Timeless Wisdom

[harsharan000]

LOVE AND POWER

You need power

only when you want to do

something harmful

Otherwise

you need only love

to get everything done

Charlie Chaplin

Edited April 2, 2015 by harsharan000

[harsharan000]

A PAUSE for PRAYER

When in doubt, pause

when tired, pause

when angry, pause

when stressed, pause

And, whenever you pause

Pray

[harsharan000]

SOCRATES´QUOTES

DISHONESTY : False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

TEACHERS AND TEACHINGS: I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.

FRIENDS AND FRIENDSHIP: Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

HUMANKIND: I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

CONTENTMENT: Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.

LIFE AND GOD: The end of (human) life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

ENVY: The envious person grows lean with the fatness of their neighbor.

MORALITY: A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion,

a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

RICHES: He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

HAPPINESS: Happiness is unrepentant pleasure.

FRIENDS: Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

GLORY: The nearest way to glory is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be.

PRAYERS: Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

[harsharan000]

A conversation between a disciple and his spiritual master on self realization....

D: What is my role as per my efforts in acheiving spiritual realization?

M: that much same as in a Sun rise

D: what for then are the spiritual excersises instructed(Bhakti) by you to be done?

M: So that you are awake when the Sun arises

Sat Sree Akal.

Edited April 18, 2015 by harsharan000

[harsharan000]

GIVE LOVE TO EVERYONE

IF WE LIMIT THE LOVE,

BY GIVING IT TO ONE OR TWO,

IT WILL EVENTUALLY GO STALE

IF WE LEARN TO CREATE LOVE INSIDE OUR HEARTS

AND SILENTLY WE GIVE IT,

TO EVERYONE WE MEET,

LOVE WILL GRACE,

EVERY CORNER OF OUR LIVES

Edited May 17, 2015 by harsharan000

[harsharan000]

Simran and mind control.

To control the mind the best and easiest method is to repeat constantly God's Name.

Concentration is attained by fixing the attention on the sound of the Name. As the mind is concentrated, there must follow meditation upon the glorious attributes of God.

Continuous practice of utterance of the Name and meditation stops the restlessness of the mind and merges it into the blissful, eternal and universal Self.

God remembrance is not possible unless you have an intense longing to realize Him. This intense desire is called bbakti [devotion].

This longing must so seize your mind, that you should feel a sensation of acute pain when you forget God on account of selfish desires. Your actions should also go to purify your mind, I.e., they should be done in a spirit of nisbkama [desirelessness].

Purity of mind means freedom from lust, wrath and greed. For a pure mind alone can see God. Concentration itself is purity.

Forget not that the God that you seek is within yourself.

Words of Sree Ramakrishna Parmahansa.

[Mr. Endorphin]

Thank you very much.. U have written and quoted these articles so nicely.. Thank u ji

[harsharan000]

Time given into devotion

 

While engaging in devotion to Wahiguru, one should sit with an attitude of gratitude, not just as a ritual, or halfheartedly.

Because within due time and patience, even the grass turns into milk.

So what to say about us, who being a dirty tiny minuscule partcle, which wants to merge in the unfathomable and limitless Ocean, known as Wahiguru Akal Purukh.

Sat Sree Akal.

 

Edited June 20, 2015 by harsharan000

[harsharan000]

How God Answers our Prayers?

                                                                              (An Amazing Story)

Dr.Stephen, a well-known doctor, was once on his way to an important medical conference in another city where-in he was going to be granted an award for medical research he had recently done.

He was very excited to attend the conference and was desperate to reach as soon as possible. He had worked long and hard on his research and felt his efforts deserved the award he was about to obtain.

However, two hours after the plane took off, the pilot announced that there was a problem with the plane and that they were going to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport. Afraid that he wouldn't make it in time for the conference, Dr. Stephen immediately went to the help desk as soon as the plane landed and explained to the woman at the desk that he was expected to be at a very important conference and that he needed to know the immediate next flight to his destination.She told him that there was nothing she could do to help him as there wouldn't be another flight to his destination for another ten hours; but suggested he rent a car and drive down to the city as it was only four hours away.

