THE POWER OF YOUTH

I am reminded of an anecdote of Swami Ramtirth. Once he was travelling in a ship to America. On boarding the ship he saw a very old man trying to learn japanese. Out of his surprise he asked that old man that what he's going to do by learning Japanese language at such an old age. The old man smiled back and replied that there is no age for learning anything. Swami Ramtirth wrote in his diary that night that,' I've met a young man today who was at least eighty years old'
I agree with Ramtirth. But I'll go a little further. For me, youth is not related to age but it is related to one's mind set.
Youth does not follows any one but he/she makes his/her own path. Youth understands the power of individual. Old age simply signifies blind following of any dogma. In India specially the youth has been crushed badly. Being an ancient country, India always looks for the solution of present in it's past. We try to solve all questions of life by simply looking into some ancient documents( shastras, purans). But we forget that life's reality does lies in past.
Youth, for me does not looks into past. It simply says let us solve this problem without any following of dogma.
The necessary quality of a youth's mind is quality of questioning. Youth always questions. I call Newton as youth who questioned one day that why apple falled down the tree. Why it did not went up ? His question lead him to answer and we all know that the answer was correct. And this quality of questioning is not relevant in the field of science only. Science simply means knowing. Science of outer thing can be called objective and science of inner things can be called subjective. So, questioning becomes necessary in science whether it is objective or subjective.
Old age never questions. One who is following anything blindly never cares to questions.
So, I'll say ask your self. Are you really a youth ?

FEELING SLEEPY....?

Sleep. One of the most relieving act. We sleep to vanish our tiredness. We sleep to vanish our anxiety and tension. But do we really sleep ? A very dear person to me sleeps all the time. yes , all the time. For that person sleeping is a kind of entertainment. Another very dear person to me does not sleeps not even in the night time. For me, both of them are suffering from sleep disorder. If one is sleeping all the time, obviously the normal sleep time for that person is not enough. Is'nt it a sleep disorder then ?
Why are most of us suffering from sleep disorder ( yes, psychoanalysts says 90% of us ) ?. The reason is simple. We sleep while we are awake. Yes, we do all the things unconsciously. For an instance, we drive from home to office and we keep on thinking other things and we reach our office. We don't even concentrate what we are doing in present. Our mind is working in past and future thinking only. This kind of working of mind makes us unconscious. And unconscious working means sleep. And one who sleeps while being awake cannot sleep in night. Most of us function in this way.
So, my advice to those who are suffering from sleep disorder should try to improve their consciousness instead of trying tranquilizers.

ARE YOU JEALOUS ?

Nobody in this world is an exception when it comes to jealousy. It is an universal problem. But it cannot be solved. One can only overcome it by understanding it thoroughly. So, let us try to understand it.
Why do we get jealous? Jealousy comes from comparision. We are taught to compare. We try to compare ourself with the whole world. Somebody has a beautiful house, somebody has a new model car, a good looking face. This comparision brings jealousy into us. Comparision is sheer stupidity. Existense makes everyone as a rare and unique entity. Nobody is inferior and nobody is superior. Every one is different so we can't compare. I wish Marx would've known it.
Jealousy in relationship is quite more complicated thing. We become jealous to those who we love. Actually, jealousy is a kind of measurement. Where the love is deeper there can be no jealousy and vice-versa. In relationship, jealousy and possesiveness comes togather. But what is the reason of jealousy ? It is fear. We fear that what is going to happen tommorow. We fear that tommorow this person is going to love us in the same way. We fear tommorow. But where there is tommorow there can be no love. Love is today or I should say love is right now. But this fear brings us jealousy and possesiveness. And these are poison for love.
So, Instead of fighting with jealousy one should try to light a candle of love. The light of this candle is capable enough to vanish all the darkness. Jealousy, possesiveness and fear are mere names of symptoms of disease. This disease is absense of love. We try to cure the symptoms and the actual disease is left uncured.
Once love starts flowing, it takes away all the dirty things. So, let the love flow and see the miracle.

