Why the hell do I exist ?

Many who take to the spiritual path have this question every day in the morning when they have to get up at five. ‘Why should I do all this? The whole world wakes up at eight o’clock. Why should I get up at five o’clock? Everybody eats five meals a day. Why should I eat two? Everybody is looking happy, like Mother Earth. (Gestures to show round figure.) Why should I look like this?’ That is Mother Earth’s shape; that is not the human shape, but a lot of people are trying to imitate Her.

So this question always comes up, ‘Why should I do this?’ Of course traditionally, they would say, ‘You must realize yourself, you must realize God. You must attain liberation.’ But in the morning, you say, ‘I don’t want liberation. I just want to sleep. I don’t want to see God. I just want to eat well. I am really not interested in meeting God. I just want to meet the neighbourhood girl or boy.’ These thoughts will come up, they are very chemically supported. Spiritual longing is not chemically supported. But still, the question of ‘why’ becomes very big. ‘Why? Why?’

If you had the intelligence of a worm, there would be no ‘why.’ If you even had the intelligence of a buffalo – it is a bigger brain than you, at least a bigger head – you would not have these problems. The problem is what you see as creation. If you look at it closely enough, everything is contradictory. If you are just engrossed in one thing, it looks like it is complete by itself. When your hormones are spiced up and they are ruling your body and your brain, it looks like that is the very purpose of life. Then when you get married you think, ‘Why the hell did I get caught up in this?’ So the question is not about whether life works out well or not. The question is just whether you have a working head or not. If you have a working brain, it does not matter how well life arranges itself. ‘Why the hell am I stuck in this?’ will anyway come.

If you have observed and paid attention to the nature of the creation, you will have to learn to exist in contradiction, which makes you very compromised. Only somebody who is completely blind, only somebody who never pays attention to his own emotions, thoughts and actions can believe that he is all right. Otherwise, if you pay enough attention, you know it is all a terrible compromise. Wherever you are put, it doesn’t matter where, if you have a working head, it will ask, ‘Why? Why am I in this?’ People try to freeze their brains with all kinds of things, but it will not work. If you have an active working brain, the ‘why’ will come soon. If you have a frozen brain, it will come at the moment of death.

My blessing is the question, ‘Why do I exist, why am I doing this?’ This should come to you at the earliest possible time so that you have the necessary energy and strength, and you are not so heavily encumbered that you cannot choose the path which will liberate you from this ‘why’ and the torment of ‘why.’ The ‘why’ becomes very big – you cannot sleep. You cannot sit in one place peacefully. You cannot do anything properly because this is the very nature of existence. Only somebody, only a creature which is below the mind can settle into this existence. One who has a working mind cannot settle into this existence. Whichever way you look at it, you cannot settle into it. If you are put in a city, you cannot settle into it; if you are put in the jungle, you cannot settle into it; if you are put in a small hut, you cannot settle into it; if you are put in a palace, you cannot settle into it; because that is the very nature of the existence. Existence is created like this, so that the human being does not stagnate. Wherever he is, it feels meaningless and he wants to move somewhere else. How compassionate the Divine is, that it somehow keeps you on your toes.

When we were on the Kailash Yatra, I saw some slackness in the way some things were being done, so I called the volunteers and teachers and said, ‘What is the problem? Has Kailash become mundane because you are coming every year? People would give their right hand to be here. What is the issue with you?’ Then they said, ‘No Sadhguru, we are just tired.’ I said, ‘Tired is good. You are not dead. Tired is not a problem. You are not dead, right? You are young.’ Then one of the participants said, ‘They have just been on their toes.’ I said, ‘That is the best way to live your life.’ Do you think being on your backside is a good way to be? Being on your toes is the best way to be. That means you have a life that is happening. You don’t have a stagnant life. You have a life that is happening all the time.

You must be fortunate that things are always happening – seven days of the week, three hundred and sixty-five days, it is happening. That is one thing you cannot complain about in Isha. You cannot say, ‘Nothing is happening.’ Something is happening all the time. This is very important. May you know the joy of action that leads to stillness.

