Tuesday, 25 April 2017

Waste Thoughts

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When the rich and privileged
wear tattered pants
with holes all over
it appears to me
as mocking the poor...

Need to take hold of  my thinking
its  neither fashionable anymore
nor sensible to harbour such a thought
hey mind, get sensible & real
no more waste thoughts permitted!

Thursday, 20 April 2017

Proof of the Pudding

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Proof of the pudding
is in the eating...
so no point telling the other person
"how can you not like my pudding?
I have put the best possible ingredients
of first rate quality
so you jolly well like it!"
The fact is he doesn't like it- period!

The same goes for abuses
“I didn't mean it-  in our village/ elite circles
this type of language is common
and not held offensive
so don't be offended
in fact, you have no right
to be offended!

If you are feeding someone
your tastes are immaterial, so…
If he doesn’t care for your alluring desert
doesn’t deserve it, preferring the ordinary rice gruel
so be it!  

The proof of the pudding is in the eating...

Sunday, 16 April 2017

Rivals for Life

Pandu and Rangu
siblings from the same womb
yet so different from each other...

Rangu, the younger one
was always engaged
in pleasing others

He saw life as a competition
wanted to be loved
cared and regarded
more than brother

So there he was
tailing aunts on shopping sprees
seeing off relatives
at rail stations and airports
and it even looked that
he had an edge over brother in
the self proclaimed popularity contest

Years later though
Rangu was bitter...
felt he was used
by the people from whom
he expected lifelong loyalty

Pandu on the other hand
participated with relatives
only in the activities
he liked, enjoyed..
he had no expectations
whether from relatives or friends
after all, he had done his own thing
nothing to please or
get something in return...

Many years passed
both of them married
the brothers came
face to face
less and less...

Pandu found that
on his visits to parents
Ranga was never there...
he met him at the odd wedding 
and that was about it,,,

Yet, finally the brothers met again
on occasion of dad's illness
sharing space in same house
for few days when old wounds
reopened, hostilities rekindled...

In a verbal spat  though
Pandu was shocked
by words of sibling...
he knew he wasn't liked
but not that he was hated so much!

"I hate everything about you"
your singing, your very personality
your pseudo meditation!" quipped Rangu
"How I planned meticulously
stayed away when you visited
and now I am forced to breathe
the same polluted air, you breathe!"

Pandu was shaken, hadn't reckoned
that so much of animosity
venom, was building against him
all his hope of a patch up
at least a working relationship
was dashed, broken to a million pieces

It was now clear, that they were destined
to be rivals , a rivalry doomed
to be carried to their graves...



Thursday, 6 April 2017

Balance Sheet of Life

In an earlier post I had written about the back to back talks that Sister Shivani of Brahmakumaris gave for the benefit of the citizens during her visit to Bangalore. On 5th February she spoke on "celebrating life" the gist of which was covered in my blog dated 14-2- 2017 (  http://rajeevianlinesandverses.blogspot.in/2017/02/celebrating-life.html  ). Although I was not physically present at the talk given on 4th February when the subject of this post was discussed, I watched it live while it was streamed on you tube and took down notes for writing this post.

Events happen in our lives based on our Karma or past actions either in this or previous lives.It is all about balancing out the good and bad deeds in the "Balance sheet of life." Often people tend to blame God for whatever negative things that happen in their lives. Yet God never writes a bad destiny for any of his children. Even in our worldly life, no parent wishes bad things for his or her child. What this means is that we are solely responsible for everything that happens to us. This does not suggest that we have to be fatalistic and resign ourselves to a doomed future.

A person approaching a doctor is told after a thorough investigation "Based on your present lifestyle, you are likely to get diabetes in the next six months." Now it is left to the individual concerned to respond to the situation, He may say to himself "Oh, I am going to a diabetic anyway given my life circumstances-I have so much of stress at work. I have no personal time for myself. My life is a struggle and now diabetes is inevitable...." His constant thoughts of worry and despair could result in the diabetes happening in three months as against the prediction of six months.

The second or alternative option for the individual is to tell himself "I am on the borderline just now.I need to change my life style and become fit" If  he takes action accordingly, he may not get diabetes at all. The prediction was made based on the day's lifestyle and if precautionary steps are taken,the prediction could prove wrong. The same is the case with your Sanskars ( read earlier article for an explanation of the term), habits and personality traits. Horoscope is written as on the first day of birth based on the sanskars that the soul has carried. As most of the souls do not work on their sanskars, the horoscope is accurate in their cases. They have not made any changes to the accumulated sanskars based on which the prediction was based.

