Why is money condemned & perceived as root of evil?

Money is an inanimate object…To condemn it or perceive it as evil is just stupidity. It is the mind behind/ in possession of the money that would have attributes.

Money is a necessary tool of exchange. In olden times barter used to work. Now it is outdated and so a tool of exchange, currency, money is created. Very frankly, it is just a piece of paper signifying one man’s faith in another. That, upon the presentation of this tool I agree to present you with necessary goods and this act shall be repeated when I present this forward.

So money is a very useful tool. Very necessary for procuring the goods of your need. Your wants could be endless. Your needs ‘have to be’ fulfilled. So first define your ‘needs’. Definition of your needs will allow you to define yourself as a human being.

Lets start with me: My needs are a decent house, 3 square meals a day, some good clothes and shoes (brand is immaterial), my books and paints and music to keep me happy, an AC for summers…… I think that’s it. And i can even reduce this if necessity arises.

My wants would include a farm house , because I love to grow plants and trees. Some dinners outside every month, an endless supply of books, …. I really cant think of anything more.

My luxuries would include another farmhouse, a horse.... a yearly vacation to a nice place... That does it.

What are your needs and wants?

So I need money to satisfy my basic needs and once in a while some of my wants. My luxuries, I leave to fate to surprise me with once in a while.

So lets say, I need one million a year to take care of my needs and some wants.

After that cut off figure, extra money is meaningless. It is just a figure in your bank, which you greedily look at every day and do mental masturbation. That figure in the bank does not increase your appetite, or your inherent spontaneous happiness, or even your sex drive, nor does it make your partner more attractive. It does not allow you to even eat one more bread beyond your capacity.

Let us suppose you become obsessive about your wants, and money supplies those too. But again, after that it is just a figure in the bank.

So do you see the paradox? Money is just a tool, and that too effective only upto a certain  level of satiety of needs.

It is the idiotic & stupid craze and obsession of man that makes him want to collect more and more of money.

So you are spending more and more of your youth, precious time, peace of mind just to collect some figures in the bank? Doesn’t that make you silly?

And try to just look back. You bought many luxuries, big and small, with your money? ......So are you permanently happy now?

Those goods bring you a temporary high, a temporary state of happiness. But eventually that charm & obsession of the new toy/ book/ watch/ phone/ pad/ boyfriend wears off…. The 'thing' gets subjected to wear & tear and gets old. It doesn’t seem so enticing anymore. Or you may even start to see some flaws in the ‘object of your desire’.

So the flaw, the evil wasn’t in money. It was in you. You allowed the greed/ obsession/ craze to overpower your good senses. You allowed an inanimate object to take possession of your mind. (And the mind monkey always needs a new toy). You allowed yourself to be so degraded and  stupid, that you started doing mental masturbation over a figure in the bank.

And you allowed yourself to become so crazed that you were ready to give up your happiness to get more happiness. You allowed yourself to become a slave to the craze of collecting money. You were ready to lie, cheat, obfuscate, demean a fellow human, plot, demean yourself to collect more and more money.

So coming back to the oft repeated, but permanent truth, reduce your needs, curb in your wants and clearly delineate what is luxury. Apply rules of Yama-Niyama (Do and Dont) to your needs and wants. Keep your inner eye open. Be strict with yourself.

And to quote the oft repeated saying: If you thought money brings happiness, just look at the people who God gave it to.  

I also firmly believe that objects/ money/ energy flows more to the person who acts on behalf of Nature and distributes it around….. Try it out.

Lastly, all happiness got from impermanent objects is impermanent, illusory and obsessive.

Look for ‘permanent happiness’. Try to analyse where is the fount of happiness in you. If you come up with the answer more money, don’t worry, get more of it ….. and eventually get over it.

Then your journey to the One will start.

The promise of the Soul Healer.

Signing off with wishing you all the Happiest and Brightest Diwali…. May the light of the One permeate your homes… the impermanent ones and the permanent One.

Why is “work life” or “career” perceived to be so miserable?

Why is “work life” or “career” perceived to be so miserable?

As I have said before, we arrive naked, die naked, with nothing to take along…. then why so much angst for the interim journey?

We are ‘made to’ attend school, classes, tuitions and all the while the idea is drilled into us that if we don’t study and ‘become something’ we have wasted our life…… What life is wasted? That rotten, naked to naked journey?

We are pushed into a guilt complex that if we don’t become a Doctor, Engineer (Computers) or a CA our entire life has been worthless. (Or atleast that was the view in India some years ago)….. Come on, the above guys make up at most 1% of the world’s population....... So don’t the rest ‘live’?

