TIT FOR TAT

    We often say that what goes around , comes around.I have talked on Laws of Karma  and every action has a reaction. So if we do good deed, than we will have good response.So we all know that we should do good deed. This story is old one from India . Again one has to take stories of these kind in it's moral value and not see if it is possible. 

  In a small town there were 2 friends. One of them was going to go out of town and he had some cash and some jewels. He was going to be out of town for few months due to some business and so he did not want to leave the large some of cash or jewels in the house nor did he want to carry that with him. So he asked the friend  to keep it with him . He handed over the iron safe to his friend.He was out of town for several months and got back in the town . He went to his friend and asked for the safe . The friend told him that the safe was 'eaten up' by rats.Both knew that rats can not eat safe made of solid steel or iron.But he decided not to say much . They continued to be friend , Then the friend whose money was stolen asked his friend if his 5 years old son wants to go for a trip to  near by river . The kid was excited and his father agreed . So he took his son and then came back without the son . So the father asked him as to where was his son. This man replied that they went to banks of river  and a lark snatched the kid and flew away  and so he does not know where is his son now. The father was agree and said 'it is impossible for a lark to snatch the 5 year old kid and fly away and told the friend that he was lying. The friend replied that if Rats can eat steel safe why could lark not be able to snatch the kid? The father understood that he had done wrong. He gave him his safe  and the friend brought back the kid that was safe and was playing with other kids at his home .

    In this story the effect of our action was immediately seen but in Laws of Karma, the effects may take some time in this life or may be apparent in next life or next to next life and so on.

COPYCAT 3

    I have told on doing copy without knowledge is harmful and not helpful. This story is of little different angle. Many of us may have heard this story in past.

     There was a man who used to sell hats. He used to take with him many hats in a wicker basket and then used to walk in the town and sell them  and get his daily income. Certainly he was poor  and had to walk whole day. He would sell the hats  and then at noon time rest under a tree  and have his lunch which was prepared by his wife and he used to carry with him everyday. One day as usual he sold some hats  and then around noon time decided to take a lunch break . It was summer  and the weather was hot, so he went to the outskirts of the town  and rested under a big bunion tree . As he rested he saw there were many monkeys jumping around in the trees around. He ate his lunch  and then had a water  and then he decided to take a nap. When he woke up he saw that hats from his basket were gone  and when he looked at the tree ,he saw many monkeys having hats on their head. He got panicky and did not know what to do. He had lost everything that he had  and will not have any money nor he would have any hats to sell to make money. He stood up and shouted at them and they just showed him their teeth . He noticed that the monkeys were copying him . If he pointed to them they would extend their arms towards him If he shouted , they would make a sound . He thought for a second  and he had an idea . He took off his hat and threw  it on the ground . All the monkeys took their hats and threw on the ground . He quickly collected all the hats and put them in basket  and walked away. 

    So doing a copy without understanding can be harmful but also can be used for advantage.

JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD.

    We have seen how eager we are all to show how much we know  and express our opinion and show off our knowledge . I remember when a new raincoat was bought for my sister  and there was no rain for couple of days and she wanted it be seen by her friends, she got frustrated and went under shower with rain coat  to ENJOY the use of new rain coat. This is more applicable when we have learned something and want others to know what we know. So this story is an old one . 

