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Reason For Modern Man's Maladies

The tragedies of some rich people and celebrities make headlines often.

We are having so many maladies in modern life because we have neglected the inner for the outer.

Pleasures of the body, making money etc are outer pursuits.

We have inner equipment also. The mind is inner to the body.

When we cease to take care of our inner being, existing only for material success and/or pleasures, we are setting ourselves up for a disaster. A disaster from which the body's pleasures and our material achievements will not rescue us.

For they're not our friends. At best, they can be good servants.

Our inner being (mind and consciousness) is our real friend that will stand by us always. We need to devote time to cultivating our inner being. This time spent will serve us well in future.

What we ate and drank and splurged on, is not going to support us. That can even bring disease and ill being.

Be an island unto yourself.

Be heedful, monks, mindful, virtuous.
With your resolves well-concentrated, look after your minds.
He who, in this doctrine & discipline, remains heedful,

leaving the round of birth, will make an end of stress.

It all starts from within

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Recently, strong women from Pakistan have been making waves all over the world...Mukhtar Mai, Malala, and now this lady. Perhaps the regeneration of Pakistan will start this way...through empowered women.

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Love Is All That Matters - Diana Ross & Brandy

Rarely have I seen people expressing their love without inhibition, and with trust as in this video. I have experienced this with the Mother Amritanandamayi, but because I was not used to it, I couldn't receive it without flinching. We humans are supposed to be like that, but as we are so conditioned, expressions of love feel unnatural to us.


The other day I saw a toddler with her parents on the train. She may have been hardly two years. When children look at you they do not have any artificial agenda, nor are they planning to exploit you, neither are they afraid. I was with my mother and we could not help gazing at her. Her clear eyes gazed straight at you, with complete acceptance. Perhaps if God looked at you it might be like this--pure, unassuming, accepting,...

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Enjoyed this talk, laced with humour.

The Most Important Thing You Should Do

A scholar was travelling across the Ganges, the most famous river in India. As his boatman rowed him on the river, the pundit was bored. He was quite proud of his learning, and looked down upon the illiterate boatman. Just for curiosity's sake, he asked the boatman,

"Brother, have you studied the scriptures?"
"No, Sir" Replied the poor boatman.
"Oh, 1/4 of your life is wasted."

Some time passed. The pundit wanted to show off his knowledge. He asked,
"Have you studied Sanskrit?" Sanskrit was the language of the scholars.
"Oh No Sir" Replied the boat man, feeling embarassed now.
" Too bad. half of your life is gone in vain "

After some time, he asked again, perhaps knowing well the answer:
"Do you know about the six systems of Hindu philosophy?"
"No Sir, how could I?" Replied the now red faced boat man.
"Then three quarters of your life is wasted" Said the pundit.

The pundit sat back gloating.

Suddenly, the wind started blowing heavily. Black clouds thundered in the sky and the river was heaving, throwing the boat up and down.

As they clung on to their crazily bobbing boat, the boat man asked,

"Punditji, do you know swimming?"
"No, brother" replied the panic stricken scholar.
"Well then, I am afraid your entire life is wasted!" said the boat man as he left the boat and plunged into the river.

The pundit met his unceremonious end in that storm.

We plan and do many things in life. We set up career goals, indulge in pleasures, try to achieve social status...

But when a crisis strikes, none of these things can help us.

Only a well composed and disciplined mind can help us steer our way out of life's tough situations.

Therefore the most important thing we should do is to master ourselves with meditation and other spiritual practices

Why We Continue Undesirable Behavior And What To Do About It

You may know atleast one person who has a damaging habit. He/she knows about it, and still continues to indulge, even though it is eating their life away. It may be alcohol, drugs, sex addiction or more milder but still harmful forms like workaholism, shopaholism, etc.

Many of us continue various forms of undesirable behaviour-unhealthy eating, not listening to one's partner, idling away time, not exercising, etc. We all know this habit of ours is not good, but we still continue the same foolish behaviour.

What could be the reason for not stopping unwanted habits?

Recently I saw ads against smoking, issued in public interest by the Indian Govt. They contained vivid images like squeezing a sponge (resembling the smoker's lungs) and a dark, slimy liquid oozed out of it. Another ad showed closeups of the sad, anxious face of a little girl as she watched her tobacco addict father coughed. These ads were scary and did the job, they showed the logical conclusion without softening it.

So facing the stark reality is an effective way to stop undesirable behaviour.

Often people know the consequences and still continue. Why is this?
This is because they are distracted and cannot visualise clearly. Our exclusive attention must be focussed on the consequences and then imagine them happening to us. When we hear about bad things happening to others, it is always them. its happening to somebody else, not me. Much like Yudhishthira said in the Mahabharata, "the greatest wonder in life is that people see others dying all around them, and yet they never think that they are also going to die one day."

Eliminating our unwanted traits and acquiring fulfilling ones gives us lasting joy in life, a sense of mastery over our destiny. But the trigger for that change is fear. Fear of the consequences. And that fear will arise only when we can imagine the same consequences for ourselves.

Another reason people try to avoid thinking about the consequences is that it makes them squirm, The discomfort we feel when we visualize the unpleasant consequences of our bad habits makes us avoid thinking about them.

This is where meditation practices like Vipassana can really help. Meditation encourages us to sit through the discomforting experience. Normally we try to divert our attention with TV, movies, alcohol, food, socialising etc. But the issue still remains. In meditation, we have the breath to hold on to when the discomfort arises.

And when you can sit through the discomfort without running away, believe me, you will fell much closer to a more fulfilling state of being!

So the three keys to effective personal transformation (which is nothing but discarding unwanted habits and acquiring good ones) are:

• Get into a relaxed state of concentration (meditation recommended)
• Take just one habit at a time
• Visualise the consequences of your habit and imagine them happening to yourself

Now if you can't think of enough consequences, just google:

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