12 Quotes That Changed My Life

"No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change." ~ Barbara De Angelis

“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” ~Zig Ziglar

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” ~Jim Rohn

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~ Winston Churchill

"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor." ~Sholom Aleichem

"Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it." ~Benjamin Franklin

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” ~Alexander Graham Bell

"A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." ~Charles Darwin

“Everyone is a house with four rooms: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.” ~Rumer Godden

"Death can come at any moment... Most of us try to avoid the sense that death can come at any time, but its timing is unknown to us. Can we live each day as if it were our last? Can we relate to one another as if there were no tomorrow?" ~ Joan Halifax

"If we make consistent effort, based on proper education, we can change the world. We are selfish, that’s natural, but we need to be wisely selfish, not foolishly selfish. We have to concern ourselves more with others’ well-being, that’s the way to be wisely selfish. We have the ability to take the long-term benefit into account." ~Dalai Lama

"Overcome your uncertainties and free yourself from dwelling on sorrow. When you delight in existence, you will become a guide to those in need, revealing the path to many." ~ Buddha

Prelude to A Kiss

How often
in the still of the night
your soft breathings
with sluggish friendliness
invade my body and mind
when your soul is sleeping next to me
with its brown voice
trying its best
to match your golden complexion.
And, making me realize:
there is something magical
about the way
you smile at me
with your lips, eyes and heart,
about the way
your tendrilly cascading curls
of raven black hair
reminds me of
the glorious union
of the first raindrop and the thirsty earth,
about the way
you close your eyes
with the disinclination
to let the moments pass by
when I kiss you
drawing the moments out
as far as I can.

Few Pages from God’s (Unofficial) Diary

My goal is very simple: I have to create the Universe. I have been daydreaming about it. Finally I realized that unless I have ‘Dreams with Deadlines’ I couldn’t achieve my goal. Hence I created Time today.

10^-43 sec, January 1
Since there is nobody to supervise what I am doing, it should be easy to do my job. My job is to create. Perhaps job is not the right word as I am not sure if at all I will ever get paid for it. Still then I will do my work without thinking about the results because firstly, I enjoy creating and secondly, I have no responsibilities yet.

There are so many ways to create that I am a little puzzled. This is not as easy as I thought it to be. Thanks … to ME, there is no competition. There is neither fact nor fiction. Hence everything is possible.

I have no concrete things to start with … not even imagination. How can I have imagination without any experience? How helpless I am? I have nothing with me, not even another God or Goddess to listen to my helplessness! How lonely I am?

Oh yes! I see … I have ‘Nothing’. That is the best thing I have. I have to just rename it such that it appears to be ‘Something’. I will call it Space.

10^-33 sec, January 1
I do not know how to fill the space…with what! I am thinking about it. It is obvious that I will end up with nothing because I have started with nothing. I believe in the conservation of nothingness.

Now I can see the first drawback of my creation. Since I have created Time, I am having guilty feelings whenever I am relaxing a bit longer. How to minimize this kind of feeling?

Henceforth I have to be economical about the creation. I have two basic stuffs: time and space. Let me see if the number of basic stuffs can be reduced. Hence, I merge time and space to create space-time. Both time and space are nothingness; still space looks so empty when time appears to be so full with activities! Have I solved this riddle by creating space-time?

10^-30 sec, January 1
My work will be easier if I can put a certain amount of logic into creation. Unfortunately there is no do-it-yourself kit available with an instruction manual to create the universe. I will have some basic guiding rules based on economy, conservation, and eternity … and then fill in the details of the universe, if time permits.

Can there be a different way to do it? Do I have a choice? Different … oh yes! Difference is the consequence of change. Change is the keyword. If why is a truth then why not is also a truth. My creation will be a continuous struggle between constancy and change. I redistribute the energy generated in this struggle as matter and light. Let the light illuminate the matter.

Nothing can exist by itself… hence they will interact to survive.
Stars and planets are elementary particles at a different scale; elementary particles are stars and planets at the other. Infinitesimal causes the change. Infinity holds the constancy. Creation is a bridge between infinitesimal and infinity.

7 AM, December 31
I am fed up with my creation. I have exhausted all possibilities for interactions. I have lost my motivation. I have created such a vast universe with myriad designs of spectacular things but none of these spectacular things can understand my efforts. They can never appreciate my work. Neither a star nor an electron can ever realize that I have created it!

