Monday 27 August 2012

Impatience Of The Future Makes You Miss Present... Queenie-tessential

We jumped into the cab to catch the movie Total Recall.  We were headed for a crowded area called Bugis Junction in Singapore.  "Hurry up, please," my friends told the cab driver, "or we will miss our movie."  The cab driver glanced back at us dismisively and then shook his head.  "I can't go any faster than this.  Can't you see the clazy (crazy) tlaffic (traffic)?"  he said pronouncing his r's as l's and vice versa.  "I could go zooming through if I had a Fellali," he continued.  "In a Fellali I could get you there soon, could even get you to heaven."  He added laughing loudly and nodding at the same time.  "All luch people in a hully to go up, that's why they buy a Fellali" he let out that laugh again.  "Okay, okay," said my friend who was with me getting impatient with his monologue and said that we may not make to the movie, "You drive as you like but we need to go soon and maybe if you focus on the road, we will get there."
***
He looked back at us again visibly amused.  "Only a hericopter can take you through the tlaffic," he nodded "That is the way of the lich.  They are not satisfied, you see.  Even the Fellali becomes slow for them, and then they buy a helicopter.  Soon hericopter becomes slow.  Then they must have a plane.  Money buys everything.  Money buys love," he laughed.
***
It was obvious the man was in pain and had suffered "No money, no honey.  Love cannot buy money, but money can buy love," he forced his laugh this time.  "No money, No love."
***
By now, we had decided not to go for the movie and instructed the driver to take a U-turn and drop us back to where he had picked us up.  I relaxed back on my seat, now no more in a rush and started talking to him.  "What about your love?"  I asked him.  "My wife was my love," he paused for a bit as if suddenly lost.  "I worked hard all day and gave her everything I had.  I bought her a house.  She wanted more.  I gave her more.  But she wanted more and more.  She forgot about me.  She wanted to be lich, and could not understand why she was not lich.  She wanted to leach the sky.  No money no honey," he said, and for the first time his tone became sad.  "But now" he almost shouted "Ican buy a lot of butterfries with money.  I can buy love."  It took me a few moments to understand the term 'butterfries'.  For a moment I argued, "That is not love."  He laughed "What is it lady, what is love?"
***
No doubt, our taxi driver was a bit "touched" in the head, although our conversation was a bit crazy, there was food for thought in what he said.  Suddenly, as if brought back to the present moment about time and traffic, he said, "Nothing is the same any more about people.  See how impatient your friends are.  Train them to be calm.  Do yoga," he laughed "I drive people everyday.  They are stressed about time and traffic.  These things are not in their or my control."  I nodded agreeing.  "Look how much time you and your friends wasted telling me to hurry.  So busy looking ahead that you lost the present."  I could go on talking to him.  We reached our destination.
***
We paid him and I knew I would never see him again.  It was a most interesting journey.  Even though we never reached where we were originally headed.
***
"I am happy now.  I changed my way of life and allowed people who were not happy with me to leave and go to what made them happier.  And now," he laughed again, "there are many butterfries to give me love," looking pleased with his ability to have found peace and clarity - so what if it was through coloured lenses?..............

