Understanding desire from Vedic tradition

Do you know that the desire to exist is not something separate from existing?

In the Vedic tradition, there is one truth called Sat Chit Ananda – existing is Sat, knowing that you exist is Chit, celebrating your existing is Ananda. Existing, Sat is eternal because it is eternal, the desire to expand is also eternal. The desire to expand is not a crime, only if the desire to expand comes from abusing, grabbing or destroying others, it is a crime. Hence expansion is not a crime, desire to exist is not a crime. The Yoga Sutra 172 Chapter 4 verse 10 solves one of the important problems of physics, the continuous expansion of the Universe. Existence means expansion. Anything that exists expands, anything expands exists – this is the Cosmic Law. Therefore, if you have the desire to exist and the desire to expand, it is not a crime as taught to you by some other religions.

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Encourage every possibility with love and respect

Do you see possibility or impossibility in life?
How often do you shut down a possibility in your life?
Do you keep every possibility available for your child?

The more I work with children, the more I truly embrace the beauty of the space of possibility we can hold for them and ourselves. In life, nothing is impossible really! Life is a huge possibility, every human life is a tremendous possibility waiting to be realised. When we are awakened to our true nature – all knowing, all powerful and eternal Self, we can manifest anything we want in life which not only fulfils us but also do so much good for the entire Universe.

I remembered one important truth shared by my Guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda (fondly known as Swamiji) which struck a chord in my being. He said that “A possibility happening inside you is like a new bud, like a tiny plant just sprouting out. It should be treated with a lot of love and respect! Every hope, every faith, every trust, and every little possibility should be kept alive, encouraged, and enriched – that is dharma. In the Vedic Tradition, we have a great heart to encourage every possibility.”

That’s the main reason I am so in love with Vedic tradition because it gives individuals so much freedom and space of possibilities to explore and discover. It is so life-affirming which keeps me constantly in a state of excitement and ecstasy about my possibilities and the people I touch. Can you imagine if we can hold this space of possibilities for the next generation? The whole human civilisation will make a quantum leap into Satya Yuga, the Golden Age of Enlightenment!

Frankly, I have also seen many people losing so many things in life, just because they cannot keep the possibility open! Due to their narrow ideas and wrong cognitions about life, they postpone the decision and seal off the possibility. NO!! Don’t shut down your possibilities, or postpone them, just because you cannot encounter or face certain situations in life. A person who shuts down his/her possibility is an atheist. Atheists are people who do not have the subtle grooves in their brain to grasp the subtle higher truths of life. So they just shut down, saying – Nothing like this exists. Shutting down any possibility, shutting down any hope is atheism.

What causes us to shut down our possibilities?

The biggest culprit is the rigidities of  rules that got inserted into our consciousness by parents, schools, religious organisations and society. With rigid rules, so many possibilities are stopped! You would have observed how rules stifled a child. When you try to give all these silly rules to your child because you think you know the best way, this is the time you shut down the possibility in your child.  He/she feels like a bird with clipped wings. By and by, children respond to life by not even trying because no matter what they do, you will not give them the space and time to explore and make mistake. Nothing wrong in making mistakes in life, it is a part of learning process. When children are not in the space of expansion or being happy, they won’t do it! Unless you give your child a space to make mistakes, you are not making him/her responsible. A possibility can only flower with responsibility. If you want to make a genius out of your child, be very clear you have to make them responsible. Other than the rule of no-violence (ahimsa), no other rules should be solid.

In Swamiji’s Vedic school called Nithyananda Gurukul at Bengaluru Adhneenam, the Gurukul balasanths (child-saints) are given so much space and time to explore and discover their own possibilities. Every child has the freedom to be who they want to be. The space of possibilities is at its peak, it is like a heaven on planet earth for every intelligent being to realise their ultimate possibility.

How can we open up more possibilities?

Swamiji shared that “Keep all hopes alive, even if it is false hope! All hopes lead you to hopelessness, not because they are false hopes, but to lead you to reality. Hope by its very innate intelligence leads you to reality. So keep all the hopes alive. Whenever the possibilities are shut down, hopes are reduced. Everything should be fluid, which a person can bend or alter as per his growing responsibility. Everything should be a flowing guideline, not a rigid rule. Shutting down the possibility is adharma (life-negative). The master keeps even the smallest possibility open. I have happened on planet Earth to open and fill everybody with all hopes; to awaken all the possibilities of you.”

