Lead A Simple Life

A simple life has a different meaning and a different value for every person. It means eliminating all but the essential, finding peace within yourself and spending your time doing what’s important to you. It means getting rid of the clutter so you are left with only that which you value most. However, getting to simplicity is not always a simple process. It’s a journey, not a destination and it can often be a journey of two steps forward and one backward. Clearing the clutter from your home and from your life is easier said than done. We are often emotionally attached to our possessions. This attachment goes beyond our needs and we find it difficult to let go of nostalgia. When we are free of physical clutter, it frees our minds as well. The less we have, the more attention we can give to those things we own and truly need on a regular basis. It is pretty amazing how little we actually need. We only need abundance of the mind and the soul.

Nothing external can give us permanent and true happiness. We actually have all we need to be truly happy, within us. The art of having less but enjoying our lives more, involves a few simple changes in perspective. First we must understand where our true values lie and focus on them. Then, we must take time to enjoy the simple things and slow down and see what’s right in front of us.

There is a saying, “The best things in life are free”. Spending time with family and friends, laughing, enjoying the antics of a pet, seeing a child smile, experiencing intimate and heart-felt moments with a loved one – these times are precious and free. Money brings comfort and there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying that comfort but we should ensure to spend money only on things that matter to us. If you focus on enjoying the simple things you do every day, you can find so much happiness. In order to live the life you love, you have to love the life you have. Take time to be grateful for what you have and be content with all the small gifts in your life. It’s easy to speed through your day and not notice the little things. Slow down and fully immerse yourself in the subtle joys of this moment. Life is so precious, yet we spend our most valuable resource – time, on things that are not important to us. Go outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature, read a good book.

Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. By cleaning out and simplifying our outer space, our inner space will open up like a flower. When we open up physical space in our environment, a tremendous feeling of peace can dwell within us and we can find true happiness.

Dr (Mrs) Archana Bharat

A Holistic Perspective - 6

Is there God? Many theologians and philosophers attempted to prove God's existence. No one has succeeded in proving or disproving God's existence. I do not think that anyone can rationally prove or disprove God's existence. Therefore God's existence has to be confined to the real of faith alone, plight, shall I say. Interestingly, almost all human beings, except for a very small percentage of humans, believe in God. My spouse tells me that she has no doubt about the existence of God. Gandhi had no doubt about that Being (God) who is the Truth. 

All persons, except a couple of agnostics, that I know, strongly believe in God. I have great empathy for agnostics and atheists. Because I realize I could have been one of them. There is an unceasing, compelling feeling and thought that constantly beckon me to an Organizing Principle, Intelligence, Power, Energy of the universe that is higher than humans. In that realm resides my God. That God has a direct connection with my conscience. Is that the God (Father) of Christ, of the New Testament? Is that the Undefinable, Truth-Consciousness-Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda = Sachidananda) of Sankara, of Vedantha? Is that the Allah of Muslims?  God is all that and more. That God is also the pure Wisdom, Consciousness (Bodh) of Buddha. Nay more, that God also includes the Totality of the Purified Consciounesses of all humans past, present, and future with or without their individuality. So where are we? 

We are where we started. And there I would like us all to live. That is all that we have. In this sphere of the mind or the soul, the beginning also is the end as God (Alpha and Omega) is.  And there we are all humans, nay gods, brothers, sisters, in love. Let us celebrate this life of abundant, unending, blissful love that happens because we have the capacity to choose to love. Let even our anxiety about having faith or having the right kind of faith vanish into thin air or melt into our unfathomable love for one another or humanity in whatever form or color. Let us get lost in the love of God and in the love of our fellow human beings in truth. That is the only way to God. How beautiful it is for all humans to live and love. Let us trust in our fellow human beings. We will take care of them; they will take care of us. We can live like sparrows in the field. No anxiety, no worry. Were not the people in distress in the mountain of Sinjar in Iraq rescued by persons of good will recently on humanitarian basis?! 

That is humanity at its best. (To be continued)

Swami Snehananda Jyoti 

A Shrine – A Teacher

I always wonder about the logic of visiting a certain shrine to do some worship at a specific place. If we know that God is everywhere, how come I have to visit a certain place, offer some prayers and in return raise our wish in front of the deity. In search for answer to this simple question, I reached Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Jammu and Kashmir. The answer I got, I would share after I share my experience with you.

After a walk of about ten hours to complete a fourteen kilometer steep hilly stretch our family reached the Mata Vaishno Cave campus also known as “Bhavan”, at 8 PM. This was definitely a very slow walk that was full of rest periods. My family meant me, my wife and my two children who have already crossed their teens. The queue for “prasaad” and for “locker” ate up another one hour. Then came the moment of learning Life’s Lessons. Children refused to stand in the long queue that might take about four to five hours to reach the place of “deity darshan” for which we came all the way, thousand kilometers far away from our place of dwelling. After seeing the queue and the hustle and bustle there, children declared themselves as complete non believers. Not only the queue was long, it was a highly mismanaged crowd standing in multiple mixed-up queues, spreading about a kilometer length. The queue was not moving. We were told that it would move after the “Aarti” only, but even after one hour of Aarti timings, the queue did not move.