Discard Mental Baggage _ Mani Shankar

You want to harness the power of your mind to alter your reality, yes?  That's really an invitation to chaos.  Lots of people are in the market, offering quick and easy solutions.  You flow into them with anticipation and excitement.  You follow their prescribed formulae, their chants and utterances, wear their beads, read their books, watch their DVDs, dress as per their code, hang on to their every word, hoping, pleading, fantasizing.  It's a pointless journey, just leading you deeper into delusion.  Years later you find yourself at the same spot where you started - clueless, a bit confused, with a sneaky suspicion that nothing really happened outside your imagination.  Your reality was never altered, you are still the same guy, and the world around you is just as it was.
***
This is the undiluted truth.  There is no quick-fix solutions to altering your reality, no magic mantras you can utter.  Know the frog doesn't turn into a prince with a kiss.  Know the world doesn't change with the wave of a wand.  Know clothes can't make you richer, wiser or luckier than you would otherwise be.  The sooner you start accepting this bittersweet truth, the better off you will be.
***
I said bittersweet because there are two opposing layers inside this revelation.  The first is disappointing when you finally understand that there are no quick-fix solutions.  The second is elevating - when you finally understand that nobody outside you has the power to change your world, and so it's time to get acquainted with that stranger within - your mind.
***
The quality of mind is that it operates at several levels simultaneously.  All you have been able to access so far is the most superficial surface.  This is the world of thoughts, words, hopes, wishes, daydreams and dreams.  Remember, everything you read, hear and see translates itself into mental constructs, as thoughts.  What is a thought?  It's a mental projection of some input you have grasped.  Thoughts are the extension of your senses, they are the first line of defence you have when dealing with the world.
***
Having thoughts are very important.  But there is such a thing called excess of thought.  This happens when, like jungles, they take over our minds, growing wildly, completely beyond our control.  Now the mind starts losing its ability to conjure a thought, consider it and then make it fade it away.  Thoughts start roaming through the mind like bandits, creating havoc at will.  The mind surrenders, eventually becomes a slave of its own thoughts.  Add to this the chaos of the Age of marketing Madness we live in - where everyday you are exposed to a thousand needless desires, baseless fears and mental conditioning.  It's enough to make a sane guy crazy.  But you have already made yourself crazy, and the result is that your fears and hopes create thoughts that recur in endless loops, making you salivate, palpitate, ruminate, agitate and decimate your potential to even address your reality.  Your ability to alter that reality through the mind is now a far dream.   
 ***
The time has come to take you beyond thought, into deeper, purer levels inside yourself.  The time has come to leave this chaos behind and rise into higher levels of being within.  You can't do it by attaching yourself to more books and chants and shibboleths.  You can only do it by gently leaving it all behind - by dropping the mental baggage, until the sheer lightness of being makes you float away.....

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Does Black Magic Exist?... RAM GOPAL VARMA

THE ACE FILM DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER DIGS INTO ALL THINGS GOOD, BAD AND UGLY IN REAL LIFE AND REEL LIFE......
***
I am sure fear stems from the threat of emotional or physical violence.  This fear is heightened, especially if it comes from an unknown or unfathomable source.
***
If you are aware of the motivations of the threatening force, you won't be half as scared.  For example, you will be chilled to the bone on being confronted by a snake but if your can recognise the species and know how its poison can affect your system, instead of being scared you will think of ways of escaping it or killing it.
***
Belief in God primarily comes out of fear.  We don't trust our family, friends, the police or the government to protect us.  Hence, we desperately believe in a force which will protect us.  Hence, we desperately believe in a force which will protect us in every which way.  In order to feel the power of God, we invent and pitch his power against a counterpoint.  Thus, evil forces like demons, the devil and black magic are created.
***
Black magic is supposedly used to hurt or kill an enemy by either practicing it or hiring its practitioners.  Whether it exists or not, nobody can tell, but I am stunned by the sheer number of people who believe in it despite their education and intelligence.  When they cannot understand the reasons behind negative events, they start believing in black magic.
***
I know of a certain actor who was seeing a girl whom his parents disapproved of intensely.  Unable to break their relationship and refusing to see the negative traits of their own son, the parents were convinced that the girl practised black magic.  They were even terrified of seeing her pictures in the magazines and newspapers.
***
In the West, there is much talk about making someone you hate suffer by pricking needles and pins into a voodoo doll.  In India, the most common cure happens to be a witch doctor or exorcist.
***
Now this exorcist can be different depending on the person he has to cure.  There are godmen, minor and major, who will offer panaceas, paper chits and amulets and soon assume cult status.
***
In the case of rural areas and the underprivileged sections even in cities, these exorcists come with bodies covered in ash, their long hair braided and coloured.  They carry small brooms, little drums and perform high-pitched prayers before the affected person.  This practice has been around for centuries but I do wonder about the success ratio of these self-styled exorcists.
***
Frankly, I am shaken by fear also.  On returning home after a long trip, I wonder if there is an invisible, malevolent presence in my house.  On a highway when I see a truck being driven towards my car at a crazy speed, I fear that the devil may be in it, and will wipe me out from the face of the earth.
***
Mercifully, such paranoid thoughts only last for a split second.  Because I know the cure.  I just tell myself, "Why should you be afraid?  You're quite a devil yourself."
***
Try it, it works...... RAM GOPAL VARMA....

