My reaction to spiritual myths I frequently hear

Here are some myths about spiritual people:

1. They should not get angry
2. They don't fall in love
3. They won't marry
4. They should be aged
5. They should be vegetarian
6. They are religious
7. They will have long beard
8. They don't go to gym
9. They don't know about latest technology.
10. They can't have 10-5 kind of job
11. They only listen to bhajans and not the latest songs

I'm spiritual,
but sorry to disappoint you,
 i don't have long beard and hair

My reaction to each of these:

1. LOL, so that you can exploit them? They may be trained to show anger without actually getting angry, be careful.
2. LOL again, why? Is that Newton's law of love?
3. LOL, specially aunties think so, why?
4. LOL, gone are the days when people were spiritual in their old age, spirituality is the need of modern society, even 8 year old must meditate.
5. eventually they may be veg. but not compulsarily.
6. how is that even related?
7. long hair too.... the babaji in tv looks like that, isn't it?
8. Again, what's the relation? I have many friends who go to gym and do yogas too.
9. LOL, truly spiritual people love technology. Afterall they practice timeless technology like meditation.
10. LOL, not every spiritual person is a wandering saint, they can have regular lifestyle too.
11. LOL, don't underestimate the wide varieties of songs they listen to.

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WHAT SHOULD BE YOUR EXPERIENCE IN MEDITATION?

When people come to know that you meditate, first question that strikes in their mind is “what happens when you meditate?”

People every now and then come to me asking whether what they experienced during meditation is right or wrong. They want to know how do I feel during meditation. I have been meditating since last 2 years and beginners assume that I am doing right meditation as I am experienced and they might be doing it wrong way.

Yes there are right and wrong way of doing meditation but there is nothing to worry if you have found right master.

The myth of meditation: meditation is concentrating on something.
This is so wrong, meditation is not concentration but concentration is the outcome of meditation. Meditation is simple process of observing thoughts and meditation cannot happen by trying to stop some thoughts or flowing with some thoughts. I don’t know if I’m going little bit deeper but this post is not aimed to teach you how to meditate.

Now answering the question from the topic, what should be your experience in meditation? The answer is: each and everyone who meditates has his/her own experience and every time s/he meditates it is a unique experience. So asking someone, what should be the experience in meditation is just illegal question. One who is not foolish will never start essay of his/her experience but s/he will just say everyone has their own experience every time they sit for meditation.

However 3 golden rules of meditation are always applicable:

1. I am no one.
2. I do nothing.
3. I want nothing.

One should follow these three rules while sitting for meditation.

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SHLOKA IN HANUMAN CHALISA CALCULATES THE DISTANCE BETWEEN EARTH AND SUN

The 18th shloka in Hanuman Chalisa talks about Hanuman jumping to sun thinking it is a fruit. It is now suggested that the particular shloka in Hanuman Chalisa calculates the distance between earth and sun. Hanuman Chalisa was written during the 15th Century.

The 18th Shloka reads like this:
Yuga Sahastra Yojan Par Bhanu
Liliyo Tahi Madhur Phal Janu

Yuga means the sum of Four Yugas (1 complete Mahayuga) with unit in divine years. Sahastra is 1000. Yojan is 8 miles. Bhanu is Sun

Satyayuga= 4800 divine years
Tretayuga=3600 divine years
Dwaparyuga=2400 divine years
Kaliyuga=1200 divine years

So 1 Mahayuga= 12000

Now next is sahastra common Sanskrit word meaning “1000″

Next is “Yojan” also know as that equals to 8 miles

Yuga X Sahastra X Yojan (in miles) = 12000X1000X8= 96,000,000 miles
Now 1 mile= 1.6km

So 96,000,000 miles= 96,000,000X1.6 km = 153,600,000km.

Today estimated distance is approximately 150,000,000 km which is close to above.