Source Link :  http://blog.ishafoundation.org/sadhguru-spot/why-the-hell-do-i-exist/

Love and Grace,

Question: Why do you tell jokes? Osho

Osho: First, Religion is a complicated joke. If you don't laugh at all you have missed the point; if you only laugh you have missed the point again. It is a very complicated joke. And the whole of life is a great cosmic joke. It is not a serious phenomenon -- take it seriously and you will go on missing it. It is understood only through laughter.

Have you not observed that man is the only animal who laughs? Aristotle says man is the rational animal. That may not be true -- because ants are very rational and bees are very rational. In fact, compared to ants, man looks almost irrational. And a computer is very rational -- compared to a computer, man is very irrational.

My definition of man is that man is the laughing animal. No computer laughs, no ant laughs, no bee laughs. If you come across a dog laughing you will be so scared! Or a buffalo suddenly laughs: you may have a heart attack. It is only man who can laugh, it is the highest peak of growth.

And it is through laughter that you will reach to God -- because it is only through the highest that is in you that you can reach the ultimate. Laughter has to become the bridge. Laugh your way to God. I don't say pray your way to God, I say laugh your way to God. If you can laugh you will be able to love. If you can laugh you will be able to relax. Laughter relaxes like nothing else. So all jokes to me are prayers -- that's why I tell them.

Noam Chomsky: Julian Assange deserves applause

Someone who courageously carries out actions in defense of democratic rights deserves applause, not hysterical denunciation and punishment, Noam Chomsky says.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been granted political asylum by Ecuador, but he remains holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. If he leaves the compound, he will be arrested and extradited to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual assault. Assange denies the allegations and claims they are part of an effort to get him to the United States to face more serious charges related to his work for WikiLeaks. High-profile defenders like Michael Moore and Oliver Stone have recently published editorials in support of Assange. Now, professor and activist Noam Chomsky weighs in.

Julian Assange faces serious accusations from two women in Sweden, yet you've said that any decent country should grant him asylum. Why?

The accusations should be taken quite seriously, just as all such accusations should. Independent of that, no decent country would permit a person to be sent to a country where the chances of his receiving a fair trial are very limited. The apparent conflict can be easily resolved. Sweden claims only that they want to interrogate Assange. They have been invited to do that in England, or in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. They refuse. They could also issue a statement that they will not extradite Assange to the United States. They refuse.

Suppose that Assange had leaked Russian, rather than American, documents, and the circumstances were otherwise the same. Then Sweden would not hesitate for a moment to question Assange in the United Kingdom and to guarantee that he would not be extradited to Russia. Those who think that this analogy is unfair have something to learn about contemporary history. They can, for example, look at the brutal and criminal treatment of Bradley Manning, to take one of many examples.

It is worth adding that Sweden is quite willing to follow Washington's orders in even worse circumstances than this - for example, when the United States wanted Sweden to send someone to Mubarak's Egypt to be tortured.

According to documents published by WikiLeaks, the Ecuadorian government doesn't support freedom of the press domestically. Is it hypocritical for Assange to accept asylum from such a country?

Of course not, no more than it is hypocritical for him to stay in London, which has a shameful record of violation of freedom of press - of course, targeting weak and defenseless journals, so that it passes without comment. As for the charges against Ecuador, they should be evaluated seriously, just like those against England, France, and others. But it is irrelevant here.

What's at stake here?

At stake is the question of whether the citizens of a country have a right to know what their elected officials are doing. Those who have a lingering affection for an odd notion called "democracy" believe that this is important. To be sure, a state has the right to keep some matters secret. I haven't read all the WikiLeaks exposures, but I have read quite a few, and I have not seen an example of anything that could legitimately be kept secret, nor, to my knowledge, have the horde of angry critics presented an example. I should say that this is not unusual. Anyone who has spent time studying declassified documents is well aware that overwhelmingly, they are kept secret to protect elected officials from the scrutiny of citizens, not for defense or some other legitimate purpose.

Someone who courageously carries out actions in defense of democratic rights deserves applause, not hysterical denunciation and punishment. We understand that very well with regard to official enemies. Since you bring up the matter of "hypocrisy," it is the extreme of hypocrisy to refuse to apply the same standards to ourselves.

