Su means number and Doku means single. The game of Sudoku has many similarities to the game of life. The game consists of a 9x9 grid divided into nine 3x3 boxes in which a few numbers called "given" - the number of givens varies between 17 and 30 for a puzzle to be reasonably viable - are already in place.
In life, too, you start with a given set of vasanas and then work from then on. In Sudoku, you need to follow a set of rules to build up the grid, filling each row, column and box with numbers ranging from one to nine, so much like in life where you have to go your way without antagonising anyone else, maintaining peace and harmony in all relationships. Respect every number (everyone) and things would be just fine. While trial and error may or may not work, the correc technique is in eliminating the numbers that don't fit in a particular box. In other words, keep eliminating your faults for progress in life. The grid is the same every time, the numbers keep changing. The soul is the same in all, just the bodies are different.
In Sudoku, the arrangement of the given numbers is symmetrical. Even if you rotate the puzzle through 180 degrees the pattern of the filled-in squares remains the same. This is instructive in life, on how to maintain steadfast faith, poise and equanimity despite situations when everything turns topsy-turvy. Often at first glance when the givens are few, you are numbed into inaction. Realise, the puzzle is there to be solved, so just go ahead and do your duty. Solve a couple of easy ones and sooner or later the ego gets in the way and you are stuck in the next puzzle. Analyse your life, more often than not you'll clearly see how your ego has been the stumbling block.
While playing, you never think of the end (the result); you just keep working on the numbers and the final result (fruits of action) accrues on its own. Extremely difficult puzzles may take hours.
Similarly, to achieve desired results in life may take years. According to the law of karma, fruits of action in some cases might fructify after successive births!
Now and then you get attached to a particular number and are hell-bent on fitting it in, in any which way; it seems like big trouble. Just let go of your attachments and things will work out on their own. The game of Sudoku and the game of life are best played in a calm but focused state. Everything has to go in tandem in a Sudoku grid: the rows, columns and squares. Ditto in life. Your duties towards your family, teachers, society and country all go on simultaneously. Variations in Sudoku include the diagonal, the odd and the even, the extended, overlap, and even the monster. Life too presents complexities in the form of loss, illness, death and failure. Patience, faith and continuous struggle is the key to both.
There could be an underlying subtle difference between Sudoku and life. Make a mistake and you can erase it and begin all over again in Sudoku. Not so in life. You can learn a lesson, though, and avoid making the same mistake in future. Hone your skills. Excel. Realise the singularity for the One and only Truth. For that is the solution, the answer, that arises out of a steady mind.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
It's a dream-like world that seems illusory
At the end of the Mahabharata war Arjuna came to meet his grandfather Bhishma who was lying on a bed of arrows that Arjuna had shot. Bhishma was waiting for an auspicious day to leave his mortal coils. Arjuna asked: "Pitamah, where do you expect me to bury your body after you leave this earthly abode?" Bhishma smilingly said, "Bury my body in a place where i was not buried before". Accordingly, Arjuna selected a place on the banks of the Yamuna river and performed suitable rituals.
As he lifted the axe to dig the ground he heard a voice, 'Shatam Bhishma' which meant that Bhishma was buried here over hundred times. This shall mean that everyone of us is born and has died countless times ever since birth and death started happening on this universe.
This is what is called sansar, a word that not only means engaging in worldly life, but also includes birth and death in this world ad infinitum. This sansar is a long unending disease for which the sure and best medicine is true inquiry.
Wise men have said that we are not bound by maya or illusion in reality, but we only have the false feeling that we are bound by illusion. This delusion can only be averted by proper inquiry.
Once a herd of hundred donkeys was being taken on a hill by the owner of the herd. On the way he had to rest at an inn. He was afraid of his donkeys escaping at night while he would be asleep. But he did not have sufficient length of rope to tie them all; he only had a small length of rope which was hardly sufficient to tie one donkey. So he planned in such a way that he pretended tying the small rope around legs of each of the donkeys. In actual fact he did not tie the rope to any in the herd. Next morning when he pushed each donkey it hardly moved thinking that it was tied by its master. Only when he pretended to untie them did they begin to move.
