Q: Can the mind continue its process of evolution between lifetimes as well? Does it need a body and situations for its evolution?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Yes, it needs a body. That is why the human body is very precious.
You know, in day to day life, when you do things, sometimes you lose energy. When the energy goes down, the mind also goes down. Sometimes you wonder, why is my mind going down? Many people ask this question.
You think, ‘I feel so depressed and down. Nothing feels interesting’. A sort of, (the mind)feeling down, happens to you.
This is because of a few reasons:
One of the reasons is Time. There is a particular time in everyone’s life cycle, where for no particular reason the energy of the mind goes down.
The second reason is, too much thinking and too many desires. When the mind is clogged with too much ambition and too many desires, it will definitely give rise to depression.
The mind goes down because it loses all its energy in just thinking and thinking, and dreaming, and wishing for this and that. So too many desires causes the mind to go down. That is why vairagya (dispassion) is essential to counter depression. If you have dispassion, you cannot be depressed. The lack of dispassion causes depression. So too much ambition and too many desires drains your mind of energy, and you feel depressed.
The third reason is when energy is low in the body; when the body is weak. When you do not have much energy, or when you are sick, then the mind goes down.
Associating with the body’s vitality, energy and fluids, the mind becomes low. It can happen through some sickness, or because of a wrong diet.
Sometimes you eat some food that does not suit your system, or you eat too much, then also you feel depressed, and this is a vicious circle. People eat more because they are depressed, and then they get depressed because they ate too much.
So, if you feel a little low on energy, or depression, for a few days stop stuffing yourself with food. Eat some light food, or fruits, and suddenly you will feel your energy go up. Don’t fast too much, again that is not good. Fasting is good to a certain limit. So, eating light food helps uplift mental energy.
The fourth reason is, total inactiveness. If you are too active, then you get depressed. Or if you are totally inactive, and don’t do anything; or do things only for yourself without a mission or a vision to do something for others (lack of a seva attitude), definitely brings depression.
That is why in the ancient days, in the ashrams, people were always pushed to do some service. Go to the slums, sweep the floor, or water the plants, and keep things neat and tidy.
Keep yourself busy. If you keep yourself engaged in some activity, that is also another way to counter depression.
So, here, either someone who is too outgoing, or someone who does not do any work physically, and sits all the time engaging in mental circus, get depressed. So the middle path is the way to come out of it.From time to time, go into deep meditation, and then come out and dynamically get involved in activity, without thinking ‘what will I get from this’. Whatever is necessary to be done in the world, do it. What the time and place requires you to do, doing that, is service. This will also help you to uplift your mental energy.
The fifth thing is, you are all singing, dancing, listening to the chanting, sitting for the Poojas, all this also uplifts your energy.
Now you cannot say, I only want to sit in the Pooja and go on chanting, and do only this. No, it is not going to work. Or, I will eat as much as I want, and then I will come and sit in the Pooja, that won’t work. You must always have that balance between activity and rest. The right amount of food, the right amount of activity, and the right amount of service (service is necessary) is essential. When you follow this, then all the sorrow runs away. When you follow these conditions, then you get united with the universal spirit (Yoga happens), and then sorrow runs away and you smile!

this is one of the best way to calm down when you feel anger rising rapidly Anger is nothing but misdirected energy says Dr Rachna Singh, lifestyle management expert at Artemis Health Institute, Gurgaon. So before you throw a cup at your partner or chase the car that nicked you while overtaking from the wrong side, start breathing slowly and deeply and count to 100. This will keep you from doing anything dramatic. “Deep breathing for 2-3 minutes at this time will help distract you and bring adrenalin levels down,” adds Dr Singh.

 HAVE WATER/JUICE/CHOCOLATE: Sipping water when you are really angry helps calm you down, says clin- ical psychologist and psychotherapist Seema Hingorrany “Many people feel irritable when they are hungry so eating a piece of chocolate helps provide your body with some food. Chocolate also activates feel-good hormones, so two pieces might do wonders tor your mood.” Sipping water or juice also helps distract you and your mind moves from negative to positive thoughts.

 CALL A TIME OUT: sometimes, in an argument with a friend or partner, you may say something in the heat of the moment that you will certainly regret later. At these times, it is best if you remove yourself from the situation. “Excuse yourself, wash your face and return to the discussion after 5-10 minutes. When you return you wn find yourself much cooler and calmer and more capable of dealing with the situation calmly,” says Dr Singh. She adds that this technique works well also while dealing with kids throwing tantrums or teenagers who flare up at their parents. “Send them to their bedrooms for 10 minutes. The kids cool down considerably,” she says.

 VISUALISE: When you feel the anger rising, visualise something that calms you down. “It could be a soothing waterfall, a calm sea or even walking on cold grass,” says Hingorrany “Even a symbol like the Buddha will work because it helps shift your mind from irritability to calmness.” You can also chant a mantra that will help bring you out of the negative spiral you have entered. If you are a controlling personality you are more likely to explode in anger than if you are not. So it will also help to consciously remember that there are some things you can control and some things you cannot.

