God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.

– Ramakrishna Paramahansa

If you are a slave to your senses, you cannot be happy. If you are a master of your desires and appetites, you can be a really happy person. If you overeat against you will; if you wish anything contrary to your conscience; if you act wrongly, forced by your senses, against the wish of your Inner Self, then you cannot be happy. People who are slaves to the senses find that their evil habits compel them to do things that will hurt them. Stubborn bad habits bludgeon your will power every time it tries to take the lead and guide your thoughts to the kingdom of right action. The remedy lies in rescuing your will power from the imprisoning power of the senses.

– Paramahansa Yogananda

There are many stories in the Mahabharata, some which may not be mentioned in the orginal. But many of them are very interesting and provide deep insight.

This is one such story:

While the battle of Kurushetra was at its peak, Arjuna and Karna were fighting each other. It was a battle to witness, a flurry of arrows were being exchanged, and even Gods were witnessing this epic battle between the two warriors.

Arjuna would shoot his arrows and the impact of these arrows would be so much that Karna’s chariot would go back by 25-30 feet. People who witnessed this were amazed by the skills of Arjuna.

Karna was no less. When he shot arrows, Arjuna’s chariot would also shake and go back by a few feet.

More than everyone, Krishna would applaud Karna every time his arrow hit Arjuna’s chariot. But not once did He applaud Arjuna’s skills.

At the end of the day, Arjuna asked Krishna: “Oh Lord, I have shot so many arrows at Karna’s chariot, it was being displaced like a feather in wind, but not once did you appreciate me. Rather, you would appreciate his skill despite his arrows just displacing my chariot a little”.

Krishna smiled and replied “Oh, Arjuna, remember, your chariot is protected by Hanuman at the top on your flag, Me as your charioteer in the front and by Sheshnag at its wheels, yet the whole chariot would still sway and displace whenever the valiant Karna hit us with his arrows”.

“But Karna’s chariot is not protected by any such force, he is on his own, yet he fights valiantly”.

It is said that after the battle of Kurushetra was over, Krishna refused to get off the chariot till Arjuna got down. Once Krishna alighted from the chariot, it caught fire and turned to dust.

Krishna said “Oh Arjuna, your chariot was destroyed by Karna a long time ago, it is I who was still protecting it.”

“Never in your life have the arogance to say that you have achieved something. If you have achieved something, it is the divine will, it is the divine intervention that has always protected you, cleared your path and given you the right opportunities at the right time”

This video is of just 20 seconds. It’s absolutely marvelous. A spider spinning it’s web. Look at the remarkable precision with which he engineer’s his structure with beams and bracings

Develop the love of God so that I see in your eyes that you are drunk with God and not asking, “When will I have God?” When you ask that, you are not a devotee. The devotee says: “I have Him, He is listening to me; my Beloved is always with me. He is moving my hands; He is digesting my food; He is gazing at me through the stars.”

– Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

Dr. Froylan Alvarado Guemez Pierre Teilhard de Chardi, of the Jesuit order. Born in Orcines, on May 1, 1881 and died in New York on April 10, 1995. It was the French theologian, philosopher and paleontologist who built an integrated vision of science and mysticism with his thought; of the evolution of spirit and thought.
▪ _Religion is not just one, there are hundreds._

▪ Spirituality is one.
▪ _Religion is for those who sleep._

▪ Spirituality is for those who are awake.
▪ _Religion is for those who need someone to tell them what to do and want to be guided._

▪ Spirituality is for those who pay attention to their inner voice.
▪ _Religion has a set of dogmatic rules._

▪ Spirituality invites us to reason about everything, to question everything.
▪ _Religion threatens and frightens._

▪ Spirituality gives inner peace.
▪ _Religion speaks of sin and guilt._

▪ Spirituality says, “learn from error”.