Having no other choice, he agreed to the idea despite his hatred for driving long distances.
Dr. Stephen rented a car and started his journey. However, soon after he left, the weather suddenly changed and a heavy storm began. The pouring rain made it very difficult for him to see and he missed a turn he was supposed to take.

After two hours of driving, he was convinced he was lost. Driving in the heavy rain on a deserted road, feeling hungry and tired, he frantically began to look for any sign of civilization. After some time, he finally came across a small tattered house. Desperate, he got out of the car and knocked on the door. An old woman opened the door for him. He explained his situation and asked if he could use her telephone. She told him that she didn't have a phone or electricity but that he was welcome to come in for some food and something warm to drink as he had completely lost his way and that it would take him some time to get back on the right road.

Hungry, wet and exhausted, the doctor accepted her kind offer and walked in. The woman told him to help himself to some food and hot tea on the table and then excused herself to finish her prayers. Sitting on the table sipping his tea, the doctor watched the woman in the dim light of candles as she prayed next to what appeared to be a small baby crib.

Every time she finished a prayer, she would start another one. Feeling that the woman might be in need of help, the doctor seized the opportunity to speak as soon as she finished her prayers and told her that he hoped god would answer her prayers. He then said that he noticed that she had been making a lot of prayers and asked if there was something she needed that he could get for her or help her with. The woman smiled and said that god had answered all her prayers except one. She said she didn't know why god hadn't answered this specific prayer yet but perhaps it was because of her weak faith.

The doctor asked if she didn't mind telling him what she needed. Nodding her head in approval, she said that the child in the crib was her grandson. She said that the child had a very rare type of cancer and that all the doctors she had seen were unable to treat him. She also said that she had been told that there was a doctor who specialized in the type of cancer her grandson had, but there was no way for her to get to this doctor as he lived very far from her; so she has been spending her days and nights praying to god to help her find a way to get to Dr. Stephen - the doctor who could treat her grandson.

Upon hearing her words, tears began to flow down the doctor's cheeks and He said: god is great, there was malfunction in the plane, a thunderstorm hit, and I lost my way; and all of this happened because God did not just answer your prayer by helping you find a way to get to Dr. Stephen, but He brought Dr. Stephen to your house.

I am Dr. Stephen.

Tears streaming down her cheeks,

Three important steps:
1)Ask
2)Believe
3)Receive

Thanks to whoever is the author of this story.

[harsharan000]

Simple truths

 

What is fear?
Unacceptance of uncertainty.
If we accept that uncertainty.
It becomes - Adventure

What is Envy ?
Unacceptance of good in others
If we accept that good,
It becomes - Inspiration

What is Anger?
Unacceptance of things which are beyond our control.
If we accept
It becomes - Tolerance

What is Hatred?
Unacceptance of a person as he is.

If we accept that person unconditionally,

it becomes - Love

 

[harsharan000]

A beautiful Tribute to the Almighty Creator...

VID-20150619-WA0001.mp4

[harsharan000]

ENJOY THE COFFEE

 

A group of friends visited their old university professor.

Conversation soon turned to complaints about

'STRESS' & 'TENSION' in Life.

Professor offered them Coffee & returned from kitchen with Coffee in different kinds of cups !!!

(Glass Cups, Crystal Cups, Shining Ones, Some Plain Looking, Some Ordinary & Some Expensive Ones......)

When all of them had a Cup in Hand,

the professor said:-

"If you noticed-

all the Nice Looking & Expensive Cups are taken up,

leaving behind the ordinary ones !!

Everyone of you wanted the Best CUPS,

&

that is the source of your STRESS & TENSION !!

What you really wanted was

"Coffee", not the "Cup" !

But you still went for the Best Cup.

If Life is Coffee ;

Then Jobs, Money, Status & Love etc. are the Cups !!!

They are just TOOLS to hold and contain Life.

