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Awakening Within: A Year Of Transformation

Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by gamma50g, May 24, 2025.

  1. gamma50g

    gamma50g Finest Post Winner

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    I'm just thinking out loud here, so bear with me.

    I've been studying the Bhagavad Gita for over a year now. Alongside it, I've been learning the Vishnu Sahasranamam and Ram Raksha Stotram. During this time, I’ve also listened to numerous talks by spiritual teachers, read several spiritual texts, and revisited the Indian epics.

    And here's where I find myself today — I no longer feel like the same person I was a year ago.

    Back then, I used to let things get to me. Small issues would fester within, and though the ups and downs in family life were nothing outrageous, I carried their weight. But over the past year, something shifted. I've begun to introspect deeply and reevaluate how I view life.

    When I contemplate Brahman as an infinite ocean, and all of us as mere waves—rising briefly only to crash and merge back into that vastness—I feel the profound temporariness of everything: relationships, desires, ambitions, even our worries. It's all so fleeting.

    My perspective on life has changed completely. I once dreamed of traveling to exotic places, tasting diverse cuisines, immersing myself in new cultures, and even owning certain material luxuries. Now, none of that holds any appeal. Daily routines like eating have lost their charm; dining out has become more a matter of convenience than craving. Relationships—even those with spouse, sibling, children and loved ones—now feel deeply temporal to me.

    I once read that those who are attached to the world fear death, while those who are detached await it with peace. I think I've begun to feel like the latter.

    These days, I no longer engage in disputes. Mindless chatter no longer interests me. After nearly a decade, I’ve finally found peace after the deep grief of my mother’s passing. I still have a few close friends I talk to regularly, but my focus has shifted. And I am the happiest that I have ever been.

    And I know—truly—that I’m blessed to have the time and space in my life to reflect on all of this.
     
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  2. HariLakhera

    HariLakhera IL Hall of Fame

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    With due respect reminds me of this snippet I posted in the group-

    TEETH TO TIRTHAS

    Our Ancestors were very wise who divided human life into four stages based on age: 1 - 25 Brahmacharya, 26- 50 Grihastha, 51-75 Vanprashtha, and 76 and above Sanyasa. They however passed on one very important duty on my shoulders and that is to unveil the secret of dental wisdom to the general masses.

    Now, if I say I am a very knowledgeable person, that will not be hyperbole because I also know, as every wise person should, that one needs the services of sycophants to spread the achievement stories of people, however big achievers they may be. But, as you all know, almost every achiever, big or small, is out in the market to seek and pay for the services of these sycophants, and they are demanding a high price, as always happens in a market situation where demand exceeds supply. For this very reason, I have decided to beat my drums.

    Okay, where was I? Yeah, I was unveiling the secret of dental wisdom. This is a sort of scientific truth.

    The problem with scientists is that they always experiment on others, not on themselves. Those others could be rats, pigs, monkeys, or poor humans who come under the same category. One stupid scientist tried to experiment on himself and see what happened. It so happened that he wanted to record what goes on in the journey of the effect of poison from the time it is taken to the time it takes life. So, the good-for-nothing fellow kept the notebook on his right, took a pen in his right hand, and, for emergency, kept an injection close to inject himself and nullify the effect of the poison, just in case. He poured the poison in his mouth, and before he could lift the pen to record in the notebook, he passed out, poison in, life out. Thankfully, he kept a signed note also stating what he was under and if anything went wrong, he alone was responsible for it.

    Do not even think, I am a scientist, far from that. But like every other human, I have the experience of dental travel, and by that count, I am a scientist. So what that scientist could not do, I am in a position to do.

    After a few years on this planet, I came to know that all humans take birth without teeth. God does have a plan. If babies would have born with teeth, moms would have lost theirs as a result of the acute pain the milk-sucking babies could have done by biting their boobs. This should have been explained by the parents and included in the curriculum of primary education, but we will leave it because it is not good to digress from the main subject.

    After a year or so, teeth start growing, and by five years, the front starts gleaming. Then, these milky teeth start falling one after the other and growing again, not particularly in that sequence. What is the use of sucking such milk that grows teeth to fall rather than teeth to stay for life? It looks like the teeth would have grown anyway, milk or no milk. We will leave this for the scientists to explain, as they have all the time on earth sitting at home during the COVID times.

    No one can tame time. As we grow, new teeth get added by the time we are twenty or so, the wisdom tooth also comes up. There is no guarantee that a wisdom tooth brings wisdom also. Now we have a mouthful of teeth, 16 upper, 16 lower, a total of 32. Take a count. Each point has to be explained in detail, and if done, the post has become too long and if not, the post is not authentic. OK.


    This is the age when we think of doing something great but this also is the age when wisdom leaves us. We start doing things that should not be done. From school to college, college to professional institutions, and then search for well-paying jobs. Those with the family business, have no such compulsion. They attend college for fun and show their brightened teeth on nay silly joke Those in search of jobs may have to leave their homes also. With luck and resources, one may land a posh job, or else you know what happens.


    Life moves on. In the fight for survival, the cost of living takes over worrying about teeth. Still, teeth have to be maintained. A variety of kinds of toothpaste, whiteners, toothpicks, flossing, etc are up in the market to keep the teeth healthy. Love travels through the stomach as the saying goes and healthy teeth are needed even for chewing that food full of love.


