East is Best

West is West

East is East

What is Best?

East is Best.

“Tell Me How?” – Every one of you may ask.

Globalization have brought us material wealth, but, in the process, snatched away spiritual wealth. Western liberalization has eclipsed Eastern culture. To be specific, as far as India is concerned, Hindu Culture.

Long hair of our young ladies has been cut for convenience – agreed.

Sarees have given way to sudidhar and pants – agreed.

In work place, tilak in the forehead is rustic – agreed.

Even certain married girls have become so modern as to wear Mangalasutra only on religious days. Social gatherings are scrupulously attended at the cost of religious/spiritual meetings. New value systems as practiced by Western have fettered young minds of our employed Hindu girls – married and unmarried.

Young boys have found pleasure in abandoning all religious activities. Fun clubs, gyms, cocktail parties are a must to celebrate ‘Saturday joys’ to meet squarely ‘Mondays Blues’.

Money makes them independent and the Poor parents’ voices have been drowned in the noises of Materialisms.

Two recent incidents had made me to shudder terribly.

§      Highly educated girl – pregnant, was pushed out from the car at USA highways by her husband duly assisted by his mother. She was saved by a passer by and was brought to Chennai and then to Tiruchi in a hospital bed being terribly wounded and sick. Reason: Money, Material, Modernization.

§      After marriage, a Hindu girl whose values are ‘eastern’, was made to cut her hair short, compelled to wear pant etc., forced to attend parties and to mingle with others and above all made to drink etc. Reason: Impotency of Husband concealed by parents of the boy. The boy is equally morally and mentally weak and highly possessive and cruelly materialistic.

Can the young boys and girls not have some sort of Lakshman Rekha to save themselves and their immediate relatives and also to save the shames befalling them from the ever watchful society for such fallings and failings?

Tell Me How? – a few of the young boys are asking me in their feeble voices.

Imagine a line of 20 ft. length divided equally. Imagine the line be a horizontal axis. The centre is zero and the 10 ft. on your right from zero point is positive – say good, noble, religious and spiritual and the 10 ft. on your left from zero point is negative – say bad, devilish, earthly and materialistic. Imagine the line is life’s path. Imagine one man is standing at zero point to choose his path. Suppose the man possesses + and – qualities equally and take the right side path. Then, though the man has a net zero balance in his ‘life account’, having chosen a correct and good path, his life account will start building up.  Suppose this man’s life account is negative at the start – say -5, having chosen a correct path on the right side, the negative balance will be wiped out when he reaches the end of the path which have the value of 10. At the end of the journey, that man will end up with a net balance of 5 i.e. 10 – 5.

If the same man with -5 has chosen the left side path, then at the end of the journey, his life balance will be -5 + - 10 = -15 which is complete ruin.

Many of young boys and girls err by choosing the left side path due to materialistic outlook due to the wrong western values being embedded into their minds which gives them a good negative start hastening their down fall sooner than expected.

Tell Me Solutions – many are anxious to come out of that rut.

All problems have Solutions.

All solutions have problems.

Still one should not fear solutions.

There is a cup which can hold 2 liters of liquid. The cup is already having a liter of liquid. Imagine the cup is your mind. The liquid in the cup is bad thoughts creating all problems. To solve this, we can remove the 1 liter liquid from the cup and then fill up afresh with liquid of good thoughts. But, it is not easy to get rid of bad thoughts, as this is time consuming. The next best course is to dilute the bad thoughts by pouring 1 liter quantity of good thoughts so that the bad thoughts effect could be minimized to that extent.

If one is anxious to have a pure mind irrespective of time frame, then a small hole can be made at the bottom so as to drain the bad thoughts completely. Sometimes, it may not be possible. Then, try to make a hole in the side – say a few inches above from the bottom. The liquid above the hole can be drained up, leaving some liquid in the cup. Close the hole and pour good thoughts which will improve the quality of thoughts to that extent. Whether one can make a hole at the bottom or at the sides at different levels, depend upon the nature of mind. The more one is in western mode, the mind will be driven away from the eastern mode as far as ethics and morals are concerned, not to speak of the Hindu culture.

No impure thoughts should be allowed to stick to the mind. They should always be at buoyancy state. That is possible only if the mind is filled up with noble thoughts. To achieve this, there are many ways – it can be summed as “Eastern Ways.”

No person is perfect. But there are ways and means to make these Imperfections or Deficiencies into Perfections or Efficiencies.  Paradox? No.

There is an allegorical story: A water bearer was carrying water from the stream to his hut. The hut was a few feet from the stream. He was carrying water in two buckets hanging from a rod on the two sides. One of the buckets was leaky and hence, the leaky bucket was quite unhappy, as it could not hold water fully at the time of emptying by the water bearer. The leaky bucket was being mocked at by the perfect bucket. The leaky bucket was very upset, as the water bearer was unmindful of its agony. The leaky bucket could not bear any more and addressed the water bearer: Master! Why are you not taking steps to pluck the leak in my bucket?

The water bearer said: I know your weakness. In the world, weakness is the part of life. But, I had used your weakness fruitfully. See the passage where the leaking water is spilled. That side is full of blossoming flowers as against barren soil on the other side. How could this happen? I had planted flower seeds on the soil where the water is leaking. Now, you see a beautiful array of flowers. I know your leaking weakness, but, the same weakness has been converted into strength of usefulness.

Western attitudes and cultures have now entered even the homes. They have entered the hall, they have entered dining table. They have entered kitchen. They have been allowed to enter even our Pooja Room. Once that culture is entered our sacred room, then the pooja room will vanish in due course thereby the materialistic westernized living is complete without even a trace of Hindu Culture. 

Western Materialistic Minds will dance with pride and chant in chorus: Change, Change, Change, instead of Eastern Spiritual Minds chant: Om, Om, Om.

‘When one is at Rome, he should be Roman. When the rule is so, what is wrong in our ‘Change’ – many may justify.

My answer is: Rome should not be your Home. Return back and chant Om, Om, Om.

I pray God to make materialistic minds to realize the Real Dharma embedded in our sacred texts.

Sun has risen in the East. May the radiant sun rays clear all your dark thoughts. Pack up your luggage and come back to your real Home to enjoy the embrace of your Holy Mother Land.

Om Shanthi, Om Shanthi, Om Shanthi.