Self excavation

We live in echo chambers- surrounded by same thinking... the society, the parents, the in-laws, the spouses all trying to carve a path for us. How often do we bump into a monk? Who can find the purpose and master the mind better than a monk?

"When you are pushed to your knees, you are in perfect position to pray."

-Rumi

Sankara

Many philosophies converge at Sankara's non dualism. Where differences do not exist, He and I are one.

"Brahma satyam, jagat mithya,
jeevo bhramaiva naparah"
                               -Sankara

Manyness of things

By birth men have an instinct to divide and distribute things. As kids we want toys to be divided; when we grow up we expect property and wealth to be divided, work to be divided, duties to be divided, families to be divided...what's worse- we do not even spare god. Your god, my god, Hindu god, Muslim god etc.

On Giving

"If you have the power to give, give; it will come back to you a thousandfold- but the attention must not be on that. Understand it that the nature will force you to give, so better give willingly. You come into life to accumulate- but nature will clench your throat if you will not give and that is when you will be hurt. The more one struggles against these laws the more miserable one feels. Remember when the forest is gone, we get heat in return; the quicker we empty the air out of this room, the quicker the room will be filled up by external air but if you close all doors and apertures, that which is within will stagnate and degenerate ; the river is continually emptying itself into the ocean but is also continually filling up again. You are a machine of taking and giving- u take in order to give. Bar not the exit into the ocean! The moment you do that death seizes you."
-Vivekanand

Strange form of self indulgence

"A strange form of self indulgence! There are times when I would be wronged and cheated, that I may laugh at the expense of those who think I do not know that I am being wronged and cheated.

What shall I say of him who is the pursuer playing the part of pursued?"

-Gibran

Refuge

The small lump of salt went to discover the depth of the ocean and it lost its identity. Who will now come back to tell what happened?

The seat of thought

Mind, the seat of thought, is both the doer and accuser of all Karmas. There is no oblivion in mind and time. It must be the weight of karmas that keeps a soul tied up to the vicious wheel of life and death.

Ram hid behind the trees and slayed Bali. In Dwapar Yug. The same Bali returned as a hunter Jara who shot the arrow that killed Krishna. Even incarnations of Vishnu could not escape the law of cause and effect!

Taking life must be sin of highest order but what an irony 'flesh must survive on flesh'.