Atithi Devo Bhava

I was on a bike trip with my cousin to Tunganath(highest of the panch Kedar's) in Uttaranchal. We were about 10Km away from our destination when the bike tyre got punctured. My cousin got a lift and took the tyre to nearest puncture repair shop, which was about 20Km downhill. I thought of waiting at a small tea stall nearby and keep a watch on the bike and luggage. With nothing to do, I got chatting with the tea-stall owner over cups of tea. It soon starting getting dark with ominous clouds threatening with heavy mountain rain. There was no sight of my cousin and I was getting a little worried on what to do next. I was also worried on what to do once the  tea shop owner decides to close the shop and asks me to leave. What happened next was really interesting. He told me to wait at the shop, while he goes to the village and get some stuff. By the time he came back, it had started raining really heavily(only those who have witnessed mountain rains can appreciate it). He told me that he went to get provisions for making dinner and then he made an excellent dinner of daal + rice for me. The rains had become even worse by then and it was pitch dark. I couldn't even see 10m ahead and was wondering what had happened to my brother. The shop owner on the other hand told me not to worry and made arrangements for me to sleep in the shop basement. Long story short, i had a wonderful sleep in that cozy basement and found to my amazement that my cousin had somehow comeback in the night and we continued our journey further.

I was really amazed at the hospitality of these people. Providing shelter and food to an unknown person, without asking anything.These people who live in small one room house with very basic facilities have a much bigger room in their hearts. We, who live in multi-bedroom houses can not even tolerate our friends and relatives staying for more than a couple of days. Few years back, it was very common to have people from extended family and family friends coming and staying for days. 
All that seems to distant history as people have become more focused on their smaller families.

Our scriptures are replete with stories about the importance attached to Atithi(someone who comes unannounced). The Taittriya Upanishad even equates Atithi with divine by declaring "Atithi Devo Bhavah". The ancient thinkers wanted us to see divine in everyone and showing reverence to an unannounced guest was a hallmark of our culture.The beauty and greatness of sanatana dharma lies in these traditions. There is an interesting story about Krishna hosting Sage Durvasa for sometime in Dwaraka and how Durvasa tried every trick to find mistake in Krishna and his family's conduct. In the end, he is happy and gives many boons to Krishna and Rukmini. That story is very very interesting, may be covered in another post... 

Investment & Charity

We all make investments in the expectation that they would help us in the time of need. Investments can be classified based on when they start giving us returns, some of them might be short term(1-2 year), some medium(5-10  yrs) and some real long term(beyond 10 yrs ). Again, smart investors  don't put all their money in one instrument, as they want to shield themselves from vagaries of the market and time. So they invest in gold, property, stocks and various other options. They keep getting rewarded from their investment and live a life of prosperity with all the comforts of this material world.

Now, drawing an analogy here, what should we do for attaining prosperity in the spiritual world. Charity is the investment which can help us grow in the spiritual work. There is a story in Mahabharatha of a Brahmana, who attained to the highest sate of SriVaikuntha, just by donating a handful of rice.  Similar to material investment, we should do charity of different types. Some, which is very easy like feeding birds, animals or someone who is hungry or giving clothes to the needy. This is like short term investment. Some of the charity should be for causes like education, healthcare which helps the society in general and can be like medium term investment. Some of it should be set aside for religious & spiritual institutions which is like long term investment and would give results in this or next lives. Now, intelligent investors don't brag about their investments, similarly while doing charity the following line from Taittriya Upanishad should be remembered 

shraddhayA deyam |  Give with Faith,
 ashraddhayA.adeyam |  Give not without Faith;
 shriyA deyam |  Give in Plenty,
 hriyA deyam |  Give with Modesty,
 bhiyA deyam |  Give with Awe,
 saMvidA deyam |  Give with Sympathy.

Weeds

What is the purpose of weed(before you get started, I am not referring to marijuana!!) in the nature. Are they a complete drag on the natural resources or  do they contribute in someways for the well being of flowering/fruit bearing plants. I got some of these questions when i was "de-weeding" few flowering pots which I have got in my terrace garden. I had an interesting observation, those pots which had these small grass like weed had more moisture content in the soil compared to those which had none. They were helping the flowering plants to survive the intense heat. What we consider as worthless has a lot more value and rather than being an enemy, are a friend. Is it  possible that these plants like each other and enjoy each other's company. By removing the weed, are we in way making the so called good plants unhappy.

 In the wild there is no such thing as weed. In nature we can not find such separation between weed and flowering plants. Nature doesn't differentiate between the two and both of them live happily in a symbiotic relationship. It is we humans who classify the plants as good or bad and then create artificial environments(in our terrace gardens/glass houses).

We can draw some parallels with our society as well. We have both good and not so good people.
The not so good people are required for the success of the good. No leader howsoever good, can survive without the support of these people. A great leader is able to identify the good qualities and make use of them for his success. Rama could make use of monkeys(who are fickle-minded, good for nothing)  to construct the bridge and win war against the powerful Ravana. Some battles can't  be won by being goodie-goodie, and you need to apply brute force, treachery, deceit to win. At these times, we have to look towards these not so good people to act. Krishna shows this excellently in the Mahabharatha, he used Ghatotkacha(a rakshasa) to nullify the Shakti of Karna. He again encouraged Bhima to hit Duryodhana below the waist. This kind of act would never be done by a dharmic person like Yudhishtira. The bad looks bad to us because we don't know how to use it. For the wise, there is no such difference between good and bad. 

