hermit's chronicles

Kewat, the boatman, was waiting eagerly. He had heard that Lord Ram was likely to pass his way. He had cleaned up his humble boat till it was spick ‘n’ span, he had anchored his boat at a convenient spot, and he had polished a copper vessel, filled it with fresh water from the river and kept it ready. And now he was waiting patiently and confidently. The Lord would soon come. Sure enough, a while later he saw three people emerge from the forest cover and walk towards the river. He immediately identified Lord Ram from his serene radiance, the grace of his walk and by the way Lakshman and Sita walked in his presence. At the mere sight of the three, Kewat got goose bumps and felt a tingling charge run down his spine. Just then, a fresh breeze wafted across the river and Kewat felt it pass right through him as if he was not solid at all but a mere conglomeration of vibrating energy. When the three stood before him, Kewat bowed to Lord Ram, who said, “We need to cross the river. Will you ta...

The art of medicine of a century ago is now a science of medicine, with much loss both to patient and practitioner alike. The art of seamanship has become the science of navigation with every mechanical aid and the true sailor has almost disappeared. And the art of being a man is becoming a science, too, and men will disappear from the face of the planet as have other species whose development became one-sided and ended in a cul-de-sac. - Lobzang Jivaka in The Life of Milarepa

Ramana Maharshi was taking about the dream and waking states. "Let us say that tonight when we go to sleep we are chased by a dream tiger. In spite of all our study and analysis of the waking and dream state, we will run for our life. Why? Because the knowledge that it is only a dream will not be available to us during the dream. If we knew the 'I' was but a dream, we could stand still and allow the dream tiger to attack our dream body. What would we lose if our dream body is killed or mutilated?" Ramesh Balsekar points out that we wake up from the personal dream into the waking dream. And the sage, he has woken up from the waking dream.

Here is a suggestion. Put these three words on your watch list: Could, Would and Should. 'He could have done this...', 'If only I would have done that...', 'You should do this...' Notice how these three wistful 'mind' words steer you away from the What-Is? If you wish to stay in the Here and Now, become alert the minute these words pop up in your mind or conversation.

Understand this: No one ever gets up one day and says, I am going to start "seeking" from tomorrow. Seeking happens . And understand this too: once seeking begins, it takes its own course. Though every seeker is led up his own individual path, it has been observed that seeking, by and large , follows a similar pattern for a similar category of seekers. For instance, there is a broadly discernible pattern for seekers who are of contemplative nature (the jnana marg ). Though one cannot generalize , it has been observed that for people who are contemplative, the seeking broadly goes through the following stages: First Step. There is the sense that some other force (other than oneself) has the final word on what happens. To begin with, the seeker starts out by thinking, “I am in charge most of the time but sometimes the other 'force' dictates the course of events - whether I like it or not.” Second Step. The seeker sees how each action happens: the mechanism of thought-v...

Konck, knock. Who's there? The one who asked that question!