was becoming aware of.

A few things from the book that really struck me were : “Ahimsa is the most importance practice of yoga and the basis of mental peace, which is not possible if we harbor thoughts of harm for others. Ahimsa is the appraoch to real healing. Health and wellbeing arise from a state of mind and lifestyle that does not project harm to other creatures. We cannot alleviate suffering for one creature by causing suffering to another more helpless (talking about animal testing). Suffering begets suffering, Caring for other creatures benefits our own health, even if it means placing the greater good of all creatures above the good of our own particular species. Ahimsa is the main principle of mental health because it removes the basis for negative emotions to flourish in the mind. It is the main principle of social health because it cuts off the root of social conflict, which is violence stemming from hatred, anger and resentments.”

Of course, if I was hating on the world for the place it has become I am burning my own nervous system and causing harm. Of course, my mind is not still. Of course, if I am hating on myself I am causing ahimsa. If I talking of qualities I don’t like in others, I am increasing the negative field around it from them and affirming them for myself.

Ahimsa is not an easy practice, ahimsa is not an outward practice but an inward one.

The energy of the media

The news!

I have seen people get angry and fight on facebook posts about the news. I have seen people cribbing about the fact that news channels are useless but still sit and watch them.

Let’s for a minute consider news as energy. We know the more energy you apply the more it’s field is amplifying. If you stop giving energy to gossip, to fights and to other forms of aggression and instead focus on the growth and so many other things that are happening in the world, things are bound to change. People will do those sort of things to become the news. Thanks to social media and the internet there are so may ways to do that. For example TedX  is doing an amazing job of that.

The problem lies in the fact that we don’t want to look at ourselves, we just want to blame others. To the extent even religions are doing that. But thankfully, since the new age has begun religion will soon be a thing of the past. It is amazing how everyone sits on a big fancy chair, pointing out that you are doing the exact same but I am right and you are wrong, you should be the one bringing about the change while I watch celebrity gossip and a bunch of politicians fight.

Recently, I read a post about how a religion thinks that the other should save trees instead of cows. All I did was laugh in my head and the only that came to me was are you saving trees or just expect someone else to do it for you? You too are sitting in your home which was built only after cutting a bunch of trees. How many have you grown?

Put the energy into the right place and it’ll automatically be sucked out from the wrong ones.

Love and light

People always think angels are weak and timid. But, their power lies in their purity. I had a feeling the other day, which made me sketch for the first time. I wanted to look into the mirror and see this.

Staring at each other, he said to me ” the darkness is inside, how can I help?”

Others from the series: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.855792977841237.1073741866.427418320678707&type=1

There is a great deal of beggary and ignorance in ordinary prayer. People pray haphazardly. A few know how to pray, a few can feel the response, a few know things have happened.Rest, unaffected by prayer.

Others from this series: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.855792977841237.1073741866.427418320678707&type=3

Dancing with the Universe

Adventures of Kri and Pri, wow we are KriPri like creepy!!We knew it was a good day but who knew that it was going to get better! It all started when we finished our meal and the water started dripping on to our table at Galleria! We ran to the car in the rain giggling like kids! I thought it would be a bright idea to take the shortcut back from in front of one world, but as fate would have it, the water almost reached the windshield, the car stopped and I had a mini heart attack! Luckily, the car started and I managed to reverse back into the traffic jam!

15 mins into the jam, I looked at Priya with the most retarded smile ever and said, ” let’s ditch the car and walk”! She looked at me with the most excited approving eyes. Thus we had our first rain adventure! We parked the car in an empty plot and walked though the water that reached our calves, bringing a smile on everyone’s face who caught us in this act of retardation while we laughed the entire way!

This is officially the most fun I have had in this city! It wasn’t too long ago when we told each other that we didn’t like the city because we can’t walk or cycle here and look what the universe did for us!

Look at us making the best of life while others sitting in their cars and cribbing!

P.S. The entire time I was dying to pee!

What is Easy? What is Difficult?

It is easier to follow the crowd they say. But, is that true?
Doing what everyone else is doing, not even realising what you enjoy doing.
Leaving ourselves doing the same mundane things everyday. That drains all the energy in us and dulls the mind, don’t you think?

On the other hand, being different might save more energy. At least you are at peace with yourself. And when you reach your goal, after all the effort, there is an inner bliss. It surely isn’t easy, but surely it is not hard, it just makes us strong and believe in our innerself more.

Sometimes it gets lonely, because people won’t understand what you are doing. Maybe, there is a lesson in that too. Hope is the closest friend we could have. At the end of the day, things do turn out for the best, losing hope, that is what makes it difficult.

