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Tag: selfless

Runaway success

Remember those movies which were underdogs?

So many of them. Unheard of. The lead actors are practically unknown.

The movies? Least expected to do well.

Next thing you know, they become huuuuuge hits.

Massive runaway successes!

There’s a runaway success in the Bhagawad Gita as well.

For example, shlokas 19 to 23 in chapter 4.

They talk about giving up desires, giving up attachments, and maintaining equanimity in all situations of duality (like pleasure or pain, joy or sorrow).

These kinds of shlokas are absolutely successful in making even the staunchest of karma yogis runaway.

Runaway success of a different kind!

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Live in the moment (really?)

Here’s something we hear often. And it is linked to spirituality too. “Live in the present”, “Live in this moment alone”, “Don’t live in the past or in the future”, “the present is a gift” and so on and so forth. There are many variations of these. And they all sound amazing. Liberating too. Marry these words with some spectacular visuals on Instagram or Facebook and that is enough to make even a corpse feel all charged up and alive.

Feeling charged up and alive is indeed a good thing. But ‘living in the present’ needs to be understood well. It is ultimately dependent on the internal qualities or gunas of a person.

If people are sattvik by nature, they are likely to work for others and for a greater cause. Therefore their focus while working – in the true sense – will not be focused on the results of their actions.

For tamasik people however, this is not so obvious. They too may appear to not care about the result. But this apparent lack of caring comes from a deep rooted centre of laziness, inertia and selfishness which precludes them from calling a spade a spade. Their very success comes from denying the truth, and from seeking to avoid the consequences of their actions.

In that sense, the rajasik folks may be better off – as they at least know there is a gap which they need to bridge.

And thus, it is important to understand well what it takes to live in the moment. If we are thinking only about ourselves, jumping from one desire to the next, we may already be many moments ahead, and certainly not in the present.

If one has transcended the ego however, and is working solely for the benefit of the greater good, then living in the moment will come automatically. It is a state of ‘flow’. Nothing needs to be done to achieve it.

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Bovinity

Stress, anxiety, frustration, irritation. We all go through it.

The biggest challenge is going through life itself. We seem to barely have enough time for work and sleep. Weekends come and go as if a blur.

All of life for everyone around us seems to be nothing more than a rat race. We are constantly running. Towards what? Nobody seems to know. Will the race end? Seemingly never.

The worst part? Even if we win the rat race, we will remain a rat only. Is that what we want? Scurrying and scampering about mindlessly?

One solution – take part in a cow race instead. What? If you haven’t had the chance, then you must see some cows in India. They will be sitting in the middle of a highway sometimes, smaller roads sometimes – but always unbelievably oblivious to the traffic around them. No matter what happens, they do not let the outside world bother them. And because of their gentle disposition as well as their generous nature (sharing their milk for one and all), they are considered not just bovine, but divine as well. May we begin the transformation from rat to cow!

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Praying for

Vedic Astrology is considered a perfect science, even though the astrologers themselves may be far from perfect. My limited experiments in this unbelievably vast field have taught me an important thing.

Whenever I learn a new concept, I try to apply it to my own chart. Why? Because I know my own life history the best – and will be able to figure out whether what I’ve learnt actually works, or whether it needs further tweaking.

What is interesting though, is when it comes to predictions for myself, my report card is abysmal. This despite attempts at birth time rectification, using conditional dashas, various varga chakras and what not. However if I’m doing this to help someone else, without expecting anything in return, purely to alleviate their misery even in some minor way if at all possible, then I’ve realized that often even the exact birth time or other granular details are not required.

Thinking about this more deeply, I realize that it is no different from praying. When I pray for myself, the prayer may or may not work. It’s hard to tell. Maybe it has to do with selfishness. I’m always asking for more and more for myself, without even knowing or caring what might really be good for me, or what the consequences might be, of the things I’m asking for.

But when the prayer is for the benefit of others, for mankind, for all the good kind selfless but suffering souls around me, the prayers seem to get answered much more convincingly. This gives me 110% conviction in my Guru’s idea of always praying for others. This is genius – not just materially, but spiritually too. Because it helps rid us of our ego. Instead of focusing on ourselves alone, we can focus on others. E-go to e-gone.

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The fan

Captain America just gifted his Shield to a fan.
Iron Man and Spider-Man are fighting to outdo each other on sending even better gifts to this fan.
This tiny 6-year old fan, has bowled all of The Avengers over!
But how?

A gnarling German Shepherd chased after a 4-year old girl.
The fan, her brother, with not a trace of hesitation, bravely stepped in between.
All he wanted, was to save his sister.
He succeeded, but also got in harm’s way.

90 stitches later, he still has a smile on his tiny face.

Makes me think – would I at his age – have been able to act so selflessly?
Makes me think – would I at this age – be able to act so selflessly?

Values come from the inside. And the inside has no connection to the size of the outside.
This little fan has a new fan!

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