Noam Chomsky is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also written and lectured widely on intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs, and US foreign policy.

 

Source Link : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/interviews/Noam-Chomsky-Julian-Assange-deserves-applause/articleshow/15621507.cms

Originally published in The Mark News
www.themarknews.com

The significance of the using the word "We" instead of "You" .

This word "We" is really magical. If someone commits a mistake and if we have to point his mistake to him, we usually say that "You are the cause of all the turmoil because you handled things carelessly". Certainly, at this point, his ego will be on full alert and will not be able to listen what we were actually saying to him. Again if we make a simple replacement of word "You" by "We", the whole thing changes. For eg."We are the cause of all the turmoil because we handled things carelessly". Now, there is no blame game. We are enquiring together, if something has went wrong. So nobody is left out and there is ample space and time for us to introspect ourself. - Fidarose Isha.

Only Service minded people will be able to join our party - Arvind Kejriwal with English Subtitles

Aristotle ft. Sadhguru - Pablo

Woman who stalled Rs 5000 cr corrupt irrigation projects

Bureaucracy hits back at Anjali Damania by taking away her 59-acre farm, but she remains undeterred. Truly, todays Jhansi ki Rani, Laxmibai.

 

 

On Friday last week, when 42-year-old pathologist Anjali Damania received a government order informing her that she had lost ownership of a 59-acre farmland she had so lovingly nurtured for close to 18 years, it just brought a wry smile to her face. What is 59 acres for a woman who has stalled irrigation projects worth over Rs 5,000 crore across the state and who has become the pivot in a struggle against a corrupt system that lets project costs escalate to help contractors make obscene amounts of money.

    The forfeiture of her farm was the system hitting back at her, hoping she would get scared and abandon the movement. But on Monday, when this correspondent met Damania at her residence, it did not look like she was afraid or was contemplating laying down arms.

    Activism was thrust upon this softspoken mother of two who till a year ago led a comfortable life, dividing her time between the farm, her medical practice and foreign holidays.

    Farmers' rights, human displacement, cost escalation in government projects and land acquisition were phrases she had read in the passing in newspapers and heard on evening TV news.

    She was just trying to save her land in Karjat which was to be acquired for the construction of a dam when she stumbled upon papers that showed how dams that would displace thousands of people and destroy acres of cultivable land were cleared in a matter of weeks. The papers also revealed how project costs were increased manifolds just days after a contractor bagged the project.

    The first set of figures that she managed to get hold were shocking. The cost of Kondhane dam, for which the government had sought to acquire her farm, had jumped from Rs 56 crore to Rs 328 crore barely a month after the contract was awarded. That's a cost escalation of nearly 600 per cent. Of course, this was done because a local elected representative demanded that the dam height be increased from 39 meters to 71 meters.

    Damania's struggle, which has spurred several activists to question cost escalation in irrigation projects across the state, started in May last year when she was told her 30-acre farm in Kondhane, Karjat would be have to acquired for a dam project. When she met local irrigation officials, they confirmed that such a project was being planned, but that the same had still not moved even to the drawing board stage. A complacent Damania went on a month-long holiday with her family.

    It was big mistake. When she returned, she found out that the project had been approved, tendered and a contractor appointed.

    Her immediate reaction was to save her farm that she had grown so attached to. Soon, project coordinators approached her to acquire the land. "They kept increasing the price thinking that I was acting like any other landholder trying to get the best deal. Frankly, I was like any other landholder, ignorant about my rights and how to protect them," she said.

    When pressure increased, Damania decided to sleuth around. She sought documents pertaining to the dam under RTI from the irrigation department. The first lot of basic documents revealed the shocking jump in construction costs. The documents also revealed that the project report was prepared, tender floated, and a contractor appointed in less than a month. This is when she realised something was amiss.

