I have always wondered — is it us looking at them, or they seeing us
as trapped behind bars, creatures of habit, whimsical, flippant
beings who are tossed on emotional rollercoasters, never knowing what
it is to just sit back, chill out over a delicious meal and ponder on
questions about life, the universe and everything?
This blog post is in response to Questions asked by the blog readers. Checkout, ask questions and Questions and Answers List.
omg..3 in one day?? 😮 😮 😮
this really a great topic. viveka chudaamani by adi sankaracharya speaks a lot about this topic. the seer and the seen .
the thought that inspired me seeing ur blog is that.
the animal in the cage has no idea of the fresh air, freeedom that is beyond this cage . like wise, iam tooo of no knowledge of the said magnanimity of my being and the greatest freedom that iam entitled to and am well equipped for .
the direction of my life is changing towards taking responsibilty in the social world and meet and live up to the demands of the social world.
know not , if i will be able to grow up like king janaka.
my only trust is in my HOLY ONE, my MASTER. IN whome i trust that HE will hold my hand tightly in all times and lead me through HIS paths to be at UNION WITH HIM.
GOD BLESS US ALL IN HIS HOLY GRACE!
No Vikram Bhaiya… I think after coming into the art of living…not even these macaques can see us trapped… I’m as free and as relaxed as anyone could wish to be, living in the shadow of my dear Guruji.
Jai Gurudev
Love
Sakshi
then why so much stress on the emotional quotient and ‘turn off your intellect’ in the art of living?
Strange — I never saw it that way — rather AOL to me was always a way of allowing my intellect to work more keenly by freeing it from stress and prejudice. I think AOL is one of the easiest courses to do, but The Art of Living is not easily learnt 🙂 and many feel that just by doing courses or attending programs they have learnt it all, without bothering to really apply it to every aspect of their lives. I would say — sharpen your intellect, have a stress free mind, open the doors of your creativity and develop your intuition; and AOL provides the ideal tools to achieve this — provided you apply them.
JGD
V
Hi Anonymous,
I have been through few art of living courses and never felt emotional quotient, rather the blocked and repressed emotion are being seen released, making the individual free from those repressed emotions they are unaware of. i found my spiritual emotions (if i can write that) grow while doing the courses or just being in presence of Sri Sri Ravishankar or teachers like Vikram.
‘turn off the intellect’, the phrase looks too mismatching with this post. If intellect is not developed, who would care to write a post like this?
Absolutely true bhaiya.
And I think it is our daily sadhana (Sudershan Kriya) that helps us imbibe the knowledge of the course and implement it in daily life.
and this perticulaaar topic is so very interesting that i come again and again to seee, if some more things could be comprehended out of it.
i also heard that bondage is an illusion and like wise freedom is also an illusion
wy not add some more of ur precious thoughts about this vikram.
.
Hi Alpesh,
I have been through quite a few of the art of living courses myself and I totally agree to you in that sense. The course and especially the kriya helped me take off even the remotest of tensions or stress prevailing in my mind, heart and so on…absolutely light!
What I meant by ‘emotional quotient’ was that why so much of stress on emotional attachment with the organization. Why dialogues like- if you question us then your karmas of 5000 years will be deleted and stuff like that. If I am asking you a question politely, answer it simply. I understand that over questioning and over use of intellect becomes a burden. But why the need to discourage questioning and dialogue?
In fact, somehow one tends to think that this curiosity and thinking to a certain extent will be encouraged in the organization because as I look at it –things go wrong when people suspend their common sense and stop listening to their hearts..look a the young well educated boys turning towards terrorism-that apparently happens as they stop questioning their scriptures altogether and start blindly following the interpretation of their scriptures as is offered to them by a supposed religious leader.
‘turn off the intellect’, the phrase looks too mismatching with this post-true. That’s why I commented on it! It’s a phrase consistently used by the AOL teacher I have had an opportunity to interact. To me it sounds weird. ‘sharp intellect’ as used by vikram bhaiya makes complete sense to me..
Anyways, all this is off the course. The course itself is so good that it cannot be bound in words…
Anonymous 🙂
story of a washerman and the goat…
every day the washerman puts the washed clothes on the goat and takes them to the respective houses to give the clothes and to collect the used ones.
the goat eats the grasss, drinks water, carries the clothes and moves in the indicated directions.
At night, before going to bed, he ties the goat with a rope and pulls again and makes sure that the goat is well tied and will not move away. rest assured that he has bound the goat, he goes to sleep ..
now the question is,
who is in bondage ??
Thrilling answer to be noted !
2. may be, we can also term bondage to be living in the past and freedom to be living in the present, where every moment is new.
our happiness,if based on the responses of the world is called bondage or dependence. In this stage, the person is more of emotion and mismatches the right or complete functionning of intellect. The intolerable pain of emotions does not allow the proper fuctionning of the intellect and causes the suppression repression
of the emotions.
the person gets so much loaded that neither can he live happily with suppressed emotions nor can he fuction properly with out the clarity of intellect and be a successfull person, either with in the world or with in the man.
This a beautifull part of art of living that one is observed at in sakshibhav and allow the individuals repressed emotions to be expressed in their own forms and leave them freee.. aint it called emotional cleansing.
then comes the recognition of the happiness with in, which is called as Independence.the perception of the world is in more clarity, he handles and uses his emotions leading to better understanding of the world in the Moment. Devoid of the worldly responses, with clarity of thought and emotional intelligence, person as a whole, acts in the moment .
one more lovely thing is that.
we see the panchatatvas with our senses.
there is also pervading some unseen presence every where, senses can not comprehend.
Only with the GRACE OF THE MASTER, one can feel in their being.
every moment of the day energies are different .
it is very true that devi and devas come on to earth during pradosham . we can feel the atmosphere.
the atmosphere during GURU PURNIMA , the feel, thoughts in the mind every thing is so very special, unlike the other times and days.
OUR MASTER GRACEFULLLY LEADS US THROUGH THIS WONDERFULL JOURNEY TO BLISS ETERNAL !!!
IT IS INDEED A WONDERFULL JOURNEY , ONLY POSSIBLE WITH THE MASTER .
LUCKY ARE WE TO HAVE HIM ! BLESS ME GURUJI,TO BESTOW TOTAL LOVE AND FAITH AT UR HOLY FEET. HE LEADS US THROUGH IN HIS GRACE AND BLESSNINGS ON US !
The world is not only that, which our 5 senses percieve.
there are the unseen forces that govern the world of 5 senses. the person who understands this lives relaxedly and with greater understanding. he has already put a step into the world beyond the senses.
>I have always wondered — is it us >looking at them, or they seeing us
>as trapped behind bars, creatures of >habit, whimsical, flippant
>beings who are tossed on emotional >rollercoasters, never knowing what
>it is to just sit back, chill out >over a delicious meal and ponder on
>questions about life, the universe >and everything?
Douglas adams had a similar one on dolphins. here it goes
It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.
i love your blogs btw..-suresh