Circumstances

 There are many moments in the lives of human beings when there is so much pain it becomes a herculean task to even bear it, let alone find the courage to overcome it. And not always is there a reward at the end of the pain, like when a new mother forgets all the pain when she sees her little baby.

This pain is in return for the pain we may have caused someone in some life. Or we might be facing some circumstances which might be painful, and which just came upon us. But this is not an unsalvageable guillotine.

That’s life. You learn to cherish good times and be patient in adverse times, with an indomitable faith that times will change. Just one thing! Be sure to learn what lessons this adverse time is there to teach. Salvaging those parts of your affected life with wisdom and patience is the only way out to let the pain recede.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

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

Wisdom

 A very important lesson we were taught very early in life was that rights go hand in hand with duties. What is wisdom all about? In a nutshell, if this above principle is followed, life becomes easier.

 

The sense of duties has blurred today and the entitlement to rights has increased. That imbalance is creating fragmented societies and breakup of the natural family systems. And each one of us is responsible.

When you examine history, there have always been good and not so good phases in a cyclical mode. None of it is real. But for us, it is the only reality. The karmic angle brings souls with different agendas onto this earth, ostensibly either being born into or acquiring relationships. There is a known factor always in our so called unknown factors that unfold during our lives. But we have no memory of this. So when karma triggers, we are shocked, angry, in denial and resort to blame.

That’s why in every religion, God is an anchor to fall back on: an unknown factor that only faith can activate. So, if we are prone to over thinking, this angle is the best to overthink. At least, it propels us along the correct path and makes our journey bearable, bringing in the bliss factor that eludes most of us.

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

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

Memories

 Whenever we go through an unpleasant experience, we tell ourselves” I don’t deserve this”.

Now, with a new perspective, i have started thinking,” why do you think you DON’T deserve this?” Everything is meant to be. We don’t know which karma related issue brought into our lives what we think we don’t deserve.

And this thought takes me along a new line of thought. There is always a reason. Nothing is random in this world.

If we don’t like something, only we have the power to change it. No one else can change anything for us. That’s how it is.

Take charge of your thoughts, your reactions, your mind. Change/ improve habits, do whatever it takes to clear your energies so that you can help others.

Jealousy, hatred, intolerance gets us nowhere except into a bottomless pit.

If you read about the reformers that have walked this earth, you will see that their paths were strewn with thorns laid out by the selfish and the ignorant. But these reformers never practiced hatred… they remained compassionate.

It is the way of the world that if you throw brickbats at people instead of love and compassion, you will start a chain of cause and effects beneficial to no one.

I am amazed by the stories of our apostles, who, in the face of personal adversities, reformed the lives of so many, on the strength of their compassion and teachings, more so, teaching by example.

Buddha transformed a murderer like Angulimala. And this is only one story.

I believe these reformers had the power to extract the venom of misguided thoughts from the minds of people. We all struggle only with our reactionary thoughts and bad memories. We have the power to delete them with a strong and determined intention. Our minds react from our lower selves, to petty incidents because perhaps, the mind has become a vessel polluted by negative reactions again and again over a long period of time. To extricate ourselves from this quagmire requires a super realization of its futility and a strong and consistent determination.

And mind you, we don’t have to ill treat people and hurt them to teach them lessons. We can do so lovingly too. But do we?

And then watch your growth!

Surekha Kothari

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

www.instagram.com/author_surekhakothari/

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

Tolerance

 One thing is for sure! Our agonizing over relationships only defines our own need. Know that story about the monk who was meditating on a boat on the river in the dark and kept getting disturbed by the collision with another boat? He burst out in anger at the person in the other boat, only to find that the boat was empty and was colliding against his boat due to the winds.

In life, we do this all the time. We find situations intolerable and vent our anger! So too, in relationships. If we can think of all relationships as that empty boat, we will cease to be needy. With an attitude that if there IS a person in that boat, smile! And if it is an empty boat also, smile! Nothing can stick to you if you don’t let it.

Observing the fleeting nature of things is a great lesson.

Sometimes, a “best” friend can part with you for years on account of a small misunderstanding. And sometimes, someone recent in your life can give you the support and caring you would never have imagined.

Sometimes, you expect more from those you love and that can really mess you up if that love is not reciprocated in equal measure. It was probably the equation that was to set in but not acceptable to us.

The long and short of this is simply to cultivate happiness from within, not giving much thought to what was, what could have been, why it is not the way it should have been etc. Save yourself the agony. It is completely self-created and harms no one but you.

Hard lessons and often taught by people closest to you.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

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

Awareness

 If we could realize that surrendering to Ishwara and seeking his grace is the most beautiful feeling that remains through the day. Everything that each day brings, comes with his grace. Because everything is a lesson to work towards balance.

Anything that makes us happy today can turn into sorrow tomorrow. Everything changes. Once we emerge out of our dualities, we can see a third path which is THE PATH of ONE!

