Dreaming Over a Dream

Some time back, I was on a chat with my friend Dr. Yadam Ramkumar, a young international motivational speaker from Orissa. We used to quarrel over multitudes of concepts and philosophies. Each interaction was powerful Satsangh for us. That day, our discussion slipped into the process of dreaming. I stressed the need for sensible and powerful well calculated dreams that lead to healthy manifestations. He was not against that. He told me that he has learnt that dreams manifest on its’ own and our role is just to witness the manifestation. His concern was on practically living in such an experience of having reached the intended goal, in a sense ignoring that the idea is only a fancy dream. After a quite long debate on it we concluded that dreaming over a dream, instead of boldly choosing to be in the intended experience is like plucking a plant every day to confirm it is growing. We categorized living in the experience of having reached the goal to be positive while dreaming with no investment is neutral and living in doubt is negative. It was easy to find that a hopeless life added with a dream, how powerful it be, is double negative. We also found the real reason behind distorted manifestations - we grow dreams in doubt and nourish it in mistrust.

Once Mark Twain was forced to the parish church, on compulsion of his friend, who offered a very inspiring talk by the new priest there. The priest knew his presence and that day he gave his best ever. Mark twain but remained indifferent all the time. While on car back, the priest accompanied Mark Twain, who did not comment on the talk that day. At last the priest asked him, “You did not say anything?” Mark Twain replied, “There was nothing new in it; everything was there in a book I took last night.” The priest was surprised to hear that because he had not copied anything from anywhere.  Seeing his astonished looks, Mark Twain said, “I will send you that book tomorrow.” Mark Twain did as he promised and what he packed was the latest version of a dictionary. 

What Mark Twain actually tried to convey was that even though the discourse contained attractive combinations of words and phrases he sensibly wove for an emotionally pleasant listening, it had no juice in it. Words without juice are lifeless. What is meant by juice? Juice certainly is the life energy in it. The new generation dreams also are like the discourse of the priest; not enough life in it. Dreams for most are fancy mansions in which they comfortably lay their heads and rest. 

Joseph Mattappally

Krishna on Bondage 8

We human are the strange creation of all. We turn even our love to bondage. I receive wedding invitations from my friends, relatives and patient’s family. They invariably write in their wedding invitation letters that their daughter or son is going to be “bound with fetters of love.” We turn even love, which is utter freedom, into shackles. Love is freedom, so the right way to say it is that someone is going to be set free in love. But we say and do the opposite; we turn love into an imprisonment. Not that love is imprisonment, but we make it into one. The way we are, even death looks like captivity to us. The way we are, we turn life itself into a concentration camp. 

On the other hand, he who lives in the present, in the moment, who among us lives without expectations and attachments and does his work without hope for reward or fear of punishment, whose action is like inaction and whose inaction is like action, who turns his whole life into a play- he turns even bondage into freedom. For such a person among us, action is freedom, love is freedom, living is freedom, living is freedom, life is freedom, and even death is freedom. For him everything is freedom. 

It all depends on the way we are and we see the life. We carry both our slavery and freedom within us. If we begin to live without desire for the fruits of action, if we become responsible to ourselves and to the existence, if we trust life, then life for us will cease to be bondage. The life will be a blessing, a benediction. Such a person in us attains a life of freedom; he is free while living in this world. Such a life is possible here and now. And it totally depends on us!

Let us analyze more, later in the weeks to follow … until then let us spend some time contemplating on the same. 

Wishing you good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation- the stress management people

When We Think Positive

Mata Amritanandamayi is one of the greatest saints of India, who is doing laudable work for the society along with her spiritual pursuits. Her presence is now felt in every part of the world. Going by her background, it can be said that her service to society is a result of divine grace. No wonder she is considered to be an incarnation of God. Her affectionate embrace is like a blessing for all those who get to meet her. While the devotees wait for their turn for hours, Ma also never seems to get tired of displaying her affection with equal intensity from the beginning to the end. In March 2006, Amma visited Lucknow. A large public function was organised for her in an open space. At that time, I was the commissioner of Lucknow and in that capacity, got the privilege of being of some help in this function. It was the first time that I came in contact with Amma and her entourage.

The programme was conducted very gracefully and Ma endeared herself to her audience in Lucknow just like everywhere else. I wished that Amma could visit my home in Lucknow for a few minutes. When I expressed this wish, I was assured that Amma would try her best to do so and soon it was confirmed that Amma would visit my house in the early hours after meeting her devotees. My family remained anxious throughout the night but Amma visited our home as per her assurance and spent about half an hour with us. This was a memorable day of our lives and we all felt blessed in the true sense. The members of the entourage also invited me to Amma’s ashram in Kerala. Eventually, a message came from her and I, along with my local friends, was called to her living room and given an audience for almost 30 minutes, a privilege rarely available to anyone. For me, it was an indication of Amma’s grace and the power of my positive thinking that helped me meet her. 

