Do we really mean a "new year"?

Well, the last day of the year 2008 has arrived. And what do we do on this day. Generally we celebrate and party overnight to enjoy the new day of the new year. We all say that the last day of the year is now over, A new day has begun. But there are thousands of people for whom there is gloom and despair everyday. There is no celebration in their lives. I am not talking about some specific group of homo sapien. I am talking about the general people who think they are celebrating the new year's eve, but all the celebration is just superficial! Do we really mean the new year a "New Year"? What newness has any new year brought to people's lives? Apart from recessions and gloom! We get up every morning brush our teeth, do our routine work, go to office, half the life gets killed there, we carry home the half life back to spend some time with the family doing what? watching tv, dining, and sleeping. Now just re-read this para 100 times. I bet you will get bored when you complete it reading 40 times. Imagine doing it for n years X 365 days. Day in, day out. That's the life of the general public. I wonder what do they mean by new-ness? What new things have you done? NONE! Humans are not born just to get good education, good "job", good income, good spouse, cute li'll kids. The human beings in the society have served you so that you stand where you are. Be it in misery or joy. When shall you serve back the society. Till when shall you live only for your selfish needs? To serve is a divine quality. God serves humans but is not the servant of the humans! People talk about being successful in life. Do you claim success when you accomplish drinking a glass of water? No because you know you can easily do it! But what you do not know is your true potential. You have no idea what you can do? Here a guru makes you aware of your potential. So that you can achieve something beyond your limited knowledge. Remember, Your sole (soul) purpose is to give. When does the question of loss arise? When there is a give and take, and you get less when you give more! But when your sole duty is to give or serve you have nothing to lose! Moreover, you have come to this world empty handed and will go empty handed. Whatever you are going to get in this world is not yours. So why bother yourself so much on petty things in life and lose the bliss. We need to make this a habit to serve others. And when everyone on this planet serves others, you will live in abundance. This is how you must live. In Abundance! And for now, get some life, folks! And do not forget to enjoy the new year.

I'll be back!

This is the famous line from the movie The Terminator. A line delivered with panache and vengeance. This reminds me of a old roman empire story. There was a man, marcius, who used to spend considerable time of the day drinking wine and lazing around in the sun. One day, there came a hefty man. The drunkard and the hefty man got hooked up in some altercation and it led to a brawl. Eventually, the drunkard got beaten up very badly. The drunkard decided to return the blows back to the hefty man. He decided to give up drinking. He started exercising daily. He slowly regained his health. Within three years he built good body. He started participating in wrestling championships and won medals & accolades. He also started learning the habits of human mind. He realised how easy it is to make a mind lazy. To do something good the mind needs effort, but to do bad things mind does it effortlessly! Marcius decided to use this against his old enemy, the hefty man. The hefty man was now a little old but strong all the same. He did not want to fight directly with the hefty man. Hefty man was a treacherous person. He used all illegal means to defeat his opponents. So Marcius had thought of a plan. Marcius made a public announcement that the man of might will fight a lion in the arena. At the same time, Marcius used his contacts to hire some prostitutes for the hefty man. Marcius also got a gift, a bottle of wine. The hefty man had mucles but not the discipline. Brawns but no brains. When the hefty man was relishing his gift, and having sensory plesures, Maricus turned up at the hefty man's abode. Marcius was totally a new man now. Virile and strong. Mentally and Physically. The hefty man did not recognise the old opponent. Marcius started extolling the amazing feats of the hefty man. He praised his strength, his skills of fight. The hefty man then angrily asked Marcius, "I have never seen you, Why do you come with such pleseantaries and praise me. What do you want of me?" Marcius skillfully said, "Sir, There is a fight with a lion. The mightiest man in the town is offered to set match with this lion. If you win this match you will be the hero in the roman empire. No one will dare to fight with you, sir!" HEaring this the hefty man agreed for the fight. The next day the hefty man and the lion were in the arena. The fight lasted for two agonizing hours. The lion & hefty man were severly wounded. Both died due to loss of blood. This story we had in our 4th std. moral science. The moral is very simple. If you lead you life in discipline then you can fight even the mightiest enemy. You do not need muscles to fight. The strength is not in muscles, it is in the mind. The fight should not be initiated to propogate violence. Fight to "end" violence. This can be achieved only when there is peace in your heart. It hardly takes any courage to fight, but to say no to the fight one requires tremendous courage. Especially those who have the strength, arm, ammo to fight but avoids using it. Astalavista, baby!

