A hobby is a lifeline ..

I feel that every one must cultivate at least one hobby, one pure pursuit to devote oneself to in our spare time. Be it art, music, science or sport, a hobby can serve as a lifeline to grasp onto in times of crisis.

A hobby is a safe haven to retreat into when life or the world around is in turmoil. A hobby brings the mind to the present. It gives rest to a restless mind by eliminating pointless thoughts. Hobbies not only bring joy but also prevents us from spending our time in empty, material pursuits. 

Creativity and worship ..

No other culture in the world lays as much emphasis on creativity as Hinduism. Creativity and worship are so entwined that there is no way to distinguish one from the other. Temples are the centers of culture, where art, music, dance, poetry, plays and dramas are nurtured and offered to the gods. Ranjoli is the offering of art, Geetanjali is the offering of music, Nrityanjali is the offering of dance.

Creativity lies at the very core of Hinduism urging us to fulfill our creative potential every single day. Creativity is the highest offering to the divine. To be immersed in a creative act is worship!!

Fulfilling our creative potential is worship

The Joy of Writing

Think, feel and write

The daily demands on us leaves very little time for creative solitude. I long for quiet interludes to spend some time writing. For me, writing quenches a deep thirst leaving a refreshing feeling of fulfilment.

I just put down the book 'On the Move' by Dr Oliver Sacks. He was a voracious writer, writing journals and books all through his long life. In this book Dr Sacks captures what writing means to him which resonates entirely with my own feelings.

"For the most part, I rarely look at the journals I have kept for the greater part of a lifetime. The act of writing is itself enough; it serves to clarify my thoughts and feelings. The act of writing is an integral part of my mental life; ideas emerge, are shaped, in the act of writing.  

My journals are not written for others, nor do I usually look at them myself, but they are a special, indispensable form of talking to myself.

..The act of writing.. gives me a pleasure,  a joy, unlike any other. It takes me to another place ...where I am totally absorbed and oblivious to distracting thoughts, worries, preoccupations, or indeed the passage of time. In those rare, heavenly states of mind, I may write nonstop until I can no longer see the paper. Only then do I realize that evening has come and that I have been writing all day.

Tagore: The dust of the marketplace..

The dust of the marketplace overwhelms me and stifles my heart
Let the river of your melody wash over me
Let it’s drumbeat pulse through my veins
Let it wash away from my body all dishonour
Let it’s gurgling flow drown all commotion
       
Tagore sings in "Haater dhula soi na ..". Every day that we step out into the world, we are thrown into the noise, rush and commotion of the marketplace. When we return back to the sanctity of home, we wash away the dust and sweat from the body. Should we not also clear our mind? The greed, ambition, restlessness and pettiness of the people we meet inevitably unsettles the mind. To return home is to return the mind to tranquility.

Carrying prejudice to the grave ..

The flame of life

My husband's grandmother passed away a few days ago at the ripe old age of 95years. She was a matriarch who ruled the family with tyranny. On hearing of her death, I felt a sense of regret that she never let go of deep rooted prejudices and carried them all the way to the grave. Despite spending countless hours in temples and religious readings, her heart never softened with love nor did her mind expand with wisdom.

Her brahminical sense of superiority and entitlement. Her prejudice and treatment of people of other castes and creeds. Her preference for the boy child over the girl. Her treatment of daughters-in-law as nothing but work horses. Her preferential treatment of lighter skinned grandchildren over the darker ones. Thus she is remembered.

Her life is a reminder for us to wash away all prejudices that stain our heart before the flame of life dies out.

Beauty, add a little to every day ...

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread" John Muir said. Bread to feed the body and beauty to feed the soul. We spend much of our time earning our bread leaving our soul to starve.

Just a little time spent reading poetry, listening to music, viewing a work of art or creating something ourselves or reflecting on the beauty of nature is enough to nourish the soul.

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practising an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. For heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.  Do it as well as you possible can." - Kurt Vonnegut

“If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music” - Charles Darwin

Wear away the weariness in the woods ..

The daily demands on our time and energy can at times leave us feeling low and dispirited. No matter what ails the spirit, I have found that a solitary walk in the woods wears away some of this weariness. There is within us reserves of strength to deal with any situation. In the soothing midst of nature, we are able to access and draw from this deep reserve. We return back somewhat healed in mind and body.

This same feeling is described in Anne Frank's diary
“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.” 

