The Universal One

What has been the toughest moment of your life or the most difficult phase of your life? Try to recall. Has there been any? If so, then how did you get out of it, or come out of that situation ? Ask yourself, how?

The first answer that will come to your mind will surely be your knowledge, your presence of mind, your belief or your confidence. The name of some particular person can come to your mind without whom you could not possibly have done it. But there also, that person extended his helping hand only because you decided to approach him or confide to him. There also your faith, your reasoning, your intellect and your wisdom come to the fore.

If someone extended his helping hand on his own, he was God-sent, or possibly God Himself. Such people are rarest of the rare.

In ninety nine percent cases ones' knowledge, belief, intellect and wisdom play the prime role. So, have faith in yourself, always, in all situations. You have all the power in you to save and guide yourself to safety, security and prosperity. You are complete in yourself in all respects. You are pure and perfect. The Almighty has made you that way. Never think you are weak and incomplete. You are an integral part of that Universal One, whose numerous manifestations you see all around you. Just bring that realization within yourself. Know yourself. This will make you spiritually strong.

Your prosperity, your spiritual enlightenment will bring prosperity for everyone around you, for, when you become strong spiritually, you will start feeling for others more, and you will start loving, caring for and helping every living being on this earth, including yourself.

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Heaven, Beauty and Love

All that is beautiful belongs to the heaven. But where is the heaven? The place where we feel like going when we feel tired after a whole day's work is surely the heaven. We beautify that place according to our wish. Ones' heaven is his world of beauties.

There are so many things in this material world. Out of these we only choose the beautiful things to decorate our heaven. So that is our heaven.

Beauty lies in between heaven and earth. All communication between heaven and earth takes place in terms of beauties. At the heart of such beauties the heavenly music keeps on humming.

Thus we can experience heaven only with the help of beauty; we can visualize a wonderful world with blue skies, cool breeze, green pastures and sweet fragrance of flowers. It is from this world that the heavenly light enters into our room. Our heart gets filled up with a longing for an everlasting happiness. Our heart starts singing that heavenly song, and looks for a special someone with whom it can share this beauty.

Beauty, with its enormous patience, keeps on revealing itself in front of our eyes and ears with an expectation that some day we will surely appreciate and enjoy.

We want to get rid of the parasitic world and come out into broad daylight. We would definitely love to do that. But who will bring us out ? Beauty itself, as love has no figure of its own. It is beauty that helps love to find a figurative form.

When love is a feeling, beauty provides the words; when love points out to the heart, beauty gives it the tune; when love is life, beauty gives it the figure.

That is why beauty arouses love, and love conversely depicts beauty. Thus, heaven, beauty and love always move together.

Translation based on Bengali works (articles) by Rabindranath Tagore.

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Philosophy of Everyday Life - A small fragment - 3

Though it is advised that one must always think positive, it does not always happen that way. Some negative thoughts somehow creep in at times and give trouble for some time. During such times one must remember that no matter what flashes across the mind as a negative apprehension, he must not utter or speak it out loudly. It must not come out from the mouth, unless absolutely necessary. We are, after all, spiritual beings having human experience.

My grandmother (born 1885), who died in the year 1976 at the age of 91, used to say that at times words spoken out might fall into place. Negative remarks must be avoided as far as possible. So any view of the future with anxiety, alarm or fear must not be spoken out loudly. I always felt that there was something of value in her philosophy, in her spiritual approach, which possibly experience had taught her to obey.

Instead of saying, "If you don't do this, such and such things may happen", one should say, "Do that, because it is always good".

Don't think this is a superstition. It has got something to do with ones' act of speaking, ones' utterance, which may carry something more than what one can apprehend, be more complex than what one can observe. It has got something to do with spirituality. Remember Hamlet's remark, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy", written by W. Shakespeare.

However, acceptance or non-acceptance is still each person's own choice.

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Save, even a little bit

We need to consume things in order to survive, in order to keep us alive and going. While consuming things we must keep one thing in mind. This is not the last time. We will need to consume again after an interval, whatever its duration be - food or other stuff. So one must be prudent enough to save something for future consumption. In no way shall over-consumption engulf us because of easy availability. We must save something from today's share for the future.

One can always do that if he or she so wishes. I see my mother do something everyday. While taking out rice grains to cook, everyday after taking out the day's share, she keeps a small handful of grains back into the rice bucket from the day's share; just a small amount which won't make any difference at all as to the quantity required for the day. This act has taught me a great lesson.

It is basically the habit to save that is being talked about. This habit is somehow related to self-restraint. It is a habit that can be cultured through practice. No matter where one is standing, one always needs this quality to move along securely.

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You are Strong, know yourself and manifest your nature

At times, during the course of his day-to-day life, one may feel embarrassed or ashamed of some of his own behaviour, committed most unknowingly or unintentionally. These are apparently totally trivial in nature. Still the conscience does not approve them. For that one must bring in repentance and ask God to forgive him. He will surely forgive.

But there are times when one is wrongfully penalized and insulted, or humiliated and victimized by others. Then he gets morally injured. This may dampen the spirit and make him look down upon himself. He may not be half as guilty as he may think. At such times one finds him at a loss as to how to reinstate his spirit and reintegrate him with dignity and respect. Days, months, or even years may go by before he can get hold of himself.

At such times one must first try to forgive them who have driven him into this mental state. Once he can do this, he will start feeling better. What God says is that "Vengeance is mine. Never take it upon yourself." Though it is difficult, one has to do to it. No personal confrontation, please.

Next, one must try to think about his past life that he has passed by with honour and dignity. If his experience of existentialism has been very good and nice, it can continue to remain so for years to come. No one can change it. There is also no need to change it because of the mishap. None can persuade a person to give up his faith or belief. To get strong one must heighten his perspective and recall his moral and ethical values. One must be firm in his belief that no one has the right to judge him by his own standards and values. Except love, there is no way by which anyone can bind the other down to his own ideas. In this world the Almighty has assigned everybody a place most generously.

If the other person has limitations in his thought process, he has every right to remain there. One must never judge him or despise him in spite of the injury or humiliation he has inflicted upon. If someone looks down upon another with contempt or aversion, that is his limitation, not the person's who is looked down upon. Let the other person stay within his limits. He may not be so interested in knowing the ultimate truth.

One must remain calm and positive and just think about the reasons by which he is still carrying on with life. This will lift his spirit and reinstate his pride. One must never bind himself down to others limitations. One may feel afraid of more criticism, of being ostracized. One must get rid of all these by knowing oneself as an integral part of that Universal One. One must never feel shaky to face them who have humiliated or injured him. He must remain firm in his belief and strength will come from within.

One must look for the ultimate truth that lies ahead. If one looks for it, he will surely find it. Once the highest truth, which is manifestation of ones' own true nature, is realized, his spirituality will attain new heights. No one will then be able to humiliate, harm or injure him.

All truth are universal and for all. One must absorb them within him and feel supreme, and one day he will be able to worship himself.

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Romanticism, a word or two

To understand romanticism we must first try to find out what constitutes romanticism. What is of paramount importance is the creative, ever-imaginative mind, which tries to express its experiences and ideas to create an atmosphere of serenity and tranquility that eludes us most of the times in our everyday life.

A sense of dissatisfaction with the realities of life urges the romantic mind to create a world of its own where all strain and stress of the soul may be eliminated. An atmosphere of peace and beauty may be found where the soul can find solace. A romantic mind is firm in its belief that something needs to be done to eliminate the drudgery of everyday life, so that it may experience the beauty of this wonderful world blissfully.

The romantic mind is inwardly contented and satisfied with the fact that it exists with a profound blessedness in an objective world full of wonders. At the same time it is highly dissatisfied with the distasteful nature of daily life.

The classical mind looks at all the sufferings, miseries and emotional distress as things that enhance the value and beauty of life. The romantic mind sees incompleteness in every sphere of life and seeks to fill up every nook and corner with serenity and blissfulness.

