Harih Om!

Hi All,

I returned on 8th July and am slowly getting into the busy life-style.  I am sure quite many of you are enjoying the summer.  The summer in India was very severe.  In our last issue, we started the discussion about vibrancy pouring or flowing out of an individual.  I am also sure you got the meaning of vibrancy correctly. We are not talking about just the physical body.  Physical body is just one of the plus points that you all have.  We should allow vibrancy to manifest not only in the physical body, but also in our thinking patterns. There should be a vibrant emotional and intellectual personality.

Well, this does not mean that all of you should go about trying to accomplish that by doing something.  You need not struggle doing a lot of things, as vibrancy is something natural.  It is there very much in each one of you.  What happens is, we just do not allow the vibrancy to manifest.   Well, let us take an example to see how much vibrancy is there in us.  Let us actualize the situation at home.  How many of us are at home with ourselves and allow the creative capabilities or powers to manifest?  I am sure there definitely are many people who feel bound or trapped and are unhappy.  I am becoming very concerned about young people and that is the reason why we brought in the topic of home.

Well, those of you who are vibrant and at home with oneself in your homes, are you the same even outside, I mean with your friends, strangers, etc.?  Some may say that by nature a person is introvert or reserved, shy or whatever.  All said and done, does not this problem sap away the energies and vibrancy that you have?  Well, if there is some defect in the body that one cannot remove, we have to accept the fact.  In majority of cases, it is not natural, but a picked up state. I see this in every community, irrespective of colour, religious background and regional influences.  What happens is, we start a futile and useless battle (shadow fighting), where even if one is the winner, one is the loser. Do you all understand this?  Even if you win, have you not gained that through sheer fight, over which you must have wasted a lot of energy, is it not?

Well, how to come out of it?  We start dreaming and spin out dream after dream.  We have all become ‘dream manufacturing units,’ only we do not have people to purchase our products.  There is nothing wrong about dreams.  Dreams are scary for many and there are few who are afraid of letting these go. We shall discuss ‘dreams,’ sometime later, but let us resolve the question of ‘coming out of this situation.’  This situation is so tense, neither are you happy in your house, nor the people living there, at home. Either your parents seek miracle-makers to waive the problem or you start dreaming for a way out.  This very dream makes living miserable, for we will have to live & interact in the real world not the dream one. Well, stars, fortune, luck, may have a part to play, but then, that occupies just a very insignificant portion.  Then what or who is the cause?  WE are the cause and let it sink inside ‘WE ARE THE CAUSE – YOU ARE THE CAUSE.’

At least, if I have to speak from your side, I say you are the cause. This may sound surprising and strange, for you must have by now thought that at least Swamiji was solidly behind you, but the same Swamiji is blaming you.  Well, I am definitely with you and am not at all blaming you either.  My interest is only that you objectively see this fact and learn from it, but not condemn yourself, as all are sailing in the same boat.  Is not seeing the truth of a problem, coming out of it?

We will have to learn the art of looking at issues or problems without condemning ourselves.  Many people do it by becoming insensitive or thick-skinned, as people put it.  This insensitivity turns to be a big obstacle in our living.  We shall see that sometime later.  Every problem can have many sides to it.  In a simple problem between two people, there are primarily two sides, though other facets could also be there.  Can we see that we are the cause for our part or side of the problem?  Well, what we do or say, can trigger problems?  If we can look into it objectively, invariably our rigidity creates a problem.  When I say rigidity is the cause for a problem, I do not mean that one should keep changing and there should be fickleness in one.  What I mean by rigidity is resistance that one offers to events/happenings.  We decide how things, events, friends, parents, brothers or sisters should or ought to be.  Having decided, without in the least thinking that is purely our expectation, and is just a desire, we work and eagerly wait for it to happen that way alone.  Have we ever seen the amount of energy we spend to forcibly modify or alter things and people?  In the end, what happened?  We succeeded in destroying the natural beauty in the others and ourselves as well.  More of this in the next issue.

With love,

Swamiji