Daily Hindu Wisdom

[Green Gaia]

Every selfless act…is born from Brahman, the eternal, infinite Godhead. He is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law … Whoever violates it, indulging his senses for his own pleasure and ignoring the needs of others, has wasted his life. But those who realize the Self are always satisfied. Having found the source of joy and fulfillment, they not longer seek happiness from the external world. They have nothing to gain or lose by any action; neither people nor things can affect their security.

-Bhagavad Gita 3:15-18

 

[Green Gaia]

Although the limitations of the world disappear for one who knows the Self, they are not destroyed, because they continue to exist for others.

-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 2:22

 

[Green Gaia]

A jubilant heart rejoices upon seeing
those who give without scoffing or scorning.

Deprived of beggars, this vast and verdant Earth would
become uncharitable, a ball for the play of wooden puppets.

-Tirukkural 106: 1057-1058

 

[Green Gaia]

I am boundless space.
The world is a clay pot.

This is the truth.

There is nothing to accept,
Nothing to reject,
Nothing to dissolve.

-Ashtavakra Gita 6:1

 

[robtex]

Every selfless act…is born from Brahman, the eternal, infinite Godhead. He is present in every act of service. All life turns on this law … Whoever violates it, indulging his senses for his own pleasure and ignoring the needs of others, has wasted his life. But those who realize the Self are always satisfied. Having found the source of joy and fulfillment, they not longer seek happiness from the external world. They have nothing to gain or lose by any action; neither people nor things can affect their security.

-Bhagavad Gita 3:15-18

One year I was working a register part-time in a department store and a guy came in. He was 35ish and a computer programmer making a six figure salary. I knew this because he talked while he was looking for clothes. It was early December and I asked him about his xmas plans. He said that he was going to some european (forgot which one) company for the holidays. I said to see family. He said no that he was a computer geek and that he really didn't have friends or family. Every year to celebrate xmas he picks a different country and travels there alone.

What he was doing wasn't malious bad, evil uncaring or the like but it wasn't fullfilling to him either which he told me. This wisdom as simple as it sounds could have been a cure for him in a lot of ways..working at a soup kitchen on xmas or with a community project maybe he could have found the connection that his high salary couldn't buy and maybe these passages taken from the bhagvad are one true way to happiness when we sit down and qualify them as they relate to real life.

In a more personal experience I was dumped 4 years ago by a woman I wanted to marry. She made the breakup as painful for me as she could, to which she later admitted to shield her from the guilt she recieved from doing so. I at the time would get really angry and tell her I have to go (before I got mad) and realized that this was very unhealthy for me and sooner or later I was going to go off the deep end with jeaously and anger. So I made a personal recovery package for myself. One part of it, that relates to the passage here, is that I decided to do one nice thing for someone everyday without an expected return.

I got really lucky because, a guy at my night job had just lost his license and car following a fender bender he had had while drunk. He got a DWI probation but was in grad school. I, as part of my plan, was his chaffuer for about 6 months taking him to and from work. We became friends and he moved on from my job and is not completeing his degree. He came back to me a few weeks ago and said, he didn't know if I knew this but my help kept him from losing a semester to a year at school and helped him through his DWI probation. Even if he had not told me that I learned how much pleasure there is in giving without the expectation of anything in return.

 

[Green Gaia]

Thanks for sharing that, robtex.



Said Uddalaka to Shvetaketu:
"As bees suck nectar from many a flower
And make their honey one, so that no drop
Can say, 'I am from this flower or that,'
All creatures, though one, know not they are
that One.
There is nothing that does not come from
him.
Of everything he is the inmost Self.
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that."

-Chandogya Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

Said Uddalaka to Shvetaketu:
"In the beginning was only Being,
One without a second.
Out of himself he brought forth the cosmos
And entered into everything in it.
There is nothing that does not come from him.
Of everything he is the inmost Self.
He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.
You are that, Shvetaketu; you are that."

-Chandogya Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

If you desire liberation,
But you still say "mine,"
If you feel you are the body,
You are not a wise man or a seeker.

You are simply a man who suffers.

-Ashtavakra Gita 16:10

 

[Green Gaia]

Among the wealthy, compassionate men claim the richest wealth,
For material wealth is possessed by even contemptible men.

Find and follow the good path and be ruled by compassion.
For if the various ways are examined, compassion will prove the means to liberation.

-Tirukkural 25: 241-242

 

[Green Gaia]

As a flawless crystal absorbs what is placed before it, so the settled mind is transparent to whatever it meets--the seer, the process of seeing, or the object seen.

-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, 1:41

 

[Green Gaia]

..let the scriptures be your guide in what to do and what not to do. Understand their teachings; then act in accordance with them.

-Bhagavad Gita 16:24

 

[Green Gaia]

Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart--a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water--I partake of that love offering. Whatever you do, make it an offering to me--the food you eat, the sacrifices you make, the help you give, even your suffering. In this way you will be freed from the bondage of karma, and from its results both pleasant and painful. Then, firm in renunciation and yoga, with your heart free, you will come to me.

-Bhagavad Gita 9:26-28

 

[Green Gaia]

Brahman creates the game of life by breaking Himself into parts that undergo transformation and extinction.

Yet while he takes on all the roles required by the game, He also always remains free of the game and intact as Brahman.

-Abhinavagupta

 

[Green Gaia]

If you think you are free,
You are free.

If you think you are bound,
You are bound.

For the saying is true:
You are what you think.

-Ashtavakra Gita 1:11

 

[Green Gaia]

Before undertaking a project, ponder what will be gained,
Lost and ultimately achieved.

There is nothing too difficult for a man who, before he acts,
Deliberates with chosen friends and reflects privately.

-Tirukkural 47: 461-462

 

[Green Gaia]

Know the Self as lord of the chariot,
The body as the chariot itself,
The discriminating intellect as charioteer,
And the mind as reins.
The senses, say the wise, are the horses;
Selfish desires are the roads they travel.
When the Self is confused with the body,
Mind, and senses, they point out, he seems
To enjoy pleasure and suffer sorrow.

-Katha Upanishad

 

[Green Gaia]

You have no caste.
No duties bind you.

Formless and free,
Beyond the reach of the senses,
The witness of all things.

So be happy!


-Ashtavakra Gita 1:5

 

[Green Gaia]

In your striving, be mindful to preserve good conduct.
In your deliberations, discover it is your staunchest ally.


-Tirukkural 14:132

 

[Green Gaia]

He who bestows life-force and hardy vigor,
Whose ordinances even the Gods obey,
Whose shadow is immortal life—and death—
What God shall we adore with our oblation?


-Rig Veda

 

[Green Gaia]

Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind.

-Bhagavad Gita 3:19-20