If however a person works and changes the sanskars, then the document of the horoscope is not valid for him. This would also mean that in respect of  people who  came in to this birth with some original good sanskars, but altered them negatively during the course of the present life also, the horoscopes would not be valid. Ask yourself “How do I want my next year to be? In fact, it would be worthwhile to ask oneself each morning “What kind of day do I want today?”Information is the source of thoughts. Feed yourself information of what you want and not what you don’t want.The foundation of physical health is the food that we eat. The foundation of emotional health is the food we feed the mind in the form of information.

In the last 20 years the 24x 7 news channels, entertainment channels and social media ( in the last 15 years) are generating so much of negative  information that our stress levels are steadily going up. The same is true of what’s app messages one receives the whole day. If the messages mainly contain criticism and making fun of others and you forward the same to many others, it  would have the rippling effect of the  karma of one person, becoming the karma of crores of souls and ultimately determining the quality of the society. Sister Shivani suggested that an experiment be conducted for a week when such messages are deleted without being read, and not forwarded to anyone. Do not consume anything that is not pure and positive thinking will come naturally to you.

People will serve us impure food with a lot of persuasion and love but eating or not eating it is our choice. So delete messages without reading. The speaker reiterated this aspect with a request “Even if you eat such impure food, please do not pass it on to others; it is a very deep karma that we are creating. If I do a karma that disturbs the minds of other people, I will not be able to be at peace. ”


If you want to change your sanskars, have satvik diet (thoughts) for the other souls. First, there is the thought, which is followed by karma, which in turn is followed by the consequence. Karma is not what we speak and do, alone. Karma is first what we think. Every thought, word, behaviour that one creates is karma. Today, most of us know how to think and speak differently- “I am so happy to meet you!” but internally thinking, “This joker came in at a time when I was watching a very interesting cricket match. When will he leave?” You then ask him “Will you join us for lunch?” He accepts thinking; he has invited me with so much of love how can I refuse? but you are thinking, “I offered food as a courtesy and the fellow has so quickly accepted…”

So what is the consequence of this karma? Having offered and served food, you believe that you have been a nice person, but karma in the form of  negative thoughts in the mind, result in  negative consequences and the balance sheet seems to be not tallying. What thoughts am I creating for people is the key- Thought- word- Action = Karma. Situations that are coming from outside to me (Destiny) are based on the energies that are going from me to the outside (Karma). 

One’s destiny is dependent on one’s karma. If I throw a ball on a wall, it bounces back to me at the same speed. Before I release the ball, it is in my full control to decide, “How much force to exert, how to throw it, what to think, what to speak” etc. However, once the ball is out of my hands, it comes back as destiny in terms of health, people’s behaviour towards me, the ups and downs in my career etc. Yet when it comes back, I tend to complain, “Why is it coming back like this?” 

If someone is insulting you publically, accept it as the result of your karma. Stop asking “Why is he doing this to me?”. A lot of energy is wasted on such thoughts. Half the problem is already solved once you understand the process of why the ball is coming back to you. Karma is between a soul and another soul and not between the dresses they are presently wearing. “If I throw a stone at you, you will throw a stone back at me. If I throw flowers at you, you will throw flowers at me.” Yet, in life, what actually happens is that “I throw stones at you and then forget about it. When it comes back later on, I ask why are you doing this to me?”

So what is the solution? If I do not like stones, then I do not send back stones. If I do so, it becomes a continuous chain of karma. So this time even if you throw stones, I will send flowers to you. Everything that is happening in all spheres is the consequence of some energy we have created earlier. Therefore, send to other people only those things you want in life; not what you don’t want. If it is love and flowers that you want in life and not hatred or jealousy, you have no choice but to send flowers. You feel good even as you send them and the act changes your present and the future.

It happens sometimes that I get stones from the other person and following the above principle, I send him flowers instead, expecting to get flowers next time. Instead, however I get bigger stones from him. Now I am upset and my reaction is “This doesn’t work! See, this is all sweet talk by these ashram people.” and proceed to dispatch stones to him. The important point to note here is that I do not know the quantity of stones that I had originally thrown at the other party which needs to be balanced before the act of throwing the flowers can take effect. While you are returning flowers for stones, remember that you are doing it for yourself (for balancing the balance sheet)  and not for others.

If a person wants to end the karmic account with another person, he will have to stop sending negative energy, meaning stop hating that person. Although he has no control over what has happened in the past, he has full control over where he wants to take it from here.In situations of being wronged, harmed or cheated by the other person, in a state of meditation, he can ask for forgiveness, then also forgive and send a message that "our karmic account is closed."If someone hates you, but you bless him/her instead, the blessing is first experienced by you. The change in the other person will depend on the power of your blessings- Are you unconsciously sending curses along with the thoughts of blessing?

The thoughts we radiate should be with full faith and conviction.When the vibration is right, the destiny simply has to be good! By understanding the balance sheet of life we can have the power to create a destiny of our choice and harmonious relationships...