After lot of deliberations, my son agreed to stand at the back of the queue and decided that others can join the queue later in his front. After an hour we found that there was no movement in the queue as many others had also decided our way and number of new people entering the queue was balancing the movement. Due to increasing fear of stampede I decided to withdraw my son from the queue. All of us were rather dejected and sat down at a place nearby. On way to this place we saw hundreds of people lying or sleeping on the ground. They all may also be as indecisive as we were. 

The moments that followed between four of us were quite like a chapter on “Conflict Resolution” from management books. We postponed the discussion for some time. After about an hour we decided to talk to local shop-keepers and other experienced pilgrims. All of them advised us to wait for some time and think of joining the queue when its movement is swift. I tried to convince my children to watch the swift movement of the queue themselves, before they decide to return back. At around 1.00 AM, although still quite long, the queue started moving quite fast. We quickly joined the queue and finally the moment of ‘Holy Darshan’ came in about one and half hours later. The return to the base camp was rather easier with our hands full of “Prasaad bags”.

Our whole family as a group, as well as Individuals learned many important lessons. Truly, such experiences are a great teaching moments. Visit to the holy shrine not only gave us the pleasure of being together on a mission, but to me it gave a better insight to understand the question, “Why people visit temples and face deities to raise their wishes”. Yes, you got it right. All this is a social togetherness exercise. Thanks for being together with me till this point.

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg 

Emerging Wizards

A few months back, a friend of mine narrated a situation exactly as his company head shared it with him. He said that the CEO, who is very interested in promoting new entrepreneurs, one day received a mail requesting him to preside over a technical session in an Engineering College. The person who sent the mail also requested the CEO to give a motivating talk during the occasion. Our CEO, though a very busy person, asked his Secretary to follow it up, first asking him to know which engineering College the writer represents. The Secretary did as he was told and he received the reply clearly mentioning the name of the College, along with a ref. link to their website for details. The Secretary again wrote them asking about the proposed date and venue. It also was promptly replied showing the date and time. Even then the College man did not say a word about the nature of listeners, other guests and what programme it is. There could be readers who open with a slow smile, reflecting on the poor communication skill of the concerned College representative who has not yet introduced himself. Anyway, we have to admit that this is not an isolated case.

A few years back, another friend of mine Mr James (name changed), a company head, had shared with me a similar interesting story. At that time his company needed some smart executives and an interview was held. The Interview Board could successfully spot enough qualified candidates. The Board could not hide its excitement for having seen an extra smart applicant by name Ms Ritto Ditto (name changed), who could win the Board with her solemn manners, excellent communication skills and deep technical expertise. However it took a week for the company to finally draft the list of selected candidates. My friend was about to sign the proposal and it was then that he received a phone forwarded from the office. “Are you Mr. James?” He heard a female voice from the other end. It sounded like an Officer calling an attendant. Knowing not who it is, James quickly answered, “Speaking.” “Mr James, I’m Ritto Ditto who had appeared for an interview in your company. I would like to know if you have shortlisted the names.” The voice stopped; breathless was Mr James. “I will let you know right today.” He replied and cut the phone. The first thing he did was taking the list of selected candidates and removing the name of Miss. Ritto Ditto. I suggest that we tell the new generation guys, ’honours without manners make no sense’.

Joseph Mattappally

Being Like the Sea

Once I stayed in Madras for about a week with my family. We stayed in a guest house located on a beach near the sea, which added to the charm and pleasure of staying there. We had very pleasant morning walks along the mighty, surging sea, and its vastness touched our hearts. During our stay, I contemplated deeply on the nature of the sea and how it helps us to develop our own personality.

The first great quality of the sea is its vastness. It is so vast that the other shore of the sea is never seen by an ordinary person. We require magnitude in our personality too. Our vision should enlarge with our physical growth so that our personality becomes pleasant. An ordinary person may not think beyond himself, his family or a close social circle. Such vision needs further expansion and one should ultimately think of the whole creation. With such a vast vision, we start loving the whole creation of God and there is no room for lower tendencies like hatred, anger and jealousy.