    At this juncture, Damania decided to get to the bottom of the issue and met up with several residents from other areas in Maharashtra where similar dam projects were proposed. "To my utter shock, it was the same story everywhere. Identical clutch of contractors bid for the projects everywhere. Contracts were awarded within days. At times, tender notices were published in newspapers a day or two after the project had already been awarded. Barely a month after the contract was awarded, scope of work was increased and cost went up manifold. None of the contractors were capable or technically sound to handle such huge projects," said Damania.

    This is some of the additional information that Damania was able to unearth. The cost of Kalu dam in Thane district had jumped from Rs 640 crore to Rs 1400 crore soon after the work was allotted. Similarly, the cost of Balganga dam in Pen jumped from Rs 420 crore to Rs 1,320 crore and for Shai dam the cost rose from Rs 410 crore to Rs 1,339 crore.

    As Damania began nosing around more, she started getting threat calls at her residence. Her family of stock-brokers freaked out. Her father-in-law issued an ultimatum - she would not be allowed to put everybody at risk for her work. "Fortunately, a few days later a television channel was featuring a programme on farmers' plight in a region where a big dam hadn't taken off as planned. Suddenly, my father-in-law turned towards me and told me that I should go all out after the scam and expose it to help poor farmers."

    She now began seeking documents pertaining to specific contractors and projects and it became more difficult to break through the bureaucracy. She was given lame excuses by irrigation department for not giving out documents. Her appeals under RTI Act went unheard. And when she eventually confronted Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation babus in their offices, she was told that the documents were nowhere to be found. "I just sat there and told them that I would not budge till I get my papers. I was scared that they will book me on some false pretext so I alerted my friends and India Against Corruption volunteers, who joined me in large numbers. Finally, at 7 pm the officials opened the cupboards and allowed me to take whatever I needed and photocopied them for me," she said.

    Armed with several relevant documents, she met Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in May this year, who stayed work on Kondhane dam and asked his officers to prepare a white paper on the state's irrigation projects. Work on several other dams, where she had been able to expose the nexus between bureaucrats and contractors, was stalled too. Earlier this year, she filed a Public Interest Litigation at the Bombay High Court.

    Just when Damania thought she was going strong in exposing corruption in irrigation projects, the system hit back. Damania received a notice from the tehsildar in Kondhane stating that she would have to surrender all the parcels of land that she had bought in the last 18 years. The reason cited was that since all these land parcels, barring one bought in 1994, were agriculture plots, only a farmer could buy them.

    Damania tried to prove that her first plot she bought from a cultivation company in Mahagaon, Raigad, was non-cultivated but fertile land. Over the years she and her husband had started cultivating it. "I showed them photographs of my land. I tried asking them as to why they took 18 years to realise that my first acquisition was illegal. I was obviously being targeted to get me off the case," Damania alleged.

    Of course, all her arguments were rejected. On Friday, she received a final order stating that all her land had been acquired by the state.

    Damania's resolve to fight against corruption hasn't diminished. She still continues to dig up documents on various other under-construction dams in the state.

Where is God?

A Flexible Relationship - Osho on Rabindranath Tagore's Novel "Aakhari Kavitha" which means "The Last Poem"..

"A flexible relationship where you come close and you move away has not been developed. That is one of the misfortunes of humanity. I would like to contribute to the future a concept of flexible relationship -- not fixed and dead.

Rabindranath, in one of his novels, AAKHARI KAVITA, which means, "the last poem" -- it is not a book of poetry, it is a novel; just the name is "The Last Poem" -- the hero in the novel wants to be married to a highly cultured and educated woman who is very rich and very beautiful. The woman is willing, but with a condition.

The condition -- she has a big lake, just by the side of her palace -- is that: "I will make you another palace on the other side of the lake, miles away; you cannot see from one palace to the other palace. I will give you a boat, but we will live in separate houses, and we will never invite each other -- we will let it always be accidental -- you are boating, I am boating, and suddenly we meet on the lake. You have gone for a morning walk, I have gone for a morning walk, and suddenly we meet under the trees -- but NO invitation.

This way our relationship will remain always young, always fresh, always a honeymoon -- a continuous honeymoon."

The man could not understand. He said, "What kind of marriage is this? Unless we live together, this is not marriage."