   There were 4 friends  and they all grew together and then parted to get education . Again this is old Indian story. So when they all finished the education, they all got together and went out for travel. In those days there were no cars  and there were no real concrete rods and people traveled walking  and sometimes had to go through Forrest. As they were walking they came across a skeleton of an animal  and it looked like it was of a tiger. The friends gathered around it and had  a discussion as to whose this skeleton may be . They all agreed that it was a tiger who must have dies and the skeleton was left s other animals may have eaten up the flesh . So one of friends stated that he has learned to reconstruct  the bones  and that will look like a tiger  and so he wanted to show his skills and he did . Now the bones - changed in to look alike of a tiger . The other friend also  wanted to show off what he had learned and so he told them that he can put a flesh on the skeleton and then they can see how this tiger really looked - much better than what they could see just from the skeleton that the other friend had done  and so he did put the flesh on the skeleton. Noe they all could see the ferocious tiger.The third friend was not to be left behind in displaying his skills and knowledge. So he said 'I can bring the life in this tiger with the knowledge that I have learned". The 2 friends wanted him to do that . The 4th guy who had not learned anything like this but just the regular education said , 'I do not want you to do it , if the tiger is alive , we are all dead. " The other 3 would not listen to him  and so he went and ran to far away tree  and climbed . The remaining 3 were excited  and the 3 rd one di the magic  and the tiger came alive . He looked around  and in very short time he killed all 3 .The 4 th one who did not have these kinds of power was saved . 

  So just because you know, you don/t have to show off the knowledge!

COPY CAT -2

   I told the story of copy cat last time  and as we saw  doing a copy without understanding the reason for an action makes a mess and the result is not pretty. Ronald Regan once stated that Imitation is best form of Flattery. But when it is done without understanding the action is useless and may be harmful or makes  it laughable. So this is the second story. 

   In India there was a man who used to wake  and take shower and then do the Pooja. When in those days or even today when someone does the Pooja , they are suppose to wear a special cloth called SOVALE. This is a silk cloth may be about 6 yards  and it is used only at the time of Pooja. The idea is that it is clean. One day he had to go out of town very early in the morning and so had to catch a train early. So he told his elder son to do the Pooja. The eldest son had seen the father doing Pooja and knew the rituals and the Mantra  and the Arti .Once the father left ,the son took shower  and then prepared for the Pooja. The mother had cooked the food for offering it to the God. The son did the Pooja rituals  and then called everyone in the house for ARTI. He was standing  and since the Statues of the God were at lower level he had to bend down  and do the Arti. So everybody gathered for the Arti  and so the son bent down and took out part of the Sovale from behind  and then was to start the Arti. (I understand that those of you who have no idea as to what is Sovale or DHOTI may not understand. The way in which this simple 6 yard cloth is used as a garment, is it is wound around the waist  and then part of it is rolled  and stick at the back side )As the son was to start the Arti he took out the part of the cloth which was at the back , he pulled it out and then started to do the Arti The mother was surprised and asked him as to what he was doing. The son answered that he has observed his father do the Arti and the the cloth from back part is always pulled out by the father. The mother started laughing. Then she explained that when one bends down the back part may sometimes  come out as it is stretched  and that is not part of doing Pooja. So it does not need to be pulled out which son was doing. So the observation of son was partly correct but he did not realize the reason for that and so when he did it on own without it occurring it accidently, it becomes laughable thing. So whenever one does any action one must know why he is doing it.

COPY CAT

     We often copy people that are successful or we think are better than us . In day to day life we tend to copy things without understanding the reason beyond the action. When we do just do a  the action without the knowledge or reason for the action, then we get different result. So that is the story for today. 

   In India there was this man who used to have a monkey and he used to travel from a town to town and the monkey would do some tricks and mischiefs  and the crowd would be entertained and he would make some money. So after a busy morning he decided to take a rest  and went and sat under a big tree. It was summer and the temperature was high and so he was resting under a big tree . He ate some food and the monkey also had some food . While they were sitting under the tree he saw a Scorpion crawling in the dirt. He had a stick and so he hit the Scorpion with the stick and killed it. The monkey was watching it . The man then went to sleep . The monkey was awake. As the man was sleeping a fly came and rested on his face . The man  waved his hand  and the fly flew and then again  came and rested on his face . He did it again. The monkey was watching this and realized that fly was disturbing his master . So as the fye sat on his face again , the monkey took the stick and hit the fly with it . The fly flew away and the stick landed on his face  and he had a bruise. He woke up and was very mad. 