VENTILATE: This simply means that whenever you are really angry about something, before reacting violently to the cause of that anger or instead of letting it fester inside you, call a friend, partner or parent to vent your feelings. “The saying ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ means something. When you discuss something you are angry about with a friend or partner, you reiterate your thought process aloud. This helps you calm down and also manage to see things more clearly”.

BY colleen braganza

Source : HT

What should you do with rest of your life? About three thousand years ago, a Jewish king named Solomon aired his opinion on the subject. As he put it, he “wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives”.
   Solomon was an interesting character, and he had a lot going for him. He was intelligent. Indeed, this sageking still has the reputation of being the “wisest man who ever lived”.
   He also had the means to do practically anything he wanted to do. In his old age, Solomon found time to reflect on his lifelong experiences. And he passed his thoughts down in writing. He starts off by telling us that everything in life is meaningless.
   “I know, because I have seen it all. You name it, I’ve done it. I not only did it, but I did it in a big time, kingly fashion. I denied myself nothing, nothing at all. But looking back on it now, I can tell you none of it amounted to a hill of beans.”
   “What do you think is worthwhile in life? The pursuit of pleasure? I had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines. I had music from men and women singers; all the wine I could drink; and a palace full of people falling all over themselves doing everything they could think of to get in my good graces.
   “Sure, it is enjoyable up to a point. But when you get everything you want whenever you want it, you quickly discover how meaningless pleasure really is.
   “Here is what I’ve learned: Whenever you seek pleasure, pleasure eludes you. The only way you may find pleasure is by seeking something else first. It could be nothing more than paying someone a sincere compliment, or giving someone a hand with an unpleasant task.
   “The idea is that when you least expect it, happiness suddenly bubbles up like a well inside of you. You don’t find pleasure; pleasure finds you. Pursuing pleasure is like chasing after the wind.
   “If not pleasure, then what? Wealth? Do you think you should dedicate your life to the pursuit of wealth? I had houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, fruit trees, reservoirs watering groves of trees, slaves, more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem, horses and chariots, and more silver and gold than anyone can imagine. I had it all. But if money and things could buy happiness, then I would have been the happiest man that ever lived.
   “But what did I discover? Just this: Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. A rich man doesn’t even sleep well at night. He’s too worried about his money.
   “Money has its uses, but don’t lose perspective. We were born naked, and when we die, we’re going to take with us just what we brought into this world. Whatever we acquire will be left to someone who had not worked for it.”
   If neither pleasure nor wealth are worthwhile pursuits, how about the scholarly pursuit of knowledge?
   “Oh yes, I spent a great deal of time in study. I learned everything I could about every subject under the sun. That’s how I got my reputation for wisdom. It didn’t fall out of a tree, you know. What did I find out? Only this: The more you learn, the more you discover there is to know. Even the brightest of us are ignorant of many things. Certainly, wisdom is better than foolishness, but remember, in a few years, both the wise man and the fool wind up in the grave. Before long both are forgotten.”
   So, pleasure, wealth, and knowledge all have limited value. What’s left? Work? “Yes, I worked. I built houses, planted vineyards, gardens, parks, fruit trees, and groves of trees. I delighted in my work. That was my reward.
   “Of course, it was merely a temporary ‘feel-good-about-it’ sort of thing. In the long run, all of our toil is useless. Whatever you make, you can’t take with you. And in due course, whatever we create will be torn down or destroyed and soon forgotten.”
   So, the wise man threw a wet blanket over most of the things people devote themselves to today. Then what should we do? How should we spend our brief time on earth?
   The answer is simple: “A man can do nothing better than to eat, drink and find satisfaction in work. Enjoy life with the one you love. Be happy and do good as long as you live. Whatever you do, do it with all the might because you never know when life might end.
   “While we are young, enjoy life as much as possible. But don’t forget, God will judge everything we do. The years slip by quickly. Infants turn into youths, youths into adults, adults into middle age, and middle age into old age. It doesn’t take long at all.
   “All too soon, the troubles and afflictions of age sap the strength and weaken the mind. Then death calls your number and body returns to the ground from where it came, and soul returns to God who gave it.”
   Solomon concludes his advice with this warning: “God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked.”
   Has Solomon’s 3,000-year-old advice stood the test of time?
   Some things have changed. Primarily, we have more gadgets these days than they had back in his time. But our basic choices remain the same. We can dedicate our lives to pleasure, money or possessions, or knowledge, or work. Then again when we reflect on the brevity of life, the certainty of death, and the promise of judgment, we might decide Solomon knew what he was talking about.
   But what about God judging the good and wicked? The moral law certainly implies that God cares about us, what we do with our lives, and the choices we make. Also our longing for justice, often frustrated in this life, leads us to believe, we will get whatever we are due in the world to come.
   By the end of the book, Solomon reaches a different conclusion: Life has a point after all. Our sojourn can best be described as a sort of boot camp or school of hard knocks. We are here to learn. Learn what? Learn that pleasures, money, possessions, knowledge, and work all have only limited value. None of these pursuits should be the focal point of our lives.
   Our primary task is to develop character, that is, a certain type of character. Earth, we discover, is nothing more than a large training centre for character. Those who graduate have learned their lessons on: fair play, unselfishness, humility, courage, faithfulness, honesty, truthfulness, and treating others with respect.