The loneliness might not be so bad, you get time to connect to your innerself, become aware of your thought patterns, your habits. You get time to work on yourself, open yourself to new things, find your true self.

Easy is difficult and difficult is easy it seems!

Love and Light

I’m on my way to where I can lie on the clouds and hold hands with the sun singing the songs of the moon.

As I walk away, I smile all day, from contrasting folk. Well I’m a tribe of my own, sometimes a tired lone star.

One day I hope to see the light when I close my eyes. One day I hope to hear the songs the cosmos dance to when I close my ears. One day I hope to sing the songs of the harmony when my I open my heart.

I’m on my way to where I can lie on the clouds and hold hands with the sun singing the songs of the moon.

“Westernization, we think of it as a curse word” laughed Nayaswami Devashree at the morning service. It stuck me that we humans, like to discriminate against everything under the sun. Following the western culture and enjoying it’s comforts everyone cribs about it. Hypocrisy. The world is full of opposites, day and night, up and down, black and white, etc.. And each side has it’s positive, why do we only focus on the negative side of everything?

The east can learn so much from the west about materialism and perfecting it. The infrastructure there is so beautiful and well maintained, everything seems to be in such order. They in return can dwell in the spiritual knowledge that the east provides. If we can learn something new from every person we meet, why can’t we from every civilization?

We are all a mirror of each other’s consciousness at the end of the day!

Love and Light

Candle Lit Evenings

“Child you must meditate more. Your gaze is not yet faultless. You could not see me hiding behind the sunlight.” With these words resonating in my mind, we stood in the garden chanting and celebrating the day Maha avtar Babaji appeared to our guru, Paramhansa Yogananda.

As the vibrations of Om Namoh Vasudeva filled the universe inside us, up above the skies decided to sing our tune. Black clouds covering our heads lighting striking, our eyes full of tears with devotion; the thunder accompanied us. It waited till the procession ended to start pouring. Drops from heaven wiping our tears away, blessed our open hearts.

An evening full of blessings with in and without is always special.

Love and light.

Julie and Julia

Last night, I was talking to my cousin telling her about how I have been blogging. She asked me to watch Julie and Julia!

I woke up in the morning did my meditation and hit play! Inspired I decided to challenge myself. I think it is a good way to perfect or be good at what I am doing, juggling piano classes, choirs, conducting classes, photography and yoga classes. I realised I am trying to excel all at the same time, being hard on myself for not being good at any. Besides these things I have always wanted to cook, stitch, paint and do so many other things. Maybe if I just do one of them properly.

I think I will start with sight reading. It is so essential in choirs, piano and would surely help me in my conducting class. Starting with one piece a day! I will first sight sing the piece and then play it. wouldn’t want to remember the sound of the piece if I do it the other way around. Each task I think I will take up for 40 days. Why forty? Because I read in The Forty Rules on love how important that number is. Let me copy paste the extract that talks about it.

Dear Ella,

Happy Birthday! Forty is a most beautiful age for both men and women. Did you know that in mystic thought forty symbolises the ascent from one level to a higher one and spiritual awakening? when we morn, we morn for 40 days. When a baby is born it takes 40 days for him to get ready to start life on earth. And when we are in love we need to wait for 40 days to be sure of our feelings.

   The flood of noah lasted forty days, and while the waters destroyed life, they washed all impurity away and enabled human beings to make a fresh new start. In Islamic mysticism there are forty degrees between man and god. Likewise, there are four basic stages of consciousness and ten degrees in each, making forty degrees in total. Jesus went into wilderness for forty days and nights. Muhammad was forty years old when he received the call to become a prophet. Buddha meditated under a linden tree for forty days. Not to mention the forty rules of Shams.

    You receive a new mission at forty, a new lease on life! You have reached a most auspicious number. Congratulations! And don’t worry about getting old. There are no wrinkles and grey hair strong enough to defy the power of forty!

Warmly,

Aziz

It is funny how everyone comes together. One by one the universe sends things to you to bring

subtle changes in your life. Though this month a lot has been changing around me, bitter sweet feeling. But since change is the theme I would like to add my own spice to this!
Calling this the Julie and Julia challenge, I hope to have others joining it too!

Lots of love and light!

Tune It Up

Tuning the radio in the car, trying to find a frequency to listen to something I want to. Not realising that the antenna is not out me but inside. We are always in tune with something or the other, that is what determines our thoughts. So, the thoughts we like and even the ones we don’t like are because we have tuned into them. But, thoughts are what comes to OUR mind we might think. They are our thoughts our ideas. What if, that is not true? What if that is just a way for the ego to fool us?

Thoughts are universally rooted. That is how we get along along with people, oh he thinks like me, oh she thinks like me. Is it even possible? Well, you know how now! You are just tuned into the same frequency!

