Sunday 29 September 2019
Thursday 26 September 2019
Vibrations
Old souls returning to the earth to help
raise the vibrations! The kids today are remarkable in their maturity. You just
can't treat those babies and kutchi koo with them like you did with the earlier
generations. If you do that, you get a strange feeling like they are looking at
you and thinking, "isn't this aunty silly?" An amusing thought but
you will see how mature their eyes are.
The one wonderful trait they exhibit is
inclusiveness. If there are ten adults sitting in a group, they will address
each one. Something even adults don't do. In fact, adults are often more
exclusive than inclusive due to having developed strong likes and dislikes.
Inclusiveness should be emphasized in
schools to take this kind trait forward. Especially amongst the kids in general
because, very often, parents are heard complaining about some kids being
bullies, being mean etc. Sadly, this also depends on the parents who are care
takers at home and need to provide love and security to their kids.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Wednesday 25 September 2019
Tuesday 24 September 2019
Knowledge
Knowledge multiplies as you share it, because
when you share it, you need to have assimilated it well yourself and with each
assimilation comes more depth. And there comes a point where you can bring it
down to basics and explain it simply. That's the true test of your knowledge.
There are people who read from books and
teach. But how much introspection goes before the teaching is to be gauged. How
much the knowledge from books is crystallized is the question.
Sometimes, we tend to speak without
adequate knowledge of people and other things. And when there are people
around, young and old, someone is taking this seriously. So, one really has a
huge responsibility to speak with care, not idly, and to impart knowledge with
care.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Monday 23 September 2019
Sunday 22 September 2019
A Bundle of expectations
Forget Safety, live where you fear to live,
destroy your reputation, be notorious"- Rumi
People find Rumi too drastic sometimes. I
love him. He eggs you on to live a full life, deeply philosophical on one hand
and seeking freedom for each one of us who have bound ourselves hand and feet
in the self created web of meaningless wants pure insecurity.
Thoughts such as, what will happen to me if
I do this or that? The "ME "which we don't know ourselves. Which one
is the "me?" There are so many "me"s , each with their own
demands, their beliefs, their prejudices , etc.
This is what Rumi tells us to free
ourselves from. Wants bring fear of non achievement. Wants attach us to the
desired result and there is grief if that result does not materialize. We are
actually a vortex of desires and to aspire to achieve them, a bundle of
expectations also, because at every step, we would need people.
A life without fear is a life well lived.
Fear of loss. Fear of death. Fear of not being loved. Fear of non acceptance of
rejection and of loneliness, even if not being able to survive and so much
more.
We can't even imagine how much time is
being wasted on so many unnecessary activities which actually increase our fear
quotient and reduce our freedom to languishing within boundaries made by us and
none other.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Speakingtree Blog:
www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari
Thursday 19 September 2019
Universal energy
Sometimes, we get disappointed with people
who present a pleasant exterior most times. It is probably true of everyone at
one time or another.
You are suddenly and often taken unawares
by the outbursts of the actual fires burning inside someone.
One if the greatest frustrations within
people are the eagerness to win in life ... all the time. Whether in gambling
or in a word slinging match, people have a deep craving to win. This burning
can eat away your insides if you are not careful.
We really need an inner fire extinguisher
for the sake of our mental and emotional health or we can get into deep trouble.
Some rules to douse fires:
1. Never misunderstand when you can
understand.
2. There will always be someone more
successful and someone less successful than you. Learn to be content.
3. You can never go wrong if you follow
some basic but important values that you were taught, growing up.
4. Earn respect for yourself in your own
eyes first.
5. Love is a universal energy which we need
to share much more than we do.
6. Clean up your own mess first.
7. Forgive yourself and then others.
8. Be simple
9. Let your own choices dictate your life
10. Live life as if you own it all but passes
on as if nothing was ever yours.
Cheers!
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Speakingtree Blog:
Wednesday 18 September 2019
Tuesday 17 September 2019
Faith
We look back with sorrow. We look around
with worry. We look up with faith. Wonderful thoughts I read the other day. If
you close the chapter of the past and let bygones be bygones, there would be no
sorrow. When our minds are engaged with what is happening around us, we are
worried. And that is much of the time. But if you have faith, you look up to
the Almighty. And then, there is no time or need to look around or look back.
That faith is all pervasive. And if you notice, the English language also has no
opposite of the word “faith", because that is the ultimate. So, the
opposite of belief is disbelief. Which means belief systems can change but faith?
There is nothing beyond.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Monday 16 September 2019
Sunday 15 September 2019
Disentanglement vs detachment
Disentanglement vs detachment:
In these modern times, the one person who
makes practical sense in terms of interpreting old values seems to be Sadguru.
The important point to note is that everything comes back to each succeeding
generation in a new package, with a certain twist.
One day, I was having a discussion on
attachment with my guru and telling him how I wished to be detached like sadhus
like him are. And he had smiled and said," even sadhus have attachments. I
was a little thrown by that statement, purely because of my own mindset which I
had cultivated by reading old texts and listening to many lectures of spiritual
orators. Sometimes, introspection on some statements can fall short and belief
systems formed by half knowledge.
Sadguru explains very convincingly that if
you think detachment is what you are here for, you can find ways of dying right
now, because you are not here to learn detachment. If you are not attached, how
would you experience life, the purpose for which you were born? The reason we
suffer is not due to attachment but the mind getting entangled with people,
situations, and emotions.
When that happens, you cannot extricate
yourself from the experience whereas the idea is to experience and move on.