The woman said, "Then it is up to you. But I cannot live with you, because I know living together is going to kill what is most important between us. And I don't want to kill it. Even if you marry someone else, it does not matter. I will remember you in my dreams, in my memories, and those golden moments that have passed between us, but I will not allow a fixed relationship."

Rabindranath is giving you the idea of a flexible relationship. In fact, not relationship, only a love affair that goes on and on -- and you never go to the registrar's office to get married.

Unless you are far, you cannot be near. If you remain always far, love will die. If you remain always near, love will die. Love can survive only in a continuous flowing relationship -- no bondage, no chains, no imprisonment. I have loved that novel very much. It is not a novel, but perhaps a dream for the future humanity." OSHO

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.

                                     This photo was taken in Hamburg in 1936, during the celebrations for the launch of a ship.  In the crowd, one person refuses to raise his arm to give the Nazi salute.  The man was August Landmesser.  He had already been in trouble with the authorities, having been sentenced to two years hard labour for marrying a jewish women.  We know little else about August Landmesser, except that he had two childrens.  By pure chance, one of his children recognized her father in this photo when it was published in German newspaper in 1991.  How proud she must have been in that moment.


Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.
Where knowledge is free.
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments.
By narrow domestic walls.
Where words come out from the depth of truth.
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way.
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.
Where the mind is led forward by thee.
Into ever-widening thought and action.
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. - Rabindranath Tagore

Bhagwan responds to a seeker who asks "I want only moksha (liberation) and nothing else ?"

A few days ago, a lady, a recent arrival, came into the hall at about 3 p.m. and sat down. All the time she was there, she was trying to get up and ask something of Sri Bhagavan. As Bhagavan appeared not to have noticed her, and was reading a book, she waited for a while. As soon as Bhagavan put the book aside, she got up, approached the sofa and said without any fear or hesitation, "Swami, I have only one desire. May I tell you what it is?" 
"Yes," said Bhagavan, "What do you want?" 
"I want moksha [liberation]," she said. 
"Oh, is that so?" remarked Bhagavan. 
"Yes, Swamiji, I do not want anything else. Is it enough if you give me moksha," said she. 
Suppressing a smile that had almost escaped his lips, Bhagavan said, "Yes, yes, that is all right; that is good." 
 "It will not do if you say that you will give it sometime later. You must give it to me here and now," she said. 
"It is all right," said Bhagavan. 
"Will you give it now? I must be going," said she. 
Bhagavan nodded.

As soon as she left the hall, Bhagavan burst out laughing and said, turning towards us, "She says that it is enough if only moksha is given to her. She does not want anything else." 
Subbalakshmamma, who was seated by my side, took up the thread of the conversation and quietly said, "We have come and are staying here for the same purpose. We do not want anything more. It is enough if you give us moksha." 

"If you renounce, and give up everything, what remains is only moksha. What is there for others to give you? It is there always. That is," said Bhagavan. 
"We do not know all that. Bhagavan himself must give us moksha." So saying she left the hall. 
Looking at the attendants who were by his side, Bhagavan remarked, "I should give them moksha, they say. It is enough if moksha alone is given to them. Is not that itself a desire? If you give up all the desires that you have, what remains is only moksha. And you require sadhana to get rid of all those desires."

~ Source: 'Letters from Sri Ramanasramam'; 8th January, 1946

Osho - You are neither the heart nor the mind. You are a pure consciousness:

Question: Beloved master, Is it always good to follow the heart or once in a while should a clear mind decide what is to be done? And what to do when they want to go in opposite directions?

Osho: Swami Anutosh Pradip, your question is hilarious – to say the least! Let them go on their way. Why should you be worried? The mind is going in one direction; the heart is going in another direction. It is none of your business to interfere. Simply remain a witness and see where these fellows are going. Not understanding the secret of awareness is the cause of your problem.

You are neither the heart nor the mind. You are a pure consciousness behind them. And unless you get identified they cannot go anywhere; they don’t have their own energy. You ask me, ”Is it always good to follow the heart?” and I have been teaching you that your heart, your body, your mind, should follow you. This is how we go on misunderstanding. You are not to be a follower of any; you are simply to be a witness.