▪ _Religion represses everything and in some cases it is false._

▪ Spirituality transcends everything, it brings you closer to your truth!
▪ _Religion speaks of a god; It is not God._

▪ Spirituality is everything and, therefore, it is in God.
▪ _Religion invents._

▪Spirituality finds.
▪ _Religion does not tolerate any question._

▪Spirituality questions everything.
▪ _Religion is human, it is an organization with men’s rules._

▪ Spirituality is Divine, without human rules.
▪ _Religion is the cause of divisions._

▪The spirituality unites.
▪ _Religion is looking for you to believe._

▪ Spirituality you have to look for it to believe.
▪ _Religion follows the precepts of a sacred book._

▪ Spirituality seeks the sacred in all books.
▪ _Religion feeds on fear._

▪ Spirituality feeds on trust and faith.
▪ _Religion lives in thought._

▪ Spirituality lives in Consciousness.
▪ _Religion deals with doing._

▪ Spirituality has to do with the Self.
▪ _Religion feeds the ego._

▪ Spirituality drives to transcend.
▪ _Religion makes us renounce the world to follow a God._

▪ Spirituality makes us live in God, without renouncing us.
▪ _Religion is a cult._

▪ Spirituality is meditation.
▪ _Religion fills us with dreams of glory in paradise._

▪ Spirituality makes us live the glory and paradise here and now.
▪ _Religion lives in the past and in the future._

▪ Spirituality lives in the present.
▪ _Religion creates cloisters in our memory._

▪ Spirituality liberates our Consciousness.
▪ _Religion makes us believe in eternal life._

▪ Spirituality makes us aware of Eternal Life.
▪ _Religion promises life after death._

▪ Spirituality is to find God in our interior during life and death.🙏🏻
_-We are not human beings who go through a spiritual experience.-_

*-We are spiritual beings that we go through a human experience.-*

Human beings are born with desires. Actually desires gives form to a soul, a new life. If you look closely, Christmas and all other festivals are there to celebrate human desires – gifts, new clothes, food, decoration, and parties etc. to make us feel special.

Do scriptures and holy books talk against desires? I don’t think so, it has been misinterpreted. The words of God are taken literally. The real meaning remains unknown to our noisy and rigid mind.

Live life like lotus in pond, which remains unaffected by the water around.

What does it means? To be detached while performing action– the word detachment, is just not a word but the destination itself. Do you think it is easy to attain it? It is important to understand that it is a long process and saturation is essential.

Saturation is also not another word but again the destination itself. Fulfilment of desires in the best possible way is needed to reach a saturation point.

What are the desires – a strong longing for an object or person. There is a continuous flow of thoughts – how to achieve it, a constant planning, talking and analysing in the mind, sometimes chain of lies to achieve it etc.

Many times mind says; it is not worth it, and tries to distract itself in some or the other way. But it is the deepest need of soul to experience. So it repulses back again and again with greater strength.

One might think he has conquered the desire by restraining it for long time but it is not the inner truth. There is a constant conflict inside. Analytical mind wins on the basis of concepts. But inner longing does not satisfy and keeps surfacing up because desires do not understand any logic and arguments. Still mind brings back attention to the rationality. This is a continuous fight inside till it is supressed deeply. As a result one becomes rigid and loses the inner and outer softness, spontaneity and innocence.

The supressed desires in childhood are the root cause of the adult problems. Children have very simple and innocent desires related to food and sleep. 70% market is based on food selling items. Food is the most important source of life after air and water. And it has always been neglected and underestimated. Food not only satisfies the senses to a greater extend but has power to heal body and mental problems. If a child is craving for something and it is not fulfilled, he subconsciously falls in a trap of manipulations.  Then why to supress the simple desire and unnecessary encourage the child’s greed by not fulfilling it?

On the other side, Imagine you went to a European trip, you have all the money to buy everything you wish, but,  you still might not be able to eat stomach full food, for some reason, like a toothache, bad stomach, vegetarian issues. How long can you enjoy the beauty all around and shopping branded bags and cloths? Food has so much impact on our life that only in its absence do we realise it.

Case 1

Mom- Get up from the bed quickly.

Banni- Its Sunday mom, let me sleep.

Mom- No matter, you need to get up by 8.30 at least.

Banni kept sleeping

Mom – Get up you lazy and eat breakfast on time.