We can even call it living each moment
completely. And living IN the moment each minute and moving ahead with a clean
slate each time and from each experience. Somewhat like the magic white board
which turns white every time, after being written on in many different colors.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Speakingtree Blog:
www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari
Thursday 12 September 2019
Ambitions
We do many things out of being misguided.
One of the most tragic ones is living through your children. Life often fails
to give you what you want. That is sad. But for you to force your children to
take the path you wanted to is definitely an injustice to them. Ambitions
cannot be imposed upon anyone externally. Besides, that was your life. This is
theirs.
Ironically, we repeat what our parents did
to us that are, not letting the kids have the freedom to choose, to make
independent but informed decisions.
Children who are bulldozed into deviating
from their desired goals are often angry and frustrated later in life, likewise
with children trying to wreak vengeance on behalf of their parents or loved
ones.
It is our duty to guide our kids alright,
but not coerce them and on no account, to make them into anything but wholesome
individuals.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Wednesday 11 September 2019
Tuesday 10 September 2019
Consequences
Living for you is no art. It comes
naturally to people. Self interest is usually top priority amidst all the
external banter. We have become masters of banter. I must get what I want at
any cost, is the usual philosophy of life.
But the fact is, we can't survive happily
like this. To quote Sadguru once again, and I seem to be doing this a lot
lately, we must learn to look at things as they are. Like, we call a tree
"wood". Like we call a human being a "body" the moment
death occurs.
We forget that Prana is in trees too. They
breathe. They live. The same oxygen connects us. Imagine if that oxygen was
taken away from us ! We would not survive. Amazing how we wear blinkers. At
least horses are made to wear them. We wear them ourselves very conveniently.
We are facing severe consequences on the
constant onslaught on nature and everything connected, including humans, and
will continue to do so until the price for our foolishness is paid. Like
someone cutting the very branch he is sitting on. Aren't we doing pretty much
the same?
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Sunday 8 September 2019
Emotions
Whatever we might want to do with our past,
we certainly do not want to forget the lovely memories. I am one of those, and
not the only one, who wants to discover the whereabouts of my school friends
through any means. Although I changed 6 schools due to my father's transferable
job, I loved the friends I made in all those schools, the last one being Loreto
Convent, Ranchi. Today, I got a call from my batch mate of my final year in
school and I am still on a high.
Do I want to change this and "move on”
certainly not. I like the fact that we can reconnect with old connections and
take off from where we left off all those years ago, difficult to have the same
bonds later in life.
But it makes me think that life is to be
experienced. Emotions have to be experienced. Of course, all the principles of
life and happiness must be observed. But there is joy in experiencing love,
bonding, caring and sharing and with these, some not so happy emotions as well.
After all, we live in a black and white world where experiencing only the
shades of grey in the name of balance might become a tad boring, isn't it?
So, live life to the fullest as long as you
are not doing so by causing someone else pain or grief. And go with your heart.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Thursday 5 September 2019
Everything is changeable
The days your heart is full are the days
you come closest to bliss and to Godliness. Everything around you is positive.
Only good news comes your way. The people close to you are communicative. You
feel love and grace. A perfect day!
Spoils us for those days which are not so
perfect because in our ignorance, we start expecting every day to be a replica
of that one perfect day. A lot of this syndrome has to do with our
expectations. We know every day is not going to be the same but we still feel
bad and stressed when it isn't.
Perfect days also have a lot to do with our
responses to the situations during the day. We can choose to smile or frown and
that takes care of the mood setting for the day.
It is not wrong to say that it is in our
hands to turn the mood around to a more positive one. An honest attempt may work,
but not each time. Sometimes, our own energies may not side with us and
sometimes, those around us may overpower us to succumb to an outcome not
designed by us nor expected.
But you know what? At the end of the day,
everything is okay and will pass to give way to a new phase yet again. There is
no scope to feel triumphant. Things are constantly in a state of flux.
Everything is changeable and changing constantly. That's life.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Wednesday 4 September 2019
Tuesday 3 September 2019
Valuable experience
When our heart knows something is about to
end, we still don't want to accept it. We want to prolong the experience,
sometimes for the wrong reasons. The natural outcome of whatever is meant to be
will happen only when "I" get out of the way, so to speak "I",
meaning my "wrong reasons" like guilt, pity, dependence, inability to
take hard decisions and so on.
People are always talking about practical
living but I don't really know the extent of the meaning. What constitutes the
"impractical" part? It might be different for different people.
However, the one valuable experience I can
share is, if you desire something don't look at it in the face. Turn away and
it will come to you when you least expect it and when the time is right. And if
it doesn't, then maybe, it was never meant to be. And in all this thought
process, l am keeping myself as merely an observer, an analyst. "I"
am not there.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
Monday 2 September 2019
Life challenges
The worst thing that happens is when we
feel life has cheated us. This is the consequence of taking wrong decisions,
maybe even leaving the decisions for our life on others. The journey of each
individual is different. Life challenges everyone in one way or another but
some have support coming their way and some keep seeking support.
There is much advice coming forth from
people who mean well. But if there is no inner confidence in you, the necessary
steps may not get taken at all. To forge ahead, one needs to be oblivious to
opinions, criticisms and the like. And I also see that if wounds are deep, one
can stop moving and progressing. I guess you heal when you not only stop
getting affected by people but also, cease to become self critical to the point
of harming and damaging yourself.
Surekha Kothari
surekhakothari.wordpress.com
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