Seeds of Knowledge

 The seeds of knowledge are scattered all over but they will germinate only on fertile ground. And that is the mind. What makes it fertile?

First, an openness willing to accept the knowledge.

Second, a mind relatively free of pollution.

Third, a mind willing to accept and let go of its aberrations.

Fourth, a mind which is aware, discreet and recognizes its own ignorance with humility.

Fifth, a mind which is rooted in spiritual thought.

Sixth, a mind that can recognize right from wrong and truth from lies.

And

Seventh, a mind that is pure in intentions.

Sadly, our ignorance clouds our mind, our judgement of people and enhances our ego so much that we wallow in our own toxicity and refuse to recognize that our enemy is within, not outside. Yes! We ourselves are our own worst enemies. Because we don’t see the need to step outside and see ourselves as we appear to others.

And even then, no one knows you better than yourself and no one can change you but yourself.

The buck stops with you. No amount of comparisons, envy, berating others will do for you what you can do for yourself. You have the key to your own life.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Stagnation

These days, my Motto is “more hospitality, less hostility”! I am shocked when I see so much animosity in human beings. Where does it come from and why?

It is incredible how people are just not contented in their lives. Some of them have received mass adulation also. And yet, they have not learnt generosity, much less grace. It is a case of “the more you have, the more you want”. And the less you tolerate in others.

When you see a lotus smiling from stagnant water, you still admire its beauty. And you marvel at God’s creation!

It is a well-known example of purity rising from even stagnation. But most of the time, we just talk about it without learning from it and including this attitude in our lives. We would rather destroy the lotus than emulate it because we are threatened by its purity.

But the fact remains that we humans have a choice to select our path. The wiser path is always the more difficult one but the better one.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Faith

In a world of opposites, there is one word which does not have an opposite: FAITH. With faith, you move mountains. Faith carries you through every phase in life. Faith help transition from the physical to the spiritual. Faith provides value to the self. It is an unshakeable and unchangeable anchor.

Belief systems can change. But if faith changes, it was never faith.

Faith is as essential to man as breath. Otherwise, we would be like rudderless ships, lost in a whirlpool and never reaching our source.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Truth and Lies

Truth and Lies stood face to face. Truth said there is nothing beyond me. Lies said, I am more liked and more in demand than you.

And so the debate continued. One day, lies asked Truth to join it for a swim. The gullible Truth agreed and jumped into the water. Lies hastily took all its clothes, cloaked itself with those clothes and started going around, pretending to be the truth.

When Truth realized the trick Lies had played, it started hiding because it was naked now, without clothes.

And thus it happened that no one wanted the naked Truth anymore and preferred Lies disguised as Truth.

This is exactly the plight of Truth even today. Tell me, who wants to hear it or see it? Wherever it goes, it becomes unpopular.

And, we are living a life inspired by Lies which tells us only what makes us feel good but not what is actually good for us.

But energies are shifting and Lies is gradually losing ground. There is a chapter of Lies that is ending and new light energies are emerging.

In this world, although light and dark are both existent, ultimately, light pervades darkness. Light is eternal and darkness is only a temporary absence of light.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Affluence

 Life must be lived with a lot of caution. You can’t go around messing other people’s lives, brandishing the sword of your “status” around in the air and killing those who come in its way.

The most illusory concept today is “status”.  Even respect is forged today. Get the publicity machinery to magnify your status in different ways and get masses to be in awe!

There are two ways of getting respect. One is for your affluence and fame; in whichever way it is acquired! That reputation is often not value based. And therefore, neither is that respect genuine or long term.

When you lead your life of values for all to see and don’t get affected by what the world thinks or says, because you are on the right path, you will get respect. Some will give you grudging respect. These are cases of genuine respect. Because in such cases, the person is respect worthy, not his acquisitions.

Ultimately, feigning to be someone you are not can be at best, a short term gain. As I have always said, what is genuine will survive the test of time. The rest will fade away as people become aware of its superficiality.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Generosity

 There is a debate out on for/ against generosity.

Generosity also comes with boundaries and calculations. We decide how much each one deserves or does not deserve.

But, it’s not that simple, is it? Much depends on what your mind will allow. And what kind of a nature you have. Also, what is the percentage of reciprocity you expect.

There are people who, if you ask for one, will give you three. And there are some who will avoid you and pretend to be too busy to talk as soon as they sense you are going to approach with a request.

Sometimes, I wish I was born now so that there would be no comparative yardstick available for what was and what is.

