Four Agreements Between ‘I’ and Self Can transform life

 

Four Agreements  Between 

‘I’ and 'Self' Can Transform Life

 The communication gap between self and I is the root cause of the most of the problems in life

By Mukesh Sharma

In this Age of Confusion and Confliction, the most of the people are perforce to live with afflicting fear, jealousy and self-reproach all through life. Willingly or unwillingly, one listens to others and concomitantly, acts and reacts; one seldom listens to one’s own voice. The communication gap between ‘self’ and ‘I’ is the root cause of the most of the problems in life. One of the American friends of this blogger has mentioned, interestingly, of ‘four agreements’ between ‘self’ and ‘I’ in her informal communiqué which this blogger wishes to share hereby with his valued readers, and sincerely believes that these under mentioned agreements, if followed with a resolute mind, have potential to transform one’s life.

Transformation of Life

1.       Be impeccable with your word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of word in the direction of truth and love. 

2.       Don’t make assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstanding, sadness and drama.  With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

3.       Don’t take anything personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to their opinion and action of others, you won’t be the victim of needless sufferings. 

4.       Always do your best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be difficult when you are tired as opposed to well-rested. Under an y circumstances, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Undoubtedly, a good harmony between conscious mind, subconscious mind and conscience brings veritable happiness and success in life with nothing to remorse and regret that further frees one from the tyranny of body and trivial desires.

 

Of Haunting Hunger

Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one way or the other; it’s a cog in the wheel of life

By Mukesh Sharma

No living creature can beat it. None can conquer it. It is invincible. It is master of all the forms of life. All are its slave. Each and every living being knows it and experiences it. Be it king or commoner, all serve it alike without question. Yet it is unquenchable. It is undisputed and unchallenged ruler of the living world. From tiny protozoan to huge mammals, all work for it. Like God, it is omnipresent and all pervasive. It is basis of life on the earth. Even mother Nature nourishes the world through it. Of course, its name is Hunger – the haunting Hunger.

The Haunting Hunger

 

All through millions of years, it is the hunger that has developed a simple monkey into a present day complicated man. It is the hunger that has taken a savage man from cramped cave to commodious castle, from ordinary house to spacious bungalow, from bullock-cart to space satellite, and surprisingly enough, from Adam and Eve to nearly 7 billion populace on the earth.

Hunger has amazing dualistic character. Hunger is life as well as death – a crying baby is born with hunger and a decrepit man dies with hunger for ‘heaven’ on death-bed. Hunger is love as well as hate  – hunger for more and more ‘my’ – my kids, my house, my money, etc. is ‘love’ and hunger for dislike is hate. Hunger is progress as well as regress – hunger for betterment results in progress and hunger for other’s possessions leads to regress. Hunger is knowledge as well as ignorance – hunger to know the secrets of nature is knowledge and hunger for ego-serving is ignorance. Hunger is devotion as well as distraction – hunger for goal is devotion and hunger for the gratification of senses is distraction. Hunger is a man as well as woman – hunger of a man for a woman-body is man, hunger of a woman for a complete man is woman. Hunger is God as well as human – hunger beyond self is God and hunger for self is human. Like the imagination of a mind, hunger can be expanded to infinity and can be shrunk to a size of an atom. Hunger is both constructive and destructive.

Through human perspective, hunger can be divided into four categories:

1.       Physical hunger

2.       Psychological hunger

3.       Intellectual hunger

4.       Spiritual hunger

Physical hunger can be described as a natural or biological hunger – hunger for food and hunger for sex. It is common to all animals including man. Food is first priority and sex is next. Food is must to live and sex for the furtherance of progeny – both essential for the perpetuation of life on the earth.

Psychological hunger is a distorted hunger emanating from unbridled desires. A man turns epicurean or hedonistic seeking sensuous satisfaction – wine, woman and wealth – an insatiable lust. Fire can’t be extinguished with fire. The uncontrolled ‘hunger’ for wine, woman and wealth has been the cause of the downfall and doom of wealthiest emperor/knight/regimes.

Intellectual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of the secrets of nature; it leads to discoveries and inventions. Credit for all kinds of advancement in human society so far goes to intellectual hunger only. It is this hunger that has produced great many philosophers, writers, poets and scientists -  Aristotle, Shakespeare, Kalidaas, Albert Einstein, Stephn Hawkings –  the list is very long.

