Trust in Today

WORRYING FOR TOMORROW means I don't trust existence, which has provided everything for today. I trust existence will provide for our tomorrow too. WORRYING ABOUT TOMORROW IS LACK OF TRUST IN EXISTENCE, in the cosmic energy. And after all, what can we do? What worth is our own effort?...



IF EACH DAY, EACH MOMENT, EACH ACT IS COMPLETE, IT WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A COMPLETE TOMORROW. Tomorrow always comes, but if you complete your today your tomorrow will be new and fresh, not old and stale. It will not be frustrating. But if you leave your today incomplete with expectations for tomorrow, it will frustrate you and your expectations, and you will be miserable on top of it.


THE FUTURE WILL NEVER CONFORM TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS, because the future is immense and your hopes and desires are petty, trivial. The immense, the infinite cannot be controlled and manipulated by the trivial. A drop cannot decide the course of a river -- the river goes its own way irrespective of what the drop wants.


But if a drop has its own desires and expectations, if it wants to go upstream, or go right or left, then it will suffer and suffer immeasurably. This is man's misery. IT IS HOPES AND DREAMS THAT TURN INTO HIS FRUSTRATION AND DESPAIR. One who lives each moment totally knows no anxiety and no frustration, he is contented and blissful and fulfilled.


LET EACH OF YOUR ACTIONS, no matter whether you are peeling a potato or composing a poem, BE COMPLETE IN ITSELF. LEAVE THE RESULT TO GOD. If you do so, Krishna says, you will be released from the bondage that comes in the form of birth. Krishna does not say that birth is bondage. He only says that one who is full of expectations, who is attached to the fruits of action is always in need of tomorrow, future, future life.


ONE WHO LIVES IN DESIRES, in hopes and expectations, ANXIOUSLY SEEKS A NEW BIRTH AFTER HIS DEATH; he cannot escape rebirth. And for such a person birth becomes a bondage; it can never become his freedom. Because such a person is not really interested in life and living, he is interested in his expectations, in the results he expects from it. For him birth is just an opportunity for achieving some results.

And for such a person death is going to be very painful, because death will put an end to all the desires and demands he lived for. Naturally when he is born again he will find his birth to be his bondage. Birth is bondage for one who does not know the life that is freedom. In fact, DESIRING IS BONDAGE, CRAVING AND ATTACHMENT TO RESULT IS BONDAGE.


TO LIVE AND KNOW LIFE TOTALLY IS FREEDOM. And for one who knows this life, there is no birth and death. He is released from both birth and death.
 
--OSHO

A Moment of Realization

Recently I finished watching a series called “History of our Planet” on History channel. Wow what a series. It tells you about the role that natural forces like ice, oceans, volcanoes, mountains have played in giving our earth the form it is in now. I watched it, and apart from what has been told; I tried to listen to the unsaid. Finishing the series was not less than eureka moment for me. It was a moment of enlightenment. After watching it, I felt that everything that is there in the universe is live, probably not in the form as we could understand it, some different form of life, which transcends the scales defined by the humans. I also found a sense of belongingness with the universe. I realize how petite we are, like a drop in the ocean, and at the same time I realize that we have the potential to become the ocean itself. I realized that science is no different from spirituality, these are complementary, and together they help in discovering the truth. 

Why Love Marriages are Fragile.

Everlasting marriages are a unique feature of Indian culture. Divorce rate in India is lowest in the world, just 1.1 percent as compared to over 50 percent of USA. It was even lower in the last decade, just .74 percent. But the cases of divorce are increasing rapidly. And among the various reasons, love marriages also contribute to the rising divorce cases. Even if such marriages not ending to the divorce, most of the couples feel that their relationship is not as blissful as it was before marriage. They complain that their partner has changed, interestingly both of them makes the same complain.

But the blame should not be poured on the love marriages, but on the type of love and the depth of the hearts. Most of the time the love, as we call it, is infatuation, mere attraction, and when you are in such love, life becomes a fairy tale, everything seem to be so very perfect. And why not, you have finally met the partner of your dreams and you are literally on the ninth cloud, so far from the ground realities. That is why it is said, love is blind. A person will see only what one wants to see. Other person also often present one as an ideal match and thus a deadly sweet mixture is created; you are looking only to the good and your mate is showing only good. And you create a very fine picture of the life post marriage with permanent colors.

And after the marriage, reality strikes. The real self is revealed to both of you, landing you on an alien planet. The picture starts dissolving its colors in your high expectations, as you were expecting your partner to behave as per the script you had in your ambitions pre marriage, and when the thing doesn’t moves the way you liked, it hurts your ego. Clash of egos is fatal. The facets that you have overlooked, suddenly becomes very important to you, the things that once excited you start annoying you. These hammers a big impact on your subconscious mind that evaporates love from your life, and you keep wondering what went wrong. This is when; “you have changed after marriage” becomes your favorite sentence you say to your spouse.