Please Don't Let the CUPS Drive you !!

Enjoy the COFFEE ......!!!

[harsharan000]

WHAT IS LIFE ?

 

What is Life?
They say its from B to D...from Birthday to Death..

But what's between B and D?
Its a  " C ",   a Choice ...

Similarly, our life is a matter of choices...

Live well with the right choices, and it will never go wrong.

[harsharan000]

A tender story of the weeping camel .... heart melting one

https://www.youtube.com/embed/tVUE5PZfJLE

[harsharan000]

Steps towards the realization of the divine

I used to go to the temple with my grandma.

The temple had flights of stairs.

I used to ask her why can't they build the temple on the ground?

Why do you have to climb the stairs at each and everyday temple?

The answer she gave me was interesting.

She said you need to rise above your level to reach God.

Each step in those stairs is a reminder that you are rising above your level in terms of your envy, your greed, anger, ego and all evil parts of your life.

It also suggests that you have to climb the steps one by one, you can't just jump off from first step to the last step. That is the cycle of life, once you conquer these aspects you reach towards your inner core self.

Sat Sree Akal.

[harsharan000]

 

Speechless

 

A father and daughter went to a temple.

Suddenly, the daughter  shouted after seeing the pillars of Lions at the entrance of the temple, "run Dad, or those Lions will eat us ".

Dad consoled her saying "they are just statues and wont harm us"

Daughter replied: " if those lion statues wont harm us then how could statues of God give us blessings"*

The father wrote in his diary..."I am still speechless on my child's answer and have started searching for God in Humans instead of statues.

I didn't find God but I found humanity!!

So let us do our best to people who are around us......

 

Sat Sree Akal.

[harsharan000]

A rare conversation between Guru Nanak sahib  & Today's Sikh ( human ) . 
it's one of  the best message I have come across...

1. Sikh ( human ):- I can’t find free time. Life has become hectic.

Guru Nanak sahib :- Activity gets you busy. But productivity gets you free.

2.  Sikh ( human ) :- Why has life become complicated now?

Guru Nanak sahib   :- Stop analyzing life... It makes it complicated. Just live it.

3. Sikh ( human ) :- Why are we then constantly unhappy?

Guru Nanak sahib :- Worrying has become your habit. That’s why you are not happy.

4. Sikh ( human ) :- Why do good people always suffer?

 Guru Nanak sahib :- Diamond cannot be polished without friction. Gold cannot be purified without fire. Good people go through trials, but don’t suffer.
With that experience their life becomes better, not bitter.

5. Sikh ( human ) :- You mean to say such experience is useful?

 Guru Nanak sahib :- Yes. In every term, Experience is a hard teacher. It gives the test first and the lessons later.

6. Sikh ( human ) :- Because of so many problems, we don’t know where we are heading…

Guru Nanak sahib :- If you look outside you will not know where you are heading. Look inside. Eyes provide sight. Heart provides the way.

7. Sikh ( human ) :- Does failure hurt more than moving in the right direction?*

Guru Nanak sahib :- Success is a measure as decided by others. Satisfaction is a measure as decided by you.

8. Sikh ( human ) :- In tough times, how do you stay motivated?

 Guru Nanak sahib :- Always look at how far you have come rather than how far you have to go. Always count your blessing, not what you are missing.

9. Sikh ( human ) :- What surprises you about people?

 Guru Nanak sahib :- When they suffer they ask, "why me?" When they prosper, they never ask "Why me?"

10. Sikh ( human ) :- How can I get the best out of life?

Guru Nanak sahib :- Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.

11.Sikh ( human )  :- One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered.

Guru Nanak sahib :- There are no unanswered prayers. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Life is a mystery to  solve not a problem to resolve. Trust me. Life is wonderful if you know how to live.

Stay blessed and
Stay Happy Always.....!!!

[harsharan000]

 

 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

 

▪ Religion is not just one, there are hundreds.
▪ Spirituality is one.

▪ Religion is for those who sleep.
▪ Spirituality is for those who are awake.