Similarly, we too are led to think that we are bound by so many of our karmas or past deeds and hence we are made to suffer. We also undertake purification rituals to get over them. But in reality it is realisation that is needed. This realisation cannot happen even by performing hundreds of such rituals.
The realisation that this sansar is only dreamlike and the truth is beyond it helps one initially pass through the hurdles of life. That is why it is also said, 'Avicharena kritobadhah, vicharena nivartate', which means that we are bound to karmas only because of non-inquiry and the solution to it cannot be rituals but right inquiry to get at the truth. What has come by non-inquiry can only go by right inquiry.
Inquiry allows realisation of the truth; realisation of dreamnature of sansar and true nature of Self (atman). One may defy this dream theory. But to say that this world is created hardly arouses right reasoning for there need to exist a witness to such creation and this witness had to precede Creation.
Another reasoning to support the dream nature is that any creation ought to have a stuff for creation and this stuff should have been created earlier.
As he lifted the axe to dig the ground he heard a voice, 'Shatam Bhishma' which meant that Bhishma was buried here over hundred times. This shall mean that everyone of us is born and has died countless times ever since birth and death started happening on this universe.
This is what is called sansar, a word that not only means engaging in worldly life, but also includes birth and death in this world ad infinitum. This sansar is a long unending disease for which the sure and best medicine is true inquiry.
Wise men have said that we are not bound by maya or illusion in reality, but we only have the false feeling that we are bound by illusion. This delusion can only be averted by proper inquiry.
Once a herd of hundred donkeys was being taken on a hill by the owner of the herd. On the way he had to rest at an inn. He was afraid of his donkeys escaping at night while he would be asleep. But he did not have sufficient length of rope to tie them all; he only had a small length of rope which was hardly sufficient to tie one donkey. So he planned in such a way that he pretended tying the small rope around legs of each of the donkeys. In actual fact he did not tie the rope to any in the herd. Next morning when he pushed each donkey it hardly moved thinking that it was tied by its master. Only when he pretended to untie them did they begin to move.
Similarly, we too are led to think that we are bound by so many of our karmas or past deeds and hence we are made to suffer. We also undertake purification rituals to get over them. But in reality it is realisation that is needed. This realisation cannot happen even by performing hundreds of such rituals.
The realisation that this sansar is only dreamlike and the truth is beyond it helps one initially pass through the hurdles of life. That is why it is also said, 'Avicharena kritobadhah, vicharena nivartate', which means that we are bound to karmas only because of non-inquiry and the solution to it cannot be rituals but right inquiry to get at the truth. What has come by non-inquiry can only go by right inquiry.
Inquiry allows realisation of the truth; realisation of dreamnature of sansar and true nature of Self (atman). One may defy this dream theory. But to say that this world is created hardly arouses right reasoning for there need to exist a witness to such creation and this witness had to precede Creation.
Another reasoning to support the dream nature is that any creation ought to have a stuff for creation and this stuff should have been created earlier.
Move with the flow, learn to let go
We tend to cling to every object in our lives. We hold on to our profession, relationship or possession as if our entire world depends on them. We are so busy clinging to our own lives, that we have forgotten to live with the flow. We are afraid to move ahead, afraid to let go.
Life in essence is like an unobstructed, unrestrained, uncontrolled flow of a river. Life flows at its own pace and the ultimate source of all our pain and sufferings is our tendency to cling to and obstruct the flow. Professional life stagnates, relationships are broken, possessions are lost; all because we refused to let go when we were actually required to let things take their own course.
Why do we cling? We cling because change scares us; we cling because we are afraid to face the unknown, to face challenges; we cling because we feel secure if the status quo is maintained; we cling because we refuse to believe that life can never be static; because we refuse to accept the transience of everything; we believe that everything is in our hands. We do not have enough faith in life and that higher force which is omnipotent and omnipresent. In the chaos of existence, we have lost touch with our higher self. Most of us lead a life which is similar to that of a child who is lost in a crowd, separated from his guardians. He has nobody to place his faith on. He is afraid, insecure, suspicious about everyone and everything.
