Single is the Race

We help others, not by interfering with their lives nor by imposing our ideas on them, but always by acting in a spirit of sympathy and self-identification with them in their troubles and joys.
- N Sri Ram.

The next phase of human life must unfold out of unity of humanity, and display the virtues to which unity will give rise.
- N. Sri Ram.

When it was day they came into my house and said, "We shall only take the smallest room here".
They said, "We shall help you in the worship of your God and humbly accept only our own share of his grace";
And then they took their seat in a corner and they sat quiet and meek.
But in the darkness of night I find they break into my sacred shrine, strong and turbulent,
And snatch with unholy greed the offerings from God's altar
- Rabindranath Tagore - Gitanjali - Verse 33

Single is the race, single
Of men and gods;
From a single mother we both draw breath.
But a difference of power in everything
Keeps us apart;
For one is as nothing,
But the brazen sky
Stays a fixed habituation for ever.
Yet we can in greatness of mind
Or of body be like the Immortals.
- Ancient Greek Ode on the Olympic games by Pindar in 6th century BC.

Strange as it may seem, life becomes serene and enjoyable precisely when selfish pleasure and personal success are no longer the guiding goals. When self loses itself in a transcendent purpose, it becomes largely invulnerable to the fears and setbacks of ordinary existence. Psychic energy becomes focused on goals that are meaningful, that advance order and complexity, that will continue to have an effect in the consciousness of new generations long after our departure from this world, even after we are long forgotten.
- Csikszentmihalyi Mihaly

Love is the only way to grasp another humanb being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and deatures in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.
- Viktor Frankl
Man's Search for Meaning

Rhythm

O Thou Almighty Deity,
Help me to keep my body and mind
Harmonious and tranquil.
Grant unto me a courage
That never yields to weakness.
A joyousness that never 
Gives way to sadness,
Make my heart invincible
To the attacks of the world,
And may I turn to Thee
At all times for help and guidance.

We must always maintain our balance, harmony and rhythm of life. This helps us to maintain the spiritual sanctity.
- Swami Paramananda

Love is the light of the Soul,
In which all that is perceived is truth -
Also the fire of the Spirit by which all that is base
Is transformed into good.
- N Sri Ram.

Love will arise like the sun at dawn, when the heart opens itself, free of all rigidities and self-centredness.
- N Sri Ram.

The Quality of Soul

The truth to which we aspire must include every truth we perceive; it must expand, rise and be susceptible to transmutation, as our perceptions and experience increase.
- N Sri Ram.

The deep appeal of religion lies in a nature of truth which strikes its roots in that aspect of man's being which responds, not with calculations or hesitation, but completely, with the utmost voluntariness and immediacy.
- N Sri Ram.

No man can attain his goal without practicing the higher principles of life. No man can be truly happy who is selfish. What possible use is outer light if there is darkness inside? Happiness is a quality of the soul. It enters the soul which has tasted God-consciousness. God is ever cheerful. Life is given us to work out our freedom and lasting happiness.

Prayer -
O Thou Giver of all joy,
May I not be unworthy of Thy gifts,
But may I radiate happiness and cheer
In every hour of my daily life.
Help me to realize that when I am sad,
It is because I am separated from Thee.
All my sadness and sorrow
Will vanish when I seek Thee with open heart.
- Swami Paramananda.

Freedom!

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali - Verse 35)



Though now million voices through thy
                   mouth sonorous shout,
Though millions hands hold thy
                   trenchant sword-blades out,
Yet with all this power now,
                   Mother, wherefore powerless thous?
Holder thou of myriad might,
                   I salute thee, saviour bright,
Thou who dost all foes afright,
Mother, Hail!
- Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Anandamath, Part 1, Chapter 6. Song sang by Bhavan in the story)



Real freedom is freedom from all forms of self-centredness, from the grooves in which one ordinarily travels, from conventions by which one is bound, in short, freedom from the limitations of the self protecting self which feels insecure outside its walls.
- N Sri Ram.


Freedom is self-determination, not a reaction compelled or mechanical. He who is a slave to his passions, who is driven by habits of thoughts, emotion or action set up or contracted in ignorance, is not a free man.
-N Sri Ram.