▪ Religion is for those who need someone to tell them what to do and want to be guided.
▪ Spirituality is for those who pay attention to their inner voice.

▪ Religion has a set of dogmatic rules.
▪ Spirituality invites us to reason about everything, to question everything.

▪ Religion threatens and frightens.
▪ Spirituality gives inner peace.

▪ Religion speaks of sin and guilt.
▪ Spirituality says, "learn from error".
 
▪ Religion represses everything and in some cases it is false.
▪ Spirituality transcends everything, it brings you closer to your truth!

▪ Religion speaks of a God; It is not God.
▪ Spirituality is everything and, therefore, it is in God.

▪ Religion invents.
▪Spirituality finds.

▪ Religion does not tolerate any question.
▪Spirituality questions everything.

▪ Religion is human, it is an organization with men's rules.
▪ Spirituality is Divine, without human rules.

▪ Religion is the cause of divisions.
▪Spirituality unites.

▪ Religion is looking for you to believe.
▪ Spirituality you have to look for it to believe.

▪ Religion follows the precepts of a sacred book.
▪ Spirituality seeks the sacred in all books.

▪ Religion feeds on fear.
▪ Spirituality feeds on trust and faith.

▪ Religion lives in thought.
▪ Spirituality lives in Consciousness.

▪ Religion deals with doing.
▪ Spirituality has to do with the Self.

▪ Religion feeds the ego.
▪ Spirituality drives to transcend.

▪ Religion makes us renounce the world to follow a God.
▪ Spirituality makes us live in God, without renouncing us.

▪ Religion is a cult.
▪ Spirituality is meditation.

▪ Religion fills us with dreams of glory in paradise.
▪ Spirituality makes us live the glory and paradise here and now.

▪ Religion lives in the past and in the future.
▪ Spirituality lives in the present.

▪ Religion creates cloisters in our memory.
▪ Spirituality liberates our Consciousness.

▪ Religion makes us believe in eternal life.
▪ Spirituality makes us aware of Eternal Life.

▪ Religion promises life after death.
▪ Spirituality is to find God within during life and death.

-We are not human beings who go through a spiritual experience.-
-We are spiritual beings that we go through a human experience.-

 

Keeping the above points in mind, it can be well said: Sikhee´s purpose is to make us conscious spiritually wise.

 

Sat Sree Akal.

[harsharan000]

 

 

THE POWER IN BLESSING...

 

 Do you Bless or Curse?

When something goes wrong do you bless it or curse it?

Our natural reactions often lead us towards the negative, but that will only breeds more negativity.

Catherine Ponder in her book, _'The Prosperity Secrets of the Ages', talks about blessing people and the situation. It is a very powerful tool and brings instant success manifold. It is a very simple way to say a positive prayer for someone or something. One of Catherine Ponder’s favourites is “I bless you, and bless you for the goodness of God that is within you.”

You can create your own blessings.

When you are sending positive thoughts and vibrations towards a person they are much more likely to respond in kind. It always has much better results than cursing them.

When to use blessings?

1. Anytime when you are angry at someone or can’t seem to settle a disagreement with them. In Catherine’s book, she sites several examples of people being paid debts owed to them once they blessed the debtor and saw them as prosperous and able to pay.

2. Any part of your body that experiences pain or illness can be blessed. You can bless yourself and your own emotions too.

3. A boss or co-worker who makes work life difficult may stop harassing you, once you have blessed them and the situation.

4. Always bless your bills and your creditors and thank them for the service they provide. Once you start doing that, you will always have the money to pay them on time.

5. Bless your travel plans and see them going smoothly.

6. Bless your taxes and politicians. Politicians need to be blessed with the wisdom to make the best decisions for all who they serve. Blessing them will help much more than complaining about them.

7. Bless strangers you meet in the store. You can do this inside your head often as you shop.

8. Bless your relationships with your family, friends and significant others. Bless them when you feel they’ve hurt you. Relationships heal quickly after you stop worrying about the “wrong” someone had committed against you and begin blessing them.