Amma’s main ashram is in the Kollam district of Kerala and she is available there only for a part of the year and that too, at different times. While I wished to visit her there, looking at the low probability of my being in Kerala during her presence in the ashram, I never committed myself to it. But perhaps, Amma was more graceful to me than I could think of. In April 2009, I visited Kerala during my journey to Lakshadweep, the destination of my LTC (Leave Travel Concession). I was to stay in Lakshadweep for three days, but it was cut short by one day because of the change in the airline schedule. As a result, I got one extra day at Cochin. As I was heading towards the town from the Airport on 25th April, I got a call from Lucknow and Amma’s reference was made. Immediately, I noticed a hoarding for Amma’s programme. This created a desire in me to pay her a visit, if possible. 

Soon, I contacted some of my local friends who told me that Amma was in her ashram but having come there after a long time, it was very difficult to meet her. But, my urge was deep and I decided to visit the ashram even if meeting Amma was not possible. Deep within my heart, I was positive and hopeful. As we reached the ashram, we were received very warmly by the devotees who also tried to arrange my meeting with Amma against all hopes. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS

Living in a Narcissistic World

Narcissism means egoism, egocentrism, or morbid love of oneself. Narcissus was an extremely beautiful young man in Greek mythology. He is said to have madly fallen in love with his own reflection in a pool, not realizing it was his own image. He was not able to disengage from the beauty of hisreflection, and ended up dead. According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV), narcissistic personality disorder essentially is a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy. Persons with this disorder can be arrogant. They have a grandiose sense of self-importance, have fantasies of unlimited power, brilliance, and beauty, believe they are special, and have unreasonable expectations of favorable treatment, take advantage of others to achieve their ends, and show arrogant or haughty attitudes and behaviors. In the Indian setting, they especially feel they do not have to stand in a queue or line to be served, or follow rules or decency in traffic.

Narcissistic persons believe they know better than others.  They can be self-righteous. They feel free to question others in areas where they do not like to be questioned. They are quick in judging and imputing motives to others. They feel they are better assessors of characters as to who can or cannot be trusted.They may have a patronizing or condescending attitude. They dominate in conversations. Believing they know better than others, they freely interrupt others, and do not listen to others attentively. While they may say they are open to corrections, in reality they are not. They may project their own feelings and thoughts on to others. Knowing the real truth, they consider themselves to be veritable gifts to humanity. Some of them may not even be aware that they are exhibiting narcissistic characteristics. They might also think they are trying to be help to others. One needs to have a cluster of symptoms for a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder. When the required minimum number of symptoms are not there, one is said to have a personality marked by narcissistic features. They can be highly stable and successful in their chosen environment or profession. You can find them in religions, politics, and academic settings.

Narcissism spreads fast in a world of consumerist culture. The consumer culture itself is a narcissistic culture. In a consumer society especially driven by success and cut-throat competition everyone promotes oneself, and blows one’s own trumpet. Recently a celebrity is reported to have doubled his fee that ran into crores of rupees for a commercial when he came to know that he was not the first choice to advertise that particular product. In a consumer culture men and women are commodities and products ingeniously packaged in stylish clothes and frozen looks, and traded in open markets. They flaunt their physical looks and bodily endowments. There was a recent report of some famous women entertainers who insured their bodily assets such as breasts and buttocks for millions of dollars or rupees. In this connection, a little story I was told some years ago may be of some interest. It looks like a beautiful blond of low average intelligence approached Albert Einstein and made a marriage proposal. She told him: 

“We can have a beautiful child of your intelligence and my beauty”. Einstein is reported to have asked the lady: “What if we have a child of my beauty and your intelligence”? As spiritual persons we need to consciously strive to go against the narcissistic and consumerist culture before we are overwhelmed and choked by it.

Swami SnehanandaJyoti 

Logic of Logic

I tried to understand the human behaviour with the help of Logic. I failed. I tried logic on understanding why there is life on earth; I got stuck with various theories. I applied logic on understanding of GOD; I could not even start theorizing properly. I am a computer guy, so I know that there are logic gates. Computers work on logic. Had logic not been there technology would not have been there. So what is the contradiction? Should logic be applied everywhere? Is there a limit to apply logic? Every person will nod and will definitely say ‘Yes’. Is everything beyond logic is the realm of GOD? Maybe Yes, Maybe No. Something unknown today, may be difficult to prove by logic today, but it may be possible to prove by logic in future. 