And we are first made to think that if our life is not enhanced by a Smart phone, a Tab, a wired and enhanced Hub, a router, lights that turn on upon entry, music that plays as we saunter through rooms, then we have not ‘made it’. And then we become such slaves to these gadgets, that life without it seems handicapped.  Lastly, if we decide to not be a slave to these gadgets, either we are made to feel inferior or ‘lacking’.

Why all this furore? Because, your mind monkey fears your freedom. So this enslavement of your thoughts and enhancement of your likes and dislikes.

Not once are you allowed to think: naked come , naked go, let me enjoy the journey.

Not once will you be allowed to say, by the society: I shall be the monk who sold his Porsche.

So all of us are forced into a Job pattern approved by the society. A Job which involves a lot of money maybe, but not exactly what you dreamt of when you were a kid.

When you were a kid, you dreamed of becoming a pilot, a train engine driver, a fireman or postman.

And what exactly do you do just now?

Push some papers around, up and down the ladder, with your signature and ‘remarks’. Papers that imply some exchange of funds (on paper) from here to there, or some assets (on paper) from here to there. Papers that imply some sales figures of having sold some Tablets or some BlueBerries.

Or if you were one of the really ‘lucky ones’ your job involves holding ‘figure crunching’ and ‘pep session’ meeting everyday….. Meetings which involve words like: thinking out of the box/bracket, comprehensive team push tactics, simultaneous client-seller synergy !!!! ………. What goobeldy gook, what utter crap with words……. A straightforward business involves selling to a buyer, what he needs, in the most ethical way, with a profit for yourself.

It does not involve constant talks of ‘profit margins’ and ‘sales incentives’.

It does not involve fooling someone else.

But most of you know that your job is just that.

And so you hate your job. Because you inherently know that your job has no purpose, it is useless. You are just doing it for the fat pay packet it gives you. You are doing it so that you can now ‘maintain’ the lifestyle of Pods and Pads and Tablets and Hubs and Bose sound and Mercs and cooks and maids…. With a Mahabaleshwar vacation…….. hahahahaha…… You pimped your own self.

Honestly….. tell me one answer straight… does your job make any practical difference to anyone’s life anywhere? …….Seriously, even the slightest, practical positive difference?

If your answer was No……THAT is why you hate your job….. You didn’t drive the trains that you dreamed as a kid, you didn’t save someone’s life….. You are just pushing paper.

Do something, some activity that adds a sparkle to someone’s life, preferably a stranger. DO some work that involves physical activity and enhances the life of fellow human beings.

Then you wont hate your ‘work’.

Or better, learn a education that allows you a work and career that enhances the life of humans beings, your fellow beings.

I did. I save eyes everyday, I restore vision everyday. I do most of it without any monetary consideration. I love what I do, all day long. This is what I dreamed as a kid.

Learn a work that you love and enhances lives of others. You will start loving your job.

 

The promise of the Soul Healer.  

What do you mean by: ‘Detached Attachment’?

What do you mean by: ‘Detached Attachment’?

To a normal thought process, each of us is either attached or detached. Both states in within their pure meaning are fine.

But we are humans. We have corrupted everything in within our reach. We have corrupted these pure states too.

We either love some person/ object/ relation/ passion to a degree of obsessive attachment. OR. We become so aloof/ detached/ averse/ uncaring that it almost borders on neglect or hate.

These are extremes of emotion. Extremes of anything is bad. Moderation is the key word to a stable, calm and composed life. Moderation is the key to the journey of the Soul.

Yama – Niyama…… Why do I go on repeating the Law of the Do and Don’t ? Because a rigid law of what is good and what is bad is the key to building the character. What is your worth or even self worth without a good character?

If you enter the armed forces, they make you exercise, revise, exercise, revise, exercise, revise…. So that when the opportunity arises, the mind isn’t allowed to think… it reacts as it is trained to….. Yama-Niyama is the same rigid training of the character.

We should love our family, our friends, our social circle. But some of us become so obsessed with this relation that it becomes a chain around our heart. The smallest adverse reaction by these people, not expected by us, and we feel hurt. We feel slighted. Or we get an unexpected compliment/ hug/ gift from a loved one, we start mooning like a puppy. We like our drink and good food, but we become so obsessed with it, that on the rare occasion when we don’t get our desired food, we feel depressed. We love a car and wish to own it. After a while it becomes such an obsession that we start feeling unhappy in our present car. We become so obsessesed with the love of our girl friend that if due to any reason we have to separate, our world shatters. We become so obsessed with our teenage love that we act like lovelorn puppies. We become so obsessed about the pair of jeans we saw in the store yesterday, that we think about it every moment till we can go and buy it……. Really?  You going crazy over a pair of jeans? Or a Car? Or a puppy? Or a lover? What about your love for yourself?…….. Or your commitment to yourself? …. Moderation is the key word.

