The Importance of Good Health

I learnt something phenomenal yet simple from my father-in-law. At 79, he is very active and very independent, going about his daily routine as if he was just a teenager, just as old as my children.

One day, a visitor to our home asked him,"How do you keep so hale and healthy?". "You see," replied my father-in-law,"I follow a simple principle. This body has been loaned to me by the Good Lord. And it is my principle to return whatever__even a library book__has been borrowed in good condition. Hence I stay fit."

This is such a profound perspective. It clearly separates who we are from the body that we journey with. And champions good living and good health. Leading our lives with such good principles makes life worth living and meaningful. The other way to awaken onself to good, intelligent living, is to look at this body as a good car that needs continuous maintenance and vigil to keep it in good running condition. If we can keep our car in good shape, can't we keep the priceless body we inhabit well toned and tuned to higher spiritual performance?

Learnings:
1. This body is not you. It is not yours.
2. You are only its current user.
3. Keep the body well-maintained and in good humor. It will reward you with a good, peaceful mind.

Practising being in the NOW

When Eckhart Tolle's 'Power of Now' came out several years ago, it was a subject of instant adulation and intense discussion among people who liked to flaunt spirituality as their new fashion statement.

A few, simpler, folks believed that being in the NOW requires a very strict discipline and therefore is beyond the reach of those that don't, for instance, live in the Himalayas or in a secluded ashram.

Such assumptions__to treat spirituality as a fashionable recourse or to imagine that being anchored from within is beyond our grasp__are wrong.

Being in the Now requires practise of a simple kind. Just concentrate and indulge in what you are doing at the moment. For example, if you are brushing your teeth, encourage your mind to focus on your teeth, the impact of the toothbrush on your gums, the foam that the toothpaste generates and the feeling of freshness the exercise leaves you with. If you are drinking a glass of water, feel the water travel down your body, inside. In fact, if you concentrate, you can even feel it settling in your abdomen. When you are eating your meal, savor each morsel. Enjoy each flavor.

The problem, however, with us is that our mind is like a dog. It likes to stray from the course. Instead of focusing on what is happening in the present it plays back memories of a past event or experience or dwells on a future, to-be state. So, while you are eating, you are thinking of the man who stepped on your shoe at the airport or you are worried stiff about a crucial meeting that is coming up later in the day. Resultantly, you have, on most days, not even realized what you ate!!! Be sure though, just as you would bring back your dog that is straying away by pulling at its leash, you can pull back your mind every time it strays from the present. To do that just be conscisous of the mind's tendency to stray. Every time you catch your mind dwelling on the past or anxious about the future, declare to yourself, "Honey, can you come back and stay focused on what's going on now?". Talk to your mind. And it will obey you.

Practise this in every small action of yours, every moment of the day, in your every waking moment for 21 days, and you will have mastered being in the NOW. It is as simple as that. In fact, most beautiful things in life are simple.

Learnings:

1. Always stay focused on each present experience
2. Remember that your mind, like your dog, likes to stray. Stay conscious of this and bring in back on course, each time it strays
3. The more you do this, the more you start living in the NOW.

Life is a Banquet

The Greek philosopher Epictetus (55 AD to 135 AD) once famously said 'Life is a Banquet'.

Think about it. When you go to a banquet, you conduct yourself in a dignified manner. The waiters from the hotel or the host's side, bring you different refreshments and beverages. You take them one at a time. Possibly, you nibble at some. Ignore some. And decline a few others. You don't show any sense of urgency or avarice at what does come your way or does not come your way. You go with the 'flow' of the banquet. Behaving in an accepting, dignified and polished manner. Why?

Because you want to be perceived as one who is aesthetic, dignified and well-mannered by your host. Right?

Now think of who is hosting you in the banquet called life? Are you behaving with the same about of stoic calm and acceptance with what comes your way in life? If not, why not?

The truth is that we think this life is because of us. Instead of realizing that it is in spite of us. Why cannot we conduct ourselves in life the way we would at a banquet? Choosing what comes our way and never displaying undue urgency or greed in making our choices. You enjoy a banquet when your host enjoys having you over. Similarly, in this banquet called life, don't you want your host, the Universal Source of Energy (or God or whatever you call it), to enjoy having you over? Think about it.

The Learnings:
1. In this banquet called life, choose intelligently from what comes your way.
2. Avoid both undue urgency and greed.
3. Behave in a manner in which the Universal Host (the Creator) enjoys having you over!

Don't behave like the Fly on a Glass Pane!

Have you observed a housefly on a window's glass pane?

Attracted by the sight and light on the other side of the window, the fly desparately wants to go out and explore God's open spaces. But because it is a housefly and cannot think, it keeps singularly attempting to break through the glass pane and go out. Its battle continues till it drops dead on the window's ledge.

Alas! If only the housefly had turned around and looked at the open door it might have found a better, simpler and surer way to go out of the room.

This is how we humans also deal with problems in our life. We keep banging our heads against problems without stepping back and discovering a different way of solving them. Resultantly, the problems remain where they are and we end up being bruised and hurt__emotionally and spiritually.


On the other hand, if we treat every problem as an opportunity to learn and explore newer ways of solving them, we will last longer, really longer! Remember that whenever a window is closed, a door is always open in the vicinity.


Learnings:
1. If you wish to solve a problem, you must realize that you must change the mind that caused or created the problem in the first place
2. A closed window always indicates a door is open nearby
3. God gives us problems so that we can gain from the experience of solving them!

Haange Maadi Saar

I have a cab driver that I regularly use in Bengaluru. The reason I like to use him is because he is a no-nonsense guy. Everything that you tell him will be received with a characteristic 'Haange Maadi Saar' which translates (not literally) to mean 'As you wish' in Kannada. (Literally it means, 'Do as you wish'.) This gentleman Prasad has been my cabbie in Bengaluru for over 12 years now. And never have I heard the word 'No' being uttered by him to any instruction or request of mine. Nothing but the staple 'Haange Maadi Saar' will ever escape his lips.

In recent days, when I was reflecting on how life happens even as you are busy making other plans, the wisdom in Prasad's attitude towards his clients' wishes/aspirations/expectations dawned on me. The reason we experience grief is when our expectations are not met. The reality is that expectations always bring agony. However, if we begin to live with the belief that every moment has been equisitely and exclusively crafted by God, for us, to experience and learn about HIS or HER purposeful ways, then there will be no expectation. And therefore no pain. Situations, good, bad, ugly or WOW!, whatever they may be, using Prasad's three-word submission is the best way to deal with the situation. Any situation. Just try telling God 'Haange Maadi Saar' (As you wish!) each time you encounter a high or a huge low, and you will feel bliss. And feel secure.


Learnings: 1. To live in the moment, accept what comes your way 2. Thank God by accepting God's design of the moment you are in__because that was especially created for you.