Shelfari!?!

Hey! Did you notice a new widget on the blog? Its called shelfari. Shelfari is a webiste where you have an account. And in that account you cann add the books you've read, you wish to read, or you wish to buy. You can rate the books on the scale of one to five. This is a must visit website for the voracious readers like me. The list of books in the shelf of shelfari is just 2% of what I've read. To view my current bookshelf on shelfari go to http://www.shelfari.com/omkar890 Reading is a very good habit. I know that with the advent of Cell phones, laptops, internet; reading, per se, is being slowly dispensed with. But gals and guys, I tell you there is no other joy like reading. You go to gym to pump muscles and train you body. Reading is a rigorous workout for you brain. More you read more flexible you brian will be. So keep up the habit of reading! O.A.K.

Oohh! Is that so?

Once upon a time there was a sage who had achieved highest state of consciousness. He lived a simple life of a hermit high up in the hills. At the foot hills was a village. The would often go to the village to beg alms. What ever he would get on the day he would suffice it for a week. He was a complete celibate sage. A beautiful girl in that village was pregnant. Her angry parents demanded to know who was the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious and embarrassed girl finally pointed to sage who lived in the hills. Everyone previously revered him for living such a pure life. When the outraged parents confronted sage with their daughter's accusation, he simply replied "Is that so?" When the child was born, the parents brought it to the sage, now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. "Is that so?" sage said calmly as he accepted the child. For many months he took very good care of the child until the daughter could no longer withstand the lie she had told. She confessed that the real father was a young man in the village whom she had tried to protect. The parents immediately went to sage to see if he would return the baby. With profuse apologies they explained what had happened. "Is that so?" sage said as he handed them the child. What did you learn from the story? Do write comments O.A.K.

Non Attachment!

A great Monk named Kitano Gempo, abbot of Eihei temple died at the age of ninety two. He believed that one must practice non attachment while enjoying the marvels of life. At the age of 22, when he was wandering monk, he came across a tobacco merchant who gave him a pipe and tobacco to smoke. "How wonderful it feels to smoke tobacco!" The monk commented. The merchant gave his pipe and some tobacco to the monk and he left. The monk then felt, 'Such pleasent things will disturb my meditation. I must stop it before it goes too far!' He stopped smoking immediately Then at the age of 28, he started studying calligraphy and poetry. Other monks and priests praised his skills. The monk felt, 'If I do not stop writing poetry and calligraphy, I will be a good poet and calligraphy artist. I will not be able to meditate.' He stopped writing poetry and calligraphy. Moral: It is very easy to get attached to the objects or people in the world. Then we believe that the joy is in the object. When we meditate or lead a spiritual life, we face hardships. Then we feel that there is no joy in the world. True. There is no joy in this world. Absolutely nothing. Because YOU are the source of joy. Everything is changing, everything. Wake up and see the reality. Wake up before its too late. :) Jai Gurudev O.A.K. Note: The image is the copyright of Karma Digital Art. All Rights Reserved.

My childhood...

