Showing posts with label mother teresa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mother teresa. Show all posts

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Living an unconventional life

Thanks to God, each one of us is born with unlimited opportunity. He brings us into the world as cute little babies and then like a proud mother waits for us to grow up and succeed in life. To prevent boredom and to make the earth and interesting place, he made each of us different. Unlike the Brinjals (Aubergines) and the Potatoes!!! God was of the view that in creating us the way he did (different from each other) he was gifting mankind with an immense potential for greatness. Each life is a unique life with infinite possibilities. How exciting!

But it is a very disappointing job being God! Because no body wants to lead a different life. There are no takers for his potential.Generations after generations, we want to live life the same. Spend precious minutes of god gifted life on meaningless chores - playing, studying, eating , sleeping, fighting, falling in love, falling out of love, making money, loosing money, being happy, being unhappy, marrying, divorcing, having children, not having children and then death.

Not that there weren't those who dared to differ. They too were children of God. Of whom he is immensely proud. Jesus Christ, Lord Buddha, Mother Teresa...... a life of compassion........yes, they choose a different path. The unconventional path.....so they were shunned and hurt and insulted...but they continued...because it was the path of God. It was the path of his glory.

Do not condemn and ridicule those who want to live an unconventional life. They are only fulfilling god's wish. Using some of his gift- the potential to be unique.

Friday, February 8, 2008

Striking a balance

There are times while meditating, I manage to reach strange depths within my self. An unknown zone of existence in my mind and conscience. I am lost somewhere deep within myself cut off from the external world. It is a divine experience. Complete bliss. Those who have experienced deep meditation will understand or appreciate my words. I manage to cut through the noise and clutter of outside world. When I gradually open my eyes after meditation......for the first few seconds my mind is lost. It fails to connect with the outside world. It tries to establish a connect with the outside physical world. Naming things, recognising people, establishing a context. Slowly the pleasant effect of meditation starts fading away. It all comes back. Work, money matters, society and various pressures of our contemporary human existence start taking control like the tentacles of an Octopus. The peace and quite which I had found during meditation vapourises. One thought echoes in my mind "Welcome back to the insanity of human existence!!!!"

I become a mixed bag of human emotions. Angry one second, happy next and again sad the third second. And so the pendulum of emotions keeps oscillating. Coping with life and the demands made upon me by the outside world. No grudge as far as the demands are concerned. The world has a right to make demands on me. I am obliged to meet their requirements. This is my Niyat Karma (Destined Karma I am born with). But yes, the noise and the clutter of the external world irritates me. I crave for the peace and the quite inside me. Sounds of joy, chatter of family members, the birds and breeze, Small children crying or laughing, people chanting prayers, soothing music....all good but still noise.Traffic, people screaming and shouting, making demands, fighting with each other...all bad again noise.

Given my wordly commitments and responsibilities it is not possible to remain in a state of meditation at all times. The dilemma is whether to seek the depths within myself which requires me to cut off from the outside world or to give up the quest for self and focus only on the outside world? I feel like a Pilot who is flying a plane at 30,000 feet above the ground with a few hundred pasengers on board. Even if the poor fellow has a sudden urge to quit his job and leave the plane, he is bound not to do so. He is bound by a sense of responsibility to fly the plan to a safe destination. We are all seeking to fly our planes to the safe destinations. As helpless as the pilot. Forced to give up the self needs and focus on those we feel responsible about, willing or unwilling.

It is all about making the choices. Religious teachers say "strike a balance", corporate trainers say, "work-life balance", saints call it a state of "Samadhi". But how do I attain it? Is it really possible for anyone to attain a state of "Samadhi" in the physical form of exisitence? Remain bonded to the external world and yet strike a balance between the self and the outside world. Is giving up one of the two the only way to attain peace?. As did Mother Teresa; loosing the self completely in serving the outside world or as did Lord Buddha; loosing the outside world completely and retreating deep within oneself?

But then even that is not a balance!!!!