The emancipation of our physical nature is in attaining health, of our social being in attaining goodness, and of our self in attaining freedom in love.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Action, humility and offering

The unseen dark plays on his flute,
And the rhythm of light,
Eddies into the stars and suns,
Into thoughts and reams.
- Rabindranath Tagor



सत्त्वत्संजायेते ज्ञानं रजसो लोभ एव च
प्रमाद्मोहो तमसो भवतोज्ञानमेव च
sattvat sanjayte gyanam  rajaso lobha eva cha
pramada mohau tamaso  bhavato agyanam eva cha
(Bhagavat Gita - Chapter 14, Verse 17)

Explanation - 
sattva - from the mode of goodness;
sanjayte - develops;
gyanam - knowledge;
rajasah - from the mode of passion;
lobhah - greed;
eva - certainly;
cha - also;
pramada - madness;
mohau - and illusion;
tamasah - from the mode of ignorance;
bhavatah - develops;
agyanam - nonsense;
eva - certainly
cha - also.

From the mode of goodness (sattva), real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion (tamas), greed develops, and from the mode of ignorance develop foolishness, madness and illusion.

Life is nothing but an action every moment being alive. Once man ceases to act, he is is no more alive. This action can be qualified as to be done in the below two attitudes - 

Sattva - This is the mode of doing an activity in devotion, totally not attached with the outcome. Here the activity is the path to wisdom. It is not a means to a goal. Rather it is done for its own sake. The doer offers his time, energy, and skills to the activity itself. The idea is to know, to be; not to have. It is being in the appreciation that the results are not just a function of the individual deeds. But rather, there is a bigger scheme of things, which is hidden, unknown and totally un-controllable from the perspective of the doer. There is no certainty of the result or life per-se. Rather what is in control is the process of entering into the action, and the attitude man develops for the action. That attitude is termed here as Sattva. It is the attitude of considering activity as a sacred journey, where the person venerates each moment in the activity, and offers his total being in the activity as such. 

Tamas - This is the mode of doing an activity in order to have something, to attain a goal. It is done from the level of a child who badly is attached towards having something, or somebody. Work is a means to have, devour, snatch, attain, win over the other - either a thing or a person. Here work is done in fear, anxiety, stress and profound greed. The process of doing the activity might be rigorous or superficial. That is not the point. But the attitude of the doer is the subject of discussion. For the doer, it is about his ego, his attachment, greed and the deep passion to Have. This is madness or illusion, as is expressed in the above verse. The truth is that results might come, or might not. And even if results are produced as expected, it is immaterial in the bigger scheme of things. The doer has to eventually forgo anything external that he abounds, sooner or later. This mode is totally removed from the attitude of being a part of a big scheme of things. There is no humility. And worst of all it is grounded in the passion to have. This leads the person to anger, destruction and pain, when he is not able to have his subject of attachment. 

One can see that even if one has enough money and adequate arrangements for sense gratification, there is neither happiness or peace of mind. That is not possible, because one is situated in the mode of passion. If one wants happiness at all, his money will not help him; he has to elevate himself to the mode of goodness by practicing Sattva. When one is engaged in the mode of passion, not only is he mentally unhappy, but his profession and occupation are also very troublesome. He has to devise so many plans and schemes to acquire enough money to maintain his status quo. This is all miserable. In the mode of ignorance, they take shelter of intoxication, and thus they sink further into ignorance.

Humility is not mere consciousness of our littleness, which might be only a feeling of disappointment at not being as important as we would wish to be, nor is it self-depreciation. Rather it is the eradication of all self-conceit, so that we become sweet and beautiful, have an openness of mind and heart, and feeling a really deep respect for another, whoever he may be, based on the recognition of his Godhead.

- N Sri Ram.

(Hence, humility is the starting point to really know some one else. It is the foundation of being receptive, understanding and loving to the other. It is the genesis of expanding out of the pigeonhole of one's own small self, and reaching out to the open universe. It adds newer dimensions to one's self. It makes man grow)

Religion lies in a state of mind and heart in which there is action, unreserved and complete, which action is a giving of itself by a nature which then manifests itself.

- N Sri Ram

Mother, I shall weave a chain of pearls

For thy neck with my tears of sorrow.

The stars have wrought their anklets

Of light to deck thy feet,

But mine will hang upon thy breast.

Wealth and fame come from thee

And it is for thee to give or withold them.

But this my sorrow is absolutely mine own,

And when I bring it to thee,

As my offering thou rewardest me

With thy grace.

- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali Verse 83)

Thy Mighty Sword

Let my love, like sunlight,
Surround you and yet give you
Illumined freedom.
- Rabindranath Tagore


Shutting out all external sense objects,
Keeping the eyes and vision concentrated
Between the two eyebrows,
Suspending the inward and outward breaths,
Within the nostrils,
And thus controlling
The mind, senses and intelligence,
The transcendentalist
Aiming at liberation becomes free
From desire, fear and anger.
One who is always in this state
Is certainly liberated.
- Bhagavat Gita (Chapter 5, Verse 27)

In the above verse, Krishna speaks puts forth the idea that forms, sound, tastes, smells and touches constantly bring their objects to agitate the mind, but one gets agitated by them only when one identifies oneself with the mental conditions. If we, there, shut out the external object - bot by physical methods such as plugging the ears, but by a discreet intellectual detachment from our mental reactions to the external world of  objects - we shall discover in ourselves, the necessary tranquillity to start meditation. The idea is being like the lotus untouched by the marsh in the pond - constantly radiating its fragrance and radiance around.

Keeping vision concentrated between the two eyebrows symbolizes the idea of maintaining the equipoise in pleasure and pain, fixed on to the Path.

There is an intimate relationship between desire, fear and anger. Desire is that pattern of thought in which the mind runs constantly towards a given object with an anxious expectation of procuring and possessing it. In the words of Erich Fromm, this is an orientation of the man towards the mode of "Having". Here man identifies himself with what he has, what he possesses. Where there is desire, there we come to experience fear. And it is very well known that when we desire a thing so much as to live ever in fear of losing it, maddening anger can exhibit itself at any moment against any threat of an obstacle between ourselves and our object of desire. When these three emotions - desire, fear and anger - are controlled, we have controlled almost all mad impulse of our intellect.

He who has thus freed himself from desire, fear and anger, who has controlled his senses, mind and intellect, in his all-consuming ambition for liberation, and who has quietened the flow of his breath, such an individual could remain in the contemplation of Truth, without contact with the external world, his eyes fixed steadily and held in an upward gaze. Krishna says: "such a man of meditation is verify free for ever".

I thought I should ask of thee -
But I dared not -
The rose wreath thou hadst on thy neck.
Thus I waited for the morning,
When thou didst depart,
To find a few fragments on the bed.
And like a beggar I searched in the dawn
Only for a stray petal or two.

Ah me, what is it I find?
What token left of they love?
It is no flower, no spices,
No vase of perfumed water.
It is thy mighty sword,
Flashing as a flame,
Heavy as a bolt of thunder.
The young light of morning
Comes through the window
And spreads itself upon thy bed.
The morning bird twitters and asks,
"Woman, what hast thou got?"
No, it is no flower, nor spices,
Nor vase of perfumed water -
it is thy dreadful sword.

I sit and muse in wonder,
What gift is this of thine.
I can find no place where to hide it.
I am ashamed to wear it,
Frail as I am,
And it hurts me
When I press it to my bosom.
Yet shall I bear in my heart
This honour of the burden of pain,
This gift of thine.

From now there shall be
No fear left for me in this world,
And thou shalst be victorious in all my strife.
Thou hast left death for my companion
And I shall crown him with life.
Thy sword is with me to cut asunder my bonds,
And there shall be no fear left for me in the world.

From now I leave off all petty decorations.
Lord of my heart,
No more shall there be for me
Waiting and weeping in corners,
No more coyness and sweetness of demeanour.
Thou has given me thy sword of adornment.
No more doll's decorations for me!
- Rabindranath Tagore (Gitanjali - Verse 52)

The aim of all meditation, whether so stated or not, must be to bring about an inner feeling of peace and serenity, of genuine friendliness to others and a consciousness of one's true relation to life in every form.

- N Sri Ram.

The true self determination takes its rise from a dimensionless point. It is not to be confused with any personal reaction. To arise and take place, it needs a heart and mind emptied of all predilections and prejudices.

- N Sri Ram.

Subtle Spiritual Nature

The Sorrow that has lost its memory is like the dumb dark hours that have no bird songs but only the circket's chirp.
- Rabindranath Tagore.

Forget yourself, and think of the stars, the boundless expanse of the sky, the fair flowers in the field, the wonderful truths you can comprehend, the sympathy, the encouragement you can give to someone in need, in short, almost anything except yourselff and your wants.
- N Sri Ram.

When not tainted by the slightest touch of self-seeking, the giving of oneself, which is experienced as devotion, as love, and other feelings difficult to name because of their subtle spiritual nature, is reflected in all external relations and acts.
- N Sri Ram.

Thy gifts to us mortals fulfill all our needs
And yet run back to thee undeminished.

The river has its everyday work
To do and hastens through fields and hamlets;
Yet its incessant stream winds
Towards the washing of thy feet.

The flower sweetens the air
With its perfume;
Yet its last service is to
Offer itself to thee.

Thy worship does not
Impoverish the world.

From the words of poet
Men take what meanings please them;
Yet their last meaning points to thee.
- Rabindranath Tagore (Geetanjali -Verse 75)