The romantic mind somehow tries to escape from the harsh realities of life and creates its own world. On one hand it is revolutionary, on the other hand it is stunningly imaginative and creative. At the bottom of it lies the ever-expanding nature of the soul of a romantic that suffocates in a world filled with routine drudgery.

Having faith in one's imagination is the true essence of romanticism. A romantic mind interacts with the nature on the whole and draws nectar from it to feed its ever-changing mood. Thus nature also attains an individuality in the mind of a romantic man. This individuality, with a distinct existence, forms the image of God in a romantic mind.

The succulent or juicy vitality of life can only be embraced through romanticism. Complacency never finds a place in the romantic mind. It overflows with abstraction, splendour and the unthinkable, defying all existing norms.

The ever-expanding horizon of human imagination would never have been visible without this romantic feeling. The subtle feeling, the deft touch, the wonderful gesture, the casual yet razor-sharp glance or the heavenly music can all be attributed to romanticism.

Romantic artists and literary figures have always been strikingly innovative or inventive in their ideas and creations to synthesize the heavenly music and the subtle rhythm of life into a unified whole which eludes men so often.

Romantic minds surely make this world a better place to live in. It creates for himself, as well as others an imaginary world of ideal reality where one can venture, whenever he wishes, to find peace and happiness.

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Philosophy of Everyday Life - A small fragment - 2

If one can carry on with life without much craving for money, then surely he has a mind that needs to be excavated and studied, his value system to be understood, and possibly adopted in retail, if not wholesale. He possibly is a person much closer to the nature, the mother earth. He surely must have understood how to preserve his own self. Being closer to the nature surely may not be the only way to preserve oneself, but surely one of the oldest and simple. He is a person guided more by spiritual instincts rather that material aspects. He has wisdom, courage, self-restraint and sense of judgement, the four main virtues that lead to moral excellence. So he possibly bears moral excellence, which promotes personal well-being. It is personal well-being that eventually gives birth to collective well-being. Conversely, in collective well-being lies the secret of personal well-being.

However, the philosophy depicted above may not necessarily be conversely true. A person with craving for money may also have the same above-mentioned moral excellence. No, it is certainly not always conversely true.

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Philosophy of Everyday Life - A small fragment - 1

In this world we live for others the same way we live for ourselves. If we look too much after our own needs, desires and wishes, we would surely be labelled as selfish. That does not do justice to the cause of our existence in this world. We do not want that. Our conscience also prevents us from living only for ourselves. It is just not humane. This is one side of the coin.

Let us see what is there one the other side. While looking after other people's needs and desires we can't afford to be lavish and extravagant to an indefinite extent. Extravagant plainly means exceeding the limits of reason or necessity. Somewhere we have to hold back something for ourselves also. We have to keep something in reserve for ourselves also. We must not exhaust ourselves in the process. There are areas in everybody's life where he will find no help from anybody, rather seldom find any help from anybody. In those areas we are alone to look after ourselves. Areas might crop up where nobody will come to our rescue. We shall have to get out by virtue of our own strength only. There might be someone out there, somewhere, willing to help us, but how get contacted with him ? It may not be always possible. So, again we are alone. So, we must keep something in reserve for those areas to pull ourselves through.

People who have a tendency to give lavishly need to assess their ability, though it is a very difficult task in itself. One must ascertain how much he needs to preserve for himself. The remaining he can surely spend for others.

Thus, somewhere one has to draw a line, however slender, while looking after other people's needs and desires. That we must do good to others has not become a questionable area. There is no denying the fact that mankind should forever continue to do so. But, in that act, somewhere some line has to be drawn, to save ourselves from getting exhausted physically or mentally, or both. In this context we must also remember that it is not possible to satisfy everybody in every way or every respect.

Also read : Expectation

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Dancer's Pose

A typical Dancer's pose. This is a pencil drawing done in 2008. The paper colour, used here, depicts serenity.

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