How to take bath

As I learnt from Arun Bhaiya Ji:

• One should not use shower since it wastes a lot of water.

• One should use a bucket, and if one wants to use warm water- its temperature should be almost same as body temperature.
• The cup to bath should be small- should have only around 100 grams of water in it. Since it helps save water. If bugger cup is used, then we just fill it whole and lot of water just goes waste.
  
• One can take bath in only 1-2 litre.
• Instead of soap one can use multani mitti to take bath.
• One very good to take path is a sponge(thick cotton cloth of around 1 ft by 0.5 ft), and dip it first and then scrub the whole body, and then wash it. And do it 4-5 times. This would help save water, opens body pores, give far more freshness, and good for non-voilence as well.
  

Poem: Good and Bad

जन्म लिया स्त्री कोख से, सोचा कितना दर्द सहा उसने मेरे कारण
सुख मिला मुझे उसकी सेवा से, सोचा कितना सुख मिला उसके कारण

निर्भयता मिलि, सोचा कितना सुख मिला पिता के कारण
डांट पङी, सोचा कितना दुख मिला पिता के कारण

स्कूल के विद्यार्थीयों में, मैं जब हिलने डुलने लगा
कैसे संगी से सुख दुख मिलता, यह सब सीखने लगा

माता पिता अरू गुरूऒं ने, बार बार ये समझाया
आसपास के मासूम जीवो को, अच्छा बुरा देखना बतलाया

सिद्धहस्त करने चले थे, हम स्कूल में जीने की कला को
मगर अच्छे बुरे का बोझ, वहीं से सीखता चला आया

विद्या सीखी और कला, कैसे अच्छे बुरे को पहचानू
अच्छे से प्रेम करू, और बुरे को अपना ना मानू

तोङ दिया अखण्ड दुनिया को, दो भागो मे इस तरह
एक को नाम दिया अच्छा, दूसरे को बुरा समझ दुतकार दिया

जब सिद्धहस्त हुआ इस हुनर में, फ़िर नयी कलाओ का समय आया
बुरे और अच्छे के, नयें नयें प्रयोगो में चित्त लगाया

धर्म, जाति, मित्र, व्यक्ति, शहर, देश, भोजन और काल
मकान, दुकान, मन्दिर, मस्जिद, सबको दो भागो में चीर डाला

अच्छे का अच्छा करता रहा, बुरे से मैं दूर रहा
अगर बुरा मिल जाये तो, उससे इर्ष्या, क्रोध खूब करा

व्यक्ति को उसके रूप रंग से, अच्छे बुरे में तोल डाला
थोङा धर्म पङ लिया तो, उसमें भी अच्छा बुरा ढूंढ डाला

ना कोई अच्छा ना कोई बुरा, सब अन्दर का मैल था
अन्दर तो धोया नही, कल्पनाओं में सारा जगत धो डाला

Poem: Gyaan

ना मात मेरी, ना पिता मेरा, ना पत्नी मेरी ना ये घर
पूत मेरा ना, ना ये सामान, सबसे अलग मेरा घर ।

ना दुकान, ना घोङे गाङी, ना मित्र ना समाज
ना मरता ना जीता मैं, किसी के ना आऊं काज ।

ना मैं छोटा, ना मैं बङा, ना मैं उंचा ना नीचा
ज्ञान मात्र ही मेरी सीमायें, वही अस्तित्व है मेरा ।

ना मैं काला ना मैं गोरा, ना कमजोर ना बलवान
ना वात पित्त कफ़, इन सबसे भिन्न मैं भगवान ।

ना मैं भारतीय, ना अमेरिकी, ना पता कोई मेरा
ना कोई घर है ना मकान, ज्ञान ही सर्वस्व मेरा ।

ना कोई झगङा, ना कोई प्रेम, ना मेरा कोई मतभेद
ना प्रतिस्पर्धा, ना ग्लानि, ना मेरा लेन और देन ।

ना प्रेम है, ना घृणा है, ना कर्ता ना भोक्ता
ज्ञान लम्बाई, ज्ञान चोङाई, ज्ञान जितना ही मोटा ।

दुनिया रहे दुनिया में, ज्ञान रहे ज्ञान में
ज्ञान रहे सदा एक प्रमाण, वो मैं त्रिकाल घाम।

Poem: Story of 'Baniya'

कविता का शीर्षक: बनिये की कहानी

बनिया चाहे मुनाफ़ा, चाहें दिन हो या रात
जो दे दे परम सुख, वही बनिये का भगवान ।

कोई बन्ध मेरा नहीं, जाना नहीं ये राज
दूसरो को अपना मानकर, किया सत्यानाश ।

बाजार जाके कुछ रूपे देकर, ले आये सामान
उसे अपना मान ले, गया चित्त का आराम ।

जिस घर मे आया वो, माना अपना घर
अपने को भूल गया, हो गया जैसे जङ ।

बियाह के लाया किसी जीव को, लिये फ़ेरे सात
पण्डित बोले ये तेरी है, दे दी सत्य को मात ।