Life and Test Match

Life is like a cricket test match. The batsman needs to  build up his innings slowly & steadily. After the toss is settled, the opening batsman is sent in to start the innings. The initial overs of the day, like initial days when the baby is born are extremely tough and one to tread them with caution. The fast bowlers(diseases/accidents) are ready to strike at the smallest mistake and you can lose the wicket(life) just by small mistake. 

Once the initial few overs are taken care of, then wicket(life) becomes little easy, the batsman can venture out little freely and can punish few careless deliveries. This is akin to a young kid who starts becoming mischievous and starts takes risks during games. They go around climbing trees, swimming in the lakes, cycling or taking their parents bikes/cars out. This is the phase if you are lucky you might pass through with some minor scars here and there but if you are unlucky you might scars for life. If the batsman survives this session, then he has a chance to make it big.

The next phase is where the batsman needs to the hard work, spend time in the middle, keep  patience, look for opportunities and keep scoring. This is the phase when the core of the innings is really built up. This also shows the real character of the player, whether he has in it for the big innings or he is a T20 player. The opposition will try to test his skill by throwing their best at him. If he is fortunate, he might get a very good partner at the opposite end, else he has to play the role of anchor and steady the innings. In life also, this is the phase where the young person starts his life as an adult. He/She starts earning and starts taking more responsibilities. Many new challenges/opportunities will be thrown at you. Life can get or appear to get  little boring at this phase but this is the most crucial phase of life. This is the foundation on which rests the next phase of life. He/She might get support at the other end in form of a partner or family but its important that one goes on even if there is very little support from others.

There are some batsman who are little selfish and their goal is to hit a century and get their names on the record books. Once they get to that mark, they become careless and then get out. Then there are some who just don't care about hitting a century, they go on to hit triple/double centuries. These are the guys who are really focused and and are aware of the bigger objective of the team. Their innings are remembered for ever by their team mates and they bring in success to their teams.

 In life we have many who manage to live in their 80s/90s also, but they don't have purpose to their lives. They don't live but exist on this planet.There are others who understand the purpose of their lives is to live for others.  These people bring meaning to their lives by helping others and these are the ones who will be remembered with love and affection long after they have played their innings and they always remain NOT OUT.

Abide with Me

A beautiful poem written by Henry Francis Lyte / Will Henry Monk

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens Lord, with me abide

When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away
Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not, abide with me

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness
Where is death's sting?
Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee
In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me
Abide with me, abide with me

Airplane Mode

There are 10 indriyas in our body, out of which 5 are considered as sense organs(sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell) and 5 organs of action(speech, hand, feet, excretion and procreation). These organs are given to us as an aid in living a good life. These organs get in touch with the outside world and let us enjoy the experiences. We can't indulge in sense pleasure for ever  as there is some energy lost whenever these indriyas come in contact with the material world and we need to rest to regain our strength. All the great teachers have advised us to restrain the senses and preserve our energy for doing spiritual practices. In the modern world where technology is the new guru, no wonder even electronic gadgets echo these thoughts. Although we think they are dumb and still long way to go for full AI enabled machines, they can still teach us a few things about how to lead a good life. 

On one occasion I had to put my smartphone in airplane mode for a few days. The phone's battery  was charged almost 95% when i put it in airplane mode and when i brought it out of airplane mode after 3 days of complete radio silence, the battery was close to 85%. If this device can retain most of  its energy by just consuming only whatever is required and not communicating/interacting with the environment, how much energy we can save by stopping unnecessary indulgence of our senses(useless chat, eating without hunger, watching TV/laptop ....). We can instead use this energy for learning new things, developing new ideas... 

Music and Meditation

In traditional Indian classical music, there are several raagas. Each raaga has a distinguishing set of notes, which are supposed to be played in a certain order. In the starting phase of playing the raaga, the artist keeps going from one note to another and then coming back; like Re-Ga-Re, Re-Ga-Ma-Ga-Re. Its like keep emphasizing on particular notes in various patterns and establishing them in your heart again and again. This continues for several minutes and is deeply meditative. The artist is very sensitive during this period and generally won't tolerate any disturbances. Any movement/talk can make him/her lose their focus. Once they are done with the initial phase, then they get in the right frame of mind to start the actual performance.

I find there is some resemblance of this with pranayama and mediation. There are seven chakras(energy centers) in the human body. There are some meditation techniques, where attention is taken to different chakras through breath. You start focusing on the incoming and outgoing breath from the nostrils, then take attention to the center of eyebrows, then gradually from center of the eyebrows to the throat, then from there to the heart and so on. This continuous focus on the chakras through the medium of breath leads to cleansing of chakras. Doing this for few minutes, makes the mind very calm and brings in deep relaxation. Like the alaap in case of classical music, any disturbance can completely unsettle the meditator. However once the meditation is done, there is deep calmness within, which makes him/her ready to take any outside challenge.