14. Progress In Work

For more inspirations, visit:
http://dharmathecat.com

13. I am in neither General nor Reserved Category!

Name: Rajendra Prabhu... only in a name, as neither am I the King of Kings (Rajendra) nor have I realization of the Lord (Prabhu)!
Caste by Birth: Brahmin
Caste by Work: Shudra, as I am in IT services industry, working neither as an intellectual (Brahmin), nor as a soldier/ruler/administrator (Kshatriya), nor as a businessman (Vaishya)
Category: Self, the indivisible one!

Why should I worry if the Government of India is planning to increase the reservation quota for the Lower/Backward Category in educational and professional institutes to 50% and above? I am sure the Government has demographic reasons to prove that the General category is no more in general but in exception! Hence, let me call them the Upper category, in contrast to the Lower Category who are being provided with the reservation quotas.

The question is whether the people fighting against reservation on the streets, stopping traffic, taking unwarranted vacations from work, and the like... are they really in the Upper category? I am not taking into account their heredity, but only their actions. Whatever means they are adopting constitutes to be actions from Lower Category! Hence, they can be labelled to be in the Reservation-less Lower Category! And definitely, they should continue with these actions -- a proof of their category.

Now that we have weeded out the mischief-mongers, lets talk of the Upper category. Why should they worry at all? A rose is a rose is a rose! Pluto is happily revolving about the Sun, without bothering whether Man declares it to be a planet or something else. So why should the Upper Category folks worry? After all, they have duly been categorized as Upper! Isn't that a status symbol in itself? When the society has given you such a noble distinction, shouldn't you give the society something in return? Until now you were busy with white collar jobs, becoming engineers and doctors. Now is an opportunity to use your talent in other fields: carpentry, farming, plumbing! If that's too beneath your status symbol (God knows why), then why not open your ancestral texts -- the Vedas, the Upanishads -- and revive a world of Ayurveda and Yoga? The possibilities are many... you just need to be perseverant for gaining back your glory in the Sun!

Time for me to take a stretch break while you ponder over this thought...

12. Hold onto that Thought!

Ever heard the TV host say, "Hold onto that thought while we take a commercial break"?

Ever tried to hold onto a thought, like this Ogden Nash centipede did?

The centipede was happy quite

Until a toad, in fun,

Said, "Pray, which leg goes after which

When you begin to run?

That worked her mind to such a pitch,

She lay distracted in a ditch,

Considering how to run.

Can you give it a try with this Ogden Nash piece?

When people reject a truth or an untruth it is not

because it is a truth or an untruth that they reject it.

No, if it isn't in accord with their beliefs in the

first place they simply say, "Nothing doing," and refuse to inspect it.

Likewise when they embrace a truth or an untruth it

is not for either its truth or its mendacity,

But simply because they have believed it all along

and therefore regard the embrace as a tribute to

their own fair-mindedness and sagacity.

And what about this one from the same Ogden Nash?

I think that I shall never see

A billboard lovely as a tree;

Indeed, unless the billboards fall

I'll never see a tree at all

The billboard correlates to your perspective of your self, while the tree corresponds to the Real Self!

If you are trying to come out of your usual thought patterns, check out the blog http://oshospeak.blogspot.com which contains Osho discourses, Osho teachings, Osho quotes, Osho jokes and personal development... It's worth a visit! Especially read Osho's answer to a question from a disciple: "Osho, My problem is that I think there is something wrong with me. If I think that I have a problem then I really do have one. In fact, thinking seems to be just the making up of problems. What do you think?"

11. Having Trust in the Guru

Once you have selected your (spiritual) Guru (it's actually you being selected as the disciple), you need to have utmost trust in the Guru and his/her words! Following Osho joke is a good example of that:

Mulla Nasrudin and his wife went to Israel for their holidays and visited a nightclub in Tel Aviv. A comedian was on the bill who did his whole act in Hebrew. Nasrudin's wife sat through the comic's act in silence, but Nasrudin roared with laughter at the end of each joke.

"I did not know you understood Hebrew," she said to the Mulla when the comedian had concluded his act. "I don't," replied Nasrudin.
"Well, how come you laughed so much at his jokes?"
"Oh," said Nasrudin, "I trusted him."

(http://www.oshoworld.com/Jokes/main.asp)

But in that trust, don't use your unripened mind, as the following Osho joke suggests:

Sir Reginald, riding in a New York taxi, was challenged by the driver to solve a riddle: "This person I am thinking of has the same father that I have and the same mother, but it is not my sister and it is not my brother. Who is it?"

The Britisher thought for a moment, and then gave up.
"It is me," the cabdriver told him.
"By Jove! That's jolly good. I must try that on the chaps at my club!"