ज्ञाता से भोक्ता बना, झेले प्रेम प्रहार
ऐसा पङा बन्धन में, भूला आत्मज्ञान ।

बच्चे किये बङे फ़िर, लगी उनकी भरमार
ज्ञाता से कर्ता बना, कर्मो की हुई बोछार ।

बैठे दुकान पर सारा दिन, कमायें पैसे चार
’मेरा पैसा’ रटता रहे, कहां दिखे प्रभु द्वार ।

एक दुकान से दूसरी दुकान, एक भव से दूसरा
ठोकर खाये फ़िरता रहूं, यही वर्तान्त है मेरा ।

Guru Shishya Tradition

India had a wonderful tradition of Guru and Shishya, which I have always considered to be the best mode of teaching. The teacher who had the knowledge in his heart used to transfer it to its disciple. This was like a mutual induction. The heart of the Guru vibrates with knowledge and with his compassion the disciple's heart also get into the same tunes. And resonance of bliss happens, which is experience by only two- the teacher and disciple. And only the two can understand.

There is no give and take relationship here. It is 'give only' relationship. For Guru, it is always to give. And for disciple too. The Guru gives knowledge and disciple gives respect. The knowledge which disciple acquires is just a side product. His respect and devotion to the Guru is only where his heart lies.

In current world, we say we can't find a Guru. The question is how can we really find a Guru. How can a Guru appear to a dead heart, which we carry in the current times.

The education of current times buried our heart deep down somewhere. We never acquired the knowledge, we always bought the knowledge in exchange of dead bills of dollars and rupees. And this never let our hearts blossom with respect and devotion. And now when we seek out for a Guru, the devotion and thirst is all dead from the dead heart which has lost the strings which used to vibrate earlier with compassion and respect. And which always learnt to give. And which did not know the new phenomenon of 'give and take'.

And now when we have no devotion, how can we find a compassionate Guru come to us!

Gandhi's Test, which he gave to all Indians

"I will give you a talisman.

Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test:

Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man
you have seen and ask yourself
if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.
Will he gain anything by it?
Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?

In other words,
will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away"

Fault finding attitude

While progressing in this human birth, I realize there are many bad qualities I have- for example I am narrow minded, selfish, greedy, impatient, in-tolerant, disrespectful at times. As soon I realize my mistakes I try to correct it. For example, if I had been narow minded, I was happy that way till I realized it. And as I realize I fantazise telling others about the right way, and at the same time when I see someone being narrow minded, I start pondering about his faults.

This has been happening not just with one thing, but anything I learn. When I try to lower my pride, I start finding faults in others who keep a big pride. When I try to be compassionate, I start finding faults in others who are not. When I want to proceed on the path to dharma, I start finding fault in others who do not realize that path to Dharma is good.

So it seems it is one step front and one step back. One step front, because I found something good and corrected myself, and one step back because I start finding fault in others. So overall there is no progress.

I think I can get rid of it only once I have love for all living beings and start looking them as a living being, and have compassion for their faults. I do not know when I would be able to achieve such state.
(Related quality in Jainism: Samyakdrishti has a quality 'Upguhan' which means not looking at fault of others.)

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes Part 1

From the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi Ji:

• बड़ों के दोष न देखने का गुण मुझ में स्वभाव से ही था । बाद में इन शिक्षक के दूसरे दोष भी मुझे मालूम हुए थे । फिर भी उनके प्रति मेरा आदर बना ही रहा । मैं यह जानता था कि बड़ों का आज्ञा का पालन करना चाहिये । वे जो कहें सो करना करे उसके काजी न बनना ।
• श्रवण का वह दृश्य भी देखा, जिसमें वह अपने माता-पिता को काँवर में बैठाकर यात्रा पर ले जाता हैं। मन में इच्छा होती कि मुझे भी श्रवण के समान बनना चाहिये ।
• इन्हीं दिनों कोई नाटक कंपनी आयी थी और उसका नाटक देखने की इजाजत मुझे मिली थी। उस नाटक को देखते हुए मैं थकता ही न था। हरिशचन्द का आख्यान था । उस बारबार देखने की इच्छा होती थी । लेकिन यों बारबार जाने कौन देता ? पर अपने मन में मैने उस नाटक को सैकड़ो बार खेला होगा । हरिशचन्द की तरह सत्यवादी सब क्यों नहीं होते ? यह धुन बनी रहती । हरिशचन्द पर जैसी विपत्तियाँ पड़ी वैसी विपत्तियों को भोगना और सत्य का पालन करना ही वास्तविक सत्य हैं ।
• मेरी राय हैं कि घनिष्ठ मित्रता अनिष्ट हैं, क्योंकि मनुष्य दोषों को जल्दी ग्रहण करता हैं । गुण ग्रहण करने के लिए प्रयास की आवश्यकता हैं । जो आत्मा की, ईश्वर की मित्रता चाहता हैं, उसे एकाकी रहना चाहिये, अथवा समूचे संसार के साथ मित्रता रखनी चाहिये । ऊपर का विचार योग्य हो तो अथवा अयोग्य, घनिष्ठ मित्रता बढ़ाने का मेरा प्रयोग निष्फल रहा ।\
• पत्नी पति की दासी नहीं, पर उलकी सहचारिणी हैं, सहधर्मिणी हैं , दोनो एक दूसरे के सुख-दुःख के समान साझेदार हैं , और भला-बुरा करने की जितनी स्वतंत्रता पति को हैं उतनी ही पत्नी को हैं ।
• इस प्रकार की शान्त क्षमा पिताजी के स्वभाव के विरुद्ध थी । मैने सोचा था कि वे क्रोध करेंगे, शायद अपना सिर पीट लेंगे । पर उन्होंने इतनी अपार शान्ति जो धारण की , मेरे विचार उसका कारण अपराध की सरल स्वीकृति थी । जो मनुष्य अधिकारी के सम्मुख स्वेच्छा से और निष्कपट भाव से अपराध स्वीकार कर लेता हैं और फिर कभी वैसा अपराध न करने की प्रतिज्ञा करता हैं, वह शुद्धतम प्रायश्चित करता हैं ।
• नीति का एक छप्पय दिल में बस गया । अपकार का बदला अपकार नहीं, उपकार ही हो सकता हैं , यह एक जीवन सूत्र ही बन गया । उसमे मुझ पर साम्राज्य चलाना शुरु किया । अपकारी का भला चाहना और करना , इसका मैं अनुरागी बन गया । इसके अनगिनत प्रयोग किये। वह चमत्कारी छप्पय यह हैं :
  पाणी आपने पाय, भलुं भोजन तो दीजे
  आवी नमावे शीश , दंडवत कोडे कीजे ।
  आपण घासे दाम, काम महोरोनुं करीए
  आप उगारे प्राण, ते तणा दुःखमां मरीए ।
  गुण केडे तो गुण दश गणो, मन, वाचा, कर्मे करी
  अपगुण केडे जो गुण करे, तो जगमां जीत्यो सही ।
  (जो हमें पानी पिलाये , उसे हम अच्छा भोजन कराये । जो हमारे सामने सिर नवाये, उसे हम उमंग से दण्डवत् प्रणाम करे । जो हमारे लिए एक पैसा खर्च करे, उसका हम मुहरों की कीमत का काम कर दे । जो हमारे प्राण बचाये , उसका दुःख दूर करने के लिए हम अपने प्राणो तक निछावर कर दे । जो हमारी उपकार करे , उसका हमे मन, वचन और कर्म से दस गुना उपकार करना ही चाहिये । लेकिन जग मे सच्चा और सार्थक जीना उसी का हैं , जो अपकार करने वाले के प्रति भी उपकार करता हैं ।)
  
  

Poem: मेरे वीर प्रभु

मेरे वीर प्रभु:

मैं सुदामा तुम कृष्ण, कैसे आऊं तुम द्वार
लाज मारे चरण ना बङे, ना हो दहलीज पार

कुएं का मेंडक कुएं मे रहे, ना देखे उसके पार
कहां भाग्य मेरे प्रभुवर, जो आऊं तुम दरबार

इन्द्र आयें दरबार तुम्हारे, करे तुम दर्शन
मैं अभागा दूर से ही, नाम लेके करू कीर्तन

मुनिवर अपने पवित्र ह्रदय में, लेते तुम्हारा नाम
मेरे काले ह्रदय में, कैसे बिठाऊ तुम्हे भगवान

शक्ति नहीं प्रभु कि कर लूं तुम वचनो का भान
शब्द गम्भीर मुझको लगे, क्योंकि मैं निपट अजान

तुम अंगुलि पकङ के, लायो निज दरबार,
कहां मुझ मे सामर्थ, जो करूं दहलीज भी पार

तुम देशना सरल करी, बतायो कल्याण पथ
मैं तो अविवेकी हमेशा से,सेवा विषय कुपथ

तुम नाम जपता रहू, पाऊ तीन रतन
२४ भगवान के मार्ग पर, हो जाऊं अर्पण।

How can I trust myself?

As a kid I used to solve problems and always found out that the elders can solve it better. So my perception developed that as I have more and more experience I can find the 'right solutions'.

And this gave me a deep inspiration to keep solving problems to enhance my skills to that extent that I can find the right solutions consistently.