So friends! There are definitely two things; realm of UNKNOWN and realm of GOD. One fine day, we may be able to enter the realm of Unknown, but we will never be able to enter the realm of God. Something supernatural, beyond existence, beyond thoughts, beyond creation or destruction will always be there. So is that what we call the limit of logic? We will always be able to think, that our thoughts have a limit. As long as we are aware of our limits or rather the limits of applying logic, we will be aware of GOD. But we need to keep expanding our limits not only in the search of unknown, but also in the search of GOD. So here comes the great logic of logic that GOD exists. We keep expanding infinitely and at the end of infinity the thing which exists is called GOD. Let us give a new expansion to the acronym GOD as Growing Out to Destination. This is to explain that we are eternally growing, eternally increasing outwards and will eternally be involved in the process of growing to reach the destination, which is beyond unknown, beyond logic and beyond the logic of logic. 

Don’t we know that even the logic makers from science say that the universe is expanding and will continue to expand forever? 

Sorry! I made an uncalled attempt to apply logic to something where logic should never be applied. I couldn’t help it. After all, minds still operate in the framework of logic. Hey! did I made a breakthrough discovery here? 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg

It Clicked

A year back, I had a guest at my home, a young very successful industrialist in Kerala, a long time acquaintance. Our discussions went on uninterrupted for a few hours. We talked about his present business, his future plans and present problems. In between he shared the story of a Kerala billionaire, who in 1985 was jailed in an Arab country for a crime he was not responsible for. He said, “It took six months for the government to realize his innocence and it took another six months for the authorities to clear his papers and release him. He lost his job there and returned to India quite disappointed; but he was not lost. He began a poultry farm and it clicked. Later he stepped into another business and that too clicked.” He summed up this live story of a successful industrialist who now owns assets worth at least ten billion Indian Rupees. All that he planned ‘clicked’. This guy also told me the inner secrets of this ‘clicking’ experience, which this billionaire himself personally shared with him. At every juncture, he said that there were sad episodes of total collapse, which he did not let the public know. A sort of plague washed off his entire chicken, at a time when he was making the best out of it. In the next venture, his entire stock was put on hold, due to an organized attempt to ruin him. The guy said that at every juncture, this business man had severe problems to face. 

I picked up the word ‘clicked’ which he repeated frequently and asked him if his business also falls under ‘clicked’ category. The answer he gave me was surprising. He said that he used this word only in the very sense in which people usually interprets success. He said that he does not believe in this aspect of an unknown for or against destiny deciding ghost exercising its’ choice in every entrepreneur’s career. All the way this young man was sharing about utilizing situations at its best and experiencing the manifestation of his dreams at every development, good or bad. He said that his experience on obstructions also is more or the less same. I asked him how he could come to such a positive attitude in his life. He said that it took long time to get it established within and now it is very hard to take it out. He said that unless there was a fabricated allegation, the billionaire in the story would have would have been a gulf returned now; unless there was the chicken plague, he would have ended up as a Hatcher; unless there was a man to betray him, he would have ended up as a commodity dealer. The guy continued with his bright eyes; he said that success always appears side by side with blocks and deadlocks and it is with thrill and pleasure that he faces every obstruction and he was never disappointed. 

Joseph Mattappally

Krishna on Bondage 7

Let each of our actions, no matter whether you are peeling a potato or composing a poem, let us be complete in it. Let us leave the result to god. If we do so, Krishna says, we will be released from bondage that comes in the form of birth. Krishna does not say that birth is bondage. He only says that one who is full of expectations, who is attached to the fruits of action is always in need of tomorrow, future, future life. Among us who live in desires, in hopes and expectations anxiously seeks a new birth after his death. That person cannot escape rebirth. And for such a person birth becomes bondage and it can never become the freedom. Because such a person is not really interested in life and living, he is interested in his expectations, in the results he expects from it. For him birth is just an opportunity for achieving some results. And for such a person death is going to be very painful, because death will put an end to all desires and demands he lived for. 

Naturally when he is born again he will find his birth to be his bondage. Birth is bondage for one who does not know the life that is freedom. In fact desiring is bondage, craving and attachment to result is bondage. To live and know life totally is freedom. And for one who knows this life there is no birth and death. He is released from both birth and death. Krishna has said only the half truth; it is a half truth to say that one is released from the fetters of birth. To complete it, we should understand he is released from death as well. We are released from both birth and death. 

This does not mean that birth and death are bondage. In ignorance, for an ignorant person birth and death appear to be bondage; they bind the ignorant. For a person of wisdom among us, one who knows the truth, birth and death cease to be, he is in freedom. In fact bondage and freedom are states of mind. While the ignorant mind experiences bondage, the mind of the wise is free. Krishna does not condemn birth as such, but the way we are, birth feels like imprisonment to us.    

Wishing you good health & happiness,

Dr. Dwarakanath, Director, Mitran foundation- the stress management people