LIVING THE LIFE

What is life? Most of us will not be able to answer this question. I too cannot answer this question. Life can only be lived and the way one lives it becomes the answer to this question. So, let me talk about the living of life instead. Another question here arises; do we actually live ? Most of the people realise about living when they are in death bed. For example we never know that there is a left or right hand of our's untill we get hurt on them.
Whenever I am in deep conversation with anyone, they start talking about their sorrows. They try to convince that they are in deep sorrow. They try to decorate sorrows also by making them look bigger. Is it not for gain of sympathy? This sympathy becomes food of their ego. This sympathy becomes their worst enemy. It will never let go their sorrows. Once I was sitting with my friends in a restaurant and after a while everyone started talking about their sorrows. Later on a fight broke out between them on the question of whose sorrow was bigger. Everyone was saying everyone that u dont know anything that how worse is my condition.
I was also asked . I simply appologized by saying that my sorrow is very small infront of yours. What else could have I said ? I still wonder.
Life, is like a white canvas. One can paint anything on it. But one should always remember that whatever life one is living it's the way that one has chosen it to be. Nobody else is responsible. And once one accepts the whole responsibility, the conversion begins.
And I am not saying that one should run away from sorrow. This we all do and it never ends. We hug the happiness and try to run away from sorrow. This is not possible. Where there is a day there is bound to be night also. Instead of running one should try to welcome and accept our sorrows without decorating them as a showpiece for the gain of sympathy.
This very life can become a wonderful journey.

PSYCHOANALYSIS OF THE EAST

It is a very interesting fact that east has never developed the science of psychoanalysis. One may wonder why. The answer is very simple. I came across several famous names in psychoanalysis Freud, Jung, Adler, Skinner, Pavlov, Victor Frankl, Assagioli. There theories are very different from each other for example Freud's electra and oedipus complex, Jung's collective unconsious and extrovert-introvert theory, Adler's superiority and inferiority complex, Skinner's behaviour theory, Assagioli's concept of higher self. But there was one thing in common. They were all working on level of mind only. The term psyche simply means soul. So, the psychoanalysis should have been the analysis of soul. But instead of that it became analysis of mind only. Therefore I dont consider any of these big names as psychoanalytic.
Instead of developing analysis, east has developed catharsis. Catharsis simply means purification. In India, this catharsis is known as dhyan. Buddha used to call it jhan. This jhan in Japan is called zen. And it is very different from analysis. One has not to analyse but one has to catharte or purify.
So, for me all the things which west has developed in the name of psychoanalysis is rubbish. They all are working on the crest level only. They know nothing about the core. And that's why the number of crazy people in psychiatrists is far greater then any other. They themselve become the same thing in the process of analysis. Freud used to consider himself as his first patient of oedipus complex.
Conclusively, I must say that east has also developed psychoanalysis but in a better way.

A DAY IN A FUNERAL.....

I atteneded a funeral few days ago. I usually avoid going in the funerals. The reason I will state later. But this was the funeral of one of my dear one's father in law. So, just not to be impolite I had to attend it.
But what I saw there was the same scene created in every funerals. Many peoples had gathered, But as soon as the last pooja started everyone sat down in small groups. Everyone talking about everything . I also sat down in one of the groups and started listening. I got surprised when I saw them talking about business, politics, rumours and beautiful girls. I got surprised. They were on the funeral grounds and they were talking rubbish. I visited every group. The same were the talks everywhere. Nobody was talking about the death.
We try to run away from death. We think as if we are not going to die. Talking about other things make us diverted from this eternal truth.
The person who was lying there dead must have also visited many funerals when he was alive. A thought came into my mind. What did this person used to talk when he visited funerals.
I tried to talk to some people about the phenomenon of death. But I was made to keep quite.
After the cremation, two minutes of silence was kept, for peace of the belated's soul. I started looking everyone. Nobody was silent. Everyone's mind was talking. I could easily make out waht they were thinking. One was eager to go home. One was thinking about the money that was promised to come in evening. One was making plans of trip. One was thinking of calling his girlfriend as soon as he get out of here. Nobody was thinking about the death.
I got out after the funeral. My friend asked me why I am looking sad. I told him what I saw. He kept quite. I told him a story. I should write that story here also:-
Once a very rich man visited a famous saint. His very first question was from the saint was that although i have immense wealth, but still I have no inner peace. How to attain inner peace? The saint stared the man for a moment and said leave the talk of inner peace. I can forecast anyone's future by seeing one's forehead. I have seen your forehead also. You are going to die exactly in seven days from now. The man was stunned. Without saying a word he left for his home. On reaching his home he told his family the forecast of that saint. Everyone started crying and that man lied down on his bed. As the days passed the man thought that now I am going to die. So why not forgive everyone who has done wrong with me and why not go and ask forgiveness from them with whom I have done wrong. He started living each day in totality. He started filling himself with love because he thought what's the use of hatred in last days. When the seventh day came he waited to die. But death did not happened. He got surprised. The very next day he went to that saint and asked him why did he lied to him. The saint smiled and said did you found your inner peace or not by living everyday in totality, by filling yourself with love, by making your enemies your friends. The man touched the saints' feet. He had got his answer.
I don't know yet whether my friend understood the story or not. But, after a while he also started talking about business and politics.
I hate to go to funerals.