However my perception changes now, when at the age of 30, I got to interact with elders. And I realize that even after so much experience they are not able to find the right solutions. Their understandings and opinions keep changing, which brings my opinions, undertsanding in circle of doubt. Now, it makes me wonder how can I really trust the correctness of my understandings and findings.

This just does not bring untrust in me, but the human race in general. The human race keeps finding solutions and not able to find the right one always.

Since I can not trust myself, the question is whom I can really trust, so that I can do the right thing. And it seems the only one whom I can trust is the Omniscient, and the Gurus who know what Omniscient says. Since The Omniscient knows the entire world, and the laws through which the world works, only HE can be 100% trustworthy to tell the right things, and the right path for me and for anybody.

Therefore it only makes sense to surrender oneself to the Omniscient, and that is the right thing to do. And that is the only thing which I can think I trust myself on.

Poem: मेरे गुरू - पूज्य जिनेन्द्र वर्णी

पूज्य जिनेन्द्र वर्णी जी महाराज:

अमृत बिन्दु जहां-जहां पङे, वहां-वहां अमृत होये।
गुरू नजर जिस जिस पर गिरे, उस उस मे गुरूता होये॥

पङा पथ पर मैं दुर्बुद्धी, अनादि से ज्ञानहीन।

अब तो प्रभु चरण रज लगा दो, करदो मिथ्याहीन॥

पथिक तुम्ही हो, सन्त तुम्ही हो, जानो विश्व का ज्ञान।

मु्झको तुम वाणी सुलभ हुई, फ़िर भी मैं रहा अजान

अब तो सन्तेश्वर हाथ पकङ्कर, लेलो अपने साथ।

तुम नाम दिन रात जपू, करू जो आप कहो नाथ॥

ना विवेक है, ना ज्ञान है, है बस एक अज्ञान

ना चारित्र है, ना संयम है, फ़िर भी किया मान॥

प्रभु अगर अब नही, पकङोगे मेरा हाथ,

कोई नहीं तुमको पूजेगा, नहीं कहेगा नाथ ॥

तुम वचन से उबर गये, नर, पशु और चोर

कोई कारण नहीं कि, मुझे दो इस दुनिया मे छोङ

कैसे करू प्रार्थना अब मै, कि ले लो मुझे अपने संग

अल्प बुद्धि हू, अल्प मति हू, जानू ना भक्ति के ढंग

मुझे मालूम है, कि शरण तुमने दी है भर भर

जाने क्यों मैं रहा अछूता, इस संसार मे अटक कर

अब एक तुम्ही सहारा हो, तुम्ही प्रभु, तुम्ही ईश्वर

एक बार कृपा कर दो, दे दो अमरता का वर॥

Expectation contour

I have been thinking about the psychological causes behind our Raag and Dwesh. In one of my earlier posts after having discussion with Dhanendra ( Link to post ), I have written the following:

"Question: If someone is acting unfair to me. Should I have bad feeling for him.

Answer: No. because he is unfair because of his upbrining. And hence the real cause if his parents. And why his parents taught him wrong things - because they were taught badly by their experiences and their own teaching. So now the real cause is something else. It seems there is a big chain of cause and effect relations- so we can not just blame the person who is acting unfair to me."

I have been always wondering why knowing above truth decreases our bad feelings about someone who is acting fair to us. The reason seems to be that after above reasoning we realize the truth, and it diffuses our expectations of him being fair to me.

I realize that we usually have a contour of expectations. We have a perception of right and wrong. And from our experiences, while interacting with others, we build a set of expectations with others. As an example: If we know 100 people in our life, we associate some kind of 'goodness' and 'badness' with them. And according to this association and our "wisdom" of rightness/wrongness, we build expectations from the people. These expectation are not bounded only to these 100 people, but in fact to the whole world. We have general expectations from a stranger, a political, a humanitarian, a scientist, a businessman etc. I am calling these set of expectations, which is associated with various people, as 'Expectation Contour'.

Now let see when we get bad or good feelings.

• We have bad feelings when something happens which is against the expectation contour.
• And we have good feelings when things happen according to expectations or they surpass expectations.
• We have mixed feelings when part of things happen according to expectations and part do not.

Dynamics of Expectation contour: Our expectation contour keeps changing as our understanding about other persons change. And accordingly our good feelings/bad feelings change.

• Example: If we meet a rude person we have a bad feeling. Later when we know that he is orphan and could not inculcate love within him because he did not get love from his parents. Our bad feelings turn into compassion for him.

Expectations of a knowledgeable person:
A knowledgeable person would not have any bad/good feelings. Let us see what a knowledgeable person would have:

1. Either he will know know what is going to happen. In this case there is no reason for good/bad feelings. This happens in omniscience state.
2. He would not know what is going to happen. And therefore all happenings will be acceptable to him.
3. He would have some kind of estimates or guesses. After he has the outcome, he would not blame others for what happened. But he would know that his estimate/guess was wrong.