Or take the other extreme. Detachment. You have a life, a wife, a family, parents, your duties (which you bloody took on voluntarily). But when the bug of religion / detachment strikes you, you start talking about leaving everything, going to the mountains or an ashram, doing meditation all day long. Good idea all by itself, but who shall take care of all the responsibilities that you took on your shoulder? Who shall take care of that early marriage you did because your loins were aching? Or when a loved one or relation starts to withdraw from us (due to any reason…. don’t judge) we also allow our Ego to raise its head and we too withdraw. When a loved one seperates/ leaves/ dies we act as if life should stop and play violins for our grief. When our car is scratched, we act as if someone’s life was scratched. When a job is lost we act as if our world has ended. We live in a manner as if we are so attached to each other, that the other person’s life will stop if we die.

These are extreme emotions. These lead to instability of your Soul. These lead to extreme upheavals in your mind. And the Mind monkey starts prancing again.

So learn “Detached Attachment”.

Be calm and serene in your nature. Be stable in your actions . Be reserved in your reaction. Be happy for that moment and in that moment. Do not go on pulling that happiness or the moment like a chewing gum . Do not over reach in your happiness or grief. It is the law of nature and life that people come and people go. It is also the fact of life that people forget their grief in a little while. Be happy in that moment of pure joy, enjoy it to the fullest. Forget it tomorrow. Grieve in the moment. Learn to move on tomorrow. It is the law of nature that everything in your posession goes through wear and tear.

Because in the end, all of us are just bones, blood, piss and excreta in a bag of skin and hair. Do not become too attached to this body of yours or to the body of your lover.

Again, do not misinterpret my words.

I am asking you to live more fully. But IN the moment. I am asking you not to dream in the future or wallow in the past. Live this moment as it should be, and then let that moment pass.

If there is anything to be attached, it is the Soul, the One. If you want to show attachment, show it for the One. Love it with so much intensity, the same intensity with which you pine for the embrace of your lover.

IF you love the Soul with that passion, it has to but reveal itself to you.   

The promise of the Soul Healer.  

Soul Healer. Where do we start.?

Let us start with the perennial question of existence: Why this Grief, why this anxiety, why this feeling of incompleteness.? What is it that keeps man unhappy inspite of multiple achievements and possessions.

Firstly, let start with rock bottom fundas.

All of us are born naked and shall die naked and shall depart into next life/ coffin till resurrection or judgement day or be disposed in a dump. We shall leave without a shred of the wealth that we spent our life, time, morals, peace and happiness to amass.

So much anxiety for just the journey?

Secondly, all of us live our lives too afraid of what life will present us with. We are too afraid of the surprises in store for us, the odd averse circumstances, the rare calamity. Why? Because we have put ourself/our mind into a comfort cocoon. Anything outside that and our anxiety, grief and blood pressure rises.

Remember the stories in the first post of Soul-Words.? Our bare basic necessities are 2 or 3 square meals a day and a small roof over our heads to protect us from natures elements. Everything else…..everything is just a luxury that your mind went on adding while you grew up.

What if I walked up to you and said “I will guarantee you a roof and 3 square meals a day, for lifetime”? Most of your anxieties and fears would drop away. You would start living as the King that you were born as. Your actions and reactions would not be dictated by fear, wants and anxiety. ….. So what is stopping you just now? Most of us have a basic roof and 3 meals coming to our table. Live free and fearless and act out of the strength of knowledge and love.

Stop that Pad, that smart phone, that diamond encrusted watch, that fancy luxury sedan (that also tells you the temperature outside and inside), that person, that house from becoming your want, then your lust and eventually your obsession.

Reduce you needs, check in your wants and analyse your luxuries.

And do not take my words wrongly. If you get occasion to use them, do so with unmitigated joy and excitement in the moment. Live for just now, in this moment.

Learn to enjoy the luxury whenever presented to you. Stop losing your sleep over it. Learn to enjoy everything in life with “detached attachment”. Be it material possessions or human relations.

Seen a small child.? Naked, cannot move from where its mother has put it. And yet happy and carefree. Gurgling, laughing, thrashing its arms and legs in the air, playing. We too were born like that, but then our mind started putting in imagined needs, lusts, fears and anxieties.

Let the “Child” in you come out again. See and live each moment with amazement. You plan too much for 20 years down the line. Who knows you may not live for the next 20 minutes.