LOVE : AN EXPERIEENCE, FEELING OR LIFE ITSELF ?

I allow myself to do a nearly impossible task i.e. to define love. Yes, love cannot be defined. But, for some people answers are necessary. So for them I am trying to solve the riddle of love. Although I know I am going to fail.

What is love ? Is it an experience?. No. Then Is it a feeling?. No. then what it is ? It is actually living ( I am not saying life but living). I see so many people around me who don't understand this simple thing and that's why they tend to fall in love and fall out of love. Love cannot be experienced. B'coz experience is a thing of past. It cannot be a feeling either b'coz feelings are too short. Love is just living. But for many of us love is a barter trade system. Give and take. And that's where mistakes begin. Love can only be gived. It does not cares what it is getting in return. I see women seeking love in men and men seeking love in women. They both are empty handed and that's why they don't get anything from each other. One has to be loveable to be in love. And one who is loveable automatically becomes lovely. Why to ask question whom to love ? Just be in love. And one who is just in love does not needs any person in particular. Then, whoever comes into contact of such person gets love only.
Sometimes I have seen few stupids who ask for gurantee and security in love. One thing is sure, love is the most insecure phenomenon in this world. And this insecurity is the whole beauty of love. What is the beauty in secured and certain things ? 2+2 = 4 is secured and certain thing in mathematics. But do any one see any beauty in this? In love 2+2 is not always going to be 4. Is'nt it amazing ?
Love is like a blowing wind. The more one tries to catch hold of it the more 0ne fails. It can only be felt and enjoyed.
I also see some stupids trying to be possessive in love. And when their love fails they start blaming each other. One thing is certain. In love possession has no place. Love is a freedom. Freedom to dance under moon, to sing, to breathe, to live. I am reminded of one of the Nietzsche's qoute, ' what else is love but understanding and rejoicing in the fact that another person lives ,acts and experiences otherwise we do...? '
Love is free from every expectation also. Expectations means hopes of future. And love does not knows future.
Love is also free from sorrows or hopes or promises. All these are mere names of our past memories. And love does not know past also.
Love only knows present. And present is living.
In love there is no sadness or happiness. These are mere feelings. These are two sides of single coin. And one should remember if one thinks love as smiles and happiness only , then one is bound to experience tears and sadness. I would better call love as blissfulness , an ecstasy.
I am reminded one of the best sentence about love. Freidrich Nietzsche in his major work wrote, ' Anything done in love, occurs beyond good and evil '.
So, try to live in love, and one can easily understand love.

I HAVE HEARD.....

Long long time ago there were two sisters namely Beauty and Ugly. They used to travel together in the whole world. But ugly was jealous with beauty. Once while passing beside a sea they decided to take bath. They left their clothes on the beach and went into the sea. Ugly was the first to come out. When she saw clothes of Beauty jealousy and greed overtook her. She stole the clothes of Beauty and ran away. When beauty came out she found her clothes missing. Misearably she had to wear the clothes of Ugly. From that day on Beauty is in the clothes of Ugly and ugly is in the clothes of Beauty. Even today people get confused to recognize. One has to has very sharp eyes. Even today people get deceived by their clothes.