In either of above cases there is no room of good or bad feelings for a knowledgeable person.

Difference in the knowledgeable and un-knowledgeable person: There is a big difference in the expectation contour of un-knowledgeable and knowledgeable person. An un-knowledgeable person would want to see the world according to his expectation/estimate contour, while a knowledgeable person would want to see his expectation/estimate contour according to the reality.

How to conquer Anger and Worry

In order to get rid of stress and worry one should get rid of his expectations first.

With every stress, worry- there is an expectation or attachment behind- which when does not get fulfilled, it results in stress, worry.

Wrong path: Directly trying to get rid of stress and worry. It does not work.

Right path: Identify the attachment or expectation which was hurt, and caused the anger, worry. Then try to win the attachment.

Details of the right path:
In order to get rid of worry, anger, one needs to get rid of expectation or attachment first. Getting rid of worry does not work directly.

In order to get rid of expectation or attachment, one needs to realize that he is complete in himself as a spirit. If one considers himself as a body he would not be able to realize that he is complete in himself. As an alternative, he should realize he is better off without the thing/condition he has attachment towards.

In order to realize himself as complete, he needs to realize the true nature of spirit. Also that he does not need any worldly thing to reach his true potential. And hence there is no expectation needed from any worldly thing.

Steps: So here are the steps in straightforward manner:

1. First I realize that I am a spirit, who is complete in itself. And I do not need anybody else. I do not need anybody now, neither in future. Also I never needed in the past.
2. Second, the above step will remove all attachments and expectations from all worldly things including body, family, car etc, including the attachments which are causing me stress.
3. Thirdly, it will remove all the stress and worry produced by above things.

There are no ideal conditions in life

It seems there are no ideal conditions in life. We need to achieve our goals in whatever circumstances we have. The idea to wait for ideal circumstances is a flop policy.

The Lords Swami Parswanaath, Swami Mahavira did not wait for the ideal conditions, but they did their effort with whatever circumstances they had. Whether they had to suffer Kamath upsarg or whether Swami Mahavira was in form of lion.

There are two kind of 'best possible efforts':
1. Actual 'best possible efforts': These are the actual best possible efforts
2. Pseudo 'best possible efforts': These are the best actual efforts which one thinks one can. And one may be wrong here in terms of realizing his potential.

For a householder, he should not wait for the ideal conditions to pop up. He should become a saint, and if he can not- then he should break the boundaries of 'his notion of best possible efforts' and reach to the real boundaries. If we just do efforts within out notion of best possible, then there would be no progress since that is what we have been doing.

In words of Acharya Tulsi's words :
"ज्यों ज्यों चरण बङेंगे आगे, स्वतः मार्ग बन जायेगा,
हटना होगा उसे बीच में, जो बाधक बन जायेगा,
रूक ना सकेगी, मुङ ना सकेगी,
सत्य कान्ती की उज्जवल धारा,
प्रभु तुम्हारे पावन पथ पर, जीवन अर्पण है सारा"

Problems with Western medical science

(Source: Deepak Chopra Wellness Radio - January 3rd, from intent.com : http://www.intent.com/podcasts/2009/01/15/deepak-chopra-wellness-radio-january-3rd#comments)

In order to heal a living being, Science tries to understand the body and tries to fix it by using scientific laws. However the living being is combination of spirit and body, and the problems which manifests in body is combination of mechanical laws followed by the body and how spirit influenced the body. Therefore Science is not able to find the right solution.

Holistic approach: Look at body and spirit both
Body- exercising, food, living style etc
spirit- happy, relation with family and child, excitement towards life etc.

Mother teresa - In final analysis

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.

(from Wayne dyer's lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Ql5w-YXBY&feature=related )

Problem inside, but looking solution outside

There was a guy whose key fell inside house, and there was electricity cut and he could not see the key. However there was street light outside- so he went out and started looking for the keys outside.

The same way we have troubles inside, while we look for remedy in outer world, and in others. We have hate for someone- Instead for finding remedy for it, we start looking for remedy for who we have hate for.

Meeting with Acharya Vidyanand Ji

Like a big tree is outcome from a small seed, similarly a great achievement which follows great actions is outcome from a noble thought. I was in India in december'08, and I had this noble thought to have Darshan of Acharya Vidyanand Ji. I have heard a lot about Him from Pt. Narendra Prakash Ji whom I met during Das Laxan.

I went to KundKund Bharati in Delhi, which was a very good building sorrounded by green trees and full of serenity. There was a big building, and a big lawn in the front. At a corner of lawn there was a small hut where Acharya Shree sits from 3 to 3:30 in the afternoon. I reached there 15 minutes early and waited for him to come. I was watching the hut, some Jain magazine which were resting in the hut, and enjoying the peace.