Tuesday 31 January 2012

The Power of Self... SUDHA UMASHANKER

THE WRITER HAS A KEEN INTEREST IN THE STUDY AND APPLICATION OF SPIRITUALITY AND PHILOSOPHIES FOR SOLVING THE REAL-LIFE PROBLEMS OF THE MODERN WORLD...
***
All great things in life begin with a belief, a dream or vision and a never-say-die spirit.  Youth is an age when one fervently believes one can change the world order and usher in a new way of doing things.  It is a phase in life when one's head is full of dreams, of the peaks one wants to conquer, the goals and targets one is chasing and the unconventional choices one would like to make.  Which is as it should be, for all things worthwhile begin that way.  Remember Martin Luther King and his famous words?  "I have a dream."  And as Napoleon Hill, inspirational thinker, author of books on success, positive thinking and such subjects and who drew inspiration from his son who was born without ears but grew up to lead a normal life, said, "What the mind can conceive and believe it can truly achieve."
***
Focused, single-minded determination and the grit to keep at it even when the chips are down is what ultimately translates to the actualisation of a dream.  As our spiritual masters point out, karmic patterns can be changed by hanging in there and persisting, unfazed by temporary hurdles.  God helps those who help themselves.
***
The way to negate bad karma is simple - do good karma.  In addition, an unshakeable belief in one's ideas, even if everyone around is sceptical or ready to write you off, is also vital.  Patience is yet another virtue work cultivating.  Just like Rome was not built in a day, anything worthwhile cannot be accomplished overnight.  Two important and useful tools in the realisation of one's beliefs are creative visualisation and affirmation.
***
As Shakthi Gawain, spiritual author says, "Creative visualisation is really nothing but using your natural imagination - the basic creative energy in the universe - to create what you want in your life.  The problem is that we use it more to anticipate problems, imagine difficulties and roadblocks."
***
Let's say you are not happy in your current job.  Visualise yourself  in a new (read ideal) job.  Picture yourself at work doing what you love and excelling at it.  Add all the little details, what kind of office it is; the people you are meeting with, etc.  Do it vividly in your head.  If your desire and intention to make a change are clear, the chances are high that it will happen pretty soon.  For creative visualisation to work effectively it is important to relax completely.
***
Explaining how this happens shakti Gawain says, "When your body and mind are deeply relaxed your brain wave pattern changes and becomes slower.  This deeper slower level is called the alpha level while your usual busy waking consciousness is called the beta level.  Alpha level is a very healthy state of consciousness because of its relaxing effect on the mind and body."  The bottom line is when  you want to create real changes in life, using creative visualisation at the alpha level is more effective than operating at the beta level - thinking, worrying, planning and trying to get people around to do what you want.
***
While creative visualisation is more graphic and involves mental imagery, an affirmation on the other hand is a positive statement that something is already so.  It is stating something that you want as if it has already happened.  Like, "Iam attracting all the right people into my life".  "I now have a wonderful new job".
***
Let go of any doubts or disbelief when you use affirmations.  For as Sri Paramahansa Yogananda tells us, "Every negative thought or worry or fearful thought cuts subtle grooves in the brain cells and attracts just what we don't want.  Repeat your affirmations first loudly, then softly and more slowly until your voice becomes a whisper, then only mentally."
***
As you go deeper past your subconscious, you begin to experience a sense of peace and your affirmation goes deeper into the super conscious realm and subsequently influences your conscious desire and leads to the actualisation of your dreams.
***
Refrain from running through the affirmations mechanically but state them with determination, devotion and clarity of purpose.  The best time for affirmations is in the morning immediately after waking or just before bedtime.  Affirmations should be used in alignment with our highest goals and purposes and for the highest good of all things.  While a strong sense of self and "I" are big confidence boosters, one must realise that for affirmations to translate into reality, a strong anchorage in the higher self is an absolute must.  While psychology plays a part ultimately, it's really about the power of consciousness over the body and mind.
***
"IT MAY SOUND PHILOSOPHICAL BUT WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE, IT CAN TRULY ACHIEVE..."

