Monday, March 03, 2008

15 laws of life by Swami Vivekananda

Here are a few gems from teachings of Swami Vivekananda..

1. Love Is The Law Of Life: All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.

2. It’s Your Outlook That Matters: It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.

3. Life is Beautiful: First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light. Throw the burden on yourselves!

4.It’s The Way You Feel: Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.

5. Set Yourself Free: The moment I have realised God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

6. Don’t Play The Blame Game: Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

7. Help Others: If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

8. Uphold Your Ideals: Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

9. Listen To Your Soul: You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

10. Be Yourself: The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

11. Nothing Is Impossible: Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

12. You Have The Power: All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

13. Learn Everyday: The goal of mankind is knowledge… now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

14. Be Truthful: Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.

15. Think Different: All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.

Career Advice

Here are some website that have some useful career advice

http://www.quintcareers.com/career_change.html

Here is a wonderful book that advises job seekers, career changers etc :

What color is your parachute.

I have been recently reading the research done at the Mother Service Society pertaining to higher growth and accomplishment in life. These essays are profound and full of useful tips and I strongly recommend them :

http://www.motherservice.org/Essays/higher_career_accomplishment.htm
http://www.motherservice.org/contents.htm

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Maa

One of the most touching songs in a long long time ... Taare Zameen Par


Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin
Par Andhere Se Darta Hoon Main Maa
Yun To Main,Dikhlata Nahin
Teri Parwaah Karta Hoon Main Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata, Hain Na Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata,,Meri Maa

Bheed Mein Yun Na Chodo Mujhe
Ghar Laut Ke Bhi Aa Naa Paoon Maa
Bhej Na Itna Door Mujkko Tu
Yaad Bhi Tujhko Aa Naa Paoon Maa
Kya Itna Bura Hoon Main Maa
Kya Itna Bura Meri Maa

Jab Bhi Kabhi Papa Mujhe
Jo Zor Se Jhoola Jhulate Hain Maa
Meri Nazar Dhoondhe Tujhe
Sochu Yahi Tu Aa Ke Thaamegi Maa

Unse Main Yeh Kehta Nahin
Par Main Seham Jaata Hoon Maa
Chehre Pe Aana Deta Nahin
Dil Hi Dil Mein Ghabraata Hoon Maa
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Hai Naa Maa
Tujhe Sab Hai Pata Meri Maa

Main Kabhi Batlata Nahin
Par Andhere Se Darta Hoon Main Maa
Yun To Main,Dikhlata Nahin
Teri Parwaah Karta Hoon Main Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata, Hain Na Maa
Tujhe Sab Hain Pata,,Meri Maa

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Keep the faith

Reproduced from a column by Sri Sri Ravishankar


Keep the faith

Shraddhveerya smrutisamadhiprajnapurvaka itaresham (Sûtra 20) meaning “By faith, by vigour or courage, by memory of having experienced the self and through the deep state of equanimity, a state of heightened awareness is gained.”

This is a vital sûtra. Shraddha means faith. Faith makes your consciousness stable, steady and solid. Doubt in the consciousness makes you vulnerable, fearful and uncertain. Faith brings out the totality in you. It pulls together all loose ends of consciousness. It integrates your whole personality. Doubt scatters you. Doubt destroys you. Doubt disseminates you and your energy. Doubt is something that pulls you apart. Dissemination of energy is doubt. Consolidation of your energy is faith. Are you getting what I am saying? The very feeling of your having faith is a sort of consolidation.

That is why Jesus always said that faith is your strength. They are synonymous — faith and strength. When you are strong and bold, you have faith. When you are weak and feeble you have doubts. Doubt is a sign of weakness. When there is faith, then samâdhi (Equanimity or meditative ness) is also achieved.

Veerya is vigour or valour. For example, the force with which a soldier marches on is Veerya. Have you not noticed how valour rises in people when they say, “We fight for our country, my country. My country is in danger, my religion is in danger.” You think they simply do it without getting any joy out of it? In that moment of valour or extreme sense of patriotism, they get such a tremendous joy. That is why this world is facing wars again and again. If people would completely condemn war, if nobody liked war, then war cannot and would not happen.

Though the result of war is not palatable, the process of war is very thrilling for people. Every cell of your body becomes united and the whole defense system in you gets awakened. That is again strength. When defense against fear comes to its peak, it is joyful because there is also equanimity there. There is a sense of gratitude. So, a sense of patriotism or valour or vigour also takes you to the state of meditation.

Smruti is the memory of it.

Once you have had a very peaceful, beautiful state of mind, the very memory of it will come back again and again and make you relive the moment. Memory of samâdhi reproduces memory of one’s being. It brings the memory of self, memory of freedom and memory of devotion. Memory of surrender, memory of love, memory of joy brings you back to yourself. Often, we do not remember nice things. What we keep remembering is bad things. We do not remember compliments but we remember somebody’s insults.

But yoga is turning the wheel full circle. Remember those wonderful moments you have had. Sit and be with that very memory. Your entire being gets back to the state. Then through samâdhi, through deep meditation, through deep equanimous mind, awareness is gained. Pragna or heightened awareness is the result of samâdhi. So these many ways, these many avenues are there so that you can blossom in life.

And that beings us to the next sutra — Teevrasamvëganamasannaha meaning “The spiritual path is very easy for one who gives first preference to it, who gives it supremacy over all other things.”

What do we often do? We give priority to worldly things or survival and anything spiritual features last in our list. Patanjali says, Teevra samvegânâm âsannaha. When you give first preference to your spiritual practice, then it is easier. If the focus of your life is spiritual growth, then all other things will be around that. Your first and foremost commitment in life is to be with the truth, to evolve in truth. So, it is very easy for one who gives first preference to it, for one whose mind really wants to move in this direction.

Friday, February 22, 2008

My favorite stuff


  • Amelie (Movie)
  • Chak De India (Movie)
  • Chariots of Fire (Movie)
  • Chris Isaak (Songs)
  • Chupke Chupke (movie)
  • Dead Poet's Society (movie)
  • Dil Chahta Hai (Movie)
  • Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (Movie)
  • Eagles (band)
  • Forrest Gump (Movie)
  • Golmaal (movie)
  • Gone with the wind (movie and book)
  • Indian Ocean (Band)
  • Jerry Maguire (movie)
  • Johnny Cash (some songs)
  • Kite Runner (book)
  • Life is Beautiful (movie)
  • March of the Penguins (Movie)
  • Miles Davis (Jazz)
  • Pink Floyd
  • Pretty Woman (Movie)
  • Ray Charles (Jazz)
  • REM (Band)
  • Scent of a Woman (Movie)
  • Shawshank Redemption (Movie)
  • Sound of Music (Movie)
  • Taare Zameen Par (Movie)
  • The Alchemist (book)
  • The Beatles
  • The diary of Anne Frank (Book)
  • The English Patient (movie)
  • The Last Samurai (Movie)
  • The Police (Band)
  • U2 (Band)