At around 3 PM Acharya Shree Ji comes, and asks me where I had come from. I gave him a nice introduction about my residence and my interest in religion. He asks me to wait, and then strolls around the garden and then comes to the hut, and takes His seat. And I start my usual questions and answers about Jainism.

After a warm up of questions and answers about 'Darshan', 'Gyan' etc, I ask him - "I have been reading SamayaSaar Ji, but I am not able to understand it. What should I do?"

He replied - "I was in Calcutta for some number of years and was close to the library which had thousands of books and read a lot. It needs a lot of reading." And then he pauses and adds, "One needs to understand spirituality of other religions in order to appreciate the dharma told by Mahavira."

A story: Division on the basis of races

Once upon a time, there was a shepherd, who had many sheeps. A person from a distant country came to visit him, and wanted to know about his sheeps.
He asks- "How much do your sheeps eat in a day"
Shepherd: "I have so many sheeps. Which ones you want to know about - white ones or black ones?"
Person: "White ones"
Shepherd: "exactly 3.5 pounds a day"
Person: "And back ones?"
Shepherd: "3.5 pounds a day"

The person is perplexed. He asks : "How much do your sheeps travel in a day"
Shepherd: "Which ones - white ones of black ones?"
Person: "Lets say white ones"
Shepherd: "I have measured it, and they exactly walk 6 miles a day"
Person: "And what about the black ones"
Shepherd: "They also do 6 miles"

The person gets more perplexed. He asks: "How much wool do your sheeps produce in a season?"
Shepherd: "Which ones - white ones or black ones?"
Person: "Lets say white ones"
Shepherd: "I have measured it, and they produce exactly 6 pounds of wool in a season"
Person: "And what about the black ones"
Shepherd: "They also do 6 pounds"

The person gets irritated and asks - "First I ask you a question and you ask me whether I want to know for white ones or black ones. And ultimately you tell me same for both of them. Then why do you ask whether it is for the white ones or black ones?"
Shepherd: "There is a reason behind it. It is because I have raised the white one. I have nurtured them."
Person: " Ohh I understand it now. And how about the black ones?"
Shepherd: "Actually, I have raised them too!"

The moral of the story is that there is actually not a difference in the white ones and black ones- it is we who make difference in our mind by dividing things on the bases of colors. Eseentially they are all same.

All have the same soul, and their form is not that important. While what we look at is just the form and keep dividing on the basis of back, white, mexican, colorful etc. And on the basis of caste - brahamin, kshatriya, vaishya, shudra. Or Jain, Hindu, Sikha etc. Or man, woman, animal etc. Essentially all of them are same souls.

(Inspired by a lecture of Wayne Dyer)

Cooperation vs Competetion

(Inspired from book- 'You'll see it, when you believe it' - by Wayne Dyer. Page 26)

We have this desire to be better than others. And this desire stems from the fact that we care what others think of us. Lets see why we do that.

We are mix of our natural self and unnatural self. Natural self is our inherent properties like Gyaan, Sukha etc. And Unnatual self is our anger, our knowledge acquired in life, our looks, our possessions etc.

A Gyaani identifies himself with his natural self and an agyaani identifies himself with his unnatural self. A Gyani wants to achieve spiritual qualities and therefore want to attain Moksha. On the other hand an agyaani wants to attain the best 'unnatural qualities to soul' which are considered great worldly. If he can not achieve best then he wants to best in his local community. And if he can not be best in his local community, then he wants to atleast maintain an average standard locally. And this gives him a sense of relativism- and ignite competetion in him. Also he like to laugh at the bad qualities of others because that gives him a good feeling.

On the other hand for a Gyaani- he wants to attain spiritual qualities, and since the goal is Moksha- being good locally does not give him satisfaction. 'Relativistim' does not exist in his dictionary, since he has absolute goals to achieve moksha. When he look at others- he look at their 'goods' to follow, and look at 'bads' as compassion.

To summarize:

• Gyaani believes in co-operation while agyaani believe in competetion.
• Gyaani believes in compassion while agyanni believes in thinking about bad qualities of others and hate them.
• Gyaani corrects others if they go on the wrong track, while agyaani makes fun of them.

Cause and Effect relation in between soul and body

Here are the cause and effect relations in between soul and body as per Text Moksha Marg prakshak Ji, Page 80-81, Chapter 4:

1. Knowledge: As windows helps us know what is outside. Similarly senses and Mann helps the soul gain knowledge.
2. Making voice: As a flute guy pumps out air, and the flute makes sound, similarly soul does the motion and sound comes from body.
3. Motion in body by soul: As a driver moves his hands and legs, and accordingly the car moves. Similarly soul moves and accordingly body moves.
4. Motion in soul by body: As the car moves by quake outside, and the driver moves. Similarly soul moves by the movement of body by external causes.
5. Body's response to soul's emotions: When soul does emotions, the body responds accordingly. When soul has anger, the eyes turn red. When soul is happy, the face smiles etc.
6. Souls pleasure/happiness with bodily changes: With heat or cold, the body temperature goes up or down. And soul gets happy/sad with changes of temperature because of Moha.
7. Changes in body with age: As age increases, the body expands or contracts.