We live under the false illusion of having everything under our control. The spirit of getting things done becomes a problem when we continue to cling on even after we have exhorted all our efforts. We are overwhelmed by a sense of despair and disillusion when things move beyond our control. It is at this stage we need to learn to let go. Several times relationships are broken just because we tried too hard to make them work. We didn't give the breathing space they required to grow. We didn't let go and let them take their own course.
Professionally or personally, once all the efforts are made towards achieving a goal, we must learn to let go and let life take the best course. It might or might not be of one's choice, but if we have faith, we will realise that it inevitably is the best course. We need to believe that forces above us are far better equipped to make judgments for us. We must learn to have faith in their judgment. Letting go, however, does not mean turning into a fatalist. One cannot sit idle in life and expect life to take care of itself. Karma, the fulfilment of one's duties is the ultimate objective of all human existence and if we fail to fulfill our duties towards life, life inevitably fails us.
When God gives us dreams, He shares them with us. Whatever we consider our dreams, are actually His dreams and He gives us the capability to realise them. The part we are required to play is to ensure the optimum usage of the capabilities bestowed upon us. And once we have played our part with utmost honesty and effort, we need to let go, step aside and let God step in to fulfill our dreams. After all, they are His dreams, too.
Life in essence is like an unobstructed, unrestrained, uncontrolled flow of a river. Life flows at its own pace and the ultimate source of all our pain and sufferings is our tendency to cling to and obstruct the flow. Professional life stagnates, relationships are broken, possessions are lost; all because we refused to let go when we were actually required to let things take their own course.
Why do we cling? We cling because change scares us; we cling because we are afraid to face the unknown, to face challenges; we cling because we feel secure if the status quo is maintained; we cling because we refuse to believe that life can never be static; because we refuse to accept the transience of everything; we believe that everything is in our hands. We do not have enough faith in life and that higher force which is omnipotent and omnipresent. In the chaos of existence, we have lost touch with our higher self. Most of us lead a life which is similar to that of a child who is lost in a crowd, separated from his guardians. He has nobody to place his faith on. He is afraid, insecure, suspicious about everyone and everything.
We live under the false illusion of having everything under our control. The spirit of getting things done becomes a problem when we continue to cling on even after we have exhorted all our efforts. We are overwhelmed by a sense of despair and disillusion when things move beyond our control. It is at this stage we need to learn to let go. Several times relationships are broken just because we tried too hard to make them work. We didn't give the breathing space they required to grow. We didn't let go and let them take their own course.
Professionally or personally, once all the efforts are made towards achieving a goal, we must learn to let go and let life take the best course. It might or might not be of one's choice, but if we have faith, we will realise that it inevitably is the best course. We need to believe that forces above us are far better equipped to make judgments for us. We must learn to have faith in their judgment. Letting go, however, does not mean turning into a fatalist. One cannot sit idle in life and expect life to take care of itself. Karma, the fulfilment of one's duties is the ultimate objective of all human existence and if we fail to fulfill our duties towards life, life inevitably fails us.
When God gives us dreams, He shares them with us. Whatever we consider our dreams, are actually His dreams and He gives us the capability to realise them. The part we are required to play is to ensure the optimum usage of the capabilities bestowed upon us. And once we have played our part with utmost honesty and effort, we need to let go, step aside and let God step in to fulfill our dreams. After all, they are His dreams, too.
Thundering waterfalls and puzzled monks
Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first painted a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second created on canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; and at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, sat a robin on its nest. The first was stagnation; the last was rest, writes Drummond. Rest is not a sedative for the sick, but a tonic for the strong. It spells emancipation, illumination and transformation.
Our world is made up of vivid contrasts. There is the arid, barren, desert and there is the luxuriant oasis with waving palms. There are breathtaking mountain heights and there are the monotonous plains. Stagnation is to remain in a place that takes us nowhere. To choose to be like a lone lake is to refuse to grow and to move up to the next level. Mrs Charles Cowman says, when our spiritual garments are threadbare, our existence becomes as fruitless as the desert wastes. We dry up; our wandering is aimless; we live on the margin of life.
