LESSON FROM A BUTTERFLY :

A man is said to have found a cocoon of a butterfly in the form of a caterpillar.

When he observed the caterpillar closely one day a small opening appeared in the cocoon and after several hours there appeared a hole in the cocoon, through which the butterfly appeared to struggle to come out forcibly. When it seemed to stop make any progress in its struggle,
the man decided to help the butterfly. Taking a pair of scissors he snipped off bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly emerged easily from the cocoon with small, shriveled wings but it's body seemed to have become swollen. The man expected the wings would soon be strong to support the body. But the wings did not not appear to become strong and the butterfly spent the rest of its life with shriveled wings, not ever becoming able to fly.

The kindness of the man did not  help the butterfly, having interfered with the way of the divine Intent and Purpose, with the effort and struggle needed for the butterfly to get through the tiny hole in the cocoon forcing fluid from the body to the wings to enable it to fly separated from the cocoon.

Effort and struggles are what one needs in life. If God had allowed us to live our lives without struggles then one would be cripple too in meeting the obstacles in life. We would not be as strong as we could have been left on our own. We would not be be able to live our life as the butter could never be able to fly on its own strength.

There are lessons to be learnt? When the going gets tough, the tough one gets the things going. Neither life is smooth nor is it lived as one desires. Life moves according the divine Intent and Purpose.  Hhardships are there to be surmounted with effort and determination, making stronger to face the challenges in life. Life is constant endeavour overcoming challenges, for only through tough times one become strong.

Nothing in life happens without divine Intent and Purpose. If we do not understand, at least we should not have audacity to question the divine Intent and Purpose, interfering with the events that take place.

There is reason and purpose for the things that happen in our life. Therefore one should neither be remorseful when bad things happen nor  gloat when good things happen, but surrender to the divine Intent and Purpose.

Let the caterpillar be the butterfly on its own as the nature intended it to be, without human beings trying the interfere the natural
process.

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The Rains !

Once again the rainy season has arrived. The  dark clouds have gathered, flashes of lightening illuminate underneath, winds whistle and storms roar across the sky, over the hills and dales,

Yes I, as the immortal self that I am, see the rains now falling, as I did saw earlier during the last eighty four years in my present body-form and as I did earlier, as the Supreme Lord willed, in my many lives in innumerable body-forms.

The rains will continue to pour and I will continue to see them falling, as long as I, the immortal self will continue to exist.

That is what the Lord has willed and that is how I will live ever and ever my life, trying to become better and better in my each and every later form.

So the Lord may help me.

।। ओम् । हरि: तत् सत् । ओम् ।।

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In life when one feels something has become decayed, deteriorated, old and useless and therefore is not useful to have any more, he decides to reject and give that thing away. But while he thinks every thing else as alien to his self, therefore dispensable, it is strange that he is not agreeable to reject and give his body away.
That is because a Person accepts every thing else as distinct from his self but does not think that his self is different and his body is different but thinks and believes that his body is his self.

But our scriptures do not agree with this view and in Gita, Krishna specifically points out that while self is immortal, the body is mortal, subject to pain and pleasures, deterioration, decay and destruction. Therefore, even one discards old clothes and wears new ones, the self discards the old body and acquires a new one.

Strangely while we believe and accept Krishna to be Supreme Lord himself we do not see any reason to have faith in what he says and recommends. We would rather prefer to cling to our deceased, decayed, deteriorated body than accept Krishna's sage and considered words of advise.

Strange are the ways of human mind; it believes what it wants to believe and rejects what is not palatable to believe. That is the tragedy of human beings, influenced by senses and not my intelligence.

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STRESS Managment
 I read somewhere the following, which I have abridged and re-presenting the same for easy understanding.

A man of Wisdom one speaking about stress management raised a glass of water and asked about the weight of water filled glass.
Even as he was replied that the water filled glass weighed from 8 oz. to 20 oz, the man of Wisdom said: "The absolute weight depends on how long one holds the glass of Water. If it is held for a minute, there would be no problem. If it is held for an hour, the arm may have an ache. If is held for a day, one will have to call an ambulance. In each case, the weight is same, but the longer one holds it, the heavier it becomes. It is same with stress. If one is stressed for a longer period, sooner or later, the burden becomes increasingly heavy and one won't be able to carry on for long".

"As the glass of water is put down, one feels slightly at ease. Therefore, one should rest before holding the glass of water again.  When one is refreshed, one can carry on with the burden a little longer. It is same with  stress. One should rest putting down stress from one's mind. Then one will feel better for a longer and extended period of time and better each time one does so.

Therefore, every day when the burden of stress becomes heavy, one should relax, put down the burden for a moment and not carry the same for long. Life is short and it is not given to any one else but to ourselves to be joyous or joyless.
Therefore:

1. Accept the fact that all days are not same. Some are good and some are bad.

2. Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

3. If you can't be kind, at least have the decency not to be rude.

4. Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because time maycomewhen you will have no leg to stand on.

