Thoughts arising post Meditation I

Editor:  The author presents nine short and insightful thoughts.

1. Is lack of focus  a disease or a choice?

Have  you found yourself unable to focus on your work or study for as much  as you could before? Do you find yourself getting bored of  relationships too soon? Do you find yourself actively searching for  newer ways to spend your free time?

If  all this is true, don’t look for a solution – look for the  problem. Only when you manage to identify the problem, will you be  able to solve it.

The  problem you will discover is not with your restless mind, but is with  your lifestyles. Mind’s behavior is a helpless by-product of your  impatient lifestyle.

With  this understanding look at your lifestyle. You will be amazed to find  that, you are surrounded by things, people and an environment that  demands constant change, constant reprioritization and constant  movement.

Patience  is the key. Spending time in an environment that encourages patience  is helpful. A farmer cannot be as impatient as a geek who complains  of his 4G Internet being slow. An artist or a writer cannot demand  ideas to be served to him at the speed of a fast food center. A  mother cannot expect the baby in her womb to be delivered at speed of  an email. Observe the lifestyle of those that have to be patient to  get the right results.

Focus  on those aspects of life that foster patience. Spend some time every  day doing those activities that cultivates patience. Remember that  multi-tasking should be your strength and not your weakness.

2. An idea to  prevent hacking of ideas

Could  you really hack ideas from another’s brains?
The  history of this universe starts with Madhu and Kaitaba hacking the  Vedas from Brahma’s brain and dashing away. If it weren’t for the  first cyber police Vishnu, the original hackers might have got away  and history would have been written differently.

Water  when stored in one place stinks if unused. Flowing water retains its  ever-freshness.
Vishnu  rectified this by incarnating as Vyas and freely distributing the  same knowledge through his disciples and books. How many brains would  the Madhu’s and Kaitaba’s of this world hack now?

Whether  it is Vyas or Tukaram or Purandar das or Tulsi das, each tried not to  just store knowledge, but to distribute knowledge. In allowing their  knowledge to flow, they remain ever fresh in millions of hearts.

One  cannot claim proprietorship over ideas. Inspirational ideas are never  conceived by force, they are received by grace. Rather than trying to  store knowledge or ideas for personal aggrandizement, one should  distribute them for communal enhancement.

3. Is a broad chest and  slim waist, the right figure?

Getting  into the right shape takes so much effort. Probably, the only thing  tougher than getting into the right shape is staying in right shape. 

While  one would agree that a broad chest and slim waistline is the right  shape for the body, one remains clueless of what would be the best  shape of the mind.

Saubari  Muni’s mistake gives us a hint of the right shape for the mind.  Deciding to stay away from the distracting world, he decided to sit  at the bottom of a lake and take charge of his senses. His mind had a  broad chest pumped up with pride of being the controller. But the  waistline of his mind was slim owing to a lack of loving relationship  with friends and peers. 

His  mind tricked him by being drawn towards the fishes who took shelter  under him. The result was that out of pride, he offended his superior  Garuda by banning him from the lake in which he was meditating. Soon  he deviated from focusing on the goal of his life. All because of a  disfigured mind!  

The  right figure for the mind is to have a slim chest with no egoistic  vanity and a broad waist filled with loads of love.
The  workout for the body is to push against heavy weights. Similarly the  work-in for the mind is to push against the weight of thinking that  “I don’t need anyone” and pull in positive love.  

4. Are  you scared to be offline?

The  more responsive you are, the more connected you are. Isn't this  today's motto? With so much going on every nano second online through  instagram, Facebook, twitter and whatsapp, one would feel almost  extinct if he weren't active for a few hours. The insecurity of being  forgotten drives one to be hysterically active.

Every  word you say, gives so many an opportunity to judge you. That being  the case, are we not eligible to be called mini-celebs?

Lord  Rama would sometimes go offline. He would just disappear without  telling anyone. Invariably in many such instances, He would be found  sitting with a simple sage and hearing from him.

Every  celebrity needs privacy to upgrade himself. The insecurity of being  offline has to be replaced by the security of the need to personally  grow to enable one to offer others something of substance.

So  the motto has to change now.
Get  offline – grow and get online – give.

5. Can I change  without changing?

The  inspiration to look forward to change comes from the hopes of  positive pleasure that it brings along. The monotony of one’s  present situation and the discontent that it triggers is often  replaced by the prospect of exhilaration that new change heralds.

The  grass is always greener on the other side. The bug of discontent has  spread like an epidemic to destroy the healthy mind. Just like metal  detectors detect presence of extra metal in a person, if we could  have mental detectors that could detect the metallic presence of  discontent, the buzzer would probably be perpetually on.

Currently,  change is welcomed at every level, even at the level of a gender  change. The discontent of the present gender is sort to be dissipated  and replaced with a new role that herald’s pleasure. The Srimad  Bhagvatam heralds the story of a king named Syudyumna who prayed for  a sex change and was blessed with change of gender every month. The  change made him realize that any change though promises newer  pleasure actually gives rise to newer pains also. Satisfaction he  realized is the only way to deal with change.

Have  you ever wondered why Krsna always wears a yellow dhoti and a peacock  feather without any exception? Have you ever wondered why Rama took a  vow of being loyal to one word, one arrow and one wife?