Spiritual hunger is the hunger for the knowledge of unseen and unknown super natural power so named God. What is God? Where does God live? How to meet the God? All these intriguing questions have been nagging man since the advent of man on the earth. However, this spiritual hunger has blessed the world with Lord Rama - God incarnate, Lord Krishna - God incarnate, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad and Guru Nanak; it has bestowed on timeless scriptures like The Upanishad, The Gita, The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, The Bible,  The Holy Quran, The Guru Granth Sahib.

Right from birth to death, hunger continues to haunt man in one or the other. Hunger is the cog in the wheel of life.

Life, a Game of Plus and Minus

 

Life, a Game of Plus 

and Minus

While revolving around the relatives, friends and circumstances, ever rising and falling wants, emotions and desires come to the fore in the life of the worldly man

By Mukesh Sharma

With the birth of a baby, so many people are added to its life – mother and father, brother and sisters, uncles and aunties, granny and grandpa – all near and distant relatives. Man comes on the earth with relative relationship.

Life, a Game of Plus and Minus

As the child grows up, addition continues with the inclusion of buddies and pals. When one reaches the youth, the circle is further widened with the beginning of a new family – wife and kids, and all the relatives of wife’s side.

While revolving around the relatives, friends and circumstances, ever rising and falling wants, emotions and desires come to the fore in the life of the worldly man.

Bare necessities for life constitute wants – food, clothes and house. Food is indispensable. Clothes are imperative to cover up the nakedness in human society. And house, what a castle is to a king, a house is to a man. Except a few rich heirs/heiresses and of course some blessed one, majority of people continues to live in wants till the bitter end. Man is responsible for the woes of teeming millions. The hell is man’s own creation. However, the fortunate ones are able to add up, by sheer luck, some succeed to live on borderline. But the majority of the unblessed people slip into the abyss of subtraction. Downhill gravity, plummets them to bottom where they are lost without trace. 

Destiny has its own queer ways. Some rise by gravity and some fall by levity. Rules of game differ from person to person.

Each man has its own world; he lives and dies in his own world. There are seas of emotions; there is jungle of thoughts; there are mountains of ego; there are rivers of selfishness; there is endless space of ignorance. Material body keeps floating freely towards unseen  unknown destination till the last breath.

Sea of emotions witnesses endless surge of ebbing and flowing waves – anger, disgust, fear, happiness and sadness – breaking at the beach. Depending on circumstances, rise and fall goes on. Man is essentially a humble creature of circumstances; he is born in circumstances, lives in circumstances and dies in circumstances. Even the God-incarnate Lord Rama and Lord Krishna couldn’t go beyond their live circumstances. The sun stirs the world, circumstances move life.

Jungle of thoughts is dense and deep. Man keeps wandering in it for the whole life. With the blessings of God a few are able to spot trees bearing fruits and also find their way out of the jungle like Buddha. Otherwise, the most of the people are lost in the jungle of thoughts with no footprints.

Mountains of ego stand tall. Moneyed and mighty are proud of their dizzy heights. They enjoy standing atop and feel that even God is within their reach. Like a frog of well, illusion lives in its own world. Mountain of ego is transient. Sooner or later it melts away like a glacier. Even the ego of demon king Ravana couldn’t last long.

River of selfishness originates from self; it flows along the life right from celebratory birth of self to crematory death of self. Self can’t survive without selfishness.

Space of ignorance is vast and boundless. Knowledge increases ignorance. What one knows is negligible in comparison to what one doesn’t know. Man is born unconsciously. Day of his death is not known to him. And he doesn’t know how to live. He remains blissfully ignorant of himself life-long.

Man is a bundle of desires. Opportunity gives rise to thoughts, and thoughts give rise to desires. Circumstantial desires cease to exist with the end of circumstances. Born in idle time, placatory desires have no basis, but a sole purpose to entertain the self -    hallucination hype. Such desires have short life –  born every moment and dies the next  – come and go continues.

Thus the game of plus and minus goes on and on in a spontaneous process. What cajoling life gives, callous time takes away one by one – childhood, youth, relatives, friends, old age, and finally man reaches the deathbed where the death stakes its claim on the mortal body. Journey of life starts from zero and ends in zero from aloofness to aloofness. Through all additions and subtractions, life comes to naught. Life is a game of plus and minus.