The Truth of Suffering

One is truly unfortunate if one has not had any suffering or misery in one’s life. It is only in the state of discord & confusion that you ever become interested in the subject of truth. Buddha said, “If there were no confusions, then there wouldn't be any enlightenment either.”

The creation is truly wonderful in the sense that every iota of it is in itself a creator. Every one of us has a world of himself/herself. Therefore, ours is a case of world within the world. Under the circumstances my truth may not be yours as long as your world & mine do not coincide. That is what the problem of religion is. All religions point towards the same light, yet lead to strife every passing day. A religion can never bring enlightenment to anyone. The first possibility of enlightenment arises only if there is any crucial confusion in your world. That’s where the importance of suffering lies. If you are happy & comfortable in your world, hardly anything more is required. In that case what you probably wish is the continuation of the status-quo. Your beliefs & overall perspective is so well crystalised that you may not like to consider anything contrary. It is said that happy & comfortable people hardly need any God. They may believe into one but do not have that 'crying urge' to know him. It is the miserable who truly needs god or an answer to his questions. It is in the state of suffering that you first think if there are any higher truths? This is where your true journey begins, the journey backwards. This seeking, this urgency can only lead to the truth that is independent of yours or mine or other infinite no of worlds. Or you can say it is the Truth that is true in the true sense of the word

The Secret of the Secret

The secret of the secret is your sub-conscious mind i.e the part of mind that is not known to you. The very word “sub” means – below. The sub-conscious mind, therefore, means the one that is ‘below’ your conscious mind. This ‘below-portion’ is quite big & very powerful. Powerful beyond your imagination.

The mind that we know, i. e., the conscious mind is only 10% or even less of the whole thing. Our mind is just like an iceberg. Only the 1/10 part is conspicuous to us & we mistakenly believe it to be the whole. The balance 90% or 9/10 part which is below the surface is neither known nor heeded by us. It is here that the catch lies.

Our behaviour in life is governed by ‘what lies below’. The successful people are blissfully unaware that they are successful only for one reason- ‘Their conscious mind is working in alignment with their sub-conscious mind. By the same logic the unsuccessful are unsuccessful purely for one reason that their subconscious wishes something else than what they think they want ‘consciously’.

How do we lose contact with our ‘roots’? And more important, how can we re-establish the contact with this little genie, our truest friend, so that we can be truly happy & put all our endeavours to achieve exactly what we have come here for? This is what we will discuss in this post.

A newly born baby has everything subconscious. That is, his conscious mind is just like a clean slate upon which nothing is written. The experiences that he has in this life are the first words of his script. It is said that upto first eight months the child is still in the process of “getting to know”. Thereafter he starts taking impressions. From this point he begins developing what we call ‘Personality’ (From Greek word “persona’’ which means ‘a mask’).

The child has already brought something from the previous life. These impressions & memories are accumulated in the “Mind-below’ already. For the first eight months this subconscious portion is quite active. However when new impressions occure, by & by this portion moves further below & new impressions accumulate over it. Thus, at any point of time a human mind is a sum total of these three parts. The first one the very upper part which feels, thinks & makes us act. The middle part which consisits of the impressions taken from this life & the bottom most part in which are the impressions from our past lives. Just like a pyramid, the tip is very sharp & seems very important to us yet the Bottom part is ‘The Base’ having all the answers of our life’s questions. And the middle part is the “Link” beteween the two. If the experiences in this life are sweet & cohesive then the middle part is transparent. In that case you know as well as believe in whatever you do. However, if the experiences in this life are bitter or confusing or threatening then your middle part i.e the link between your original being & this life is severed. Then you are truly cornered. You don’t really know your true wishes. You kind of lose your ‘grounding’. Consciously you may decide to do something but in actuality you may do something else. You simply don’t know what you want to do with your life! You simply carry a ‘Grudge’ either against this world or against yourself.

In order to re-establish the contact with your base what you need is to settle with the middle part. This is what is achieved through ‘Yoga’ or ‘Spirituality’. This is what is achieved through ‘Meditation’. During meditation you relax the tip of the pyramid i.e. the conscious mind of yours. Yet, you remain aware & you do not sleep. This allows the memories & bitterness or whatever accumulated in the middle part to ease out & the link with your original being is established. This happens very gradually, hence the long & sustained practices in yoga.

The base part of your mind is all powerful because it has got no direct linkage with your impressionable conscious part but infact it is connected with the universal mind.. The God. The God is nothing but a Universal Mind but without any duality whatever. Hence any message or any wish that is put in our basic mind has got to be fullfilled as it’s only a question of creation. And “To create” is the very nature of God The universal mind.

