Sorrow

Sorrow is an 'ununderstandable' process of creating joy. Just as summer is the only process of creating rainy season. One has to enjoy oneself in nature but be prepared for the sorrow that follows. Tears and smiles do exist together because they enrich each other. Just as summer is the mother of rainy season, a tear drop is the mother of smiles. If we hate tear drops we are denied smiles. Those who love tear drops need not pray for smiles. We always try to separate them which is not possible and also not desirable. A story doesn't have only heroes or protagonists. The presence of a villain enhances the effect of the work. we can imagine how dull a literary work would be with out conflicts. But when it comes to life we expect it to be devoid of sorrow. is it possible to have only happiness without sorrow?

Detached Attachment- Essence of Gita

Therapeutic attachment:
Another aspect sir always emphasizes is detached attachment. sir gives a simple example to explain this. While climbing up using a rope one has to hold the rope with one hand and leave the other. This process of holding and leaving the rope continues till one reaches the end of the rope. Similarly in life one has to be attached for a while as long as it gives happiness and detach oneself soon to move ahead. Sir doesn't prefer an ascetic life.Sorrow is an 'ununderstandable' process of creating joy. Just as summer is the only process of creating rainy season. One has to enjoy oneself in nature but be prepared for the sorrow that follows. Tears and smiles do exist together because they enrich each other. Just as summer is the mother of rainy season, a tear drop is the mother of smiles. If we hate tear drops we are denied smiles. Those who love tear drops need not pray for smiles. We always try to separate them which is not possible and also not desirable.

Your Body is Your Gita

The Gita is not a book of desirelessness!
But it is a book of desires!
It asks you to develop desires!
It never asks you to put an end to desires….
Now are you not shocked when you hear this?...Desirelessness doesn't mean disappearance of desires or annihilation of desires.
Desirelessness= desires minus the undesirable consequences.
What did Arjuna do after having been taught the Gita? Did he leave the desire to fight ? Or did he fight? Strictly speaking-earlier he did not have the desire to fight-now the Gita teaching developed in Arjuna the desire to fight. It is not escape from life but into life. When you touch a hot object, your body instantly leaves it. This attitude is nothing but detached attachment or therapeutic attachment. While climbing up using a rope one has to hold the rope with one hand and leave the other. This process of holding and leaving the rope continues till one reaches the end of the rope. Similarly in life one has to be attached for a while as long as it gives happiness and detach oneself soon to move ahead.

Success

His Views on Success:
Why do sometimes people fail despite their hard work?Sir says two factors are important for achieving success- Two Ks- (‘manava krishi’ and ‘madhava krupa’) your endeavor and divine blessings. That is why at times despite our efforts we fail for want of one.Further one should be submissive to reach new heights. A mountaineer always bends while climbing up. A horseman also does the same while surging ahead. So the greatest achievements are not merely the outcome of hard work but the result of individual submission to the divinity.

Death

Death is painful but an inevitable dramatic requirement of Cosmic play.
Death is an alluring secret and an awful mystery sealed in the bososm of life, which is like a peerless pyramid worth hugging and worth kissing; there are stifling echoes and intimations of ‘death’.
Death …is not that dreadful as it appears to be. (Journey into Joy p8)
Why does death exists?- to enhance the beauty of life.
The death that apparently appears to be so dreadful, in fact, equally delightful if understood in the cosmic light. (Journey into Joy p9)
Death is a cosmically induced attempt to recapture childhood.
….like the one happily preparing for sleep one must prepare for death.
…death is the extinguishing flame of life, if death takes away happiness, it also takes away sorrow; if it extinguishes flame of joy it also lights the flame of hope. Death reveals us that there is life beyond it, just like there was life before it. (Journey into Joy p12)
‘ “ It is impossible that anything so natural so necessary and so universal as death should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind"

Do we need God?

God takes care of us and knows our needs so much that we do not need him at all. God is one who solves all the problems even without you asking for a solution? God is not the one who will give you what you have asked for but He is the one who will see that you have nothing to ask for.

This blog is an attempt to document the discussions I regularly have with Sriram sir. Readers are cautioned that the views expressed here reflect ‘my personal’ interpretation of sir’s views (I would like to call it philosophy but sir doesn’t want his views to be termed so. He considers them 'laws of nature' as they are scientific and real to the core). As it is obvious that absolute communication is a near impossibility and it is more so in spirituality, this is only an attempt to record the precious moments I spend with sir.You are also welcome to share your spiritual experiences here.