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Thursday, November 12, 2009

My tryst with Samarpan Meditation

From my college days I had a curiosity and a bent of mind towards the spiritual. I did not have even a foggy idea of the meaning of spirituality, but I used to go and attend Swami Chinmayanand’s discourses on the Bhagwad Geeta, and because of my uncle being a Secretray to the Tribal Ministry, we got to travel with him and meet a lot of Saints. I had the fortune of being blessed by Gagangiri Maharaj at his Khopoli Ashram, had met whom we knew only as Navsari ke Baba who was a devotee of the Sun God and Swami Pranavanand at Chaalisgaon in Maharashtra. I guess I was blessed to meet these holy souls. I have always had a very powerful inner voice which I ignored in my youth and which always ended in my being a loser for not listening to the inner voice. Whatever trials and tribulations I have faced in life, I think were just preparation for me to be introduced to Samarpan Meditation as taught by Parampujya Swamiji.

A friend of mine and an ex-colleague, Mr. Ramnath Kamath came to my office at the instance of another friend to talk on meditation sometime in December 2008. I actually met Ramnath after almost twenty years. We talked and discussed meditation and other matters of the soul for an hour or so. He handed over CD’s of the Surat Shibir and a couple of other CD’s along with the introductory booklet on Samarpan Meditation. I took those CD’s and went home. The CD’s were just lying in the house for a month or so – sometime in January this year I reached home early and as only my mother was at home, I decided to listen to the CD on the home theatre system. The moment I started playing the CD, I was hooked, my eyes did not open for two hours, the duration of part 1 of the CD. The next day I came home early just to listen to the next part – on Muladhar chakra and again my eyes did not open for the entire duration of two hours. This time my family members, I sensed, were becoming uncomfortable, and I did not have the portable MP3 player, hence I stopped listening to the CD so as not disturb the balance at home. On February 1 my friend called me at around 4pm and asked me if I would like to attend the eight day camp on meditation which was being held at CIFE new campus at Versova. I work in Andheri East and at such short notice there was no way I could leave office and go, so I told him that I would come from the next day. So from February 2 I continuously attended the shibir along with my friend and my driver, Raju, – coincidentally it was a video shibir of Surat, the one I had already started listening to. The camp was from 6.30 to 8.30 which was a comfortable timing to leave office and reach CIFE.

On the fifth day, that is the day when Swamiji introduces the sadhaks to meditation and asks them to sit in the lotus position in the dhyan mudra with eyes shut and says that now you will experience something, cold waves on the hand, vibration, heat or nothing. My hands for five seconds or so went ice cold – like a block of ice was floating above them – after that I was hooked. The next day when I went to office I told my boss, that I had at last found my Gurudev. The next day during the course of the discourse, Swamiji mentioned that all you have to do is pray to Him for anything which is self less, not material and to alleviate the pain of someone else. Incidentally one of my office colleagues uncle was missing for the last four days or so and the uncle had a son who was to appear for his SSC examinations this year. The girl used to be very worried as the son had gone into depression and had stopped studying. That morning during my prayers, I prayed from the bottom of my heart to Parampujya Swamiji for this family to get news of the missing gentleman. I reached office at nine in the morning and was going through my e-mails, when at around 9.30 this girl comes online and informs me on Instant Messenger that they had just located her uncle somewhere in Nasik. I told myself that was really fast for a prayer to be answered – there are those who told me that this was just a coincidence but I choose to believe that it was through the power of prayer that this happened. If one does not have belief then I personally think it would be very difficult to progress spiritually. When at the end of the eight day camp I was asked to speak about my experience this is what I had cited.