Monday 30 January 2012

Derail Your Negative Thoughts... ANUPAM KHER

THE RENOWNED ACTOR DECODES THE FINER NUANCES OF HUMAN PSYCHE AND BEHAVIOUR AND SHOWS THE ROUTE TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT...
***
One of the enduring issues of contemporary life is that there are too many negative things happening, and too few positives.  Whether you open the news papers or watch the news on television or just look around you, you will see that the number of bad guys far outnumber the good guys.  And the sad part is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the good from the bad.
***
In a world bereft of role models, where the mass media confuses rather then analyses, the negatives are coming across as more alluring and exciting; the good is looking boring.  Apart from the obvious confusion of values, the other aspect is the increasing amount of people who are beginning to feel negative in their outlook.
***
Last month I met a woman in her twenties, who is in the advertising business and is typical of many people of her generation.  She confessed to me that she was very negative in her attitude; about people, about relationships and about her future.  It was not that she was a victim of some unfortunate circumstances; far from it.  But just looking at the world around her; and at her colleagues and at the entire business of media hyping the wrong people and ignoring the right ones, and had made her sick to her gills.  It had come to a stage where she could see nothing positive in anything that happened to her.
***
She is not alone.  Actually, she may just be a cynic and not a negative personality.  But the loneliness of the big cities, where youngsters follow dreams, is a recipe for negativism and depression to flourish.  Many people I meet are consumed with depression to flourish.  Many people I meet are consumed with depressive thoughts like, "Nothing good will come out of this interview."  "I can never get this job... I am a born loser."  Such feelings are self-fulfilling and ultimately strangulate the personality they feed on.
***
The sad part is that thoughts do not remain mere thoughts.  What is little known is that our thoughts trigger off chemicals in our brains which send electrical impulses across the brain and create neural pathways.  The more we keep getting such negative thoughts, the more our brain keeps getting hardwired to being receptive to such thoughts.  So the trick is to break them.
***
I have already mentioned in my earlier column the concept of reciting backwards the numerals from 50 to one.  Such an exercise breaks our thought process and forces us to focus on the count.  Another method is to chant a poem or a hymn or a mantra to derail the negative thought.  To break the negative thought process, think of the positives in your life or any happy event.  Like your last vacation, or the fun-filled party you attended.  Or just the happy and warm moments you shared with your family.
***
And finally, one of the most important things to do is to have a circle of positive friends who will bolster you with optimism.  That is why they say, "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you what you are!".................
TO BREAK THE NEGATIVE THOUGHT PROCESS, THINK OF THE POSITIVES IN YOUR LIFE OR ANY HAPPY EVENT.....