Note – There are some doubts in the above theory; By Yuga did Tulsidas mean a Mahayuga. In some translations the Yuga Sahastra Yojan is given as Juga Sahastra Yojan. Juga then mean 12000 years in that interpretation.

This is not a final statement. You should look for the correct interpretation of the Shloka in books and if possible talk to scholars about the translation of the 18th Shloka. Then come to a conclusion.

source: internet

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Do we really love others? (Yagyavalkya's explanation)

Once maitreyi asked Yagyavalkya "You want to take sannyas(renunciate) and leave all worldly pleasures because they hinder your strive to immortality, but is love of me and kattayeni is also a bondage that you want to leave?"

Then Yagyavalkya replied "Husband is dear to wife not because she loves him or wife is not dear to husband because he loves her, they are dear because they love themselves. Human loves everything that gives him happiness. He does not love something that gives pain. Human wants wealth not because he loves wealth but because wealth can make his living easier."

"I love myself so I love whatever can give me happiness. I love myself thus my nature is bliss(ananda). This soul(atma) is bliss. That's why I want to renunciate. I am going beyond happiness and non-happiness.Now my sole purpose is to understand soul. This soul is only able to see, hear and meditate."

This was conversation between yagyavalkya and his wife maitreyi when Yagyavalkya expressed his desire to take sannyas.I wrote it here so that I could let readers know that we only love ourselves and none others. So trying to say 'you should love me because i love you' or trying to claim love is futile exercise. We just need to realise our love is for us only and no other. :D

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Do you know how to quench your thirst?

Once there was a big drought on land. There was a guy who used to live nearby an ocean of freshwater, It turned out that he was the only survivor there. One day, he was very thirsty and went near the ocean to drink water. He found a pot and then an idea came to his mind, I will store water for future, so that I won't have to travel the distance for water so frequently.
He dipped the pot into water and pulled back, the pot had holes and water was leaking continuously. He quickly ran to his house to store it in tank. Hardly a drop fell down. He felt very happy with his achievement, he went back to ocean and again brought water. The process continued, boy just collected water, he did not put even a drop of water in his mouth and eventually he died of thirst and his dream of filling the tank remained incomplete.
And then there was a big rainfall and the rainwater swept his body to the ocean.

Is this story related to our lifestyle? Don't we try to plan our future based on present scenarios which may or may not exist as it is till the time we have planned for arrives! We try to collect, happiness, wealth but by nature they can't be hold for long time. They are like leaking water from the pot. Even when we are in front of ocean we don't drink water, isn't this like having wealth and not using it but we love to store that for future use. We don't even know where all those earnings are spent and our savings are very little. In the process actuall happiness is lost, only the dream of better future remains. But our life has no guarantee and anytime it may finish. The dreams remain incomplete. Then what happens with our wealth? It's all swept!

Conclusion: Quenching the thirst is very important before storing water. Being happy now is very important before trying to build happiness and luxury for future!

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How to enjoy your work?

On a certain day, three men were working in one place. Another man came by and asked the first man, “What are you doing here?” The man looked up and said, “Are you blind? Can’t you see I’m cutting stone?” This person moved on to the next man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man looked up and said, “Something to fill my belly. So I come here and do whatever they ask me to do. I just have to fill my belly, that’s all.” He went to the third man and asked, “What are you doing here?” That man stood up in great joy and said, “I’m building a beautiful temple here!” All of them were doing the same thing, but their experience of what they were doing was worlds apart.

Every human being, every moment of his life could be doing whatever he is doing in any one of these three contexts – and that will determine the quality of his life, not what he is actually doing. How simple or complex an activity is doesn’t change the quality of your life. With what context you do it changes the quality of your life.

They all are doing same thing yet their state of mind is different. People may not have choice in the varieties of work they can do but everyone has a choice in life to do their work in either of these three states of mind. Wouldn't it be better if you just start doing things in pleasant state of mind rather than whining about it!