The oneness of all existence consciousness bliss. This state of being has to be brought into our awareness.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

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

Lesson

 Some management principles teach you to apply them in other aspects of life as well. Learning about leadership and teamwork was an important lesson.

A leader HAS to be a good team player. You have to carry your team with you. In families and groups, too, this is the duty of a family head or heads or group leaders.

When practiced, it needs many qualities: the humility to listen to other viewpoints, the awareness that others could have the wisdom to teach you a few lessons, the ability to be an alchemist, to bring out the best in everyone including you, not letting the ego dominate, not being judgmental … etc.

After all, the workplace comprises of human beings. We just need to incorporate elevating habits to achieve our goals.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

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

Transition

Life is not to be lived by overthinking everything. Everything is meant to be. Your decisions are also made so as to experience something important, a lesson for life.

So, to regret, feel guilty, are all the products of an ignorant mind. Ostensibly, we take ”good” decisions and we feel luck is with us. What we don’t know is that THAT good luck was merely the pleasant experience ordained for us. It was due and we experienced happiness that goes with it.

Similarly, what we call bad luck is also ordained through our own earlier actions, which we don’t want to pay the price for and therefore, end up with suffering.

If we can accept the moment and what it brings us, and learn to flow with it, we are through. What we are busy doing is living either in the past or agonizing about the future, neither of which are within our grasp. In other words, we have left the flow of our life.

A hard task then, is to get back into the flow, and extremely important. How we achieve it will mark a huge transition in our lives. But first, the quest is to reach that platform.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

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

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

Possibilities

If we dwelt on the possibility that anything can happen in a second, how many of us would sleep ? That everything we build in our heads and around us in our physical reality could just be a lot of sand castles.

Does anyone know what reality is ? Is what we imagine, real or is what we see an illusion ? See the kids on the trampoline ? The excitement is how high you can go . But each time, you can't go higher if you don't take off from the ground . It is a normal principle of gravity . The law of life is similar. It says, keep your feet on the ground if you don't want to be swept away like a sand castle. Take off but come back. Like everything has to.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

Never forget a lesson

Grow through what you go through. It is amazing how one sentence can be like an ocean of teaching. Living through the experience is the only way to grow. A personal experience is more profound than any words. Remember how we were as parents, always sheltering our kids instead of allowing them to have their own share of experiences? And what happened to these children? Many of them could not create and grow into their own spaces. But some parents chose to teach them how to reason and think and experience and grow. For example, children must be allowed to fall and get up, rather than being prevented from falling.

At every stage from the toddler stage to adulthood, the importance of our own experience cannot be underestimated. Once we experience, we learn from it. Mere words cannot change us unless we imbibe teachings sincerely and allow them to sink in deeply. But we never forget a lesson when we have lived the episode.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

Spiritual evolution

Our spiritual evolution takes place slowly, often unobtrusively only because we don't recognize it at first. Like birth pangs, it comes in periodic convulsions, leaving us empty and exhausted. But regular bouts over a period of time start to withdraw us bit by bit from the world, through what we often call disillusionment, a subtle corrosion of our involvement in it. I have come to the conclusion that this has to ultimately happen to every soul, a kind of saturation point reached, if you will. The tipping point comes after which the real evolution starts, with a gradual detachment, a good way to live out karma.

Like a friend said recently, you don't have to let the fire that purifies you, singe or burn you, because that is not wisdom. You have to start closing chapters that you write sooner or later. But close you must.

And before you close the final chapter of your life, you owe yourself peace and an eye towards your real home.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

Quote of the day

How do we learn our lessons?

Someone asked me a question on my blog “how do we learn our lessons?” A very good question, because we don't often know what we need to learn, where to start.

Basically, we can learn either from other people's mistakes or from our own. But again, what to learn either ways?

Sage Patanjali advocates the understanding of five human afflictions to start off the process of the right knowledge to apply to our learning.

1. Avidya (ignorance). To obtain knowledge of our soul, our purpose, what hinders growth? This requires a realistic introspection. Avidya is believing we know when we don't at all, or partially. About anything. We all know that when we think we know, there is always more to know.

2. Asmita (ego, the "I" identity) which colors our mind and intellect, and hence, our understanding because it dominates, colors our perceptions and hence, creates an imbalance in the mind.

3. Raga (attachment). It creates dualities of "mine" and "yours", conflicting with the universal law of connectivity and of a universal consciousness.

4. Dvesh (hatred). The opposite of attachment is shunning due to hatred, dislike. Also an imbalance because it has no place in the evolution of man.

 5. Abhinivesha (fear of death). This happens due to all the four mentioned above. We are attached to our physical bodies and to those of others. We are attached to our egos which is misleading us from the truth. The positives and negatives create an illusion of loss and gain, and we hold on to the world and our physical, emotional and mental reality as we know it. Actually, we need to let go and flow smoothly.

So, we must start working on our own cleansing of coloration through conditioning and imbibing wrong knowledge along the way. And then, with a new awareness, we will understand what we could have done better earlier and what we can do in the present and future for our journey and our evolution.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

SpeakingtreeBlog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari