The only way to express love
The surprise kiss can none surpass
And then I learnt that she was mute
It was that bad she wanted me
We have met not just now but a lot before
And meet again birth after death, to profess love for each other
The playful girl, she jumped on back
A child so heavy, I strained my back
I still reached home and told my wife
To give her candies for sharing mirth
No addiction can win by indulgence. There has to be a discipline to keep away. And then when gradually given the choice, one will be happier not to indulge.
In the battle against addiction, one must first accept the power of the object, the addictive power of Maya.
Admit that surely the object is a source of much pleasure. But also that one seeks higher happiness. The satisfaction felt in not indulging in that object, the source of addiction.
And it truly needn't be a victory in one birth. The vasanas could reside dormant. But the effort is worth it, even if temporary. The satisfaction during the period when one keeps away from the addictive object, one needs to keep contemplating upon and relishing. That happiness only if imbibed will the mind ever let the vasanas be completely destroyed.
Realise that you are no smaller than the Rishis, nor greater than those steeped in addiction.
You were once the one drowning in addiction, and you will once be the Rishi who has destroyed all vasanas for the object.
Let onward be your journey!
In Vedanta we have the example of the 10 friends who upon crossing a river try to check if all have crossed safely. The person counting forgets to count himself and they all end up ruing the loss of one friend in the waters.
The example is used to show how the Self can never really be experienced or understood as an object. For it's the very subject trying to look for the answer.
Note here that the friends lost someone, they know so. They don't know who but still mourn it.
But different is the experience when there are 2 and 1 is lost. For the loss is numbing than expressive. You express when there are others watching and you sub-consciously look for consolation.
But if there were only two and one is lost forever, there is no one else to express this to. It doesn't matter. Such loss is deeper. You go quiet.
Such vacuum either leads to freedom by realisation of the true self that knows no attachment. Or into a black hole that knows not how to handle this and takes the mind into depression.
Have we ever thought
From where did spring all these countries
These borders and the wars for them
We belong to nature and she didn't create these
Why can't we just share and get along
Will these fights exist if are from one nation
If our country and citizenship is One?
All these man conceived concepts of nationality
Would that bluff not be called out
We die and kill and hate and live
With this thing called patriotism we create
Let's love us all, let's not exploit
Let's help one another, no rich nor poor
When you admire the Acharya of Sringeri
Or the martial artists defying gravity
Know these all to be tendencies
From births gone by, your own history
We are dragged back here by desire
Lost chances for the release we aspired
Each birth a blink in eye of eternity
Yet unending our vanity, the ego of importance
Pursue the Sadhana Chatushtaya
Watch through the wrong desires rising
Spread the word of Vedanta
Let life be service selfless
Not like a river, enbanked and diverted
Not like the dams that channel a waterfall
Not like fire left burning in furnaces
Let the devotion in heart be like a free breeze
Be it rotating the windmill or chasing the clouds
Be it climbing mountains or caressing leaves
Be it evaporating water, or even fanning a fire
Let devotion be sincere, to the one attended
The wind does settle, on nights heavy and humid
It does at times, not even dry a farmers cries
It does need rest, and time for itself too
Let devotion be not judged, and free from all deceit
.. One only has to see the lives of Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson and other such celebrities who had it all, and from the practical standpoint, simply blue it. But this is also an over simplifying the phenomenon itself.
There was also the case of a super rich person simply committing suicide because he had done it all - everything there was that could offer pleasure - and got bored by them, and hence only had suicide left to give some thrill!
People who could rather have done so much more with their lives...
"Freedom" is not more precious than the value of human life.
Inculcating the 4 Purusharthas (In order of priority: Duty/Charity, Wealth/Means, Pleasure/Happiness, Moksha/Spirituality) is needed very much needed in every human life, than letting life sway away like a wayward dry leaf.
So that one always has a reference or a guiding light to the order of priority and sense of purpose in each life.
Each child be taught that freedom pursued within these broad parameters is a sure guide to a fulfilling life!
All through Advaita and Advaitins keep harping that we are Brahman, and so is all around.
There are Advaitins who go to great lengths with this view to even explain (rather deny) the Vyavaharika and Sukshma. For example, when asked about reincarnation they say there is no life, then what to say about reincarnation. Likewise when asked about expressing anger, they say it's only in mind and not in Brahman. This doesn't help the common man and instead confuses and drives them away from Advaita as something very abstract and not helpful for practical life.
Of course the true masters of Advaita as Adi Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and even Swami Sarvapriyananda and others understand this, and hence always recommend that we start with Bhakti. This is the simplest means for the masses. Then to pair it with Raja Yoga (meditation, Pranayama, asanas). And then to grow into Karma yoga. And only later into Jnana yoga / Advaita.
Vedanta itself says that the world is considered Mithya not because it's false but appears as something else.
Likewise all of us are Jiva right now, a combination of pure Brahman with impure Sukshma that carries vasanas across births and bound by causality, space and time.
Knowing this, we all need to adhere to Sadhanas, respect and follow all the Yogas, for now only "knowing" that the truth that Brahman only Is. But something that we have to yet "realise" at some point in time (yes within the confines of Maya before being freed from it)!
The world is said to be disrupting, and once more due to technology.
There was a time when computers made the jobs of data entry and space/process for manual archival redundant.
But this in turn reduced the costs associated with running a business and led to many not opening up; in turn this led to more number of jobs being created.
There have been social impacts due to this: society became more consumption-driven. Less cooking is happening at home and refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines have become a staple at homes. This meant the cost of living went up and both husband and wife had to work. This in turn is leading to filial tensions and less care and attention involved in the upbringing of the next generation. This is the state of things as it stands now.
Now they said AI will take away some more jobs. First the white collar rudimentary ones like on-call customer service that has already started. Then the complex blue collar ones that machines already hadn't like that of house maids.
While this has to lead to opening of new sectors, this is not necessarily a wave that will lead to the opening of newer sectors.
The bulk of any population is the middle class. When their jobs are at stake there will be a lot of heartburn. The previous data entry disruption or the e-commerce boom did not really touch the bulk of blue collared. That had been done and consolidated by the industrial revolution a century ago.
There is the other risk of machine learning being a continuous process and gulping more jobs than one can fathom.
It behoves nations to have the vision and enforce strict population planning. And to give visible benefits thereof by providing free high quality education to be skilled enough to ride the wave of controlling machines than being controlled/replaced by them!
Where we spent lifetimes past
Memories buried in sweetest dust
Where the lucky few and grown this big
Are you too willing, to bade it bye
A village is a community, a self sufficing one
Where give and take, they did of all
Not a place like a building
Where we meet only, when needs it be
Village is where, our culture has grown
Language, feasts, the festivities too
What we wear and how we behave
It was all, thanks to Village
Now it seems, time for byes
Time to let go, a centuries old structure
It's time to move, into your cages
One above the other, the sleep depraven