Now, it is up to us to choose which frequency to tune into, what we want to think about, what we want to surround our-self with and what we want the world around us to look like. 

Funny isn’t it! Giving credit to ourselves for the things we thought all these years, to suddenly realise that they aren’t ours at all!

Must leave you with this beautiful thought on a beautiful day!
Love and Light!

Blooming Roses

Lately on a lot of introspection, I realised everything I have around me reflects my state of mind. Watching a video of the whirling Sufi’s I got lost in their skirts, they looked like blooming flowers. To me they looked free and much flexible. So I decided to do this experiment.

Everyday of the week I noticed what I wore and how it made me feel.
By the end of the week, I came to the conclusion that tight clothes made me feel  caged and grumpy. But, dresses and skirts and loose pajamas made me feel light, free and chirpy. I would just spin around in circles singing along!
The colours played an important part too. The lighter and brighter the colours, the lighter and brighter I felt.

Clearly, my wardrobe needs to be redone now!

Reflecting Green

Curtains and Secrets

I slept peacefully that night, feeling exultant and determined. Little did I know that I was making the most common mistake and the most painful mistake women have made all throughout the ages: to naively think that with their love they can change the man they love. – Kimya, The Forty Rules of Love

Where ever there is love, Shams says, there is heart break. Sitting in my bed, slightly under the weather with the beautiful sound of raindrops falling on my window pane; these words of Kimya made me pause and keep the book aside. In this world of duality it is true the stronger the love the worse the heartbreak. Repeating this to myself, I slowly start regressing into the past with memories flashing in front of my eyes.

Drawn to the silence in you, you said I am just like you – not just once.
Slowly I reached to uncover you layer by layer. I didn’t want you to change.
In you, I saw what no one else would see.
I loved you for you, not for someone I wanted to create.
I was happy then, I was complete.
Until, the words we are different appeared in front of me one morning.
Bewildered and baffled, reality suddenly shaken.
Whom did I fall in love with? Are we not the same?
Days past as the completeness crawled away, it was his birthday.
The words appeared again, I understand I am just like you.
I closed my eyes and smiled. They haven’t yet opened.
If this ever finds you, I am glad you took the safe route because in this world of duality it is true the stronger the love the worse the heartbreak.

Lost and Found

It is a blessing to be born in a religion but a curse to die in one –  Swami Vivekananda

While reading the 40 rules of love, A few things dawned on me today.
The passage went as follows:

The flood of noah lasted forty days, and while the waters destroyed life, they washed all impurity away and enabled human beings to make a fresh new start. In Islamic mysticism there are forty degrees between man and god. Likewise, there are four basic stages of consciousness and ten degrees in each, making forty degrees in total. Jesus went into wilderness for forty days and nights. Muhammad was forty years old when he received the call to become a prophet. Buddha meditated under a linden tree for forty days. Not to mention the forty rules of Shams.

The four stages of consciousness is what caught my attention.
These stages of consciousness is what determined the cast system, before it became so rigid.
If you were born with a high consciousness and wanted to find God, they called you a Brahmin.
If the fire in your was very strong, they called you a kshatriya.
If you had a slightly more materialistic consciousness and managed to materially manifest your thoughts and products, they called you a vaishya.
Lastly, if you were good at service, they called you a shudra.

None of these were higher or lower than the rest. All are equally need for the functioning of the world. If everyone sat in meditation all day long and merged back with the universe, how would the world function? We are all born with different roles, each life has different tasks, at the end the soul does merge back, but after how many lives? Well it’s different for each one, we are all on a different journey. We shouldn’t be too proud of the path we are on today, who knows, we could have been a murderer in one of our lives.
It was only in Kali Yuga when people lost their connection with the higher self and the caste system became what is wasn’t supposed to be.

The other thing that intrigued me in the book was when Shams talks about how different muslims and sufis are. He says, scholars who focus on sharia know the outer meanings. Sufis know the inner meaning. Saints know the inner of the inner. And as for the fourth level, that is only by prophets and those close to God.

This is true for every religion to think of it. They have the sufis, Hindus have the yogis and Christians have the Molokons. Then ofcourse there are Buddhists. They are all looking for the same thing in their own ways. How boring would it be to have everyone do the same thing?

To end this post I just want to add another quote from this book.
No matter who we are or where we live. deep inside we all feel incomplete. It’s like we have lost something and need to get it back. Just what something is most of us never find out. And of those who do, even fewer manage to go out and look for it.

Love and Light.

Across the ocean, she’s gone
In polka dots and gleaming eyes
A new season has begun.

Bags of laughter she took with her
Leaving behind a trail of blue
Across the ocean they were.

-Kriti B.