How to die?

I was reading one of the soul stirring books available in the market,"Tuesdays with Morrie-Mitch Albom." The one thing that left an impression in my mind was the question asked by Morrie to Albom,"How to die?"
Really!Has anyone of us ever thought about, How to die, when we know that death is natural. We never give a thought or want to give one, for such a wonderful thing in life. Death is the best part of life and it's celebrated in many religions,esp. in Jainism. What Mr.Morrie tells his pupil is that, A person, in knowing/learning, How to die, learns how to Live.
   Wow! That's something which demands us to introspect.
What I have understood from this is: When a Person is sure about,How he wants to die, He will 'Live' in such a way as to realize his dream of perfect death.
For instance,A person wishes to die as follows:

• To die naturally, without any illness/disease.

• To have friends,family,and the world to be crying, when (s)he has passed away. 

(The Person here is assumed to be belonging to the Male gender. However it implies to the Female genders as well. )

The above two are the only wishes he has. Now, How does he realize these two objectives?

1. To die naturally without any illness/disease,He has to prolong his life,until he becomes old and his breathing stops. He has to sustain his life, until his speech is gone. He has to live,until he  becomes a baby again.Now, he can't speak,walk,understand,or think. He is dependent on others for his care. Just like a baby. To be able to reach this stage, He has to follow a strict discipline. Proper food and Exercise are a must if he wants to live a long healthy life. In essence, he has to abide by the rules and laws of nature. (Balancing between work and energy. More the energy we consume,More is the work done by us.) He'll have to do away with CRAVING.
2. To have people care for us in the old age isn't a simple task. It surely requires divine blessings. We should live every moment in life,in harmony with others. If a person is Self-centered,Greedy,Rude,Foul-mouthed,Back-stabber,Cheater,Liar,Thief of idea or things,etc.; He definitely is incapable of earning people's Goodwill. Ask yourself!Would you like such a Person? A person has to earn the goodwill of people. The only way to do this is to give unconditional love. One can make contributions to the world by educating himself, But one should not get carried away by the knowledge he has gained. People are not truly attracted to a person, who boasts off. People should see all that they want to become in such a person. They should believe that this Person is worthy of their love. When a Person has lived his life in such a manner,He can realize his second objective. He'll have to do away with AVERSION.

In this way Man becomes Divine. To become divine is the ultimate goal of each being. The only way to achieve Divinity is through love,all other spiritual techniques and practices are secondary-A necessary evil.

How to Make our Lives useful?

If you wish to make your life useful, congratulations my brother or sister. You definitely are the rarest of the gems to be found on this earth. You undoubtedly are born with a purpose, to guide others around you and create awareness about the bigger picture of life.

Firstly, we should know why to make our lives useful. I find these two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, very inspiring and it serves as a beacon light for my ship, of which I'm the captain.


A Psalm of Life


Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By The Fireside : The Builders

All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.

Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,

Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Else our lives are incomplete,

Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.

Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain

To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.


Courtesy:  www.poemhunter.com

Now, How to make our lives useful?
It's quite easily done.

DEVELOP AND PRACTICE CHARACTER. Just like Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin listed 13 virtues to empower the self. He made a chart to track his progress.(which is very essential,if not tracked, negativity creeps in)

He practiced them at a rate of one virtue/week and would repeat the process after 13 weeks. He would mark a dot against the virtue he violated that day. In the chart below, he is practicing Temperance for the whole week and on Sunday he is found violating, sincerity twice and order once.  

• Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation. If you provide good and light food to your stomach,your brain functions effectively. I don't need a degree in life sciences to tell this.
• Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversations. As they often lead to destruction of the inner peace. Speech is one of the precious gift we have received from god, just think of those dumb brothers and sisters, you'll realize the power of speech. Use it wisely.
• Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time. Keeping order helps in decluttering your mind and increases your productivity. To have time slots for routine works will help you achieve RHYTHM in life.
• Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve. Don't procrastinate, because you'll condition your mind to procrastination and feel incompleteness pricking you often. Just do it, without expecting a reward, give your best.
• Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself i.e. waste nothing. There is a big difference between frugality and stinginess. Only experience gained by practicing this virtue can tell you the difference. Time is money. So don't waste time, spend your energy in doing something good to yourself or others. Respect time and be respected.
• Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut of all unnecessary actions. An empty mind is a devil's workshop.Be conscious of what you are doing every moment; in the beginning it's bit tough but as you practice it regularly, it'll be a walk over the cake. By being conscious you can distinguish between the necessary and unnecessary actions.
• Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly;and,if you speak,speak accordingly. Be truthful. Cheating others is cheating yourself. Say if you copy and paste the answers from your friend's paper in an exam. You get caught and the invigilator debars you from taking this years exam. You don't want your parents to know about this, so you make up stories. Your parents won't stop there, they'll have an inquiry made in the school. You may have to perpetuate the sin of lying or be truthful and admit your mistakes. If latter is what you prefer then study hard and pass on your own effort.
•  Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty. The latter is specifically addressed to some in-disciplined government employees. This injustice is the root cause for corruption, terrorism, poverty,etc.
• Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. If someone is deliberately causing you harm or abusing you without any fault of yours, neither fight with them nor compromise. Refrain from causing harm to him/her and deal with the situation with authority. Use pepper spray only if you have to but do use.
• Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body,clothes or habitation. If your body is clean,your mind is clear, so that you can make proper decisions. If your clothes are clean,you attract admiration from your fellow beings and needless to say that you'll attract stray dogs if your clothes aren't clean. Keep your habitation clean,However small or big it is, so that you love staying there.
• Chastity: Rarely us venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness,weakness or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation. All great people mastered the art of SEXUAL TRANSMUTATION. All of us know about the law of conservation of energy but not in terms of sexual energy. Sexual energy is like any other energy, say electrical energy,wind energy etc. Sexual energy can neither be created nor destroyed( so don't try to control your sexual desire,instead transmutate) but can be transmutated to creative works like writing poems,drawing,painting,modelling,tailoring,gardening,cooking,decorating,singing,playing musical instruments,inventing,discovering,etc,which are useful to someone or yourself. You need a strong will power to transmutate the energy, else it'll be dissipated through physical channels. For more on this subject read "Think and Grow rich-chapter 11:The mystery of SeXual Transmutation" by Napoleon hill.
• Tranquility: Be not disturbed by trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. Sometimes it so happens that the Public Bus drivers go on a strike demanding pay hike and We are late to the office. We remember the angry face our boss and start grumbling with ourselves. Just stop and relax. It's not in your hands to end the strike. Next time make sure you vote and vote for the worthy party. Just note down these two important points and cheerfully receive your boss's rantings.
• Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates. Do something good and get unnoticed. Be grateful for your Teachers,family and Friends, for being with you and sharing your successes and failures;joy and sorrows. Just think will the flower look beautiful if there are no eyes in this world to see and admire it.  