PHILOSOPHY: NOTHING BUT MERE CONFESSIONS OF SOME CRACKPOTS

A student of philosophy may disagree with this title. But it is true philosophy whether ancient, medieval or modern is nothing but confession of some famous crackpots. Yes, life cannot be understood by some theories; it can be understood only by living. And what else philosophers do their whole life except generating theories about life. Philosophers generally think so much about life that they forget to live it actually. Let me analyse some of the famous philosophers( crackpots ) :

Plato:- He kept on repeating his entire life what Socrates said. And the basis of these repeatitions he was considered highly intelligent in his time. But he forgot Socrates himself said that I know only one thing that I know nothing.
Aristotle:- He wrote in his major work that since women are inferior to men in every sense so in a woman's jaw there are only 18 teeth. Although he had three wives. He could have counted himself.
Francis Bacon:- An utterly corrupt man, Francis Bacon, was sentenced to prison for taking bribes being a lord Chancellor. Later he was pardoned by the queen. Out of his guilt he moved towards philosophy and his major work Novum Organum came out of this guilt. He wanted to prove the world that he is not corrupt but highly intelligent.
Immanuel Kant:- I am reminded of one of kant's anecdote. One has to decide after reading the anecdote what was Kant; intelligent or stupid. Once kant was proposed by a beautiful lady for marriage. But as he used to claim himself, critique of pure reason( one of his major work), he asked the lady for some time. so that, he can find out the reason for getting married or not. He took almost three year, debating with himself for and against marriage. Finally he decided to get married. But, the lady did not waited for three years and she married someone else when kant was busy in debating.
Friedrich Nietzsche:- Through out his life nietzsche kept talking about superman but he himself ended in a mental asylum.
Ludwig Wittgenstein:- Wittgenstein suffered the whole of his life with the idea of suicide but never attempted. He himself accepts that he was not courageous enough.
Arthur Schopenhauer:- He writes in his major work The world as will and idea that philosophy should not be made into business. This feeling came in him when he was thrown out of university and his contemprory Hegel was getting name and fame.
Kahlil Gibran:- I am most sorrowful for this man. Being an author of one of the greatest work of all time The Prophet, he should'nt have missed the fruits and essence of life. He was alcoholic and died of liver failure.
Bertrand Russell:- He himself used to say that consistency is the symbol of stupidity but he remained atheist for whole of his life. Is sticking to atheism for whole life not consistency.

There are many in the list:- Bergson, William James, Hegel, Hume, Spinoza and many other but it would be a waste of time if I put a light on them also. What my point is getting an idea of how these missed life by just thinking about it.

But one should keep in mind I dont consider some peoples as philosophers namely:- Jesus, Socrates, Diogenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Gautam Buddha, Mahavira, Al Hillaz Mansoor, Farid, Rabiya, Mohammed, Bayzeed, Lao-tse, Rinzhai, Hakuin, Ikku, Lin-chi, Chuang-tse, Boko-tse, Bodhidharma, Nanak, Kabir, Rahim, Meera, Krishna, Gorakh, Gurdjieff, J. Krishnamurthy, Osho Rajneesh, Maharshi Raman, Ramkrishna Paramhansa and many others.
Instead of calling them philosophers, I like to call them poets. They wrote their own poetry in their own way. They made their life itself into a song, a poetry, a dance. They never thought about life but they actually lived it.

I HAVE HEARD.....

Ikku, a famous zen master, was very intelligent from his childhood. When he was a child his teacher had a very precious and ancient cup. By mistake the cup got broken by Ikku. He got nervous when he heard his teacher's footsteps. He immediately hid the pieces of cup behind him. As soon as the teacher came in , Ikku asked, " sir, why do people die?". Old teacher said," It is natural Ikku, everything dies". Ikku showed him the pieces of the cup and said, " sir it was time for your cup to die".

