I take no credit for this. Just came by in my inbox… tickled me enough to share it with all of you out there.

It is a slow day in the East Texas town of Madisonville. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich tourist from the East is driving through town.

He enters the only hotel in the sleepy town and lays a hundred dollar bill on the desk stating he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

As soon as the man walks up the stairs, the hotel proprietor takes the hundred dollar bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to pay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer then takes the $100 and heads off to pay his debt to the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the mayor, who has also been facing hard times and has lately had to offer services on credit.

The mayor then runs to the hotel and pays off his debt with the $100 to the hotel proprietor, paying for the rooms that he had rented when he brought clients to that establishment. The hotel proprietor then lays the $100 bill back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler from the East walks back down the stairs, after inspecting the rooms. He picks up the $100 bill and states that the rooms are not satisfactory…… Pockets the money and walks out the door and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However the whole town is now out of debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.That, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is conducting business today.

These were some questions that another IITian posed to me while I was traveling in Japan. Here are the questions and my views on them.

1) Why did God create us? What was the purpose of God in creating us?

Guruji says this is a very precious question. The question is very valuable so  keep it with you. Dont exchange it for an answer. Everytime you ask yourself this it starts a very beautiful process. Do not be in a hurry to get the answer. Recently in a satsang Guruji did answer this question. Here is the reply :

The purpose of life is to give love and gain knowledge and do service

2) Is soul a part of energy? As Krishna says in Gita, soul cannot be transformed. Whereas we know energy can be transformed from one form to another. If soul is not a part of energy, then what is it?

Really! where does Krishna say that soul cannot be transformed. In fact the soul goes through so many bodies. Just like energy is energy and it goes through various forms in the same way the soul IS and it goes through various forms. Even though electricity takes various forms like light in the light bulb, wind/movement in the electric fan etc it remains the same. In the same way though the soul takes many forms IT remains the same. Thus it is

Acchedyo’yam adaahyo’yam akledyo’shoshya eva cha;
Nityah sarvagatah sthaanur achalo’yam sanaatanah.

I find Guruji’s way of answering a question with an example or a story, irresistible. Its amazing how He makes the point without really stating it. Making it obvious, yet the realization has come from within… here is an example

Q: Why do people stop behaving like normal people as soon as they think Sri Sri will turn up the next moment?

G: I have no idea. (laughter) There is a story. It is very famous in India. There was a king called Vikram Aditya. He was known for his righteousness and piousness. He was a saint of a king. He had all the characters that were required of a king – wise man, saint, good human being, intelligent human being also. There are many good human beings, but they are not intelligent (laughter), and intelligent human beings who are not good. This king had all the aspects. He was very patient. After he died, there was nobody who could take his place. His seat was so powerful, nobody could get on the throne. After some time, the throne got buried. Many years passed. There was a garden, and in the garden, a small hillock. The gardener would go sit on the hillock and have a big smile on his face. From there he would invite everyone he would see on the road, the passers by. He would invite people to come and have fruit from the garden – mangoes, coconuts. When they came, he would take a stick and chase them. He would fight with them. ‘How dare you come to my garden? How dare you trespass?’ People would not understand his behaviour. Some thought he was mad. Others thought there must be something else. So, they decided to dig the hillock and find out. They dug the hillock and found the throne of the king. It had such an impact on him, the vibrations. If you sit in negative company, you feel negative. If you sit where there are doubts, then this is what you will feel. That´s why Buddha said ‘Sangha’. The company of people who are positive, focused on the higher goals of life, is important. If someone is always thinking money, money, or of cheating, those vibrations will have an impact on you.  If you sit in joyful company like here, you will feel joyful.

Some of these nuggets are just too good not to share . This is such an amazing analysis of one of the most basic of human emotions. Something that we often find hard to deal with. And here, the solution is so simple and yet effective. But to implement it needs the strength of the inner faculties and that is why the need for sadhana. The sadhana enables us to hang on to knowledge in the situations, and that’s why sadhana and knowledge go hand in hand.

Arosa, (Switzerland), May 10, (Sunday): It is easy to tell someone not to hate. How not to hate? Why does hatred come? Because you think that they are the cause of our misery. That is why problem, pain, and loss arise. When you get a glimpse of consciousness deep inside, the Self is in everyone, taking care of all events. It is I who is playing that role. Me, in that person. Hatred disappears from the world around you. One who sees the being in oneself and oneself in all beings is like a director, he plans the roles. So he does not hate the villain. Your approach to events and personalities changes. We are like rag dolls. There is one consciousness in all.
It is not only humans, all elements are part of that consciousness. Whether water vapor, ice or water, all are One. All five elements are nothing. All are a part of that something that is nothing. This is the heart sutra by Buddha. So all is nothing.

- An excerpt from HH Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s commentary on the Isha Vasya Upanishad

For all of us who like discussing…. here is a question.

Saints can foresee future of an individual as well as the world. now it is only possible if the events are pre destined and fixed? Then where is the free will of an individual? If everything is a Leela,  if everything is predestined to happen, then what is the crime of terrorists? A thought comes and the person who is so called terrorist in this Great stage called ‘world’ acts according to that thought and kills people who are destined to die anyhow.