Happy Guru Purnima to all...

On this auspicious day of Guru Purnima

I want to extend my hearty congratulations to all the devotees, who are very fortunate to have enigma called GURU in their lives. I am one of the lucky ones to be bestowed by God, who is kind enough to send one of his Masiha in my life.
I have heard from saints that our this life is just an outcome of our karmas of past lives, but we have to live it, otherwise these karmic burden keeps on piling up birth after birth or I can say as in karmic cycle. People can argue with me endlessly over this theory, as it sounds little fatalism, a sort of resignation to the inevitable. They can question that why we should be doing anything, and why not to accept whatever life is offering us. But we all know that it is not possible, as we would be wasting one golden chance to rectify our deeds. Now at this confusing state of mind GURU helps us a lot, by showing us the right path, otherwise we will be lost in the abyss of desires and our actions and then their reactions.
I have already written so much about "Enigma", called Guru and his importance in our lives, so I would prefer to only give links to those posts dedicated to Guru. 

Integration of mind is only possible with guru's kirpa.

Firstly, I witnessed Guru's enigmatic nature in metamorphosis in Mount Abu 
Then introduced to Guru's blessings in Traveler became seeker.
I looked beyond mundane to understand guru's divinity.
After this I came under the patronage of Guru to become a disciple.
Guru taught me what is true love or spiritual love. I have written a post about it in let's learn to love.
I had written about spiritual knowledge, which is not possible without Guru.
After this Gratitude to all the guru's in our live part-1.
And after that Gratitude to all the guru's part-2. happened.

Guru's feet are like lotus, which can give everything from material to mental peace and spiritual enlightenment to a devotee.
One must pay obeisance to them.
Once again happy Guru puja to all the devotees.

Yellowstone National park: the story of two picture post cards.

Dear readers,
My this post would be like a letter or picture post card.
I would love to narrate the story of two picture post cards received by me from persons very very close to my heart. Interestingly both are from same place "Yellowstone National Park", but with huge span of time in between or maybe four to five decades. First card I received was from my father in late sixties, when he visited USA. At that time a very few people used to go there, a far- off land  with seven seas to cross. Only a very few very rich industrialist or the high profile Govt. officials had the privilege to visit "The Great America". And truthfully rest would satiate their desire by seeing it on the round globe, which was a must have on the study tables, when I was growing-up. A time of no emails, no cell phones or even telephones, only letters used to travel, which hopefully would reach after a month or maybe twenty days. I hope you can imagine, how precious those letters would be for the receivers. During that time one day I received a picture post card from my father, who visited Yellowstone national park. With picture of "bears" on it and a very sweet message, as he used to call me "Bhallu" lovingly, a Hindi name for bear. The message was that he had came to this park and missing us all.
How the time has evaporated with twist and turns of life  and what remains are the sweet and sour memories.

Now the second card is from my son, who had visited this place recently, with a very sweet message, he has explained the park:  This park is magnificent. There are rivers, snaking the landscape, with pristine water, beautiful pools of colorful water, geysers shooting hundreds of feet into the air. There were deep canyons, mountains, lakes. There are many animals here like buffalo, bears, wolves, deer, and moose.

The morning glory pool.

I am not sure when I will see it, but I am certainly appreciating this gesture of sending me picture card.
Thank you dear

  P.S
I think we should continue the art of writing letters, if not possible in this fast paced world, then at least picture card once a while. And believe me you will just love it, otherwise e-mails are basically lost in the overloaded mailboxes.

 I have added a few more to show the beauty of wilderness.

pics :-
courtsyTarun Wadhawan

LIVING IN FOOL'S PARADISE.

A State of happiness based on false hope.

Where most of us love to reside.
This is the most comfortable situation that
we just do not like to be awakened.