 By : Jerry Boone

Source : sunday times

Life is full of risks. There is a certain element of risk taking that is inherent in every venture we undertake whether it is in business, or in marriage, in a profession or in athletics. We never have complete security within ourselves. For we know that every moment we live, our lives are in constant danger. A stray bullet may hit us, a car emerging out of nowhere may crush us, and a slip of the foot may result in our death. So life is unpredictable. We get no warning, we are afforded no red alert, and we get no second chance at life.
And we might as well face the fact that our life is a dying life. As soon as we are born, we begin to die and every day we manage to somehow survive, we have only gained another step towards our grave. Each morning when we wake up from a refreshing sleep, we have died a little during the night. As we go through the streets of the city, we are dying a little. As we go about our business on the job, we are dying a little. In essence, we are living in the land of the dying.
It will help you to accept life on its own terms rather than struggle against it. Identify and move from
the limiting and conflicting, either/or,black or white,all or nothing illusory perception of life to an attitude that is open to all aspects of reality. We do this by accepting life on its own terms

What we have created individually and collectively is a world where we believe we are each a separate entity from one another and separate from the very planet that sustains us.
   Because we believe we are separate, we go by the philosophy of “I have to look out for myself,” therefore, i will do whatever it takes to ensure i have enough of whatever i desire. If my desires impinge on your needs, my desires take precedence, because i am better than you. That is how our world is run today.
   We believe in a system that says i can go outside myself into the physical world and do the things it takes to provide me with the possessions that i lack to make my life better and make me happy.
   For too many of us this system does not work. Material possessions and being better does not seem to bring us inner peace and happiness. These concepts are elusive when you try to achieve them by going outside yourself into the physical world.
   Think about this: Inner peace. Just the very sound of it tells us where to go. You can’t find it outside of yourself; you have to go inside. You have to go to your inner source. The source that gives all of us unbelievable resources, strength and guidance is present in all of us to use on our life journey. We need merely go inside ourselves to find it.
   The key is to go inside yourself and reconnect with your spirit. You see, we are all made up as a threepart being; mind, body and spirit. We are born into this world in perfect balance.
   As we begin learning the ways of our journey we try to live in this balance. But when we encounter the external world, we find that our parents, teachers, and friends, with the
best of intentions, impart on us their interpretations of this physical world, along with all their rules and expectations.
   The spiritual side of us does not conform to these external parameters, but eventually we prioritise our lives around the external rules and expectations placed upon us by others and begin to lose the balance of our spirit in our day-to-day living. We become more and more controlled by the mind and the body.
   So the mind, controlled largely by the ego, and the body, which we identify as our entity, are subject to the physical world with the total ability to create and adapt to it as we like; that is, with “free will.”
   And adapt we do. We buy into the separation mentality that says, “My body and existence is different and separate from yours, and so I must do what is best for me.”
   Only by bringing the spirit back into the equation to create a balanced mind-body-spirit being do we come to understand that we are not separate at all, but that we are all one. Because we are one, what we do to another, we do to ourselves.
   It is the wonderful golden rule that we all know, but which we rarely live by: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
   Wow! Can you imagine what our world would be like if we actually lived by the Golden Rule?
   You can’t live by the golden rule if you thinkthat you are separate from everyone else. Only within the paradigm of oneness can the concept of the golden rule be achieved. This is what nuts and bolts Spirituality is all about.
   When you change the way you live your life you begin to influence others in the way they live their lives. It is in this conscious change that we collectively influence how the human race evolves.
   We are at a crossroads on this planet. We have created the ability to make this planet unlivable to the human life form. If we continue down the path that we are on now we could see this happen in the not too distant future.
   Our present belief system has taken us to this point in our existence. Only a change in our belief system will determine whether we will continue on a path of destruction or allow us to follow another path toward a more enlightened existence.
   You are totally at choice as to which belief system serves you. You can believe that you are separate from all things or you can believe that you are one with all things.
   You are always at choice in what you believe and how you create your life. Nothing has changed.
   The key is to be aware of and understand what serves you, and what does not serve you. It is then up to you to create your life by making conscious choices as to what serves you best.
   The choice is yours. It always has been and always will be.