So next time you hate your office work, or your studies, you can remember this simple thing. Changing the context can make your life a lot easier.

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Is this world an illusion?

Suppose you are hungry and you see stone, how do you feel? Do you feel anything about stone?
Suppose you are angry and you see same stone, how do you feel? You don't see that stone as stone, you see that as a weapon. The weapon you want to hit someone with.
Suppose the same stone is inside temple, at the main place where you worship. How do you feel? Worship? you will probably put tika on that stone also.
Suppose an animal enters temple and sees the same stone, will it mean something for that animal to worship? But will you argue with that animal if that animal thinks you are stupid to worship stone. No! but if person from other religion says same thing then conflict will arise!

The stone which has no significance at first sight rises to a level where you worship it! Do you know what is the difference? Our eyes see stone, and we know it is nothing more than stone but we perceive that stone differently according to our own emotions.

When great saints said "this whole world and existence is illusion(maya)", they may not mean all existence is illusion. They probably mean, the world we are perceiving is illusionary. When we can see the stone as just stone regardless of any emotion/situation then we become free from maya.

How will our life be if we are not free from maya?
We will not feel like praying or visiting temple when we are happy, we may go on saying god doesn't exist. We will feel proud of whatever we are doing but if we fall in great misery we will be back to praying. No matter whom you pray, you will at least pray.
This is the nature of maya. You see things the way it is necessary for your survival. You won't be able to understand how another sees this world and misery will continue. The whole world is a misery if you are not free from maya.

But once you are free from maya, you will see Happiness as happiness, not mine or your happiness; Love as just love, not as mine, your, others love; Religion as religion, not as mine or others; Temple as temple, not as mine, his or others. This is also called opening of third eye.The third eye does not mean someone’s forehead cracked and something came out! It simply means another dimension of perception has opened up and that dimension of perception sees things as it is. Because the third eye is the eye of vision. The two physical eyes are just sensory organs.

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Root of every war is assumption

Suppose you are a science student and someone comes to you and says,"his grandfather painted the sky blue". What will you do? you will laugh at his ignorance.

Suppose someone else comes and says "it is blue because of reflection of ocean". You may now try to convince them that it is actually because of refraction of light. So at the same time another guy comes and says "you are talking rubbish, sky is not blue". Now what will happen, you will team up with two previous people and against this new person who says sky is not blue.

So, now starts the debate, which if is able to reach to any conclusion will end up with all four believing any of the assumptions above.

All 4 will say,

•  person no 1's grandfather painted it blue
• it is due to reflection of ocean
• it is due to refraction
• sky is not blue at all

But does that debate and conclusion takes them any closer to the truth? Truth is sky looks blue due to refraction and actually sky is not blue! Imagine if someone with this knowledge had been in between these previous 4 idiots, what would have happened? Either they all would have agreed with him or person 3 & 4 would have asked him to choose either side rather than talking 2 things at a time.

And then suppose they all agreed on the last person's statement and then next person comes and says that sky does not exist. Sky has no colour, and one that has no colour can not be seen and why should I believe on existence of such a thing that cannot be seen?

Leave the discussion, but do you realise what is happening in this story? They all have their own assumptions about sky. They go through the debate thinking they will find out the truth but they are only finding common assumptions until someone else has something opposite to say. Neither of them agree with each other from the beginning, but as they go on meeting with new thoughts they are uniting but the unity is against someone and his new assumption.

I wonder, is something similar happening with people who believe in religion or call themselves atheist or some other beliefs? Are they really worried about truth or are they just trying to argue based on their own belief. Won't there be peace if all of them realise that there is no point in discussing about sky. Can't I realise that I don't need to write a blog post like this about the sky?

Does whatever they believe really matter? Will sky lose it's existence if they don't believe it? So why is there war in this world? all because of the assumptions. And the very problem with assumption is that it unites only against another assumptions. Why can't everyone drop their assumptions and be in peace?

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