Vedanta Rocks -11 > Depths of your true self hide in your heart

Part 11 of 46

‘Abhayam hi vai Brahma
bhavati… ya evam veda’
"When fear evaporates completely, you touch the source of your self. This is the wisdom of the Veda".
Yagnavalkyas teaching to the young prince Janaka,
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

I will not separate you from your precious ambitions. I know that ambition is the fuel that flows in your veins. It ignites the fire that keeps you alive. You would rather die than part with them."

"I will not separate you from your fears either. It will rip your heart out if I do. I know how much you have entwined yourself into them. Your fears prod you when you slacken, keep you disciplined when you go weak. It is your chief weapon in the battle of life."

"I wont touch your fantasies too, for they power your dreams and even though you suspect they might never come true, it’s magical to be drunk in their heady fragrance."

"But give me your anger, give me your jealousy, give me the blood lust, hand over the hatred, shed the venom that sits in your throat, drop it this moment."

"I will take away the hatred, clean the bile of frustration that pours out everyday. I will cure your addictions, the craving for toxins that have burnt your brain, your opiates, your fortified wines, and the even deadlier poisons your body creates, the burn in the gut, the wild thumping in your chest, venoms that will wither you like a twig well before your time."

"I will heal you. I will repair those deep wounds in your heart. I will sharpen your sword and straighten the shield and when you are ready I will send you into the arena again."

"Not to get torn apart but to fight with a clean mind, fight with a song in your lips without a care in this world. You will laugh at a moment of defeat, shrug in a moment of victory with eyes full of compassion, heart quivering with joy, you will rise into each day as if it’s your last."

"Yet even in this exalted state you will still be blind. You will not know who you are, where you came from or where you will go when this life ends."

"Now I will return and ask for your fears. I will coax it out of every nerve ending. I will defeat your every logic, knock out every argument and make you see the futility of being afraid. With anger and hatred gone, jealousy stamped out, the wild fires have been extinguished. My task is easier. You will resist at first, then slowly you will shed them one by one till there isn’t a shred of fear left in you at all."

"I don’t need your ambitions. You may keep them. With your fears vanished, they are just cherished goals. You won’t waste a moment’s sleep if they don’t happen."

"What else? Oh the philosophies...where you came from and all that..."

"Behold the depths of your true self hiding in your heart. All is already here. It was always here, you didn’t have the peace to see it. You are already that. No more words are needed. The silence will be your teacher and the song your life. This beautiful silence and that heady song...it’s All."

"Ya evam veda. This is the wisdom of the Veda, prince Janaka. Rise into it."

Previous Posts >>

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 22nd March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -10 > Deep silence dwells in the womb of noise

Part 10 of 46
Creative ideas flow out of the deep silent mind within and if we want to be creative, we need to discover the silence from which all thoughts are born.

‘Discover the silence within the noise’ Yagnavalkya’s teachings to Janaka, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

SILENCE and noise seem like two opposites. You can’t have one when the other is present, right? If there is clamour all around, how can there be silence? And if it is quiet, how can there be noise? Yet these opposites always coexist. This is one of the paradoxes of life.

Firstly, all noise is internal. It’s a mental creation and has nothing to do with the decibel level outside. The source of your noise is the everyday mind. It’s the mind we wake up to, the mind we dream with.

This mind is always drowned in the clamour. Even if there is feather drop silence outside, the mind can create its own deafening and noisy thoughts. Likewise, when a battle rages outside and a soldier is hit and falls to his death, he probably discovers a silence so profound, all the howitzers and gunfire cannot disturb him anymore.

All silence is also internal. It has nothing to do with the decibel levels outside. You could be in a market or a rave party or a board room, your ability to discover silence amidst noise is what will separate you from the crowd.

Your level of silence is a personal statement. It is an expression of your creative appreciation of this moment. It defines your state of evolution in this life.

Silence comes from a deeper mind, just as thoughts come from a surface mind. This has to be understood intuitively. If you allow yourself to feel silence now, you will automatically touch that mind from which nothing emanates but pure silence. You will discern it as profound and beautiful. You will also figure out that all thoughts emerge from this deep quiet, play for a while on the surface, and merge back into it, much like waves rise from the waters and merge with it again.

If you flow into this silence, you will also touch the fountain of creativity.

Notice how creative people behave. A music director, before creating a new tune, will always fall into a deep silence, then gently rise with a tune. A poet before getting into a writing frenzy will always reflect and move about for a while in silence.

Ask yourself, where are their original ideas coming from? From existing thoughts? No chance. If it was known already it wouldn’t be original. Our creative ideas always flow out of the deep silent mind within and if we want to be more creative, we need to discover that silence from which all thoughts are born.

This doesn’t mean we reject noise. Noise is life. It is the marketplace where we live our emotions, where we toil and sweat, rejoice and weep, hate and love.

Life without the noise would be unbearable. The secret as always is to strike a balance, to flow in and out of both silence as well as the noise.

Vedanta rocks. Discover the silence within the noise and use it to express yourself creatively in the world outside.

Previous Posts >>

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 8th March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -9 > Open your eyes to life's sameness in differences

Part 9 of 46

'Ritam Vadishyami’…I will speak the truth contained in all rhythms.