Vita Contemplativa and Vita Activa

In our daily lives, activities sometimes become all consuming. When the realization dawns that we are living life in a reactive mode instead of proactive, we must stop and evaluate. A few solitary hours of reflection can guide the course of our future actions. It lets us grab the reins and actively steer the ship of life instead of being tossed and turned by the tides. 

Vita contemplativa (contemplative life) is vital for a meaningful Vita activa (active life) . Just like day follows the night, periods of activity must follow periods of rest and contemplation.

What we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action - Meister Echkart

Touch of the Tundra ..

Most of us feel with Thoreau that "the wilderness is near as well as dear to every man." We come to Denali to watch; to catch a glimpse of the primeval. We come close to the tundra flowers, the lichens, and the animal life. Each of us will take some inspiration home; a touch of the tundra will enter our lives--and, deep inside, make of us all poets and kindred spirits. - Adolph Murie, biologist

Religion, a personal communion

A personal communion with the universe in solitude is the only religion one needs. No middlemen, no preset place or time, no mindless rituals or elaborate accessories.

Just a humbling feeling of awe and an intense feeling of oneness with the universe ..

As if honey could taste itself and all its drops together and all its drops could taste each other and each the whole honeycomb as itself, so should the end be with God and the soul of man and the universe. - Sri Aurobindo

Composter and a lesson on Maya ..

For over a year, I have been dumping all kinds of kitchen and yard waste into my backyard composter. Some time goes by and they are all transformed into the same black organic matter we call compost. From this matter arises all things and everything dissolves into it.

Now just imagine how dull the earth would be if all the land was simply covered with this inert black matter and nothing else. Gladly that is not to be! Nature loves infinite variety which she forms and transforms from this very same matter. The earth is her eternal playground where new art is created endlessly. This is Maya according to Hinduism, the grand illusion!!

All the myriad objects that form the universe are the external reality that we perceive. The true reality is the hidden principle of nature, of matter and energy that transforms and animates everything. 

On the Red Road ..

Red Road

The Red Road is a personal journey through life that one must walk alone. It is the good road of balance and harmony. A road that we pave by our daily actions and decisions.

The land we live on is the sacred land of the Red people, the indigenous people of North America. Their spirituality will inevitably seep into us and lead us along the Red Road, teaching us again to honor the earth and live according to the rhythms of nature.

Brute force in parenting ..

My husband and I use starkly different approaches when it comes to parenting our children. While I frequently resort to the faster, short cut approach of brute force to enforce discipline and compliance he always takes the longer, arduous route of patiently wrangling and reasoning with them.

Today, in one epiphanous moment I have decided to let go brute force once and for all in parenting. I hope to use the slower but surer force of love and reasoning.

This decision comes from the conviction that the 'means to achieve any end must also be just'. Brute force is violence and using it even sparingly makes me a brute. Brute force only achieves immediate outward compliance. Inward transformation is only achieved by appealing to another's reason.

This is what Gandhi's Satyagraha stands for. Employing peaceful methods at all times. The decision to give up brute force will demand more of me ..in developing patience and exercising self control.

Non-violence is a weapon of the strong - Gandhi

Quality maketh a man ..

In the innumerable interactions with people during the course of life only a few leave a lasting impression on us. The ones that do are men that set a high personal standard for themselves. Inwardly our respect is reserved only for them.

Once we get past the physical appearances, cultural differences and external characteristics, the true distinguishing factor between men is the quality he demands of himself and others. We reveal our own standards in all our daily actions. In the quality of our work, our ethics, our speech, the books we read .. in the quality of food we eat and what we serve to others

What distinguishes the “elite” from the masses is only their insistence upon “quality.” - Dag Hammarskjold

Simplicity .. contentment with less

Simplicity of the Amish, Quakers and Shakers

The ongoing journey of simplifying my life has involved shedding excesses in all aspects of living paving the way for a quieter, centred, inwardly rich life.

Material excesses and dependency on stuff must be reduced to essentials. This includes excess body weight accumulated from years of neglect. Adopting a lean, natural diet and moderation in consumption removes the heaviness and keeps us lithe and agile.

Mental excesses are aspects that impact our mind. Relationship invariably affects our mind. Keeping social interactions down to a few meaningful ones is worth more than several superficial connections. Our speech and thought must be simple and straight. A simple philosophy to live by frees us from many a burdens .. of rituals, traditions, religions, compulsions and preconceived beliefs freeing up the mind from many reins. For me it is a pantheistic philosophy that ties everything together beautifully both logically and spiritually.