After the eight day camp, we were told that we needed to do a follow up of 45 days of meditation to be eligible to be admitted to the Samarpan family. The timings were 5.30pm to 6pm at CIFE, my first reaction was that this won’t be possible and I asked our Acharya, rather naively, whether the timing could be changed, and he said no. I decided to leave early for office everyday so that I completed my due time in office. I decided to leave office everyday at 4.45 pm so as to reach by 5.30 pm and informed my boss accordingly. In normal days it takes about an hour to travel from Andheri East to Versova with all the construction activity of the Mumbai metro in progress – but you will not believe for those 45 days it took us (Raju and me) only 20 minutes to reach CIFE for meditation – it looked like the roads were kept free and signals open for us to reach well in time! I just missed two days – the first Sunday, when dhyan took place at 6.30 am and on another day I could not go because government officials were at the office and did not allow me to leave.

In these 45 days my entire demeanor changed, I became more calm, irritability stopped, temper disappeared, in fact my entire approach to life underwent a transformation. Raju also had a wonderful experience – he had a daughter who had not commenced walking even after eighteen months. Doctors had tried everything, and said she was normal, but they did not have a clue as to why she had not started walking. During the 45 day period she started walking – both of us are of the opinion that it is with Parampujya Swamiji’s blessings that she started walking.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Egotism and Humbleness

This is one story which needs to be read and the message therein absorbed. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did – it has been modified slightly to read better.

Once a King called upon all of his wise men and asked them, "Is there a mantra or suggestion which works in every situation, in every circumstance, in every place and in every time. Something which can help me when none of you is available to advise me. Tell me is there any such mantra?" All the wise men got puzzled by the King’s question. One answer for all the questions? Something that works everywhere, in every situation?
In every joy, every sorrow, every defeat and every victory? These were some of the questions which cropped up into the minds of the King’s advisors. They thought and thought.

After a lengthy discussion, an old man suggested something which appealed to all of them. They went to the King and gave him something written on paper. But the condition was that King was not to see it out of curiosity. Only in extreme danger, when the King finds himself alone and there seems to be no way out, only then he’ll have to see it. The King agreed and put the papers under his Diamond ring.

After a few days, the neighbors attacked the Kingdom. It was a collective surprise attack by the King’s enemies. The King and his army fought bravely but lost the battle. King had to flee on his horse. The enemies were following him. His horse took him far away into the Jungle. He could hear the enemy troops and sound of galloping horses following him and the noise was coming closer and closer. Suddenly the King found himself standing at the end of the road - that road was not going anywhere. Underneath, there was a rocky valley – a thousand feet deep. If he jumped into it, he would be finished and he could not return because it was a small road. The sound of the enemy’s horses was approaching fast. The King became restless. There seemed to be no way.

Then suddenly he saw the Diamond in his ring shining in the sun, and he remembered the message hidden in the ring. He opened the diamond and read the message. The message was very small but very great. The message was – "This too will pass."

The King read it. He then read it again. Suddenly something struck him- Yes! It too will pass. Only a few days ago, I was enjoying my kingdom. I was the mightiest of all the Kings. Yet today, the Kingdom and all its pleasures have gone. I am here trying to escape from my enemies. However when those days of luxuries have gone, this day of danger too will pass. Calm came on his face. He kept standing there. The place where he was standing was full of natural beauty. He had never known that such a beautiful place was also a part of his Kingdom. The revelation of the message had a great effect on him. He relaxed and forgot about the enemy soldiers following him.

After a few minutes he realized that the noise of the horses and the enemy was receding. They moved into some other part of the mountains and were not on that path. The King was very brave. He reorganized his army and fought again. He defeated the enemy and regained his lost empire. When he returned to his empire after victory, he was received with much fanfare at the door. The whole capital was rejoicing in the victory. Everyone was in a festive mood. Flowers were being thrown on the King from every house, from every corner. People were dancing and singing. For a moment King said to himself," I am one of the bravest and greatest King’s. It is not easy to defeat me..:

With all the reception and celebration he saw an ego emerging in him. Suddenly the Diamond of his ring flashed in the sunlight and reminded him of the message. He opened it and read it again: "This too will pass" He became silent. His face went through a total change -from the egoist he moved to a state of utter humbleness.