A month later he was sitting in London with his cigar-smoking cronies. He said, "Gentlemen, this individual I have in mind is not my brother and not my sister, yet this person has the same parents as I have -- who is it?"

After several thoughtful minutes, all the members conceded defeat. "Who is it?" one of them inquired. "Come on Reggie, give us the answer."

Reggie slapped his knees in triumph. "It is a taxicab driver in New York City!" he roared.

(http://www.oshoworld.com/Jokes/main.asp)

And with that trust, life is changed once and for all!

A patient lying on the operating table started screaming, "I don't want to be cut open! You'll kill me! I don't want to die!"

The surgeon tried to calm the patient. "Just take it easy, sir," he said. "Look at my long white beard. I've done thousands of operations and nothing has ever gone wrong."

"Oh, doctor, you're right! I know I can trust you!" replied the patient.

When the patient awoke after the operation, he looked around and saw the same white beard and said, "Oh, thank you, doctor! You are a saint!"

"It's okay, son, you don't have to thank me. I am not your doctor -- my name is St. Peter!"

(http://www.friendsofosho.com/humor%20therapy.htm)

10. Blessed is he who has attended his own funeral!

Man turns up for his own funeral
PTI, August 17, 2006 15:51 IST

A 36-year-old man, believed to be dead and whose 'body' was being flown home from Lucknow, returned on Thursday morning, just as his family busy arranging for his last rites.

According to police, Mohammad Ashraf, a father of five children, had recently gone to Jeddah in search of a job and was deported by Saudi authorities to Lucknow on August 13, after he was found to be overstaying there. When Ashraf reached Lucknow by an Air India flight, he soon found that his passport was missing and decided to reach Malappuram by train, the sources said.

Meanwhile, mistaking the body of an unidentified person at the airport to be that of Ashraf after his passport was traced in the premises, Lucknow passport authorities rang up Ashraf's house to inform them of his 'demise'. They also arranged for the body to be flown to Malappuram.

However, before the flight could arrive at Karipur airport at the scheduled time of 6.15 am, Ashraf reached home by 5.30 am, taking everyone by shock and surprise.

Ashraf's father had even made arrangements through a notary to receive his son's body on its arrival at the airport while his family members were busy arranging Ashraf's burial.

After Lucknow passport officials were informed that Ashaf had returned home, arrangements were made to take the unidentified person's body back, to Lucknow, the sources added.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Quotes from the Masters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nisargadatta Maharaj

You may die a hundred deaths without a break in the mental turmoil. Or you may keep your body and die only in the mind. The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.

I am dead already. Physical death will make no difference in my case. I am timeless being. I am free of desire or fear, because I do not remember the past, or imagine the future. Where there are no names and shapes, how can there be desires and fear? With desirelessness comes timelessness. I am safe, because what is not cannot touch what is. You feel unsafe, because you imagine danger. Of course, your body as such is complex and vulnerable and needs protection. But not you. Once you realize your own unassailable being, you will be at peace.

What is birth and death but the beginning and the ending of a stream of events in consciousness?

[When an ordinary man dies] according to his belief it happens. As life before death is but imagination, so is life after. The dream continues. The gnani does not die because he was never born.

In reality there is no killing and no dying. The real does not die, the unreal never lived.

[If I heard that you had died,] I would be very happy to have you back home. Really glad to see you out of this foolishness, of thinking that you were born and will die, that you are a body displaying a mind and all such nonsense. In my world, nobody is born and nobody dies. Some people go on a journey and come back, some never leave. What difference does it make since they travel in dreamlands, each wrapped up in his own dream. Only the waking is important. It is enough to know the "I am" as reality and also love.

Ramana Maharshi

If a man considers he is born he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body which is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find where from thoughts emerge. Then you will abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.

Osho

It is always somebody else who dies; you never die. It means death has always been seen from the outside, it is the outsider's view. Those who have seen their inner world are unanimous in saying that there is no death. Because you don't know what constitutes your consciousness; it is not constituted of breathing, it is not constituted of heartbeats, it is not constituted of blood circulation. So when the doctor says that a man is dead, it is an outsider's conclusion; all that he is saying is, "This man is no longer breathing, his pulse has stopped, his heart is not beating." Are these three things equivalent to death? They are not.

So when a person dies, he dies for you, not for himself. For himself he simply changes the house, perhaps moves into a better apartment. But because the old apartment is left, and you are searching for him in the old apartment and you don't find him there, you think the poor guy is dead. All that you should say is, "The poor guy escaped. Now where he has gone, we don't know."

... you can see only death. The river can only see that she will dissolve, she cannot see that she will become the ocean. How can she see? That oceanic existence will be only when the river is no more, so the river cannot see. When your ego is no more, only then will you know who you are.