When we consciously feel grateful for whatever happens or is happening in our life we are infact removing the blockages of negativity between our conscious mind & the all powerful base mind. It is then that we begin getting the answers. Various traditions have given various names to this all powerful Base Mind. Some call it “The Guargian Angel”, some other call it Jeevatma. I for one would call it “The Little Genie My Greatest Friend”.

Curiously, now I can give you a great analogy. Almost every one of us has heard the sufi story “Alladin Ka Chirag”. In this story a boy finds a big rock placed on the mouth of a cave. The boy, Alladin, being of adventurous nature, strives & removes this rock & enters the cave. Inside he finds a ‘lamp’. As soon as the boy rubs the lamp a Great Genie comes to his survillence & asks ,” Tell me what to do my Lord” or ‘ Jo Hukm .. mere akah’.
It is exactly same with the cave of your mind. All you need to do is to be a little adventurous & remove the rock. Then you will find 'the lamp' containing a great genie who will always be there to your side. Then & only then will you be able to recover your lost moorings as this great friend of yours can do anything & everything for you. Amen.

Misery & Gratitude

Wallace wattles (1860 - 1911) was probably the first philosopher who brought due importance to the concept of 'gratitude'. Afterwards, scores of writers, motivators & new age gurus used it as well as emphasised its importance in order to bring one's life in universal alignment. In his classic book "The Science of Getting Rich", Wallace Wattles has devoted one full chapter, to the subject of gratitude.
One more philosopher, who lucidly explained & emphasised the import of 'Gratitude' in bringing your life from a negative perspective to a positive one, was Robert Collier (1885 - 1950).

Both these men, though initially had their share of live's problems, died quite a happy & prosperous persons. This could become possible solely due to their crystal clear understanding of certain laws of mind & universe & practical applications thereof.

Everyone who has ever faced any misery (Who has not?) in his life must go through at least these two books.

1. The Science of Getting Rich ---by Wallace Wattles (Published around 1910) &

2.The Secret of the Ages -- by Robert Collier (Published arround 1930).

Wallace Wattles failed serially in his early life. He constantly lived under poverty & worse still, the fear of poverty. This finally led him to devote his whole life to explore the subject of failure & success. Misery & Abundance. His lifelong pursuit of this subject brought out the classic book 'The Science of Getting Rich'. Thereafter, he made a lot of money, achieved whatever he desired in life & lived a true life of power till the end.

Robert Collier, on the other hand, had a desease which was undiagnosable & hence incurable. This brought him to the study & practice of christian science. To his pleasant surprise, the practices not only cured him completely, but left him much happier a person, ready to live the life to its fullest. Robert then became highly interested in getting to know the functioning of the human mind & more so the application of its power to cure the miseries of human life. Robert had a panache for putting 'Force of conviction' into his words. He was a prolific & gifted writer. His book(s), therefore, became a runaway success.

Both these men had a first hand experience of putting to practical application, whatever they later taught in their books. It is for this reason, that, there always was an impeccable force of truth in their words.

We will, in this post, discuss this golden concept of gratitude.

The worst effect of any adversity or any untoward situation in our life is, we kind of, totally break-away from the universal mind. We become obsessed with our misery, our problem, our situation. This changes the frequency we send into the universe & automatically things that may contribute further to our plight are attracted in our life. We are truly cornered & at a loss to know as to how to change this gear. It is at this point that we need something miraculous sort that can permanently convert our negativity into positivity.
That miraculous key is the key of Gratitude. Under any circumstance, it cannot be that we do not have a thing or two to feel positive about. The key of gratitude begins with the sorting out the positive things in our life. Even if it is just 'being alive' or as miniscule a thing as 'having a cool breez', we start giving thanks to the Universe for the same. Whatever little precious positive we come across, we truly & sincerely express our gratitude to this universe for the same. You will be surprised to see the miraculous effect of this practice. The number of things that you thought were positive in your life earlier, will simply multiply now. Whereas initially you were at a loss to find one single thing that you could term as positive, now with every passing day you will have them abundantly. The more you are thankful, the more you have to be thankful about.You have got to see it to believe it.
Those who have lived a life of discontent & complaint so far must try it for once. Just be thankful to this universe for whatever has happened in your life & see how the same scars turn into stars. Same adversities turning into blessings. It's practical magic I say.

The essential nature of this universe is "growth'' & ''abundance''. If that is what is missing from our life than definitely we have somehow lost our alignment with the universe. In order to bring it back the starting point is the feeling of gratitude. It is when we have gratitude that we have faith. It is when we have faith, that, we generate belief & positivity in our own being. This sets the right frequency to bring abundance in our life.