Witnessing the mind moving in one direction and the heart in another is a great experience. Experience that you are neither of them. You can remain above and they cannot move very far. They need each other’s support and finally they need energy from you, because you are life, they are only instruments. Your question is just like this: my left hand wants to follow this side, my right hand wants to follow this side – what am I supposed to do? Of course, to follow the right is always good. Right is right and left is wrong!

Not to follow is the secret of freedom, and once your heart and your mind know that you are not a man who is going to follow, they will stop quarreling, they will stop moving, because they don’t have any energy. The energy comes from you and it comes because you get identified with them, but every identification is wrong. You remind me of Ruthie Finkelstein who has been having therapy for some time without finding much improvement in her generally depressed and confused state.

Finally she tells her therapist that she is going away for a few weeks for a holiday in Greece. Some time later the shrink receives a postcard from Ruthie which says, ”Having a lovely time, but WHY?” You cannot even have a lovely time without inquiring why – and that destroys your whole joy. The questions are a disturbance. No question is of any importance.

Just to be silent and watch what goes on around in you – in the mind, in the heart – and remain aloof, will not only solve this question, it will solve all your questions. But mind loves to ask! You are saying you feel very happy following the heart and you know it is always good... Who told you? The heart has also committed as many crimes as the mind.

When a Mohammedan destroys the statue of a Gautam Buddha, do you think he is doing it from the mind? It is his heart. When he forces somebody on the point of the sword to change his religion and become a Mohammedan, do you think he is following his mind? He is following his heart.

The heart has its own conditionings which go deeper than the conditionings of the mind. The heart has always been praised for the simple reason that it gets no chance – the mind goes on playing the whole game and society prepares you not to listen to the heart.

But the Christians who were killing Mohammedans, and the Mohammedans who were killing Christians – and they are still doing that – not for a moment does a doubt arise that what they are doing is absolutely inhuman and cannot be religious. If it was done by the mind the question would have arisen, but because it is done by the heart, the heart does not know questioning.

They feel with absolute certainty that if a man is killed in a crusade which they call jihad, then that man has already reached to paradise. And according to the number of people you kill, the more certain becomes your paradise. These are not mind things. They have entered the heart, slowly, slowly sinking down through the centuries.

Just one difference is that the mind always questions if what you are doing is right or wrong. The heart never questions. That’s why all the religions want you to surrender, to be faithful, to believe. These are the qualities which enter into the heart.I don’t teach the mind. For that there are thousands of universities.

I don’t teach the heart because I know the heart can do things more cruelly than the mind. The mind at least hesitates; the heart believes totally. I teach you awareness of your being beyond both the heart and the mind. I say unto you, disidentify yourself and they will forget going this way or that way.

And for the first time you will be the master and they will simply be servants. You can order them and they will have to follow, because without your order they cannot get any nourishment. Anutosh Pradip, as far as your problem is concerned, let both of them go wherever they want. Simply remain centered – above, alert, not being dragged by them and not being influenced by them.

Then your purity of awareness will lead you to the cosmic purity of existence. That is the only way of merging with the whole. All else is just an utterly futile exercise. Your silence will take you to the right path. Neither does your mind know silence nor your heart. Your consciousness will take you in the right direction.

Neither does your mind know how to be conscious nor your heart. They are both fast asleep and whatever they do is going to prove stupid and dangerous to yourself and others. If all the crimes that have been committed in the world are counted, then you will be surprised that all the religions are the fundamental causes of those crimes. They teach love and they practice hate.

They teach oneness and they practice discrimination. The religious history of man is so mean, so ugly, that to be part of any religion is to prove that you are retarded, that you don’t know what these religions have done.

Old Sam Finkelstein arrives from Russia to visit his relatives in America. On his way to Texas he sits down in a train between two rednecks. He nods in a friendly way but the rednecks sit in stony silence. Old Sam notices an American newspaper lying on the seat and picks it up.

Having taken classes in English for the past few months, he is able to read most of the page, but all of a sudden he turns to the redneck on his right and says in a thick Russian accent, ”You look like an intelligent man. Would you be kind enough to tell me what this word is?”