To live like the robin on a thundering waterfall, perched on the fork of a bent branch of a tree seems precarious and calculated to make us anxious, restless and fretful. If we image our lives as forever hanging on a precipice, we will remain afraid and unable to move forward. But if we image our nests, which are secure and protected perches we can rest on in the midst of life, we will move with the confidence and assurance that life is safe but it must in the end be all about spiritual growth. Assurance and confidence can come from learning to give. Often they come from receiving, which is an art.
Receiving the limitless grace of God enables us to set our sails by the eternal in what seems to us a mysterious, constantly changing and fathomless sea. It seems life is like a trackless ocean, vast and impersonal, moving on and on. Grace reminds us that the hand of God keeps track of us on trackless paths. Receiving needs no genius, no goodness, only want. Our real needs and wants are not those that are most apparent to us. The conditions we believe we need to grow are often not the conditions which promote true growth.
A monk who needed oil planted an olive sapling. Then he prayed for gentle showers for its tender roots, then for the sun to warm it and then for the frost to brace its tissues. He was puzzled to find the tree sparkling with frost but lifeless at the end and unable to supply his needs. In life, too, we lay down so many conditions that we are unable to grow spiritually.
The monk's brother housed in another cell had also planted a tree, but prayed for it to thrive and entrusted it and what it needed to God. The tree thrived because God supplied its needs knowing better than the monk all that it truly needed to survive.
We are painting our life sketches and planting our life trees. Some of us choose stagnation, others growth. If we remain caught up in superficialities, we finally stagnate. We have to go beyond and look for the truly abiding hidden in the surface turmoil and cries of the battlefield to discover true rest. We cannot paint both pictures at the same time. We choose either life or death.
Our world is made up of vivid contrasts. There is the arid, barren, desert and there is the luxuriant oasis with waving palms. There are breathtaking mountain heights and there are the monotonous plains. Stagnation is to remain in a place that takes us nowhere. To choose to be like a lone lake is to refuse to grow and to move up to the next level. Mrs Charles Cowman says, when our spiritual garments are threadbare, our existence becomes as fruitless as the desert wastes. We dry up; our wandering is aimless; we live on the margin of life.
To live like the robin on a thundering waterfall, perched on the fork of a bent branch of a tree seems precarious and calculated to make us anxious, restless and fretful. If we image our lives as forever hanging on a precipice, we will remain afraid and unable to move forward. But if we image our nests, which are secure and protected perches we can rest on in the midst of life, we will move with the confidence and assurance that life is safe but it must in the end be all about spiritual growth. Assurance and confidence can come from learning to give. Often they come from receiving, which is an art.
Receiving the limitless grace of God enables us to set our sails by the eternal in what seems to us a mysterious, constantly changing and fathomless sea. It seems life is like a trackless ocean, vast and impersonal, moving on and on. Grace reminds us that the hand of God keeps track of us on trackless paths. Receiving needs no genius, no goodness, only want. Our real needs and wants are not those that are most apparent to us. The conditions we believe we need to grow are often not the conditions which promote true growth.
A monk who needed oil planted an olive sapling. Then he prayed for gentle showers for its tender roots, then for the sun to warm it and then for the frost to brace its tissues. He was puzzled to find the tree sparkling with frost but lifeless at the end and unable to supply his needs. In life, too, we lay down so many conditions that we are unable to grow spiritually.
The monk's brother housed in another cell had also planted a tree, but prayed for it to thrive and entrusted it and what it needed to God. The tree thrived because God supplied its needs knowing better than the monk all that it truly needed to survive.
We are painting our life sketches and planting our life trees. Some of us choose stagnation, others growth. If we remain caught up in superficialities, we finally stagnate. We have to go beyond and look for the truly abiding hidden in the surface turmoil and cries of the battlefield to discover true rest. We cannot paint both pictures at the same time. We choose either life or death.
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