Why did I create such dumb things? They are busy all the time in interacting with each other and have no time for me; no time to realize the pain I have taken to create and sustain them. Doing further creation is meaningless among these dumb fellows. I need feedback; I need refereeing…

I created Life today. I also created Consciousness. I created my Referee!

7 PM, December 31
I have never realized the power of consciousness during my thought experiments. Within the 12 hours I have seen its splendor. Its evolution has followed the same pattern as the expansion of the universe. It evolved in a regular manner for an amoeba to common man. However, during the transition from the common man to the scientist it underwent inflation – an exponential growth in the language of man-made Mathematics.

Today morning I created an amoeba that was (1) struggling to live, (2) trying to change itself according to the surroundings, and (3) reproducing in a simple way by giving more importance to the product than to the process of reproduction. There was no sex, let alone opposite sex!

To my great surprise, within 12 hours it has evolved into a specimen – called man – that is (1) struggling to understand ‘why to live?’, (2) trying to change the surroundings according to itself, (3) attaching so much of fanfare to the process of reproduction that the process has become much more important by making the product merely a byproduct. Moreover it is also fighting over ‘which sex should be called the opposite sex?’

8 PM, December 31
When I experimented with life I was bored with the constancy … the eternity … of a year. I created life to bring in death. I wanted them to live to die! What surprises me the most is that although they live for only few minutes, they would still worry about the meaning of life and how could they live to be of more consequence compared to others of their species.

Not only this … they have found methods to transcend consciousness beyond time and space. They have condensed the collective consciousness in an objective way to what they call knowledge. They have invented ways of passing this knowledge to the next generation. This is simply remarkable and much more than what I have thought.

8:30 PM, December 31
I am not surprised the way things are going out of my hand. I am simply amazed. I am simply amazed. I have never imagined in my wildest dreams that consciousness will go through a second inflation during the transition from a physicist to a particle physicist. These particle physicists, especially the theorists are of a loftier breed. They aim to understand everything in terms of few things!

They want to have an equation simple enough to be written as a slogan on a T-shirt (that they wear during all seasons for all reasons) and powerful enough to predict the fate of the universe during a commercial break in a TV programme!

What I have taken the canvas of infinity to portray; they want to draw the same on a T-shirt. Even creating the universe appears to be a trivial ambition compared to this ambition of portraying the essence of the universe on a T-shirt!

They want a Theory of Everything (TOE). How is it possible to have such a theory when they have seen only my ‘toe’? I must appreciate their courage to surpass me!

I will wait till 10:30 PM tonight to see if the scientists can create a blade of grass in the laboratory starting from raw atoms and molecules. In case they succeed, I have to take them more seriously and retire at midnight before they eliminate me by asking their high school kids the following question in exchange of 5 marks: “Describe the whole universe and give two examples.”

Redefining A Complete Man

A complete man is like a joker,
capable of stupid maneuvers;
who can imitate all those non-stop nonsense
shown in cartoon films,
who can enact any character from the Arabian nights
or can bring Cinderella into life
at the bed-time,
when he is with a child
passing the message:
fantasy is the other name of reality.

A complete man is like a guide,
familiar with the pains of growing up;
who can advise about pimples,
that appear just before going for a date,
who can talk about anything
from boxing gloves, faded denims to orgasm
when he is with a young man
passing the message:
dream is the other name of reality.

A complete man is like a lover,
fully prepared in body and mind
conversant with the nuances of 
giving and receiving pleasure;
who can resist the temptations of release
at the point of no return
to give importance to mutual love over desire,
when high tides of sensation
strike the shore of sensibility
to declare control as the other name for pleasure.

A complete man is like a friend,
aware of the mid-life crisis;
who can listen to the anguish
caused by the generation gap or
by heavy income-tax deductions,
ignoring his own problems for the time being,
when he is with a middle-aged man
passing the message:
trying to live life to the fullest by facing life's challenges
is the other name of reality.

A complete man is like a fellow-traveler,
knowledgeable about the long path called life;
who can discuss with enthusiasm
anything from grandchildren
to life and death
and can share his knowledge
of the remedies of old age problems, can extend helping hands
when he meets an old man,
be it on the bench of a lonely park or on the hospital bed
passing the message:
trying to live life despite all odds
is the other name of reality.

