For Your Eyes Only

Imagine what would happen if you made a decision not to be unhappy anymore.

Yes, that's right. Give it up. Quit being unhappy. Sure there are plenty of reasons to be unhappy--the unpaid bills, the ache in your shoulders, and your difficult parents, spouse, children, friends, and so on.

In fact, if you really focus on it, the earth has always been a miserable place and if you read the newspapers it appears to be falling apart at the seams even faster than ever before.

There are plenty of reasons to be unhappy. The sensory evidence just keeps piling up.

On the other hand, there is only one reason to be happy. You're alive!

Do you understand what a miracle and wonder that happens to be? No one on this entire planet, ever, has been you. Only you are you. You have a total exclusive on this total immersion movie called life.

Expand this idea a little. The entire universe exists for you only. It only exists through your eyes. If you were to completely blink out of existence, it really would not matter much whether the universe still existed or not because there would be no you to appreciate it.

This means that the only reason the sun shines is so that it can settle on your skin, that rain falls only to make the earth green and beautiful for you, and that mountains and rivers and oceans exist in case you might see them.

True, for everyone else, it exists only for them, too. But what of it? It does not detract from your own exclusive experience.

Only you breathe for you, see for you, hear for you, talk for you. Just think for a moment of the sensory pleasure of being alive. All of this grandeur--just for YOU! Focus on your breath for a moment, and notice how delicious is that experience. You did nothing to deserve that breath or the air around you, yet here it is, offering itself freely to you.

Unhappiness is such a waste of life. It seems to me now that unhappiness is just a bad habit, an expression of ingratitude.

Every day life is blessing you with awareness and all everyone appears to do is grumble, grumble, grumble. Things will never be perfect. Life is short. If you don't enjoy it now, chances are it won't get any better tomorrow. Besides, it's not going to last long anyway.

Life is about love, laughter, and happiness. That's all. Not a complicated concept.

If people lack things, it is because their bad attitude brings them scarcity.

Imagine, for a moment, if instead of crumbling under every adversity, and drowning in uncertainty, you were to remain mindful. Imagine if you had a taste for the adventure that is your life. Imagine if you stopped taking everything so very seriously.

In the cosmic scheme of things, decades pass in the blink of an eye. Before you know it, the show will be over. All your suffering will cease. But before that happens, you still have a chance to grab some happiness.

Who knows, your happiness might even be contagious, and instead of spreading your irritation at the imperfection of all created things, you can just as easily start blessing others with the sunshine of your presence.

If you focus on unhappy events, either in your past or in the world at large, you will only dig yourself deeper into misery. Yet, with just a little effort, you can notice the bird that hops on a branch and think that this little scene was enacted just for you.

Nobody is going to start taking pleasure in life for you. It really is up to you to start connecting with the joy of your own existence and to the magical promise of your own gifts of love, laughter, and song.

It means much to be happy. Even for a day. And it is only today, every day.

Universal appeal of the legend of Ram

Hey Ram! With these last words, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi breathed his last। What would he have thought of the current controversy over the historicity or otherwise of Ram, the epic hero? It would be interesting to ask: What is the historicity of the wind or cosmos? Behind visual reality, there exists something one can call supernature. Beyond history, there is the realm of metahistory. How can man with his arrested sensibility, give expression to eternal life or eternity, in a language which is itself man-made? When we do not have a recorded or authentic history of language how shall we be able to understand the word 'history' used in language? The word Ram means causing rest, charming, loving and delightful. Gandhi knew from the core of his heart that Ram is the hidden centre of all apparent reality. It is the unchanging reality, underlying a shifting reality. Ram is part of metahistory. Ram possesses highest power but never reveals himself as a possessor of power. People with inferior power exhibit their power in mindless activity and vanish like a bubble. Much of Bapu's philosophy was based on the substance of Indian thought. He did tend to believe in avatars or incarnations and believed in the saving power of the name 'Ram' in salvation through Lord Krishna. For Gandhi, the legend of Ram is so deeply embedded in the Indian way of life that it is difficult to think of India and Indian culture without any mention of his name. The metahistory of Ram has inspired many poets and artists to depict his character with all its glory and transcendental splendour. After having understood the superficiality of so-called history Oswald Spengler had said in his book, The Decline of the West, that history should be the business of a poet. The first such epic is the Ramayana, composed by Sanskrit poet Valmiki who is believed to be a contemporary of Ram. The whole of the Ramayana consists of 24,000 stanzas or 96,000 lines. It is a great work of art with many dramatic passages. Apart from the Ramayana other important epics of Sanskrit literature which characterise the life of Ram are Raghvansh by Kalidas and Uttar Ramcharit by Bhavbhuti. Ram gained immense popularity through the writings of Tulsidas, too, who depicted Ram's character with such devotion and sincerity that Ram became the inseparable part of the collective unconscious of the people. Abhinand, Kshemendra Jaidev, Pravassen, Kritivas Kambhan and at least 40 other poets have eulogised the greatness of the legendary Ram through their writings. So it is not difficult for any one of us to utter the name of Ram consciously or unconsciously as Gandhi did. Although Gandhi was acquainted with the basic tenets of all religions, he was deeply moved by Christ's Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi's passion for sustainable living and development was inspired by eternal and universal principles of faith in the oneness of religion and humanity. Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence, truth and simple living was derived from a belief in the power of the very same principles epitomised by Maryada Purushottam Ram - the ideal personality - immortalised in the legend's story, the Ramayana, narrated in as many languages, forms and cultures as its plural versions.