Let the “King” you were born to be dictate you life's actions, out of love and strength.

Live this moment, enjoy whatever life presents you in this moment. Live with “Detached Attachment” to this moment.

Live knowing the Soul Healer shall hold your hand through all of your anxiety, grieg and turbulent days. The promise of the Soul Healer.

Why do you always say: “Fool” the mind?

As I always go on repeating you are the One, you are the ‘diamond’, you are born a King. You are absolute happiness ......Sat-Chit-Ananda.

Then why aren’t we aware of it.?

You aren’t aware of your Soul, your happiness, because (1) Your analytical mind and your Ego are afraid of the calmness /silence it will bring with it (2) You are over indulging in sensory input: with too much sound, visual input (sometimes very bad), constant taste trip, sexual perversion. (3) You are afraid of the change it means eventually. (4) Your threatened Ego is sending its pet monkey, the Mind to distract you

The Ego is afraid because the pure Soul and Ego cannot exist at the same time. Rise of Soul means eventual death of Ego.

To recognize your Soul you require a pause in the sensory inputs. Why? Because they make the Mind monkey dance. You require to be restrained in your words and action. You need to think before acting. You need to eliminate pervert sensory input. Very simply, the rules of Yama – Niyama apply here too.

Now if you want to argue for sake of argument and ask me why this and why not that. I have a simple answer. Do not do anything that you would want erased from your cupboard/ computer/ office desk when you die + Do not do anything that you wouldn’t do openly in front of your child and family. This will answer 95% of the people, except the ‘special 5%’ who I would have to meet personally !!

Also too much sensory input creates (1) too much useless memory + work & open playing field for the Mind monkey (2)  leaves you little time for contemplation (3) Instead of  making you more stable in your own self, it creates more likes and dislikes.

When your daily journey towards One starts, the polishing of the ‘diamond’, slowly your wants, your needs, your lusts, your demons, your desires, your Ego will start reducing and then dropping off. Your mind Monkey that has been conditioned by Society is fearful of this ‘detached’ attitude. So it will go on producing excuses for you to not go on this path. Your Ego and Mind will fight you fiercely. This will be your toughest battle, and also the place where maximum have succumbed. The Ego will fight so hard that you will call yourself a eunuch, a pantuji, a dork. You will have to persevere through this.  

Lastly, and I say this with a lot of confidence, your Mind is your biggest enemy and adversary on this journey towards One.

Want an example: Read this paragraph, close your eyes, think about what I tell you, Hold the thought and open your eyes after 3 minutes and tell me all your thoughts in a row. Ok? Ready?

Australia.

3 minutes? What sequence did your mind show you?

I will tell you what my mind showed me : Australia….. Kangaroos, Fosters Beer, ……Beer I love….. here in India I drink Kingfisher……. my weekend trip with my buddies……. we are going to Karjat….. I like Karjat but I don’t like eating there…… There shall be a lot of mosquitoes at Karjat this time….Hmmmm mosquitoes… I cant risk Dengue… If it killed Mr Yash Chopra what are we….Mr Chopra’s movie… who will complete it… but I wont see it as it seems a silly movie… which remind me my TV isn’t working… I need a set top box.

See: where did I start? I was supposed to hold the thought : Australia. And I thought 10 different things in the interim.

This is the random nonsense of the Mind which I mentioned in my previous post.

This is the perfect example of the Mind monkey. You mind is a monkey, skittering here and there, never silent, never stable. Because in the pause of your mind, you will see your Soul. Whenever your mind pauses, in whichever situation or setting, your Soul will show.

Hence learn to ‘fool your mind’.

How?

Firstly learn to control and ‘observe your breath’. Since breathing is so essential to all life, your mind will not be able to escape. And yet it will try. Gently bring your thoughts back to observing your breathing. Breathe in deeply, hold, breathe out.

If you want a demonstration of the fact that your mind will be controlled when you observe your breath, just hold your breath for a minute.......... Your mind will dare not wander, as your life is at stake....... The only thought in you in that one minute will be your breath.

Stop your mind from wandering. Hold a thought. Tie your mind Monkey to any object. The favorite object world over is God. Concentrate on your favorite God. Don’t let the mind wander. Bring it back to the object as it wanders.

Meditate.

Learn to smile a lot. Even falsely, in adverse circumstances. This shall fool your mind into reducing the stress and anxiety. The mind will remain happier.

Learn to reduce you needs. Do not let your wants become your needs, or worse your obsessions. Learn to curtail your luxuries. If you want to search the One, decrease your sensory inputs. Apply Yama – Niyama and character to your sensory inputs.

