Equilibrium

Carrying body and soul and embracing the one, can you avoid separation? Can you let your body become as supple as a newborn child’s? In the opening and shutting of heaven’s gate, can you play the feminine part? Can you love your people and govern your domain without self-importance? Giving birth and nourishing; having, yet not possessing; working, yet not taking credit; leading without controlling or dominating. One who heeds this power brings the Tao to this very earth. This is the primal virtue. – Verse 10 of Tao

You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction. – Bhagavad Gita – Verse 47 of Chapter 2

For, owners of their deeds (karma) are the beings, heirs of their deeds; their deeds are the womb from which they sprang; with their deeds they are bound up; their deeds are their refuge. Whatever deeds they do-good or evil-of such they will be the heirs. And wherever the beings spring into existence, there their deeds will ripen; and wherever their deeds ripen, there they will earn the fruits of those deeds, be it in this life, or be it in the next life, or be it in any other future life. - Buddha

“Yad Bhavam Tad Bhavathi” is the saying in Sanskrit meaning, “As you think, so you become”. Where does a thought originate? It originates from the actions performed by the human beings. Like cycle of birth and death, thoughts when empowered with energy, emotion and feeling give shape to actions and when these actions are performed with ownership become Karma whether they are good or bad. Karma itself means action. All the fruits in the tree are intended to nurture the universe with more trees. Yet, it doesn’t bother the tree whether the fruits are consumed by the human or animal as part of the food chain, as it renounces the fruits one way or another. The trees know that fruits are intended to be separated one way or another.

The western philosophy suggests that one should focus their attention constantly to the present moment. What is the objective? It gives the human beings the ability to do all their actions skillfully, lovingly and selflessly accepting the outcome as is, without any expectations of the fruits of the actions. Let us inquire what nourishes the buddhi (intellect), manas (mind), hridaya (heart), sthula (body) and atma (spirit), the five important parts that are responsible for human existence. The knowledge strengthens the intellect, courage strengthens the mind from staying quiet when it oscillates between pleasure and pain (without excessive celebration or sadness), love strengthens the heart (true love is unconditional feeling the oneness of all beings), samarpanam (surrender/humility) strengthens the body and set free the body from its aggressiveness and finally the righteousness strengthens atma.

The human beings possess the ability to discriminate what to receive, how to react and when to respond. Sometimes, the response is so quick without enough time for internal reaction. Other times, the reaction is lifelong when the experience one encountered is painful creating indelible impression in the mind filled with emotions and feelings. One remains in reaction mode always forgetting the inherent bliss that is ready to explode inside oneself.

Seven qualities are dominant in a person who is called Sthitaprajna and they are a) desire-less attitude, b) situation stability, c) emotional stability, d) complete self-control, e) tranquility, f) established in fullness and g) one with Self. The stage of Sthitaprajna is one with a complete wisdom yet lives in the world but not of the world. One could ask whether it is feasible to reach this stage with so much turbulence in our day to day life and in the world.

What are the choices? We could bottle the day to day problem to be solved by the intellect which itself is merely a tool to transform the human being and doesn’t have permanent existence. We need to understand despite performing skillful, loving and selfless actions, the outcome is not in our hands. The problems in the world are direct reflection of the collective consciousness of all living beings in the world and it is the effort to change the individual consciousness by each person is the contribution one could make to find the world better place to live. We need to remember the words of wisdom from Tao, “having, yet not possessing; working, yet not taking credit; leading yet not taking credit or controlling”. The land and ocean coexist in this planet side by side without one dominating the other and will continue to do so, if the human beings don’t destroy the planet to change its self-balancing ecosystem. Let us find the equilibrium of life and hold on to it to become blissful.

 

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

Thank you very much for your first response. I need to listen when you raise such great questions about how to apply those teachings to real life. I understand mere knowledge of such teachings are not going to be of any help unless it is applied and practiced in real life. Frankly, I am not sure I have the answer to your question but I will attempt to respond as I believe such discussions are healthy for my own growth and development.

The scriptures teach us right living mainly for day to day mundane existence. Fabrics of our culture is built on many such right living principles that came from many religions. I agree there are many people who practice right living even without practicing any religion. They practice the religion of love and right living out of their own consciousness. Religion is essential only for those who are sinking in Samsara Sakara and need support to keep afloat.

As long as we remain dispensable, which in my view is true in all situations, the world will continue to exist even without us. The child will be raised by someone else, property will be owned by someone later and the project will be managed by someone else as well. The assignment as a mother or as a property owner or a project manager is only for a specific period of time to complete our responsibilities to our great sense of fulfillment and not to claim ownership or possession. If we don't practice "have, but not possess" principle, soon the situation will possess us. A person who becomes the CM or PM, unless he or she understands that he is holding that position with the trust of the people for a period of time, the seat will begin to possess him/her, and he or she will begin doing things to retain his/her position than the purpose why he or she became CM or PM in the first place.

The scriptures are not suggesting to shrug the responsibilities but only remain unattached to our possessions as nothing gets shipped with us when we leave this mundane world. There is a subtle difference between raising a child with a lot of love Vs feeling the child is mine no matter how old he or she becomes. It is that possessiveness that causes considerable amount of friction later between MIL and DIL as described in many threads in relationships forum.

In life, we are forced to do many things that are hard not by choice but for coping up with a situation. You are a living example for that based on what you had shared about your life situation. In such a situation, I believe your knowledge, courage, unconditional love, humility and right conduct with some grace, might have helped you overcome the situation with conviction. Many around you would have learned that lesson due to your personal experience.

 

Dear Hari Sir,

It must be a combination of both. We kept expanding our needs while growing in size as well as abused the planet without bothering much about the need to maintain the ecosystem. We never thought it would bite us later when our next generation of people are growing up.

 

@Amulet

 

Dear Smt. Jayasala:

I respect your view. By no means, I was disregarding the value a mother adds to the life of a child when I responded above. To a large extend, that period of life determines how the life shapes up for the child in future. My point is, irrespective of all the ceremonies and symbolic meaning of such ceremonies, spouse and children can never be objects of possession. Thank you for the second message with details and also for sharing the significance of wedding ceremonies.