The redneck winks at his friend and without looking at the paper says, ”That word is ‘syphilis’.”
Old Sam thanks him and reads on. A few minutes later he turns to the other redneck and says, ”You are obviously a man of education. Would you kindly tell me what this word is?”

The redneck smirks, winks at his friend and ignoring the newspaper says, ”That word is ‘gonorrhea’.”
”Syphilis and gonorrhea?” cries old Sam. ”Ah, my God – that poor Ronald Reagan!”

Don’t take any problem, any question seriously. Your taking them seriously makes them important and forces you to find the solution. Whenever a question arises in you, just be silent and watch the arising of the question. Watch how it becomes more condensed, watch how it becomes more clear – but go on watching. And you will be surprised that just as you are simply watching and not getting involved, it starts evaporating. Soon there is tremendous silence left behind it, and this silence is the answer!

But what do people do? A question arises in their minds – and there are thousands of questions; you will need millions of lives to find the answers for all of them. Still you will remain ignorant, knowledgeably ignorant. And because of the question you start asking others... perhaps somebody else knows the answer – that makes you a beggar. The knowledge that you get from others is borrowed; it is not going to help you at all.

One thing and only one thing helps. Watch the question and don’t be dragged by it in any direction. Be silent and see the whole question and what happens to it. It comes and it goes; no question remains there. It is just like a signature on water: you have not even made your full signature, and it has started to disappear.

The art of meditation is how to make your questions disappear, not to give you an answer. The answer will bring new questions and there is no end to it. Meditation will leave you in a space where there is no question, no answer, but only a purity, a simplicity – the same that you had known when you were born. You were alive but there was no question. You were so full of wonder.

Is there a way to get enlightened quickly?

The way life happens is first being, then doing and then having. - Sadhguru

If life is calling you, you must go toward it with utmost passion and involvement, not with hesitation and calculation. This is not the ego's problem of wanting to do something different; it is about living to your full potential. And if you are truly passionate about every aspect of your life, you will realize very easily what you are good at.

It could be that you are good at something that has never been done before, something completely new. But even if you are not a complete original and are doing the same, age-old things, when you do them with utmost passion and involvement, they will raise you to a new dimension of experience.

Problems come when people are passionate about only one thing, or when they are passionate in an exclusive way. This often leads to isolation; living an exclusive existence with very limited involvement will only lead to frustration and pain. What I am talking about is all-inclusive passion. One must be in touch with everything that the five senses can perceive in a given moment and be absolutely and passionately involved. This is true compassion. Compassion is not an attitude of kindness but an instrument of unprejudiced involvement.

The way life happens is first being, then doing and then having. But right now, because people are trapped in their minds, they are always thinking first of having. For example, you may come to a stage in life when you want to have a certain kind of life that includes a certain kind of mate, house or car. Then you think, "How can I have all this?" The moment you start thinking how to get it, people around you start advising you.

So then you start thinking about becoming a doctor, lawyer, software engineer or whatever. Once you are in one of these professions for a period of time, you think you have become something and that is when you start moving against life. You are going the "having-doing-being way," which leads to an endless pursuit of having. This is the basis of an unfulfilled life. You must first establish your way of being. Then, whether you get to have what you desire or not, you will still be wonderful. The quality of your life is decided by your way of being, and what you get to have is only a question of capability and situations that are conducive. If you make this simple shift to "being-doing-having," then a large part of your destiny will be by your will.

Now, I want you to get this right: there is no life's calling, but life is calling, both from within and without. Only when you truly respond to the call of life will you know life in its entirety. Only when you know unprejudiced and absolute involvement with the universe, with every atom in the universe, will you explore, experience and know the full scope of who you are. And in being absolutely involved, you need not be limited by your past experience and capabilities -- you can imbibe and have access to the great storehouse of knowing that is the very nature of the universe. It is also through this absorbed, unadulterated involvement that one can know the true nature of the self, which is boundless. The way we are is more important than what we do and have.