    This is also the time to change the world but two families huddle together and spoil the show. I mean, getting married with or without the family huddle. We will leave it to sociologists to explain if marriages have saved the world or we would have been happier otherwise. Personally speaking, there would have been no different. In the hope of changing the world, changing self would have been more practical.


    After marriage, family, kids, a roof over the head, children education, and a race with neighbors for accumulating all essentials and nonessentials at home. There is everything and at the same time, something is wanting.


    By the age of 50, most of the teeth remain intact, barring one or two. So far eating by chewing is no problem-fistfuls of dates and other dry fruits, plateful Chicken leg kababs, and so on.

    At 65, retired. Responsibilities towards children mostly over and if pension or retirement fund is okay, life moves on except, of course, teeth. By now, most teeth, if not all start shaking. The dentist extracts some, fills some, and treats some with route canal and crowing. And finally denture.


    The time has come to reflect. A life spent in purposeless pursuits. The world is a stage, we are the actors. Nothing of that we accumulated will go with us. The most loved ones will also return after the funeral.

    We forgot the ONE who sent us on this planet. Get detach and remember him now. It is not too late. There is still time. Spend time with religious and spiritual people. List the Tirthas.


    End of the journey from teeth to Tirthas.
     
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  3. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    @gamma50g, Desires and Attachments are two apparent realities that make us bog down to the worldly life and prevents us from seeing the bright divine Consciousness that is waiting to awaken our lives. They arise in our Mind out of our vasanas making us feel that burden of fulfilling them. Reading Bhagavad Gita gives a good understanding of various aspects of human life including the knowledge that battlefield (Shetra) is inside of us. In fact, the place where God recited Bhagavad Gita giving Brahma Vidya to Arjuna is called Gurushetra. Another satisfying thing you must know is such knowledge enters only when an individual soul is ready and willing to receive God's Brahma Vidya.

    Learning this deep knowledge is like learning that we eat only to nourish the body and not to taste it. It changes the perspective of how we see life. This knowledge teaches us how to a) control our senses, b) let the mind subordinate to our intellect, c) patiently discriminate right from wrong using intellect and put us in the right trajectory of life, d) know every life is created from one source, e) learn how adversities in life are there to teach and transform us, f) learn how best things happen are to be acknowledged with gratitute to God instead of celebrating it as our own, g) treate good and bad times in life equally with equanimity, h) hold everything we possess as a trustee instead of claiming ownership, g) eliminate the ego that prevents us from seeing the pure and unsullied consciousness, h) remove Arishadvargas and sanctify our life, i) keep reducing our desires to achive desirelessness and making our goal is to achieve self-realization. Our life is created for us to learn not to be born again and overcome birth/death cycle. Life is a gift and an opportunity God gives us to reverse the effect (consequences) of our past actions.

    Every thought, every word and every action creates an impression in our consciousness and realizing that we should conduct ourselves deserving God's love. Let me stop here. God bless you!
     
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  4. gamma50g

    gamma50g Finest Post Winner

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    @Viswamitra sir. Thank you so much for sharing such a profound reflection. Your words beautifully capture the essence of the Gita and the inner journey it calls us to. I feel truly blessed to be walking this path and to receive such reminders. Grateful for your wisdom.
     
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  5. Rihana

    Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    Such a lovely and thought-provoking snippet, gamma. It is like an ocean from which one can take away a view, a drop, a bucket, or however much one wants. Bear with me too, as I’m just thinking aloud. :blush:

    This state is an enviable one. When it is arrived at not as a result of major life events, it feels like an even more pleasant journey. That pleasant journey is still a hard one with no defined path, and many detours. So once we reach that state, we tend to be careful about holding on to it. I daresay I’ve arrived at something like this myself. No doubt there are occasional departures from tranquility and sanguinity, but overall, things feel deeply temporal indeed.

    That said, there are times when that niggling voice in the head asks:
    • If things that used to seem charming now feel less joyous, does it mean am I missing out on some level of feeling? If the downs don’t pull me down as much, am I also losing the ebullience of the ups? Am I celebrating the same milestones for my younger child less strongly than I did for the older one? That’s been my biggest source of mommy guilt and second-guessing lately. In simpler words - have I just numbed my sense of feeling?

    • The impatience with mindless chatter—this one concerns me the most. I find myself tuning out of almost all conversations that fall into the chatter category. Yes, meeting friends and catching up is nice; it feels good to know their life updates. But once it drifts into chatter, I have to start monitoring my expressions, because the disinterest starts to show.
    Thank you for the snippet—it makes me want to go dust off my copy of the Bhagavad Gita by C. Radhakrishnan. I wish more ILites were actively posting, would have loved to read their thinking-aloud's. :blush:

    Out of my thinking aloud and back to the now: best wishes for the summer. May this state remain and evolve with the different routines that summer brings after the school year.
     
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  6. gamma50g

    gamma50g Finest Post Winner

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    @Rihana yes, I just want to hold on to this high and bliss that I found and never let it go. Its a beautiful state of inner peace and happiness that is indescribable in words.
     

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