As we become simpler in our ways, we can begin to experience the freedom and lightness of being.

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free 
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, 
And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. 
When true simplicity is gained, 
To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, 
To turn, turn will be our delight, 
Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.

- Shaker song by Elder Joseph Brackett.

Hope always ..

This picture gives me great hope. No matter how much concrete we dump, life will still find an opening. The elements of nature are constantly at work trying to restore the natural order of things. Anything going against nature will eventually decay and crumble. So long as we are aligned with nature, there is always hope and healing!

The natural healing force within each of us is the greatest force in getting well. Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. - Hippocrates (ancient Greek physician) 

Yehudi Menuhin: Deeper insights into playing the violin ..

Yehudi Menuhin, painting by Myfanwy Pavelic

Excerpts from Menuhin's memoir Unfinished Journey, to read and reread ..

"The performing violinist continually reviews the hours, days and weeks preceding a performance, charting the many elements that will release his potential ... he knows that when his body is exercised, his blood circulating, his stomach light, his mind clear, the music ringing in his heart, his violin clean and polished, its strings in good order, the bow hair full and evenly spread, then - but only then - he is in command ... But neglect of the least of these elements must gnaw his conscience. 

“So a violinist lives in training. He makes his body his vocation. His stance must be erect yet supple so that, like a graceful reed, he may wave with the breeze and yet remain perfectly aligned from head through spine to feet. He is a living structure stretched between the magnets of sun and earth. Just as only a stretched string can vibrate, so before a violinist's body vibrates he must feel drawn upward, his head delicately poised on the vertebrae, his diaphragm raising him on a cushion of air, while the working parts of his anatomy - shoulders and arms, hands and fingers -float and balance at different levels. Elegant management of the body is among the qualities civilisation denies us, and too often the violin, inviting surrender, only makes rigidity more rigid."

"All influences pointed towards less tension, more effective application of energy, the breaking down of resistance in every joint, the coordination of all motions into one motion; and illustrated the profound truth that strength comes not from strength but from the subtle comprehension of  process, of proportion and balance."

"..what the eye sees - the raised arm - is but the last link in a chain of events originating in the mind. To be conscious of these events as they happen, before they are apparent to the eye, is a lesson in the subtlety I believe to be a cardinal principle of violin playing; but just to awaken oneself to them is enough."

"Not for the violinist the exhibitionist and fiery springing from seat or keyboard of a virtuoso pianist, or the acrobatics of certain conductors. He is part of his violin, his left hand fingering its way, without any margin for error, over the millimetric subdivisions of a space that varies like a slide rule, and his bow never leaving the string but under precise, controlled conditions."

"Perfection cannot be achieved unless its pursuit becomes a way of life. My goal has been so to play the violin that whatever I play is an exercise for whatever I might play. Concentrated observation and practice of minuteness are gradually absorbed; the conscious brain is short-circuited;"

Creation is sacrosanct ...

Sringeri - a snake protects a pregnant frog

Hinduism reveres creation and birth as holiest of holies! The womb or garbha is considered the most sacred place as it houses and nourishes the new life. Where ever new life is ushered, that land is sacred and by that analogy, the entire earth is sacred. The highest duty of man is to protect creation and allow the work of mother nature to flow uninterrupted. 

The legend of Sringeri exemplifies this spirit. Legend has it that when a great sage came to Sringeri, nestled in Sahyadri mountain ranges, he saw an extraordinary sight on the banks of the Tunga river. A cobra with a raised hood was providing shelter to a frog that was about to give birth, providing the mother some shade from the scorching afternoon sun. The sage was struck by this sight where an adverse enemy goes beyond its natural instinct to protect the birth of new life. Here the sage established his first monastery!

The act of procreation is the holy work of nature and not something to be ashamed of. The human body is not considered as vulgar ..instead it is glorified in all its beauty and life giving capability. This spirit is visible in all Hindu temples where sculptures of virile and full-figured humans, pregnant women and all forms of life are equally revered. 

Human Body: Our very first instrument

 "The practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure and proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony"  I just put down the book "Unfinished Journey" the memoir of violinist Yehudi Menuhin. His words on the human body drew out some of my own insights.

