Thoughts and Quotations by Jayaram V Part Three

There is a mysterious quality about life, which we cannot comprehend easily with our minds or reason. However, you can be sure of what is happening now and what you experience in the present moment. It is life as it unfolds before you with each breath of fresh air you inhale. It has been given to you in consequence of your own actions. You can experience it consciously with each moment as long as you live. Make the best use of it, living it consciously, conscientiously and mindfully- From the Essays on the Bhagavadgita.

To those who want to commit suicide or cannot overcome their suicidal thoughts, here is my advice. Think you are already dead. And live...

Change a few genes, a dog becomes a wolf. Change a few thoughts, a man become evil.

Nature‘s mechanism is destructively constructive. It employs a very forceful transformative process in which it does not seem to care much about our values and morality. It feeds upon weakness and promotes strength., and wears things out with whatever force that is necessary until its aims are accomplished.

There is only one force that can counter Nature in the world and it is human intelligence.

Our destructiveness comes from Nature. Our humanity is uniquely our own.

We are constantly pitted against Nature from the day we are born. It is a losing battle, but we have to keep fighting anyway until the end in the interests of humanity.

When we find life on other planets and even other civilizations out there in the vast spaces of the universe, most religions will decline.

Religions will decline and disappear someday anyway, as we begin to understand the universe and our very place in it better and better. We will be then left with spirituality that cannot be labeled except in personal terms as part of our ideal vision of how things should be.

So far we have denigrated ourselves in mortal and moral terms. We have a greater responsibility in preserving life upon earth and propagating it elsewhere, which we have yet to realize.

 We are still hunters at some fundamental level in our consciousness. That has to shift and give way to a better attitude based on understanding and compassion, tolerance and acceptance.

Most importantly our solutions should arise from our understanding of the world in which we live not from our expectations of heaven and a life that is rooted in our imagination.

Our freedom is limited by our choices and our choices are limited by our fear of freedom.

Happiness is relative and subjective. You are happy when something in you settles for a compromise and remains silent.

Do you know how many assumptions go into our decision making every moment of our lives, even in such matters as what to wear and when to eat? Start counting now.

In matters of life, we are seldom free from confusion, even when we believe we have all the facts and we are thinking clearly.

We are the gods of the universe, stupid There are no other gods, except in our imagination.

It is difficult to deny what you have been. It is even more difficult to accept all that and make peace with yourself.

Gratitude neutralizes the debt

If an educated mind can prostrate before an image of God without any hesitation or inner conflict, it is a sure sign of humility and true surrender.

A religion lives through its people. Its greatness is reflected in the character of its adherents. Therefore do not argue with me that your religion is great. Show it to me through your character and behavior.

In the Hindu Puranas we frequently hear about three types of beings: gods, who love to do their duties sincerely in the service of God; demons who love to disturb and harm those who are engaged in doing their duties; and humans who may follow either the gods or the demons in their actions according to their inclinations, individual natures and predominant qualities.

If you want to know how effective a spiritual guru is pay attention to his closest followers and whether his teachings have transformed them.

Karmayoga is the foundation of Hinduism. Bhaktiyoga is a delusion unless you understand why karmayoga is the heart of Hinduism

The music is in neither the Piano nor the Pianist. It exists in the latter as an idea and in the former as a potency. That is exactly what future is like. It exists in you as an idea and in the world as a potency

Life is noise. It becomes music when you are in harmony with yourself, with others and with everything else. For that you have to follow the rhythm of life rather than trying to create one of your own.

Our notion of God is like the clouds we see in the sky and imagine things all the while ignoring the sky in the background!

When we see two dots, we cannot help connecting them mentally. We cannot just leave them alone!

Liberation truly means you have to free your consciousness from yourself.

Some people never reconcile to the reality of what they have achieved even after they realize their goals. They either live and act as if that success was not theirs or they never deserved it or lose focus and the mindset required to carry forward their dreams further.

Learning is an important part of growing, especially learning from our mistakes. In life you rarely get away from the consequences if you make the same mistake twice. Imagine if that mistake has something to do with a whole generation or a whole nation.

For a vast majority of people religion is just a waste of time since they do not really practice its ideals anyway. They would be better off morally, mentally and spiritually (and the world would be a better place too) if they practice just these two words for the rest of their lives, "BE GOOD."

Do not buy mantras from gurus. You can follow any mantra to which you are drawn. The scriptures are full of powerful mantras. One great mantra, which Lord Siva promised would cleanse everything is Sacchidekam Brahma. Present day Hindus give all kinds of funny names to their children. There is a reason why we give the names of gods or pleasant names to our children. When you call your children, friends and relations with their names, you will be indirectly chanting the names of various deities or invoking the positive energy those names bring.

When you are addressing a person with a deity's name, you are addressing the soul in that person. This is perfectly in harmony with the ideal explained in the Upanishads by Yajnavalkya to his wife Maitreyi. Hinduism is a way of life, because we bring God into everything and see Him everywhere in the stones as well as in the space.

When you worship a deity, you must be prepared to meet it face to face. It means you must elevate your consciousness to a higher level through inner cleansing, some preparation and practice so that it will have something in common with deity and communicate with the deity intuitively.