“When once you have tasted flight,you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,for there you have been,and there you will always long to return.”
~Leonardo da Vinci

“THE CIRCLE OF DESPAIR GETS
YOU NOWHERE
Are you going in circles ?
Or are you going up, like an eagle
spiraling ever higher?
Lift yourself up today with
soaring thoughts.
Light thoughts.
Aloft on wings of joy, gratitude and abundance.
Go dancing in the sky.
Repel the grave-ity around you
Fly high my friend.
On a spiral fly
Like the eagle at 9:00 high.
Live like a hero!”
~Terri Marie

"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? It is the same the angels breathe."~Mark Twain
 “The higher we soar,the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”- Friedrich Nietzsche
                                                                                                
 “People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.”
―  George Bernard Shaw
P.S:
I believe that everyone is a born winner and can fly….some choose to believe that they  cannot.
Flying high is a choice…… unwillingness to do so….. is also a choice.
Joy is a choice…and so is sadness.
Feeling good about oneself is a choice….not feeling good about oneself is a choice too.
In short, one’s life is one’s responsibility…….one gets to choose whether it is ordinary…or extraordinary.
Namaste,
Bhagya

P.P.S:
Choose to make it the most extraordinary of lives ever lived on this planet.

“To pray is to pay attention to something or someone other than oneself. Whenever a man so concentrates his attention -- on a landscape, a poem, a geometrical problem, an idol, or the True God -- that he completely forgets his own ego and desires, he is praying.”

-W. H. Auden

 

The Moghul Emperor,Akbar,was one day out hunting in the forest.

When it was time for the evening prayer he dismounted,spread his mat on the earth and knelt to pray in the manner of devout Muslims everywhere.

Now,it was precisely at this time that a peasant woman,perturbed by the disappearance of her husband who had left home that morning and hadn’t returned,went rushing by,anxiously searching for her husband.In her preoccupation she did not notice the kneeling figure of the Emperor and tripped over him,then got up and without a word of apology rushed further into the forest.

Akbar was annoyed at this interruption but being a good Muslim,he observed the rule of speaking to no one during the namaaz.

Now just about the time that his prayer was over the woman returned, joyful in the company of her husband whom she had found.She was surprised and frightened to see the Emperor and his entourage there. Akbar gave vent to his anger against her and shouted,“Explain your disrespectful behaviour or you will be punished.”

The woman suddenly turned fearless,looked into the Emperor’s eyes and said,“Your Majesty,I was so absorbed in the thought of my husband that I did not even see you here,not even when,as you say I stumbled over you. Now while you were at namaaz,you were absorbed in One who is infinitely more precious than my husband.And how is it that you noticed me?”

The Emperor was shamed into silence and later confided to his friends that a peasant woman,who was neither a scholar,nor a Mullah,has taught him the meaning of prayer.

~Anthony de Mello

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ”
― John Bunyan

P.S:

Judgment is like veil of  fog over reality…

So very often reality is very different from what we choose to perceive it as.

What if,we could let go of all judgment of ourselves/others/ everything?

What if,our connection to the Divine were to be on-going one…not just a few minutes each day ?

What if,I choose to make my life…. my prayer??????

Namaste,

Bhagya

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Beggars can’t be choosers.” Proverb

A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for over thirty years.

One day a stranger walked by.
Spare some change? mumbled the beggar, mechanically holding out his baseball cap.

I have nothing to give you, said the stranger. Then he added, What's that you are sitting on?

Nothing, replied the beggar, Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.

Ever look inside? asked the stranger.

What's the point? There's nothing in there.

Have a look inside, insisted the stranger.

The beggar managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw the box was filled with gold.

~Eckhart  Tolle

"We are all beggars,each in his own way.”~ Mark Twain

“Our talents are the gifts that God gives to us….What we make of our talents is our gift back to God.”~ Leo Buscaglia

“Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What's a sundial in the shade?”
― Benjamin Franklin

“When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.”
― Erma Bombeck

P.S: There was a time….. I did not quite relate to what Mark Twain said.That was decades ago. I now realize, that most of us do keep lamenting about the thing/s we think is/are missing in our lives…

We do tend to keep begging for Divine help…..often forgetting our role as co-creators.. with the free will to make choices and the power to create everything we could ever imagine. .

What if, we could make time to open those gifts………????

