ALL is ONE

The poem or the text from the Tao Te Ching is insightful which carries a deep meaning for me. I am still pondering on this thought of ALL is ONE and ONE is ALL since the last eight years.  Here is this text that explains the concept of Oneness in a beautiful way. Leading to the great Tao (the way) of life.

Tao Te Ching- 

What cannot be seen is called the invisible. 

What cannot be heard is called the inaudible.

And hence are mixed together as one. 

This “Oneness” is not much brighter in the sky, as It is not much dimmer on earth. 

It is not more glorious in a saint as It is not more fainter in an ordinary person. 

It is everlasting and cannot be named. 

It is the original void of “non-being.” 

This “Oneness” is the Tao which is invisible, and formless. 

It may be regarded as vague and intangible. 

When the Oneness Tao comes forward, Its front cannot be seen. 

When one tries to follow It, one cannot see Its rear. 

By abiding with the original Tao, one can master the presence. 

He who knows this “Origin,” shall know the teaching and principle of the Great Tao....

I am always meeting, seeing or reading everything, which points out to the concept of ONEness.  The title of my blog is ALL is ONE/ ALLis1. My first time to embark upon this concept of All is One, when I was watching the Japanese serial, Full Metal Alchemist (Episode 28 - One is All, All is One). Then I came across The Three  Musketeers, which has this Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro UNO is a Latin phrase that means "One for all, all for one" in English (Wiki). The similar meaning that everything is one, although it looks too different. 

I was taking Molecular Dynamics course two years back. In the first lecture, Professor asked a question that what is fundamental thing in the universe. I rarely answer questions in the class, although I know the answer. I answered in a second that it is an atom. Then he showed the Richard Feynman's  quote. I don't remember the exact question or that quote from the lecture.  I found his beautiful poem  “I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.” 

In my opinion, life is explained by a carbon cycle. We come from where, we go back to the same place. Everything is made up of carbon or the atom - the ONE. The universe is made up of atoms. We still take so many forms from the basic atom block. No two living things are alike. No one remains the same at the passing moment. The diversity and change  are the universal truth. The truth is to understand the meaning of anything which you can find using your own awareness. What you believe is truth for yourself. We all are part of that ONENESS. We are that collection of an atom or carbon or whatever you imagine or think about it.  Connecting dots from everything I am experiencing, reading, understanding and inhaling. 

And I am moving towards the ONENESS......................

Garbage = Negative emotions!

We  collect garbage in a dustbin and thrash it every day or every week. Now, if you imagine that there are two persons in a house. One person is responsible for thrashing a garbage. He decides that he will not throw that forever. First few days, the other person will not realize that there is garbage in a house. The first person is trying to cover it properly, so the other person does not find it. However, after a short time, the garbage will start to smell. So, whenever one goes in the kitchen will smell it. The other person thinks that it's the responsibility of the first person to thrash the garbage. So he does not take action, although the smell is annoying. As none of the two persons are taking action, the pile of garbage is now overflowing the bin and it is lying everywhere on the kitchen floor. After a few more days, the people are walking on the pile of garbage in the whole house. Both the persons are complaining that it smells bad and blame each other, walking over the garbage pile. It never occurred to either of them to clean the mess.  At the end, they both leave the house or the person to get away from the smell.

Find your own moral of this story. Here, garbage is symbol of negative thoughts or emotions about any person/thing. Kitchen and house signifies the person's life. Dustbin and thrashing garbage out of house refers to properly purging out negative emotions regularly in a healthy way or at a proper place. The two persons are people in any relationship. Now, once again read this story and relate to all the relationships in your life.  

So, are you thrashing the garbage regularly?

My Guru Prasad Mama

When you are a child, you have someone who inspires you or is a role model for you. My inspiration was my Maternal uncle, Prasad Mama. I call him my Guru. During my childhood, a serial Chanakya  was telecasted on the Doordarshan. As I started watching this serial. I felt that Prasad Mama used Chanakya-Niti. I always felt that he was like Chanakya.

He always used to tease me with a small funny four-line poem with my pet name. Whenever he sang the poem, I used to cry and felt embarrassed. For this very act, I used to hate him. One day he sat and told me that a sentence that struck me. He continued that if you give your thought and emotional control to others, they will fear you and make you cry. These words still ring in my head.

I was doing my engineering. Prasad Mama and his family were staying with my grandparents.  My  grandparents' place was near  to my University. I  visited them on weekends and holidays. I preferred to stay at Prasad Mama's place. He knew what I like to eat and my favorite dish is Dhokala. He always made sure that I will get  my favorite Dhokala on each of my visits.  He personally  instructed my cousins to take care of me. The best part was that he use to give me money. I knew that he didn't have much money that time. Still, he knew that I need money. I clearly remember the first time he handed me Rs. 100 bill in my hand. We were sitting on the temple stairs in my grandparents house. I refused to take it. I told my parents won't like it. I won't be able to give you back. He said that I am sowing a money plant. I am confident that it is going to become a big tree.  I will get it back that time. I have my eyes filled with tears, whenever I remember this incident. I can write so many incidences about him. He was truly my guru. He taught me so many things. I give full credit of goodness and passion which I learned from him.

His life journey was adventurous.  I am not fully aware of his journey. I always got time to spend with him during summers. So I can write a short version of his biography. He was funny, jolly, witty and smart person. He belonged to a wealthy Brahmin family. My grandfather was a strict orthodox.  Prasad Mama was forced to join diploma in Mechanical Engineering during 1960's. He was passionate about the arts and drama. He had many friends and was popular amongst his friend circle for his helping nature. He may have lent money to so many people even without expecting it in return.  He acted in a few plays.  He married to a Non-Brahmin women.  During those times, this was the  difficult because the person would be outcast from his family. He dared to marry my Mami against my grandfather's wish.  He was outcast for a few years.

You have to get a degree and join a job. This is a traditional unspoken rule in India.  So he joined Bachelor of Arts and then he did B.Ed. He joined as a Math teacher in my grand parents' school. He was really good in maths. He spent a few years teaching maths. He was not satisfied with it. He felt that students were not hardworking. They always used short cuts.  He took voluntary retirement. He did farming for a few months with some of his friends. 

Then he started a new journey, he thought that Tamasha, which is the Maharashtrian traditional art. He always admired it. He opened a Tamasha theatre in Solapur. This endeavor was not a great success. Being a Brahmin guy to have guts to open a theatre when nobody is supporting you. Its called as passion to achieve your dream. 

Most amazing part of this journey is in the second part of his life. My grandfather was an Agnihotri.  Agnihotri literally translates to "one who carries out fire rituals."Agnihotri should be a Brahmin, but he may be a celibate or a householder. If a householder becomes a widow or a widower, she/he cannot perform as Agnihotri. The Agnihotri has to conduct worship as an ideal householder. He cannot beg for his own livelihood. In fact, the last Aahuti of the Agnihotri is the sacrifice of his own body - (source wiki). 

Someone from the family has to continue this tradition. He became Agnihotri after my grandfather passed away. It's a very hard thing. You have to follow so many rituals, rules and regulations.

 I remember my interaction  with him. I asked him why he became Agnihotri. He said that there are few things you cannot understand. Throughout my life, I did not do anything what my father liked or wanted me to do it. Something inside me asked to do it. 

Prasad Mama passed away due to cancer few years back. It was the saddest day of my life. How much I was connected to him and what he mean to me. I could not write in words.  I remember my last meeting with him in Pune. He no more looked like Prasad Mama. Due to chemotherapy he had lost weight and he was looking different.  I wrote a letter included money for his treatment. Luckily I just joined a job that time. I did not have much money.  I wrote him that your money tree has grown now. It's just for you. 

This is  my tribute to my beloved Guru Prasad Mama.  Your teachings are always with me.

To live happily ever after …

In my journey of  self improvement, I have read several articles, books, blogs, and watched videos from various motivational speakers, life coaches and self-help Gurus. The purpose and vision of these speakers/Gurus is  to help individuals to improve the quality of their life. Many of these speakers teach techniques of human psychology and emotions, meditation, yoga, Neuro-linguistic programming, hypnosis, Reiki, Chakra healing etc. for life improvement. These techniques mastered by different individuals have reported the life changing benefits. The majority of the speakers has established profit based business organizations and charge hefty fees for retreats or seminars. I am happy that their efforts are directed towards alleviating suffering of people and focus on their life improvement.

I  was also interested in attending various courses and retreats. I was not able to afford any of these course fees at this point of time in my life. So I started taking baby steps by reading various websites during the initial phase of my journey. With the internet, inspirational blogs websites have  helped to reach the mass faster. I surfed several blogs of young and vibrant motivational thinkers who are helping thousands of people with their inspiring positive articles and free ebooks. Some of them have charged a small amount for books, tapes and online courses. 

I always wondered about this million dollar profession of motivational and inspirational coaching business.  Is it possible that all these motivational speakers come together and start giving the courses/lectures for free?  Can it happen that more people can afford these courses?  Is it possible that instead of coaching CEO's and managing directors, some speaker/Guru can pick a  beggar or poor person  and help them learn the powers of their mind by teaching the techniques in a free course.  Will the world become positive if many individuals will start sharing their life changing positive experiences for free with everyone? I am still in search of the answers to the above unanswered questions.

In my search of free meditation retreat, I came across Vipassana meditation founded by S.N. Goyenka. It  is a non-profit organization and does not charge even a penny for the full ten day retreat. It works solely on the voluntary basis. I am astonished to see the way this organization is managed.  I have shared the details about my Vipassana experience on this blog.

Recently, I came to know about Sandeep Maheshwari, a motivational speaker from India. I got answers to some of the unanswered questions. He is conducting the free motivational seminars throughout India. I have been following his video seminars on the YouTube. His language is very simple. I am surprised to find that he organizes these seminars for free. He has uploaded all the videos and he sends softcopy of his videos for free.  I realized that it's not a profession for him but its passion to share his learnings and life improving strategies with people.