The secret of knowing death, of understanding death, is not in death itself. You will have to go deeper into the existence of the ego. You will have to look, watch, observe, be aware of what this ego is. And the day you have found that there is no ego, that there has never been -- it appeared only because you were not aware, it appeared only because you were keeping your own existence in darkness -- the day it is understood that the ego is a creation of an unconscious mind, the ego disappears and simultaneously death disappears.

Zen Masters

The Emperor asked Master Gudo,
"What happens to a man of enlightenment after death?"
"How should I know?" replied Gudo.
"Because you are a master," answered the Emperor.
"Yes sir," said Gudo, "but not a dead one."


Tanzan wrote sixty postal cards on the last day of his life,
and asked an attendent to mail them.
Then he passed away.
The cards read:
I am departing from this world.
This is my last announcement.
Tanzan
July 27, 1892

9. Adi Sankaracharya's Nirvanashatkam

I am not mind nor the intellect.
Nor am I the thought nor the cognising ego.
Neither am I the ear, the tongue, the nose;
The sky is not I, nor the earth; neither fire nor wind am I;
For I am Bliss-Consciousness -- Siva am I, and I am Siva.

I am not the breath, nor the five-fold vital-airs, nor the five organs;
speech is not me, nor hands, nor feet am I.
For I am Bliss-Consciousness -- Siva am I, and I am Siva.

I know no aversion, nor any attachment (I know),
I covet not, nor does illusion shroud my eyes;
I have no pride, nor the touch of envy;
Neither duty nor selfish purpose; neither desire, nor freedom,
For I am Bliss-Consciousness -- Siva am I, and I am Siva.

Transcended have I both virtue and sin, as also pleasure and pain;
Even chants or sacred places, Vedas or sacrifices.
I am neither the enjoyer (subject), nor the enjoyed (object), nor the enjoyment (action);
For I am Bliss-Consciousness -- Siva am I, and I am Siva.

Death cannot claim me nor fear ever shake my calm;
Division of caste I know not;
I have no father, no mother even, no brother, no friend, no teacher, no pupil;
Nor have I another life;
For I am Bliss-Consciousness -- Siva am I, and I am Siva.

I am the Lord of all my senses.
All attachment have I shed, even freedom lures me not.
Changeless am I, Formless and Omnipotent.
For I am Bliss-Consciousness -- Siva am I, and I am Siva.

____________________________________________________

In Devanagari Script / Transliterated English: PDF format

For a translation: by S. N. Sastri

For an entrancing musical rendition of this master piece by Art of Living Devotees, buy CD: 'Sacred Chants of Shiva' (Nirvanashatkam is listed as Atmastakam in the CD Track listing): spiritvoyage.com, artofliving.org

8. Deliberation towards Liberation

On the eve of India's 60^th independence day, I deliberate upon these Zen koans in an attempt towards Liberation:

During the civil wars in feudal Japan, an invading army would quickly sweep into a town and take control. In one particular village, everyone fled just before the army arrived - everyone except the Zen master. Curious about this old fellow, the general went to the temple to see for himself what kind of man this master was. When he wasn't treated with the deference and submissiveness to which he was accustomed, the general burst into anger. "You fool," he shouted as he reached for his sword, "don't you realize you are standing before a man who could run you through without blinking an eye!" But despite the threat, the master seemed unmoved. "And do you realize," the master replied calmly, "that you are standing before a man who can be run through without blinking an eye?"

One day as Manjusri stood outside the gate, the Buddha called to him, "Manjusri, Manjusri, why do you not enter?" Manjusri replied, "I do not see myself as outside. Why enter?"

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

Ending this post with a oneliner of Biblical proportions:

If

I am what I have

and

what I have is lost,

then

who am I?

7. From dohA cometh a Singer

Muhabbat ka iqraar chahiye,
Ishq ka mauj nahin!
Saakshaat Krishna chahiye,
Krishna ki fauj nahin!

These couplets, more commonly known as dohA in the Hindi/Urdu speaking belt, were the inspiration for this blog posting. I heard them during a spiritual discourse by Sri Morari Baapu on a TV channel today. I hadn't originally planned to view the channel at this hour, but then fate decided upon my free-will to view it!