On the other hand when you enter into the relationship by the way of different road, your enter into it with a different state of mind altogether, now you do not try to falsely impress you partner, there is no need to, also what ever come to you is new, perception is not there, prejudice is not there, so a higher level of understandability is formed.

It is not to say that arrange marriages are better than love marriage, what matters the most in the relationship is true love, love that is not a mere attraction, love that is not conditional, love that is not demanding, love where you accept the person as it is, love when you two no longer remain two you become one.
And when you are in such love, it doesn’t matter how you got into it, but you are in it. It is just that in case of the love marriage which is built on pseudo love then it is a bit difficult to see the things in their true color. Otherwise it hardly matters if you marry after love or love after marriage.

A Take On Decriminalizing Homosexuality

Talking about homosexuality had never been as open in India as now days, all credit to the Bollywood; fueled by the Delhi High Court’s verdict that homosexuality is no more an illegal act. The gay parade held in Delhi on 28th June, in which thousand of the homophiles marched on the streets of the city, once again showed that it is no more a taboo now and is a reality of society.

Talking biologically, homosexuality is not natural, in the normal state; males make and release into the air a group of sex hormones called "male pheromones". In addition, in the normal state in males, a specific set of cells in the male sensory nervous system contain "female pheromone receptors" that bind to "female pheromones". The same is true in females, females make and release "female pheromones", and they have cells in the sensory nervous system that contain "male pheromone receptors" that bind to "male pheromones". So, we have a very simple system. Males make and release pheromones that bind to the cells of the female sensory system that triggers sexual interest in them, and vice versa.

Homosexuality doesn’t fit in the natural system, it has no purpose. Sexual attraction is one of the greatest biological force and is in the core of reproduction, one of the primary function of every specie, but human has evolved in such a way that he has freedom to choose. Preferring same sex partner then is an unnatural sexual behavior that is affected by a number of factors.

Inclination towards same sex person may be a result of reasons like abstention from opposites from childhood, bad or cruel experience in relationship with opposites, psychological disorders like misogyny in which a person hates women or misandry in which a person hates men, emotional attachment to the obsessive extent to a same gender person and at times influence of the friends who possess the behavior etc; and their impact is such that it subconsciously changes your sexual behavior almost forever and one not even get a clue that he has developed such a behavior, and consider it as normal.

After the court has decriminalized homosexuality, the so called religious leaders have finally got a chance to show their importance. Shouting that it is immoral, it will ruin out religion, it is harmful for society and what not. But they forget that true religion is not in forcing anything, it teaches to accept the things as they are, respect one’s choices.

The Delhi High Court has made a very correct decision by decriminalizing homosexuality allowing the homophiles to live their lives will dignity.

What proof is there of the existence of god? OSHO answers.

There is no proof. Or everything that exists is a proof. From the standpoint of logic there is no proof, because God is beyond logic. No one can prove or disprove him through argument. And take note, what can be proven by logic can also be disproven. God is not proven or disproven. God simply is. Perhaps it is not correct even to say God is. To say ’God is’ seems like a tautology. ’Is’ means only God. Whatever is, is God. So when we say a tree is, it is correct, because one day the tree will no longer be. One day it was not, and one day it will not be. Its being was only in between. Hence a tree is, a man is, a house is. But to say ‘God is’ is not correct, because God never was ’not’ and will never be ’not’. Hence the meaning we use for ’is’ cannot be used for God. God is another name for what is. A tree is means the tree is in God. Man is means man is breathing in God. When God takes back his breath, man will no longer be. When God takes back his greenery, the tree will no longer be. So in one sense there is no proof – from the standpoint of logic. From the standpoint of existence his proof is all around us. These standing trees. This falling sunshine. The sounds of these birds. This: my speaking to you. This: your listening here quietly, silently, absorbed in bliss. In all of this is proof. Do you hear the sound of these birds? It is ample proof! But perhaps you want proof from the standpoint of logic? There is no such proof.

Who is coloring these colors? Which painter? Who fills rainbows with color? Who paints the color on the wings of butterflies? Who fills the throats of the cuckoos with song? Who is breathing inside of you? Who is beating in your heart? Who is your life? And you ask proof of God? This is all God. God is. There is nothing else besides God. What is, is another name of God. I do not break God and existence apart. The old religions have made this error. This error has had very bad consequences. The old religions have broken the world off from God. Then the question where is his proof arises? It is a natural question. If the world is not God, then where is God? Then problems begin, and then hands have to be raised towards the sky. These hands are false. I say unto you: God is existence. He is not beyond this. He is hidden in this. He is sown into this. Seek here, seek right now. You will find his signature in each leaf. You will find him hidden in each stone. Jesus has said, Lift a stone and you will find me hidden. Break a stick and you have broken me.