Banni- what is there in breakfast?

Mom – Fruits, milk and paratha

Banni – I always get paratha in school, I want to have bread rolls today with onion and chatani.

Mom- Have a healthy breakfast. Spicy food is not good for the body.

Banni- Every day you give me healthy breakfast, one day will not make any difference.

Mom made big eyes, which means a big No.

Papa- why don’t you make Bread rolls for her?

Mom – You stay out of it.I have to take care of her health.

Banni and her Papa both exchange an understanding look which says I will get you something from market to substitute your carving.

Parents are the child’s Santa. Who else will fulfil the desires accept parents. But these day either parents just get everything or they become too strict.

Case 2

Mom – you slept well today on Sunday.

Banni – yes mom, I was very tired. Can I have bread rolls in breakfast along with mint chatani?

Mom – ok but first you need to finish milk and fruit.

Banni – ok mom.

Banni – can we go to market in evening, I want to buy a board game which I saw at my friend’s house.

Mom – I will buy you if you promise to consistently study everyday and get good marks in your upcoming Unit test in all the subjects.

Banni – I will try mom. But if I don’t get it then will you not get me the game?

Mom –If you don’t manage it this time, you have to work hard next time to get your game. But I will take you to food joint after your exams.

Banni – Yes mom I will try my best. You are the most balanced mom and I love you for that.

Sleep is also another important aspect in child’s growth. It is very important that child should sleep according to his or her body requirement, which varies from child to child. It is basic and essential need of a child. Relaxed body, relaxes the mind, then it works more efficiently.

We teach our children certain things which do not match with our own actions and behaviour. Books inspire when they match with the reality around the child.

• We teach them to talk less but we did we dont follow that.
• We teach them to eat right but never miss any opportunity to eat outside food.
• We teach them to spend wise, but who showed the way to shopping malls to our children? Who introduced him/her to branded clothes and shoes.

We make children a medium to fulfil our own unfulfilled desires. Let’s be truthful and accept it. Then question arises; what to do? We are now tagged as parents. The way out is to fulfil them truthfully.

Desires are beautiful if it is harmless to others. Imagine a life without desire. It is like Halwa without sweet, cake without sugar. Life is too dry. I don’t know how enlightened people feel. And I am not eagerly looking forward it. When it happens, it happens. Only thing I know is that there is a joy and sweetness in small things in life and I don’t want to throw that away right now. Life is constantly pushing all of us to outgrow our desire and realise the total freedom but I will decide my own saturation point not through concepts made by others.

Let us enjoy the Christmas and Happy New Year with new understanding.

In practical daily life we are hurt by small things; we are enslaved by little things. Misery comes because we think we are finite – we are little beings. And yet, how difficult it is to believe that we are infinite beings! In the midst of all this misery and trouble, when a little thing may throw me off balance, it must be my care to believe that I am infinite. And the fact is that we are, and that consciously or unconsciously we are all searching after that something which is infinite; we are always seeking for freedom.

Swami Vivekananda

Brother Anandamoy of SRF, tells “The Story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree”

“There’s a story about the Chinese bamboo tree. They plant a seed and water it very carefully and repeatedly for a year. Nothing happens. Second year they keep on watering that seed, nothing happens. Third year, same thing, nothing happens. Fourth year, same thing! But they keep on watering that seed. Fifth year, WITHIN SIX WEEKS, the bamboo shoots up ninety feet into a powerful tree. And before that, those four years when seemingly nothing happened, that seed developed a powerful root system to prepare to support the tree.
And I often thought about that when it comes to kriya yoga. You practice and nothing happens, right? Seemingly, consciously, to your experience not much happens. But underneath, there’s preparation going on. Underneath there are changes going on, there is purification going on. And it may be longer than four years. Be patient, and practice, because it works.
As I said before, these subtle changes you do not notice until later. And you are bringing in the power, it is accumulated as you practice more. The magnet becomes stronger and there’s a greater flow of energy. And that does it, it brings about scientifically the changes that are necessary for the launching of the bamboo tree that is within you (Anandamoy chuckles).”