For the non-Hindi/Urdu speaking reader, here is my shot at the meaning of these verses (I don't know who authored them) :

Muhabbat ka iqraar = Bond of Affection/Love
chahiye = is needed

nahin = not
Ishq ka mauj = physical love

Saakshaat Krishna = Real Krishna
chahiye = is needed

nahin = not
Krishna ki fauj = Krishna's army

This dohA reflects on Prince Arjuna's choice in the Mahabharata epic when he was offered by Lord Krishna to either have the Lord Himself as his charioteer, or the Lord's vast army. Arjuna chose Lord Krishna to be on his side (the Pandavas), while Lord Krishna's army fought alongside Duryodhana (the Kauravas) in the Battle of Kurukshetra. (Also read Sri Chinmoy's brief discourse on this subject)

From here, my mind takes me to a very beautiful and enchanting Krishna Bhajan (Bhajan = Devotional Song) which my mother often sings. Here are the lyrics of this Bhajan:

Radheshyam Radheshyam,
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Eesha Ramesha Radheshyam,
Keshava Achutha Meghashyam (2)
Vasudeva Sutha Radheshyam,
Vasuki Shayana Meghashyam (2)

Radheshyam Radheshyam,
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Kaurava Shikshaka Radheshyam,
Pandava Rakshaka Meghashyam (2)
Aadi Deva Hari Radheshyam,
Anaadi Purusha Meghashyam (2)

Radheshyam Radheshyam,
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Radheshyam Radheshyam (High),
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)
Radhamadhava Radheshyam (2)

Listen to a rendition of this Bhajan in my voice, if you dare!

betarecords.com/aham.asmi

6. "Who Am I," asked the T-shirt

?
????????
????????????????????????
At first it was dark on the face of the deep.
A Question arose: Who Am I?
The answer was in the Questioner.
When there was this realization, there was light!
A filament of primordial origins glowed from within,
Whose light soon pervaded the heaven and the earth.
The Questioner ceased to exist
And a Guru was born!
AUM TAT SAT!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!
!

____________________________________________________

Trivia
About the Art

• Central design was conceived and drawn on a White T-shirt; hence the name of this blog posting.
• Added the 4-colored frame using a graphics software after taking a digital snap of the T-shirt.

About the Verses

• Language usage - Influenced by the Bible, Old Testament in Basic English. Do you see a palindrome in there?
• Line 1 - Influenced by "And the earth was waste and without form; and it was dark on the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters." -- Genesis 1:2 Old Testament, Bible in Basic English. 'Deep' in Hindi language (Consonant 'D' pronounced as 'the' sound) stands for lamp as in Deepawali, the Hindu Festival of Lights!
• Line 5 - Referring to the filament shape, OM, or AUM written in Devanagari script. AUM is considered to be the primordial sound in the Hindu tradition.
• Line 8 - "guru" - Sanskrit: Dispeller of Darkness; 'gu'= darkness, and 'ru' = dispeller. A spiritual teacher is called guru in Sanskrit.
• Line 9 - Influenced by "AUM TAT SAT" (Bhagavad Gita 17.23)
  

  AUM is the mystical symbol supreme.
  AUM is the real name of God.
  In the cosmic manifestation is AUM.
  Beyond the manifestation, farthest beyond is AUM.
  TAT means 'That,' the Nameless Eternal.
  Above all attributes, majestic 'That' stands.
  SAT means Reality,
  the Truth Infinite.

5. Mind works in humorous ways

Read following two stories. In what way are they similar?

---
A Zen fable I read in a book:

The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen entered Japan. Four of them, who were immediate friends, promised one another to observe seven days of silence.

On the first day all were silent, but when the night came and the oil lamps were growing dim, one of the pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant: "Fix those lamps."

The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk. "We are not supposed to say a word," he remarked.

"You two are stupid. Why did you talk?" asked the third.

"I am the only one who has not talked - thank God!" concluded the fourth.

---
A humorous story I read on the web:

In an ancient monastery in a faraway place, a new monk arrived to join his brothers in copying books and scrolls in the monastery's scriptorium. He was assigned as a rubricator on copies of books that had already been copied by hand.

One day he asked Father Florian (the Armarius of the Scriptorium), "Does not the copying by hand of other copies allow for chances of error? How do we know we are not copying the mistakes of someone else? Are they ever checked against the original?"

Fr. Florian is set back a bit by the obvious logical observation of this youthful monk. "A very good point, my son. I will take one of the latest books down to the vault and compare it against the original."

Fr. Florian went down to the secured vault and began his verification. After a day had passed, the monks began to worry and went down looking to the old priest. They were sure something must have happened. As they approached the vault, they heard sobbing and crying. When they opened the door, they found Fr. Florian sobbing over the new copy and the original ancient book, both of which were opened before him on the table. It was obvious to all that the poor man had been crying his old heart out for a long time.

"What is the problem Reverend Father?" asked one of the monks.
"Oh, my Lord," sobbed the priest, "the word is 'celebrate'!"

---

This is what I can say about the similarity of the two stories:

In both stories, the lead characters failed to understand the very essence of their abstinence; they were supposed to do their abstinence (silence in the first fable, and celibacy in the second) at the thought level!