And you are asking for proof? And there have been people giving proof. And all their proofs are useless. No proof works. All proofs yet given for God are valueless. For example, someone says that everything needs a creator. There must me a creator of such a vast universe. But his proof will be suicidal, coming in front of an atheist its limbs will be crippled. Because an atheist says, if every thing in creation needs a creator, if to create the world God is needed, then who created God? Enough he has blocked your trap. Who has made God? Whether you like it or not, no one has made God. So the atheist says when God can be without being created, why can’t the world? The argument is broken, it proved worthless. You say that just as a potter makes a pot, that great potter has made this world. But someone created the potter, no? Or is the potter without a maker? Now your snare is in difficulty. Who made your great potter?

These proofs are not of any use. These are things to tell children. There is no life transformation in them. This is why I give no proof, instead I give experience. I say to come near me, sit quietly. Sing. Dance. And one day you will suddenly find lightning has struck. When it will strike cannot be said. It is not possible to predict it. That guest comes unexpectedly, suddenly he is standing at the door. The moment you are ready, the moment you are clean and spotless, you become quiet: that very moment it happens. Then you won’t need any proof. Then you yourself become the proof. Only your experience can be a proof, nothing else can be.

The blog that have changed the way I talked to the Telemarketers...

Those telemarketing calls have always been irritating for me. They will call you at any time, start telling about what they sells without having any concern that the receiver might be engaged in some important work or may be passing thorough a bad mood, and many times I turned impatient on such calls, till I read that article in a newspaper, which was actually an extract from a blog (I wish I would have remembered that blog, it was in Hindi).

A lady was found dead in her apartment in Mumbai, she had committed suicide. She was living with her daughter, around 4-5 years old. Her husband was passed away some time back.
In her suicide note she had asked a friend of her to take care of her daughter. Also she had a note for her daughter; she wrote “after the death of your father, I have tried all my best to ensure a good upbringing for you, and faced all the hardships of the cruel world, but now it’s all over. Please forgive me”.

On investigation it was found that the lady was passing through immense pressure and was depressed. She was working in the personal finance department of a multinational bank. Her job was to call the perspective customers and sell loans to them.
The poor lady was not able to sell a single loan for last three months…

The article left me stunned. Felt as if someone had removed the shining cover that has hidden the inhuman corporate world, where money is God and human values are starving hard to find their place and failing time and again. This instance was enough to reveal the darker side of corporate world, where to meet the targets the humans are forced to turn into machines, just living someone else’s lives.
It is hard to change the whole system but at least we can contribute by not adding our harsh words to their problems.

And since then, I have never lost my temper to such calls and tried to be as polite as I could.

What is Conscience?

This is what Wikipedia says about conscience:-
“Conscience is an ability or a faculty that distinguishes whether one's actions are right or wrong. It leads to feelings of remorse when one does things that go against his/her moral values, and to feelings of rectitude or integrity when one's actions conform to our moral values. It is also the attitude which informs one's moral judgment before performing any action.”

Commonly used metaphors refer to the ‘voice of conscience’ or ‘voice within.’
Looks quiet straight and simple, but as we go on escavating it, the more complex it becomes, and we find ourself in the middle of desert with questions like:-

What defines conscience?
Is it constant for everyone or effected by environment?
How does one can listen to what his conscience is saying?
How one can decide if his decision was correct to his conscience?
Is the decision taken according to it is always right or can there be a correct decision that is against the conscience?

Conscience is a result of ‘Karuna’ or compassion and it is not dependent on your environment and upbringing.
Karuna is a Sanskrit word and is basis of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and have got much broader context than its English translation. It is a sense of belonging to the universe and realization of the fact that we all are one, lets see a simple example that if you do not throw stone on a street dog thinking it would hurt it, as it would hurt me then it’s the karuna that’s working behind.

So you conscience will always speak what adheres to Karuna, as with the above instance and help us to take the right path.
But is it that simple, well not always, consider a soldier who is on the frontier fighting against the enemy, now this man is really walking on sword, on one hand the person in front of him is also a human, having a family, kids and he has not even personal rivalry with him, how he can kill him, and on the other hand that person is enemy of the country, and his duty’s call is to kill him.
So what does conscience says here? There should be no war at all, but that is not the case here. Now do what? Do the duty. Then what happened to compassion? Well at first it might seems to go against karuna, but actually not because the suffering could be for much larger number of people if he opt for the other way. Follow the path that is beneficial for more people. Follow your conscience.

Hence the decision taken according to the conscience will always be good and vice versa because it would be the decision for the humankind.

As Simon Soloveychik, a famous Russian philosopher says, conscience is a common, one for all, knowledge about what good is and what evil is for humankind. Not for a man, not for his time, not for a group of men, but for humankind as a whole.