hermit's chronicles

It was a Sunday morning some years ago and, as was his custom, shunyayogi sat cross-legged before his home shrine, looking at his favourite deities with sadness. The problem was that he had always cherished his intimate “connection” with them: he could talk to them, he could bow to them, he could feel them in his heart. But today, everything seemed changed. There was absolutely no feeling for them, no love, just a dull numbness and a hollow feeling in his chest. And, mind you, this was not the result of any other depressing cause in his life. His feelings then are hard to describe. Let's say that he felt that his beloved personal deities had "deserted" him. A deep sadness engulfed him. Then, as shunyayogi sat there on his prayer mat, in silent despair, a line from a Hindi film song wafted across from a neighbour’s radio: Milegi na manzil tujhe bin khevaiya . The astonishing thing was that neither the preceding line nor the succeeding line was heard, just this one line. S...

The mind of the Sage ( jnani ) never leaves Brahman (that is, Self). But the mind of the ignorant one ( ajnani ) is such that wandering in the world it suffers, and turning back to Brahman for a while enjoys happiness. What is called the world is nothing but thought. When the world disappears, that is, when there is no thought, the mind experiences bliss ( ananda ); when the world appears, it experiences misery. - Ramana Maharshi in Who Am I?

Staying connected with the Source means being connected all the time, irrespective of whether one is enjoying pleasure or suffering pain in the moment. It is the peace of mind which the human being perpetually wants as ‘happiness’. Paying too much attention to the pleasure and pain of the moment is what disconnects us from the Source, what separates ‘Me’ from the ‘I’, the identified consciousness from the Impersonal Consciousness, and thus makes us lose our peace of mind. It is the ‘thinking mind’ concerned with the fears, hopes and ambitions of the illusory future, that brings about the separation leading to the loss of the peace of mind. It is the ‘thinking mind’ which disturbs the ‘working mind’ concerned only with doing the job at hand in moment as efficiently as possible. In order to remember what Advaita Vedanta tells us – We are THAT Source and not ‘this’ body-mind organism – all that one needs to do is remember, never to be unaware of the fact, that while it is ‘this’ which has...

"You often say, 'I would give, but only to the deserving.' The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, is worthy of all else from you." - Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese Poet and Philosopher

When you tell anybody that he or she is not the doer, there are two immediate reactions: ‘This is fatalistic’ and ‘If everything is happening by itself, why should I do anything?’ The problem is, even if you want to, you cannot not act. Try out this experiment. You lock yourself in your bedroom and decide you will lie down on the bed and not to do anything at all. You think, ‘So everything just happens by itself, huh? We’ll see.’ Your experiment begins now. Suddenly…you hear a tap dripping. You have decided not to do anything at all but your programming hates dripping taps. So you decide you will turn off the tap and then begin the experiment. You are just back in the room after turning off the tap and about to resume the experiment and guess what. You hear a child wailing. Now, the way you are built, you simply cannot bear to hear a child cry. So you decide you will quieten the child and then begin your experiment. You do that and then come back to resume your experiment. And then ...

The beauty of the Bhagavad Gita lies in its compassion for the spiritual seeker. Lord Krishna is the Guru, Arjun is the typical spiritual seeker. Arjun is in turmoil - full of doubts and questions and, like all seekers, burdened with a zillion misconcepts. Lord Krishna plays the perfect Guru - at times patient, at times cutting and at all times compassionate. He is a spiritual surgeon who cuts to heal. Fondly-held concepts are peeled away and the Way is pointed to again and again, from this angle and that, using down-to-earth examples. A glimmer here and a glimmer there till there is blazing light that annihilates the darkness of ignorance. The other beauty of the Bhagavad Gita is, it serves you wisdom customised to your programming: if you are a bhakt (given to devotion) it will endorse and consolidate your devotion; if you are a karma yogi (given to action), it will urge you to go forth and act; if you are a gyan-margi (given to contemplation), it will make you contemplate deeply ...

Life’s been kind Ya baby you’re mine Swearing vows Forev'ever… But honey y’know In life you n’er know All y’can say is We’re together… …As of now As of now, as of now Why does it always have to be As of now? Nothing’s forever Nothing at all Everything’s true Everything’s real As of now Merc in the driveway Villa in Spain Wraparound babes Ragin’ fire in the groin Honey they’re all mine All mine, oh yeah all mine… …As of now As of now, as of now Why does it always have to be As of now? Nothing’s forever Nothing at all Everything’s true Everything’s real As of now I think I’ve cracked The Open Secret Found the gateless gate To Reality Think I’ve finally understood Life's big myss'terry …As of now As of now, as of now Why does it always have to be As of now? Nothing’s forever Nothing at all Everything’s true Everything’s real As of now - shunyayogi