If this too is going to pass, it is not yours. The defeat was not yours, the victory is not yours. You are just a watcher. Everything passes by. We are witness of all this. We are only the perceiver. Life comes and goes. Happiness comes and goes. Sorrow comes and goes.

Now as you have read this story, just sit silently and evaluate your own life. Think of the moments of joy and victory in your life. Think of the moment of sorrow and defeat. Are they permanent? They all come and pass away. Life just passes away. There were friends in the past. They have gone. There are friends today. They too will go. There will be new friends tomorrow. They too will go. There were enemies in the past. They have gone. There may be enemies in the present. They too will go. There will be new enemies tomorrow and they too will go.

There is nothing permanent in this world. Every thing changes except the law of change. Think over it from your own perspective. You have seen all the changes. You have survived all setbacks, all defeats and all sorrows. All have passed away. If there are problems in the present, they too will pass away, because nothing remains forever. Joy and sorrow are the two faces of the same coin. They both will pass away.

Who are you in reality? Know your real face. Your face is not your true face. It will change with the passage of time. However, there is something in you, which will not change. It will remain unchanged. What is that unchangeable? It is nothing but your true self. You are just a witness of change.

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, “Make Me Feel Important/good.” Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life……!

Meditation, Positivism and Productivity

It has been a long time since my last post – the reason for not writing was there was nothing positive to write home about! Whatever I have written in the past has been a critique on current events of the day. It was just a criticism of the system and what needs to be done to try and set things right.

The trouble with life today is that the news on offer in the visual as well as the print media is news that sells, not necessarily news that is good, in fact, it can be safely said that good news does not sell. Today news is run as a business model – wherein TRP’s and eyeballs dictate the ad revenue for the media house. Who the hell would be interested in reading good news – people today are interested in news which titillates, excites, disgusts and which leads to gossip – good news does not set the blood racing you see. So what one reads and absorbs is all kinds of negative news which in turn adversely affects the thought processes of the person reading/watching the news. The programs on TV are also not ones which encourage positivism – there are a surfeit of programs that deal with the “Saas-Bahu” syndrome, adventure, action, violence, infidelity, etc.

Over the last several months I have been practicing samarpan meditation and realized that the collection of negativity which used to move around my surroundings has slowly but surely disappeared. The purpose of this post is to highlight the connection between meditation, positivism and productivity. Meditation helps you to focus on the NOW, it turns your attention inwards as opposed to outwards. Once you start moving inwards, what happens outside stops affecting you and your soul starts protecting you from negative forces. It is important to forget your past and forgive all those who may or may not have hurt you or affected you through the passage of time. This is important for you to progress through meditation. Meditation regulates and slows your breathing which helps the mind to refrain from wandering. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika states “When the breath wanders, the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore one should learn to control the breath”.

The human thought process moves back and forth like a pendulum – from the past to the future and so on and so forth – it never stabilizes and focuses on the “NOW”, as a result the mind is always in tumult. Human tendency is towards remembering events which are negative, with the mind trying to extract revenge for such events in the future. The entire thought process thus tends to be negative - from a negative past into doing something negative tomorrow as a reaction to the past.

As you meditate your personality starts becoming positive as negative thoughts stop coming to your mind – this helps calm the nerves bestowing a feeling of goodness and oneness with the Universal Consciousness. Once negative thoughts stop coming to your mind, you do not tend to think about the future – this managing to concentrate on the “NOW”. Once you start living for the moment your entire mind and body is focused on doing the current activity – as a result, if you are a student your concentration on your studies improves getting you better grades, your productivity in the office improves as your thought processes are totally focused on the work at hand. All this helps you save time and money for your employer as without too much of an effort your productivity goes up. This will have a positive spin off effect on your co-workers (not always – negative forces exist all over the world) as they too would be affected by your calming and productive influence. You would find yourself leaving office on time and getting to devote more quality time for yourself and for your family.

I would definitely recommend devoting half an hour of your time towards meditation to help you get rid of negativity, increase focus and concentration, and become a positive force by yourself resulting in spreading positivism to all those who connect with you.