Unite With The Supreme Force.. MALLIKA BHATIA

THE WRITER IS A COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGIST AND A HOLISTIC HEALER.  HER WORK REVOLVES AROUND HELPING PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THEIR FEELINGS...
***
So 2012 is here!  We hope you and your loved ones have a brilliant year ahead.  But tell me, what was the first thing you did today after you woke up?  Did you check all the mess left behind after the party last night?  Did you solemnly vow to follow all the resolutions you made?  Or did you pray to God for this year to be fulfilling in all the ways that you have planned?
***
Most of us being every new event with a prayer.  It could be in the form of a havan when we move into a new house or office; a simple aarti on a day we consider important and auspicious; salat five times a day, the first of which is also at the very beginning of the day or the mass on Sundays or special days or a paath.
***
There are many other forms of prayer depending on our religious and personal beliefs.  Some of us like to pray with rituals, for some it is as simple as lighting a candle or incense and for some others it is just a silent conversation in our minds with our God.  The fact is whatever our form of prayer is, the intention is always the same: for our prayers to be answered.
***
Our styles of praying reflect our beliefs and perceptions about God, they also reflect how we internally and externally connect with God and how we connect with ourselves.  Some of us believe that God is a higher entity, somewhere up there, looking at us and our actions, some believe that God is within and we are completely one with Him.  That He speaks to us and through us.  Some believe that God chooses special people to speak to us - gurus, saints.  Even in all these beliefs the common factors is the intent to get what we desire through varied forms of prayer.
***
The important thing to focus on is what do we pray for?  Do we mostly only ask for new material possessions like a new car, house or the latest version of an iPad or iPhone?  Or do we ask for learning, growth, success, abundance and happiness?
***
There is truly no harm in asking for material things like i-gadgets as long as we remember that the most important and common aspect of all these i-gadgets is the "I".
***
If we can focus on the "I" and its growth, we will always get abundance in most aspects of our lives.  Happiness will flow, satisfaction, peace and success will bow to us.
***
So when you pray, make sure you choose your prayer wisely.  Be careful of what you ask for because the chances that you might get it are high.
***
Pray for yourself and for others.  Value what you have and value the power of prayer.  If you ever find yourself doubting the value of prayer, as its value to the family members of seriously ill patients.  And always remember, I dram.  I achieve, I pray because I am..... MALLIKA BHATIA

Sunday 29 January 2012

A LONE BATTLE AGAINST WAR...Ipsitaa Panigrahi

WRITER-ACTIVIST BINALAKSHMI NEPRAM HAS NOT ONLY GIVEN WOMEN SURVIVORS OF GUN-VIOLENCE A NEW LEASE OF LIFE, BUT ALSO A NEW REASON TO FIGHT.......
***
It was Christmas Eve, the year was 2004.  I still vividly remember the events of that day.  The tragedy that befell the Wabgai Lamkhai village of Thoubal district in Manipur left a deep and lasting impression on my mind.  I was witness to the coldblooded killing of 27-year-old Buddhi Moirangthem.  Three gunmen dragged Buddhi from his car-battery workshop, and just shot him.  The entire incident took place within a span of few minutes.  Nobody knew why, who and what led the gunment to kill Buddhi; even his visibly-shaken wife Rebika Akram was clueless.
***
Northeast India has been facing the onslaught of ethnic-based armed conflict since the late 1940s.  In fact, Rebika is not the only victim of this ethnic-based violence, the lives of thousands of women have been cut short because of the gun killings of their beloved husbands, fathers or sons, be it by state, non-state actors or unidentified gunmen.
***
During my formative years, I thought all this was quite normal.  But witnessing it at such a close range, shook me hard and led me to form the Manipuri Women Gun Survivor Network (MWGSN).  The formal launch of the Network took place on April 29, 2007, in Manipur's state capital Imphal.
***
I guess I was born to do something like this.  I remember my father telling me that the day I was born, there was curfew in Imphal.  I now joke about it with my friends, saying that even an Army curfew could not stop me from coming out into this world.
***
I grew up in the quaint little locality called Heirangoithong.  The Northeast is home to more than 70 major population groups and sub-groups, speaking approximately 400 languages and dialects.  Insurgency has for long engulfed this strategic region and has held development to ransom.  No other region of India, South Asia or the world must have seen such a proliferation and mushrooming of militant outfits and this region has.
***
But it was only when I cam to New Delhi that I realise the enormity of the situation.  I then stumbled upon a UN document that was published in 1997 titled "Trafficking in Small Arms and Sensitive Technologies".  That document combined with a white paper on small arms written by the Canadian government inspired to research the origins of armed conflict and arms proliferation in my society.
***
I conducted research for over two years and in 2002 published my research findings as a book titled South Asia's Fractured Frontier (New Delhi, Mittal Publications, 2002).  I found that 57 types of small arms had been identified, which have flooded Northeast India in the past few years.  The weapons came from China, Pakistan, Belgium, Thailand, Russia, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Czechoslovakia, Afganistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Burma and of late, Israel.  The effect of this small arms proliferation has been alarming.  Various young people have taken up the path of gun violence resulting in death, decay and destruction in various fields - Socially, politically and economically.  Every year 3,00,000 people are killed because of small arms.
***
MWGSN attempts to lift women from the trauma.  It helps women survivors of gun violence find ways to heal the scars that decades of living under the shadow of guns has caused to the community.  It is the first initiative of its kind in India.  MWGSN assists women in small-scale entrepreneurial work.
***
I owe it to my parents and the Manipuri society for what I am now.  I was born in Manipur's soil and despite the difficulties, my parents struggled to raise my siblings and me to do our best for the society.
***
I am presently working as secretary-general of India's first civil society organisation working on conventional disarmament called Control Arms Foundation of India.  However, no achievement is enough till peace and development comes to Manipur and its neighbouring states.
***
It pains me to see so much conflict, infighting and bloodshed.  I firmly believe that the youth of Manipur and the Northeast region can change the destiny of our region.  Each one of us can contribute in our own little way and to do that, I believe in working with women and the outh.  I spend time in our khungangs (locality) and far off villages to see in what ways we can all work together to help bring about a positive change.  This is true even when I am abroad, say in London or New York, where I keep meeting several Manipuris who live and work there.
***
I firmly believe that youth and women have a powerful role to play in bringing about a world that is free from conflict.  Through my research, writing and committed work, I live my dreams of striving for a world that is free from hunger, want and war...  (as told to IPSITAA PANIGRAHI)

