Here it is!!!!

All the questions I have on God, Socialism, and a variety of other issues have obviously risen in Tolstoy’s mind too. And, he has written these short stories for people like me who have a lifestyle that will not accomodate reading long essays. I liked every story in this collection.

1. The Son of a Thief: Only God can judge others, we only have the right to forgive and love.

2. The repentant Sinner: If you ask for forgivance, God will will forgiv you, no matter what. I found this a little against my own philosophy and faith, according to which you reap what you sow.

3. The Archangel Gabriel: Means of worship is not as important as the heart that does it.

4. The Prayer: "Why pray to God if he can do such terrible things?" I have asked this question a zillion times and have even questioned the presence of God. but now I think, Tolstoy was correct in this story…We humans can never understand the masterplan and it is not right for us to question the happenings of life, just give it our best.

5. The Poor People: poor fisherman’s family with a daily struggle to feed 5 kids adopts 2 more neighbor’s children when they are orphaned. Are they really poor? No.

6. A coffeehouse in the city of Surat: My favorite. People from different religion fight about one true God.

7. Kornei Vasiliev: Story of Cheat, forgivance, repentance.

8. A grain of rye, the size of a chicken egg: Work is worship

9. The Berries: I did not read it. know not why.

10. Stones: Confess our sins no matter how small they are. Like a sculptor of your own statue, keep hipping away the sins.

11. The Big Dipper: charity is great.

12. The power of childhood: An accused is freed as the society cares not to create an orphan.

13. Why did it happen:

14. Divine and Human: Same situation between 2 people brings out different outcomes, based on ego & belief. The one who storngly believes in an ideal while reducing self to zero becomes divine. Whereas, the other, leader of the first is a mere human due to denial.

15. Requirements of love: it is UNCONDITIONAL.

16. Sisters: I do not understand why Tolstoy thought prostitutes need to be treated like sisters…

Other books I have read that have led up to this: Eat, Pray, and Love; The Way of the Heart; Life of the Beloved.

I have realized the value of silence and agree with Confucius that Silence is the friend that never betrays. I can write an entire blog on this alone.

This book starts with a quote from Meister Eckhart "Nothing in all creation is so like God as silence." I came to the same conclusion at Mexico, am I smart or what

Some lines I liked:

Suffering:

Through the practice of silence we become aware

of our pain. The pain is always there in our minds

and in our bodies. Silence allows us to see it,

 face it, release it.

We constantly judge ourselves.

Our mind decides what our experiences should be or should not be -

relentlessly labeling things good or bad -

demanding that our lives conform to our labels.

Then,when pain comes into our lives

-and it does to every life - we do not only suffer it,

but we suffer our suffering as well.

We add the mind’s harsh judgment of pain

to our actual experience of it.

By practicing silence, we may discover the ways

in which we intensify our pain by judging it.

Then we have a chance to become less harsh,

more forgiving.

….

By cultivating silence, we can find and release

deeper and deeper levels of pain and so discover

once again what is beneath the pain:

the natural joy that is already inside us,

free to rise and flow into expression.

Cancun means snake nest. If I had known that before, I would have never gone there. But, this trip was definitely a divine calling. I had no plans, no maps, no reservations, no GPS, no directions, no habla espanol. But the most important thing was that I was placed in IMMENSE solitude and  silence. The first day, I was very uncomfortable. It made me look inward and I am not used to that. I was beginning to question the purpose of existence. I mean, WHY are we here? For making money, enjoying the pleasures, being good to others???  WHAT is the point?

But, by the time I left, I realized that solitude and silence are the ultimate ways to be one with the Infinite. After all, Buddha, Jesus, and all the great ones had to go through years of it to maintain their serenity, peace, and bliss.

I have definitely not got answers to my questions. It is okay, I will keep seeking. It took the great Enlightened one 39 days in a forest. I am a mere mortal, I can wait longer. Most important thing is, I feel initiated on this spiritual journey. Cancun vacation turned out to be my pilgrimage. I am so glad I went alone to a place where it was a chore to talk, even for me , with native spanish.

I am beginning to think the reason for life is to seek this ultimate truth. To be one with nature. To feel the great bliss of being one with the Infinite, being the infinite.

I am going to do this travelling once a year without my husband. My daughter proves to be a great travel companion.

On my birthday, I have promised myself a few gifts:

1. slow down,

2. 1 hour of silence and solitude everyday in the morning,

3. being humble enough to pray for what I seek everyday, being grateful is not enough, aspirations are necessary.

4. I am only accountable to myself.

Also, I was surprised at how my last blog on Carly’s last 2 paragraphs applied to me to the point. We did have 2 hour breakfasts!!!!

Maa kuru dhana jana yauvana garvam

Harati nimeshaat kala sarvam

Maya-mayamidam Akhilam hitvaa

Brahma padam tvam pravisha vidhitva

-Sri Adi Sankarar

My friends and family are my biggest treasure, I have infintely re-iterated Emerson’s ‘Friends are the ornaments of a house.’

Secondly, I treasure my body and health.

But, I also COMPLETELY agree with Adi Sankarar in I should not be proud of myself due to the wealth/health/status in society I possess. All of this can be wiped away in a single second. What cannot be wiped away and will be the true treasure is our faith.