5. Nobody cares whether you succeed or not; if you want to succeed then try. TRY, TRY as often as you haven to.

6. Never ever accept and rest if everything appears coming your way. Reflect on the Appearance, lest you may be in the wrong lane. Some mistakes may appear to be funny, but mistakes when committed often can never be funny.

7.  A truly happy person is one who can see the scenery across the heap of garbage.

8. Life is beautiful, if we know what to see, where to see, when to see and when to see. Therefore, enjoy the blessings ordained for you in life as Divine Dispensation, without coveting what has been ordained for others that is given to you, thus do the Upanishads say-"ईशावास्यं इदं सर्वम् यत् किंच जगत्याम् जगत् । तेन त्यक्तेन ःभुंजीथा मा कस्यिस्विद् धनम् ।।".
Then the person would be spoken as the best of among those who have conquered STRESS.

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Death is a paradox. Death delivers the soul temporarily from the constraints of the body and the travails of samsara. But Death is a often tragedy for others who are left behind.

Some have immediate Death, with little or no pain, but for others Death is lingering and painful. Who is fortunate, the one who is dead or those who are left behind to live.

A recent event leaves much to be receptive, reflect and meditate on DEATH. 

अवतार - the Descent of the Divine.

The Upanishads declare that the unmanifest Supreme Brahman to makes itself known becomes manifest as रूप (the form) with नाम (his divine essence) within that रूप, to the tip of figures. Essence of the Supreme Brahman is not seen because it is concealed within the forms. I becomes known as the Breath when breathing, as the Speech when speaking, as the Sight when seeing, as the Sound when hearing and as Thought when thinking.

The Supreme Brahman, which transcends hunger and thirst, sorrow and delusion, old age and death exists within the heart of all the beings,  verily, being that which is to be sought. But the Supreme Brahman is not known by meditating on one or the other forms of his, because each of those forms are incomplete. He should be searched as one would search the lost cow by the marks which it leaves, using the forms as marks.

The wise ones having known that Supreme Self, overcome the desire for sons, the desire for wealth, the desire for temporal worlds live the life of roaming mendicants and having transcended whatever they have learnt, having transcended whatever they have known as Knowledge,  live life as child lapsed in the state as silent meditator and finally transcending both the non-meditative and meditative states, become wise in Wisdom of Brahman.

The unmanifest Brahman when it becomes manifest in forms with essence within, has three Intent and Purpose in mind : Firstly, the Creation of an immaculate pure social order in the worlds. Secondly,  providing the Cosmic Law and Principles of Righteousness in the process of Supervision of the social order in world created. Thirdly, punishing lapses in observing the Cosmic Law or the Principles of Righteousness according to severity of each case and destroying the social order created completely and rest abolish a new social order. The punishment is as diverse as the offences are. Some offences need rap on the knuckles, some need loss of health or wealth some other need loss of possessions and positions.

अवतार is a concept deeply imbedded and comprehensively and decisively dominated in the Hindu psyche. But अवतरण by the Supreme Brahman does not
 mean that The Supreme Brahman does not have to descend all by himself. Brahman himself has to descend or descends in gross material form but means that he can use and uses one or the other of his energies or forms by energising and making them resurgent to represent him as निमित्त,  the agency to supervise the manifest Creation, dissolution of the forms and perform the needed actions, when created forms  become obscured and vitiated under the influences of senses and excessive attachment to unrighteous  desires and intense cravings, misuse the limited independence granted and act contrary to the principles of Cosmic Order and Righteousness to set right the shattered social order evolving a new social order based on new and enlightened principles of Cosmic Order and Righteousness.

Therefore, Bhagavat Purana says that the Supreme Brahmaan, Sriman Narayana descends, as it were, making many forms like Gods, Seers, great  Kings and human beings resurgent to fulfil the Divine Intent and Purpose.

Comparisons are odious since all the descents come to be sourced from the imperishable seed Sriman Narayana and return back to the source after accomplishing the Divine Intentand Purpose. The
Gods like Agni, Aap, Vayu, Sun, Moon, Sky, Earth and the rest of the primary divine energies, the fIrst five of the ten descents demonstrating the resurgence divine. Intent to direct as Fish the new social order, as tortoise stabilise the forces og Light against the forces of darkness, as boar to re-source and re-establish  the lost wisdom from the depth of ignorance, as man-lion to destroy the evil and as The child-mendicant to transcend the limits of three stages and three periods of Time, as seers like Vyasa, Narada, Nara, Kapila, Dattatreya and the others to communicate Wisdom, as the kings like Nabhi, Prithu, Vaivasvat Manu and the others, as Parashurama to subjugate the the arrogance of the warrior class, as Rama to be the मर्यादा पुरुषोत्तम to establish the norms of civilised human goals, as Krishna to be the World Teacher recovering, synthesing the Perrennijal Wisdom lost over period of Time due to efflux of Time, Gautam Siddarth coming to reinterpret the Vedic truths in the light of suffering of the masses and the way to Deliverance when Brahmanical class becoming excessively arrogant as the exclusive custodian of the Wisdom of the Veda.