Analogy with driver and Car:

• Color: As someone drives a red car- it does not mean that the driver is red. Similarly, if a spirit is in a red body, it does mean the spirit is red. So it mean I am neither black of white.
• Weight: As someone drives a small car sometimes, and othertimes drive a heavy truck. It does not mean the person gets light or heavy. Similarly, the spirit does not have a weight- it is the body which has the weight.
• Kula: As someone goes to a Toyota showroom, and buys a toyota camry car. After 2 years he junks the car, and then go to a Honda one and buys a Honda accord. And after 5 years he junks the Honda one, and gets a Ford one. It does not mean that he belonged to Toyota lineage, and then Honda and then Ford. Similarly, a spirit gets a body from varous families. That does not mean the soul gets the kul of Brahamn, Kshatriya etc.
• Disease: Lets say the car break down on the Freeway and you can not move because of it. Does that mean you are broken down? Similarly, a disease happens in a body- that does not mean the car is diseased.

Analogy with bike:

• Male/Female: There are two kind of bikes- one is male and other is female bike. If a man rides a female bike, does that mean he will become female. Similarly, a soul does not become male or female with the kind of body it rides.
  

Desire to be better than others

We have this hidden desire to make ourselves feel better than others. This desire comes from the 'Maan and lobh Kashaya- emotions of pride and greed'.

This desire manifests itself in various ways :

• We like to listen or talk bad about poeple around. Because internally it makes us feel good because it satisfies our desire to be better than others. This behaviour is against the 'Upguhan' guna of Samyakdrishti.
• We get fond of praise from others. Since we want to feel better- praise is something we really like. And we do so many things to get the praise from others to make ourself feel better.

Mera pana (My-Ness)

What do we mean when we say - "this is mine"

The work 'Mine(mera)' is used in two contexts by an Agyaani:
1. Ownership: When we own something. Example: my money, my son etc
2. When we have 'sanyog' with something. Example: my country, my caste etc

Lets think- what do we mean by ownership. When we say - that we own something, it means I can make decisions for the thing. For example if I own my house - it means I can change my house according to my will. And if I say I own my wife- it would mean I can make her do what pleases me. If I say I own 20 crores, I mean I have the money at my disposal and I can do what I want.

However, this is a wrong belief. Because I do not own things- I can do what I want until my antaraya karama kshyopksham and sata vedniya are favorable. When they are unfavorable, the same object cease to remain in my control. Therefore my expectation from the object does not hold, because my control only possible if favorable karma is there.

The favorable karma is there for some amount of time, and this makes one think that he owns stuff which is actually wrong.

Analysis on 'Body is mine':
Ifr we just think that I have physical attachment with body, then it makes sense. But if I start thinking that i have control it in the future also and I can make it do what I want, then I am wrong.

Because of favorable Karma, I may have some freedom to do things as I want. However this does not mean ownership.

When one knows above fact then he gets detached with body and object around. Since the attachment was there when he had expectations and therefore desires.

Bollywood spoils us

Bollywood shows us a good image of materialistic world. And makes us feel that is the right thing and this inspires us set goals towards that. And that spoils us.

Problems which money can't solve

We pile up money. So much that we think we are secure. But unfortunately even from worldly point of views, the money does not solve so many problems for us. It just solves us the problem of basic necessaties and satisfying sensory pleasures. It can not help solving my bad relations with my friends or siblings. One can not choose his kid with the help of money. One can not bring satisfaction, perservance and other good qualities with the help of money. Then why the heck one spends so much effort in piling the money which is not needed.

A story

There was a guy, who wanted to know the truth. He explored around the world to listen to the people who claimed to know the truth and the path to ultimate bliss. The information filled him with cloud of questions and stifled him in a world of confusion leading to nowhere. Sphered by dark, suffocated by doubts, the only thing he could ask for was - a divine light.

And comes a Guru with a torch of knowledge to rescue him. He disperses the clouds and breaks the sphere of dark. Enlightened, the guy sings in joy in the rain of right knowledge. Expands his wings of knowledge he starts to learn the world by flying high and salutes the feet of Guru.

Gradually the light gets clearer and clearer, until the guy gets confident. Now he know the truth and next step is the journey towards the path to ultimate bliss.

Misfortune strikes with mix of immaturity! Now the guy listens to sermons of the Guru with less devotion. Because he is overconfident, also can figure out the minute faults in the preaching by the Guru. The old habit of negative thinking from multiple births persist, and it hampers his progress towards the path. Because now he is happy and satisfied with his achievements and deviates in the directions of negativities because of not having strong pursuit of the path to bliss.