A complete man is ageless
like a swimming pool with diving boards
at different heights,
who can take you
to different depths of experience
depending on your choice of height.

Rumi's Timeless Wisdom

“Not the ones speaking the same language, but the ones sharing the same feeling understand each other.”

“Don’t sit and wait. Get out there, feel life.
Touch the sun, and immerse in the sea.”

“You have no need to travel anywhere - journey within yourself.
Enter a mine of rubies and bathe in the splendor of your own Light.”

“There is a morning inside you waiting to burst open into Light.”

“Find the sweetness in your own heart so that you may find the sweetness in every Heart.”

“I belong to no religion. My religion is love. Every heart is my temple.”

"Tell me, is sugar sweeter
Or He who makes sugar cane?
Beauty of the moon is better
Or He who makes it wax and wane?"

“I am so close, I may look distant.
So completely mixed with you, I may look separate.
So out in the open, I appear hidden.
So silent, because I am constantly talking with you.”

“I am in Love with Love
and Love is in love with me.
My body is in Love with the soul
and the soul is in Love with my body.
I opened my arms to Love
and Love embraced me like a lover.”

“My dear heart! Never think you are better than others. Listen to their sorrows with compassion. If you want peace, don’t harbour bad thoughts do not gossip and don’t teach what you do not know.”

"You have no idea how hard I've looked
for a gift to bring You.
Nothing seemed right.
What's the point of bringing gold to
the gold mine, or water to the ocean.
Everything I came up with was like
taking spices to the Orient.
It's no good giving my heart and my
soul because you already have these.
So I've brought you a mirror.
Look at yourself and remember me.”

“A lover asked his beloved,
Do you love yourself more than you love me?
Beloved replied, I have died to myself and I live for you.
I've disappeared from myself and my attributes,
I am present only for you.
I've forgotten all my learning,
but from knowing you I've become a scholar.
I've lost all my strength, but from your power I am able.
I love myself...I love you.
I love you...I love myself.”

“Your heart is the size of an ocean.
Go find yourself in its hidden depths.”

“I said: what about my eyes?
God said: Keep them on the road.
I said: what about my passion?
God said: Keep it burning.
I said: what about my heart?
God said: Tell me what you hold inside it?
I said: pain and sorrow?
He said: Stay with it.
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

“There is a fountain inside you.
Don't walk around with an empty bucket.”

Have you achieved freedom?

Freedom is not doing whatever you want to do anytime. Freedom is being able to do anytime what you love to do.

Whatever you want to do may bring you temporary happiness, but not long lasting peace. Whatever you love to do always brings you peace.

Once you know what you love to do and can put your full focus into it, it will bring you both peace and prosperity. Then you will not be troubled by either guilt of underachievement or worry of uncertain future. That makes you free of the limitations of your circumstances.

When every individual achieves this freedom, the society and the world will be automatically peaceful and prosperous where nobody competes with others, but only compete with one’s yesterday self.

The greatest illusion in life is to think that our freedom depends on other people and objects in our surrounding. The point I am making is: our freedom lies in our mind. Therefore, degree of our freedom depends directly on the level of our consciousness.

Elevation of consciousness can be done in many ways. The easiest way is by Love and the toughest way is by Knowledge. Hence, I have suggested to achieve freedom in our daily life by using love. Love based on expectation of returns is bondage, not freedom. So, love (for people or activity) is to be understood in the light of the following quote:

“Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.” ~Jiddu Krishnamurthi

Depending on one's inclination, one can choose Knowledge to attain freedom. However, this knowledge is not ordinary knowing, it is all-pervading knowing as beautifully described in the following quote:

“Continue practicing until you see yourself in the cruelest person on Earth, in the child starving, in the political prisoner. Practice until you recognize yourself in everyone in the supermarket, on the street corner, in a concentration camp, on a leaf, in a dewdrop. Meditate until you see yourself in a speck of dust in a distant galaxy. See and listen with the whole of your being.

If you are fully present, the rain of Dharma will water the deepest seeds in your consciousness, and tomorrow, while you are washing the dishes or looking at the blue sky, that seed will spring forth, and love and understanding will appear as a beautiful flower.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

In essence, freedom is living in the present moment fully or "mindfulness".