Just  like one tree takes simple water and returns sweet fruits in  gratitude, but yet another returns bitter ones. Similarly, when one  cultivates the tree of gratitude for whatever simple things one has,  sweet fruits of satisfaction will grow.

Rather  than changing external situations, if one changes ones mental  framework from discontent to satisfaction, every situation in life  will be rewarding.

6. The investment  that returns hearts

Winning  relationships is not like winning medals. Winning medals is about  outdoing others deeds. Winning relationships is about outdoing your  wrong attitudes.

People  often look for returns from a relationship even before proper  investments have been made.
Whether  it is about investing money or investing in a relationship, choosing  the right plan is the key. Here is a risk free, easily doable, double  guaranteed and triply verified plan for investment in relationships,  which pledges multi-fold and long-term returns.

Do  something for the others that which they cannot do for themselves!
Why  did the Pandavas love Krsna so much? He did for them, what they  couldn’t do for themselves. He not only helped them get their  kingdoms back, but he helped them handle emotional trauma, sabotage,  disunity and insult, with confidence and grace. He never gave them a  penny during their years of struggle, though He owned the most  fascinating kingdom. Rather than facilitating their discomfort, He  chose to facilitate their growth. He tutored them to become  self-dependent, rather than depend on circumstances.

The  creation is orchestrated in such a way that every individual has some  lacunae which he can’t fill. Actively look for opportunities to do  something for others that which they cannot do for themselves.

Invest  in this plan and you will be assured of returns in the form of  grateful hearts that will in turn be desperate to invest in a plan  that returns your heart.

7. A tip to become infamous

Who  wants to be friends with Mr. Perfect or Ms. Seamless? No one! That’s  true as much today as it was in the past.

When  a person spins around himself, he perceives the whole world to be  rotating. Like a spinning top, a person with a strong  self-centeredness, swivels around driven by his own needs, interests  and concerns. He dreams that the stationary world is eagerly rotating  to fulfill them.

A  practical tip to become infamous is to always show that you are  right. Try it! It won’t fail you!
Ravana  could never accept a ‘no’ for his proposals, Hiranyakashipu could  never accept that anyone can be better than him, Duryodhana couldn’t  even tolerate an umbrella over his head, Shishupala could not stop  himself from finding fault in others and Karna could never take good  advice from anyone. If they could become infamous, so can you!

When  you show that you are flawless, you say that you are needless. And  when you say that you are needless, people become heedless towards  you.

8. Crossing the LOC in relationships

When  two countries fight, a LOC (Line of Control) is created to restrict  entry. When two people fight, is there a LOC? Yes! It is called a  LOR, Line of Respect. When the LOR is crossed, the fight begins.

Have  you ever travelled with a cake box? To the degree you handle it with  care and respect, to that degree the impressive shape of the cake is  retained till the destination. Time and familiarity makes one  careless and inattentive. Relationships are like that cake. The  moment you lose respect and care and rather breed familiarity and  contempt, you may find a perfect box but a mashed cake.

Krsna  excused Sishupala, His cousin a 100 times for crossing the LOR,  because that was His promise to His aunt. But as soon that number was  crossed, He severed the relationship with His disc.

Important  relationship should be preserved judiciously like a priceless jewel.  When one mistakes priceless relationships to be artificial jewels and  treats them like artificial jewels, one crosses the LOR.
Crossing  the LOR harbingers the disc of time to sever the relationship  forever.

9. The inside story  of road rage

At  the drop of the hat do you blast? What triggers your blasts? Do you  feel remote controlled? Does it seem that a hidden tout has taken the  contract to trigger the time and magnitude of your blasts?

Anger  is called Kamanuja or younger brother of desire. Whenever you find the younger brother  sneak picking, look for the dissatisfied older brother who must be  pacing around. Anger is the result of some unsatisfied need.

When  the need of absolute autocracy of Ravana was not met, he blasted on  his own brother Vibhishan. In simply trying to help Ravana see his  mistake, Vibhishan unwittingly stepped on his brother’s oxygen tube  named absolutism.

A  tired king named Muchukunda sought the benediction of uninterrupted  sleep. Mistaking this king to be sleeping Krsna, the reckless  Kalayavana kicked him awake. When his need to sleep was broken,  Muchukunda blasted on Kalayavana and burnt him to ashes.

Getting  angry is easy, but identifying our need is difficult. Sometimes our  anger may be directed at one place, but our need may be at a  completely different place. One’s need may be to reach office on  time, but one may express his unmet need due to being stuck in a  traffic jam, on a driver who is honking behind. The boss may  disrespect one, but he blasts on his wife who is showering her love  on him.

By  identifying your unmet need, you identify the trigger point of anger.  Dealing with an enemy becomes easy when you know why he is your  enemy.

Those  who live on slopes have to ensure that the hand-brake of their car is  pulled up sturdily. Similarly before your car rolls down the steep  slope of anger get a grip of the hand-brake of your unmet needs. Pull  it up on time and avoid the roller coaster.

This  article is written by Motivational Speaker and Spiritual Lifestyle  Coach Shubha Vilas. He is author of Ramayana  - The Game of Life (Book 1).  Shubha Vilas conducts corporate training programs on Relationship  Management, Work Life Balance, etc for leading companies like Aditya  Birla, HUL, Edelweiss, IOCL, MTNL, Blue Cross Laboratories etc.

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