Emotional world and Physical world

It seems we live in two worlds - emotional world and physical world.

Physical world are the objects for which we have emotions. For example- body, parents, wife, son, siblings, friends, house, city, possessions etc.
Emotional world consists of emotions we have for the physical world, and also imaginations for its future, and pasts. The imaginations for the future would include our possible planning for the future, bracing ourselves for unexpected incidents etc.

In our journey of life through various births and deaths- it is the emotional world and its consequences (karma) which we carry along, and not the physical one. For example: When we do good to someone because of love or compassion- It is not the 'someone' who goes along with us, but the emotions of love or compassion goes along with us.

When we hate someone and want to do bad to him. It is not the 'Him' who will go along- but just the consequesnces of emotions.

Then whey do hate or love someone ---- ? It does not make sense in the world where soul in inherently detached because of no longterm attachments.

On other angle, our physical world today is manifestation of what our emotional world was in the past. When someone do good to us- it is not 'someone' who is doing good- but our Punya who is doing good. And when Punya ends, the 'someone' shows his/her bad face. And because of 'not having wisdom' we start blaming him/her, and not hold my past emotional world responsible for it. If we start our past emotional world responsible, then we would only want to go emotionalless from there.

When one understands this secret- his love and hate towards physical world starts diminishing. And therefore emotional world also starts diminishing. And the pure sublime rises, bringing endless bliss and knowledge .

Their world is small

There seems like a rough scale associated with living beings. The scale consists of their number of senses, knowledge, time and emotions. This scale is rough because there are many exceptions to it.

As living being has a less senses, he has less knowledge, less age and specific emotions do not last longer. Their world is smaller.

For example -

1. An Ant in the kitchen has a small body and less understanding of the world around. For him the world would be where it stays and how does the food smell. Sense of hearing, and the landscape of whole house is also not known to him.
2. For a more advanced living being like a fly, the world is little bigger. He can move around and know more. His age is more, and the world gets a little bigger.
3. For a more advanced living being like a child, the world is little bigger - he has more knowledge. And for an elder human, the knoweldge is even more and has more understanding of the world and that gives them ability to have longer lasting emotions.
4. For a dev, it would be even more- as his age and knowledge is more. However the 'Dwesh emotions' are less in them, because they are in 'comfortable zone'.

Proving Mahaveer Swami was omniscient

Conversation in between two persons to find whether Mahaveer really exisited and omniscient:

Non Believer: How do we know whether Mahavir Swami really existed?

Believer: He did. People during those times saw this and passed it on to the new generations.

Non Believer: It may have happened that some one created just hype, and there was actually nobody with the name Mahavir in those times.

Believer: Just imagine if we want to do that kind of thing in current time, would we be able to do it? Lets say we want to create an imaginary person 'XYZ' and propogate around that XYZ exists. It will not be possible, since people will be able to figure it out.

And let us say we are able to succeed in propagating it, then there would be a set of people who would not agree with us without really seeing 'XYZ', and would create scriptures telling that either XYZ does not exist, or not seen by the masses. None of above things happened to Mahavir. Nobody refuted his existence. The contemporary schools of religions like Buddhism and Hindu schools accpeted his exisitence. Hence there is no question that he really existed.

Non Believer: Okay, I agree that he exisited. But how do I assure that he was omniscient.

Believer: Okay.. Let us imagine in current times a person 'ABC' who is actually not omniscient, but he himself starts propagating that he is omniscient. In that case there would be three ways people would react to it:
a. One category is people who will start worshipping him.
b. Second category is people who will outrightly reject it, and do not agree to it.
c. Third category is peope who will get curious and go to meet him to test his omniscience.

The first category of people will start following him. Second category may talk about their rejectence around- but they are not worth listening to.

The third category will meet him and test his omniscience. And if they are not satisfied, they will propogate their doubts around. And disprove his omniscience based on the facts they saw. And this way the hyprocrisy of ABC will be known. And nobody will believe 'ABC'.

With Mahavir, there was no third category who disproved his omniscience. People who came over were able to see their previous and next 7 births. And were able to get satisfactory answers to all questions.

It is not at all possible for someone, who is not omniscient, to be on the earth and claim that he is omniscient. His hypocrisy will be broken very soon. One who is on the ground, has to be omniscient in order to claim that he is omniscient.

And the most important thing is - Arihants are the only living omniscient soul who stay on the ground. In no religion other than Jainism, had the omniscient preaching on the ground. They all have messengers or God in some other form coming down to the ground.

Western Education and Satisfaction

Western education teaches us to optimize things. In all engineering problems, we learn how can we optimize things.

And by solving these problems we get this attitude of optimizing things in all aspects of life. And the same things happens with career also- we want to optimize life to get the best out of career and lose the family life and Dharma.

This attitude increases greed and takes us away from satisfaction, which has been an inherent element in Indian culture.