From my own experience, the moment you are connected with a living master, he takes you on a beautiful journey of self-discovery of your higher and higher possibility. I can see what I thought I couldn’t do in the past, everything is becoming a possibility in my life now. As the embodiment of life itself, an enlightened master encourages every possibility in every being as an expression of the Whole.

In essence, let us all encourage every possibility with love and respect in every one in every moment and discard all the rigid man-made rules which bind us. Constantly, keep our hopes alive by taking responsibility to give time, energy and life to experience our highest possibility. Namaste 😀

What do you fill your inner space with?

This article shall be my last article for 2015 before I head off to Phuket for the 21-day Yoga retreat known as Nithyanandoham 1008 to be conducted by my master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda. What could be a better way to end the year with one of my favourite story?! This story is about “Filling the house with a gold coin” from the Mahabharata, an epic from Vedic culture which is timeless and an excellent reminder for all of us.

The story goes like this:

Once the elders of the family wanted to test who is more intelligent – the Kaurava kids or the Pandava kids. So they had a competition for the children: they gave each group one gold coin and told them that they have to fill a house with that gold coin.

The Kauravas took their gold coin and sat together. They were a hundred brothers! Naturally, a hundred messy brains trying to work together will mess up anything. You can have a hundred hands, but not a hundred brains. Be very clear, all great things are done by a hundred hands and a hundred legs, but not a hundred brains. The brain should be only one. But unfortunately, we usually have thousands and thousands of brains but not a single hand!

So, these hundred brains sat together, discussed left and right, argued, shouted and even fought among themselves, saying ‘How can we fill the whole house with just one gold coin? They finally came to the conclusion – ‘The elders are all cheats, they are abusing us, they are trying to exploit us, they want to make us feel we are failures!’

After this whole drama, they finally decided that for one gold coin, they can get nothing but hay! So all of them went to the market and bought loads and loads of hay. They filled the whole house with hay, and in the end, all of them were standing outside the house!

The five Pandavas also sat together and discussed. One good thing with the Pandavas is, even though each of them has specialized in one field, they all align under Dharmaraja, under the brother, Yudhishthira. Bhima represents physical valor, Arjuna represents physiological power. Nakula represents intelligence while Sahadeva is the aligner of time, he is a great astrologer. But because all of them are always aligned under Yudhishthira, it is like one brain with ten hands.

So they sat together and discussed, “What will fill the whole house? How to fill the whole house with just one gold coin? When our elders say – it is possible, it must be possible.”

Look at both thought trends:

The Kauravas: These elders are all cranky. They don’t know what they are asking us to do, just trying to prove we are small fellows. This is the thought-trend of the Kauravas.

The Pandavas: When the elders say, there must a way. They are trying to teach us something, they are trying to educate us through this. When the elders say, it must be possible.

So finally the Pandavas also decided to fill the house with one gold coin. How they did it?

The time had come for the final inspection. All the elders arrived for the inspection. All the elders like Bhishma, Drona and other elders. They first went to Kauravas’ house. The moment they reached there, they saw that the whole house was filled with hay and all the Kauravas were standing outside of the house because they could not even get into the house.

Bhishma asked, ‘What happened? Why are you guys standing outside?’

The Kauravas replied, ‘What do you mean? You told us that we have to fill the whole house with one gold coin. What else can we buy with one gold coin which will fill the whole house? This is the cheapest item in the market.’

So all the fellows were standing outside, neither were they able to enter the house nor were the elders who had come to inspect it!

Dhritarashtra, the father of the Kauravas was very happy and said ‘See my sons and their intelligence. They filled the whole house with just one gold coin! They should be declared victorious. They have won the game.’

But Bhishma said ‘No, no! Let us go to the other house too.’

So they went to the other house to see how the Pandavas had filled it. There they saw that the whole house was filled with light and fragrance! For that one gold coin, the Pandavas had bought lamps, oil and incense and filled the whole house with light and fragrance. The moment the elders arrived, the Pandavas washed their feet, invited them in, gave them seats and paid their respects to them. The elders were very pleased and declared that the Pandavas had won the game!

Here are the lessons I learned from this story

  • The right thought trend in life plays a major role in the way we live our life.
  • With incompletion or hangover from the past, our inner space gets too overcrowded, just like Kauravas’s house, which does not even allow our Being to live with fulfilment.
  • With completion, we radiate higher intelligence and our very space gives out light and fragrance, just like Pandava’s house, which is so delightful to live in.

In essence, it is completion that keeps us full of light and also gives us the space to live with fulfilment. Namaste 😀