The second quality of the sea is its depth. The vastness of the sea would be meaningless without its depth for this quality enables the sea to gain stability. Similarly, for the true development of our personality vast mundane knowledge is not sufficient as it may not give depth to our personality. This depth is acquired by developing wisdom which gives stability to our personality. The third quality to be learnt from the sea is ‘absorption’. It absorbs whatever is merged into it. All mighty rivers ultimately merge into the sea and it accepts all of them. Not only this, these rivers carry away with them all the filth created by human beings. The sea accepts that too. In turn it returns pure rainwater, retaining all the dirty water received by it. The sea water itself remains saltish though it is the ultimate source of all sweet water. This amounts to returning goodness in exchange for evil, a quality which should be part of the personality also, giving us mercy, kindness and compassion.

The last quality is 'stability' which can also be learnt from the sea. The sea level remains stable though universal forces cause some ups and downs in it periodically. That is why the Mean Sea Level is a standard benchmark and does not change with time. Similarly, our mental variations as a result of interaction with the world should also be to the minimum and the effort should be to maintain it at the same level. This little variation of sea level only indicates that as long we live in the world, absolute calmness may not be possible. That state can be achieved only when we firmly control our reactions and responses, both mentally and physically. However, while living in the world, stability can be maintained and the variation can be reduced to the minimum. This is the quality which brings serenity to our personality.

Thus four qualities of the sea, namely, vastness, depth, absorption and stability are to be adopted in our personality. If we can do so, we may be as useful for the society as the sea is to the entire creation on the earth. 

Rakesh Mittal IAS

*For the good of many, for the happiness of many, great souled men take their birth.

Ask For Forgiveness

Truthfully saying that you are sorry and asking for forgiveness is a difficult task. Pride gets in the way most of the time. It becomes the stumbling block. When you get angry with someone and a confrontation leads to the digging up of past problems and an exchange of harsh words, both of you will feel hurt and you may end up not talking to each other for a while. Sometimes you really do not intend to say hurtful words, nor do you want to even utter those words because they can be meaningless but they just come out in the heat of the argument.

Asking for forgiveness releases a person from the agony of being hurt and burdened. It does not really matter who started the argument. The main thing is that someone should be brave enough to make the first approach and ask for forgiveness. If someone else asks you for forgiveness, be generous enough to forgive. Think of an apology as a commitment to the relationship rather than an act of weakness. Acknowledge your actions without making excuses. Share your feelings about what happened but avoid blaming, exaggerating or saying empty words. Listen patiently to the other person’s response without getting defensive. Be honest and only apologize for things you truly feel responsible for. Don’t apologize just to make an unpleasant situation go away.

Practice what you are going to say until you are comfortable to say the words. You do not want to start your apology only to say the wrong things and start another argument. Take responsibility for your part, how you hurt the other person rather than give any attention to how they hurt you. Be vulnerable and reveal your own sadness or remorse for causing them pain. This fosters emotional healing. Say it in writing if a personal confrontation is scary. Offer to make amends if appropriate. Do not be discouraged if you aren’t completely forgiven the moment you apologize and give the other person some time to sort out his or her feelings. In the meantime, seek every opportunity to do good to that person even if he is stubborn.

There is no need for an emotional outburst. Sincerely ask for forgiveness when the other person has had time to calm down and is willing to listen. Strive to avoid the causes that brought about the problems.

Asking for forgiveness is a sign of strength. It should not be considered a weakness. There is a famous saying – “To err is human, to forgive divine”. It helps repair relationships, strengthens family bonds and relieves your heart and mind.

Dr (Mrs) Archana Bharat

Doctor’s Attitude

“I cannot fire light in the ashes”. This was the comment of a specialist doctor, to whom we went to take advice regarding an ailing close relative. We were amazed to hear his comment. The patient was suffering from cancer, but still very much alive and in talking condition. His sentence kept on ringing inside my mind and I decided to give vent to my thoughts by writing this article. All through my life I kept on believing that “hope” itself is the biggest healer. I found this to be fully truly, in my personal experience, as well as in the experiences of many who shared their disease stories with me. As an aromatherapist, I often hear detailed disease stories of people, who approach me for advice. I have always felt that a big part that can help a patient is the way I interact with them. In fact I have also seen that the chances of correct selection of treatment alternatives are also very much dependent on this interaction. 

I have full conviction in the research going around the world to support mainstream doctors. But! what I find completely missing is the well researched behavioral training to medical professionals. I just downloaded the syllabus of MBBS programs. Students do study Psychiatry as a part of their syllabus, but it is much concerned with psychiatric disorders, rather than dealing with patients. Mostly the behaviour part of doctors is something learned by individuals during their own experience with patients. I strongly feel that doctors need to undergo specialized training programmes in dealing with 

patients, the way some corporates train their people to deal with clients. Sometimes I feel that a Doctor consider their patients to be diseased objects, rather than persons in need of a service. Thankfully this attitude is not universal. There are Doctors who never hurt sentiments of an already hurt person. Definitely, the attitude plays a very important role, whether someone is a teacher, a student, a salesman, a client, a doctor or a patient. 

Dr. Sunil Ji Garg