Did I tell you, I love you?

Once again as I embarked on a long journey, without my wife, I felt the pang of separation from my love and friend. I was filled with thoughts and emotions. 

When our being overflows with emotion it drives thoughts out of the mind emptying it, even if only for a brief moment. Then in this emptiness many thoughts surge in.

What if I never get to see her again? 
Its strange, that I have surrendered to Mohini, yet rather than becoming less I am further enriched, physically, emotionally and intellectually. This I guess is the power of love and friendship.


I always want to tell her that she means the world to me and I love her,  and a thousand other things. Words and thoughts which a man and woman, friends, and lovers  should be sharing with one another, but for some inexplicable reason almost never do so. 

Soon after leaving I usually sent her a message from my phone. The message could reflect care, love, regret, a joke, something romantic, advice, maybe even a reminder, whatever it is I feel at that moment. True friends and lovers never adulterate their feelings with too much thought. 

I asked myself, 'If you love her, why did you not tell her directly?'
For one my wife never believes me, after all the grief I give her. 
Secondly the last time I hugged and told her I loved her, , she spun around and confronted me, "Are you having an affair? "
"Of course not, I replied." 
I thought to myself, "By God! what a delightful thing that would be."  

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I like to converse with myself. 
Why do we seek to cling on to what we have? Maybe this is all that we have. 
There is God I am often told. 
But where is He?

God, He seems so very far away. The more I approach Him the more distant he seems to be. How many steps more must I travel to reach Him? And there are so many middle men.  My wife and my family, they are here and now. I have invested so much in these relationship, of course I have a right to expect a return on my love and devotion.

This is nonsense. If we expect something in return for our love and devotion then it's not love, its business. A commercial deal of give and take. 

Again I asked myself, 'what if I never saw her again?'  The survivor would be devastated. Really? Why should it be so?

From experience and understanding, realisation is born which blooms into acceptance.
Worry never robbed tomorrow of its sorrow, it just robs today of its essence.

We come alone into this world and alone we shall leave it.  How silly we humans are, that for the brief time we spend while we are here, to gather so much?  As if we will live here forever. Things, relationships, wealth, position, status, all we should relinquish voluntarily or they will be snatched away from us anyway.  Give and give with joy and without expectation. Share and share with compassion. 

Love is not a demanding but a giving. Only an Emperor can give with magnanimity. Where as a beggar is exacting, expecting his or her due in full, and if possible even more.  

Love and friendship fortunately are unlike money.
If we give and love unconditionally, the more we give the more we are enriched. 
Maybe I have evolved, maybe I have just grown too comfortable and lazy, maybe I am trying to fool destiny. I am lucky that I live like an emperor, I treasure just the moment, and I never send her sentimental messages anymore. 

Awakening all of Humanity

If you want to awaken all of humanity, 

then awaken all of yourself:

If you want to eliminate the suffering of the world, 

then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.

Truly the greatest gift you have to give is, 

that of your own self-transformation.

- Lao Tzu

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A contemporary of Confucius, during 6th century BC.  Lao Tzu the legendary writer and philosopher is the author of the Tao Te Ching (The Way)  and the founder of philosophical Taoism. 

Falling or rising in Love?

"In fact a mature person does not fall in love, he rises in love. The word ’fall’ is not right. Only immature people fall; they stumble and fall down in love. Somehow they were managing and standing. They cannot manage and they cannot stand – they find a woman and they are gone, they find a man and they are gone. They were always ready to fall on the ground and to creep. They don’t have the backbone, the spine; they don’t have that integrity to stand alone."

"A mature person has the integrity to be alone. And when a mature person gives love, he gives without any strings attached to it: he simply gives. And when a mature person gives love, he feels grateful that you have accepted his love, not vice versa. He does not expect you to be thankful for it – no, not at all, he does not even need your thanks. He thanks you for accepting his love. And when two mature persons are in love, one of the greatest paradoxes of life happens, one of the most beautiful phenomena: they are together and yet tremendously alone; they are together so much so that they are almost one. But their oneness does not destroy their individuality, in fact, it enhances it: they become more individual."

"Two mature persons in love help each other to become more free. There is no politics involved, no diplomacy, no effort to dominate. How can you dominate the person you love? Just think over it. Domination is a sort of hatred, anger, enmity. How can you think of dominating a person you love? You would love to see the person totally free, independent; you will give him more individuality. That’s why I call it the greatest paradox: they are together so much so that they are almost one, but still in that oneness they are individuals. Their individualities are not effaced – they have become more enhanced. The other has enriched them as far as their freedom is concerned."

"Immature people falling in love destroy each other’s freedom, create a bondage, make a prison. Mature persons in love help each other to be free; they help each other to destroy all sorts of bondages. And when love flows with freedom there is beauty. When love flows with dependence there is ugliness."

- Osho

Oshio

What did Mahatma Gandhi really mean by Non Violence?

To commit an injustice is a sin, 

         but to tolerate injustice is also a sin.

                - Guru Gobind Singh ji

Ahimsa or non violence does not mean 'to do nothing'. It means not to not actively cause harm to others and to creation.

What Mahatma Gandhi ji advised the First Soldier of India?

In early 1947, India was rushing towards its date with freedom from British rule. However there loomed on the horizon a very dangerous storm of the threat of partition of India because of the differences between the two main egoistic leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohamad Ali Jinnah.

Wiser counsel tried their best to prevent the partition. Amongst the sane, was the first soldier of India, Major General Cariappa, who suggested that Nehru and Jinnah  should sit down together and find an amicable solution to avoid partition.

Surprisingly, this suggestion was immediately condemned by Mahatma Gandhi in 'The Harijan', who frowned upon upon the expression of political views by a military man.

Gen Cariappa went to meet Gandhi ji. 

After some polite conversation the General came to the point. "Gandhi ji, I cannot do my duty well by my country If I concentrate only on telling my troops of non-violence all the time, subordinating their main task of preparing themselves efficiently to be good soldiers. So I ask you, please, to give me the child's guide to knowledge. Tell me please, how I can put this over, that is, the spirit of non-violence to the troops without endangering their sense of duty to protect themselves and the nation."

Gandhi ji, replied, "I myself am groping in the dark for the answer.  I will find it  someday and give you the answer."

The apostle of non-violence had no answer to give the first soldier of India. Gandhi ji, concluded that everyone must do their duty and to serve and to protect your country is the solemn duty of everyone, but more so that of the soldier.

Gandhi ji, was the first person to bless Brig. LP Sen before he left for Srinagar in Kashmir on his mission to repel the invading Pakistani forces.  

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Unfortunately India for long has been led mostly by small minded self serving leaders. Many leaders civilian and military lacking in spine and intelligence have conveniently twisted the words of Gurus, Mahatmas, and former military leaders to do precious little to protect the interests of India and her people.

If we have bad leaders, it is because we have voted them to be there. 

Let us imbibe the true spirit of liberty with dignity and prosperity. To become a great and responsible nation, who none other should fear unless they wish to deliberately cause India harm.

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The quotes of Mahatma Gandhi and Gen. Cariappa were taken from the book '**Mahatma Gandhi: The last phase**' written by Pyarelal Nayyar

Pyarelal Nayyar (1899–1982) was a ver active freedom fighter and the personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi in his later years.

Religion and Wit

Ibn Sīnā. (980 - 1037AD) commonly known as Avicenna, was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age.

Avicenna translated numerous Greco-Roman works. 
Based on his study of Persian and Indian mathematical systems, he developed and wrote 450 works. His work covered the fields of philosophy, medicine, astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, psychology, logic, algebra, trigonometry, physics and poetry. 
He also contributed extensively to the field of Islamic theology. 

As a teacher, I learnt from ....

I have learnt much from my teachers, still more from my colleagues, but from my pupils more than from all of them.

- Hillel

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Great institutions are founded by exceptional leaders. 

Coincidentally all exceptional leaders are not only exceptional students but also great teachers. Why is this so?

The reasons could be several, but the greatest is the learning that teaching facilitates. This happens in three stages. First when they are taught, secondly when its is practiced and thirdly when they teach it.

This is why genuine teachers are revered and held in esteem greater than those afforded to  rulers, governments and even parents. When teaching becomes just a job or a chore one takes up for subsistence or making money the spark and energy that knowledge provides is lost. It also becomes a drudgery for the student who have to simply endure the fake teacher. They therefore  absorb little nothing, grow angry and restless. Worse is that they begin to despise the teacher, the subject and the institution.

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Woodcutter, sage, religious leader and scholar Hillel (110 BC - 10 AD) is one of the most important figures in Jewish history. Associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud. 

Hillel the Elder teaching a man the meaning of the whole Torah 

No freedom in the crowd

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

In a shoal of fish, each fish tries to do two things. First it tries to get to the centre of the shoal and secondly it tries to replicate the behaviour of the fish next to it. It provides a sense of security to each individual fish.

Human beings in a society generally behave in the same way. So an individual in a community sacrifices his or her individuality to fit in and acquire a sense of security. This approach is pretty good for animals and animal expectations. Banded together a group is physically stronger than the individual members. But what about the intellectual, and spiritual expectations of individual humans?

If the individual fails to comply to the guidelines laid out by leaders in society, then the members of the society isolate and drive out the non conformist from within their midst.

People everywhere are seeking to be free from others. A society is free only when individuals within it are free. Unfortunately the vast majority of humanity has willingly submitted to others, the political, spiritual and intellectual aspects of their lives.

The reason this has happened is that they do not know what to do with their freedom

Try this and ask yourself, 
'If I am free, then what do I do with my freedom?'

If you are baffled to discover that you have no satisfactory answer, maybe its time to start questioning some of the assumptions you have made about your life.