This article has been excerpted from the book "Midnights with the Mystic," 

Source Link :  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sadhguru/life-is-calling_b_914583.html

Looks like a serious video. i bet, You cannot stop laughing.

Payum oli nee yenakku Bombay Jayashri Kannamma Subramaniya Bharathiar

• I am the rushing light to you,
  And you are the eyes that see for me.
  I am honey that spreads sweetness to you,
  And you are the honey bee to me,
  Words do not form in my mouth,
  To describe all that is good in you,
  And let all that is good in you flourish for ever.
  

  
  
• Oh my darling Kannamma,
  Who is the shining light of the sky,
  And who is the brimming nectar of the world,
  You are the musical Veena to me,
  And I am the fingers that play on it to you,
  You are the golden chain that is worn on me,
  And I am the new dazzling diamond to you,
  Whichever side I see, I see the light of your eyes,
  Oh Kannamma, who is the great kingdom of life,
  And who is the basis of all my living.
  

  
  
• You are the rain that pours from the sky to me,
  And I am the pretty coloured peacock to you,
  You are the drink to me, and I am the cup to you,
  Luster of knowledge shines from your shining face, my darling,
  Oh Kannamma, who is a beauty without any faults,
  And who is the taste that drips inside my mouth.
  

  
  
• You are the white full moon to me,
  And I am the spreading sea to you,
  You are the beats of the music to me,
  And I am the taste of music to you,
  There is no limit to your taste , my darling,
  Even when I think and think again,
  Oh darling Kannamma, who is like the pretty eye,
  And who is the nectar that is packed,
  

  
  
• You are the breeze that flows to me.
  I am the flower that opens to you,
  You are the words that I speak to me,.
  And I am the words that ring in your heart to you ,
  How will I describe your beauty,
  Oh my darling , who is the ray of the sky that loves,
  Oh darling Kannamma who is the wine of love
  And who is the endless taste.
  

  
  
• You are the love to me ,
  And I am the magnet to you,
  You are the holy books of Veda to me,
  And I am the blissful knowledge to you,
  Oh my darling Kannamma who is a great soul,
  Whose taste ebbs when I am in passion,
  And who is of the form of music.
  

  
  
• You are my soul Kannamma,
  And I am your heart beat, Kannamma,
  You are like the wealth to me , Kannamma,
  And I am like the fund that is saved to you,
  Oh beauty which can never be measured,
  Oh rays of gold that spreads everywhere,
  Oh darling whose smile is like a blossom of jasmines,
  Oh Kannamma , who is the pleasure that beats like waves.
  

  
  
• You are the twinkling stars to me,
  And I am the cool full moon to you,
  You are the valour to me,
  And I am your victory,
  Oh Kannamma, nectar of my mind,
  You are the sweetness of the entire world and the heaven,
  Rolled in to one person , Oh darling.., mine.
  

  
  

Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia - Yaksha 2010

Yaksha 2011 - Pandit Jasraj

A Glimpse into the Lives of India's Rural Children | Isha Vidhya | Educa...

Can You Meditate with Your Eyes Open?

Consciousness is a vast sky, a space; you cannot hit it. - Osho

One great Indian mystic went to America. His name was Ramteerth. He always used to speak in the third person. He would never use'I'. It looked awkward because people who didn't know him couldn't follow what he was saying.
 
One day he went

back to the house where he was staying in America. He went in laughing, enjoying, his who]e body laughing a belly laugh. The whole body was shaking with laughter.

The family asked, 'What is the matter, what has happened? Why are you so happy? Why are you laughing?'

He said, 'It happened on the street. A few urchins started throwing stones at Ram' -- Ram was his name -- 'and I said to Ram, "Now see!" And Ram was very, very angry. He wanted to do something but I didn't cooperate, I stood aside.'

The family said, 'We cannot follow what you mean. You are Ram. About whom are you talking?'

Said Ramteerth, 'I am not Ram, I am the knower. This body is Ram and those urchins cannot throw stones at me. How can a stone be thrown at consciousness? Can you hit the sky with a stone? Can you touch the sky with a stone?'

Consciousness is a vast sky, a space; you cannot hit it.

OSHO