Follow these golden virtues with sincerity and you'll become like Benjamin Franklin and the like. Character is the essence of all Religious scriptures and sacred rituals.


Remember,


If wealth is lost,nothing is lost.


If health is lost,something is lost.


But if Character is lost, Everything is lost my friend.


Until next time,


Love2Live.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?

Hi,
 If you are bothered by this question,then you are probably on the right track. One thing we should understand is that this question is not specific to us,it's a common question that has worried
many, from times immemorial.
So we'll have to answer other questions before we can answer this precious one.
Questions like,
Have people in the past found their purpose?
If yes,How did they find their purpose?
Did they know,what they had to achieve before hand?
Was the purpose told to them by the gods?or did they make their own?
Is it really essential to have a purpose in life?

Let us analyze the situation which has made us to ask the purpose of our lives?
In my case the yearning to find my life's purpose developed without my knowledge.
It's like one day you get an opportunity to spend some time alone and ask yourself,
who am I?why did I come here?Where am I going? honestly,then the yearning develops.
It is this yearning which gives you energy to find out the truth.
We are born and We die. In between these two extremes we do lots of things.
Like eating,sleeping,growing,studying,working,raising children,fighting,cooking,enjoying,etc
We do this daily. It must have occurred to us that what is the point in doing all these again and again.
Where is this taking us? 
This monotony led me to ask for my purpose in life.
One thing that was clear to me was,nobody can tell what my purpose is. What's the fun
if i come to know about MY purpose from someone else. Yes,there are people who can
foretell your future,but seriously there is no fun in it. Real fun lies in exploring ourselves,our
passion,our talents,and our strengths.
So,let us not wait for someone to tell what our purpose is.

However,we need a generalized answer for what our purpose is,the methods we follow to actually
fulfill our purpose can vary from person to person.
We have two points,one beginning and one end. The end point is our destination.

Now let us take a real world example of traveling. We embark on a journey to reach our destination 
 and we eventually reach it. What we remember the most is the journey i.e. the people whom we have met, the emotions that we have gone through, the fights we had for the window side seat, the food that we ate in a village, the animals that we saw crossing the road, birds flying above our heads,the sun going down as a huge orange ball,etc. We capture all these as memories,some sweet and some bitter. It's the journey which is important not the destination per Se. So, it's really important what we do in the present. Where we are going to go doesn't matter for now.
Why did I come here?
Well I don't know yet but when I actually achieve something,I'll know,Oh yeah! this is why I came here for and I have done my job,Kudos!
Who am I?
I'll know it when I reach my destination. I can't know the answer just by thinking hard about it and falling into the trap of worry habit.

In essence our purpose is to make our lives useful.
How can I do that?
By giving back to nature,whatever is possible from my side.
Like helping a brother or sister worried about what their purpose is and guiding them to take the path of action.
Like teaching a kid,how to write and read.
I identify the problems in the world and solve them.
I'll be happy and make others happy.
I'll help those who are willing to help themselves.
I train myself to become an embodiment of character,so that people get inspired by me.

I'll fill my engine with fuel of passion and embark on a journey of my life.

How you can make your life useful is left to you.

Our life is about the people we meet and what we create with them, so go out and start creating.

This poem by Bill Douglas is widely quoted for it's deeper meaning,

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain.
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again -
I shall not live in vain.*
I shall not live in vain.

Love seeketh not
Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair**

If I can stop one heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one life the aching
Or cool one pain
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again
I shall not live in vain
I shall not live in vain

Read more at http://www.lyrics.com/i-shall-not-live-in-vain-lyrics-bill-douglas.html#eJxLq3XbIu4kZQyX.99

LIVE AND LET LIVE, UNTIL NEXT TIME,TAKE CARE.

P.S. For further insights into What the purpose of life is
Do visit www.stevepavlina.com.
I found it very useful.