Fool's PARADISE means: 
"To be happy because you do not know or will not accept how bad a situation really is". 
A very strange phenomena indeed, that we are not ready to accept the gory reality, and kept on living in a state of  euphoria, which our imagination weaves.
"Where ignorance is bliss tis folly to be wise". 
How true, our world of imagination, with us as a central character would dwindle if we know the reality. 
Now what is reality? 
It is a very, very strange and complex question, having multiple answers, which all can be proven true, somewhat paradoxical, depending upon the situations, space, time or even our mental state, (I mean it subject to change according to place we reside and in the century we are living). A common man's definition will certainly be different from the privileged one. And all the more different criteria would be given by a materialistic and spiritualists, the seers and seekers alike. And they all can be proven correct from their perspectives. 
Now back to the most consuming question here is, "what is reality", which can be feasible for all, atleast for most of us. As far as I know, we all want answer to this question, as nobody wants to be lost in maze and in this context wants to solve the riddle called "the truth of life", which has perplexed all of us at some point in our lives.  
In my opinion, reality is what we see around us or grasp with our sense organs, analyze with our mental faculties and intelligence and in the end, it got imprinted in our memories for future references. These are all the essential tools to grasp any knowledge. 
Since I had privilege to stay in Ashrams, for a few days in the holy and spiritual environment of Haridwar and Mount Abu. As I was quite naive about the ways of saints and their thought process, so got surprised, that most of the things, which consume us for the whole days in our whole lives, does not even exist for them. We spend our whole day in completing our desires including tasks, which are again off- shoots of our materialistic needs. Contemplating upon future and regretting past does not exist for them. It is a very difficult for  us to forgive ourselves and others for misdeeds, and eventually we spend quite a lot of our valuable time and energy to overcome that. I have seen we are so venerable that anybody can disturb us with their words or actions, and truthfully it turned out to be, as if we are living on their whims, where as saints either overlook such petty things, or do not pay any heed to them, for them this is just a residue of our karmas.
   A Guru played a pivotal role in the upliftment of a seeker. As I have mentioned, in my post - Under the patronage of Guru. The Guru raises the consciousnesses of a disciple to a certain level and then integrated mind with him/her, so for now, words has little or no meaning for the onward journey, and only "signs"  remains.

Raja Janak was a self realized king.

Ashtavark
Name given to him because he had eight deformities.

The signs plays an important role, all your actions even talks are minutely scrutinized, any evil actions or even loose talks are accessed, and duly be given 'signs' that whether you should repeat it in future or shy away from it. I am not in position to tell you more but I can explain it in simple language, that for an example, if you are remotely jealous of somebody or something, you will be see as if you are burning, or if one is indulged in back- biting, he will be shown that he is eating garbage. (These are all very elementary signs for a seeker), It is like warnings, that "where one is going". These signs comes in a stage of half- sleepiness called (sapshupti)  I think nearest English word would be "slumber"for this stage between awareness and deep sleep. A disciple knows it in his/her heart, what Guru wants or what and how he is showing him the path. A very individualistic experience, where no two person can have the same signs. Or maybe, they have. A seeker is strictly prohibited from talking much about it. 

Since, I am talking about a different topic here -reality, I think I need to narrate a story, as done by our Guruji in his book (Ati ki aur) "Towards Ecstasy" . He narrated a story about a mighty king Janak, who was self- realized person, one night he had a vivid dream that he had lost his empire, wealth and so on, so much so that he had nothing to eat, and was begging out side some temple, this indeed was very scary for a king, who had abundant wealth of each and every kind, with army of servants and soldiers. Suddenly he saw that one rich man was distributing rice, he rushed towards him to get it, but by the time he reached there, it was over, he started crying as hunger pangs became unbearable him, and then he saw a stray dog was licking some earthen pot with few rice in it. He rushed towards it to get it. He was totally blinded by the thirst and hunger. And sadly, he could not even get near it, as pot got broken by dog. Then he could not have it more, he started crying and howling, that was the point his hand got hit by bedside, and he just got woken up. To his shock he saw that he was sleeping on his gold bed, with  servants around it, but the dream was so vivid that he just could not shake it away. This whole experience sadden him a lot. He kept on thinking, was this a premonition or a message or may be a reality (as he lived it with full awareness). He was in a dilemma, what is truth, this life or that one, which he has just experienced. So much so that he lost his interest in everything, including his kingdom affairs, eventually his Guru was called to solve this riddle, which was consuming him day and night. His Guru Ashtavark  explained him that neither this world or that dream world is true, the truth or reality is totally different than these two worldly experiences, and now he should aspire to know "the ultimate reality". 
The most important aspect is that, the Guru can show you only the path, as it is your journey, so you have to tread it alone, but his presence will always be there with you like a "Guiding Star."

.

I will elaborate more on this subject in my next post...

pics from web.