Without faith, plan, perseverence, persistence, and patience, the four virtues I believe in, will have no further progress. Also, faith acts as a glue to bring together these 4 habits, individually they are nothing more than silliness. Reverse is also true. Faith is not just a 5 letter word, to acheive it you need the 4Ps. I guess I have just discovered a spiritual theorem

As a kid, faith comes from outside in, parents and teachers begin to plant it in us. As we grow, we need to have faith in ourselves, and hence, stems from inside out.

Entry to

I do not like romantic movies based on a male and a female act of mating. Maybe because I am one of the lucky ones who never had a problem in that area. I should add, that is the only area I am blessed with and of course my friends and family, meaning I am blessed in HR

Also, I hate being a sports spectator, I have always been in the arena unless I am waiting to get a medal, YES, I am a very proud sports(wo)man. I am physically fit to this day.

So, when I saw Chak De DVD, decided to rent it out, you must be able to guess how much I was stressed and wanted ANY kind of deviation from reality.

I can go on and on about Shahrukh’s role as a coach, music, team-spirit, et cetera, but I am not going to. Reason being: THERE WAS ONE THING THAT CAPTURED MY ATTENTION

Are we Indians discriminating Islamic Indians? The movie started with KABIR KHAN, captain of Indian National Hockey Team, having a penalty shot and losing to PAKISTAN, immediately he is painted as a traitor and a social outcast. People want him out of the country. You may assume it is just like any other cinematic moment. But think about it, are Muslims in India given a fair chance? Or are they always considered a foreigner? They pay the taxes too and they have their history here too! What is that makes us assume we are more entitled of being an INDIAN than them?

There are many reasons I LOVE INDIA, but the most important reason I will never come back is the fact that We Indians DISCRIMINATE on sex, skin color, sub-caste, caste, region, religion, and anything else. And of course $$$$ Why is India so bad? Why do we need to sing Saraswati Namastubhyam in a Public School? Will Hindus accept it if THE Thiranga had green on top and Saffron at bottom [I hope I don’t stir wrong emotions]?

Why is it that I pick a nice bottle of Mango Jam and put it down because it says MADE IN PAKISTAN? What wrong has that Mango grower done to me? Maybe he has kids to feed and needs my money just like a kisaan in India. Do political borders affect humanitarian emotions? WHY,why, oh why…?

It is at this point I need the CHRISTIAN Serenity prayer

This book, written by Yann Martel, has won many literary awards, including the Booker Prize. Yann Martel is a Canadian traveler who has visited India a couple of times. I read the book as a substitute to "Looming Towers," which I have reserved as the 31rst person in Plano Public Library at this point.

Contrary to my intuition, and people who are planning to read this might want to stop precisely at this point, Pi is the name of the main Character. He defines faith, belief, love, and strength. Most importantly, describes God, accurately.  This person is from India, the sacred land that gave birth to me.  There are so many instances I could recognize with Pi. His acceptance of all religions and curiousity towards spirituallty is all a part of establishing individuality during the Teen years.

The greatest gift of believing in God / divine power is just that: Belief.

Without faith and belief, nothing can be accomplished.

An Excerpt:

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, slef-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy.  Doubt meets disbelief and disbelief tries to push it out. But disbelief is a poorly armed foot soldier. Doubt does away with it with little trouble. You becom anxious. Reason comes to do battle for you. You are reassured. Reason is fully equipped with the latest weapons technology. But, to your amazement, despite superior tactics, and a number of undeniable victories, reason is laid low. You feel yourself weakening, wavering. Your anxiety becomes dread…

…Quickly you make rash decisions. You dismiss your last allies: hope and trust. There, you’ve defeated yourself. Fear, which is but an impression, has triumphed over you.

The matter is difficult to put into words. For fear, real fear, such as shakes you to your foundation, such as you you feel when you are brought face to face with your mortal end, nestles in your memory like a gangrene: it seeks to rot everything, even the words with which to speak of it. So you might fight hard to express it. You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. Because, if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless darkenss that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget, you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you.

While reading this, I was mildly reminded of my fav Tom Hanks performance in Castaway. However, it was evident once again that the pen is mightier than the silver-screen and, Spielberg’s direction.

It has been alleged that this work is Plagiarized. I care not, as long as it serves my purpose.

E = m.c.c

That says anything with mass possesses energy. Since that is a fact, how to capture and use this energy within us becomes the only question. This has been researched and studied for ages. During vedic age, it was implied that thoughts and wishes can be realized through chanting, meditation, and a combination of both. Today, we still believe in that. At least, I do.

For starters, telepathy is very easy to support. I can think of 1001 times I think of someone and they contact me within next few days, of whom I would have forgotten a long time before that.

Premonitions - I have had a plenty.

It is therefore good to channel all your thoughts and remain focused on one objective at a time. It is advisable to have only good thoughts, words, and deeds.

My mom initiated me on this journey of yoga by forcing me to join World Community Service Center head-quartered in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai [ www.vethathiri.org ].  Simplified Kundalini Yoga is taught for a very nominal dakshina. It is a not-for-profit organization with comparable to greater effectiveness of the Art of Living.

This form of meditation helps reduce stress and provides stamina to deal with the demands of everyday life. The basic discourse is on balance in life. Acknowledgement and acceptance is given to the fact that we are all humans and indeed have a apectrum of emotions and desires. The key is to have a balance and be reasonable.

Prior to this, any guru I counseled with would ask me to renounce anger, sadness, desires, et cetera. Since this was not expected of anyone at WCSC, I was pleasantly surprised and stopped being defensive to their teachings and let myself take in all that I can.