Last mile

[JUSTIFY]When I worked for a software company in 1992, the communication technologies were under development and not as advanced as it is today. Luckily, a communication expert used to be the head of VSNL and literally trained all the General Managers who lacked experience to learn how to connect the desktops located in SEEPZ, Mumbai to mainframe computers located in the United States. Nowadays, T1 lines are everywhere and those days we used to get 64 kbps connection that would allow engineers to log into the mainframe computers in the US. While the US has fiber-optic lines running everywhere, India did not have fiber-optic lines throughout the country. While mainframe computers were hooked to the fiber-optic cables, those cables were hooked to communicate with the satellite, which in turn connected to the receiver in Mumbai. However, the terminals in Mumbai were connected through cables with the receiver. This used to be the most complex part in 10,000 miles of connection from the United States to India. We used to call it as “last mile” connection. Most of the time and effort was spent on making this last mile work than the rest of the distance. That last mile used to be the bottleneck in free flow of communication between India and the US and vice versa.

Universal Absolute created minerals, plants, animals and human beings in that order. Each one of them are created with more sense that the previous one. Finally, He created human beings with the potential to realize his/her true Self. Every life that is created in this world coexists peacefully following their dharma except human beings. Human beings are created with intent to connect well with the rest of the world seamlessly. Seat of Truth resides inside a human being. Unfortunately, they become selfish due to their mind making them believe that they are independent entity separate from other beings. It is their mind that makes them think that they are the most critical element and the whole world is created for them. The mind refuses to see the small role that it needs to play in the overall scheme of things that are planned out for the welfare of this world.

Every human being is created with the purpose. However small the role is, (S)he needs to do it whole-heartedly without any ego. The purpose is to be the small part of the larger mission and not be large part of the smaller mission. We need to eliminate thoughts that would make us believe that we are inevitable. On the contrary, we need to feel blessed to be part of any opportunity that was given to us. If we become part of the mission willingly, we play a small role in a larger mission and get due credit for our small role. On the contrary, if we think that mission will not be complete with us, we will lose our right to participate in a larger mission.

A good human being will know that ocean of knowledge is vast and all of us just scratch the surface of this ocean of knowledge to know something out of it. (S)he will understand that there is no scope for complacency. (S)he will approach the life with highest level of humility and with an attitude to look for opportunities. (S)he will find establishing connectivity with fellow beings provides wider network and great sense of fulfillment.

It is better to play a smaller role in the kingdom of selflessness than playing a larger role in the kingdom of selfishness. Universal Absolute, who created the human being with the potential to realize that he is so close to achieve Godliness, will have to come to the world so often to establish righteousness. Only a very few individuals are having higher level of consciousness worthy of Almighty’s Grace. Is the Universal Absolute having a last mile issue in completing the cycle of evolution? Only He knows the answer.
[/JUSTIFY]

 

Dear AC,

You call your response a "Thristi"? Give me a break. You wrote so eloquently in a few words about the subject I danced with in a whole snippet. You are absolutely right. From selfishness to selflessness is the journey that we all do either in a gradual or a swift process. I call that as transformation from encrypted nature that taints us to inherent nature of our true Self. The core of our existence is truth and it is pure and unsullied. When we reach the core of our existence, it is like reaching the submit and we reach the saturation point of joy which the learned people call as "Bliss". It is one zillion times happiness we achieve in our day to day life. It is like opening up the outer shell of a jack fruit and eating the sweetest fruit inside. We will be lost in that forever and at that stage we become unconscious of our body and mind. Pleasure and pain will have no difference. We will achieve equanimity and become a beacon to the humanity.

Viswa

 

Dear Bhavna,

Thank you for responding and for your kind words. Incomprehensible becomes comprehensible through its own creation. Once we begin to understand either ourselves or the world, things begin to unfold. As you rightly said, we need to play the game to learn lessons out of it. Most importantly, we learn lessons both from our mistakes as well as from good deeds. The process we follow to learn from our experience is more relevant than the results we achieve. Regarding path, if we drive from one city to another in the dark, all we see is the distance covered by our car's headlight. But once we begin our journey that headlight guides us to our destination.

We are all aliens visiting the planet earth for a specific purpose and we need to be aware that our objective is to finish the purpose of our visit and return home.

Viswa

 

Dear msid,

Thank you for your response. I feel the additional sense that is given to human beings is misused and that is the cause for the problems in this world. If all human beings in the world eliminate all their bad thoughts and only focus on good thoughts, the world will be a better place to live. In a scale of 1-1,000, our collective consciousness is less than 200 resulting in human beings becoming selfish. When they cross 500 mark, they begin to feel unconditional love for the fellow beings.

I didn't mean to say that God is at fault. By having the discriminative ability to realize his divine Self, human beings are using it for selfish reason. The reference to last mile is to indicate that human being is the last in the cycle of evolution with the ability to merge with God. That reminds me of a joke I heard about the Hindu mythology. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva discussed where to keep the divine consciousness. One of them suggested to keep it up above the sky, then other two suggested that human being will go on space and find it. Another one suggested to keep it deep under the sea and the other two suggested that human being will dive deep and find it. Finally, the solution they arrived at is to keep it inside of the human being so that he would never search for it. The moral of this joke is we need to search for divinity inside of us not outside.

Viswa

 

Dear Syamala,

Thank you for reading and responding to this post. I have read many of your responses and they are superb and you are too humble. What a magnificent list of last mile issues you have provided in your response and they are all true. Like I said in my response to AC, our journey is from selfishness to selflessness. We can achieve that summit or our core only when we become selfless. We need to participate in the building of the bridge to enlightenment for the welfare of the humanity just like what a little squirrel did to help Lord Rama.

We always use the term "Bliss" in our day to day communication. We refer to enjoying a fresh air, listening to melodious music, talking to an infant, Standing on top of a hill, traveling in a boat in a river, taking a cup of tea, etc. as very blissful. What is true Bliss? Our Vedic Scripture Anandavalli described what is true Bliss. It is equivalent of 1 zillion times of our happiness in our day to day life. Please read my blog Brahmananda - Blogs - IndusLadies to learn more about it. We can't have Bliss unless we become divine, in my opinion.

Thank you for your kind words and for nominating it. Please always feel free to respond to any of my posts. We all learn from each other and I certainly enjoy knowing your thoughts.

Viswa