I recently received an email from my friend. After reading it, I started wondering how we have changed the way we live. I loved this mail so much that I decided to post it here. Following is the excerpt from the mail: How did one survive growing up in the 70's, 80's and 90's? We had no seat belts, no airbags and sitting in the back of a truck was a treat. Our baby prams had the most gorgeous lead based colors. No such thing as tamper proof bottle tops. Opening kitchen cupboards was a breeze as safety locks were unheard off. Cycling was like a breath of fresh air. No safety helmets, knee pads or elbow pads, with plenty of cardboards between spokes to make it sound like a motorbike. When thirsty we only drank tap water, bottled water was still a mystery. We kept busy collecting bits & pieces so we could build all sort of things and we were fearless on our bikes even when the brakes failed going downhill. We were showing off how tough we are, by how high we could climb trees & then jumping down…. It was great fun…. We could stay out to play for hours, as long as we got back before dark, in time for dinner… We walked to school, or sometimes we even rode our bike. We had no mobile phones, but we always managed to find each other…. How? No one knows… We rushed to help neighbors when they were in trouble, now we do not even know who stays in our neighborhood! We lost teeth, broke arms & legs, we got cuts and bruises and bloody noses, nobody complained as we had so much fun, it wasn't anybody's fault, only ours. We ate everything in sight, cakes, bread, chocolate, ice-cream, sweet sugary drinks, yet, we stayed skinny by fooling around. And if one of us was lucky to find a 1 litre coca cola bottle we all had a swag from it & guess what? Nobody picked up any germs. We did not have Play Stations, MP3, Nintendo's, I-Pods, Video games, 99 Cable TV channels, DVD's, Home Cinema, Mobile phones, Home Computers, Laptops, Chat-rooms, Internet, etc ... BUT, we had REAL FRIENDS and not the virtual friends or avatars!!!! The present generation may boast of the ultimate and real feel games, but we have played the real games in real environment and not in the virtual environment. We used to do summer job and earn pocket money to buy colas and ice candies. Now kids go to "Second life" or "Sim city" and earn virtual money to buy virtual merchandise. We called on friends to come out to play, never rang the doorbell, just went around the back… We loved being let loose in the big bad world…without bodyguards… We played with sticks and stones, played with the top and "vitti-dandu", doctors and nurses, hide and seek, soccer games, "Lagori" or the seven stones, over and over again… When we failed our exams we were given a second chance by simply repeating the same grade…without visiting psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors… Such were the days… We had freedom, success, disappointments and responsibilities. We lived it all. Most of all, we learned to respect others. Now I know why it is said "Old is Gold" Jai Gurudev O.A.K.

I share my skills

It was really worth traveling all the way to Salil Bhaiya's home at five in the morning. After the warm-ups, padmasadhana, short kriya, Salil spoke about YES!+ SING SING stands for Share, Inspire, Nurture and Grow. It was a beautiful session but I will be talking about it later. After listening the inspiring session, I felt like sharing something with you. Some of you might be knowing that I being a finance professional, I have a lot of work on MS Excel. In the firm where I worked for past 11 months, I learn't a lot about excel. I strived to achieve mastery over it. I am not claiming that I am the master, but have learn't even the VBA codes with which I can manipulate the way excel ordinarily functions! After leaving the job for the sake of completing my professional exam of CFA, I felt that I was slowly losing out on the Excel expertise. So first I undertook a project of making a calendar. This is a unique calendar. You select the month and the year. The cells below will show the dates in that month and it takes care of the leap year and 30/31 days in the month up to the year 2025. I felt nice that after a long time I took some challenging activity on excel. But that did not suffice. I still lacked sufficient practice on the Macros. It was until I stumbled across the Yahoo Answers. This is a place where people ask questions, experts answer those questions and curious ones can discover the resolved question and update their GK. It has a various sections. I recommend that you visit the site. It is answers.yahoo.com There I searched for the queries on Excel and macros. There were plenty of them. Unresolved! While answering the questions I had to practically solve the queries in the excel sheet. This helped me exercise the EQ (Excel Quotient... hehehe). I felt nice to hear the "Thanx a lot. You are Awesome" replies after their Q's were solved. Felt nice when I did not let my talents go waste. I am not writing this post with an intention to blow my trumpet about how good I am at excel. But I want each one of you to practice and hone your talents. The talents that you have are really a god's gift. If you do not take out time to polish your talents they rot. When you realize this it could be too late. I want everyone of you to find out your talent and practice it everyday! Jai Gurudev!

Have you joined the "99 Club"

This story is pretty much interesting. I love this story soooo much! Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content. One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant "Why are you so happy?" The man replied "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies." The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club." "The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired. The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep." DONE ! When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... So many gold coins! He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were only 99 coins. He wondered "What could've happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!" He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection. From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked. Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his adviser's help, the adviser said "Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club." He continued " The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life ." We tell this since we are kids. As a kid you say just let me pass 10th std. Then I'll be happy. The kid passes 10th and is in college. Then the kid goes on saying, let me pass college then I'll be happy. By the end of college, the kid now a grown-up says, let me get a good job then I'll be happy. Once there is a good job, desire to have a spouse wells up. Then you say let me get married then I'll be happy. Then you have to make the nest "complete" thinking you'll be happy after your kids arrive. Then the kids come into the picture. Then you dream about their future; their school, college, job/business, their marital life. Then you say after you retire you'll be happy. Then suddenly all of a sudden the angel of death visits you! We can be happy & contented with whatever we have in our lives or can keep grumbling and complaining for what we do not have, the choice is yours! The minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That's what joining The 99 Club is all about." Hope you will stay out of this club! Jai gurudev O.A.K.