You can bless any situation and if the act of blessing shifts how you feel about it, the changes it creates can seem magical.

The Forgiving State of Mind is a magnetic power for attractive good.

Emmet Fox said:

“Bless a thing and it will bless you. Curse a thing and it will curse you. If you put your condemnation upon anything in life, it will hit back at you and hurt you. If you bless a situation, it has no power to hurt you and even if it is troublesome for sometime, it will gradually fade out, if you sincerely bless it.”

Always remember that happy people are not mean or rude, so send your blessings to those who treat others cruelly. If they turn happy, they will change their behavior and everyone benefit. Even if things don’t suddenly shift with the person or situation being blessed, you will surely feel better once you have blessed them.

If you could only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world. - Emmet Fox

Have A Blessed Day !!!

[harsharan000]

 

[paapiman]

On 4/2/2015 at 8:03 AM, harsharan000 said:

A PAUSE for PRAYER

 

When in doubt, pause

when tired, pause

when angry, pause

when stressed, pause

 

And, whenever you pause

 

There must be a reason why Maharaaj has used the word "Pause" so many times in Gurbani.

ਰਹਾਉ

 

Bhul chuk maaf

[harsharan000]

 

 

[harsharan000]

 

 

Contact and connection

 

It was April 2009.   I was returning from Delhi by flight with a monk of the RamaKrishna Mission sitting next to me and a journalist from the US sitting on the third seat . The journalist started 
interviewing  the monk as planned earlier.
 
Journalist - Sir , in your last lecture, you  told us about Jogajog ( contact ) &  Sanjog (connection ). It's really confusing. Can you explain ?

The Monk smiled and apparently deviating from the question   asked the journalist:Are you from New York?
Journalist - Yeh...
Monk - Who are there at home ? 
The Journalist felt that the  Monk was trying to avoid answering his question since  this was a very personal and unwarranted question. Yet the  journalist  said:    "Mother has expired. Father is there. Three brothers and one sister. All married..."
The Monk, with a smile on his  face,   asked again: - "Do you talk to your father?"
The  journalist looked visibly annoyed...
The Monk  - "When did you talk to him last?" 
The journalist, supressing his annoyance said:  "May be a month ago."
The Monk:  "Do you brothers and sisters meet often ? When did you meet last as a family gathering?"

At this point, I saw  sweat on the forehead ok the journalist. I wondered who was conducting the interview, the Monk or the Journalist. It seemed that the   Monk was interviewing the Journalist.

With a sigh , the Journalist said: "We met last at Christmas two  years  ago."
The Monk: " How many days did you all stay together ?"

The Journalist ( wiping the sweat on his brow) said : "Three days..."
Monk: "How much time did you  spend with your Father, sitting right  beside him ?"
I saw the journalist looking  perplexed and embarassed and scribbling something on a paper...
The Monk:  "Did you have breakfast, lunch or dinner together ? Did you ask how he was? Did you ask how his days are passing after your mother's death ?"
I saw drops of tears coming out from the eyes of the journalist.

The Monk held the hand of the journalist and said: "Don't be embrassed, upset or sad. I am sorry if I have hurt you unknowingly...
But this is basically the answer to your question about "contact and connection ( jogajog and Sanjog)".  You have 'contact'  with your father but you don't have 'connection' with him. You are not connected to him. Connection is between heart and heart... sitting together , sharing meals and caring for  each other ; touching , shaking hands, having eye contact,  spending some time together...You  brothers and sisters have 'contact'  but you have no  'connection' with each other...."

The journalist wiped his eyes and said : "Thanks for teaching me a fine and unforgettable lesson"

This is the reality today. 
Whether at home or in the society everybody has lots of contacts but there is no connection. No communication...   . Everybody is in his or her own world. 

Let us not maintain just "contacts" but let us remain "connected" ; caring , sharing and spending time with all our dear ones.

 

[harsharan000]

 

 

[harsharan000]