It was when I started learning Indian classical dance in my late thirties that I became painfully aware of the lack of strength and rhythm in my body. There was lethargy and clumsiness in my body and all its movements. Most of us are born with the gifts of grace, elegance, symmetry and harmony of the body but we lose them over the years by gross disuse. The inactivity built into our over civilized world has become a curse to the human body.

In my slow journey towards reversing the negative impacts of decades of neglect, I have realized that a fine-tuned, lithe and agile body requires physical labor and the discipline for lifelong cultivation. Irrespective of age, we must embrace a discipline like yoga, martial arts or classical dance forms to build and sustain strength and agility in the body way into old age.

"It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” - Socrates

The mind must remain a servant

My aunt recently sunk into depression for a brief period. A few of my friends are also battling mental illnesses.

I think one of the likely causes is that.. while most of us exercise moderation in eating, drinking and other aspects related to our physical bodies, we neglect aspects of  our mind. Moderation in thinking is absolutely essential for a sane mind. Over thinking is a disease on the same level as overeating. The mind or any of the senses running amok spells doom. The intellect must have a tight reign on the mind and the five senses.

Writer David Foster Wallace, who battled depression for decades nails this in his writing ..
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline ...that is real freedom...The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting .. 
“Learning how to think" really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot or will not exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.”

"The mind is a wonderful servant but a terrible master" - Robin Sharma 

Federer: Display of divine intelligence ..

Subtlety, touch and finesse .. 

There are instances in our lives when we are awe struck at seeing a thing of perfect beauty and harmony.... a display of divine intelligence!!. Intelligence that arises from the synergy of mind, body and senses to produce something of exquisite beauty. No one could have come closer to capturing this feeling in words as has David Foster Wallace in his article "Roger Federer as a Religious Experience" for The New York Times. I read this article over and over again! Wallace equates watching Federer's play to a "near-religious" experience. Here are a few snippets from the article for us to savor.

On the human body and kinetic beauty ...
Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war. .. 
The human beauty we’re talking about here is beauty of a particular type; it might be called kinetic beauty. Its power and appeal are universal...What it seems to have to do with, really, is human beings’ reconciliation with the fact of having a body.

There are wonderful things about having a body, too, obviously - its just that these things are much harder to feel and apprecite in real time. Rather like certain kinds of rare, peak-type sensuous ephiphanies (I'm so glad I have eyes to see this sunrise!" etc), great athletes seem to catalyze our awareness of how glorious it is to touch and perceive, move through space, interact with matter. Granted, what great athletes can do with their bodies are things that the rest of us can only dream of. But these dreams are important - they make up for a lot.

On the beauty and grace of Federer's game ..
A top athlete’s beauty is next to impossible to describe directly. Or to evoke. Federer’s forehand is a great liquid whip, his backhand a one-hander that he can drive flat, load with topspin, or slice — the slice with such snap that the ball turns shapes in the air and skids on the grass to maybe ankle height. His serve has world-class pace and a degree of placement and variety no one else comes close to; the service motion is lithe and uneccentric, distinctive only in a certain eel-like all-body snap at the moment of impact. His anticipation and court sense are otherworldly, and his footwork is the best in the game....Of witnessing, firsthand, the beauty and genius of his game. You more have to come at the aesthetic stuff obliquely, to talk around it, or — as Aquinas did with his own ineffable subject — to try to define it in terms of what it is not.  ... The Swiss has brought to men’s tennis degrees of touch and subtlety unseen since (at least) the days of McEnroe’s prime. 

On Federer's intelligence

..  this intelligence often manifests as angle. Federer is able to see, or create, gaps and angles for winners that no one else can envision,  ... these spectacular-looking angles and winners are not coming from nowhere — they’re often set up several shots ahead, and depend as much on Federer’s manipulation of opponents’ positions as they do on the pace or placement of the coup de grâce. 

On Nadal and Federer ..
This Wimbledon final’s got the revenge narrative, the king-versus-regicide dynamic, the stark character contrasts. It’s the passionate machismo of southern Europe versus the intricate clinical artistry of the north. Apollo and Dionysus. Scalpel and cleaver!!.

On the metaphysical explanation of Federer's dominance
For almost two decades, the party line’s been that certain advances in racket technology, conditioning, and weight training have transformed pro tennis from a game of quickness and finesse into one of athleticism and brute power. How, then, someone of Federer’s consummate finesse has come to dominate the men’s tour is a source of wide and dogmatic confusion. There are three kinds of valid explanation for Federer’s ascendancy. One kind involves mystery and metaphysics and is, I think, closest to the real truth.