What if,we always remember that the greatest gift of all………is the gift of choice and choose to  be “choosers” ?

What if,we could be more grateful….for that which is already there…..which we tend to take for granted most of the time?

Namaste,

Bhagya

“The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.”

~ Swedish Proverb

A disciple came riding on his camel to the tent of his Sufi master.He dismounted and walked right into his tent,bowed low and said,”So great is my trust in God that I have left my camel outside untied,convinced that God protects the interests of those who love Him.”
“Go tie your camel,you fool !” said the Master.
“God cannot be bothered doing for you what you are perfectly capable of doing for yourself.”
 ~Anthony de Mello
  “Be your own inspiration –
acknowledge the beauty and perfection
of who you are.” ~Trish Bishop
“God helps those that help themselves”~Ben Franklin,
(Poor Richard's Almanack)
                                                                                                
 P.S:
What if,one were to realize that God is within oneself……???????
Would one …..then expect an external God to take care of one’s responsibilities ???
An awareness of the divinity within oneself and everyone and everything else…….makes one realize ….the powerful,unlimited co-creator and contributor one truly is.
Namaste,
Bhagya


                                                                                                              

“The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.”

~Norman Vincent Peale

 

"Be at the center of events directing your life."
~John Harricharan"
“If we are at the center, life flows around us rather than flinging us around.
We get a more stable look at life than if we are doing all that fast flying by.
Stop.
Look at your life.
Choose.
Direct the events.
Watch the amazing plays unfold around you.
ENTER THE GLORIOUS CENTER
Live like a hero!”
Terri Marie

“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own.No apologies or excuses.No one to lean on, rely on or blame.The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey- and you alone are responsible for the quality of it.This is the day your life really begins.

~Bob Moawad

    P.S:

Each moment offers us a choice…to take life by the handle of calmness or the handle of stress/ agitation.

May you always choose to be centred and calm…..no matter what.

Namaste,

Bhagya

                                                

 

                                           

       The Oyster

 

There once was an oyster
Whose story I tell,
Who found that some sand
Had got into his shell.

 

It was only a grain,
But it gave him great pain.
For oysters have feelings
Although they’re so plain.

 

Now, did he berate
The harsh working of fate
That had brought him
To such a deplorable state?

 

Did he curse at the government,
Cry for election,
And claim that the sea should
Have given him protection?

 

No – he said to himself
As he lay on a shell,
Since I cannot remove it,
I shall try to improve it.

 

Now the years have rolled around,
As the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate
Destiny – stew.

 

And the small grain of sand
That had bothered him so
Was a beautiful pearl
All richly aglow.

 

Now the tale has a moral;
For isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do
With a morsel of sand?

 

What couldn’t we do
If we’d only begin
With some of the things
That get under our skin.

Author Unknown

“If everyone followed their bliss, the world would become very much like heaven.” ~Alan Cohen

P.S:

What an amazing poem!!!!

(except for the bit about the ultimate destiny of an oyster…is ending up in a stew……that was very difficult for me to digest…..)

I  realize that an oyster does not have a choice…for I am sure no self respecting oyster would welcome any grain of sand in…..

We as human beings always have a choice……and that being said ..we often get ourselves in stews….by the choices we make….However, from those experiences we learn to make better choices…….

Namaste,

Bhagya

“When you dig a well, there's no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow," said Buddha.”

― Deepak Chopra
 

When the Buddha started to wander around India shortly after his enlightenment, he encountered several men who recognized him to be a very extraordinary being. They asked him:

"Are you a God?"

"No," he replied.

"Are you a reincarnation of God?"

"No," he replied.

"Are you a wizard, then?" "No."

"Well, are you a man?" "No."

"So what are you?" They asked, being very perplexed. 

Buddha simply replied:

"I am awake."

Buddha means “the awakened one.”

How to awaken is all he taught.

“To awaken is to learn the art of living; to master the mind and bring it back to the reality of the present moment; to unite mind, body and reality. To awaken is to bring the reality of the present moment to life; to be mindful and aware of the present moment, to truly live the present moment."

~Buddhist teaching

“No one saves us but ourselves.No one can and no one may.We ourselves must walk the path.”-Siddhartha Gautama,Sayings of Buddha

 P.S:

Every bud chooses its own good time to blossom.

Everyone “awakens” when one chooses to do so……if ….one chooses to do so.

Namaste,
Bhagya