    So the monkey did what the man had done to scorpion with stick. But the monkey did not realize that the scorpion does not fly but the fly does  and so doing the copy it  caused the injury to the master . 

   

MAHABHARAT AND DRUTARASTR AND PANDU

      So in last blog I tried to explain how the characters in Mahabharat are related to the origin of universe. If one would read the Patanjali Sutra Yoga that precedes these blog posts, he will find the origin of universe discussed as I understand in Hindu religion or theology. It has some similarities to the BIG BANG theory. But in this blog I want to try to explain some other characters in Mahabharat as it pertains to the story and origin of the universe. 

   In the story of Mahabharat, Satyavati has  3 children. She is same as Masygangha - one with smell of fish and was daughter of a fisherman, Parashar Rhushi  saw her and fell in love and wanted to have a child from her and she refused  and then he promised her that no one would know and so he created darkness and a child was born which is none other than VYAS who wrote the Mahabharat. So then Parashar with his power gave her boon and she lost the fish smell  and had beautiful fragrance as her aroma . She then was married to Shantanu and had 2 other children namely CHITRAGADA AND VICHITRAVIRYA. 

   Chitragada dies soon after birth  and Vichitravirya could not have children.So his step brother Bhushma kidnapped the 3 girls  and asked Vyas to help. Vyas being the step brother could do it.Ved Vyas was dark color and had long hair and beard  and so one girl AMBIKA closed her eyes  and so the child born was blind - DRUTARASHTRA . Other one AMBALIKA became white with fear  and so the son born was white - Pandu. 

    So symbolically this is the origin of universe. Vyas is consciousness of relativity and discriminating  power. Positive Chitragada is the Primordial element or MAHAT TATVA. and Vichitravirya is Dive Ego. Ambika is Negative Doubt  and Ambalika is Positive Discriminating Faculty. So when negative Doubt comes together with consciousness of relativity the product is MIND and Mind is blind and so Drutarashtra is Blind . When the Consciousness of relativity and discrimination, comes in contact with Positive Discriminating Faculty the Intellect is born and Intellect or BUDHHI is clear and so WHITE.

   There is more to come but for now this is enough. 

MAHABHARAT AND MYSTICISM

     I started in my last blog the story of MAHABHARATA. The story continues for long time and the Mahabharata is the longest poem in any language literature. But to start with we saw lots of things that do not follow the standard or good behavior on part of many characters. So how do we explain them?

   I do not have all the answers, but I have some understandings of these things as explained by evolved souls like Paramhauns Yoganand . Mahabharat was written by Vyas  and it appears that to some extent it is telling us the ORIGIN OF UNIVERSE. The king Shantanu represents PARABHAHM  and Ganga the Universal Consciousness . As one may recall that in Hindu philosophy the universe comes in to existence  and continues and the dissolves. There are people who believe that the God is ONE ONLY and then some believe that there is PURUSH and PRAKRUTI - SPIRIT AND NATURE . So at the beginning  of the universe they come together and the process starts - the so called big bang. So the Ganga represents Universal consciousness  and that pervades everything . But when it is limited by 3 bodies we have living being. So the freedom from the mortal world is achieved when our Limited consciousness merges with Universal Consciousness. THIS IS THE REASONS HINDU DO ASTHI VISARGJAN -throwing the remains of our body after death in GANAGA. The hope is that our consciousness will be one with universal consciousness.

   Satyavati or Masyagandha represents primordial nature. 

   So one could say that the Shantanu is the Father and the first step is to split in to 2 or arises from him are the CHAITANYA and NATURE -Ganaga and Satyavati. The eight children that Ganga had are the 6 intelligences that control the 3 micro universes and 3 macro universes  and consciousness  and the universal EGO -namely BHISHM. (Gross, Astral and Causal or STHUL, SUKSHMA, KARAN are the 3 universes at individual level and at Macro level)

  I am sure that your head must be spinning with all this stuff so we will talk simple things next time !