THE SAINT SPEAKS THE OPPOSITE

Sant Kabir’s sayings are also known as Ulat-vani – the contrarian talks। He said just the opposite of what seemed true to common perception and experience. Take the following examples:

Kabira kiya kutch na hot hai, ankiya sab hoye;

jo kiya kutch hot hai, karta aur koye.

Says Kabir – Nothing happens by doing, without doing anything everything happens;
‘Whatever I think has happened due to my doing’ is in fact being done by someone else.

The same thing was told by Lord Krishna 5000 years back and by Astavakra about 10000 years back. We think we are the doer of things that happens to us. But as we go deeper in spiritual practice we experience that everything happens on its own, or there is a superior power that does everything and we are just the witness.

Pothi padh padh jag mua, pandit bhayo na koye;

dhai aakhar prem ke, jo padhe so pandit hoye.

The common perception is that in order to be learned one has to read lots and lots of books। However Kabir did not find a Pundit – a Learned One among those who have perished reading and reading books. According to him a true Pundit is one who has studied Love. (The hindi equivalent of Love is Prem which consists of two and half alphabets). Ironically many learned professors have done PH. D on Sant Kabir who had little formal education. This couplet advocates the supremacy of devotional feelings over intellectual acquisition of spiritual information.

Ambar Varse dharati bhige janat har koi;
Dharati varashe ambar bhige bujhe virala koi.

Everybody knows that it rains from the sky and the earth gets wet;
however the rare one understands it is the other way round.

In this Doha Sant Kabir implies that the aura of the devotee spreads from the earth to whole of the universe. It is as if it rains from the earth to drench the sky. The radiation of peace and joy of a saint, or enlightened one, or a yogi spreads all over.

The enlightened sees things from a different level. The Saint sees what we do not see. The Seer sees the truth, where as we are drowned in illusions. When the saint shows the right way it seems opposite to us, it seems contrary to our set beliefs and notions because it is we who are moving in the wrong direction.

Sisters spread joy in family, brothers breed distress

LONDON: You might hate your sister for keeping the telephone busy all day and irking you with her “beauty treatments”, but a new study has found that girls spread happiness in the family. However, when it comes to boys, they are not such a treat, says the study, which claims that brothers breed distress. >> read the full story

Year after year in most of the board examinations girls have been scoring better than boys. In bringing up the happpiness index too, girls play the positive role while boys play the spoil sport, going by the survey.

Three cheers for the girl child.

MISUNDERSTOOD?

Nice character A had a minor scuffle with nice character B a few days back. A goes to help B who is stabbed with a knife by miscreants. At the precise moment that he is taking out the knife from the victim’s body, C (B’s relative) appears. C thinks A has murdered B.

Sounds familiar? Well this is a popular formula used in its variations in many Indian movies. The whole movie could then involve plots and sub plots to clear the misunderstanding.

Misunderstanding adds spice to life. It accounts for half of the real and reel life drama. Without it, the story writer would have a hard time finding a plot (pun intended).

Misunderstanding can be a blessing – especially when one’s harmful intentions are misunderstood, or when an ordinary person is taken for somebody extraordinary, as happened to RK Narayana’a ‘Guide’. (Later made into a movie by Devanand). If people around us understood everything about us many of us will be in trouble. According to Charles Baudelair, “It is by universal misunderstanding that all agree. For if, by ill luck, people understood each other, they would never agree”. Even persons like Martin Luther King, Jr preferred to be misunderstood at times when he said, “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will”.

On the other hand, it is due to misunderstanding that families and friends break up, couples divorce, individuals fight, groups clash and nations go to war. It is one of the major reasons for terrorism today.

When I think of the root causes of misunderstanding, I am reminded of what Patanjali says in ‘Yogasutras’ about the root causes of misery. These are Ignorance, I-ness, attachment, repulsion or hatred and fear (Abidya, Asmita, Raag, Dwesha & Abhinibesa).

At the mind level the root cause of any misunderstanding is Ignorance – ignorance about the other’s real intention, background, perspective and premises. At the emotional level, likes and dislikes could hinder understanding another party or person fairly. Fear does not allow one to be free with another and express oneself clearly and it is the ego that strengthens any misunderstanding.

Often, we stick to other party’s spoken word, failing to see the person beyond the words or reading the non verbal clues. As Henry David Thoreau said, “In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood”. Spoken word is only a part of the overall communication process. As Pujya Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says, “Words can never capture the whole essence of Truth”.

When misunderstanding happens we recall all the earlier instances where the other party seemed to have treated us unfairly or spoken harsh words, thus hardening our stand. Here Pujya Gurudev advises to detach the present issue with earlier issues to soften the stand.

The immediate effect of any misunderstanding is that individuals or parties stop communication, sometimes direct communication. However it needs the magnanimity of the heart to come down from the level of the ego and restart direct communication to pave the way for clearing the misunderstanding.

Another common complaint during any misunderstanding is ‘He / she does not understand me’. But do we first try to understand before seeking to be understood? If still you find the other party does not understand you in spite of your best efforts why not seek the help of a third party? Of course the third party should not be like the proverbial selfish monkey believing in the philosophy – ‘Dwayar vivade tritiyashya labhah’ (The third gains out of the conflict between two).

"If you wish to converse with me," said Voltaire, "define your terms". Hope my understanding about 'misunderstanding' matches yours.

Scientists come closer to God particle

Chicago. Physicists have come closer to finding the elusive “God Particle,” which they hope could one day explain why particles have mass, the US Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory has announced.

Researchers at the Fermilab have managed to shrink the territory where the elusive Higgs Boson particle is expected to be found — a discovery placing the American research institute ahead of its European rival in the race to discover one of the biggest prizes in physics.

Physicists have long puzzled over how particles acquire mass. In 1964, a British physicist, Peter Higgs, came up with this idea: there must exist a background field that would act rather like treacle. Particles passing through it would acquire mass by being dragged through a mediator, which theoreticians dubbed the Higgs Boson. The standard quip about the Higgs is that it is the “God Particle” — it is everywhere but remains frustratingly elusive. >>>>full story

Not only are scientists coming closer to finding god particle, but also are their theories and postulates coming closer to what was written thousands of years back in Indian texts like 'YOGA VASHISHT'.

Hot Tea, Coffee May Increase Throat Cancer Risk

Tea has been touted for its potential health benefits for millennia, but new research shows if you drink it too hot, you may end up increasing your risk for esophageal cancer.
A new study, published in the British Medical Journal, has revealed that drinking steaming hot tea is actually linked with an eight-fold increased risk of cancer of the food tube or the oesophagus. According to lead researcher Reza Malekzadeh of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran, “Informing the population about the hazards of drinking hot tea may be helpful in reducing the incidence of oesophageal cancer...” In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing tea drinking habits of 300 people with throat cancer and 571 people without the disease. Compared with drinking tea at 65 degrees or less, drinking tea between 65 degrees and 69 degrees was associated with a doubling in the risk of cancer and drinking even hotter tea was linked to an eightfold risk, the study found. To be specific, people who drank their tea less than two minutes after it was poured had a five times higher risk of the cancer than those who drank it four or more minutes after pouring. In order to minimise the risk that tea drinkers misjudged how hot their drink was, the researchers tested the temperatures of tea drunk by almost 50,000 people in the area, the British media reported.

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