Open And Hoist Your Sails

Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once said,"The grace of God is always blowing." And it is up to us to catch it.

Interestingly, we, being the confused complicated mortals that we are, don't realize this. Instead we think and expect God to be an external resource who will come riding in a shining knight's armor and save us from pain and suffering. A more evolved perspective is that because we think of God as an external resource__separate and detached from us__we don't open up our souls to liberation, peace and opportunity. We conduct our lives like untrained boat people, who are trying to get their boats moving, but without opening and hoisting their sails. Result: the boat wobbles, needs tremendous energy and effort to budge and, often times, capsizes. On the other hand, those boats, whose owners, hoisted their sails, manage to catch the wind and set sail. Reaching their destinations, effortlessly, purposefully. Ramakrishna's subtle reminder to us should invite us to look within and open up (the sails of) our souls. We must realize that only an open soul can benefit from the grace that exists within us. You can call this acceptance or surrender or even joyful living. Whatever it is, it is the most intelligent thing to do.

Learnings:
1. God is no external resource.
2. It is the grace within us.
3. But to catch it, we need to open up our souls and stop trying to control our lives or those of others around us. Or to seek external solutions to the emptiness within us.
4. Just open yourself up and you will experience a whole new world of peace and possibilities.

The Shampoo Effect

It is often said that the best ideas come in the bath. And this one too comes from there.

If you stop to consider learning from a palmful of shampoo, you will be enlightened. When you are washing you hair, you take just a palmful of shampoo at best. Too less will not do the job and too much will mean wastage. In the limited span of time that the solution spends in your hair, it cleans, cures dandruff, conditions and nurtures the roots. If it spends to much time there it will lead to your hair matting and it will have to be forcibly removed. If it spends less time in there, it will not do the job. Our existence, pretty much, is like a palmful of shampoo. We have a limited tenure and limited utility. In the time that we are allowed by the user, in this case the Creator, we have to complete our 'mission'. Some of us are just like ordinary shampoo that just cleans. Some of us have multiple features like conditioners or ones that add a fragrance and still others have the properties of a hair tonic too. Each shampoo brand is different. But all have to perform one, singular duty for sure: they must clean our hair. Think about our life in those terms. We have to live our lives with the same commitment. We are created here with a purpose. And we must fulfil that cause. In this journey, we have no right to complain or get angry or be depressed. Our manufacturer has decreed us to perform certain tasks and we have no choice but to accomplish those__without fear or favor__in the limited tenure of our existence.

Learnings:

1. A palmful of shampoo can teach us about life
2. That we are here for a specific purpose
3. That we must fulfil that purpose without fear or favor in the limited tenure of our existence.

What's your Life's GPA?

In recent times, thanks to my son, who is pursuing his Undergrad at the University of Chicago, I have been introduced to the concept of GPA__Grade Point Average. It is always on a maximum of 4 Points and the closer you are to 4, the better.

This brought me to examine life, its myriad challenges, opportunities, temptations and learnings. And I set off to reason and to explore how God would rate us, humans, for our performance in our lives, on a GPA scale.

What I discovered was both simple and shocking at the same time. In God's Manual, the following Standard Operating Principles will fetch full marks or what they call A+ Grades:

1. Did you understand the core purpose of your creation to be to realize the truth__of our existence, that all life is equal?
2. Did you deliver on the performance expected of you/of every human being which is to be loving__towards all?
3. Did you practice giving selflessly?
4. Did you keep the faith and stay patient during your 'darkest' hours?

Applying this logic, none of us mortals would get an A+. Because, on an average, we don't accept that all creation is equal. This leads us to practice different, variable behavioral standards with different people. We often look for returns when giving anything__money, time, advice, opportunity. And in the times that we are troubled, we stop believing there is a God or even a Universal Energy Source.

Imagine writing an exam without understanding or even attempting to know what are the criteria for assessment? Well, that's exactly what all of humanity is doing today. Taking an exam called life__living__without realizing that all God expects us to do is to fulfil the four simple criteria listed above.

Invariably, all of us, until a great awakening moment comes, lead our lives in painful ignorance, agonizing over our existence and circumstances. And then the moment comes. We lose a dear one or we lose all that we created or we are subject to public trial for no fault of ours__and then the WHY ME? question gives way to a grudging acceptance, followed by total surrender. In surrendering, we actually end up realizing ourselves. And in one flash, the four simple measures of our performance show up before us. They then become the raison d'etre for us to live from that moment on.

Make no mistake. Whoever we are, whatever we do, one day, in this life time, that moment will arrive in our lives. Until then we will struggle to get our GPA up. And then, in one defining moment, the truth will emerge. After that living__getting an A+ from and in life__will become so easy and simple. That's when we will realize that living is loving.

Learnings:
1. The criteria for living your life intelligently and purposefully are very different from what we understand them to be.
2. Resultantly, after a lifetime of work, we realize, we have done nothing that merits an A+.
3. Once that realization happens, living becomes simple. Living becomes loving.