The metaphysical explanation is that Roger Federer is one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws. And Federer is of this type — a type that one could call genius, or mutant, or avatar. He is never hurried or off-balance. The approaching ball hangs, for him, a split-second longer than it ought to. His movements are lithe rather than athletic. ... 

Particularly in the all-white that Wimbledon ..still requires, he looks like what he may well be: a creature whose body is both flesh and, somehow, light. .. This thing about the ball cooperatively hanging there, slowing down, as if susceptible to the Swiss’s will — there’s real metaphysical truth here.  Imagine that you’re a person with preternaturally good reflexes and coordination and speed, and that you’re playing high-level tennis. Your experience, in play, will not be that you possess phenomenal reflexes and speed; rather, it will seem to you that the tennis ball is quite large and slow-moving, and that you always have plenty of time to hit it. That is, you won’t experience anything like the (empirically real) quickness and skill that the live audience, watching tennis balls move so fast they hiss and blur, will attribute to you.

On practice and kinesthetic sense
Successfully returning a hard-served tennis ball requires what’s sometimes called “the kinesthetic sense,” meaning the ability to control the body and its artificial extensions through complex and very quick systems of tasks. English has a whole cloud of terms for various parts of this ability: feel, touch, form, proprioception, coordination, hand-eye coordination, kinesthesia, grace, control, reflexes, and so on. For promising junior players, refining the kinesthetic sense is the main goal of the extreme daily practice regimens we often hear about. The training here is both muscular and neurological. Hitting thousands of strokes, day after day, develops the ability to do by “feel” what cannot be done by regular conscious thought. Repetitive practice like this often looks tedious or even cruel to an outsider, but the outsider can’t feel what’s going on inside the player — tiny adjustments, over and over, and a sense of each change’s effects that gets more and more acute even as it recedes from normal consciousness.

So one type of technical explanation for Federer’s dominion is that he’s just a bit more kinesthetically talented than the other male pros. Only a little bit, since everyone in the Top 100 is himself kinesthetically gifted — but then, tennis is a game of inches.

Kinesthetic virtuoso or no, Roger Federer is now dominating the largest, strongest, fittest, best-trained and coached field of male pros who’ve ever existed, with everyone using a kind of nuclear racket that’s said to have made the finer calibrations of kinesthetic sense irrelevant, like trying to whistle Mozart during a Metallica concert.

What is man without the beast?

After the long, cold, dark and quiet winter months, what a delight it is to hear the first honking of the Canadian geese way up in the sky announcing their arrival.

Newer sounds start to fill the air as the birds come home . The gulls, ravens, starlings and doves follow the geese. Though the weather is still cold, the squealing, cawing sounds warms the heart and awakens in us a wonderful anticipation of spring. We share the land with these birds and beasts. They  reveal to us the ways of nature and its eternal cycles. How desolate our lives would  be without them!

"What is man without the beasts? For if all the beast were gone, man would die of a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected" - Chief Seattle

Leisure, to stand and stare ..

Today leisure is sadly equated to laziness. We are hell bent on eliminating leisure entirely from our lives and that of our children too. We pack every bit of our time with activities and the lull between activities is filled with anxieties. I came across this beautiful poem on "leisure" by Welsh poet W.H. Davies where he laments the futility of a life without leisure.  The beauty of living is lost when leisure is lost. Let us allow then some leisure in our lives, a daily sabbath of a half hour sans activities or anxieties!

Some time to stand and stare .. 

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad day light,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare. - W.H. Davies

A quick dip into Tranquillity ..

It is with great joy that I am reading the book titled "Meditations" by the great Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. To understand the Greek stoic philosophy and discover that it echoes the exact thoughts of ancient Indian philosophy is such a joyous revelation!!

Marcus Aurelius - Stoic philosopher

Here he shows us how to quickly return to a state of tranquillity no matter what perturbs the mind. Tranquillity can only be sought within and not in vacations or other escapes.

Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immediately in perfect tranquillity; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Constantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thyself; and let thy principles be brief and fundamental, which, as soon as thou shalt recur to them, will be sufficient to cleanse the soul completely, and to send thee back free from all discontent with the things to which thou returnest.

Tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind - Marcus Aurelius 

The path of Self-study ..

Self-study leads one off the beaten path onto a uniquely personal journey. One track leads to another and then another, guided purely by the stirring of ones heart. Self-study originates from the inner urge in us to understand and deepen our learning about life and the world we live in. It is learning without a curriculum, without a set pace and without a goal.

All great writers, poets, teachers, philosophers, scientist and artists spend a great deal of time in self study. The anticipation of reading the next book elevates us from the mundane activities of daily life.  All that is needed is a quiet uncluttered corner in our homes for pursuing our self guided study.

Tagore in his study at Shantiniketan

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” ― Isaac Asimov

Upanishads: Mind rests on the Breath!

Stress or anxiety stems from the uncontrolled stream of thoughts in the mind. The quickest and easiest way to clear the mind and cope with stress is to become aware of ones breathing. The "mind and breath connection" was so clearly understood by those wise sages of ancient India who expounded this connection in the ancient masterpiece, the Upanishads written around 500 BC.

‘As a bird when tied by a string flies first in every direction, and
finding  no  rest  anywhere,  settles  down  at  last  on  the  very  place
where it is fastened, exactly in the same manner, my son, that mind after flying in
every  direction,  and  finding  no  rest  anywhere,  settles  down  on
breath; for indeed, my son, mind is fastened to breath. 

Challenges transform us..

Sometimes we taken on challenges, either personal or professional and battle through innumerable obstacles to reach the very end. If the challenge was taken up with an expectation of some reward at the end, then we are most likely to be disillusioned. The rewards may or may not come or maybe late in coming or the reward may not meet the level expected.

The real reward is how one is transformed by the experience. The inner strength gained by facing the challenges fearlessly is the reward! We must always put ourselves at the helm of things and not watch from the safety of sidelines. For every challenge builds character and confidence!

"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." - John Ruskin 

"Pursuers of Knowledge" and "Pursuers of Fortune":

As I understand, there are two types of communities ..a) communities that foster knowledge and b) communities that foster fortune. The primary goal of people in the former is their quest for knowledge, wisdom, freedom, truth and creativity. The people of the latter are only intent on doubling their wealth devoting any free time to monetary affairs.

The immense contribution of the Jewish community to the world in practically any field is attributed to them being the 'pursuers of knowledge'. In Einstein's Ideas and Opinion's he sheds light on these Jewish ideals ..

"The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence these are the features of the Jewish tradition". "We shall continue not merely to survive as the oldest of living peoples, but by creative work to bring forth fruits which contribute to the ennoblement of the human race, as here to fore."

The very same ideals are upheld by the learned, progressive Brahmin communities of India who are inspired by the pure teachings of the Vedas and Upanishads. Their contributions to the world in science, social reforms, thought, literature, music, arts are on par with the contributions of the Jewish community.

“There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.” - Plato

Getting to know Great Minds ..

Einstein, Gandhi, Muir, Hammarskjold, Sacks

Though my writings were very few last year, my readings have been many. The greatest pleasure of the last year has been readings which have brought me closer to great minds of the past. This includes the autobiographies of John Muir, Einstein, Gandhi and Dr Oliver Sacks. Dag Hammarskjöld's 'Markings' has always been close at hand providing me daily inspiration. They have all been the food for my soul.

Each one of these men were deeply spiritual. They were also men of action contributing to the world in their own unique way. 

Upanishad: "Quality of food = Quality of mind"

For eons, the highly learned Brahmin communities in India have attached immense importance to the quality of food one consumes. Sattvik (ie freshly cooked, warm, wholesome, tasty, mildly spiced) food is recommended at all times. Stale or even slightly old food is abhorred.

Even in this age of fast food, refrigerated, packaged and processed food, some folks like my mother-in-law are insistent on cooking every meal fresh despite the inconveniences. The reason for this fixation goes back to the ancient religious texts ie the Upanishads written way back in 500BC

"The food when eaten becomes threefold; its grossest portion becomes feces, its middle portion flesh, its subtlest portion mind" - The Upanishads (translated by F. Max Muller)

The Upanishads reveal the extent to which the mind is influenced by the food that is consumed. A person's mental constitution and thinking is fed by food. In the purity of food there is purity of mind;  Clarity of thought and a firmly grounded, pure intellect can only arise from a pure mind. Hence the great emphasis on pure or Sattvik food.