VOW TO CHERISH AND LOVE MYSELF BEYOND ANYTHING.. Mani Shankar

Inspire myself with myself.  Not with hollow words or empty gazes into vacant spaces but with the silent energy of my vital being.  I am my only true friend and companion.  I am both - the alpha and omega - the beginning and end of me.  I know that when I am gone, this Universe I see and know shall have gone with me, yet I recklessly throw away each day without inspiring myself.  Every day when I wake up, I look seemingly whole, but get broken into pieces as the day progresses.  By night, I am torn and fragmented.  All day I don so many masks before the many masks of others, become so many people to so many people, I sometimes don't know who I am anymore.  Enough.  From this day I shall not tear myself out of fear or anger, or if I do, I shall patiently re-join the fragments with love until I am whole again.
***
I shall cherish my family, honour my friends and I shall enjoy this world, but above all, I shall love myself deeply.  I shall love the spirit of life that flows out of my body, the deep intelligence that created me, pumped this heart to feel the gladness pouring out of my being.
***
No. girlfriend or boyfriend, lover, husband wife, father, mother, daughter or son, no books, no website, no text messages, no news, no TV channels or columns of newspapers can ever know me as much as I know myself.  They are my links to the world, but they also sometimes hook me with the bright bait of desire, they make me salivate to wants that are not my wants, make me a slave to passions that never rose from my heart in the first place.  This is the primary seed of confusion, the main cause of agony.  All these desires that are not my desires, these goals that are not my goals - and this madness that arises from the fear that I will never live up to the world's expectation of me.
***
I abandon the expectations of this world.  I shall only live to fulfill the passions that pour out of my own heart, utter words that speak through my own voice and realise desires that bear the true signature of my being.
***
I inspire myself with the rhythms of my own heart.  I shall listen to what it tries to tell me in its soft beats, ask questions and wait till I hear replies in signs, songs and clues, till I feel gently awakened to the desires that flow in the deep rivers of my being.  I shall follow the song of my heart from this day.  I shall only do what inspires me, what motivates me, what makes me deeply happy - for that is the only way I shall be true to myself and this world.
***
The future is never a mystery to those who care to see it clearly infold in their hearts.  I will see myself not only as who I am, but also always as who I want to be.
***
I inspire myself with myself.  Heart with mind.  Action with passion.  And above all, life with love deep enduring love that is the silent energy of my vital being.
***
FROM THIS DAY I SHALL NOT TEAR MYSELF OUT OF FEAR AND ANGER, OR IF I DO, I SHALL RE-JOIN THE FRAGMENTS WITH LOVE UNTIL I AM WHOLE AGAIN......

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