Kailash Vajpeyi

Not your true self

If all is God, why is there imperfection in the world? Negative emotions like lust, pride, attachment, anger, ego, greed and jealousy are distortions of love। These distortions manifest in animals also, but they have no way to go beyond them as they are bound by Nature. Endowed with the power of discrimination, human beings can move from these distortions to a state of pure love. Every sincere seeker wants to get rid of anger and reach a state of perfection. What can you do when anger rises in you? You may remind yourself a hundred times that you shouldn't get angry, but when you feel the anger, you are unable to control it. It comes like a thunderstorm. Emotions are much more powerful than your thoughts and the promises you make. Anger is a distortion of our true nature. It is part of this creation, but we still call it a distortion because it doesn't allow the Self to shine forth fully. And this is what sin is. Anger is a sin because when you are angry, you lose your centredness; you lose sight of the Self. Anger is a sign of weakness. A strong man doesn't get angry easily. When you focus on other's mistakes, you are bound to get angry. The cause of anger is the lack of total knowledge of what is happening inside that person. Showing anger itself is not wrong, but being unaware of your anger only hurts you. There is a place for showing anger, but when you get angry yourself, you are shaken completely. Are you ever happy with the decisions you have made or the words you have spoken when you are angry? No, because you lose your total awareness. If you are completely aware and you are acting angry, that is fine. In fact, anger is an instrument. It is useful when you are able to control it. It can work wonders when you know how to use it and where to use it. Spiritual practices help you maintain your centredness. This is where a little knowledge about ourselves, about our mind, our consciousness, and the root of distortion in our nature will help. It is when you are exhausted and stressed that you lose your nature and get angry. Breathing techniques and meditation are effective in calming the mind. Meditation is letting go of anger from the past and the events of the past. It's accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth. Often anger comes because you don't accept the present moment. You look for perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. Even when someone commits a mistake, know that she is not the culprit; the stress inside is causing her to make that mistake. Just this understanding and a few days of continuous practice of meditation can change the quality of our life. Usually, you give your anger freely and your smile rarely as though a smile is expensive. To the ignorant, anger is cheap and a smile is costly. To those of knowledge, a smile is free - like sunshine, air and water - and anger is expensive. Make your smile cheaper and anger expensive.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Art of management for executives and yogis

Self-management is at the base of any external management effort। It is an internal process of managing one's body, thoughts, intellect, emotions and spirit. It is a process of trying to overcome emotions like anger, jealousy, greed, ego, and undue attachment. It is a process of developing concentration, equipoise, tolerance, the ability to take calculated risks and plan long term. Yoga aids self-management as it is a philosophy of life, not restricted to just asana and pranayama. It is a path of allround development of an individual: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Patanjali defined yoga as a technique of mind control. Vashishta said yoga is a skilful strategy to calm down the mind. Both managers and yogis are expected to remain steadfast in situations both favourable and unfavourable. In the most-quoted verse 48 of chapter two of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna advises: "Being steadfast in yoga, O Arjuna, perform actions, abandoning attachment, remaining unconcerned as regards success and failure. This evenness of mind is known as yoga. A manager is required to use authority. But unless authority is combined with dispassion, the result can be contrary to expectation. Today's manager is required to have qualities of a good leader - ability to construct a creative vision and capacity to have trusting relationship with large number of people with whose help this vision is to be fulfilled. External milieu, with all its network and artifacts, is in truth a projection of man's internal milieu. A manager with clarity of personal goals and calmness of mind can only be an able manager. This is where yoga helps. Man is in the first part of the word manager, thereby indicating the need for man-management as the most crucial part of management. As Swami Anubhavanandji puts it, management is an intuitive art of relating yourself with various stakeholders in a company such as staff, customers and suppliers. Yoga teaches us the art of treating every human being as a form of the divine. Use of higher consciousness in dealing with people is sure to result in better motivation and loyalty among stakeholders. There are certain key differences between western management concepts and yoga based management. The former starts with the premise that a person remains inactive unless propelled by action through motivation - money, position or recognition. Yoga-based management starts with the belief that every individual is divine by nature and the purpose of yoga is to bring out this divinity. Any individual, by nature, wants to do good work but unsuitable conditioning may prevent him from doing so. Commitment in the true sense can only be inspired for a cause bigger and better than self. Western management philosophy puts primary emphasis on competition, while in yoga way, the emphasis is on collaboration and individual creativity. In the West there is greater emphasis on goal achievement for the firm, while in yogic management, success of the firm is an inevitable by-product of the holistic goal of making this world a better place to live in with the spirit of yajna. In the former, karma is an input which can be hired, while Indian philosophy focuses on duty as one's dharma.