Invocation of Taithiriya Upanishad Each sweep of the broom brings with it a hundred tiny differences. The sound of the sweeping is a rhythm, yet it never sounds the same.

LIFE REPEATS itself endlessly yet nothing is ever the same. Every night turns into day, yet no sunrise is the same. A day has 86,400 seconds, yet no two moments are the same. Our lives are full of endless routine, yet no act, however many times you have done it before, is ever the same.

There is a mindset that seeks out the differences in sameness and there is a set mind that seeks sameness in different things. The first is unique, it is the creative mind. The second is the jaded everyday mind going about its chores, complaining that life is boring.

Which mindset is yours? Do you seek differences in sameness? If you do so, you walk the path of existential truth. You are not only creative, you live the ‘truth contained in all rhythms’.

What is that truth? It is an awareness of the richness, the uniqueness of life and every moment contained in it. You can’t put it into so many words, but you can celebrate it by living it up. A sweeper in a courtyard can feel its joy just as much as a president of a country. Let us celebrate with the sweeper for a moment. Each sweep of the broom brings with it a hundred tiny differences.

The sound of the sweeping is a rhythm, yet it never sounds the same. The moving leaves form a pattern so unique they will never be repeated.

There is an essential uniqueness in each sweep of the broom that can be enjoyed, celebrated.

Sounds like too much hype on a Sunday morning? Then give the broom to a seven-year-old child. Watch the child enjoy each sweep as if it is something fantastic — something out of this world. The child can enjoy the sweeping because it can appreciate the uniqueness of each sweep. It lives out the existential truth contained in rhythms while we struggle to grasp it. The child was you once upon a time. A time when you noticed the
differences in sameness. When you could live, simply, joyously, with no need of any philosophies.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

You can start afresh today. Try it out and see how life changes. Notice the rhythms, the endlessly repeating patterns in your home or workplace, then notice the differences in the sameness.

Start by feeling and doing any one rhythm differently. Whether it’s a hello to your colleague, or the way you start your motorbike or the way you comb your hair or the way you think about a person. Once you get into this groove of seeing and doing the difference, you will start enjoying the uniqueness of each repetitive act and life will open itself again. You will jump out of the jaded mindset and live in a creative joy.

Vedanta rocks. It’s a fountain of natural born wisdom and the next best thing to being a happy child.

Previous Posts >>

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 1st March 2009 )

Vedanta Rocks -8 > Eyes reveal Inner Chaos and calmness

Part 8 of 46
Our eyes don’t rest even in sleep. Dreams are full of rapid eye movements, where we are searching and seeking.

‘Those who have felt the eye of the eye have touched the immortal spirit.’ Kena Upanishad 1-1-2

It is not what your eyes see — but with what eyes you see — that really counts. Eyes betray the chaos of the soul. Eyes reveal the state of inner being.

Chances are, you have so far played the game of life with restless eyes — your victories have been equally restless — and your losses quite devastating. The more the turbulence, the more life passes by in a daze.

Influences around you are designed to keep you in that daze. Mark this, the state of your eyes is of strategic importance to society. The global economy runs on it. God forbid if everyone developed calm and peaceful eyes. You wouldn’t be a sucker for a million marketing tactics that ‘grab eyeballs’ and morph minds. The advertising industry’s job is to keep your eyes and mind destabilized. That’s how raging desire is created for products you don’t need or want.

Our eyes don’t rest even in sleep. Dreams are full of rapid eye movements, where we are searching, seeking, and never relaxing. Daytime brings on the sleeping chaos awake and the cycle never ends, except in death, when we finally close our eyes fully, irrevocably, forever.

All religions are thankfully friends of your eyes. The reverential gazing at the altar of the Christian church or Jewish synagogue, the darshan of Hindu temples, the half closed eyes of Buddhist meditation, the steady gaze towards Mecca in the mosque, all these have a deep meaning and purpose. They help soothe your turmoil.
Their ancient healing chants assure you that the search has ended.

In minutes you calm down. A deep feeling of peace follows as the eyes relax from the pain of endless seeking.

Whatever your religion or ritual, if you practice giving relief to your eyes, they will become aware of something that was always there — something you missed noticing in the chaos. They will naturally feel out the eye of the one who is watching you as you watch the world. That is the ‘eye of the eye’.

Normally the question as to who is watching you seems irrelevant. Not any more — as you discern the witness— just observing… not passing judgment, not saying anything. Its presence, even when unfamiliar, is always assuring, comforting, healing and a mystery. It is in you, yes, but it is also not you.

Vedanta calls it the immortal spirit, but that understanding is personal to its unknown author. One fine day, in a flash of understanding, you may appreciate it for what it is. But know this — whatever it is — it is beyond words.

You cannot spin around quickly and catch sight of it, because it can move faster than the fastest thought you are capable of. Such is the ancient teaching of the Upanishad. It always guides you up to a point and asks you to discover the rest as direct intuition.

Vedanta Rocks. Go ahead take the plunge.

( Source: Mani Shankar/ Deccan Chronicle, Hyderabad 1st Feb 2009 )