Rein in your Mind monkey. Your mind has to be fooled into inactivity, into subservience of the Soul.

Your journey to the One is well on the way.

The promise of the Soul Healer.   

So what do we do?

So what do we do?

So we have understood that “we” ourselves are the key to our happiness/ our salvation/ the termination of our anxiety.

So what do we “do” to now become more happier, more content, more at peace?

Nothing.

You already are the One. You already are the Soul, unsullied, unblemished, true, shining, pure, love, peace.

You just have forgotten over your many births/ weeks / months (select whichever suits your faith or beliefs) that you are the One. Your “mind” has surrounded your “soul recognition’ with imagined anxieties, fears, plans, expectations, burdens….. or just random nonsense.

My favorite allegory.  A Diamond. It is so pure, radiant, shining, sparkling, precious. Then you throw it into the street. Mud, grime accumulates over it. Then it rolls into the gutter. More sludge encompasses it. Anyone seeing it doesn’t recognize it as a diamond. They see a rock or worse, a sludge. Slowly even the diamond forgets its diamond attributes. But inwithin, the diamond is still present. Someday shall come a deluge of rain, wash away most of the sludge. Then a jeweler will pick it & polish it, and the diamond will shine again. The Diamond that always was there. You are the diamond. You are the One.

So knowing we are the ‘diamond’ do we just sit around? And wait for the ‘enlightenment’ to happen?

Yes, you could….. but then the time period to your becoming a ‘diamond’ prolongs.

So follow a good set of Yama and Niyama. Do’s and Don’t’s. Inherently all of us know what is good for us and what is bad. So I wont sit here and pontificate.

Just follow the set of rules good for you….. For example, if eating only Vegetarian food keeps you healthier and fitter, follow that strictly, your Niyama. If you always make an ass of yourself after drinking, follow the Yama of not drinking at parties (anyways, its bad for your liver and your brain cells).

Secondly, exorcise your personal demons. It may be anger (commonest), jealousy, gossip, small thievery, bad tongue, perverted sexual desires….. Whatever..... The list is endless.

My personal flaw is my hair trigger anger with a chip on my shoulder. And that I don’t tolerate fools easily. Now in my profession I meet atleast 100 new people everyday. Everyone from different backgrounds, upbringing. My attitude, with the above flaws, wont do. So my first Niyama is to talk softly to everyone. My second Niyama is to never reply fast, always think the answer in your head, reply after a pause. Yet, usually everyday, my irritation for some silly patient always surfaces.When that happens, i use my favorite trick, I close my eyes and imagine my favorite God (Mahadev/Maa Durga) or my favorite person sitting in place of that patient. Immedeately a smile lights my face, anger melts and I talk to the silly patient with utmost love and compassion. That is My personal ruse to exorcise my demon. But slowly my anger has started reducing, it doesn’t rear its head too often. You find your ruse.

Lastly, analyse your personal demon. Think why you are doing this. Why are you acting or reacting like this. Why are you having this bad trait.

Usually it is our inherent feeling of superiority over someone else and our being judgemental. We are very judgemental about the beggar at the crossing, the man who doesn’t vacate seat for old people, the unbathed villager, the unmannered worker.
You were lucky to be born in a good house, to good parents, 3 square meals, an education, have your luxuries. What can you even guess about how those people grew up, through what poverty, through what tribulations, through what abject dreariness?

When you judge or snook your nose at them, remember - they feel the same emotions you do, the same wants that you do, they would love the things that you take for granted.

Mellow down. See the world a little more softly, with pink shades on !!! The world is filled with love, happiness, laughter.

Stop being a grumpy, hoity-toity, angry, judgemental prig. Loosen that silly tie you hang around your neck, remove your shoes, walk on the beach with naked feet, see the sunset with its myraid colors, eat a cotton candy/ gola……. Share it with a stranger if you can.

Slow down your life and its pace.

And learn to polish the “Diamond”….. It isn’t a one time thing, it is a daily grind… a daily process ….. some days shall be good, some days bad…. Hence the immutable Yama - Niyama….. They form the basis of a good character…… Of what use is all your education, your hoity-toity ness, your suit and tie, your attitude if you cannot stick to a simple promise to yourself of not smoking?……….GO… Don’t eat my head.... Eat your own Head..... Polish the ‘diamond’ everyday... Not for me or some Guru, for Yourself.

Some day the One shall shine through.... it may not be a small journey...It may be a tough journey, depending on the "grime and sludge" covering your Soul and your will to 'polish' it........So what?...... it is Your journey..... Journery on proudly... Happily..... One day the One shall shine from you.

The Promise of the Soul Healer.