Indeed the Supreme Brahman does not prefer only those who are exceptionally sensitive with essence (नाम) within the gross forms (रूप) as effective instruments  - िनमित्त to fulfil his be
Intent and Purpose in preservation of the manifest creation but also values the role of those who are less sensitive due to ignorance caused by excessive influence of senses on their mind and therefore are inferior in luminosity, some less energetic in enterprise and  many excessively obscure in intelligence confused as in a dark cave, performing actions, good, bad and indifferent, living a life of repeated birth and death, groping for deliverance but finding no way to become liberated.

For such ones, Dasharathi Rama,  Devakiputra Krishna and Gautam Buddha became the great World Teachers offering Paths to Perefection. Rama being consciously aware of the principles of  piles धर्म, नीति and मर्यादा as the foundation for every human life, living his personal life with moral and ethical probity, and endorsing similar life for others.

Krishna pointed three three-fold Paths - ज्ञानमार्ग for those luminous in receptivity, कर्ममार्ग fot those energetic in enterprise and भक्तिमार्ग for those obscure in receptivity. For those who were luminous in receptivity ज्ञानमार्ग opened their mind to be receptive to the self within, think about it's  unfolding, be reflective and meditative, intense austerity and perfected penance. For those who were energetic in enterprise कर्ममार्ग opened the actions to be performed, without being attached to the fruits of action  and in the spirit of free and complete surrender to the Divine Intent and Purpose. For the common people with inferior receptivity of mind but keen higher intensity of emotions भक्तिमार्ग  opened their heart to be more receptive, surrendering their mind, speech and action and even their self to the Supreme Brahman as an act of submission.

Gautam Buddha was concerned essentially with human suffering and realising that intellectual capacity and inclination, the fundamental salient pointed out in simple words that suffering in  human life is caused by intenses desire - तान्हा and inherent inability to  possess that which one does not possess, to become some thing which one is not and finally to renounce one'spossessions and position.

 But men wise in Wisdom who have experienced the past and of the present and can clearly observe the future are consciously aware that human race under the influence of senses are bound to be doomed to destruction. Neither Dasharathi Rama's righteous idealistic life of moral and ethical standards nor recollection and re-statement by Krishna humane teachings of of the perennial principles long forgotten due to efflux of time nor even the down to the earth  teachings of the compassionate Buddha could redeem the human race from being doomed to further degradation and demise of all canons of ethical, moral and righteous ideals. It was necessary for the Supreme Brahman to make Kalki, symbolising Terrible Time which comes with sword in hand and riding on horse, as the symbol of resurgent energy to destroy the  unrighteous, obscure forces in society and give rise to new forces with new society with new and resurgent set of Cosmic Order and Principles of Righteousness.

In the world created by the Supreme Brahman, no doors are closed and all avenues are opened, all the deities presiding over the integral source of energies waiting for the primary energies to be energised, to be resurgent to fulfil the role assigned to them by गुण - the attributes and स्वभाव - the inclination born of Nature.

The Supreme Brahman devises and designs his अवतरण, the descent of his energy within reach of every human being to be capable to rise  above from their state of being according to their attributes and inclination to become fit for the state of deliverance.

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This is what I read recently which I would like to share with you. Life is a mystery that needs to be resolved. Therefore, inquire I would like to share with yoand then one will find that even the dullest of the dull can see LIFE is  like a journey on a train. Nothing is permanent. This is true in reality of life.
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We have come empty handed and going empty handed.
Life is so beautiful it accumulate lots of activities when we are together.  Share, care , and cure is the key to be happy. Because Life is like a journey on a train...with its stations...with changes of routes...and with accidents!

At birth we boarded the train and met our parents, and we believe they will always travel on our side.

However, at some station our parents will step down from the train, leaving us on this journey alone.

As time goes by, other people will board the train; and they will be significant i.e. our siblings, friends, children, and even the love of our life.

Many will step down and leave a permanent vacuum. Others will go so unnoticed that we don't realize that they vacated their seats!

This train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations,
hellos, good-byes, and farewells.

Success consists of having a good relationship with all passengers... requiring that we give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is: We do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live in the best way - forgive, and offer the best of who we are.

It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty...  we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on the train of life.

Thank you for being one of the passengers on my train!

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