The whole imbalance started when we decided we wanted this and that from others without returning the energy. We became selfish in our wants to become rats in a rat race to supremacy, oblivious of any supreme power , ironically, the only power that can make or mar us.

There was a time when by and large, trust was returned with trust , generosity was reciprocated and service was without an agenda. Out of a goodness of the heart that was a pride for the folks at that time. I have seen those years and it is painful to see how consumed by avarice and greed people are today. And out to destroy other human beings. 

Sharing is out of vogue. Reciprocity is grudging because otherwise, a useful contact would be lost!

Let’s not even talk about the rare privilege of having genuinely caring friends, friendship without an agenda. Even one such friend can bring true joy and you have to be lucky to have a friend of that calibre!

Such is the world we live in!

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Spiritual Journey

 Everything in life which is difficult but the right thing to do, is a struggle and painful. But with practice, it gets easier. And once you master the initial feelings of discomfort and doubt, it is a liberating feeling.

“Wrong” vis-a-vis “right” are not measured by the results but by intention. An innate goodness is more capable of good intentions. And good intentions are what we are judged by in our spiritual journey.

Sometimes, your pure intentions may be misread / misunderstood. However, this is not in your control. Your intention IS.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Connectivity

 You have to believe in the intrinsic goodness of people. If we believe that there is a divine hand in the creation of this world and therefore, there HAS to be an element of this divine energy in everything, then every soul is pure.

Of course, there are layers of pollution piling up for various reasons. Healing those with awareness and consciousness is the prime soul contract while transiting from life to life. And no! It is NOT easy. The churning and turmoil, the pain and the disappointments are all related to our identification with our body and mind. We are unable to transcend these to identify our soul purpose which brings us here. And we are all in this together! The reason to follow a path of dharma, of compassion, simple humility and a clean mind is simply this. Truth lives within these qualities and so does human connectivity. Our minds have gone berserk, looking at the destruction around the world. With power at your command, you can kill with the press of a button. But, killing with kindness and empathy are laughable concepts with most people.

All three aspects of Shiva, as creator, preserver and destroyer are within us. People who pray to Shiva, and are in awe of the qualities he exhibits, are still unable to understand that prayers are meant to embody Shiva in OUR lives, to practice what he symbolizes. Look within, identify the three traits within and work on them.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Voice of Conscience

 If we don’t fine tune our energies, the subtle aspects of human behavior will elude us.

But some people are more comfortable this way. You know the saying, “he is thick skinned “. These are not empaths. They don’t perceive others. And they don’t understand how and why the people around them get hurt.

Actually, they also are unable to listen to their voice of conscience.

Surprisingly, there are people who prefer to be thick skinned. It is a huge protective shield for those who don’t want to FEEL because they feel that is weakness and regressive for their plans.

That is probably why we have so much lack of harmony in many societies / communities.

We are not adept at being empaths AND focused on our purpose, at the same time. That balance is difficult to achieve unless we are wise and principled.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Spiritual Traditions

 India is the only land of yogis. It is the pinnacle of spiritual thought and the karmabhoomi of all saints. We don’t realize just how fortunate we are to be born in this, our matrubhoomi.

If we read the stories of Shri Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Lahiri Mahashay, Shri Anandmai Ma, Kabir, Sant Tukaram, Adi Shankara, Buddha and many more, elevated souls from all over India, in fact, we would be able to understand how important it is to realize the intrinsic quality of each soul. We live in abject ignorance.

The advent of the British resulted in the superimposition of western culture and deprived us of our sacred traditions and the knowledge of our ancient spiritual traditions.

If the educational system had continued to emphasize how we should think and live through a study of the lives of these Masters, Bharat would have had more patriots and there would have been pride in being born as Indians.

We only have to look at the results of presenting a united front to the world as in the recent delegations sent by our PM. But we should also FEEL the unity within us, the acceptance of each other and a sense of fraternity, wherever we come from.

Every inch of Bharat is precious for its traditions, whether north, south, east or west. But our minds have become so narrow, we can’t see the larger canvas etched out before our very own eyes.

Someone said, we are moving towards a transition period, towards a return of satyug. But, before that, the utter exhaustion from and death of kaliyug is imminent.

We don’t deserve to be Indians at this moment, what with our minds brainwashed and subversive against our own land and our own kind who we unfortunately, don’t recognize as our own. Separatism can only ignite conflict and disharmony because it is against the laws of the universe.

WHEN will understand this?

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari