Saadhaka's traps

Saadhaka is a seeker of spirituality, the truth. He faces a lot of traps on his journey towards the light. Some of these are:

Doubts:
This is where from one starts and keeps on revisiting too. The seeker starts doubting his path. He wonders whether the other ways reach faster. This is the immaturity that one begets due to his own limited efforts. All that he can think of is whether he has progressed; whether things have changed from the past; whether he'll age without any spiritual good!

Attractions:
These are the pitfalls that are the most difficult to come out of. The earlier vAsanAs give rise to these. Sw. Ramakrishna used to say that one who can't control his tendencies towards the opposite sex, must not follow the path of renunciation. Its best that such a person gets married and follows the karma maarga. Others on the path are tested to see if they're still willing to continue. Greatest personalities, such as the sage Vishwamitra, were also tested with the evils of attractions.

Emotions:
The time consuming harm is caused by falling prey to needless emotions. One has to draw a line at getting carried away by emotions and helping others. The latter has no boundaries, but someone else is likely to take undue advantage of the seeker's saintliness. One has a very high risk of giving up the path itself due to the emotional drama created around. Maintaining the balance is very difficult, remind yourself so.

Ego:
The most difficult to give up is the ego. Maharshi said that the ego stands between the body and you. The ego ties you up to the body. As long as one thinks he's the doer, there's not even an iota of possibility that the ego will leave him alone. There are circumstances that make the seeker angry for no fault of his. This one is best known as a trap meant to harm. Otherwise, once the anger takes over, nothing is left; not even the path.

Thought of traps:
This one is specially created by me. A foolish seeker spends time in recalling the traps and while thinking of traps, he falls into one, gets out and falls into another. This thought of traps itself is a trap. Take the traps in your stride; never think back and assume you're strong enough to avoid these vAsanAs while thinking of them. Give them up. Best solution is to avoid the problem. Facing the problem is not for the seeker; its best handled by the world's managers. Be sure that people will call you a coward for not having *faced* the problem or for running away from it. Ignore nevertheless; walk by the problem, never over them! Let the tests do their job and derive results. You've nothing to do with them.

krishNArpaNamastu
om tat sat

While crossing, kids...!

Today, while driving to office, I was following a slow car that left quite a lot of space in its front. Obviously, I overtook by going over to the right lane. Just then, I saw two kids about to cross watching their right. I saw it beforehand and did a safe overtake, but it may not always happen so with everyone.

Kids are right in doing what they're taught. The Community Living text books read out: "Look at your right and cross half the road. Watch your left before crossing the second half". But such a time is gone, if at all it ever was! You need to watch out every direction before crossing. Even footpaths are not safe here in Bangalore. Out of traffic jams, bikers find it easy to cruise over footpaths! As a friend puts it, the hurry is as if their wives have run away with someone else!

In my childhood, a friend asked why I look at both the directions before crossing. When I replied "galat aur se koi gaadi lekar aa gayaa toh?", he said "tab uski galti hai". I was sure I was right and closed the topic by saying: "galti kisiki bhi ho, jaan toh meri hi jaayegi na!"

Please... kids, watch out for vehicles, always!

Wading away...

A lot many things happened in the past week of my vacation. Most good, some odd, not sure if they're bad. The latter incidents although small in number are worrying me since days now. My important decisions, as they seemed, have reached standstill, as if wanting to turn around and get reversed! This is what scares me. Such uncertainty is the thumb rule of life. I knew it so, but thought I would remain untouched whichever way things go. Although scared, I still believe that I'll stand tall at things around, God by my side, no matter what. Even if its not a right one-on-one comparison, it does remind me of what a good friend once said. He was trying to find a suitable bride for himself for over a couple of years. Later, he concluded that it doesn't matter if he doesn't get married, but he prayed, nay demanded, that Swami be with him all his life!

I was headstrong in some matters, thinking all's ended with my plans shaping well and that I just need to execute them out at the right time. I wasn't expecting things to fall apart in this manner. Its quite surprising that I've been hit by the right people at the wrong time. I still call it a mind-game and want to try a few tricks to trap the traps. There are various ways to do it but one solution is bound to open up another problem I'm trying to overlook. I know I'll have to pick least of the many evils at hand, till God shows me the way.

I thought I'd walked enough and running had picked up pace. The breeze of life seemed to have a soothing aroma. Now I've been told that the direction is, perhaps, wrong! Or to that effect, atleast. Other milder opinion was for me to go slow. They all tell me confusing things, contradicting at times. Still, I do feel like I want to consider the suggestions. How far will I go on the path, before I change my mind is something that I don't have an answer to; only time will tell. But then again, they also tell me that the time is eternal, or there's nothing like time. Questions such as the following hit the mind cold: can there be a time when time was born?

Planes of existence

I'm told we know the world from what we see, feel, etc, through our senses. But thats not a fact. The senses are supposed to be the five physical elements, while factually, the sensing is done in the mind. Its all a mind-game!

Consider a madman who's talking in thin air, as per you. But the fact remains that he can see a person in front of him and thats the reason he utters those words. There's no telling that you're saner than him! From his viewpoint, you may well be insane. Okay, thats a rude one, but do think about it. Other things that may assist thinking is the fact that a human being can't see what a dog sees, for instance. It keeps on barking at something around, sometimes scared, while offensive at other times. Even so, a human being, at most, hears in a range of 20Hz to 20Khz, while animals can hear beyond these frequencies. Similarly, an owl sees at night, humans not being good at it.

Now, is it not possible that both-- the insane and the sane, as we know-- are equally right or wrong in what they're doing? It sure is. Richard Bach, in one of his books (I vaguely recall as Bridge across for ever), talks of a concept of "parallel universes". He says something to the effect that at any point of time when faced with multiple options, you pick one option and move along to become one *kind* of a person. Similarly, if you assume that you'd picked another option off the lot, you'd have grown up to be some different *kind*. Bach talks of possibilites of the *other you* crossing you sometimes. That is, this other you or other *yous*, as the case maybe, exist in parallel universes! This theory might sound good to someone who's interested in the mathematical probability calculations. Factually, such infinite planes of existence can be thought of, to be existing simultaneously!

Mercy, Oh Guru within!

It has been time enough
That you've had a good laugh

At my stupidity, misery, helplessness
And frustration, of life being in a mess

Have you no mercy
While watching all that there's to see?

Many lives have been spent
In eagerness and quest

Still, do you pay no heed
To my sincere deed?

These rotten things I recall
And pitfalls that befall

You say are from time unknown
From the seeds I've sown! 

The dark nights, Oh! what a scary sight
Won't you please be the guiding light? 

I can't just stay in a corner and pray
Unless you save me a day...

I know thats the only way 
I know thats the only way

Jai Hind

Jai Hind
Originally uploaded by bhatpraveen.

Taken in Sriram's room from Sony T610. This gave me the idea of putting up a flag at my place too. Raghav's planning to share this idea too.

Shadows

Shadows
Originally uploaded by bhatpraveen.

Shadows of my balcony's parapet on walls of the hall. Taken from Sony T610.

St. Mark's Road

St. Mark's Road
Originally uploaded by bhatpraveen.

A routine view from our office's 6th level cafeteria! Taken from Sony T610.

Museum Road

Museum Rd
Originally uploaded by bhatpraveen.

An old styled board that caught my eye, and helped me be at peace amidst the noisy traffic. Taken from Sony T610.