When I started thinking about this write up, I was discussing with my friend that how to end this article. He told me the story of the Linux, an open source software developed by Linus Torvalds and the GNU Project started by Richard Stallman. The open source movement is an incredible example which has demonstrated that how global volunteer (free service) collaboration has taken the Linux/GNU to the integral part of everyday life. It's really an amazing, inspiring  and world changing story.

Linux and the GNU open source movement have shown a volunteer-driven phenomenon which has impacted globally. I am confident now that free -motivational seminar's  like Sandeep Maheshwari  and free retreats of mediation offered by Vipassana is going to be a global phenomena of the future to make this world a better place to live happily ever after …

 "If— by Rudyard Kipling". Poems & Poets. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 15 July 2013.

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
  And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
  And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!^[5

Three key stories of my life - Part II

Second funny key lost incident happened again at  IITBombay. There is a well known joke about Ph. D. means permanently head damage. I was doing my Ph.D. I proved many times that it really affected my brain. :) Every day I was working late night in the lab. I was going back to the hostel around 2 AM. We had one single big key for the lab door. We had one place where after opening the lab one has to keep the key. We have to submit that key at the end of the day.

After I had nice dinner at the hostel mess, I went to lab around 8 PM. I started my work. Another lab mate came and she started her work too. I was little tired that other lab mate was not authorized to use the lab alone. I requested her to return to hostel with me. I noticed that lab key is not at the usual place. We started searching the key. She asked me that whether I opened the lab. I was not able to remember anything. I thought that I opened the lab after dinner. Then I recalled that another lab mate was also there when I came to the lab. We did not have a mobile phone that time. I was required to make a call to his hostel. The security guard would life the phone and he has to announce through the personal announcement system his name and room number. It was a godly hour, so the announcement was banned. I requested that guard to go to his floor and get him to phone. He was a nice guy. When I talked with my friend, he was in sleep mode. He did not give me a proper answer. It did not help me. I went to the hostel and I got a small door lock from the hostel. We locked it and went to the hostel.

I spent a sleepless night. I was afraid of scolding from my supervisor. Obviously, my friends would have topic to tease me saying that my head is permanently damaged. I went to lab around 7 am. I again searched the key. The other lab mate whom I called in the night came to lab around 8 am. He asked me that whether I was able to find the key. I was thinking to go to the security office and inform them about lost keys. Suddenly, my lab mate stared saying sorry. I did not realize that what happened. He said that when he tried to take something from his jeans pocket, he found that key. My memory came back and I remembered that when I went after dinner to the lab. He was doing his work. So it was obvious that he lost the key. I carried unnecessary burden in the night.

Now when I meet that friend and remember this incident, we laugh aloud. In reality, it was the worst day for me. How small things affect us? Now I feel that I should have handled that situation differently. There is nothing to worry about it. Indeed, these incidence make you realize that what worry can do to you. It was a wonderful time of my life where I worried about small things. I never cared for BIG worries. This was the second almost lost key incident. During my PhD, I lost almost 8  keys and I broke six locks of my hostel room. I can write a thesis about it. I will summarize key lost series in the third chapter.

Thought backlog

I am back now. I have more energy and balanced mind. It  was miraculous healing of mind.  The secret of mind control is to engage your mind in something non-trivial thing. If you can teach your mind to focus on breathing, sensation, chanting or any other form of task. It sharpens its ability. You develop habits of concentration. When I look back to those ten days at Vipassana Centre. It is a life changing experience. When we calm our mind and teach it to be quiet and equanimous then it definitely helps you to reduce emotional stress. I was suffering with unwanted emotional stress. When I am saying that I am positive thinker, it means that I am able to look at the positive output in any situation. It helped me to analyze and understand the biggest myth or lie which I kept telling myself. I am positive thinker. The truth is that I am not negative thinker. A person who is at the edge of positive or negative attitude, they fall prey to negative emotions very fast. It happened with me since last two years.

How you can control your conscious mind and get control of your subconscious mind? Our mind is very delicate, it is constantly trained through all sensors which we posses such as eye, ear etc. Conscious mind collects data and transfers to subconscious mind continuously. Our reasoning ability is built over the period of time. However, this reasoning ability can be changed very easily. Most of the time, it is changed with any small event. My experience in that 10 day course was wonderful. First three days were annoying. I kept on struggling with unwanted memories and thoughts. It is challenging task to force your mind to concentrate on certain task without remembering or thinking about any other thing. The second challenge is to develop the ability to sit for long hours. How wonderful it is to think that both these challenges are only linked with your mind! You have to be determined and patient to overcome both these challenges.  Within three days, I was able to gain control of my mind to certain extend. I was able to sit for 1 hour without moving. I realized that we work based on what we tell our mind. Before starting meditation, I told my mind that I have to sit for 1 hour. Once that hour was finished, I could not resist to change my position. I told myself that I will do 5 rounds of a task and then I will stop. I did not count it. I realized that it automatically forces me to change the position after 5 sets. I started defining non-time frame task. It helped me to improve my seatting. Its profound realization that what you say to yourself or others has deep impact on your performance. We know this very well, it was demonstrated to myself.