GOSSIP & JUST GOSSIP

I happened to meet a person recently who was hot topic of gossip a few days ago( let me not name that person). But what I saw in that person was totally different than what people were gossiping. I realized instantly that people know nothing of this person. But why to gossip then ? Is it not that gossips gives us a kind of mental relief to all of us ? Is it not that we don't know anything about that which we are gossiping ? Is it not that we try to cover ourselves by gossiping about others ? I remember a spanish proverb, ' WHO GOSSIPS WITH YOU, WILL GOSSIP OF YOU'. And gossips becomes more intersting when it is based upon ill rumours. Bertrand Russell used to say that no one gossips about other people's secret virtues. We have made gossips also as one of our time passing measures. But do we get something out of it ? Yes, we get an inner satisfaction that at least someone in the world has done more wicked things than us.

Bottom Line : Abraham Lincoln once said that truth is generally the best vindication against slander. I told that person the same thing. So, O' stupid peoples ! Keep gossiping around. Your gossips are making that person stronger from within.

RELIGION : DOGMA OR TRUTH

I met one of my grood friends last night who just got married last month. My first obvious question was about his honeymoon destination. I got surprised when he said VAISHNODEVI. I asked him why and he kept on answering my whys untill he said ' I dont know yaar, everyone goes so I am also going'. One may laugh at his answer but that's what we all do when matter of religion comes. We follow the path blindly without even thinking. We get assured when we see people around us doing the same thing. But is religion a path for mass? No, I don't think so . Religion is personal. Religion is a constant growth of one's personality. Being born and brought up in well cultured Brahmin family may have become a curse for me but I made a point to myself that I am not going to imitate anyone. Whatever will I be , I will remain orignal. And it does not matters whether I was born in any other type of religious family( there are many types of religions also). Religion for me, is the science of soul. Have any one heard that a hindu chemistry or hindu physics is different from christian chemistry or christian physics. And when science of matter is not different then how can science of soul be different? And they talk about seperate hindu and christian and muslim etc. etc. gods. I would better like to call myself what Gautam The Buddha termed MADHYAMARGI ( one who walks on the middle path). So, I am not religious nor atheist. Both are names of two different faiths and following any faith is not my style. The actual religion is entirely based upon personal experiences. I am reminded an influential western mystic G. I. Gurdjieff wrote ," If you want to lose your religious faith make friendship with a priest"

Many times i am reminded or i would say cautioned by many peoples that my views about religion are going to lead me NARAK (hell). I simply say them that there are atleast 200 different religions in this world and everyone of them are already going to roast me in their hells b'coz I dont follow them(one can only follow only one religion at a time; very intelligent) ; so when I dont care about 199 of them why should I care about 1 more ( who cares ?).

SALWA JUDUM : NEO NAXALISM

'Naxalism' The movement which started from a small village of Naxalbari in Darjeeling in West Bengal in mid 60's has now spread its roots widely(nearly half of India). Naxalis call their movement as a social revolution. Government on the other hand place them besides terrorists. Is it a revolution or is it a terrorism? No, it is reaction. A reaction movement started by suppressed peoples but now has taken a form of terrorism. From thousands of years majority of Indians were constantly suppressed by the so called upper caste peoples. The reaction to that suppression has taken the form of naxalism. But it is the worst form of reaction. It does not have ideologies. And the movement without ideology is already dead. It seems that the whole focus of naxalis have shifted towards violence only. Naxalism has become a kind of social disease now. Our state of Chattisgarh is suffering from this disease. And the BJP led govt. in the state has the most absurd kind of remedy in their bag. 'SALWA JUDUM'. This so called salwa judum took lives of many poor and innocent tribals in the name of war against naxalism. Former chief minister of the state Mr. Ajit Jogi was a visionary man. He tried to solve the problem from its roots by initiating many social and economic reform programmes in naxal affected districts. Unfortunately he is not in office anymore. And those who are in office now a days are in the state of complete dilemma regarding naxal problem.

I am reminded of one of the Freidriech Nietzche's famous qoutes ' To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity. I find it very correct. When I see around , I find everyone has forgotten their purpose of living. What is the ultimate purpose of one's life? Is it not happiness? We go on desiring the things that make us happy. Desires are made up of only three things: sex, power and wealth. We try to find our happiness in basically these three desires. But I have seen many peoples in my life who fulfilled all the three desires and still are not happy. Once fulfilled they ask for more. Therefore happiness and desires cannot be the ultimate purpose of one's life. Then what it is ? This question is insatiable and I believe that the answer will be different for everyone.